Getting an Education at EDUCAUSE

from Educause website

Last week I had the privilege to attend the EDUCAUSE conference in Denver, Colorado. I had heard many great things about this conference over the years but never had an opportunity to attend.

First of all, it lived up to the hype. My brain is full of information and there is still so much that I want to experience through the recorded sessions that I did not have a chance to attend. The recorded sessions allow you to be in more than one place at a time – so cool.

The following video by my colleague, Alisa Cooper, of Glendale Community College captures the essence of the EDUCAUSE experience.

I think there were three main things that led to a great conference experience: (1) the sessions, (2) the networking opportunities, (3) getting to see new products.

The Sessions

The sessions were great! While some were very technical, once you read between the lines to see which were most applicable to you, they were excellent. The keynotes were exceptional. From the content, to the way they were delivered there was so much to learn and I left each keynote presentation inspired.  Although all of the sessions were fantastic, I wanted to highlight just a few:
Check out Lawrence Lessig’s presentation titled “It Is About Time: Getting Our Values Around Copyright Right”

Koichi Nakajima of Tezukayama University presented “Imagine the Future of M-Learning” in which he shared some of the tools they are using in Japan. His use of digital pens and their integration with other technologies was like looking into a crystal ball. Really cool to see what is coming down the pipeline in terms of instructional technologies.

Check out some of the other fantastic presentations at:
http://educause.mediasite.com/mediasite/Catalog/pages/catalog.aspx?catalogId=ef86ba82-810b-4e15-b223-097b2ea90230

The Networking

There were lots of open areas in which individuals could get together, discuss what they were learning, and share their ideas throughout the Denver Convention Center. In these areas I was able to have some amazing discussions with colleagues from other Maricopa schools as well as strangers from schools across the world. I am now connected to these strangers through twitter, so we will be able to continue share our experiences. I always find it interesting that although you work with people, there is something special about getting to know your colleagues outside of the work place. It is amazing how many projects and ideas we created together that we would not have had an opportunity to do within the normal scope of the workday.

The Exhibit Hall

As a self-proclaimed “geek” it is always exciting to see what is new in terms of technology. Walking the exhibit hall elicited memories of walking the aisles of the local toy store as a kid. There are so many great new things, and upgrades to the old things. But like a child, I have to weigh the options to decide what “toys” I will actually use and are now best for teaching and learning. I also loved the opportunity to talk to the individuals who design and develop some of these products. It is exciting when you can share what you like and dislike about a product and the people you are speaking with take notes on your suggestions. I hope we will see some of those suggestions come to market so we will have even stronger tools for teaching and learning.

All in all, the week was great – I hope that I can continue to digest the information that I have gleaned and share it with my colleagues.
 

If you are using technology, you must be cheating…

I had the opportunity to attend an excellent conference focusing on student success. The presenters provided 450 student services personnel, faculty and college administrators with a lot of great ideas to consider in regard to how we can help our students succeed in achieving their educational goals. Throughout the conference, I had my laptop open and connected to the Internet. When my laptop was put away, I had my iPhone out. So, what was I doing with my technology when I was at a conference?

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The Same but Different

by thoth92I am currently involved in team facilitating two workshops. The workshops are being offered to the same audience, during the same month. The workshops are a hybrid format, meeting for a total of 4 modules, in which two are online and two meet in-class. What is fascinating is that the dynamics of these two workshops are completely different.

Surely, this has happened to you as well – teaching two sections of the same class at the same time when the behaviors and performance of the students are completely different, even though you, the instructor are doing the same thing in both classes.

So here is what is happening in the workshops:

In one section of the workshops, participants are very active with the online portion of the classes, posting to the discussion boards, doing the assignments, and developing an online learning community; however the majority of the participants did not attend the face-to-face sessions (due to illness, conflicts, etc.) In the other section of the workshop, very little of the online work is being done, aside from the initial introduction, however the majority of the participants attended the face-to-face session.

So, why is this occurring? The facilitators are being consistent in the communications being sent to each section, sending emails, posting announcements and being present in the discussion boards daily. Both workshops are being delivered during the month of October, although their start dates were staggered by one week.

I think the reason behind this is three-fold – based on time to dedicate to the task, motivation, and desire to apply the knowledge gained in the workshop. First let’s look at motivation. All of the participants had the motivation to register for the workshop, however they may not have had clear expectations of the amount of time that they would need to spend on the workshop, especially since it is in a hybrid format. This often occurs with our students. They see the seat time and enroll, not realizing that there is quite a bit of time that will need to be dedicated to the class outside of the listed class meeting times. Additionally, given that it is mid-semester, this can be a difficult time for faculty to set aside time to work on their own professional growth while dealing with mid-terms and other priorities, not to mention the massive amount of illness permeating the Valley. Finally, I believe that many faculty attend professional development opportunities throughout the year and then take advantage of the holiday, spring, and summer breaks to put their new found skills into practice. I hope that by leaving the workshop materials available to participants that they will be able to access them when they need them.

So… this is what is occurring and why I think it is happening. The classroom is a bit of a different situation than a workshop for faculty. Why do you think there are similar dynamics in two sections of the same class?
 

Making Contact

Image by Will LionI have had a long held belief that student success lies within the connections that we, as teachers, make with our students – and this is even more important when teaching online. Earlier this month, eSchool News validated this in an article speaking to the importance of communication to online learning.

The article stressed that there are “four main skills or duties that every online teacher must have or perform, based on a review of existing research,” which are:

• Be able to facilitate interaction
• Be highly responsive
• Know web-based technologies
• Be trained in both synchronous and asynchronous instruction (p. 1)

As an online instructor, I prescribe to the rule that an online instructor should make contact with their students at least three times each week.  In looking at the four skills or duties that eSchool News has listed, I thought it would be fun to brainstorm some of the ways this contact and interaction with students could be fostered.

Facilitate Interaction

There are four possible types of interaction in an online course: student-instructor, student-student, student-content, and student-technology

Student-instructor interaction

In an online course it is crucial that the students know that their instructor is present and there if they are needed. Students often report that they feel like they are learning in a vacuum with no support system. There are a number of ways that you can reach out to your students and let them know that you are there to help them learn.

First, it is essential that you are responsive to your students. You should include a statement in your syllabus regarding how long it will take you to respond to a student question via email and phone. Remember, if your student has a question that you do not respond to, it is likely that they cannot move forward in the class.  This also applies to student feedback on assignments. If the assignments build on one another as the course progresses, students will become frustrated if they do not receive prompt feedback on their assignments. 

Some other ways that you can interact with your students are through email, voice email, announcements in the learning management system (we have text and voice announcements available at SCC), and through your presence in discussion boards.

There are also a number of synchronous tools that you can use with your students to interact with them. You could hold office hours using a chat tool, Blackboard’s virtual classroom, or using a web conferencing software. Many of these tools allow you to archive the synchronous communication so you can provide it to students who were not able to attend the synchronous event. Synchronous tools allow you an opportunity to address issues and questions right away and include follow up questions which often resolves issues quicker than through asynchronous channels.

Student-student interaction

Student-student interaction can be facilitated through learning activities and assignments. Some easy ways to create this type of interaction is to have open areas in an online course where students can discuss topics of their liking. Group projects can be assigned in which students can work together to solve a problem or address an issue. A note of caution, if you do plan to require group work, be sure that you and your students are aware of web-based technologies that can be used to facilitate the collaboration.

Discussion boards are another way to get students to interact with each other and collaborate on their learning. A discussion board is an asynchronous tool in which students can respond to questions or post their work and respond to each other’s postings. You should provide a grading rubric and a best practice is to have a date that all initial postings for a discussion should be posted and a secondary date for replies. If you do not do this, it is likely that everyone will post on the last day. Also, constructing discussion board topics can be challenging, be sure to use open-ended questions that can have a number of possible answers. Debates, opinions, etc are usually good things to ask for in a discussion board.

Student-content interaction

Students should be able to access the course content easily and readily. When providing content to students you should be aware of learning styles and the fact that all students may not have the same learning characteristics and preferences that you do. Provide content in a number of different modalities and supply opportunities for them to practice using the content prior to assessing them. A note of caution is to provide students with instructions for accessing the content, especially if you are providing the same content through a number of different modalities. Students often feel a need to access all of the content provided and may get confused or overloaded if too much content is offered.

Student-technology interaction

The technology that you use in your online class should be provided because it will help facilitate student learning, not just because it is cool – remember we do not want to add technological bling to our classes ☺. That said, if you are going to provide and/or require the use of technology, you will need to ensure that students have access to it and are supported in its use. Be prepared to help students troubleshoot issues with the technology and provide training and/or tutorials on how to use it.

You should also provide instructions in how students should be using these technologies and if necessary include their use in your grading rubrics.

Conclusion

Making contact with your students throughout the class is a huge ingredient in the recipe for student success. I hope these thoughts and tips will help you to think about ways to communicate and interact with your students and help them interact with other students and the course materials. Be sure to check out the training calendar for ways to implement some of these ideas in your online class.
 

Technological Bling

Image by CajieI think that it is fantastic that I have been on the job for nearly two months now and I can still say with all honesty that I love my job! There are so many reasons why: the creativity, working with amazing people, and the belief that I am helping people – both faculty and students.

I often caution faculty about using too much technology or technology that does not serve an instructional need. I have named the provision of technology for technology’s sake as “Technological Bling”.  It is sometimes easy to get caught up in all of the bells and whistles and cool things you can do with technology while forgetting who will be using the technology and how it will serve teaching and learning.

There are some technologies that have so much promise for transforming education that I don’t consider them to be technological bling – one such technology fits this bill is SoftChalk LessonBuilder.
 
Yesterday I had the opportunity to share a software application called SoftChalk LessonBuilder with faculty. I like this product for many reasons.

It provides an easy to use option for creating lessons for faculty
Creates a professional user interface for the students to access their content
Puts all of the needed information for a lesson – overview information, content, linked documents, images, media, and opportunities for practice and assessment - all in one place
Provides a number of fun ways to “trick” students into learning with interactive activities like crossword puzzles, labeling, word searches, slideshows, timelines, and so much more
Did I mention that it is easy to use?

Some of the activities you can create include:

Graded Activities

•    True/false
•    Multiple Choice
•    Multiple Answer
•    Short Answer
•    Matching
•    Ordering    
•    Essay

Practice Activities

•    Crossword
•    DragNDrop
•    Flash Card
•    Hot Spot
•    Labeling
•    Ordering    Drill & Practice
•    Photo Album
•    Seek A Word
•    Slideshow
•    Sorting
•    Timeline

And More

•    Pop-up text annotations

You can check out some sample lessons and award winning lessons created in SoftChalk LessonBuilder at: http://softchalk.com/lb_examples.html and http://softchalk.com/lessonchallenge/

Now of course, one could put so many links to other documents and media that SoftChalk LessonBuilder Lessons could suffer from Technological Bling however, I believe that it is easy to design pedagogically sound lessons with it.

If you would like to explore using SoftChalk LessonBuilder at SCC, please email me or contact Information Technology Services (ITS).