Learning Through Course Room Postings

Learners gather to share knowledge, formulate questions, examine practice, analyze findings, critique and thus refine conclusions, and challenge each other with new problems. The online course room is a model of such discourse. Since the discussion is asynchronous, meaning that contributions gather within the course room over the week, unconfined to a common time, participants can reflect and prepare, respond, and then refine their responses, building knowledge and stimulating reflection.

The following are procedures you can follow—as a student or as a teacher—to build knowledge through online discussion in every course in which you participate. This is also a way to begin tracking your thinking and interests as you progress.

Prepare a Word document for the next unit at the start of each week based on the following steps.

Copy and paste the learning objectives for the unit and make additional notes on how you might accomplish these objectives.
Review readings assigned and identified salient points
Compose questions of your own that illuminate salient points
Answer those questions in depth
Answer the assigned discussion questions, incorporating what you have discovered in the above process.

Save this document, naming it by Course and Unit. Cut and paste selected information from this document to the course room under the discussion thread to which it relates.

Sorting by "Date" so that you catch every posting, search for comments by colleagues that relate to what you've prepared or provoke your thinking further.
Craft responses to these learner comments and copy and paste them to the course room under the appropriate thread.
Sort by "Date," search for classmates' comments related to the questions you developed in preparation for the unit. Pose your questions as part of your response to those learners.
Sort by "Outline," and watch for responses to your questions.

Copy and paste any posting by a learning colleague that adds to your reflections recorded for the week. Be sure to note the date and the learner who wrote the posting.

EMAIL

E-mail is the most common method of communication via the Internet. It provides the capability for private interactions and feedback, which are necessary components to a well-designed online course. An e-mail address includes a User ID, a domain, and a sub-domain. For example, sabri@sabri.org represents the user ID 'Sabri,' the Internet domain 'org,' which means a non-profit organization, and the sub-domain 'Sabri,' the name of the organization.

Here are some possible domains you will encounter: (.edu) for education; (.gov) for government; (.com) for the company, and (.net) for the network. You may also encounter international e-mail users whose addresses may include two-character geographic designations representing countries of origin. For example, (.uk) for the United Kingdom; (.fr) for France; and (.ca) for Canada.

If you want to find someone's e-mail address or other information, you may use several search engines such as InfoSpace at http://www.infospace.com/ . You can also do a reverse search to find name, address and phone number.

Mailing Lists

If you want to set up a mailing list for your class or for another purpose, you can do so either through your computer administrator or privately at a cost. 4 different types of mailing lists determine the subscription and moderation policy: Open and Unmoderated, Open and Moderated, closed and Unmoderated, Closed and Moderated. Open vs. Closed refers to whether the mailing list is open for registration to anyone without the owner's approval. Moderated vs. Unmoderated refers to whether the subscriber can post information freely or whether the owner must approve all postings.

Attachments

You can attach files to your e-mail. Most of you probably know how to send an attachment. using Microsoft Outlook; once you have your new e-mail document open, click on the paperclip image located between the icons 'send' and 'address book.' This will open a list of files from which you will select the file you must attach and click on it twice. This will attach the document to your e-mail message.

How E-Mail May be Used

Instructor-Student: Submission and feedback of assignments, exams, projects, etc. - Questions/answers - Consultation

Instructor-Class: Describe notes to the entire class through mailing lists - Distribute and receive assignments - group projects

Student-Student: Group projects and collaborative assignments - Cooperative learning assignments - Generative writing

Student-Class: Class discussions - Collaborative learning

Inquire About My

English Writing Classes