SIB Tools for Online Learning: October 2010

Saturday, October 30, 2010

EPals

Epals.com

Through Epals a classroom can connect with another classroom (anywhere in the world) in order to participate in joint projects, and share emails, photos and videos. Epals can bring a topic to life for students and is specifically built for primary and secondary education. It is is a safe way to explore the world outside of your community and make connections with others that can be half a world away.

A review of a Geography project using Epals:
http://cnx.org/content/m32249/latest

This is a link to some of the projects that EPals does with National Geographic:
http://epals.us/projects/info.aspx?DivID=index

Friday, October 29, 2010

Hybrid Courses - Advantages and Challenges

http://www4.uwm.edu/ltc/hybrid/faculty_resources/advantages.cfm

This link lists some advantages of hybrid courses:

Advantages

New teaching opportunities
Student engagement
Increased student learning
New pedagogical approaches
Documenting the process as well as the product of learning

But there are also some Challenges

Rethinking Course Design
Adopting a New Approach to Teaching
Managing the Dual Learning Environment
Preparing Students

I welcome the addition of any other advantages and challenges you have encountered in your hybrid courses - feel free to add them to the list if you have blog-edit-super-powers.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Food for thought

"The most beautifully designed course -- complete with audio, video, and other graphic and multimedia tools -- can fail dismally if the instructor is not a skilled online facilitator working to build a learning community among the learners (Lessons From The Cyberspace Classroom, Pallof & Pratt)."

Meaningful interactions among all participants in a course does not happen magically, however, it involves careful and informed instructional design and good class management.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Free & Open Source Books & Moodle Plugins

With the move to make education more affordable and accessible, free and open textbooks could be a great way to keep costs down and quality up.

Moodle.org has a great database of several hundred plugins.

Moodle.org : Downloads

A couple interesting looking ones.

My Videos Block
Molecular Toolkit (Screenshots here)

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Another initiative

College Choices for Adults

suggestion from 105 TAs

One of the TAs in 105 thought it would be better to do half online and half f2f each week. Or another suggestion was half the semester students are f2f and the other half online. What do you guys think?

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Inquiry Based Learning - after Reading assignment

The team is considering Inquiry Based Learning assignments that would make the readings students have to do more meaningful.

Instructors could assign discussion questions based on specific readings but that would mean that some modules have two discussion question forums (one for specific readings, one for broader overall module topics). One thing that was suggested was to have as set of students come up with what they considered the most important points of a reading (as well as lingering questions) and share those with the rest of the class. Another exercise is called "jigsaw"- where each group researches a topic, learns it, then teaches their peers.

While not all of the entries are inquiry-based, several of the activities on ION's Online Teaching Activity Index (OTAI) are. http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/resources/otai/
It is a great resource for ideas and inspiration. "Fishbowl", for example, might be particularly applicable to the MST program -- where a student submits, say, a video of them teaching a certain
biology topic, then the peers evaluate how well the initial student did.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Student Generated Content

Wanted to share this wonderful Prezi from Jason's MoxBox blog:

http://bit.ly/cIWrrt

Strategies for Designing and Supporting Student-Generated Content on Prezi

Finding originals for YouTube videos

(Based on email and meetings between Marianne and Jason)

Marianne:

I found this video that I would like to use for my "Biology and Tech Innovation Course".

The video features Prof Martijn Poliakoff introducing the topic of Green Chemistry.

I love his videos. I like his office, I like his hair, I love his sense of
humor (maybe not always intentional big grin), I like his examples, and
his British accent. Again, I think this makes a great opening video and
brings some humor to the students - students who may be nervous entering a
chemistry module.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KYiLFkMQ_E

The video is from nottinghamscience. They post a lot of great science
videos on YouTube - I wish I could find if they had a website somewhere
else so that I do not have to expose my students to the weird comments
that often come with YouTube. I spent another 15 minutes trying to find
other sources for the same video.

The benefit of using YouTube is that it does not require students to sign up for a service or obtain special software to view it.

So my question is: where is the original NottinghamScience site with these
videos?

Jason:
So, a couple of thoughts. First, it looks as though nottinghamscience uses YouTube
as their delivery mechanism. Even if you go to their website
(http://www.test-tube.org.uk/index.htm), the videos there are "powered" by YouTube.
It isn't too uncommon for an organization to choose YouTube (or Vimeo, or others
like these) as their delivery mechanism--they make it so easy to distribute videos
online without technical knowledge.

The Green Chemistry video can be found on their site
(http://www.test-tube.org.uk/videos/pages_poliakoff_green_chemistry.htm). This
helps avoid the exposure to YouTube garbage comments, though YouTube's embedded
player is programmed such that if you click on the video (not the player controls),
it'll take you to the YouTube page (with its comments). What I would suggest is
embedding the YouTube video into your course. Students can still get to the
comments by clicking on the video, but at least while the video is within your
"space", the comments are hidden.

From other meetings:
At least every year, and definitely before a course is offered, OCE will go through the course website to determine if all the videos (that you may have downloaded) are still available on YouTube. The agreement is that when YouTube takes down a video, all copies that came from that link can no longer be used. An effort will be made to find alternative sites that host the video (legally) - or find another subsitute.

New York Times wants to know how Teachers use Technology.

http://nyti.ms/9gUIYh

Monday, October 11, 2010

Online Collaboration Tools

How to communicate and share work when working in a group online?

e-mail - that is pretty straight forward, but can get quite cumbersome very fast.

googledocs - the gold standard at the moment - very convenient. Need to have a google account before you can start, but who does not have a google account these days?

dropbox - a tool you can use that creates similar folders on different computers (even smart phones) - it also keeps on online copy. Need to download the application before you can start.

Survey

I created a Survey at Survey Monkey using questions that I am gathering through my ION Group Work course.

I found the tool easy to use - but I initially created my first few questions without scrolling all the way down to see all the options available to me (like being able to add comment boxes). So make sure to scroll down.

I designed the questions to find out how well a group worked together on a project. Some questions are trying to find out the same thing but from different angles. There are maybe one or two more questions I would have liked to have asked, but I would have needed the pro version.

The link:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VNBCJQC

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Secure Testing - Remote

Some institutions (or individual instructors) require online students to drive to secure testing sites for assessment.

Pros:

added security. The instructor/proctor can be assured that the student, who presents ID, taking the test is the student that is enrolled in the course.
Satisfies federal laws stated in the Higher Education Opportunity Act, which requires schools to be able to validate student identities when they are being assessed.
Test sites usually have at a minimum broadband, which means that quite sophisticated methods can be used for an assessment – something that can maybe not be done if students were to use technology at home.

Cons:

Loss of convenience (travel and time).
Expensive for institution (and therefore probably for the student)

I really do not care for the travel requirement. We are trying to bring top quality education to those who are unable to attend courses as traditional college students. Taking away one of the benefits of online courses would be counter productive. However, student identity is a big deal and will be more so in the future when the HEO Act goes into full effect. But technology is keeping pace, there are various ways that cheating online can be decreased (remote proctoring*). And we have to live with the fact that, just as in F2F classes, there will be cheaters. It is the institutions responsibility, not the individual instructors, to prevent cheaters and deal with consequences when rules are broken – but that is a whole other issue.

*For a companies that sells remote proctoring services check out http://www.kryteriononline.com/
or http://proctoru.com/.
(I am pretty sure that this method will probably also be expensive for institutions)

Some options for creating content yourself

(From course website)

1. Video (Use whatever camera you have that can record video, which may include cellphones. Share the video file or upload to a service like youtube.

Six Steps to Creating High Quality Video Training: http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/185/six-steps-to-creating-high-quality-video-training

2. Audio/Podcast (Free audio recorder/editor at Audacity at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ You might also want to sign up for a free hosting account at a service such as http://www.podbean.com. Tip: use LAME to export it as a MP3 file.

How to Create a Podcast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hrBbczS9I0

3. Jing (free download at http://www.jingproject.com) We recommend also signing up for a free hosting account at http://www.screencast.com/.

How to Use Jing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx0N_dTbzJk

4. Prezi (free account available at http://prezi.com/).

Advice from fellow students:
When recording video, or audio or a jing presentation write a script first. Or if that then sounds too rehearsed use some keywords. But do not do it "cold".

RSS -feed. What is it and how to use it in education

http://www.slideshare.net/leonardstern/rss-in-education

Potential roles of students in content creation?

We have all realized at some point in our teaching career that only when we taught a topic did we really understand the material (glycolysis!). For this very reason it makes pedagogical sense to design your course in such a way that it included student construction of content, as well as management of activities, within the course. Students who create content will have the opportunity to use new skills learned in the course and also broaden their knowledge base. All while actually decreasing the workload of the instructor who can then focus on developing other aspects of the course.

The products created by the students, which are often learning objects, such as presentations, video, podcasts, etc, can be reused in the course and by the students themselves to teach other (current and future) students.

If the task is done as a group project then not only will it stimulate individual learning but also collaborative learning by building a knowledge base collaboratively.

This type of inquiry-based learning will involve the integration of informational (background research on the topic) and technological (using video camera) skills. Ultimately we will be educating a workforce with skills that employers value. The disadvantage is that some of these skills are not necessarily your responsibility to teach within the scope of the course. It is therefore important that student have access to support from their institution to be able to obtain the skills (use of camera, how to do library research, etc.) to help create content (I guess just as the instructor will need access to these resources).

1. Student Content Creators: Convergence of Literacies (2007) Educause Review V 42 (6): 16-17 Joan K. Lippincott http://bit.ly/cpAy1c
2. Talk the talk: Learner-generated podcasts as catalysts for knowledge creation. British Journal of Educational Technology V39 (3): 501-521 M. J. W. Lee, C. McLoughlin, A. Chan

Self-produced Content - Fun!!!

I created a video - which was shot at the butterfly pavilion in Colorado by my 6-year old son and myself using a Zip. I downloaded the zip files to iMovie for the Mac and then to YouTube: http://youtu.be/a80NlTVqZ64 (I tried to add audio but it is taking a while to have that published).

This video is part of a presentation on structural color in butterflies that I created using Prezi. I found the prezi very intuitive. I was sometimes frustrated by the limited tools (there are far fewer tools than in powerpoint - there is not even a tool to draw a straight line!). But in the end I am happy with the product. I think I will try it again using a different topic and learn from the lessons learned: first plan out where the presentation is going, then fill out the content...much like the lady suggested in the introductory video, which I watched at least 5 times and still did not learn from apparently

https://prezi.com/secure/e2e5de92a9ed7468c10355f68adae80a5b98d8c2/

This was fun!

Some advice from fellow Tech Tools Students: Consider file size!!
I must say it didn't run smoothly on my notebook computer over wireless G, but ran fine on my desktop with wired connection. I don't know if it is the image sizes or my small processor. I suspect the processor. My desktop is a gaming rig I built about a year ago, and if anything runs slow on that I'll be surprised.

Sharing already made content (podcasts)

I am an avid consumer of podcasts - I have my weekly NPR shows - but also my podcasts from Science Magazine, Nature Magazine, NYT Science, etc. But the science podcasts would not be suitable for my class. They are too broad, but I would hope that I could encourage my students to download some of them and listen even outside of class.

This week I had lunch with a student who is very interested in the course I am developing "Biology and Tech Innovation". He mentioned that he was a member of a group called the Bioneers. I decided to look up if this group had a podcast, and it turns out that they actually do.

iTunes; Bioneers: " Bioneers brings bold innovators with bold breakthrough solution to the airwaves with their eight annual radio series. Bioneers: revolution from the Heart of Nature airs in more than 250 cities in the US, Canada, Australia and Ireland and is free to all stations, distributed by WFMT radio networks".

You can download the podcast via iTunes and or Yahoo. Apparently the podcast were only started in July 2010 and it looks like they post 4 new episodes per month.

I will not require my students to all the podcasts (it looks like they are all about 30 minutes long - which is probably about 15 minutes too long). But some of the topics would fit well in some of my modules. For instance, there is a "Planting Buildings" episodes which fits with my architecture module and I could use it as one of the content resources. I may let the students know what they can skip - I found the first 3.5 minutes a little too preachy, so I would suggest the student skip to a certain minute mark.

Sharing already made content (video)

One of the modules that I am proposing for my new online course "Biology and Tech Innovation" is on Green Chemistry. It is a topic that I actually do not know that much about.

I found many videos on Green Chemistry but I think I like this one the best as an introductory/opening video for the module. (It took me 5 minutes to find, thanks to catchy search words)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KYiLFkMQ_E

The video is from nottinghamscience. They post a lot of great science videos on YouTube - I wish I could find if they had a website somewhere else so that I do not have to expose my students to the weird comments that often come with YouTube. I spent another 15 minutes trying to find other sources for the same video. With no luck.

The benefit of using YouTube is that it does not require students to sign up for a service or obtain special software to view it.

In this particular video, which does not have the greatest production value, Prof Martijn Poliakoff introduces the topic of Green Chemistry. I love his videos. I like his office, I like his hair, I love his sense of humor (maybe not always intentional big grin

), I like his examples, and his British accent. Again, I think this makes a great opening video and brings some humor to the students - students who may be nervous entering a chemistry module.

Open Course Ware

Open courses are online courses that are usually created by institutions (universities) and shared online for free. Donors, such as the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, often fund these initiatives. The university to that was the first to offer many of their courses through Open Course Ware was MIT, but now other institutions, such as Yale, have joined too. The courses offered are often introductory courses. Content can be downloaded as files or even as audio or video (to, for instance, iTunes U)

The reason why institutions might want to do this is to advertise the fact that they are educational leaders. It is in the institution’s best interest to get their stamp on course content that is available online. MIT or Yale courses would probably have a higher proportion required textbooks written by MIT faculty or published by Yale. The courses probably also focus on the research done at the institution, so that again it reinforces the idea that the institution is at the forefront of new developments in education, science, etc.

I am not quite as certain about the benefit to the faculty who developed these courses (it is their intellectual property?). Of course, if they wrote the textbook it would have a financial pay off, but otherwise they might miss some financial gain now that the university is not charging money. Then again, what would a faculty member do with the content? Start their own University?

The benefits for me as I develop my own online courses are:

serve as source of ideas on what topics should be included in a course, what readings to include (syllabus) or even what to present in a lecture (video).
The courses often have videos of lectures that I could link to from my own course website. I may not use all the videos but there is a lecture by a famous scientist that would fit well.
No registration ($) required.

Some disadvantages:

Courses are not rated - so how to tell if the syllabus and course are any good?
It puts the source institution in the spot light - not my home institution.
There is no certificate or degree associated with completing these courses.

I explored the Open Yale courses and did not find anything that was similar to the courses I am developing. There were actually not that many classes available, but that may change in the future. MITOpenCourseWare has far more courses available but most of them just include syllabus, calendar, readings, lecture synopses and assignments – no video or audio, this may be because this initiative is older. This would suffice for getting ideas about what to put into a course but could not provide actual course content.

Responses from fellow TechTools students:

"I would like to share another advantage especially for non-US students. Students from abroad are new to the US educational system. Of course, preparing for exams like TOEFL and GRE gives them a glimpse. Still, it can be a completely different educational experience.

If these students get to see open courses and have a rough idea how to look up calenders and then decide how many courses they can manage in a trimester/semester, how the grading system works (of course, every course and every instructor has their own way of assessments) and most important that participation in the in-class as well other group activities is very important. I think open course ware can be a prototype of what they are going to experience." (NMV).

"I connected with your concern over the intellectual property issues and like the way you phrased the argument distinguishing between issues in media and print.

It seems so clear, at least to me that there is no difference, why does a delivery method present a challenge to IP. I am not sure I understand why the lines become so blurred in digital media. As faculty we copyright our print lectures, class materials and publications, why are digital presentations treated differently? The only reason I can come up with is monetizing for the institution. There must be a higher value placed on the digital copy because it can be replicated and/or shared via so many delivery methods" (HL)