The guy who got me excited about Econ is using an online discussion board to generate in class discussion. Using Blackboard course management system he has students post to the discussion board, and later in class he uses their posts to generate in class discussion.I like this idea very much! The semester has already started so it is too late to change my syllabus, and I hate extra credit.
Taking the Doctor's idea, I made a forum for the students on blackboard called:
"I did not get what ...... you be talking about?"
I am hoping that students will ask online what they are embarrassed to ask in front of their classmates. However most students will not do this till it becomes mandatory or becomes extra credit.
I also use discussion boards on Blackboard. I put a lot of stuff up on the 'board - class notes, examples, solutions to quizzes/exams/problem sets etc...
ReplyDeleteI try to get material up fast. But, there are occasional mistakes. If a student catches a mistake that I deem "material" (i.e. not a mispelling, but something important, like a computational error) and posts it to the discussion board, the first poster for a given mistake gets 5 points on the next in class quiz.
This incents them to read my material ASAP. Of course, the points end up going to the best students (who don't really need them to get their A's,) But, it does benefit the rest of the class, since material errors get caught (and corrected) quickly.