Group items tagged

(1) functionalist, which is directive and advice-driven, (2) engagement, which uses a nondirective approach, (3) revolutionary, which promotes radical change, and (4) evolutionary, which uses reflective dialogue to identify and challenge the prevailing discourse. The course under study incorporated two types of coaching: functionalist and evolutionary.

Good Practice Encourages Student-Faculty Contact

Good Practice Encourages Cooperation among Students

Good Practice Encourages Active Learning

Most games are naturally social, which means gamification depends on that other ubiquitous web trend, social networking.

The first type of games were willing to entertain kids to keep them engaged -- the "just-make-it-fun" school of thought.

"fun"

The first course carrying the name MOOC was offered in 2008, so this is new phenomenon. Second, the pedagogical style of the early courses, which we shall call cMOOCs, was based on a philosophy of connectivism and networking. This is quite distinct from the xMOOCs now being developed by elite US institutions that follow a more behaviourist approach. Third, the few academic studies of MOOCs are about the earlier offerings because there has been no time for systematic research on the crop of 2012 xMOOCs. Analysis of the latter has to be based on a large volume of press articles and blogs. Fourth, commentary on MOOCs includes thinly disguised promotional material by commercial interests (e.g. Koller, 2012) and articles by practitioners whose perspective is their own MOOC courses.

The term MOOC originated in Canada. Dave Cormier and Bryan Alexander coined the acronym to describe an open online course at the University of Manitoba designed by George Siemens and Stephen Downes. The course, Connectivism and Connective Knowledge, was presented to 25 fee-paying students on campus and 2,300 other students from the general public who took the online class free of charge (Wikipedia, 2012a).

Can xMOOCs make money?

The focus of this paper is teaching presence, which has been defined as “the design, facilitation and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile outcomes” (Garrison et al., 2000).

Instructor teaching presence is hypothesized to be an indicator of online instructional quality.  Empirical research has supported this view with evidence indicating strong correlations between the quality of teaching presence and student satisfaction and learning (Bangert, 2008; Picciano, 2002; Shea, Pickett, & Pelz, 2003)

First, there is a need to revisit two of the original three teaching presence elements.

improved grades, much higher quality in the final manuscript,

reducing instructor workload

e graded on the quality of their reviews, not on the reviews their papers received

be specific

make corrections on the sample by checking for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.

he goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning

strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work

I want them to know I'm there if they need help

with me asking the students to introduce themselves, and I always begin by posting my own introduction and a photo first.

conscientiously respond to each introduction individually

(d)emonstrate command of technology, includ-ing the Internet, to produce, publish, and updatework in response to ongoing feedback, includingfresh arguments or new information

I emphasize the why of the activity—what’s in it for the students

weighty, not necessarily in grades but in terms of complexity

synthesize, analyze and create a product

Martinez (2001) has documented some key design considerations for personalized learning on the web. Martinez makes the following suggestions: “For transforming learners, design environments that are sophisticated, discovery-oriented, mentoring environments where learners who want to be assertive, challenged by complex problem solving situations, and able to self-manage learning and self-monitor progress can attain higher standard, long-term goals. For performing learners, design environments that are project- or task-oriented, energizing, competitive, interactive (hands on) environments, which use coaching, practice, and feedback to encourage self-motivation, holistic thinking, problem solving, self-monitoring progress, and task sequencing, while minimizing the need for extra effort and difficult standards. For conforming learners, design environments that are simple, scaffolded, structured, non-risk environments that use explicit, careful guidance. They should help individuals learn comfortably in an easy, step-wise fashion. These environments should also encourage learners to take assertive, challenging steps towards more independent, self-motivated achievement.”

definition is that grade patterns change so that the overwhelming majority of students in a class, college, or university receive higher grades for the same quantity and quality of work done by students in the past