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a recording on his I-Pod and preferred not to be
disturbed. It was only on the rare occasion that
the teacher moved around the room and briefly
listened to each group's conversation. At no point
did she provide any input into these discussions
or use any other learning approach for these face-
to-face classes. Anna soon became frustrated by
this. She was aware of the teacher's reputation for
innovative teaching and her publications. Anna
approached her and requested that she provide
some input into the classes according to her ar-
eas of expertise. The following week the teacher
brought some of her publications for the class to
read and discuss. The teacher was solely utiliz-
ing a cognitive view of learning whereas Anna
wanted an absorption or behavioral approach as
well. Anna wanted clear explanations from the
teacher and her questions answered.
Assessment activities included an online exer-
cise that constituted 60 per cent of the marks for the
course. This was a role-play exercise with students
divided into small groups and allocated a role by
the teacher. These roles included; teacher, local
student, international student, discipline leader and
Head of School. Each small group was assigned
a particular issue to role-play over a two week
period. Group members could communicate with
each other as well as look at discussions within
other groups. If they wanted to be in touch with
the entire class they could do so on a general site.
Blackboard functionality did not allow them to
communicate directly between groups.
Anna had never done anything like this before
and whilst slightly apprehensive thought it would
be an interesting exercise. She accessed the site
feeling quite pleased with how easily she found
it and then started doing some postings in her
assigned role. When no responses appeared she
went off to do something else. Every now and then
Anna would look in on the group discussion site
and eventually found another student who had put
up a posting introducing himself and detailing his
hobbies and interests. Anna wondered if perhaps
she should have done the same and if this was
appropriate netiquette for an online group such as
this. People seemed to do postings on the site at
random and rarely did a discussion develop.
On one occasion a group member took offence
to some comments Anna made when “in role.”
Anna was embarrassed by this when it occurred
to her that some people were role-playing and
others were not. The assessment required five
postings per student over the 10 day period and a
summary posting on the general discussion board
by a delegated group representative at the end of
day 10. Some group members did not participate
until one or two days before the exercise was to
be completed - cramming their postings by mak-
ing several in a row - often unrelated to other
postings. Compiling the summary was difficult
in terms of meaningful content and loyalty to
group members.
The only online input from the teacher was
a comment in response to the summary posting.
While the teacher had taken care with develop-
ing a sense of community in the first face-to-face
class this did not occur or translate into, the online
environment.Anna's experience demonstrates the
importance of an active role by the teacher in the
online environment to tend to all aspects of the
role-play experience. This involves preparation,
facilitation and moderation, de-briefing and con-
tinuous feedback.
Students were required to present the find-
ings of these role-play discussions in class for a
further percentage of their grade. These student
presentations were video recorded by the teacher
for purposes of student feedback. However
these were not returned to students. Anna was
surprised at what she considered to be the poor
quality of some of these presentations. Many
students used power point slides that contained
far too much information and could not be read
from a distance. One student stood with her back
to the class while reading word for word off
these slides. At no time did the teacher or other
students offer any feedback on how to improve
these presentations.
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