About this site
Webb's Learning with New Media is my collection of projects and reflections related to instructional design, assessment, learning, and instructional technology. I am an instructional designer with a PhD in Instructional Technology from the University of Virginia. Designing effective and engaging learning for face-to-face, hybrid, and online is my constant passion.
In a networked world, opportunities for learning have shifted to any time, anywhere. How do we design, manage, and assess learning in this context? What opportunities are there to leverage collaboration tools and new media into the instructional process in a meaningful way?
The views reflected in this blog are my own. They do not represent the views of my unnamed (but possibly obvious) current or previous employers.
Slices and Hotspots
This Screenr tutorial was created in Fall 2009 for a just-in-time clarification of different approaches slices and hotspots creation. The students in the class had the benefit of more context than the casual viewer, as they also have the complete Fireworks files of the projects described in the tutorial.
Strategies for Team-Based Learning
This short screencast on Team-Based Learning is an example of visually driven content for mobile learning. This was created for the professional development I prepared with @nantana for Penn State Instructional Designers. The content was inspired by a tip from 147 Practical Tips for Teaching Online Groups by Hanna et al.
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Assessment in Blackboard
I compiled these training materials for assessment in Blackboard 8. The training includes building tests and quizzes from question pools and in-depth exploration of the Grade Center. I was hoping to include details about Self-Assessment and Peer Assessment but those features aren't available in our installation.
Design Visually Rich Learning Workshop
The focus of this hands-on workshop was integrating visual communication activities into distance and technology-rich learning environments.
The agenda for the three hour workshop was:
- Introduction and rationale for integrating visually rich assignment, including rubrics and technical guidelines for mobile learning (mlearning).
- Examples of strategies for enhancing visuals in instructional materials
- Development of a visual presentation for PDA screen in groups.
The learning objectives for the audience were:
- Define mobile learning
- Identify challenges and strategies for designing mobile learning
- Recognize approaches to designing effective visual content
- Create one short visual presentation for a 480 x 320 screen resolution using Jing
Here is the entire presentation from the workshop conducted at the Annual Conference of Distance Teaching and Learning in August 2009.
Cheating, again with the cheating
A faculty member forwarded me an article about del.icio.us as a mechanism for cheating among students. The argument at the center of the article is that tools of collaboration can be used for cheating. That really isn't all that shocking. I'm surprised there aren't articles that focus on the thesis that "the voice" can be used for cheating. Some teachers are catching students helping each other with answers to problems.
It seems that in the scenario, the biology teacher must NOT have assigned the students to use del.icio.us, because had the teacher assigned its use, one would think that s/he would recognize that within the concept of "SOCIAL" bookmarking, students might share resources accordingly. So we have three students, who of their own accord are proactively using software to manage their resources. That sounds great!!!
But then the bad cheating student peaked at their resources and used some of the same.
This is where I'm confused. The only way I could see this as cheating is if the entire assignment was about the research process. In which case, the teacher should explicitly state the parameters of what is unethical and not representative of one's own work. I would hope that these kind of assignments do not occur very frequently. I would hope that they are very rare in undergraduate coursework and that this does not occur in graduate courses, which are the two levels of faculty I advise.
- If the research skills are the point, why not ask students to write a detailed paragraph describing how they accessed their resources?
- If research synthesis is the point, why does the access to the resources matter?
The reason I find this topic so perplexing is that I'm not confident that all the people reading this article understand the technology described. They see "del.icio.us" and mentally file it away as a method of cheating. In fact, it could be a very helpful tool for aggregating student resources and showing the power of an extended network of resources.
To be fair, Mr. Jakes is very balanced in his assessment of the tool and notes the importance of teaching about the tool and cultivating its appropriate use. However, the opening grab of the article is the meme against which I may have to do damage control.
Mobile learning
I'm collecting resources for a workshop on mobile learning. Although there are definitions and frameworks for "mobile" learning, those sounds very similar to non-formal learning and some of the work by Falk & Dierking on that free-choice learning. Isn't mobile learning just free-choice learning on...well, your choice of pda?
Which leads to a big design problem. Unless you are at a school that gives everyone iphones, the student population is not using standard equipment. Although it seems like everyone has an iphone, I'll tell you someone who doesn't: ME. Why don't I join the modern age, you might ask?
The first reason is I don't need one.
I'm going to let that sink in. Oh, yes, I want one, but I don't need it. 90% of my day, I'm in front of a computer with dedicated internet access. Why for the other 10% of the time would I need the additional distraction?
The second reason is that I don't need the additional cost. The iphone itself isn't too expensive, but it would require a more costly data plan, that again, I just don't need.
And I'm sure that there are a lot of students out there, who for various reasons have made certain choices about the technology they have available to them at home. Sometimes it's not a choice, especially in this economy--they probably just don't have the money.
So we can't assume that everyone has an iphone, but there is a fairly high saturation of cell phone users. Except, there is mixed saturation of TEXTERS. danah boyd had a great post on this issue a while back, and how "all you can text" plans greatly facilitate an increase in receiving text messages. Until very recently, I didn't know a lot of people who would be willing to accept my text messages (They accepted my phone calls, so it's not for the reason all of you are thinking!) One can also send very basic emails via text message that are not "data" but text messages. So that's handy. And with some ingenuity, for example using tips such as those offered by David Pogue's TED Talk, you can send a text to google and get local business listings. Just with a text message.
And though we can't assume that people have iphones, with their bloated service plans, many people do have ipods or similar mp3 player equivalents. And the newest ipods often play video, an mp4 format should do the trick in producing materials that students could download to view in their copious free time (hopefully not while they're driving). But at the same time, I can record video clips on my cell phone, but that format seems locked down and incompatible with other players (codecs be damned!). It would be great if I could also play mp4 on my cell phone, and maybe I can and I just need to test it out. But even if I could, would I download video lectures to my cell to watch? I'm not sure...
I started this post out by asking what a framework is for mobile learning and how does it differ from a concept like free-choice learning. Sadly, one way it differs is that in the title of a presentation, the mlearning concept is the one people want to hear right now. I'm also not confident that formal institutions of higher learning are ready to accommodate "mlearning" in its truest form. It requires a level of flexibility and a committment to what students really need and just-in-time learning that stands in opposition to carefully crafted learning programs defined by what others think students need. At a certain level this is appropriate, but for a lot of adult learners today, education needs to be accessible, flexible, and immediately applicable. The aspect of mlearning that gets most attention right now, it seems, is the pushing of content in a variety of formats, but the real power in mlearning would be the ability to collaborate and interact "anytime, anyplace." A lot of students don't have the resources, both time and money-wise, for engaging with their coursework in that way. At the same time, exploiting tools that students encounter every day so that students see all the artifacts we interact with as an extension of their lifelong learning process, would have real value.
What are your thoughts on what mobile learning is? What has worked well in providing flexible formats to students at your institution?
Wrapping up Assessment & Evaluation
This semester, I had the privilege of teaching a graduate course in Assessment, Evaluation and Criteria of quality for the second time. The learners were all art education MAT students. Early in the semester, we established a need on their part for a heavy integration of research skills into the course. From my perspective, this is a perfect match, since very similar skills are required for assessment and evaluation, as are required for pure research.
The only complaint I have about the course is that I find it very difficult to include both assessment and evaluation into only one course. On the assessment part, students expect to spend a lot of time discussing classroom assessment and developing skills in the classroom. It takes a lot of time and discussion to help students develop a vocabularly to discuss assessment in the terms that educational researchers and assessment-savvy educators use. Then suddenly, bam-- let's switch to program evaluation. Yes, in one sense it's a micro to macro perspective, but I always feel like the evaluation portion is rushed.
The best part of the class is that it was very hands-on. Most of the students currently teach, so the project for formative assessment was for them to conduct action research whereby they thoughtfully integrated a formative assessment strategy into their classroom practice and reflected on the results and noted how it would impact their future practice. For the students who are not teachers, they did an inquiry into the assessment practices of someone who is currently teaching through interviews and observation.
Instructors should have aha moments too. My aha moment over the course of the semester and in tandem with my own work which is increasingly heavily assessment-oriented was that feedback is at the center of instructional practice. While some instructors understand this intuitively, others are not aware of how crucial it is. One of the students in the class, who teaches in an informal setting (thus making assessment that much more challenging) simply changed up the introduction to the lesson in a way that required the kids she was working with to reflect on what they were creating. Simply adding a question can radically change an entire lesson and the way someone else is thinking about their own work. That's powerful.
Adding Audio to Instruction Using Horizon Wimba
This training was available both online training via Centra and face-to-face. The objective of the training was to teach online and hybrid instructors how to use the tools available through the Horizon Wimba building block in Blackboard. This training was offered in academic year 2006-2007 at Northern Virginia Community College.
“Online = checked out”
Dr. Crazy's post about difficulties teaching online is very insightful about the challenges of engaging students online. Student motivation is key. Attrition in distance courses is a widely known issue and Dr. Crazy's summary that students translate "online equals checked out" is right on the money. Or more like, online equals out of sight out of mind, and if I don't check the course site, it doesn't really exist.
But I am also curious about the course design. I'm not going to suggest that if students aren't showing up and they're not even doing the basic assignments required that the instructor can make miracles happen BUT I'm curious whether the course design builds an investment in each other on the part of the students. I didn't really see reference to that on the list of considerations in the post. Maybe if the course started out with peer interaction as a required assignment and the requirement to contact peers in the course was imperative? If students were required to post an email AND a phone number where classmates could contact them for this assignment? Have there been or could there be optional synchronous sessions for the instructor to just take questions from students who might be lost or not know where to start? In the future offering of the course, could there be a required synchronous session to start out the course?
These are just some suggestions, and it sounds like Dr. Crazy has been doing everything she can to motivate students. SO, maybe the biggest motivator would be an email sent out to floundering students that says: "As it stands at this moment, you have only completed x % of the required work to date. As of this moment, the highest grade you could expect to receive is a "?" C? F? Please contact me as soon as possible to discuss." My guess is that some students have no idea they are failing the class to date and that might clarify things. But she did send emails saying they have 0s on assignments, one would think they could translate that to the big picture.
A faulty assumption might be that an email does the job, though I'm not suggesting every DL instructor can take the time to call students individually. It seems that at schools where students are part-time, their interest in logging into institutional email seems lacking. Again, we're back at "what is the student's responsibility."
So maybe administrative support on the front end is required. Is there an orientation for distance students so they understand the type of dedication that is required to be successful online?
I want to thank Dr. Crazy for the candid account of the frustration of teaching online. I do believe the biggest responsibility is on the part of students to keep up with the work, and I completely agree that students assume that "online" will just fit into their life because it is flexible, without realizing that it generally takes more effort than f2f classes and a lot more self-direction. A lot of the responsibility to mitigate these incorrect assumptions lies at a program-level, where administrative types need to recognize the importance of this problem, and provide proactive, pre-emptive strategies to make sure the right students are signing up for distance for the right reasons.
