One of the most telling signs
that a student will see an online course through to its completion is if he or
she feels connected to his or her instructor and classmates. One way to achieve this sense of belonging is
for instructors to be deliberate in their course design with focuses on
communication and feedback. Both of these are important, especially in the
online classroom, because moments for spontaneous interaction are limited. For
example, a student may see an instructor walking down the hall and ask her for
clarification on an assignment. In the
online environment there’s not the opportunity for chance meetings. Thus, it’s
up to the student to initiate the question, but is up to the instructor to
create an environment where the student feels supported and encouraged.
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Feedback is essential to the
learning process. It also lets your students know that you are listening to
them, reading what they write or viewing their creations. Feedback allows the
students to take your suggestions and apply them to their work in order to make
it better. I offer my students the opportunity to submit a rough draft to me
for my feedback before turning in their final essays. For each paper I identify
areas of strength and areas that may need some additional work or
clarification. Depending on the assignment, sometimes I do this via the
comments function in MS Word or I use audio or audio/video feedback. For more information visit this site: Strategies for Providing Feedback in Online Courses.
You made a good case for the importance of feedback in online courses, since it is essential to replace those opportunities for spontaneous feedback in face-to-face settings. I found the "lost in translation" concept very interesting. I wonder how often online faculty think about how their feedback is being received by students. Do they feel accomplished simply because they provided the feedback via some method? Or do they ensure that their feedback doesn't get lost in translation?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the interesting blog entry, Jessica. I especially enjoyed the discussion on how font, emoticons, and format all help create tone! I teach advanced literary analysis, so this sort of idea really spoke to me. I can see how an instructor who might be connection-oriented, kind, and approachable in the classroom could indeed come across online as cold, demanding, and even downright rude in an online setting if he/she does not yet understand the power of written language (and all the factors of style that equate to tone). Very cool! I thought as the searcher this week, I would suggest an extension of your discussion on communication and feedback. What about oral communications through voicemail, recorded voice clips, etc.? How successful / impactful are they? This article I found from the MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching does a great job of exploring these ideas through a study where students (actually a faculty that was being trained to teach online via an online course) gave feedback about how the instructor's communication helped their experience. Another helpful part of this article is the section containing appendices at the end. They provide rubrics to judge how comfortable you as the instructor are in areas of online teaching, which for me was helpful to help me guage how ready I am to become an online instructor. Definitely worth a look! Have a great week! Here is the article: http://jolt.merlot.org/vol10no1/cavanaug
ReplyDeleteJessica, I really like the idea of giving students the option to turn in a rough draft and receive feedback before completing the final draft. When I am completing assignments that I am unsure of, it would be so helpful to have this as an option. I guess I have used you for that a couple of times during our group teaching that we have been preparing for. Since I'm not a seasoned online teacher, I really appreciate any help I can get from my classmates that are more experienced. I find myself asking you for help because I don't feel that you judge me for my inexperience. I really appreciate the help you have given me. This experience has made me realize how important this feedback is for students.
ReplyDeleteI found the follwoing article that gives a variety of ways to give feedback to students. It also give the pros and cons for individual feedback versus whole-class feedback. Personally, I see where either can be helpful. I think it really depends on the project that the student is completing. If it appears that the entire class if having a problem with the same part of an assignment, whole-class feedback would be helpful to students. If the problem is more individualized, the feedback should be as well. Here is the link to the article: http://www.enhancingfeedback.ed.ac.uk/staff/resources/newways.html