Hi All,

We all have to start someplace and I think that the questionnaire and “Getting Started Chart” (Thanks for the great introduction Lisa) really helped me put my teaching style and what I want to accomplish in an online class off to a good start.

After looking over the syllabi for my world history, western civ, and Middle Eastern courses I realized that I’m a bit schizophrenic when it comes to the Beginner’s Questionnaire. I noticed that when I considered the world history and western civ courses, I scored a 15. I rely heavily on lecture and large group discussions. On the other hand, when considering my Middle Eastern history class, my score was 12 as I have more small group work, students do produce content for the coursework, and that students are more active in producing their own knowledge to contribute to class.  This has me reflecting on taking what I have learned from my Middle East course’s pedagogic approach and possibly applying it to my other courses.

With this in mind, I think that the whole process of designing an online class will be of great use to improving my fact-to-face classes as well.

When considering the Getting Started Chart I think that the best route for my online class would be to continue to use Blackboard as it is the only common platform between all of the schools I teach at. (I took some workshops at MiraCosta on Moodle and –especially after the “Great Blackboard vs. Moodle Smack-down” of last year, see that Moodle is a more flexible platform.) I think that my courses will utilize a combination of lecture and discuss/groupwork and be organized according to the syllabus (but I might reconsider this for a topical/unit approach).  Here is a screenshot of  Blackboard menu from my World History I course. I think that it already reflects my selected approach above. All I need to do is to integrate the lectures and other documents into the “Course Schedule.”

I’ve been using Blackboard/WebCT for the past ten years. Over the years I’ve tried out discussion boards, wikis, etc. on my –sometimes unwilling– “brick & mortar” students. Most of my students like that all of the information for the class is in one place and that I regularly use the “Announcement” function, but some have complained about  discussions, online journals, and wikis because “I signed up for a face-to-face class, not an online class.” This has discouraged me from trying out new ideas.

I read the first chapter of our textbook and jotted down some of the definitions, but did not learn much new from it. It did get me thinking about a few topics that I wanted to ask and get feedback on.

• My students always comment in review how enthusiastic and passionate I am about teaching history. How can you make that enthusiasm/passion appear online?
• What should I consider when trying to move away from my traditional role as teacher/instructor and start to become a facilitator/moderator as well?

I know my posting is late, but your feedback would be most welcome. I’ll be trying to get ahead of the game and post earlier….