Dr Brown’s Class

Presented by
Dreana Marshall-Stuart

to
Dr. Charmaine Mckenzie

for the Course

The Essentials of Online Facilitation 2022

 
Suggest two of the comments that you think the students would have made and provide a
rationale for your comments.

Comment 1: Dr Brown, the Course Syllabus and related documents do not

appear on the course home. I do not have an idea of the course content so that I can
plan ahead. Can you point me to where I can find it so I can plan ahead?

Comments 2: Dr Brown, I have a very hectic schedule with work and my other
courses. I need to plan ahead where the assignments are concerned so I can make
group meetings where necessary. I have noticed that the syllabus and the Assignment
Plan have not been uploaded. Can you please share this document so that I can
organise my schedule accordingly?

Rationale for comments: The Course is operationalised through the academic

calendar, course outline, course objectives, course objectives, blocked and detailed
syllabus and lesson plans which students would have be made aware of or would have
been familiar with the standard layout of an online course at this stage in their academic
career. As such, they would expect early access to all Course related documents in the
first stages of the Course. They would also have expected an Orientation e-meeiting
which would have highlighted those course documents and discussed class
expectations. Students must be able to review the syllabus document and assessment
plans carefully and entirely at the start of the Course.

b) Imagine that you are Dr. Brown’s colleague. Explain to her how she could improve her Course
by giving two examples of how you would use each of the three presences in your online Course.

Recommendation 1: Provide immediate and ongoing feedback. Regular

communication and encouragement motivate the students to continue learning. It also
lets them know that you are taking an active interest in their learning and that you are
aware of the issues they are experiencing to hamper their learning. Follow up on
students queries by returning emails, responding to forums posts or posting a general
post in the Annoucnments forum so that students know you are taking interest and
action.

Recommendation 2:
Provide an Orientation forum so you can learn more about your students and yourself.
Follow up that session with your first e-meeting where you can resolve their issues
openly and address their concerns. Put a plan in place to rectify any issues you cannot
meet immediately.
 c) Give Dr. Brown an example of a good online discussion question using content from a course
that you currently teach, and explain to her why this question would likely be effective in
supporting online discussion.

Discussion prompt:
Self-reflection has typically been employed to improve teaching or as a method of assessing
student learning. However, it can also be used to develop critical self-awareness when we
implement the use of digital technologies as part of the teaching and learning process. You will
be assigned to small groups by your facilitator and complete the following:
1. Share your ePortfolio blog with your group members.
2. Visit at least two (2) of the blogs of members in your group.
3. Post comments as appropriate on their blog pages as you read their postings.

Participate in the graded discussion after you have visited the blogs. In your initial response,
address the following:
1. What digital technologies did your peers identify that can be used to develop critical self-
awareness as part of the teaching and learning process?
2. What strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) did they associate with
delivering teaching using those digital learning technologies?
3. What strategies and successful approaches did they suggest when delivering innovative
technology to different learning settings, with the aim of embedding reflective/reflective
practices?
4. How did their insights/reflections differ from yours? What similarities did you find?

Include examples from the literature and your own experience to illustrate your points. Citations
should follow APA 7th ed. format. Read the forum posts of your colleagues and comment on two
posts responding to their interpretations of the blogs they viewed. Remember to use outside
scholarly sources to support your responses.

Rationale: This prompt states the rationale behind the discussion, the class grouping
for the discussion, how the discussion should be completed and how to participate fully.
It also itemises the tasks to be completed and in what order. It further provides
discussion prompts to guide the students in posting their initial response and what
criteria for responding to their colleagues. It allows the students to use various Web 2.0
technologies within Moodle and incorporate personal reflections and experiences. It
stresses the APA requirements and encourages using scholarly sources to support
student opinions and ideas.