Angie Wassenmiller, R.N., BSN

Patrick Hargon is the Director of ADA and the Academic Resource Center. He also teaches for Concordia, including online classes. I invited Patrick to share his reflections on teaching online last semester. This will probably be the last blog post until January 4, and I thought it would be a good one to leave you with. I hope that you will comment (click on the comment link above the post) and share your own lessons learned so that we may all become stronger online instructors. Merry Christmas! –Angie

As we all know, good teaching is an iterative process of planning, implementation, and reflection. Now that we have closed the fall semester, I would like to share some reflections on my online course, ENG 521, Teaching Writing K-12. I hope that you will feel inclined to comment and perhaps share the good and bad of your online courses as well.

Things That Worked

1. The off-topic discussion board

If I could isolate the main thing that made this semester feel like a success, it was the addition of an “off-topic” discussion forum. It gave us all a chance to communicate in a different, more casual voice than the ones we use in discussion of the readings.

Here’s an example of a post that really made me feel that good things were at work in this class:

“I have never been a crabby or negative person, but I think my job has turned me into one. This is only my third year of teaching (SPED) and already I am burnt out. This year is very difficult. Somehow I got stuck with pretty much every severe BD student on my caseload. (I am not interested in BD nor do I have much background in it). Three of them are on lockdown all day, every day, and one spends most of his day in the ‘crisis room.’ So far this year I have been punched, kicked, spit on, stabbed with a pencil, slapped, and bit. Oh, and sworn at A LOT. One of them bit me so hard a few weeks ago it drew blood and I had to leave school to get blood work done AND a tetanus shot. I could go on and on with stories, but basically these behaviors never end. I feel like my administration is not supportive and they just kind of go on with their day pretending it doesn’t go on.

I’m certainly not looking for a pity party here, but if anyone has suggestions on what to do when you reach ‘burn out point’, I will take them. Thanks in advance.”

Many of the other students weighed in with emotional support, gave helpful practical advice, and shared similar experiences and coping strategies. Here is this student’s response to the replies she received:

“Thank you all so much for your support, feedback and prayers! It’s so nice to have other teachers to reach out to, so I’m really grateful this board is here. I will keep referring to your comments throughout the year when I need a lift.

I do remind myself that I am helping these kids in some form or another, but that’s hard to wrap my brain around sometimes when I am verbally and physically abused by them. I really didn’t expect teaching to be like this at all, but honestly, it’s what sparked me to get my master’s, so here’s hoping that it leads me in a new direction. Thanks again for all the support, I was touched by how many people care!” 🙂

2. Google Docs

Another satisfying, if challenging, change that I undertook this term was to migrate all writing assignments to Google Docs. If you haven’t experimented with this resource, have a look at the following overviews: http://www.google.com/educators/p_docs.html

In short, Google Docs allows multiple people to edit the same document online. Instead of submitting essays through the Blackboard assignment box (which means they have to upload documents in the correct format, I have to download them to make comments, I have to upload them again, they have to download them again, a time-consuming cycle of endless up- and downloading!!), students shared their essays with me and classmates through Google Docs. Their peer group commented on their essays, the writers revised, and then they shared final drafts with me, which I could comment on and grade so they could get their responses in real-time.

3. Peer Review Groups

I assigned each student to a small group of 5 students. This group became their peer-review group over the course of the term. Normally, I would rotate members of these groups, but I got the sense that each student had developed a feeling of security within these groups. Often, for this class, students share personal narratives as well as research reviews, etc., so that sense of comfort and security is absolutely critical.

Things That Didn’t Work So Well

1. Google Docs

While the benefits of this format FAR outweigh the approaches I’ve used in the past, I found that the initial stages were awfully time-consuming. I felt somewhat inundated with technical questions for the first three weeks of the class. I created a Google Docs discussion forum, that I felt was pretty successful, but I believe I will need to go further next time.

I’m thinking I will create a Google Docs tutorial page, an FAQ, and some other approaches to try to circumvent the technical questions. I don’t mind answering them, but I want to encourage the students to be a little less dependent on my (not altogether omniscient) technical help. At least with an FAQ and a tutorial page, I will have something to refer them to.

2. Discussion Forums

I did not set up an efficient system for dealing with the weekly discussion board posts. I had 35 students in this section, so that meant a minimum of 100 or so posts to sift through every week. I obviously couldn’t respond to every post, nor could I respond to every thread. So I felt kind of remiss. By the time I did respond (after the due date), I got the sense that no one had any motivation to go back and look at my comments.

Next time, I will assign them to discussion groups. Each week, on rotation, one student will be the discussion leader—posting questions, and summarizing the discussion after everyone else has posted. With these groups, I think I could play a better role as discussion facilitator, peeking in, asking questions, etc.

Things That Would Be Great

1. More communication between adjuncts

I think it would be useful if we had a discussion board for adjunct instructors, where anyone teaching the same course could post questions, share tips or assignments, etc. I sense that each of us could spare ourselves the anxieties of the learning curve if we could share experiences and advice. Meeting physically is largely impractical.

Overall, I felt a few small additions made the course feel much more successful, and much more like a social environment, with actual human beings sharing experiences and advice. So often the online experience can feel a little disembodied if the sole forms of communication are research essays and reading responses.