Economics of Grades and eLearning

I find it interesting how motivated I and it seems my fellow eLearners are motivated by the economics of the course - in this case grades. Those items that we receive points on (you accumulate points for completing tasks in the course, which go into your grades) seem to get the focus and action. For example, a discussion forum has been established that is for students only and the instructor has indicated she will not monitor, so there has only been one post. This is opposed to the diigo discussion board that the instructor participated in regularly, where everyone posts. I realize that even minimal incentive helps focus and this is a particularly useful concept/tool for eLearning, where there are lots of individual tasks to be worked on.

Virtual Office Hours

A best practice I am taking from this course if the idea of having virtual office hours. The instructor is on-line, via audio and whiteboard, every Thursday, for one hour. I connected this past Thursday and found it to be helpful, both for question I had and to feel more connected with the learning process. For example, we talked about the course framework assginment and although I could have my questions answered via postings/email, I realized I wasn't really sure what my question was. Orginally, I had wanted more background on what was expected, but the conversation evolved into my focus for taking the class and reaffirmed my learning objectives.

Blog Organization

I began this blog when I first started the course and am still evoling the organization of the blog. This includes what pages I want and what things I want to be public and which are private. There are quite a few postings on diigo that I found thought provoking, but not sure what I want to keep. I want this blog to the be the single place I go for all my information on the course.

Computer Environment

Rather than having a big screen monitor, I am using my laptop right now for this class, as I am having some equipment challenges. Although I teach with this smaller screen, the white board function we use is primarily the main screen I need for most of th class. For this online class that I am taking as a student, though, I am finding I would like a bigger screen, as I often have different windows up - my blog, the discussion room, and readings. Its something I will consider - but may not be able to do anything about - when I think about developing a course.

Lesson 1

I had some computer challenges during the past week and am just now able to login and get reconnected with the on-line portion of the class. All assignment were due on Monday and so this evening - Sunday, Jan 16 - I am catching up. I did get a copy of the Online Teaching Survival Guide and did have a chance to read it earlier.

I feel I am the most behind in organizing this blog. I want to have it be a repository of information, as well as my thoughts an experiences.

I must admit that this "blip" in the technology, has been thinking about how I would "grade" my students when they have challenges. In this case, Jennifer was clear about allowing extra time so she wouldn't have to be responsible for handling "excuses", so her planning for events like this was good.

I'm sorry, though, I missed the interactive "office hour" session this past week.

This Blog

I just set-up this blog to track/be a diary/ePortfolio for this class. The organization and learning curve of getting things like this set-up can be exhilerating and frustrating at the same time. I find that once things are set-up and/or I am engaged, it is fun to try different options. However, there are often too many options.

What is particularly frustrating to me is figuring out how I want to organize the blog. I have an overview knowledge of the course, but don't really understand what I want to keep and how I want to keep it.

First Class

Our first class was January 6. It was in-person at Bellevue College. I participated via an electronic conferencing link. I was initially sorry I had to miss being there in person, as there is something about seeing people and sharing. Over the internet I could hear the voices and see some faces, but there was often a delay.

As the course continued, however, I realized it was a good experience in how technology has entered our classroom. When the audio was clear, it was fine. When I couldn't hear someone's voice well, I found I would be distracted more by other things in my immediate environment.

I had a question a few times and typed them into a chat box. The response was prompt, but not as quick as when I was in person. Also, the writing, rather than typing of the question impacted the meaning. I could not embellish my meaning. (The audio was working both ways, but the feedback and noise made it more comfortable to type.)

I also found I enjoyed "listening". I could hear people and view the action, but not really be a part of it. It allowed me to be more observational and take in context more. We did introductions and that part was not as engaging as the intellectual discussions or information exchange.