Participation Suggestions
I was quite happy to see that this course was not going to be heavily based on postings and comments as my last course had over 6000 submissions and felt overwhelmed by the amount of reading and writing. I did find, however, that each blogging platform used throughout the course had positive and negative characteristics. Some platforms are designed to encourage discussion while others do not. Some sites emailed me when there was a response to my postings or any comment in the same discussion thread. Other sites made discussion more difficult as there ended up being a substantial amount of searching before a post or topic could be found. I think it was valuable to see the difference between so many platforms outside of WebCT/Vista. If the goal of the course designer is to increase the number of comments WebCT/Vista is a great way to go but I really appreciated how this course encouraged discussion but I did not feel like I had to respond to every thread or comment. With approximately 40 people in this course it could have been quite hectic once again.
I did like that we had to make a submission that included our discussion comments as it caused me to improve the quality of my postings, including relevant research that may be interesting to classmates.
My suggestion for this course is to keep discussions the way they are, as what is lacking in quantity is made up in quality.
Dennis
gillian 10:22 am on August 5, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Dennis,
I do agree that the quality of postings did seem higher than in other courses (I am sure many of those 6000 posts were “thanks” and emoticons). As I felt that there were less opportunities to participate, I felt pressure to ensure I made the most of the opportunities I did have.
gillian