Sociology professor Dr. DeAnn Kalich had serious misgivings about offering her Sociology 480 course online, but when the department was asked to develop a 400-level course for online students, she took the challenge head-on.
小蝌蚪APP淚 honestly felt like my couldn小蝌蚪APP檛 be translated successfully, so it was a challenge that I put myself fully in,小蝌蚪APP she says.
Dr. Kalich, who also serves as department head of Sociology, Anthropology, & Child and Family Studies, had been teaching her death and dying course for nearly 20 years when she began working with the Office of Distance Learning to reconceive it as an online course.
小蝌蚪APP淚 committed to one semester,小蝌蚪APP she says. 小蝌蚪APP淚 had to feel it小蝌蚪APP檚 sound enough because I have a tremendous responsibility. This material triggers people. I don小蝌蚪APP檛 want someone online feeling like they小蝌蚪APP檙e floating out there with no way to ground themselves because I小蝌蚪APP檓 just this invisible head somewhere."
One of the hurdles Dr. Kalich worked with instructional designers to overcome was how to bring the experiential activities of her face-to-face course to online students in a way that would be meaningful and supportive.
小蝌蚪APP淚 was devastated to see there were a couple of experiential exercises that I couldn小蝌蚪APP檛 translate. Then I came up with a really awesome option to do these micro-lectures,小蝌蚪APP says Dr. Kalich. 小蝌蚪APP淚 told the stories of over the years, doing the activities in the face-to-face classes so that the character or essence of what happens in that exercise would maybe come through in the VoiceThread lecture.小蝌蚪APP
Dr. Kalich says her students have consistently reported back, of all the material she provides them, that those VoiceThreads have been among the most valuable.
Dr. Kalich says students completing the course should come away with the awareness to live fully in the present so that facing death doesn小蝌蚪APP檛 also mean facing regret. One of the ways she facilitates that practice is through 小蝌蚪APP渃losure,小蝌蚪APP giving students the opportunity to say whatever they may need to if the group never meets the same way again.
In her online course, Dr. Kalich uses VoiceThread to recreate that activity, foster student-to-student interaction, and achieve course learning objectives.
小蝌蚪APP淎t first, I wasn小蝌蚪APP檛 sure 小蝌蚪APP because it小蝌蚪APP檚 小蝌蚪APP if it was going to be forced or more flexible and organic the way it is in a face-to-face class,小蝌蚪APP she says.
小蝌蚪APP淚小蝌蚪APP檝e been pleasantly surprised at how in depth these students are willing to take that practice and what they get out of it. It小蝌蚪APP檚 amazing to me. It allows them to listen to their peers. They can go back and listen to them again. They get a lot out of those closure practices.小蝌蚪APP
Redesigning the course also changed how Dr. Kalich viewed online learning in her department and college. Dr. Kalich says as she reported back to her dean on the course小蝌蚪APP檚 progress, she was also able to report she could better assess faculty teaching online in her department and her own face-to-face pedagogy.
小蝌蚪APP淲e need to understand there is good teaching face-to-face as well as bad teaching face-to-face and good teaching online and bad teaching online,小蝌蚪APP she says. 小蝌蚪APP淚t小蝌蚪APP檚 not that the delivery method is superior or inferior, it小蝌蚪APP檚 小蝌蚪APP as always 小蝌蚪APP who小蝌蚪APP檚 doing the delivery. As faculty, we need to work on that whether we小蝌蚪APP檙e face-to-face or online to improve every semester.
Connect with the Instructional Support Team to find new ways to connect with your students online. or .