Hi Everyone,

The quote from Warnock’s “Teaching the OWI Course” that resonates most with me at the moment is from Joanna Paul “I think it’s important not to overload ourselves with graded writing to review” (166). Right now, I am swamped and behind in grading! And I am going home next weekend for a family friend’s memorial so this week is crunch time.

I am also a huge fan of low-stakes writing and meta learning as Warnock asks “Why is low-stakes writing important in encouraging students to work on meta aspects of writing” (166)? You will see how I build in low-stakes writing for students to reflect on their learning and writing in my assignments in the video below.

Luckily, I have been using the writing process as a way to scaffold my writing assignments, or as I call them, assignment sequences. So I have been able to migrate what I have done in my f2f classrooms over to my online classrooms for the most part. There are still parts of the f2f group and whole-class discussions that I don’t feel I have been able to replicate in my online courses.

Cara

Here is my video–I tried to keep it to 3 minutes!

Here is my google doc with more details of my assignment sequence I discuss in my video.

Hi all!

All the readings for this past week were interesting, but the one that related most closely to my lesson was Warnock’s Principle 4 from Teaching the OWl Course. He reminds us that planning a class online requires the migration of onsite work to online environment, NOT doing everything from scratch (167). That was the process I used to create the following lesson. I had to remind myself that I did not need to not create a new lesson – the change in medium is enough.

The next quote is a governing principle of teaching my onsite class, and will be for online as well: that the best practices about writing essays and doing research comes from the students, just as it would in an onsite discussion, but better, because it’s all written down and more students contribute (169). I don’t know if all these points are true, but I sure hope so! It makes teaching online worthwhile.

And now for some context on my video: This would be for Essay 1. Let’s assume students have read the assigned texts, done preliminary writing/brainstorming on the essay prompt (in the form of homework questions), had deeper discussion questions getting into the prompt in a more detailed way, have submitted outlines of their essay plans, and now writing the essay itself. Here’s the link to my lesson on introductions.

Thanks for watching!

I do not currently teach any fully-online or hybrid courses yet, so this was my imagined lesson for an online English 100 course. I’ve done my best to translate my onsite pedagogy into the online realm (à la Warnock, of course!).

https://youtu.be/J9gOl3NqXPc

…and I just realized I was a little out of order near the end there. My apologies! Thanks for watching!

By the way, this sample lesson only leads up to the rough draft. After this, there would be guided and mentored peer views in groups of 4-5 students via a chat session, individual conferences with me (zoom, or skype, or chat), and two or three more activities before submitting the final draft. To keep my lesson plan “low stakes” (Warnock 165), just as I allow in my onsite courses, I’d give students the opportunity to revise for a higher score after receiving their final paper back. The benefit of low-stakes writing is students have the chance to work with their writing to create as polished a product as they want. Nobody catches every single error the first, second, or even third time around. If we teach the writing process as recursive, then why would our demands be linear? The only stipulation I make is they meet with me during an office hour appointment–online this would be in a synchronous chat session–to discuss a “revision plan”. This plan is a collaborative effort between the two of us outlining what they’ll be focusing on and why, thus reducing the temptation to merely fix up commas and sentence run-ons :-).

Some of the links I refer to in my video:
The Prezi on using SOAPSTone within the Rhetorical Situation
King George VI’s Radio Address Google Doc with Comments Enabled

Tony, I greatly enjoyed the commercial break and your old school Coke ditty:)

These two chapters made me ruminate on how we engage our peer writing consultants in training at the Writing Center (WC) and how we might re-envision how we engage in aspects of online training with our peer consultants. I love Freire’s writings, and I fully use his student centered approach both as a composition and literature instructor, but I think I can try to embody more of Freire’s problem posing with our peer consultants in a WC context.

I particularly like what Tony said about focusing on how we present ideas over presenting course content. That notion is resonating with me as I type this. One of the challenges the WC faces in some of the online training is getting that rich and deep level of discussion from our consultants. In chapter four, Warnock reminisces about his professor from grad school, and he describes how the professor used the Socratic method building out from an easy to more complex scaffold: “He [Timothy Martin] would warm us up with easy questions, building our confidence and creating classroom energy before delving into more difficulty issues that were the objective of that class lesson”(31). This idea of building and scaffolding the critical thinking flow with students is compelling in an online space. I could see the Writing Center coaches doing a similar thing online, essentially using Tony’s suggestion from the video: we pose a simple question on a google doc about a concept and see where it goes on the document. Then we look for interesting patterns in their comments, and based on those patterns, we next offer up a theory reading that has been shortened or modified in some way, and our peer consultants can then go off and think about the topic, ruminate and do more discussion based upon the original post and the WC theory reading. I think this would build confidence with our peer consultants in the work they do, as they would get more time to think and chew on concepts and ideas. I know in the WC we have a big learning curve, and confidence can be an issue for this reason; consequently, scaffolding discussions  online in this way would potentially help to build their confidence and really let them work with a concept/ idea. I see us doing the application aspect that Tony suggests later on after some rich discussion. They can try that concept for several weeks in their feedback sessions, and then post or modify that original google doc with their findings, reflections, experiences.

I am also struck by his idea that smaller groups might work better to curb unwieldy chat in a synchronous chat session (33). But I wonder if that idea maybe also applies to discussion board posts, asynchronous discussions, or google docs too. For example, when in a f2f class, I always liked to do no more than 3 people in a group, so everyone would contribute and talk. I wonder if smaller cohorts for the online discussions would change dynamics and sort of force everyone to contribute. I am not sure how much that complicates managing students, but I am intrigued by the possibility.

I am also thinking that I can grow in how I interact with online training of our peer consultants by creating some room for synchronous discussions. As far as the discussion in chapter five, the syllabus in an online class, I imagine we can actually create a syllabus for our peer consultants training. Perhaps having that contract and list of due dates will help them see the overall objectives of the semester’s training. We do that planting the objectives and the due dates of reflections verbally and on our website section for our consultants, but a syllabus or a modified type of syllabus might be a good possibility for the future.

Thoughts on Translating Teaching Styles and Preparing for Online Instruction…

Once again, this week we are presented with many good ideas, thoughts, and caveats for consideration as we work on translating our teaching styles into the online environment. Beyond the tools at our disposal in this digital environment, S. Warnock goes on to help us understand some of the intricacies to be carefully measured in preparing our class syllabus to make the online teaching experience a good experience for both student and teacher.

 Thoughts on Chapter 5: “Make sure that your electronic self’s availability is in accord with the schedule your atom self wants to keep” (Warnock, p.41) For me this not only speaks to how we respond to students electronically, but to how we set the parameters Warnock outlines in Chapter 5. Although I do love technology, I am not a fan of social media or the chat function for communicating with students. So, email remains my primary form of student communication (still better than carrier pigeons – although that might be more fun.) For me, I’ve always used a special account for all student communications as to not get messages lost in the barrage of general emails. Whenever possible, I tend to like the internal email accounts associated with the schools where I teach. Yes, I check multiple accounts, but I look at it like different filing cabinets keeping everything organized. I like Warnock’s note on message rules, and have started to spend some time at the start of class to discuss email etiquette as it already has become a lost art; no subjects in the subject line, no class names, even at times no student names associated with their communications. Then there is the expectation of immediate responses. “Yah, but I sent it to you at 2:30am!” So, I have a 24h response window and I make it clear that I will not respond after 7:00pm on weekdays.

Thoughts on Chapter 4:  I have read Paulo Freire’s work and certainly believe that individuals, through learning, can empower and remake themselves. Many of you have cited the use of Socratic Seminar discussion as one way for us to challenge our learners to engage with material in a critical manner and to reflect and judge the assumptions underlying ideas and actions. But, as also mentioned “participants carry the burden of responsibility for the quality of the discussion” and at times it just does not play out the way we had envisioned. Megan mentioned literature circles, which I’ve also enjoyed implementing. I will continue reading your posts as I’d like to learn more about all the ways to expand on these interactions.

As I read Chapter 4 in Warnock’s book, one topic peaked my interest above all else. I noticed the same curiosity in Heather’s and Megan’s posts, even though Warnock barely touches the surface of this subject. So, what better way to open my discussion than with a quote from Ready Player One (opening this week):

“I’d renamed my avatar Parzival, after the knight of Arthurian legend who had found the Holy Grail.”                                                  ― Ernest Cline, Ready Player One

Yes, I would like to explore Games and Simulations with all of you in this week and get your input and feedback on what your experiences have been with this.

I’ve been fascinated with this for some time as I too, like Jade, continue to hone my ability to create a better “student-centered approach by designing lessons that try to create a sense of discovery.” I have found that game-like environments for learning are well suited to help support the student-centered model. Gamification can not only enhance the online experience but allows us the ability to design lessons that are focused on student choice and discovery through game elements like quests. In one of our previous posts, we were discussing learning styles and Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences as we design our lessons. I feel that applying game elements to non-game environments can encourage higher participation and motivation due to their ability to allow for self-discovery. So, I’ve tried to incorporate aspects of gamification into my curriculum (note: as part of the curriculum and not necessarily exclusively). Granted, my experience using this has been at the advanced IEP levels that are mostly filled with what Prensky (2001) defines as ”digital natives” so I experienced little resistance to the format as learners were already quite familiar with the interface.

Just to clarify, I am not talking about expansive MMORPG’s (World of Warcraft or Minecraft) but rather online gaming environments that are limited to the class and a “room” environment created by the teacher. A good example here is Classcraft (https://www.classcraft.com).

Now I certainly understand that the online gaming platform might not be attractive to all teachers, but soon we will be talking about augmented reality that will afford us the opportunity to superimpose computer-generated content and have our students interact with it in the real world, either in the classroom or in an online environment. So I believe that gamifying a lesson or curriculum (whether using a digital game or old-fashioned game) can provide powerful differentiation opportunities to support student learning.

Now, in all fairness, it is very time intensive for the teacher to start this type of project at first. So, the same message holds true that Warnock and Curry have asked us to consider for online teaching, start small and don’t let the technology overwhelm you. I started with one or two small elements, and now am moving into slightly more complicated games like Classcraft to expand my online class activities. But gamification does not necessitate a gaming environment. You can create your own “gamified” lesson or curriculum without all the fancy stuff. If you are interested in what gamification is, Gabe Zichermann is a great resource. He’s got some TED Talks, many books, and online information that can provide a good overview of what it is and how it can be implemented.

I have rambled on way too long, so with that I conclude. Look forward to your thoughts on the subject.

Thanks,
Bentley

Professor Tony Burman models a student-centered approach that will allow professors to design an engaging course content that allows students to develop critical thinking skills they can apply instead of regurgitating information. In Warnock’s “Chapter 4: Course Lessons and Content: Translating Teaching Styles to the OWCourse” and “Chapter 5: The Writing Course Syllabus: What’s Different in Online Instruction” allows potential and OWCourses instructors to reflect and rethink approaches to online learning from the student’s perspective.

The Syllabus and Other Critical Information

In previous WritingwithMachines, I expressed my dislike for Blackboard. However, after reading Warnock, I wonder how much could have been prevented, by following essential steps and providing detailed instructions in order for the professor, me, and students to have a fruitful online experience in those early years of learning to teach online.

As I mentioned before, I have, surprisingly, only had one Q&A post this semester. And it was for a PDF document that would not open for a student, but the document would open on my end. Even that minor discrepancy on the student’s end could have been prevented if I would have included as Warnock suggests the specific software, technology, students will need to use in the online setting.

I found myself smiling while reading Warnock since I practice what Warnock writes about the syllabus in Chapter 5. During the first week of class, my students read their syllabus, “Class Philosophy,” “Course Communication Policies,” “English 103 Glossary of Terms,” and “Required Books for English 103” (These are all Pages I create, using Canvas). In addition, by quizzing students on the week’s material, students will see that I am serious about the subject matter and that they cannot skip material. 

Chunking—An Online Necessity to Teach Online  

I have found that teaching online has improved my in-class activities because online assignments must be clear for students to follow directions without them feeling confused and/or getting lost. In online classes, chunking allows students to grasp difficult course content or rhetorical approaches. I was part of the generation that was thrown into essays; I do not recall doing specific activities that I could use or expand on in an essay. For this reason, any assignment that prepares my students for essay writing I title “X Application Paragraph in Preparation for Essay #2” . . . . I learned this approach from teaching online classes since I noticed that some students were trying to figure out shortcuts and/ or what to skip and still maintain a good grade. Not surprisingly, when students skipped these critical assignments, they do not do well on their essays. Such was the case of a student I will refer to as Carolina. Students were supposed to analyze a package, using the skills we reviewed in class in an Discussion Board Forum in addition to completing a Working Thesis Workshop, among other activities. When I noticed Carolina did not do well, in her feedback I wrote that we could discuss a revision. I revisited her work and noticed that Carolina had not completed assignments that would have helped her begin analyzing her package’s semiotic symbols. (I allowed Carolina to submit her work, and she did great.) I, of course, know that writing about a package, using a lens perspective is not easy, and I had to craft assignments that would allow students to practice their critical thinking skills and not become receptacles as Freire points out in Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Students had to interpret colors, identify fallacies, advertising techniques, and rhetorical approaches instead of summarizing.

But Sometimes Whether I Chunk or Not 

What I find fascinating about OWCourses is that similar to f2f classes, every class has a personality. When I first started teaching critical thinking and writing, I was impressed with my MSJC online classes’ critical thinking skills and high caliber writing. However, this is the second critical thinking and writing class, where my students write as if they were in a freshman composition. It is rather shocking when instructions are clear and to the point, and students submit work that does not address the prompt, (which is demoralizing for me as an online instructor) since I take writing very seriously. And do wonder if a small percentage of students believe that online classes are “easier.” Sigh. What do you think? Do students have a faulty perception of online classes? (Write whatever, and you’ll get a good grade. Not going to happen.)

E-mail Guidelines Can Make the Haystack of E-mails Go Away

Unlike Warnock, I only encourage students to communicate via email if it is a private matter. I appreciated how the author requests his students to include specific details in order to identify and organize students’ incoming emails. These minor changes make teaching online a pleasant experience.

At MSJC, professors must open their course shell a week in advance. Before, I would feel overwhelmed as a digital immigrant; however, now I am grateful that my online class is ready to go before the start of the semester, so I can focus my energy on other classes. Several times, I have been on family trips when the semester has started, and it feels great to experience the freedom that comes with online teaching. This semester I  answered student questions via email all the way from Puebla. (Had I been teaching a f2f class, our family trips would be shorter.)

How Do I Continue Growing as an Online Instructor—Synchronous Conversations

I am looking forward to seeing how I can add synchronous activities in my online course, since even though I teach online, I have not explored this modern way of communicating with a small group of people. I found Warnock’s practice of opening a chat room before an assignment is due worth exploring (41). I can see myself setting a time for questions, and hopefully a student, such as Carolina, would ask questions and avoid writing essay that lacks an intellectual analysis.

I created a video response for this module. Please excuse the feedback…next time I will use an external mic.

Here’s my video

This week’s readings prompted a lot of thought about the logistics of the online discussion, syllabus, and organization of an online class in general. I realize all my questions don’t need to be answered right now, but I appreciate any insights you all have!

Warnock’s Chapter 4 (and also Tony’s video) made me realize the #1 thing I should be looking for when setting up my class in a LMS are the collaborative spaces. The areas in which students can “talk” and see their classmates’ ideas are going to be key in designing an online course. These are areas of Canvas I haven’t used much at all teaching on-site (except Google docs). The discussion board section, the place that will replace the in class whiteboard will the of utmost importance in an online class. This leads me to wonder: what are those spaces in Canvas? And how many different spaces like that do you utilize to keep the class interesting and dynamic, but not so many to make it annoying or gimmicky?

Also, Warnock recommends using chat features for synchronous textual conversations (32).  I understand how chat works when you’re signed in to Google, but what about Canvas? There isn’t chat there, right? I think Zoom has the chat option, but could you or would you use it without also using video? Warnock also mentions “whiteboard” technologies (34). What would be an example of that (besides Anna’s imagined LMS). Maybe when he wrote the book the tools were going in a different direction…?

When thinking about planning a lesson or series of idea-generating elements (like Tony demonstrated in his video) the stages or steps become really important, since the instructor has to wait for everyone to get a chance to respond asynchronously. Warnock recommends to “pose simple, direct questions to students initially, and then during the week, work toward a more complex learning goal” (31-2).  I’m wondering about the logistics of this type of back-and-forth. How many due dates per week do you all give students? (I haven’t taught more than a two-day-a-week class, so I’m unsure if it’s appropriate to assign more items due in a week than that.) In an onsite class, a few steps can be worked through in one class period, since you’re all together. 

In Warnock’s blog, in his “Online peer review writing groups” entry, he discusses some of the challenges with f2f peer review (similar to the issues Anna mentioned last week), and how much better peer review is in an online class. He says the reviews are cumulative, so each new peer reviewer needs to account for and comment on the previous reviewers’ comments, whether they are agreeing with them or contradicting them, and the student writer could then check with the writing center or the instructor to feel more confident in the “right” answer. He also mentions student are more apt to trust each other’s comments when they’ve been reading their writing all semester as a way of communicating online. I can’t imagine that cumulative reviewing will solve all/any problems Anna mentioned, like peers not trusting each other’s feedback, and not having the skills or confidence to do a helpful review, but I appreciate his optimism.  Making a consultation with the instructor or writing center a final step of the peer review process seems like a good idea to me. I always encourage students to do this, but very few of them take advantage of the additional help.

In Chapter 5, about the syllabus, the one note that struck me was accessibility. For my f2f students, I answer emails as long as I’m awake, pretty much immediately because they email me so infrequently. In an online class, I am afraid I would feel the same urgency to answer and then it would feel like I was always working. I relate to Warnock’s point (somewhere in there) that student availability might be very different from mine, since I wake up early and go to bed early. Most of my student’s work comes in when I’m asleep. So do I give them hours I’m available to answer emails like 9-5? Or should it be a few hours a day? And of course if I’m working from home (which means also parenting) my actual hours I’m answering emails will vary daily and are quite unpredictable (try telling a 3 year old you can’t find her lovey because you are working). What do other instructors do about their hours of availability?

Lastly, and this is a bit of a tangent, but Warnock mentions video games as a new space for teaching. I’m not into video games, but I am into art, and the game element got me thinking about an immersive art experience my friend just visited in Santa Fe called Meow Wolf. It’s a house you can walk through and interact with, and there’s a mystery to solve of some missing children and a devilish uncle, and some magical elements like portals and afterlives. The house is full of clues to put the puzzle together, in the form of letters, newspaper articles, family photos, websites, articles about portals, etc. There’s a lot of texts to “read” along with the physical interaction. I started to wonder if there was a way to make a class like this. It would be almost like a game, with a problem to solve at the beginning, and clues provided throughout. Each unit gets you deeper into the puzzle and readings are about various aspects of the puzzle. Student essay assignments could be themed around some element they’ve figured out, or a theory they’re responding to. An online class seems to be the most natural way to go about it. The only challenge is that I’m not a writer or an artist! I also realize the topic would have to be expansive enough to keep everyone interested the whole semester, but my friend spent 8.5 hours in Meow Wolf, so it’s definitely possible. If only I could “borrow” all the materials they’ve already prepared 😉 Perhaps choosing a real-life topic, like that podcast “Serial” that built a story over the course of many weeks with research and talking to witnesses and so on. What do you guys think?! 

Thanks for reading!

A lot of Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 had me thinking “well, of course”. I think, in general, my favorite aspect of Warnock’s text is his common-sense approach; his recommendations are well-explained, and he comes from a surprisingly conservative position in explaining why he sets up his courses the way he does. He has the feel of an old-school writing professor who has moved to the online realm in order to keep proficient, efficient, and up-to-date. I like it. On those notes:

Socratic Seminars: Warnock makes an excellent point when he mentions we often see more success in online Socratic-style discussions than onsite. I’m willing to wager a good majority of English professors use Socratic Seminar discussion; I certainly do, as it is an effective and fun way to have students interact with course material. (There are, of course, always ground rules laid down beforehand.) One of the possible dangers during onsite Socratic-seminars is students “waiting for their turn to speak”—in other words, the inclination to forgo active listening, especially in regard to their peers’ comments and ideas.

For an OWcourse, students could be required to read and actually respond to their colleagues’ posts. Many of my experiences with online classes asked that I use my classmates’ actual words in my response-posts which made for better interaction and learning. This would lead to a better dialogue and actual conversation. Socratic Seminars are definitely activities I would use in my OWcourses.

Literature Circles: The discussion of Socratic seminar made me think of literature circles, an assignment I use in several classes. Online, students can be broken up into groups of five. Each person would be assigned a specific role to complete alongside the reading for the week. Then, on the designated discussion board, each student would post their role and be asked to respond to the other four posts in turn. After the task has been completed, their roles would then switch, and the process repeat for the next week.

Peer-Review Groups: One of Warnock’s suggestions for synchronous conversation that made me go “oh, duh!” was his recommendation to keep synchronous chat groups at five or fewer students. (As a quick side note, his exasperation with student lingo made me laugh; I had a class where I asked my students to each list and explain one colloquial slang-term they use nowadays, which made for a fun class. It led to fascinating dialogue on globalization’s effect on how we communicate and why.)

All of my onsite peer review sessions are conducted by breaking students up into groups of four; OWcourses take this method and improve upon it. My idea would be to have students spend several hours reading the other three student papers beforehand and write up responses via previously assigned guided questions. Then, with myself as a moderator, each group would meet up synchronously for one to two hours at a specific time. Each student’s paper would take a turn being the focus piece as the other three students give their feedback and comments. At the end, students would send or link their responses to each other.

I like this idea a little more than PeerMark due to the interactive nature and the ability for students to chat with each other real time. They could still copy and paste a lot of their comments—and I’d still certainly be asking them to look for and respond to specific concepts—but it gives them the space to ask questions and collaborate, reducing confusion and leaving each with a strong set of revision suggestions.

Chunking: Warnock paraphrases Smith and explains “online course content should include several components: it should be chunked into short learning segments; allow students to review the material; let students pause at any point without going back to the beginning and provide clear instructions” (30-31). Smith’s idea of chunking is invaluable. I think a lot of us already use it, but I can see OWcourses as needing a greater degree of space between ideas. Onsite, we have the advantage of witnessing confusion, answering questions right away, and slowing down the presentation of information when needed. Online, it’s very difficult if not impossible to know when students aren’t “getting it”. Therefore, breaking up a lesson into chunks is vital.

Syllabi: At the end of our certification process, I’ll probably realize I agree with around 98% of everything Warnock has to say. Yet another point of solidarity was his advice a syllabus be detailed and elaborate (38). For years and for every syllabus I’ve ever seen, the divide between the two mindsets seems to solidify: there are professors who like their syllabi to be as short and to the point as possible, and then there are professors who treat their syllabi as the keys to class success. I fall in the second camp, and strongly advocate having syllabi that are both easy to understand and thorough. In my experience, having a detailed syllabus has really helped my students greatly; I receive very few e-mails asking “obvious” questions, and students save time recalling basic class policies, assignments, and other information.

A few points Warnock makes that are invaluable to OWcourse syllabi are accessibility, message rules, and chat/IM/synchronous contact, accountability, and the schedule:

1) Accessibility (and on that note, chat/IM/synchronous contact): Letting students know—nay, ensuring students know exactly how to reach me will prevent many, many headaches. Aside from specifying how long it will take me to respond to e-mails, having a designated time each day or week in which I’ll be online in the chatroom will allow students to ask questions real time. I will aim to do this twice a week, but that’s just my as of yet inexperienced prediction. It could be that it’s only viable to conduct such Q&A sessions once a week. (Udemy does this, by the way, and it’s a fun and interactive way to learn about new subjects. I’m currently casually partaking of their free astronomy course.)

2) Message rules: This was a cool concept! Asking students to label their e-mails is a great way to organize the avalanche of messages I already receive. I’m going to try this out for my onsite classes, too.

3) Accountability: I have a clause in each of my syllabi detailing to students the workload and expectations for each class. (To be completely honest, this is yet another idea I’ve borrowed [with permission!] from Kelly Hagen.) I’ve copied and pasted it below:

Committing to being a college student is just like committing to a job: you have responsibilities and obligations as a student to be present, do your work to the best of your ability, and develop academically. For every unit you are taking, you should expect to spend approximately 2-3 hours outside of class per week working on assignments, projects, readings, etc. If you are a full-time student (a student taking 12 units in one semester), you have taken on the equivalent of a full-time job. Therefore, English 50 is comparable to a semester-long part-time job.

As severe as it sounds—and I do “lighten up” the tone while explaining it to them—having this clause really helps. Sometimes it seems that students treat their classes like clubs: they can participate when they want to, and they can ignore the work if it interferes with their jobs, hobbies, etc. Not only does this thought perplex me, it’s something I have a hard time not taking to heart. Letting them know these expectations helps mitigate the aforementioned potential issues.

4) Schedule: Of course, students need to know what they need to complete and when to complete it. Having as detailed a schedule as possible for my onsite classes has been indispensable; even when students miss several classes in a row, they can keep up with the work and stay on-track to pass. OWcourses need to have as much information as possible for the very same reasons. As there isn’t an in-person onsite class, guiding students with specific details on what to accomplish each day is essential.

Games!!!!!!!!: Finally, Warnock barely touches on the concept, but I immediately zeroed in on his idea to use video games and simulations. It reminds me of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline—a fascinating novel I highly recommend everyone read. I won’t spoil anything, but in the book, all students go to school via virtual reality. They literally put on a headset and tactile gloves to enter an online classroom and learn by being plugged into these simulations. While this possibility seems closer to reality than it did even three years ago, it’s still a bit of a jump from what I’ve been considering. I would love to somehow conduct a class session or two (or even an entire course) via an MMORPG. To be honest, I don’t know how I would do that, it’s just a desire at the edge of my mind. I think video games are vastly overlooked in the academic realm which is a real shame. There’s some excellent potential to teach a whole slew of subjects. Just think about games with co-op modes (Portal, for example) and problem-solving puzzles (any game with quests). These aside, there are lots of action-adventure games that contain well thought-out stories. All of these could serve as the basis for a whole bunch of assignment types and activities. …All I need is a grant to do some research, and I can provide both results and hard proof! 😉

As a side note, thank you for sharing Warnock’s blog with us, Curry—it made me chuckle to see our esteemed orator of online orientation has a BlogSpot. I had a BlogSpot back in the day. It’s lovely scholars such as Warnock are so free and open with their knowledge and resources; the generosity and teamwork expressed by so many of our notable instructors truly makes me proud of the teaching profession. There are so many wonderful people in our vocational sphere!

Random Thoughts on Tony’s Video
I loved the quip on Nixon discussing blogs and wikis. I’ve used Charlie Chaplin as a “guest-lecturer” to illustrate rhetorical devices and effective argumentation. 🙂

Two lovely comments from Tony: “I haven’t lectured at them…I’ve let them explore.” Yes. Exploratory learning has been proven time and again as highly successful and engages all seven learning styles.
“Individual students making individual decisions for themselves about sophisticated writing.” I think in OWcourses it will always come down to this point, which highlights the importance of students reaching conclusions themselves, rather than “banking” the info into them.

You know, I always thought that Coca-Cola commercial was pretty effective. And now that song will be stuck in my head for the rest of the week…