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.

Collaboration

Collaboration in Course Design

What does it take to be collaborative as an adult worker? This question is plaguing me.  I think that you have to be willing to step out of your 'expert' status and be willing to risk making mistakes in public.  Some of us willingly do this, others not so much.  I think this may be hardwired in our personality. I've always been interested in everything. I tend to be a generalist and a nosey rosey as my mom would put it. I want to know what my colleagues are working on. I want to know what a faculty member teaches and what they like about it.

When I design a course for/with someone, I like to watch them teach so I can see what their personality is like. There are people who are gifted orators. They should never - or rarely - be put in a situation where this is not part of their teaching tool kit.  There are others (and I think I'm one of these) who prefer to dispatch a minimum of information verbally and then do something. It's probably how I ended up being a computer trainer/instructional technologist. To teach computers, you have to do something.  Many other fields are that way. Math, Science, Writing, Reading - oh maybe many of the academics are 'do' fields. So why is it people who like to do science or math or reading feel the need to talk about it instead of doing it when they teach?

This is where collaboration comes in. That's the type of question I like to ask faculty - why, if you like to do x, do you spend most of your time talking about it instead of doing it? At a big research university where the focus is research, faculty get to do their topic while grad students lecture or supervise lab type sections. I try to get them to think out of the box of the type of teaching they experienced as a student where it was lecture, test, lecture. What other ways can your students learn about your topic of study? What made you love the field? Who are you? How does that influence what you teach? Are you more about writing about your field after long library or primary source research? Do you take primary sources and turn them into a story to tell? Do you like standing up in front of people and telling that story? I love to watch their face light up as they talk about their field. I know nothing about nanoscience but I can listen to that scientist for hours - my wheels spinning to translate what she's saying into teaching methods. That synergy of two people who love what they do, produces powerful teaching and learning opportunities.

To do this involves risk. I have to be willing to be an ignorant person in science while the learned professor of science needs to be a novice teacher or course designer even though they may have taught for years. This can be painful for some, yet they are willing to try. I admire those folks greatly. Collaboration equals risk and risk can lead to rewards - hopefully the reward is a wonderful learning experience for their students and the satisfaction of sharing what they love to do!