Kristina Lattanzio’s Blog….

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.