View source for Talk:Unit 1: Best Practices Guidelines for Resources and Services

== Instructor feedback on your mini-course -- [[User:Jz833665|Jz833665]] 11:20, 27 April 2010 (EDT) ==

The unit you've drafted is in a good shape. I really like the flow you've created through your unit to work with the participants through a successively deepening set of issues. A few suggestions:

* Think about reworking the opening section of this course (i.e. the front page), to begin with the participants' interest and challenge (e.g., online learning is getting popular, but hard...) instead of the document. You may include a more detailed introduction to the document in one of your unit 1 activity 3. 

* Think about using "online learners" instead of "distance students/learners" as some of the participants might be working with students on campus but in online courses.

* Fully spell out words like CMS.

* Worksheet: specify how it can be filled? e.g., print it out and fill it on paper...

* At the end of each unit, you may include a summary/reflection to highlight important take-aways through the activities.

== Comments -- [[User:Jason Chwirut|Jason Chwirut]] 15:41, 29 April 2010 (EDT) ==

Anne, I love your topic. I think this is a great course for someone whom is considering taking or teaching any type of distance learning. Your overview is very informative and your objectives are clear. After reviewing your first unit, I like your style. By asking students to reflect and write down commentary allows your learners to not only reflect on what is being taught but allows them to come back to their materials at anytime as a reference. Your choice of video works very well as an introduction into the unit. Short and to the point which allows learners to remain focused and less likely to lose attention.  The only suggestions I have for you are simply cosmetic. You don't have to use this suggestion because I think what you have now works just fine, but what if you were to link your external links to text instead of using numerics. I only suggest this to create more of a visual so learners will know exactly what to click on when asked to view something. Other than that Anne, I think you have a great course on your hands. Great work!!! -Jason

===Re: Comments -- [[User:Anne de la Chapelle|Anne de la Chapelle]] 14:36, 30 April 2010 (EDT)===

Jason, Thanks so much for your feedback. I agree that text vs. numerics would be clearer for the learners. I am looking forward to getting back to work on this, and spending time in your course. Regards, Anne

==  -- [[User:Meredith Kelly|Meredith Kelly]] 01:15, 1 May 2010 (EDT) -- [[User:Meredith Kelly|Meredith Kelly]] 01:15, 1 May 2010 (EDT) ==

Anne,

In going through your course, I have decided I'd like to take it for real. I've often thought I would like to teach online, after all of my own experience taking classes this way. I have done my entire Bachelor's and Master's degrees online. 

I love the graphic you used at the top of your opening page. Also, your opening video in Unit 1 made me smile, but it also made me think of the benefits I have gained from online courses. Your conversational tone is appealing and friendly; it made me want to read further.

Whenever I finish a page for my site, I cut and paste it into Word and look for red and green wavy underlines. I did that for your introductory page and want to call to your attention the following:

1.	In your heading on the opening page, the semi-colon should be a colon, and it should be followed by a space. You might also want to capitalize the letter "a" after the colon (unless they did not in the original).

2.	In your first sentence, I don't think you need the comma after the word "called." Also, it might be a good idea to italicize the title here, and (again) I would check to see if there is a capital "a" after the colon.

3.	You might want to put a hyphen between the words four and year in the next sentence (that is, a four-year collaboration). There will still be a green underline, because Microsoft has not perfected the grammar search. If we all wrote the way they want us to, there would be no variety or individuality.

4.	Near the end of your long quotation, the letter "r" is missing from the word "for" (that is, instructor awareness fo and responsiveness).

5.	In APA style, I believe the period comes after the parens for the citation – not before.

6.	For the first 2 objectives, you used lower case, but you used a capital letter for the third. I think they should all be lower case. By the way, you used great objectives on the page for Unit 1--good verb usage. 

While I have not had a chance to do the copy and paste for your other units, I might suggest using actual words for your video (and maybe other) citations instead of just numbers. I had to go through other people's wikis to figure out how to do this, because I just kept getting numbers too.  Eventually, I copied and pasted from someone's wiki and, then, substituted my words. As an example, I used this for one of my videos:

WATCH:  [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y07aFiqI6qQ&feature=channel Video 1 - Word Interface 1]

1. Type your instruction word (e.g., WATCH) followed by a colon, if your wish.
2. For the link, start with a square bracket; type out the entire video address, starting with http://  (I copied and pasted it from the site); hit the Space Bar once; type the words you want to show at the site; and, finish with a closing square bracket.

I am anxious to keep reading your other units. Great job on an interesting, and very important, topic.

Meredith