Get Your Students Hired
This is a general discussion forum for the following learning topic:
Workload Management Strategies for Teaching Online --> WLMS for Communicating and Collaborating
Post what you've learned about this topic and how you intend to apply it. Feel free to post questions and comments too.
It is interesting how this says that instructors should be involved in the course at least 5 out of 7 days a week and no more than 2 consecutive days without course involvement. This seems overwhelming when also teaching F2F and clinicals.
Short and frequent connections will keep the connection and not interfere unnecessarily with student/ professor lives.
Validation of the importance of in-class collaboration and discussions. I notice students are often annoyed at first that the class is set up for peer interaction. After weeks go by, they know what to expect, and most lean into it more.
I am reminded about the importance of using S2C, S2I, and S2S communication to ensure students learn in dynamic and numerous ways.
Hello,
Some things I have learned is structured communication is key, use of technology, have clear expectations.
It is vital when teaching an online course to manage communication so it will not frustrate or alienate the students from you or vise versa. Developing clear standards of communication and holding students accountable for their communication under those standards is important. Having good teaching presence, social presence, and response time to students helps you be effective as an instructor.
There are 3 types of communications: Student-to-Content (S2C), Student-to-Instructor (S2I) and Student-to-Student (S2S). Students continuous support and frequent feedback in the online class.
Effective communication with students online is huge and I believe, can make or break a student's experience.
I appreciated the focus on how important it is to provide relevant, ongoing feedback about students' performance and grades. I will be more conscientious in providing regular updates to each student moving forward.
This lesson reinforced much of what we already do at my institution. I understand the need to give prompt feedback, and we have 48 hours to do so each week, but I still find it hard to always meet that deadline for students in a composition class. I am not sure any of the guidelines in this lesson will help me with that.
I do appreciate the recommendation to not feel the need to respond to every student on a forum. I am required to reply to all, but I find that students wait for me to reply before going beyond their original post, or they address their post to just me, even though the forums are supposed to be class discussions.
It is important for the instructor to encourage and to model healthy behavior in regards to collaboration among students. An online learning environment has a culture of it's own and the instructor has the largest amount of influence as to the manner in which that culture is developed.
I work with high school students and teach college level medical assisting curriculum. The last few groups of students that I have worked with lacked experiences, which is something I struggle with every year. Thus, I have experienced that sharing of experiences and collaborating in group discussions within a synchronous environment is a great way to encourage confidence and learn from each other. Helping my students to feel comfortable about sharing their thoughts and interacting with peers is something that resonated with me after reading this section.
The concept of the "guide on the side" shows that the teacher is paying attention but not trying to steer the conversation. That said, providing feedback or insight can help bolster student interaction and confidence, especially if the student tends to be more introverted -- various techniques like the open question help to draw them out of their shell and join in the discussion.
" Do not feel obligated to comment on every student posting. Much like in F2F class discussions, let the conversation develop and give students a chance to participate before jumping in with in-depth comments/feedback or analysis."
This is interesting as it is counter to our current teaching guidelines. I rarely see "conversation" in my discussion forums - most peer-to-peer responses are supportive yet do not promote conversation. Without asking questions and offering additional prompts I'm unsure that any "conversation" would develop.