iSean

so, i just installed a new service called craftysyntax. craftysyntax is a a multi-user, multi-operator, multi-department live help support chat system. In simple terms, it’s a way to interact with people who are browsing your website. now, i don’t expect to interact live (e.g., a chat session) with all of my students — i can’t; however, i have grown a bit leery of the online lectures that i assign. i get the feeling that my lectures aren’t being read very well, if at all. now, i had the same fears about the textbook and i give my students a quiz at the end of each session in the hopes of asking some questions that will cause my students to want to read the readings. but the quiz comes on Sundays evenings and the class sessions started on the previous monday. many students will complete the class well before the quiz arrives. i want to find a way to get my students being more interactive around the lecture content. enter craftysyntax onto the scene.

craftysyntax is set up to be live help, but i have discovered that you don’t have to be live to enjoy the main benefits of this software as it pertains to e-learning. let me explain how i’ll use it . . . i want to create little buttons throughout online lectures (perhaps after about each page or 2 of the lectures). students will click on the button that is included on the webpages of the lectures. each click will pop open a new window with content and questions that i’ve written. students will answer questions that are less about being a quiz and much more about reflecting on various sections of the e-lecture. their answers are emailed to me immediately and i can then provide them with a model response to the question(s) posed.

it’s late and i am tired. more on this later.