Pankaj

Preliminary work

In general, teaching a course as a virtual class requires more preparation on behalf of the instructor than in a traditional course. While in the traditional case the course starts with the first day of class, in a virtual classroom the course needs to start at least two to three weeks before the beginning of the semester. The lead time is necessary in order to convey to the students all the course-related information, to clarify any misconceptions, and to answer any questions about the mechanics and contents of the course in a timely manner. This usually takes the form of an initial welcome letter I send by surface mail to all registered students and follow-up questions I receive by phone and/or e-mail. The welcome letter includes the course syllabus, my office hours, scheduled exam dates, and EIES training dates. The EIES training session has limited benefit since the students most likely to attend are the ones within a close proximity to the campus. In order to provide the entire class the opportunity to learn how to use the conferencing system I believe we need to move to an on-line remote training that students can use to guide themselves in learning the features of the system. The training can be divided into multiple segments or modules that may require the student to spend 10 to 15 minutes per module. The necessity for on-line training is critical if the virtual classroom concept is to expand and include the majority of students who are located beyonThe Weekly Routine

During the rest of the semester the activities become more routine. In the course outline I divide the subject matter into weekly topics with references to my videotape lectures and chapters in the textbook. As in a regular classroom, learning starts with a lecture I give in class that triggers many questions and discussions initiated by the students and myself and ends with the student later reading the textbook and doing the assignment. In the Virtual Classroom I usually initiate a discussion by posting a comment concerning the topic for that week. The comment is in the form of a statement that makes assumptions, assertions, and raises certain questions to which students are invited to respond. After the initial response given by everybody a discussion may start between students representing differing or opposing ideas. I monitor the discussion and allow it to progress as long as it is constructive, intervening only when necessary to clarify a point or correct someone's remark. At the beginning of a discussion I don't take an active role, commenting only when necessary. At the end of the week I try to end the discussion by summarizing the different viewpoints, highlighting the important points, and giving my opinion by suggesting possible answers to the problems raised during the discussion. Therefore the entire weekly cycle consists of four phases, starting with the initial phase where the topic of discussion is posted on Monday, followed by the second phase where everyone contributes their initial opinion. On Wednesday the third phase begins with back and forth discussions. In the last phase I summarize the results of the discussion for that week and post my concluding comments on Saturday. One of my roles during the weekly discussions is to ensure everyone's participation in the process, soliciting comments from certain students either by sending them messages privately or by announcing publicly that not everybody has been heard from yet. One observation about this process is that it does require students to log on the system several times during the week. Usually, students are expected to log on at least three to four times a week. Not everybody will be equally involved in every topic of discussion to the same extent. Some students find it easier to engage in discussions and write about their thoughts and ideas than other students who are more conservative with perhaps less writing ability skills or command of the English language