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Thursday, December 4, 2008

December 8, 2008

Good Morning Developers!

I would like to spend some time talking about interactivity and why it is necessary in online courses. Interactivity serves to minimize students' feelings of isolation and to promote critical thinking skills, learning, and retention. There are four types of interactivity:


Student to Instructor (SI): e-mail, discussion boards, graded papers and assignments, live lectures, and office hours

Student to Student (SS): e-mail, discussion boards, peer review activities, collaborative writing, group projects, chat areas, blogs, wikis, peer mentoring, debate

Student to Resource (SR): Textbook, publisher's online extras, webquests, URL exchange, guest lectures

Student to Content (SC): Reading, drill-and-practice, multimedia, Flash activities, summaries, outlines, practice quizzes

It is important to have sufficient activites that cover all four of these areas of interactions in your online course development. Many activities cross over into two or more areas of interactivity. Please use the list below to give you ideas for interaction in the courses you are developing.

  • Lecture Notes: SC

  • FAQ Lists: SR

  • Flashcards: SC

  • Drill and Practice: SC

  • Webquests: SC, SR

  • Virtual Field Trips: SC, SR

  • Presentations/Slide Shows: SC, SS

  • Workbooks: SC

  • Blog Activities: SC, SI, SS

  • Graded or peer-reviewed literature: SI, SS

  • Graded or peer-reviewed reading summaries: SC, SI, SS

  • Panel discussions: SI, SS, SR

  • Simulations: SC

  • Interactive games: SC

  • Collaborative writing: SS

  • Graded Research Projects: SC, SI, SR

  • Graded Case Studies: SC, SI, SR

  • Group role play activities: SS

  • Debate: SS, SR

  • Graded learning logs: SC

  • Online portfolio work: SC, SR

  • Peer mentoring activities: SC, SS

  • Graded critiques activities: SC, SI, SR

  • Self assessment activities: SC

  • Online office hours: SI

  • Email: SI, SS

  • Live chats: SI, SS

  • Newspaper/journal activities: SR

Additionally, here is a link to the Journal of Interactive Online Learning that contains all of their current and past editions. Check this journal out for some great ideas


Have a great week!

Amy

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