Learn how to use quick and easy tools to effectively establish your presence in your online class and make your online class present in the daily lives of your students. Tools we will be exploring include Doceri, Remind, Google Forms, Flubaroo and other useful apps.
Researchers describe ‘presence’ in an online setting as the ability of teachers and students “to project their personal characteristics into the community, thereby presenting themselves to other participants as ‘real people’”. (Palloff & Pratt, The Excellent Online Instructor, 2011)
In conducting its own study, the Community College Research Center confirmed the importance for online instructors to actively and visibly engage with students in the teaching and learning process – perhaps with even greater intentionality than in face-to-face courses. Students reported that they placed a high value on interaction with their instructors and further analysis indicated higher levels of interpersonal interaction were correlated with better student performance in online courses.
Most widely adopted learning management systems support chat rooms, conferencing, online tutoring and discussion boards and many educators incorporate social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) as part of their instruction. Although these tools are helpful and effective in establishing presence they can require considerable time to support.
This workshop will provide hands-on training using some very simple but effective tools that improve both instructor and course presence in the lives of students. Participants will experience, from a students perspective, how these applications work and then apply these tools themselves. Come prepared to participate with the following applications set up on your tablet your laptop:
Doceri - App Store (free), Windows Store (free trial), desktop (free trial)
Remind - Supported by all devices
Google Forms - Account required
Flubaroo - Google Add-on