Effective Online Instruction (EOI) course 2011

It has been awhile since I have written in the blog.  My only excuse is that I have been pretty busy. My Effective Online Instruction (EOI) 8 week course for faculty started in May at the University of South Carolina and I have been fortunate enough to work with over 70 eager, inquisitive faculty members.  The asynchronous course is designed to give faculty a basic framework on teaching online and be able to discuss the issues and concerns that are faced in online education.  We are having such wonderful, insightful conversations ranging from "Who are Your Students?" to the future of higher education as we know it.  In addition, these faculty "students" get to see what it is like to be an online learner.

Every year, I learn from them and then "tweak" the course for its next offering. One thing that I have learned this time is that the faculty member teaching an online course really needs to spend even more time that expected on the "nuts and bolts" of the course. I gave the students written handouts, JING videos, Adobe Connect sessions, but, alas, it still was not enough for some students who had "online course anxiety". I have definitely been using my counseling skills as I do in my other teaching assignments.  Next time maybe I will incorporate a live meeting, but with 70+ students, it is going to be difficult scheduling a time when most people can attend.  Faculty are no different than other online learners. They are all at different levels of experience with computers and technology. 

One important note from this year is that more of them are coming to the course with trepidation, negative biases and anxieties about social media such as Facebook or even blog such as this one.  For communication purposes (and so they can see what their students utilize on a daily basis), I have them join Facebook and then "like" my fan page.  This literally stopped many in their tracks. Although this wasn't a "graded assignment" part of the course, some just refused to do it and consequently, haven't progressed too far into the course.  So, I need to find a way to make this step less threatening and positively motivate the students to continue on with the course.  Do you see similarities here with those students in our regular classes who "buckle" when they don't do well on their first assignment?  Or face that first hurdle?  Are we able to retain them in the class? Or do they drift away never to be seen again except on our class rolls?  How do we help students on all levels succeed?

For those who have participated so far, their work has been amazing! Their deep level of thinking, their eagerness to explore new ideas, their creation and/or use of new tools (in the proverbial teaching toolbox) has been rewarding to see.    I am so proud of the work that they have done to make themselves better teachers and help students learn their subjects effectively online as well as in face-to-face situations.  The camraderie in the course has also been spectacular and there is already talk about a "reunion" in the making. I feel like a proud mother. It is a pleasure to facilitate this course which allows faculty a secure, non-threatening environment to seek, learn, and grow. 

NBC Learn Webinar

We are hosting a webinar tomorrow 4/7/11 on NBC Learn. (See below)  This is the educational arm of NBC News and provides archived video, newsreels, original educational video and primary source documents from the very beginnings of NBC News free of charge to faculty at the University of South Carolina (USC).  USC has a free subscription until August when it may be renewed based on interest.  http://www.nbclearn.com/portal/site/learn

As a student of history and politics, I find this repository of information unbelievable and exciting. The wealth of information that is available through this indexed, searchable site is incredible and faculty can add this content easily to their courses on Blackboard.  Academics in other areas like chemistry, engineering, and physics can also find an abundance of great material to use in their courses.  Incorporating these types of media clips, etc, bring the world alive to your students. The Millennial Generation and the newest Generation, "the Natives" (as I have coined them) expect this type of material/content in their classes.

Date: Thursday, April 7, 2011 from 2-3:15 pm

Location: TCL (Thomas Cooper Library) Multimedia Classroom, level 1

Presenters: Renee Shaffer and Gloria Washington, University Technology Services Sponsored by UTS and the Center for Teaching Excellence

NBC Learn contains universal newsreels from the 1930s-1960s, primary source documents from the 1600 to the present, as well as original science educational videos made in cooperation with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Football League (NFL) to name a few. Choose a topic that your class is studying or just something interesting from the vast array of diverse topics, available through NBC. With just a few clicks, you can have video embedded on your Blackboard course page and even have statistics for the number of times it is viewed. You can even put these videos into slideshows that can be viewed while you are offline.  To register for this event, visit http://uts.sc.edu/events/, select “NBC Learn: Let the World Come Alive in Your Classrooms”, then click the “Register for Classes” button.

Plagiarism

Interesting article today on plagiarism in the Chronicle for Higher Education.
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/plagiarism-an-administrator%e2%80%99s-perspective/31775?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en    While plagiarism has been inherent in many students' collegiate lives, there are many ways of discouraging it in your class. One of the main guidelines is to create more authentic assignments, quizzes, and tests that cannot be easily copied or compromised. By using deeper order thinking skills such as synthesis, students must know the materials (as opposed to filling in multiple-choice questions) in order to succeed in the course.

I really liked one of the suggestions- "Do not assume that students have learned to cite sources as you wish in previous writing courses or in high school."  It has been my experience that most students really have no idea what is or what is not plagiarism.  Give them some assistance by explaining it in class with examples, do some role-playing games and give them a handout for future use.  Though you will probably see students reverting to plagiarism under stressful times (i.e. the paper is due in 2 hours), most will albeid by the rules if they are educated to do so.

Brain Research- How We Learn

Interesting article on Brain research found in the Tomorrow’s Professor eMail Newsletter. http://cgi.stanford.edu/~dept-ctl/cgi-bin/tomprof/postings.php   It recalls research by Zull (2004) that true learning comes from practicing (repeatedly firing the brain neurons), emotion (i.e. feeling good about learning) and engaging the whole brain (getting, making, creating, synthesizing and acting on information). 

It has just been in the past few decades, brain research in Western society has exploded.   In fact, according to the article, the 1990s were “officially” declared the “Decade of the Brain” by the U.S. Congress.  Other cultures such as Ayurveda science/medicine has been studying the brain for centuries. 

Zull, J. (2004). The art of changing the brain. Educational Leadership

Planning for the Unexpected

It is always good to have a backup plan (Plan B) when devising your face-to-face or online courses.  Whether it is hurricane season, a surprise snowstorm, or your learning management system that has crashed, things happen. Think about adding something like "Emergency Preparedness Instructions" to your syllabus.  Examples can include: possible assignment/tests date changes, possibility of altering meeting dates, how can the instructor and students contact each other (Facebook, phone, Blackboard), announcement, posting short Jing videos on content, etc.  It also is a good idea to get students's email address and phone number in a secure location besides Blackboard. One of the main things is communication with the students. The world is so connected and they will probably be concerned that this event/emergency will cause them to make a bad grade. Soothe their minds and yours by planning ahead for the event that might happen.

The Google Art Project

The Google Art Project has been launched.  http://www.googleartproject.com/ This is really a wonderful resource for learners everywhere.  Students and faculty can explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share their own collection of masterpieces.  Many academic disciplines could incorporate assignments using this resource.

One of my favorite assignments for the freshman University 101 class is to have my students visit the Columbia Museum of Art, find a particular piece of artwork (any type) that evokes feelings for them and write an essay on that piece.  Student usually complain at first that the "museum will be boring" or "I have never been to a museum", but the course evaluations and commentaries suggest that they learned a lot about themselves while learning to appreciate art.  I want my students to be productive members of civilized society and while they don't have to be connoisseurs of all art forms, there is bound to be something that moves them.

The Rise of Kindles, NookBooks and the Like

Having gone through the mass marketing/consumer frenzy that was the 2010 Holiday season, I was wondering about the rise of ebooks, Kindles, NookBooks, and the like. From the media coverage and commercials, it would seem that they were in the hands of everyone in the U.S.   However, not many people that I know have one.  I could be in a vacuum though.  How many of you have an ebook?  How often do you use it?  Has it encouraged you to read even more?
My main thought about this digital reading proliferation is that anything that gets people to read more is a good thing. But are people really reading more now? What are they reading?  Oprah Winfrey's book club has certainly spurred the US reading circles but her last entry, Charles Dickens' classics Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities wasn't a success. http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2010/1220/Oprah-s-book-club-picks-falling-short  It seem that the "Oprah Effect" hasn't really worked with the classics.
I would love to hear your opinions.