Iron Man 3/Star Trek Into Darkness Podcast

[planetkiller]

Next term, my department head wants me to teach Expository Writing (freshman English) as an online course. Two sections of it. I've never taught online before, so this is going to be really fun for me

Comments

[kat_lair]

Have listened to your podcast! It was super cool to hear your voice for one.

The quality of the recording is good and your enthusiasm and changing inflection work well for a movie review. For academic stuff I would like something a little more even, but that might just be a personal preference. You're right, you do talk fairly fast and you also swallow some words a bit which means that I have to concentrate quite a lot to follow. I would say slow down a bit and take care to articulate, especially if you have any non-native English speakers.

I also enjoyed your reviews a lot. Haven't seen Iron Man 3 but have seen Star Trek Into Darkness which I enjoyed tremendously. I thought that scene was over the top for sure, but I was never massively into TOS (came into fandom via TNG) so I didn't have the same visceral reaction to it that you did. On the shallow side I enormously enjoyed watching Quint and Cumberbatch beat each other up

[planetkiller]

Thanks for the feedback! I always feel like my voice is way too high pitched. I'm 5'11" (180 cm) so that always surprises people.

I'm going to practice slowing down and enunciating. I can make the partner help since he's been told he has the same problem. (He works in I.T. at the uni library, and one of my coworkers once had me come in when we were doing a Book Tea to translate!)

Both sections are completely online. I've taken a few online courses before, but I've never taught completely online. I would appreciate any suggestions you have, especially since you're a brilliant lecturer. :)

Star Trek Into Darkness has some great scenes, especially the one you're referencing. :) It's probable I'm being too harsh, but that scene just made me furious. It was a very visceral reaction I had.

LOL! I love that picture!

[kat_lair]

What VLE are you using? I'm only really familiar with Blackboard which enables things like discussion boards, wikis, blogs, conditional release of material (students must complete x before they can access y) etc. My recommendation would be to ensure there is some space for students to interact with each other and you, and to make it clear how often you are available for 'live' online tutorials e.g. on chat to answer questions, and how often you are checking emails etc. Thing about online modules is that it's easy to loose track of time and spend way too long on it. Let me know if you have any specific questions, happy to chat about this.