Who is this Joan person?

I've been teaching my students to vet sources, so I clearly needed to do some research on Joan Thormann after reading her article "Encouraging Online Learner Participation."  I could not simply rely on the brief description that she "is a professor in the Division of Educational Technology at Lesley University and coauthor of The Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Designing and Teaching Online Courses."  Besides, this article was from 2014, so I wanted to know what else this mysterious "Joan" had done.

Here's what I found from Magna Publications:

• She's been developing and teaching online courses since 1996.
• She worked for an educational software company.
• She developed, implemented, and directed projects relating to technology for students with special needs.
• She's presented at over 100 conferences nationally and internationally.
• She edits a column on technology and special needs.
• She holds a PhD in special education and philosophy from the University or Oregon.

Joan checks out.

And her vast experience helps explain why her article was by far my favorite one of everything we read for Module 1.

I love reading and learning about different subjects, but I often become frustrated when books and articles tell you what to do without offering any insight onto how to do it.  I also don't like a "one size fits all approach," as if every personal experience can be directly applied to diverse contexts and situations.  So it should not be a surprise that I appreciate when people simply share their experiences and allow the reader to make their own connections and applications.

I loved that Dr. Thormann spoke of how she uses discussions as assignments rather than assigning an overall participation grade.  I love that she reflected on why she believes that The Coffee Shop is a helpful forum.  I loved how she identified go-getters and how they can be utilized as catalysts.  I loved how she broke down the responsibilities she assigns student moderators. And I loved that her straight-forward writing helped me make connections between her online classroom experiences and my own face-to-face classroom experiences.

My biggest take-away came from her section on using student moderators. I used to do this all the time when I was a youth pastor, assigning students leadership roles for facilitating discussion. When I read her praise for how student moderators bring a different perspective to the course, I thought, "Yes!  I've seen this!"  And I immediately thought, "I can do this in my face-to-face classroom again and online!  I know how to do this!"

So I'm grateful to this formerly-mysterious Joan for sharing her experiences in a way that I was able to make connections to my own experience in a way that will hopefully benefit my current and future students.