I’m proud of this course, but as I wrap up this semester and reflect on what I think went well and what I think didn’t, I can’t help but feel a bit down about the student retention rates in my courses. I’ve come to the conclusion that no matter how much time and effort you put into a course to make it the best it can be, sometimes your students just aren’t ready for it. In the case with our students at South Mountain Community College, they’re not ready in more than one way. Many are not prepared for a rigorous college load and still others are not ready for online and hybrid courses, yet they end up in my courses.

I teach the only hybrid and online English courses on campus, two hybrid and one online. There are plenty of other sections that are face to face available all through out the day and week, but my classes fill up. When asked, most students signed up for the class because the time fit well with their schedule and not because they particularly wanted a hybrid class. And I don’t even want to start to talk about why students sign up for my online class. That’s just down right scary. Anyway, student don’t realize until it’s too late that maybe hybrid or online is not the best course format for them. Not only do they struggle with using the technology, but some struggle with the demands of a writing class. It’s almost as if they didn’t expect that they would have work to do.

My students are having trouble completing just one assignment a week. The assignment is designed to take 2-3 hours to complete. When I designed the assignments, I followed an honors students around the library while he completed the assignments. I timed him and took notes about questions he had about the directions. Most assignments he completed in under an hour. I took that research and adjusted the assignments accordingly. The assignments are designed to guide a student through the research process culminating in an extended documented argumentative research paper. Each step is crucial to completion of the final product, and each assignment builds off the previous one. Students who are prepared do really well. I get a good number of A’s, but I get even more drops and F’s.

The students who fail or just give up and drop don’t do the work. They turn in incomplete assignments. They don’t do rewrites or come for additional help. It’s like they don’t even try. They complain that the assignments are too hard and take too long to complete. Even if an assignment took 5 hours to complete, a whole week is plenty of time to complete it. I’m at a lost as to what to do about all this. I think the only solution is to force students to a study session or tutoring. I’m not sure how I could do that, but that’s where I am now with this. I’m struggling with the whole idea that I teach college, but I really can’t treat all of them like college students, expecting that they will take the initiative to get help if they need it. It’s frustrating indeed.

I saw an amazing presentation this morning from some guys at Drexel University talking about a lecture capture solution they implemented on their campus:

Increasingly, colleges and universities are adopting lecture capture solutions to increase student satisfaction and learning. Join Drexel University’s innovative team and other universities for an in-depth panel discussion focusing on how these institutions have implemented TechSmith’s Camtasia Relay to integrate lecture capture into their existing infrastructures simply, quickly, and affordably.

It was amazing to see what they were able to do with Camtasia Relay in such a short period of time and even before the product was released out of beta. It was that easy. What was most amazing to me is that it was the IT guys and the instructional designer who came up with this solution and made it happen for the college. Sigh. Why can’t we do things like that?

Our IT department and instructional designer are all caught up in doing other stuff to be able to come up with technology solutions for teaching & learning issues on our campus. I’ve been there 10 years and I don’t think I’ve ever been asked what I need to help me teach my students better. Why is that? Is it not important because too few of our faculty will utilize it? or is it because only a small number of students will be impacted by the technology initially? Who knows, but it doesn’t sound much like forward thinking to me.

Another session I sat in on this morning was Thinking Outside the Virtual Classroom presented by Shannon Ritter, Social Networks Adviser, Penn State World Campus, The Pennsylvania State University.

Educating our students is certainly our priority, but how can we connect learners to each other in a way that provides more opportunities for personal growth, networking, and connections? By taking advantage of virtual spaces like Facebook, Twitter, and Second Life, we give our students space to learn outside the classroom.

This was a great presentation. Ritter talked about how students in online distance programs are missing out on the college experience and have no real connection to the college because those students don’t get the same interactions with their peers like the on campus students do. Many aren’t learning together, and they don’t have a sense of belonging. So the Penn State World Campus created orientation videos to help give students a sense of belonging. They also use Second Life, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and Twitter to help building a sense of community.

This is the same idea behind my decision to use a social network to teach my freshman composition courses in. The network has some of the same features Ritter talks about embedded in the site, like videos, photos, walls, and updates. And the whole idea is to help students feel more connected to their peers, the instructor and the class.

Those were just two of the many ideas I experienced this week at Educause. Surprisingly some of the most valuable information was obtained just from hanging out with peers from the Maricopa district and my Twitter friends from across the country. That community we build is very valuable for sharing experiences and expertise in a wide variety of areas, and their willingness to help each other is refreshing. It would be really nice to have that kind of community on my own campus, a group of like minded faculty who like to come together and share ideas about education and technology. Some day, right?

Check out the live simulcasts from the conference:

From: soul4real

Presentation for the TYCA-West conference in Clarkdale, AZ. Using podcasting in freshman composition courses.

SlideShare Link

This screencast covers the basics of signing up for a delicious account, installing the delicious toolbar/buttons, saving a website, and updating your personal profile.

To learn more about delicious and social bookmarking, check out the Common Craft video below, Social Bookmarking in Plain English.

http://alisacooper.com/screencasts/102A1/102A1.html

http://www.freshmancomp.com/screencasts/PaperFormat/PaperFormat.html

This lesson covers the Ning Social Network: Turning Off Notifications & Checking Messages.

If you already know your Blackboard Username (MEID) and Password, log in to Bb and complete the course orientation in the START HERE tab. If you don’t know your MEID, visit https://eims.maricopa.edu/MAW/SPAT.html and choose the option: Forgot Your MEID? If it’s not your first visit, and you know your MEID but you’ve simply forgotten your password, you can look up your password if you have forgotten it, by choosing: Forgot Your Password?

Class begins August 25th for the Fall ‘08 Semester. The Blackboad site will be available by the 18th. You must enter Blackboard and begin the class by Wednesday, August 27th or you will be dropped for no show.

When you enter Blackboard, read the current Announcements and complete all the orientation activities. (If you need help navigating around Blackboard, watch any of the first six orientation video clips: http://www.maricopa.edu/blackboard/help.html

• The Best Way to Learn in an Online Course

If you have any questions, call or email Dr. Cooper at or 602-325-3259.

Distance Learning Facts

1. Distance Learning students sometimes can end up neglecting their course work because of personal or professional circumstances, unless they have compelling reasons for taking the course.

2. Some students prefer the independence of Distance Learning; others find it uncomfortable.

3. Distance Learning gives students greater freedom of scheduling, but it can require more self-discipline than on-campus classes.

4. Some people learn best by interacting with other students and instructors, but Distance Learning may not provide much opportunity for this interaction.

5. Distance Learning requires you to work from written directions without face-to-face instructions.

6. It may take as long as two or three days to get comments back by e-mail from your instructor (such as over a weekend or holiday).

7. Distance Learning requires at least as much time as on-campus courses and in many instances up to three times as much.

8. Distance Learning uses computers and other technology for teaching and communication.

9. Printed and/or online materials are the primary source of directions and information in Distance Learning.

10. Distance Learning classes often require written assignments and projects.

11. Students who have dropped a college class often don’t have the self-discipline or motivation to work independently and complete an online course.

Based on IS ELI FOR ME? by Bob Loser, Joan Trabandit, Barbara Hatheway, and Teresa Donell.

©1989, 1998, Extended Learning Institute, Northern Virginia Community College.