Reconceptualizing and Restructuring a Graduate Course for the WebCt Environment

Reconceptualizing and Restructuring
a Graduate Course
for the WebCt Environment

By Pat Byrd, John Bunting, Sigrid Nystrom, Louise Gobron, Dana Maslekoff,
Lisa DiPuma, Maura Nicholson, Cynthia Little, Barbara Hegyesi

Department of Applied Linguistics/ESL
Georgia State University

Abstract

“English Grammar for ESL/EFL Teachers” is a required graduate course in the master’s degree program in the Department of Applied Linguistics/ESL at Georgia State University. In the spring semester, 2000, the course was taught for the first time entirely on the Internet in the WebCt environment. This paper describes the design features used by the instructor and the strategies used by students to create a learning community and other strategies used by students for individual study and learning in this environment.

Design Features That Lie Behind AL 8460 English Grammar for ESL/EFL Teachers on the Web

“English Grammar for ESL/EFL Teachers” is a required graduate course in the master’s degree program in the Department of Applied Linguistics/ESL at Georgia State University. First taught in 1985, the course has changed considerably over the years both in its content and in the instructional technologies used. The computer technologies integrated into the course followed a common pattern of adoption: moving from word processing (rather than typing) of papers, to email communication among teachers and students, to use of the web as a depository for course resources as well as for research for course projects. After being taught in a conventional classroom setting for 15 years, the course was moved entirely into the WebCt environment in the spring semester, 2000. The move was motivated by the instructor’s expectation first that the web would offer adult students the opportunity to take control of their own study and learning in ways not possible in traditional classroom settings and second her belief that teachers of ESL/EFL need to think about ways that computer technologies can be used to in their own teaching. Thus, the change was an experiment to determine if the environment did, in practice, provide graduate students with power over their own study and could be an experience that could be folded into the teaching lives of the graduate students later in their careers.

This paper describes the design features that the instructor used to create the new version of the course, the work of three discussion group leaders with small groups for weekly discussions, and the strategies of several students as they learned to study and to learn in this new setting.

Design features behind the re-vision of the course
By Patricia Byrd

The design involves nine features that work together to achieve the overall goal of providing a rigorous graduate course through which students can learn about English grammar and about the teaching of English grammar to students of English as a second/foreign language—while taking more responsibility for their own study and having more control over their study and their participation in the course activities.

The instructor was aware that moving a long-established course to the web demanded rethinking of the goals of the course and of the characteristic strengths and weaknesses of the web as an educational environment. A commonly cited failure in such efforts is a design that simply puts course handouts and overheads on the web. A graduate course involves content but is more than its content: along with its content, a course involves the interactions between a teacher and the students and among the students themselves.

At the same time, a “course” is much more than class sessions. A course combines work that is done by the instructor and by the students both inside the classroom and outside the classroom in preparation for the “class time” and as a result of tasks required for the course. A course is made up of reading, discussions, lectures, thinking, and project work. Moreover the “discussion” parts of a course are of many types—between the instructor and the whole class, between small groups or pairs of students, and between the instructor and individual students in “office hour” sessions. Discussions can be as formal as lectures—and as informal as chat incidental to the main work of the course.

Thus, the course design had to include opportunities for students to interact with each other and the instructor along with innovative use of web resources in support of presentation of course content and carrying out of tasks related to that content. One advantage over some distance learning settings is that the instructor and the students were all in Atlanta—and in the same academic department—so that face-to-face meetings were easily arranged and occurred on a regular basis without being required. Students who wanted those face-to-face meetings were free to arrange for them; students who did not want them were free not to participate.

Course Features

The course involved the following major features:

3 project papers: 1 due at midterm, 1 in the final week of class, 1 at the time scheduled for the final examination. The papers were closely tied to the content of the course and information about the exact details of the papers was presented in the lectures on a regular basis.
A weekly WebCt session on particular grammar topics that included: a PowerPoint overview of the assigned reading in a grammar reference book, a lecture about the assigned readings presented in text and in Real Audio format, quizzes (for self-evaluation and not for a grade), and links to web materials related to the grammar (teaching activities, games, etc.). Links were provided from the lectures and the PowerPoint materials so that students could respond or ask questions for one-on-one discussion with the instructor.
Small group discussion in the WebCt forum area: there were to be based on assigned reading in a teaching grammar and generally lasted for two weeks. The discussion topics were, when possible, correlated with the grammar topics covered in the lectures. The grading system required posting of at least 5 messages a week on at least 3 different days—to push for discussions rather than monologues.

Thus, students were expected to be working on projects (doing background research and carrying out tasks related to the projects), participating in lectures on a weekly basis, and taking part in small group discussions.

This asynchronous web-based course was designed to provide many of the features associated with graduate education in traditional classroom settings: reading of assigned course materials, presentation of content related to that reading by the instructor, discussion of that content by the students and the instructor, small group interactions among the students (with some instructor involvement), and research/project writing tasks. The asynchronous setting provided for other features not present in the traditional classroom: students are free to do the assigned tasks at times of their own choosing and they have more freedom to decide on the manner in which they will participate in assigned activities. Additionally, the web environment provides opportunities for adding multimedia presentation of content (with the animation and sound features of PowerPoint, for example) and easy links to additional sources of information.

Importantly, “being in class” spreads out over a wider time period because the instructor and the students can be “in class” at any moment during a week rather than thinking of the class as occurring only for a particular time period on a particular day (or days) each week.

Dangers of the Asynchronous Setting

The design of the course acknowledges two possible dangers of the asynchronous setting: (1) a perception of a lack of order and schedule that can lead students to neglect participation in the course and (2) a sense of isolation for individual students who feel lonely and miss the sense of community that they can have in regular classroom settings with their face-to-face encounters.

To overcome the “lack of order” problem, the course has regular deadlines for both small group discussions and research/project papers. The small group discussions focus on particular topics in two-week chunks. Participants must make 10 postings over that two weeks—and those must come on at least 6 different days. This regulation is based on a desire to have these email discussions be true discussions rather than monologues. The participants have to show up for the sessions on a regular basis and take part in ongoing discussions in which they ask questions, answer questions, make comments—participating in an ongoing discussion to which they might make several contributions.

To keep students from feeling isolated, small groups are established for the discussion sessions. Each group has 3-4 members and a Discussion Leader. The Discussion Leader is a graduate student in the course who has agreed to take a role in making sure that everyone feels welcome in the small group—and in encouraging members of the group to participate in the discussions. It had been the experience of the instructor and some of the graduate students in the pilot project that threaded email discussions can be confusing and difficult to participate in if there are very many people in the group having the discussion. By limiting the groups to five graduate students, the system for the course made it possible for people to have a sense of the “voice” of other members of their group—and to have discussions in which people made repeated contributions to a topic as they listened to each other and responded to what other people had to say.

Affective Issues in Online Learning:
How do We Create a Real Learning Community Online?

By John Bunting

When I first heard about this course, I was immediately interested because going through the course would offer an opportunity to experience first-hand this kind of learning experience. After signing up for the course, Dr Byrd asked Siggy, Louise and me if we would be interested in facilitating the three discussion groups. The groups were named the "Sun," "Moon, and "Stars," and I was the discussion leader for the Moon group. (In the sample messages given here, you can see that we made the most of the punning opportunities provided by these group names.) I don’t know about Siggy and Louise, but I had no idea what that would entail and of course immediately accepted.

For me, one of the major challenges of this kind of course, in addition to actually being able to present the material in an effective way, was to acknowledge, monitor, and address affective issues for the students. I saw my role as discussion group leader as more related to these affective issues than to the learning environment that the course was supposed to provide the students.

Pallof and Pratt (1999) discuss the roles that students can have in an online course. Two of those are “facilitator of the discussion” and “process observer, commenting on group dynamics” (121).

I see affective issues related to (1) a sense of community and a sense of shared learning experience with the other students; (2) the technology, which can be divided into two parts: having the right hardware/software and being able to manuever within the environment; and (3) the course material (grammar, in our case), which is the same as in a traditional classroom

In my role, I decided I would focus on the first two categories. Although it is important not to downplay the role of the last category, that of the course material, I felt that was outside the scope of my role (and I would probably be ineffective if I tried to take on that role anyway). I will now discuss the two roles, discussion facilitator and process observer, in my experience with this online learning environment.

Discussion Facilitator

Fortunately, my role as facilitator was really quite minimal. After providing a few prompts in the first two-week session, my role has been no different than the other students in our group. But during the first session (and in the weeks leading up to that session) I did make some decisions to try to build the sense of an online learning community.

How would we use the discussion group?

One of the first issues was that of whether we, as students, would be able to use the discussion in the most productive way. In other words, would we use it as an added way to share ideas, or would it become a grade-grabbing way of pontificating and trying to outdo each other to win points with the professor?
In one of my first postings, I addressed this issue: “I wanted to post this to let you know a few of things I have been thinking about for this class and in particular this discussion group. “To be honest, I am a little nervous about this. Murphy [another professor in a traditional class] had a nicenet posting system in a couple of classes I’ve taken (SLA and Approaches) and I found myself getting intimidated by all the scholarly sounding stuff going on. I kept thinking- I am just trying to figure all this out, and everyone sounds so knowledgeable!… Anyhow, I asked Dr. Byrd about the format of this, and she recommends keeping things pretty informal in here- no need for APA style here! I am all in favor of that- keeping it informal and easy going- what do you think?”
And one of the other students responded: “And John, you're so right about the nicenet thing last semester. It often floated way beyond my level of thinking, writing, or whatever. I would also like to keep this on the informal level. I also like the idea of directing questions at people. That will help.”

How do we build community?

Another issue was how to make our group a community? One obvious strategy was to acknowledge our proximity and set up at least the opportunity to meet in person or talk by phone. (Interestingly enough, our group has never met in person, and I at least have only sporadically used the phone to call anyone in the group)
My post (1/10/00): Hey folks, This is John Bunting. I hope you all had a great vacation and are ready to plunge back into it! I am going to be the discussion leader for the Moon small group for this course. This is a new experience for me, as it may be for you too! Please let me know if you have any questions, or if you want to figure out a way for us in this small group to get together to meet in person during the semester. John (404) [phone], jdbunting@yahoo.com.”

Another idea that I incorporated (and the other students took off with) was the idea, suggested by Pallet and Pratt (1999), of each student providing biographical information at the start of the course. Actually, Pallet and Pratt suggested creating personal websites as part of the course, but we opted just to give short bios (65,76))
My initial post 1/10/00: “One last thing, could everyone send a biographical note this week, letting us know something about you, and what kind of teaching you have done/are doing/hope to do with ESL/EFL students?”

One student responded directly, wthin a larger posting: “While I'm at it, how about a "little" bio. ha, ha. okay, i'll control myself with the puns. It just comes with the the name. Anyways, I graduated in '94, taught math (among other things) for a while, moved to Poland and taught there as well. I also taught English part time at Berlitz in Warsaw for a very short period of time and then did so privately. After working for a non-profit missions organization for a year, I'm back in school. Yippee.”

Additional posts by the other students in their own “bio” thread:

Hi, all! John mentioned something about each of us submitting our "bios," so here goes... You already know my name is ______. Well, this is my second semester in the program. I have about two years of ESL teaching experience, which includes a variety of "gigs" I had while living in Mexico... a 6-week "intensive" class I taught to adults at a Mexican college, a couple months at a junior high school (my worst teaching memory--bad age, bad, bad age), and some miscellaneous private tutoring. I then taught ESL for about 6 months in the U.S. at a community college; then I moved here. I'm in my second semester of teaching ESL in our IEP program. Last semester I taught reading/listening, and this semester I'm teaching structure/composition. I'm fluent in Spanish and have dabbled in a couple other languages. I often draw upon those learning experiences when I discuss methodology and learning strategies. Can't wait to hear about the rest of ya!

Another student:

Hello all!
My name is __________, and I guess my love of language stems from an early age. My grandparents, who spoke German and Hungarian, lived with us as I was growing up in Florida. I had the opportunity to learn some, but it was all the most basic vocabulary. At U. Florida (go Gators!) I majored in German, not really knowing what I wanted to do with it - I just liked language in general. After spending a year in Germany, I returned
and got involved in a tutoring program, where I finally realized that I liked helping others learn. I've been teaching in DeKalb County for six years now - middle school - and ______ is right: that can be a really bad age. Maybe I've just been lucky! I'd like to move into ESL and continue working with he same age group, maybe next year or the year after. In addition to speaking German, I speak somewhat passable Spanish, and am starting to do a little better in Hebrew. I need to work on all of them, though!
_________

And the other students responsed as well.

This shows some of the affective issues we have been dealing with in trying to create an online learning community. There are also the technological issues, which we shall now look at.

Process Observer

Another part of my role was to see if and how the system had breakdowns or inconsistencies that would create undue frustration for the students. Quick answer- it did!

Of course, this kind of technologically heavy situation has many different break points- the initial input from Dr.Byrd (typos, etc.), her computer system errors, the WebCt system errors, each student’s computer system errors, the internet connection system, and of course, the individual student’s familiarity (or lack of!) with the various systems.

I found that this role was more clear cut, and it also created greater frustration. As an example, one of my journal entries on an early semester grammar exercise in the form of a crossword puzzle: …I may be reading this wrong, but it is very confusing…other problems: you can't save it and go back to it. Also, the crossword puzzle itself is very unwieldy. If you use the arrow keys it moves you all over the place. Once you finish, it then disappears immediately, so you can't even absorb what is there. The logic of the puzzle is also confusing- one answer has two words, two others are the same word (accurate). If you are going to use this kind of puzzle, you should set and follow some kind of rules (or better yet, send it as hard copy- not everything is done best on a computer, and crossword puzzles might fall into this category)…Add to all this that there are no instructions and you have to stay online to do it…Overall, a profoundly frustrating and useless exercise. It makes me feel like I should just ignore the rest of these, which is surely not the purpose of this exercise. (emphasis added)

And an early journal entry about one of the students (who was, it turns out, able to participate):
1/10/00 I think we have had our first casualty of the web based course. I was talking with _______ this morning and she was telling me how concerned she was about the course. She has an old laptop and she is not sure that she will be able to handle all the technological aspects of this course. Although it did take her a while to figure out the system, she has been able to participate fully in the discussion group.

Part of our role as students has also been to notify Dr. Byrd of things that were frustrating. The following exchange (along with comments she received from other students) resulted in her preparing a cd with all the powerpoint presentations for next semester’s class.

3/22/00
Dear Pat,
I don't know what exactly is causing it, but it is taking about 15 minutes for my powerpoint viewer to download and start up each section of the powerpoint presentations... john

Subject: welcome to the Moon discussion group!
Article No. 11: posted by John Bunting on Mon, Jan. 10, 2000, 15:55
Hey folks, This is John Bunting. I hope you all had a great vacation and are ready to plunge back into it! I am
going to be the discussion leader for the Moon small group for this course. This is a new experience for me, as it may be for you too! Please let me know if you have any questions, or if you want to figure out a way for us in
this small group to get together to meet in person during the semester.

Article No. 17: [Branch from no. 11] posted by Student 1 on Thu, Jan. 13, 2000, 14:46
Hey John, I'm in! I'm sure I'll enjoy your comments in the upcoming discussions. ________.

Article No. 20: [Branch from no. 17] posted by Student 2 on Thu, Jan. 13, 2000, 18:57
Hi, _________... I'm just playing around with posting, trying to figure it all out. Have a great weekend! ________

Article No. 19: [Branch from no. 11] posted by Student 2 on Thu, Jan. 13, 2000, 18:54
Okay, maybe I got it right this time??? __________

Subject: chap 1, in which jb exposes his fear of computers...
Article No. 30: posted by John Bunting on Mon, Jan. 17, 2000, 12:50
Hey folks! (or should I say, since this isn’t such a big
group, hey _______, ________, _______, and ______)

I wanted to post this to let you know a few of things I have been thinking about for this class and in particular
this discussion group.

To be honest, I am a little nervous about this. Murphy [another professor in a traditional class] had a nicenet posting system in a couple of classes I’ve taken (SLA and Approaches) and I found myself getting intimidated by all the scholarly sounding stuff going on. I kept thinking- I am just trying to figure all this out, and
everyone sounds so knowledgeable!

Anyhow, I asked Dr. Byrd about the format of this, and she recommends keeping things pretty informal in here- no need for APA style here! I am all in favor of that- keeping it informal and easy going- what do you think?

Another issue we should deal with is that this forum is part of our grade, and we have to keep talking in here for
each two week session. One thing I was thinking was that we could all try to keep an eye out for each other by
asking each other questions directly in here if someone hasn’t been responding much during that two-week period (for example, if you don’t hear from me much, Cindy could post something and ask me directly for a response to that). That way, we can all pretty much stay on top of this thing. Can you tell I have a great fear of my spacing out for a while and ending up with a zero for one of the units?

Our first discussion is about learning styles. This includes auditory, visual, kinesthetic, visual/kinesthetic,
and audio/kinesthetic (p17 of the Byrd book). What kind do you think you are? And what kind do you think you are best teaching to?

One last thing, could everyone send a biographical note this week, letting us know something about you, and what kind of teaching you have done/are doing/hope to do with ESL/EFL students? bye! John

Article No. 31: [Branch from no. 30] posted by Student 3 on Mon, Jan. 17, 2000, 22:46
Hello Moon, I'm just testing out this posting thing. While I'm at it, how about a "little" bio. ha, ha. okay, i'll
control myself with the puns. It just comes with the the name. Anyways, I graduated in '94, taught math (among other things) for a while, moved to Poland and taught there as well. I also taught English part time at Berlitz in Warsaw for a very short period of time and then did so privately. After working for a non-profit missions organization for a year, I'm back in school. Yippee. By the way, do the article numbers indicate the total number of postings in the forum? And John, you're so right about the nicenet thing last semester. It often floated way beyond my level of thinking, writing, or whatever. I would also like to keep this on the informal level. I also like the idea of directing questions at people. That will help. Well,I'll be back later with some comments on the reading. (After I do it!) goodnight moon, _______

Article No. 77: [Branch from no. 30] posted by Student 2 on Tue, Jan. 25, 2000, 21:31
John--I think you're doing a great job so far in being our discussion leader! Looks to me like you're handling this
computer stuff like a pro!

Article No. 86: [Branch from no. 77] posted by John Bunting on Wed, Jan. 26, 2000, 01:08
Thanks for the kind words, ______- I don't know about you folks, but I have been having some moments of panic and/or a feeling of incompetence trying to negotiate through this stuff. I started thinking though, and realized that the content is pretty straightforward- it is just that meandering through all these websites and links and such is complicated business! I can only get on here late at night when there are no distractions (although I may not be as coherent as I might like).

And I wish we could get rid of the "error" sign that shows up whenever I enter our discussion group (do you folks get that?). It is so cold and stern jumping out at me on the screen there!

Subject: Moon Bios

Article No. 78: posted by Student 2 on Tue, Jan. 25, 2000, 21:41
Hi, all! John mentioned something about each of us
submitting our "bios," so here goes...

You already know my name is ________. Well, this is my second semester in the program. I have about two years of ESL teaching experience, which includes a variety of "gigs" I had while living in Mexico... a 6-week "intensive" class I taught to adults at a Mexican college, a couple months at a junior high school (my worst teaching memory--bad age, bad, bad age), and some miscellaneous private tutoring. I then taught ESL for about 6 months in the U.S. at a community college; then I moved here. I'm in my second semester of teaching ESL in our IEP program. Last semester I taught reading/listening, and this semester I'm teaching structure/composition.

I'm fluent in Spanish and have dabbled in a couple other languages. I often draw upon those learning experiences when I discuss methodology and learning strategies.

Can't wait to hear about the rest of ya!

Article No. 110: [Branch from no. 78] posted by John Bunting on Fri, Jan. 28, 2000, 09:00
Thanks _________ for her interesting background information. Here goes mine:

My name is John (at this point, you can all say "Hello John!"). I got my undergraduate degree at UMass in
communication (1982), after a brief stay in the education dept. I spent a pretty big chunk of my life working in
special education: I ran a group home for six adults in CT, and worked with programs for adult education and training for this population.

After about five years, I made some dramatic changes (they seem dramatic only in retrospect; at the time it all flowed together seamlessly) and became a freelance documentary photographer. I had the good fortune to be able to travel to many interesting places (Haiti, West Africa, Europe, Nicaragua, Cuba). I also met my future wife Mayira, and we convinced each other to make some major changes (I convinced her to get married, she convinced me to move to Venezuela).

In Venezuela, I continued working as a photographer, but I also started teaching EFL parttime (the double-edged sword of freelance photography: fascinating work, no steady income). My only real qualification was my native-speaker status. As you can imagine, I made just about every mistake imaginable (whenever they mention in our textbooks what NOT to do, I always have a nostalgic moment...)

Like Lisa, I have learned Spanish, first through years of "book learnin'" and then for real in Venezuela (I lived
there for seven years). I think this has given me a good sense of the frustrations that L2 learners have. I also
studied Haitian Creole (with marginal results).

A couple of years ago, I decided that I enjoyed teaching a lot and wanted to actually KNOW something about what I was doing. So here I am, struggling with (yet enjoying immensely!) all this.

One last thing- I have an incredible son, Christopher, who turns two years old this weekend!! I am always available to show you pictures of him. What a life!

Article No. 124: [Branch from no. 110] posted by Pat Byrd on Fri, Jan. 28, 2000, 18:56
I bet you could attach a picture to a posting somehow. Let me know if you succeed! PatB

Article No. 156: [Branch from no. 78] posted by Student 3 on Sun, Jan. 30, 2000, 18:39
Hello all!

My name is ______________, and I guess my love of language stems from an early age. My grandparents, who spoke German and Hungarian, lived with us as I was growing up in Florida. I had the opportunity to learn some, but it was all the most basic vocabulary.

At U. Florida (go Gators!) I majored in German, not really knowing what I wanted to do with it - I just liked language in general. After spending a year in Germany, I returned and got involved in a tutoring program, where I finally realized that I liked helping others learn.

I've been teaching in DeKalb County for six years now - middle school - and Lisa is right: that can be a really bad age. Maybe I've just been lucky! I'd like to move into ESL and continue working with he same age group, maybe next year or the year after.

In addition to speaking German, I speak somewhat passable Spanish, and am starting to do a little better in Hebrew. I need to work on all of them, though! __________

Article No. 195: [Branch from no. 156] posted by Student 4 on Tue, Feb. 1, 2000, 11:51
Is it too late for a bio? My life has not been nearly as exciting, but hey I balance all you world class travelers
out. Here goes. Name: _______________. Born in AZ (to African American/black parents) amongst a growing
latino population, studied Spanish in high school,went to Hermosillo,Mexico during high school. Came to Atl, went to Spelman College, studied Spanish and creative writing, dabbled in scriptwriting, etc. Graduated, worked a year as a "bilingual retention specialist" -loathed it. Now here I am and AL is kicking my butt (cause I'm working full time too). Happy Black History Month y'all. Here's a special note, AL is terrible for my black vernacular, my slang accent is weakening. My students laugh at me when I try to be down.

Article No. 208: [Branch from no. 195] posted by John Bunting on Tue, Feb. 1, 2000, 23:11
__________! It is great that you are here in the moonlight at last! Now we are a full group. This discussion #1 ends either tomorrow (Wed) or Thursday. After that, we move on to the next chapter in all this! It will be wonderful to have your insights on all this added to the mix :)

Subject: True Confessions
Article No. 82: posted by ____________ on Tue, Jan. 25, 2000, 23:46
Okay, this doesn't leave the moon group, right? Well, I have a confession – [sorry, the confession can’t leave our group!]

Subject: If you want to view these messages a la nicenet (sort of) Article No. 87: posted by John Bunting on Wed, Jan. 26, 2000, 01:20 Hey folks, Pat showed me a way to view all the messages at one time (and then save them together if you want to print them or else look at them on your computer off line). IT is like this: in the left hand menu, click on "show all", which should then put all the message titles on the screen. Then (and this is kind of a pain) you have to click on the little box next to each message (or else just on the ones you want to include). Then click on "compile" in the left hand menu. It should then put all the full text of the messages into a "nicenet" kind of format (have you all used nicenet before?). You can just scroll down and see all the messages (useful if you want to get a sense of anything that is bouncing back and forth between messages). You can
click on "save" above the whole thing and it will save it as a text file for either later printing or reading. Let
me know if this works, or if it is helpful. Hang in there! John

Article No. 89: [Branch from no. 87] posted by John Bunting on Wed, Jan. 26, 2000, 01:33
One other thing that I just noticed- if after you click on "show all", you then click on "threaded" in the left hand
menu, it puts all the messages about one topic together (which is much more useful for me, I realize). Now does this say something about MY learning style? (like how it takes me forever to figure this stuff out, bit by bit by bit...)

From: patbyrd
Sent: Sunday, February 20, 2000 2:08 PM
Subject: Moon-2 on Homework

I looked back through Moon-2 for an extended discussion to share with you to give you a sense of how discussions go. I think it's hard to see the whole flow of a discussion while we're involved in it, but using the "compile" feature in the forum I've made a file of the "homework" discussion and its various branches. If you have trouble downloading the attachment, let me know and I'll print a copy to bring to you at GSU (or mail to you if you'd prefer). It's really an interesting document to read. Thanks for all the thought and effort that you are putting into figuring out how to have a worthwhile discussion in this environment. PatB

Jan 11, 2000 from Student 4
John,
I did get the email. I think I'll take your suggestion about logging on. I'm scheduled to meet with Dr. Byrd on Thursday in her office. Apparently I'm the only one left to "orientate". You'll know if I got squared away if
you hear my voice in cyberclass. Ciao, __________

Jan 12, 2000 from John
Dear ____________,
sorry we couldn't talk longer. Please let me know what you are thinking about the grammar class. It looks like it will require a lot of computer time, although there may be a few ways to make the online time a bit shorter. You might want to log on to the webct.gsu.edu site and see how it feels as you work your way into the course (did you get the email from Dr. Byrd about how to log on? your id and password are your full name and then your first name, all lowercase). If you feel uncomfortable about the technology,you might want to talk with Dr. Byrd, although sometimes people who have been using the technology alot (and have the latest equipment) sometimes forget what it is like for the rest of us! Good luck and let me know if I can help out at all. John

Date:1/20/00
Subject: the first discussion group starts.... NOW!!
To:Moon people
From:John
Hey everyone, I am sending this "offline" to mention a few things. First, we are supposed to have done exercises a and b on p 18-19 of the applied grammar book to use in our discussion group. The first discussion is set for 1/20 to2/3, so we should start putting some stuff up there this weekend. Pat said that she feels we should each be logging on at least three times a week, and posting at least five things a week. That sounds like a lot, but the postings can be a few different kinds of things:
· a question about the reading
· a response to someone else's question
· clarification on something else posted
· sharing an experience related to the reading
· mentioning anything else that as teachers we would want to knock around about teaching grammar

Speaking of grammar, don't worry about how fancy your postings are. As a matter of fact, I am taking a vow of spell-check chastity- no spell check for email!!

One last thing, we can also use the forum to talk about technical problems with the system, or affective issues about the online learning experience.

Have a good weekend! John

Date 01/18/00
From Pbyrd
To: All
I've started a list on the Webct site of phone numbers and email addresses for all of us. The list is in the communication/groupwork section.

Also, I've revised the schedules for grammar reading and discussions. I realized they were just too hard to follow. So, when you go to the syllabus/schedules section of the Webct site you'll find a slight revision
of the section. The most important one is that I've added the reading assignments for the discussions to the discussion list. You might want to print a copy of that schedule. PatB

Dear Pat,
I have been emailing _________, and I tried calling her, but I haven't been able to get through. Has she been in contact with you? Everyone in our group is worried about her (see the bonding?). Please let me know if you would like me to do anything, and also if you have heard from her. Thanks, John
1/31/00

From Pbyrd
To: John
I'm worried about her, too, and have tried to get in touch. I'll try again this afternoon and tomorrow. I hope she's not sick or something. PatB

Strategies for Study and Learning

In this section of the paper, two students from the course describe strategies that they used to study and learn on the web in general and on WebCt in particular.

One Student’s Strategies for Making the Grade on the Web
By Barbara Z. Hegyesi

I developed a series of short-term strategies and then a set of long term strategies to work in this environment.

Short-Term Strategies

1. Self-assignment of time to "attend class" at a certain day(s) and time(s) of the week.

-need to decide times to attend class and use of class time in order to distribute the weekly work and keep from falling behind on readings and projects. Ex. do bulk of work on Saturday mornings. Use remainder of week to keep up with the forum discussion and work on projects.
-need to demonstrate degree of participation to course facilitator and to discussion group members

2. Do required work in specific, "logical" order; consistently adhere to order without being inflexible.

-given the number of monochronic assignments/activities, it is advisable to determine how the tasks relate to one another and establish a personal syllabus to follow as to the order of their completion
-my preferred order was: (1) view PowerPoint presentation, (2) read grammar chapter(s), (3) “attend” lectures, (4) do activities/quizzes.
-sometimes it may be necessary to disregard the designed chronology, like when important information pertaining to a project is available in a lecture then it makes sense to attend the lecture first.

3. Take notes during power point presentations and lectures.

-especially useful for kinesthetic learners, but all learners can benefit from the added active participation

4. Only print out information that needs more attention or seems more complicated and difficult to comprehend.

-there is a lot of information involved in the course, especially since it involves grammar as well as teaching. Not all the information is new and some may be more or less challenging, therefore it helps not to overwhelm one’s self by printing out everything on the web.

Long-term Strategies

My long-term strategies involved ways to have control over the assignments that were due at various points in the course.

1. Write due dates for research papers into a calendar.
2. When completing weekly assignments, participating in forum discussions, consider how the topics and examples could be useful for future projects.
3. Use resources from the web and other classes.
4. In general, talk (email or F 2 F) to other students in and outside of own small discussion group.

Advice for Students in Web-based Courses
By Maura Nicholson

I think the first thing you have to contend with in a web-based class is the fact that there isn’t a weekly class. You have to make sure to schedule time on the computer when you start the class. Set aside a “class time” for yourself each week. It’s very easy to procrastinate and get behind. Also make sure you know all the requirements for log-in times. Ours is 5 postings a week, at 3 different log-ins. So, how do you find the time to log in 3 times a week, regularly?

When the class first starts, it takes everyone a while to learn how to use the system, and where to find everything. So a lot of time is spent, seemingly wasted, going from section to section, looking for things. After you’ve been doing it for a couple of weeks, you spend less time maneuvering through the website, and more time participating in the class. You’ll also discover when is the best time for you to do the class.

For me, Sunday evening worked best as my class time. That’s when I planned to go on-line. A lot of times, I got to it before that, but that was the latest time I started a new session. During the first look at a new session, I usually went straight to the lectures. I’m not a “read from the screen” person since my eyes get tired quickly when I do that, so I printed out the lectures. I scanned through them on the screen as they were printing, but the hard copy let me really study them later. Then I usually went to the discussion to see what was going on there. This is probably where I spent the most time, as it was usually the most interactive and definitely the most interesting for me. Third is the power point, although with my computer at home this could take quite awhile to download, so I usually saved it for when I was at school.

Other than Sunday, or whatever day I ended up opening a new session, times that I logged on may have been times that I only had a few minutes to spare. I’d get on between classes, before I went to lunch, any “free” time I had near a computer. If you plan it right, these times can be very fruitful. This also will give you more than enough log-in times. So, here are some ideas to keep in mind to help get the most out of those 10 extra minutes:

1. Make sure the website address is in “favorites” for Explorer, or “bookmarks” for Navigator. This saves a lot of search time.

2. Make sure to coordinate the reading schedule with the discussion schedule. Try to do the readings before you open up a session so you’ll have some idea of what the lecture is about.

3. As you read, think of ideas to post, questions to ask, experiences to share. I usually keep a post-it-note pad handy so I can make notes “in the book”.

4. Try to have an idea of what you want to do when you go on-line. You spend less time if you go straight to the area you need, and don’t flip around the site looking for something to do.

5. Go into the discussions when you have something to say, and when you don’t. Those 10 extra minutes are great for responding to other people’s posts and questions. Even if you can’t respond right away, you’ll have the question in mind to think about until the next time you can go on-line.

6. The times when I plan to go into the discussions, and I have nothing new to add, and there turns out to be nothing new to respond to, I usually pull up the quizzes and try those. They’re not long, and you can easily do 2 or 3 in ten minutes. That way, even though I’m not doing what I planned to do, I can still make good use of those 10 minutes.

All of this is just a matter of developing a habit. After awhile checking the discussions is like checking email. I usually go there first, to see what’s new and what I can respond to, and then go to the other areas I need, like power point or quizzes. The more you work with the system, the more you’ll develop your own style of learning.

Strategies for Effective Use of Computer Time

Schedule weekly “class” time

Spend time at first getting to know system – explore the site

Print lectures (if reading the screen tires your eyes)

Learn to utilize “extra” time – small amounts of computer time:

Add website to list of “favorites” or “bookmarks”

Do scheduled readings before going on-line

Think of ideas, questions, experiences to share as you read

Know what you want to do before you go on-line

Check discussions when you have an idea to post and when you don’t – use time to answer other’s posts

Even if you can’t do what you planned to do, use time for something else – don’t log out without doing something

Feel confident in knowing you’ll eventually develop a habit and your own learning style