I have already had e-mails from online faculty reflected what I’m thinking too — how overwhelming it is to have students enthusiastically participating and asking questions before and during the first weeks of class.
I get the sense that if we are trying hard to connect and get them involved at the beginning, it will pay off, but it’s a tremendous amount of work the first week or so. When I emailed all my students the Wednesday night before class started, I had two immediate challenges. One, my ISP (AT&T/Yahoo/SBC/whatever) didn’t want me sending emails to 200 addresses. I had to keep unplugging and replugging my modem and router to create a new IP address to get the messages out, 40 at a time. Two, students went into the classes in droves, signing themselves up for Moodle accounts and doing everything I asked them to do the first week, and more!
My IM, Messages and email have been buzzing with enthusiastic, nervous and energetic comments and questions. Almost every took the Tech Check extra credit quiz. The intro posts in discussion have been numerous and detailed (a little too detailed to my mind — why would anyone put their address and home phone number in their profile?)
But it comes down to this, an IM conversation with a student that went something like this:
Student: This is great! Thanks for doing this IM thing. It’s really helpful.
Me: I’m glad you like it, but it’s getting kinda crazy! 🙂
Student: No, it’s not crazy, it’s helpful.
Me: Well, I have 200 students, so I’m kinda going crazy.
Student: Oh, yeah, I can see that!
And I am. But it’s good to know I’m catching them early, because I want to know who’s committed and who’s not, who’s a novice and needs extra help, who can lead the others. It’s exciting…but exhausting.
