In my CCENT class, I require my students to write a journal. This isn't a big assignment, but it gives my students a chance to tell me how things are going. While I don't use this in my other classes, I've found it very helpful in this one. In order to get students to do this, I like giving them a few points.
I haven't found a good way to do this in D2L. In Blackboard, we had a Journal tool in the Discussion area which allowed for private conversations which were graded. At the beginning of the semester, I thought I would just use an anonymous discussion and it would work. The problem is, students can't see any posts (even theirs or mine) unless I release them to the entire class. This defeats the purpose of the exercise.
The logical choice would be to use "Journal". There's one major drawback. Students can't see my comments and I can't see theirs. Unless I'm missing something major, this isn't really an interactive journal.
So, since I needed some advice, I went to my D2L mentor. Carol understood the problem, but didn't have a great answer either. She recommended I use the D2L email for the journals. I really don't care for the email in D2L, especially for assignments, so I didn't want to do that. The Dropbox is the next solution I looked at, but bouncing ideas back and forth can become burdensome.
My solution, for the time being, is to add a one question quiz to each Unit. This question will be manually graded and can be taken as many times as the student wishes before the due date. I don't like the word "Quizzes" because I'm not after a specific answer, but it's an empty area of the course to use where we can interact for a grade.
Anybody else have an idea? (I'll keep you posted on whether I find a good solution.)
Showing posts with label ccent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ccent. Show all posts
Monday, February 15, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Squirels
Last summer, I took my daughters to see the movie "Up". It's a great movie. In the movie, though, the dogs have the issue of being distracted anytime they think a squirrel is near.
Unfortunately, I could relate all too well to the dogs when it came to teaching online. There I was teaching my class, minding my own business when cool new tech stuff comes along. Okay, let's get back to my class...Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, YouTube, Chat, Podcasting, SecondLife,... UGH! Too much stuff!
Okay, here's what I've learned about all of this. Yes, there are many tools out there to do really cool stuff to your class. However, you need to ask yourself, "Will this make my class better?" Remember, you have to run the class, including being comfortable with the tools. If not, you aren't making the class better.
So, pick one or two tools each semester and focus on doing them well. That way, you aren't so distracted and confused by your class. They don't have to be special either, especially if you are new to teaching online.
This semester, I'm adapting to D2L, focusing on the News items and Groups. I want to focus on the News to be that "front page" for students as they come into the class. I want it to be pleasing to the eye, while still directing them to the areas of the class they need to focus on. The other item of focus this semester is Groups to better filter my crosslisted course. Items should not bleed over to the other class in the same shell and I'm hoping this filter will work. So far, so good. I'm seeing other tools I might want to add, but I'm not following such squirrels.
What are your tools you want to focus on this semester? What squirrels are you trying to avoid?
Unfortunately, I could relate all too well to the dogs when it came to teaching online. There I was teaching my class, minding my own business when cool new tech stuff comes along. Okay, let's get back to my class...Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, YouTube, Chat, Podcasting, SecondLife,... UGH! Too much stuff!
Okay, here's what I've learned about all of this. Yes, there are many tools out there to do really cool stuff to your class. However, you need to ask yourself, "Will this make my class better?" Remember, you have to run the class, including being comfortable with the tools. If not, you aren't making the class better.
So, pick one or two tools each semester and focus on doing them well. That way, you aren't so distracted and confused by your class. They don't have to be special either, especially if you are new to teaching online.
This semester, I'm adapting to D2L, focusing on the News items and Groups. I want to focus on the News to be that "front page" for students as they come into the class. I want it to be pleasing to the eye, while still directing them to the areas of the class they need to focus on. The other item of focus this semester is Groups to better filter my crosslisted course. Items should not bleed over to the other class in the same shell and I'm hoping this filter will work. So far, so good. I'm seeing other tools I might want to add, but I'm not following such squirrels.
What are your tools you want to focus on this semester? What squirrels are you trying to avoid?
Monday, February 1, 2010
Greetings
Before that though, why don't I give you a bit of background. I've been teaching online since the Spring of 2003. I've taught both Computer Networking and College Prep Math for CCCOnline and Pikes Peak Community College. Now, for my full-time job, I work in the PPCC Distance Ed. office as an online course designer. So, I've seen all sorts of online classes and ways to run them.
In the coming weeks, you should get a pretty good idea of what's going on in my classes. This semester, I'm teaching two CNG 101 (Introduction to Networking) sections and a crosslisted section of CNG 245/CNG 246 (Cisco Certified Entry Network Technician or CCENT). Like teaching itself, it's often pretty uneventful, but you never know when things will get interesting.
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