- How have your past experiences with online/blended learning impacted your goals for your future students?
The first online course I ever took was a graduate level, adolescent literature course. It was offered in the summer and I did not want the commitment of attending a class. Additionally, I knew that most of the work in an adolescent literacy course would be reading and responding to young adult books. While I enjoyed the class I felt like the professor was not very friendly and did not add much to the course. As a class, we were left to figure things out on our own and he would eventually grade our work and give us final feedback. I am sure he thought we were graduates students and there was no need to hold our hands.
What I thought was missing in these early days of online learning was a check on how many of us did not understand the expectations, protocols, or workload. The course lacked a formal calendar and a break room (we did have a syllabus.) It felt hit or miss, how/where should completed assignments go, when were the assignments due (discussion boards did not appear to have deadlines), how could we contact you, was it possible to contact other people in the class? Many questions were left unanswered and the student just crossed their fingers and hoped for the best. Looking back I am sure the professor was new at online learning too.
I want my students to feel guided, and supported, and to understand the process so that they can focus on the class and learning, not the mechanics of an online course.
- How do you hope to engage your students effectively in online learning?
Engaging students in the discussion boards is an important part of online learning. The readings offered several ideas that I thought were important.
- What has been (or do you anticipate being) the most challenging aspect of online/blended teaching for you? What solutions have you considered to this challenge?
