I’m in my office right now hopefully for the last time for at least 18 months– Pray-Harrold will be closing this May for renovation, as I’m sure that most of you have heard– working on writing up the final, among other things. But for right now, I’ve got a question, especially for those of you who have taken online classes before with the emuonline course shell: what did you think of this set-up, the class web site/blog like this?
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Other than my own personal issues with my blog I liked this set up very much. I could find things better, even tough I am horrible at looking for things cuz Im a spaz about them.
this was my first online course, but i really liked the setup. i thought it was convenient and easy to navigate. don’t have much to compare it to, but no complaints about the setup.
I don’t really have anything to compare it to, so it was ok to me. A couple of times, there was something in one area (eg. announcements) when I would have expected it somewhere else (eg. discussions). I can’t remember what at this time–I think it was somebody’s book review. But it was not really a problem.
I have not taken an online class before, but I really liked wordpress. When I went on the EMU online site to look up comments on our first project -writing tool. There were to many clicks to find something. WordPress is digital immigrant friendly:)
I really love the way this web site worked. EMU Online doesn’t allow for this much flexibility when it comes to discussion threads etc. The photos next to posts wouldn’t be possible, and I think that adds “life” to the discussions when you feel like you’re talking to real people. It also doesn’t give you updates on recent posts, and you can’t link it to your personal accounts (like Gmail Reader) to follow the action. Those are just a few of the many benefits I see with your web site format.
I’m wondering if there’s a way to centralize the blog information, instead of having everybody on separate blogs. If these posts were centralized, it would have been easier to check up on and comment on other classmate’s research posts or weekly responses to readings. For example, they could all be located on this web site on one page and students could pool their research updates and responses (if there were pages on this site dedicated to those purposes).
At the same time, I completely understand the purpose of familiarizing the class with blog use.
I’ve thought about the centralization thing too, Andrea. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I think it might make things a little easier, pretty much in the way you are suggesting here. On the other hand, I like the idea of students having their “own space” to think and write about stuff in the class. And remember, for me that was the main point of the blogs: it seems to me that graduate students in a writing program ought to have a bunch of different experiences in writing.
As a reader of your blogs, I tend to use Google Reader, which does sort of “centralize” everyone’s posts, at least for me. I think the next time I teach courses that involve blogs (which will be this summer, btw), I’ll probably push that/explain that a bit more.
Oh, I should also mention that what I used for teaching 121 the last couple of times was a wiki to centralize things. Basically, each student had a “page” in the wiki which they used to link stuff, etc. It had its pros and cons, but it was easy to see what everyone else was doing.
I’ve really liked the WordPress account. It’s easy and fun to navigate in a way that the EMU Course Shell is not. I used the course shell for my 121 class and none of us could really get into it. it was a pain and gave us all problems. I like the more casual and friendly feel of this blog system and the ease at which anyone can use it. This is really the only online class I’ve taken, but I have had to use class discussion threads before (I can’t remember what it was called for the life of me) but I had to comment on peers’ student teaching experiences, etc. and it was tedious. The blog really did feel like a conversation between classmates rather than just forced comments a specified number of times and number of lines long. I was free to tell Andrea I liked her point and say why and then move on, or I could ask Dave a question, etc. Course shells just don’t have that feel, if that makes sense.
ps- I couldn’t get my final paper to 1) indent paragraphs for anything and 2) put an extra space in between paragraphs since it wouldn’t indent, so some paragraphs look like long blobs. I think it’s the set-up I used so forgive the clustered effect, I spent an hour trying to format the stinking thing
Is it because you pasted it in? If so, did you use the buttons up top that say either paste from a text program (for Works, etc.) or paste from Word? Because if you simply right click and paste into the blog, it will totally mess with formatting and not allow you to change it. But pasting using one of those things works great! Just wanted to offer that in case.
Thanks Ashlee I will have to remember that as well.
I only see Upload/Insert audio, video, music, image, etc. I don’t see the option to paste from elsewhere that you’re talking about… where abouts on the page is that? Thanks so much Ashlee!
Angie, I had the same problem. I had several techno-gurus at my school trying to help me–to no avail. Those who know think that blogspot is an easier program to work with. I started a blog on there a couple years ago, but didn’t do too much with it, so I really don’t know. I finally left my project in the unhappy format, but then, in addition, loaded it in as a PDF format too. That worked, but only created the link.
I still have a lot to learn about making a pretty blog.
I taught for years with blogger (this is the blogspot of which you are speaking) and I regularly had problems with students not figuring out things there too. Generally, I think wordpress is as “easy” as blogger, and it has a lot more features. Also, there’s very good help/support at http://support.wordpress.com and I have always been able to help/answer questions too.
As far as formatting stuff goes: no, you can’t just “cut and paste” and expect to all be perfect, but that’s the way it is with anything online, emails, web sites, wikis, etc. It means you have to do a little formatting within a blog entry– returns, italics, etc.– but none of that is too difficult.
And I don’t know who your school techno-gurus are Judy, but they might be less than guru status….
I have both a blogger account that I use regularly and, obviously, a WordPress account. I have to say that Krause is right – WordPress has a lot more features and flexibility. I like the fact that you can upload photos into your text where you want them and that it’s easy to create separate pages (and there’s no limit that I can see).
The only complaint I have is that I couldn’t find a way to upload video without linking it in through YouTube (uploading video is easier on blogger). Otherwise, I think WordPress works great for the purposes of this class.
Found it! My “Kitchen Sink” was invisible
Yea! Good
I had no trouble with the WordPress set up. Although, like Dave I don’t have much to compare it to.
Well this class felt like a real class. The set up really helped with that. It took a while to get used to. After I was used to the wordpress set up and I was happy with the work I was doing, I found myself wanting more from my other classes.