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Ice Breaker: Module 1
What Does Online Learning Mean to You?

Overview Many participants take this as their first online course, with no prior online experience, and certainly it's not expected that you will enter this course knowing anything about online education. Still, many participants do have a general conception of what is involved in online education. This activity provides you the opportunity to think about and articulate your own definition and expectation of online education while "listening" to the ideas of others.

Deadline Definition of Online Education
This post must be submitted by 5:00 a.m. (CST) on
Monday, January 22, 2007

Points This activity is worth 5 points. Review the Assessment Criteria below to see how the points are divided.

Goal & Objectives The reason for this activity is to get you thinking about your own perceptions of online education. As current or future online instructors, it is important that you have thought about how your own teaching philosophy fits into the world of online education. It is also important that you consider your own strengths and weaknesses as an educator and technology user so that you can analyze the benefits and challenges you and your students may face in transitioning to an online classroom environment. Therefore, by completing this activity, students will:

Prerequisites & Needed Materials Prior to completing this activity, you need only to think about how you personally feel about online education and consider how those feelings may have developed. For example, have you taken an online course, and if so, how was that experience? Have you taught online before, and if so, what were the benefits and challenges of doing so?

No additional materials are required to complete this activity.

Instructor's Role This activity serves solely as a focusing tool for you and it provides me with ideas of how to present information and what additional resources may be necessary throughout the course. Therefore, my role as your instructor will be to only observe your posts and provide points for completing the assignment. I will not respond directly to any post; however, I will respond indirectly by providing additional information within the course that help you answer some of the questions you pose within this assignment.

Tips for Success To be more successful with this activity, consider the following tips:


Instructions

1. Post a 2-or-more sentence description of online learning as you currently conceive of it.

2.In addition, please formulate one question that you would like to see answered in this course.

3. Submit your post here by the date on the course calendar.

4. Please put your name in the subject line of your message. For example, "Kevin's Definition of Online Education"

5. Post your assignment by clicking "Add a new discussion topic..." below. As new messages are posted, they will be listed at the bottom of this page. To read someone else's message, click on the title of their message.

6. You may review the responses of your fellow classmates and post any comments and reactions as appropriate. However, you are not required to comment to on anyone's postings for this assignment. If you want to respond, click on the word REPLY , in blue, in the lower-right-hand corner of the box containing the text of their message.


Assessment Criteria
Criteria Meets Developing Not Posted
Content Student post includes 3 truths and a lie for other students to guess. (2 pts.) Student post is missing information and includes less than 3 truths and/or a lie. (1 pt.)

 0 Points
Interaction Student posts guesses for at least 2 classmates. (2 pt.)

Student posts a guess for only 1 classmate. (1 pt.)
Timeliness   Assignment is posted by midnight on the due date listed in course calendar. (1 pts.)