THE ONLINE WRITING INSTRUCTION COMMUNITY
  • PARS Framework & PARS Books
    • Pars Books
    • PARS Online Course Development Cycle
  • Resources
    • OWI & Distance Education Resources
    • Books
    • Web Tools
    • Conferences/Listservs
    • Get Published
  • OWI Symposium
    • October 2024
    • August 2021
    • September 2021
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
  • Work with us!
  • SHINE

Discussion Applied Pedagogies Ch. 4 

9/20/2016

5 Comments

 
Let's chat about Applied Pedagogies. This space is for discussion on the chapter four.

​You can comment below by clicking on the post, then "Leave a Reply" and hit submit. Please add your first name to your post. Posts can be deleted, but you have to contact us to get a post deleted. ​
5 Comments
Michael Greer
10/2/2016 11:27:15 am

Chapter 4 focuses on two concepts that I think are crucial in OWI courses--community and engagement. The author shares a number of practical strategies for building a learning community and enhancing engagement, including live phone conferences, synchronous chat, discussion boards, and social media.

It is a challenge to build and develop community. The best results I have had come from true collaborative projects, where students are required to either provide peer feedback or to work together in groups on writing projects.

This semester, I am using a three-part technology model: the course Blackboard site is the location for group discussions around readings, using the discussion forum tool. Most of my course content is posted on an external Weebly site, because that is easier for me to manage and update, and because the Weebly design is responsive and allows students to access course content (videos, mostly) on their mobile phones. And for peer feedback, I am using Eli Review--this is my first time using it, but it is working well so far. I find students give more focused feedback because I can direct and tailor specific questions. In the past, student feedback fell into one of two ruts: either too much local feedback, or general praise with little suggested revision. Eli helps to guide students to look for specific features and traits in a peer draft, and it also indirectly works to build community because they need each other in order to proceed with projects.

I still feel like I have a long ways to go in building a real sense of community in my online courses, after 8 years of fully online teaching. I find the students want to rely on me too much, and resist collaboration. We can all understand why that is (grades) but finding solutions is possible if we are creative.

Reply
Jessie Borgman
10/2/2016 12:41:12 pm

It's interesting to me that you said that your best community building results came from group projects. I see it, but I've also had group projects not work out well and really harm the community building goal.

I think anything that you can do to get students talking with one another helps! When they "feel" the interaction between the instructor and their peers, it "feels" more like a traditional classroom and that is exciting.

The discussion this week reminds me of my favorite Scott Warnock quote from his book Teaching Writing Online: How & Why.

"Writing instructors have a unique opportunity because writing-centered online courses allow instructors and
students to interact beyond content delivery...to build a community through electronic means"

We do have a unique opportunity if we seize it! And Girardi gives several great suggestions to help us begin building our online communities.

Reply
Jessie Borgman
10/2/2016 12:36:02 pm

This is one of the chapters I've enjoyed the most so far because I think engagement is so important in online courses. I like Girardi's main argument to think of the online space as a different animal than the face-to-face environment and to recognize these significant differences.


The focus on developing a community is also really important to me because I strive to do this in my own classes. Creating a community in an online course isn't much different than creating a community in a face-to-face course, except for effort-you've got to work harder at it!

I like her suggestion of introductory phone chats and have phone calls to help with student confidence. They realize you're a nice person and are there to help them succeed! Further, her argument for media in the online course is a good one because it breaks up how the content appears for students and I think mixing it up engages students more thoroughly in the material.

I really liked her advice on pg. 61:
"Finally, online instructors must be flexible in terms of analyzing, selecting, implementing and assessing tools that might facilitate the aforementioned goals of developing an online learning community and engaging online students."

This is good advice and important for instructors who are new to online teaching and just reading this book to gain tips and tricks. Technology can be overwhelming to both students and instructors, so being selective in the tools used for engagement is crucial.

Reply
Big Booty Wisconsin link
12/21/2022 11:23:37 am

This is a great bllog

Reply
Dua link
7/20/2024 03:43:27 pm

Great post thank you.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    OWI Forum

    This space will serve as a forum for posts concerning book reviews, reading groups, and other suggestions for the community. 

    Archives

    April 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

The OWI Community
© COPYRIGHT 2015 -2024

  • PARS Framework & PARS Books
    • Pars Books
    • PARS Online Course Development Cycle
  • Resources
    • OWI & Distance Education Resources
    • Books
    • Web Tools
    • Conferences/Listservs
    • Get Published
  • OWI Symposium
    • October 2024
    • August 2021
    • September 2021
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
  • Work with us!
  • SHINE