[LINK] Proposal for Teaching ICT Masters Students How to Teach On-line

[Tom Worthington]

On 12/02/13 10:46, Jan Whitaker wrote:

> I started my training in educational delivery in the mid-70s ...

You had to teach in a shoe box; you were lucky ... ;-)

> ... What you say, Tom, are givens in terms of prep and contact. ...

Preparation and student contact in courses should not be assumed. 
E-learning can make this worse, as it allows the lecturer to add large 
amounts of course material and keep changing it during the course. Also 
if the course materials are poor, the lecturer can be overwhelmed by 
queries from students.

> ... I don't know how you do the sort of personal
> contact that a single student might want when they are one of 40,000. ...

Large courses need many tutors. Alternatively a combination of automated 
feedback and student self-help groups can be used, but how to do that is 
a work in progress.

> ... I feel awful when our Moodle system fails for some reason ...

My advice is to use a fully integrated Learning Management System, which 
includes voice communications as well as instant messages and e-mail. So 
when it breaks there is no way for the students to contact you to 
complain and you feel fine. ;-)

More seriously I provide the students with the option to download a copy 
of the course materials for off-line use and a second copy via a static 
website (which is less likely to fail under load). Also I encourage 
students to submit drafts of assignments well in advance of the 
deadline. This is handy in case of technical problems, but also 
encourages students to reflect on, and improve, their work.

> One thing I think the article exposes is the coming clash of
> expectations of those who enrol in these monsters ...

If you enroll in a course which costs you nothing, how high can your 
expectations be? I tried a couple of the early MOOCs and fond poorly 
designed materials with the sort of problems which should not be 
accepted in a trainee tutor's work. But no doubt the courses will improve.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
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Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science,
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/