Narrative |
The narrative refers to a series of documents. Links to those documents are given here and also within the text when a reference is made to the document.
After four years of teaching Introductory Sociology on-line, one great need I felt was to find a way to make the student-faculty communication more productive, more focused on content material and learning issues, and on individual needs, and less bogged down in answering repeatedly questions about technical aspects of using the technology and course requirements. Encouraging student-faculty communication is the first principle of good practice, but it is difficult to maintain high quality communication with students, when one is overwhelmed with questions that can be answered through syllabus and instructions. But over the years, I learned that many students ignored the syllabus and instructions and jumped into discussions and lessons. Frequently the result for the student was frustration and even anger when they could not find materials, or learned at test time that they had missed crucial reading assignments, or did not understand deadlines, formats or methods for submitting materials.
My solution was to make access to course materials and discussion contingent upon completing a quiz over the syllabus and course instructions. A more detailed discussion of the problem of "friction" for students in using on-line classes, and the solution of conditional access and a syllabus quiz is discussed in the paper "Easing the Friction of On-Line Teaching" which was presented at the Ashland CTC Teaching/Learning Conference November 5, 2004. The actual syllabus test used during the Spring 2005 class session, can be viewed in the document "Syllabus Quiz". This shows the actual first round results of a Spring 2005 student, which shows both the types of comments a student sees when he/she gets a question correct and the type of feedback for an incorrect response.
Use of the syllabus test has been enormously successful in reducing the number of trivial "problem related" communications both through e-mail and in the discussion area specially designated for problems. This has cleared the way for me to spend much more time dealing with the unique problems of individuals in the course. During the first half of the Spring 2005 semester, it has been necessary to engage in extensive communication with at least four students undergoing unexpected surgery, major illness or hospitalization. This is not atypical. Students are encouraged to communicate with me about any special problems that they may have. This encouragement comes in the form of using a special part of the discussion area for introductions -- beginning with my own personalized introduction, and by e-mailing students regularly soliciting questions and concerns. I have included a document --Faculty-Student E-Mail Exchange -- that traces the e-mail interaction so far this semester (Spring 2005) between myself and one of the students with health issues (her name has been deleted for privacy reasons). This is typical of the type of interaction that I generally have with a number of students every semester.
The use of a syllabus test has had a variety of other pedagogical benefits, beyond paving the way for better, more productive faculty-student contact. Students have the chance to experience a multiple choice test. They learn in an ungraded, non-threatening situation, whether or not they have any computer problems (present day "pop up blockers" create huge problems for students who are not tech savvy). They get to see how this instructor asks questions and provides choices long before the pressure of a "real" test. But best of all the syllabus tests provided a means of giving students prompt positive feedback quickly in the course. The syllabus test has encouraging comments for both correct and incorrect answers. All students come away with a successful result within a few tries. They are immediately rewarded for quickly learning the course requirements and expectations, and have a sense of accomplishment from the very beginning.
The on-line Introductory Sociology course is designed to encourage cooperation among students. Student discussion is required and is a significant percentage of the total grade (100 out of 540 points) worth twice as much as one of the multiple choice tests. Students are made aware -- explanations in syllabus -- that their participation grade depends upon the quality of postings and their relevance to the assignments as well as on the number of postings that they make. In the Fall 2004 student evaluations, more 93 % of students responded with a rating of excellent or good to the statement "Policy on participation in class discussion, through discussion boards and/or chat, is clearly stated in the class database" -- "Fall 2004 Student Evaluation". To further encourage discussion I have carefully chosen readings that make strong statements and elicit strong responses.
There is a high level of integration between the "lecture" (brief introductions or overviews to each lesson), the selected readings, discussion questions (posted by the instructor and students), and student evaluation through essay questions. Helping to stimulate discussion, I make the essay questions available to students at the beginning of each "part" of the course (a set of 4 to 5 related lessons). I write the questions in a way that encourages discussion. One of the best ways to do that in sociology is to link the material to their own personal experiences. The first lesson in the course is a good example of making sociology relevant, by connecting the use of the sociological imagination to their own decisions to enter college and to take on-line classes. To demonstrate the linkage between lecture, learning objectives, readings, discussion and evaluation, I have create a document --"Integration of Lecture, Reading, Discussion and Evaluation" --which includes all of these things - including the actual discussion threads from both sections of Soc101 for the Spring 2005 session, and the actual essay written by one of the students who participated in the discussion.
This type of essay which is typical for this class also encourages active learning, because it requires that the student apply principles from the reading in novel ways. In this case to their own life experiences. Another essay in the same essay exam, asks the student to evaluate which of the two main theoretical perspectives in sociology they find most useful in understanding the place of the community college in society. The student reads about the general theories, and also reads some general application of the theories to public schools, but must apply these general ideas to their own knowledge about the role of community colleges in society to answer this question. Successful completion of an essay like this is facilitated by discussion threads, that elicit students experiences with community colleges and provides some practice in identifying the functional and conflict aspects of community colleges.
Questions like this one also show respect for diverse talents and ways of learning, because it allows students to express widely divergent points of views. Students have strong and varying opinions about the place the community colleges hold in our society, and whether they support integration or contribute to inequality. The mark of good answer to this question, the students ability to apply the general ideas of a theory, not which theory they choose to apply. The very existence of choice in the essay exams, also lends it self to encouraging diverse talents. Not every topic of the course appeals to every student. The have the opportunity to spend more time and effort on those topics that they find most interesting and relevant, both in the discussion and in their essays.
In the discussion highlighted in the above document, you will see evidence of acknowledgment feedback, to let students know that their discussion is being observed and is on the right track, and information feedback to provide correction and re-direction when a student has misunderstood an important issue. This feedback is given promptly as the discussion progresses rather than after the discussion is completed. The student evaluation of the Fall 2004 classes shows that 86 % of students consider the promptness of grading and feed back to be excellent or good -- "Fall 2004 Student Evaluation" .
To reinforce the importance of discussion to a student who did not participate fully and does poorly on an essay, the detailed comments that student receives will include a mention of the way in which participation in discussion might assist them in the future. In some cases t he students not only benefits from discussion, but must engage in it in order to answer an essay question. For example, in the first part of the course, one essay question on American values, specifically asks students to comment upon the values expressed by their fellow students in discussion. I start a thread that asks students a provocative question about changing American values. The student who wishes to write on values, must at the very least read what others have posted on this topic in the discussion. They are generally encouraged to post themselves by this essay question.
At the beginning of the semester, it is generally necessary for me to begin discussion threads around key questions. But as the course progresses it becomes clear to students how integral the discussion is to the learning process. Frequently in later lessons in the course, students will start and conduct almost all the discussion. As instructor, I feel it is important to continue to provide both acknowledgment feedback and information feedback to discussions, but generally allow the students to conduct most of it without interference. One example of a student created and lead discussion occurring during the fourth (and last) part of the course is provided in the document "Student Lead Discussion". This is from one of the Fall 2004 on-line classes. This particular example shows the use of acknowledgment feedback, just to let the students know that I am following the discussion and they are on the right track.
The good practice principle of time on task is emphasized in several ways in my on-line sociology classes. One way that it is emphasized is by setting a deadline for participation in discussions that is prior to the end of each part of the class. I want to emphasize to students that the discussion is about communication and cooperation with their fellow students. I want to discourage the practice that many students have of seeing discussion as just one more thing to check off the list, where they end up waiting to the end of unit and then posting a bunch of meaningless comments. By stressing in the syllabus and course instructions that discussion will end a few days before essays and tests are due, I emphasize that discussion is collaborative, and serves a learning function in preparing them for evaluation.
When I began teaching on-line in 2000 I did not have true deadlines for work through out the course. I found not only did this lead to overwhelming stress for me in trying to grade all the work of the semester in the last two weeks, but I also found that students were not being helped by the lack of deadlines. A student who is procrastinating gets a strong jolt of reality when five weeks into the course they discover they have a failing grade after the end of part 1. In practice I am highly flexible and accept work late when students ask and provide a reasonable rationale, but I find that clear, fixed deadlines for exams and essays are an indispensable part of the learning process. The deadlines are communicated in multiple localities, in the syllabus and on the page for each "part" of the course. I also post messages on the home page and send out e-mails to remind students of impending deadlines. These regular reminders also another opportunity to solicit student to faculty communication. I always remind students that if they are having any problems or difficulties that they need to reply to my message and let me know what is going on.
Another important principle of good practice is the communication of high expectations. The high expectations that I hold for student learning are especially apparent in the essays. These expectations are first communicated in the syllabus. A detailed rubric for how each essay will be graded, that indicates the percentage of the points that are attached to each category is included in the syllabus. The Fall 2004 student evaluations indicate that 85 % of students gave an excellent or good rating to the statement: " Standards of grading are clearly stated and followed in the course database or syllabus" -- "Fall 2004 Student Evaluation".
This is reinforced by detailed comments to students for each essay that is completed. Students who do well (see the very end of the document "Integration of Lecture, Reading, Discussion and Evaluation" for actual comments to student whose essay is included) are complete enough to encourage continued good work. Students who do poorly receive even more detailed comments. Comments to students who do poorly tell the student what they did right to reinforce the successes, and tell them what areas they need to work on for future papers. They are referred to the rubric in the syllabus for further assistance. Most students improve over the course of the semester when given this type of detailed feedback.