Aug 28, 2009
Easy Online Communication With Your Course Participants
A handsome course Web site is only half the story. Although a Web site gives your students access to information online, it doesn’t really replace or augment your face-to-face teaching. Especially if you also meet regularly with your students in a classroom, all a Web site accomplishes is to save you the trouble of photocopying and handing out paper!
Is a course Web site really worth all the fuss?
It is if you use it as the focal point for something your students CAN’T get any other way: that is, the substantive, meaningful interactions that occur in online discussions, chats, and emails.
This is the real surprise of the digital classroom. Professors who have mastered the art of online facilitation are reporting something remarkable. Online participation is often superior to classroom participation. Not just equal to but better!
Why? Because most online communication is written, and people work harder when they write. They think things through. They "craft" what they say. They take care. They go deep. An idea blurted out and soon forgotten in the classroom here gets the full treatment. First comes the sudden brainstorm, followed by a fleshing out for an initial draft, then more careful reflection and, finally, a refined version for posting in the discussion. Online interaction sticks in the mind. It enhances learning. It’s a valuable addition to absolutely any course.
Not just for the few, either. In a traditional classroom, a handful of students lean forward eager to talk. A handful more contribute if you squeeze the words out of them. But, you can’t throttle every student into participating; so you do your best and accept the fact that most will just sit there all semester like so many warts on a frog.
Well, guess what? In an asynchronous online discussion, more students volunteer. They actually say something. Without being prompted. Could be they want to make sure you know they showed up. Or, they might feel less shy when no one can see them. Whichever, the process works. People "talk" online and in the process they learn.
So here’s what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to link your course Web site to an asynchronous online discussion software. You might also want to hold a chat or two. And, you should give your students a way to submit their assignments electronically and interact with you privately by email.
Do you need course management software to do any of this?
Of course not.
You’ve already got email. Just provide some strict rules for when private email is appropriate, then filter all student messages into a separate folder. (For more tips on email, see the Faculty Web Book that Gail and I put together.)
Next time: “Make Room for Email in Course Discussions.”
claude
