2015 COLTT Conference
Carl’s Takeaways
With the low
entrance fee and being in Boulder, I have to say this is a conference that is a
good return on investment. The
organization and signage for the conference is great. It once again makes me
realize that we really are ahead of the game in a lot of aspects when it comes
to student learning. I have to warn you,
after seeing Jill’s and Jeff’s posting, by update may be boring. There are no pictures, but I will share the
highlights for me from the sessions that I attended:
Your Slides are
Terrible
Jill also
attended this session, and did a great job of capturing the highlights. I will try to not repeat what she had
captured. But will emphasize that he was
very big on simplicity being king. He
mentioned that for him, Prezi can be more of a distraction.
My
Thoughts: I think the presentation was
very interesting, and was as much around presentation as it was around actual
slide development. Good presenter.
Mobile Ready Course
with Universal Design
·
11%
of all college and university students have some type of disability
·
45%
use tablets to access and 37% use smartphones to access information and this is
on the rise.
·
9
tips for better UD
1. Use color and style responsibly
2. Use Headings
3. Use tables only for tabular data
4. Have fallback options for media –
text alternative
5. Add descriptive text
6. Reevaluate uploading outside
documents
7. Link with descriptive natural
language
8. Take your course on mobile test drive
9. Keep it simple yet effective
My Thoughts: I really like the quote for Steve Jobs “Some
people think design is how it looks, but it is how it works.” I agree and how it looks is more the development side. This presentation confirms that our
department is on top of this and definitely headed in the right direction.
Keynote Speaker Michael
Feldstein
·
Identified
that all too often we start with here is what we are going to do, without first
starting with, what do we need?
·
Mentioned
that as an expert, you forget what it is like to be a novice learner (Doug
after this weekend, this can be an inside joke for us).
My Thoughts:
I really like him bringing to our attention that all too often we start with a
solution, without first really understanding what is needed.
One Weird Trick
So, the one weird trick is “Feedback”.
·
Definition
for feedback is timely intervention.
·
Feedback
cannot fix bad design.
·
Various
forms of feedback: Objective, 1 on 1, formative, summative, etc.
·
Feedback
doesn’t have to come from an expert.
·
Feedback
should be goal based.
·
Feedback
needs to be timely.
·
Students
want to know: What can I do? What can’t
I do? How am I doing? How can I do better?
My Thoughts: I like that he mentioned feedback cannot fix bad
design, and I will add that bad design increases the need for feedback that
wouldn’t be needed with a good design.
Feedback is critical to learning, and we aren’t real good at this. I think this is an area of where we have an
opportunity for improvement. I think
having it be a conversation loop and goal based is critical.
Tales from a MOOC, and
How It Changed My On-Campus Courses
·
By
week 5 of 8 week course had 21,268 students
·
Students
do care about getting the certificate for completing the course.
·
6%
completion rate, tut this doesn’t take into account the number of students who
learned something
·
He
spent a lot of time getting the MOOC ready:
o
370
hours general work
o
200
hours programming party game
o
100
hours for interactive course information web app.
·
He
ran it again, but changed it to 12 weeks.
He added no new content, but had a 4 week recovery time where students
just practiced what they had learned.
My thoughts:
I went to this one since I’m not sold on MOOCs, and I wanted to see if this
might change my mind. It didn’t, but it
was interesting. I like the idea of having recovery weeks.
Presence +Experience
Purposeful Design of Presence in Online Courses
·
With
online dynamics of communication is different.
o
Community
of Inquiry Model – a descriptive model of how we communicate with technology: 3
types of presence:
§ Social
§ Cognitive
§ Teaching
o
Kolb’s
Experiential Learning Cycle
§ Experience
§ Examining
§ Explaining
§ Applying
o
For
P+E you need to combine the two.
My
thoughts: This was a really good
session. I think we are trying to do
this, but I like how this brings attention to it. High touch can require getting hands-on
experience. In most cases this would
make it a blended course.
Just-In-Time Teaching –
Make It Shine
·
One
issue is students can tell you the answer but not why that is the answer.
·
1/3
of students do the prep-work.
·
JITT
involves online pre-class assignments (warm-up). The teacher reads through the
responses to the assignments and uses this information to adjust what goes on
in the classroom. This allows for active engagement in the class.
·
Readings
are pre-work to warm-ups. Warm-ups are
10% of their grade.
·
Need
to make sure students know this is a partnership and helps the learning process.
·
Good
resource: jittdl.org
·
Use
LMS, email will drive you crazy.
My thoughts: If students can’t tell you why, are
they really learning? Really good concept. Only works as good as the
facilitator makes it. Would be
interesting to discuss, can this concept be used for online? I think this definitely should be considered
for blended and classroom.
Online Education
Without Borders
·
Online
education impacts the world.
·
Jesuit
Commons Higher Education at the Margins
o
Sites
(refugee camps)– may be solar, generator, or commercial electricity
o
Weather
conditions impact when and how
·
Started
in 2010 with 2 sites Malawi and Kenya, and now there are 10 sites.
·
Their
culture, context, and time have to be incorporated into courses.
·
1,974
have enrolled in either a Diploma or CSLT programme. 328 have completed the diploma program.
My Thoughts:
I really liked in the video a student saying, “We love learning, and hopefully
we never stop.” I’m proud that Regis plays a major part in this type of
program. This truly is making a difference.
I hope we are never the reason they stop learning.
Selecting Accessible
Web-Based Learning Tools
·
CU
leveraged outside expertise, built relationships, developed policy and
standards. Built capacity by creating
positions to support the effort.
·
They
audit services to determine issues
o
D2L
is a star
o
Voice
Thread is flash based so it isn’t.
Workaround requires typing it in and this isn’t an equivalent
experience.
·
Bit.ly/policy
standards – has their policy and standards
·
Recommend
working with IT and Disability Services
·
Ask
the right questions:
o
Is
using the tool required for all students?
o
Is
the Web Content Accessibility Compliant 2.0 AA?
o
Are
there know accessibility issues with the web-based learning tool?
§ If yes, what are the workarounds and
when are you fixing?
o
Have
you done accessibility testing?
o
Is
documentation for students that use assistive technology available?
·
Enterprise
tools are not the responsibility of the faculty.
·
Quick
test – if you can’t use it without a mouse, you have an issue.
My Thoughts:
Good presentation. I think we (Regis)
needs to determine how we are going to build capacity. I think CU maybe goes beyond what is
required with external sites. The list
of questions is extensive. I would hope
that it is enough to ask are you ADA compliant and they respond in writing that
they are, we have done due diligence.
Good contact person: aisha.jackson@colorado.edu
Active+Collaborative=learning:
An online approach
·
Active
learning is the combination of learning through reading, listening, seeing and
having experiences – with a strong active component (focus on experience).
·
Assignments
need to actively challenge students and encourage them to collaborate with
their cohorts and instructor for increased engagement.
My Thoughts:
I think our online courses could improve with collaboration and active
learning. Regardless, with collaboration, I think we need to make sure we don’t
force it in order to say we have it. I
watched a Ted presentation recently that did a great job of saying that group
work may be overrated. We need to create
curiosity for learning. I think making
it relevant is critical.
Winning the Student
Engagement Game
·
Engagement
is evidenced by working hard, persistence, attention, satisfaction, etc.
·
Active
learning requires engagement
·
3
Things Needed
o
Collective
Goals
o
Assigned
Roles
o
Clear
Communication
·
Give
students a purpose for being in the class.
My Thoughts:
The assigned roles are really important in any group activity, and I’m not sure
this is stressed enough in our classes.
This was geared for the classroom, but the clear communication is even
more important in online courses.
I’ll end
with this is a very good conference and the price is right!
