How Online Educators Benefitted by Walking-the-Talk with Collaborative Instructional Design

Online Learning Insights

This post examines how instructors teaching online can develop pedagogical and instructional skills by collaborating, communicating and building knowledge online with peers using technological tools and applications.

A paper published recently in the Journal of Online Teaching and Learning (JOLT) highlights (perhaps unknowingly) one of the most effective methods for teaching faculty and instructors how to become skilled in online pedagogy and instruction—walking-the-talk. In the paper instructors did exactly what the students need to do to learn effectively and deeply online, by collaborating, contributing knowledge, sharing and creating an artifact [in this case two online courses] virtually. What’s significant is that collaboration and learning occurred via technological applications, i.e. Skype, Google Docs, Dropbox, discussion forums, and Voicethread. The point is that the technology wasn’t the focus, but that robust, meaningful and productive learning occurred despite the technology. When used effectively technology, as apparent in this study, becomes invisible—transparent. Communicating…

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Future of Online Learning and Final Thoughts

I had a great opportunity to enroll in the course, Designing and Developing Online Distance Learning at the University of Minnesota, taught/facilitated by Angel Pazurk, this fall 2013 semester, and couldn’t be more excited to continue pursuing my interest in online learning. As the semester comes to a close, I wanted to capture some final thoughts on my learning experiences in this online course. Below are three takeaways the capture those final thoughts. 

1. Student-centered learning is integral to the future of education. As educators, we must continue to focus everything on the student, and how he/she learns, and adjust the design and development of the course, module, or system, to fit each individual student.

2. Technology will continue to evolve very quickly and change education. There are still numerous arguments for and against the integration of technology into learning environments, even today, when technology for most of us (but certainly not all of us) is a HUGE part of our lives. It’s important that researchers, practitioners, and educators continue to use technology that enhances the entire learning process and allows students to EXPERIENCE learning (per Stephen Brookfield [2006]) better. 

3. Online learning and the future of education. The future of education is moving more and more towards more online learning opportunities, BUT, there are still key components of face to face (f2f) interactions that provide learners an opportunity to connect and learn from each other. As people continue to build online environments and courses, they must be creative and thoughtful in how to create those f2f experiences online.

There are many more interesting things I gained from my experiences with this online course, and I hope to take everything I learned and apply them to my role in the development of customized training opportunities for practitioners in the Minnesota, and to my future opportunities in education and online learning.  

Quality Matters (QM) and Online Learning

As I think more in-depth about the Quality Matters^TM Rubric Standards 2011-2013 Edition as it relates to my online learning environment, I feel knowledge is very much constructed between individuals. In my online learning environment, my goal is to provide information for my learners (through authentic contexts), but allow them the opportunity build and/or construct the knowledge from their previous experiences. I want my learners to become creative and innovative in how they think and how they can best utilize the information given to them. The QM rubric only standardizes how we “should” create online environments, and fails to integrate different approaches, such as constructivism or constructionism, into the standard. So, to answer the question, does my epistemological orientation align with the QM standards, no, it does not. The QM rubric needs some work. 🙂

As for my practical considerations, I will use the QM standards as an assessment tool to review my online course. But, as many in the class would agree, it’s not a rulebook and there are so many other elements of online learning not included in the QM standards that need to be addressed. 

 

AECT Conference — Proceedings Review

For this weeks blog post, I’d like to reflect on my experiences in contacting several professionals and presenters from the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) 2013 International Conference. The assignment asked us to contact two individuals that presented at the conference and request their presentation proceedings. I contacted Prof. Brad Hokanson, from the University of Minnesota, and Jenny Wakefield and Scott Warren from the University of North Texas. Brad was very responsive to my original request. It took a few days to receive a response from Jenny. She was a great source of information, though, and was receptive to me after I told her I was pursuing my M.Ed. degree at the University of Minnesota. I also think Brad was more receptive to me after he learned about my educational goals. I plan to meet with Brad in a few weeks to further discuss his work (I’ll discuss more below). 

With my interest in massive open online courses (MOOCs), I went ahead and contacted Prof. Brad Hokanson, PhD, University of Minnesota, on his presentation, “SMOOCH: The development of an internally targeted massive online course in creativity.” The project concept includes developing an online MOOC-like course (Semi-MOOC, hence the “S”) for incoming freshman to learn about creativity and problem-solving. Prof. Hokanson proposes about 1000 incoming freshman will enroll in the course, with the first cohort moving through next summer, 2014.  If the course proves to be successful, the number of incoming freshman that enroll, could potentially increase significantly. The course will also not be a “traditional” lecture style course; it will be an active learning environment with a focus on problem-solving that requires students to be engaged actively online. Creativity seems like a difficult concept to teach online; but Hokanson notes the course will be structured with a series of challenges and problems to be solved, allowing creativity to be developed through the online interactions and collaborations. Students will also be peer reviewed and asked to participate in online discussions with other learners.

In my review of the proceedings, this course seems to align well with the online learning strategies and goals we’ve learned in CI5325. It will be interesting to see the design of the course online and how well it meets the needs of the learners. I plan to meet with Prof. Hokanson in the near future to discuss this course and his ideas to build a stronger undergraduate student experience and “teach” them to become more creative. 

I also received a proceedings paper from Jenny Wakefield and Scott Warren from the University of North Texas on their work, “Learning and Teaching as Communicative Actions: Applications of the Theory to Mobile Learning.” The goal of their paper was to introduce learning and teaching as communicative actions theory as one theoretical support for using mobile devices and applications to support learning. Their theory of learning focuses on the communication affordances of mobile learning, and provides learners with meaningful, real world contexts. Learning and teaching as communicative actions theory (LTCA) is one such avenue that can be used to support the notion that mobile learning is a communication affordance to us. LTCA can be used as a model to see how we learn from mobile devices and may be the future “go to” theory in mobile learning. The paper was very interesting to read especially with my personal interest in mobile learning. Jenny also recommended a book for me, Handbook of Mobile Education, 2013. The book includes their paper, which I discussed above. This book provides a huge source of research and information related to the future of mobile technologies. 

Overall, my communications with the presenters from AECT was very comfortable and well worth the couple of minutes I spent writing my emails. I plan to reach out to additional presenters from the conference in the future to learn more about some specific topics of interest to me. 

 

 

Tapping into Introverted Processing in Active Learning

TILT

Are our expectations of students in the classroom catered toward extroverted students?  For example: Do we assume that a talking student is a participating student while the quiet one is disengaged?  Do we presume that active learning means overtly, even physically doing some activity we can, therefore, visually assess to say learning is happening?

Do introverted students feel marginalized due to being compared to these sorts of “Extrovert Ideals” and assumptions about what sorts of behaviors demonstrate learning at work? 

In their presentation at the Fall13 Academy of Distinguished Teachers Conference, Meaghan Stein and Liza Novack  discussed these and other questions about our expectations for student participation.  Their practical tips on how to incorporate multiple pathways for students to participate include:  

• prompting quiet “think time”  before discussions
• providing optional routes for sharing comments during a discussion (speaking for a small group, writing responses, then students commenting on the several…

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Building Trust in Online Learning Environments

Trust is a HUGE component in online learning environments.  Nancy Ortner (2010) say it all so well; collaborative work requires 90% people and 10% technology. As we’ve learned in this course, technology is a huge component to effective online learning environments, but if there is any lack of trust between the course instructors and his/her students, technology can’t help save the course from crashing. As Ortner, 2010 notes, trust is considered the “superglue” in holding an online learning environment together. Ortner, 2010 notes several trust strategies developed by Coopola (2005) that are integral to building an online learning environment and community. Of those mentioned, I am particularly interested in establishing early communication, developing a positive social atmosphere, reinforcing predictable patterns of communication and actions, and involving team members in tasks in my online course. I believe following these strategies will help your students build not only trust with you as an instructor, but trust with other students in the course. Trust is only built AFTER some learning and interaction has taken place. As we build our online learning environments, it’s important to think about to build interaction into the course so students find opportunities to connect with each other and the instructor. Because, then, trust will be built. 

It’s interesting to note that creating predictable patterns of communication and actions increased engagement and collaboration within a course. Students need patterns and consistency, as we learned from Spiegel’s article a few weeks ago, to effectively engage within an online learning environment. Conrad discussed the importance of creating good content that allows for good interaction and that the instructor presence is not the most important factor for engagement.

So, as I continue to build my final module and online learning environment for this course, I need to continue to remind myself to build assets into my course that will help build trust not only between my students and myself, but among the students themselves. 

MOOCs as Non-Disruptors: So, Where Do we go From Here?

Online Learning Insights

“I like to call this the year of disruption,” says Anant Agarwal, president of edX, “and the year is not over yet.” New York Times (November 2, 2012)

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are not disrupting traditional higher education as predicted by Anant Agarwal, president of edX almost one year ago. To date, MOOCs are not bubble-busters, tuition-busters, or even ‘democratizers’ of higher education. Granted MOOCs do show great promise for continuing education and professional development for working adults, but the value of MOOCs in undergraduate education is questionable. Moreover, the lack of data supporting positive learning outcomes with the MOOC format is for the most part, nonexistent. Given that considerable time, money, and energy have preoccupied institutional resources as applied to MOOCs, now is as good as time as any to re-focus and leverage what we do know about MOOCs gleaned from faculty and instructor experiences.

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Transformational Learning – How to Best Integrate into Online Learning

In my learning technologies course tonight, I listened to a presentation on transformational learning given by Prof. Aaron Doering (chasingseals.com). I found his presentation very meaningful to me. I’ve been exposed to his topic in the past, and it certainly relates directly to our topic for this week, pedagogical design. Transformational learning includes the following guidelines: 1- designing experiences, not products 2- trust 3- learning as designers 4- learners as experts 5- aesthetics 6- self-narrative 7- TPAK 8- innovative pedagogy – design as a learner! It’s important for us as online designers, to consider Doering’s 9.5 design guidelines. In the article, Using the Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge Framework to Design Online Learning Environments and Professional Development (Doering, Veletsianos, Scharber, & Miller, 2009), it discussed the need to use the Technological, Pedagogical, Content, Knowledge (TPACK) framework in designing online learning environments.  TPACK is the starting point for teachers to become effective classroom facilitators of transformative learning experiences. There is already much scholarly research and work on the effectiveness of using TPACK. Mezinrow (1991) notes this definition of transformational learning theory:  The process of becoming critically aware of how and why our assumptions have come to constrain the way we perceive, understand, and feel about our world; changing these structures of habitual expectation to make possible a more inclusive, discriminating, and integrating perspective; and finally, making choices or otherwise acting upon these new understandings. I think there are additional opportunities to look at integrating transformation learning into  online learning environments focusing on TPACK as an effective framework to shape the pedagogy of the course. 

The EDUCAUSE Conference 2013: Highlights, Trends & Takeaways

Great summary of 2013 #educause conference

Online Learning Insights

I was one of seven thousand participants that descended upon the Anaheim convention center last week for the three-day EDUCAUSE annual conference. The conference attracts educators, administrators and Information technology leaders from higher education institutions from near and afar; there were 52 countries represented. The conference is by no means limited to Information Technology topics. This year the conference featured 300 sessions within five categories —the majority of sessions I attended were within the teaching and learning track, and a handful in the leadership and management category. Though I usually attend conferences virtually, I chose the face-to-face option given that Anaheim is slightly more than a stone’s throw from where I live. I’m glad I did. I was able to experience the vibe of the conference, pick up on the buzz from other participants at lunch, in the exhibit hall, and impromptu meetings. I also was able to meet a handful…

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Building Patterns and Anticipation: Online Course Development

This week, I spent time reflecting on the topics of building patterns and anticipation in designing my own online course. As I’ve learned over the past 6 weeks, there are many things that need to be taken into account when designing and developing an online course. As learned this week, patterns are very important to an effective course. Patterns provide students with consistencies week to week, and help to reduce anxiety in the course. Patterns are a part of the design of the course, and for many non-traditional online instructors, isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Effective design can support the ability to build engagement and collaboration within a course. 

I’ve been given an opportunity to teach a freshman level course for science and engineering students through the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota. This is my second year teaching the course, and while it’s a face to face course, I’ve attempted to integrate a more hybrid approach to teaching the course. I will note, though, that I am now done teaching the course, as my role was only for the first seven weeks. We used Moodle as the CMS for the course, which is required. Going back to my CMS matrix, Moodle was one of the CMS’s that I analyzed, and there are some difficulties in applying color to the Moodle environment. As Cheri Spiegel notes in her Universal Design paper, color should be used in online course design to attract attention. I’m not sure if color would have made any difference with my students. I’d have to take a survey to see if there is any data that supports this one way or another. But, another key thing that Spiegel notes, is the need for consistency when designing an online course. I unfortunately did not do a great job of this in my f2f class. I would upload various assignments and material on Moodle, but it was very inconsistent from week to week. Most of the direction for the course came from higher-level administration in CSE, with many of those folks unable to understand the importance of how to effectively use Moodle in a f2f course. In the future, I will definitely change this, as I’ve learned the importance of building patterns in an online course. I’d like to also do a better job of building community within the course, both in the classroom, and online. 

Dianne Conrad’s paper, “Engagement, Excitement, Anxiety, and Fear: Learners’ Experiences of Starting an Online Course,” was a great paper and provided some much needed information to better design and develop an online course. Two things stuck out to me: 1) It’s important to provide students early access to your course and 2) students do not feel that instructors are a large part of the engagement for the course. Early access to the course makes complete sense to me, but it was harder for me to understand why students in online environment don’t really have much connection to the instructors. This paper did focus on adult learners, and so this does make more sense for an older student. But, those younger students, it doesn’t seem to be true. I also think Conrad’s ideas can easily be applied to f2f learning as well.