Everyone needs a routine to get their tasks done. Some people are morning people, while others are night owls. Find the time when you are most alert to get your work done. When we do our work on a schedule, we get used to a daily routine. Well, forums should also have a weekly routine, so students can stay on track of their work and this ensures student success as students know what to expect during the week for their forum assignments.
"Students have schedules for many competing responsibilities such as working, parenting, and personal chores; thus a predictable schedule is a useful planning date for everyone. Many faculty like to use the discussion forums as one of these pacing activities. For example, the discussion forum might open with a problem, question, what challenge on Monday, requiring an initial posting or progress response by Wednesday and comments on other postings by Friday or Saturday. The faculty is then committed to commenting on these posts by the following Monday. Reading assignments, projects and other content assignments can orbit around these class discussions. The schedule anticipates that most online learners will be using one of the two weekend days for the learning. It also assumes about 5 to 7 hours a week for one online course for about an hour a day. "(Conrad,142)
Forum routine:
1. Faculty post their initial comment on Monday/Tuesday to start the ball rolling. This can be an intriguing question, quotation, or role play.
2. Students have until Wednesday or Thursday to respond to this initial post which is usually the answer to the question. This is usually the longest post for the student as the student is answering the homework question posed by the instructor. Example: Does media bias exist? Then students have until Thursday to write a 250 word post answering this question of the week.
3. Students have until Sunday of that same week to respond to two other students about whether or not there is media bias.
4. Throughout the week, I would check in on the students and post responses to their various threads and if students go off topic, I would steer them back onto the topic. I would also contact students who have not been posting and remind them to post throughout the week to keep track of the discussion.
5. Postings should be evenly distributed throughout the week. I would tell students to post on a Monday, a Wednesday and a Friday in order to see how the discussion is progressing. Students are marked down if they make all their posts in one day. If students post all in one day at the end of the week, then other students do not get the chance to respond to this late student's thread and this late student does not get the chance to participate in the discussion and learn about the core concept of the week.
6. Students cannot repeat what the previous poster said. Each new post must have something original to the conversation. Each new post furthers the discovery and explanation of the core concept of that week and each post could also serve for students to analyze, synthesize or evaluate the core concept of that week. The more students participate in the forums during the week, the more students master the core concept.
7. Students cannot simply say 'I agree' or 'I disagree'. They must say something that advances the conversation by relating the topic to their own lives or taking examples from the reading or from the lecture. Then I encourage students to ask each other open ended questions at the end of their posts to further advance the conversation.
8. By having a weekly schedule for forum posting, this makes it easier for students to remember what is expected of them week by week in the forums, so students can concentrate on learning the material rather than be confused about what their forum assignments are.
What kind of forum schedule do you use at your school? Do you require students to post a maximum of 3 to 5 posts? Do you require students to post 150-300 words per post?
No comments:
Post a Comment