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The students in these graduate courses came from varied backgrounds, had a wide age span, and each one had their own unique combination of learning skills and intelligences, as described by Gardner (1984). In order to reach a diverse group of students in a class, it is considered good pedagogy to use a variety of teaching methods and techniques.

Components of Online Day implementation by the instructors.
  Laura Ed Lyle Nancy Neal Miller Carrie Mark Ken
Customized course website x x x   x x x x x
Posted syllabus x x x   x x x x x
Weekly quiz from test bank   x x   x x x   x
Assigned online videos x x     x x x
Weekly discussion board topic   x       x     x
Posted comments on discussion   x             x
Received assignments online             x   x
Instructor's own technologies x   x     x   x  

A notable correlation was that the instructors who used the Online Day materials the least (Nancy, Mark and Laura) claimed that their biggest challenge in teaching the course was to prepare the students for the state licensing exam. Thus, their efforts to teach to cover the material on the test took precedence over using the Online Day resources, even though the Online Day resources were designed to prepare students for the exam as well.

Online quizzes

Six out of nine instructors required students to take the weekly quizzes created from the test bank. Lyle and Neal felt that the online tests helped to ensure that the students read the material before coming to class, which contributed to a high level of participation in the class discussions. Neal believed that the online tests contributed toward the cohesiveness of the class. Test grading was usually a chore for which Neal often procrastinated. He was very pleased that the automatic grading of quizzes gave the students instant feedback. Students were also able to check their quiz grades anytime, which let them know where they stood. The online quizzes were taken outside of class resulting in more time that could be devoted to interpersonal communication with and among the students. The online quiz component was most like traditional pedagogy than any other of the online components. Rather than adding to their work, it saved the instructors the work of preparing questions and grading tests.

Videos

The chapter videos were the second most popular component. Streaming video was used to deliver the five case videos to the students directly over high-speed Internet connection. Several instructors (Neal, Ed, and Miller) mentioned how important the videos were to the students in helping them understand the theories in action. According to Neal, the only way to see therapy in action was to be the client, to be the therapist, or to watch it on video.

However, not all students were able to access the streaming videos from the website. Some of the students did not know how to download the video player software to their computers, some did not have high-speed Internet connections, some did not purchase the book which gave them access to the software, and some did not own a computer.

Neal created a work-around to deliver the course videos to his undergraduate students. He obtained copies of the videos on CD for the students to watch on reserve at the library. Mark and Carrie both dropped the requirement for students to watch the videos on their own, because two or three students in each of their classes could not access the video online. Rather than have students working on an uneven playing field, they chose to drop the assignment.

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Source:  OpenStax, Faculty use of courseware to teach counseling theories. OpenStax CNX. Oct 14, 2009 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11130/1.1
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