I would love to start a discussion of online classes in this post (so I must remember to turn on comments).<\/p>\n
So, I just finished my second online class. \u00a0Despite being someone who studies online groups and who has been on email since ((gulp)) 1984, I have not wanted to teach online. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Because I think the teacher and students lose the informal social interactions that are least 50% of what students get out of the courses they take.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, I decided to teach an online course \u00a0in the spring, mainly because it would allow me to teach one in the summer. \u00a0I am pragmatic; I have three children. \u00a0I need the summer salary and the face-to-face classes are having problems getting student enrollment.<\/p>\n
So, I have been pleasantly surprised at the whole experience.<\/p>\n
First, my students have scored WAY \u00a0HIGHER (for the most part) on their assignments in the online class than the FtF \u00a0class. \u00a0Like 5 to 7 points higher on tests I’ve been using for years. Why?? ACTIVE LEARNING<\/strong><\/span>. I don’t lecture. \u00a0The kids have to read the book. \u00a0I have a few “lessons” in which I walk\/coach the students through some tough\u00a0topics using written text, but they have to do the work themselves. \u00a0Even the final \u00a0paper, in which many students in the FtF do not get how to do it, the online class ROCKED IT. \u00a0I’m going to have to start grading harder and\/or giving harder assignments to keep my overall grade distribution from going up—because the students are actually learning more!!<\/p>\n The second surprising thing is that my classes *do* have more social interactions than I thought they would. \u00a0This summer in particular, about half the classes has posted in our “Howdy Do” forums. \u00a0YES, I am a big \u00a0geek and I have a discussion forum called “Howdy \u00a0Do” where each week folks can post what they are doing. \u00a0YES I AM A GEEK AND I KNOW THIS ALREADY.<\/p>\n In the spring, only a few folks posted. \u00a0But this summer, over \u00a0half the class has checked in to let us know what they are doing. \u00a0I LOVE IT! \u00a0I miss seeing my kidlets in class, so I actually really love hearing from them on this forum. \u00a0And I know that because this is summer school, it’s more appropriate to post in the forum that you are checking in to class from the beach, or heading to the Grand Canyon with your family and finishing up the classwork in hotels on the road.<\/p>\n No, the social interactions are not the same online as FtF. \u00a0Lots of research and experience support that. \u00a0But having my students perform better AND<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0working out better ways \u00a0for us to get \u00a0to know each other better during the class? \u00a0That sort \u00a0of rocks.<\/p>\n I \u00a0would LOVE to hear what other folks do who teach online courses. \u00a0Comments on this post, emails, tweets, Facebook messages. \u00a0I’m open to it all. \u00a0I’d love to learn what you do.<\/p>\n PS: And yes, I \u00a0do know that one \u00a0my characteristics (strengths or weaknesses, I do not know) is that my online interactions are pretty dadgum similar to my FtF interactions. \u00a0Whatever the textual version of waving one’s hands around and walking across the classroom while talking, I \u00a0do that in my writing. \u00a0At least, I \u00a0think I do. \u00a0You may not. \u00a0But now I am pensively reflecting with my eyes looking up and toward the left. \u00a0Soooo….. Um, yeah.<\/p>\n TELL \u00a0ME WHAT YOU DO!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I would love to start a discussion of online classes in this post (so I must remember to turn on comments). So, I just finished my second online class. \u00a0Despite being someone who studies online groups and who has been on email since ((gulp)) 1984, I have not wanted to teach online. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Because I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p67nDP-4g","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":343,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2018\/10\/18\/your-students-are-cheating\/","url_meta":{"origin":264,"position":0},"title":"Your Students Are Cheating","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"October 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"So, this is not a comfortable topic. And, surprisingly, the reaction I most frequently get from my academic colleagues is \"Not my students.\" Alas. Your students are cheating.\u00a0 Not all of them. Not on everything. But on a hell of a lot more than you know, and, apparently, are willing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":434,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2020\/10\/23\/podcasts-during-zoom\/","url_meta":{"origin":264,"position":1},"title":"Podcasts During Zoom","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"October 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"My mentor, Dr. Lynne Markus, wrote a very important article (Culnan & Markus, 1987 and while that is not the direct link to it b\/c it's a handbook article, the article I do link to is a follow-up that is similar). ANYHOOOOO, the gist of Culnan & Markus is stop\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/10\/VICE-Lab-2020.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/10\/VICE-Lab-2020.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/10\/VICE-Lab-2020.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/10\/VICE-Lab-2020.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/10\/VICE-Lab-2020.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":382,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2020\/03\/13\/a-whole-new-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":264,"position":2},"title":"A Whole New World","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"March 13, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Two weeks ago--before I left with 15 students for a Spring Break study abroad trip to Berlin--I saw a few coronavirus cases in Germany and was joking that if I had to be quarantined when I came back I would prefer the Army barracks to home because I could work\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/03\/flatten-the-curve-1.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/03\/flatten-the-curve-1.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/03\/flatten-the-curve-1.gif?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/03\/flatten-the-curve-1.gif?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":262,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2014\/05\/13\/writing-by-hand\/","url_meta":{"origin":264,"position":3},"title":"Writing By Hand","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"May 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"So \u00a0sometime during the last semester, a study came out demonstrating that taking notes by hand (i.e., writing) helps students retain more information than typing notes on their keyboard. \u00a0I posted that to both my undergrad and graduate class online pages. \u00a0But it ended \u00a0up sparking a discussion a few\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":180,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2012\/04\/20\/writing-and-thinking-thinking-and-writing\/","url_meta":{"origin":264,"position":4},"title":"Writing and Thinking: Thinking and Writing","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"April 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It has taken me forever to get this post up on my blog! \u00a0I am finally being shamed into finishing up this post after drinks, snacks, and dinner with my students last night. \u00a0Why so hard to write? \u00a0I think it's because one becomes very self-conscious about writing when one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":217,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2013\/02\/22\/time-in-organizations\/","url_meta":{"origin":264,"position":5},"title":"Time in Organizations","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"February 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"When I went back to school after working in the \"real world\" for 4 years, one of the differences that struck me was differences in time in the organization. \u00a0I have not studied time in organizations, which is an important area of research. \u00a0What I want to talk about is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions\/266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}