So, I snuck into an OER webinar yesterday afternoon, and THIS chart is what struck me the most. The first row is savings to students & the loss to bookstores. The second row is how many students stay in the class and don’t fail and the savings to the college because of that consequence; the last row is credits – students are more likely to stick around and take 2.15 more credits due to the use of OER.   Just thought I’d share the financial importance to our students & how OER keeps them in college.   The college savings of over $400k is impressive, but I’m not doing this to save the college money… I think many of us do this FOR the students & their learning/wallets. :D

In Monday's class, I introduced Large Project 4 - a nontraditional research project; students were asked to have a research question by Wednesday. Here were the items due Monday night: Unit 9 Online & Large Project 3. In Wednesday's class, we'll vote on our favorite LP3, start to complete Unit 10 together, and share our LP4 research questions on a Padlet(?).

During Monday/Tuesday's classes, we'll conduct a Padlet Check-In. I'll give a simple reminder that Group 3 is due at midnight. We'll look at the mini-deadlines for LP2 this week = Interviews. I'll do a quick demonstration on looking for interviews online via Google, TED.com, and YouTube.  During Wednesday/Thursday's classes, I'll introduce Group 4 (the creative genres); the rest of class time is devoted to working on Large Project 2.

This week I'm attending the Open Education conference, so there will not be any in-person classes or student-office hours the entire week. Class slidedecks were sent out via email and posted to the Blackboard Announcements area. Reach out to me (Sybil) via email/text with any questions/concerns. ☺

Today,  MONDAY, I'll introduce students to LP3 ; they’ll work on this next week when I'm attending a conference. That means that today is the l ast in-class workday for LP2. If you have a draft ready for Wednesday, start on Unit 8 online; the topic is Gender. On WEDNESDAY, we'll use class time to conduct Peer Review online for LP2, and there will be opportunities for optional one-on-one conferences f2f with me. Once students wrap up Peer Review for LP2, they should start on Unit 8. Unit 8 and LP2 are due next Monday night!

Hey humans, so it's before the 11am English 110 class, and I just looked at the gradebook. Unfortunately, not a lot of students have completed LP1 or peer review at this point in any of my three English 110 classes. I realize that the "deadline" for LP1 is tonight (tomorrow night for the 8am TR class), but I'm trying to understand why very few students completed the peer review last week when we had one class day devoted to it... and then we even had a second day to complete that, but maybe I'm overthinking it all: students are busy or sick or just waiting until tonight/tomorrow to chuck stuff online? *I might have to push back the introduction to LP2 to Wednesday/Thursday. Maybe I should've had mini-deadlines for LP1 like I've created for LP2 (pink handout)? I'll update this post asap with changes, and if the LP2 intro is backed up, I'll update the schedule as well. UPDATE: As suspected, the 11am class chose to move the introduction of LP2 to Wedn...

Hello lovely humans... So, English 110 sees online peer review/workshop today and tomorrow (Monday and Tuesday) based on what your class time is. That means no regular f2f class session. On Wednesday/Thursday, we'll conduct optional writing conferences f2f during the regular class session, or over phone during my student-office hours, or via email. Large Project 1 and Group 2 are due Monday (Oct 11) or Tuesday (Oct 12) depending on when you have my hybrid class. *Some students have emailed or come to class not knowing what's going on. Please try to remember to check your email, the schedule, and this blog. + I'll introduce Large Project 2 in class today to the English 120 students; they'll also complete Unit 6 in class together. I think we'll watch the Addiction TED Talk and discuss it. We'll do something similar with Unit 7 on Wednesday (Abortion TED Talk). If anyone has to miss class, please complete the units in Blackboard as a substitute.