Let's take a look around. When you first come to a new community you want to explore and find out where things are. It is important for you to know where everything is in your online course. You may have not been involved in the creation of the course and will be at a disadvantage for awhile. The syllabus will serve as your map, but just as a map requires some translation in a real physical town so the syllabus needs to be read and interpreted to see how it plays out in the online environment.
Who built this place anyway?
When you look at a town that you have never been to before one of the first
things you notice is the architecture. You are looking for what era the
buildings may have originated in. Your brain is looking for things that
are familiar, things that you recognize. Instead you may find some things
that you have never seen before. Is this a well planned town or it is disconnected
neighborhoods that show signs of being added on over a period of time?
You may find familiar things like a syllabus but also run into things like
a threaded discussion that will be a new experience for you. You will be trying
to understand how parts of the course are connected to each other. This is
the same experience that your students will have when they first take an online
class.
A Planned Community
Your course should be a well planned community that starts with the mission
of the university and program. Other parts of the the foundation are quality
indicators for an online program. All of this is supported by good integration
of faith and learning.
Based on the learning outcomes of the course, learning experiences are created to allow the students to reach these outcomes. A communication system then needs to be put in place to assure that these experiences can be carried out online. This assures that interaction will take place between the students as well as with the faculty. Assessment needs to be strategically planned for feed back to the students as well as quality assurance that the outcomes are being met. All of this needs to be packed into a preset time frame that is manageable for the learner and facilitator. For a more detailed explanation of this process click here.
Take a Tour
Begin by going through the course as your students would. Start with the syllabus.
As you go through each section ask your self if you think the student would
understand what it is saying.
- When it refers to some other part of the course, can you find that part easily?
- Is there language in the syllabus that students may not understand?
- Are the directions for turning in assignments clear? Will you know how to find those assignments, grade them and return them to the students?
- Is the grading system clear to you and does it match what is found in the gradebook? Can you find the gradebook?
Resource Tools
You will need to know how to use the tools of the course before you begin teaching. Each one can play a role in how you interact with the students. Just as in face to face communications, attention should not be drawn to the communication or communication tool itself. The goal is that the tool will become an automatic and invisible componant of the course.
Explore each area of the gradebook. You should be able to set up the gradebook
and change any of the point values for the gradebook. Make sure that the
total number of points is the same for each assignment and total as described
in the syllabus.
You should also know how to retrieve your students assignments that are turned in and grade them with comments and return to the student.
If there are exams in the course know how to open those exams and grade them. You should also know how to use the Toolbox in the Exam Manager to set how much and when students will get feedback from exams.
This is a place for members of this community to communicate. You can send
eamails to any members of the class indiviually or in groups. When
you set up groups in the course manager they will show in the email
area. You can select all class members or certian ones individally.
Students can email you or each other at any time.
Any email can be sent with an attachment. Students can turn in assignments here as attachments if you have not set up a drob box. It is recommended that you only set up one path for assignments to be sent in. This simplifies you accumunlation of the work.
The Chat tab is a basic, synchronous communication tool. There
is a default main Chatroom when you first enter Chat. However, you
may create as many chatrooms as you like. Each chat that takes place
is automatically archived, though you may turn off the archive feature
if you don't want conversations made public.
This requires all students to be logged in at the same time to communicate in the chat room. You can schedule chats for the class but beware of scheduling problems. Students can use the chat room for small group work. You can also schedule office hours to be in the chat room during the week if the students would like to visit with you.
The Document Sharing tool allows you to upload files--documents, images,
spreadsheets, slide-shows, HTML pages, etc.--into your course from your
computer. Or, you may download a file, which already has been uploaded
into Document Sharing, to your computer.
Students have the same functionality. Both you and your students have access to shared files, but only instructors can delete files. Students can choose to share documents with the entire class or only with you.
The purpose of the Dropbox is to provide a central location where you and
your students can submit and retrieve assignments and graded activities.
One of the largest benefits of the Dropbox is that it can reduce the amount
of course-related email significantly. Think of the Dropbox as a virtual "Inbox" and "Outbox" for
course assignments:
You pick up or retrieve submitted assignments from your students in your
Inbox
You return or send graded assignments back to your students in your Outbox
Your Dropbox/Inbox is also linked directly to the Gradebook, which makes
it easy to open an assignment, grade it, and then record the student's
grade directly into the Gradebook--all from one place.
The Webliography course tool allows you and your students to work together
to create an actively linked, annotated bibliography of World Wide Web
sites that are relevant to your course.
Both you and your students can submit sites to the Webliography. You can organize the Webliography into categories. And, you can sort Webliography entries by the date they were submitted, by category, or by the person who submitted the entry.