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.