Mentor+Meeting+Week+2

After reading through most of the discussion postings it appears that many of the students understand how the online learning model works. I did notice that one particular student does not seem to understand the online learning process. Mrs. McKeown is diligent to make sure the students understand that the students need to ask questions when they get stuck or confused with what they are supposed to be doing. It seems that the student that stated he didn’t understand the discussion board process might not be used to learning independently or has trouble getting started. I took a gander at the gradebook and only about three out of the twenty students are passing this math 4 course. It is still rather early in the course but it appears that many of these students struggle with organization and independent learning. The students that are failing are simply missing deadlines for discussion and quizzes. Mrs. Mckeown does an excellent job of responding to each discussion posting and asks the student to give more details if the student did not completely answer the post question. As I go through the postings many of the students are only making one post and are not following up when Mrs. McKeown asks them more specifics. I have not been apart of a chat yet, but I am hopeful that I can observe the next one to see what she has to say to these students that appear to be procrastinators. Many of the students cited that they were taking this course online to be able to graduate on time. I read many posts from students that say they failed math at some point in high school or that they are not very good at math. I hope that these posts are not an early indication of the lack of discipline and organization among these students.