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[teacher_at_heart]

Hi everyone,
I am an online adjunct and someone mentioned this forum to me on another job board.  I would love to have this "water cooler" time with others who can relate to what I go through and perhaps learn some "tricks of the trade". 

[zuzu_]

Welcome!

I am a full-timer, but I do quite a bit of online instruction. Frankly, I haven't found a great forum for online instructors; this one's pretty good, but it's not as active as a lot of the other forums on CHE. Anyway, if you dig through the old threads, there is still a bit of good stuff. And the more people who come here and "hang out by the water cooler," the better this forum will be.

[msmicrobe]

Count me in. I'm diving into the online teaching in 2 weeks. I'm not ready yet. I may never be ready. It's a class that readily translates to an online format, but that doesn't mean I have my act together.

I have 2 modest goals for the summer.

1. Survive.
2. Not let the curtain covering the "flying by the seat of my pants" approach fall so the students catch on. I'm not expecting to be on top of it... just to look like I am.

I'm hoping these two goals are not incompatible, or worse, impossible.

MM

[der_gadfly]

I like the watercooler concept. Jumping off from that idea, in your online class, have an open discussion forum that is not graded. It provides a course-related outlet and place to hang out.

As for not getting caught 'flying...", if you have the control, only open topics a week ahead. This gives you time to develop, formulate, tweak.....

Best of luck to newbies teaching online.

[teacher_at_heart]

Thanks for the welcome replies!  I plan on ranting here as needed. :-)

I noticed (from poking around some threads) that there are some posters who have a strict expectation regarding grammar and spelling, et cetera, of posters in this forum.  Just to give an FYI, while I can write properly, since this *is* my water cooler time, I may slack a bit on the formality and use a bit of "slang" writing (i.e. I will be LOLing ;) ).  I just wanted to give a heads up for those who expect only proper grammar and mechanics....hehe  If you see that I don't capitalize all proper nouns, I promise I *am* educated! :D

[voxprincipalis]

Welcome to the fora, teacher_at_heart.

Thanks for the welcome replies!  I plan on ranting here as needed. :-)

I noticed (from poking around some threads) that there are some posters who have a strict expectation regarding grammar and spelling, et cetera, of posters in this forum.  Just to give an FYI, while I can write properly, since this *is* my water cooler time, I may slack a bit on the formality and use a bit of "slang" writing (i.e. I will be LOLing ;) ).  I just wanted to give a heads up for those who expect only proper grammar and mechanics....hehe  If you see that I don't capitalize all proper nouns, I promise I *am* educated! :D

In other words, I read the rules and decided not to follow them, because I don't feel like it. Hope that's OK!

(The expectation for proper capitalization, spelling, grammar, etc., is actually a rule set by the forum moderators. You will also see that forum culture is not particularly tolerant of LOLs and emoticons. You can either choose to recognize this at the outset, or endure pokes and jabs every time you LOL or hehe.)

VP

[teacher_at_heart]

Oh, I didn't realize that the forum rules here were any different than most online message boards.  Where is a link to the rules?  If they are the rules of the forum, then I suppose I can make the effort to oblige.  I am not that much of a rebel - since I do have a cause. ;-p  I suppose I should avoid contractions as well, is that right? Will I be forced to walk the grammar plank because when I relax on a message forum, I like to unwind with my writing as well, I feel like I'm in the principal's office now  (looks around nervously). 

[littlefred]

I teach online, and have for a long time...

I love it.

Only... sometimes I miss the actual "watercooler" around which to procrastinate socialize.

[post_functional]

I feel like I'm in the principal's office now  (looks around nervously). 

You are in the principal voice's office now.

[systeme_d_]

http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,36858.0.html

[infopri]

Welcome to the fora, teacher_at_heart.

Thanks for the welcome replies!  I plan on ranting here as needed. :-)

I noticed (from poking around some threads) that there are some posters who have a strict expectation regarding grammar and spelling, et cetera, of posters in this forum.  Just to give an FYI, while I can write properly, since this *is* my water cooler time, I may slack a bit on the formality and use a bit of "slang" writing (i.e. I will be LOLing ;) ).  I just wanted to give a heads up for those who expect only proper grammar and mechanics....hehe  If you see that I don't capitalize all proper nouns, I promise I *am* educated! :D

In other words, I read the rules and decided not to follow them, because I don't feel like it. Hope that's OK!

(The expectation for proper capitalization, spelling, grammar, etc., is actually a rule set by the forum moderators. You will also see that forum culture is not particularly tolerant of LOLs and emoticons. You can either choose to recognize this at the outset, or endure pokes and jabs every time you LOL or hehe.)

VP

Oh, I didn't realize that the forum rules here were any different than most online message boards.  Where is a link to the rules?  If they are the rules of the forum, then I suppose I can make the effort to oblige.  I am not that much of a rebel - since I do have a cause. ;-p  I suppose I should avoid contractions as well, is that right? Will I be forced to walk the grammar plank because when I relax on a message forum, I like to unwind with my writing as well, I feel like I'm in the principal's office now  (looks around nervously). 

With all due respect to voxprincipalis (seriously), who is always both wise and witty:  While I agree with her real point, which is that we do expect proper use of English (spelling, grammar, capitalization, punctuation, etc.), in accordance with CHE's rules, we also are a largely informal bunch, and many of us have become friends, either here online or even out in the physical world.  There's a whole forum (Meet and Greet) devoted mostly to non-academic subjects and more than a little pure silliness.  So it's sort of a mix here between formal and informal.  Probably the best way to describe it is that we can get quite informal, but we do it using proper English.  You won't find any textspeak here (except to make a specific point or on a frivolous thread), but there is an occasional emoticon or LOL.  If you read even just a few threads (both in the professional fora and in Meet and Greet), you'll probably start to figure out the CHE fora culture pretty quickly.

And welcome to you!

[neutralname]

I'm just finishing teaching an online course and I am thinking about how to make it go better in the fall.  I wouldn't say my experience this semester was disastrous, but it wasn't very good either.

I talked to people at another college, and they have to take a course in online pedagogy before they can teach online.  I'd never heard of that before.  Is it common?

[infopri]

I'm just finishing teaching an online course and I am thinking about how to make it go better in the fall.  I wouldn't say my experience this semester was disastrous, but it wasn't very good either.

I talked to people at another college, and they have to take a course in online pedagogy before they can teach online.  I'd never heard of that before.  Is it common?

I was thrown in with no training from the school.  However, I teach at the school where I did my doctoral work, and my former advisor taught this course online until he retired.  (In fact, he helped to develop the course, initially.)  He had me sit in on his version one semester, so that I could see how he did it, and he gave me full access to all his instructional materials.  I also got some help (by phone) on using Blackboard/WebCT, but that help was technological, not pedagogical.

My school has since offered a one-time half-day workshop on online teaching.  It was somewhat helpful, but only because I'd already had experience teaching online by then.  It wasn't intended as an introduction, and it would have been worthless as one.

During my first year of online teaching, I really, really wished I'd had some online-pedagogical training (aside from my former advisor's informal assistance).  It's so very different in important ways from face-to-face teaching (especially in my subject area) that it was incredibly challenging and was, in fact, one of the most difficult things I've ever done.  Now I'm much better at it (I think), but I had to learn from experience.

[der_gadfly]

Thanks for the link to the rules Systeme_d_. I missed however the lines about how many points we lose for the occasional typo, or that keyboard equivalents to emotions are verboten.

Just about everyone will lapse from time to time, and let an IMHO, YMMV, BTDT or other electronic slang slip out, so what is the issue with the occasional LOL? Or should we only use the far more respectable ROTFLMFAO?

To the OP: welcome again. Just so you know, I often post from home, and while there, the gad_cat owns my lap. "FurFace" is 17 pounds, 14 years old, and as far as the fur-covered vibrator is concerned, mylap is there for the sole purpose of providing a warm and comfy place for a cat to call home. Now FurFace also is a very large cat, and rests the chin on the one arm, which is then essentially now a part of the furniture, and ensures that the overly fluffy tail remains busy shooing away imaginary flying insects. So, when this is the case, I tend not to lose too much sleep over a typo here and there.

While at work, I have to struggle with a 7 year old keyboard with most of the letters worn off, and with a boss likely to pop in at any given moment, I may hit POST before fully rewriting each of these mini-dissertations at appropriate quality levels for publication in internationaly-recognized, double-blind-peer-reviewed journals of impeccible reputation.

Ergo, I, like all other imperfect machines, (as opposed ot the perfect human-types that populate these fora and who never ever ever made any type of boo-boo in their distinguished lives), do misfire without warning. We make no apologies and take the abuse for what it is: love and affection.