Understanding the tools  Online environment  Moodle  Forums and Groups  and files  Chat and Office Hours  Dos and Don'ts

Online Learning  Most students do not understand the online environment, they think they can just log on and have the same classroom experience at home, but this is not the case.  The first to every online class addresses this issue so that the student understands online learning is more complex.

First  In the first to online classes I address the following points:  A. The differences between online and regular classes, and how the online environment is not for every student.  B. The difference between synchronous and asynchronous classes.  C. My expectations for the class and each student  D. Using Moodle

Moodle  Most of our students are not familiar with Moodle, but we are not responsible to teach them how to use it.  I remind them that they need to be very familiar with the program and that if they are not, to take a tutorial at and review the Student FAQs at before the class begins.  I remind them that once the class begins, my expectation is that they know how to use Moodle without any problems.

Formus  Students need to know how to use Moodle to be able to work and participate in the Forums.  Forums are the main tool used in Moodle for class participation.  Each class has 2 types of forums:  A. Weekly Forums- time sensitive  B. Ongoing Forums

Weekly Forums  Weekly forums are based on issues and examples from that week’s assigned reading that they need to respond to or address.  Depending on the week the forums will change, some I will be having a direct dialogue with the class, in others the discussion will be directed by one group.

Groups  At the beginning of the semester groups are created to help the students understand the online working environment.  Having them in groups helps with the forums because we are not inundated with hundreds of responses depending on the forums.

Example of Forum with Group  A group discussion is posted: John fired Jack in front of everyone because he caught him stealing supplies from the company’s storage. Based on Ch.4 ideas, what would you have done and why. Explain your positions with specific examples from the book.

What are the groups supposed to do? Discussion Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Each group is responsible for two posts, one to the original discussion and the other responding to a post from another group. R R RR

Rules for Group Forums  Each post must be from a different member of the group  A student can not post or respond again until everyone from the group has done one original post and one response  Students may respond after the first responses have been done

Ongoing Forums  The Question Forum is open from the beginning of class and it is not time sensitive.  This would be the one place students will ask questions about the class, class material or assignments.  Students are responsible to check this forum before they a question(s).

s  Every class has their own Gmail account to allow me to use their cascade mode when looking at s  Every online class needs to follow a set of rules  Here are a few I have found effective:  A. No s will be answered during the weekend. The weekend begins on Friday at 5 PM.  B. There is a hour grace period to answer s.  C. s without name, subject line, or no information in the body and just an attachment will be deleted without opening of the attachment.  You can find the entire list in my syllabus

Files  It is up to you to let the students know what types of files you will accept but be very specific in each assignment what version you will accept  Only use Word documents, meaning only documents with the.doc extension.  No rtf or wps files will be accepted because I do not have the technology to do so.  If they submit the incorrect file format, the assignment will not be graded and some, or all points, will be deducted.

Chat and Office Hours  During office hours students are encouraged to use the chat feature in both Moodle and Gmail  Moodle will keep a record of the chat session and it makes it easier for students to go back and check what material they may have discussed with us.  Gmail has a voice option so instead of typing, you can talk directly to the student. However there is no record of this conversation.

Dos and don'ts  Do check Moodle everyday in case it is down and you need to your students directly.  Do have a back up copy of all your files in case Moodle goes down or deletes them.  Do have a master list of s (listserve) in case last minute changes need to be done to the course  Do not feel that you have to immediately answer s, or check your account every 5 minutes.  Do not rely on Moodle only, specially in the first two weeks when it tends to have more problems.  Do not assume that your students are more technologically savvy than you, they are not.