MODULE THREE OBJECTIVES

Reading, Reading, Reading

This is a week for reading.

This week, we are asking you to read an almost overwhelming number of pages (179) in a short period of time. Even though the pages read relatively fast, and some of the information is duplicative, let's face it--there's a lot of material here, and it will take more than just an evening or two to fully engage yourself with the all that's contained in these pages.

At any rate, after this week, that's pretty much it for reading. We will read a few pages on assessment in the next module, and we're done for covering background material.

Within a very few days, you will have read what we believe to be among the best collections of practical advice for designing and teaching an online class we could find.

Bender's special focus is the discussion-based class. Ko and Rossen consider the discussion-based class as well, but offer practical tips for a broader set of online teaching contexts.

But while you are reading and/or reviewing the readings, what's important to recognize is that while these selections from Bender and Ko and Rossen are full of practical advice for teaching an online class, these practical online teaching strategies should inform your online class design.

Delicate Balances

Very often, it is a matter of finding balances; for instance, finding the best balance between student-centered and instructor-centered activities, or finding the best balance between challenge and support.

Are there others?

As you read, think about how your course design (selection of material, readings, activities, objectives, assessments) can help achieve these kinds of balances.

This is excellent fodder for your development notes.

Where You Should Be in Your Blackboard Class

In your Blackboard class, you should have a first draft of an online syllabus up and be working on a Course Schedule. The schedule can either be added to the syllabus or uploaded as a separate document.

If you haven't already, you should begin thinking about which content module (with learning activities) you intend to develop. Ideally, this would work off what you did in 502, but of course you are not restricted to that.

Obviously, the kind of content depends on your audience/students, but if you are developing for secondary or post-secondary and are thinking about "online lectures," don't overlook the cautions Ko and Rossen give in Chapter 12.

Also, if you have a lot of objective information you want to your students to learn, don't overlook the very powerful testing feature in Blackboard. Although we have not used that feature here in OTL, it can be a very powerful learning tool. We will examine this in more detail in Module Four.

Concerns, issues, problems, challenges.... and the decisions you make about them should all go in your development notes.