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.