Group items tagged

Something to check in on later as they develop ... "The OSP's mission is to build a large-scale online collection of syllabi and to build foundational tools for analyzing it in order to advance scholarly inquiry, promote institutional cooperation, and foster pedagogical diversity. We believe that this critical mass of syllabi will stimulate new research tools, drive policy change, foster best practices, provide new metrics, and aid in the search, discovery, and the development of new course materials."

Lessons from a Texas A&M professor who flipped a 400-student "Introduction to Ancient Rome" course.

I'd love to hear some real world examples that address one point in the article: "Content delivery is the easy part. The hard part is figuring out what to do in class that keeps students engaged, and motivated to prepare for class." If anyone in our group knows of some specific tricks teachers usually employ for this, please let me know. (lil' quizzes? Q&A discussions? or something more interesting?) I'm wondering if there are other sorts of multimedia activities I could make that would serve similar function.

Warren, good question! The peer instruction approach of Eric Mazur et al. (see http://mazur.harvard.edu/research/detailspage.php?rowid=8) is a popular in-class technique. Here are some of other methods OSU hybrid faculty use to link online and face-to-face spheres: 1 - A low-stakes weekly quiz online prior to each class meeting. 2 - A discussion that flows from online to face-to-face and back again. 3 - A very short online essay turned in before each class meeting that builds on the online content, and is tied directly to in-class discussion or group work that follows. 4 - An interactive multimedia lesson online that provides a foundation for or extends in-class learning. (Examples: I recommend looking at Simon Driver and Megan McDonald's hybrid EXSS 444--I can connect you.) 5 - Group work online (e.g., formulating a debate position or a solution to real-world problem) that feeds into the next f2f class activity. 6 - A quiz at the start of each class meeting based on the online content. Whatever the method, a key is that the learning activities online channel rather directly into the in-class activities and vice versa. Think of it as a long ping-pong volley between learning activities in the online and f2f spheres from the first day of the term until the final exam or project.

I deeply respect this industry pioneer, Michael Abrash, and his talk on the current state of wearable computing really turned my head around. Thought i'd throw a link up here, just in case any of you are curious about this emerging field. (basically, just click the PDF in the first paragraph, which attempts to go through and explain everything in "simpler" terms. The short of it is that we now have the tech to deliver on the promise of VR goggles from the late 80s. And after that, within about 5 years, the world will be changed by Augmented Reality (AR) - when your cell phone can seemlessly detect and enhance everything you look at). (the tech isn't quite there for AR yet, but google released Glass to try and get ahead of the game).

"The History and Future of (Mostly Higher) Education:  How We Can Unlearn Our Old Patterns to Relearn for a Happier, More Productive, Ethical, and Socially Engaged Future* COURSERA/Duke University:  JANUARY 27, 2014-MARCH 8 2014 DRAFT SYLLABUS (Posted October 6, 2013)"

Summary of the latest survey of undergraduate students about technology expectations. 

"Instructional designers, like web developers in the '90s, historically had expertise in conveying content through a limited set of tools and platforms, such as a learning management system (LMS). LX designers, in contrast, merge design-thinking principles with curriculum development and the application of emerging technologies to help faculty tailor content to student behaviors and preferences. It cuts across disciplines and moves beyond the LMS: LX designers embrace graphic design, multimedia production, research-based standards and social media. They are partners to faculty throughout the program and course development process."

Resources and ideas from CSU Channel Islands for faculty development, especially blended and online, including slides from a presentation their Teaching and Learning Innovations team did at OLC Innovate. Content and approaches include a toolbox, Facebook, Twitter, learning communities, course construction workshops and a faculty/staff blog. Impressive.

Gates Foundation survey: "The research illuminates how different internal and external factors (motivational, behavioral, contextual enablers/barriers, values, beliefs, and demographics) come together to influence faculty members' willingness to learn about new pedagogies, incorporate new ideas in their work, and spread new ideas regarding teaching and learning to peers and campus leaders."

Report: Can we adequately answer questions about postsecondary outcomes and value? No. Data play a crucial role in improving college access, completion, and career readiness. Students need clear and timely information about how much college will cost, how long it will take to graduate, and how well a degree will prepare them for the job market and enable them to repay their loans.

"The findings suggest that a new role, the life skill promoter, has emerged. Furthermore, analysis of the remaining roles (pedagogical, designer, social, technical and managerial) showed that: (i) online instructors are, first and foremost, pedagogues; (ii) the design of the particular online program influences the pedagogical and designer roles and; (iii) the managerial role has declined in importance over the years due to the development of more intuitive and transparent online scenarios from the beginning of the course onward."

"Leaders from the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education - a national organization of professionals involved in faculty, graduate student, and organizational development - have developed eight principles to guide colleges and universities in adopting, implementing, and purchasing online faculty development programming."

Components of development and delivery: Content development, pre-semester setup, and overall involvement in the class decrease in time consumption by the third iteration. Yet, Grading & Assessment time consumption actually increases. The survey found that [of the respondents]: Learning curves: The problems, "myths," and concerns associated with online course development and delivery are more likely associated with pedagogy than with technology.

A checklist for making distance learning programs welcoming and accessible to all students Represented by students in distance learning courses are a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds, ages, native languages, and learning styles. In addition, increasing numbers of students with disabilities participate in regular precollege and postsecondary courses.

This site gives examples for each of the "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education" from Chickering and Gamson (1987) and also references Chickering and Ehrmann's (1996) "Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever."

"First, student engagement in educationally purposeful activities is positively related to academic outcomes as repretsented by first year student grades and by persistence between the first and second year of college." "Second, engagement has a compensatory effect on first-year grades and persistence to the second year of college at the same institution"

Excerpt: "faculty autonomy, competence, and relatedness positively predicted autonomous motivation (intrinsic, identified), but not controlled motivation (introjected, external). Autonomous motivation, in turn, predicted greater incorporation of effective teaching strategies, namely instructional clarity, higher-order learning, reflective and integrative learning, and collaborative learning."

Research findings: "Faculty who assign team projects without preparing their students to work in teams greatly increase the likelihood that students will have a negative experience and student learning and performance will suffer. Teaching teamwork content is necessary but not sufficient for important educational and performance outcomes. Providing ongoing teamwork support is critical to team success and student learning."

Summarizes legal basis for accessible online educational materials and provides tips and key links to aid instructors in moving toward Universal Design for Learning.

"To humanize online teaching is to create a situation where strangers can meet by the campfire, discuss what is important to them, and depart with the sense of connection, despite the darkness, and a feeling of community. It is that feeling of authenticity."

"Instructional designers are consumers (and sometimes producers) of the learning science literature - and they bring this knowledge base into their work with faculty. Once faculty have the opportunity to learn and apply learning science research for their online courses, they will want to do the same for their residential courses."