What Students Say

I give four "learning assessments" throughout the semester to give students a chance to reflect on their goals and progress, and also as a way for me to judge how things are going, checking their understanding, etc.

I just gave my Week 6 assessments in my English 100 hybrid and thought some student comments were enlightening and relative to some of our own discussions. I've already experience the major drop off for the semester, so most students are onboard, but I did get two "disillusioned" responses that are just as inisghtful. The prompts were to write about how their perceptions regarding this course may be different 6 weeks into the course than they were on the first day of class, how they feel they are benefiting from the course, and what they saw as advantages and/or disadvantage to DE Learning.

Here's what they said:

The Disillusioned

“Going into the class i thought it was going to be easier since it was online but i was wrong. I'm not saying that it's really hard but it's not easy either. The readings are pretty easy and the online work is to but it just seems like there is so much work to do.”

“What has been surprising to me is the fact that at the beginning I thought I was going to like a hybrid course. It turns out that it's not for me. So, my initial perception was that it might be slightly more convenient but it has turned out to be quite the opposite for me.”

The Optimistic

“I thought the online part would be boring but I’m surprised with the conversations that go on in there. The past online class I had and the other online class I’m taking this semester isn’t as interesting as this one. The discussions of those classes aren’t even really discussions. Whereas this class, I want to go on and read what people are writing about and the conversation that is going on.”

“I love the online discussions because it really makes me think about the topics. Unlike being at a classroom, sometimes when the teacher asks something, my brain doesn’t process it right away so therefore, I won’t have an answer, at least yet.”

“The online classroom is neat cause it gives you into insight into particular voices you wouldn't hear inside of class. Had it been a regular and not a hybrid course, you would never hear what they have to say...so the online portion forces it out of them by incentive.”

[This student was unaware he had signed up for an online course.]
“The very fact that there is an online portion to this class has been surprising to me from the very start. I usually don’t do well with online anything and I’ll admit I was a little nervous about taking a course like this. I thought that I would almost instantly fail but now I can see that what I originally thought was just me being paranoid. In fact this class has built up so much (over) confidence (haha) I signed up for another online class! I was amazed to find out that I can in fact learn things in an online setting. Sometimes I cant really understand things as well when someone is verbally telling me something, but a lot is getting through to me here.”

“The course is much more online oriented than I had expected. I have taken hybrids before; none of them required as much internet interaction. I think it is a good thing though. As opposed to in the classroom setting, online everyone gets to voice their opinions.”

“I really like the online classroom because you can really get out what you want to say. Because everything is written down, it is easier to get some points across instead of speaking them and forgetting everything you wanted to say. Also, you really have a chance to hear everyones individual voice.”

“What has been helpful is being able to see what other students got and comparing the answer that way. It helps me because I feel that if someone got a different answer that me it makes me take a closer look on why I got that answer and why it is different. If I we weren't able to see other students answer you might never know if you were right.”

“ In class I have found that participating makes me a better student. If I’m just sitting listening and never speaking I feel as if I’m not there so why even listen. And by doing the online courses its very fun to hear peoples responses on your DQ and reply back to them.”