[ATTW-L] question about online courses

[Steve Lemanski]

Cynthia,

I *only have experience* both as a student (USU online master's program in
technical writing) and as a teacher (now teaching online for UC San Diego
Extension's tech comm certificate program) *with your first option*:  Fully
online – asynchronous; students and faculty participate from any location;
no synchronous scheduled sessions. However, I plan to incorporate some
"synchronous scheduled sessions" -- perhaps for one-on-one student
conferences -- into my otherwise asynchronous online courses, going
forward. That is not to say that I feel fully a asynchronous curriculum
necessarily limits student engagement.

Julia Cho, of Northeastern University, recently presented (at STC's 2019
Summit, in Denver) her thoughts on effective online teaching practices --
specifically for technical communications curricula -- which she has built
on the concept of the "Community of Inquiry Framework" (see graphic below).

[image: ONLINE LEARNING_Community of Inquiry Framework.PNG]

Cho characterizes her approach as one that promotes "the human touch" or
"bringing instructor presence into e-learnng."  She is a strong proponent
of using short, highly personalized, instructor-created videos as a way of
bringing this "human touch" into an asynchronous online learning
environment -- in additional to all of the other best practices for
instructional design. She believes this technique helps reduce feelings of
isolation and anxiety on the part of students who are new to the online
learning environment.

In my opinion, Cho and other instructors who made a judicious use of
personalized videos in the context of an asynchronous online course design
are motivated to increase the level of student engagement in their online
courses -- in the absence of "synchronous scheduled sessions" (via Zoom or
other meeting software), which possess their own set of logistical
challenges.

Best wishes,
Steve

*Steven Lemanski*, MTC-English

Freelance Communications | Adjunct Instructor

www.humanfactorcom.com





On Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 2:42 PM McPherson, Dr. Cynthia <
mcpherson at tarleton.edu> wrote:

> Folks,
>
> We are reviewing how we offer online courses and would like to know what
> others are doing.
>
>
>
> Here are the variations we have noted so far:
>
> Fully online – asynchronous; students and faculty participate from any
> location; no synchronous scheduled sessions
>
> Fully online with synchronous scheduled sessions (via Zoom or other
> meeting software); students and faculty participate from any location
>
> Fully online with synchronous scheduled sessions (via Zoom or other
> meeting software); students participate from a campus location (students
> must be in a classroom on the main or a remote campus)
>
>
>
> I’d appreciate it if you would share how you present online courses.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> CMc
>
>
>
> Cynthia McPherson, PhD
>
> Assistant Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in English
>
> Department of English and Languages
>
> Tarleton State University
>
> Box T-0300
>
> Stephenville, TX 76402
>
> 254.968.9036
>
> mcpherson at tarleton.edu
>
>
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> ATTW-L at attw.org
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>
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