Learning Technologies: Design & Applications

teacher / student ratio

How do you manage hundreds of students? Even online…

• Some people say that numbers don’t matter…
• I disagree with passion on that one.
• I feel that teacher / student ratio should be limited.

RE: Types of group work

Giving a primary location to students to get basic answers is a good idea in her case.

• I would say that it is also important for the prof to be responsive when students are not comfortable with that. Older students may be very confused at the beginning of an online experience. My mother would go nuts!

Limiting the discussions to course shell is something that I have not found popular among students in this program. When working in groups, people tend to prefer the creation of another work area (google docs, etc.).

• I tend to like the consolidation of the communication frame… it seems easier to manage. But I am a minority apparently.

Re: group work

I like the small groups idea. It makes it easier. However, it must be formalized…

For example, we had a group assignment in this course and that was great! However, I am now reluctant to “bother” these group members for my own personal questions. Our assignment is over, so the group is not really active any longer.

I guess the groups should be clearly created for “discussion” and “inquiry” only… while groups working on assignments should be a separate category.

RE: What should Trinh do?

Trinh seems to have the characteristics of an excellent teacher, if I refer to Anderson’s definition (p. 360): interested in her students; knowledgeable; technically skilled and innovative (using new technology).

She seems to experience some challenges mainly in the area of communication /students’ guided “discussions” (or discourse).

Suggestions:

1.     Of course, she could do like Susan Levine (2002, as cited on p. 353) does and prescribe the quantity of posting s as well as criteria defining the quality of the postings that she expects.

• This strategy may give encourage the students to find information directly from other participants rather than by contacting her directly.
• I found that in some of the ETEC courses I took, the profs were very reluctant to answer anything personal inquiry. They would respond to email much too late to solve it. So, I had to contact other students. Once, a student even called me!
• Of course, this makes it easier for the prof. However, I doubt that Anderson’s “social presence” was met.

2.    I do think that some parameters are very useful. In my initial ETEC course, the students negotiated with the prof and we decided that 1 full answer and 5 responses to other students were the expectations. It really helped because, as beginners, we were so overwhelmed by all the responses!

• Some people were writing dissertations for each question, while others were responding spontaneously. Some were very slow and would post at the last minute, while others (like me) tended to start early in the week.
• One of the best suggestions I have is to encourage students to be timely.  When a weekly discussion is over, and most students are working on new postings, it is challenging to get excited about a late response.

Module 3: Interaction and Assessment Tools / Communications Tools

RE: What would Trinh do?