Kathleen Marie Ryan's blog

Over the course of this term, I have been working to implement the online course for "History of Documentary." This is the first online course that I'll be teaching, and my concern throughout the process has been to determine how to engage students in the course while not simply replicating the in-class experiences online (replacing lectures with group online hangouts).

Course details
JOUR 4871/5871 - Special Topics, History of Documentary

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A brief recap: I’ll be teaching a course for the first time this summer online. Not only is it a first-time online venture for me, it is a course (History of Documentary) which in the classroom setting would include communal viewings of and discussions about films. I’m trying to figure out how to engage the students in an out-of-class setting and while Google Groups (or some other sort of function) may be helpful, I don’t want to simply attempt to “replicate” a classroom setting online.

I will be teaching an online History of Documentary course this summer. It is the first time I've taught an online course and want to make sure to be able to use the technology appropriately to engage students and spur online discussions. For example, in the traditional classroom, one can watch a film and then create a facilitated discussion on the film's aesthetics, themes, etc. But that face-to-face conversation becomes more difficult in an online environment.