I believe I succumb to two of the common online course pitfalls. The first pitfall I fell into was #1 which I upload the course material and believed the course would take more care of itself. I was a part of the course but I assumed the students would be more self-motivated or learn autonomously. What I found was the students need the same attention and encouragement as traditional “on campus” students. My thoughts were confirmed after receiving a few terms student evaluations. I was devastated by the results and comments. I evaluated the course content, interactions, etc… and re-worked the course (not the content) but my interaction, discussions, and encouraging emails/announcements. The results were wonderful. I was very encouraged and realized the need to interact with online students is just the same. Students are the same regardless of the course delivery.
My second pitfall is #4 – creating content for students to consume rather than create it. I have fallen to this also – “pouring content into student containers rather than supporting students in making that knowledge their own through practice, experience, and play.” I think it is important but not sure how to implement.
I am a little worried about pitfall #4–not that I will fall into it, but that I’m not sure it’s a pitfall. In my field (political theory) we read Plato, Aristotle, Kant, etc. One really important thing is that students understand what these guys were saying. I don’t place a great deal of hope that at the intro level students will create something new. I would be happy if they just learned the material. Am I wrong?
That’s a good question! This is a topic that came up in a couple of the individual meetings I had with hybrid faculty this week. I think the way that the pitfall is initially expressed in the Elizabeth St. Germain article (http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/five-common-pitfalls-of-online-course-design/) may be the source of concern here. The author says, “Design Pitfall #4: Expect your students to consume knowledge rather than create it.”
When you read the descriptive text that follows that heading, St. Germain’s focus is not on students “creating knowledge”; rather it is on students being engaged, active learners, rather than just passively taking in information transmitted by an instructor or text. She alludes to quizzes, research exercises, documentation and student-created presentations as ways to do this in the online components of a class. As you’ve noted, your hope is that students will learn the course information; I believe the author’s intent is to suggest ways to support learning outside the classroom that go beyond the traditional lecture-readings-exam approach.
I am not sure what your course is or its content, but I also fell into pitfall #4. I stayed in it for awhile too before figuring my way out of it. I have not completely found my way out of it, but I tried something new by offering my students a creative assignment that was pretty open ended. I didn’t know where it would go, but I made it an assignment for them to explore a particular topic from the course or directly related to the course that they were interested in. They loved it! They felt considered, they felt creative freedom, they had fun, and they did great work…it was inspiring to watch. I never expected the results that I got and it made me re-think everything that I thought I knew. I think that a lot of the positive results came from trusting them and giving them some freedom for creative expression. It was a little thing that made a huge difference.
Definitely can relate–your post really confirmed what I already knew about my own need to find additional ways to increase my interaction with students in my online courses. I hate to admit it, but especially during terms when I’m also teaching two on-campus courses, my online students suffer from a certain amount of “out of sight, out of mind” syndrome, as well as the triage of daily tasks that all of us have to manage. I will definitely keep your positive results in mind as I renew a vow to try to do better by my strictly online students. Again, what I really appreciate about the blended learning environment is that we will have the chance to meet in person each week and I’ll have faces to attach to the names.