Suggestions for a better model of student use of USA-Africa Dialogue posts (no offence intended, pls)

[Femi Kolapo]

In the past couple of days, I have noticed an avalanche of posts (brief one/two-paragraph summaries of some previous USA-Africa D posts) by newer subscribers who seem to be students using USA-Africa for some elements of their course assessment.

While such use is commendable, a better model of use needs to be devised by their instructor such that the current situation which I feel almost equates to spamming can be avoided. Perhaps the instructor should setup a class or course wikipage for his/her students to which they can post /submit their summaries of the posts they have read on USA-African Dialogue forum. Alternatively, s/he can instruct the students to use a specific title or to include two or three keywords in their title that allow non-student users to filter out these posts since they are clearly not intended to make any contribution to the discussion. They so very quickly swam other posts in my USA-Africa folder that I must scroll up and down looking for which post is which.

Hoping that other users have better suggestions on how to deal with this

________________________

Femi  J. Kolapo

 

[OLAYINKA AGBETUYI]

I think this is a commendable suggestion.  Many do not understand the issues very well.  It is a good way of introducing complex issues to students especially those involving Africa and the wider world.

I do not know what the intructors experiment is about but suggestion ensures that the instructor is in full control and student learning is pitched at the appropriate level for their needs.

OAA.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Femi Kolapo <kol...@uoguelph.ca>

Date: 10/10/2019 22:50 (GMT+00:00)

To: USAAfric...@googlegroups.com

Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Suggestions for a better model ofstudent  use of USA-Africa Dialogue posts (no offence intended, pls)

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[Gloria Emeagwali]

Kolapo’s wiki page suggestion  is a good one for the instructor to note.I suggest also  that the students may benefit more from  thematic summaries and not isolated, sporadic postings - that do not capture or reflect  the bigger issues, and in some cases have to be pruned and reformulated for scholarly use.

GE

gloriaemeagwali.com

africahistory.net

Sent from my iPhone

[Harrow, Kenneth]

femi, i second your suggestion

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Femi Kolapo <kol...@uoguelph.ca>
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2019 1:02 PM
To: USAAfric...@googlegroups.com <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Suggestions for a better model of student use of USA-Africa Dialogue posts (no offence intended, pls)

 

[Abidogun, Jamaine M]

I agree.  I realize that there is a need to educate and respect that; but I do not use this forum for students because this forum is for peer discussions (at least for the past two and half decades that I have participated).  Students need consistent and structured feedback within a context that is designed for their learning experience. As I read through these many recent posts; as an instructor, I can clearly see the purpose is to have each student find relevant articles and post a summary with the article with the expectation that others will critique/comment on it.  That is exactly what I use the Discussion option on Blackboard for with my students. Blackboard and other online classroom systems are for this very purpose; so the instructor can oversee the environment with clear cut guidelines and a knowledge that the environment will be maintained for the level that the student is at in his/her education.  I applaud the students’ efforts and find some of the articles interesting; but this is not the correct forum to substitute for one’s classroom discussions. I feel that the instructor may be unnecessarily using this forum for classroom purposes.

 

In my experience, some graduate students have and do participated in this forum; but they are honing their skills as academic professionals as part of their entry into scholarly peer debates and discussion.  Which, if any students would benefit from this forum, they are the more likely pool of candidates. 

 

With appreciation for the goal of teaching; but I too believe this is not the correct forum for general classroom student participation.

 

Sincerely,

Jamaine Abidogun

 

 

 

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Femi Kolapo
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2019 12:03 PM
To: USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Suggestions for a better model of student use of USA-Africa Dialogue posts (no offence intended, pls)

 

 

In the past couple of days, I have noticed an avalanche of posts (brief one/two-paragraph summaries of some previous USA-Africa D posts) by newer subscribers who seem to be students using USA-Africa for some elements of their course assessment.

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