Online teaching requires even more requirements than face-to-face classes. In an actual classroom, we as teachers can come up with spontaneous assignments and exercises, and we can then ask students to work on these in class, even if they are not graded; while students are working on the assignments, we can monitor them, and we may then call on individual students to share their responses. In the online classroom, such rather spontaneous lessons and interactions are rare. As online teachers we need to clearly outline the requirements, and we need to either have all students submit their work (such as responses to readings), or offer an incentive (extra credit for example) to students who do submit work. Students do the work on their own, outside from the teacher’s immediate supervision or purview (though on Blackboard, you can track views, for example); as teachers, we list/post requirements and then comment on and grade the students’ work. Whatever is not required, students won’t do. If readings are optional, most students will not do them. If posting comments or doing exercises is optional and not graded, most students won’t do it (one of the M1 articles mentioned this). The EFOT readings for this week and last week were optional. I’m guessing that most of us are pretty diligent and motivated, so all of us probably either read several of the M1 texts or at least skimmed most/all of them. I have to start thinking about my first online class in Summer 2017, and I know that some of these texts chosen by Leah will offer valuable advice, which is enough motivation to do a portion of the readings. Yet, our ESL students are primarily taking our classes b/c of the College’s GER, and unless extra credit is involved, they will not devote time to the “optional readings” or write an “optional blog post.” This insight means that we as teachers are required to include more requirements; for each exercise we come up with and for each text we find, we need to create a clear structure that involves and motivates every single student (when is it due, what do they submit, how will we comment). These are some preliminary thoughts on a particular aspect on both M1 and M2, and I am sure there are many additional or conflicting views on the topic, so feel free to leave your response here. Responding to this post is optional, however 🙂

(Addendum: I love Voice Thread and Adobe Connect. In the ESL Program, we were thinking that these would be a great tools not just for interactions with students, but also for interactions between us staff members while we are out of town.)