July, 2009

Online Classroom - July, 2009 - Full Issue PDF
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Evaluation Exchange Link: A Centralized Alternative to Emailing Assignment Rubrics
By Aimee J. Luebben, EdD, OTR, FAOTA
I celebrate the end of a semester—except for receiving emails from a certain university entity with “Course Evaluation Report” in the subject line. Although I know these emails will contain attachments with aggregated data of students’ evaluations of a particular course, I approach them with mixed emotions: excitement, apprehension, curiosity, dread. As I opened the course evaluation emails at the end of one semester, I realized I was using the same method of providing feedback to students about assignments.

Tips From The Pros: Ask a Question, Get an Answer
By Jim Guinee, PhD
Online discussions are sometimes difficult to get going, and often the students (at least at first) seem to respond too superficially, punctuated by an occasional treatise by an overeager student. Here’s how I jumpstart discussions in my family relations online course.

Saving Time Online Through Effective Communication
By Kathryn Ley, PhD
Online instruction invariably requires more time for logistics than does face-to-face instruction due to interaction needs, extraneous cognitive load (mental effort needed to attend to non-content-related course elements), and poor self regulation of students. The key is to increase the amount of time spent on instructional interaction while reducing the amount of time spent on dealing with logistical issues by altering course attributes, features, and policies.

Online Teaching Fundamentals: Are We There Yet? Using Google Maps for Learning
By Patti Shank, PhD, CPT
My goal for this series of articles is to provide you with practical ideas that you can adopt or adapt for your online courses in order to increase student engagement and learning. This month, I’ll be discussing using Google Maps (http://maps.google.com) in the online classroom.

Teaching Online With Errol: How to Create Effective Activities for Online Teaching
By Errol Craig Sull
We’ve all used them, first as students and now as online instructors: activities in a class meant to highlight, spotlight, underline, enhance, or explain some aspect of the subject we are teaching. Too often, not much thought or effort is given to these activities, resulting in outdated and unsuccessful activities.

Real People Do Work: Thanks, Dr. Shank
By Timothy J. Haskell, MA
Patti Shank has been encouraging all of us to “Get Real. Pump Up Your Online Courses” in Online Classroom for some time now. However, it was her recent Part 6 of this series in the April 2009 issue that really got me thinking and excited. The focus of Dr. Shank’s most recent suggestions was to add a real-life element to online courses. In a sense, she is encouraging us as online instructors to go the extra mile in getting our students involved in the acquisition of knowledge. Of the four steps that Dr. Shank offered in April, I have found great success with number two, titled “Real People.”