Problems and Frustrations

I am going to begin with the different problems and frustrations which I have been experiencing with the course design.

Most of the problems which the students have been having are concerning technology. Unfortunately, students are not too adept at changing their computer setting so that everything works exactly as it should with Vista. Even when different strategies are suggested, students seem not to be able to "fix" their computers so that they minimize their problems

I know some students do not have much control. They have checked out laptops from school and they need to submit a work order to get anything changed or installed on the computers. The work orders take about 2 weeks to get completed. This delay is a real frustration for students.

Many are wising up and using the "technology issues" as reasons to not meet deadlines. I have been flexible with those students who I know are consistenly having the same issues because of their computers. But there is not way to make one student accountable and not another. Also, because the students share the computers in the lab, I have no idea who exactly is using the "broken" computer.

It is making life much harder for me. I have to keep track of where students turn in assignments. I have asked students to use email as a backup when something happens with the system. It is not being used as much this week as it has in the previous two but it still makes it confusing for me and for the students to keep track of where they submitted their materials.

I'm hoping a couple more weeks and most of these problems will be solved.

The problems that the high school students are having with the computers really makes me worry that the students in the full online class will have similar difficulties. The DE director said that the course has the technology specifications listed, so students should be held accountable. Still, the situation makes me worry.

Having the two sites, the external content site and the Vista submission site, has also caused complication. I decided to keep instructions on the external site but in an effort to keep it simple, I wonder if the instructions should not be migrated back into Vista. I worry though that if I do that, then the external site will become useless. It was useful when the system was not working, but repeating information in the sites seems inefficient and confusing for students.

I have decided to keep most of the content in the external site and point the students to the relevant pages for each particular activity. I will try that for this unit and see how it works out.

After looking at the organization of assignments in the Vista site, I had to reconsider how I pointed to those assignments in the external site. I decided on a numerical list and similar titles to guide the student from one activity to another.

The high school students seem to getting used to the rhythm of the course. Because we meet everyday, designing the course has been quite a feat. I have to work at redesigning both the Vista and the external site so that both are consistent and up-to-date. As I decide on the specific format, this part of the workload should decrease.

All these design and logistical issues have left me little time to concentrate on the development of the videos for instruction. I am keenly aware that I do much of the instruction via video for the high school classes and am considering how that instruction will be translated for the full online class.

I am maintaining a log of the lessons which I present to the students, both those that are planned and those which arise from student confusion. I realize that much of the instruction will be difficult to translate to the distance students. The main difficulty, of course, comes from the time-intensive activity needed to create the instruction in text, video or audio format.

Also, since I have no control over whether a student actually views an instructional video, I am not sure how valuable those that I have produced have been to the students.

I sent out an email asking for feedback but received very little since it was not a requirement. I am creating a survey in vista and all students will have to complete it. Since it will be done during class and I think students will feel self-conscious, I am not sure how valid the information will be. Still, I am sure I will get some preliminary information about the videos from the survey.

My online class began yesterday and I am worried that not all students have logged in to the class. I have sent multiple emails giving them information about the course login page and external course site. Of course, they may have gone to the external site but I have no way to keep track of that. The only thing I can keep track of is if they log in to the Vista site.

I know it is a little early to get worried. One student commented that she is not used to working in an online class which has deadlines. I am not sure exactly what she means since all of the classes which I have found do use deadlines. I did email the students today asking them if they had questions or problems and reinterating the login information. I figure the next step will be to telephone them if they have not loggin in within the next couple of days. Have to seek some feedback on this one.