A new project

I keep telling myself (and others) that I try to work on one thing about my teaching every semester. Some semesters that's even true. The big one, of course, was with my feedback on assignments, especially using audio files. I have decided to try to work on two things this semester. That might be a mistake, since it is hard to keep track and concentrate on too much, but I'll try.

First, I will try to do better in reading nd responding to student discussion postings. I don't want to do what Cindy does, which is respond to every posting (and give it feedback and points as a posting, not jsut respond to the content). That seems like overkill to me, especially for graduate students. More self-servingly, I just don't want to spend the time and effort! But I do want to do better and be more systematic about it. First, I will try to be better about posting questions, but I will systematically rather than haphazardly, reduce that over the course of the semester. Second, I will at least read each posting. Third, I will respond to the content of many postings, if I have something useful to say. Finally, I will not go more than three weeks before giving points in any courses where I do give points for online discussions.

Second, I will make better use of Vista's features. I don't much like the system, but I can do much better on things such as using the assignments, gradebook, and calendar together. I'll work on that this semester. Next semester maybe I can use other things such as goals and learning modules.

One thing that I have learned a bit about this semester is adapting to the needs of a deaf student. I have had only a handful of students over the years who required accommodations, but this has been interesting. I was going to use Dimdim but it turns out that in this situation The Palace is very well adapted to her needs. I have had a few videos captioned, plus I will need to provide outlines of some audios that I made. Also, clearly, I cannot use audio feedback with her. It has forced me to think a bit about the course again. Always a good thing.