Many years ago, I "read" How Do I Do This When I Can't See What I'm Doing?: Information Processing for the Visually Disabled, by Gerald Jahoda. (Actually, I listened to it on tape.) Although merely dyslexic, I found this to be extremely useful. Gerald's main idea was to explain to people, who have been doing things in a certain way all their lives, how to continue to do them, now that they could no longer depend on their vision.
Thinking about the kinds of difficulties that my students are having with different aspects of online technology, it has occurred to me that I should set up a sort of FAQ based on the same principle. That is, a single place students can go to find out how to do specific things, such as check due dates, straightforward ways to transmit images, and how to get the feedback on assignments. These are things almost all know how to do in f2f classes, but many seem to have unusual difficulty managing them online. Right now, I have all sorts of information, but it is distributed in the syllabus, general instructions, and so on. Having a single place to check might help.
Technically, though the full FAQ is planned for the next class, there is no reason not to start it up now. I'll just reorganize the current material and viola! the FAQ. However, I have another reason for starting it up now. I want my current students to tell me what they are having trouble with. After all, if I plan to produce something useful for students, who would know better what should be in it, or at the least, what I left out. Also, if items in the FAQ are not quite as clear, concise, and brilliant as I think when I write them, students with a bit of experience under their belts will be better able to let me know.
Bye for now,
John Mullen
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