- 1. Large Virtual Classroom ManagementDistance-Learning
Seminar:Student Needs and Class ManagementJanuary 22, 2007 Dr.
Marguerite Connor
2. COURSE DESCRIPTION AND GOALS
- This course will help students learnto write effectively in a
business environment .Students will focus on improving their
communication skills, particularly through writing.We will be using
a two-pronged approach to this:
-
- developing tools for sound analysis of business situations in
order to write appropriately, whether sending brief e-mail messages
or preparing long reports ;(I saw this as the more important prong)
and
-
- honing basic writing skills.
3. Goals
- Students willread case histories and be expected to discuss
them , solve business communication problems, write brief
assignments and prepare one long report (10-15 pp).
4. PREREQUISTES
- Competency in writing sentences and paragraphs .
-
- Many of my students were not competent.
- Competency in using a word processor and an e-mail
program.
5. Most important
- The first thing I think we can do to best serve students is
tomake sure they are in classes that suit their ability level ,
especially when it comes to writing
6. Student qualities
- On-line courses are more suited to disciplined and
self-motivated students
- Oftenappearto take more time than live courses as students dont
realized that the two hours they would spend in class with the
teacher is now done at home.
7. Calculating home work
-
- For a 2-credit course4 hours homework
-
- For a 3-credit course9 hours homework
- Then I cut it almost in half to deal with the reality.
- So for this course, I aimed at about 2-3 hours of HW for the
average student per week.
8. Class was too difficult
- I had many students who found my class too difficult.
- I think one reason is that they didnt read the class
introduction and syllabus carefully.
9. Problems
- Class materials had been prepared the term before the class was
offered, so as a teacher, I didnt have the spontaneity to alter
lesson plans that I would have had in a live situation.
- I also didnt have the chance to see faces during the lecture to
read how it was getting across.
- Also, because I had such a large class, it took me a while to
see the big picture.
10. Teaching assistants
- The benefit of this is that I split the class into thirds, and
each week, on a rotating basis, we each took a third to correct the
HW.
11. Flow chart Entire Class I read Midterm Final Final paper
draft Group One Meweek 1 Charityweek 2 Caritaweek 3 Meweek 4 Group
Two Meweek 2 Charityweek 1 Caritaweek 3 Meweek 5 Group Three Meweek
3 Charityweek 2 Caritaweek 1 Meweek 6 12. More time
- That meant I was only reading 13-14 homeworks a week by the
time the class size stabilized, so I could spent much more time on
them
- By the end of the third week, I had seen everyones HW at least
once.
13. Downside
- The downside to this, of course, is that I didnt really get a
picture of the class as a whole for over a month into the
class.
- It also made it slightly more difficult to track individuals
performance
14. Midterm
- I was responsible for reading the midterm exams all by
myself.
- They needed the control of being read and graded by me.
- Unfortunately, that is when I saw how much trouble some members
of the class were in.
15. Meetings
- Right after the midterm I scheduled one-on-one meetings with
students who failed the midterm.
- Thats when it came out how difficult the course was for
them.
16. Office hours
- Two to three hours a week, at a consistent time.
17. Odd term
- No student had come to my office at all this term.That was
strange.
- Usually I have students popping by to ask questions or just
take advantage of having a native speaker willing to chat with
them.
18. Remedial measures
- All the failing students were then assigned to mandatory
tutoring with one of the TAs
- They were also ordered to go to Fu Jen Self-Learning
pages.
- Found here:http:// ce.etweb.fju.edu.tw/self_learning.html
19. Problem with some strong students
- The biggest problem I faced was that there was a small core of
students who were performing quite well, and I hope, learning
something from the course.
- I didnt want to dilute things for them.
20. Easier options
- But for weaker students, I offered very basic writing
assignments
- I made a final paper option that was far more basic than the
original options.
-
- The final also became a 3-6 page paper.
21. Structure of class worked with this
- Luckily, after the midterm, there were fewer lectures and more
writing.
- The first half of the course was learning what to do, the
second half, polishing how to do it.
- This made it easier to switch assignments.
- I also added some basic reading and vocabulary exercises as
this was obviously sorely needed.
22. Learned a lot from experience
- Most important, I am moving away from taped lectures.
- I dont think they are overly useful.
- They have some use, but not for extended lectures.
-
- In the future no more than 30-40 minutes of taped lecture.
23. New technology helpful
- Now that we have technology like Breeze and JoinNet, I think Id
like to meet live with students in small groups for part of the
weekly classes.
- Students really like using JoinNet so far.Very
enthusiastic.
24. Ideal plan
- I would meet them for 15-20 minutes and the rest of the time
would go to their own work.
- This is especially true in writing classes.
- Of course, Id have to meet with 6-7 groups, so I would be
spending the two-three hours of weekly class meeting students.
25. One-on-One
- I would also like to schedule more mandatory one-on-one time
during office hours.
-
- At least once a semester for all students
- This goes against my ideas of asynchronic learning but I think
its necessary.
26. Placement test??
- I also think we need to have some kind of testing or placement
requirements so that students will be in the right course.
- Because this wasnt a beginning course, I didnt have students
give me a writing sample, as I usually do.
27. Ice-breakers
- I did ask them to join an on-line icebreaker game (use 8 nouns
to describe yourself), but that wasnt enough writing, and some
didnt fill it out for over a month.
- But ice-breakers certainly do help build class unity.
-
- Thats something Ive learned over the years teaching
on-line.
28. Future?
- That said, I think the course designed is a useful one (and I
originally designed it for EFL students, and in fact, have never
taught it to native speakers), but its too difficult.
- It would make a good part two of a two-course sequence.