After attending a Participant Information Exchange on blogs and
discussion forums at NITOP, I'm inspired to try one out this semester.
I already have a blog for the class to which I post links to various
news articles (thanks to TIPS for many of them!), and I've made that my
entry page for Blackboard. I don't know if students read it, but at
least it's right in front of them every time they log in. Also,
Blackboard has a discussion forum that I invited students to use.
However, there wasn't much participation in the discussion forum. I
think the fact that no points were assigned made it less attractive.
The consensus at the PIE was that a lot of students who never spoke up
in class were very "vocal" online, and that's really my goal here. I'm
fortunate that class sizes are small enough (25) that most people who
want to speak up have the opportunity, but perhaps there are some
reticent ones who would like to share their thoughts and questions in
another format. My first question to you, then, is what methods have
you used to get things started?
One approach discussed at the NITOP PIE was to require one post per week
with four responses per semester. Other professors have posted
questions to which students had to respond. I'm more inclined toward
the former because, frankly, I don't want to grade the content of the
posts (any more than I would grade the answer of a student of whom I had
asked a question in class). Have you used something like either of
these methods? If so, would you mind sharing some of the particulars?
Looking forward to your replies,
Jeff
--
Jeffrey S. Bartel, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Psychology
Washington and Jefferson College
Dieter-Porter 306B
724.503.1001 x6228
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