### Title: Forming Academic Opinions and Conducting Expert Interviews in Online Learning
**Synopsis:** This lesson focused on developing students’ abilities to form strong academic opinions and to support these opinions with evidence. The main objectives were to understand the process of comparing online and traditional learning environments using specific learning characteristics, to transform subjective statements into objective, researchable questions, and to introduce the concept of conducting expert interviews as a means of creating primary sources for their upcoming essays.
### Attendance:
– Absent: Nogora (late), Daniel (sick), Medina
– Number of Students Mentioned Absent: 3
### Topics Covered:
1. **Introduction to Academic Opinions**
– Reviewed learning characteristics assignments.
– Discussed the transition from characteristics to forming academic opinions through comparison.
– Emphasized the importance of comparing online and traditional learning against specific learning characteristics.
2. **Supporting Opinions with Evidence**
– Transitioned from “should” statements to “can” questions to facilitate comparison.
– Brainstormed how online and traditional learning students can ask for and receive feedback from instructors.
– Highlighted the need for specificity and measurability in learning characteristics.
3. **Expert Interviews as Primary Sources**
– Introduced primary, secondary, and tertiary sources.
– Explained the role of interviews in creating primary sources.
– Outlined the structure and purpose of conducting an expert interview.
4. **Practice Interview Preparation**
– Assigned the task of creating a list of interview questions focused on musical tastes.
– Students will conduct a practice interview with a partner based on shared music genre preferences.
### Actionable Items:
– **Clarification of Learning Characteristics:**
– Address common mistakes in learning characteristics for stronger foundation in essay writing.
– **Preparation for Expert Interviews:**
– Students to develop practice interview questions for next session.
– **Discussion of Source Types:**
– Further exploration of primary, secondary, and tertiary sources to be conducted.
### Homework:
– Students are to create a list of eight interview questions about musical tastes, to be used in a practice interview session.
– Three introductory questions should be aimed at gathering demographic information.
– Five additional questions should be designed to generate conversation and elicit opinions.
– Complete the Google Form to choose a preferred music genre for pairing with a partner.