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How will you initially engage your students? It is well accepted that: "frequent student-faculty contact in and out of class is a most important factor in student motivation and involvement" (Chickering and Ehrmann, 1996). It is also the case that: many instructors who are new to the online environment have legitimate concern as to the impact of the loss of face-to-face classroom interaction. Also, many students who are new to online courses are frequently anxious about this new way of learning and greatly appreciate a supportive teacher. Given these observations: we believe that it is highly beneficial, if not absolutely essential, for instructors who are leading online courses to "reach out" and communicate with their online students--early and often. In addition, we suggest you consider the following strategies for engaging your students as you get your course underway.

IV. Techniques: 1. Create a biography of yourself and prepare a brief video introducing yourself and the course topic to the class. This could be the first thing that the students sees in his or her course shell. This is a great way to present your personality online and set the mood for the semester. 2. Have students place a one page vita in document sharing for all to view within the first week of the semester. 3. Set up a threaded discussion asking students to respond and share about his or her experiences with issues related to the course topic.

9. Two Lies and A Truth. My activity for my students is for them to list three interesting things about themselves. (I own two iguanas; I once shook hands with Tom Cruise; and I love to waterski.) Two must be lies and one must be true. Other students must vote to determine which interesting thing is a lie. The student with the most incorrect votes wins. --Suhana Chikatla

Acknowledgment feedback assures students you have received their assignment submissions or that you are in search of answers to their questions and that you will respond soon. Sometimes you can give feedback to the entire class, reminding them that you are grading their papers and it will take a week or so to respond

In the past, most students "agreed to be controlled" by the teacher, he says. Today, students are more likely to challenge a teacher's authority

For a particular student, it might be "worth it" to beat up Mary, despite the punishment that follows.

"What's in it for me?"

Maree’s post.

At SUNY, which has 468,000 students at 64 campuses, the Coursera partnership is tied to Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher’s announcement this year of Open SUNY, an online effort to enroll 100,000 new students and make it possible for a quarter of them to earn a degree in three years.

“We hope this will help public universities do more with the less they’re getting in state support,” Dr. Koller said.

Using YouTube, we learn that people all over the world can connect and share ideas, but it has become way more of a teaching tool. People are using this to reflect on themselves and the world around them. One student mentioned how they saw this as an inner thought process: how others would perceive them and how the conversation became inner-mediated. With the activities that we have in the course, the discussions, and blogs we learn to become self-sufficient learners. Not only through the reflective process, but in the activities geared towards the process of learning and why it is important to learn and help each other learn.

Someone please explain to me the whole “hashtag” thing. PLEASE!  I feel so out of the loop!

Today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week).  And because they spend so much of that time ‘media multitasking’ (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7½ hours.

The first half of my course is more familiar to me as I have taught this material in a face to face setting (albeit differently than I will be teaching it online).  I can anticipate the questions, confusion, and challenges that students will face.  The second half of my course contains material I have never formally taught anyone.  Maybe this is why I am stalled?

“Why we are doing this?” piece for each of my discussion and reflection assignments.  I want my students to understand that these activities have a true purpose. 

It is through design that teachers set the stage for a community of inquiry, but it is through the facilitation and experience with that design that the community is actually established.

imagine the design as being the outline of a painting.  As the community is established and evolves its members fill the outline with color.  Together they create a picture of learning.  The more active and engaged the participants, the more the picture will evolve.  Ultimately, my goal is for the community to paint a picture with detail, depth, subtlety, and nuance.  I want my students to take the picture with them after the course and bring it into a new community and continue to share and develop it.   In turn, I will take the picture I am left with at the end of the course and look for pieces where my design succeeded in encouraging color with detail, depth, subtlety and nuance as well as pieces that maybe weren’t colored in as much or as well.  I will adapt my design based on the influence of the community in an attempt to maximize its potential to create a high quality picture of learning.

That brings me to my first question for Alex: Was our reaction typical? In other words, do students normally begin the course feeling the way we were feeling? 

Were the VoiceThread introductions and the “opening” of the course two weeks prior to the actual start date a means for getting some specific information about who we would be as your students? Also, did you use this information to make any alterations to the course?

And for the network folks, it's geek fun time to see if the wireless network has enough bandwidth for all those multiple choice "A, B, C, or D" answers zipping through the air

Fun times.

one year from now?

Seventy-nine percent of teachers surveyed by Education Week said they spent "a great deal" or "somewhat" of their time instructing students in test-taking skills, and 53 percent said they used state practice tests a great deal or somewhat