Thoughts on Teaching Online

Developing Metacognition: “Tea for Teaching” Audio Episode

Uncategorized
Many students new to college have relatively little understanding of how they learn or what good reading or study skills are. In this "Tea for Teaching" episode, I join John Kane and Rebecca Mushtare from SUNY-Oswego in discussing how well structured project-based or problem-based learning activities can help students develop their metacognitive skills so that they become more successful learners. We begin with answering the question, "Just what is metacognition?" and then go on to discuss how we might coach and teach metacognitive skills — a skill we probably should be teaching at all grade levels. Here is the link for this episode — Tea for Teaching 98. It is about 45 minutes and an easy listen while you are walking or driving. You may want to explore the references…
Read More

Four Types of Discussion Forums in Online Courses

Uncategorized
A key component of any online course is the discussion board.  As online courses have matured, we  realize that not all discussion forums are or should be the same.  Some discussions are for building community; other discussions are for exploring new ideas; others are for applying core concepts; and others are for gathering evidence of understanding.  If the purposes of discussion boards differ, then how we structure, monitor, and evaluate the discussion boards should also differ.  Many purposes for asynchronous discussions have been identified (Painter, Coffin, & Hewings, 2003; Grogan, 2005), but in the interests of simplicity, this posting focuses on four types.  It is worth noting that these discussion types build in consistent, regular and substantive dialogue and interaction between faculty and students and between students.  Regular and substantive dialogue is one of the requirements…
Read More

Choice Points in Online Courses

Uncategorized
While "guesting" at a course, one of the students asked for more examples of how to build in choice in learning.  Here is a listing and description of nine choice points that you might consider using in your online courses.   (more…)
Read More