Practicum Week 3: Welcome to the Course

Image Credit: onlinelearningtips.com 

Well, it is the beginning. The course I am using for this practicum started this week. The beginnings of courses are always a busy time and lots of work goes in to helping guide the students through the course and to help students get acquainted with the expectations of the course. There are always challenges to getting students through these first few days. There are always students that are new to online learning and they need extra time and attention to calm their fears and get them settled in. There are veteran online learners as well. They are the learners that like to jump right in and get going, but may jump ahead too fast and not read / listen to all the instructions right away. With the wide array of personalities, it becomes a full time job just helping students get everything together.

Starting the Course

One of the biggest things I learned in this program is the importance of being very specific with instructions and providing a lot of resources to help guide students. I have noticed the more specific and descriptive I am in my courses, the less questions I get asked. Every semester is a chance to fix any issues that cause students to have questions. So, over time, I have learned to get more detailed in everything I do. Here is some of things I do to help students get acquainted with the course...

Announcements  

Image Credit: P. Williams

I have always believed that announcements are important in an online course. Students need to feel connected and need to feel our presence. I think the first step is in providing updates and announcements. While there are a lot of announcements to post in the beginning, I believe it is our job to provide regular announcements and updates on the course. My students were greeted with several announcements on the first day. Some people may ask if this is too many announcements for the first day, but I have found that if I make one announcement that is too long, many students do not read it or watch the video. But, if I break them into several shorter announcements, more students follow through and read them. 

Image credit: P. Williams

I always make sure to provide students with a nice welcome announcement that helps break down how the course is set up and some of requirements the students need to be aware of. I also provide students with a Welcome Video where I provide students a virtual tour of the course with me guiding them through the course from the student's perspective. Other announcements in the beginning are tutorials on how to use the virtual labs, access codes needed for the course, and more information on important dates and course schedules. 

 Getting to Know the Course (and each other)

Image Credit: P. Williams 

One of the biggest things I have learned, both through trial-and-error as well as through this program, is that students need to few days to get settled in to their course before content is started and due. It is essential for the student to have a few days to play around in the course and get a feel for what is expected. It is very challenging for a student to dive right in to the material without having enough time get get acquainted with the course and its expectations. I have provided students with about a week to get just get into the course and get used to the material. We have an orientation quiz requirement at my institution and it must be completed before the census date (10% date) of the course or the student will be dropped. The date for this course is February 1st by 11:59 pm. So, I use this time to allow students to get acquainted. I will note that the content modules actually start on Jan 30th... so they have about a week to do this without having to worry about content. Students have reported (in previous semesters) that they really enjoy the time to get used to the course, to download and sign up for outside sources, and to read and learn about expectations. It also provides students a few extra days to get their textbooks.

During this time, the students have a few things to attend to. They must make an introduction post about themselves in Voice Thread. This is where we get to know each other and work on building community in the first few days. I work really hard to learn about each student through these posts and make sure to respond to all students to make a connection with each student (see image above).

Image Credit: P. Williams 

 They also must complete the orientation quiz by that census date . Most students complete that in the first few days of the course, but it is something that they need to spend a little time on. The quiz covers different aspects of the course exceptions and the students must read the course syllabus, read the announcements, watch the "Welcome to the Course" video, and play around in the course in order to answer the questions. This allows the student to become familiar with the course while requiring them to read things they may choose to skip over if  not assessed. I do allow the students unlimited attempts at the orientation quiz so that they can earn a 100% in the end. The goal of this quiz is not to be punitive, but to encourage each student to seek all the information needed for the course. The quiz is designed as a module that students work through so they can become familiar with sending messages, setting up email, submitting assignments, using blackboard instant messenger, and to access the syllabus and course information.

Reflection on the Week

While the week still has a couple of days left, I feel like I have enough feedback and work throughout the week to post a reflection of my experience. Most of the week has been helping students navigate the course and getting them acquainted with all the day-to-day workings of the course. Many students have already committed on the organization of the course and how they are able to find everything easily. I have only had a few questions where students were confused, but mostly due to these student's not following instructions on reading. The good thing is that these students contacted me and I was able to direct them to the appropriate place. 

Overall, I feel very positive about these first few days. In the introduction posts, I have learned a lot about the students (those that have posted so far) and I have learned a lot about their needs for the course. I was able to calm some fears of a few students who are taking this course as their first online course ever. Science is a hard class to do online, and it makes it even harder when it is your first one. The only negative feeling I have is wishing that more students would log in and start their journey closer to day one. Usually students who wait until the last minute to login to the course, tend to be students who do not do as well in the online course. I just wish students would be more proactive about getting in the course and working. I guess that is a personal trait of mine (being proactive) and some students may not have that particular strength. 

I am looking forward to next week when we begin the content material for the course. Module 1 is one of my favorite modules because it has a lot of history in it... so I get really excited.

Now to finish off this introductory week and get ready for Module 1...