Of course, there are still the faculty pioneers who are embracing the synchronous approach to online course and program development. They use lecture capture, discussion groups,  real-time chat rooms, synchronous web connect software, interactive technologies and digital teaching strategies to supplement and enhance student learning. However, it has been my experience that not enough faculty are readying their courses for such a digital conversion.

Interestingly, my 2007 dissertation study recommendations for increasing faculty technology integrations are still viable and they include:

• (a) release time for training, (b) technology mentors for peer to peer discussions and innovations, (c) supplemental pay increases to faculty who are the most involved with the evolution of the integration of technology into pedagogy,
• (d) departmental-level surveys for determining individual faculty technology needs, (e) follow-through procedures that are clearly stated with precise goals and objectives for the University, college, department, and faculty, (f) decentralization of technology, (g) access to real-time I T support staff, (h) I T staff with pedagogy or instructional design experience, (i) faculty representation into I T infrastructure conversions, (j) faculty input into software choices, (k) realistic and practical pedagogy-based goals that are representative of the institutional and departmental mission statements, (l) user-based technology assessment techniques,
• (m) departmental-level faculty-run technology forums, (n) college-level faculty-run technology forums, (o) university-level faculty-run technology forums, (p) and university or campus-wide centers for faculty technology training that are staffed with college, and/or departmental representatives comprising technology literate faculty.

In technology integration training, the idea is to make the training as available as possible using newsletters, email, and campus-wide technology forums for highlighting faculty and departments. Specific recommendations for successful workshops include:

1. Implementing a content-first approach to all technology trainings
2. Requiring faculty to bring their learning objects, objectives, and assessments into the training.
3. Limiting the number of participants per workshop.
   1. If you have 15 faculty, then you need to have 3 trainers present
4. Encouraging participants to leave the workshop with an immediate goal to implement the new skill in practice.
5. Providing opportunity for follow-up workshops in which participants share their successes, failures, and learning processes.
6. Offering university or department sponsored technical support to individual faculty members between each official session.

Some of the current trends in research suggest that technology training is best when it is linked with specific goals, for specific faculty, such as individualizing training. While one-on-one training is often preferred, small departmental groups with trainers (who understand the learning processes and are familiar with pedagogical strategies) may be the most efficacious in terms of time and money. Also, the use of peer to peer training can be facilitated by departmental forums and workshops.

In times of budget constraints, there can be little done to encourage administrators to support release time, reduced advising loads, reduced committee assignments, and reduced course loads while faculty are implementing new pedagogical strategies. The research shows that far too often only a few individuals end up making choices that affect entire departments or colleges. Faculty input drawn from surveys and interest groups can help reduce the negativity of implementing pedagogical changes. As Davis stated years ago, “the promise of technology is its potential for liberating teaching from the constraints of place and time” (Tools for Teaching, 1993). Broadening technological and pedagogical horizons may include re-visioning our ideas, practices, and training schemes in order to impart our pedagogical messages and more fully engage our students.

Purpose is Everything

DAG

To meet this goal, we recommend the following actions:
1.1 Revise, create, and adopt standards and learning objectives for all content areas that reflect 21st century expertise and the power of technology to improve learning.
1.2 Develop and adopt learning resources that use technology to embody design principles from the learning sciences.
1.3 Develop and adopt learning resources that exploit the flexibility and power of technology to reach all learners anytime and anywhere.
1.4 Use advances in the learning sciences and technology to enhance STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) learning and develop, adopt, and evaluate new methodologies with the potential to enable all learners to excel in STEM.

2.0 ASSESSMENT
Our education system at all levels will leverage the power of technology to measure what matters and use assessment data for continuous improvement.

To meet this goal, we recommend the following actions:
2.1 Design, develop, and adopt assessments that give students, educators, and other stakeholders timely and actionable feedback about student learning to improve achievement and instructional practices.
2.2 Build the capacity of educators and educational institutions to use technology to improve assessment materials and processes for both formative and summative uses.xiii Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology – Executive Summary
2.3 Conduct research and development that explore how gaming technology, simulations, collaboration environments, and virtual worlds can be used in assessments to engage and motivate learners and to assess complex skills and performances embedded in standards.
2.4 Revise practices, policies, and regulations to ensure privacy and information protection while enabling a model of assessment that includes ongoing student learning data gathering and sharing for continuous improvement.

3.0 TEACHING
Professional educators will be supported individually and in teams by technology that connects them to data, content, resources, expertise, and learning experiences that enable and inspire more effective teaching for all learners.

To meet this goal, we recommend the following actions:
3.1 Design, develop, and adopt technology-based content, resources, and online learning communities that create opportunities for educators to collaborate for more effective teaching, inspire and attract new people into the profession, and encourage our best educators to continue teaching.
3.2 Provide pre-service and in-service educators with preparation and professional learning experiences powered by technology that close the gap between students’ and educators’ fluencies with technology and promote and enable technology use in ways that improve learning, assessment, and instructional practices.
3.3 Transform the preparation and professional learning of educators and education leaders by leveraging technology to create career-long personal learning networks within and across schools, pre-service preparation and in-service educational institutions, and sprofessional organizations.
3.4 Use technology to provide access to the most effective teaching and learning resources, especially where they are not otherwise available, and to provide more options for all learners at all levels.
3.5 Develop a teaching force skilled in online instruction.

4.0 INFRASTRUCTURE
All students and educators will have access to a comprehensive infrastructure for learning when and where they need it.

To meet this goal, we recommend the following actions:
4.1 Ensure that students and educators have adequate broadband access to the Internet and adequate wireless connectivity both inside and outside school.
4.2 Ensure that every student and educator has at least one Internet access device and software and resources for research, communication, multimedia content creation, and collaboration for use in and out of school.
4.3 Leverage open educational resources to promote innovative and creative opportunities for all learners and accelerate the development and adoption of new open technology-based learning tools and courses.
4.4 Build state and local education agency capacity for evolving an infrastructure for learning.
4.5 Support “meaningful use” of educational and information technology in states and districts by establishing definitions, goals, and metrics.

5.0 PRODUCTIVITY
Our education system at all levels will redesign processes and structures to take advantage of the power of technology to improve learning outcomes while making more efficient use of time, money, and staff.

To meet this goal, we recommend the following actions:
5.1 Develop and adopt a common definition of productivity in education and more relevant and meaningful measures of learning outcomes and costs.
5.2 Improve policies and use technology to manage costs including those for procurement.
5.3 Fund the development and use of interoperability standards for content, student learning data, and financial data to enable collecting, sharing, and analyzing data to improve decision-making at all levels of our education system.
5.4 Rethink basic assumptions in our education system that inhibit leveraging technology to improve learning, starting with our current practice of organizing student and educator learning around seat time instead of the demonstration of competencies.
5.5 Design, implement, and evaluate technology-powered programs and interventions to ensure that students progress through our K-16 education system and emerge prepared for the workplace and citizenship.

NETP Link for pdf

“Purpose is Everything”

DAG

Using rubrics and sample projects to assist our students learning is not a new concept. Showing our students the specifics in assignment construction can improve the overall assignment. Besides introducing Netiquette links outlining online behavior, I like to include rubrics for discussion groups in the same manner in which I use rubrics for writing assignments.

Posting the Discussion Group or chat room rubric helps student determine what types of discourse the instructor wants (see rubric).

It is also important to include examples of substantive post and responses. I usually post a pdf file which contains examples of substantive and non-substantive posts, as well as, my responses to their posts. Again, this is not new; many of the online universities use rubrics and samples as part of their faculty training. At the end of my course, student comments usually mention the usefulness of sample postings and discussion group assignment rubrics.

In order to engage students more fully, we need to supply samples, rubrics, and examples online just as we do in our face to face courses.

“Purpose is Everything”

DAG

Traditionally, one of the problems has been the way IT staff and faculty speak about developing educational content. As Ploetz (2004) states, “when faculty speak about developing educational content, they traditionally use the following terms to describe the teaching/learning environment: courses, units, lessons, lectures, readings, projects, and/or activities. Terms such as learning objects, metadata, reusability, interoperability, accessibility, granularity, durability, and economy, while meaningful in a technological arena, often have little if any meaning for faculty.” (Par 6)

This begs the question, how can ITS technology support staff work with faculty in such a manner that promotes, both digital course conversion, and student learning. Our targeted approach is to enhance student learning by creating a common interface with D2L, teaching software, and faculty course content. Bridging the content with technology, through the faculty, generates individual faculty purpose and the motivation to succeed. Our goal is for faculty to come into the training with traditional course content and leave with digital course content.

The result of previous efforts from Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning CETL, Information Technology Systems (ITS), and Extended Learning (EL) have not been as effective as hoped, especially when trying to engage faculty in the transition of courses into a digital format. One of the challenges has been that IT-based training focuses only upon the technical or “point-n-click” aspects of Learning Management Systems (LMS) platforms and pedagogy-enhancing software, without concern for the content of the courses.

The Technology Enhanced Andragogy (TEA) Digital Course Conversion model addresses this training approach directly by including specific course content into each course conversion. Faculty entering the module are required to bring traditional course content and transition that content into digital learning objects. The faculty enter with traditional course content and leave with digital learning objects (content) transitioned to the D2L LMS platform. Technology alone does nothing to enhance pedagogy; successful integration is all about the ways in which technology tools are used and integrated into the teaching and learning process to enhance student learning. According to Jacobsen, et al. (2002), the real challenge is to “develop fluency with teaching and learning with technology, not just with technology, itself” (p.44).

“Purpose is Everything”

DAG

1. Course content design: Concerned with needs of the instructor, student learning outcomes, course requirements, and course goals. This step includes determination of course management tools, identifying students, details of course materials, and coordinating materials for face to face and online delivery.
2. Course development: Concerned with course materials delivery, presentations software, web design, teaching supporting systems, and administrative systems.
3. Course implementation: Divided into two components – face to face and online. Appropriate communication technologies should support a high level of student participation. Faculty Training and Pedagogy-Technology Integration
4. Course evaluation: Deals with reviewing course goals and objectives in order to determine the effectiveness of the course design, content, and delivery system as it relates to student learning outcomes.
5. Course revision in hybrid learning: A continuous process which reviews effectiveness of technological tools and efficacy of course materials. (p. 297-300).

The study also explored the relationships between hybrid course creation, implementation, and evaluation. The results suggested the need for an establishment of a creative balance between pedagogy and technology that will support faculty to design, deliver, and support course design and content.

purpose is everything

DAG

The timeline for the Seminar is four hours for each of the five days. “Homework” and out-of-class practice is assigned each day. The daily module sessions are captured by the Echo 360 system and archived for the learners (present and future) and for the Team’s evaluation (individual video captures are completed for each module/software section and are online and available for faculty during the facilitation). Once the faculty have completed the module-based facilitation and have successfully transitioned their course content into a digital format, it is our hope that faculty will begin to think past single course conversion and begin to think about transitioning entire programs.

– purpose is everything — dag

Discussions, Groups, and Group Discussions in D2L

Discussions in D2L is a great place to get students talking about certain topics and voice their ideas and opinions. You can create discussions for everyone in your course to participate in or you can put your students into groups and then create group discussions.

Google Docs

Google Docs is a site that is free with an active google account (gmail) and allows you to upload, create, store, and share documents with others. It works much like ‘tracking changes’ in Microsoft Word, but better. You can share documents with others, allow them to make their changes, while it stores all these changes online. Check out this cute youtube video on how it all works:

Google Wave

Google Wave is a new communication tool that is not yet available to everyone since it is still in beta form. You can request an account or get invited by someone who already has a google wave account (I have one and it you are extra nice to me…:) ) The best way to explain Google Wave is, well, there honestly isn’t an easy explanation for wave! Here is a good site that may help: http://www.gtricks.com/google-wave-tricks/google-wave-explain-simple-terms/

Adobe ConnectNow

Adobe ConnectNow is a program that allows you to meet, virtually. It is an offshoot of Adobe Connect that we have access to as faculty and staff at MSU. Adobe ConnectNow is great for very small group meetings since it is free with an active Adobe account, can have up to 3 attendees in the meeting, and allows for web cams, VoIP, chat, note taking, whiteboards, and screen sharing. Check out their site for more information: http://www.adobe.com/acom/connectnow/

Dim Dim

Dim Dim is another program that will allow you to meet virtually with the use of web cams, VoIP, chat, note taking, whiteboards, and screen sharing. Dim Dim is also free to use with an active Dim Dim account and can accommodate up to 20 attendees. Check out their site for more information: http://www.dimdim.com/

Skype

Skype is a little different than Adobe ConnectNow and Dim Dim – there are basically 3 things you can do with skype:

1. Instant Message (chat) with others.
2. Have a phone call with one or many other people over your computer for free – yes, free! You can even put it on your mobile phone and call for free via the web.
3. Video chat with one other person. This function is similar to iTV and Skype is coming standard on some newer TVs.

Skype is free – just sign up for an account and download & install the software on either your Mac or Windows running machines and away you go! I have seen this tool used for: bringing guest speakers into class, speaking at a conference virtually, online office hours, and many many personal uses. Check out their site for more information: http://www.skype.com/

I hope this helps increase collaboration with your students and your class. Of course, there are many other options and as always, please call me if you have any questions @ 5892.

Click, Click, Learn!

^MD

Click, Click, Learn

^MD