Spring II starts tomorrow

Enthusiasm. That’s what I’m talking about! :)

Welcome email for Spring II Semester

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Events Widget

The number of current and upcoming events listed under our Events Widget (Home Page, left side) can be overwhelming just by looking at them.

Want to change the number of days for your upcoming events?

Click on Edit Course (upper right hand corner of page)
Click on Homepages just under the General Headline.
Click on your Active Home Page link near the top center of the page.
Click on the Content/Layout Tab
Scroll down to the Events Widget (left side) and click on the drop down arrow
Click on Edit Display Options link
Make your adjustments
Save.

I’ve got mine set to 3 days out. And it looks manageable and neat. I also have for my course only.

What do you think looks best? Why?

"...principles to achieving online learning success"

So, I came across the following recent article. I thought it was worth reading and that is why I'm passing it along to you. BTW, I'm sure some/many of you maybe familiar with this book. I wasn't. But it seems we've been offering the same principles of success for our students too. :)

Top Tips for Online
US Fed News

CLINTON, Iowa, Jan. 25 -- The Ashford University issued the following news release:

To prepare university students for the challenges of online learning, academic scholars from Ashford University developed and wrote, "The R-Model for Learning Online and Achieving Lifelong Goals."

Following are the basic principles to achieving online learning success:

Relevance - Flex your thinking and learning muscles by listening and being open to new ideas, accepting feedback and asking questions in your Web dialogue. These activities will increase the relevancy of your classes.

Readiness - Lifelong learning requires you to be self-directed and self-motivated. Make your decision to return to school based on self knowledge, not just from the encouragement of others.

Readiness II - So important, it was written twice. Quickly understand the writing process and your class' writing requirements. As an online student, writing is your sole means of actively participating, building relationships and demonstrating active learning in an online environment.

Restructuring - Rearrange your life so that you have time to devote to your studies. Online learning removes the travel, parking and childcare issues related to driving to a brick-and-mortar campus, but there is no getting around the fact that you will have to carve out time to read, write, think and interact with instructors and peers.

Reasoning - Sharpen your critical thinking skills by identifying and challenging assumptions and exploring alternatives. As an online student, you are expected to engage in this higher-order of thinking.

Response - Discover which type of learner you are - visual, auditory or kinesthetic. Becoming an engaged learner requires that you recognize techniques that develop and support your learning style.

Resources - Use the course syllabus to identify the overall purpose of the class and what you should learn or be able to perform by the end of the course. Within your degree program, look for ways in which learning in one course leads to or builds on learning from other courses.

Relationships - Online learning should never be an isolating experience. Many students use social networking platforms as part of their daily lives and see the online classroom environment as an extension of their private lives.

Reflection - Apply what you learn to a new setting. Reflective activities allow you to clarify what you've learned, formulate intentions and solidify plans for meaningful growth and change.

I thought the writing process was interesting. How about you? What principle do you think is important?

Al

Saving assignments after they have been graded

Do you save students assignments, from the Dropbox, after they have been graded with your feedback? Or, do you delete them via the trash icon?

And if you do save them, do you save them to your desktop in one file? Or do you create individual student folders?

What say you?

Email folders for students

Some of us create email folders for each student in our classes. Other don't. While others create one parent folder and name it after their class and prefix number.

I'm working on individual folders. I just like all my email correspondence in one place when dealing with a student.

What do you do? And why?

Thanks for sharing.

Al

Email replies

Here's how I handle email replies.

In our email settings, we have a choice to Include original message in email replies or not. However, did you know students also need to select this box so they can retain their original messages too? Many students are not aware of this even though we mention this is our instructions.

Here's what I've been doing thanks to COM instructor, Lori Poole. When I reply to students, I simply add additional information to their subject line such as our Course Prefix and Section number. And yes, we know the Course Prefix and Section number are already listed near the top of each email to the right of Course Offering. However, even with our split screen, I'm still listing the Course Prefix and Section number in their subject line.

Instructor Poole also mentioned she puts the following in her email signature: Please sign your name to email messages and include a subject header with our class name and number in it! I liked that so I've added that to my email signature too. And although I've placed this information in my email signature box, students still do not follow my instructions. So, back to adding information to their subject line. :)

Also, what do you think of moving this information to the top of all email messages? That is, before you reply, students will read: Please sign your name to email messages and include a subject header with our class name and number in it! Then start your response. Any thoughts?

So, what do you do?

Upcoming Blog will by on creating individual student email folders. I'm on the fence with this one. So, looking forward to what you have to say.

Include original message in email replies

I know this may be a no-brainer for many of you. However, I thought I would just post it since we are talking about emails and filing our messages.

Here's how to attach your original messages to your email.

• Click on Global email (top of page).
• Click on Settings (upper right area of page).
• Select the second box. Include original message in email replies.

Do you accept late assignments?

Do you accept late assignments? And how do you receive them after the Dropbox for that Unit closes?

Here's what I'm trying and it seems to be working.

• Create a new Dropbox folder.
• Name it Late Assignments (all)
• Be sure to select the Folder Type: Individual submission folder is selected.
• Near the bottom click Save (bottom right).

Then, let students know they need to submit their late work into this folder.

So, that's what I'm doing. How about you? What are you doing?

Al

One *small* word makes *big* difference

Here's are statements I've seen in a lot of our classes:

• Please go to the Schedule...
• Please review the Syllabus...
• Please go to the Content link...

Now change the word the to our:

• Please go to our Schedule...
• Please review our Syllabus...
• Please go to our Content link...

What a difference one word makes!

What should be included in the subject line of emails?

Do you have your students use your class prefix or other detailed information in the subject line? Example: POS105C11. More information in the subject line, helps me understand where the particular email is going and helps me avoid the follow-up emails by asking What did you mean when you said....?

So, do you expect your students to provide a lot of information in their Subject line? And if you do, do you ask them to do that in their follow-up emails?

Maybe we can come up with a standard request that we can all use in our classes. You know, one voice, one message thing. So, let me start.

Dear Student: (Ok, the rest is now up to you.) :)

Al

Discussion *viewing*

I’d like to know how you view discussions under our Discussion link on the Nav Bar?
Here’s how I view the unread discussions.
From the Forums and Topics list…
In the Display window, I click on Topics with unread. Then Apply.
Then, I open the Topics that have unread discussions.
Next, I click on the Unread only in the View window located in the upper right hand corner of our screens.
And finally, just below the View widow, I also change 20 to 50 so I don’t forget to click on the next page.
The reason why I like doing it this way is because it keeps my screen uncluttered.
Please share with us if you like viewing your discussions another way. Thanks!
Al

Welcome message

Hi fellow bloggers!

Let's use this blog to talk about what works best for us using D2L. I'll share with all of you what I'm doing, or should I say trying to do. And let us know what's working and not working for you.

Al