More observations on IT6140

While observing the course a few things I noticed.
In regards to blogging- it was interesting that during our presentation Dr. Zhang asked if we thought the blogs were used as strictly an assignment/something students HAD to do to get their points or if they were actually using them as tools. We all agreed that the blogs were definitely an assignment. As is evidenced by the drastic slow down of activity when there wasn’t a specific blog due. However, there were a few times that specific questions were asked and answered. This was especially true with technical questions. For example, the approach to using Dreamweaver in class was described as very constructivist – which had the students reading articles, watching tutorial type videos, and playing with the program. This highly annoyed many students and frustrated them. Dreamweaver is a pretty robust program and could be the focus of a whole semester course so when students ran into problems they used the blogs to vent and ask for help. The others reading their blogs were VERY helpful. I wish this interactivity was more common throughout the rest of the blogging instead of the simple “smiley face” messages (not that we don’t appreciate those too!)
I also found it interesting that some of the questions asked after our presentation were about group activities. Upon reflection, there weren’t any real groups for this course. That may be a specific strategy that Michael was trying to avoid, this being one of the first courses and online group activities tend to be a little more difficult – especially in an asynchronous environment.
Another issue brought up when telling the class about our experience was the issue of email. It is nice that Michael sends out email, but I don’t know if I would want to send out so many. For me it goes back to student responsibility – do I have to hold their hands every week to remind them to do their assignments? The assignments have already been provided, the timeline, and due dates already set up and communicated. It should be the student’s job to stay on top of managing their education. This is, for me the idea of push versus pull – I have already pushed the information out to the students, it is not up to me to pull them to each and every requirement.
This also relates to the way in which the information was given to students. The Assignments tab was empty – although there were assignments due. The information for each Unit was given in a single document with links and resources. This seemed very clumsy to work with. I will do this a little differently as I am setting up my course.
Overall, I have learned a lot of what I want to do, what I can do, and some different perspectives on why decisions have been made in online courses.
Thanx!!

FIT Team

I am amazed at how well our group worked together to complete our assignment. When I was originally added to the group I was somewhat concerned because they had already met and assigned roles between the three of them. They also had discussed some problems with communication and issues they had with the instructor of the class we were observing. So I came in, late to the game, hearing not so happy experiences. However, we met; we reassigned responsibilities and figured out how to work together. It was nice to talk to others who were experiencing the same problems, frustrations, load of email, new experiences, and new strategies. We set up (or asked Dr. Zhang to set up) a group page for us within our Blackboard site and used this to send email and exchange files. We put up individual documents for each of our goals (new activities, modifications to the current assignments, intro, course overview, etc.), a few drafts of our final paper, and drafts of our presentation in PowerPoint. We used the file exchange to share and update the document. Additionally, we met a few times on our breaks and sent a few email. We talked whenever we had a chance (before and after class) or whenever any of us had specific questions or issues. It was good to have a little time in class last week to meet and finalize the presentation – who will be leading, who will be talking about each specific part, etc. Overall, I would have to say that this is the smoothest a group has run in awhile. Each of the ladies worked hard and added to each part of the document, checked over the final document, included resources and made sure there were no errors. Thank you for assigning me to a great, flexible group.