Sure, it’s a done deal with a fully online class: students have to go to the internet to take the class. But what if you’re using online materials for an on-site class? I made a few suggestions to a colleague of mine yesterday. We bumped into each other at Trader Joe’s and she said students were dropping her classes because they don’t want to go on the web to do the homework she’s posted. They say they don’t have a computer, or DSL, don’t want to go to the lab…
I have done some things to force my on-site students, comfortably, onto the computer:
1. Do an orientation
The second or third class meeting I reserve a computer lab and we all go there, the whole class. We all go into the class site together.
Why? Most of them are afraid of the computer. It has nothing to do with connections, etc.
2. Demonstrate
The class website is up on the screen every day in class. I show them how to do things.
3. Sell it
I point out how cool it is for me to be able to work at night or whenever. For classes using labs, it’s more convenient than having to go the the lab and log hours there. Be enthusiastic about how they can get information any time about how they’re doing.
4. Use it as a feedback loop
Send everyone an email the first week, with the URL to the site and instructions. Post the grades and feedback there. Post homeworks and exercises that offer immediate feedback, like some automatically-graded multiple-choice items.
We hear a lot of crap about how technology-savvy these students are, especially the young ones, and it isn’t true. They don’t think of technology as we do. It’s just a way to do something. If they IM or txt message, that’s what they know. If they do email, it’s with friends. They don’t trust (or maybe even like) the incursion of school into their internet time, or vice versa.
Many of them are scared to mess something up on the computer. In fact, just this morning I found out a student had erased the entire class wiki, where we’ve all been developing the first quiz. It was no problem for me: I just went back and reset it at an earlier version, and copied and pasted the missing stuff students had added. But this student would be so embarrassed if I singled him out this morning, so I won’t. We’ll all go over the wiki together anyway today, and I’ll discuss things more generally! 🙂
