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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Danielle Geary, Lecturer & Online Coordinator of Spanish at the School of Modern Languages (ModLangs) at Georgia Institute of Technology, wrote The Faculty Focus, June 4, article, “Ideas for Creating an Effective Syllabus for Online Learning.” The School of School of Modern Languages is part of the Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.
Excerpt:
Online students need to feel an instructor presence in their classes. Thorough explanations and effective communication help fulfill this need and can transform a mediocre online course into a great one—and it all starts with the syllabus.
Structure and communication. That’s what I’ve found to be the keys to an effective online course syllabus. Well, that, and something I call a chapter checklist, to go along with the syllabus. I’ve discovered both to be essential to my asynchronous online foreign language course.
Now that I’ve been teaching Spanish online for five years, experience has taught me some excellent ways to both connect with my students and provide much-needed structure.
For the full article, visit The Faculty Focus website.