HST 195: History of Vietnam War F16 (Escobar 21065)

I enjoyed the forum topics very much was. Good way to view the subject from a different perspective. 

I thought the forums posed interesting questions, but it did seem as though there was a couple weeks where we were answering the same questions, or saying the same things in our responses.

I feel the forums were well organized and helped my overall understanding of the course material. The only issues were if I fell behind in my class work and felt like I was unable to contribute, which was a personal problem and has no negativity toward the class. The only large frustrating part was when other students did fail to post so when it was already Wednesday, and there were no other posts to reply to, it made it more challenging to keep up with the regular participation. Unfortunately, I have no suggestions of how this could be solved because I feel the forums were already organized enough and easy to follow after that first week of getting used to it. 

the forums worked great as long as everyone participated in a timely fashion. it was hard acquiring 8 points if people gave a poor response. It was a little stressful trying to make sure you had enough posts and references.

Overall, stimulating topics 

I feel like the forums are only as good as the people writing on them.  It is easy to see if a student hasn't read the material or is just trying to fill lines.  When this happens it makes it hard to have a conversation due to the lack of input from the students who really haven't thought about the subject.  It honestly makes me lose interest in the forum when I see this happen.  On the positive side, I really enjoy when someone makes a post that lets me see things from their viewpoint.  It allow you to look at the text and videos in different ways.

I had a very hard time talking to others as a result of my anxiety. 

As a regular reader of news, and an occasional skimmer of comment section it was nice to see an academic and respectfull conversation on the topics.

I've taken a few online classes with forums before and I liked that the deadline for Wednesday for the initial post and that the responses were hidden. I also like the grading system put in place for the forums. I do feel sometimes the smaller sized groups did hurt the discussion when topics were limited. I did find myself wondering how I would only score a 4 or 5 for the week when I feel I really tried.

The biggest pro and con to the posts was group size. While a small group allows for a more meaningful discussion it does become stagnant after a couple of posts, with the same ideas being seen from two or more people. Since after a couple of posts you are kind of some people are left with "I agree" posts which only lead to 1 point posts. I think having a somewhat larger group would workout better for students since it could allow for a wider array of opinions. This was the only problem I had with the posts.

I thought a 3 grade was not enough for the time and energy that each forum requires. I felt as if no matter how many times I posted or commented that it was not enough and I struggled to find a balance to what you wanted and what I thought was appropriate

Many computer was not able to open google docs. 

I think that its a good idea to offer it, but I personally didn't participate solely because I am taking a writing class as well this term, and my grade is pretty good in this class so I didn't feel the need to put the time into writing an extra paper.

I  appreciate the extra credit opportunities and how you do not put a point grade on them and make it a pass or not pass system. This was a bit surprising because normally I want to crunch the numbers to help make up points, but I felt having the pass/not pass made it more assignment focused and less about how many points you can get. The extra credit I didn't participate in was due to being not caught up in class work at the time, but the ones I was able to participate in, I felt helped understand a different angle of the Vietnam war that we weren't zooming in on and I really appreciated getting that guided opportunity and hope you continue them in the future. 

I thought the opportunity was fair for extra credit.

it's good for students to have the opportunity even if few do them. It shows that those who do them truly deserve to be rewarded.

I completed the third extra credit because I had a poor performance on one of the forums.  I really enjoyed having the opportunity to make up some of those points.  As for others not taking the chance, I guess they have a "A" in the class or don't care.

I 

I appreciated the opportunity. The word count and specific direction made 1 point pass/fail seem possibly not worth the time, especially with no feedback or engagement with rest of class from assignment.

I wanted to participate in the first two extra credit opportunities, I just didn't have the time between my other classes and work.

While I did do the first extra credit option I found that I didn't have the time for the other two. The extra credit was very helpful and it was the right amount of work for 1 point, so I would keep it for the students that get a lower grade on one of their posts.

I felt that with what was expected of me for my forum that I did not have time to focus on extra credit that required so much more than I was able to give 

I get financial aid so have to order from LCC to receive them on time. 

I don't think that online material could replace our textbooks, especially for this class since there is so much bad information online. The only way I could see that working is if the school was able to provide a free version of the same textbooks online. However, I dislike reading on a screen for long periods of time and this would thoroughly annoy me.

ug. Please do not take away textbooks! Where I support the "cheaper" education I do not support taking away textbooks because people learn a different number of ways. One of the huge and major things I enjoyed in this online history class was the fact there was such a huge variety of ways to learn about the war. Even this being one of my weakest subjects, I was able to regularly switch the type of materials I studied from for this class because of the vast different materials we were given. I really enjoyed learning from youtube, articles, two different text books and different style documentaries. Honestly this was one of my favorite things about this class! It made it so when I wasn't so strong learning from one source, I could use the other source to help guide me through the source I wasn't strong on. I know this isn't the case for everyone, but I know everyone has a different style of learning. I am 100 percent against taking textbooks away despite the cost. Also for those of us with eye problems that prevent us from staring at a computer monitor for x amount of time a text book is a great way to break up the time. It truly is great to have a variety of materials to learn from and I believe more classes should do this. please fight to keep textbooks!

I have taken classed with only free material and it was great! I didn't have to pay or carry a book around it was always accessible with my smart phone or computer.

it's definitely a struggle to transition to purely digital text. I think it'll be great in the future to grow the market for kindle textbooks by offering both sources. Overall, I liked the material and mediums for the material in the class.

I much rather have a real book, it is easier to reference material when needed.  Also the cost of the text for this class was very inexpensive.  I have taking classes with only free material or found online, but I don't learn as well from that method of reading.

I used amazon. 

I have never taken a class without some form of required book or other material. Most of the time the book is rarely used nor actually required once the class gets going. I utilize free information, as well as what is available such as LCC library. I did enjoy the Patriots book, but considering how well comprehensive Longest War was, along with all the free info such as pbs and others, it might not have been necessary.

I'm open to trying other options such as website and printing web pages. I fine with spending money on a textbook as long as I use it in the class. It's only frustrating when I'm required to buy a textbook for a class and we never use it.

I actually like buying textbooks. I believe that having the knowledge well after you need it comes in handy. What I don't like is when I have to spend $200+ on one or two books for a class (not this class). This has caused me to drop out of classes on week one. If they could just make textbooks either more affordable or just cut the required texts for certain classes then it could be a good idea.

I enjoy printing the material but find that it would require too much ink replacements during the course that it would be more beneficial to rent my text book. I love courses that allow free online materials and think it would work well with this class because there are so many articles and papers to be read about vietnam.

Maybe a paper on how they view the war after the class. I think you provided complete and helpful tools for the class. 

Nothing comes to mind.

I use Google Docs and know there are ways to share the link easily other than that I'm not very tech saavy 

not at this time

Maybe some sort of student based sharing where students and the professor can share links and thoughts throughout the week in a loose way without grading to continue stimulating ideas without them being too overbearing. It could create an interesting side popouri of discussion, sharing, and insight in conjunction with the weekly graded forums.

One online class I had the instructor had lectures saved as audio files, so that when we finished a section we could then listen to the lecture.  I found this useful in a online course to still be able to have lecture files to help expand on the readings.

A moodle app for the iPad would be cool. 

I have used google docs, though I would say Word and Moodle are sufficient for this class.

There isn't that I can think of.

I think that the way you have it set up now works quite well. I wouldn't change it.

I found the way we posted fine I cant think of a different way to do it that would be better. Some of my classes require a word document and some doesn't so it really wouldnt effect me either way

You covered it all usual. 

I thought the class was well taught and found the material very interesting. This was my first online class and I was skeptical at first, but I think I may try another one some time in the future.

This course is amazing. My recommendation is to continue what you're doing. Keep showing your passion to your students. It shows even in an online class. I can only image how much passion you have for history in person. Thank you for an amazing term! Lane needs more teachers like you.

I know there is a lot of information to be covered about the war, sometimes it seemed like the information was coming so fast it was hard to absorb all I wanted to learn. after reading I would have to hurry and post on the forum, and then the week was starting all over again. but I loved all I learned.

I can't think of anything else

I know its not helpful, but I think this is a very well managed course that is thoughtfully put together.  I really don't like online courses, but I enjoyed this one.

i am not sure 

Other than my advice on books and opinion of extra credit, I can't think of anything. Enjoy the break.

I think an addition of a weekly or bi-monthly quiz would be beneficial to help with studying for the midterm and final. It would also help students who score poorly on forums and tests.

The survey covered just about everything and I couldn't think of a way to help improve the course.

Postpone initial posts of forums till later in the week so that all materials can be assessed without feeling rushed. This class has a ton of information to remember and refer to and without a few extra days I personally felt rushed