1. “How Can the Three C's of Course Design Enhance Students' Online Performance?

” by Jill
Purdy

In this video, Jill Purdy introduces what she calls the 3 Cs of online course design to enhance
students’ performance, i.e., Consistency throughout the online platform; Creativity in learning
tools and assessment; and Community sense for collaboration and interaction.

The first C emphasizes a standardized format and design to facilitate students’ navigation
across the learning management system. This includes use of specific colors for different course
requirements (modules, quizzes, discussions, etc.); bold font to highlight key words; an
interactive syllabus to have immediate access to other sections within or outside of the online
platform; templates to guide students in completing assignments; delineate rubrics for every
task so that expectations are clearly stated; use of visuals to support written content, and etc.

The second C promotes creative learning tools and opportunities to assess students in various
ways. Purdy suggests online software such as Animoto to create 5-minute slideshows, Voki for
speaking avatars, Padlet to encourage students’ response (post and share ideas) and as a study
tool; Screencast for screen recordings; gamification to make learning more pleasant; guided
exploration; scenarios and video interviews; provide multiple choices; and other technologies
to diversify instruction and learning process.

The last C aims for developing a sense of community among students and instructor. This
involves a safe environment by setting explicit rules and guidelines; having students introduce
each other; promoting conversation and controversy; prompting discussion, collaboration,
leadership across differences of perspective and learning abilities; and chats and blogs for small
group works.

I found these criteria very student-centered in design and delivery. The author’s holistic
approach is obvious since she consistently covers every instruction aspect as a part of an
organic process. I can definitely use and adjust many of these tools and strategies in the foreign
language class. For example, visuals to make vocabulary acquisition much easier; Animoto for
presentational communication where students need to present a travel brochure/an
autobiography/a professional profile in Spanish to classmates; Padlet to create personal
portfolios; discussions to collaborate in a project or assessment (composition, oral exam). Purdy
offers a lot of opportunities and choices to make online education an engaging, productive, and
social experience.

2. “How Can I Earn Swift Trust in My Online Classes?” by Wren Mills

In this video, Wren Mills applies an organizational concept common within ephemeral
structures to online education. It is about “swift trust” or how create quick reliance among
members of a temporary team or group in order to complete a task. Since classroom is typically
a space for short-term relationships between teachers and students, “swift trust” provides
strategies to build a provisional learning community. The author expands thus the Community
standard that Purdy proposes with her 3Cs of course design to enhance students’ performance.

According to Mills, “swift trust” promotes an instantaneous sense of confidence for students to
identify classmates they can depend on or respond to when needed. This way the instructor
can achieve a better class retention by focusing on building a learning community from the very
beginning of class. This is especially relevant as online teaching success greatly depends on
setting a comfortable platform for continuous communication. In this regard, the instructor
must lead by example, Mills underlines.

Sending a welcome email is an effective first step to set the tone of the course, send the
syllabus, convey expectations, and talk about introductory tasks. The instructor should
encourage questions from students in order to promote trust and ongoing communication. On
the other hand, having students introduce each other also fosters trust among them. For
example, we can have students convey their hopes and fears about the class and ask others
how to address those concerns. Modeling here is a key for the instructor to keep his leadership
position.

An introductory video is very useful, as we have discussed in our CODI class, because makes the
interaction more personal since students can quickly get to know instructor through body
language (gestures, voice tone, personality). Mills even suggests having students make their
own videos for introduction and/or communication as a way to create opportunities for
interaction. Both instructors and students can engage in video-conference to have
conversations beyond class time or office hours, Mills highlights.

Additionally, it is important to encourage students to make personal connections to the course

materials and activate their prior educational experience by writing and speaking. At the end of
the semester, students can reflect on how class content might change their careers and lives or
write a group journal to follow up everyone’s progress in the class.

Another strategy is making goals clear and ask students how they can support each other to
achieve these goals. For example, students can discuss the syllabus in small groups, ask quiz
questions to each other, or the instructor can instead create a quiz for the entire class. As a
result, they can write together a top ten list of the most important things in the course and
specific actions to address each aspect collaboratively.

I could draw on some of these strategies to increase use of Spanish in and outside of online
classroom. For example, record a self-introduction in the target language can be a great way to
set Spanish as the language not only to learn and practice, but also to use it in group discussion,
support, and reflection. This could develop students’ skills in listening, speaking, writing, and
reading in ways that move beyond the traditional language class. Most importantly, we can
create a sense of community online in spite of its provisional nature.
3. “How Can I Evaluate Online Teaching If I Haven't Taught Online?” by Tom Tobin

I specifically chose this mentor video because I haven’t taught an entire class online before.
Here, Tom Tobin makes a distinction between online design elements and online teaching
behaviors, which is relevant when evaluating the instructor’s own practices. Course content
and design relate to instructional materials and resources regardless of interaction, i.e.,
directions, lectures, assignments. On the other hand, teaching behaviors refers to instructional
interactions carried out in the online classroom, such as announcements, discussions, grading
and feedback, instructional supplements, and administrative tasks.

To measure online teaching behaviors, Tobin recommends five tools present in most learning
management systems -- news, grades, dropbox, discussions, and surveys. For each of these
tools Tobin points out core and bonus skills to guide instructors through online instruction.

News must be frequent and brief, focused on the course progress, reminders about
assessments, homework, events, etc., addressed to a specific audience, and personalized as
needed. Grades must be completed in a timely fashion. Instructors should provide both
numerical and textual-based feedback, highlight students’ skills and opportunities for
improvement, and stick to rubrics shared with students in advance.

A dropbox is useful to send and receive files between the instructor and students, as well as to
facilitate timely feedback referred to assignment expectations. One interesting aspect is
providing students with diverse delivery formats for assignments, for example: a Microsoft
Word essay, an audio podcast, or a vlog, which relates to universal design for learning and
avoids an absolute LMS standardization.

For discussions, instructor’s engagement should be around 10-15% of overall postings so that
keeping a balance between a leading presence online and sufficient room for students to
experience knowledge from multiple perspectives. This is also a tool for students to go beyond
the box and freely explore content in interaction with their peers. Likewise, instructors could
monitor the student response quality beyond standardized rubrics and assignments.

Last but not least, recurrent surveys constitute a great practice for a formative feedback that
allows changes and adjustment to meet students’ specific needs and to improve their
performance. This way the instructor is able to anticipate what particular teaching practice
might work or not, and act accordingly.

Tobin’s mentor video provides valuable information on how to build best teaching practices
based on current learning management systems. I really liked the idea of providing different
options for students to turn in a particular assignment. So instead of requiring only a written
professional profile in Spanish, for instance, I will allow recording a video or audio provided that
all assignment steps are fulfilled.
4. “How Can I Create an Online Service Learning Project?” by Stephanie Delaney

One of the most difficult part of online education is how to implement a successful service
learning project. In her video, Delaney points out some of the challenges in this respect –
students assume that an online class is utterly flexible and only takes place on their electronic
devices. In addition, there are many working students who may also have family
responsibilities, so it can be difficult to engage students in volunteering. To overcome these
barriers, Delaney suggest a call to an action project through which students can choose a topic
relevant to the class and/or their personal lives.

It is important to set general guidelines for the project from the very beginning of the semester
-- a timeline (at least 6 weeks), periodical updates, and a deadline to submit materials. The first
step is to pick a specific topic to start off the project and the type of action students would like
to elicit from people. The instructor can provide previous projects as samples to motivate
intimidated or less experienced students. They must submit a proposal including a timeline, a
brief description, and action goals. This is the first submission, then a mid-term update, and a
final report, including feedback after each stage to keep students realistic about the project.

The second step is to choose a particular audience – workplace, daycare, church, nursing home,
refuge, social media, people they know. The third step is to define a call to action, i.e, to ask
people to do something specific about a particular issue and allow a period of time for
completion. The call for action might include a flyer, a social media post, a petition, public talks.
The fourth step is to draft a schedule according to the three stages above mentioned. This
includes follow ups and reminders, so the fifth step is to implement and wait how people
respond.

The sixth step is to follow up the outcomes – what people did/did not and why. The project
concludes with a final report where students reflect on what they learned regardless of the goal
being achieved or not. This can be a post on the discussion board to compare/contrast with
other classmates’ projects.

A service learning project is a great asset for a foreign language class because it is a way to
meet the Community standard set by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign
Languages (ACTFL). A service learning project promotes use of Spanish beyond the online
classroom by engaging with Hispanic communities and advance language capabilities at all
levels.