larryc
Hu hatin'
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« on: February 17, 2010, 01:13:35 AM » |
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Why didn't I think of this years ago? I am teaching a graduate class online right now. About a month ago it occurred to me--Hey, why don't I invite the authors of some of the books we are reading to drop by the discussion boards and interact with my students? All three of the authors I asked jumped at the opportunity. My students were impressed and really stepped up to the plate with thoughtful questions. The authors are enjoying it. Tomorrow I show my chair and dean.
I am thinking that everyone but me has been doing this for years?
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« Last Edit: February 17, 2010, 01:14:04 AM by larryc »
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scotia
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« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2010, 05:45:16 AM » |
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I haven't done it with authors (I hadn't thought of it: the idea is now filed away for future use), but I tried something similar with practising professionals for one of my partially online graduate classes. The professionals - who were alumni of the program - joined the discussion boards for a week and initially got involved in a discussion of specific issues around professional practice. A couple of them got curious and joined other discussions as well. The first year I tried it worked very well; the second year I had problems with the cohort of students not using the discussion boards and it was less successful (though not a total flop). I am not sure if my successor carried on the practice or not.
My biggest difficulties in the whole exercise were getting the IT guys to allow external participants to register for Blackboard (I eventually got the College Head to intercede for me), and with one of the professionals whose company firewall meant that he could not access Blackboard. Generally though it worked well - I thought of it as the online equivalent of a 'visiting speaker' but without the inevitable PowerPoint presentation. If I was doing it again I would carefully vet the IT capabilities of the invited visitors and start by clearing it with someone who had power over the IT department.
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larryc
Hu hatin'
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Eschew the hu.
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« Reply #2 on: February 17, 2010, 01:48:45 PM » |
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Blackboard is the barrier to every innovation, isn't it?
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scotia
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« Reply #3 on: February 17, 2010, 04:21:31 PM » |
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Blackboard is the barrier to every innovation, isn't it?
Blackboard or the IT Department. In combination they are deadly. My new place has WebCT and the version we have seems to be even more clunky than Blackboard. I don't remember it being quite so horrible in the past. The discussion boards are really antiquated. |
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melba_frilkins
Doing laundry.
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Doing laundry (still)
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« Reply #4 on: February 18, 2010, 04:03:59 AM » |
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I am thinking that everyone but me has been doing this for years?
No, I have never heard of anyone doing that. But that is a wonderful idea! --- In regard to the difficulties with BB/WebCT, I would like to say get ANGEL, it is great. But I won't say that because ANGEL was bought out by BB and will soon be another casuality of the BB corporation. So, Moodle here we come. (I'm keeping my fingers crossed that BB will not find some clever way to take over open-source software.) |
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athena1
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« Reply #5 on: April 02, 2010, 01:08:51 PM » |
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I've thought about doing this live via webcam. The class I'm teaching has mostly asynchronous components, but we meet every 2-3 weeks via webcam. The scholar I asked is teaching a class on the same day and time. My other idea was to have students submit questions and I could interview him and record the session for them to view, but I haven't gotten around to it. Maybe next year...
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infopri
I guess I'm now a VERY
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« Reply #6 on: May 06, 2010, 01:46:51 PM » |
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Why didn't I think of this years ago? I am teaching a graduate class online right now. About a month ago it occurred to me--Hey, why don't I invite the authors of some of the books we are reading to drop by the discussion boards and interact with my students? All three of the authors I asked jumped at the opportunity. My students were impressed and really stepped up to the plate with thoughtful questions. The authors are enjoying it. Tomorrow I show my chair and dean.
I am thinking that everyone but me has been doing this for years?
I've thought about doing it, but haven't done it yet. It wouldn't be the authors of our readings, probably, but it would be practitioners of the activities we're studying, to provide some "real-world" perspectives and reality checks. We've just acquired a decent web-conferencing package, so I could either have them participate on the Blackboard/WebCT discussion boards, or I could have them record something via the web-conference tool, and then provide my students with a link to the recording. Or both. Lots to think about here. :) |
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Your experience is not universal. Words to live by.
MYOB. Y enseņen bien a sus hijos. |
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girlaloud
New member
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« Reply #7 on: May 10, 2010, 11:00:07 AM » |
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From the student's point of view (I study accountancy online) your idea is great. Boring discussions are common in this field and everything new and unusual is highly appreciated. I think I should offer the idea to our tutors. Thanks for sharing.
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larryc
Hu hatin'
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 18,285
Eschew the hu.
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« Reply #8 on: May 10, 2010, 12:28:15 PM » |
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Why didn't I think of this years ago? I am teaching a graduate class online right now. About a month ago it occurred to me--Hey, why don't I invite the authors of some of the books we are reading to drop by the discussion boards and interact with my students? All three of the authors I asked jumped at the opportunity. My students were impressed and really stepped up to the plate with thoughtful questions. The authors are enjoying it. Tomorrow I show my chair and dean.
I am thinking that everyone but me has been doing this for years?
I've thought about doing it, but haven't done it yet. It wouldn't be the authors of our readings, probably, but it would be practitioners of the activities we're studying, to provide some "real-world" perspectives and reality checks. We've just acquired a decent web-conferencing package, so I could either have them participate on the Blackboard/WebCT discussion boards, or I could have them record something via the web-conference tool, and then provide my students with a link to the recording. Or both. Lots to think about here. :) I think next time around I will reach out to the same authors but draw on my student's questions to do an interview/podcast with them, and then put it up on my blog as well. |
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zuzu_
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« Reply #9 on: May 10, 2010, 02:00:29 PM » |
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From the student's point of view (I study accountancy online) your idea is great. Boring discussions are common in this field and everything new and unusual is highly appreciated. I think I should offer the idea to our tutors. Thanks for sharing.
Accounting??? Boring??? Certainly you jest. |
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