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

·         http://www.e-literate.tv is a site he and a partner created that is worth visiting.

·         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!