|
|
“I
have an attendance forum where the
online students are required to post a
brief "attendance" message
each week. I have a public forum for
each major topic we cover in the course
and I require the students to post a
certain number of messages and/or
replies to these forums. For example, I
might have a forum called "Societal
Issues and the Internet" where
students can post their thoughts on
legal and ethical issues, or post
information about articles they have
read that are related to the topic.”
|
·
Faculty-student
interaction
·
Student-student
interaction
·
Rich,
rapid feedback
·
Promotes
active learning
·
Respects
diverse learning
|
·
Verbal
learners
·
Social
learners
·
Textual
learners
|
|
|
“The
feedback that we had from the students
was that the Chat room was a *very
useful* feature to keep in touch with
the professor, answer questions, or
plainly 'feeling like being in
class.‘”
“What
I like most about WebCT this week, by
the way, is my office hours. I used to
try having office hours with webchat,
and I had to keep hitting the chat
button every minute or so, or I would
miss someone. All I have to do is enter
the chat room, turn on the sounds, hang
out my "sign" on the main page
and then I just putter around and do
other things.
|
·
Faculty-student
interaction
·
Student-student
interaction
·
Diverse
learning
·
Rich,
rapid feedback
·
Promotes
active learning
|
·
Verbal
learners
·
Social
learners
|
|
|
Student
can compile pages from a path and create
their own custom study guide.
|
·
Time
on task
|
|
|
A
WebCT Path
|
Compilation
of chapter outlines.
Presentation
of detailed content for each
“chapter” or “learning module”.
|
·
Diverse
learning
·
Communicates
high expectations
|
·
Linear
learners
·
Learner
to content interactivity
·
Facilitates
directed instruction through
constructivism
·
Provides
global picture
·
Advanced
organizer
|
|
|
“…the
mail tool provides the necessary private
mail between students and faculty in the
course.
Also, having private mail inside
WebCT helps to organize and store mail
specific to the course instead of
getting mixed up in all the other email
that flows into a faculty's system.”
|
·
Faculty-student
interaction
·
Student-student
interaction
|
|
|
|
Run
clips of writers -- poets, novelists,
and dramatists -- reading and discussing
their own work.
Run
film clips -- for film studies, for
drama studies -- to illustrate staging,
directing variations, etc.
|
·
Diverse
learning
|
·
Visual
learners
·
Demonstration
of techniques
|
|
|
Use
the Notes function to have students
create their own annotations of various
text or image documents posted within
path pages in the course -- then have
the students compile their notes and
share them with the whole class.
Opens a whole world of discussion
regarding interpretation, how one
approaches text and image, etc.
|
·
Active
learning
|
·
Detailed
oriented
|
|
|
Navigation
and user orientation.
|
·
Time
on task
|
|
|
|
Use
the image database to house images that
the instructor has created, or where
copyright is not a problem.
Perfect for history classes (maps,
images of current landscapes, diagrams
of battlefields, architectural drawings,
etc.); art and art history; cultural
studies (advertising, etc)
|
·
Faculty-
student interaction
·
Student
– student interaction
·
Active
learning
|
·
Supports
visual learning
|
|
|
Put
the resume session icon on the homepage
so students can pickup at the last place
they were in the course path pages.
|
·
Time
on task
|
·
Sequential
learners
|
|
|
Practice
quizzes
Mini
“pop” quizzes
Surveys
Include
graphics, charts, tables, links to other
websites, streaming media, video, audio,
etc.
|
·
Rich,
rapid feedback
·
Communicate
high expectations
·
Time
on task
·
Faculty-student
interaction
·
Active
learning
|
·
Can
direct student learning through
selective release
|
|
|
Practice
questions
Test
your knowledge questions.
At
the end of a chapter or learning module,
have several self-test questions, which
directly test the learning objectives
for that module.
|
·
Rich,
rapid feedback
·
Communicates
high expectations
·
Diverse
learning
|
·
Can
direct student learning
·
Allows
for self-evaluation
·
Self-paced
learners
|
|
|
Use
sound clips of musicians, artists,
poets, and writers, playing, reading and
discussing their own work.
|
·
Respect
diverse learning
·
Rich,
rapid feedback
|
·
Auditory
learners
|
|
|
Provide
the bookmark tool on path pages so
students can create their own custom
shortcuts to key pages.
|
·
Time
on task
|
·
Sequential
learners
·
Self-paced
learners
|
|
|
Some
use the calendar as the “grand central
station” of their course.
Outlining on each day the
activities a student should be
completing and directing students to
course resources and external URLs.
|
·
Time
on task
|
·
Concrete,
sequential
·
Advanced
organizer
|
|
|
Build
an index to cross reference key terms
and concepts to the detail content
within the course.
|
·
Time
on task
·
Active
learning
|
·
Global
view of course contents
|
|
|
In
a literature course, tie in reading of
Walt Whitman (or other writers) with
discussion questions and projects where
resources are available either on CD-ROM
or on the web. For instance, the
Dickinson
archives
at Harvard are in the process of being
digitized.
|
·
Time
on Task
|
|
|
|
Describe
written assignments, such as papers,
essays, and formal lab reports in
detail.
The grading criteria can be given
and any external materials (example of
assignment, files or URLs) can be
suggested.
|
·
Rich,
rapid feedback. It provides a forum for
extended and meaningful feedback that
the student cannot lose and can access
at any time
·
Faculty
to student interaction
·
Time
on task
|
|
|
|
Use
the glossary to define terms but also
provide media, such as images, audio,
etc. that will explain the term more
completely.
For instance if this is a foreign
language course, include an audio clip,
which pronounces the term correctly.
|
·
Time
on task.
Students can access definitions
in course without stopping to thumb
through notes and texts
·
Rich,
rapid feedback
|
|
|
|
Use
the student homepages as an introductory
“ice-breaker” activity so students
can get to know each other.
Have
students list websites in their homepage
that are related to the course.
Students can write a brief
description of the site.
This is a web adaptation of an
annotated bibliography.
|
·
Student
to student interaction
·
Respects
diverse learning
|
|
|
|
Use
the link feature to mix media on path
pages.
For instance in an art class, you
could include the image of Vangogh’s
“Starry Night”, an audio clip of the
song, and a web link to the Vangogh
museum in Amsterdam.
|
·
Time
on task (helps students reach needed
materials quickly)
·
Active
learning
|
·
Links
to others resources that may promote
different learning styles
·
Facilitates
guided learning
|
|
|
Release
grades to students as well as other
types of information such as the group
they might be assigned to, general
remarks on participation, etc.
|
·
Rich,
rapid feedback
|
·
Concrete
sequential
·
Achievement
oriented
|
|
|
Use
the student presentation tool to let
students share their own animation,
audio, video -- or archival information
-- if they have been able to find the
materials, for instance, in hard copy
form.
|
·
Faculty
–student interaction
·
Student-student
interaction
·
Active
learning
·
Diverse
learning
·
Rich,
rapid feedback
|
·
Collaborative
·
Constructivist
– provides for application of
knowledge construction
·
Visual
|
|
|
Provide
this tool to students so they can
quickly evaluate their participation in
a class.
|
·
Rich,
rapid feedback
·
Respects
diverse learning
·
Faculty
– student interaction
·
Time
on task
|
·
In
a constructivist environment, this tool
can help a student track themselves
|
|
|
Provide
students with appropriate references
which tap several types of media, i.e.
journals, text books, websites, etc.
|
·
Respects
diverse learning
·
Active
learning
·
Communicates
high expectations
|
|
|
|
Insert
the search tool on all path pages so
students can easily locate topics in the
course.
|
·
Time
on task
|
|
|
|
List
learning objectives for each path or
even each path page.
Tie this tool to self-test
questions, which evaluate these learning
objectives.
|
·
Communicates
high expectations
·
Faculty
–student interaction
·
Time
on task
|
|
|
|
“…that
is, the important thing here is not the
option to make pictures, but the
possibility of SHARING them with other
people. For example, an instructor could
be handling a class using the chat tool,
and showing slides pasting them in the
whiteboard tool, an even drawing in it
in a "real time" way. Students
could participate in the class, making
exercises and showing real presentations
using the whiteboard, and asking
questions using the chat tool. “
|
·
Faculty
– student interaction
·
Student
– student interaction
·
Active
learning
·
Respects
diverse learning
|
·
Collaborative
·
Visual
|