<div dir="ltr"><div>Cynthia,</div><div><br></div><div>I <u>only have experience</u> 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) <u>with your first option</u>:
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.</div><div><br></div><div>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).</div><div><br></div><div><div><img src="cid:ii_k7xhzq500" alt="ONLINE LEARNING_Community of Inquiry Framework.PNG" width="562" height="494" style="margin-right: 0px;"><br></div></div><div><br></div><div>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. </div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>Best wishes,</div><div>Steve</div><div dir="ltr"><br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><p style="font-size:small;color:rgb(80,0,80);margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial"><b><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:rgb(117,123,128)">Steven Lemanski</span></b><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:rgb(117,123,128)">, MTC-English</span><u></u><u></u></p><p style="font-size:small;color:rgb(80,0,80);margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:rgb(117,123,128)">Freelance Communications </span><u></u><u></u><span style="color:rgb(117,123,128);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13.3333px">| Adjunct </span><span style="color:rgb(117,123,128);font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13.3333px">Instructor</span></p><p style="font-size:small;color:rgb(80,0,80);margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:rgb(117,123,128)"><a href="http://www.humanfactorcom.com/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(117,123,128)">www.humanfactorcom.com</span></a></span></p><p style="font-size:small;color:rgb(80,0,80);margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial"><img src="https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1OBk0i0fJ7oG6DC-rDXzNHp-eoVouCzVe&revid=0B6yLX7TDJw_HSE9iS0NPR2lNdUl3V1ZnaS9nQ01zZDlMam04PQ" width="96" height="63"><br></p><p style="font-size:small;color:rgb(80,0,80);margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial"><img src="https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1uJpACRLJQJMBq0IUtre6luTktGbtCCFm&revid=0B6yLX7TDJw_HUERXWkkxUndBY3poeXR2OWp1WENnb1Z4M0dRPQ" width="96" height="17"><br></p><p style="font-size:small;color:rgb(80,0,80);margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial"></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 2:42 PM McPherson, Dr. Cynthia <<a href="mailto:mcpherson@tarleton.edu">mcpherson@tarleton.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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<div class="gmail-m_5681363492225588205WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal">Folks,<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We are reviewing how we offer online courses and would like to know what others are doing.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Here are the variations we have noted so far:<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Fully online – asynchronous; students and faculty participate from any location; no synchronous scheduled sessions<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Fully online with synchronous scheduled sessions (via Zoom or other meeting software); students and faculty participate from any location<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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)
<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I’d appreciate it if you would share how you present online courses.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thanks,<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">CMc<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Bell MT",serif">Cynthia McPherson, PhD<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Bell MT",serif">Assistant Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in English<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Bell MT",serif">Department of English and Languages<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Bell MT",serif">Tarleton State University<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Bell MT",serif">Box T-0300<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Bell MT",serif">Stephenville, TX 76402<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Bell MT",serif">254.968.9036<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Bell MT",serif"><a href="mailto:mcpherson@tarleton.edu" target="_blank">mcpherson@tarleton.edu</a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
</div>
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