An Online Composition Course
Telling War Stories Project
Interface Design by Peggy Stanley
Debriefing: Online Composition Course
SUSTAINS
- Online learning allows students to attain an education in the midst of
the rest of their lives. Because of the distances, time differences, and
motivational varieties, students often approach online classes as more of
a correspondence form of learning. The development of a community through
the use of collaboration tools, such as social presence, encourages students
to interact and collaborate in areas like the discussion board in their
online classes. This sharing of thoughts, experiences, and understandings
of the literature they are reading provides students with an opportunity
to learn from each other.
- Although many students take online classes with the "get in and out"
mentality, they often find that they appreciate the participant exchanges
and are anxious to discover more about their classmates and their opinions
on the material read for the course. Once they see the value in these interactions,
they are more eager to participate in areas such as the discussion board
and to learn more about their peers as well as the content.
- Students’ collaborations may lead to learning and expanding of the
students’ thinking, and these new understandings and richer viewpoints
on topics may help students develop stronger written arguments.
IMPROVES
- Many instructors participate on the discussion board by providing comments for the students’ postings. If instructors receive training in the use of social presence cues as a way to encourage students to think more critically, the examples of critical thinking on the discussion board and in students’ essays could increase greatly.
- The first step toward developing more collaboration in the online classroom,
especially on the discussion board, is providing assignments that require
exchanges of thoughts with peers. With more awareness of the use of social
presence cues to encourage critical thinking, instructors may provide discussion
board guidelines that explain the possible positive effects of student use
of the social presence cues in exchanges with their classmates. Increasing
the use of these cues may create a stronger sense of community in the classroom.
Developing stronger communities should establish an atmosphere of trust.
- Many students agree that collaboration through peer review activities could be valuable because it provides feedback and suggestions that encourage further thinking. However, there are areas of peer review in online courses that still need to be studied and researched. It is possible that a more detailed assignment schedule for peer reviews might provide students with a productive and beneficial collaboration among classmates. Just as with collaboration on the discussion board, students may discover that there is value in using peer review for their writing assignments.
Debriefing -- 3
Briefing