The GIDPs that you are putting together are impressive! Over the past few days I have seen many innovative ideas presented on lovely websites - all of which (as far I can tell) are completely free. This means that nobody here will have to rely on institutionally purchased software packages such as Blackboard to conduct distance learning. Not only are these services expensive for universities, they typically do not provide the robust features of a more eclectic choice of software. Kudos to all for such wonderful use of available technology!
The only thing I found with a number of projects that might need some attention is a lack of clarity on how students will be interacting with instructors. Student-student and student-content interaction is quite well represented, but with many projects there was no clear design for student-teacher interaction (STI). STI can take a bunch of forms, of course, from discussion to lecture to email and so forth, but one thing that's important is for the interaction to go both ways, so a lecture that does not include opportunities for questions (e.g., one included as a voice-over PPT online) does not satisfy this requirement. I would encourage everyone to take a look at their projects and clearly identify the ways that STI occurs. You may need to make some minor edits to beef up this component of the GIDP.
Again, overall these were great, and the class is doing a great job! I look forward to seeing the final products emerge over the next week or so. Speaking of, we are in the home stretch now, so everyone hang on for a little longer and we'll be finished!
It's good to be back home. :D
We added Meebo to our webpage so that students can interact with instructors. Doesn't Meebo satisfy this requirement?
ReplyDeleteSure, if you encourage students to use it for student-teacher interaction. The one problem you might run into is that some students may not feel comfortable approaching the instructor in that way (or at all). I really try to encourage students to contact me if they need something, but students sometimes worry about bothering me. TWU students especially are very courteous in my experience.
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