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In October I attended and presented at the Sloan C Conference on Online Learning. This was my first time attending a Sloan C conference. Overall it was a good experience and I was able to collect a variety of tips, strategies and information regarding both online and blended learning. I will summarize each of the sessions that I attended and the vendor products that I think are exciting and have potential for Regis.
Terry Buxton and I actually did our presentation right at the start of the conference. Our information session was titled “Student Reflection Blogs to Communicate Lessons Learned in the Complex World of Service Learning.” Here is a link to our handout: http://rhchp.regis.edu/LearningTechnologies/SloanC/Buxton_Ellison_Oct2012_handout.pdf
Terry and I plan on scheduling a day soon where we can present to the Regis Community what we are doing with reflection blogs and the Ignatian Pedagogy Model. It is exciting!
Terry and I plan on scheduling a day soon where we can present to the Regis Community what we are doing with reflection blogs and the Ignatian Pedagogy Model. It is exciting!
Getting it to Click: Teaching Critical Thinking Online
University of Florida
University of Florida
The folks at U of Florida recently did a comparison between face-to-face and online delivery when it comes to critical thinking. No doubt we all know the importance of incorporating CT into all instruction no matter what delivery mode, however, one challenge may come for instructors when evaluating CT and knowing when it is happening. The presenters suggested trying the University of Florida Critical Thinking Instrument (UFCTI) to start.
They offered these quick tips:
- Be intentional in your CT instruction
- Use Discussion Boards to encourage perspective taking
- Use problem based learning activities
- Get students to move beyond computer
- Have students work together
- Don’t be afraid to challenge your current pedagogy
Colin Marlaire National University
The Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching and Technology streamlined faculty development into one online central “foundations” development course. The course is required by all faculty to take but it is self-paced and asynchronous. It is comprised of videos, captivate presentations and “recipes for success.” The recipe for success model has been a key focus for the faculty community. Instructors can write up a process from start to finish about how they incorporate a technology or technique into their course. Colin also discussed some thoughts and ideas about a cycle for course improvement. It was interesting as he talked about the Master course model briefly and mentioned some of the same challenges that we have experienced here in our college.
Social Media to Enhance Online Learning
Tanya Joosten University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Tanya Joosten University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Tanya has a book “Social Media for Educators: Strategies and Best Practices”
Here are just a few advantages for incorporating social media into online learning:
- Increased communication
- Build professional networks
- Develop a richer learning experience
- Avenue for creativity
Tanya talked about how we can use Twitter as a backchannel with a course. She had a video of an instructor who explained how she uses Facebook with her course. She sets up a fan page for the course itself.
I found out about www.schooltube.com similar to YouTube and TeacherTube, It is focused on education. There is a YouTube for education as well. http://www.youtube.com/educationI’ll be looking into those two.
They also suggested a few twitter feeds worth following:
#edusocmedia, #edtech, #highered, #socmedia, #sechat, #edchat, and #lrnchat
Keynote speaker Sebastian Thrun, from Stanford University and Google
Democratizing Higher Education
I highly recommend that you watch the recorded video of this keynote by going to http://sloanconsortium.org/conference/2012/aln/programand on the left side of the page you will find the link.
Sebastian talked about a MOOC(Massive Open Online Course) that he developed and was a part of Udacity (www.udacity.com). It was amazing to listen to his experience of teaching one of the first courses that was made available through Udacity. It was an Artificial Intelligence course where he had 160K students! No that was not a typo! He talked about how he had students from all over the world, some were actually taking a course during activity duty and overseas. He was blown away by the feedback from his students who thanked him for the opportunity to take the course and feel “empowered to learn.” They collected lots of data and feedback after the first course and used it to improve the course.
MOOC success is generally due to:
- Adaptive learning
- Self-paced learning
- Personalized learning path
- Multi-dimensional assessments
- Affordable because it is FREE.
- And the fact that students willingly take the classes because they have a desire to learn.
I think generally MOOC’s can be a scary topic for Universities to approach because it is so OUTSIDE and across the street from the box. MOOC’s are 100% free. It is not necessarily a revenue builder. The bottom-line is educating people and supporting the idea of “life-long learners” and it is as simple and as wonderful as that.
Renee Cicchino, Seton Hall University
This session was especially of interest to me since we are building an RN-BSN hybrid program right now. Renee mentioned that they always start with the Quality Matters standards rubric for a solid foundation for course creation. They also create templates for instructors to build courses with. The templates provide consistent design and therefore a consistent experience for students. They provide an example to faculty of an exemplar course. Come of the challenges that can hinder quality design:
- Lack of quality assurance
- Lack of policies
- Lack of tech competencies (she has a checklist for instructors to fill out and indicate which areas they need help on.)
- Release time is inadequate or absent
Renee shared her templates with me, if you are interested in seeing or using them let me know.
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