Two weeks out from the start of the quarter, I write to my students with my Pre-Class Welcome Letter. This is the start of my orientation period. My orientation goal is two fold. One is to let students know what they are getting into and make sure that they have time to drop the class and take something else if this isn't what they wanted.
Two is to make sure they are set up to succeed once we start substantive work on Wednesday of week One. Towards that end, I have them do a very low stakes activity for every technical task I expect them to do during the quarter. For example, I expect folks to know how to post to the discussion board, so I have them post their introduction on the discussion board. I expect them to be able to take quizzes, so I have them take the syllabus quiz.
So, this will all get started with my Pre-Class Welcome Letter. That launches my Welcome Activity, within ANGEL. I expect students to do this activity before the quarter starts. This insures that they are able to log into ANGEL and if not they can seek help before the crunch time. It also make sure they are ready to hit the ground running on day 1.
The Welcome activity has 5 steps, but I might whittle it down to 3:
- Welcome information - read a little bit about what it is like to be in an online class. This used to be way more involved years ago when we didn't have a slick learning management system like ANGEL and most students had not taken online classes. However, times have changed. I'm wondering now whether I should delete this step and incorporate it into another step.
- Do a system check - This helps students know whether there is something about their computer setup that will cause problems. Since ANGEL does a system check every time students log in, this might be another step I can eliminate.
- Find your Learning Style - I like this as a way to have students take responsibility for their learning. I have them use this quiz - http://people.usd.edu/~bwjames/tut/learning-style/stylest.html
- Prepare a backup plan - this has students prepare for the inevitable technical problems that arise. I also have them report back on their learning style and plan when they are going to work on the class. I make suggestions on how they might do this with the 15 Hours document.
- Get to Know ANGEL - I encourage folks to do the ANGEL tutorial if they have not used ANGEL before.
Thanks for the link to learning styles, I may use that! I do send out a letter as well letting them know the online course is open and they can view the welcome video there.
ReplyDeleteI have some information for you, and you might already know this, but I thought I would share. It is more along the lines of group work and in the video you mentioned you wanted the students to build a webliography (sp?). but I wasn't sure how far back to go to post information so here it is:
I came across a great idea about using Delicious for students to build a "webliograph" and share URL's with each other, adding the students in the class to the network. Also, the instructor can moderate the url's if they choose too, before they are published. I have not tried this, but I plan on it for my summer class. Not sure if I am explaining this well, but let me know if you already do this and/or how it worked.