Online Course Peer Review

The semester has started and we’re off to the races! For me, this first week is a welcome break from the craziness of prepping for the semester. I like to have my classes all put together before opening day, and, well, procrastination meansmany late nights. So, this first week, I’m thoroughlyenjoying being able to kick back and read student introductions and field various student questions. Which brings me to thetopic for this blog posting…

Creating an “Ask the Instructor/Ask the Class” forum on the class discussion board is an excellent way to encourage students to ask questions. Encourage your students to use this forum for questions, unless they have something to share with you that should not be read by other students. Generally, if a student has a question, others do too, and would benefit from reading the instructor’s response on the discussion board (not to mention that this can be a time-saver for the instructor!).

Also, take note of what types of questions are being asked by students. Perhaps a few quick changes to existing documents in your classroom could clear things up for students and lead to fewer questions in the future. I found I was putting too much information in my syllabus — and I think students are less apt to read a really long document than a brief one — so, at the nudging of the individuals who peer reviewed my course, I added a course overview document to my content area. In this document I cover important procedural information, frequently asked questions, etc. Now, if a student asks a question that is covered in my course overview, I direct them to that document and ask them to let me know if they have further questions. It works!

Have a great first week!