1. Technology Day May 5, 2012 Dawn Cox Best practices for new instructors

2. Greetings from the Great Pacific Northwest

3. My introduction Experience: Schools: Cochise College in Arizona, Kaplan University (nationwide) Wilmington University Georgia Military College Instructional design experience

4. We all love the technology! But it is also about the simple interactions. Sometimes it is all about the relationships Instructor to student Student to student Prompt and positive feedback it key to this interaction. I am going to discuss this.

5. Course Design and set-up Be consistent Be organized Consider aesthetics Be redundant Set clear deadlines Give great feedback Be flexible Save time!

6. Be consistent

8. Be Organized: Create a clear and consistent “path” for students to follow

9. Be Redundant Place frequently used documents in more than one place or provide them through various delivery methods. For example, a due date document should be: 1. Emailed to the students 2. Posted in the “Start Here” section 3. Placed in each assignment area that applies

11. Set clear deadlines The most common problem that students have in online courses is time management. Help them. Make a ‘due date” document with all of the assignments and assessments Implement a late policy Send reminders. If a student is absent for more that five days, email. Be flexible. If a student has a situation, work with him.

12. Discussion Board Suggestions Create weekly discussions that might apply to real life situations. Create a clear rubric for grading procedures. During the first week, respond to each student’s introduction. Encourage students to be “positive.” Respond to each student’s initial post each week. Check the board at least once a day. Ask questions to encourage dialogue.

15. Email Suggestions Check your email at least once a day and respond to each student in a timely manner. It is suggested that 24 hours during the week and 48 on the weekend is the best policy. Create a data base of answers if it applies. Negative emails: If you are angry don’t respond right away. I usually send a quick email telling the student that I will respond within 24 hours. Email the whole class at least once a week. This can be done through announcements in BB.

16. Assignment Suggestions If students are submitting in MSWord, use the “track changes” tool. Create detailed, clear rubrics that explain the grading procedure Address the student by name when providing feedback Grade all assignments in a timely fashion

17. Track Changes

18. Rubrics

19. Feed back

20. Examples of feedback for online quizzes and assignments (MML) Perfect or close to perfect score: Wonderful! You almost earned a perfect score on your MML practice problems covering the topics: the advantages of the metric system, metric units, converting units in the metric system, length, area, volume, mass, and temperature in the metric system, and dimensional analysis in the US system. Please email me or IM me if I can answer any questions. Here are the problems that you had trouble with: #5 mass in the metric system, #9 US to metric conversion, and #12 relative metric amounts. Email address AIM: dawnellencox

21. For a student who did not do as well Below 70%: It is great that you worked on your MML practice problems which dealt with the topics: variation with applications, graphing linear equations, and linear inequalities. It appears that you might need some help:). I would be happy to meet with you on IM or via email. Don’t forget to use the Similar Exercise button next time. This will give you extra practice on the exercises you are having difficulty with. Here are the problems that you had trouble with: #6,9,18 Venn diagrams, #8 intersection, and #11,15 set notation. Email address, AIM: dawnellencox

22. Save time! Create a “FAQ” folded on your hard drive. Since I teach math, I often get students wanting me to work problems that are similar to the ones that they have to work for their assessed work. I work every similar problem and then I save it to my hard drive. That way when another student has the same question later, I can pull that up and send it to him.

23. Hold virtual office hours Use your classroom chat area or AOL IM for my office hours. Choose the time slots that you think most students will have time to “drop by.” I do encourage students to make appointments as well.

24. Thank you for listening I hope that you enjoyed the presentation! Contact information: dawn.e.cox@wilmu.edu dawnec@charter.net