Group items tagged

Because the early planning stages of online instruction are crucial, Diane Chapman and Todd Nicolet propose a 'project approach' to course Development: a formal, team-based operation that makes use of consistent standards, trackable processes, standardized tools, and structured communication to facilitate technology initiatives of all sizes. This appears to facilitate scaling and the design and development of online instruction while maintaining the quality and integrity of the courses. Course design and development become more manageable when they are translated into repeatable processes and easy-to-apply tools.

This is very similar to Strategy 6: Apply Project Planning and Management Methods to Course Development in last weeks reading, "Effective Workload Management Strategies for the Online Environment".

This paper describes a team based approach for on-line course development- focusing on team roles in course design using theoretical frameworks to guide development and evaluation. Team roles are identified using the Quality Matters rubric.

This report offers some observations on the use of multimedia resources in online courses. The focus is more on course development (both time investment and quality of materials produced) than on student experience or learning outcomes, but this can still be a valuable tool for instructors thinking about whether (and how) to use multimedia in their online course designs.

faculty development specialists must pay close attention to the aspects of course development that are critical to the success of student learners. The likelihood of success is greatly increased when instructional design is integrated with the course's delivery tool. At ISU such integration is facilitated through the use ofWebCT, the course management system (CMS) supported by the university. Does Emory have such a tool?

Smashing Magazine is one of my go-to sources for ideas when it comes to designing or publishing anything on the web. This piece is a very thorough how-to about producing and publishing a podcast. In my courses, I try to teach how to produce media, but also how to publish and circulate that media. I'm considering having students in my graduate composition practicum course develop a podcast related to the subject of each week's class.

The number of distance education courses offered by nurse anesthesia programs has increased substantially. Emerging distance learning trends must be researched to ensure high-quality education for student registered nurse anesthetists. However, research to examine distance learning has been hampered by a lack of theoretical models. This article introduces the Community of Inquiry model for use in nurse anesthesia education. This model has been used for more than a decade to guide and research distance learning in higher education. A major strength of this model lies in its direct applicability for guiding online distance learning. However, it lacks applicability to the development of higher order thinking for student registered nurse anesthetists. Thus, a new derived Community of Inquiry model was designed to improve these students' higher order thinking in distance learning. The derived model integrates Bloom's revised taxonomy into the original Community of Inquiry model and provides a means to design, evaluate, and research higher order thinking in nurse anesthesia distance education courses.

McLaughlin, Jacqueline E. PhD, MS; Roth, Mary T. PharmD, MHS; Glatt, Dylan M.; Gharkholonarehe, Nastaran PharmD; Davidson, Christopher A. ME; Griffin, LaToya M. PhD; Esserman, Denise A. PhD; Mumper, Russell J. PhD In recent years, colleges and universities in the United States have faced considerable scrutiny for their apparent failure to adequately educate students.

I read this article and found it to be enormously interesting and enlightening. The course coordinator was a seasoned veteran; there were numerous resources dedicated to this venture (full time graduate TAs, dedicated IT personnel) and yet the authors report that the coordinator still required 127% more time to prepare the online components of this course. I also noticed that many of the active learning strategies discussed (think-pair-share, as an example) are things that could easily be incorporated into a non-flipped classroom.

One idea came to mind as I read the article about offloading lecture material for students so that synchronous class time can be used for discussion and problem solving: the use of case studies. Public health, business, and development work often relies on group engagement in response to case studies. The background could be presented, along with vital tools for assessing and analyzing the situation, then on-line classes could be used for rich discussion of the range of solutions and opportunities. I'm thinking of a model of a traditional pilgrimage in which pilgrims keep coming together in larger numbers the closer they get to their destination.

I found this article to be very helpful in providing a sense that it will be possible to control time use when teaching on line. It gives great tips on how to overcome the feeling that online teaching will be a 24/7 class rather than one that meets TTh 10-11:15 in White Hall 208! I like this one a lot.

Here are some tips and tools for implementing universal design into online and blended courses.

from the 2005 ASCUE (Association Supporting Computer Users in Education) Conference. I thought this was particularly good with respect to issues of the time demands an online course places on instructors (especially in terms of development and roll-out), as well as on students.

An excellent guide to use when developing a course and wanting to be able to effectively reach a multitude of devices (student-content interaction)

This article has a follow up major piece in the June 24 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education. I cannot send that one to you because it is "locked." However, this piece describes what two very famous psychologists, Gosling and Pennebaker, are doing at UT Austin with online psychology classes. They describe here a synchronous massive online course in which (as now described in the Chronicle, they have 1500! students registered. Twenty four students are invited to attend F2F classes twice per week and the rest are online live. This SMOC, as they term it, allows faculty to interact live with an audience while teaching but affords huge enrollments. This seems to me to be a way of maintaining the "feel" of F2F while benefiting from the usefulness of technology. This is a very interesting development and, with these two psychologists being so well known, teachers of large lecture classes will take notice. I would love to explore the idea further!

This is pretty amazing! I wondered to what extent this was also a flipped class - did students do their readings and watch lectures before coming to class, and in the synchronous sessions, mostly focus on solving problems through group discussion? It seems to require a lot of technological and instructional support: TV studio, laptops, apps, and tutors serving as group advisors, but the better learning outcome may make it all worth it! Of course, at 500 students a class, it could save cost in a big way, too. So, are we all prepared to face the camera? :)

This article outlines some ways to evaluate online courses - get faculty involved from the start and develop the rating scales...Is this authentic evaluation?

I thought some of you might find this document helpful for thinking through your approach to plagiarism. The Council of Writing Program Administrators is a national organization comprised of college and university faculty who run or have professional interest in researching and running writing programs. This document is a statement of best practices for educating students about plagiarism and for building educational environments in which academic honesty flourishes.

David, This is very useful for those of us teaching writing intensive courses - thank you.

I like that this encourages working with students (even PLAGIARISTS) in order to help them get past bad or misguided habits and develop better, more ethical writing practices. Even in the short time I've been teaching, it seems like students are becoming both (a) less attentive to issues of casual plagiarism and (b) less responsive to punitive approaches. I think these guideline could be helpful, for both online and traditional courses, in helping students to think about the kinds of writers they want to be. (...or the kinds of writers *I* want them to be)

"Encouraging Creativity in Online Courses." Though a bit older, I think this article makes some interesting points made in terms of the approach to course development. "Looking at the other side - rather than looking at boundaries, look for the solution outside the assumptions."

Written in 2006, the author shares his tips and tricks for reducing instructor workload after teaching both online and hybrid courses. Two useful tips the author shared are: 1) to create a reference list and share links to references as applicable in each learning module, and 2) to setup appropriate assessments when developing course assignments (such as mixing instructor, peer, and self-assessments) to help instructor manage workload assessment per student.

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and Weber State University (Ogden, UT) have developed an Online teaching methods course that reflects state-of-the-art research and practice in foreign language education. This course is offered through WSU Online. For information concerning registration or to see an outline and syllabus, go to http://www.weber.edu/ForeignLanguages/Student_Resources/Onlinemethods.html.