Jeanette--

    I'd be interested to find out how this turns out. If you build it,
will they come? While I get a kick out of the geographical span of my
teaching--from Hong Kong to Amsterdam!--the key factor is really that
everyone works full-time. What's the incentive to spend a particular
hour chatting about cataloging rather than fitting it in as study
time in odd hours off? Is this the best online way to reach the most
students?

     I'll be polling my students next week to see about times and
whether that will actually work for them, but I'd love to hear more
experiences from the list.

Cheryl


>I'm teaching an online "Technical Services" course, which includes
>cataloging --
>a module I've been putting off since this is my first time teaching online
>and I
>haven't quite figured out how to do that part!
>
>As for chat times, I have used them initially for office hours.  I set a time
>when I'm available each week and folks can 'visit' or not.  I also tell them
>to let me know if they need to schedule another time.  My students are in
>the TWU DE/DL program and are in time zones from Eastern to Pacific.
>
>I am planning my first "class chat" and am in the midst of surveying the
>students as to their preference for times.  Since it is a large class, I am
>planning two sessions -- to cut down on the number interacting at one time
>and to accomodate 4 time zones.
>
         -- Jeanette

--
Cheryl Boettcher Tarsala, Ph.D.
independent researcher in cataloging and metadata

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