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Something new everyday...
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TSLR 4. Prompt Feedback - part 3
[DeAnza TSLR] 4. Prompt Feedback - part 3
TEACHING AND LEARNING
Prompt feedback encourages students to stay engaged in the learning process. Reducing the time between thinking of questions or seeing solutions presented in class, the time to remember where the learning left off is greatly reduced.
Discussion Subscriptions
Many discussion forums have a subscription feature. If someone posts to a discussion that you subscribe to, you automatically are sent an email with some or all of the information in the new posts. There are several variations and options that usually accompany the subscriptions feature - daily digest, summary or full text of posts, subscribe to all topics within a forum, or just replys to something you posted.
You can change the general forum subscription settings in your profile. Check the options in the post form when you post - you have some additional control over the "subscribe" function there.
Everyone seems to have personal preferences about the "best" subscription setting. Try different configurations and options. See what works for you and your course needs.
Instructor comments
Students like to know why they got points, as well as how they missed them. Instructor notes along with the assignment grade are accommodated as part of the regular point-assignment grading mechanism.
There are a number of features within the assignment grading to streamline grading student work. Separate windows, automatically displaying the next student's assignment, sorting submissions by time submitted, are just a few of the tools to assist instructors and reduce the time and key strokes required to manage student work.
Students are sent notification when instructor comments are added to the assignment. It looks like this.
07M_0202 -> Assignments -> Games in Education
Valerie Taylor has posted some feedback on your assignment submission for 'Games in Education'
You can see it appended to your assignment submission:
Assignment markup
For some assignments, it may be appropriate to annotate directly on the student's assignment submission. There is an option to permit this which must be enabled, if you wish to use the tool. Usually, the instructor can add notes as a separate item (much like posting in a discussion). Only the student and the instructor can view these. With the markup option enabled, the instructor can actually edit the student submission.
Learn more...
4. Prompt Feedback (assessment)
http://www.tltgroup.org/seven/4_Feedback.htm
ACTIVITIES
- Review the Catalyst Faculty Reference Guide "course" in Catalyst Development. Specifically, review the section Quizzes for information on feedback content and availability, and Graded Assignments - instructor comments.
- In your own course, develop quiz questions and quizzes. Add other activity with feedback to your course.
- In Adding Feedback (Apply) forum, discuss how you plan to incorporate the technology enhancements to provide prompt feedback in your own instruction. To what extent are you planning to have the feedback automated to accommodate student-directed learning?
- In Response (Evaluate) forum, discuss appropriate level of control and feedback response for learning being assessed. Should quiz feedback be a teaching tools?
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Posted by Valerie Taylor on 3/9/08; 6:44:14 PM
teaching & learning
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TSLR 4. Prompt Feedback - part 2
[DeAnza TSLR] 4. Prompt Feedback - part 2
ENHANCING INSTRUCTION
How prompt is "prompt" when applied to feedback? Unfortunately, for instructors in this "always on" world, students' expectations may need to be reset so that 2-3 day turn around on minor assignments is "normal".
Replying to student questions within 24 hours is a reasonable expectation.
Assignment grades
There is a Grades link in the left navigation menu. The Grades page lists all the assignments, quizzes, etc. that will be graded throughout the quarter.
Grades are always available. If there isn't a grade for a submitted assignment, it hasn't been graded. I usually grade assignments within a couple of days of the due date. Late assignments are graded periodically as it requires extra processing.
Peer review
In some situations, peer review can be a valuable addition to the learning process. Students often learn as much reviewing the work of others as they do preparing their own work, or having their own work reviewed. Posting work to discussions or a collaborative writing tool like a wiki allows for easy access for sharing and comment.
CCC Confer
Use the phone and the internet to meet in real-time. Great for lectures with audio, slides whiteboard, and audience poling. CCC Confer can be used for whole class discussions, small group work, individual counseling, or office hours. CCC Confer was designed to allow communication and collaboration, using Web conferencing technology, for all staff, faculty and administrators in the California Community Colleges system. It is ADA and Section 508 accessible.
CCC Confer
http://cccconfer.org/about/about.aspx
ACTIVITIES
- Complete and submit the assignments for grading. When notified by the instructor, review the instructor comments and grade for the assignments.
- Take the quiz, paying particular attention to the information provided along with the item scores.
- Search the web for articles or sites that describe the use of rubrics for evaluating student work.
- In the Technology Enhanced Feedback (Explore) forum, discuss the use of self grading quizzes. How can quizzes be used for active learning? Should students be limited to one attempt at a quiz? How important are personalized notes in assignment grading?
Posted by Valerie Taylor on 3/9/08; 6:42:20 PM
teaching & learning
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TSLR 4. Prompt Feedback - part 1
[DeAnza TSLR] 4. Prompt Feedback - part 1
It seems that students have shorter attentions spans than ever, and with some justification. "Generation Instant Gratification" has never had to wait for anything. Although the Seven Principles date back to the late 1970s and 80s the principle of Prompt feedback is as important as ever.
Fortunately, technology provides some relief - Self-grading quizzes, comments and annotated assignments, chat, all allow students to work at their own pace AND receive prompt feedback. This can be a big help in the 24 / 7 world where today's students live, work and learn.
Learning objectives
- review issues of plagiarism, intellectual property, cheating
- investigate tools for assessing student learning
- complete quizzes and develop quiz questions and quizzes in own course
- complete assignments with feedback and add activity with feedback to own course
- discuss appropriate level of control and feedback response for learning being assessed
Introduction
The earliest implementations of technology in education was the dreaded "drill and kill" - an endless stream of multiple choice that students answered, usually by guessing. Used in conjuction with other activities and good teaching practices, online quizzes can be a valuable learning resource. Prompt feedback can be provided automatically with self-grading quizzes. Students appreciate the immediacy. By using the feedback to reinforce correct answers, and providing references to teaching for incorrect responses, students can be guided through the lesson material.
On instructor-graded assignments, you can add comments and annotating to help students understand where they lost points in an assignment. Course management systems are constructed to provide a variety of tools for assessing student learning. These are just a few.
Students say...
- I love being able to check my grades anytime. It helps me make sure I have submitted all my assignments.
- I learn more taking quizzes and getting the wrong answer feedback. Having review information and extra help right in the quiz is great.
- I am aways nervous about quizzes. Taking quizzes online is much better for me.
- The instructor notes in the assignments along with the grade shows me how I can improve.
- assignments that ask us to comment on our peers� work really does help you get to know each other. After a while, you tend to remember certain people, such as those who post their work the earliest, or those who respond to your work the most often, or who is more interested in what topic. In its subtle way, the assignments for this class have allowed me to get to know more students
ACTIVITIES
- Remember: Be careful what you wish for - you might get it. Technology enhancements can facilitate providing Prompt feedback. Being instantly available to head-off serious problems is good. However, giving students the opportunity to solve problems themselves, or asking classmates for assistance is essential.
- In the Prompt Feedback (Learn) forum, discuss the forms that feedback can take that promotes learning. What can technology be incorporated to improve prompt response or facilitate extending feedback? What technologies are available to change the process of providing feedback?
- In the Academic Honesty (Learn) forum, discuss issues of plagiarism, intellectual property, cheating, investigate tools for assessing student learning.
- Review the Catalyst Student Guide for information about viewing instructor feedback and checking grades.
Posted by Valerie Taylor on 3/9/08; 6:40:19 PM
teaching & learning
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TSLR 3. Active/Engaged Learning - part 3
[DeAnza TSLR] 3. Active/Engaged Learning - part 3
TEACHING AND LEARNING
Managing learning via technology requires some additional tools and techniques.
Quizzes
How many times should students be permitted to submit a quiz? Is there value in instant feedback? Are quizzes learning opportunities? There are many good ways to use quiz technology to enhance instruction.
- some forms of quiz questions can be automatically graded - they can provide instant feedback to students. The correct / incorrect response reply function can reinforce of answers and provide correction, clarification or further information as students work through the quiz questions. Students are usually highly motivated to learn in a graded activity.
- quizzes can be set to permit allow students to retake a quiz
- the highest score will count
- it is important to learn the material. If you need more than one attempt, that is ok.
- learn something each time you review the material for retaking the quiz.
The Quiz function allows students to save answers to individual questions, and submit the quiz for grading as a separate step. Periodically, students will answer all the questions but not "submit" the quiz for grading. The quiz remains in "open" status and is not graded.
Questions
Like most course management systems, Catalyst / Moodle separates the Questions function form the Quizzes. You can create questions independently of a quiz. This way, you can assemble a quiz from a pool of questions. The same question can be used in self-study quizzes, chapter reviews and final exams. Questions can be selected at random from a group of questions to ensure that each student receives a unique quiz - just one of many features provided to reduce academic dishonesty.
Graded Assignments
Assignments allow the teacher to specify a task that requires students to prepare digital content (any format) and submit it. Typical assignments include essays, projects, reports, presentations and web pages.
Depending on the type of assignment, grading feedback can be provided as
- points
- letter grade
- satisfactory/unsatisfactory
- separate note from the instructor, only visible to the student
- mark-up - instructor adds directly to the student submission
Model behavior
Many students understand requirements best if they see an appropriate model. Often, the students who post first to a discussion are good, outgoing, confident students and their postings provide a good model for other students to follow. Requiring students to post their assignment answers in a discussion forum helps weaker students understand how to do the work and prepare their own submission. This works well for weekly research questions, and issue analysis discussions.
Learn more...
A Picture is Worth . . .
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/1760011576.html
and
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/1920011592.html
Google image search
http://images.google.com/imghp?tab=wi&hl=en
ACTIVITIES
- Add some visual interest to your course. Find some images that are appropriate to your subject and add them to the course. Include images form Google image search
http://images.google.com/imghp?tab=wi&hl=en
- In Graded assignments and quizzes(Apply) forum, discuss the options for assessing student learning provided. How are concerns about academic integrity, cheating, outside assistance addressed by the options and settings provided?
- In Measuring student achievement (Evaluate) forum, discuss some of the ways that technology is affecting your methods for promoting active participation, engaging students and evaluating student learning.
- What concerns do you have about Privacy and Personal Information as they apply to technology in instruction? Submit your reply in the I think... topic in the discussion forum.
- Copy you I think posting and submit it as your response to the I think... 3 assignment.
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Posted by Valerie Taylor on 3/9/08; 6:38:43 PM
teaching & learning
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TSLR 3. Active/Engaged Learning - part 2
[DeAnza TSLR] 3. Active/Engaged Learning - part 2
ENHANCING INSTRUCTION
When we think of active, engaged learning, with usually thing of students actively doing something, directing their own learning.
Creating and Preparing Activities
Developing and refining online materials may necessitate populating the course during a live course session. Fortunately, the "hide" feature enables you to work on developing activities. For sections or individual activities like discussions, visibility options provide "privacy" for behind the scene work to set up anything and hide it until you are ready for students to see it.
Another use of hidden resources - Prepare standard wording for feedback, warnings to students, notes to self, etc., and save them as permanently hidden resources. These resources are part of the course and will automatically be included in subsequent semesters' live courses.
Privacy and Personal Information
Students need to learn about Privacy and Personal Information as they apply to Computers and Society - from the notes, readings and assignments. Are they aware of computers around them and how computers affecting society? Although access to information within the course management system class is limited to enrolled students, students need to understand that sharing personal information needs to be considered carefully.
Asking students to post information and work outside the course management system is generally discouraged for privacy reasons.
Images for Visual Interest
Adding visual components to your course can convey strong messages and attract students' interest. Images can be placed in the main course page, in resource pages. Images can be used in quizzes as prompts.
There are many sources of images and video media that can be added to classes without charge. See the Resources section for information.
ACTIVITIES
- Search the web for articles or sites providing information about educational games.
- In the Educational games (Explore) topic, discuss games as educational resources and learning activities. Post a link to an educational games article you found. Do you use games in your instruction? Share stories of good (and not-so-good) experiences including games.
- Review the Catalyst Faculty Reference Guide "course" in Catalyst Development. Specifically, review the section on Quizzes, Graded assignments.
- Review the Course Evaluation Checklist. Make a note of 3 points that you would like to address in your course.
- Add a quiz with several different question types to your course. Investigate the quiz options and restrictions - time, access, display.
- Add several assignments to your course that demonstrate the various submission and grading options.
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Posted by Valerie Taylor on 3/9/08; 6:37:08 PM
teaching & learning
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TSLR 3. Active/Engaged Learning - part 1
[DeAnza TSLR] 3. Active/Engaged Learning - part 1
Ideally, all students are active and engaged learners most of the time. However, the reality is that instructors must work to provide the environment that motivates students to participate in their learning.
Students are comfortable with technology in many forms. Enhancing instruction to tap into the media literacy of students is not difficult, as we shall see.
Some of the strategies for promoting Active/ engaged learning include project based learning, and educational games.
Learning outcomes
- review strategies for including active and engaged learning in instruction
- discuss problem-based learning in higher education
- create an activity that requires new approach to instruction of curriculum content and add activity to own course
- discuss assessing student performance
Introduction
We have heard it before.
Make students active participants in learning. Students learn by doing, making, writing, designing, creating, solving. Passivity dampens students' motivation and curiosity. Pose questions. Don't tell students something when you can ask them. Encourage students to suggest approaches to a problem or to guess the results of an experiment. Use small group work.
from Motivating Students
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/motiv.htm
All these suggestions are easily enhanced with technology.
- Good questions can prompt analysis, critical thinking, research and problem-solving.
- Discussion forums provide a particularly rich learning environment as students must read and write to participate. Students are not limited by the class time to prepare their responses. Many more voices can be heard in the class.
- Assignments and quizzes require direct interaction with the course materials and provide engagement.
- Collaborative writing, peer review and other forums of active engagement can be facilitated with technology.
Students say...
- Don't bore me. If you are going to stand up and lecture me from your yellowing notes, put it on a disk, and I will take it home and read it on my time. Use an electronic forum or presentation- music, video, computer-based tutorials, visual peripherals - not just lecture.
- Interaction is an important part in online classes. The previous online courses I took barely involved any discussions and thus I could not learn much from those classes. I only learn from the notes and texts. The classes were so boring.
ACTIVITIES
- Remember - students who have grown up with technology in education and entertainment expect to engage with their learning. Active learning can take on many forms, and students are quick to adapt - often, more quickly than their instructors.
- In Active and engaging (Learn) topic, discuss how this principle can be enhanced using technology. Are there classroom activities that could be adapted for online learning? What attributes contribute to student engagement?
- Review the Catalyst Student Guide for instructions regarding graded assignments, quiz submission
- Work through the quizzes and assignments provided in this module.
- TED Talks: Every year, a thousand “thought-leaders, movers and shakers” get together at a four-day conference called TED (which is short for Technology, Entertainment and Design). In this collection, you’ll find various talks presented at the conference. They usually run about 20 minutes. Attend a virtual lecture. Why is this interesting? Post the link to the session you visit and 2-3 sentences describing the topic and your experience to the Virtual Lectures discussion. Can be used in class or for personal development.
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Posted by Valerie Taylor on 3/9/08; 6:35:33 PM
teaching & learning
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TSLR 2. Cooperation Among Students - part 3
[DeAnza TSLR] 2. Cooperation Among Students - part 3
TEACHING AND LEARNING
Monitoring and managing student cooperation in an online environment requires some planning. Making use of the tools available for recording and tracking "conversations" can be a significant benefit. All interactions are available for student and instructor review. This provides a more accurate insight in to group dynamics and workload sharing, than is possible in a classroom setting.
Managing Discussion Displays
For large classes with a lot of postings, managing the quantity of information can be challenging. Learn to use the different discussion display formats - available in a pull-down menu near the top of the topic display page. Highlighting new posts in context is helpful. Displaying new items at the top of the page provides a quick way to see new posts to a topic thread.
Facilitating Discussions
Most students are willing to participate in well designed discussions. Several open ended prompt questions are often enough the get the conversation going. Instructions about participation expectations - number of posts, some indication of depth of discussion, help students determine how much is "enough" contribution.
Some instructors find it helpful to guide the discussion with feedback, follow-up questions and summaries of points made. In some cases, it may be necessary to address issues of inappropriate posts - personal attack, inappropriate language. Functions are provided deleting or editing offensive posts. However, these should be used sparingly.
Sometimes, discussions without instructor intervention can be more spontaneous and surprisingly insightful. Without a visible authority presence, students are more willing to express themselves, ask for help and provide assistance to classmates.
Others say...
I read every comment I get. I don't always reply because I prefer to allow students to have the last word - though at the urging of some students I've tried recently to be more forthcoming in my replies. -- Stephen Downes, Aug 07
Online Group Projects
One of the most difficult aspects of group project work is often scheduling. Most students have many demands on their time. Surprisingly, being able to work asynchronously is a good alternative, once the initial resistance is overcome.
Encouraging students to work on a single shared document, such as a wiki eliminates the need to track versions of the product as it develops.
Grading group projects
Grading group projects is "fairer" if there is a published grading rubric. In that way, everyone in the group can assess how the group submission is measuring up, and can take action to ensure the final product meets the published standards.
Support for online students
The De Anza Online Writing Assistance Center (OWAC) provides online help for De Anza students enrolled in targeted courses. Students post requests and essays to the OWAC, and tutors respond with suggestions for improving content, organization, and grammar, and links to online explanations and exercises for the most important areas where improvement is needed. Our philosophy: "Help the student, not the paper."
http://faculty.deanza.edu/alvesdelimadiana/stories/storyReader$331
Learn more...
Group Projects and Online Collaboration
http://faculty.deanza.edu/taylorvalerie/groupproject/index.html
CREST+ Model: Writing Effective Online Discussion Questions
http://jolt.merlot.org/vol3no2/akin.htm
ACTIVITIES
- Review the Catalyst Faculty Reference Guide "course" in Catalyst Development. Specifically, review the section on Choice, Forums, Messaging, Chat.
- Add a group project to your own course. This should include a choice for group selection, a description of the group projects "deliverable" and forums for small group discussions.
- In Group project set-up (Apply) forum, discuss the process of adding a group project to your course. How are your dividing up the class into groups? How do you divide up students in an on-campus class? What tasks are students to perform as a group? What is the final product?
- In Peer reviews (Evaluate) forum, discuss peer review process and its applicability to student learning. Are there tools available online that will help students perform peer reviews?
Posted by Valerie Taylor on 3/9/08; 6:33:46 PM
teaching & learning
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TSLR 2. Cooperation Among Students - part 2
[DeAnza TSLR] 2. Cooperation Among Students - part 2
ENHANCING INSTRUCTION
Even if some or all of the course work is not face-to-face, students appreciate a sense of community. Working together, sharing information builds connections between students and makes the learning experience more personal.
Students with limited language skills, fears of speaking in class, find great empowerment in finally being able to participate in a class discussion. They can formulate their thoughts, edit, look up words, use spelling and grammar checking software.
Meeting classmates
Having students introduce themselves, along with sharing some personal information, is a time-honored classroom "ice-breaker" which works well in an online discussion environment. Students get to "know" one another, and can build lasting friendships based on "meeting" someone in an online class.
Writing Effective Online Discussion Questions
The paper CREST+ Model: Writing Effective Online Discussion Questions provides a model for writing effective online discussion questions, covers the cognitive nature of the question, the reading basis, any experiential possibility, style and type of question, and finally ways to structure a good question. This model encourages students to participate in online forum discussions, provides a template for online faculty to use in creating effective discussion questions, and promotes a higher level processing of the material.
http://jolt.merlot.org/vol3no2/akin.htm
Grading discussion participation
Students need to be reassured that you are looking for a demonstration of reasonable effort. Even if the student posts a great discussion question or makes a significant contribution, it doesn't necessary follow that other students will interact in some interesting meaningful way. Students need to know their efforts will be taken that into account. It is important to require so way to track the participation and contributions of individuals for grading.
Grading discussion participation is recommended. Individual posts can be graded as mini-essays. Counting discussion postings, assessing posts for substantial contribution (not just "I agree" posts) ensure that students take an active role in discussions.
Collaboration forum
For student collaboration, provide a separate forum and encourage students to to use the forum (rather than email) for project communication. This ensure that there is a record of the interaction and all students have the opportunity to read the information. All the posts are linked and automatically collected together. This is great for students and for faculty.
ACTIVITIES
- Review the Catalyst Student Guide for instructions for using the forum display options for reviewing your group "conversations."
- In Group project experience (Explore) forum, discuss your experience (and frustrations) as you participated in activities as students that require cooperation. Assess the challenges and benefits of technology in student cooperation. Your comments can be based on previous courses - F2F or online, and your participation in the Brain Color group in this module.
- Use the Message feature to send a message to the workshop facilitator. Watch for a reply.
- Visit the De Anza Online Writing Assistance Center (OWAC) site.
http://faculty.deanza.edu/alvesdelimadiana/stories/storyReader$331
Is this resource being used by your students? Would you recommend this service to your students?
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Posted by Valerie Taylor on 3/9/08; 6:31:13 PM
teaching & learning
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TSLR 2. Cooperation Among Students - part 1
[DeAnza TSLR] 2. Cooperation Among Students - part 1
The next of the Seven Principles is Cooperation Among Students that provides students with the opportunity to work together in groups, usually under the direction of the instructor. Discussions, collaborative learning, share writing in a wiki are all examples of technology enhancing cooperation among students.
Students often resist working in groups for fear of having their grades pulled down by the least effective member of the group. In practice, students working in groups learn more about the content area and are more engaged in the activity than working individually.
In the "real world" people rarely work alone. Learning to work collaboratively in an online environment is an important life skill.
Learning objectives
- participate in activities as students that require cooperation
- assess the challenges and benefits of technology in student cooperation
- discuss the role of group projects learning in higher education
- use choices and surveys for group selection work on group projects, small group discussions, introduction to the wiki for collaborative writing, introduction to the Online Writing Center
- discuss peer review process and applicability
Introduction
There are many ways that students can use existing technologies to cooperate and collaborate.
- email communication to one or more students
- online discussion where all posts can be viewed
- instant messaging with archiving to permit review and access by student not participating in real-time
- online conferencing for live participation or archived for later viewing
- collaborative writing using a shared writing area, e.g., wiki
Students say...
- I am an international student, and this is the first time that I have ever discussed questions in class.
- I have always hated group work, but this was different. I learned so much more working on the group project.
- I have to work with other people in our company offices all over the world. Working on the group project in this class has helped me a lot with my job and my coworkers.
- After three weeks, I feel like I know my classmates better in this online class than in any on-campus class that I have ever taken. I love it.
- I am really happy to be in my group that we work together as a team, help each other, understand our strengths and weaknesses. For example, I let my group acknowledge that I am not familiar with computers and group online, so I need them to remind if I make mistakes. In addition, they would always be there for me, such as posting their suggestions or thoughts. I am proud to say that our group was able to work together to produce a good report.
- I am taking an online english course and the way the peer review was done in that class was better in my opinion. It randomly distributes the papers to people who also turned in a paper. The review is anonymous and I liked that way much better as a writer and a reviewer because it made sure everything was done in a certain amount of time. The only downside was that if you didn't get your paper in by the deadline then you were not included in the peer review.
ACTIVITIES
- In the Student cooperation (Learn) forum, discuss how you incorporate student cooperation in your on-campus class. What are some of the challenges with the current process? Would adding technology change the group dynamics? Do students do their group work entirely in class? If they work outside of class, how do you know what is going on?
- Take the What Color is Your Brain quiz.
http://www.truecolorscareer.com/quiz.asp
The Brain Color quiz is included because it addresses how you interact with others. This will be useful information in the discussions and online collaborations.
- Indicate your Brain Color in the Brain Color choice.
- In the Brain Color Group discussion for your Brain Color, describe your experience with group project in your classes. Discuss role of group projects learning in higher education. As a group, craft a statement explaining to students why group work is important. This statement should not be more than 2-3 sentences.
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Posted by Valerie Taylor on 3/9/08; 6:29:34 PM
teaching & learning
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[DeAnza TSLR] 1. Student-Faculty Contact - part 3
TSLR 1. Student-Faculty Contact - part 3
TEACHING AND LEARNING
A recent EDUCAUSE article, Top-Ten Teaching and Learning Issues, 2007 identifies a number of issues applicable to this course - assessment and best instructional practices, changes in student, faculty, and institutional expectations, collaboration, work together, ethics, privacy, and data stewardship.
http://www.educause.edu/apps/eq/eqm07/eqm0732.asp?bhcp=1
This big-picture overview of teaching and learning is helpful, and demonstrates the need for all instructors, particularly those in higher education, to acquire instructional technology literacy.
As the focus of technology enhancement shifts from instructor-led teaching to student-directly learning, Student-Faculty Contact takes on a new role - that of managing the course resources and ensuring that students are able to take advantage of this new way of interacting with the instructor.
Understanding and using the student-faculty contact tools - either stand alone or within the course management system, is important.
- encourage students to communicate with you early and often
- model desired contacts using the available communication tools
- make it easy for students to select from several forms of contact - email, messaging, discussion forum
- establish limits and expectations for your availability and speed of response
News Forum
The NEWS forum is special forum for sending information and updates to students. Only the instructor can post to this forum. There is an option to have summaries from the News forum appear on the main course page.
Student questions
Catalyst has an internal e-mail system and several options to keep student-faculty communication within Catalyst, that can be used for clarification on the forums and discussions and the communication tools.
Check your profile and the messages you are getting - it may be set up so your get email when a student sends a message from inside Moodle, but there should be information in the email so you know where it originated.
Do you have a Questions? forum where students can add discussions and post? I encourage students to ask their questions there. Unless it is personal, I often just copy the student's email into the question forum and answer it there for all to see.
Introducing new technologies
You may be surprised to find that your tech-savvy students need some time to come up to speed using technology for formal learning. Students instant message with their friends whenever, but using the same technology to work with four complete strangers (class mates) on a group project is a completely new experience.
Consider introducing the technology in several low-risk activities - introductions in a discussion forum. As students become more comfortable with the educational use of the technology, add the critical thinking, graded analysis component that the technology supports.
Learn more...
Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/7princip.htm
"Development and Adaptation of the Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education," Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson. How the seven principles were developed and uses made of them in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
link to PDF doc
Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever
http://www.tltgroup.org/programs/seven.html
Blogging: The Solution to (most) of Your Classroom Needs
http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/?p=183
Top 100 Favorite Tools
http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/top100.html
What Makes a Successful Online Student?
http://www.ion.illinois.edu/Resources/tutorials/pedagogy/StudentProfile.asp
ACTIVITIES
- 12. Self-register for the Catalyst 1: An Introduction to Catalyst (Drop In) course. On the main Catalystdev page, look for the My Courses block at the left. At the bottom of the block is a link to "All Courses". Click on it. On the next page, click the link to "Cohort Drop-In". From the list of courses, select "Catalyst 1: An Introduction to Catalyst (Drop-In)". Select "Yes" to the self-registration prompt. NOTE: Drop In courses are neither facilitated nor mediated.
In the Catalyst 1 course, complete the following:
- Review section 3. Expectations and Responsibilities of Use of the Catalyst System. Here you will be introduced to the legalities of using the Catalyst system and tools. Read the INSTRUCTIONS - Topic 3 and Complete the Quiz: Legal Compliance.
- To request a course sandbox, review section 4. Getting Started on Your Own. Here you are introduced to the Catalyst Maintenance System. You will use this system to request a course shell to begin experimenting and exploring the Catalyst tool in. Read the INSTRUCTIONS - Topic 4 and complete the assignment The Catalyst Online Course Request Checklist.
Once you receive notification from Distance Learning, your Sandbox course is active and will be listed in the course list in the left navigation menu. Then complete the remaining activities to explore and modify your own Sandbox course.
- Explore your own Sandbox course. Notice that there are little circles with question marks ("?") throughout. Click on a circle for context specific help. The help displays in a pop-up window. Close the pop-up window when you are done.
- Create examples of student-faculty contact technologies to your Sandbox course - a forum, a resource, a News forum posting.
- In your Sandbox course, create a Questions? forum with a request to students to ask course related questions in the forum, so others can see the answers. Be sure to set the forum set-up to allow students to post and reply in this forum.
- Note your progress in the Course modifications (Apply) forum. Suggest ways that you could incorporate these tools into your teaching.
- In the Effectiveness measures (Evaluate) forum, discuss grading, and the impact of feedback from instructor for students. How do you structure your allocation of points? Do you include high-stakes tests? What is the distribution of points by topic? How could the technology enhance student-faculty contact?
Estimated time to complete
- Learning about Technology Supported Learning and Retention - Reading course notes, introduction discussions, Catalyst exploration activities - 1-2 hours
- Course development - Updating your own course shell to include Student-Faculty Contact activities - 2-4 hours
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Posted by Valerie Taylor on 3/9/08; 1:15:05 PM
teaching & learning
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[DeAnza TSLR] 1. Student-Faculty Contact - part 2
TSLR 1. Student-Faculty Contact - part 2
ENHANCING INSTRUCTION
When we were planning this course, we wanted to emphasize the idea that introducing technology could be a progression of enhancements made over time. There are no absolutes, no "gotchas" in the process. Just as each course is different, so too is the path to technology enhanced instruction.
What is offered in this course, are opportunities to see what is possible and consider what might be applicable to your own courses now and in the future. This is a smörgåsbord approach. We have put a lot of different things on the table. We encourage you to sample everything, but it is ok if you don't want to dig in. Perhaps later, you will see a need or an opportunity to put some of these "dishes" into your practice of instruction.
If you are ready to implement the functions, guidelines are provided as well as a forum for discussing strategies, questions, problems, suggestions with peers.
Some of the advantages of using technology in student-faculty contact
- any time, anywhere communication - not limited to class time or office hours
e.g. email, online discussion forums, chat / instant messaging
- record of contact - no more "gee, I wish I could remember exactly what I told that student" as there is a copy of the conversation with its time and date.
- repeatable - once you work out great instructions for a lesson, that exact same information can be given to students in all sections this quarter and in the future. Allows for "refinement" as students identify new concerns or areas of difficulty.
- it just gets better - revising and improving material over time helps keep the course material relevant and students engaged
Lectures
The primary means of presenting information to the whole class is via resources. There are a number of different types of resources - text pages, web pages, links to other web sites. Resources are the simplest form of passive, or push communication available.
Document repository
It isn't fancy but it works. Catalyst can be used as storage and presentation for course documents that are only available to enrolled students. Files of all types, links, course notes, lists of assignments, class schedules... can be managed and displayed within Catalyst. Limiting access to this information may be a requirement for "publishing" copyright or proprietary information ensuring strict educational "fair use" compliance.
Blogging
Have you considered blogging? Some faculty are "pushing" regular notices, comments and course updates to their students in blog (weB-LOG) format. Short postings displayed in reverse date sequence - newest at the "top" along with links to course materials, other resources and important bloggers in the topic area, along with links to "archived" copies of older posts.
Blogging: The Solution to (most) of Your Classroom Needs
http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/?p=183
Warm-up activity
Online discussions, practice quizzes, minute essays are activities that can be used for "warm-up" to a lesson.
- Question or activity to remind you of what you already know about the topic
- List of questions to start thinking about the topic
- List of goals and objectives for the topic to help focus the learning
Top 10 Tools
There is always some new and interesting technology coming along. Finding email news, blogs or other sources of information are useful for staying current. Some examples
Top 100 Favorite Tools
http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/top100.html
ACTIVITIES
- Review your own course syllabus and course outline (green sheet). Refer to your stated learning objectives and content through this course. It is helpful to map the technologies covered here to support students learning your course content.
- In Student contact technologies (Learn) forum, discuss your first encounter with Catalyst as a student / participant. Were you able to participate in all forms of student-faculty contact activities in this module - discussion, assignment, quiz? Discuss applicability of these functions to traditional expectations for student-faculty contact. Identify differences. Suggest new learning activities. Have you considered blogging? Do you know what blogging is?
- Read through the notes for 1. Student-Faculty Contact. The Notes introduce the Seven Principles and address the first - Student-Faculty Contact. Also included are learning objectives for this topic, specific suggestions for student-faculty contact and links to other resources.
- Learn more about the Seven Principles. Search the web for articles, papers or resources that discuss the Seven Principles and how they can be applied to technology enhanced learning or distance learning. Post a link to one site along with a summary of the discussion (2-3 paragraphs) presented in the Seven Principles discussion forum. Please check other postings and look for an article that has not be cited yet - we would like to see many different references.
- As a student, work through Activities 1 - discussions, assignment, quiz, choice for topic 1. Student-Faculty Contact.
- The little picture that accompanies my posts in the discussion forum is called an avatar. You can add your own to your profile - any small image file can be uploaded. Enter the image URL. For best result, it should be 100x100 pixels in size. Click on the "?" help button in your profile for additional information.
- Review the Catalyst Faculty Reference Guide "course" in Catalyst Development. Specifically, review the section on Content Resources & Activities - Resources, Forum, News forum.
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Posted by Valerie Taylor on 3/9/08; 1:13:24 PM
teaching & learning
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[DeAnza TSLR] 1. Student-Faculty Contact - part 1
TSLR 1. Student-Faculty Contact - part 1
In 1987 Chickering & Gamson published the now famous Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. These principles are based on the perspective that a proper undergraduate education should be active, cooperative, and challenging.
For the Technology Supported Learning & Retention course, each module addresses one of the seven principles and the good practices that support it. The first principle, in this module, Student-Faculty Contact is characterized by instructional tools where the instructor is in charge of the interaction with students.
Students interact directly with the instructor for questions, comments and evaluations. The instructor may interact with students as a group in a lecture hall, classroom or online lecture (one-to-many) or individually (one-to-one).
Technology functions available to support student-faculty contact include discussions, assignments, quizzes, and course resources.
Learning outcomes
- participate in several forms of technology enhanced student-faculty contact
- discuss applicability of functions to traditional expectations for student-faculty contact and identify differences
- suggest new learning activities
Introduction
For most of us - both as students and faculty, when we think of instruction, we think of an instructor-led course - the "sage on the stage" model. Somewhere along the line, we have had teachers or mentors available to help but allowed or required us to direct our own learning within some framework - the "guide on the side" model. Both instructional models can be enhanced with technology.
Adding technology to instruction covers a broad spectrum of enhancements. For the classroom instruction (face-to-face or f2f), providing online resources rather than paper handouts is often the first foray into enhancing instruction with technology. At the far end of the range of possibilities, are totally online courses with automatic quiz grading and course presentation individualized by student progress monitored by the course management system.
Seven Principles
Based on each of the "Seven Principles" we will look at how instructional practice can be enhanced using technology.
The "text" for this module is online. Although each of these references address the Seven Principles, each provides specific information. Read the first one, and the other if you have time and want additional perspective.
As a study guide, here are a few questions to think about as you read the "text" and work through the activities outlined below.
- The Seven Principles were written in 1987. Instructional Immediacy and the Seven Principles: Strategies for Facilitating Online Courses was written in 2003. Why are they still relevant today?
- Has technology changed the interpretation of some of these Principles?
- Have students and their expectations changed since the Principles were written?
- What challenges does today's higher education environment place on faculty and students?
Chickering & Gamson provided a good framework for teaching and learning in higher education. Now there are technologies available that they could only imagine. In this course, using their model, we are going to look at each Principle and see its applicability in technology-enhanced instruction.
Course Evaluation Checklist
How are you going to know that you have successfully applied all the suggestions?
The Course Evaluation Checklist provides a list of questions that address each of the principles that may be included in the online portion of a course. In many cases, technology would be included to provide the support. A second list of items are provide to address the learning environment. Some sample technologies and their application are included as a guide.
1. Student-Faculty Contact
First up - Student-Faculty Contact. In a traditional classroom, faculty are at the forefront. Students wait for the instructor to arrive before anything happens in the class. The instructor talks, students listen, take notes, and participate in question / answer sessions overseen by the instructor. Students can speak with the instructor after class or during office hours - still with the instructor controlling the time and place for the contact.
As technology is added, students have more opportunity to initiate contact - send emails, ask questions in an online forum. The instructor is still essential to the dialog, but students now play a more active role in the contact. More student interaction, greater responsibility for learning, empowering students in ways not previously available to them.
- One : Many - Communicating with students can be provided to all students at once with web-based course materials, online lectures - text, audio or video. Other technologies for one-to-many communication include email lists, and discussion forums where only instructor posts, forums that allow students to reply, or discussion forums set to allow students to initiate topics.
- One : One - Email is an alternative to in-person or phone conversations to communication with individual students. Some instructors are using instant messaging as well.
Student-Faculty Contact is easily added to any traditional course delivery. Students appreciate the flexibility and the immediacy of these enhancements.
Students say...
- I can ask questions whenever I think about it, rather than having to wait for the next class. Some times that might be a whole week from when I have a question.
- I am an international student. It really helps me to have email from the instructor so I can read the answer again if I don't understand.
- I hate to have a lot of papers from all my classes. It is better to have links to web sites to find the homework assignment information.
OVERVIEW
DeAnza's Catalyst is the Moodle course management system. If you are new to Catalyst or course management technology, start with the Moodle basics.
About Moodle
http://docs.moodle.org/en/About_Moodle
Moodle Teacher Documentation
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Teacher_documentation
ACTIVITIES
The Activities page for each topic is your ToDo list for the TSLR workshop for the Principle. There is a Principle notes page with a discussion of the Principle, learning objectives and the main text for the topic. In addition to the text, there are activities to provide hands-on experience with technologies that support the Principle. The reflection activities direct you to assess the applicability of the Principle and the related technologies to supporting your students' learning.
The activities listed here are suggested work for the topic 1. Student-Faculty Contact. These activities are structured to give you the opportunity to Student-Faculty Contact in action. These activities are designed to give you both the students' perspective and the faculty / instructional designer view of the development and implementation of student-faculty using technology.
- Remember: There are many simple technology tools available to enhance Student-Faculty Contact. This is one area where small changes can make significant improvements in student learning and retention.
- For this course - Technology Supported Learning & Retention (TSLR), you are an online student. Even if you are just enhancing your on-campus course, this is your opportunity to see the student side of online learning first-hand. Are you ready? Review the description of What Makes a Successful Online Student?
http://www.ion.illinois.edu/Resources/tutorials/pedagogy/StudentProfile.asp
- In the Introductions and expectations (Explore) forum, write a few sentences about yourself. Describe your experience with enhancing instruction with technology. Outline your expectations for developing and enhancing your own teaching with technology. Respond to 2-3 other introductions.
- Review the technology that is readily available within this course presentation. Find your way around the TSLR course resources, activities and Catalyst navigation. Click on any links that sound interesting. Keep a list of links that you follow. Was this what you expected? Is there enough information provided so understand what is going on? Do you know where to start? Can you get back to the main page? What instructions, guidelines and information do students need? Post your thoughts Catalyst Student Guide discussion.
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Posted by Valerie Taylor on 3/9/08; 1:11:33 PM
teaching & learning
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[DeAnza TSLR] 7. Diverse talents and ways of learning - part 3
TSLR 7. Diverse talents and ways of learning - part 3
TEACHING AND LEARNING
Students teaching themselves and other students reinforces student learning. Our students are amazingly talented, and encouraging them to contribute to the overall course benefits everyone.
Learning Styles
Getting students to think about their learning styles and how they relate to others is important. Even if the quizzes are somewhat accurate, they help students understand that there are several key variations and being sensitive to these makes for better communication.
Students' English Language Skills
As more of technology enhancement of the course teaching and learning takes place online, there may be few or no on-campus meetings. There is a lot of writing required for a distance learning course. Students' work is expected to demonstrate college-level research, analysis, writing and paper formatting and will be graded accordingly. Students' English language skills must be at a level where they can understand the instructions for the activities and assignments.
Prerequisites or Advisories should be for English Writing 100B and Reading 100 (or Language Arts 100), or English as a Second Language 24 and 72 (or English as a Second Language 4). If students do not meet the prerequisites, they will not be successful in a distance learning course. Please consider this carefully.
Students' contribution to course development
Students are very generous with their time and their knowledge. Asking students to participate in enhancing or updating course materials can yield some great results. Ask them for feedback about assignments. Include assignments that require research to find new resources to update the course. Include optional or extra credit assignments that encourage students to "teach" something they have learned.
You could be the next DeAnza star
The DeAnza Media Center is available to help instructors create video or audio to enhance course material. This may be as simple as recording a weekly reading of student work with comments. Some faculty have developed extensive videos to demonstrate medical procedures and practices to prepare students for actual clinical work.
Learn more...
Pedagogical affordances of syndication, aggregation, and mash-up of content on the Web
http://tesl-ej.org/ej41/int.html
High Tech Center Training Unit of the California Community Colleges
http://www.htctu.fhda.edu/
Theory of Multiple Intelligences
http://www.edutopia.org/teachingmodules/mi/index.php
ACTIVITIES
- Look at the options for the feature that allows rating of discussion forum postings. Review the online documentation by clicking in the questions mark "?" in the circle.
- In Features and options (Apply) forum, discuss the breadth of options provided for each function. When you set up an activity, how do you determine what options to select? How do the options support your learning objectives for the activities?
- In Tracking participation (Evaluate) forum, discuss how tracking activity and rating student discussion posts support setting high expectations. Do these features help you assess if your expectations for student participation are being met?
- In the I think... forum, discuss students expectations of higher education? What role does technology enhanced instruction play in meeting their expectations?
- Special project (optional) : The new Portfolio Lab in ATC will be opening shortly. To assist Bus/CS faculty in making good use of the facility, TEI participants are invited to help compile guidelines and suggest activities for lab sessions.
In the Portfolio Lab activities forum, outline your suggestions - interesting ideas, complete lesson plans, learning objectives, instructions for completing the assignment, submission guidelines, grading rubrics... All contributions will be appreciated.
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Posted by Valerie Taylor on 3/9/08; 12:00:47 PM
teaching & learning
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[DeAnza TSLR] 7. Diverse talents and ways of learning - part 2
TSLR 7. Diverse talents and ways of learning - part 2
ENHANCING INSTRUCTION
One big advantage of using technology is instructional reproducibility - the delivery will be the same every time. Over time, the lessons, the activities, the media can be built and improved on. It is possible to offer the same material in multiple formats to capitalize on many ways of learning.
Adaptive Technology
DeAnza provides support to individuals with disabilities through a broad range to resources to help them through education and training. People with disabilities are able to participate more fully in work and careers through the use of Adaptive Technology. Here are some websites with good information on Adaptive Technology.
Chat
Students are likely more comfortable with Chat than instructors are. Encouraging students to use chat for collaboration gives them the opportunity to communicate quickly and resolve issues in real-time, without the delays that are introduced in the asynchronous discussions. If students use the Chat function within Catalyst, a record if kept. However, students use AIM for their personal communication and often conduct these discussions outside the Catalyst system.
Some students may not be available for the Chat time, so allowances must be made for this situation as well.
ACTIVITIES
- Review the information provided about the Moodle course management system in
Moodle Teacher's Manual
http://moodle.tokem.fi/mod/book/view.php?id=5116&chapterid=92
and Moodle Teacher documentation
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Teacher_documentation.
In Moodle can... (Explore) forum, describe some of the teaching and learning strategies and how Moodle features are used to support them. Did you get any new ideas for using technology in your course?
- Review the Catalyst Faculty Reference Guide "course" in Catalyst Development. Specifically, review the section on tracking student progress and participation - student profiles, activity reports, posting summary.
- Review the Course Evaluation Checklist. Make a note of 3 points that you would like to address in your course.
- In your own class, access student profiles and review the information available about student participation and activity within the course.
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Posted by Valerie Taylor on 3/9/08; 11:57:10 AM
teaching & learning
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[DeAnza TSLR] 7. Diverse talents and ways of learning - part 1
TSLR 7. Diverse talents and ways of learning - part 1
The seventh and final principle concerns Diverse talents and ways of learning. Learning styles, modality, cultural influence all play significant roles in the differences in students within a class.
One of the most exciting aspects of technology enhanced instruction is the ability to provide learning experiences that acknowledge and encourage this diversity, in ways that are not practical, or even possible, in traditional classroom teaching.
Learning objectives
- review learning styles, learning modality, cultural differences
- discuss impact of technology and learning styles
- plan and add activities to own course to address learning modality differences
- discuss implications for student / instructor learning style differences
Introduction
Accommodating many different talents and ways of learning can benefit from the application of technology. Multimedia, self-paced work, repetition of practice quizzes are supported. Providing opportunities to see, hear and read course material is facilitated within a course management system.
We looked at learning styles and modality in earlier modules. Cultural influence is another factor in how students learn.
Students say...
- I tried out the low vision simulation, which lets you experience a web page through various vision related disabilities, such as Macular degeneration, cataracts, and Glaucoma. The simulation definitely gave me a better understanding of the problems faced by computer users with vision disabilities. Web designers must consider who their audience are and accommodate to them because if they are trying to sell something, the audience must be able to read it or else they will give up and go to another website. The strategies for access friendly websites gives a different perspective of how you design the website. You need to consider where you put the information, how you put the information, and the colors you choose. It needs to be usable and readable.
- After posting each other's AIM screen names on the board, we mobilized and got to chat with each other pretty quickly in the chatroom, seeing that all of us are on AIM every time we are on the computer, and that makes talking to each other very convenient and easy. ... Although it would have been more efficient and fun to speak to each other face-to-face, the fact that we had a chance to collaborate outside our individual spheres was effective.
- Even though getting all the members to meet on AIM at the same time is hard, I personally think it is the best way to communicate, since the response time is instant, and ideas may flow more easily within the group.
ACTIVITIES
- Remember: You have the power. Students are sophisticated consumers of tech-based presentation. If your course looks technically proficient and professional, then your students are more willing to accept your high expectations of them.
- In Setting expectations (Learn) forum, discuss the differences in students - transfer, career enhancement, lifelong learners. How do you set and communication your expectations to students? Are you considering offering your course as a "hybrid" or full online? How will that affect your expectations for students learning?
- In Student expectations (Learn) forum, discuss student expectations. Are you the "sage on the stage" or the "guide on the side" for your course? To what extent is your presence expected/required? Should students expect to "see" a lot of the instructor? Are there situations where instructor presence can negatively impact student-student cooperation?
- Review the rubric provided Assessing Teacher Technology Projects http://ldt.stanford.edu/~tacyt/projectrubric.html and compare your course and your progress with the rubric. In the Technology rubric forum, discuss this rubric and how you see your own work in this light. How are you doing? Do you see some areas where you might rework the technology enhancements in your own course?
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Posted by Valerie Taylor on 3/9/08; 4:01:05 AM
teaching & learning
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