Author: cindyu

Categories
Online Courses

4 useful tips for online instructors

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Image: “Work setup” by avdgaag. Courtesy Flickr
Perhaps some of you are frantically finishing edits to your online courses in preparation for the fall term.?! As your thoughts turn to your new crop of students, there are a few things you may want to remember when starting off with a new section in an online course. Here goes:

  • Contact your students on or before the start of term (which is Sept. 4th this year) and introduce yourself. This can be as simple as a group email sent via the FSC. This helps establish a connection with students whose main connection with you will be via the online course environment. It also gives you the opportunity to share specifics about the course or anything else, before students begin.
  • Refer students to the Orientation to Online Learning All students in online sections of DE delivered courses have access to this Orientation site. It provides an opportunity for students to become familiar with the course environmnet, some of the tools and tips for successful online learning as shared by other students.
  • Check your class list on the FSC against your class list in WebCT If you have any questions about students who are in your class who shouldn’t be (or vice versa) your web programmer can help you sort this out. It’s also helpful to use the Track Students function in WebCT under the Manage course option on your menu. This will allow you to see who has not logged in so you can follow up with the student directly (using the FSC).
  • Start off your discussions with a controversial but non threatening question. This helps encourgae posts and allows you the opportunity to model good practice This can be as simple as a group email sent via the FSC. This helps establish a connection with students whose main connection with you will be via the online course environment. It also gives you the opportunity to share specifics about contacting you.

    • For more tips, guidelines and key contact information, check out these resources:
    Tips for De Instructors: Online (PDF)

    DE Instructor’s Guide

Categories
Print Courses

4 useful tips for print based instructors

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Image: “”Studying for class”” by jakebouma. Courtesy Flickr

Some of you are almost full swing into preparations for the fall term. There are a few things you may want to remember when starting off with a section of students in a print based course. Here goes:

  • Contact your students right after the add drop period (which is Sept. 19th this year) and introduce yourself. This can be as simple as a group email sent via the FSC. This helps establish a connection with students whose main connection with you will be via email or telephone. It also gives you the opportunity to specify any particular requirements for assignment submission or contact with you. If you are one of other instructors teaching distance sections of the same course in the same term, early contact with your students provides reinforcement that you are their instructor (in case they picked up a course package for the wrong section of the course). This can help clear up any misunderstandings before a problem arises. Waiting until after the add/drop period will help you avoid contacting students who will drop the course and missing students who register late.
  • Consider preparing a schedule for students who want to accelerate their assignment submissions to complete the course early. If you are teaching a course that runs over a single term or multiple terms (for 11 month courses), you will likely receive requests to accelerate from students. It is helpful (and easier on you) to be prepared with a schedule to offer those students should you permit the acceleration. Students usually ask to accelerate courses for student loan purposes. They need to complete the course within the session it starts and (for three credit courses) within the term it starts.
  • Prepare a spreadsheet for tracking student assignment/exam grades and comments and make this easily accessible for your retrieval. Sometimes, unexpected events (illnesses, etc) occur and instructors need to pass records on to another instructor for a time. It will be less stressful to you (and a new person coming in) if these records are accessible and up to date.
  • Follow up with students who are late with assignments or you you haven’t heard from for some time. This is particularly importnat for students who are approaching the halfway point in the course (or later) and are at risk of receiving a failed grade because they are not keeping up with the demands of the course. Intervening early can sometimes result in some advising support that may help a student make a proactive decision.

For more tips, guidelines and key contact information, check out these resources:
Download Tips for DE Instructors: Print Courses (PDF)
DE Instructor’s Guide

Categories
Administrivia

Updating your contact info.

Have you ever tried to track down the right person in payroll to get your address changed on the “UBC system”? This has been a source of aggravation for many, including, I’m sure, the staff in the payroll office!

You can now update your contact information (including new email or mailing addresses and telephone numbers) through UBC’s Faculty and Staff Self Service Portal.

Cindy

Categories
Administrivia

Virus Protection

If you accept assignments via email, you may be at risk for catching a nasty virus which can cause problems with your computer and, occassionally, render it inoperable. Rather than reverting back to snail mail and causing a revolt among your students, seek out some virus protection.
UBC now offers free downloadable virus protection software for Faculty and staff. You’ll need a CWL to login to the site. It’s definitely something you’ll want if you don’t have it already!

Cindy

Categories
Teaching Presence

What do we know about students?

students with laptops.jpg
photo by Robert Scales courtesy Flickr.

We know (or think we know) the following things about students in DE&T delivered courses at UBC:
• More than two-thirds are women
• Average age is 33
• 77% are also taking courses on campus
• 23% are studying purely by distance

We also know, via student report, that:
• most of our students think their instructors are accessible
• instructor expertise and feedback is highly valued by students
• about 30-40% of surveyed students felt that instructor feedback on assignments could be more helpful.

From anecdotal evidence, we also know that many of our learners are not as technologically savvy as some reports would have us believe. The age of many of our students mean that they are not part of the NetGen. However, NetGen or not, students do not see the inclusion of technology as a replacement for good instruction. In a recent Educause report, authors Oblinger and Hawkins encourage us to do better to understand students IT preferences and to be aware that technological saavy does not equate with a preference for the impersonal. Quite the opposite.

Students apparently want access to their instructors and their peers both inside and outside formal learning environments. We see evidence of this in the use of online discussion boards and chat tools within online courses and the explosion of interest in social networking tools like LiveJournal and TrekConnect .

For more about establishing and maintaining a teaching presence in a distance course, see the OLT website: Instructor’s Guide: Establishing Instructor Presence

Categories
Conferences New Instructors Online Courses Start of Term Teaching Resources

Getting started with WebCT

This August, UBC’s e-Learning Institute is leading 3 hands-on WebCT
workshops aimed at helping instructors prepare for the upcoming fall term.
Sessions are scheduled for August 28 & 29 and cover the basics of setting up
a WebCT course, getting started with quizzes and assessments and promoting
community in your online course through the use of communication tools.

Register now, space is limited:
WebCT Workshops

Spread the word to interested colleagues in the UBC teaching community.

We gratefully acknowledge funding for this Institute, provided by UBC
students through the Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund
(TLEF).

Categories
New Instructors Online Courses Print Courses Start of Term Teaching Resources

Starting off right

UBCautumn.jpg photo by Ayat83 – courtesy Flickr.

Most of us usually approach the start of a new fall term with good intentions, hopefully some optimism (and sometimes abject fear)! Here is a handy Term Prep Checklist (pdf) that might help you in your planning prior to the start of each term.

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