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Early Attrition among First Time eLearners: A Review of Factors that Contribute to Drop... - 1 views

  • Some have reported attrition from eLearning as high as 70 - 80% (Flood 2002, Forrester 2000, in Dagger & Wade, 2004). Parker (1999) argues that “With the growth of distance education has come the problem of exceedingly high attrition rates”. Citing Carter (1996), she suggests that eLearning student attrition in some institutions is exceeds 40%, while others (Frankola, 2001). Diaz (2002), put it at between 20 - 50%,  and Carr (2000), estimate it to be 10% - 20% higher than for traditional on-campus education.
  • learners in employment bring a different set of needs, strategies and motivations to the learning process.
  • frequently geographically removed from the learning resources, information sources, learner peers and Tutors compared to their on-campus peers
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  • Employed adults tend to complete eLearning in their personal time due to workload pressures in the workplace and/or Internet access issues at work
  • Cognitive Load Theory
  • states that learning is initially processed in working memory
  • Learning complex or technically demanding material requires building mental models or cognitive schemas about the subject being studied or the skill being developed over time
  • Learning new material or a skill, for which a schema in long term memory is undeveloped or non-existent, can cause working memory to quickly overload its limited capacity. This overloading can result in a learner becoming highly anxious and losing confidence, which in turn can lead to the learning process, in effect, freezing and the learner being unable to continue.  
  •  “Digital literacy involves more than the ability to use software or operate a digital device; it includes a large variety of complex cognitive, motor, sociological and emotional skills, which users need in order to function effectively in digital environments.”
  • It is this author’s experience in designing, developing and delivering several eLearning programmes to public sector employees in New Zealand, that a face to face workshop prior the start of the online distance course can make a significant difference to a first time eLearner’s perception and experience of eLearning. 
  • This type of pre-course face-to-face induction workshop can also be used to foster the group’s sense of itself, and to identify the individual participants and their backgrounds, along with their expectations and concerns. It is also helpful to have the course design, structure and philosophy explained and to discuss anxieties associated with beginning an online course.
  • The multi
  • al learning tasks of the first time eLearner
  • dimension
  • (1) negotiating the technology; (2) negotiating the course website; (3) negotiating the course content (4) becoming an eLearner (5) negotiating CMC interaction.
  • come to terms with the computing technologies involved.
  • develop a mental model of the content structure and navigation system in order to find his/her way around
  • engage with the learning materials, readings, activities and assessments that make up a programme of study
  • Confronting the actual content and of becoming a learner again.
  • anxiety
  • abandon his/her existing mental model of what it is to be a learner in a formal learning situation
  • embrace a model based on a self-directed and motivated learner
  • undertake the learning tasks involved in interacting with peers via synchronous and asynchronous Computer Mediated Communication
  • Successfully negotiating this early experience depends very much on the relevant skills, circumstances, motivations and personal attributes of the learner. It follows then, that paying particular attention to how an eLearning course is structured and introduced and the manner in which the learner is inducted can make a very important difference in a learner deciding whether or not to engage and persist or to drop out. 
  • actually apprising learners of the issues of cognitive overload and how it is commonly experienced would go some way towards inoculating learners against its more pernicious effects.
  • Supporting learners till they are over the initial “eLearning learning-curve hump”, may involve a seemingly high level of resource and effort on the part of the course facilitator and associated programme administration staff, but the payoff is that fewer learners will drop out at the early stage.
  • Actively supporting, encouraging, gently cajoling and following up on learners who seem to be struggling will help to keep wavering learners in the course.
  • In terms of the actual course design and the structure of the materials and learning activities, then it is a useful practice to aim to start slowly and build the course tempo over time.
  • The one area where something may be done to reduce attrition is in the early stages of an online course.
  • Cognitive overload is a likely contributor to high drop out rates, particularly where those withdrawing do so within the first few weeks of the start of a course.  Greater levels of persistence and completions may be achieved if learners are supported to anticipate, prepare for, recognise and recover from the cognitive burden they may experience as first time eLearners.   
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    Looks at why some students don't make it through online courses- many first time online students are unsure what to expect and are just overwhelmed by the whole experience.
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    The experience of the first-time online learner is qualified. Suggestions for decreasing early attrition are suggested.
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    Attrition among mature adult online learners is affected by sociological, psychological, technical and cognitive factors, critical features of which are the notions of cognitive load and locus of control.
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Review of Weimer, Learning-Centered Teaching - 0 views

  • Chapter two examines the effects of too much teacher control and its adverse effects on student motivation, confidence, and enthusiasm for learning. Students are more likely to become self-regulated learners when some of the conditions of their learning are more in their control. Weimer does not advocate abandoning our professional responsibility and letting students determine course content or whether they will do assignments; instead she recommends that teachers establish parameters within which their students will select options. Increasing the decisions students can make about assignments and activities more fully engages them in the course and its content. Among Weimer’s suggestions are providing a variety of assignments to demonstrate learning the course outcomes (students choose a combination), negotiating policies about class participation, and letting students choose which material the teacher will review in class the period before a major test. 
  • . The function of content in a learner-centered course changes from covering content to using content
  • describes the changed role of the teacher in a learner-centered classroom from sage on stage to guide on the side
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  • When the teacher dominates the learning, students take shallow approaches to learning.
  • 1.  Teachers do learning tasks less. Assign to students some of the tasks of organizing the content, giving examples, summarizing discussions, solving problems, and drawing diagrams, charts, and graphs.            2.  Teachers do less telling; students do more discovering. Give a quiz on your syllabus and policies without going over it first. Let students discover information in assigned readings without presenting it first or summarizing it later.  3.  Teachers do more design work. Design activities and assignments that move students to new skill levels, motivate engagement in the course content by doing the work of practitioners in the discipline, and that develop self-awareness of their learning of the content. 4.   Faculty do more modeling. Demonstrate how a skilled learner (the teacher) continues to learn. Show them drafts of your articles, notes on your own reading in professional journals; talk aloud as you solve a problem, thereby revealing  and modeling your thinking process. 5.  Faculty do more to get students learning from and with each other. Create work for small groups to do in class. 6.  Faculty work to create climates for learning. Create a climate that promotes interaction, autonomy, and responsibility (more in chapter five). 7.  Faculty do more with feedback. In addition to assigning grades, use other means of providing frequent feedback (more in chapter six).
  • focuses on student responsibility for learning and how to promote it.
  • transforming passive students into autonomous learners
  • The more structured we make the environment, the more structure students need
  • The more motivation we provide, the less they find within themselves. The more responsibility for learning we try to assume, the less they accept on their own. The more control we exert, the more restive their response. We end up with students who have little commitment to and almost no respect for learning and who cannot function without structure and imposed control. (p. 98)
  • The more we decide for students, the more they expect us to decide.
  • eimer explains several strategies for creating a climate that produces self-regulated intrinsically motivated learners: 
  • The instructor should “make the content relevant, demonstrate its power to answer questions, and otherwise show its apparent intrigue.” Make the student responsible for learning decisions by relying on logical consequences of action and inaction, rather than punishment. For example, to deal with lateness, present important material or assignments early in the period that you do not repeat, rather than deduct attendance points for lateness. Do not summarize chapters if students have not read them. If they arrive unprepared, put the unread material on a test; give frequent tests. Be consistent in administering policies. If your syllabus says late homework is not accepted, never accept late homework despite the heart-wrenching excuse offered by the student. Involve students in a discussion of creating a climate that promotes learning. Have this discussion early in the semester. Weimer’s suggestion for starting the discussion is to have students complete sentence stems such as “In the best class I ever had, teachers . . .” “In the best class I ever had, students . . .” “I learn best when . . .” “I feel most confident as a learner when . . .” (p. 108) Obtain feedback on the classroom climate occasionally and revisit the discussion of policies and procedures. Employ practices that “encourage students to encounter themselves as learners” (p. 111). Explain the purposes and benefits of assignments and projects; tell students what problems they might run into in doing the assignments and suggest remedies. Help them with time management. With group projects, provide guidance in managing the project, handling group dynamics, and assigning individual responsibilities.
  • helps us deal with the fact that almost all students will resist their teacher’s learning-centered approaches. Most of the learner-centered strategies recommended in this book change what students have become accustomed to. Understanding the reasons will help teachers deal with the inevitable student resistance when they present learner-centered practices and policies that withdraw the support students have become dependent upon during their first twelve years of schooling. The good news is that most students see the benefits of learner-centered approaches and benefit from them.
  • , why do students resist it? Based on her research, Weimer lists four reasons: Learner-centered approaches are more work. When the teacher does not summarize the important points in the chapter, the students will have to read it for themselves. When the teacher asks small groups to produce five applications of a concept, rather than supply it in a handout, the students have to do more work. Learner-centered approaches are more threatening. Students who lack confidence in themselves as learners become filled with anxiety at the prospect of becoming responsible for decisions that might be wrong. Students who are not used to questions with no single, authority-approved right answer are fearful of being wrong. Learner-centered approaches involve losses. The strategies recommended in this book are designed to move students to higher stages of self-directedness and higher stages of intellectual development. Moving from one stage to another requires a loss of certainty and the comfort that certainty brings. Learner-centered approaches may be beyond students. Some students’ lack of self-confidence or intellectual immaturity may prevent their accepting responsibility for their own learning.
  • overcome student resistance to learner-centered approache
  • The communication is frequent and explicit The communication encourages and positively reinforces The communication solicits feedback from students The communication resists their resistance.
  • developmental approach to transforming passive dependent learners into self-confident autonomous learners. Learners become self-directed in stages, not in one sin
  • moment of transformatio
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ScienceDirect.com - Computers & Education - Learning presence: Towards a theory of self... - 1 views

  • This line of research indicated that the multivariate measure of learning represented by the cognitive presence factor could be predicted by the quality of teaching presence and social presence reported by learners in online courses. The relationship between these constructs is illustrated in Fig. 1 below.
  • Given the electronic, social, and “self-directed” nature of online learning, it seems imperative that we examine learner self- and co-regulation in online environments especially as they relate to desired outcomes such as higher levels of cognitive presence as described in the CoI framework.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Is this an aspect of assessment that is adequately addressed?
  • We suggest that this constellation of behaviors and traits may be seen as elements of a larger construct “learning presence” (Shea, 2010).
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  • self-efficacy can be viewed as a subjective judgment of one’s level of competence in executing certain behaviors or achieving certain outcomes in the future. Self-efficacy has been identified as the best predictor of college GPA and among the best predictors of college persistence through meta-analytic research (Robbins et al., 2004). Further, commenting on the state of the art in self-regulated learning research Winne suggested that self-regulation is contingent on positive self-efficacy beliefs, arguing that “learners must subscribe to a system of epistemological and motivational beliefs that classifies failure as an occasion to be informed, a condition that is controllable, and a stimulus to spend effort to achieve better” (Winne, 2005). This contrast of failure attribution as trait (e.g., “I’m just not good at math”) versus failure as occasion to be informed (“I can control, adapt, and learn from this”) is a classic view of maladaptive and adaptive self-efficacy beliefs.
  • In the current study we therefore examine the relationship between CoI constructs and elements of self efficacy in order to begin to investigate the larger theme of collaborative online learner regulation and learning presence.
  • Thus, self-efficacy is “concerned not with what one has but with belief in what one can do with whatever resources one can muster” (Bandura, 2007, p. 6).
  • Bandura has noted that slightly elevated efficacy can have a bigger impact on subsequent performance. Overestimating one’s capabilities to produce a behavior and outcome may boost performance and give rise to motivation to persist in face of obstacles and seatback, while the opposite is true for underestimating one’s capabilities, which may suppress productive goals, persistence and effort (Bandura, 2007). Thus there is an important connection between self-efficacy, effort, and subsequent performance.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      This has implications for course attrition rates.
  • Positive psychological and emotional states in the aftermath of successful execution of certain academic behaviors naturally lead to sense of competence and subsequently results in enhanced sense of efficacy.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      This is the "feeling of satsfaction" Lisa Martin referred to in her Module 3 posts on social presence.
  • We suggest here that elements within the CoI framework may serve as mechanisms for supporting self-efficacy. Specifically we conjecture that effective teaching presence and positive social presence should serve as sources of social persuasion and positive affect supportive of self-efficacy.
  • (Bandura, 1997). These and other studies have suggested that self-efficacy has a substantial role in predicting student engagement, motivation and performance ( [Bong, 2004], [Caraway et al., 2003], [Chemers et al., 2001], [Choi, 2005], [Smith et al., 2001] and [Vrugt et al., 2002]).
  • The participants in the study were a random sample of 3165 students from 42 two- and four-year institutions in New York State.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      SLN? See how many things you can learn with one really great data set?
  • Gaining knowledge about the reasons for learning and achievement of online students has attracted a great deal of attention among both researchers and practitioners. Understanding the factors that have an influence on the success of online education has significant implications for designing productive online communities.
  • Reviewing studies that investigated elements of online learner self-regulation
  • This ongoing project to document all instances of teaching, social, and cognitive presence in complete online courses also resulted in identification of learner discourse that did not fit within the model, i.e. could not be reliably coded as indicators of teaching, social, or cognitive presence ( [Shea, 2010] and [Shea et al., 2010]).
  • Additional work on the CoI model (Shea, Vickers, & Hayes, 2010) suggested that past research methods may have resulted in a systematic under representation of the instructional effort involved in online education.
  • These exceptions represent interesting data for refining and enhancing the model as they suggest that learners are attempting to accomplish goals that are not accounted for within the CoI framework.
  • In this paper we examine the Community of Inquiry framework (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000) suggesting that the model may be enhanced through a fuller articulation of the roles of online learners. We present the results of a study of 3165 students in online and hybrid courses from 42 two- and four-year institutions in which we examine the relationship between learner self-efficacy measures and their ratings of the quality of their learning in virtual environments. We conclude that a positive relationship exists between elements of the CoI framework and between elements of a nascent theoretical construct that we label “learning presence”. We suggest that learning presence represents elements such as self-efficacy as well as other cognitive, behavioral, and motivational constructs supportive of online learner self-regulation.
  • the CoI framework attempts to articulate the social, technological, and pedagogical processes that engender collaborative knowledge construction. It therefore represents an effort to resolve the greatest challenge to the quality of online education
  • Learner discussions also included efforts to divide up tasks, manage time, and set goals in order to successfully complete group projects. As such they appeared to be indicators of online learner self and co-regulation, which can be viewed as the degree to which students in collaborative online educational environments are metacognitively, motivationally, and behaviorally active participants in the learning process (Winters & Azevedo, 2005).
  • the authors concluded that all the studies converged on advantageous outcomes for providing support for “metacognitive” learning strategies including self-reflection, self-explanation, and self-monitoring.
  • successfully orchestrating a dialogue demands fairly sophisticated skills. Conversational contributions need to be simultaneously parsed according to their disciplinary value, their location within the chain of collective argumentation, their relevance to the instructional goals, and their role as indicators of the student’s ongoing understanding. The outcome of this complex appraisal is a sense of the amount and quality of the guidance that specific contributions and the conversation as a whole require to support learning.” (Larreamendy-Joerns & Leinhardt, p. 591)
  • Zhao et al. also concluded that studies in which instructor interaction with students was medium to high resulted in better learning outcomes for online students relative to classroom learners.
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    This article also addresses the relationships between each of the presences and proposes an additional presence- Learner Presence.
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Understanding Oral Learners - Moon - 2012 - Teaching Theology & Religion - Wiley Online... - 0 views

    • William Meredith
       
      Perhaps students need the preparation in being evaluated by both?
  • Since oral learners often learn best in dialogue with others, create opportunities for dialogue to occur. This could be in the form of group projects outside of class or small group discussions in the classroom.
  • Oral learners also learn best when learning is connected to real events, people, and struggles of life instead of learning principles that are removed from actual people and struggles.
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  • Generally, oral learners have a more difficult time with online learning. It is not that they cannot do the work; rather, they will have to work harder to stay engaged through this print-based teaching form. Many of the above recommendations still apply but they may be more difficult to provide in an online platform. Suggestions for teaching oral students online include:
  • personal contact
  • Incorporate media assignments in the classroom,
  • Provide opportunities for assignments that are engaged in real life struggles, events, and people instead of abstract principles
  • Oral learners learn best and have their lives most transformed when professors utilize oral teaching and assessment methods.
  • Whereas previous generations in U.S. seminaries assumed that print-based means of teaching and assessing were effective to produce student learning and transformation, many contemporary students prefer to learn through oral means
  • The results of this research indicate that slightly more seminary students had an oral versus print learning preference. In order to create positive learning experiences and effectively reach students, it is important to understand the difference between oral and print preferences
  • , this paper seeks to understand how learning is shaped by oral versus print preferences. In short, how do oral learners learn differently than print learners?
  • discovered that slightly over half of the students evaluated via an Orality Assessment Tool (Abney 2001) had a preference for oral learning
  • Her grades were based entirely on print-based rubrics. Part of the difference in her grading was due to learning/assessment preferences rather than intelligence. This was a breath of fresh air for her as she was finally starting to understand herself and her learning preferences better.
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Teacher as Facilitator - 1 views

  • Develop student learning opportunities. This takes into account the course documents, the teacher's personal theories of teaching and learning, the student’s interest, their preferred learning styles and their understanding and skills. It is in this area that the teacher as facilitator is able to provide opportunities for student learning that will take hold of the students' interests and thus motivate them to engage in the learning opportunity. Harrison (1998a & b) has presented the S.P.A.C.E. model for creating optimal learning conditions. The conditions for optimal learning include the following: Self-affimation – the learner’s view themselves as effective learners and the teachers provide them with feedback to that effect; Personal meaning – the learners are able to find personal meaning in the learning. That is, the learning is relevant to them; Active learning - the learners are active in the learning, whether that activity is physically doing something (as for concrete learners) or intellectually doing something (as for abstract reflective learners). Collaborative – the learners are able to collaborate with others in the learning process and not to view learning as an isolating experience; Empowering – the learners are able to shape the learning process, to have control over what is learnt and the direction of the learning.
  • The role of the teacher is diverse and has several orientations. One important aspect is that of facilitator of student learning. The facilitator attempts to provide circumstances that will enable students to engage with the learning opportunities and construct for themselves their understandings and skills. This role will interact with those of teacher as learner, colleague and community partner.
  • A student’s beliefs about the nature of teaching and learning will interact with a teacher’s beliefs. The teacher therefore needs to understand what students expect and are willing to do as well as what they themselves expect of the students.
    • Shoubang Jian
       
      I like this statement. I've never thought of the importance of a dialogue between student's and teacher's idea of teaching and learning.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      so, shoubang... how can an instructor understand what students expect? How will you understand what your students expect? What do you expect of your students and more importantly how will they know what you expect? What mechanisms have i used in this course to achieve both of these ends?
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    • Joy Quah Yien-ling
       
      Anticipating and providing students with space to make mistakes is important. Skills and knowledge take some time to assimilate. Packing a course too tightly may deprive students of the chance to experiment and explore and to reposition, when necessary.
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    Learning and collaboration
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    One mechanism you use, I think, to achieve this is to have all discussion and activity forums be completely open to all in the class. Thus the optimal learning conditions are created by creating open pathways for each person to see ways to deepen their thinking and get more from the course material.
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    It is explicit in the expectations and get the most documents of the course what you expect from your students, and how they can succeed, that is important. But how the teacher know what the students expect I think it is more difficult, maybe asking them explicitly, and provide spaces for them to talk between them, to make comments and suggestions.
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RESEARCH IN ONLINE LEARNING COMMUNITY - 0 views

  • RESEARCH IN ONLINE LEARNING COMMUNITY
  • High Social PresenceLearning in an online learning community occurs as an active social process that is defined as: "the level of social presence depends upon social context, online communication, and interactivity (Tu & McIsaac, 2002)." Online social presence (Hiltz, 1998) is required to ensure the online interaction necessary to sustain community activity. Social presence is a critical factor that affects the online learning community. Gunawardena and Zittle (1997) found that social presence is the predictive of the satisfaction of online learners with their learning. Social presence, online learners' social relationships, tasks being engaged in (Tu & Corry, 2002b), communication styles and personal characteristics have impacts on online learning (Tu & McIsaac, 2001). Therefore, researchers concluded that to foster an ideal online learning community, one should increase and idealize the level of social presence
  • Computer-mediated communication democratizes the online learning environment (DiMatteo, 1990; Rheingold, 1993; Sproull & Kiesler, 1991a
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  • ..for anyone to become an information provider for others, thereby both democratizing information access and enabling new roles for network users. In the most successful online courses, students assume some of the roles that traditionally belong to the instructor" (p. 208).
  • Because of the blurred roles of students and teachers, more weight is placed on the learning process/experience than upon roles. In other words, both students and teachers, as learners, share their responsibilities in online learning. Morrison (1995) argued that the learning process is unbounded by time (when one learns), space (where one learns), mode (how one learns), pace (the rate at which one learns), level (the depth of learning) and role (with whom one learns). Therefore, it is not merely learner-centered; in fact, an online learning community is a learner-driven process. While the learning is in transition from teacher-centered to learner-driven, the focus which had emphasized the needs of organization, government, and institutional is moving to a focus on community-centered needs. This shift has made lifelong learning more important.
  • Effective learning occurs in active approaches that present learning as a social process that takes place through communication with others (Hiltz, 1998; Mead, 1934)
  • Social interaction is a key component in social learning according to Vygotsky's theory.
  • "The level of social presence depends upon social context, online communication, and interactivity. When the level of social presence is high, there is a potential that online learners will engage more interactively in online activities (Tu & McIsaac, 2002).
  • In a knowledge construction community, one should have the opportunity to make contributions that will enhance the total learning value of the community. L
  • Chih-Hsiung Tu
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    conference paper
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sharing what i know » Blog Archive » Tools I use to enhance my instruction-to... - 0 views

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    "Tools I use to enhance my instruction-to engage online learners"
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Transformation via Online Learning - 4 views

  • original target audience,
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      who is your target?
    • Alicia Fernandez
       
      Nontraditional, commuter, reentry are terms assigned to my target student population, which I refer to as adult learners. Adult learners are difficult to categorize, as the determinants are often arbitrary. Their demographic variables cut across a wide swath of the population.  Ross Gordon (2011) refers to a set of shared characteristics which include: delayed entry or reentry to college, employment, and family and community responsibilities. They are also primarily part-time students. The group is typically described to be between the ages of 25-64.  Reference  Ross-Gordon, J. (2011). Research on adult learners: supporting the needs of a student population that longer nontraditional. Association of American Colleges and Universities.  (Previously bookmarked in Diigo)
  • adult online students
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      what assumptions are you making about this population?
    • Alicia Fernandez
       
      I am assuming that adult online learners meet the six assumptions of Knowles' Andragogy learning theory. Traditional college students are often still formulating self-concepts and are involved in much more socialization on campus. Adult students are usually not seeking the social component and are driven by the immediate application of acquired skills and knowledge to life outside of the classroom.  The University of Central Florida (UCF) drilled down into the age demographics of their adult student population and extrapolated generational data. Hartmann et al. (2005) reported results of a survey of nearly 1,500 online learners at UCF that shed light on generational differences in attitudes and expectations among students born during 1946- 1964 (the cohort authors nicknamed 'Baby Boomers'), students born during 1965-1980('Generation X') and others born during 1981-1994 (the so-called 'NetGen' students). The results noted that there were substantial differences between the cohorts as far as learning engagement, interaction value, and whether they changed their approach to learning as a result of their online experience.  Hartmann, J., Patsy, M. & Chuck, D. (2005). Preparing the academy of today for the learner of tomorrow. In D. G. Oblinger & J. L. Oblinger (Eds.), Educating the Net Generation, pp. 6.1-6.15. Washington, DC: EDUCAUSE. Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/research-and-publications/books/educating-net-generation/preparing-academy-today-learner-tomorrow  (Bookmarked in Diigo)
  • students who attend fully online
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      not sure what you mean. these numbers are fully online students.
    • Alicia Fernandez
       
      Are these students that solely attend online classes?  Do they attend classes on campus as well?
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  • traditional and non-traditional students i
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      This perspective/distinction is very interesting/curious to me. I don't distinguish. I guess you mean traditional age college students vs. older "adult" students. In my mind they are all adults and they are all online students. Just an observation of my own perspective. : )
    • Alicia Fernandez
       
      The literature I have reviewed indicates that younger age college students may not like the lack of social interaction and find the online classroom's demands of extensive writing too laborious.  I have also found a distance difference between the two groups in my own experience. Of course this is a broad generalization and there are exceptions.  
  • If undergrads enroll in online courses and do not actively participate, this will impact the development of critical thinking skills and meaningful learning outcomes for all students
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      in my experience this "undergrad" or age variable is not significant. : )
    • Alicia Fernandez
       
      I think the maturity of the student matters greatly as far as motivation and level of participation. This would impact lower level undergrad courses much more. However, your experience proves that andragogy is not always defined by age. 
  • Jun 12th, 2014
  • Aug17
  • Satisfied. I am thrilled that I persevered and was able to complete the course. My Moodle course is far from stellar but I am pretty happy with the results of my maiden voyage.
  • I know that I have learned that social presence and teaching presences are as important as cognitive presence. More to the point, I learned that as an online student my reluctance to focus on the social aspects of the online classroom may have inhibited community building.
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      Hi Alicia! Nice blog! don't forget to self assess each post!
  • Morrison, D. (2014, February 28). Best methods and tools for online educators to give students helpful and meaningful feedback. Online Learning Insights. Retrieved from http://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2014/02/28/best-methods-and-tools-for-online-educators-to-give-students-helpful-and-meaningful-feedback/
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Microsoft Educator Network - Hot Topics : Personalized Learning : Flipped Learning: tec... - 0 views

  • . Understanding the details of the world in which a learner lives allows the learner to the ability to shape and manipulate that world to his advantage. Content mastery must be accompanied by healthy relationships in a learning community that fosters curiosity within learners. Focusing only upon content can lead to a cold, rote learning environments; spending all our energies on relationships can be done at the expense of content mastery; and developing curious learners without strong relationships can lead to learning in isolation. Essentially, the flipped learning approach allows teachers to spark interest, provide initial exposure, and deliver content through easy to make teacher created video so class time can be used to foster healthy relationships and engage students in higher levels of cognition to help ignite curiosity. Simply using video as a teaching tool will not fundamentally change a classroom. But rethinking how class time can be used for things other than direct instruction and lectures will transform a classroom from a teacher-centered instructional environment to a learner-centered laboratory of learning. Flipped learning is a transitional tool for teachers who know they want to move the attention away from themselves and on to student-centered learning. Flipped learning is not an end, but a means to greater teaching and deeper learning. You can read more about Flipped Learning in our upcoming book: Flipped Learning: Gateway to Student Achievement which can be pre-ordered here: Jonathan Bergmann &amp; Aaron Sams Flipped Learning, Gateway to Student Achievement, Bergmann, Sams piln.hottopic.onPostDisplayInLineLoaded(); Pictures and videos var thumbRatio = [1, 1]; $(function () { initializeGallery('/Gallery/Media/', '138408f4-616a-4cc9-ab2c-9e7543cf50e4') }); Cover of Jon Bergmann &amp; Aaron Sams' book: Flipped Learning $('.galleryDescription').hide(); $('#bigImage').load(function () { var newHeight = $('#bigImage').height() + $('.galleryDescription').height() + 60; if (newHeight < 360) { newHeight = 360; } $('#progressbar').hide('blind', {}, 300); $('#loading').animate({ height: newHeight + 'px' }, 300); $(this).fadeIn('slow'); }); $('.galleryDescription').fadeIn('slow'); gallery created by Jon Bergmann {{if error}} ${name} ${sizef} Error: {{if error === 1}}File exceeds upload_max_filesize (php.ini directive) {{else error === 2}}File exceeds MAX_FILE_SIZE (HTML form directive) {{else error === 3}}File was only partially uploaded {{else error === 4}}No File was uploaded {{else error === 5}}Missing a temporary folder {{else error === 6}}Failed to write file to disk {{else error === 7}}File upload stopped by extension {{else error === 'maxFileSize'}}}The resolution of this image is too big {{else error === 'minFileSize'}}The resolution of this image is a little small. The minimum size is 160x160 {{else error === 'minResolutionSize'}}The resolution of this image is a little small. The minimum size is 160x160 {{else error === 'tooWide'}}This image is too wide for our gallery to display correctly. You will need to replace it with something that is proportional to your monitor. {{else error === 'tooTall'}}This image is too tall for our gallery to display correctly. You will need to replace it with something that is proportional to your monitor. {{else error === 'acceptFileTypes'}}Filetype not allowed {{else error === 'maxNumberOfFiles'}}Max number of files exceeded {{else error === 'uploadedBytes'}}Uploaded bytes exceed file size {{else error === 'emptyResult'}}Empty file upload result {{else}}${error} {{/if}} {{else}} {{if thumbnail_url}} {{/if}} {{/if}} {{if type === 'image'}} ${description} $('.galleryDescription').hide(); $('#bigImage').load(function () { var newHeight = $('#bigImage').height() + $('.galleryDescription').height() + 60; if (newHeight < 360) { newHeight = 360; } $('#progressbar').hide('blind', {}, 300); $('#loading').animate({ height: newHeight + 'px' }, 300); $(this).fadeIn('slow'); }); $('.galleryDescription').fadeIn('slow'); {{html ""}} {{else}} ${description}
  • a situation in which lower order thinking is removed from whole-class teaching time and placed upon the individual regardless of whether video or any other technologies are being used.
  • Content is important in that it is the structure upon which learning is built
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Content mastery must be accompanied by healthy relationships in a learning community that fosters curiosity within learners.
  • so class time can be used to foster healthy relationships and engage students in higher levels of cognition to help ignite curiosity
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The Myth of Learning Styles - 0 views

  • . While many of those scientists seek to discover general principles of learning, we all acknowledge that there are differences among students. Understanding these differences and applying that understanding in the classroom can improve everyone's education
  • First, whether we call it talent, ability, or intelligence, people vary in their capacity to learn different areas of content
  • Second, and often intertwined with ability, students differ in their interests. If a student loves the piano, or basketball, or chess, or the biology of frogs, that student will no doubt learn material related to that subject faster than another one who does not share that fascination.
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  • Third, students differ in their background knowledge, and that difference influences their learning
  • Many students will report preferring to study visually and others through an auditory channel. However, when these tendencies are put to the test under controlled conditions, they make no difference—learning is equivalent whether students learn in the preferred mode or not
  • The emphasis on learning styles, we think, often comes at the cost of attention to these other important dimension
  • just as our social selves have personalities, so do our memories.
  • Finally, some students have specific learning disabilities, and these affect their learning in specific ways.
  • The proof that the learning-styles theorist must find is that for some sort of content—whether it be math, poetry, or dodgeball—changing the mode of presentation to match the learning styles helps people learn. That evidence has simply not been found.
  • While such evidence of learning styles would serve as a proof that they exist, the lack of evidence does not prove definitively that they do not exist
  • Teachers should take into account the differences in learners' abilities. And adjusting a lesson not just to be appropriately pitched at the students' level of ability but to take into account their background knowledge and interests is surely an important first step in fostering learning.
  • if a student believes she is a visual learner and therefore disengages and daydreams when a lecturer turns off the PowerPoint and tells a story, this will prevent her from learning the concept through a compelling narrative. And while these beliefs may not have as direct an impact on performance reviews as they do in K-12 settings, a belief in learning styles occasionally shows up in student evaluations of teaching:
  • (can the auditory learner learn geography through hearing it? Can the visual learner become better at music by seeing it?)
  • Third, learning-styles theory has succeeded in becoming “common knowledge.” Its widespread acceptance serves as an unfortunately compelling reason to believe it
  • econd, learning-styles theory is sometimes offered as a reason to include digital media in the classroom.
  • . We shouldn't congratulate ourselves for showing a video to engage the visual learners or offering podcasts to the auditory learners. Rather, we should realize that the value of the video or audio will be determined by how it suits the content that we are asking students to learn and the background knowledge, interests, and abilities that they bring to i
  • Assessment of student interest can also be a useful tool for deciding how to approach the material in a given class
  • Students differ in their abilities, interests, and background knowledge, but not in their learning styles. Students may have preferences about how to learn, but no evidence suggests that catering to those preferences will lead to better learning. As college educators, we should apply this to the classroom by continuing to present information in the most appropriate manner for our content and for the level of prior knowledge, ability, and interests of that particular set of students.
  •  
    Great article for all teachers. Thank you!
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Interactivity: A Forgotten Art? - 1 views

  • Interactivity: A Forgotten Art?
  • Interactivity in learning is "a necessary and fundamental mechanism for knowledge acquisition and the development of both cognitive and physical skills" (Barker, 1994:1)
  • Interaction is intrinsic to successful, effective instructional practice as well as individual discover
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  • Interacti
  • The implementation of interactivity can be perceived as an art because it requires a comprehensive range of skills, including an understanding of the learner,
  • the importance of rigorous instructional design and the application of appropriate graphical interfaces
  • Support Interactivity
  • Similarly, Ambron &amp; Hooper (1988) described interactivity as a state in which users are able to browse, annotate, link and elaborate within a rich, non-linear database
  • In contrast, Jonassen (1988) identified five levels of interactivity which focused more on the user's involvement with the application and the subsequent effect on learning.
  • The five levels included the modality of the learner's response, the nature of the task, the level of processing, the type of program and the level of intelligence in design. In relation to these levels, it was also suggested that the level of interactivity would affect whether surface or deep learning would occur
  • The taxonomy however does provide a useful starting point for developing our understanding of interactivity. The three levels, which significantly extend the definition of Rhodes &amp; Azbell (1985), range from basic stimulus:response interactions (reactive) to learner construction and generative activity (proactive) to mutual "artificial or virtual reality designs, where the learner becomes a fully franchised citizen in the instructional environment" (Schwier &amp; Misanchuk, 1993:12)
  • understand that quality in an instructional resource is a function of the design effort, not the technology.
  • from simple help messages to complex tutorial systems.
  • The construct class of interactivity (proactive elaboration) is an extension to update interactivity, and requires the creation of an instructional environment in which the learner is required to manipulate component objects to achieve specific goals
  • With hyperlinked interactivity (proactive navigation), the learner has access to a wealth of information, and may "travel" at will through that knowledge base.
  • The first dimension, engagement, refers to interactivity which is either navigational (where the user moves from one location in the application to another) or instructional (where the user is involved with the content in a way designed to facilitate learning). The second dimension, control, refers to the extent to which the system (program control) or user (learner control) is making the instructional or navigational decisions. The third dimension, interactive concept, provides an indication of the type of interaction which might be expected under the varying conditions defined by the model.
  • proposing three dimensions by which interactive instruction may be viewed.
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AJET 16(1) McLoughlin and Oliver (2000) - cultural inclusivity - indigenous online lear... - 0 views

  • Sites that are 'local' in the sense that they are made in one context and culture, but visited by other cultures Category&nbsp;2&nbsp;Sites that are 'international' or designed specifically for cross cultural participation. (See Figure 1.)
  • strive to reach a cross cultural population, and serve the needs of an international audience.
  • the inclusive or perspectives approach which imports the social, cultural and historical perspectives of minority groups, but does not challenge the dominant culture and is therefore cosmetic;
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  • technologies are being described as 'cognitive tools', w
  • Situated cognition can be summarised as follows:
  • Learning is situated and contextualised in action and everyday situations;
  • Knowledge is acquired through active participation;
  • Learning is a process of social action and engagement involving ways of thinking, doing and communicating;
  • Learning can be assisted by experts or supportive others and through apprenticeship
  • Learning is a form of participation in social environments.
  • Is cultural pluralism possible in instructional design?
  • cultural variations in interpreting and communicating information are influenced by pedagogical and instructional design decisions, and the cultural dimensions of learning must be constantly problematised and not marginalised (Wild &amp; Henderson, 1997).
  • the inverted curriculum approach which attempts to design an instructional component from the minority perspective but fails to provide the learners with educationally valid experiences as it does not admit them into the mainstream culture;
  • the culturally unidimensional approach which excludes or denies cultural diversity and assumes that educational experiences are the same for minority students as they are for others.
  • Establish flexible and responsive student roles and responsibilities.
  • instructional design model,
  • endorses multiple cultural realities or zones of development (
  • Ten design principles for culturally inclusive instructional design
  • Adopt an epistemology that is consistent with, and supportive of constructivist learning and multiple perspectives.
  • Design authentic learning activities.
  • Create flexible tasks and tools for knowledge sharing.
  • Ensure different forms of support, within and outside the community.
  • multiple cultural model of instructional design. T
  • Provide communication tools and social interaction for learners to co-construct knowledge.
  • Create tasks for self direction, ownership and collaboration.
  • Ensure flexible tutoring and mentoring roles that are responsive to learner needs.
  • Create access to varied resources to ensure multiple perspectives. This can be achieved by moving away from instructivist approaches where all texts are prescribed by the teacher to constructive approaches where learners actively add to the resources by posting new URL's, suggesting additional resources of interest and discussing alternatives through the bulletin boards. For indigenous learners the creation and inclusion of the indigenous perspectives is an important dimension and a means of recognising and integrating cultural knowledge.
  • Provide flexibility in learning goals, outcomes and modes of assessment.
  • Culturally inclusive Web based environments should provide learning activities, supportive contexts, and learning processes that allow for inclusivity and flexibility, while offering learners a scaffolded, structured learning environment. To achieve this balance, instructional designers need to move beyond the narrowly prescriptive boundaries of current instructional design models. It is proposed that a multiple cultural model of design that caters for diversity, flexibility and cultural inclusivity in the design process affirms the social and cultural dimensions of constructed meaning.
  •  
    "Designing learning environments for cultural inclusivity: A case study of indigenous online learning at tertiary level"
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Examining motivation in online distance learning environments: Complex, multifaceted an... - 0 views

  • Poor motivation has been identified as a decisive factor in contributing to the high dropout rates from online courses
  • suggest that online students are more intrinsically motivated across the board than their on-campus counterparts at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.
  • Self-determination theory is a contemporary theory of situated motivation that is built on the fundamental premise of learner autonomy
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  • all humans have an intrinsic need to be self-determining or autonomous
  • as well as to feel competent
  • connected
  • SDT explains extrinsic motivation processes in terms of external regulation as the reasons for undertaking the task lie outside the individual.
  • a perception that what they do will not affect the outcome
  • an attribution of low value to the task being undertaken
  • the tendency to focus only on intrinsic motivation
  • It measures situational intrinsic motivation, extrinsic forms of motivation (external regulation and identified regulation), and amotivation
  • Case study one was situated within a compulsory integrated science and technology course
  • Case study two was positioned within an introductory social studies curriculum course that formed a compulsory component of the same programme.
  • suggests that higher quality, more self-determined types of motivation were only slightly more evident than the traditional type of extrinsic motivation–external regulation (Ryan &amp; Deci, 2000) and amotivatio
  • suggesting that autonomous types of motivation (i.e., identified regulation and intrinsic motivation) were more prevalent.
  • associated with individuals who engage in an activity because the results may have personal value to them or because the activity is regarded as worthwhile.
  • these findings clearly show that motivation can be a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that cannot be fully explained from the perspective of motivation as either a learner characteristic or an effect of learning environment design.
  • practitioners need to be cognisant of the important role they play in influencing learner motivation when designing learning activities.
  • he relevance and value of the task
  • need to be clearly identified and linked to learning objectives to help
  • By offering meaningful choices (i.e., not just option choices) to learners that allow them to pursue topics that are of interest to them, the perceived value of the activity is further enhanced.
  • ongoing communication with learners, where they feel able to discuss issues in an open and honest manner, practitioners are in a better position to accurately monitor and respond to situational factors that could potentially undermine learner motivation.
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Pedagogical Love and Good Teacherhood | Määttä | in education - 1 views

shared by Heather Kurto on 15 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • A teacher’s proficiency is manifested by the ability to look at the subject from a learner’s point of view, to foresee the critical junctions in learning, and to design teaching to meet learners’ information acquisition and collection processes (e.g., Zombylas, 2007).
  • van Manen (1991) claims that as teachers embrace all children, regardless of their characteristics they become real educators, and thus, educators’ pedagogical love becomes the precondition for pedagogical relations to grow (p
  • Individualistic features, position, nationality, gender, abilities, race, or language do not determine a human being’s value. Those differences based on skills, intelligence, or knowledge are insignificant compared with that basic human presence that is the same for all people: the right and need to be loved, accepted, and cared for as well as the right and need to grow and develop (Bradshaw, 1996; Lanara, 1981; Sprengel &amp; Kelly, 1992).
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  • A teacher’s ethical caring means genuine caring, aspiring to understand and make an effort for pupils’ protection, support, and development. Because of this pedagogical caring, the teacher especially pursues pupils’ potential to develop and thus help them to find and use their own strengths.
  • Pedagogical love has been considered the core factor in the definition of good teacherhood for decades, though the characteristics of a good teacher have always included a variety of features. Features such as the ability to maintain discipline and order, set a demanding goal level, and the mastery of substance have been especially emphasized (e.g., Davis, 1993; Zombylas, 2007; Hansen, 2009)
  • Love influences the direction of people’s action as well as its intensity. Positive emotions, joy, strength, and the feeling of being capable lead mental energy toward the desired goal (Rantala &amp; Määttä, 2011). Negative emotions, grief, fear, and anger cause entropy, an inner imbalance that burns off energy, brands the target with negative status, and pursues nullifying and undervaluing (e.g., Isen, 2001).
  • he educator’s task is to provide pupils with such stimuli and environment where students are guided to limit their instincts by controlling enjoyment and vital-based values, in order to be able to achieve higher values and skills (Solasaari, 2003).
  • Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1990, 2000) has launched the concept that refers to an optimal or autotelic experience where people are riveted so comprehensively by a challenging performance that the awareness of time and place blurs. Flow is possible when the challenges in a task are balanced with an actor’s abilities. Flow is an enjoyable state of concentration and task orientation, leading to optimal performance, whether the case is wall creeping, chess playing, dancing, surgery, studying languages, painting, or composing music.
  • This sets challenges for skill development. If a task is too easy, it will bore. If it is too difficult, it will cause anxiety and fear. The exact experience of flow and the active sense of well-being resulting from the former, encourage people to develop and improve their skills. People are willing to strive for flow whether it was about love for math, art, programming, or orthopedics (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).
  • In an interview, Gardner (as cited in Goleman, 1999) said flow is intrinsically rewarding without the hope for reward or threat of punishment. We should use learners’ positive moods (love) and through it get them to learn things about fields they can succeed in. People have to discover what they like, what things and doings they love and do these things. Even a child learns the best when he/she loves what he/she is doing and finds it enjoyable. (p. 126)
  • Pedagogical love might contribute to pupils’ learning and success by providing them with positive learning experiences, initial excitement, and perceived successes. These are the seeds of expertise as a positive feeling that can be considered the source of human strengths (Isen, 2001).
  • Pedagogical love springs from an individual learner’s presence persuading it to come forward more and more perfectly and diversely. A skillful educator does not just sit by and watch if a learner makes worthless choices or fails in his or her opportunities to grow and develop.
  • Haavio emphasized the meaning of pedagogical love in teachers’ work and considered that teachers’ work consists of the following two obligations: attachment to learners and dutiful perseverance of life values.
  • Pedagogical love speaks to interdependence—the recognition and acceptance that we need others.
  • Love appears in teaching as guidance toward disciplined work, but also as patience, trust, and forgiveness. The purpose is not to make learning fun, easy, or pleasing but to create a setting for learning where pupils can use and develop their own resources eventually proceeding at the maximum of their own abilities
  • A loving teacher reveals for a pupil the dimensions of his or her development in a manner of speaking. This is how a pupil’s self-esteem strengthens and he or she can develop toward higher activities from the lowest, pleasure-oriented ones. Achieving high-level skills is rewarding because it brings pleasure, and yet, it often demands—as mentioned previously—self-discipline and rejections
  • A teacher’s work is interpersonal and relational, with a teacher’s own personality fundamental to building relationships with students. A teacher’s work involves plenty of emotional strain. In addition, a teacher inevitably has to experience frustration in his or her work. There are many situations when a teacher will feel like she or he has failed regardless of the solution he or she creates.
  • Consequently, teachers are likely to experience guilt because they cannot sufficiently attend to all pupils in an appropriate way that is congruent with the notion of caring.
  • However, teachers have to realize that their own coping, motivation, and engagement require attention; they are not automatic.
  • Pedagogical love emerges through teachers’ emotions, learned models, moral attitude, and actions
  • Good teachers are examples to learners even in the most difficult life situations. Teachers have to believe in their work and endeavour to build a nurturing environment and a more humane world.
  • To be happy about life, to guide students to see the wonder and joy in the mundane is a teacher’s most important skill. Being able to help students find and negotiate the joy, wonder, happiness, and pain in the everydayness of life is an increasingly important quality in today’s insecurities, with the mounting pressure of increased demands for efficiency
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Ten Best Practices for Teaching Online - 2 views

    • Joy Quah Yien-ling
       
      Very current and relevant readings
  • Best Practice 6: Early in the term -- about week 3, ask for informal feedback on "How is the course going?" and "Do you have any suggestions?" Course evaluations have been called "post mortem" evaluations as they are done after the fact, and nothing can be changed to increase satisfaction or facilitate learning. Early feedback surveys or just informal discussions ask students to provide feedback on what is working well in a course and what might help them have a better course experience. This early feedback is done early in the course so corrections and modifications can be made. It is an easy opening for students who might have comments or suggestions or questions.
    • Francisca Capponi
       
      very important
  • When faculty actively interact and engage students in a face-to-face classroom, the class develops as a learning community, developing intellectual and personal bonds. The same type of bonding happens in an online setting.
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  • A good strategy for developing a supportive online course community is to design a course with a balanced set of dialogues. This means designing a course so that the three dialogues of faculty to student, student to student and student to resource are about equal. In most online courses, the dialogue of faculty to student is provided with (1) mini-lectures in text or video or audio podcasts, (2) weekly coaching and reminder announcements and (3) explanations/interactions with the students.
  • Online learning is just as intensive as learning face-to-face, and time to do the work needs to be scheduled and planned for, just as if one were attending face-to-face classes. Being clear as to how much effort and time will be required on a weekly basis keeps surprises to a minimum.
  • Early feedback surveys or just informal discussions ask students to provide feedback on what is working well in a course and what might help them have a better course experience. This early feedback is done early in the course so corrections and modifications can be made. It is an easy opening for students who might have comments or suggestions or questions.
  • Quick One-Liner Hints Create open-ended questions that learners can explore and apply the concepts that they are learning Model good Socratic-type probing and follow-up questions. Why do you think that?&nbsp;What is your reasoning? Is there an alternative strategy? Ask clarifying questions that encourage students to think about what they know and don't know. Stagger due dates of the responses and consider mid-point summary and /or encouraging comments Provide guidelines and instruction on responding to other students. For example, suggest a two-part response: (1) what you liked or agreed with or what resonated with you, and (2) a follow-up question such as what you are wondering about or curious about, etc.
  • As courses come to a close, it is easy to forget the value of a good closing experience.&nbsp;In the final weeks of a course, students are likely to be stressed and not take the time to do the lists and the planning that can help reduce stress and provide a calming atmosphere. A favorite image of mine is from David Allen of Getting Things Done. Allen notes that making a list helps us to clear the "psychic ram" of our brains and we feel more relaxed and more in control. Once we have made our list and schedule, we don't have to continually remind ourselves of what needs to be done and when. Here are a few hints for closing out a course experience with style and panache. Take time to remind students of what's next and when assignments and readings are due. Announcements of this type provide a "To Do" list and schedule for the learners. And by implication this list provides a helpful "To Do" list and schedule for you. As always, it is good to post reminders and make references to the planning list in your comments.&nbsp;And update as you go. Plan the ending of the course experience. A well-designed ending of a course provides opportunities for reflection and integration of useful knowledge. It is also a time to wrap up positive social and cognitive experiences.
  • How is the learner supporting the community of learners and contributing to the overall growth of the group? We have much to learn about teaching and learning and specifically about teaching online. The good news is that in 2011 we now know much more than what we did in 1990 or even 2000. The list of references that follow are starting points for both general teaching and for teaching online.
  •  
    This was a great article; it gave many suggestion that seem obvious, but gave me some good ideas to use in my own site. Really helpful!
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ACTIVE LEARNING - 0 views

    • Diane Gusa
       
      I have found that if I have the students first write a reflection, then work in a small group, that whole class discussiona are more productive.
  • For example, if students write their own thoughts on a topic (Dialogue with Self) before they engage in small group discussion (Dialogue with Others), the group discussion should be richer and more engaging. If they can do both of these and then observe the phenomena or action (Observation), the observation should be richer and again more engaging. Then, if this is followed by having the students engage in the action itself (Doing), they will have a better sense of what they need to do and what they need to learn during doing. Finally if, after Doing, the learners process this experience by writing about it (Dialogue with Self) and/or discussing it with others (Dialogue with Others), this will add further insight. Such a sequence of learning activities will give the teacher and learners the advantage of the Power of Interaction.
  •  
    Dialogue with self and others. observing, and doing
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Keeping Competitive: Why Learner-Centred Education Makes Sense in a Global Economy - lc... - 0 views

  • The more engaged a person is with the content, the better the person learns it because (s)he adds his own meaning and associations to it
  • The more connections people have to a concept, the more likely that person will be able to retrieve it later and in another context
  • shifts the emphasis from what instructorsdo to what the studentsdo to learn
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • makes students responsible for learning
  • focuses not only on what students are learning but how they are learning
  • Instructors are now guides, facilitators, coaches and not just sages
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Online Teaching Challenge: Creating an Emotional Connection to Learning, part 1 - Facul... - 0 views

  • Browse Topics Faculty Focus Articles September 28, 2010 Online Teaching Challenge: Creating an Emotional Connection to Learning, part 1 By: Rob Kelly in Online Education Add Comment Learning research indicates that people learn better in the presence of some emotional connection—to the content or to other people. Creating this emotional connection is particularly challenging in the online classroom, where most communication is asynchronous and lacks many of the emotional cues of the face-to-face environment. Nevertheless, it is possible to do, with a learner-centered approach to teaching and a mastery of the technology that supports it, says Rick Van Sant, associate professor of education at Ferris State University. “One of the things we know about learning is that learning with emotion is a far deeper experience than learning without emotion,” Van Sant says. Citing recent research (see reference below), Van Sant notes that a little bit of stress and the corresponding release of cortisol makes “neural connections grow thicker, stronger, faster.” However, too much cortisol degrades memory performance. Creating an emotionally stimulating environment is something good face-to-face instructors do intuitively. “We live and thrive on the positive feedback from students. Students shape our behavior all the time. When technology is mediating between the learners and me, I lose the capacity to read my audience, engage my audience, and alter my style and cadence. I have no capacity on that kind of intuitive level [in the online classroom]. It all has to be intentional and cognitive,” Van Sant says.
  • Creating an emotionally stimulating environment is something good face-to-face instructors do intuitively. “We live and thrive on the positive feedback from students. Students shape our behavior all the time. When technology is mediating between the learners and me, I lose the capacity to read my audience, engage my audience, and alter my style and cadence. I have no capacity on that kind of intuitive level [in the online classroom]. It all has to be intentional and cognitive,” Van Sant says.
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My experience in NY - 0 views

    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      francisca: don't forget to self evaluate your etap687 reflections. see the blog grading rubric : ) also, i woul like you to bring your thoughts on the course readings and the videos into the online disucssion in the course. : ) me
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      brilliant!!! ask them, make them choose!!! i hope you will take this risk!!! have high expectations and give them the opportunity to teach you something!!! trust them! let go! : )
  • they own their pages,
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  • they want to share
  • hey want
  • the teacher only has to think creatively and give the students good instructions, he hasn’t have to give them lists of words and definitions that is the most boring part of constructing a course, and a lot of work.
  • I love to think that the process of re-conceptualizing a curse to go online can change the way teachers teach this way, and as I learned too, this change is not only for online classes, in face to face too, because it opens their minds, it makes them think and evaluate their old classes, their old evaluations, and most teachers change the way they teach face to face too, because they realize that traditional teaching doesn’t work face to face either. And they don’t change because they have to change, they have an excuse for changing, so online teaching is a catalyst for transforming teachers.
  • A lot of students never felt engaged and I have never understood that until now. The kind of activity I used to do was active and contextualized to the world, but not everybody has the same word or interests, so I think the only way to engage everybody is to ask them what they want to learn, or make them choose. Something I have never done is to empower my students to lead their own learning process. I have had problems trusting in them I have never give them freedom to be creative, lead a group, do research, look for something new, let them teach me something. I haven’t tried to get out the outlines, be more risky. I don’t know how it would be not to have the control of their learning process, but I would like to try. I learned a very interesting thing: they can find their own material, they can learn the things they like and are related with their own interests, they can lead a discussion about a topic they like and engage others in the discussion. They are able to do a lot of things and we have to take advantage of that as teachers because, if we do all the work, who is learning?
  • So, as I learned form Alex, the question is not “what can I teach online?”, the question is “how can I teach online the thing that I want to teach?”,
  • I don’t know if the question is “which students can be good online learners”, the question is “how can I engage most of them and help them to learn” however they are, because we can’t control that.
  • That is why I think it is so important to have questions in order to construct our knowledge, so I really understand that to make people think you have to guide them to have questions , not answers. And how to do that? The best way to do that, according to what I read in The role of questioning teaching, thinking and learning, is making the students do things, if they are passive they are not going to have questions, and also, make them good questions that are provocative and makes them think about what they are interested in solve or understand or do, and other kinds of question that lead students to critical thinking.
  • I think that in order to achieve a sense of community between your students you have to give them diverse and frequent opportunities for interaction between them and with you, it is not about knowing each other and working in groups in some activity, you have to interact a lot with all your classmates to build a community and feel that you belong to the class. So you have to design diverse activities and spaces for interaction, sharing and communication between students and with you. Also, you have to teach and guide the students in how to interact, how to contribute, how to add knowledge to the conversation, how to give their classmates feedback, how to reinforce their opinions, how to support them, how to answer their questions, how to evaluate them, how to question them, how to agree or refute them, how to make a comfortable climate for learning and a lot of other things related to create a sense of teaching presence and a sense of belonging to the group.
  • By teaching to their classmates students can understand more deeply the content, develop other skills like being creative, they have to think deeper in how to explain a concept and create good examples, and learn from their classmates, from their questions and from the interaction between them.
  • I like the idea of having a community blog
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      i didn't realize this would be a community blog. I LOVE this idea!!! have you thought of using ning for this? that way the space can persist as your faculty commmuity beyond the end of the development cycle.
  • I needed a Blog
    • alexandra m. pickett
       
      yes, it should be a blog... not a wiki... you should look at ning for this... it provides the blog functionality wrapped with additional community ans social networking features...
  • sometimes we think the only way of engaging students is entertaining them. That is not true,
    • Joan Erickson
       
      I agree!
  • And even better, how Shoubang sounds so familiar and close to the students in the welcome document without anything fancy technology, only text, but it seems so easy to find him in there and so friendly.
    • Joy Quah Yien-ling
       
      We project who we are. People don't just leave their offline personalities behind when they go online. If a person is outgoing in real life, he will also be outgoing online (I think). But apparently, the online environment is good for shy people...
  • I think that this work is very creative, and as I remember in one of the first reading of this course (”10 ways online…”),
    • Joy Quah Yien-ling
       
      This is the creative aspect of teaching which I love as well. How can we ever be bored being a teacher? We are being creative all the time.
  • I don’t know why but I love it! I can review it forever, and I always have new ideas, and I love that.
  • some faculty’s opinions is that they feel younger because they feel the same feeling that they felt when they were teaching for the first time, and I think that they feel rewarded by their creation,&nbsp; their new product.
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Online Teaching Effectiveness: A Tale of Two Instructors | Gorsky | The International R... - 0 views

  • We propose, as have others (i.e., Shea, Pickett, &amp; Pelz, 2003), that the community of inquiry model (Garrison, Anderson, &amp; Archer, 2000) reflects the principles of good practice in undergraduate education and can accurately quantify them.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Go, Dr. Pickett!
  • issues of pedagogy, dialogue, and interaction
  • guide the coding of transcripts.
  • ...22 more annotations...
  • Social presence is the perceived presence of others in mediated communication (Rourke, Garrison, &amp; Archer, 1999), which Garrison et al. (2000) contend supports both cognitive and teaching presence through its ability to instigate, to sustain, and to support interaction. It had its genesis in the work of John Dewey and is consistent with all theoretical approaches to learning in higher education.
  • Teaching presence is defined as “the design, facilitation and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing [students’] personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile outcomes” (Anderson et al., 2001, p.5). Vygotsky’s (1978) scaffolding analogies illustrate an assistive role for teachers in providing instructional support to students from their position of greater content knowledge. Although many authors recommend a “guide on the side” approach to moderating student discussions, a key feature of this social cognition model is the adult, the expert, or the more skilled peer who scaffolds a novice’s learning
  • Shea, Pickett, &amp; Pelz , 2004
  • Each category of a tutor’s presence is vital to learning and to the establishment of the learning community; tutors' behavior must be such that they are seen to be “posting regularly, responding in a timely manner and modeling good online communication and interaction” (Palloff &amp; Pratt, 2003, p.118). Without an instructor’s explicit guidance and “teaching presence,” students were found to engage primarily in “serial monologues” (Pawan et al., 2003). Baker (2004) discovered that “instructor immediacy, i.e., teaching presence (Rourke et al., 1999), was a more reliable predictor of effective cognitive learning than whether students felt close to each other. Studies have demonstrated that instructor participation in threaded discussion is critical to the development of social presence (Shea, Li, Swan, &amp; Pickett, 2005; Swan &amp; Shih, 2005) and sometimes not fully appreciated by online faculty (Liu, Bonk, Magjuka, Lee, &amp; Su, 2005). Shea, Li, and Pickett (2006) proposed that teaching presence – viewed as the core role of the online instructor – is a promising mechanism for developing learning community in online environments.
  • students ranked instructor modeling as the most important element in building online community, while instructors ranked it fourth.
  • Shea (2006), who completed an extensive study of teaching presence and online learning, concluded that two categories (“design” and “directed facilitation”) sufficed to define the construct.
  • Kalman, Ravid, Raban, and Rafaeli (2006) argued that interactivity is an essential characteristic of effective online communication and plays an important role in keeping message threads and their authors together. Interactive communication (online as well as in traditional settings) is engaging, and loss of interactivity results in a breakdown of the communicative process.
  • Research indicates the existence of a relationship between learners’ perceptions of social presence and their motivation for participation in online discussions (Weaver &amp; Albion, 2005).
  • Northrup (2002) found that online learners felt it was important for instructors to promote collaboration and conversation. When interactive activities are carefully planned, they lead not only to greater learning but also to enhanced motivation (Berge 1999; Northrup, 2002).
  • Researchers have suggested that timing of messages can serve as a proxy for a sense of social presence (Blanchard, 2004), as an indication of attentiveness (Walther &amp; Bunz, 2005) or respect (Bargh &amp; McKenna, 2004), and as a clue to the sociability of a community (Maloney-Krichmar &amp; Preece, 2005). As such, the frequency of messages may serve as a signal for how engaged participants are with the community.
    • Irene Watts-Politza
       
      Agreed.
  • Eom found that the most significant factors for increasing student satisfaction with online classes are paying attention to students and responding to their concerns.
  • The highly esteemed instructor was especially active from semester midpoint to semester end; she more than doubled her active participation in both teaching presence (especially discourse and instruction) and social presence (all three categories).
  • the lack of specific, progressively structured inquiry tasks and/or the lack of facilitation skills (teaching presence/facilitating discourse) may have contributed to the relatively limited occurrences of cognitive presence.
  • something else accounted for the extreme satisfaction and dissatisfaction experienced by students in the two forums. The something else may be the two exceptional events that occurred during the third month: The instructor held in low esteem became nearly dysfunctional, while the highly esteemed instructor exhibited very high teacher presence and social presence (see Table 3 and 4).
  • Shea, Pickett, and Pelt (2003) found that students’ perceived teacher presence also correlates with perceived learning as well as with students’ satisfaction with the forum. This correlation points to the tentative conclusion that teaching presence affords learning by setting a convenient climate.
  • we suggest that students’ perceived learning in course forums has a significant impact on their participation
  • the table is suggestive of the eventual possibility of having an “objective” tool for evaluating the quality of a given forum.
  • (Anderson et al., 2001).
  • Teaching effectiveness may be defined as how an instructor can best direct, facilitate, and support students toward certain academic ends, such as achievement and satisfaction. Teaching effectiveness has been investigated extensively in traditional classrooms for more than seven decades (for a meta-analysis of empirical studies from 1995-2004, see Seidel &amp; Shavelson, 2007). Over the past five years, research has become directed toward teaching effectiveness in online or virtual classes. As a preface to our study, we discuss findings and conclusions concerning teaching effectiveness in traditional classrooms.
  • Journal Help ISSN: 1492-3831 Journal Content Search All Authors Title Abstract Index terms Full Text Browse By Issue By Author By Title User Username Password Remember me Article Tools Abstract Print this article Indexing metadata How to cite item Review policy Email this article (Login required) Email the author (Login required) Post a Comment (Login required) Font Size Make font size smaller Make font size default Make font size larger SUBSCRIBE TO MAILING LIST 5,591&nbsp; subscribers Select Language​▼ function googleTranslateElementInit() { new google.translate.TranslateElement({ pageLanguage: 'en', autoDisplay: false, layout: google.translate.TranslateElement.InlineLayout.SIMPLE }, 'google_translate_element'); } Home About Register Archives Announcements Resources Submissions http://www.irrodl.org/
  • One of the most widely cited sources for teacher effectiveness in traditional classrooms is Chickering and Gamson (1987), who suggested seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education.
  • encourages student-faculty contact, encourages cooperation among students, encourages active learning, gives prompt feedback, emphasizes time on task, communicates high expectations, respects diverse talents and ways of learning.
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