When I started designing this online course my aim was to have my students (class size of ~70) to be engaged and to get to the point that they were interacting and sharing knowledge. To do this I used Gilly Salmon’s 5 stage model of teaching and learning online as described in these books – e-moderating and e-tivities.
The web site was simplified as much as possible. We separated the web site into two sections - Teaching and Learning. The Teaching section contained e-readers, journals, books, solutions and PowerPoint presentations. The Learning side contained the interactive elements –the discussion groups and quizzes.
Addressing Stage 1, “Access and motivation” the front page was welcoming and outlined all the main folders and features of the course site. Students were reassured and encouraged to take time to become familiar with the site and information available on it. There was one face to face lecture that demonstrated the online environment to the students. I walked them through the different components of the web sites, highlighting the critical components – 3 discussion boards. One was a lectures notice board, one was a group discussion board where students could only access their own group (~10 students) and the final one was a general discussion board. Students were shown where regular communication occurred. I also provided a consultation time for those who needed one-on-one support mostly for technical support.
Stage 2 is “Online socialization”. The first activity was to ask students to introduce themselves online and provide some background in relation to work experience and qualifications and what their aspirations were. The communication rules were also spelt out.
In Stage 3 “Information exchange” the students were required to respond to another’s post in their discussion group. This gave them the opportunity to access work from at least one other student or the entire group if they wanted to, and the chance to peer review. I used weekly online quizzes to allow the students to self-assess their knowledge of the topic and become aware of where the gaps were in their knowledge and opportunities for development. To build up and establish the groups online e-tivities were assigned two weeks apart.
Stage 4 relates to “knowledge construction” – and this is where the students were working in groups. Most groups were communicating quite well and some were already tackling the group assignment in an organised fashion.
This sense of “development’ relates to Stage 5. Students spoke more freely and expressed themselves more openly online as compared to in lecture and tutorial setting. Communication was also more immediate with some students checking the discussion board daily.
As a online teacher it was an interesting experience. You could see the groups forming through the discussion board to become active and supportive of each other – finishing by exchanging telephone numbers and meeting times. For me it was important to keep track of their contributions so that the ‘quieter’ students didn’t get left behind. This was a bit tricky at times, especially as some students have similar names. Those students who weren’t making postings were encouraged by other students and if they disappeared for too long were emailed by myself. Concerns about their expression of English was common – but after I reassured them that they were not being assessed on spelling and grammar, that they became more active in the discussion.
The student evaluations of these learning experiences has been very positive particularly the way that this learning can be applied in real situations.
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