Hi All,

I responded privately to Elaine, but, as Ross says, others may be
interested as well.  I agree with Ross that frequent contact is
essential.  I find that the more active my students are in the online
discussions, the more they learn and the more they enjoy the course.

Online students require much more formal feedback on assignments than
students in f2f classes. At UMUC we have students submit papers in pdf
format (to avoid viruses rampant in word docs), and I use Adobe mark-up
to provide feedback on the papers.  We use quite a bit of multi-media as
well.  I read the students' comments and post voice lectures each week.

There has been an extensive amount of research done on online pedagogy
and best practices for blended and totally online courses.  We have done
quite a bit at our Center for Teaching and Learning here at UMUC.
Sloan-AC is a national resource for research and best practices in
online pedagogy.  You may find this info. useful.

http://www.sloan-c.org/effective/index.asp

Best regards,

Rosemary Hartigan, J.D.
Director, Business and Executive Programs and Collegiate Professor
Graduate School
University of Maryland University College
(315)449-1119

>Since more and more schools are turning to distance learning, I am
>replying to the listserve.  At Babson, we have been doing blended
>learning for a few years now.  "Blended" means we require students to
>come to campus at least two times during the course for long class
>sessions so they can meet each other and the instructor.  I teach two
>different 3 hour electives in a condensed format (half a semester) and
>we start and end each course with a day long Saturday class.  The final
>class has student presentations for much of the time.
>We have no set rules, but I echo Lucy's comment that daily contact is
>essential.  We run week long discussion forums when we are not meeting
>live and each is roughly the equivalent of a week's worth of classes
>(which is just one 2.5 hour session in our evening program).  Not only
>do I log on at least once every day, but often more than once, and I try
>to vary my log on times so the same students are not always the first to
>respond to questions.  It is important to plan the week's activities,
>just like an actual class, but also be flexible when new questions or
>issues are raised. For example, I typically assign a substantial reading
>for each week to be read over the weekend.  I usually try to shut down
>the discussion forum with a wrap up comment on Saturday morning.  During
>the week, as I post discussion questions related to the week's reading,
>they may include a short article, or reference to a website. So not
>everything needs to be assigned before hand.  This can be similar to
>handing out a B or C case during class. I also encourage students to
>discuss examples that they have heard of or experienced.  I typically
>have a separate discussion forum for relevant examples in the news,
>where I post things that I learn about during the course and students do
>the same.
>I set up my newest elective to be half online class and half individual
>project applying the course material --comparable to an independent
>study.  That format has worked out well with students quite excited
>about the project and eager to apply course material to it.
>Carolyn Hotchkiss designed an intellectual property elective to use
>materials available on the web and not to require a textbook.  She had
>group projects so students could work closely with a few classmates by
>distance, but then do a group presentation for the final live class.  So
>a joy of this format is using your imagination to set up a course where
>the students can learn in unique ways that are not readily available in
>a traditional course using traditional tools and formats.
>Hope this helps.  Experience here has shown that students award very
>high ratings to faculty who are always online and respond to everything
>promptly. Those faculty typically burn out quickly in the program from
>exhaustion.  I try to let students discuss a new issue before weighing
>in and limit my log on times to at most 2-3 times a day so that I have
>time for other duties.
>
>
>Ross D. Petty
>Professor of Marketing Law
>Babson College
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Katz, Lucy
>Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 10:46 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Distance Learning help sought
>
>Hi Elaine,
>(I can't remember whether I'm replying to the whole list - apologies!)
>We do several distance courses but I don't know of any policies or
>rules. My first piece of advice is - these courses work to the degree
>students feel a strong connection with the instructor. That means very
>frequent contact - daily checks if possible to see who has questions,
>etc., and a willingness to go online when they have time. For me,
>teaching grad students, this was late at night or Sunday evening. Since
>this does not fit my sleep schedule at all, I would pick up early in the
>morning to see what came up the night before.
>For institutions first thinking about these courses, this leads to a
>second suggestion that administrators don't like: keep the numbers down
>so that advice #1 can actually happen.
>Lucy
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From:   Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk on behalf of
>Ingulli, Elaine
>Sent:   Fri 5/27/2005 11:09 AM
>To:     [log in to unmask]
>Cc:
>firstbject:     Distance Learning help sought
>Faculty at Stockton are talking re: guidelines/rules for distance
>learning courses.
>Does anyone have such rules (preferably ones I can access via your
>website) and have any advice re: things that work well or problems to
>avoid?
>
>Thanks,
>elaine ingulli
>
>