Learning Goals

Every time I teach an online course, I am reminded of how far I still have to go. It’s never easy – there’s always a change that needs to be made, a new area of confusion that pops up, and of course the new students. I struggle with maintaining that teacher-student relationship; I feel like I do a great job with students who stay in contact, but tend towards the critical with students who have difficulties but don’t ask for help.

I am learning that “let me know how I can support you” doesn’t help much when the student doesn’t know what they need or understand what skills they are missing – I need to work on being much more explicit and communicating in a variety of ways. I also need to work on developing a less formal written style – it turns out that my verbosity and choice of words can turn some students off!

One thing I want to explore is screencast response to student writing. I’ve seen examples, but I’ve never done it myself. I don’t know how students perceive it – it’s just grading, albeit a more transparent version of grading. But I think that possibly hearing my voice as I respond would help students feel a connection with me, and it might make my communication less formal and more inviting.

It’s a journey, and one I really enjoy being on.