EDUI 6701
Mini-Lecture One
Welcome to EDUI 6701, Introduction to Online Teaching and Learning.
Your adventure into “best practices” in online teaching, learning, and course design begins now, so welcome to class!
Actually, there’s no such thing as “best” practices – ones which fit all learners in all situations. But there are a lot of good practices in teaching and learning, online or elsewhere. As we find and discuss those good practices, you will discover for yourself what practices work best for your learners as they deal with you and the content of your course or workshop or program, in your particular setting, in whatever larger context everything else is also happening at the same time.
As a learner in the Online Teaching & Learning (OTL) program at CalStateEastBay, you have the opportunity to work with
- people who have taught online for many years,
- people who have designed and modified online classes for themselves or for others,
- people who want you to succeed in your goals of earning just the Certificate in OTL or in completing the OTL master’s degree.
All of our OTL instructors fall into these three categories, but many of your classmates are in the first two categories and we hope that everyone fits into the last category. In our courses you will not compete (for grades, rewards, or anything else) but will collaborate (through discussions, projects, and papers) to create the best learning opportunities for everyone.
How will that work?
Our coursesare asynchronous, so you never have to be online at any particular time.However, since interaction through discussion is at the heart of our online program, you really need to pay attention to the participation “rules.” “Rules” is in quotes to indicate that your class will use the current guidelines, which were modified by the previous EDUI 6701 class to reflect their ideas about good practice. You, in turn, will work together to create best practices for the next class. Note that there are due dates for assignments and expectations that you will participate in discussions early and often.
You will start each week's work on Monday by reading the required materials, paying particular attention to the ones that are linked to discussion questions. Most discussions require an early initial post, so do those as soon as possible. Return to the discussions every couple of days so that you can respond to the replies of classmates to your initial posts and get other discussions going by responding to other classmates’ initial posts. You will soon discover the rich quality of learning in a social context that develops within the asynchronous Discussion Board.
So, Rule One is to make your initial posts as early as possible.
It’s a good practice to read several of the initial posts, and then respond only after you’ve given some thought to what you have to say that will forward the discussion. If the first few posts don’t pique your interest, wait a bit longer. It’s also a good practice to try to reply to different people – don’t end up in a rut by mostly talking to (or avoiding) a small group of people over time.
Here’s an outline of a typical short discussion:
Level 1My initial post [I used “Add new thread” to start things off]
Level 2A’s reply
Level 3My reply to A
B’s reply
My reply to B
C’s reply
D’s comments on C’s reply to me
Level 4C’s reply
Level 5My reply to C and D
Level 6D’s reply to me
It is not a good practice to respond to everyone: try this math problem: 20 people are in an online class; the class has 30 discussion boards. What would be the minimum number of posts at the end of the class if each person responded to every initial post?
Good threads are often 5-6 levels deep. How many total posts would there be if, in the math problem above, every discussion went 3 levels deep? 6 deep? While the end result might be really interesting to read, we need to keep workload issues in mind. What’s a reasonable workload for students? What’s reasonable for instructors?
Rule Two, then, is to limit your responses to 3-4 people per discussion.
Rule Three is a compilation of similar ideas: express your thoughts clearly and concisely; be positive, especially if you are being critical; and proofread before you post. In other words, don’t let careless writing get in the way of your thoughtful participation. One way to reduce everyone’s overall workload is to write so that everyone “gets it” on their first reading.
You will discuss these rules, perhaps modify them, and create new ones as you go along.
With these ideas in mind (becoming a reflective practitioner, getting the most out of discussions, maintaining a reasonable workload, and collaborating with your colleagues to maximize everyone’s learning and teaching), start on the rest of your Week 1 tasks.
Citation in APA format:
Chico, Nan.(2006).Mini-Lecture EDUI 6701-1. Retrieved month date, year, from address.