Discussing Discussion Boards and Essential Questions

Since discussion boards are a critical teaching tool in online courses I think this is article on Discussion Board Facilitation from Edutopia worth a read through. Instructors need to be able to give clear and concise directions to students, to write engaging essential questions to discuss and to be able to facilitate the discussion during the time it runs. This offers some suggestions.

One PowerPoint presentation from Traci Blanchard of North Cobb High School, suggested that each lesson have one essential question matched with 3 higher order thinking skills questions. Since k-12 education likes this type of formula approach – it obviously came from a k-12 source. She teaches High School.  However when you are in process of learning to design lessons using standard instructional design methods, it’s kind of nice to have a formula to start with. But view this as a starting point in higher education. Learning to do this for your first online course can be daunting.  If we simply provide canned lectures, readings and computer generated quizzes, we find out student evaluations to be low and our personal satisfaction lower. Our students can quickly maneuver though content making connections if we set the standard and expectations. This takes good course design.

One reason I think that we find students taking short cuts with learning (i.e. cheating) is that we are not moving them fast enough to the engaging questions of the world and of our disciplines. If you are not grappling with interesting questions, its human nature to lose interest and have a class simply become one more card to punch in route to a degree. Make your class engaging and push your students to grapple with essential questions and big ideas. Craft thos discussion question and course question with care. Make questions essential and of higher order.  I think you’ll find the course more enjoyable for both you and your students.

You may want to check out Understanding by Design, by Jay McTighe & Grant Wiggins, © 2004. It was constantly cited in related articles.

More cool tools

As faculty work with me developing their online and hybrid courses they share cool things they find. Larry Brown is developing an online/hybrid Tai Chi course as part of our Rec Sports Management program.

Two cool apps he found to assist him are:

1. CamScanner (https://www.camscanner.net/) which allows your phone to be a scanner. He uses this to have internship students submit forms with supervisor signatures.
2. Ubersense Coach (http://www.ubersense.com/) which allows him to map the body positions for Tai Chi to enhance his teaching.

QR Code embedded in HTML tools including Blackboard Learn

Do you like QR codes? I do.  I find it fascinating that my cell phone can scan a code and take me places in seconds. Now that I am supporting Blackboard Learn, I find that they are really cool embedded in a content area.  I can embed a link to my phone number that makes my phone dial my number in less time than I would take to scroll my iPhone screen to the number pad, much less dial the number. I can set a code to my Linkedin profile in case you want to know more about me. I could as easily take a student to a department or faculty profile to get more information.  The tools you need are a free online QR Code generator and a QR code reader on your smart phone.

In Blackboard, you create the content area, switch to html code and paste the embed code from the generator web site. Switch back to wysiwyg mode in the editor and test, then submit.  I found that BbL will let you resize the QR Code image as well as add notations and allow you to put multiple Codes in one content area.  To do this, you have to be a bit comfortable with HTML code but not much! Let us know if you’d like to try this as we’d be more than happy to help you!

Here is my QR code to my Linkedin Profile.

My Bio on Linked In

Resources I wish I could put in your hands now!

8 Lessons Learned from Teaching Online - from Educause

 


Margaret's Prezi Presentation

Interesting article in the Chronicle today. You'd think as a techie that I'd hate it.  I don't.  To me technology isn't about technology but as a way to make learning more efficient for more students. It's also about leveraging the skills of the teacher/professor.  Instructors share what they love with their students. If technology can make that easier, it's a win-win for both the student and the instructor.  If online courses give students access to an education that otherwise they would miss, then online it is. Check out the article. http://chronicle.com/article/A-Tech-Happy-Professor-Reboots/130741/  What do you think?

Virtual Office? Why do I need that? I teach online!

Visualize your face to face courses. If your students have questions and they take your course face to face, they can pop into your office, stop by your desk in the classroom or meet you in the cafe when you're getting a cup of coffee to get an answer. These are the 'by the way' conversations which can make learning really rich. Those types of informal interactions build community and provide information for students. They are critical to your students' success in your classes. I'll bet you didn't know that! I'll bet you thought that your stellar lectures and carefully crafted activities were all that mattered! These matter. But having a virtual office matters as much to the student as having a physical one does.

Now visualize your online course. How do you have a 'by the way' conversation? One way is through using discussion forums which can simulate the same interactions students have in a face to face course. Discussions help the student feel connected and supported in an online course. As an instructor, this helps you to manage your time and content load as well.

I usually set my courses up with three basic discussions. I title one "I need Help", the  next is a "Virtual Cafe" and the third is "For the Professor".

If you have a "I Need Help!" or "FAQ" discussion forum anyone can answer the questions. Another student may know where the quiz is or other question answer long before you had time to pop in and post an answer - that's one less email for you!

If you have a "Virtual Cafe" discussion forum, then the students have a place to have informal personal conversations and get to be friends.  This builds a connection to the course. Students who are connected are more likely to complete the course.

If you have a "For the Professor" question forum you gather questions about the material you are covering. This give you a chance to gather information which can impact your teaching. It will let you know where the student is confused, needs more information or the re-framing of information.

With these three forums, you cover a lot of ground which saves doing the same thing over and over again. But there is a big "however". It won't work if you don't set the expectations for interaction and communication in your course. Get in the habit of checking the discussions frequently and expect your students to do so as well. Set email expectations to reserve email for personal and/or emergency situations. Everything else goes on the discussions.  I think you'll find that you have more engaged students and with that comes greater success!

Happy New School Year. Let's start it with the plan to have the best online courses in the world!

A Tid Bit: Assessment/Evaluation of learning is on my mind again

I read Donald (Don) Clark's Blogs called  Big Dog and Little Dog's Bowl of Biscuits - in particular the Big Dog Little Dog's Performance Juxtaposition (Home Page of the Juxtaposition) 

Today on the feed in my mailbox was a link to an article discussing the four steps of evaluation.  His focus is instructional design. Mine is faculty and student online learning support. In my opinion these two over lap greatly, especially when talking to faculty about evaluating how well their course is doing. Don starts out with a reference to Donald Kirkpatrick's Four Level Evaluation Model

The four steps of evaluation consist of:

• Step 1: Reaction - How well did the learners like the learning process?
• Step 2: Learning - What did they learn? (the extent to which the learners gain knowledge and skills)
• Step 3: Behavior - (What changes in job performance resulted from the learning process? (capability to perform the newly learned skills while on the job)
• Step 4: Results - What are the tangible results of the learning process in terms of reduced cost, improved quality, increased production, efficiency, etc.?

He further refines the model coming up with the graphic here. I especially like this graphic because it would help faculty to see relationships between Planning and Level of Evaluation of learning. Anyway this is just a tiny tidbit (or in the case of my little Corgi, tidbite!). Take a minute and read the article - it will make more sense in its entirety. I truly meant to wet your appetite with these snips.
 


Borrowed under Don's Creative Commons Licensing.