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[thundering_m]

Thing one: 50? For just one instructor? Insane.

Thing two: These are grownups. Start entering scores as soon as things are due, and make the gradebook accessible to them. Establish a policy that you have a set time when you look at the submissions and enter grades, after which they will not be changed. If, however, they contact you for help in advance you will provide coaching so they can complete things by the deadline.

Thing three: Is this course a requirement that they are satisfying for a program? Is it a prerequisite for another course? Is it obvious to them how the knowledge they are gaining in this course will help them in their degree programs?

Thing four: Online courses require a lot more initiative to read, and many students are still passive, accustomed to absorbing the words of wisdom in the lecture hall making it unnecessary for them to read much. Add some metacognitive discussion regarding the time it takes them to read, with your own estimate of how much time you think they should schedule to do so. You can survey them in the guise of a quiz by asking such questions and then responding to them. But with 50 in the class, it is unreasonable for you to attend to the individuals so closely.

Thing five: 50? really? Worse than insane. Exploitative.  

[johnr]

Thing one: 50? For just one instructor? Insane.

Thing two: These are grownups. Start entering scores as soon as things are due, and make the gradebook accessible to them. Establish a policy that you have a set time when you look at the submissions and enter grades, after which they will not be changed. If, however, they contact you for help in advance you will provide coaching so they can complete things by the deadline.

Thing three: Is this course a requirement that they are satisfying for a program? Is it a prerequisite for another course? Is it obvious to them how the knowledge they are gaining in this course will help them in their degree programs?

Thing four: Online courses require a lot more initiative to read, and many students are still passive, accustomed to absorbing the words of wisdom in the lecture hall making it unnecessary for them to read much. Add some metacognitive discussion regarding the time it takes them to read, with your own estimate of how much time you think they should schedule to do so. You can survey them in the guise of a quiz by asking such questions and then responding to them. But with 50 in the class, it is unreasonable for you to attend to the individuals so closely.

Thing five: 50? really? Worse than insane. Exploitative.  

Thing 1. At the University of Washington they teach a similar online course to 1000 students a semester.

Thing 2.  Enter Scores?  Scores are automatically entered when they finish the exam.

Thing 3:  The class is a GUR science class for non-majors.

Thing 4. Metacognitive?

Thing 5.  I'm paid $330 per student to teach this one six week class during the summer.  You do the math.  I don't feel exploited at all.

[magistra]

The difference between 50 and 1000 is the number of TAs.  If the TAs are doing all the grading, I'd rather have the 1000.

[thundering_m]

Thing 5.  I'm paid $330 per student to teach this one six week class during the summer.  You do the math.  I don't feel exploited at all.

Hey, exploit me, too.

 

[cmdenes]

I agree about the deadlines. I've been teaching online for several years, and the students do need deadlines and clear rubrics. The deadlines should be quite clear: date, time, and time zone. Don't use midnight, since some people have different interpretations of that. Use 11:00pm, 11:30pm, or something else that is quite clear. You should use automatic deadlines, so that you don't have to be there to cut people off from the assignment, lab, or quiz. The rubrics for discussion board posts and essays are very important, and the class should have a rubric/point system for overall grading. Grading on a curve in an online course is quite dispiriting for a class.

[mathspice]

I have a participation policy that states students must be actively progressing/participating at least 3 days/week. This is the first semester in a while that I've taught online -- I'm so glad I remembered to include this in my syllabus. Thank garsh for the course statistics in Blackboard -- love that.

There are a few students who procrastinate, so I send them gentle reminders about the participation policy. Oh, and by the way, failure to abide by this policy may result in a reduced grade of up to 10% off per week to withdrawal from class. This seems to help!

[erikjensen]

I agree with the other posts which mention the importance of clear rubrics and consistent deadlines. I would like to add a few more ideas:

1) Some of the "procrastinating" students might actually be unable to do the work. I get people signed up for my online courses all the time who haven't taken the prerequisites. I e-mail the syllabus to the entire class weeks in advance and I give a diagnostic quiz the first week to help screen these people.

2) Some of the "procrastinating" students might have no intention of actually completing the work. They can milk financial aid for a few terms of doing nothing.

3) My college has a "no-show drop" procedure that I implemented this term. I dropped about half a dozen students after the first week for failure to complete any substantive work. I was bracing for confrontation, but two students e-mailed me to thank me for doing so!

[mathspice]

I have a few students who have pretty much done nothing as we are in our 4th week of the online math course. Here's an email I sent to one of them:

Dear student,

Hi! How are you? I noticed that there hasn't been much activity lately in MMLab from you. And an email that I sent bounced back (I think it was your home email).

Hope all is well -

MS



Hi I'm fine thanks. Still do not have internet at home. Then I got snowed in for a few days tried to take ch. 5 quiz without ch. 5 homework not good. I have to do the work. lol. thanks for checking in.


lol? Yes, let's laugh about how an entire chapter of homework is due in less than a week, along with the chapter quiz and chapter test. Oh, and lack of participation (participation is defined as logging into course and accomplishing things a minimum of 3 days/week) has reduced your grade automatically a minimum of 5% per week. Yes, lol.

And why would someone take an online course if they have no internet at home? The school is located in a pretty rural area, so it's not easy to get to a local library or to campus easily, especially if there's a snowstorm. Oy.