Week 2

Scenarios

You have been asked to lead the team that is developing a series of courses for an online University.  Explain some design, decisions or issues that you would have to deal with for each class given the characteristics of the content, instructors and students as presented.

Course Number 1:

In the class covering beginning college algebra, I would focus more on the structure of the class.  This class would be considered remedial mathematics at the University level; therefore, the students must stay engaged and active in the class.  The material in a college algebra class would be convergent material.  The answers would be either right or wrong and most of the time a procedure to arrive at the solution would be provided.  I would either have videos created or use an e-pak like MyMathLab to assist with homework problem explanations for the students.

The instructors for this class would be various adjunct and full time professors with varying degrees of experience with technology skills and online teaching.  The e-paks would definitely help out in a situation like this where the online teachers could adjust how much they would like to "personalize" their class to fit their teaching styles or comfort level with technology.  Perhaps some of the more experienced online instructors might want to add videos or flash animation to help clarify topics or ideas whereas a less experienced instructor might want to stick with the videos and explanations that are offered with the e-pak and then answer any student questions by email.

The students in this class are college freshmen and sophomores with good technology skills after completing an online orientation to online learning.  Therefore, the latest technologies should be comfortable for them to use in the class like discussion boards, chat rooms and web conferencing.  Perhaps some of the more advanced students might want to tutor or help other students in the class online by using programs like elluminate.  RCC currently uses this program to help online students with various math problems because it incorporates both a whiteboard and voice to help explain a problem to a group of students.  The students in the class should be motivated to do well, but there might be a need to create interaction between students in the class.  Perhaps group problems might be assigned or learning environments where the students would need to meet outside of class at a location of their choice to complete an assignment.  This type of interaction would be a definite plus to a group in a remedial math class where the material is presented online.

Course Number 2:

In a philosophy of leadership class, I would focus on the use of technology in the classroom.  This is a graduate level class with students with varying degrees of technology skills.  The material presented in this class is divergent material where most of the time there is not a specific answer that is right or wrong.  There are many methods that would be successful in presenting the material to the students.  Online readings would be one method to present the material.  Another method might be for the professor to create podcast or audio files so that the students could listen to the lectures when they had time.  Newer vehicles are sometimes equipped with both USB and MP3 ports so that the driver can insert their MP3 player or a flash drive with audio files and listen to the files on their drive.  This might be beneficial to graduate students who more than likely have jobs during the day time hours.

Since the instructor for this class is very experienced with face to face lectures, I might suggest that he/she created audio or video podcasts of their lectures for the students.  The disadvantage of this method of instruction might be the professor would probably like to see their students' reaction to the material presented in class. (understanding, confusion, questions, lost)  A better alternative might be to have synchronous video conferencing lectures where everybody would meet online at a certain time of the day or perhaps on the weekend.  With video conferencing, the professor could deliver their lecture with video to the students, and the students would be able to interject questions at any time, just like in a real lecture.  One advantage of this method versus chat rooms would be with chat, the speed of the students' typing the questions might prevent some students from participating as much as they would normally like to.  This is probably the closest method to actually delivering a lecture in a lecture hall at the same time with the students.

The grading option selected for a class like this might include a written paper showing the students' ability to understand the material presented in the class as well as class participation in the discussions.  Since the level of technology skills vary from very basic to very advanced, I might weight the midterm and final written papers more heavy on the student's final grade instead of the discussions in the lectures.  

The graduate students in the class should be more motivated towards learning the material presented in the class, regardless of the method of instruction used to teach the material.  Their motivation level is usually higher in graduate level classes because the students want to learn the material and know the importance of the material in either future classes or in real life.  The students would expect that in a graduate level class like philosophy there would be a lot of interaction between the instructor and the students in the class.  The most likely method for an online class would be to use discussion boards or blogs in the class discussions.  This is what the students would expect.

Course Number 3:

In an introduction to college success class, the main focus would be to develop motivating lectures and interaction between the instructor and students in the class.  The students in this class have already been identified as potential risk for drop out from college, so the lectures cannot be too intimidating or difficult, but still must present the material for the class.  The class cannot be too "watered down" so that everything is not presented or the class is made too easy for the students just so they can get through the class.  This is why I feel the development of the material and the presentation of the online lectures is the most important characteristic for this class.

The instructors for this class all have prior online teaching experience and have good technology skills.  The only drawback is that they have never taught this material before; therefore, they might be a little apprehensive with risk taking attitudes and trying new technologies in this class that might have been successful in other online classes in the past.  I would suggest that they limit the number of technologies to 1 or 2 different methods of instructions so that they students become more comfortable with the structure of the lecture after a few weeks.  Too many different uses of technologies might steer the students towards becoming more confused and less interested in the material presented.  Also, if the instructors have never taught the material before, they might prefer to have more interaction with the students to see if the students are engaged in their discussions and if the instructor is actually presenting the material in an understandable manner.  Even though the instructors have taught online classes in the past with success doesn't necessarily mean that all classes should be taught in the same way.

The students in this online class are identified as potential drop out students by their advisors.  Therefore the primary concern would be to motivate the students to want to learn and do the work.  They would need more interaction with the instructor and with other students in their class.  Their past experience with college classes or even high school classes would present a major obstacle to overcome.  They probably have not been successful in other classes and perhaps would prefer doing other activities with their time rather than learn in an online class.  Most of the students probably have never been introduced to blogs, discussion boards and podcasting.  Their extent of technologies would probably reach as far as email and instant messaging.  Thus, it would probably be beneficial to introduce the students to either blogs or discussion boards as a means to communicate with the instructor and other students in the class.


My proposal for my online class:

I would develop material for an online pre-algebra class for community college students.  Most of the students in the class would either have tested into this class through an assessment exam or have taken the prerequisite course with success which is arithmetic.   The pre-algebra class is an introduction to algebra and the use of variables and polynomial expressions to represent arithmetic expression. 

My main emphasis would be to focus on the structure of the class and the grading of the class.  I know that with remedial math courses, the students usually are not that motivated to learn mathematics.  Many of the students have struggled with math all of their like or else they would not be taking pre-algebra in college.  I would structure the course to have both video lectures with problem solving techniques that the students could follow to solve their own problems.  I might even have some "in class" problems for them to work on and then a video explanation to show them how to arrive at the correct solution if they did not get the right answer.   In math, since the content is either right or wrong and the methods towards solving problems is a procedure, I would want my students to learn methods and practice solving problem techniques that would help them become more successful in solving their own homework problems.  I think perhaps using Camtasia to record screen captures where I solving the problems on a tablet pc might be beneficial to the students.

The grading in the class would be points for every problem solved correctly and exams after each chapter.  I think the more assessment in a remedial class is better than having a lot of material to recall on an exam.  The exams could be 15-20 questions similar to the homework exercises.  Also, I feel that by giving students an exam after every chapter would let the students know when they are struggling on prerequisite material so they can get help and assistance earlier rather than after it is too late.

I am somewhat comfortable teaching in an online environment and have used some of the latest technologies in my classroom for the last 3 years.  I would feel confident and comfortable creating podcasts for my students to download in which I would explain topics to be covering during the week.  I would also ask my students for questions and create videos for all of the students to download if they choose to do so in which I explain how to solve some of the most common asked homework problems.  I would feel comfortable creating these videos weekly versus all at the beginning of the semester because I would like to address questions that students have presently.  I wouldn't want my students to become bored with videos that I have created semesters before that have no relevance to questions they have this semester.

The students would need a lot of motivation to succeed in any remedial math course.  Their past experience with math courses probably were not too successful and they have a negative attitude towards math.  But with some interaction between the instructor and the students and some support to let them know I am here to help them, I think each student in that class can be successful if they wanted to put in the time and effort to learn the material.  Most of the time the students are working full time jobs, have families to support and are trying to cram 16-24 units into one semester.  They are way overloaded!  But if the instructors can help to ease their stress and help with specifically with the problems they are addressing in their classes, many of the students can be successful. 

James