Emory College Strategies for Online Teaching

This is an unpublished research article on a model for group work in an online or blended course environment. The two salient points in this article are that the students must have unique skills for the online classroom. First they must be taught how to use the necessary technologies for collaboration and the second is that they must be taught social skills for online collaboration. The first point seems obvious, but I think the second point is often overlooked. We assume that students know how to interact with others, however interacting online is quite different than in person. Therefore these skills must be included in our curriculum.

An interesting question on whether courses have outlived their usefulness online.

Here is an interesting question about rubrics.

This article describes the framework of four open educational practices based on patterns of OER reuse, mapped against the processes of curriculum design and delivery. Includes evidence, examples and ideas for application by practitioners, as well as recommendations for institutional policies on OER and OEP.

Hi Kristy, I really like the figure on page 12 of the article. The box for reflective and strategic enhancement and would I ever love to participate in Carpe Diem! Great find.

This article addresses barriers to the accessibility of information from state health department websites (rapidly becoming go-to resources for people and practitioners) across 4 dimensions: readability, disability access, non-English translation and privacy / security. The authors state, "These results raise fundamental issues of justice and equality in public health...In the meantime, inaccessible websites hurt the underprivileged and make it difficult to justify the investment in technology that has occurred in state governments...." I thought there was something for everyone in our cohort here.

This is a great research guide designed to help faculty who wish to incorporate UDL into their classes. See especially the UDL syllabus rubric page (listed under the tab "UDL Course Changes"

Interesting piece about the disadvantages of online learning for the visually impaired. Certainly makes me more aware of this dimension.

Interesting information about the use of VoiceThread as a teaching tool.

The Blended Synchronous Learning Handbook is the primary output of the Blended Synchronous Learning Project. It includes the summative findings of the Blended Synchronous Learning case studies, a Blended Synchronous Learning Design Framework, and a range of other resources and information to support blended synchronous learning design research and practice.

The University of Toronto performed a study on the relationship to class size, class participation and grades. It included 25 courses with 25 instructors and 341 students. The conclusion was that students performed well in small online classes and that performance, defined as participation and grades, declined proportionally as class size increased. The study also looked at small group activities and found that large class performance improved by using small group activities. It also emphasized the importance of the software used for the small group discussions.

This is a pretty short, not-too-challenging read with some good ideas and strategies for having teachers (K-12, but certainly could be extended to include higher ed instructors) incorporate more resources into their classrooms and learning environments. The article is from 2002, but the strategies still seem sound.

MERLOT is a CoI revolving around technology and learning objects. It is a repository of learning objects that can be accessed and used. The objects are grouped according to subject / content, and they are peer-reviewed. This is an excellent resource with something for everyone. (My personal favorite object - the "eye simulator," which demonstrates the actions of the 6 extrinsic muscles of the eye and lets you "paralyze" muscles specifically to examine the effect on eye movement - completely cool!) There is also a wealth of other information on their site (sorry - within their community :) Best of all - all the resources at MERLOT are free.

This powerpoint presentation from a library instruction conference talks about uses for the tool Padlet -- which looks like a really interesting way for students to share findings on an online graffiti wall.

Downloaded the free 40 page book from this site. Logic + emotion = learning. Some really great tips about adult learners. Hints on visual design, "telling a story to engage the learner." allowing them to finish the story and lot of other jewels in these 40 pages. Great find!

Introduces IoT as defined in the 2012 Horizon Report as "the latest evolution of network-aware smart objects that connect the physical world with information" (p. 30). References 4 YouTube videos as good introductions to IoT and relates IoT to educational innovation.

This page comes from the Chronicle of Higher Education talking about using Facebook to transform your classroom into community.

This is a relatively short (9 pages) piece that's not too difficult to read. I liked that it makes the distinction between 'big OER' (produced by larger, institutionally-based initiatives) and 'little OER' (produced by individuals). A quote: "The first may be that people don't value free things, or are suspicious of free. We have become accustomed to roughly equating monetary price with value or quality. Free is therefore obviously low quality or suspicious at least ... But in education there is still an expectation that high quality education costs." This is something I have thought about often in my career in higher ed here in GA, and that I'm especially attuned to now as I pack 2 children off to another institution of higher education.

Hi Ann, I really liked this article and the differentiation of context. The violin story is a good one that I believe we must ask--at Emory how much dependence upon open source is too much, how do we continue to give the ROI for the tuition? Great find.

This is a provocative article (even more enjoyable reading the blogs concerning it) regarding faculty online "public presence". I know I am struggling with privacy versus connection in trying to establish an online presence.