large virtual classroom management distance-learning seminar

1. Large Virtual Classroom ManagementDistance-Learning Seminar:Student Needs and Class ManagementJanuary 22, 2007 Dr. Marguerite Connor

This course will help students learnto write effectively in a business environment .Students will focus on improving their communication skills, particularly through writing.We will be using a two-pronged approach to this:

developing tools for sound analysis of business situations in order to write appropriately, whether sending brief e-mail messages or preparing long reports ;(I saw this as the more important prong) and

honing basic writing skills.

Students willread case histories and be expected to discuss them , solve business communication problems, write brief assignments and prepare one long report (10-15 pp).

Competency in writing sentences and paragraphs .

Many of my students were not competent.

Competency in using a word processor and an e-mail program.

The first thing I think we can do to best serve students is tomake sure they are in classes that suit their ability level , especially when it comes to writing

On-line courses are more suited to disciplined and self-motivated students

Oftenappearto take more time than live courses as students dont realized that the two hours they would spend in class with the teacher is now done at home.

Depends on the credits

For a 2-credit course4 hours homework

For a 3-credit course9 hours homework

Then I cut it almost in half to deal with the reality.

So for this course, I aimed at about 2-3 hours of HW for the average student per week.

I had many students who found my class too difficult.

I think one reason is that they didnt read the class introduction and syllabus carefully.

Class materials had been prepared the term before the class was offered, so as a teacher, I didnt have the spontaneity to alter lesson plans that I would have had in a live situation.

I also didnt have the chance to see faces during the lecture to read how it was getting across.

Also, because I had such a large class, it took me a while to see the big picture.

I was assigned two TAs:

Charity Liu

Carita Wang

The benefit of this is that I split the class into thirds, and each week, on a rotating basis, we each took a third to correct the HW.

That meant I was only reading 13-14 homeworks a week by the time the class size stabilized, so I could spent much more time on them

By the end of the third week, I had seen everyones HW at least once.

The downside to this, of course, is that I didnt really get a picture of the class as a whole for over a month into the class.

It also made it slightly more difficult to track individuals performance

I was responsible for reading the midterm exams all by myself.

They needed the control of being read and graded by me.

Unfortunately, that is when I saw how much trouble some members of the class were in.

Right after the midterm I scheduled one-on-one meetings with students who failed the midterm.

Thats when it came out how difficult the course was for them.

On MSN and Skype

Two to three hours a week, at a consistent time.

Open to all my students

No student had come to my office at all this term.That was strange.

Usually I have students popping by to ask questions or just take advantage of having a native speaker willing to chat with them.

All the failing students were then assigned to mandatory tutoring with one of the TAs

They were also ordered to go to Fu Jen Self-Learning pages.

Found here:http:// ce.etweb.fju.edu.tw/self_learning.html

The biggest problem I faced was that there was a small core of students who were performing quite well, and I hope, learning something from the course.

I didnt want to dilute things for them.

But for weaker students, I offered very basic writing assignments

I made a final paper option that was far more basic than the original options.

The final also became a 3-6 page paper.

Luckily, after the midterm, there were fewer lectures and more writing.

The first half of the course was learning what to do, the second half, polishing how to do it.

This made it easier to switch assignments.

I also added some basic reading and vocabulary exercises as this was obviously sorely needed.

Most important, I am moving away from taped lectures.

I dont think they are overly useful.

They have some use, but not for extended lectures.

In the future no more than 30-40 minutes of taped lecture.

Now that we have technology like Breeze and JoinNet, I think Id like to meet live with students in small groups for part of the weekly classes.

Students really like using JoinNet so far.Very enthusiastic.

I would meet them for 15-20 minutes and the rest of the time would go to their own work.

This is especially true in writing classes.

Of course, Id have to meet with 6-7 groups, so I would be spending the two-three hours of weekly class meeting students.

I would also like to schedule more mandatory one-on-one time during office hours.

At least once a semester for all students

More if needed

This goes against my ideas of asynchronic learning but I think its necessary.

I also think we need to have some kind of testing or placement requirements so that students will be in the right course.

Because this wasnt a beginning course, I didnt have students give me a writing sample, as I usually do.

Wont do that again.

I did ask them to join an on-line icebreaker game (use 8 nouns to describe yourself), but that wasnt enough writing, and some didnt fill it out for over a month.

But ice-breakers certainly do help build class unity.

Thats something Ive learned over the years teaching on-line.

That said, I think the course designed is a useful one (and I originally designed it for EFL students, and in fact, have never taught it to native speakers), but its too difficult.

It would make a good part two of a two-course sequence.

large virtual classroom management distance-learning seminar

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