January 2007

Online Classroom - January, 2007 - Full Issue PDF
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5 Ways to Build Community in an Online Course
Wayne Hall has high expectations for his online students. He tells them that he expects them to be in the course three or four times per week and to not go more than three days without logging on. “I do this because I want to keep this course on their front burner,” says Hall, a psychology professor at San Jacinto College in Texas. Simply stating these expectations is not enough. The students must be interested in the course and feel a sense of community in order to put in that amount of effort. Hall has gone to great lengths to attain that level of interest and community.

Tips From the Pros: Two Creative Means of Eliciting Student Feedback
The following are two ways that Wayne Hall, psychology professor at San Jacinto College in Texas, gets feedback about his online courses.

Faculty and Administrator Attitudes about Distance Education
Faculty and administrators have different perspectives on distance education, but there has been little research on the ways in which these differences play out. To better understand the interactions between these groups, Claudine Keenan, a doctoral student in the University of Massachusetts higher education leadership program and executive assistant to the provost at Richard Stockton State College in New Jersey, compared the language used by faculty and administrators at three institutions that had recently launched or planned to completely online programs.

Activities 101: Self-Check Exercises
By Patti Shank, PhD, CPT
The intermediate statistics class I took quite a number of years ago had two types of learners at the outset—those who were worried about passing the course and those who were sure they couldn’t pass it. The professor clearly understood the fear-of-stats phenomenon and used a number of instructional techniques to help learners gain confidence and skills. One especially valuable technique was consistent use of self-check exercises.

Using Debate in Online Classes
By Roxann Humbert, EdD
Debates have been used in traditional classrooms for years. Research affirms that debating helps students develop content mastery, as well as argumentation and communication skills (Bellon, 2000; Williams, McGee & Worth, 2001). Using debates in online classes can have the same results.

Teaching Online With Errol: Make It a Productive New Teaching Year!
By Errol Craig Sull
Well, it’s 2007, and with it comes new hopes, new dreams, new possibilities…and, for online teachers, new courses and/or continuation of existing courses. While we can certainly do course adjustments, alignments, and configurations any time during the year, the beginning of a new year is always a great time to do this, if only because it’s a psychological kickoff to doing things different and better.