Electronic Bulletin Boards: Making the Virtual REAL*
Electronic Bulletin Boards: Making the Virtual REAL*
This presentation shares instruction methods to make electronic bulletin boards better learning tools for students in online classes. Techniques include making the assignments Responsive, Encouraging classroom discussion using open-ended questions, using Active assignments that require the students to do something, and making Learning fun and worthwhile.
Making Assignments Responsive
Students in an online class often feel as if they are not really part of a group. As each sits alone at his or her computer, they may get the feeling that they are 'on their own'. Instructors of online courses can create assignments that encourage responsiveness between students. The assignments can require that each student reply to another's postings to offer advice, answer a question, evaluate a reply, or likewise. In Stress Management, students often complete only part of an example. Classmates are required to reply to each other with potential solutions. In the responsive example shown, students post a request they did not want to comply with. Classmates then provide examples of responses that fall under the three potential responses they are learning from that week's lesson (assertive, nonassertive, aggressive). In this way, students are both sharing and supporting each other. In a way, this technique is even more responsive then many inclass activities since each student must share and each student both gives and receives support. No one is able to sit in the back of the room unheard from.
Encouraging classroom discussion using open-ended questions.
Classroom discussion is often used with inclass groups of students. This discussion allows the student to share in his or her learning. Students are able to relate their experiences and learning to the lecture material and receive feedback from the instructor and classmates. Online students can also benefit from classroom discussions. This can take place on electronic bulletin boards when the instructor posts open-ended or essay questions relating to the week's topics. Students are then required to reply to the question, posting his or her thoughts and experiences for the entire class to read. Students also have the opportunity to reply to one another. Again, online courses have the benefit of full and equal class participation. One student does not 'hog' the floor, and each student is heard from. Instructors should share their expectation that each student will reply with his or her own unique postings. None of the "I feel the same way as Sue does" answers should be permitted.
Active assignments that require the students do something should be posted.
Inclass students should not sit inactive within a classroom and online students should not sit inactive at their computer. Learning is not a spectator activity. The world-wide web makes active assignments quite easy. There are almost a limitless supply of online sites for students to visit that require them to become actively involved. These sites are often in the form of surveys or quizzes. Assignments could expect that the student visit the site, complete the survey or quiz, and report back with his or her score and analysis. Additional postings could require the student complete some type of activity off-line and report back with his or her results. One example provided expects that the students will listen to the accompanying stress management audiocassette. Each student posts his or her thoughts concerning this activity and how likely each is to adopt the tape as a preferred stress management technique. Many of these active assignments are also considered fun and worthwhile by the students.
Learning should be fun and worthwhile for the online student.
Just as faculty members have worked diligently to enhance their inclass presentations to make learning fun and worthwhile for inclass students, online faculty should also have the same goals. Oftentimes, online faculty are caught up in how they will manage the delivery of their traditional lecture. What is left out of these efforts is to make the online class a fun and worthwhile experience for the students. Online courses are not the same as distance education courses where the primary goal is to deliver the content of the course. On the contrary, the goal of an online course is to provide a traditional education with all its benefits using a nontraditional delivery method. Students should not be simply assigned page after page of reading with little opportunity for applying the material in an enjoyable format. Learning should not be considered a negative activity. Fun assignments in Stress Management include the use of humor. Students are assigned the homework task of watching, listening, or reading something funny for 30 minutes. Students report how they felt before and after their homework and must apply humor as a stress management technique. Students also visit the comic DILBERT online. Students choose a comic that best matches a problem they are currently having at work. The ability to laugh at their troubles is an effective way to manage work stress. When students come to this realization because of a fun assignment, learning takes place.
The experienced inclass instructor most likely utilizes all of the techniques demonstrated today. Inclass educational methods are responsive, and full of discussion, active, fun, and worthwhile assignments. Online class techniques should not have different goals. Instructors should work to make their online courses as close to their inclass courses as possible. Virtual should refer to the delivery method, not the educational experience.
*I would like to thank Allan H. Schulman for his help in this creative title.
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Randi Sims.
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