Interaction in the Online Classroom

Participation

Online Interaction

• Student/Instructor• Student/Student• Student/Self Reflection• Student/Content

Lynch, M. M. (2002). The Online Educator: A Guide to Creating the Virtual Classroom. New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

Student/Instructor Interaction

• Welcome/greeting• Expectations for participation• Timely feedback• Visibility in the course• Availability for questions and clarification• Expectations for support

Student/Student Interaction• Introducing themselves to their

classmates– Images– Videos

• Negotiating with each other re: the content– Wikis– Blogs

• Completing assignments– Alternate technologies

• Student Lounge– Emphasizing connectedness

Setting Expectations

10 Rules of Netiquette• Rule 1: Remember the Human• Rule 2: Adhere to the same standards

of behavior online that you follow in real life

• Rule 3: Know where you are in cyberspace

• Rule 4: Respect other people's time and bandwidth

• Rule 5: Make yourself look good online

• Rule 6: Share expert knowledge• Rule 7: Help keep flame wars under co

ntrol• Rule 8: Respect other people's privacy• Rule 9: Don't abuse your power• Rule 10: Be forgiving of other people's

mistakes

www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html

Interaction with Content

Harnessing the learning power of technology

• Database structures• Social Networking• PBL

Discussion Dilemmas

One hazard of online discussion may be that students believe that they are engaged in a presentation of their individual knowledge, rather than in a discussion which will generate concepts for exploration, and which will finally be the representation of content knowledge for the group. (Pawan, Paulus, Yalcin, & Chang, 2003)

• Structured Responses• Blended Narratives• Educative Feedback• Case-based Learning

Instructor Interjection – How much is too much?

• Group formation of concepts (storming and norming)

• Reinforcement• Redirection• Mining for teachable moments• Interjecting relevant information

Student Self-Reflection

• Post objectives prior to each week’s assignment– Journaling/Blogging/

Video Diary – how am I meeting the objectives of the course?

– Summarizing and posting or emailing – how did the group discussion contribute to meeting the objectives of the course?