First week of facilitation issues

I think it was very valuable to do the in class exercises and share sample ways to solve problems thru the online communication. I do teach partially online and often deal with some of the specific problems mentioned in the exercises. Some of the strategies, wording, policies, class structure, etc. make sense and can be directly applied to what I am doing. Such as asking for a reply if you have received the message, asking for other views, or offer additional time and ending the message with an open-ended question.
A lot of the problems we talked about had to do with technical problems and making sure to alleviate student frustrations.
In some of the responses and the instructor comments I found them to coddle the student too much. I know I would not stay up until midnight to ensure a student doesn’t have technical problems. Being on both the instructor and student side I firmly believe that the student should be in charge of their own learning. This fits in with the student-centered approach that is emphasized with this style of learning. Babysitting the computer for those students who wait until the last minute is frustrating to me, as an instructor/facilitator!! As a student, I am one of the worst dealing with procrastination, but I know it is my responsibility as a student to set aside time to work on my assignments and submit them in a timely manner.

I also found it great to go through some of the details of Blackboard. I have used Bb from the student side for about 5 years. I have only had the opportunity to use the system from the instructor side of it for just over a year. I have taught myself how to use the control panel and am still in the process of learning to use all the tools. So, viewing some of the options was helpful.

One of the issues I have noticed with the premise of this style of learning – asynchronous – mentioned in the book is the idea of your students being all over the world, in different time zones, speaking different languages, with differing points of view, motivations, etc. This is a huge issue and a new concept for me to get my head around. I teach online synchronously, so I can directly communicate with my students. This semester will definitely broaden my horizons, not only with the course, but developing my own course online in an asynchronous environment.