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Short Video Walk-Throughs Help Your StudentsEach semester, we face the challenge of getting our students properly registered with their login credentials for their learning management system, adaptive quizzing platforms, course software or websites, and online textbook resources. I think that most of us provide detailed instructions in our syllabi, on a course website or (even better) a no-password public web page. But despite our best efforts at providing fool-proof instructions, there always seems to be a large group of students who just can't seem to get off on the right foot and hit one or another snags in trying to get logged into everything and squared away. I've found that supplementing your written instructions with a personalized video walk-through of all the steps necessary works wonders. By simply going through each step as a I describe it out loud while it's all being captured by video capture software, students can see exactly which buttons to click, which forms to fill (and what data to fill in), and can be warned off of possible pitfalls during the registration procedure. I usually sign up using an email I set up using the name of my pet fish, Clyde. But sometimes that doesn't work if I need a purchased product code or need an official student email address or other credential. In those cases, you can sometimes get a trial product code or fake student credential from the powers in charge of those things. For example, at one college we had one fake student in the system—which allowed us to test our courses. There are many free plugins out there that allow you capture your voice and your browser activity in real time as a video clip. Here are a few that I've used:
By taking just a few minutes to walk (and talk) through the process while the browser screen is being captured, you can reduce student anxiety and give them a more positive "first impression" of your course. An added benefit is that you'll spend less time answering panicked calls and emails from frustrated students—giving you more time to prepare those brilliant class activities!
Here's a sample of a screencast in which I show my students how to get started with an online anatomy program that comes with their textbook. Notice that I start with a photo that's open in a viewer window that is in front of (overlaying) the browser window. After the introductory discussion, I close the photo viewer, revealing the browser, where I walk the student through the registration process.
Top photo: Raven3k
Bottome photo: theveravee • View comments •
Checklists For Online & Blended Course RolloversWhen it's time to roll the course in your LMS (learning management system) over to a new semester, do you just wing it?
Yeah, I've made that mistake. I always think that...
I always missed something, though. And that something (or somethings) always messed with my students. Maybe my "this course is now over" message was broadcast halfway through the course. Oops. Or an online test closed before the course even started. Or something weird that unnecessarily confused or startled or panicked my students.
Rarely happens now, though. That's because I have a checklist. First, I find my "master" checklist template. Each time I roll over a course, I print out (or digitally copy) the master to make a new checklist marked with that course and semester. This helps me make sure that I don't miss something. Especially if I have to break the rolling-over process into several sessions.
Sometimes, I make the semester-specific list part-way through the previous semester. For example, I may want to add or delete a learning activity next time around. That goes on the list for next semester. I may want to change a link to a different resource in future courses—and that, too, goes on the list. There may be an upcoming change in school procedures, the textbook edition, some new thing I want to try, or who knows what, and I don't want to forget that when I'm doing my rollover processing.
Sometimes I update my master list template when I find some other aspect of the course that should always be checked after importing a prior course into a new course shell. Thus, my list becomes more and more effective over time.
Here are examples of thing that go on my list:
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Photos and Video Helps Connect Students and Teachers in Online Courses
A recent post at Extra Credit: The Canvas Blog discusses their findings that the use of video in online courses may help increase student retention—at least in larger courses. This reminded of a phenomenon that I noticed over the first few years I taught fully online courses: photos and video can help connect students and teachers. Want to know more?Want Lower Dropout Rates? Use Video (Part 1)
iSpring for PowerPoint
10 Ways to Increase Student Engagement Online
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When Answering Student Questions, Address ALL the StudentsIn classroom discussions, any question that gets asked is answered by me addressing the whole class. I don't ignore the questioner, but I make sure that the answer takes everyone into account—not just that individual. In my online courses, I like to have an open discussion forum that I usually call something like, Kevin's Virtual Office. Here, students can ask their questions and, again, I answer the whole class. There are several reasons I've found this to be a successful strategy in online and on-ground courses:
One thing that can throw us off is when a student asks a question in a public forum that really should be asked privately. This can be tricky. Depending on the exact nature of the question and/or answer, I may still use it as learning opportunity for all members of the class. But if sensitive, personal information is revealed, I assume that the student did not realize that the whole class can read it. So I usually take the student down from the forum (if I'm able) and respond privately (by email) to directly to the student.
One other issue that is important is making it clear that I expect students to regularly watch Kevin's Virtual Office and read all the threads posted there. I explain at the beginning of the course, that most questions help everyone and that I'll be responding to everyone when questions are asked.
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Clicker Cheaters
I recently brought up the use of clickers—student response systems—with my class of professors-in-training. The discussion mainly focused on how clickers can improve learning and participation, but I also mentioned how the data could be used secondarily as a way to record class attendance.
One of my students, having never had any experience of clickers, brought up a good point: why not have a buddy work your clicker on your behalf while you are still snoozing away in your bed?
This thought occurs frequently to students.
Ultimately, there will always be students trying to game the system to slide through with less effort.
But there are some ways to work around this that I've found helpful (and moderately successful). Here they are:
1. Explain that colleges take attendance for the purpose of reporting to state and federal authorities. Students therefore, may be committing fraud through click-cheating--especially if they receive any type of financial aid, scholarship, or grant. That could apply to both students involved.
2. While the students are all scratching their heads over the first clicker question in class, take a quick head count. Then check your response total. If you count 25 and you're getting 30 responses, it's a good opportunity to have the fraud conversation again. And the academic integrity conversation. And the "do you really want to risk expulsion?" conversation. If you have 300 students, get a TA, student, or colleague to sit in the back and count for you—perhaps holding up a card with the magic number at the back of the lecture hall.
3. If #2 occurs (and we all know that in life, #2 does happen), then start looking around at who might be managing two or more clickers. Call them out on it—you only have to do that once to set a pretty solid boundary. And they'll realize you are indeed looking for this behavior. Many students who try this won't think you're smart enough to look for it and thus are pretty brazen about it.
4. Perhaps this should have been #1. Unbelievably, many students just aren't aware that such behavior is not acceptable. Really. More often than you think. A LOT. So be clear up front that you won't tolerate it and (most importantly) why you plan to be such a badass about it (integrity as a course objective).
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