...here comes another weather-related post. We've got gotten an email from the VPAA announcing that "on campus" instruction has been canceled for the rest of this week. That's how bad things are around here--several major roads are still a mess (not to mention backroads) and even with snow-removal crews working non-stop, there just hasn't been enough progress made. At some point, after all, where do you put the snow? Calls are still in the 10-20 inch range for the latest round, which has just gotten started.
Fear not for me...I actually got out a bit today (thanks to a friend with a four-wheel drive) and picked up some more groceries. I even finally cleared out the huge blockade of snow that was at the end of my driveway--the mini-mountain that the plows refused to touch even though it was clearly (at least 2 feet) on the road, not my driveway. At this point, I feel like I can shovel away the next twenty inches that falls. After the 30 inches this weekend, I can handle it. (Although my aching back and arms might argue a bit...)
What I am wondering about, though, is if I should follow the VPAA's suggestion to hold classes online in some capacity. The concern is that a whole week of classes missed can get us into some trouble, especially with lots of winter still out there. We have a program called Sakai (a lot like Blackboard, if you are familiar with that) which can let me do things like discussion boards and even chat rooms. I think that discussion boards could work for my two upper division classes, filled with mostly English majors and minors.
I am not so sure about my two sections of English 204. I might post some study questions for each text on a separate thread (one big question per thread) and invite the 204 students to respond. Then, after they've had lots of chances to do so, I'll sum up the important points of each question. Now, should I require them to participate? I hesistate to do so since I am not sure if everyone has reliable internet access at home. But without some real incentive to participate, I can't see a lot these general education students doing so.
I also don't want to require a bunch of reading responses because, well, I don't want to grade them. I've got 70+ students in these two sections...what I need is discussion.
To my teacher friends especially, but any one else, too: any additional thoughts you might have for shifting a regular class to a temporarily online class would be much appreciated!
5 comments:
For online courses, I often make discussion boards where I post a question and they are required to respond both to me and to a certain number of their classmates for a total number of posts - say 3
I tell them up front this is all about the discussion, so the grading is done on the number of posts they have by a certain date.
Then during posting time I pop in and out commenting occasionally, which usually helps to avoid the "I agree" or completely off topic posts.
I like that idea! Make a discussion board; it will make you look cool. And I bet they all have reliable internet at home. It's 2010 not 1998.
Sorry to hear that your weather hasn't improved. I've been thinking of you. Were you able to get some jelly donuts or at least make some?
Does that program have a chat feature? That way, if you wanted, you could require folks to log on during the regular class period and have a virtual class then. I've actually never used the feature myself, but that's a possibility. Another possibility is to setup IM appointments during this week and have 1-1 interactions. Iono, just a suggestion. Probably more work, though, that you want to do.
Heidi
We have something called "Moodle" that we now use instead of Blackboard. I have to use it for the graduate classes I am taking. For the on-line class, I have to respond to his weekly question and then reply to at least two responses from fellow classmates. I think this might work for your class, but I wonder if by the time you get it all set up and the students get familiar with it, will you be back in class? Also, even if they normally have reliable internet, I would not count on it staying reliable if you have 40 inches of snow!
Don't know if that helped any, but wanted to let you know that we are thinking about you!
Hey folks! Thanks for all the good suggestions. I decided to go with the discussion boards for all four classes, requiring a certain number of posts per student. For the gen ed classes, I posted all the topics myself, covering all the things we would have talked about in class if we met. For the upper-division classes, I am having the students who were set to lead discussion get the ball rolling.
I thought about doing a live chat thing, but figured it would be kind of a pain to "get" everyone there, since email has been spotty.
Heather's point about the reliability of technology with 40+ inches of snow on the ground is a good one--Sakai (which is a lot like Moodle or Blackboard) has been acting up, as has the Shepherd email system. Sigh.
So it's a grand experiment, I guess. We'll see how it goes!
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