Online Learning as Communication

For Monday, Feb. 19th's class I have asked each of you to take some time to visit the web site for an online university. You received the link you need to check out in a seperate email.

For this class, you need to visit the site and observe a number of things about how this organization appraoches online learning.

Follow this procedure:

1) Visit the link you were assigned and not the following: name of the university, accrediting organization, who they are targeting as students, what programs they offer, is there a phrsical campus as well.

2) How they teach. Look around the site and see how they teach. What kind of communication do they use between learners and between the techer and the learner. Look for a link providing you with a tour of on online classroom and see what you find.

3) Is there anything on the site designed to assist the potential learners as to whether they are a good candidate for nline learning.

4) What kind of online communication skils do you think an online learner need?

Please come to class prepared to share what you fond with the rest of class.

Reading for Monday, Feb. 12th

You know the drill. Read S1:U5 in your text and post two interpretive question in the comment section of this post.

You have until 11:59 PM on Sunday February 11th to post.

Site for Emoticons and Acronyms

Here are the links I used in class for emoticons and acronyms.

Computer user High tech Dictionary

netlingo Smilies and Emoticons

The Acronym Dictionary

Internet Acronyms Dictionary

Presentation Guidelines - Part One

In this assignment you are to read a scholarly article on computer-mediated communication and give a 5 to 7 minute presentation to the class.

This assignment is individually graded using the rubric that follows.

You are to read the article that you selected from the online web site.

As you read the article make note of what the research question is, how it was investigated (method), and the findings of the study.

Your presentation will focus on the highlights of the article, and a novel application of the findings to the real life CMC. You might want to revisit the Blooms Taxonomy question starters for Application to get an idea of the type of questions you should ask yourself to get at the application.

Your presentation should have a good attention getter to start (not, I had to read this article and this is what it says).

Next you’ll give the highlights of the article. Deal with the reasons they conducted the study. What questions were they trying to answer? Give the brief description of what you think are key findings. This probably account for about 30 to 40% of the total time of the presentation.

Next, you need to apply these findings in a novel way. How would someone go about using these findings in everyday life. This section accounts for about 60 to 70% of the presentation

Reading for Monday February 5th

Please read S1:U4 in your textbook for Monday, February 5th. You need to write two questions based on the reading and posted here by 11:59 PM on Sunday the 4th.

Time to Start Reflective Blogging

Part of the class requirement is to blog your reflections about what you learn and experience as a result of this class. Blogging weeks run from Monday through Sunday beginning with Monday, February 5th. You are require blog each week through the end of the semester as long as we are here. You still need to blog on short weeks like those around Easter when we are only here for four days.

If you're not quite sure how to write reflectively, review the previous post and the resources that are linked there.

Here is the grading rubric for each week of blogging:

4 points
-Posts on time
-Minimum one weekly reflection
-Comments on at least two other classmates blog entries (you have two days after the week is over to get these done)
-Mature reflection which includes "what you feel" and "why you feel that way"

3 points
-Posts on time
-Minimum one weekly reflection
-Comments on at least one other classmates blog entries (you have two days after the week is over to get these done)
-Average reflection which includes "what you feel"

2 points
-Posts on time
-Minimum one weekly reflection
-Comments on at least two other classmates blog entries (you have two days after the week is over to get these done)
-Average reflection which includes "what you feel"

1 point
-Posts on time
-Minimum one weekly reflection
-Fair reflection which includes "what you feel" and "why you feel that way"

0 points
-Posts late or not at all for the week