Jennifer McCrickerd will report on her first-time online teaching experience, the ways in which it did/didn't match her expectations, and offer advice for others who are about to begin their own first-time online teaching experience.
In October, 2011, Jennifer McCrickerd, Associate Professor, Philosophy, Drake University, agreed to teach an online course the following summer. She also offered two FridayLive! online sessions in which she thoughtfully and candidly discussed her expectations, hopes, and fears - and asked participants to suggest how she might prepare more effectively and comfortably.
Many useful suggestions, questions, and online resources were exchanged by voice and within the text chat in the two previous sessions:
TLT-SWG Apr 21, 2012: "Wading into Online Teaching Part Deux"
TLT-SWG Nov 09, 2011: "Wading into Online Teaching”
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR FRIDAY, OCTOBER, 5, 2012:
Fundamental Questions
I asked you these two questions last year in anticipation of your first online teaching experience, Please answer these questions again, now that you have finished your first online teaching experience, and then comment about how your answers might have shifted because of that experience.
1. What do you most want to gain?
2. What do you most cherish and want not to lose?
How have your answers changed as a consequence of your first online teaching experience?
Surprises?
What, if anything, did you find surprising - pleasing or disappointing - about your first online teaching experience this past summer?
As Expected?
What worked about as you expected in your first online teaching experience this past summer?
Student Attitudes?
In what ways did your students seem to prefer their online experience in your summer course to some of their classroom-based courses? And vice versa?
In what ways were you able to perceive students’ attitudes to various aspects of your online course (e.g., content, asynchronous communication, synchronous communication, schedule flexibility, …)
Did you anticipate having more/less difficulty perceiving students’ attitudes online than you actually encountered? What seemed to help/hinder?
Student Learning Difficulties
In what ways were you able to perceive students’ difficulties with the course content or assignments? Did you anticipate having more/less success perceiving students’ learning problems online than you actually encountered? What seemed to help/hinder?
Identity, Persona, “Voice”
In what ways did you and your students find that you were able to project and perceive each other as individuals? Identify each others’ “voice” or persona? How was this different from your experience in classroom-based courses?
Workload, Schedule
In what ways did you and your students find the schedule and workload for this online course different from your experience with classroom-based courses?
Changes, Recommendations - “...what I really wish someone had told me.”
Based on your experience with your first online course, are you likely to teach online again? If so, what will you change? What did you learn that you would recommend to faculty who are about to begin their first online courses? What did you learn that you would recommend to students who are about to begin their first online courses?
Your Lilly 2012 presentation description ended with “Come to this session to hear what I anticipated, what I did well (and what it was that made it go well), what I hadn’t anticipated and what I really wish someone had told me.”
Online Experience Influences Classroom-Based Teaching
You gave a presentation in the September, 2012 Lilly Conference in Traverse City, MI titled “How Teaching an Online Course Made Me a Better Teacher” http://lillyconferences.com/tc/presenters/mcCrickerd.htm
In what ways did teaching your first online course influence how you are teaching your classroom-based courses? In what ways, if any, are you increasing the online elements of your classroom-based courses?
Presentation description “In the fall of 2011, I decided that trying an on-line class might be a good way to stretch myself and put to the test my view that if we aren’t taking risks we aren’t learning. Unfortunately, I mentioned this to people who then held me accountable and I found myself teaching an on-line class the summer of 2012. Happily, my risk paid off and teaching the class has made me a better teacher and has left me more optimistic about the potential of on-line teaching. Come to this session to hear what I anticipated, what I did well (and what it was that made it go well), what I hadn’t anticipated and what I really wish someone had told me.”
What else? When?
What would you like to ask others now? Another time later this academic year?
Info, references, resources, moral support, humor, …?
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