Inspired in many ways by Luke’s post, I asked students in my Great Works tutorial whether they would want to share their thoughts and questions on our Blackboard discussion board. To my slight surprise (this class is already very demanding of their time - they come to the 90-minute tutorial every week and often attend the Writing Center) they overwhelmingly agreed. I see that despite the product-oriented writing instruction or perhaps because of it, students long for a safe space to share their thoughts in. They really seem to understand the need for a process to take place before any product can be put out. For this reason, I think it’s a great idea to have the tutorial in the first place, as it provides plenty of room for that process to develop. In a similar way, the Writing Center with its “I Write” campaign, which seeks to give student writers a sense of empowerment, is also a comfortable Baruch venue where academic professionals serve as facilitators not judges of their writing efforts.
I hope that Blackboard discussions would be valuable for my group of Great Works students. Some of them need a lot of support in language areas, and they are the ones who would probably benefit most from these online discussions. However, I’m afraid they would also be the least forthcoming participants. Can those of you who have experience initiating blogs suggest ways to reach out to most diffident participants?
Our situations may not be exactly alike, but let me relate a bit of my experience from teach distance learning (DL) and hybrid courses over the last three and one-half years.
All my courses have heavy discussion content, writing and speaking in the classroom and writing in DL. All my courses feature use of a learning management system (LMS, e.g., Blackboard).
Students who are not confident of themselves and/or the English language will rarely speak in the classroom. However, give them space on the LMS and they come alive.
Why?
My hypothesis is that in the classroom the student pushes the submit button, then provides the content, and subsequently may receive not-to-friendly looks from other students.
In the LMS world the student writes the content, has an opportunity to read and revise, then pushes the submit button. Not-so-friendly looks from other students are no longer an issue.
I believe some students find the LMS environment less threatening. They consequently become more eager to participate and create value for the rest of us.
I give a great deal of individual feedback — encouragement and constructive criticism — on LMS. Virtually every submission from students gets feedback, sometimes just a numeric assessment, sometimes a private note, sometimes a public comment or follow-up question.
We discuss LMS as a way to reach students at a distance. It can also reach students who are distant.
Reply to James Drogan
Thanks a lot, James, for such great insights and suggestions.
Reply to Olga