Comments from students with instructor interaction
Student 1
I enjoyed reading the different views on the discussion boards and appreciated the feedback I received regarding my posts. My classmates were respectful and very insightful. The peer review was, in my opinion, a wonderful tool for proofreading. It gave us the chance to have a second set of eyes look at our paper before submitting it for a final grade. I can only hope that I gave useful information to my peer in proofreading her paper. I looked at it as though it were my own I was about to submit for grading.
I am pleasantly surprised that I learned so much from an online course. Usually, in class interaction helps me retain more knowledge, but I feel as though I'm walking away with a greater understanding of literature than when I started this course.
Student 2
I thought it was well put together. I don't really like peer review, but I know it's a good part of the course. I don't mind someone else critiquing my essay I just don't like being responsible for proof reading anyone else's. Many people feel this way but we learn SO much about proofreading our OWN stuff when we proofread for others.
I think I did learn to think in more critical ways. I think the reason for this was because we had to analyze most of the things that we read. My favorite discussion board was the mourning of the dying American females names. I thought it was very thought provoking. I love reading and analyzing things that I can immediately identify with. I enjoyed reading everyone else’s thoughts about the discussion board topics. My classmates often made points or had ideas that I hadn't thought of. Good. This class really did a great job keeping the discussion board going!
As I said before peer review is not my favorite thing to do, but honestly I feel that it is a very constructive part of the class. It was helpful. My partner found several grammatical errors that I didn't and also pointed out some sentences that were hard to understand.
Student 3
I really enjoyed the peer reviews we did last week, and I really wish I would have participated in it more often. I felt like I could help people as they helped me, and it made writing so fun! The only thing I did not really enjoy in this class was the play, “Sure Thing”. I thought that it was honestly a terrible story, and I despised every second of reading it. Throughout this class I definitely had to learn to put my thinking cap on, because I had to think in many ways I had never had to do before. I loved getting feedback from all of my classmates, as it helped the learning experience to be about ten times easier because I got to learn of others thoughts and experiences with the stories.
Student 4
I loved how the instructor made us look deeper than the surface of a story and to break it down into more than just lines of text. That really made a difference in how I was able to comprehend the stories we read. Her discussion board projects were simply an amazing idea. They got the class motivated to work together and they helped us, as students, work together better. The boards really helped me to appreciate my fellow classmates’ opinions and to pay better attention to their suggestions.
Having never experienced an online classroom environment before, the way this class was operated really made the experience enjoyable. Although there is no “real” interaction with my classmates, the virtual interaction was just as good. I was able to provide and receive feedback and to get help or suggestions during assignments. I wasn’t really sure about the Peer Review board though. It seemed like a good idea in theory, but I didn’t really see too many students taking advantage of it. I truly think it would have been a great tool during assignments had more students used it. The forced Peer Review for our research paper was great, but I just didn’t see it being used to its full potential. There were a lot of great comments and suggestions, but most of my classmates didn’t seem too thrilled by the idea of having to critique someone else’s work. I thought it was helpful when writing my research paper, because I like another person’s opinions about my writings. The feedback helps me to better my writing and achieve my standards.
Student 5
The blackboard discussions are the backbone of the course due to the nature of online curricula, this is the only constructive criticism a student may receive unlike a normal classroom environment. The peer reviews are very difficult for people who can’t see each other to easily pass information and as such I don’t know if the review is beneficial online. I do feel though that if more reviews were required that students would learn their tendencies in writing.
Student 6
The discussion boards explained to me that it is ok to have a different view from other students, and there is no wrong answer on how an individual interprets a short story or essay. The peer view was great, it help me earn an “A” this was my first time interacting with another student closely and I was a little nervous. The peer view assignment helped me loosen up for further peer view exchanges. Proofreading is important and I learned that I must proofread about one hundred times because that what it takes for me to get it right.
Student 7
The discussion boards were great as well, I like the way you replied to them not in just a good job manner but by asking more questions to invoke more thought about the subject. The participation by other students is also good because everyone sees each piece of work in a different way. The part of the course that I did not enjoy is the peer review. I was an unfortunate recipient of a no show student partner. In my experiences, when a student does review my paper, they do not always give sound advice. I fall into this same category because I do not feel I know enough to give any type of advice. I will say that I do understand the concept of having someone proof read a paper and I have gained so proof reading skills in this class I hope to build on in the future.
Student 8
The instructor was always very responsive to any questions that were posted in the discussion board or sent via email. It was also very helpful that she set up a discussion board just for us to ask questions. This was helpful because you could look through the previous questions to check if yours may have already been answered and you wouldn't have to waste your time or the instructor's time by posting the same question again. I also enjoyed the interaction with the other students in the discussion boards. It was very helpful to get other points of view on your opinion of the assignments. The only part of the course that I didn't find very helpful was the peer review.
However; that was due to my own lack of effort. I got a little behind the week of the peer review and I just moved it to the bottom of my priority list. I really hated this because the student I was partnered with also suffered because of my lack of effort. I think the peer review can be very helpful and I would recommend keeping it as part of this course.
Briefing