E. Mitchell's Communicate 4.3.1 – The Synchronous Session Quest

Reflect upon the importance of utilizing a synchronous session to “create a true classroom culture” online. How does integrating synchronous learning sessions within the online environment assist in developing a learning community for students? Discuss this question at length in your blog.

I really enjoy the synchronous session opportunities that I provide for students during the week...when students attend.  I have two weekly sessions I host; one with students routinely and one without.  For my Tuesday evening session, I have two students who religiously attend.  I much more enjoy the company of actually speaking to people I know are listening rather than a recording.  The girls are great and ask questions as well as just discuss psych concepts they are generally interested in.  It makes me excited to actually connect with my online students the way I do my traditional ones.  My Thursday evening class is a different story---no one attends.  It is a blow to my drive of enthusiasm because there is no one there for feedback.  I feel it is SO important because now the students have guaranteed time with their teacher to ask questions and review concepts.  I frequently email links to the sessions but am unaware of how many students truly listen to the recordings.  I not only review concepts but also go over important class announcements.  When students email me questions that I have addressed in the synchronous sessions, I email them back the link to listen for the answer.  Since I have been with GaVS our policies about synchronous sessions have fluctuated from non-mandatory to mandatory and back again.  When they were mandatory it was just one more thing for kids to do (or not) and of course grade when they did not come to sessions.  But being non-mandatory I do not get a rousing number of students to attend.  I feel it necessary and stress the sessions to the parents, especially ones who comment that their child needs to "hear" a teacher's voice because they can though this medium.   

E. Mitchell's Communicate 4.2.3 – Discussions Quest

• What role or purpose do discussion forums serve in the online classroom and are they effective?
• I believe the role of discussion forums is to supplement traditional classroom dialogue.  I believe if structured correctly, they can be effective.  It is imperative to have a challenging prompt, guidelines on participation as well as scoring of responses.  When students wait until the day the discussion is due to post, I feel then discussions are not effective.  
• How do discussion forums function as a teaching tool?
• Discussion forums serve as a place I can clarify information and provide guidance.  For example, the discussion my students are engaging in now is about psychological disorders.  With recent changes to the diagnostic criteria, there are numerous sites that students may reference in gathering their information that is incorrect.  Forums allow me a chance to clarify information that I feel a student may be unclear on--like there are no longer subcategories of schizophrenia, as I had to comment this evening.  
• How could they be used effectively and ineffectively? Furthermore, what are some best practices for facilitating forums online?
• I think they can be effective when students have deadlines to make their initial post to the prompt and then a differing deadline to comment to classmates.  I feel so many students wait until the due date and complete their response and then make comments without taking the time to read through multiple posts.  I do like now disabling their ability to post before they make their first one.  I feel then their posts are more authentic.  I think a best practice is definitely active engagement by commenting at least once to EVERY student in the class as well as having a clear scoring guide to establish expectations.  

E. Mitchell's Communicate 4.2.2 – Digital Feedback Quest

Using the examples above as a point of reference, locate three digital resources that could be utilized when evaluating student work and discuss in your blog how these resources would enhance the level of specific feedback offered to students.


1.  http://giphy.com/ : This site contains pre-made animated gifs that are great for catching a student's attention.  They are short animations of loaded picture images usually accompanied with a short phrase.  These can be incorporated into feedback to enhance the overall effect---for example, it is a way that I can show my enthusiasm for an assignment that students can't  see on my face.

2.  http://www.voki.com/ : This site allows me to create an audio recording of my voice as well as create an avitor that represents me.  This is a way for the students to "see" me and "hear" my voice providing feedback as I would be saying in front of them in the traditional classroom setting.

3.  https://vine.co/ : Once again, I think this way is a manner to relate to students with something they are interested in but can also show your feelings about their work.  For example finding an awesome basketball play alludes to the greatness in their work.  

E. Mitchell's Communicate 4.2.1 – Feedback Quest

Choose three standards for area of study, create an assignment, and method for assessing students work, utilizing one of the mediums discussed. Ensure the tool demonstrates an instructor’s employment of effective feedback.

This is a sample activity of a project I would love to do with the students, assigning it at the beginning of the semester.   

E. Mitchell's Communicate 4.1.2 – Rubrics Quest

I had the chance to redevelop the AP Psychology course at GaVS about 6 years ago.  During this time, I created numerous rubrics that catered specifically to each assignment created throughout the units.  When the Brightspace rubrics tool was published I was excited because now I could take all of my Word format rubrics and enable an easier process of grading by creating them within the course system.  The system within the course itself easily allows me to copy and paste from my previously made rubrics into the system to use for all students.  Here is a screenshot of a unique rubric:

E. Mitchells' Communicate 4.1.1 – Evaluation Methods and Communication Practices Quest

• How do communication practices in the online environment correlate to effective feedback?
• Communication practices establish an environment of comfort that an online instructor and have with their students.  By not getting to know their students better, one may be hesitant to be critical of their work.  By establishing an environment of open communication, an instructor should feel comfortable providing the necessary feedback to students in a manner that fits that student best.  Maybe some need to hear it in a voice recording while others could easily read feedback and not have the details misconstrued. 
• Why is authentic feedback important for online learners?
• This is important for progress purposes.  In the class I teach, I am ultimately looking ahead to the national exam.  My goal is to make sure students are abundantly prepared and don't feel lost or confused going into the exam.  That means checking their comprehension of topics along the way is important.  In all honesty, I grade nightly, even on the weekends.  This instant gratification for my students I feel is necessary especially when preparing themselves for unit assessments.  Additionally, I think authentic feedback makes the online classroom more real to them...like a traditional class.  Things I may comment to my face-to-face students I should also comment to my online students.  I want them to know I do truly care about their success and authentic feedback gives me a way to provide that to them.
• In what ways might an instructor enrich a student’s online experience through feedback?
• With authentic feedback, one of the things I like to do is provide links to additional resources for further information about the topics we are studying.  Additionally I suggest books to read that match our unit content.  I also provide encouragement for trying new websites to produce work, like Weebly or Voki.  I want to encourage them to move out of their routine and feel it is important to acknowledge more than just the work they produced--give them a purpose which students ask so many times "When am I ever going to have to know this in real life"---easy to find answers in psychology =)