Best Practices in Online teaching
Interesting question: What does the excellent online instructor look like? And perhaps more importantly, are the best practices for K12 different than best practices for college? After all, high school students have no choice about being in the classroom so engaging the student is vital. At least in higher education, the student has probably selected the course (although in all fairness, this may not be the case for general studies courses which are required.)
how can a teacher help the student to interact with one another? how does a good teacher facilitate or ensure student to student communication.
So - a good instructor will (as outlined in the conference of week 6)
should provide clear guidelines for interaction with students; provide well-designed discussion assignments to promote cooperation among students; encourage students to present course projects to one another; provide prompt feedback of two types–information and acknowledgement; provide assignment deadlines; provide challenging tasks, sample cases, and praise for high-quality work to reinforce high expectations;allow students to choose project topics.
What does an instructor do to help students learn in an asynchronous discussion? How does a teacher promote social presence as outlined in the COI framework and how does good design of a class promote social interaction? Is that social interaction necessary for learning for all students.
Synchronous tools - wimba -
This can be an important tool for the K12 classroom, but seems to be used less frequently in graduate school. I've had a few classes with live classroom sessions but they are never mandatory - although I always try to attend. Mandating attendance doesn't make sense for online students. Often, they are online because their schedule doesn't allow them to attend class at regular times. K12 students take online classes during the school day and may have a specific time assigned to do their online work. Most students go to a lab and do their online classes under the supervision of a specific teacher. Schools have to know where students are throughout the day. Even if the students appreciated the concept of a synchronous class, it's unlikely they'd be able to attend at the same time. Of course, evening classes could be offered but again, it's difficult to decide at what time. Class during dinnertime probably wouldn't be well attended. Students may not even have access to a computer at home.
Asynchronous tools
the Discussion board - most online classes tend to revolve around the discussion board as a means of student to student communication. The big question with the discussion board is obviously how to get k12 students to do more than a simple post... this is one area that the teacher can make a huge difference. The question is the key - something that provokes thinking. This is not an easy thing, although probably easier for some topics than others.
One idea - keep the discussion groups small.
I liked the article that Kathy posted
Conrad, Dianne. (2002) Inhibition, integrity and etiquette among online learner: The art of niceness
Teaching students about netiquette can make the discussion board a nicer, gentler place to be. I think that ensuring that students feel safe to post their thoughts in a thoughtful manner without worrying about being laughed at is important, perhaps more so for the K12 learners. Teaching netiquette as part of the orientation week is a good idea. Students who don't feel safe writing their comments won't write comments and that will destroy any sense of community.
Lets discuss Lurking. Should we be worried by students who read but don't respond? How do instructors know when to intervene. Sometimes a quick e-mail to a high school student is enough to prod the student into explaining why they are not completing assignments or to get them into gear so that they do the assignments. I think experience helps with this question but there are some common sense ideas. If a student does nothing in the first week, then a check that they understand what needs to be done makes sense. If a student routinely does the work but misses a week, it may not be concern for a grade, but it makes sense to follow up. In this respect, the K12 schools have a built -in advantage. Each student is normally assigned an onsite liaison, or in the event that the student is a full time online student, then there is normally a parent who works with and takes responsibility for the student. This is very different to the college level, but makes "lurking" less of an issue. I personally feel that lurking is an unfortunate term as it sounds negative. I learn by reading and we know that many students learn by communicating with others. Why, then, is it negative to listen to the conversation even if you don't have anything to add at that moment in time?
AHA moment - I read about the concept of putting students into a small group during the beginning week to promote discussion..It's less intimidating, especially for new students. I like this idea and will add it to my classes.. K12 students rarely want to discuss.. and perhaps the size of the group will make a difference.
More reading to do this week - see if I can find anything about cohorts of students and the development of community as they have more and more classes with one another. If community is important - is it better to be part of a cohort that goes through school together online in the same way that we do with regular f2f high school classes. As an aside as a parent of a military child who changed schools more times than most (8 schools in 12 years) then is it important to feel like part of a community for just the course, or for the whole school experience.
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