Academic Catalog

LINC 57B: CREATING COMMUNITY IN THE ONLINE ENVIRONMENT

Foothill College Course Outline of Record

Foothill College Course Outline of Record
Heading Value
Effective Term: Summer 2021
Units: 3
Hours: 3 lecture per week (36 total per quarter)
Advisory: Basic computer skills and knowledge of Macintosh or Windows operating systems; familiarity with web browsers, email, downloading, and uploading; familiarity with online learning management systems.
Degree & Credit Status: Degree-Applicable Credit Course
Foothill GE: Non-GE
Transferable: CSU
Grade Type: Letter Grade (Request for Pass/No Pass)
Repeatability: Not Repeatable

Description

This course focuses on methods for establishing and maintaining a sense of classroom community in an online environment, with a special focus on equity and cultural responsiveness. Students will practice strategies for supporting the success of online students, including developing a sense of presence in a virtual environment, humanizing communication, celebrating student diversity, developing clear and consistent policies, and managing discussions and group assignments. Special emphasis will be placed on developing an action plan for building equity and culturally responsive teaching practices in the online environment. Identifying and understanding federal and state regulations, as they apply to online teaching and learning, will also be a part of this course.

Course Objectives

The student will be able to:

  1. Compare and contrast the features of different learning management systems, as they relate to communication and equity.
  2. Identify and apply quality online teaching principles to course design and management.
  3. Model digital citizenship in the virtual classroom and develop guidelines to support student digital literacy.
  4. Establish community ground rules that are founded in expectations for appropriate interactions among learners.
  5. Develop a community among culturally and academically diverse learners by providing opportunities that are conducive to active learning.
  6. Create online student discussions that promote learner-learner interaction in groups, in order to foster collaboration and promote higher-order thinking skills.
  7. Evaluate online learning using appropriate assessment tools, including customized rubrics.
  8. Identify barriers to equity present in online learning environments and develop plans to overcome them.
  9. Apply accessibility regulations and guidelines to online course design, creating alternative formats of course materials.
  10. Establish clear communication policies and build relationships through timely and encouraging communication, using various formats.
  11. Cultivate a digital instructional presence to support a sense of classroom community in the virtual environment.
  12. Use digital tools to identify patterns in learner engagement and performance and develop an outreach plan to support struggling students.

Course Content

  1. Learning management systems
    1. Functions
    2. Features
    3. Augmentations
    4. Accessibility
  2. Quality online teaching principles
    1. Presence
    2. Equity
    3. Responsiveness
    4. Ethics
    5. Ongoing improvement
  3. Digital citizenship
    1. Copyright and Creative Commons licensing
    2. Open educational resources
    3. Classroom interaction guidelines
    4. Netiquette
    5. Digital literacy
  4. Community ground rules
    1. Student-to-student communication
    2. Student-to-teacher communication
    3. Academic honesty
    4. Meaningful participation
    5. Conflict resolution
  5. Cultural and academic diversity
    1. Challenging stereotypes
    2. Learning styles
    3. Variety of inputs and outputs
    4. Student choice
    5. Inviting personal knowledge
  6. Student discussions
    1. Effective discussion prompts
    2. Icebreakers
    3. Reply and participation guidelines
    4. Social learning
  7. Evaluating learning
    1. Assessment methodology
    2. Rubric design
    3. Student feedback
  8. Equity
    1. Serving online students
    2. Student support
    3. Student success factors
    4. Unconscious bias
  9. Accessibility
    1. Distance education accessibility guidelines
    2. Designing for accessibility
      1. Captions and transcripts
      2. Searchable PDFs
      3. ALT tags
      4. Color contrast
  10. Communication policies
    1. Availability
    2. Time management
    3. Response times
    4. Q & A discussion forums
    5. Communication within learning management systems
  11. Instructional presence
    1. Incorporating digital tools
    2. Supportive environment
    3. Student-student interaction tools
    4. Instructor-student interaction tools
    5. Regular and substantive interaction
  12. Outreach
    1. Engagement analysis tools
    2. Identifying struggling students
    3. Struggling student letter
    4. Tools for communication
      1. Video
      2. Wikis
      3. Blogs
      4. Apps
    5. Outreach plan

Lab Content

Not applicable.

Special Facilities and/or Equipment

1. When offered on campus: Lecture room equipped with computer projector system, whiteboard, and internet connectivity. Computer laboratories with internet connectivity and computers or internet enabled devices running standard operating systems (e.g., iOS, MacOS, Windows, Android, Linux)
2. When taught online via Canvas students must have current email accounts and/or ongoing access to computers with email and web browsing capability

Method(s) of Evaluation

Methods of Evaluation may include but are not limited to the following:

Designing and developing an online course plan and product or project
Presenting the product or project to peers, capturing feedback, and using it to revise the product or project
Making constructive contributions to class discussions and peer review feedback

Method(s) of Instruction

Methods of Instruction may include but are not limited to the following:

The student will be writing notes, listening, and participating in lecture presentation
The student will be observing an instructor-led demonstration and/or actively practicing the demonstrated skills
The student will be presenting and communicating their ideas in discussion and/or participating in peer reviews

Representative Text(s) and Other Materials

Bull, Bernard D.. Humanizing the Online Classroom: Seeking and Celebrating the Human Experience in Distance Education, 1st ed.. 2020.

Gunawardena, Charlotte, et al.. Culturally Inclusive Instructional Design: A Framework and Guide to Building Online Wisdom Communities, 1st ed.. 2018.

Darby, Flower, and James M. Lang. Small Teaching Online, 1st ed.. 2019.

Linder, Kathryn E., and Chrysanthemum Mattison Hayes. High-Impact Practices in Online Education: Research and Best Practices, 1st ed.. 2018.

Types and/or Examples of Required Reading, Writing, and Outside of Class Assignments

  1. Writing assignments include a major course project and multiple developmental projects, online discussion response, and critical analysis of peer's educational projects.
  2. Outside assignments include conducting project development, writing the instructional plan, reading, and developing the project through an iterative process.
  3. When taught online these methods may take the form of video, audio, animation and webpage presentations. Writing assignments are completed online.

Discipline(s)

Instructional Design/Technology