Goal 7.2 Experience, Andvantages, Disadvantages and Suggestions regarding the Online course

 Experience

The experience lived throughout online courses is variable from person to person, and also from one course to another. Personally, my average practice in the online context has not been the best. I believe that the negative feeling I have acquired towards these courses in general has been because many teachers are not ready to confront the reality of delivering when they are not face to face and think a previously designed platform will do all the work for them. For instance, I have had teachers who do not reply to either e-mails or leave any feedback regarding the activities done during the course, even less set objectives, or care about who the students are.

Fortunately, the three distance classes I had this semester in particular were all much better than the once I had experienced in the past. I believe now that the reason why previous subjects appeared meaningless was precisely because of the lack of feedback; I often felt lost and believed I would never manage to do any better (or bluntly satisfy my “teacher”) so on, my efforts went down. Now I know “feedback can also be provided to the learners on how they can improve learning” (Dooley, 2003) and that this being not received was affecting my development, and this experience has led me – and I hope more people- to try and not be like these so called teachers. Being there for the student even when classes are not face to face is one of the features that will lead to an adequate online course.

Advantages

One of the main advantages and perhaps the reason why many people prefer to study online is because of the accessibility the schedules offer. “Online learners tend to work at least one job, have family responsibilities, and take one or more online courses at a time, their time is limited” (Porter, 2004) but when taking distance classes, they do not even have a need to assist to a physical place and can organize their learning according to their needs and availability.

Secondly, some people can be shy when they are in public. The online course offers these kind of students the opportunity to participate by writing down their opinion about the topic they are seen, making them feel comfortable and not exposed as in a face to face class. Here, they also receive individual feedback from the teacher, which they most likely would have not experienced within a classroom.

Additionally, by making this course individualized, each student can focus on improving their own work instead of dealing with the struggles of their group was a whole, where their language improvement can be made aside for a while and focus only on their actual learning regarding the subject they are studying.

Disadvantages

            Of course, no class is perfect, and online subjects have their faulty side as well. Deadlines become the first struggle for the students, especially when they are not well-organized. While there are teachers who have a structured set of deadlines, there are those who do not. Sometimes there will be no work, and in some other occasions, work must be done from one day to the other due to the lack of structure. It must be remembered that the reason why most of these students take the course online is because of the accessible schedules and the opportunity they have to work on their own time, and not having a well-developed deadline system will result in aggravation towards these people because all control they believed they could have becomes reduced to practically none.

            Added to the organization mentioned, although this has not been our case, online courses can occur locally, nationally, or internationally. This phenomenon is affected directly by the different time zones, where the difference in time can vary from one hour to a whole set of eight ours or perhaps more, which can result in an inadequate set of opportunities of success throughout the course for each student.

            Also, a note to take into account is the fact not all students have access to a personal computer as they please. Many students will not possess a device at hand either because they do not have one at all or because they share it with one or more people, and this is the reason why the they must be given time to schedule their plans when it comes to their assignments. In the same way, sometimes the system itself can go down, all the way from the platform to the internet service of one particular area, so here the accessibility of the teacher will play its part; the instructor must be aware that sometimes the learner cannot control some of the circumstances around him.

Suggestions

To improve the online courses that were not good so far I would encourage the teachers to take a class in how to develop through an online platform. The fact the learners must be autonomous in their learning does not mean the teacher has no job to be done. In this way, if they do not wish or cannot be available at any time the students require them, they could and should set a schedule and the days they are willing to receive the learners’ e-mails as well as an approximate if days it will take them to reply.

In the same way, deadlines must be organized, and according to Porter, 2004, if a deadline is established, that date must be respected. Students should be able to organize the way in which they work according to their needs. Here is also the place where worldwide communication takes place: if students’ live in different areas, a deadline should be set for each place according to the moment in which the assignment was submitted, and this, of course, can be calculated by the platform itself, this to give every student the same time and opportunities to develop their work.

Bibliografía

Dooley, L. D. (2003). Advanced Methods in Distance Education: Applications and practices for educators, administrators and learners. Texas: INFOSCI.

Porter. (2004). Developing an Online Curriculum. London: Information science publishing.

Goal 6.1: Assessment in the online course

Assessment

Evaluation is a process that develops throughout a course as a whole. Part of this final evaluation consists in smaller and specific chunks of revision known as assessment. When taking a course, we are always assessed in different ways: speaking, writing, listening, reading, speaking and grammar are the most common features of a language that  are assessed during the language course, and each one of them can be broken down into even smaller parts to deliver detailed feedback to the student. The reason why sometimes this is not clear to the student is because “assessment is instructor directed. It depends on the knowledge and professional experience of the instructor to determine who and what needs to be assessed” (Dooley, 2003) Therefore, only the teacher has overall control over this.

 The duty of assessing and developing the assessment tools as well as criteria depends on the person in charge of the class been given. Nevertheless, the result of this evaluation, on the other hand, is of use to both this person and the student since “feedback can also be provided to the learners on how they can improve learning” (Dooley, 2003) and this feedback is a tool that tells the student his flaws and virtues in the topic regarded. Added to this, “assessment builds on existing best practices by making it more systematic and more effective” (Dooley, 2003) this is seen the picture in a less ambiguous way, being able to organize and give a value to a series of items presented within each topic. Of course, this “assessment must be tailored to meet the needs of the learners” (Dooley, 2003) and not what the teacher expects. The assessment tools must be developed for each course individually because the context varies from one moment to the other. If it is expected for the assessment frame of one semester to work in another, we would most likely also find that the class is having difficulties with the way they are been graded.

Difficulties to assess an online course

Assessing a course where there is little to no face to face interaction is complicated. Knowing the teacher or the students results almost impossible because there is no time to have a friendly conversation with the classmates or instructor.  Therefore, with whichever resources available, the online course must be developed under a regimen of strict organization. Commonly, the best known feature of an online course are its deadlines, perhaps not always liked, but effective. One thing to remember as an instructor is “if you set a deadline for an assignment, make sure you respect that deadline” (Porter, 2004) Not allowing the last suggestion to become naturalized in the students will result in the class not turning in assignments in due time, which will lead to other circumstances: delayed assessment, and therefore, delayed feedback and delayed improvement in future tasks.

The main goal of assessing the online course is to “provide feedback and post grades within the time frame (…) established” (Porter, 2004) The student must feel the instructor of such class is also engaged with the learning process. Often, students saying the teacher is never there, or that he grades as he pleases regardless of their effort is commonly heard in the school isles, and such fame makes the online course undesirable. Therefore “you should post your grading criteria, preferably in the syllabus or course description” [sic] (Porter, 2004) This way both teacher an learner have relay on at the moment feedback is given/received.

Another thing is that “no matter what type of assignment, comment on the overall effectiveness of the learner’s performance, highlight the most successful areas, and guide the learner toward improving weak areas” [sic] (Porter, 2004) To some students, even the tiniest task can be significant. It all depends on each person’s capabilities. If the teacher is absent, the student can feel his effort is meaningless.

Added to this, “because more online learners tend to work at least one job, have family responsibilities, and take one or more online courses at a time, their time is limited” (Porter, 2004) and this is where some flexibility in the system can take place. The online course cannot be assessed blind-folded to the students’ reality, which sometimes does happen. Regardless of the learners coming from, some instructors believe in an “all or nothing” philosophy, becoming poorly accessible. Beyond the personal problems this may cause, the final evaluation will also be unreliable because it did not suffice the students’ needs.

Suggestion to assess an online course

            I believe that to develop an assessment-friendly environment both teacher and students must be engaged with the class, and of course, show that engagement. Like mentioned before, the syllabus and assessment guidelines must be presented from the beginning of the course, and not only that, but also be discussed between learners and instructor to reach an agreement about the evaluation process. Additionally, this assessment tool, preferably a rubric, must be detailed. It should not only display something like the following:

Essay 1: 20%

Essay 2: 20%

Essay 3: 20%

Essay 4: 20%

Reflection: 20%

            This kind of rubric is far too ambiguous and meaningless. If the student is not comfortable with his grade, this kind of “rubric” will be useless. In its place, a chart containing specifics to each essay should be placed. For example:

Essay 1: 20%

            Grammar: 2.5%

            Coherence: 2.5%

            Cohesion: 2.5%

            Format: 2.5%

Focus on topic: 5%

Development of personal ideas: 5%

Handing out a detailed assessment tool says a lot about the teacher because this tool must be consistent with the feedback given, this is each item presented above should have its individual grade and feedback. Perhaps this is the reason why many instructors prefer to give a tool like the first one instead; they avoid having to grade in a detailed way for each student, and this is something that should be avoided.

Overall, the online instructor should be someone who likes to work on a platform and is willing to fulfill their role. Deadlines and assessment tools should be respected, and through communication, there should be flexibility if any problems occur during the course.

Bibliografía

Dooley, L. D. (2003). Advanced Methods in Distance Education: Applications and practices for educators, administrators and learners. Texas: INFOSCI.

Porter. (2004). Developing an Online Curriculum. London: Information science publishing.