Online Learning Archives - Diane Hamilton

Online Classes So Important: Mandatory for Graduation

Times have certainly changed for high school education. Alabama, Florida and Michigan are just some of the states that now require students to take at least one online course to graduate. According to the article 10 Online Ed Trends Coming to a High School Near You, “Administrators believe that getting students to take online courses will better prepare them to work with the technologies they’ll face in college and the workforce.”

In Memphis online classes were increased due to an upswing in the desire by students to take these courses. Online courses are available for both high school and middle school students. An advantage for the schools is that they are less expensive. In the article Online Class Required for Graduation in Memphis, the author points out that there will be some stringent requirements. “The structure calls for accountability requiring students to log on, finish assignments, and participate in hour-long live chat sessions with an instructor and classmates. Teachers speak with students after each module to verify their identity. Proctored semester exams are administered on school grounds.”

The number of states adding online requirements continues to grow. Idaho has a tech-focused school reform program that will require students to take two online courses. Indiana has also jumped on the technology bandwagon. Indiana state superintendent, Tony Bennett, recently announced that students will be required to take at least one online course in order to graduate. In the article United States High Schools Including Online Coursework as Graduation Requirement, the author stated, “Mr. Bennett explained his rationale for an online course requirement by stating that he felt like experiencing an online course would help to prepare Indiana students for the technology they will be using at colleges and universities, as well as in the workforce.”

Related Articles

How to Teach Online Classes

I’m testing doing some radio podcasts. This initial show has issues with the music in the first few seconds but it is just a test . . . Anyone interested in learning how to teach online courses may want to listen to this for helpful information though. Click on the picture to hear the podcast or click here.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/btrplayer.swf

Listen to internet radio with DianeHamilton on Blog Talk Radio

How to Respond Effectively in Online Discussions

Online college students often find that they are required to answer discussion questions in class. With the popularity of texting and the lack of formality used when writing an email, many students are lacking the necessary skills to write an appropriate posting.

Online schools often require that postings are substantive. In other words, the postings should be substantial and have sufficient content to answer questions in depth. Students may be given guidelines or a minimum word count to guide them. However, when responding to fellow students’ postings, there are usually not specific word count requirements. Therefore, it is important for students to respond in a way that is not merely showing their agreement or disagreement with what is being discussed.

A good rule of thumb is to support what the student has said with at least one sentence. That doesn’t mean the student has to agree with the statement; they just have to support the fact that the student has made their point.

Then after supporting them, the student can disagree or agree with the topic at hand. They should include several more sentences explaining their position on the topic. They could give examples and cite sources.

A good way to end the discussion would be with a question that is either addressed to the original student or one that could be addressed to the class in order to bring more participants into the discussion.

It is extremely important that students write in complete sentences, use correct grammar, check spelling and punctuate correctly. For additional help with writing skills, please check out the following links:

Can Spell Check Make Things Worse?

Top 15 Writing and Grammar Mistakes

15 Ways to Improve Writing Skills

10 Common Writing Mistakes

Can Texting Damage Writing Skills?

Where Future College Students Are Finding Information

This E-Expectations 2010 report is out and it includes information about college-bound student’s expectations and how they are finding information about learning. It can be confusing for recent high school graduates to know which college to attend. In this report Google is the front-runner with 44% of students using this search engine to find college websites. I found it interesting that 89% of the students learn about schools from traditional mail sources vs. 79% from email and only 65% from online searches. Not surprisingly, 76% used Facebook as their number one social media resource compared to only 33% using MySpace.

Ask Dr. Diane: First Time Online Student Questions

Ask Dr. Diane: This week’s question is actually a compilation of several questions my “new to online learning” students have asked this week.

How much time does a student have to complete an online quiz? This varies by school and by quiz. In most of my courses, there is no time limit on taking the quiz. However, many of the quizzes are set up so that you can only take them once. If you get out of it, they often do not let you get back into it. If you have technical difficulties, you might be able to call technical support and have them reset the quiz for you.
How many discussion questions do I have to answer each week? This also varies by school. I have schools where I post one or two discussion questions each week that we get into a lot of depth discussing. I have others were we have 5 questions. Most schools require that you not only answer the initial question but that you also respond to some of your fellow classmates’ responses to that question.
How much time will I need to spend online each week? This is a complicated question to answer. Most of the classes I teach are asynchronous which means you can access the class during the hours of the day when it is most convenient for you. If a class is synchronous that would mean you would have to be online at a specific time. In asynchronous classes, like the ones I teach, the majority of times students will spend will depend upon the course being taught. It has been my experience that first-time 100 level courses require more reading than they do a lot of writing. As you progress into master level courses, more research and writing will be required. If you are reading more than writing, the time you spend online would depend upon whether your books were online books or regular books. Even if they are online books, you could technically print them out. I have some students say they spend about an hour a day online while others spend much more time. A lot depends upon your learning style and that week’s assignments’ requirements.
How are assignments submitted? Each school uses a software program to have you access their classroom materials. This software is called a platform. The schools where I work use: OLS, Angel, eCollege and Blackboard. The software for each school may differ to some extent, but in general, you will post answers to questions by responding in a way that is similar to responding to an email or a blog posting. To upload assignments, it is very similar to uploading a file as you would if you were attaching it to an email.

I answer a lot of these questions and more in my book: The Online Student User’s Manual.