eLcc 2012 Conference summary

Nicole’s summary of the eLcc Conference

Overall, it was a great conference. It is always nice to visit and network with folks from other Colorado Colleges and schools. The theme of this year’s conference was “Survivor or Lost; Exploring the Realities of eLearning.”

The opening Keynote speaker was James Jamison, President of Transformational Learning. http://www.imagilearning.com/

He focused on the digital learner and that we shouldn’t stereotype the vision of who that might be. It is not necessarily young people. He used the example of his 85 year old mother who tweets or blogs. Jim’s take home point was on the concept of “tranceformational learning.” (no, that is not a typo).  By closely examining what is happening in the brain when we “experience” something. He used examples of gaming and the learning that takes place during that experience. Elements in that experience might be: reading, adrenaline rush, motivation, problem-solving, trial and error, and sometimes even feeling lost. Upon closer examination of this ‘experience’ we know that there are similar patterns of activity going on in our brain during gaming as there is when we are “learning”.  How might we create a learning activity that doesn’t have the label of “this is a learning activity.” Not to be sneaky in the process but identifying this “learning trance” that occurs during gaming and bringing that to the curriculum.

To read more about James, tranceformational learning and imagiLearning, go to http://www.imagilearning.com/

The ATLAS project/ Eric Salahub, Front Range Community College

http://engagingideas.net/atlas/

This session was primarily about classroom assessment techniques but in the online classroom. How might we collect formative evaluations and feedback from our online students?

ATLAS: Asynchronous, Learning, Teaching Assessment Strategies

This was a great discussion on comparing classroom vs. online techniques for immediate feedback or formative evaluations.

Clickers are used in the classroom for immediate feedback during lectures, could this be done in the online classroom. I actually suggested a free tool called polleverywhere.com (In which I was presenting on the next day for this very purpose).

Other suggestions that came of the discussion where: formative “minute” papers, minute emails, anonymous discussions, a “one word” journal (for example: describe an article in one word and then write a paragraph about why you choose that word to describe it)

Resources: Google “50 CATS” by Angelo and Cross or copy and paste the following link pages.uoregon.edu/tep/resources/newteach/fifty_cats.pdf

http://www.amazon.com/Classroom-Assessment-Techniques-Handbook-Education/dp/1555425003

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Faculty Support Blog/ Nate Wadman, Pikes Peak Community College

http://blogs.ppcc.edu/ppccconnect

Nate explained that this faculty support blog was originally put in place when they were transitioning to D2L and they wanted to make it easy for faculty to have a location to get “how-to” articles. He sent out a weekly “what’s new“ email blast to all faculty pointing out a bullet list of new articles that were posted. At one point they actually had over 30K hits. Because they hosted their WordPress blog directly at Wordpress at first they found out that when you have over 20K hits the advertisements will begin to get plastered on the site. Unfortunately, the ads were for University of Phoenix! They pulled the blog and hosted it on a college server. They had trouble getting the same amount of traffic to the site after that, but it could have been because the “newness” of D2L was dying down and people where getting comfortable with it.

Some lessons learned that Nate shared:

• If you choose WordPress, host on own server
•  Market and promote with simple weekly emails, use frequently asked questions and issues for articles
•  Perhaps don’t call it “a blog” but simply a faculty resource site. Some people have expectations and assumptions about “blogs” that might deter them from visiting the site.
•  Use Jing for quick short demos
• Tag posts with version of D2L, as this will change over time and some articles may become obsolete.
• Tag well
• Remove those outdated posts as needed.
• provide clear instructions (maybe even a demo) on how to navigate and search for content inside the blog.

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Time to share-for Free! CCCOnline

This session was great because I learned about 5 new and interesting Web 2.0 tools that have some potential.

Join.me: This is a free tool where you can utilize screen sharing on the fly. In addition there are voice conferencing features as well. With the free account you can do internet calling, screen sharing, you can have up to 250 viewers, share controls, chat and view on iPad/iPhone or Android.

Projeqt.com:  Dynamic Presentations for a real-time world. Create dynamic slideshows for storytelling but also incorporate layers or “stacks” as they call it in Projeqt. You can pull in photos, text, twitter,  RSS feeds, YouTube, Flickr, and several more tools!

Evernote: Evernote is a popular free notetaking tool that students utilize. It is cloud based and there are mobile apps for it as well. Notes may include audio, photos and video. Searchable.

Daytum: ok this tool could be a stretch for practical use but it was really interesting and I think perhaps could have some potential for tracking research data over time. Daytum is dubbed a web-based method for collecting, categorizing, and communicating everyday data. It allows for a graphical interface that represents all the data that you choose to track.

Popplet.com: This is a free web-based mindmapping tool and seems a little easier to use than other mindmapping tools and it is more robust. You can collaborate in real-time. You can print and export. You can pull in photos and videos as well.

Keynote: Kevin King, Founder & CEO Transformation Point, Inc.
www.TransformationPoint.com
“Mapping Learning to Application: Improve the effectiveness of virtual teams in the real world.”

I really liked this keynote as he talked about teams, communication and human nature. Kevin offered some detailed strategies for setting up success among virtual teams. (but really any team for that matter) Understanding personality characteristics both in yourself and in your teammates is a good place to start. Kevin explained the dimensions of trust (ability; benevolence; integrity) and how that is the key to a successful team.

Kevin also discussed a 5 factor model of personality (Costa and McCrae)

Openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. (each trait has a scale from one extreme to the other)

Using some of these models can help guide a team in aligning their strengths and develop strategies for success.

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 D2L version 10

The representative from D2L went over the new features and changes that are coming with the 10.0 upgrade. This is considered a major upgrade. There will be a new look and feel to the LMS. They are focusing in on a very “personal” experience for the student. The official release of version 10 will be in May. Of course, that doesn’t mean that Regis is upgrading in May. More information on that will be communicated when we know.

Part of the new look and feel includes much more flexibility in branding the LMS. Users may even add a photo on the background. The menus will be changing to make it easier to navigate and a personalized experience. For example, on the home page there is what they call a “minibar” with dropdown menus to personal grade announcements, notifications, a course list, messages, announcements etc.

·        The calendar will be able to sync with Google calendar and/or Microsoft Outlook.

·        There will be a plugin for Office that will allow a direct submission to the dropbox from Word.

• The dropbox will be integrated with Google Apps to allow direct submissions.
• Improved competencies tool that can go all the way up to the institution level.
• Instructors will have ability to record video when providing feedback.
•  D2L “lecture capture” tool will  be viewable with Apple products as it is archived as HTML5
•  A mobile app has been designed for instructors for easy grading on the iPad. It is called the “D2L assignment grader” the lite version is free; $10 for full version.
•  A 1^st post restriction for discussions will  be in the upgrade
•  Improved communication with external tools and scorm objects
•  The Journal tool is being phased out.

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Shock and Awe; How to engage online students?

Karen Kaemmerling CCConline

This was more of a brainstorming discussion but here are my notes:

Create drama through storytelling, characters, “tell the untold story”

Emotional content; tying emotion with the learning and content

Competition; guided debates, conflict and resolution, guidance with critical thinking;

Explore “uncomfortableness”

Play devil’s advocate

Have students write the discussion questions

Use social media and blogs for positive professional activities

Rubrics Rock/ Jennifer Frahm, AIMS

Rubrics provide a means to

·        Organize (students can organize their time and effort)

·        Communicate (expectations)

·        Conflict resolution (understanding the difference between an A and C, doing average work and going beyond just doing the assignment)

·        Stress management (no surprises reduces stress)

·        Streamlines grading (consistent and fair grading)

An Objective is the intended result(s)

An Outcome is a product or deliverable

Competencies are skills or behaviors

Consider allowing students to generate their own rubric and submit for approval to the instructor. What do the students think they should be graded on? Would they perform better when they decide on the rubric?

Provide good and bad examples

Define the gold standard- what is the difference between simply meeting expectations and going above and beyond?

Jennifer mentioned that there are some big limitations in the D2L rubrics tool as it does not allow for a range of levels. It shows “# or more” instead of range.

Respondus Lockdown Browser

RHCHP Faculty access will be available shortly

I recently attended a webinar on Respondus Lockdown Browser which was very informative. Respondus Lockdown Browser is a custom browser that prevents students from interacting with other programs and locks them into the exam until they submit it for grading.

Instructors

- Lockdown browser can be applied to one quiz at a time.

- Lockdown browser setting is located in the Restrictions tab under Security options.

- All settings will be applied to the quiz in the lockdown browser.

- Links can be used in a quiz for students to click on to direct them to a page for viewing. All links, back and forward buttons will be disabled on that page.

- Recommend to give students a practice test before administering an exam. This will give students an opportunity to download the browser and practice taking the exam without having to worry about a grade.

Students

- Students are unable to access the quiz without lockdown browser installed. They will be given a link to download lockdown browser.

- Students can install lockdown browser on their local computer. They are able to install on multiple computers. Internet Explorer must be installed on PC’s and Safari must be installed on Mac’s for lockdown browser to work.

- The menu bar is not available, such as file, edit, back, forward, maximize or minimize. Students are unable to print or right click. Keyboard shortcuts, such as copy/paste, are unavailable.

- If students try to exit during an exam, they will get a warning “You must finish this exam before you exit.” This helps to increase completion rates.

- Screen capture software, such as Snagit, is disabled. Lockdown browser also prevents students from visiting other websites, accessing other applications, such as skype, other instant messaging programs, and browsers.

Thoughts on IMSH 2012

The 2012 International Meeting for Simulation in Healthcare was held at the San Diego Convention Center in late January. This was my first IMSH conference and wasn't sure what to expect. The world of nursing simulations, and in particular virtual sims, is all new. I was amazed at just how extensive the development of serious gaming has become. This post will share some of the highlights of the two days spent.

My attendance at the conference stems from the discovery phase of a project currently in the works dealing with virtual nursing simulations. I've seen a number of avatar-based sims using primarily Second Life. But the Second Life learning curve is intimidating to many, and students with limited time may revolt at the required hours for orientation to the most basic movements.

I therefore focused my efforts on game-based environments and their use in the classroom.

Northeastern University has developed a Web-based virtual patient environment. When developing the environment they kept in mind the importance of ease of use by students. They wanted a realistic environment that was instructional, engaging and that provided plenty of feedback. They used SMEs to develop a decision tree when interacting with the virtual patients. The use of virtual patients allowed for the tracking of individual performances by students.


Another institution has created a virtual text-based environment. The Comprehensive Disease Management
course is four credits and involves didactic teaching, active learning, and nonlinear course tools. A facilitator guide provided framework for the courses. Rubrics were put in place for many of the processes. One goal of the course was to bridge the gap between classroom and practice. One outcome that stood out was how Millennials embraced the use of  virtual technologies. Grant funding was found for the third party Sim provider. The grant covered the development of ten sim cases. Course faculty provided the SME knowledge. The cases were modified to focus on pharmacists, provider, and patient interventions. Another cost savings was developing the cases in Word and letting the vendor translate into the game environment. Each sim has a text-based scenario and contains photos of patient and family, and social and medical histories. There is an interview component with audio and video. A set of questions allows the student to select a response video.

Without doubt, the most informative session was the IMSH Arcade Games and Showcase. Vendors were allowed one laptop or display. Participants could then sit down and discuss products without all the flash associated with the vendor fair. Several virtual sims stood out, including one from Lockheed Martin that featured a customizable clinical setting. You could select the patient type (gender, race, age), the degree of activity (slow or fast-paced), room environment, equipment, even the placement of the bed in relation to the door.

The University of Miami had recreated the Joplin tornado disaster and developed a triage training program. You controlled a character and were required to interact with the injured, performing triage and making decisions.

Health Partners Institute for Medial Education has developed a low-cost medication dispensing system and EMR for training students on bedside medication dispensing. The system consists of a cart, medication drawers, and used an EMR to track progress notes, lab reports, and more.

And to top off these technologies, I brought back video of a tabletop mannequin featuring layered construction. The system used an overhead projector. Then, using an iPad stylus, a student could peel away the chest skin revealing the rib cage. Peel away another layer revealed organs, including a beating heart. And so forth. The primary use is for surgical training but I could see potential for anatomy classes as well.

got video?

If the answer is YES, then you need closed-captioning (CC). 

This blog post is continuing the topic of 'accessibility'.

First let's start with a definition. Closed captioning is the text that appears synchronously along with a video that captures spoken words and sounds that occur in the video. Closed captioning typically will appear below the video on a black background and the user has the ability to toggle the captioning on and off.

 It is important to note that subtitles are different from closed captioning. Subtitles are for foreign languages and intended for HEARING people. Closed captioning is designed specifically for NON-hearing people and those who are hard of hearing.

There are a variety of methods and services for obtaining closed captioning for your videos. You can consult with this wiki I created for details. http://adacompliance.wikispaces.com/

If you are using videos that are publicly posted on the internet and if it does not provide closed captioning it is important that you do not require a student to view the video as it is not accessible and does not meet ADA compliance. Try to find video resources that include captions. Sometimes you can contact the publisher/author and make arrangements to obtain a version of the video that includes captions.

Benefits to ALL when captioning is provided

• Legal compliance (Americans with Disabilities Act-ADA)
• Universal access (learning styles)
• Improved comprehension of content*
• Aids in ESL students
• Very handy when viewing in noisy environments (or quiet places like the library)
• Captions can be searchable

(*research shows it doubles retention and comprehension)

Higher Ground Accessibility Conference

I recently attended the "14th Annual Accessing Higher Ground, Accessible Media, Web and Technology Conference" that is sponsored each year by CU Boulder. It was very informative and I plan on sharing a few posts on this blog that address some of the tips and best practices that I learned about.
Some of the topics I focused on are: captioning videos (best practices and how to do it), tips on Adobe Connect, Acrobat and Captivate for accessibility, strategies for implementing a campus wide policy, and best practices for accessible graphics/images.

stay tuned....

Nicole

Another Great Sloan-C Annual Conference

This year's Sloan-C conference had close to 1,500 attending in person and another 600 virtually. Impressive. The conference was well organized and had two outstanding keynote speakers. Here's a summary of some of the better sessions I attended.


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Second Life is Dead, pre-conference workshop
John Rogate, Champlain College, U.S.
Marjon Klapwijk, Creative Twists Designs, Netherlands

Second Life costs $3,540 per year and recently rescinded the academic discount. The session discussed a free alternative called OpenSim that is based on an earlier version of the Second Life development engine. OpenSim has undergone several versions and is currently a stable environment. The co-presenter was a former Second Life designer from the Netherlands. She may be a good resource for information on development of the nursing sim at Regis. Alexandra Pickett from SUNY also provided information on the Second Life Medical Center used at SUNY. The workshop was more of a rant against Second Life than a session for learning about virtual worlds. I had hoped for more practical information on the use of virtual worlds for medical sims.

Several resources were mentioned during the presentation:

• YouTube video: Social Media is Not About Technology
• OpenSim:  http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page

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Online and On the Move
Ray Schroeder & Emily Boles, University of Illinois, Springfield

Ray has been one of my favorite presenters for years and this session was no exception. Ray and co-presenter Emily Boles featured a number of mobile technologies for interacting with content.  A humorous but telling YouTube clip showed a toddler attempting to interact with a magazine like one would an iPad. They used an online polling site called textthemob.com for audience participation feedback on a number of questions. Ray mentioned that moving to thin clients and smaller devices improved accessibility and sharability while providing quicker bootups. Most of these devices also provide online cloud-based backups. Two technologies were real eye-openers. The first was a technology that uses face recognition to unlock your smartphone. You look into the device, the device recognizes your features and your phone is unlocked. The other technology is headgear developed at Dartmouth that uses brain waves as an input device. You wear headgear that picks up neural activity which in turn acts as a keyboard-like device. By thinking of a location on the keyboard your mouse pointer moves to that location. This has tremendous applicability for the disabled and hands-free applications. Other resources mentioned:

• Google+ Hangouts: meeting place providing support for up to ten webcams with video
• The Chromebook, boasting of 8-second startup times
• Sony 3D viewer 
• http://www.m-learning.org/
• Clayton Christensen: http://www.claytonchristensen.com/
• Conference session site

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Seven Futures of Online Education
John Sener, Sloan-C

John Sener distributed a worksheet titled Sixteen Propositions about the Future of Online Education. He mentioned the 10% annual growth rate in online education and the importance of cybersymbiosis, where we will be fundamentally dependent on online and other digital technologies. Online education will soon be an integral part of the educational world and disappear as it becomes part of the everyday classroom. He points out the danger of cyberdystopia, where big business takes over online education and devalues human interaction. Great food for thought.


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Wednesday keynote
Lee Rainie, Director, Pew Internet and American Life Project

Wednesday's keynote was presented by Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Pew research studies are closely watched for their insights into American usage of computers and the internet. Lee began his talk by mentioning "tweckling", which is heckling the speaker with disparaging tweets. Funny stuff! Some of the latest research by Pew (Pew is someones name rather than an acronym) indicates that 95% of 12-17 yera olds uses broadband, as well as 41% of those 65 and older. He also mentioned the importance of analytics for making sense of "big data" and information from multiple sources. Analytics helps sort these data into understandable and usable chunks. Lee continued by saying that over half of those using social networking are over 35 years old. Older users use social networks to cope with life such as discussing life changing events. Also, Facebook is used to reunite long-lost friends such as high school classmates. Social networks provide a method of determining relevance of information while providing an audience. Some of the most interesting data came from mobile technologies. 85% of teens take their phones to bed with them. And there are 327 million wireless subscriptions to accommodate the United States population of 315 million.

These data point to some interesting possibilities. For example, users are becoming more adept at real-time and just-in-time sharing of information. Users are becoming better searchers of information rather than remembering more information. This is leading to a new kind of learner, a learner more reliant on feedback and response, one who is more inclined to collaborate, and a learner more oriented towards being a node of production rather than a sole source.


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Thursday keynote
Cable Green

Thursdays keynote was presented by Cable Green, director of Global Learning at Creative Commons. He began his talk by mentioning that the worlds knowledge is a public good. He mentioned several educational resources such as Saylor.org (free education), OCW Consortium (free course content), the Capetown Declaration, and SPARC (open access to scholarly research). Other resources for sharable content include MERLOT, Connexions and OER. A movement is underway at several universities to use sharable content. For example, Athabasca requires faculty to globally search for course content before creating new courses.


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The Reality of Virtual Worlds
Art Institute of Pittsburgh

There are a number of virtual environments currently available. Some of these include Active Worlds, Second Life, Meta Place, and OpenSim. Businesses began developing heavily in virtual worlds but have been retreating at a rapid rate. The presenters suggested starting small and building as necessary rather than initially purchasing large plots of land. The presenters then demonstrated a virtual environment created several years ago that was similar to other virtual environments. The environment was developed using the Unity development engine. They also mentioned ReactionGrid, a virtual world development company.


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Friday keynote
Howard Rheingold

Howard plugged his new book titled A New Culture of Learning. He mentioned how the questions asked by students are more important than the answers they provide. Social media are very important to students in the classroom. Blogs are read by all students and provide an individual voice as well as a source of reflection. Howard mentioned the importance of "crap detection", or sifting the bad information from the good. One example he used was the web advertisement for the "online pregnancy test." Although obviously tongue-in-cheek, similar results could be interpreted as authentic by the more gullible. Another example was a supposed tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King. However, the deeper one got into the site the more inflammatory the text. Howard dug more deeply into the site author and determined that he was a white supremacist with a subversive message. Know your information sources!

Resources:

Big Blue Button: free open source web conferencing.
easywhois: find out the owner of a website (free).


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Using Mobile Technology to Create Meaningful Learning Experiences
Audeliz Matias SUNY Empire State College

An excellent session detailing a project to bring course content to mobile devices. The project included PC, iPad, iPhones, and Androids. They suggested to not attempt to duplicate PC functions on a smart phone. Rather, develop content around the key features of phones. They started with a student survey asking what students wanted and expected from mobile technology. Mobile features were integrated into standard courses rather than being stand-alone.


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Online Nursing Student Satisfaction with Addition of Audio Visual Feedback

Barbara Berg, Regis University

One of the most innovative session topics was provided by Barbara Berg, nursing faculty at RHCHP. Barbara presented a poster session detailing an innovative use of video feedback for student assignments. Barbara used a free video platform to record video feedback which was then attached to an email and sent back to students. The feedback format was well accepted by students. 

WCET 2011 conference highlights

This past week was the 2011 WCET annual conference, held at the Denver City Center Marriott. This was my first WCET conference since 2004 when I presented on plagiarism detection services. Time certainly does fly!

The opening day keynote provided good resources that included:

• A new take on favorite websites (http://edu.allmyfaves.com/)
• Samantha Penney's take on Bloom's taxonomy for technology (http://www.usi.edu/distance/bdt.htm)
• A great retention method from HeadMagnet (http://headmagnet.com/).

Rob Robinson, David Cillay and Chris Manriquez gave their perspectives in an interactive panel discussion on the changing roles of today's learning technology leaders. They emphasized the critical need to sift through the ever-expanding amounts of data to find the information needed to make sound decisions. This is the only way for new initiatives to get off the drawing board. They also talked about the importance of the hybrid model and the conversion of seat-based courses to hybrid. Not only does this provide economies of scale for classroom space but places course materials online for greater access. 

Ritchie Boyd, Julie Kelleher and Loyce Pailen represented the WCET LMS CIG. The panel facilitated discussion on the academic technology ecosystem and the expanding role of 3rd party products. Many of the technologies being adopted by faculty are not necessarily formally supported by IT departments. Apps such as Dropbox, YouTube, and Google Docs are preferred by faculty for their ease of use, simplicity, availability and collaborative potential. IT departments are concerned with their long term availability and the potential security issues. Future online CIG discussions will expand on these issues.

Perhaps the highlight of sessions was one presented by colleagues at CPS Learning Design. Dr. Ling Thompson, Sally Cordrey and Jane Johnson presented on their award-winning Passport to Course Development. The three discussed the development of their multi-media course on course development for faculty. The behind-the-scenes look demonstrated the highly talented staff working at Learning Design. The course won the 2011 WCET Outstanding Work (WOW) award for "innovative, technology-based solutions to a significant problem or need in higher education." A much-deserved recognition.