My score on the POT beginner’s questionnaire was a nine. This score would indicate that I favor a highly student-centered approach to my teaching, and it’s true – I do! However, when I examine the way I actually teach my online classes I find that I’m not implementing as many constructivist activities as I apparently think are important. I find myself thinking that perhaps the constructivist approach is more of an ideal in my particular classes rather than something practical, and in some cases feasible. For example, I hear other online instructors raving about the group projects their students successfully complete. But every time I have attempted a small group project in my online classes, I have encountered the usual problems that coincide with small group activities: the one student in the group who never responds, the one student in the group who seems to do all of the work and gets frustrated, etc. I understand that there are ways to reduce these problems, and I think they’re wonderful in the traditional classroom environment, but I eventually decided it wasn’t worth the headache to continue trying to have my students perform small group work in the online environment.
Large group discussions are another animal altogether. The heart of my online classes is in the discussion boards. In my discussion board assignments, I try to give my students options for finding content on their own wherever possible and to leave my questions open-ended. A primary objective for all college instructors, I think, is to engage our students in critical thinking. And for me, the discussion board is where the critical thinking is required.
Regarding the textbook reading, I just have one question: Where can I get a TA to help me with grading my discussion boards?? But seriously, my interest was piqued when I read about having groups submit projects by using wiki software. I haven’t ever tried assigning a wiki to my students, probably because I don’t know how to do it myself. I’d love to hear if anyone has tried wikis and whether or not they’d recommend them for group work.