December, 2006

Online Classroom - December, 2006 - Full Issue PDF
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Empowering Students to Become Self-Directed, Engaged Learners
Course design is crucial to student success. It should reflect the intended learning outcomes and provide enough guidance for students to easily navigate the course without being overly rigid so as to stifle the exploratory aspects of learning, says Mary Hricko, library director and associate professor of library and media services at Kent State University Geauga Campus and Twinsburg Center.

Tips from the Pros: 3 Ways to Gauge Course Quality
Because the shortcomings of an online course are not always obvious to the person who created it or teaches it, it is helpful to seek other sources of information to determine whether a course is meeting its objectives.

Engagement Is the Key to Online Learning Success
In the time that Vincent Ialenti, director of distance learning, and Sheila Murphy, professor of psychology, both of Mount Wachusett Community College in Massachusetts, have been teaching online, they have seen the tools and content available for online instruction increase dramatically in number, sophistication, and variety. However innovative the advances in online learning tools and resources are, they are only truly useful when incorporated into a well-designed and well-facilitated course.

Activities 101: Improving Results and Reducing Frustrations from Team Activities
By Patti Shank, PhD, CPT
If you have been implementing collaborative projects, you know that they can be frustrating. Collaborating at a distance adds additional potential frustrations. The most common reasons for learner frustrations include inadequate preparation and communication, and the most common reasons for faculty frustration include the need to deal with learner frustrations.

Using Discussion Boards for One-on-One Interaction
In a face-to-face class, students have many opportunities to interact individually with the instructor before, during, and after class. This interaction can be an important factor in a students’ success. Opportunities for interaction online can plentiful as well, provided you design and facilitate your course to bring about one-on-one interaction.

Teachuing Online With Errol: Give Your Students a Present (or Two) for the Holidays!
By Errol Craig Sull
Well, it’s that time of year again: thinking about what to give friends, relatives, colleagues, and others for the upcoming December holidays. Your students should also be included, not because you hold any endearing personal relationship with any (you shouldn’t), nor because you think they’d like you more if you do (if you don’t know by now, teaching is not a popularity contest). It is simply a nice thing to do, AND you can both help the students in their learning growth and foster a nicer student-class bond.

Protecting the Online Classroom Community
By Patrick Durow, PhD
“Dr. Durow, the grad students think they’re smarter than we (the undergrads) are and are always putting us down.” Thus read the private message from an undergraduate education student during a recent synchronous chat session in my 500-level course, Secondary Teaching Methods in the Humanities. The message came during the sixth week of the course. I was shocked and surprised. During none of our asynchronous or synchronous discussions had I perceived any offending messages. While I knew how I would respond in the traditional classroom setting, I was given pause by the student’s plea. What to do?