September 28, 2009

Hello Developers,

I hope you all had a good weekend - I think autumn has finally hit Minnesota! The wind is really blowing the leaves off the trees and it is starting to feel like apple crisp weather.

Today finds us at the 50% completion mark for winter 2010 developments. I will be going into your courses this week to check for your progress, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

I would like to spend some time today talking about discussion boards. It is a requirement at GU/MSB that every unit has a discussion board. The reason we do this is because it is important in the online environment that the students feel as though they are part of a community of learners. It has been proven to increase retention and student satisfaction.

As a whole I think we have done a great job of creating engaging and thought provoking discussion questions. However, I would like to challenge your discussion board writing just a bit further. I came across an article from the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ascilite) titled Developing Online Discussion Forums As Student Centered Peer E-Learning Environments. This article proposes the idea of student lead discussion boards. It is an article that I think is well worth the read!

The idea is that the traditional discussion boards involve an instructor proposing a question and then facilitating the responses. This article asks the question, “What if the students propose the discussion board questions and facilitate the responses?” In the traditional approach the responsibility is on the faculty member to be exclusively involved in the discussion question. If the students propose the discussion board questions and facilitate the responses the students will be taking a more active role in their learning process.

This is not to say that the instructor can’t be involved in the discussion (and definitely should be) but if it is the responsibility of the students to facilitate the discussion boards then the students need to become an advanced expert on a particular topic and can become engrossed in the learning environment on a whole different level.

I view this approach working particularly well in upper level courses (300 and 400 level) and encourage you to give it a try if you are developing an upper level course. Keep in mind that if you are concerned about giving this a try you could propose it as a group project or could add an additional discussion board to each unit using this format. Then there would be one traditional discussion board and one additional discussion board that is student led.

If you have experience in this type of discussion board facilitation please feel free to leave a comment and let us know how it went for you!

Have a great week!

Amy

August 31, 2009

Good Morning Developers!

Can you believe that it is September tomorrow - wow, did the summer fly by fast! Your 25% completion deadline is approaching fast - next Monday I will be going into your courses to check for 25% completion. Please let me know if you have any concerns about meeting this deadline.

This week I came across a video titled Social Media Revolution – This 4 minute video does a fantastic job of telling the story that social media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. It is well worth the watch! Here is the website where this video came from.



After watching this video I couldn’t help but feel proud of the work that we are doing in our online division at GU/MSB.

One of the statistics in the video stated that a 2009 US Department of Education study revealed that on average, online students out performed those receiving face-to-face instruction. This statement impacted me greatly. For many years those who work in online education as a whole have been striving to overcome the stigma that it cannot rival face to face instruction. Although I still believe that there are certain topics that are best learned through a residential environment, this study shows all of us that online education can in fact be just as good as face to face instruction for many topics.

As online developers we are directly impacting the 1 in 6 higher education students who are enrolled in online education and are responsible for them performing just as well as those students who learn in a traditional brick and mortar classroom. This is an awesome responsibility and I believe that thus far we have lived up to the challenge!

The work that we are doing is cutting edge, impactful, and highly motivated by the changing face of communication and education. Congratulations for being so closely involved in a changing world! Don’t be afraid to work these social media avenues into your developments – your students will love being able to use them in a classroom environment!

August 3, 2009

Hello Developers,

This is the last week of development for this round. I will be opening up your courses to the peer advisers next Monday. Please let me know when you complete your developments this week so I can offer suggestions and check them off as the week goes along. Remember to check the Online Course Development Checklist to make sure you caught everything in your development.
Here is a great reminder of overall things to look for in your developments. Click on the link to hear the audio of this information, otherwise you can read my summary below.

10 Ways in 10 minutes to engage online learners:

1. Primacy: People remember the first thing they see/hear. It is critical to cover the learning goals and manage their expectations right from the start. The learning objectives (link) will do this.


2. Visuals: 60% of people would prefer to receive information visually. Include graphs, cartoons, etc. Not Just Text.


3. Sound: Sound can be a perfect way to provoke memory as well as to create an environment


4. Movement: In an e-learning environment this can be difficult but consider asking students to enter in yes or no answers that you are not even tracking. Just typing in a response helps learners internalize the information.


5. Use Emotion: Take a situation or case study and add emotion to it.


6. Teach to a Context: Answer the question “Why do we have to learn this?” Make sure that the online learner knows the answer to this question.


7. Build a Sense of Community: Have students work together


8. Use Humor: Use free cartoons that are available on the web


9. Engaging: Don’t “Dummy Down” the course. Make sure the material is engaging and challenging enough for the learner.


10. Recency: People remember the last thing that they hear/see. Make sure to review at the end of each unit what the student has learned.

December 8, 2008

Good Morning Developers!

I would like to spend some time talking about interactivity and why it is necessary in online courses. Interactivity serves to minimize students' feelings of isolation and to promote critical thinking skills, learning, and retention. There are four types of interactivity:

Student to Instructor (SI): e-mail, discussion boards, graded papers and assignments, live lectures, and office hours

Student to Student (SS): e-mail, discussion boards, peer review activities, collaborative writing, group projects, chat areas, blogs, wikis, peer mentoring, debate

Student to Resource (SR): Textbook, publisher's online extras, webquests, URL exchange, guest lectures

Student to Content (SC): Reading, drill-and-practice, multimedia, Flash activities, summaries, outlines, practice quizzes

It is important to have sufficient activites that cover all four of these areas of interactions in your online course development. Many activities cross over into two or more areas of interactivity. Please use the list below to give you ideas for interaction in the courses you are developing.

• Lecture Notes: SC


• FAQ Lists: SR


• Flashcards: SC


• Drill and Practice: SC


• Webquests: SC, SR


• Virtual Field Trips: SC, SR


• Presentations/Slide Shows: SC, SS


• Workbooks: SC


• Blog Activities: SC, SI, SS


• Graded or peer-reviewed literature: SI, SS


• Graded or peer-reviewed reading summaries: SC, SI, SS


• Panel discussions: SI, SS, SR


• Simulations: SC


• Interactive games: SC


• Collaborative writing: SS


• Graded Research Projects: SC, SI, SR


• Graded Case Studies: SC, SI, SR


• Group role play activities: SS


• Debate: SS, SR


• Graded learning logs: SC


• Online portfolio work: SC, SR


• Peer mentoring activities: SC, SS


• Graded critiques activities: SC, SI, SR


• Self assessment activities: SC


• Online office hours: SI


• Email: SI, SS


• Live chats: SI, SS


• Newspaper/journal activities: SR

Additionally, here is a link to the Journal of Interactive Online Learning that contains all of their current and past editions. Check this journal out for some great ideas

Have a great week!

Amy

November 24, 2008

Good Morning Developers!

I came across an interesting article this week titled "Seven skills students desperately need" http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=56127

The seven skills mentioned in the article are:

1. Problem-solving and critical thinking
2. Collaboration across networks and leading by influence
3. Agility and adaptability
4. Initiative and entrepreneurship
5. Effective written and oral communication;
6. Accessing and analyzing information
7. Curiosity and imagination.

As you read through the article and read through the list, think about how you are incorporating the learning of these skills in your online class. It is easy to "teach to the test" and tell students to answer end of chapter questions and answer multiple choice quiz questions when the answers are in the book. But it is a bit more challenging to teach students how to analyze information and generate curiosity and imagination. I know that all of you are up to the challenge! It is not only our job to teach our students the textbook information, but we need to be teaching them how to be successful in the workforce. If you are interested in bouncing ideas off of me I would be more than happy to discuss these with you!

As a reminder, for most of you the 25% completion deadline is on Monday. If you have questions about this or any concerns about reaching this deadline please let me know ASAP.

Have a great Thanksgiving week!

Amy