Good Practice from Joan Esterline Lafuze, IU East
Title “Scavenger Hunt” to Orient Online Students
Course or Project L391 Biology of Addictions
Audience Beginning undergraduates
Active 1997, still active
Background Information I require that students have college experience (approximating at least second year standing), but they are not required to have experience regarding online courses. To succeed in the course the students need to be able to navigate the different aspects of participating online.
Teaching Challenge Some of the challenges are a matter of "educating" the student on the "how to's" of participation. Since Oncourse became available for me to use, I have used the Oncourse platform. Some students are not familiar with Oncourse, or they have not kept up with changes as it has been improved. Other challenges are ones related to the limitation of the student's computer or the ability of the student to use it (to download pdf files for example), and some are "system" challenges (user I.D.'s and passwords that do not permit the student to enter the Medical Library, intercampus roster problems, textbook availability and such.

Another benefit of the exercise is that it introduces the students to each other and to the first "expert Lecturers" who come into the classroom to offer their perspectives.
Good Practice I devised a "scavenger hunt" that comprises the entire first assignment. You will not have the benefit of being able to use all of the direct links that are written into this assignment, but the design is evident. View the summary below or the entire Scavenger Hunt assignment.

Assignment Summary:

10 points for the completion of your profile update
10 points for sending the instructor (Lafuze) a course mail through In Touch in Oncourse telling me whether you have been assigned to a group, only one group, and if so what group that is
10 points for describing the picture on Page 3 from the downloaded pdf file
10 points for downloading Brainfacts
10 points for posting in the Introductions Forum
10 points for responding to at least one other student post in the Introductions Forum
10 points for posting a greeting to David Leffler in the forum with his name
10 points for posting a response to the request for information on an article from a peer-reviewed journal from the medical library
20 points for the quiz.
Impact The students and I know "upfront" what they will have problems with if we do not intervene. The more that I have enhanced this first assignment, the more effective has the class been. Once we get going, we are not slowed down by finding out that a student cannot participate for some reason we could have handled earlier.
Assessment Instructors provide peer review for each other (or others). Student evaluation addresses this issue specifically.
Keywords Orienting students, student readiness, assessing student needs, communicating expectations, forums, feedback, motivating student participation, online testing, interesting assignments
Technical Format Oncourse
Relevant URLs http://www.iupui.edu/~physio/assignment1sp03.html

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