Teaching Online
I have a few observations for those of you looking at the field of online teaching.
- Preparation time for an online class is double because there isn't any room to 'wing it.'
- Students new to technology have to be forced to communicate in the beginning.
- Large projects need milestones so that you can ensure everyone in on the right path.
- Half your class will turn things in at the last minute so that they can see everyone elses work.
- You need to establish guidelines in how you name posts in a discussion board; otherwise you have a string of 20 comments titled "re: initial comment"
- You will have to attempt to record a lesson at least 6 times before you get it right (this is if you have editing cababilities.) In breeze you are just screwed.
- You have to be very specific about what constitutes communication, especially in an entry level course. Otherwise the only comment you get is "I agree. Great job!"
Chapter 11: The pot and the Kettle.
As I read chapter 11 I consantly found myself trying to classify people. I take 2 classes with Dr. Dawley which really exacerbates these issues. (I probably wouldn't do this again for that reason.) I feel like I am the "Noisy" student because I have a lot of questions times 2 classes. Every time the instructor opens up her e-mail I can see her saying, "Oh God, what is it now..."
I don't know if everyone feels as self conscious about communicating with a professor, but it must scare the heck out of college freshman in their first online class. I don't have a solution for this.
My second problem is that I fit a group not found in Ko and Rossen. I'm the "amiable student who hasn't kept up." In one of the classes we were given a literature review assignment. It was a 4-6 page paper which for me usually means 4-6 hours. Reality was about 3 times that. The real issue was that the first draft was to be posted in a peer group area. When the first person actually posted theirs up it didn't look anything like mine. It didn't even look like the same assignment. I went back and reread all of the assigned text to discover that I really didn't have a clue what I was doing. I was stuck:
- If I send the instructor an email at this point and say "I'm lost" it makes me look like "the procrastinator" who didn't do the work and let their group down. Out of the question.
- If I leave my original draft and then try to justify it by explaining what I thought was important in the text I look like the mutineer. (After rereading the assigned text I don't know how I came to my original concept of what a literature review was.)
By this time I was so ridiculously frustrated, (and now behind in both classes) that I just sent the instructor an e-mail saying, "My draft was crap. I'm going to start over with a more useful idea that I actually have need of here at work." I also posted a water cooler thread about how much I hate APA (A little mutineer coming out.) At that point I went from being the "Would like to have an A" student to the "Lets just get it over with" student. I remember feeling like I was standing at the bottom of a mountain with a shovel in my hand.
My distance ed life lesson from this is that I didn't know what my classmates were thinking and that mattered to me. The instructor kept publicly saying "Don't get frustrated," but I still had the impression that everyone else was on top of this. The instructor did everything according to Ko and Rossen's collaboration guidelines. She also followed Palloff and Pratt's chapter 3 participation challenges checklist. It didn't have anything to do with the instructor or the lesson. She did everything right. Still, as I student I feel as if I have failed (maybe Ko and Rossen need to add a "Whiny Depressed Student" section.) I don't have a solution for this either.
In completing my now infamous literature review I learned that it is not unusual for the dropout rate on distance courses to be 50% (The Chronicle of Higher Education.) I thought that was crazy until I went through this semester. Once you get behind it is difficult to catch up and difficult to communicate what is going on without feeling very insecure (and I'm not an insecure person.) Because of the nature of competition in online courses I put too much pressure on myself. I would have probably dropped these classes if it had been undergraduate work. Now I just have to figure out how to fix it.
Preparing for Distance Ed.
It's difficult for me to go back and remember what it was like the first time I experienced an online course. With that being said I tend to lean on best practices of the instructors I have had in the past.
Initial EncounterKo and Rossen spend a lot of copy talking about technical issues. Since every instructor uses different terminology communication could either take place in 'collaboration,' 'discussion,' 'group pages,' or just about anywhere. The best approach to this that I have seen is to send out an initial email to all students registered in the class explaining what to expect, basics of the course, and
where to get help. (It kills me when the help procedures are located within the LMS. It's like your ISP only providing help online: If I could get online I wouldn't need help!)
Learning StylesI'll blog this section later because it has been one of the 'grand epiphanies' for me in this course. The main idea is that asynchronous communication can leave a lot of students lost. I don't agree with Ko and Rossen that this is a learning style issue, at least not in the sense of traditional education. I do agree that it is a problem.
OrientationThis is the most important piece. You have to answer the question "What is expected of me and how will it be measured?" I've found that instructors tend to make this very general when it probably should be more specific. The Levenburg example in the book talks about asynchronous communication and then goes on to say that "most students access their e-mail five to seven times a week." Is that daily? Every three days? Will I fail the course if I have a week where I can't be online. If the expectation is 10 hours per week does that mean 2 hours a night, or will their be assignments that require 5 and 6 hour blocks of time? What does the author mean by "cutting edge" technology? My computer is 2 years old. I would rather see some examples. From Ko and Rossen p. 190 Don't just use the terminology 'asynchronously (time-and location-shifts.) If your students don't understand and googe the term asynchronous they are going to get 30,000 sites about advanced computer programming. Instead give them an example from a previous class or send them to e-learnspace. They have a great set of tools about asynchronous communication and how to use it.............
Using Multimedia: Adaptive Technology
I wanted to blog one thing in chapter 7 of Ko and Rossen. A great deal of attention is being spent on Multimedia and it's purpose in distance education. I wanted to add one thing to the 'When to Use Multimedia' section. As an educator you have to be atuned to your students learning styles. Auditory learners may find audio clips more valuable than lecture notes for example.
I also wanted to talk about adaptive technology. One of the dangers of multimedia is forgetting about ADA requirements. It really isn't that difficult to add alternative text, voiceovers, and media descriptions to a website. I'll post the link to an ADA website here. They have a ton of helpful hints as well as a list of the requirements. Here's the link:
ADA
Grasping Groups
I'm back online! My home computer decided to blow up and my work blocks blogger (along with everything else.)
My first topic is group work from Chapter 6 in Ko & Rossen. The initial group forming activity is an introduction. My favorite so far was an instructor who asked us to submit a powerpoint presentation with pictures discussing our favorite things in life. Of course the class was fairly small, but it really helped set the tone.
Size and Duration of Groups. I'm still waffling over the proper size and duration of groups. Unlike Palloff and Pratt my experience with Dyads has been a disaster. Too many of the pairs are dysfunctional. My best experiences have been in groups of four. In terms of duration I don't agree that the groups should last the duration of the course (at least not in graduate courses.) I prefer to experience as many different skill sets as possible. I think working adults adapt to new groups faster as a matter of experience. It also gives you more than one experience per course.
Group Roles. I prefer assigned roles. In other classes where large projects were introduced the instructor either assigned specific tasks or listed tasks and had the group decide on roles. It helps shorten the formative period.
Collaboration Happens.
Collaboration has to be encouraged and sometimes required depending on the makeup of the class. The Palloff and Pratt methodology of set the stage, model, guide, and evaluate may even require the addition of the word 'push.' It seems like the younger students are the more active the instructors role. The problem is that forced collaboration is inversely proportional to constructivist learning
(Garrison 2004.) It goes back to the old Dewey papers from 1933 talking about how we think. To fully take advantage of the collaborative environment students have to be allowed to practice formative highly ordered thought.
To Convert or Not. That is the Question.
I've been blogging ideas attached to our course readings, but have not done a good job of discussing those readings in depth. I'm backtracking a bit, but I hope that the next few blogs will remedy that issue.
I had one thing in Chapter 3 of Ko and Rossen that I felt strongly enough about to blog. On page 48 there is an "Important" paragraph at the top of the page that says,
"The move to an online format offers you opportunities to
try out new methods and approaches. Preserving the quality of your course
need not mean finding an exact translation of what you've always done in the
past."
In both of the examples of course conversion at the beginning of the chapter the instructor started off with what they knew of traditional teaching, (Reach read and composed questions, Yendell offered lecture and asked for questions.) Both have since converted to a model where more of the learning takes place through discussion between peers and through FAQ boards. In Reach's opinion "Requiring her students to discuss online assignments online engendered a sense of community that reduced isolation many students would have felt working entirely on their own."
I feel that the best approach is to step outside the traditional classroom paradigm and look at the world from the eyes of your students. Too much focus is spent on available technology and what is the 'latest' device. In an article from
Changing Pedagogy: Does the Introduction of Networked Learning Have an Impact on Teaching? the authors make the following comment:
There is no doubt a long way to go before active learning in e-environments
is standard majority practice across higher education but clearly advances are
being made. However, it seems to us that teachers and their students, not the
technology, should of necessity be at the centre of the process. They are the
experts on learning and the technology is no more than a tool, albeit a powerful
and exciting one with masses of potential. It is how teachers use it that will
bring ultimate improvement and success.
Most students starting college today have a great deal of experience with online communication and internet based research. It may not be at the collegiate level, but this shouldn't be a stumbling block. What they haven't experienced is the traditional 'lecture, test, lecture, test.....' classroom. They are used to someone actually paying attention to whether or not they complete an assignment and for the most part are used to having a personal relationship with their instructor. That breaks down in traditional large universities where classes are in the hundreds.
Ko and Rossen emphasize that all design decisions should consider learning objectives and how the design elements direct learning outcomes toward those objectives. There is a growing group of educators who feel that traditional lecture style courses don't meet this gold standard. Maybe we need to forget about traditional paradigms and ask the question "What would the course look like if the students designed it?"
Online Elements
I've been blogging ideas attached to our course readings, but have not done a good job of discussing those readings in depth. I'm backtracking a bit, but I hope that the next few blogs will remedy that issue.
Many of the 'online' classes that I have seen, especially in the high school arena, are simply traditional courses with a syllabus, assignments, and lectures posted on a website much as the introduction of chapter 12 outlines. It is more of a cross between web enhanced and web augmented.
Discussion Boards.I'll go back to lectures in a bit, but first wanted to address discussion boards. In my opinion the discussion board is the true strength of online learning. Ko and Rossen list the positive aspects of discussion boards in group interaction, discussion prompts, and the ability to communicate anonymously. There are negative sides as well. In John Suler's The Psychology of Cyberspace he mentions the affects of 'group think' as well as the dangers of giving students the
black hole experience (Try the link. It is an interesting example of what happens if you don't manage your communication sites.
Testing OnlineOnline quizzes and tests seem to be a necessary evil. I see them used more in high school and undergraduate courses than in my graduate program. Here's my opinion: If you structure the discussion channels so that they require applied knowledge of the subject they will be a much stronger indicator of student knowledge. Quizzes are a way for instructor to apply an ordinal number for a gradebook. I'll step down from the soapbox now. On page 251 Ko and Rossen mention Hot Potatoes. I've used this piece of software extensively because of it's ability to integrate multimedia into tests. It's great for students with learning difficulties and visual or kinesthetic learners. (It is also a cool way to give a spelling test.)Web Based Exercises
I agree with Ko and Rossen about the need to act as a stong facilitator when using the web in a classroom environment or online course. Verifying links is crucial to this process. One technique is to design your pages in Dreamweaver and then post them to your LMS. Dreamweaver has an automated process that verifies all the links. It saves a ton of time when you have 30 or 40 links in a unit. The treasure hunt approach is definately a disaster. I try to give students a "Useful Resources" link that has sources that are relevent and not part of the school's blocking policy.
Lecture.I saved this topic for last because it is a source of great irritation for me.
I am not an auditory learner. If you read to me I will mentally drift into a coma. I need visuals. Ko and Rossen hit the nail on the head: "...posting lecture notes online helps some but not all students." It does have to do with learning styles. My ideal would be lecture notes in the syllabus, a breeze presentation with the lecture one the screen and an instructor commentary playing in the background, and multimedia examples of practical applications. That most definately creates more initial work for the instructor which is a paradigm that I think we should discard. Initially setting up an online course is no more difficult or time consuming than initially setting up a traditional course that addresses the needs of differentiated learners
(Corley. Differentiated Instruction. Adjusting to the needs of all learners.)
Are all online students created equally?
I've spent the better part of the last month trying to figure out where hybrid courses fit into my schools. Will they work at the high school level? Why or why not? Wouldn't a hybrid be a perfect fit for an elementary GT course. Most of the research out there points to the fact that these initiatives would be difficult because these students are not all 'self-directed.' I told you that in order to tell you this: Maybe it isn't the students who have the problem. Maybe it is the way in which the material is presented. The University of Central Florida offers a tremendous amount of information about blended (Hybrid) courses. I found their presentation on Blended Learning and Generations particularly interesting (
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/%7Erite/Presentations/Online%20blended%20generations%20presentation.ppt) If you look carefully at how many of our hybrid courses are constructed they seem to be targeting generation X. Millenials wouldn't be interested in constructed learning. They would have very little experience with traditional classroom methods so why attempt to emulate them? Pundits would argue that this isn't preparing student's for the real world. I wonder we Gen Xers realize that it isn't our world they need to fit into anymore?
Kids at the Forum
I've been dealing with a pressing issue that I want to dump into this blog. A few weeks ago I was remotely monitoring a student downloading music (a big no no) when I saw them pop up a site called 'Xanga.' For my fellow ostriches Xanga is on online forum that markets to teenagers. I watched this student start to go through pages belonging to our junior high girls. Virtually every one of them had a picture, name, and a partial address. Some had cell phone number, and one even had a scan of their state ID card (definately not one of our gifted students.) When I looked into this I found hundreds of websites telling stories of predators using these things to find kids. I was shocked at both the enormity of the problem as well as my own ignorance. My question is this: How do we separate the legitimacy of things such as hybrid courses, discussion boards, and this blog with the issues of safety?
Next week I'm teaching a course in internet safety. I've done it many time before dealing with pornography and identity theft, but this time I will be adding communication. I guess I'll have to take my picture and profile down. What's good for the goose definately isn't good for the goslets. Here's a great resource link if you have kids:
http://www.childsafetyfaq.com/
Hybrid learning - The second coming
After reading through several articles about Hybrid Learning I came across one that really caught my eye. It did so because it had the best list of 'reasons to move toward hybrid learning' that I had ever seen. I never thought about Hybrid classes being so writing intensive that they are defacto writing courses. I also never thought about them being the solution to the divide between juvenile electronic communication and business electronic communication. It definately makes me want to rethink my plans to do pure online courses and evaluate the economics of doing hybrids instead. This is one that is worth reading.
http://courses.durhamtech.edu/tlc/www/html/Special_Feature/hybridclasses.htm
Maybe we should look around for a better educational model.
I was looking for an article on a distance education high school in Finland when I came across this piece. The gest of the article is a comparison between the educational advancements of two European Union (EU) countries: Finland and Italy. Since the EU formed a cooperative aimed at increasing technology in education called the e-education forum is has been trying to bring about a balance among member countries. The problem is that no implementation guidelines were ever set; thus each country was free to pursue the problem of educational technology on its own. Italy, who had previously been well known for having the best schools in Europe throughout most of the 60's and 70's, chose a very different approach to that of Finland. Here is an excerpt:
For example, the development of global connection and distance learning are primary objectives for the Finnish, who strive to offer the same possibilities in communication and learning to the inhabitants of rural areas or residents of foreign countries. The Italians, on the other hand, give priority to updating infrastructures and the teaching staff to new technologies.
The Italian approach sounds eerily similar to that of the United States. Too much bureaucracy and concern for antiquated approaches. The Finns simply threw out preconceived notions of curriculum and based their standards on the country's economic reality. The article is very interesting. Here's the link:
http://www.e.finland.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=24566
