Below is my running journaling.

On line discussions - Sept. 6@3pm

The timing for this class is ideal. On Monday Sept. 8 I start teaching 2 online classes. Both classes are discussion rich and I am committed to further improvement in building learning community in these 2 online courses. The first is the one I will use for this practicum - CAPO a grad econ class for k-12 teachers. The second is a freshman level class with my students at Mesa Community College.

CAPO was designed by the Foundation for teaching economics and this will be the first semester I have taught this class. ECN161 - Economic History of the US to 1870 is a class that I designed. My first anno

Some data:

CAPO 30 students all degreed teachers all previous online course experience
MCC 20 students undergraduates majority with no online experience

Both classes were opened for business Sept. 1, one week before classes. The discussion prompts for the 2 welcome/introduce yourself are:

CAPO prompt

Your introductory post will allow you to become acquainted with your classmates in the "Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?" (CAPO). Think about the introductory process in previous classes you have participated in, either as a student or a teacher.

The subject line of your post should have your first and last name followed by the word introduction. My model post has the subject line completed in the correct manner.

Please include:

Your background

Your reason for taking this class

Your previous experience with online classes

Your previous experience with the FTE

Your most interesting or rewarding summer experience

What you expect to take away from this class

MCC prompt

Greetings online ECN 161 students:

I am delighted that you have located this discussion forum. As part of your Module 1 activities you will need to post a welcome to this site as a reply to this posting.
In your introduction please give introduce yourself. I would like for you to include in your introduction your reason for taking this course, what you expect to learn from this course.
Please indicate what you think is the most important economic event in US history.

Explain why you consider this event to be so important.

Finally, you will need to reply to at least 2 of your classmates in a substantive manner.

As your syllabus indicates, to earn credit for these postings, your post and replies need to be thoughtful and developed. As a rule of thumb, consider at least 150 words to be a minimum post and reply. If you have not yet reviewed the grading rubric for discussions found in your syllabus and on our homepage, you may wish to do so before beginning your discussion.

Greg

Ok, as of today (2 days before class) some more data

CAPO intro postings 10/30 - 33 per cent replies 0

MCC intro postings 7/20 - 35 per cent replies 19


On line discussions - Sept. 13@8am

Wow, what a week. While exhausted and a bit concerned about the one dissatisfied student I am so pleased with the evolution of my mentoring in the discussion area. The engagement has surpassed any benchmark I might have set and I continually reflect upon the depth of my colleagues' commitment to teaching and learning.

Obstacles this week: server outage (unexpected) on Thursday. Only 3 students noticed and this is normal but it is real irritating. I am so impressed with their patience and understanding. The real world does have glitches and if this is my biggest IT headache, all will be well. The drop out e mail from dissatisfied participant really hit me hard, but from an economics point of view, this student's marginal costs and benefits are outside my control. The e mail glitch with my colleague Debbie Henney (she is a first time teacher with FTE teaching an online class Economics for Teachers Part 1) and the reaction from our admin assistant in Davis was a time consumer to smooth over. The starting of 2 additional late start online courses - one more for FTE and one more for MCC is going to challenge my time management.

I am really pumped up, however, I am seeing progress in my skill set and the efficacy of this week's discussion and look forward to next week and the 8 remaining weeks of CAPO.

On line discussions - Sept. 25@8pm

Almost 2 weeks since my last journal. Time is really of the essence as I am swinging through 4 online classes and attempting not to neglect my face to face classes.

Discussion in CAPO is progressing well. In the introductory discussion topic - Is Capitalism Good for the Poor I made use of appropriate youTube videos
in my mentoring as well as the sitepal avatar.

The 21 participants posted 166 times to the thread and I was impressed with the quality of analysis and civil discussion. However, not certain if I can maintain the level of commitment - exhausting.


On line discussions - Oct. 3@8am
Pacing is key. I can't keep up this level and I am certain that the teachers in CAPO and EDSU are also facing the same prospect. My MCC students have settled in - I do need to look at instructional design for the ECN 211 macro course. What worked well in the 5 week summer sessions last summer is not as engaging over the 16 week fall session. Darn, I knew this but was hoping against hope I would not need to complete more revision. I also resent the fact that I am "competing" for classes at MCC with online "instructors" who teach a canned course out of the box with no engagement. I wish my dept chair had some insight about this - I consider this to be educational malpractice - both by the "instructors" (who are real minimizers) as well as the dept. chair. Sorry to be so negative - a sign of my fatigue, I think.

On line discussions - Oct. 10@5am
Oh my god - the week of outages and disasters - bb goes whiggy. The discussion board has "issues" and it takes bb and the FTE over 1 week to "resolve" the issues. There are problems posting to the discussion board and I have to deal with a 20 per cent increase in e mails from participants wondering what is going on. This type of problem (happens at least once a year at one of the institutions where I teach) always leads me to the position - I QUIT! Ok, I won't but this increases my work load and really raises my stress level to unacceptable levels. My frustration leads to resentment and anger - I mean I should not get worked up, but like my classmate in the E Learning Practicum, this is a joke. What a waste of time - all the participants and me. Ok, done venting.

This was a week of repairing damage and trying to maintain the learning community. The engaged teachers in CAPO are ok, but the minimizers see this as an excuse and another reason not to engage. Sigh.

On line discussions - Oct. 17@2pm
I am staggering toward the half way point of the semester. Buried under a ton of evaluation . . . oh man this is too much grading. The "instructors" who minimize by teaching a canned course with automated problems and grading are sure looking smart right now. Ok, I'll make it, I think.

On line discussions - Oct. 24@6pm
It is clear by this stage that I cannot adequate mentor 4 different online preps - at MCC my ECN 160 US Economic History Class and at FTE/UC the Economic Demise of the Soviet Union class are being slighted. So, part of my action plan going forward will be to limit myself to only 2 different preps per teaching period. As I reflect on this, I have to overcome the temptation to weasel around this by doing 8 week online rather than 16 week. I could teach 2 online preps first 8 weeks and then 2 different preps second 8 weeks.

I have found that, it is my impression that the quality of the discussion is impacted by the attention that I invest in mentoring the discussion board. So, while I do not post often, I review each discussion board daily. This is now taking over 3 hours per day - 4 online classes in 4 different preps and now a total of 89 students. I will take a look at retention in these 4 sections next month to see if there is a difference in the 2 sections I am more engaged in.

On line discussions - Oct. 31@8am

I have found that our discussion in the Practicum is informing my analysis of online engagement on the discussion board. In our practicum we have discussed minimizers and academically immature learners and I see a connection between the two. In CAPO I see that busy teachers will, in a rational manner, seek shortcuts or ways to minimize time on task. They, of course, fight against this in their classrooms so it is a tad ironic. In particular, the grading rubric for the discussion board sets a criteria of posting on 3 different days over the 2 week period of the discussion board. Of the 21 participants still active - 12 are actively engaged by posting on a regular basis - these participants post on more than 6 different days with an average of 2 original posts (only 1 original post required) and an average of 5 replies (only 2 are required). So these are engaged members of the learning community. On the other had, the 9 other participants are not engaged. That is they have posted, on average less than 2 times and generally post all on one day.

Then, after the unit is graded, I receive 9 e mails asking why the posted grade is less than full credit.

On line discussions - Nov. 7@6am

Very interesting intersection of the Practicum learning community, my online teaching load and some feedback from participants in CAPO and EDSU. First, two of my classmates missed a deadline in the practicum. I was struck by their reactions - it seemed overly apologetic and upset. Given the nature of our learning community, Den's clear attitude about positive learning and the nature of our class I thought - this is no problem. Then I clicked back to the syllabus and the language is rather . . . foreboding about missed assignments. So, the reaction of my classmates was based upon the language in the syllabus rather than their understanding of the course make up and Den's learner centered philosophy and practice. That said, I have found myself overwhelmed and, while I did not miss a due date in our class, I did fall behind in my evaluation and feedback of all (four of them, damn it) online courses. I just caught up and I am both exhausted and understanding of my classmates' sense of unease or fear over missing an assignment.

This is relevant because, since my last journal, I have received emails from 11 different participants in CAPO and EDSU (not to mention over 15 from my MCC online students) apologizing for missed activities, assignments, discussion posts. I am not certain how much of this "missed" stuff is due to my falling behind in evaluation and feedback. I have been active in all 4 course - on the discussion board, posting announcements, answering e mail, but I wonder if my tardiness in feedback and grading has played a part.

My policy - with the grad students (teachers) in CAPO and EDSU, no problem about make up or missed work. If this becomes an issue, I do e mail the teacher and a grade can end up as a B or even a C, but they ultimately get credit if they complete the course requirements. The undergrads at MCC are another story, they snooze, they lose.

So, of the 11 grad students - 7 have dropped - a really, really high number that has me concerned. All 15 of the MCC undergrads dropped, which is consistent with prior experience. As a community college we are open access and have no prerequisites for the econ classes or any assessment and feedback in terms of skills for online success.


On line discussions - Nov. 10@8am

On Nov. 4 my colleague Kathy Ratte from the FTE was in town for an Economic Issues workshop. We had the opportunity to talk extensively about the nature of instruction and I have been thinking about that conversation almost constantly since our meeting. I complimented Kathy, calling her an educator rather than a teacher. I see a difference between these 2 roles, an educator takes a broader perspective than the confines of the classroom. Anyway, in the course of our conversation I indicated my changing perspective toward constructivism in learning and, thinking about what I have learned in our program, my awareness of the importance of learning community and engagement. Kathy disagreed, indicating that she believed in multiple learning paths, but that "requiring" learning community in the form of engagement in discussion contradicted her view that adult learners, if they wished, should be able to acquire information and not be compelled to engage.

Now, I have taken 2 online classes from Kathy and, I consider her a master educator. She indicated a focus on content over process that now has me reconsidering the path I have been on over the past 18 months here at Stout. More about this in my next journal.

On line discussions - Nov. 21@6am

Further reflections - online learning communities and discussions. As our practicum and certificate program comes to an end I am very appreciative of the perspectives that have been presented dealing with online learning community and discussion. There have been a number of significant areas of growth for me, it is clear that there is a commitment in time, energy and thought required to properly facilitate online learning community. Moreover, online learners have a wide variety of attitudes toward online learning community and discussion and the diversity presents challenges that continue to vex me as an online mentor and coach.