what is expected of an online teacher?
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What is Expected of an Online Teacher?. Our Infrastructure. V.O.C.A.L. To have a successful on-line program, everyone involved must be VOCAL. Instructors who practice the VOCAL concepts will have a more productive learning environment. isible. rganized. VOCAL. ompassionate. nalytical. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
What is Expected of an What is Expected of an Online Teacher?Online Teacher?
To have a successful on-line program, everyone involved must be VOCAL.
Instructors who practice the VOCAL concepts will have a more productive learning environment.
• Visibility can be through your teacher website that gives personal and professional information.
• Create colorful and informative announcements, emails and discussion board posts.
• Post a Trivia Question for students to respond to for extra credit.
• Posting a schedule with due dates so students know when assignments are due.
• Create a discussion board thread for students to post current events.
• Find an on-line self assessment test that students can take at the start of the course.
• Allowing students to contact you anytime through phone, emails or pager.
• The teacher being understanding when a student contacts him/her to explain that they have not completed assignments by the deadline because of a death in the family or an illness.
• Post clear expectations and guidelines.
• Post a discussion board thread that allows students to suggest ways to help them be more successful in the course.
• Model the correct way to communicate on-line.
• Share information about yourself so students can get to know you.
• Try to plan and implement an end of the course activity.
Okay…
Are you ready to see your classroom?
URL: http://blackboard.hcde.org
Your username and password will be emailed to you.
The student’s user name is his/her email
address
The student’s password is his/her
birth date in the format ‘mmddyyyy’
Click on the name of the
course.
Within this area will be announcements that you generate!
For students, 99% of their navigation starts by selecting one of the links within this circle!
When you want to look at the course as the students
will see it, go through these links.
This Control Panel link takes you to your
instructor screen. You will use it very often!
You will start at this screen when you want to add announcements,
modify settings, put in grades, look at statistics/student information,
send emails, etc.
Let’s go over what you need to do before students start…
On the first day of school, you usually open up your class by introducing yourself. You want your students to get a
feel for your personality and your interests. You want them to feel comfortable in your classroom.
Your profile introduces you to your students!
To begin creating your profile, from your Course Home page, you will choose the Control Panel link.
Next, select the Staff Information link.
Select this icon to add your profile…
Fill out your information…
Select Yes here…
Attach your picture…
And submit!
Now, when your students log in to your course and select the Staff Information link, they will see your profile!
Your students need to know when and how they can contact you.
You should be “in your office” for 5 hours each week (10 during the summer session).
If you will not be in during your regular office hours, notify your students.
Office hours should be posted within your profile. You may also choose to post them on an announcement, in an email, and/or in the
discussion board.
You should include the following in your office hours posting:
1. The days and hours each week that you can be contacted in which the student will get an immediate response from you.
2. A statement that ensures the student that you will respond to his/her contact within 24 hours if the contact is outside of your office hours.
3. How you want “normal” contact to occur. You may want the student to contact you through email, or you can also open up the possibility of them calling you directly.
You want to welcome students on their first day in your class!
Your welcome announcement will be the first thing they see when they “walk in the door”
To post an announcement, from your Control Panel screen, click on the Announcements link.
Fill out the subject line, compose the message, add pictures, complete the options section and click Submit at the bottom!
Now, when your students “walk through your door” and go to their Course Home screen, they will see your welcome announcement!
URL: http://blackboard.hcde.org
Assignment:
• Login
• Draft your profile
• Draft your welcome announcement 10 minutes
You will need to set up a pacing guide in order to give the students a map of due dates for all assignments. The pacing guide is a suggested schedule for the students to complete all work within the allotted time frame of the course.
You are responsible for ensuring that the course is paced evenly throughout the semester.
Your first step will be to verify the start and end dates for your course. Once you have this, count how many working weeks you will have within your course schedule. Be sure to deduct for major holidays, spring break, fall break, etc.
If you are teaching an A/B course (Algebra 1A and 1B or English 12A and 12B), you need to allot for both portions within the semester you are teaching!
From your Course Home screen, you can find an outline of your course by selecting the Course Information link.
After selecting the Course Information link, choose
Course Outline
This outlines all the items your students will need to complete.
Next, you will use the course outline to estimate the amount of time you feel is needed to cover each section.
Note: Students should work on their course between 8-10 hours per week for spring/fall or between 15-18 hours for summer.
Using the provided course outline and your estimate of how long students should spend on each section, you can now mark which assignments should be completed each week in order to
get through the entire course on time!
This pacing guide should include specific due dates (Week # / Day # for HMP) for all discussion boards, assignments, quizzes, exams,
etc. Do not forget to allow study time for a final exam or Gateway!
After creating your pacing guide (in Word or Excel), you will need to post it under the Course Information link.
In addition, we recommend you post an announcement with instructions on how to find the pacing guide and email a
copy to your students and parents!
To add your pacing guide, from your Course Home page, you will choose the Control Panel link.
Next, select the Course Information link.
After selecting the Course Information link, click on this icon to add your pacing guide
Enter the name of your document [i.e. “Your Pacing Guide (with due dates)” ] and any additional information in the text box…
Select Browse to attach your document…
Complete desired options and then click on Submit!
Now, when your students select the Course Information link, they will see the pacing guide!
If you have multiple choice or fill in the blank assignments within your course, the assignments’ default feedback setting will be to give the student the correct answers with feedback to each question when the student submits the assignment (or gets locked out of the assignment).
This can give an unfair advantage to some students. Therefore, you need to decide which assignments you want to keep the default setting and which assignments you want to change the setting.
To change the default feedback settings, from the Control Panel screen, choose the content item
For each assignment that you want to change, click
on Modify…
Click Modify the Test Options…
Force Completion should be checked…
The remaining information is the instructor’s
preference…
When you finish with your settings, remember to click Submit!
NOTE: Some instructors choose to leave the default setting for feedback on quizzes and change it for exams. We recommend that you collaborate with common subject instructors to ensure consistency!
The pretest and posttest are not embedded within a particular unit…
You will need to click on them individually to change feedback settings.
To access your
gradebook, from the Control Panel screen, choose
Gradebook
This is your Gradebook. You may or may not have students
enrolled at the time you set it up.
First, notice that all the weights default to 0% …
You will need to fix that!
Our weighing system is driven by the categories of assignments. Your gradebook needs to be set to the following:
40% - Daily assignments40% - Tests/Exams20% - Final exam
Click on the Weight Grades link…
In the box beside Exam, enter “40” …
In the box beside Final Exam, enter “20” …
Make sure this bullet is selected…
Setting the values for exams and the final exam is no problem…
Setting the values for the daily category is a bit more tricky!
Look through the categories and choose the ones that you want to use as daily grades…
Example: In my Algebra 1 course, I may want to use “Assignment” and “Quiz” to
make up my Daily grade…
Now, I have a total of 40% for my Daily grade, so I have to divide up that 40%
between the categories I choose…
I want quizzes to count more than assignments, so I am
going to assign 15% to assignments and 25% to
quizzes (which totals 40%).
You can divide up the daily grade into as many categories as needed…
Just make sure that when you add all the
percentages from your daily grade categories, you get a total of 40% !
When you enter all your values, be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page and click
Submit!
Go back into your Gradebook and make sure the weights are now correct for ALL items…
Here, you find the category, the possible points, and the
weight; this one is correct!
The weight on this one is 0 because it is a survey…that’s okay!
Wait! This one is a pretest and it is coded as an exam. I need to change it because I do not want it to count against the
student’s grade!
Click on the title of the assignment…
To change a gradebook item’s properties…
Click on Item Information…
I used the drop down box to select “Other” for the category. I did not weight “Other” when I set up the grade book, so it will
be a “0” for weight now!
Click Submit to save changes.
It is correct now!
NOTE: Be sure to scroll through all the gradebook items and make sure the category and weight are correct for each item!
Assignment:
• Go to your gradebook
• Weight your grades
• Check Unit One Assignments for:
•Correct Category
•Correct Weighting
15 minutes
Wow! This is a lot! I can’t take anymore of this gradebook stuff!
Don’t give up!!!Don’t give up!!!
There is only one more detail we need to fix in our gradebooks…
The course default for displaying grades is “Score”. This means that instead of seeing a percentage or a check mark
like you see here, it would show the points earned.
For example, the default for
this grade would show as a “10” instead
of 100%
This grade would show as a “0” instead of a check mark
This can be very confusing for students! We recommend that you change the display options for each of your gradebook items.
Changing display options is easy, but can be a bit time consuming!
However, you only have to set the grade book up one time at the beginning of the course!
Click on the title of the assignment…
To change a gradebook item’s display options…
Click on Item Information…
Choose the same option as when you changed the category!
This is a weighted assignment, so I want it to display as a percentage. From the drop
down box, I choose “Percentage” and click Submit.
Click on the title of the assignment…
Let’s do another one…
This survey is not weighted, so I want it to display as a check
mark when the student completes it. From the drop
down box, I choose “Complete/Incomplete” and
click Submit.
Change the display options for each gradebook item!
Assignment:
• Go to your gradebook
• Change default display options for Unit One5 minutes
Now we need to talk about what is expected during your course…
They REALLY need to do the COURSE INTRODUCTION!
•Teaches navigation of Blackboard!Teaches navigation of Blackboard!
•Includes 3 activities which are Includes 3 activities which are combined for a GRADE!combined for a GRADE!
•THE STUDENTS OFTEN THE STUDENTS OFTEN SKIP IT COMPLETELY!SKIP IT COMPLETELY!
Click on Course Information
Click on Course Introduction link
Turn pages here
The 3 activities will look like this. They are all placed within the pages of the introduction.
Activities #2 and #3…
The 3 activities within the course introduction make up each student’s first grade.
Reminding them of this assignment within announcements, emails, and telephone calls during the first week is highly recommended.
Contact information is located in SPRITE under the My Students link
Content…Content…Content Comes First!Content…Content…Content Comes First!
Step 1: Select
the Unit in which they are working
This is the “textbook”; make sure the students
select this BEFORE they open up assignments!
The student is not finished with a unit until ALL content is reviewed, he/she participates in the discussion board for that unit, the quizzes are completed, the unit assignment is completed, and the unit exam is completed.
The units will look different according to the course you are teaching. However, students are not finished with a unit until ALL items within the unit have been completed!
If your student does not get this screen, tell him/her to click here. In order to view Class.com content pages, students must “enable cookies” and turn off the “pop-up blocker”. There are instructions for both under this link.
Turn pages here
Course Introduction…
If your student does not get this screen, tell him/her to
click here.
Turn pages here
Content…
1. Instruct student to the “Tech Help” link
2. Instruct student to the Class.Com Support Site
http://support.class.com
3. Contact your lead teacher
4. Lead teacher contacts HMP Coordinator
5. HMP Coordinator recommends remote support
http://support.class.com
Within the content pages, the student will be instructed to go back to the Unit module and access quizzes, assignments, tests, & discussion boards!
“Unit Module”
If I click on the Unit tab,
a drop down box appears for
easy navigation!
At all times, you should have the current week plus the next two weeks of due dates posted within your course.
Be sure to add End-of-Course Exams and Gateway Exams to your calendar!
Your events should be clear with specific details of expectations.
To post due dates, from the Control Panel screen, you can choose Course Calendar or Tasks.
It is up to the individual teacher which area they choose to post the due dates. You do not have to post them both places. Make your students aware of which location you choose and how to get there!
You will need to log-in to your course and check your email at least one time each day. This is necessary to meet the requirement of answering all contacts within a 24-hour period.
You will need to post announcements regularly.
To post an announcement, from your Control Panel screen, click on the Announcements
link.
Fill out the subject line and the message, add pictures, complete the options section and click Submit at the bottom!
Now, when your students go to their Course Home screen, they will see your announcement!
Note: Permanent announcements appear at top and others appear below
Remember the three guidelines for announcements:
1. Keep it Simple!
2. Make it Fun!
3. Focus on Results!
At a minimum, you need to post an announcement introducing each week.
Make sure you include a personable comment, too!
We want to foster student-to-student interaction as well as student-to-teacher interaction within our courses.
In order to do this, one discussion board related to specific topics being studied should be held weekly.
(Be sure to document this discussion as a student contact)
Get involved in your students’ discussions!
When a student adds a thread to the discussion board, respond no later than 3 days of his/her posting.
Make sure that your response promotes further thought/discussion and keep the discussions going with multiple responses!
To read, participate in, or create discussion boards, choose the Discussion Board link from your Course Home page.
Note: You can also access the discussion board from your Control Panel screen
You can quickly see that there are new postings!
Click on the forum name to enter the discussion
Click here to add a new forum
Assignment:
• Go to the discussion board
• Add a general info forum
• Add your introduction
5 minutes
Assignments that are not computer-graded must be teacher-graded within a prescribed time frame after the student submits the completed work. (i.e. discussion boards, typed papers, essay questions, emailed assignments, etc.)
During fall and spring semesters, assignments should be graded (with constructive, detailed feedback…not “Good Job”) within three days.
During summer sessions, assignments should be graded within one day.
To enter grades, from the Control Panel screen, you choose Gradebook link.
For most assignments, you will know the student has submitted the work by looking in your
gradebook…
An exclamation mark shows in the grade’s location! Click on the exclamation mark to retrieve the assignment and enter a grade.
Select View...
You will see this screen after clicking on the exclamation mark…
Retrieve the document for grading here
Enter points earned here
Click Submit when finished!
Enter constructive,
detailed feedback here
For discussion boards or other assignments that do not put the exclamation mark into the gradebook…
Click the = to add the student’s grade
Enter the points earned and click
Submit!
Example grading of course introduction:
100% (10 points) if all 3 activities completed
70% (7 points) if 2 activities completed
40% (4 points) if 1 activity completed
If the student opens up a quiz, exam, or assignment BEFORE they are ready to take it...
He/she will be locked out and will not be able to re-open it!
If the student opens up a quiz, then hits the “back” button, tries to go back into “content”, or tries to go to “send email”...
He/she will be locked out and will not be able to re-open it!
The next time the student tries to access the assignment, this message will appear!
Only the teacher can re-set the assignment when this happens!
When a student is locked out a an assignment, you will see a padlock in the grade’s location.
Be careful! A padlock also means “In progress”…
Do not clear a lock unless you are sure the student is not currently
working on the assignment!
When you are sure the student is locked out, click on the padlock…
The date last submitted is a good indicator of if the student is presently
working or if she/he is locked out of the assignment.
Click on View…
Click on Clear Attempt…
This screen can show you if the student
answered any problems or if they
answered no problems.
You can also go into this screen to award
partial credit.
Let your students know it is not acceptable to continually get locked out of assignments. You may want to warn them that you will deduct from their grade if it becomes too common!
You will create and submit progress reports through the e4TN online communication log (SPRITE).
During the fall and spring semesters, progress reports are due on the 1st and the 15th of each month.
During the summer session, progress reports are created and submitted by 5 p.m. every Friday.
Within the progress report, you will provide a breakdown that includes:
1. Total Number of Days Student Has Worked*2. Current Average3. Comments
A copy is sent to the student, the parents, and the onsite facilitator.
* VERY IMPORTANT: This number is CUMULATIVE days worked (from day one of the course).
How do I calculate total number of days worked?
In Blackboard, the student’s number of mouse clicks are recorded. You will run a report showing the number of mouse clicks each student had for each day within the grading period. If the student has 6 or more mouse clicks on a given day, he/she is given credit for working that day.
Note: Total days worked must be CUMULATIVE from day one of the course. Your lead teacher will send you an excel spreadsheet that
you may use to keep up with total days worked.
To calculate number of days worked, from the Control Panel screen, choose Course Statistics.
Using the drop down box, select Accesses by Content Area…
You can select a start and stop date or you can leave blank to show time from beginning of course.
Select
All Users… Click Submit…
Each student is listed with the number of mouse clicks for each date listed at the top.
Let’s look at the circled student…
The report is divided by month
Find the student, look across the columns to see how many days the student worked from 8/15 – 8/31
Example: We are getting ready to do the 9/1/2007 progress report. It is the first progress report in the new semester…
We need how many days the student worked from 8/15 through 8/31…
This student did not work at all until 8/29. On 8/29 and 8/30 he only had 3 mouse clicks. It must be 6 or more clicks to count as a day worked; therefore, neither of those days count. On 8/31, he had 11 mouse clicks; this is 6 or more, therefore he is given credit for a day worked. On this progress report, you will enter “1” day worked.
For the 9/15/07 progress report, we will see how many days to add to the cumulative days worked for the same student. We know from the previous progress report that he has worked 1 day (from 8/15 – 8/31). Now we need to check days worked from 9/1 – 9/14
This student has mouse clicks registered for 6 days during this timeframe. The number of mouse clicks for all 6 days is 6 or greater; therefore, all 6 days will count! For the 9/15 progress report, the total number of days worked will be “7” because he worked 6 days during the current timeframe and 1 day on the previous timeframe.
Be sure to provide constructive feedback on progress reports.
For the students falling behind, include feedback that will “gently push” them into deciding they can be successful. Motivation is the key!
Very important…
Before each progress report, you need to enter a zero in the gradebook for all past due assignments that have not been completed.
We recommend that you mention the number of zeroes you entered on the comments section of the progress report (constructively).
Be Careful! The links for Progress Reports and Report Cards are completely different in SPRITE. Make sure you select Add/View Progress Reports!
Online learning is very demanding on our students. They must be self-disciplined, organized, and committed to spending time on the course.
We want to identify, within the first 10 days of the course, those students that are not exhibiting these necessary characteristics and are therefore overwhelmed with the responsibility.
Students may be “dropped” during the first ten days of the course without financial penalty. You will not be compensated for students who drop the course within the first ten days; however, it is your responsibility to contact the onsite facilitator to recommend the activation of the drop procedure.
Students dropped within the ten-day window will not be counted against your success statistics in your end of course evaluation.
Occasionally, a student will start off strong and then stop working after this “drop” period.
In this situation, you should contact the student, the parents, your lead teacher, and the onsite coordinator. Discuss a plan to get the student back on track and working as quickly as possible.
If the plan is not successful, you should contact the onsite facilitator and discuss the option of “withdrawing” the student from the course.
At the end of each session, you will create and submit report cards through the e4TN online communication log (SPRITE).
Within the report card, you will provide a breakdown that includes:
1. Total Number of Days Student Worked*2. Daily Average3. Test Average4. Final Exam Grade5. Final Course Grade6. Comments
* VERY IMPORTANT: This number is CUMULATIVE days worked (from day one of the course).
The deadline for submitting the report cards will be sent to you by your Lead Teacher.
Our students must exhibit a high level of academic integrity.
Cheating, sharing assignments, and/or doing another’s work is not tolerated within our school.
Your responsibility is to enforce our Academic Integrity Policy:
1. Level One Violation: Person suspecting the violation notifies the LF for counseling at the school level and copies the student’s SC and the teacher
2. Level Two Violation: Person suspecting violation notifies LF, teacher, OF, and parent; Discipline handled at school level; Alternative assignment may be provided; Copy student’s SC
3. Level Three Violation: Person suspecting violation notifies LF, teacher, OF, and parent; Student receives zero for assignment; Copy student’s SC
4. Level Four Violation: Student is withdrawn from course; student is no longer eligible to participate in the e4TN program; e4TN administration is notified
Be sure and document steps in SPRITE!
You will need to contact your students a minimum of one time per week during the fall and spring terms.
During the summer, students should be contacted twice weekly.
You should use various methods for your student contacts: • Send out a mass email to all your students!
• Send a personal email to an individual student!
Or,
• Create a discussion board!
• Post an announcement (copy and paste your announcements into an email for double assurance that the student sees it!)
And finally,
• Phone your student!
A phone call is most personable! It is highly recommended that you choose this method for your initial contact with your student!
You will find contact information/phone numbers in SPRITE.
You will need to contact your parents a minimum of one time per month during the fall and spring terms.
During the summer, parents should be contacted twice monthly.
A phone call is the recommended method for parent contacts. For multiple contacts throughout the month, emails can be used as well.
You will find contact numbers in SPRITE. Be sure to verify the parent email address provided in SPRITE during your initial phone call.
Make parents aware of how to access their child’s course(s) and their grades through Blackboard during your contacts.
Remember, on all communication…
• Be professional and demonstrate genuine concern for student well being
• Open with a compliment and close with another one
• Clearly convey high expectations and standards
• ALL CAPITAL LETTERS signifies yelling and red font isn’t inviting
The SPRITE communication log is a vital part of documentation and will be referred to should any concerns arise regarding student progress.
Don’t forget!
• All communication regarding students is to be logged into SPRITE
• The communication log is to be kept current
• A summary of the communication is provided within each entry
You may have paperwork or reports that will be requested throughout the term. You will need to submit all requests by the due date and it should be completed thoroughly.
You will be expected to collaborate with fellow content area teachers at least twice monthly to plan common pacing,
grading, strategies, etc.
On the 1st and 15th of each month, you will submit summaries of collaborative efforts to your Lead Teacher.
Your Lead Teacher and other e4TN staff will be in contact with you often. Many times, they are working against time
lines just as you are.
When they contact you requesting information, you will need to respond within
a 24-hour period.
Also, if you have any problems/concerns/situations that the e4TN staff should be aware of, you should contact your Lead Teacher as soon as possible.
Your Lead Teacher is your strongest support person! He/she is there for you to lean on if you have questions about anything! Use this resource…it helps!
