A few minutes ago, a student who is in my online class this term swung by to say hi and chat. During the conversation, he remarked that online is not for him. Because he way prefers the schedule of meeting twice a week, having conversations, and asking questions in class. On the other hand, in the online class, he feels that he is keeping things for the last minute, ....
To which I replied, "remember my emails that online classes won't work for everybody?" I told him that this is exactly why I had also included in the class webpages resources on how to be a successful online student. "of course" he said. I know what he means because a couple of terms ago he was a student in one of my "real world" classes--he was always prepared, had questions and wisecracks .....
Maybe one of the things we should do is to develop a gate system--something that makes students read a whole bunch of warnings, then click on a box that indicates that they have read through them, before they can register for the class. You know, something like how when we purchase an airline ticket online, we have to acknowledge that we are ok with the terms and conditions .... (Well, for that matter, even regular classes ought to have such a gate system--we can then avoid students taking naps in the classroom!)
Maybe such models have already been implemented somewhere. We can steal them, eh!
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