Second Life?

Have others been using the Second Life program? Either in their classes or at least been exposed to it? Boy, for me, what a learning curve! I am sure my grandson, age 13, would LOVE all his classes to be taught this way. He is a video/game person. Me, I am a bit old fashioned. Heck, I do not even own a Blackberry, IPod, or IPhone. Does that make me a Luddite?

No, of course not, I pick and choose my technologies. I believe many people have become slaves to their technological equipment. How many people ignore their phone ringing (or text message) during a lunch with friends? In my opinion, it is just wrong to sit and have a conversation with a person on the other end of the phone, and not the one(s) you are with.

So, back to Second Life. I created my Avatar. I have been through a couple of training sessions. I even bought the book “Second Life for Dummies”. My problem with this technology comes down simply to TIME. As it is now, I have newer versions of the software I teach (Adobe Suite) to learn for fall/spring semesters. This involves new books and creating new assignments. All of this is not paid time, but expected of us as teachers.

Adding Second Life to a class would be more than I could handle right now. Just trying to find my way around the program is quite taxing. I will continue to find some time to understand how Second Life works and how it could benefit my classes, but doubt I will incorporating it anytime soon. (sorry Cheryl)

I would appreciate comments about what others are doing with this technology. If not this one, something else?

Making it personal and dealing with distractions

I work out of my home almost exclusively now with online classes. There is the occasional tutoring job on the side, but for the most part, here I sit in Southwest Colorado. My closest neighbors are deer and various other creatures. I realized early on the need to make my classes more interesting; not only to my students, but to me as well. One thing I find helps is making it personal.

Here is my web site that is posted in every class. Mary Homepage

If you visit my site, you will see a picture of me with a short biography. I feel this site is more comprehensive than posting my information in each class. Sometimes I add a quiz question about what kind of pets I have so I know who is reading it.

I encourage students to post pictures of themselves, dogs, cats, spouse, children or whatever to the rest of the class. There are SO many interesting things to take pictures of in my area. I am constantly with my camera in hand. Many of these pictures I post to the Discussion Board using a link to my Google Picasa program (If you are not aware of this free program, I recommend looking into it for posting photos). Inevitably, I get a good response from students. Here is an example: Summer 2010

Hopefully this makes my classes more interesting and students know a “real person” is teaching their class.

If anyone else is working out of their home, they know it is both a pleasure and a challenge. Distractions are numerous. It is very easy to see the dirty dishes, floors to be swept, and other household chores to be done. My husband is retired and is home all the time as well. He tends to call me for everything and there are times I have to put up a “Do Not Disturb Sign”. When I am concentrating on just the right words for an e-mail, it is too distracting to answer his question or comment on what he is doing. My 3 cats want attention as well. In fact, Chester is on my lap as I write trying to help me type! Being focused is the only way I get the job done.

My students have the same distractions with their online classes. Many of them have young children at home, work full-time jobs, and are trying to “retool” for a new career. They are challenged as well with distractions. Until this blog, I do not think I have addressed this issue for my students. Hmm, guess I need to think about that one.

Taking a Break

What, two posts in one day? Why am I doing this?

Sometimes when I am doing “massive” grading, I take a break and make something good to eat. I LOVE to bake. It somehow has become a hobby of mine. Some might think making a pie is work. For me it is a labor of love and actually relaxing. Today it is a peach cobbler made with peaches I froze last year. Quick and easy. I can whip it up and wait for 40 minutes (go back to grading), then have something delectable when it is finished baking.

One of the joys of teaching online is the flexible schedule. I can work any time of day or evening, just like my students. I take frequent breaks from sitting in front of a computer screen. Sometimes it is watering plants. Other times it is going for a walk. Exercise does wonders for my attitude. I can go back to work refreshed and ready for the next challenge!

So, today I needed to be refreshed and this cobbler was just the ticket!

Tolerance and Patience

This post was supposed to be about making online classes personal. That will have to wait until another time. As I write this, my tolerance level is at an all time low. Students are asking me questions as if they are in 6th grade, not college level.

I do not know about anyone else, but sometimes my tolerance and patience level goes WAY DOWN. When I get the same excuse over and over again, or things like “I am just now being able to read my e-mails”. Whatever it is, I sit at my computer and shake my head.

I find keeping my patience and tolerance after years of teaching is one of the most challenging thing. We all love the bright, disciplined student that gets their work in on time, or early; responds to all e-mails, discussions, and the like. What about the others? The ones that drive us crazy?

Students are our customers. They all need to be treated with respect and courtesy. The challenge for me it to keep my cool, and not reply with the “snippy” answer that I want to send. Examples:

Did you follow the directions?
Can’t you read the lecture notes?
Do you realize how much time and effort I put into this class to provide helpful notes?

Instead, I sit back, and take a deep breath before responding to a student. I cannot take out my frustration on the next person with a problem just because they are the 15th one of the day.

My frustration is at an all time high this week. I look forward to others comments. Mary

Summer session challenges

The summer sessions certainly have their challenges. The main challenge I see is the shortened schedule. We have to fit a full semester’s work into just 10 weeks. Motivating students to keep them on task is a big challenge for me.

Each week, I post what is due in the News and then send an e-mail to everyone as well. In my post, I stress working early in the week to avoid the weekend rush, to avoid Internet problems; and other problems that can arise on the weekend (files are due on Sunday). At the beginning of the class, they are encouraged to print a copy of the schedule and put it in their textbook. I do these same things for spring and fall semesters, but it is even more important during the summer session.

I am anxious to hear what others are doing with their classes to keep students on task. Should I include some kind of game or reward? What do you think?


Next up: making it personal

Cheating

Some human beings have been cheating ever since someone learned how to do it. It does not meet with my approval, but I do not get too uptight about it. My feeling is that students who do cheat on their schoolwork are only hurting themselves. In the end, if they do not know a subject, they will not do well at their job. That will be punishment enough as far as I am concerned.

I believe it is difficult to prove cheating so I have developed ways to try and detect this kind of behavior. One thing I look for are files date stamped the exact date and time. Friends working together, or husband and wife combos, frequently make this error. Another thing I do is grade all of one chapter at a time. Small errors can be seen repeated over and over again, but exact duplicate files really catch my attention.

When I discover this, which is rare, I give a zero for a grade. Then each student receives a carefully worded e-mail requesting an explanation.

Next up: summer schedule difficulties

Late homework

Accepting late homework, that is the subject of today’s blog.

It has always been my policy to accept homework one week late with a point’s penalty. I know some instructors would adamantly disagree with this policy. Fortunately, we do have some academic license to make this kind of change in our classes.

I have been teaching computer programs for over 20 years. For10 of those years they have been online classes. Most of my students are working adults, hence the reason they are taking an online class. They cannot attend a face-to-face class due to many reasons. I understand that “life issues” arise, and sometimes homework can be late.

I am particularly lenient if someone alerts me ahead of time that they are having a problem. Depending on the problem, they might get more than a week to turn in their work, and without a points penalty. I treat every situation differently depending on the circumstances.

That said, it is posted in my classes that things like a power outage, computer failure, “the dog ate my homework”, and such, happening on the day work is due, are not acceptable reasons for late work. Every student has the opportunity to work early in the week to avoid these types of last minute problems.

On the other hand, students are not allowed extensions in my courses. They are advised that they will receive the grade earned at the end of the semester. If they wish, they can have up to one month to complete the course after the end date. Upon completion I will send in a change of grade form. So far, in my 10 years of teaching online classes, only a handful of students ever completed after the end date. I believe this saves us all a good amount of paperwork and the student still has the option to complete the course if they are truly sincere about do so.

Next up: cheating and how to deal with this issue.

E-mail issues

“What I will do differently next semester regarding e-mail.”

We moved from the student’s personal e-mail, to the e-mail within D2L. I thought this would eliminate the problem of students not reading messages. This was a mistake on my part. Even though it is in the syllabus, students continue to either not read my e-mails or send questions to my personal account. I like having the correspondence within the class for many reasons, not the least of which is organization. If a student cannot access D2L, then of course, I appreciate the correspondence to my personal account.

Every week, I post what is due in the News item on the Home page of the class, and also send an e-mail to each student. This helps with the “I didn’t know” excuse for late homework.


Next semester I will add two things: Within my first quiz, there will be a question about what e-mail account to use. Then, I will post that no homework will be graded until a student sends me an e-mail within the system.
This move will not take care of all problems with e-mail, but I hope will greatly reduce aggravation on my part.

Next up: accepting late homework, yes or no.

Grading files

This is my first time blogging, so hopefully I will provide some helpful information for my fellow instructors.

I teach the Microsoft Office Suite, and Adobe Photoshop. In my classes, many of the mistakes on the files are the same. I believe students benefit from knowing exactly what they did wrong. I made up a Word document with the common responses I give to students. Common being the key word, as my responses are always in flux. The only trouble I have is getting students to read my comments. Don’t we all!

Mozilla Firefox will not let you use the traditional Copy and Paste feature by right clicking in the D2L gradebook. So I use Ctrl + V to insert some text copied from my Word document as a response in the gradebook. This saves a lot of time, plus typing errors. This is my form of a rubric. Each error is worth 2 pts. off the total.

My next post will be changes I want to make for next semester. Stay tuned.

Introduction

Hello to everyone at CCConline. To introduce myself, I hope you will visit my web site. Maryhomepage
I am excited to blog for CCConline and hope my posts will be interesting. Happy Fourth of July Weekend. Have fun and be safe.