Active learning goes beyond just participating in classroom activities. It is an approach to learning that requires learners to take control of their learning. That is what I consider "participation" in this course.
I, as the instructor, can provide you with good materials and up to date information. I can also provide structure for the course and encourage interaction and collaboration between everyone involved. I might even be able to answer your questions, or point you in the direction of resources that can. However, I cannot make you learn.
You, as the learner, must connect the resources and dialogue with your own practice. You must transform a group experience into a personal experience. You must take that extra step between this online classroom and your own classroom. These are things that I can support, but you must do.
In an online class, such as ours, participation is text. Email, discussion forums, chats, documents, and other such technologies are all text-based. This can sometimes be a problem for people who prefer to listen (or in our case read) and not speak (type). Unlike a traditional classroom, I can't see you if you don't make yourself heard. So, for this course, I'm going to need you all to get in there and make yourself heard.
The overwhelming percentage of our interaction will take place in the discussion forum. Online discussions can be the most rewarding experiences in education, or they can be the most boring, monotonous experiences of your lives. I hope for the former :)
If a discussion takes the form of me posting a question and you answering the question it gets quite boring and repetitive after the 16th person posts a reply. However, if an online discussion is seen as a conversation among the members, it can be very exciting and informative. This is how I expect all of you to approach the discussion forums. Not as a place to merely spit back information from the readings, but as a place to converse with and debate your peers regarding your practice and the topic(s) at hand.
The "Participation Rubrics" below form the bare minimum expectations for participation in both the discussion forums and other participatory activities.
Participation Rubrics
Items of Evaluation
Scale
1. Frequent and even participation in discussion
10
2. Discussion contributions incorporated information from readings and other participants' postings.
10
3. Discussion contributions incorporated experiences in teaching
10
4. Each discussion contribution was kept between 100-200 words in length
10
5. Professionalism and netiquette effectively maintained in discussions
