The proof is in the writing

People keep asking how my summer online class is going and I don't know how to answer. Fine, I think, as far as I can tell. It's hard to say.

Take the first day of class: in a face-to-face class, the first class is suffused with a frisson of excitement and the nervousness of newness, but I can look out over the classroom and tell whether I'm connecting with students; certain lines earn laughs or groans while students' faces show signs of comprehension or confusion. (Unless they're just really good at simulating comprehension.) Ask me how the class went and I'll have a pretty good answer.

The first day of my online class was a different story. All day Monday I kept feeling as if something ought to be happening, but instead I just went about my normal activities and trusted that my students were busy listening to my podcast, reading the materials I'd posted, and completing their assignment. I had posted all that information more than a week ago, but through the magic of the internet, students can access it at any time. Later I look at their participation logs to see what resources they've clicked on, but those logs don't laugh or groan or show signs of comprehension at all. Are they getting it?

Writing assignments offer the only clues. So far my students have completed a discussion of a reading assignment and the first writing assignment, and the results look pretty good. They're reading! They're thinking! They're writing!

Except for the ones who aren't. When a student sits silently in a face-to-face class, I can usually detect clues: did he skip the reading assignment and come to class unprepared for discussion, or did he drink too much the night before, or is he one of those students who never speak in class regardless of the topic?

Silence in an online class is simply silence. I have no clue why a few students didn't do these first assignments. I can e-mail a reminder about the importance of participation, but all I know is what they write.

And they are writing a lot. Today I'll read their first writing assignments and see how well they've absorbed the lessons I've made available to them. I can't read their body language or look for signs of comprehension in their eyes, so I'll have to focus entirely on the words on the page. The proof of learning is in their writing--or if it isn't, I'll have to find another way to help them master the techniques I'm trying to teach.