Group items tagged

Strategies for Creating Social Presence This section examines strategies that will help establish and maintain social presence within online environments. In this section, I offer strategies for the three groups of individuals involved with the three functions of these environments: (1) course designers (course design), (2) instructors (delivery and management), and (3) participants (participation). In reviewing the literature, the main responsibility for creating social presence is placed on the instructors. However, based on my personal experience as an online course designer and online course participant, I contend that the responsibility for establishing and maintaining social presence extends beyond the role of the instructor

"Today's classrooms require that instructors possess competencies for teaching all students. Robust instructional strategies and culturally sensitive curricula are critical, but more important is an instructor who is sensitive and responsive to the unique differences of each student. Recognizing the need to strengthen specific competencies to reach and teach all students requires an understanding of new ideas and a willingness to view instruction through varied cultural lenses."

"Providing feedback to students about their in-class presentations can be a juggling act, and students may not be able to connect instructor comments with specific moments in their talks. In this essay, Drs. Curto and Laudato describe a technique for providing feedback via rich media capture. Much like comments in the margins of a written assignment, feedback is received at the appropriate time point in the presentation."

Several instructors have asked over time about different ways to give students feedback on their in-class presentations. This is a PDF article that addresses this specifically.

Create your own video channel to collect a stream of videos. This could be good for a course that requires the students to post youtube videos and the instructor would like to share the videos with the whole class.

Great open access resource for science instructors

I was working with some instructors on including a widget in their Angel courses that would update a list of the articles they are bookmarking.  Found a way to do this using Diigo through this informational slide show.  Lots of different tidbits on how to use all the tools Diigo can offer.

Again, another great idea. I'd love to try this out in my classes. So, please let me know asap so I can give it a try. Thanks! Connie

What's interesting about this tool is not so much that it is an online learning environment for teachers and their students, but that it can also be used to make connections between teachers.  This could be useful for instructors who may feel isolated at their particular school and a chance to branch out.

Ian - I thought you might enjoy this article

"As many of my colleagues know, I have not been a big fan of Twitter for academic purposes. Why? The impression I had is: * Twitter is tacky. Great if you want to know what Paris Hilton's dog is up to, otherwise: aahhh, no. * Twitter is unfiltered. Too much chaff, no wheat! * Twitter is too open. Students will be encouraged to let loose, to mix topics, to lose the thread that an instructor can maintain in a more tightly controlled discussion forum In the interest of an open mind, lately I have been exploring Twitter a bit, and while I still basically believe the points above, I have found some uses for Twitter that might be helpful."

"I've been hesitant to dive into using Windows Live because I've already become so familiar with GoogleDocs. However, there are good reasons for me to start learning. For one thing, my students and colleagues are, for the most part, already using Microsoft Office in their work, and Windows Live doesn't require them to learn yet another interface. (Yes, I know that GoogleDocs isn't really that different, but I've frequently found that people consider the need to switch interfaces off-putting.)"

Should we be considering using MS Live instead of google docs?

This is from the comments below the article "When I tried this I ran into a problem with it not working cross platform with Mac. This made it useless in an academic environment." We would likely need to do some initial testing to see if it viable to make the switch. If it makes instructors more comfortable then it should be seriously looked at.

Teaches you how to replace the calendar in Angel with a google calendar.  When you update your google calendar it updates in Angel.  You can't make updates to the calendar in Angel, it has to be done through Google.  Great if you have multiple sections of the same class--only update once!

Nice find. I used this tool for all my classes and it works great. Now, though, I use that embed code and put the code into a section header in a lessons page. That way it's in the students view the moment the get into the course. Then I hide the calendar tab.

Love this idea! Jeff - do you have a separate google calendar for each course, or do you have one for all your courses? Also, I'm interested in using google blogs (blogger) for journals and would like to embed the codes, just as done for google calendar. Have you heard of anyone doing so? I tried changing a tab to a link for a blog, but am not sure if this is the best way. I did see an article in which the instructor had students create their own blog, then submit the link. The links were then put into a chart put into the course. Any other ideas?

This resource from Colorado state provides easy access to information on how to make components of your course accessible using UDL.