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MAGNA ONLINE SEMINARS
©2012 Magna Publications Inc.
All rights reserved. It is unlawful to duplicate, transfer, or transmit this program in any manner with-out written consent from Magna Publications.
The information contained in this online seminar is for professional development purposes but doesnot substitute for legal advice. Specific legal advice should be discussed with a professional attorney.
Engage Online Students withTargeted Feedback
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Presented by:
Jill Schiefelbein
Over the past eight years, Jill has taken, taught and developed online courses. AtArizona State University, she worked in multiple capacities of online administration,including serving as the Director of Online Programs for ASU’s College of Liberal Artsand Sciences, where she developed the office of online programs and grew it into anorganization with hundreds of online course offerings across dozens of academicunits. Currently, Jill is the owner and guru of Impromptu Guru, a company focusedon helping individuals and groups improve communication in both face-to-face andonline environments.
© impromptuguru.com
FeedbackTips:DiscussionBoardsDiscussion boards are one great venue in which you can gather feedback from your students, and provide feedback for your students. You can also use discussion boards as a “hallway conversations” area that you open up for general commentary. If your LMS doesn’t have a discussion component built in, here is a list of free discussion board options:
Yahoo! Message Boards: http://messages.yahoo.com/ Aimoo: http://www.aimoo.com/ ProBoards: http://www.proboards.com/
Here are some sample questions you can post or use as prompts to gather feedback. Of course, if there is some incentive, students generally have a higher response rate. One idea is to have ten different feedback prompts during the session, and tell students that they get a point for each one they respond to, up to a certain amount.
What is something that you’ve learned in the course so far that you’ve already implemented in your life (personal or professional)?
What is your favorite part of the course so far?
If you could change one thing about this course, what would it be?
What is the most interesting reading or video from the course thus far?
If you were to describe this class in one sentence to a friend, what would you say?
Name one thing that you like that I, as your instructor, have done this session?
If you were to design an ideal week in this course, what would it look like?
What was (is) your experience with assignment XYZ?
© impromptuguru.com
FeedbackTips:AudioUsing audio tools is a great way to gather and to give feedback. Audio tools creates a more personalized
channel for messaging, and often can take less time than typing out feedback in a discussion forum
(depending on how fast you type, of course). It’s also a great channel to use when gathering feedback
(and giving) because you can hear nonverbal communication through audio much more easily than you
can read between the lines in text‐based communication.
If your LMS doesn’t have an audio component built in, here is a list of audio options, both paid and free:
VoiceThread: http://voicethread.com/ Wimba Tools: http://www.wimba.com/products/ Voxopop: http://www.voxopop.com/ Sound Recorder: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Recorder_(Windows) Garage Band: http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/ Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ AudioPal: http://audiopal.com
The questions presented in the first handout, Feedback Tips: Discussion Boards, are also good to use for audio feedback. Of course, with audio, you’ll get to hear your students’ tone of voice, so more controversial questions can be particularly helpful in this format, as feelings aren’t as easily masked.
© impromptuguru.com
FeedbackTips:VoiceThreadExplainedOne of my favorite tools for collecting feedback is VoiceThread. I showed a video clip created from VoiceThread responses in the seminar. This handout breaks down the basic elements of the VoiceThread, so you can decide if it will be useful for your classes. One thing I really like about using this technological tool is that students can decide which channel they want to use—text, audio or video.
insert your question, video or image here
This is the title, and shows how many slides or prompts
are in the VoiceThread.
Each of these icons represents a unique response.
To record feedback, students may (icons from left to right):
Call in and voice record feedback
Use a webcam to record video feedback
Record audio feedback using a computer mic
Type in text‐based feedback
MAY 2012
3Online or In Class?
4Reciprocal Feedback in the Online Classroom
6Teaching Online with Errol: Crucial for OnlineEducators: Knowing Your Student Audience!
7Private Journal Replaces Discussion
Forum in Hybrid Course
In T
his
Issue
IDEAS FOR EFFECTIVE ONLINE INSTRUCTION
Tips from the Pros
Blended Learning:Suggestions for Whatto Do Before, During,and After F2F Sessions
Blended learning coursedesign is not a simple
matter of conducting part of acourse online and part of it face-to-face. To create an effectiveblended course, it is importantto use technology in ways thattake advantage of both modesbefore, during, and after face-to-face meetings. In the recentMagna Online Seminar TenWays to Improve BlendedLearning Design, Ike Shibley,associate professor of chemistryat Penn State Berks, offered thefollowing suggestions for appro-priate use of technology at thevarious stages of a blendedcourse:• The goal before class is oftento ensure that studentsinteract with the content atthe lowest levels of Bloom’sTaxonomy. This can includemultiple-choice quizzes,straightforward homework,and reflections about reading.
• During class, aim for themiddle of Bloom’s Taxonomy,using technology such asclickers to help studentsapply information rather thanlearning it for the first time.
A MAgnA PublicAtion
Using Audio to Provide Personalized,Timely FeedbackBy Rob Kelly
Online learners expect timelyfeedback on their assignments.
They also need to feel the instruc-tor’s presence. Kathy Damm,assistant professor of psychology atNevada State College, uses a rela-tively simple technique to achieveboth simultaneously.
Damm is a strong proponent ofrubrics, which she uses in combina-tion with her feedback on students’assignments, and that feedbackoften takes the form of audiocomments.
She converts each submittedwriting assignment to a PDF file andreviews it online in that format. Asshe reads each assignment, she usesthe audio recording feature of AdobeAcrobat Pro to record and insert
brief audio comments (usually 30seconds or less) in specific placeswithin the document that tell thestudent how to improve his or herwriting or what she liked about it.(While Adobe Acrobat Pro is neededto record the comments, it is notneeded to hear them. The freelyavailable Adobe Reader is all that isneeded.)
This personalizes the feedbackand creates a sense of instructorpresence. Each assignment mighthave five or six audio clips. Althoughlonger clips are possible, theinability to pause and rewind eachcomment can make lengthycomments less user-friendly.
Each comment is spontaneous, toconvey her personality and to reducethe amount of time spent on eachwriting assignment. “At first Ithought I would list some bulletpoints for each assignment beforemaking the recordings. It started tobecome very scripted and didn’tseem to maximize the audio formatbecause I was pretty much readingwhat I had written. At that point thequestion became, why not just writeit out for them? Then I started to domore off-the-cuff comments,” Dammsays.
Although this approach sounds
Continued on page 2 >> Continued on page 3 >>
VOLUME 12, NUMBER 5
In surveys, students
typically say things such
as “I felt like you were
speaking to me” and “I felt
like you were grading my
paper, not just the
spelling and grammar
of my paper.”
President: William Haight([email protected])
Publisher: David Burns([email protected])
Managing Editor: Rob Kelly([email protected])
ADVISORY BOARD
Randy Accetta, PhD Mentor-in-Residence, Communicationwww.entrepreneurship.arizona.edu
Toni Bellon, PhDProfessor, Middle/Secondary EducationNorth Georgia College & State [email protected]
Jennifer E. Lerner, PhDAssociate Vice President for e-LearningNorthern Virginia Community [email protected]
B. Jean Mandernach, PhDProfessor & Senior Research AssociateGrand Canyon [email protected]
John Orlando, PhDELearning Director National [email protected]
Lawrence C. Ragan, PhDDirector- Faculty DevelopmentWorld CampusPenn State [email protected]
Online Classroom (ISSN 1546-2625) ispublished monthly by Magna PublicationsInc., 2718 Dryden Drive, Madison, WI53704. Phone 800-433-0499; Fax: 608-246-3597. Email: [email protected]. Website: www.magnapubs.com. One-yearsubscription: $177 (Multiple print subscrip-tions and Group Online Subscriptions areavailable. Call Customer Service at 800-433-0499.) Photocopying or other repro-duction in whole or in part withoutwritten permission is prohibited. POST-MASTER: Send change of address toOnline Classroom, 2718 Dryden Drive,Madison, WI 53704. Copyright ©2012,Magna Publications Inc.
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2 Online Cl@ssroom
less polished, students appreciateit. “I make little mistakes. I’ll bereading the paper and say, ‘Oh,this is great. I’m thinking … No,wait. Never mind, I don’t want youto do that. What I want you to doinstead is … .’ I interrupt myself asI might if we were in [face-to-face]office hours. I feel a little less pro-fessional about it, but the studentslike it. They say they could tellwhat I was thinking. They couldalmost hear the thoughts coming,”Damm says.
In surveys, students typicallysay things such as “I felt like youwere speaking to me” and “I feltlike you were grading my paper,not just the spelling and grammarof my paper.”
As for efficiency, Damm says,she doesn’t feel as “bogged down”in the process as she does whenusing more conventional tech-niques such as Track Changes ormarking up assignments manually,so she is able to provide moretimely feedback.
There are other technologies thatenable instructors to speak directlyto their students. For example,Damm tried a similar approachusing Jing to create narratedscreencasts as she gradedstudents’ assignments. Jingenabled her to point out thingswith her cursor and explain herselfclearly; however, this approach wasless user-friendly because it didnot enable her to start and stop,which produced screencasts thatlasted as long as it took her to readthe assignment and includedperiods of silence as she read. As aresult, students were less likely tolisten to the comments.
Inserting audio comments doesnot serve every feedback function,
and Damm uses text comments forgrammar and general writing rules.In addition, she finds that TrackChanges works better for someassignments: for example, one inwhich students write a methodssection for a hypothetical journalarticle and the feedback is focusedon fine-tuning organization andformat.
“The audio files are aboutcontent, and when I would doTrack Changes a lot of my studentswould write back and say, ‘I feellike you gave me a lot of feedbackon how to improve my writing interms of punctuation, but I don’tunderstand why I got a C.’ And I’dsay, ‘You didn’t direct yourargument. You didn’t back it up,’but that isn’t really easily conveyedin the Track Changes environment.I like the fact that this way I canfocus on the content, which is whatI want them to master in theseassignments.”
In addition, text-basedcomments can seem less personalto students. “We see our studentsmake the most common mistakes,so we have automated responses.Even when we’re writing with ourown hand, we often use shorthandphrases such as ‘You need to havea new paragraph here’ and we tellthem later, ‘I used this symbolbecause a lot of you did that.’ Weare automating whenever possibleso we can eliminate the time suck,but it often feels very automated. Ifyou give them feedback directed tothem personally, it reduces some ofthose barriers that I think naturallydevelop in the online classroom.”
For a demonstration of how toembed audio comments in a PDFdocument using the audio feature ofAdobe Acrobat, seehttp://youtu.be/994JjPHHgiU. @
<< From Page 1
3Online Cl@ssroom
R E S E A R C H
Online or In Class?
Online course offerings continueto grow. In 2006, experts (cited
in the article referenced below)were estimating that some 2,000major universities and collegeswere offering online/Web-basedcourses, enrolling more than 5million students. And that was2006. As experience with onlineeducation grows, the opportunityfor learning from that experiencegrows as well. Highlighted beloware findings from a study thatexamined business student percep-tions of college-level online courses.
Using a five-point Likert-typescale, this 800-student cohortindicated whether online courseswere more or less difficult thanregular classes, whether onlinecourses provided poor or goodlearning experiences, and whetherthey were happy or unhappy thatthey had taken an online course,among other items. On a secondportion of the questionnaire, theycompared learning in traditionalclassrooms to the amount oflearning in online courses, whetherit was easier to cheat in onlinecourses, and whether they thoughtstudents who completed online
coursework would have the samejob opportunities as students whodidn’t.
“Data analyses revealed that forthe most part, the students did nothold polarized opinions regardingthe online courses they hadcompleted.” (p. 243) Meanresponses for the first seven itemson the questionnaire ranged from3.05 to 3.51, “indicating relativelyneutral overall attitudes toward theonline course experiences.” (p. 243)The second part of the question-naire identified some different per-ceptions between students who hadand had not taken an onlinecourse. For example, students whohadn’t taken an online coursethought it would be easier to cheatin online courses than studentswho had taken one (3.19 mean forthose not taking an online courseversus 2.75 for those who hadtaken one).
Researchers were concernedabout one finding. “What is ratherdisquieting is the fact that approxi-mately one-third of the studentswho had completed at least oneonline course expressed negativeattitudes toward or negative per-
ceptions of online education.” (p.246) They call for more research tounderstand the bases for thesenegative attitudes and perceptions.
Online courses are clearly partof higher education’s future. Withthe experience of offering themaccumulating, it’s time to explorequestions like these and others, forexample: Which courses should beoffered online? What’s an appropri-ate balance between online courseand in-class courses, or does itmatter? Who benefits most andleast from taking online courses?Should some students (maybebeginning students in various at-risk categories) be advised againsttaking online courses? Are allfaculty “good” online teachers?
Reference: Bristow, D.,Shepherd, C. D., Humphreys, M.,and Ziebell, M. (2011). To be or notto be: That isn’t the question! Anempirical look at online versus tra-ditional brick-and-mortar coursesat the university level. MarketingEducation Review, 21 (3), 241-250.
Maryellen Weimer is the editor ofThe Teaching Professor. @
• After class, focus on critical thinking at thehighest levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. This caninclude Web assignments such as critical evalu-ations of information on the Web, creation ofnew information such as a Wiki, and blogs.
For information about ordering an archive of thisonline seminar, go to www.magnapubs.com/catalog/ten-ways-to-improve-blended-course-design/. @
<< Tips From Page 1
By Rob Kelly
Understanding learners’ experi-ences in the online classroom
can help you improve your coursesfor current and future studentsand help build a strong learningcommunity. Jill Schiefelbein, ownerand guru of Impromptu Guru, acompany focused on helping indi-viduals and groups improve com-munication in both face-to-face andonline environments, recommendsusing a reciprocal feedback processto elicit this valuable informationfrom students.
Giving feedback about thelearning experience might be newto some students. In order to getstudents on board with thisprocess, Schiefelbein includes twovideos in her courses: one thatintroduces the instructor and onethat explains course expectations.“I make these two separate videosbecause they are for two verydifferent purposes. I don’t want toput them together. I want them tobe short and to the point,”Schiefelbein says.
These videos are more personalthan text announcements and helpestablish rapport and clearlyexplain the purpose and benefits ofstudents providing feedback. “Videois a much more personal channel,
and people will gravitate to it morethan if you [communicate] viaemail, for example. Once you’veestablished that rapport and thatrelationship with your students,you can definitely ask for feedbackvia email because they already feelthat they know you,” Schiefelbeinsays.
Follow-through on this feedbackis essential. “Actions speak louderthan words, and when you say thatyou’re open to a culture offeedback, you need to actually beopen to that feedback. You need tobe aware that what you’re doing
may not always be the best way todo things. If you’re of the mind-setthat what you do is best andnothing is going to change that,then creating a culture of feedbackwon’t be genuine and students willsee through that,” Schiefelbeinsays.
Formal feedback
Creating an environment thatencourages student feedback is thefoundation for actually gettingfeedback; unless you ask them forspecific feedback, it’s unlikely thatstudents will be very forthcoming.This is why Schiefelbein asksspecific questions when providingfeedback to her students.
In each of her courses,
Schiefelbein provides quarterlyfeedback to students, what sherefers to as “email check-ins,”letting students know where theystand in the course. In theseemails, she also asks students thefollowing questions:
• How has your experience beenwith the organization of thecourse and the course materials?
• How have you found the discus-sion questions in helping youunderstand the course content?Have they been helpful? Why orwhy not?
• Is there anything else that you’dlike to add about your experiencein the class? If you’re having anydifficulties or if you’re enjoying aparticular part of the course, I’dreally love to hear about that.
“I always make sure to ask ayes-or-no question followed by whyor why not? It balances quantita-tive and qualitative feedback. At thevery least, students will answerthat quantitative question. You’llget some feedback, and the vastmajority will also follow up withresponses,” Schiefelbein says.
Schiefelbein replies to each ofthese feedback responses fromstudents. In low-enrollmentcourses, she sends personalizedemails. In high-enrollment courses,she uses a form email that says,“Thank you so much for contribut-ing your feedback. This feedbackhelps me fine-tune this class notonly for you but for other studentsin the future. Thank you for beingpart of that effort. As always, if youhave any questions, pleasecontinue to ask.”
4 Online Cl@ssroom
FEEDBACK
Reciprocal Feedback in the Online Classroom
Continued on page 5 >>
“I always make sure to ask a yes-or-no question followed
by why or why not? It balances quantitative and qualita-
tive feedback. At the very least, students will answer that
quantitative question. You’ll get some feedback, and the
vast majority will also follow up with responses.”
5Online Cl@ssroom
Informal feedback
Beyond the quarterly check-ins,Schiefelbein recommends checkingin less formally at regular intervals,which “lets the students know thatI care about them as individuals,not just [as] numbers who areenrolled in the course.”
One way she accomplishes thisis through engaging with studentsin “hallway conversations.” Each ofSchiefelbein’s online courses hasan area where these informal con-versations take place. “It’ssupposed to mimic what studentsmight talk about in the hallwaybefore class starts or after classends,” she says.
When topics come up in thesehallway conversations, Schiefelbeinwill mention them in a text or voiceannouncement. “I’ll post anannouncement that says, ‘Checkout the hallway conversation areaand chime in on the discussionabout …’ and I’ll give the subjectline of whatever discussion isrelevant. A more organic type offeedback emerges.”
In some instances, students willuse these hallways conversationsto ask one other about assign-ments or topics that they are strug-gling with. Schiefelbein responds tothese questions and asks otherstudents to share their experiencesor offer help. And because of theculture that she fosters in thecourse, students respond. “Onceyou foster this community offeedback, you have other studentschiming in, feeling a part of thiscommunity, feeling this reciprocalrelationship with the instructorand with other students in theclass and wanting one other to
succeed. If you have students inthis culture of feedback you’vecreated actively participating, itreally works to foster that sense ofcommunity, and I’ve had manystudents comment that they feelthat they had more input, moreagency, and more control over theirlearning. And I think whenstudents feel that they are incontrol of their learning, they feelthat they have more responsibilityto do that learning.”
Audiovisual feedback
Another way that Schiefelbeinelicits student feedback is byinviting them to offer theircomments and suggestions viaaudio and video. (Because of theextra effort involved, she offersstudents extra credit for doingthis.) “It’s nice because I get to seethem. It establishes a morepersonal connection with thestudents. It’s surprising to me withsome of the better students I’vehad just how much of a connectionI can build via email; however,being able to hear their voices andsee their faces just makes the rela-tionship grow even more,” shesays.
In addition to helping strengthenrelationships, the audiovisualformat can improve the quality ofthe feedback. “When a student isputting a video out there that maybe viewed by other people, I believeit causes him or her to think morecritically about what he or she issaying. And I think that’s very ben-eficial. You can put something on adiscussion board in 30 seconds,but if you’re going to be on camera,you’re going to think more con-sciously about what you’re sayingand what you’re contributing. Ittakes some of that anonymity out
of the equation. Once you put animage or likeness or voice behindthat feedback, it gets a little morereal for them, and you have less ofan anonymous presence,”Schiefelbein says.
Benefits of student feedback
Opening your teaching andcourse design to student critiquecan be a daunting prospect, butdoing so strengthens the learningcommunity, and students provideinformation and suggestions thatcan improve the learning forcurrent and future students. “I wasinitially scared by what type offeedback would come back to me. Ididn’t want to open a Pandora’sBox when I started this. What Ifound when I got over that andstarted asking for feedback wasthat the comments I received fromstudents, both positive andnegative, were communicatedrespectfully. Students felt agency.They felt more involved in theclass,” Schiefelbein says.
Student suggestions can alsosave time. For example,Schiefelbein produced a video toprovide students with assignmentguidelines. It turned out thatstudents thought that a simplebulleted list would have been moreeffective, something she might nothave become aware of if she hadnot fostered a culture of reciprocalfeedback.
For more information
On June 19 Jill Schiefelbein willlead the Magna Online SeminarEngage Online Students withTargeted Feedback. For informa-tion, go to www.magnapubs.com/catalog/engage-online-students-with-targeted-feedback/. @
<< From Page 4
By Errol Craig Sull
It can be easy to overlook the indi-viduality of our students. We must
not let this happen, because themore students feel we care aboutthem as Cathy or Romar or Billy orJose or Alijad or Marie or Logan orAsaka or whoever, not merely as“students,” the better we engage,reach, and motivate each student inour courses.
These suggestions will helpensure that your course speaks toeach student.
Read student introductionsthoroughly. These will give youinsight into their lives and helpguide your instruction. Perhaps the
most candid—and thus mostrevealing—of students’ writing is inthe first week, when they introducethemselves. They will offer tidbits ontheir backgrounds, which can giveyou a quick picture of the studentsin your course. And despite being inthe same course, their ages,interests, educational levels, familysituations, professional back-grounds, etc., will differ. This infor-
mation becomes especially helpfulwhen interacting one-on-one withstudents.
Pay attention to student demo-graphic information provided byyour school and supervisors. Thisis the area of information about thestudent audience most ignored bythe online educator. With so much todo in a class, it is easy to overlookemails and attachments on theoverall background of students thatschool staff and supervisors sendout. (Note: FERPA prohibits schoolsfrom sending out such informationon individual students.) This infor-mation can be very helpful, not onlyin understanding the overallaudience picture of your class but
also in allowing for various teachingstrategies and activities for you toshore up areas where your studentsmay appear to be weak. Suggestion:keep a separate file for these, andrefer to it throughout your course forreminders.
Adjust your vocabulary to meetstudents’ understanding. With rareexceptions, online educators comeinto a class with more knowledge on
their subject and a richer vocabularythan their students. One can quicklyforget that students may not under-stand much of an online educator’svocabulary, thought processes, orexplanations. Certainly, we want ourstudents to stretch their minds, andthis includes introducing them tonew words and ideas. But there is apoint where this can overwhelm andalienate a student.
Keep in mind the number oneonline teaching rule—you teachfor the student. While we as onlineeducators are crucial linchpins inour courses, the courses we teachare never about us—they are alwaysabout the student. There will betimes when sharing some of ourexperiences, thoughts on oursubject, and observations on courseefforts are helpful and often crucial.But students do not enjoy it whenan instructor goes on and on and onabout him- or herself or includestheories, approaches, and philoso-phies that either seem irrelevant tothe course or overwhelm thestudents with too much information.A good approach is to place yourselfin the student’s role: how muchwould you like to read, and whenwould enough be enough?
Reach out to your students’professional worlds. This is a greatway to strengthen the onlineeducator-student bond while alsooffering information for a student’sprofessional interests. In addition towhat students post in their first-week introductions, various discus-sion threads and questions in emailscan result in a clear picture of eachstudent’s major, current employment(if any), and professional goals.When you send the student informa-
6 Online Cl@ssroom
Crucial for Online Educators: Knowing Your StudentAudience!
T E A C H I N G O N L I N E W I T H E R R O L
Continued on page 8 >>
While we learn much by what students offer in response
to general questions and comments we make, we can
take this a step further by asking students to post in a
discussion or send us emails on why they are taking the
course and how they want the course to help them, now
and after the class. This results in more insight into the
students’ worlds and thus more opportunities to teach to
the students’ goals and to post resources to further
assist them.
7Online Cl@ssroom
C O U R S E D E S I G N
Private Journal Replaces Discussion Forum in Hybrid Course
By Rob Kelly
The discussion board in KathleenLowney’s large hybrid section of
introduction to sociology at ValdostaState University wasn’t serving itsintended purpose of engaginglearners with the content andpreparing them for face-to-face classsessions. She tried dividing thestudents into smaller discussiongroups of 50 and then 20, and theresults were the same: the weakerstudents waited until the last
minute and essentially repeatedwhat the better students had postedpreviously. When she replaced thepublic discussions with privatejournals, the quality of students’posts improved, as did their grades.
Lowney’s course is a “supersec-tion” hybrid that has an enrollmentof 150 to 300 students and meetsTuesdays and Thursdays with a sig-nificant online component. She hadone discussion per week thatrequired students to read 50 percentof their classmates’ posts and con-tribute to the discussion to preparethem for the next class session.
“I began to notice that the aca-demically stronger students wouldpost early; the weaker students
tended to post in the last 12 hoursof a seven-day window, and many oftheir posts, while not quite takenword-for-word from the strongerstudents, were pretty close. It looked[as though] they were waiting for thestronger students to post in theseopen discussions to figure out whatthe answers were. Not everybodywas engaging with the material inthe way that I wanted them toengage with it,” Lowney says.
She also observed that studentswho posted earlier and engaged in
original thinking did better on tests.Even in smaller groups the same“free rider” problem occurred, andLowney had the additional problemof managing multiple discussions.(While Blackboard makes it easy todivide students into groups andpresent the same discussionprompt, knowing which commentshe made in which group proved tobe a challenge.)
Lowney now assigns a privateprewrite, which asks students toapply concepts. Students do not seeeach other’s posts, and Lowneyresponds to each, offering commentsthat help prepare for the in-classdiscussion.
She also says that this format
has improved students’ engagementwith the material. “I wouldn’t saythe weaker students are always a lotstronger than they were, but whatI’m seeing is that my weakerstudents’ test scores have made asteady improvement from when Ihad the open, public discussion,”Lowney says.
In addition to improved testscores, Lowney has observedimproved interaction in the face-to-face sessions. “Classes are muchmore engaging because I know thatthey’ve had to read the materialbefore and engage with it,” Lowneysays. “I’m getting more questions inclass because I’m priming the pumpwith my comments.”
Of course, making these prewritesprivate eliminates the benefits ofwriting for and receiving feedbackfrom peers. One way that Lowneyaddresses this issue is by sharing(anonymously) sample privateprewrites in class, highlightingcommon mistakes and things donewell. “I’ll build that into myPowerPoint and say, ‘This issomething that cropped up a lot.’Most students will see their work atsome point in one of thePowerPoints, and I’ll share goodexamples as well, especially early inthe semester so that I can model asuccessful answer and ask studentsto tear it apart and see what made itsuccessful,” Lowney says.
These private prewrites are morework for the students and theinstructor. Responding to eachprewrite is quite time-intensive forLowney, particularly in such high-enrollment courses. And one of thechallenges is providing feedback tostudents before the in-class discus-sion. “If you’re not able to get them
“I began to notice that the academically stronger
students would post early; the weaker students tended
to post in the last 12 hours of a seven-day window, and
many of their posts, while not quite taken word-for-word
from the stronger students, were pretty close. It looked
[as though] they were waiting for the stronger students
to post in these open discussions to figure out what the
answers were.”
Continued on page 8 >>
8 Online Cl@ssroom
tion specific to his or her profession-al world not found in the course, itgoes a long way in saying, “I’m reallyin touch with who and what you are,and I want to help you become betterat our subject so you can trulysucceed!”
Be relevant in your information;don’t seem out of touch. All folkshave comfort zones in their experi-ences and interests; it is easy toimmediately pull these out for dis-cussion. But are they relevant toyour subject in the 21st century?Can your students identify with theitems you share? An online educatorcan be an expert in his or hersubject area and offer substantialeducational and professional experi-ence in the field, but if the studentsfeel their educator is offering “old”ideas, comparisons, analogies, orstories, then the students mightquestion the relevance of coursematerials.
Share mistakes you made andobstacles you faced in the coursesubject area. While we may havemore knowledge, education, andexperience than our students, wecertainly are susceptible to mistakesand stumbles. By sharing some ofour missteps and errors in oursubject and our ways of correctingthem, the students see us as ontheir level, more as “real people,”
which is very important in keepingstudents engaged in the course.
Invite student comments onwhere they want the course totake them. While we learn much bywhat students offer in response togeneral questions and comments wemake, we can take this a stepfurther by asking students to post ina discussion or send us emails onwhy they are taking the course andhow they want the course to helpthem, now and after the class. Thisresults in more insight into thestudents’ worlds and thus moreopportunities to teach to thestudents’ goals and to post resourcesto further assist them.
Create a bank of commentsfrom students related to audiencesfor future courses. Each coursebrings us more information from ourstudents on their makeup, on whatthey need from the course, on theirfears and anxieties about taking thecourse, on their past educationaland professional experiences, etc.When something comes along fromthis that results in new strategies,resources, discussion questions,assignments, and/or activities, besure to save them in a separate filefor use with students in futurecourses.
Use ongoing self-reflection tokeep your audience approach ontarget. Our enthusiasm to do every-thing right in a course can result in
fantastic efforts on our part in thefirst few weeks of the course—andthis includes paying attention to theaudience we are teaching. Yet themany responsibilities of our courseand our life beyond it can cause usto lose sight of our student demo-graphic. So we should continuallyremind ourselves of our students’individual needs, the importance ofeach student. When we do, ourstudents will leave our courses withmuch richer learning experiences.
REMEMBER: Advertisers know theimportance of reaching theirtarget audiences—and it resultsin billions of products sold,millions of people employed, andthousands of companies thriving.
Please let me hear from you,including your suggestions and infor-mation for future columns. You canalways reach me [email protected]. Andremember: please forward me yourcomputer tips and suggestions tomake teaching in the online classroommore efficient and productive.
Errol Craig Sull has been teachingonline courses for more than 18 yearsand has a national reputation on thesubject, both writing and conductingworkshops on it. He is currentlyputting the finishing touches on hisnext book, How to Become the PerfectOnline Instructor. @
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all graded, you can get a samplegraded so you can use them in thelecture the next day. This makes itseem as though it’s not justbusywork,” Lowney says.
To help motivate students to takethese prewrites seriously, Lowneyshares with them data that showshow grades have improved sinceshe began using this approach.
Each module still has an opendiscussion where students can postmessages or ask questions, butstudents rarely use it. While this is
not really an issue in a hybridcourse where students have oppor-tunities for face-to-face interactionwith peers, it would be an issue ina fully online course. That said,Lowney does see the potential forlimited use of this technique intotally online courses. “If I weregoing to have two assignments aweek, I’d have one private and oneopen, because I do think thereneeds to be some community in anonline course that an open discus-sion allows for,” she says.
Lowney has not tried thisapproach in upper-division courses,
but she speculates that she mighttake more of a backseat role inthese discussions. She sees themerit of including open discussionsin introductory courses, perhapswith more private interaction inupper-level courses. “It depends onwhat you’re teaching. What areyour goals? What’s the rest of thecourse like? What are your otherassignments?” Lowney says.
Contact Kathleen Lowney [email protected]. @
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