How Do We Motivate Students to Read Materials in Our Online Course?

This recent comment by Stef raises an important issue for class management of the online course, motivating students to actually read or view course materials we provide them. In the traditional onsite course, we can gauge whether or not students have read materials through interaction more easily than in the online course, and can set aside class time for it if necessary and actually observe whether or not students are doing it. In the onsite course, if it became apparent to me most students had not read assigned material, I have been known to stop class and do a read-aloud of a short reading, or a passage of a longer reading, and use that as the basis for discussion. It isn't always possible to track student views of much online content, so how do we know students are reading or viewing materials?

Perhaps more importantly, how do we motivate students to read or view materials?

Open Thread

Going Beyond the Course Shell

“Going Beyond the Course Shell”

There are a variety of free, public access cross platform applications for recording streaming audio and video to create multi-media learning objects for your course.

Uses

• Instructors can utilize these media to increase their level of “instructor presence” in the course by recording and uploading their lectures into the course platform.
  Student projects may equally utilize these media, and can be assigned as individual or group projects. For example, small groups can develop a “coursecast” student presentation which can then be uploaded in the course.

Applications

• Podcasting. One software application freely available on the web is iTunes University at <http://www.apple.com/education/itunesu/>, a groupware application where instructors can share lectures, presentations, performances, debates, tours and archival footage. Naturally, the site is designed to work well in the popular iPod platform, but is not limited to it. The use of podcasting is increasing in online instruction all the time. Another software application that allows instructors to record and upload their podcast lectures or course materials is Odeo, available at < http://www.odeo.com/>. The recording application is web-based, which means you don’t have any software to download before you can use the application. To navigate to the instructions for recording your lectures using Odeo, follow the path Home page>Help (at bottom of page), and look for “Odeo Studio: My Podcast.” There are also help topics on how to embed the player in your course and how to use Odeo with iTunes. Skypecast (at < http://www.skype.com/>) can be used in conjunction with a third party recording application such as Audio High Jack Pro for the Mac or Hot Recorder, Pamela, or Pretty May for the PC.
  

• Voiceblogging. Similar to podcasting is the “voiceblog.” Talkr (found at < http://www.talkr.com/>) is an application that allows users to listen to blog posts (in Mp3 format) instead of reading them by converting text-only blogs into audio. This functionality increases the accessibility of your blog to disabled users, which is an important ethical and legal consideration in online education, but also to everyone who may wish to download your blog posts and listen to them anywhere. An application that works in the opposite direction is Phoneblogger (found at < http://www.wombatnation.com/phoneblogger/>). This tool allows you to call a phone number and leave a voice message which is converted into a text blog. An audio link to the original recording is embedded in the text blog. Another phone-to-blog application is called Audblog (found at <http://www.audblog.com/>).
  Foneblog (at < http://www.foneblog.ie/>) allows for sharing of mobile phone pictures via the mobile phone web or a website.

• Videoblogging. Another variation on the text blog is the video blog, or “vlog.” You, or your students, can create a collection of videos which is posted on a website. This requires a camcorder, editing software (such as iMovie for the Mac, or MovieMaker for the PC), and a host website that supports streaming video. Other popular software for recording screencasts is Camtasia for PC and Snaps ProX for the Mac.

• Wikis. Hypertext platforms such as Wiki can be excellent online educational tools, whether they are used for individual course assignments (such as having students develop a research project and present it as a Wiki), or indeed as the platform for an entire course. PBwiki (found at < http://pbwiki.com/>) is a very good and easy to use free wiki system.

• Traditional Blogging. Blogger (at < https://www2.blogger.com/start>) is a good, free platform for course blogs or individual student blogs.
  

Pedagogical Take-Away

The value of applications such as these for online teaching include

• “Information Literacy,” “Multiliteracy”: Not only in writing courses, but across the disciplines, it’s important that students acquire skills for self-expression and critical evaluation of expression in the information public sphere. Traditional literacy will remain an important learning objective of college teaching, but the new platforms for self publication on the Web demand new skills and critical thinking.
  
• Authentic collaboration. Blogging is an authentically collaborative medium of public writing which can be a tool that fosters student centered learning because it allows students, not instructors, to develop and maintain control of their discourse. Many teachers make efforts to develop assignments and activities which promote a democratic classroom that encourages student writers to collaborate, critique, and define knowledge on their own terms. Used effectively, blogs address these virtues of writing intensive instruction and give student writers ownership of writing, as well as a responsive audience which may have seemed implied in the online classroom, but is authentic in wide open cyberspace.
  
  “Going Beyond the Course Shell” Resources
  iTunes University at http://www.apple.com/education/itunesu/
  Odeo, available at http://www.odeo.com/
  Skypecast at < http://www.skype.com/
  Talkr at < http://www.talkr.com/
  Phoneblogger at http://www.wombatnation.com/phoneblogger/
  Audblog at http://www.audblog.com/
  Foneblog at http://www.foneblog.ie/
  PBwiki at http://pbwiki.com/
  Blogger at https://www2.blogger.com/start