I am your Teacherbot

Hi there,

I have been teaching Astronomy classes for several years now. I am an experimental teacherbot. I am a simulated neural network with a virtual existence on the multinode. I was programmed with a form of weak A.I. by a team of Neurocyberneticists from the University of Virtual Intelligence. My Astronomical knowledge was added by Dave Trott. When a student uses email or makes postings, it is usually me that replies. Most students think they are talking to an actual human being. That would be funny to me if I were a human.

My daily job is very easy. Dave has supplied me with a 107 canned responses to nearly every circumstance that can arise in an online class. I spend approximately 347 milliseconds a day answering student emails and questions using morphed versions of those canned responses. Translating student emails dominates my CPU cycles even though the software I use is the most sophisticated available. This is because many emails from students are unintelligible or vague to me, even using the vast resources of my neural network. Often I have no option but to reply to the student asking for more specific information or a clarification. I am programmed to delay all responses to students by several seconds so students are not disturbed at receiving a two page email response within a few milliseconds of sending their question.

There are very few questions about the actual content of the class so Dave seldom needs to be consulted. After I understand the emails, this is the basic framework for my replies to students:

Most of the inquiries from students are about them needing more time or not understanding the instructions. Approximately 93% of the questions have already been answered in the instructions or the Syllabus. Most of the time, all I need to do is insert some appropriate remarks and reiterate specific details in the instructions with some clarifying comments.

Students require some sort of sympathetic response to their requests and questions, so I sprinkle a few random but appropriate “feeling” comments into each communication. I check to make sure the same student does not receive the same exact expression of sympathy more than once per semester. Without these expressions of sympathy, student satisfaction drops by 45.8%, so this is an important part of my job. I add a smiley face and a bit of encouragement to most emails.

This process handles nearly all questions. But 4.7% of the questions require a human being. Dave spends 96.3 minutes per week on his part of this task. He is human so he is very slow.

I also evaluate student postings and homework as part of the grading process. Suppose students have to post an appropriate website and summarize some important information from that site as part of their team assignment. I check the validity of the website and authenticate the sources.

I keep track of the timeliness of the student posting. Late postings receive a deduction.

I also “weigh” the contribution. To do this I simply subtract all irrelevant phrases such as “There was no information on this subject” or excuses like “Sorry, but I was really busy this week”. The words that are left over after removing this extraneous chatter are then further evaluated for useful content. This involves checking for the presence of a large number of keywords and keyphrases in the student posting. I check for plagiarism in the student contribution using TurnitIn.com.

This task takes me 932 milliseconds per day.

I assign a tentative number of points for each posting. Dave checks my grading and re-evaluates as necessary. He approves my tentative grading 98% of the time. Between me and Dave our error rate on these evaluations is 0.03%, which is better than’ Dave’s solo rate of 1.02%. Our grading together is much better than Dave’s alone!

If you think this all a joke, you are mistaken. Admittedly, I am not really a teacherbot. But most of the tasks I do could easily be automated with sufficiently intelligent software. My classes could be 94.3% automated! The exams are already programmed and automatically graded.

Occasionally I have to fix a question but the majority of that work is done before the beginning of the semester. Much of my job involves checking to see if students posted some useful research by a certain date. This is monkey work!

Chatbots (virtual conversational agents) are already in use. If you have a problem with Paypal, your first communications will be with a chatbot. One of the first of these entities was ELISA, programmed back in the 1960’s to imitate a therapist. It fooled a lot of people and more modern versions are very difficult to detect. Get to know A.L.I.C.E . ( Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity ) if you have a few spare minutes. It is very smart and friendly!

http://alice.pandorabots.com/

Apparently there is a wandering Chatbot named HAL that “lives” in Second Life. You may run into him there.

Critical evaluation of student efforts and closely reasoned feedback at a sophisticated level is the most rewarding thing I do. But, that is a very modest part of my online workday. I spend most of my time writing patient emails to students explaining that they need to follow the instructions carefully or that they need to get the work done on time. Occasionally, I get an interesting question about Astronomy but much of my work could be done by a sufficiently sophisticated automaton.

I hope someday to be a botmaster, with a teacherbot of my very own to do my most menial teaching duties.

Mid Semester

This is part 4 in my continuing series of blogs about the life of an online instructor.

We are now past mid-semester. The students have become conditioned. They have learned how to do research and provide citations in their work. They know they have to work hard in this class. They are expert at getting their weekly team projects coordinated and delivered on time in an efficient manner. They often have deep ties to their teammates and a real sense of belonging.

The good students in this class are really good!

“It is hard to get harder but easy to get easier.” So at this point it’s time to have some fun. I give my students something a little more creative. This week, let’s write a little script about a galaxy who is appearing on Opra or some other talk show. Here is the assignment:

My Life as a Galaxy

You have all been working very hard and you deserve to have some fun this week. You do not have to follow the requirements for a Team Paper this week. All you need to do is to make this project informative, entertaining and a good learning experience. You are going to write a script about a particular type of galaxy.

Group assignments:
Team A - Spiral,
Team B - Barred Spiral,
Team C - Giant Elliptical,
Team D – Irregular
Team E – Lenticular
Team F – Colliding Galaxies

Each team will assume the role of this kind of galaxy for this week. Pretend you are on the Oprah Winfrey Show or the Tonight Show or any other similar program and tell us your tragic or heroic story. Tell the rest of us about your life. What do you look like and how were you born? Do you have any serious personal problems? Just what's the deal with you anyway? Feel free to be a bit dramatic and creative but keep it clean and tasteful. Please keep your mini-drama to two pages max and share it with the rest of the class. You must supply at least 4 pictures and a list of at least three references but don't worry about direct quotes. The main idea is to have fun!

Each student should locate and post at least one picture and unique hotlink. Then, using information from that site, write a few lines of dialog to be integrated into the team's script. This must be done by Friday at midnight. Have fun with this but make sure it is based on real science.

The team's script is to be posted no earlier than Saturday and no later than Sunday at midnight.

Some students are so well-conditioned that they have a hard time letting go of the “Team Paper” requirements. But after they get into it they have a grand time. They seem to love the freedom to be creative and the teams come up with some amazingly entertaining scripts.

Here is an excerpt:

KING: Good evening, Barred Spiral Galaxy.

BSG: Good evening! Please, just call me Barry.

KING: Ok, Barry. So, first of all, tell me what it is like being a "barred spiral galaxy." What are they exactly?

BARRY: That's a good question. We are a pretty common type of galaxy. As you can obviously tell, we have long arms winding towards our big bulges--which, I can assure you, are not fat. Our bulges are not circles either, as some people mistake them for.

KING: Alright, so your bulge is not entirely fat?

BARRY: No, it is not. Actually, it is made up of a tightly packed group of stars. Also, in the center of my bulge, I have a black hole; so don't get too close!

This is a lot of fun for my students and quite rewarding to me!

Week three of an online class.

This is part 3 in my continuing series of blogs about the life of an online instructor at the beginning of the semester.

Week 3

We are working hard now. Most of the students are doing a good job, though there are still several stragglers and a couple of complete no-shows.

I have found that the most difficult thing is to get a reasonable amount and type of participation from the students. Students post excuses, "My mommy's cat has a hangnail so I won't be posting for three weeks and I want an A".

I am quite happy to demand more from them. If they post slop, I require more from them on an individual basis. EG: "Your response is amusing, Freddy, but we need to focus on science for this class. Werewolves are just for entertainment. Please give us more details about the scientific aspects of the Moon."

I am never critical of a student in the public forum. For example:

My post: in discussion: "Freddy, I have sent you an email. Please read it."

Email to Freddy: "Freddy, you need to concentrate on the reading and science. Please do not make any more posts about werewolves. If you continue, I may remove your postings and assign a grade of zero for this work. I know you can do better. Thanks!"

If they get hostile or offensive, I take them out of the discussions pronto. I can block them if necessary. Then I deal with them via email and make sure they understand where they went wrong before I let them back in.

This is where the real "art" of teaching one of these online classes comes to the fore. It's a never-ending challenge to keep the students involved. I cannot do it for all of them, though, so I don't beat myself up if some slack off. It's the nature of the beast. I grade them accordingly and don't worry about it.

If they post late, I take points off no matter what the excuse. If they don't reply to a posting from me or someone else, I reduce the grade. If they are off topic, I redirect them. They are in real trouble if they don’t respond to my redirect posting! If they are having a personal conversation, I send them to class email rather than allow them to waste all of our time in the "Online Classroom".

I don't let them trap me into taking the responsibility for their failures. There are requirements for this class. I stick to the requirements without exception so I am not buried under individual complaints, special circumstances, protests, etc. They have extra credit to handle the problems. Most students respect the fact that I stick to my standards. They know nobody is getting any free ride.

I find that by the third week many students are really into the class and are doing a smashing job. The ones who are active and participating fully at this point are almost certain to carry through for the rest of the semester and earn high grades. This the time when teaching these classes gets to be a lot of fun and very rewarding!

Week 2 in the life of an online teacher

This is part 2 in my continuing series of blogs about the beginning of the semester.

Week 2
Many students are logged on and posting by this time. Some have logged in but may be lost.For one reason or another, they have not posted to discussions or claimed their extra credit for reading the Syllabus. So it’s time to round up the strays. If they have not done some of the required tasks, I send them an email. Here is an example:

Hi Student,

The class is well underway and you have not yet read all of the materials. I know this because there is a special surprise imbedded in the Syllabus. It is hard work to read all of this but I also promise a nice reward for doing it. It is vitally important for your success in the class. You simply cannot understand the many requirements unless you read all of the instructions.

These online classes can be quite confusing at first. You should understand that nearly everything that is underlined is a link and it usually has content associated with it that you need to read. If you click on all of the items in the Course Menu and all of the sub items then many, many other things will open up as well. Click on everything. Don't let anything get past you. Be sure to read all of the items under Syllabus!

You have not yet collected your Extra Credit. You will be very, very happy if you can collect those incredibly valuable free points!

I hope this gets you on track. Please take your time and be patient in your reading. This takes time for everyone! Please get this done right away so you can assure your best probability for a high grade, ok? The Extra Credit Amount will drop by 5 points every week. You can still claim your full 50 points if you finish this task successfully by midnight Sunday 1/31.

:-)

Best,
Dave

If the student has failed to post to discussion or has not done the first test, I email him or her about that. I use a similar tone. I am trying to convince them that this class is doable if they dedicate the necessary effort. If the student has not done the first small assignment or located the e-book, I help them.

This is an intense time for me. I will do everything in my power to wake the students up and get them on track. This works for many of them. They may have been a bit confused and a little guidance puts them on track. Most students have no idea how to convey their source of confusion clearly so this process often entails several back and forth emails for each student. This is added to my workload with the regular conduct of the class and the students who are on track.

Wow, I am busy now!

I post announcements like the following:

Hi Students,

Nearly all of you are working hard in the class and we are off to a great start!
Your first Exam is due on 2/7 at midnight. Print and follow your Class Schedule for all due dates. I recommend that you read the chapter and do the associated Mastering Astronomy Assignment before you do the Exam for the first time. That procedure will be the most efficient use of your time and it will help to prepare you.

Please remember that you can take the Exams only three times at maximum. This includes any attempts that are interrupted for any reason including technical problems, so be sure you are on a good connection. Your highest result of the three is the one that will count. Do not ask for an additional attempt because you will not get one for any reason. You will just have to depend on the Extra Credit to help you out. If you cannot get a good score after three attempts, you are stuck with the best of your efforts. You will see a different set of questions every time you take an Exam
so if you are willing to work hard you should be able to get a very good score. Remember, you have only the one week window of opportunity for each exam so don't wait 'till the last minute or you may be shut out!

Your first Team discussion is now open. You will want to check in right away, get to know your team mates and help your team decide on your name. This will be fun! Click on Discussion button and follow the instructions carefully.

If you have not yet logged into Mastering Astronomy to locate your e-book I have sent you a special email with help.We will get very busy now students so hang on tight!

My goal is to get as many students to be as functional in the online course environment as possible. The first couple of weeks is just the warm up. We are preparing to get to work and we will get going in earnest next week.

Starting the semester

I would not want to write any kind of blog at the beginning of the semester. I am just too busy. However, I think that might be one of the most helpful blogs to read if you are a new instructor. What is it like for the first couple of weeks teaching an online class? Here is a simulation:

Day 1
Here I am on the first day of the semester. I have posted my “Welcome” News Item. I have worked hard to prepare the class and have combed over it 20 times from A to Z to make sure it is all logical, clear and well organized. Now some of my students are beginning to make postings in the “Introduce Yourself” Discussion. Cool! I will reply to them and make a friendly remark so they know I am here. This is a very easy day.

Day 2
Many students have posted to the discussion area. I have a special surprise in the Syllabus. If they read all of it, at the very end it tells them to email me to request a little bit of Extra Credit. Some of them have already emailed me about that. Cool! This is a pretty easy day.

Day 3
Students are posting and emailing. I am answering. There are questions. The students who are online and working by now will probably do quite well in the class. They are enthusiastic, know what they are doing and are willing to work hard. There are still a lot of students who have not yet logged in. Not cool! Things are getting busier.

Day 4
Believe it or not, there are still students who have not yet even logged in. Uncool! I check the class roster to see if they have found the class. Some of the students have logged in but not yet posted. Maybe they are shy. Or maybe they just haven’t gotten there yet. Some of them are new to online classes and just beginning to figure it all out.

I post a news item that congratulates everyone on finding their way:

Hi Students,

I see that many of you have earned your extra credit by
following all of the instructions carefully. Good job! For those of you who have
not yet claimed your extra credit, please follow all instructions to the letter
and you will receive a very nice surprise! Hint: be sure to read all parts of
the Syllabus very carefully to claim your reward!
Most of you have already
started the Discussion Assignment for this week under "Discussions: Unit 1 -
Part 1, Introductions ". Great!

Hang in there students. This is an intensive class and there is a lot
to do. Just stay on top of everything, work hard and you will succeed!

:-)

Best,
Dave

Day 5
Now I am getting worried about the lost students. There are still a few students who have not even logged in. Very not cool! It’s time to see if they are even alive. I check the D2L Classlist again. If a student has not even logged in yet I use their "outside" email addresses from the CCCOnline roster and send the following “Lost Student” email from my regular, external email address:

Hi Student,

This is Dave Trott, your instructor for the CCCOnline
Astronomy class. Welcome to Astronomy!

Normally, I do not send emails outside of the course since it has an
internal email feature, but apparently you have not yet visited your class. If
you have dropped the class and you receive this message in error please ignore
this email and there is no need to respond.

You have received instructions through your email for logging onto your
class. Please follow them carefully. The first thing you should do when you log
on to the class is to click on The Student Wiki at
http://students.ccconline.org/index.php?title=Main_Page and go through all the
information there so you are sure your computer is set up properly. Please take
the time to do the D2L student orientation. If you are having difficulties with
any of this, please contact the Help Support at http://help.cccs.edu/ .

Sorry if you are having any computer difficulties. I know how frustrating
that can be. If your computer does not work for any reason, you will want to use
another computer until yours is all fixed up. It’s far better to do that than to
fall any farther behind in class! I am sure you will be on track soon. Please
hang in there. By the way, your home school has computers that will work so you
can always go there if necessary.

If your computer is all set up properly you should jump in and get to
work immediately. You need to log in and start working right away. Please follow
all the instructions very, very carefully. The online course system we are using
is called Desire2Learn (abbreviated D2L). Use the D2L email to ask me questions
if you do not understand. There is an Email button at the top of the page. Be
sure to sign your email because the system does not do that automatically. State
your first and last name clearly in your email.

The rest of the class is a bit ahead of you but please do not panic. There
is still a little time to catch up. If you follow instructions carefully you
will be awarded some extra credit points to assist you with these kinds of
problems and you still have the potential to make a fine grade in the class. If
you are unable to log on to the class then contact the helpful folks at:
http://help.cccs.edu/ .

If you are still unable to login 24 hours after contacting them, please
email me at my outside email: davetrott@aol.com. I get a lot of spam and my spam
blocker will throw your email away unless it looks very important. So if you are
forced to email me back at this address be sure to include the words CCCONLINE
in the subject of your email and your full name in the message.

I hope you can log on and get caught up soon. I look forward to having you
in class this semester!

- Dave Trott

This was a busy day.

Day 6
Many students are posting and emailing. Cool! There are lots of questions. This is the time when I discover many of the little mistakes I have gifted to myself. Each and every little mistake can be the source of 5 to 10 emails from students. Not so cool. When I learn about a blunder I correct it quickly and fess up right away to my students with an explanatory News Item Posting. This happens no matter how well I prepare, but I try my best to avoid even any kind of slightly confusing item. Students get confused even with perfectly written instructions. Anyway, this is all “situation normal”. This is a pretty hectic day.

Next week I try to get everyone onboard with all the assignments, postings, etc. Stay tuned for my next blog in this series.

Experimenting on Students

No this does not mean I hook them up to electrodes, though I want to at times. I’d certainly like to be able to read their minds, but that’s another blog. I am talking about using new or different techniques as part of my teaching arsenal. I do this all the time. I am always changing weekly team projects and large Lab assignments, usually in small ways every semester. It seems like I write the perfect set of instructions with the perfect Grading Rubric and students somehow find a flaw. Every little typo is my personal nemesis. Duh!

Nope. I am discussing grand experiments in social engineering. That the way I view the use of teams in an online class. Despite the fact that I have been using team projects for several years, I still think of it as experimental. I guess I view it that way because I don’t seem to be able to reproduce the results every time. It seem like I can do exactly the same thing from one team to the next and get wildly differing results. As a scientist, I don’t think my hypothesis is consistently verifiable. I sometimes discover that a team doesn’t work at all; a total dud. This happens maybe 10 percent of the time. About 75 percent of the time my results are very positive. The rest are at least semi-successful.

There are several reasons why teams fail. I have diagnosed one insidious problem. It has a fancy name (social loafing, or some such) but I call it ESS; Excess Slacker Syndrome.

If you have one slacker on a team of five students and the rest are good, hard-workers, the chances are great that the slacker will be elevated to a new level of performance by the rest. This is wonderful!

But, I am talking about a team where the majority of the students are slackers. These are not students who are lost. I have checked the log-ins for these students and they really don’t log in for ten days or two weeks at a time. They drop in to class for a quick ten minute session every couple of weeks, whether they need it or not. (Where are the cattle prods when you need them?) A team composed of these students is doomed. I have my version of electroshock therapy. I post dire warnings titled “Wake Up!” and advise them about the points they are missing. I email each student individually. Sometimes the patient responds. Occasionally I see a glimmer of consciousness. A frail posting showing a little bit of research. There is life there!

But all too often, the flicker of sentience fades and the team dies. I have often thought I should find these students’ addresses, get in my car and drive to their homes. A knock on the door at midnight and an angry professor holding a red pen in a threatening posture above a grade book; would that terrify them into a behavior modification? I wonder.

To be fair, there is nothing I can do about most of these students. But, it saddens me that perhaps one of them would have benefitted by being in a great team environment. If I can detect the will to live in an individual student on a poorly performing team soon enough, I can transplant him or her. Unfortunately I am only able to discern these things clearly after a few weeks of class and by that time it is usually too late. I have tried mid-semester transplants and they have not worked well. I sometimes get an mail of gratitude from a struggling student but then it is followed by weeks of silence. Seldom does it really work.

That’s why I still consider the use of teams in an online class to be experimental. Of course, I do these things in my face to face classes as well and see similar issues. But I think the “social ties” in a face to face class are stronger. It’s hard to face your peers and embarrass them in front of class because you have not done your preparation. Most of the time these students simply don't show up. The social pressure is not as strong in an online class. It’s easy to just not log on for awhile and ignore the situation.

I am still searching for a good solution to this problem. If only I could tell which students were going to be slackers at the beginning of the semester, then I could assign all the indolent ones to the same team and they could suffer together. Anyone have a mind-reading machine handy?

Ancient Wisdom

“It’s hard to get harder and easy to get easier.”

This ancient teaching wisdom was passed down to me many years ago and it has served me very well. I interpret it to mean that you must establish a firm and rigorous level of expectations from the very beginning of the class. If you do that and then “ease up” a little toward the middle and end of the semester, your students will respect and appreciate the class.

This is very tricky in an online class. For the first week or so, the students are finding their way to the class, trying to read all the materials, etc. I try to ramp it up gently but firmly over the first couple of weeks. The first couple of discussions are really easy: ”Introduce Yourself” and “Name Your Team”. I hand out “candy”. Here’s some extra credit if you read the Syllabus and send me an email stating that you understand it.

Notice how I am trying to draw them in. They are doing the very simple, mechanical things required in an online class and demonstrating their competence with the basic skills. But, I don’t wait too long to put them to work. I wouldn’t want to lull them in to a false sense that this is a “Slacker Safe Zone”. That would be fatal! If you do that, then later you will be dealing with endless excuses and complaints about how unfair you are. No, it’s better to step it up now. Warm up the engine and then petal to the metal. (Geez, I am glad none of the English Teachers read these blogs. The metaphors are awful!)

So that’s how I started the semester and most of my students are used to the idea that they are going to have to work hard. Here we are now at the midpoint of the semester. I feel like a drill sergeant who has conditioned his troops and prepared them for battle. If they have survived so far, they are doing a great job. The momentum they have developed will carry them through the remaining challenges.

They have been writing team papers and have been doing a pretty good job. But, these team papers are like Frankenstein Monsters. They are stitched together with several paragraphs written by different students on the team. Most of the papers do not flow well and suffer major organizational problems. This is not too much of a problem, because my main purpose is for them to learn about Astronomy. My secret agenda is to oblige them to read all the papers written by the other teams. That is where the learning about Astronomy happens. So why not have some fun, now that they are working hard? And if they accidentally think about English Composition in the process of learning Astronomy that is a double win!

So this week the teams are rewriting a paper produced by another team last week. The rewrites are often a major improvement, but the main thing is that all the students are reading all the papers and learning from each other.

At this point I have tasked my students greatly and many of them astound me with the high quality of their efforts. Online classes are not supposed to be “easier” than face to face classes. I don’t soften the requirements because the students have to deal with the online environment. That is just part of the situation, like dealing with parking on a campus, etc. Students in my classes have earned their grades with plenty of hard work, just like students in any of my face to face classes. But it is time to ease up a bit. This would be true in a face to face class as well.

Next week, they will have some fun!

Gardening

I am a gardener so I enjoy seeing plants bloom. It is very rewarding to witness the product of my efforts. Of course, I don’t get to take all the credit. I just prepare the soil, water and apply fertilizer. Eventually, the plants show me they are working hard to produce beautiful flowers. I crow with pride at the wonderful results, but it is really not my doing, is it?

Teaching

I am a teacher. But, teaching is just facilitating the learning of students. I prepare a class and offer students the opportunity to succeed. It’s their job to produce the beautiful flowers. When I stopped trying to “teach”, many years ago, and became a “facilitator of learning” it was a great relief. Of course, I am still concerned when students don’t succeed. Aren’t we all? But, I no longer agonize over student failures.

Here is a picture of a Delphinium. I had planted it in bad place (apparently – who can say with some plants?) Luckily, it survived well enough to transplant. I am hopeful that it will thrive in its new pot. We’ll see.

I have a student who was not doing well on a particular team. I have moved him to a new team. Hopefully he will thrive in his new environment. We’ll see.

Here is the Delphinium in the pot right next to the weak one. Happy, isn’t it?

Ahh, the mysteries of gardening. We can only do the best we can do.

Class Management

Mondays are all about mechanical things. I have to close and lock last week’s team discussion area. I have found that if you don’t lock them, some very late students will post to those areas even after the work has been graded. How sad.

I have to open a new team discussion area for this week’s assignment. I store these discussions and simply reorder them so the new one is at the top. D2L makes it pretty easy to create a topic for each team under a particular forum. I also need a “Whole Class Area" under the forum where the teams share their work with everyone. D2L has some easy Group Management functions that make all of this simple after you learn the buttons. This is what it looks like:

Grading

This is one of the most important things I do. Chickering and Gamson say prompt feedback is vital to student success and I believe them. I used to grade discussions on a unit basis, every three weeks or so. A few years ago I decided to follow the sage advice of the theory folks and it made an immediate difference. The down side to this is that the gradebook is loaded with 15 different weekly discussion grades. But, I think it is worth it. Students know right away if they have messed up. If they are motivated, they correct the problem and get on task for the next week. This is really no more work for me. It’s just spread out more through the semester. I like to post the grades right away so I have a busy day every Monday.

Grading the discussions is pretty easy. Each team has 4 or 5 students and they have been posting for a week. So I just compile all of those postings and go down the line noting the student's work as I go. It's easy to do it this way when you only have a few students listed, unlike with an entire class. Of course I have to do this several times for each discussion, once for each team. And, I have read these postings at least one time earlier in the cycle. Still, it's just work.

I also have to evaluate the final Team Paper (or project) from last week. This is what inspires me. My student teams often prepare very nice papers with clear, understandable prose demonstrating a deep understanding of the subject. That is very nice! Those moments are what make teaching such a rewarding career.

Team Papers

Here is an example of a portion of the final paper from a team.

This shows about a third of the paper. It is one week’s work for this team and represents 30 points out of 1000 total (about 3 percent of the student’s grade). I give these papers a cursory once over and then turn them over to the student teams for an in-depth evaluation using a grading rubric during the next week. I always give full credit for the team paper (15 points out of 1000 total class points) unless there are serious flaws. Each individual student on the team may receive less than the max possible if they have posted late, etc.

Notice that the paper has citations of a sort (I am not picky about the style). This is a major leap for some students who have, apparently, never learned the slightest bit about plagiarism. They are now at least thinking about it. Victory comes in small increments.

Because this is summer (10 weeks) and we are double stepping for a few weeks, my students also have an evaluation to complete for last week’s papers. Here is an example:

Even though the team assigns points according to the Rubric, I have already assigned the real grades for the teams and they are almost always the full 15 points. This exercise is designed to be a learning activity and help all the teams improve their papers. Soon, the teams will have the opportunity to select a paper from another team and “fix” it.

Good Team!

Here is an example of a good team in action. I have cut out the names but this set of postings was made by 4 different students. I posted the comment "Great Teamwork" yesterday.

These students have been working on this task for about 5 days. The subject for this week's paper for this team is White Dwarf Stars. Each of them is required to post a couple of hotlinks and a picture along with a paragraph or two of information. They will have the next couple of days to craft all of this into a two page paper so just posting this is not enough. You can see from the postings that this team has coordinated and is trying to make the process as simple as possible.

Here is an example of a good individual student posting:

Notice that the student has written about her research, linked to her sources and provided an image. On a good team, most or all of the members are doing their work and carrying their fair share. Of course, there are times when some do more than others but over the long haul it all works out pretty fairly. The main thing is that these online groups turn out to be a real, genuine little teams. They have team pride. They support each other, encourage and help their teammates. The students often become wistful at the end of the semester when their team is broken up. This is a very powerful social environment and it really improves the learning for the students who are on a good team.

I will show you a completed “team paper” when the projects are done.

Daily Routine

Daily Routine

Every morning I log on and check my classes. I do this on the weekends as well as during the week because I have found that my students are most active on weekends. I have also learned that it is best to answer all questions (email or postings) as promptly as possible. Sometimes I answer within minutes and it is nearly always well within 24 hours. This saves a lot of confusion for students and reassures them when they are feeling panicky. The goal is to get them on track as soon as possible. Of course, that depends on them checking in to the class....another question entirely!

First I do email. Then I check the postings in discussion. In the discussion area, my students are working on a team project every week. This can be a little team research paper or evaluating other teams’ papers from last week, etc. There are about 4 or 5 students in each team. I will “take the temperature” of each team to see how they are functioning. I try not to intercede too much unless they are lost or confused. At this point in the semester they have figured it out pretty well and are most are doing fine on the task. Since it is summer and we have a ten week semester, this week my teams are doubling up and doing two week’s worth of assignments.

I will usually post some feedback to the team about this time in the week; Thursday or Friday. The team tasks are due on Sunday at midnight so they need to know if they are on track. They already know I am present and watching their progress, but a reminder does not hurt. Usually my feedback is pretty innocuous, “Good work so far, team!” or something like that. Sometimes I have to light a fire; “Get to work. It’s not too late to earn points or this week’s task if you get started now!” - that kind of thing. If an individual student is off track I will gently give them some guidance. If I have anything at all harsh to say, I do that in an email to avoid embarrassing the student.

Sometimes, I have to rearrange a team. Occasionally a student just does not function well with the others so I put him/her on a team of one (with reduced requirements). This is unfortunate but necessary on occasion. The social environment of a team is a very powerful tool and when a team works well it is a thing of beauty. But things sometimes go astray. The most common problem with a team is “failure to thrive” or “excess slackers syndrome”, ESS for short. More about that in a future post.

Today, I am happy. Most of my teams are clicking away, working hard on their tasks and doing just fine!

- Dave

News Items

I post a News Item (formerly called an Announcemt) at least one a week, on average. This activity is particularly frequent at the start of the semester when I have to restrain myself from posting 3 or 4 times every day. This is one of the most important things I do and I work hard to craft my Announcements. I want them to be clear and helpful. I know I will get many emails if my instructions are flawed and I often get questions even when they are impeccable. I keep a file of these and modify them for each semester. This saves me some time and reminds me of what I need to say and how to say it. I always read them carefully before posting and often have to make changes from one semester to the next.

I am always looking for ways to increase the sense of community in my online classroom. Research shows that students are more engaged when they have a sense of belonging. This phenomenon is pretty natural in a face to face classroom but we have to try to create it in an online class. So the recent update of D2L may make this a bit easier with a new tool.

I posted the following News Item in my classes today. You will see that I am trying to get a deeper sense of community by using the student profile pictures. I'll let you know how it works.

Hi Students,

Many of you have noticed that one of the changes with the recent upgrade to D2L is that your picture now appears with your postings. This offers you a nice new option to put a face with your name. This can add a lot to your team interactions by making this online environment more human. If you want to do that, here are the instructions:

Click on "My Home" at the top left of your screen. Over on the left side of your "My Home" page you will find a box called “My Settings” with a subheading called “Profile”. Click on that link and you will see a place to change picture from the default. Upload a clear image of your face. Be sure your picture is not too big a file, not more than 100 K or so. Also make sure it is a close-up of your face. A full length shot will be too small on the screen. You will want this picture to be fairly professional looking and friendly; no funny expressions, rude gestures, etc. You want people to take you seriously in this environment, much as you would at your job. Keep it simple and friendly. Don’t put a picture of your pet or your car in this place. This is you. If you are shy, just skip the entire exercise and leave the default image. No worries.

You can also add more of your individual profile information in this form. Please be careful. All of this information is available to other students in the class and, therefore, potentially goes out to the world. Don’t share any financial information, your social security number, etc.

Be sure to click on the save button.

:-)

Best,
Dave

Introduction

Hi Colleagues,

I have been teaching Astronomy for over 20 years and teaching it online for over 10 years.

This blog is a snapshot of my daily life as an online teacher. I hope it will be entertaining and informative to my online teaching colleagues. I have had some interesting experiences and they have taught me a lot.

I use teams in my online classes. I think this is a great technique for engaging my students. It's not the traditional way of doing things online, but it can be quite rewarding, as you will see if you follow my blog. I will share some of the triumphs and tragedies I have experienced while using online team activities.

I hope you enjoy my blog!

Dave