The other understanding that I finally am coming to grips with in trying to add the Human Touch to my online space is using memes in my course. There is very little humour in my online courses as I have taken this type of learning style in a more serious and formal approach. I am overly concerned with having a straightforward and direct learning methods/styles so as not to distract my students. In a way I guess I do this because I am not there to help them synchronously face to face. The other reason is that it takes a lot of independence and commitment to do online courses and I worry humour would lead to "goofing off" as the online world is overly distracting as it is.
However I think this straight-laced style does not provide "comic relief" for my students. In my pedagogy I believe that humour adds to a well balanced educational style. As in my past face to face classes I practised "edutaining" my students as it both relaxed them and allowed them to enjoy their learning in a more comfortable and inviting environment. I truly am working hard to get back to that style and am taking these "baby steps" to get there. With more positive feedback from my students and by using appropriate methods/tools I am creating the courses that truly reflect my personality and welcome and invite my students to a more "human" online course.
The meme generator that I have used so far is at imgflip.com memes. I tried to make a meme using my own image however I couldn't seem to get it down pat. I will be making one soon but for now I am utilizing the stock images provided. You can uncapitalized the words as well which helps get my point across in the grammar/capitalization memes that I created (see below) #online classroom humour #memes #human online class #ECMP455 #imgflip.com
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