Kristina Lattanzio’s Blog….

The course review for my online course has shown me how much more I have to complete.  I have been focused on creating the documents, assignments and interaction activities for each of my modules and lessons that I have kind of neglected to address some other things that should go into course design.  In addition to putting the last pieces of information together to complete my course, I need to refine some of the directions and requirements. 

After completing the module walk through, I realized that many aspects needed clarification – particularly the directions for assignments and due dates.  One thing I have learned from building this course is the need to be very clear in directions, expectations and requirements.  Our discussions, readings and assignments have all revealed the importance to keep materials clear, and not to assume that students will always know what they should do or how to get started.  Especially in an online course these aspects need to be just as thoroughly planned out as the materials and assignments.

I think one of the biggest things I need to do to complete my course is to create a sense of community my students feel right from the beginning.  I have added the “open stage” forum to the course – the space for students to communicate informally.  I also learned that adding encouraging words as mentioned in the checklist will give students an additional feeling of success and completion during important milestones in the course. (2)

Another person’s discussion post reminded me the importance of establishing class norms.  In any course, communication and how students communicate with each other are important and establishing class norms is an important step to take when creating a community of learners.  Through discussion of norms, I can remember several online course I have taken where one of our assignments was to establish norms for communicating.  Setting up how to speak appropriately, when to respond to one another, and when to start discussions were just a few of the important norms that I can remember coming up with.  In my course, I would like to include the establishment of class norms for communicating as another ice-breaking activity.  I think having students, especially those who are new to the online learning environment, set up appropriate rules/standards for communicating and interacting with one another will make them more aware of norms and what to expect.  It also shows students the importance of careful verbal communication in online learning since there is no face to face contact.  Establishing class norms, a page I came across, gives examples of activities online instructors can use to involve students in creating guidelines in how to conduct themselves in online learning environments.  Something as simple as asking student to come up with a list for acceptable class behavior can be discussed.  This is also an easy and effective way for students in the f2f class to develop class rules, and create a sense of community. (3)

Teacher presence, which is how you speak and relate to your students, must not be confused with teaching presence, which is the way a course is structured, activities are designed and feedback is given.  While discussing how I create teaching presence in my f2f class, I came across some interesting resources that describe what teaching presence is and how to create effective teaching presence in the f2f classroom as well as the online classroom.  I found, in my experiences as a student, that the most effective sense of teaching presence comes from the type of feedback I receive on my activities.  In my f2f classroom, I have always been aware of the way I present feedback to students, trying to make sure they learn from the activities they do and what specifically they can do to improve their work.  Especially in a music theory class, giving simple right or wrong answers is not enough, but there needs to be explanations to back it up so the next time a composition comes up, students know how to use the concepts we learn to analyze, compose and listen to music.

I am interested in developing ways to incorporate effective feedback – in both the course I’m developing and in my f2f music theory class.  I find that the use of audio feedback in this course is very helpful and effective for me as a student.  It grabs student attention more and to be able to hear positive comments would be a great sense of motivation for my online students.  One of the resources I came across identified audio feedback to be associated retention of content and students associate it with the perception that the instructor cared more about them.  Not only will the use of audio be helpful to learning the content, but will also serve as a way to build a positive class community.  Plus, considering the way I present myself in the use of audio feedback in the online course will create a greater sense of awareness of how I deliver feedback in the f2f classroom. 

I found a resource that specifically discusses feedback –oral, written, and aural – and how each can be specifically used in the music classroom.  In addition to students listening to feedback from the instructor or reading written comments, sometimes it is necessary for them to perform along with the instructor to diagnose problems or to determine how to improve skills.