The Missouri Reader Vol. 33, Issue 2 | Page 32

and McTighe’s emphasis was on the importance of the teacher in planning and thinking through the entire course from the end user or student perspective before ever designing the online syllabus. Reviewing the concepts of best practice and applying them to the technological age meant taking advantage of the new Blackboard Vista. In designing the young adult literature course, a close inspection concerning how an online class differed from an onsite class was reviewed. Wilcox and Wojn ar (2000) compared online to onsite classrooms as: the use of technology and the non-traditional way the students and teachers communicate interaction without the use of verbal and nonverbal responses, as well as the mechanics of receiving and sending assignments and feedback. All communication is electronic, including lectures, chats, tasks, assignments, projects, videos, and the portfolio. Gestures and body language in the classroom translates to reading between the lines online. In addition to technological troubleshooting when transferring messages and assignments, the online instructor must be specific regarding acceptable equipment and software. (p.845) Because the young adult literature class was both online and onsite, it could potentially be the best of both worlds. The benefits of having the additional online tools allowed students in the class to receive greater availability of the instructor, because they could use the discussion board throughout the week and correspond with the instructor at times other than the class period or the teacher’s office hours. Another opportunity for students in using online tools is that they could view postings by other students in the class that they could use to teach K-12 students in their own classrooms. The use of discussion blogs, a new feature offered by Blackboard vista, allowed for richer discussions that continued once the class hours ended and in which students responded, not only to the teacher’s questions, but to one another’s reactions. Another benefit of the online technology was a more effective online quiz evaluation system, which gave faster feedback and more comprehensive evaluation results. Advantages Would students, however, view all of these benefits as helping them in their own understanding and teaching of young adult literature? Based on student evaluation results from the young adult literature class during the previous spring of 2007, even before Blackboard Vista was introduced, the answer was positive. In this course, students only needed to respond once to the instructor’s weekly discussion questions; they were encouraged to post their power point and final projects online, but not all did. Their quizzes were taken during the last fifteen minutes of class time. In the course taught in 2008, using Blackboard Vista, students used the weekly discussion questions as a springboard to their own personalized blogs. They also viewed one another’s comments, which they were not able to do previously. In addition, they responded to one another’s viewpoints. A much richer conversation than expected ensued when students were provided with online tools that encouraged them to be more involved in the discussions. A second major change in the course was that students were required to post all power point presentations, literature circle roles, book talks, and final projects online. Many of the students had difficulty understanding how to post their assignments in the previous course. The ease of using the new Blackboard Vista, in addition to the instructor’s increased training, provided the students with a better understanding of how to apply posting all major assignments. Having new, clearly explained instructions from the faculty development center posted online, as well as giving an in-class demonstration on how to post was an added benefit. 32