Providing Feedback

Nearly a month into the semester, I can already tell what is the most time-consuming part of teaching an online course: providing student feedback. Each week, my Creative Writing students post something, either a new creative work or a general literary analysis. Anything they post, of course, should have some personal feedback attached to that, at least according to my philosophy. Anyway, I've been using a discussion rubric to give them feedback on their work, as well as give them a scale that evaluates their feedback to each other. My reading of their work and providing this feedback takes a great deal of time.

Heading into the third week, my 'Creative Writing' class has now completed its first assignment and done so on the course online software system eLearn/Moodle. I made it a goal to provide feedback to every student for this first assignment. This way, students have a grade already provided on their work, and they know that I'm watching and evaluating them intently. For a class of twenty students, though, five students did not turn in the first assignment; four of those students haven't bothered even to log in to the course software system. I gave them a negative evaluation, needless to say. Otherwise, I found that the first assignment, one that included an audio lecture that students listened to, was a successful one.

Resources Available for Teaching Online

This post is solely meant to relay the resources I have available to teach my online class at the University of Charleston and what outside resources I've been consulting for its design. 1. I've been reading (mainly skimming) Susan Ko and Steve Rossen's book 'Teaching Online: A Practical Guide' (Routledge 2004) and using this text as a general guide in creating the class and thinking of how to transfer traditional classroom teaching into an online environment. http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Online-Practical-Guide-College/dp/0618298487 2. AVS recording system and microphone: This piece of equipment is the only voice recording material I've thus far used for the class. Basically, I taught myself how to use an old microphone and downloaded the appropriate software (one system is called AVS). Now I can produce audio recordings for my students to hear and respond to. Early tests show the sound quality and volume with this microphone, though antiquated, is fine. The AVS software was free, by the way. http://www.avs4you.com/AVS-Audio-Recorder.aspx 3. eLearn/Moodle online learning system: This online course accompaniment system was already in place for my university and will be where the course content "exist" for lack of a better word. In eLearn, I can create forums, post assignments, post feedback, and create chat rooms. There are even more collaborative features to use with eLearn, though, including student journals and blogs. 4. Various 'Chronicle of Higher Education' and 'Inside Higher Ed' articles on online learning: “To Mooc or not to Mooc?” http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/11/29/essay-challenges-posed-moocs-liberal-arts-colleges “Unlikely Pairing” (Wesleyan and Wellesley, two liberal arts colleges, implement MOOC) http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/12/06/wellesley-and-wesleyan-hope-moocs-will-inform-campus-based-teaching "Online Learning: More Than MOOCs" http://chronicle.com/article/More-Than-MOOCs/134014/ "The Future is Now and Has Been for Years" http://chronicle.com/article/The-Future-Is-NowHas/134070/ "Before You Jump on the Bandwagon" http://chronicle.com/article/Before-You-Jump-on-the/134090/ "The Crisis in Higher Education" (courtesy of John Adkins) http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/429376/the-crisis-in-higher-education/ 5. A Discussion/Feedback rubric: I've consulted other online courses and found a discussion/feedback rubric that I plan on incorporating into my class. This rubric, from Southern New Hampshire University, will provide me with a way to provide focused grading and feedback on student responses to each other's work. Addendum: Currently, the main campus of my university does not have a full recording lab for online teaching, so I had to somewhat improvise and teach myself with the AVS recording system and microphone mentioned above. Blog Archive

Thinking of Teaching Online

This blog will be dedicated to recording my experiences with online learning in hopes that this reflection will not only help me in creating and actualizing the course, but others as well. The course in question is a 'Creative Writing' class that I'm teaching as a purely online course offering in Spring 2013 at the University of Charleston. I would characterize my views on online learning and teaching as somewhat agnostic; that is, I doubt that online learning can be as effective as traditional classroom teaching, both in terms of student learning and in the success of teaching methods. That said, my research for this course, as well as my course preparation, has begun to shift my thinking on that matter. I do think that, despite some studies (UVA retention study of community colleges, for example) that suggest online learning isn't as strong as traditional classroom learning, I want to keep a truly open mind towards this course and its possible successful. Of course, since this time is the first instance I'm teaching online, I don't pretend to think I've mastered the pedagogy, and that may factor into the course's success. This particularly course, 'Creative Writing,' is one that I volunteered to teach online, as my theory is that classes that are particularly teacher decentered are best suited to an online environment. This type of course already emphasizes student contributions over a traditional lecture-oriented class with the teacher as the central knowledge base. I do wonder, however, how a course where I initiate the discussion by providing context -- I usually don't lecture for long periods of times -- such as an American literature or nonwestern world literature course would translate into an online setting. Currently, I plan on using asynchronous interaction online rather than synchronous dialogue, as students seemingly prefer the "open-ended" timeframe of having an online course. Hence, I am making students post at a certain time, but not meet online at the same time in making responses. Conceptually, I've had to rethink all of my assignments for this course, as I have a blueprint syllabus from teaching it a few semesters ago, in terms of how to teach, respond, and deliver the material online. For example, students would normally bring a piece of writing to class printed out, say, a new short story or something akin; then receive feedback on that story; then revise it for a final portfolio at the end of semester. While I do think that such an interactive set up translates naturally into an online format, I've had to be more precise about my directions and my feedback. For the latter, I'm very thankful to have found a discussion rubric from Southern New Hampshire University, a school that offers many courses online, that I plan on using for assessment.