hi everybody, this is a note to figure out what folks would like to be
doing with the few more weeks we have left now at the end of the
semester. so, there are two basic questions:
 
-- do you want to keep meeting? I have the impression that people would
like to keep on meeting even though we are getting to the
end-of-semester crunch. is that right?
 
-- what topics would people most like to cover?
 
here are some possible topics that people have suggested (I've put the
name next to the item if I remember who had suggested it, but I'm not
very good at remembering all these things, so please remind me if you
had thought of a good topic for us to cover that I've simply left out
here) - are there some of these topics that are of general interest?
 
1) overview of online course "best practices" (Larry) - I've looked at
some very nice "self-assessment" inventories for online course design
that might give us a good basis for that discussion. here's one such
inventory that is very useful and would perhaps be very useful to talk
through together:
http://www.imd.macewan.ca/imd/content.php?contentid=36
 
2) designing online forms using Dreamweaver (Kerry) - some people have
asked about online forms. this is something you CAN do without special
server technology: the results of the forms are sent to you via email
(in order to collect the data and record it directl in a database
requires special server technology that we don't have acccess to). if
people already know the basics of Dreamweaver, and would like a workshop
in creating such forms, I would be glad to do that.
 
3) what you need to know to have students publish on the web (Larry) - I
do not know if Netscape is installed on the machines in the computer lab
that is available to us, but if people are interested in learning how to
use Netscape Composer as a tool for web publishing (a free tool that
students can use), we could have a workshop on how to teach students to
publish on the web
 
3) general IT procedures, back-ups, coping with problems (Lynn) -
several times we have talked about what to do when things don't work -
it might be useful to brainstorm together about how to prepare in
advance for technology glitches so that they aren't an insurmountable
problem if they do occur. I've got a "computer help" page for my course
that covers at least some of these issues from the students'
perspective, but not from the faculty perspective exactly:
http://www.mythfolklore.net/3043mythfolklore/resources/help.htm
 
4) writing assignments in online courses (Laura) - Marielle's great CPR
presentation showed how you can run an anonymous, randomized peer-review
process using CPR software. there are also other kinds of online writing
assignments that lend themselves to peer input, plus the whole formal
writing versus informal writing assignments issue. what are the best
assignments that can help students improve their writing without
gobbling up teacher time?
 
5) building quality online quizzes/exams (Nevine) - given the kinds of
online quizzes and exams we can create using Blackboard, what are the
best kind of questions for testing student knowledge of the material?
(this is not so much just about online course, but about constructing
good tests or quizzes in general, but with the limitations of what can
be done in Blackboard, and the special "honor code" situations that come
up in an online environment)