Week 5 - Quality Matters

This week was an interesting week looking at the rubrics for assessing a online course and determining what essential components a Quality online course should have. Specifically we looked at this rubric critically and commented on some elements that were present in the rubric but not in our online syllabus. We were then asked to comment on why we thought that this missing element was important. Later in the week we looked at our online syllabus we had designed few weeks ago and using the rubric, improve our syllabus. This was then presented on the discussion forum whilst colleagues gave constructive criticism on how the given syllabus could be improved.

Key Points

• Chicos Rubric for Online Instruction (ROI) is a framework that addresses the fundamental question - What should a quality online course look like?. This ROI can be used by online instructors to self assess their course. ROI can also act as a road map for creating a new online course.

• The other key point is the specific areas that an online instructor should look at while trying to improve their online syllabus. The 6 specific areas are: 

1.) Learner Support and Resources
2.) Online Organisation and Design
3.) Instructional Design and Delivery
4.) Assessment and Evaluation of Student Learning
5.) Innovative Teaching with Technology
6.) Faculty Use of Students Feedback.

 Resources

 http://www.csuchico.edu/roi/the_rubric.shtml
 This is the website that has the ROI. Very useful to self evaluate your online course against this.

http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/initiatives/qoci/webrubric/webexample.asp#top
This rubric is very user friendly which divides the rubrics in 6 modules: - Instructional design, Communication, Interaction and Collaboration, Student Evaluation and Assessment, Learner Support and Resources, Web Design and Course Evaluation. This is very similar to Chico's ROI but has more subheadings and explanations. The Illinois Online Network also offers online instructors with courses to develop online instructors skills and knowledge to teach effectively online.

https://www.qualitymatters.org/
The Quality matters is also a rubric like others which outlines 8 general standards and 41 specific standards used to evaluate an online course. The rubric appears as a PDF document which can be downloaded if you sign up on the webpage. Its an interesting rubric as it gives points for each of the 41 specific standards which then help you 'self evaluate' and determine the quality score of your syllabus.
 

Reflection

Evaluating ones online course syllabus using the ROI was an interesting activity as it made me realize some of the essential elements that were missing in my course outline. The one deficit I picked out was that my syllabus did not have a section on netiquette which I felt was important to include..mainly to set the ground rules for communication. Also I felt that I may not be giving my online learners enough feedback so they can know where they are going wrong and can improve accordingly.
Interesting lot of my other colleagues also felt that they could improve in this aspect.
Spurred by one of the discussions on the forum I looked at how I could engage my online students and get them to participate. Its true that the culture of the Pacific is one of 'silence' especially as a sign of respect to their teachers. This becomes counterproductive in an online environment because open communication is the key to the success of an online course.
I have tried a variety of ways but then there will be always some students who will not participate....this poses a great challenge for the online instructors.
I feel that the goal for us is to create a course that keeps our students' attention and encourages them to be interactive. This will only happen when the interactive course has relevant subject matter. If the instructor fills his/her course with irrelevant information, students can quickly lose interest. In this context, its essential that the course information is valuable and can be applied outside of the virtual classroom. 

 Now, time for a light moment:)

Week 4 - The Journey is Becoming Interesting

Jane Hart - founder of C4LPT

This week was extremely interesting with introduction of over 2000 tools that can be used by teachers, students and business. Most of these tools were compiled on a website created by Jane Hart. Jane's site called - The Center for Learning and Perfomance Technologies (C4LPT). The Voki was one interesting tool that i discovered and look forward to sharing with my students. The rest of the week was spent discussing 10 biggest myths about synchronous online learning.

Key Points

The 2 main key points for this week for me were:-

1.) There are so many tools to make learning interesting that us teachers have no excuse to conduct boring classes!! The best policy is to select a few tools, play with them, be imaginative and think of new ways you can use these tools to meet some of your course objectives.

2.) Use the tools and become proficient so you can guide your students when they are introduced to these new tools. Be open to try out new ways to inject fresh life to dead course material. Challenge myths about e-learning...remember "where there is a will there is a way"

Resources

This is the site given by Shikha Raturi as mentioned in the introduction - The Center for Learning and Performance Technologies
http://c4lpt.co.uk/directory-of-learning-performance-tools/

 Another interesting website is Edudemic. It has some very interesting information and gives teachers a guide to the most popular technology resources available online. This also includes other resources such as must have apps and laptops/tablets to make this site, a one stop shop for all education related technology information
http://www.edudemic.com/guides/

Another repository of online tools and application is: -
http://www.go2web20.net/

This is a fantastic online magazine which a quarterly issue covering contemporary developments and trends in information technology, the effect of IT on education and its impact on higher education and the society at large.
http://www.educause.edu/ero/articles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Reflection

At the end of this week, I left extremely old......perhaps even older than an Egyptian mummy!!

This was mainly because there are so many tools that are available online which I did not even know about and the worst was that I had not even heard about them. I felt I was leading a very sheltered web life but at the same time I felt an incredible sense of relief that I had the courage and foresight to enroll in this course.

My search for online tools took me to a mind boggling number of tools on the web to enrich teaching and learning experiences. I thought Voki was quite interesting and extremely cool. Playing with Avatars' on Voki made me feel like a movie director where I can choose my cast, dress them up the way I like them, take them to different locations and have complete control over the script. I thought of a number of ways I could use this tool for my teaching and learning activities. For the online courses I can use it to introduce myself in a more personalized and engaging way and make a Voki for all the discussion questions. For my students in face to face classroom, they can create Voki for revision or patient counseling sessions.

The other task on for this week was the discussion surrounding, debunking some of the myths about synchronous online learning. Overall most of the myths had some element of truth in them but ultimately I felt that if the teacher is innovative and creative, there is just no holding back on the endless possibilities created by information technology.

  

Week 3 - I am Still here

This week was action packed with so many activities that saw to many late nights and bleary eyed mornings!!. It all began with participating on a Webinar with other Ed403ers, followed by 2 topics on the discussion forum which included looking at learning management systems and web conferencing tools. Later in the week we had to design a team charter with group members allocated in the first week. Luckily I have members in my group whom i know from work but it was also nice meeting Asenaca who is also a teacher. There is another group member whom i am yet to meet. 

So what did I learn this week, let me start with some key points.

Key Points

Course Management System (CMS) or Learning Management System (LMS)

There are subtle differences between the terms LMS and CMS. 

Both CMS and LMS provide an opportunity for online learning or can be used to support face to face teaching. Both systems allow the course convener to perform a range of activities such as outlined in the diagram on the right but the CMS is narrower in scope. If you want to picture this it would look as CMS is a subset of LMS but CMS functions are core to an LMS. For me the question whether to use LMS or CMS but will support the institutions growth and will it promote learning.

Web Conferencing Tools

There are many web conferencing tools available online and depending on the needs of the user and the number of participants, the instructor can decide which one to choose and use. Two such tools we used this week in this course were GoToMeeting and Google Hangout. Both were really good as they allow to interact with other participants in real time and also you can have one instructor and many participants who may be located in different countries or settings. Patience on the side of the instructor is essential and of course the participants must be open to learning new things and trialling them out. These two abilities are key to making web conferencing a successful way to interact with other learners.  

  Resources

 During this week i came across a few useful websites and articles that would be helpful in integrating these technologies in the the course i will be developing for the pharmacy assistants in Fiji and the region. Since this course will have mainly in-service staff working at their respective workplaces, web conferencing tools will be ideal for this course. The following resources (with links) will help me as to how to use these tools and also how to use them in the course:- 

1. Educational Technology use among US colleges and schools of Pharmacy
2.  Developing Web- Based Lecture Notes and conferencing for an on campus course in non prescription drugs
3. Web-based Training Design and Development - Lessons Learnt
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxY22IhbaH4 - This is a you tube video on how to make web conferencing and e-learning more effective so students learn better.
 

Reflection

Learning about web conferencing tools and also reading up on LMS & CMS have been a real opener for me. I am really excited to see the way we can use technology to improve student learning methods.

The only problem with web conferencing is that it chews up too much bandwidth but as time goes by I am sure these platforms will work on much lower bandwidth capabilities. This will especially be good news for us pacific islanders as more people in isolated communities will be able to join in. I remember when internet providers (Connect) first started in Fiji and their exorbitant charges but now as there is more market competition and computers/internet have come into the mainstream, the cost of these things are going down which again is a step in the right direction of information equity.
Also with us being in the Pacific we are constantly faced with the tyranny of distance. Web conferencing will mean that we can sit in our offices or homes and link up with our teacher in a university 1000's of miles away without paying expensive airline fares and other transportation costs.

These tools will gain more awareness and popularity as time goes by because people in general are getting busier and are looking for flexible ways through which they can upgrade their education or pursue professional development.

I personally feel that web conferencing offers teachers an opportunity to extend their students learning and link up with shy students offering them a choice to re-engage with the curriculum.

Now for some light moments:-

Week 2 - Blogging Continues

This week went by so quickly that i did not get to write anything down at all. However I had a relook at week 1's work and 'googled' the name Gilly Salmon. She seems to be the guru of online Teaching and leaning....with her own website and all. She speaks, researches and publishes widely on the themes of innovation and change in Higher Education and the exploitation of new technologies of all kinds in the service of learning.
 
She is internationally renowned for her significant contributions to online education, including research, innovation, programme design, teaching methods and the use of new technologies.
 
Week 2 included a in depth look at what makes a good syllabus and then think about the key elements of a good online programme.
 

Key Points

The Syllabus an important document for the teacher as well as the student. It provides the students and the teacher a clear roadmap, can be a very useful organizational tool and a sort of 'contract' between the teacher and student.
 
Key elements for a successful online program depends on many critical elements which include the 5 elements in the picture below with the overarching principle of maintaining quality of the course/programme.

Resources

 

 

http://www.gillysalmon.com/five-stage-model.html

 - This is a good resource to look at the 5 stage model of an online course

 

http://sloanconsortium.org

- The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) is the leading professional online learning society devoted to advancing quality e-Education learning into the mainstream of education through its community. Sloan-C is dedicated to providing access to high quality e-Education to individuals, institutions, professional societies and the corporate community.

 

The other interesting site highlighted some questions that one needs to ask when designing an online course which may prove helpful when I am designing the Certificate course later next year. These are: -



 

The key elements (Alejandra Pickett 2001)

• Model – What models are there for course design and training
• Support – What key support roles are necessary?

• Approaches – What technology, tools and approaches are necessary?

• Evaluation – How do you evaluate and improve your program, your understand of teaching and learning and your approaches?
• Quality – How do you ensure quality?

In another reading accessible via http://www.outreach.washington.edu/teaching/online_instructor_training/instr-training/guidelines.html#top

the author talks about the five P’s of effective online instruction which guides the teacher on creating an optimum environment for online learning which was interesting. They are:

• Be Prompt - give feedback in a timely manner
• Be Personal – learners should feel that you a real person they are dealing and not       just the computer
• Be Positive – be lavish with your praise especially when students do something right!!
• Be Practical  – give practical advice to students for improvement through good evaluation
• Be Patient – take it easy, students may be technologically challenged!!

 

Reflection

This weeks has allowed me to go back an look at my course syllabus and check to see if there are any important elements missing from it. The question which is still going around in my mind is that how do I get my students to use and read the course syllabus. There were some points that came to mind which were to simplify the document to make it easy to read, remove all the jargons, structure and design it in such a way that is attractive to capture their attention.
The other thing that I kept thinking about is how I am going to overcome the current stance of my university on the concept of a syllabus as a product that needs to be delivered. This in my mind is the biggest bottleneck to a more differentiated and student-centred learning....it is the perception that students need to be ‘covering’ the same thing—often at the same time and at the same speed. If our aim is to nurture students as active, capable and responsible learners, then we must invite them into the teaching and learning conversation that has traditionally been ‘our secret’ business.

Often pressure is felt to 'cover the syllabus' in the limited time available which can blind us to the potential of more independent, varied pathways. Increasingly, curriculum documents identify broader, generic skills— such as thinking, collaboration, communication—that can be developed across a range of content.

 

Week 1 - First Impression

Okay so finally i am enrolled after all the running around in ED403. I had spoken to my mates from ED459 who had done this course and they all had high praise for it but cautioned me that i had to be punctual with all the submissions because the course convener is quite strict about this. Little did i know about all the work that was coming my way. Anyways I logged immediately after i was enrolled to check out the course content and of course like any 'focused' student I also clicked on the assessments....I nearly fell off my chair when i say all the things we will be doing over the next few months!!! The orientation bit was pretty straight forward so it was smooth sailing and exciting with creating all the online accounts and introductions. Unlike most of my friends who are Facebook and twitter addicts, I was very proud (well sort of!!) that i had steered clear from such addictions and can disappear without a trace (if i had to!). I am not sure why, but i thought that i could do ED403 without being too much online...:)

 

Key Points

One needs to be student first to become a teacher....you must 'play' with all the online tools to become familiar and become savvy using them. Unless you do this first how can you engage your students using these tools

Be 'online' after hours otherwise it is hard to keep up and catch up with the all the happenings in the course. Although you may be online at work......there is more than enough work to be done inside and outside the office that you will keep busy so forget about blogging or doing any ED403 work during office hours!!

Organise a system to read through all the comments and feedback by fellow classmates...perhaps a separate folder for Kerwin:)...just joking!! Also an allocated time during the week and weekend to do the required reading and activities....no 'ad hoc' business!!

Last but the most important point....be brave and soldier on....take a deep breath before diving into week 2:)

Resources

There is no greater resource than your course convener.  We are lucky to have a very experienced and accomplished lecturer who will guide us through turbulent waters of ED403 and towards the shoreline. I firmly believe that the biggest resource a student can have is not "Google" like some of my students may say (hopefully not) but having a teacher who can make you understand a very complex issue in much simpler terms. Like someone said "you don't need to know everything...you just need the number of  a person who does"

Reflection

It was an interesting week and I feel very excited and very productive that now i have a twitter account: @joshdrugs, i have a gmail account: joshila.lal@gmail.com, a skype account: joshila.lal. One thing is very clear, i know very little about online teaching and learning:) This actually came as a revelation because i have delivered courses online and have been a student with some online courses as well. This course is not what i expected at all but its a pleasant surprise because now i have get out of my comfort zone and learn something very new and innovative. As you know, getting out of the comfort zone is not 'very comforting' at all!! So its 2 weeks now (almost 3 weeks) and here i am writing about first week. Better late than never i guess. All in all, its been a struggle, letting go of my own perceptions about online learning and opening my mind to new possibilities...i had no idea that i had no idea about what i was getting myself into but having a lot of ideas about it anyway. Anyways I am ready now...bring it on!!