Quality Online Classes

From SolSeed

Seed2009 > Agenda > Quality Online Classes

This session also included the Mary Mary Quite Contrary discussion.

Kim and online classes

• Non-face-to-face teaching is not as high-quality
  • Body language and spontaneous interaction are lost
  • Higher attrition and failure rate
    • People who do these often do it because they lack the motivation to go to school
• Goal: make students feel that they're involved in their education
• Currently:
  • Students are only looking at a "blackboard"
    • Might start doing audio, but Kim isn't comfortable having video of herself
  • Students aren't required to be online at the same time; they can go to "class" anytime
    • One student is a soldier in Afghanistan
  • Students can ask each other questions or send anonymous questions to Kim
  • Students have to peer-review each other's papers
• Debbie: There's always a dropout rate
  • Kim: Higher-level (community college) classes have higher dropout rates
  • "Working-class people often sabotage each other" because they don't want friends and coworkers to move ahead and leave, or "take more than their share"
    • Misattributed "Mandela" quote: "Our greatest fear is our own power"
      • Don't "play small" because you're afraid of making people uncomfortable
      • "Letting your light shine" encourages others to do the same
• Preventing negative remarks about a group, another person, or yourself builds community in regular real-world classes
• Thinking of each other as people:
  • Virtual students writing about themselves and responding to each others' writings helps
  • Even video of Kim talking that only shows a stuffed animal or puppet could help
    • Debbie did a lesson for "Plato" TV learning that had fun stuff in between segments