Week 7 – Creating a nice learning environment
Since I do not teach online yet, I am going to talk (or write) about what I do to create a nice learning environment for my classes. I made a list of tasks I like to do in my face-to-face classes and I created a column with what I think one would be able to do in the online environment Some of the items have a question mark with the hope of getting some answers from my POTCERT classmates 🙂
| FACE TO FACE | ONLINE |
| Creating a good learning environment is crucial during the first two weeks of the semester
|
Yes |
| Students get to know each other the first week
|
yes |
| Students should know about the instructor as much as possible
|
yes |
| Do fun interactive activities all throughout the semester
|
yes |
| Make a “fiesta” day where every student brings food to share
|
No… sorry |
| Do short warm up activities at the beginning of every class
|
No…? |
| During the semester, show super funny videos even when they are not related to the lesson
|
yes |
| Make students interact in Blackboard or by checking a classmate’s Glogster (o Wiki) and comment on it
|
yes |
| Instructor sets different groups every lesson
|
yes |
| Make sure the class is at least a 80% student centered
|
Yes…? |
Tags: environment, POTCERT, week seven
October 19th, 2012 at 9:22 pm
Hi Maria – great way to lay it out. Let’s see….Fiesta Day. Maybe have students post recipes with photos. Maybe they have an online fiesta – beats eating alone. Can you fiesta videos (or make one yourself) to add music to the ‘scene’? Okay….not sure that was helpful.
As for the warm-ups – I see that as completely doable. Different, but doable. The online classes I took sometimes had us meet another student ahead of time and introduce each other. Pretty basic, but somewhat interactive. I really liked Pilar’s intro via Eyejot so perhaps the warm-ups are done by students via Eyejot, telling about themselves or doing a ‘show n tell’ project. The course I’m teaching right now on community building (f2f) ends with short (3-min) student presentations about the take-aways they will apply in their neighborhoods. So I could see those being great in an online course as video clips. I’m sure others are doing that – so I’ll look for experience to speak!
As for the last one — 80% student centered? Yes — I think online has the ability to do much more. That’s why I’m here — to explore every possible way to ensure that my online class is student centered.
I’m like you . . I’ll be watching for the feedback you get from experienced onliners!
October 19th, 2012 at 10:54 pm
I haven’t checked this out further than just reading Ko & Rosen, but interesting concept to ‘hand over th reins’ — certainly increases student centered learning! See below:
Check, too, to see what options your software affords for student direction of whiteboard activities. If you can hand over the reins to students, this will allow you to arrange for individual student or group presentations in real time. (Ko, Susan; Rossen, Steve (2010-03-03). Teaching Online: A Practical Guide, Third Edition (p. 159). T & F Books US. Kindle Edition. )
October 20th, 2012 at 7:43 pm
Hello Maria, really good !!! An idea: with virtual worlds for example you can organize a beautiful party online and everybody could bring cookies, cakes, ballons…etc…. 😀
The most difficult one I think is ” Make sure the class is at least a 80% student centered”…. thanks al lot!!
Greetings
October 26th, 2012 at 5:03 am
Thank you Ralene,
Your idea for an online fiesta is fantastic! or the students making a recipe for a fiesta and posting pictures is another possibility it didn’t cross my mind before. How much fun could that be?
The option of ‘hand over the reins’ to students sounds doable indeed. I just need to learn how to do it! =-)
October 26th, 2012 at 5:19 am
Okay — but you have to invite me to the fiesta!
November 21st, 2012 at 9:15 pm
I liked you chart. It would be challenging in an online class setting to have a “fiesta” (LOL). Warm-up activities at the beginning of class (lecture-style) might not be possible but here are some things I was thinking of including in a online class (at the beginning of each week’s assignments):
– a short video to expand on what was previously learned and introduce the lesson
– an online game/exercise to recap what was learned the previous lesson
– a new resource/tool to refresh students’ memory on something that was previously learned