Due by noon tomorrow

This week, we are thinking about “re-energizing the classroom”.  This comes at a time when we are faced with new challenges:  people are staying in their homes; many are not working, or are working from home; clinical practice is changing, due to social distancing; students are not on campus.

How is this affecting higher education?  Across the country, colleges and universities are sending students home and converting to distance or remote education.  For some, this may consist of one or two discussion questions per week, with a few comments from the instructor. For others, it may entail the use of videos, presentations, group projects, and other interactive assignments.  There are many possibilities.

My challenge to you is to develop a number of methods and strategies to avoid the “lecture/discussion”  or “discussion only” trap of online education.  How can you connect with each student in a more personal way? How can students connect with each other, aside from “I totally agree with everything you said in your discussion post!s  Great job!!?  What kinds of activities can you develop that get students out of simply reading a textbook and responding to questions or quizzes? 

For this discussion, please reflect on the above questions.  Then, share your ideas, ones that you actually plan to use, for enriching and re-energizing your online classroom.  Use the discussion post as a place to think creatively; you can ask your peers for assistance in problem-solving elements of a particular strategy you’d like to use; or ask for critiques of your ideas.

As you respond to peers, please avoid the “greatest post ever” response, and think critically.  Are the methods your classmate is discussing ones that you might want to use? Why, or why not?  Do you have ways to improve or expand on a method someone else is suggesting?

Let’s really try to have a discussion here–talk to each other and share ideas.  For this to work well, we will all need to have posts by Wednesday, giving everyone time to read, think, and respond by Saturday night.