Looked at 4 tools to try and determine which tools helped the students feel more connected to the faculty and to each other.
- announcements. Canvas announcements are different in that students can respond to them , turning them into a kind of discussion
- discussions
- chat and whiteboard really helpful in math (although the whiteboard has to be open in another window). A good way of doing online office hours. It sounds like the whiteboard has issues - we have access to Collaborate, which sounds like it would work better. Plus, one can record in Collaborate.
She would remind students of the online office hours and got lots of traffic.
- media inserts - a little film strip in the upper right and you can automatically record audio/video and it will be inserted in the area of the course. Can also use it in speed grader.
Google plus alias - can code messages as they come into gmail - she has a blog post in the course that explains how to use this tool to organize mail.
Students polled in 3 classes- top 3 were notifications, conversations, and assignment feedback
Some question as to whether the students knew what the tools were when they were answering the survey. Students in other classes had slightly different responses.
She had students scan the math homework. They can use apps on their mobile devices to make PDF documents as an alternative to scanners.
I think this was one of the more useful sessions - practical stuff. I will definately survey my students on this question of preferred tools.
Reference - Graham, Charles (2006) models of blended learning in higher education - similar to idea of transactional distance.
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