Posted by Pamela Gustafson on February 14th, 2009
My online classes use different methods of communication utilizing all the read/write web has to offer. This includes “asynchronous” and “synchronous” communication.
Asynchronous communication includes email, posting on an online platform like Blackboard or Moodle, or posting on a blog or wiki the instructor created.
Synchronous communication is scheduled at a specific time and date, and students must schedule around the appointed time. These can be similar to chat programs and can include audio, or audio plus video.
Asynchronous classes are the most popular because participants learn at a time convenient for them, though there are still due dates, just like on site classes. Either way, both types of online learning allow you to be at home, even in your pajamas in the comfort of your home.
Moodle is the platform I use frequently as a student and now I am learning the platform from the perspective of a teacher. I am noticing that there is a lot more to the platform than what my college instructors used. Most of my classes were to read articles, respond to the articles and then reply to other classmates who also state their opinions or thoughts about the readings. Assessments were usually written papers instead of quizzes, although Moodle had the ability to create, implement, and grade quizzes. One of my classes was to learn to effectively assess my own students’ work (generally a product with a rubric, handed out beforehand) and to post it online, This required me to scan, which was tedious, but I enjoyed looking at the student work other teachers posted.
The program I was required to use most was called Elluminate. Most of us had microphones and earphones. The instructor had the ability to pass the microphone to whoever volunteered to speak. We could also raise a virtual hand through a simple hand icon. There was a white board that posted slides as the instructor spoke. Students had the ability to post a response on the white board. You could chat by typing, but those online students who didn’t use headphones and earphones quickly went out to buy them.
Video chat less common but my sister in Texas and I use Google Video chat to talk each week. At first it wasn’t easy. I have an Macintosh and from my end everything worked immediately. She has a PC and had to mess around with setup and downloading drivers. This poses a problem for video professors who may have to impose minimum computer requirements, which could leave some students behind.
Most of my classes were on demand with what I call the online Three Rs, reading, responding and replying. It worked for me.
Posted by Jeff Davis on February 13th, 2009
My experience with online classes at the University of Phoenix consisted of having due dates each week that had to be met for items such as attendance, participation, team projects, individual assignments, discussion questions, and weekly summaries to name a few. As a student at this school, I was required to post two responses per week in order to meet the attendance requirements and four times per week to meet the class participation requirements. Each week there were discussion questions that each student was required to answer on a specific day. Meanwhile individual assignments consisted mainly of researching and writing papers while team projects varied based on the type of class and the program you were enrolled in. I can recall most team projects consisting of virtual organizations and creating business solutions for these by utilizing simulation type environments and team research papers.
My experience with the University of Phoenix’s online curriculum was remarkably similar to a traditional classroom, except that it occurs on a tightly compressed schedule. The first class of each course is held on a Tuesday, with faculty members assigning textbook chapters and articles to read from the electronic library and suggesting Web links for additional research.
Faculty members then deliver a weekly lecture, distributing it electronically as a text-formatted Word document, and then they post discussion questions based on the readings and the lecture. Students spend the greater part of the week participating in faculty-led class discussions online and working with other students on small-group projects using e-mail and group-collaboration software. At the end of the week, which always falls on a Monday, students turn in a paper or a project.
The technologies used by my online courses included having broadband internet access, Microsoft Office, Online Resources, Simulations, Threaded discussions, and Real-time live support. Included in the Resources were an electronic library of journals and newspapers, a reference library, and Web links. Simulations were made up of multimedia software programs that helped us to learn the more difficult and complex concepts that were part of the curriculum.
Tags: classroom, courses, curriculum, online classes, online resources, resources, schedule, technology, traditional, University of Phoenix
Categories: Student Voices, The Online Learning Experience
Throughout these years at Capella, they have changed online learning platforms numerous times, and it’s hard to remember where it all started.
Overall, the courses used either a standard or proprietory online course management system. The common areas are announcements, materials, discussions, and other topical sections. Each course had varying requirements for frequency of logging in, posting, answering questions, responding to classmates and the instructor, etc.
As long as we had access to the internet, it was basically easy to attend class, but back in the days of dial-up, some of the technology took longer to load and access. Additionally, not every system was consistently reliable - there are still many times when I go to log into class and find that I cannot access the classroom. That is a major challenge for people who are trying to complete classes during our limited time available.
It was helpful that most of the online learning platforms were intuitive. It was very easy to navigate through the learning systems, and I always found technical support to be very helpful as well.
Posted by Jen Zeman on February 11th, 2009
The University of Maryland University College (UMUC) utilizes a technology called WebTycho for their online courses. One of the things I found to be an asset with UMUC and WebTycho was every class was set up the same way (i.e. instructors didn’t create individualized layouts for each of their classes) so it made it easy to find course information in each class. WebTycho is also easy to navigate with each course set up in the following manner:
- Once you log in and click on the particular class you are registered for, on the left side of the screen is a list of options. The top left corner lists your instructor, their bio, and a link to class announcements.
- Below this is a list of course-related links: Syllabus, Course Content (links to specific assignments), Conferences (discussion area for students on weekly discussion topics), Assignments Folder (where you submit your assignments), Portfolio (where all your graded work will appear), and Class Members (links to individual students’ email).
- The top right of the first screen gives you access to your account preferences, your biography, an online orientation, as well as a link to library services. It also offers a direct link to tech support if it is needed.
UMUC offers the opportunity for potential students to “test drive” a UMUC online course. It’s free of charge and I believe beneficial in order for first time online students to become acquainted with the online format. For more information, go to http://www.umuc.edu/spotlight/411.html. UMUC’s tech support for WebTycho is outstanding. I have found representatives manning the help desk were always quick to respond and very helpful in resolving any issues you may encounter. When I was registered almost four years ago, I never experienced any downtime with WebTcho which was reassuring.
So go ahead! Take a test drive at UMUC and enjoy the ride!
Posted by Sharon Cece on February 10th, 2009
Imagine munching a chocolate bar and sipping a cappuccino, wearing your favorite old sweats, hair unkempt…while at the very same moment you, with your class, are drumming alongside the Ashanti tribe in Africa or celebrating the Reykjavik Arts Festival in Iceland.
Online learning fuses three entities–your education, your computer and the entire world. The technology utilized by online programs is remarkable in itself, and the information and learning gleaned through this technology is as good if not better than some received locally. Why, it’s virtually global.
When you’re an online student, almost everything–your class work, your communication, your testing, your research–is done, well, online. The exception is that you do make use of textbooks in most online courses of study. You may also use programs such as Word or Works, Excel and PowerPoint to turn in coursework.
Blackboard is the mode of transportation between you and your online courses. When you log onto blackboard, it “drives” you to your classes. This is where all your learning and communication takes place. Initially, you meet the class electronically via threaded discussions; you do this in parts as you may log on and enter your class when one or two (or no) students are there and then start or continue a discussion via a post, which in the beginning is usually an introduction. Then when you log back on, you see other students left discussions or answered your posts, which you can read and answer at your convenience–the many discussions and parts become a whole. It’s a neat way of holding class without having to be at a classroom at a particular time. Threaded discussions were used often in nearly all of my classes and were very effective in interacting with professors, TA’s and other online students about the course content. I particularly liked that I could log on when it was most convenient at a time of my choosing; in this way, I was more effective at communicating and participating as a student.
Instruction and learning takes place using a variety of other technologies. Java was very cool. With Java, all the online students logged in to a real-time class whereby we would discuss the coursework very much the way instant messaging works, except with a huge group. Also, the professor can electronically “write” on a whiteboard that everyone can see (that’s a bit bizarre at first to witness, like a ghost is drawing in front of you) but very effective in creating the classroom atmosphere from a virtual medium.
In my very first online course at Florida State, Music World Cultures, the professor utilized web technology whereby his students could study international musicians from within their own nations and tribes. My instructor was the Distinguished Research Professor Dr. Dale A. Olsen, a world-renown Ethnomusicologist and Guggenheim Fellowship Winner who conducted fieldwork in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Aotearoa, Fiji, Rarotonga, Tonga in Polynesia, and elsewhere around the world. It was quite an honor to have been one of his online students; even the textbook we used was authored by him. From our screens straight into the world, we studied the music of the Warao of Venezuela (Song People of the Rain Forest), the beautiful Kinko-ryû shakuhachi from Japan, Brazilian’s Samba Parade at Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, contemporary Chinese bands rock out in Beijing, and indigenous Australian Aborigines perform the dijeridu. It was an exceptional program which, unless you had thousands of dollars to spare for travel, was savored through a technological window. In the best sense possible while sitting in my little home in Willow Spring, NC, I didn’t just learn about these cultures from a book… I literally experienced them online.
