Ahh, I find it exciting to be talking about online teaching and learning in my very own first blog.
Rovai's (2002) discussion of persistence issue in distance education programs is something we need to address as current and future online teachers. Building a sense of community that would require students to work together as a group will mimick the real environment that we are preparing the students for. Visible to me now is how a student can easily feel isolated which results to feeling of disconnect who can eventually lose interest in class. Final decision --drop the class!
Designing activities that encourage participation of each member of the group will foster camaraderie. I believe that when they develop relationship on a personal level, students will feel more comfortable and more open to learning and be able to share their thoughts while taking the class. They will develop skills needed to work in an environment of collaboration. I am just starting my online learning experience and as I go through the class, I can already think of ways on how my students in my Library Research class can learn from each other. I am in the process of converting my face to face class to an online class. I am planning to start with a self-introduction to lessen the anonymity in this environment. As part of the introduction/welcome aspect of the class, I would explain the features of the course management system, Distance to Learn, that we use so students would not get lost when directed to specific tools such as the forum, etc. Unfortunately, our students are not required to take a course on how to maneuver D2L. So I am hoping that this would fill in the gaps when they take any online course. Using the technology as tools, such as chat and creating subject fora, will make the class discussion more live-able. I am learning a lot from my classmates some perspectives/opinions about the class content I am taking right now. I would surely use that strategy as a form of communication where there will be threads of conversation especially when I discuss information related-issues (such as plagiarism, academic freedom, information haves and have-nots, etc.) in my Research Class. I was so eager to learn how I will function in a group and putting us in teams early in the class and setting the "rules" that we agreed upon as group just make more sense to me. I will definitely use that structure.
I am looking forward to learn more from this class, such as how assessment takes place, as more "aha" moments unfold.
