On Thursday, March 12 the Social Media Metrics class met in the UNO Community Engagement Center for a presentation by Dr. Louisa Ha, from Bowling Green State University. Dr. Ha is professor in the Department of Telecommunications at Bowling Green State University. She has taught a variety of online courses and has a lot to offer to faculty and students about the do’s and don’ts of online courses. Dr. Had began teaching online courses when the university asked her to teach an online summer course. With her expertise in research and online media, Ha agreed to teach an online course. Ha teaches a variety of online courses including: Cultural Diversity, Media & Sales Promotion, Media Policy & Industry, and Advertising Theory & Practice. During Dr. Ha’s presentation she talked about the importance of online courses, the benefits for the teacher, the benefits of working mothers, challenges, and the do’s and don’ts. I will briefly touch on some of the most important facts that Dr. Ha presented on. The importance of online courses:
- Serve non-traditional students
- Increase flexibility in course offering and scheduling to different types of students
- Expand geographical coverage of the program
Benefits for the teacher:
- Monetary incentives provided by the university to develop and teach online courses
- Ease of duplicating & repeat teaching the course
- Highly marketable skill in academic job market
- Students can study at their pace
- Students take responsibility for their learning
Benefits of working mothers:
- Flexibility in schedule
- Can prepare materials much more in advance
- No worry about snow days
Challenges:
- Grading load can be enormous if not managed
- Everything is written and on record
- Student expectations and email overload
Do’s:
- Use only simple, common online tools
- Avoid group assignments
- Explain the answers in quizzes and exams
- Establish easy to remember routine course calendar for assignments
- Build rapport with students
Don’ts:
- Teach a one time online topic course
- Use the most sophisticated technology
- Expect students to read all the material without corresponding assignments
- Offer a freshman online course for traditional students
Dr. Ha’s presentation had great advice for those debating whether or not to teach an online course. It was even helpful from a student perspective. If every professor used the advice from Dr. Ha, every online course would be a breeze. I have taken three online courses during my time at UNO so far and I would have to say that all of them have been pretty enjoyable. I was a little hesitant but they worked in my schedule and that was important to me. I believe you are successful in online courses if you have self motivation and discipline. The presentation taught students what they could potentially expect if they registered for an online course. Dr. Ha didn’t tell horror stories about online courses, she presented the facts.
Maria Brown 