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August 2004

Online Classroom August 2004 full issue PDF
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Lessons Learned From Teaching Public Speaking Online
By Trudy L. Hanson, Ed.D. and Jason J. Teven, Ed.D.
After viewing courses developed by others and taking special short courses offered at the National Communication Association Convention, we developed a public speaking course using a hybrid format; 60 percent of the course was offered through online activities, and 40 percent through face-to-face class meetings in which students delivered speeches to their peers. When our comparison of a section of the online course and a face-to-face section was completed, we learned the following lessons:

Tips from the Pros
Keeping the Discussion Going Knowing how much to participate in threaded discussions as a facilitator can be difficult. Student needs change depending on the circumstances. While it is largely up to the instructor to figure out how to interject in threaded discussions, it helps to know your options. The following are some facilitation options worth trying:

Developing Community Online
By Patricia A. Smith, Ed.D.
Collaborative learning is a process that advances student learning in the classroom. Collaboration occurs when individual peers redefine themselves as a group.

Building a Learning Community Throughout a Program
Nova Southeastern University’s Master’s in Health Law program is designed to encourage the creation of learning communities in which students view each other as partners rather than isolated individuals who happened to be working toward similar goals.

Aligning Students’ Expectations With Realities of Online Learning
Students’ perceptions of what an online course will be like are often quite different from how it really is. That is why Jim McKeown, assistant professor of computer science at Dakota State University, makes it a point to clearly articulate what he expects in his online courses. He also makes it a point to build in administrative elements that keep students on track because first-time online learners often mistakenly believe that online learning is easier, takes less time, and is self-paced.

Blogs Help Create Learning Community
Susan Baim, assistant professor of business technology at Miami University-Middletown, uses weblogs to supplement her face-to-face courses to

• improve students’ abilities to use the internet as a research medium
• provide students with networking opportunities and build learning communities beyond the classroom
• improve students’ writing skills.

Which Instructor Variables Affect Course Quality?
Not every faculty member is suited to be an online instructor. Determining which instructor factors affect course quality and learning effectiveness would be helpful in developing faculty training programs and in targeting things individual faculty can do to improve their courses.

Videogames: A Useful Teaching Model
Most faculty would agree: students tend to be better at memorizing than thinking. Professor of reading James Paul Gee, in an excerpt from his book, What Videogames Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, makes this point: “Learning isn’t about memorizing isolated facts. It’s about connecting and manipulating them.” (p. 91) And this he contends is what videogames make players do.

Advances in Online Student Advising
Recent advances in technology, along with societal changes, have fostered the development of innovative online advising tools at institutions nationwide. The mid-1990s first saw widespread use of the internet as a medium for higher education, creating “a real change in the dynamic, with students no longer needing to be physically on campus to obtain information,” says Charles J. Haberle, assistant vice president for academic administration at Providence College in Rhode Island.