Monday, October 20, 2008

My First Online Class Session!

 I had a lot of fun this evening using Wimba for the first time. The session our IT 7130 class had with Dr. Keller (who did a fabulous job) was my first ever online class session.  I just wanted to take the time and note some things that struck me as interesting.  
1. I was really weary of typing anything in the chat box while Dr. Kellar was speaking.  I'm guessing that this is appropriate since others were doing this.  I guess I was apprehensive because I thought of it as interrupting the teacher or talking over the teacher while in a face-to-face setting.
2. I was worried about when people could see me on the video.  I figured out though, that unless you are set as the default speaker, you will not be seen by others. However, I'm still wondering if the instructor has the power to see you whenever they want. 
3. Since this was my first time in a real-time online class session, it took me awhile to get comfortable with it all.  For the first 10 minutes it was very hard to get into 'learning mode' since I'm in my living room.  This was unexpected.  I didn't think that was going to be as much of an issue as it was.  I'm sure that this will get easier the more I use Wimba or any other kind of synchronous learning.
4. Trying to type out my questions got me a little anxious.  I knew that I could hit the 'talk' button instead and just say the question, but I was really nervous about doing that with this being my first time.  I typed one question for Dr. Keller in the chat box, but after I wrote it I found that I didn't really care for the question.  I think I should have phrased it as a rhetorical question instead.  
5. Adding on to number 4, when Dr. Keller asked a question it made me think about Dr. Barbour and how he stressed the importance of giving enough time for students to respond.  It took me awhile to come up with even my poorly phrased question.  

In general, using Wimba was a lot of fun.  I'm wondering if the Communication Department would allow me to set up a class for our Speech Team on Blackboard so that we can use Wimba to our advantage.  We have students who live 20 - 30 minutes away and I think it would be great to use this for mini-coaching sessions.  For instance, when I'm trying to walk them through the speech writing process.  

So, I think my first online class was a success! Anyone else want to share any thoughts about how the session went?

1 comment:

VWhitt said...

Katie,

I totally know what you mean. Whenever I used online sessions, it has always been within a small group. So I felt less intimidated. Here I was lost a bit. I wasn't sure if I was texting correctly or rather if anyone could see what I had written. I was too busy wondering if everything was hooked up correctly so that threw my attention in the beginning of his lecture.

I also found that I experienced a lot of static on my end and I was not able to hear what he was saying at times. Other then this, I found the experience very enriching.