Sample Interaction Rationale
Assignments and Evaluation:
Your
final grade will be calculated on the following basis:
1) Weekly participation
in online discussions 40%
You will be assigned to a forum of 5-8 participants
and be expected to respond to the posted discussion questions. Since much of your
learning will take place as a result of the level of dialogue we engender, the
following should act as guidelines to your "posts": a) include accounts
of your own experience, b) ask expansive questions - ones with no right or wrong
answer - ones to stimulate thinking and lead to deeper understandings, c) build
on previous "posts" by agreeing, disagreeing, giving examples, asking
questions, defining issues/terms, d) suggest metaphors. It is expected that you
will spend 2-3 hours per week on the web interacting with others.
You will also find a forum named "process venting". This is the place where we want you to talk about how the "process" is going - the technology, the interactions, the organization of the class, etc. On-line learning is different - some research is suggesting it's more effective than face to face because there is more time for reflection before responding and more opportunity for "talking" which some are beginning to see as the "key" to learning. So use the forum freely! You won't be penalized for having strong feelings and frustrations - this bulletin board space is there because we know you'll have those kinds of feelings sometime and we want you to "vent"!!
Excerpt from Exemplary Class EDUC 632, Leadership Foundations, and used with permission of S. Freed.