All Things in Moderation

Required Resource: Book Excerpt: E-Learning by Design
(Horton, W., Designing for the Virtual Classroom, E-Learning by Design). Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons Inc. Used with permission from John Wiley & Sons Inc. via the Copyright Clearance Center.

Chapter 9, "Design for the Virtual Classroom" (pp. 463–471)

Discussion Rubric

Keeping discussion forums productive requires a moderator – someone to oversee the discussions and makes comments as necessary to keep the discussions focused and fruitful.

For the purposes of the exercise, assume that you are the instructor moderating the discussion forum for an online class. Below are two scenarios. Please post your response to both scenarios in the comments (no later than midnight on Friday 8/13 please).

Scenario #1: Keeping the Discussion Lively -
The instructional designer for the course has provided a bland discussion prompt for this week. The students' initial postings for this week are generally uninspired and show minimal critical thinking. As the moderator, how would you respond to the initial postings? What techniques might you use to liven up the discussion?

Give at least one sample response along with the rationale for your response.

Scenario#2: Responding to Inappropriate Postings - Upon reviewing the previous days postings, you notice that one of the students (let's call him Jack A.) has responded harshly to another student's post. Jack A. is not attacking the message, but the messenger, directing some personal insults and name calling to one of his fellow students.

Describe how you would confront Jack A. about this behavior and the reasoning behind your approach.

Plagiarism Detection and Prevention

The World Wide Web provides an abundance of resources for the online student to research a particular topic. However, when a student does a copy and paste of someone else’s work and calls it their own, that constitutes plagiarism. There are several ways the online instructor can reduce or eliminate plagiarism in their courses.

Detection

The first consideration is that the online instructor needs to be able to detect plagiarism. Thankfully, there is software available to help automate the process of detection. EVE and Turnitin.com are two software programs that can detect plagiarism in student assignments. The case study found that “Turnitin.com speeds up the process of finding copied text and finds it through more systematic searching than can be undertaken using manual methods” (Jocoy & DiBiase, 2006).

Facilitation Strategies

Another consideration is how the online instructor facilitates the class. There are several strategies to help minimize student plagiarism. The first is to set expectations at the outset of class that plagiarism will not be tolerated. When students know that detection software will be employed and that they will be held accountable for plagiarism in their assignments, the students are on notice that plagiarism is discouraged. However, as Dr. Paloff mentioned in the video, most plagiarism is inadvertent. That is, students forget to properly cite their sources. Therefore, some review of proper citation can help avoid inadvertent plagiarism.

Assessment Strategies

Course objectives and assessment of those objectives are met can also minimize plagiarism. For example, “eschew learning outcomes that ask students to explain, list or collect information” (Carroll & Appleton, 2001). Instead, if students are given tasks that require them to analyze or synthesize concepts, then it is less likely work can be directly copied. Another strategy is to personalize assignments. If students are required to relate their own experiences to an assignment, then that work should be unique to that student. Another variation on this theme is to create assignment that build on a student’s prior work in the course. Again, this insures work that is unique to a particular student.

Conclusion

Going forward, I plan to use some combination of all these strategies as an online instructor. First, I would set clear expectations with students that their work will be reviewed for plagiarism (assisted by software programs) and that there are consequences for plagiarizing. In addition, when designing instruction, I would set objectives and create assessments that help “design out” plagiarism

References:

Carroll, J., & Appleton, J. (2001). Plagiarism: a good practice guide. Unpublished manuscript, Joint Information Systems Committee, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, U.K. Retrieved from http://oxfordbrookes.academia.edu/JudeCarroll/Papers/616508/A_Good_Practice_Guide

Jocoy, C., & DiBiase, D. (2006). Plagiarism by adult learners online: A case study in detection and remediation. International Review of Research in Open & Distance Learning, 7(1), 1–15.

Palloff, R. & Pratt, K. (2010). Plagiarism and Cheating (video presentation)

Impact of Technology and Multimedia

In my last post, I discussed how to get the online learning experience off to a good start.  Now, I want to examine the role technology plays in “keeping the ball rolling” in the early to middle parts of the course.  In addition to the capabilities of CMS, Web2.0 technologies offer the possibilities of user-defined, multimedia content and online collaboration.

There are number of things to consider before deploying Web2.0 technology in a course.  The primary consideration, as Dr. Paloff mentions in the video, is whether or not the technology helps the student achieve the learning outcomes and objectives for the course.  There is no point in deploying technology for technologies sake.   Another consideration is usability.  In other words, is the technology easy to adopt across the diversity of experience within the student population.  If the technology is not easy to learn, then it will distract the student from objectives of the course.  A third consideration is accessibility.  Do all students have access to the required software?  Can students with disabilities use the technology?  Again, technology should be an enhancement, not a distraction.

Here are the technologies I plan to use as an online instructor:

Blogs – a great way for students to share their thoughts with the learning community and get feedback from the community.

Voicethread–another great way to share and get feedback.   Voicethread is geared toward sharing media(audio, video, presentations¸ text) and providing comments via text or audio.

Wikis – a great way for students to collaborate on projects.  Wikis make it easy students to create a community document and discuss a project in progress.

Podcasts – a portable resource for the students.  Podcasts can be downloaded to an  mp3 player or smartphone and accessed by the student “on the go’.

These are all technologies that help the students meet the course objectives, are easy to use and easily accessible.

References:

Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. (2010). The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Palloff, R.  & Pratt, K. (2010). Enhancing the Online Experience (video presentation)

Setting Up An Online Learning Experience

You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

So the old saying goes.  This is why the first two weeks of an online class are so critical.  As Dr. Pratt mentions in the video, if a student is not engaged in a positive way at the outset of the class, then it more likely that the student will drop out of the class.

There are four key areas that the instructor must focus on to insure early success.

Technology

There is no online learning unless the online component is in place.  The first step is to make sure that basic elements of the course management system (CMS) such as setting up discussion forums, the gradebook, teams and groups and uploading documents and media (Boettcher  p.57).  In addition, other online tools that add to the student experience such as multimedia, blogs and wikis must be selected and available to the students.

Moreover, the instructor needs to be familiar with the technology deployed in the class in order to understand the capabilities and limitations of the online tools.  Also, the instructor needs be able to provide basic assistance with technology in case the students run into problems.

Clear expectations

From the outset of the course, students need to know exactly what is expected of them and when it is expected.  That is why a course syllabus, weekly teaching guides and assignment rubrics are important.  These items must be as unambiguous as possible to avoid any potential misunderstandings.

Social Presence

The students need to feel comfortable that the class is populated with “real people”.  Moreover, an environment of trust and collaboration must be established.  This why the icebreaker exercises are so valuable.  They help break down the walls between each student and with the instructor.  In addition, as Dr.Palloff mentions in the video, the icebreakers help establish a tone for the course.  If the course starts off with an activity that is fun and engaging, then the students can feel at ease with the rest of the course.

Community

Once the instructor and the students have established a social presence, then these individuals can start to build a learning community. The online community builds student satisfaction by reducing the sense of isolation and by providing feedback to the student as they are learning the material.

References:

Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. (2010). The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Palloff, R.  & Pratt, K. (2010). Launching the online le

Reflections on the video "Online Learning Communities" (Pratt and Paloff)

Building an online learning community is an essential part of a successful online course.  The online community is where the students, along with their instructor and student peers, construct meaning from the course materials.  In addition, the online community builds student satisfaction by reducing the sense of isolation and by providing feedback to the student as they are learning the material.

There are five essential elements of building an online community.  The first is people – you need to have a quorum of individuals participating in the discussion.  The second is a method of communication.  There must be an established forum (e.g. threaded discussion board, wiki, chat room) for communication to take place.  The next element is process – guidelines and expectations on how discussion is conducted.  The fourth element is purpose.  In other words, the community needs a reason to exist and an end goal to succeed.  In an online course, the purpose is usually to complete the weekly assignment.  The final element is social presence.  In other words, the online identity of the student or instructor.  This presence is established by participating in the forum often enough that they are recognized as a regular member.  But more importantly, the individual thoughts and experience expressed through the forum creates an online personality that other members will recognize and want to engage.

It is really these last two elements, purpose and presence, that sustain an online community.  Without a purpose, the online community will quickly disintegrate.  Therefore, it is crucial to continually renew the purpose of the community by introducing new assignments or new challenges on a regular basis.  In addition, the participants must continually assert their social presence to keep everyone engaged and looking forward to the contributions of the other members.

Once the online community is established, this becomes the delivery vehicle for the course.  The community is where learning takes place.  This is where the student can safely express their ideas and get constructive feedback from student peers and the instructor.   This in turn gives the student a sense that they have learned something.  Another benefit of an online community is that is creates social pressure to succeed.  The student will feel compelled to contribute something worthwhile, something that will move the discussion forward rather than just tossing in a minimal contribution.

Welcome to Everyone from Online Instructional Strategies

Thanks for visiting.  Your thoughts and opinions are always welcome.  Please feel free to leave a comment.

Reflection: Into the Future with Distance Education

Will distance education ever reach parity with face to face education in the minds of the general public?  While distance education has made significant strides in the last few years, it still has a long way to go.  A recent survey by the Society of Human Resources managers found that one-third of organizations (34%) reported that job candidates who have obtained their degrees online were viewed as favorably as job applicants with traditional degrees (Society for Human Resource Management, 2010).  So, what will it take to drive further acceptance distance education?

As Dr. Siemens noted in the video, acceptance of distance learning is driven by proliferation of online communication tools. In time, people’s comfort with these tools facilitates productive discussions.  Thus, as technology evolves along with attitudes towards online communication, the convenience of distance learning becomes more compelling which in turn, results in larger population of learners with distance education experience.  With a growing population of people with direct (distance learners) and indirect (friends and family of distance learners) with distance learning, acceptance of distance learning will continue to grow over time.  Thus, greater societal familiarity with distance learning along with “students shopping for courses that meet their schedules and circumstances” (Howell, Williams, & Lindsay, 2003) will drive further acceptance of distance education.

However, there are also forces working against further acceptance of distance education. In general, human nature is resistant to change.  Thus students and instructors will naturally be reluctant to experiment with a learning model that is different from what is tried and true.  In addition, students may have bad experiences with distance education courses.  Since it is impossible to insure that every student has positive experience with every course, there will undoubtedly be cases were students walk away from a course with a negative experience.  This in turn, can make someone a life-long detractor of distance education.

Thus it is incumbent on me, as an instructional designer to be a proponent of distance education.  There are a number of ways that I can do this.  First is to be a good role model.  As a product of the distance education environment, I want to demonstrate that my skills and expertise are at least on par with (if not superior to) other graduates with the same credentials.  But more importantly, my goal as an instructional designer to create distance learning courses of the highest quality.  I don’t want to create any future detractors of distance education. 

More specifically, I want to help improve the state of the art in distance education.  I feel I can do this in a number of ways.  The first is to continue to be a lifelong learner and stay current with best practices.  I plan to do this by keeping up with professional societies, publications and blogs in the area of distance education.  In addition, I plan on sharing my knowledge and experience. This can be done in a number of ways.  One way is to share content. Whenever I develop non-proprietary content, I would like to make that content available to others for use in a distributed learning environment.  Another way is to share best practices.  I would like to present my findings at conferences, write articles for publications or post to relevant blogs.

Looking ahead, I see that distance education will make higher education more accessible to a greater number of people.  I look forward to be an integral part of it.

References:

Howell, S, Williams, P, & Lindsay, N. (2003). Thirty-two trends affecting distance education: an informed foundation for strategic planning. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 6(3).  Retrieved from: http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall63/howell63.html

Society for Human Resource Management. (2010, August 19). Hiring practices and attitudes: traditional vs. online degree credentials SHRM poll. Retrieved from http://www.shrm.org/Research/SurveyFindings/Articles/Pages/HiringPracticesandAttitudes.aspx

Best Practices: Converting from Classroom to Distance Learning

For your consideration, I have created a best practices guide for converting classroom materials to a distance learning format. It covers four key areas:

Planning
Enhancing the Distance Learning Experience
The Changing Role of the Instructor
Facilitating Communication

You can read the full document here

Open Course Review: Introduction to Economics

Carnegie Mellon University Open Learning Initiative – Web Site

Overview

This open course serves three different purposes. First, it provides an online study guide and virtual experiments for students enrolled in the instructor led course at Carnegie Mellon. Second, it provides a set of online resources for instructors teaching the subject matter at another accredited institution. Third, it provides a distance learning opportunity for those looking to study the topic without getting course credits. My purpose is to examine the third scenario. That is, evaluating the course a stand alone, distance learning experience.
The open course includes seven online workbooks created with synthetic experiment data. This gives the learner the opportunity to create online graphs in order to observe the interrelationships between economic forces. In addition, there are online multiple choice questions to check for understanding as the learner progresses through each workbook.

Is this course planned for distance learning?

Yes, these course materials were planned with the distance learner in mind. Each online workbook contains lessons with clearly defined objectives and a check for understanding. For example, click here to view a lesson on supply and demand curves. Note the navigation frame on the left hand side of the page for easy navigation within and between workbooks. Also note the icon

which brings up a window for an exercise. Also, the icon will bring up short, multiple choice quizzes. In both cases, the learner gets to check their answers. In addition, there is a Flash animation

showing an example of how to create supply and demand curves.

Does this course following the recommendations outlined in the Simonson textbook?

This course succeeds in following the guidelines in some areas, while failing in a few others. First, this course is an example of linear-design instruction. That is, modules of instruction are divided into topics. Each topic has a learning event followed by some kind of assessment (Simonson, p. 143). Where the course succeeds in following the guidelines in that the learning is activity based (the inclusion of exercises and quizzes as mentioned above). Where it fails is that there is no opportunity to engage in dialogue with the instructor or with other learners. Also, it fails to address the leaner's life experience (Simonson p. 148).

Do the course activities maximize active learning?

While there are activities to engage the learner (experiments and quizzes), the variety of activities are not enough to maximize the potential for active learning. The inability to ask questions of the instructor or engage in dialog with the other learners is a significant shortfall.

Overall evaluation

These online workbooks are well designed self study materials. However, they fall short as a stand-alone distance learning course. The workbooks would make excellent references in the context of a complete distance learning program for this topic.

References:

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson. P. 143-148.

Using Technology to Foster a Collaborative Training Environment

The scenario outlined in Example 1 poses a number of challenges to an instructional designer.  The first challenge is that the staff is separated by geography and time.   This makes it impossible to gather everyone together for any time of synchronous training event.  The other challenge is how to foster collaboration.  Collaboration across office locations will be a critical factor in making sure the new software is adopted and used effectively across six office locations.  Thus, technology is needed to enable asynchronous training as well as asynchronous discussion and collaboration.


The first challenge to be addressed is how to deliver the training. Because the training must be delivered asynchronously, this requires that an online learning material be hosted in a location where the staff has flexible access to those materials.  Thus, I have chosen Slideshare to host the training presentation.  Since it is an external website, the staff can access the materials from any computer or mobile device with web access.  In addition to hosting the presentation, Slideshare offers some features for discussion and collaboration.  One useful feature is that the staff can leave comments on each page of the presentation.  This allows the staff to have asynchronous discussions on individual slides in the presentation.  Another  helpful feature of Slideshare is called Zipcast.  This feature allows students to get together for a synchronous discussion of specific parts of the presentation.     Author Beth Kanter  discusses the use of Slideshare in a blog post.  In the post, she advocates using Slideshare for ongoing training in nonprofit organizations.


The other challenge to be address is collaboration.  To assist in this area, I recommend creating a wiki on Wikispaces.  Wikispaces offers several features that would facilitate collaboration among the staff.  One way to insure that staff understands how to use the new staff information software is to have them create a wiki to catalogue the best practices of using the software in their workflow.  This will help reinforce the lessons from the training as well as providing a job aid the staff can use in an ongoing basis.  In addition, Wikispaces allows comments on individual pages as well as discussion forum for threaded discussions on individual topics.  Thus, the staff can collaborate on creating the best practices wiki as well other topics that may come up in training.  Thomas Chau and Frank Maurer of the University of Calgary did a case study  of how a wiki-based experience repository supported knowledge sharing in distributed software development company.  The study concluded that wiki made it easy to share best practices, thus important shared knowledge was rapidly disseminated through the organization.

In conclusion, Slideshare and Wikispaces are two technologies that can address the challenges posed by training staff in six different locations.  Slideshare provides a mechanism to deliver the training asynchronously.  Wikispaces provides a forum for documenting best practices as well discussion of software deployment issues.

Evolution of Distance Education

Prior to taking this class, the strongest image that came to mind when thinking of distance education was attending a class from a remote location.   In the 1980’s, I took a graduate level course in computer architecture.   The company I was working for had a satellite link to a local university.  We would attend the lectures via satellite TV and ask the professor questions via a two way intercom.  Thus, I had thought of distance education as any situation where the learner is geographically separated from the instructor.

Considering this week’s resources has broadened my understanding in a couple of ways.   First, the Distance Learning Timeline Continuum showed that the history of distance education goes back to correspondence courses and those college courses you saw on public television on Saturday mornings.  Thus, distance education has evolved as communication technology has evolved.

Distance Education Mind Map

In terms of defining distance education, in this week’s video presentation, Dr. Simonson gave a succinct definition of distance education.  He defined distance education as “formal education where a learning group (students, instructor, resources) are separated by geography and/or time.  Technology is used link the resources and the learning”.  Further, Dr. Simonson stated that distance education consists of two main components – distance teaching and distance learning.   I think that this is an important distinction to make, that there is a teacher involved, keeping the students on track and accountable.   Thus, self-study e-learning courses do not qualify as distance education.

 

What factors will drive the future of distance education?    The first is technology.  Technology will make distance education more accessible.   The Horizon Report discusses two technologies that will have significant impact on the distance education.   The first is eBooks.   The widespread adoption of eBooks and eReaders (like Kindle and iPad) will make it much easier to access textbooks and other course materials while the learner is “on the go”.   Another technology that will impact distance education  is mobile devices (e.g. smart phones).    For example, learners will be able to collaborate with each other or get timely feedback from an instructor via texting or social media.

The other driving factor is economics.  In the corporate world, a tight economy means that corporations are looking to improve the productivity of their workforce.  Thus there is less time and money to spend on training.  It has been my experience in the corporate environment that companies are less will to send their employees away for a week of training.   Rather, they moving more towards “just in time” training – giving employees only the training they need, when they need it.

References:

Johnson, L., Smith, R., Willis, H., Levine, A., and Haywood, K., (2011). The 2011 Horizon Report.

Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Simonson, M.  Distance Learning: Timeline and Continuum   Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4894950&Survey=1&47=8276485&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Simonson, M.  :Distance Education: The Next Generation.  Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4894950&Survey=1&47=8276485&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1