Second Week

My discussion on social presence went well. The goals were met and I believe everyone learned a little something on the way. We discovered that familiarity and the individuals learning environment play a key role in a student’s ability to develop social presence because students are more comfortable with their surroundings which causes them to participate more frequently. I was quite surprised of the time commitment an online activity takes to complete. The development piece of the activity was really a small part of the whole process. It was the maintenance of the discussion that took the most time. As a class, I would say that everyone also realized how important the instructor was to the productivity of an online assignment. This I think is often overlooked when dealing with an online environment, but it was very evident from the get go that the instructor was the main cog in the development and control of the learning environment.

In our present discussion, we are covering communication, and how it affects learners. As an instructor, we need to familiar with our students learning styles, and we need to address these issues when developing online content. Instructors of online instruction must also remain flexible. Most of the students taking online courses are adults, and they have other happenings in their life that can disrupt the learning process. This is often difficult for some, me included, because they are rigid in their time constraints. We are also learning that when developing online content more is not always better. Sometimes the depth of communication involving a few activities is better than just touching on several menial tasks.