ID&T Today: “Building a Pathway for StudentLearning” Course De...

ID&T Today: “Building a Pathway for StudentLearning” Course De...: “Building a Pathway for Student Learning” Course Design Retreat - June 2-5, 2015, Colorado Springs I was fortunate to attend the “Bui...

“Building a Pathway for Student Learning” Course Design Retreat - June 2-5, 2015, Colorado Springs

I was fortunate to attend the “Building a Pathway for Student Learning” Course Design Retreat June 2-5, 2015 in Colorado Springs. The retreat is a joint effort offered each year with faculty from both Regis University and the United States Air Force Academy. The hands-on approach to course design created a fun and interactive learning community. I was a facilitator for one of the five tables of intermingled faculty. This role provided me with the opportunity to gain insights into the difficult “thinking processes” that it takes faculty to craft a well-integrated, aligned, and transparent course. The following is a summary of what I learned and observed.

There are five phases within the course design’s “thinking process,” each with attention to requisite knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSAs) students must gain in order to be successful in the course. First is identification of “student learning factors.” Second is the formulation of a well-crafted and measureable “learning goal.” Third is the identification of the “proficiencies” student must gain in order to achieve the learning goal. Fourth is the development of appropriate “learning experiences” that support students in moving toward the proficiency and ultimately the learning goal. Fifth is the identification of appropriate formative assessments for both students and faculty to determine if students had gained the requisite knowledge, skills and attitudes to gain the needed proficiencies.

Faculty were instructed to come with a course in mind to either create or revise throughout the retreat. The focus was on “student learning” rather than on content development. This may sound like a minor difference in wording, but it was a major shift in how faculty approach the course design process. The goal of the retreat was to facilitate faculty through their thinking processes in order for each to craft a well-integrated, aligned, and transparent course. A “Course Poster” template was used to facilitate each phase.

Course Poster Template

Throughout the retreat the faculty progress through an iterative refinement of their “thinking process.” These refinement processes provide the faculty with the opportunity to revisit any assumptions they may have made about the student learning factors without realizing it. Often, assumptions impact the student learning factors and targeted learning goal. One of the key aspects of the retreat was the iterative refinement of the thinking process with input and feedback from peers. This was crucial to allow for different perspectives from other faculty who are not familiar with the course content. Often faculty are so familiar with their content that they fall into the “Curse of Knowledge.” They forget all of the proficiencies that they have to learn and assimilate to build their wealth of knowledge of the content area.

Phase 1: The faculty begin by brainstorming a list of student learning factors for their courses such as diversity motivation to learn, cultural backgrounds, background experiences and many other factors to consider. Faculty moved from identifying “who are my students” with a continuous refinement of the student learning factors to formulate “what do my students need to learn” in order to meet the learning goal. This initial phase begins to build the pathway for student learning.

Phase 2: The faculty were instructed to identify the learning goals but to pick one to focus on throughout the retreat. The learning goal served as the bulls-eye target for the course design process. Notice that I am not saying content development process. All aspects of the course design process had to align with their selected learning goal. If everything didn’t align, there was a mismatch of what students needed to learn, practice, and do (KSA) to meet the learning goal. Throughout the retreat there was an ongoing refinement of the learning goal and the student learning factors to make sure that the targeted learning goal aligned with what students needed to know, do or value (KSA) in order to meet that learning goal.

The next step within this second phase was to identify what type of summative assessment would be appropriate for the selected learning goal. Identifying the summative assessment at this point in the thinking process provided continuity of thought and alignment with the learning goal. If the summative assessment didn’t accurately measure the student’s learning related to the course goal, then the summative assessment needed to be revisited and potentially the learning goal as well.

Phase 3: This phase in the course design process was to identify all of the proficiencies (KSA) that students must gain within the course in order to meeting the targeted learning goal.  Another way of thinking of proficiencies is as learning objectives or outcomes. Faculty then brainstorm with their peers and facilitator to identify all of the student learning proficiencies needed. This thinking process further refines the course design since the proficiencies have to align with both the student learning factors and the learning goal. If the proficiencies don’t align then more thinking and brainstorming will be needed.

At this point in the retreat the faculty seemed to gain confidence in their thinking process around course design. Faculty seemed to pick up their momentum and enthusiasm for how they were designing their courses that would indeed build a pathway for student learning.  

Phase 4: Faculty moved on to identifying learning experiences (not the assignments themselves) which support student learning for each of the proficiencies identified in Phase 3 as they kept in mind the KSAs students need to develop. As an aside, this is where I often see faculty spend most of their time on course development.

Phase 5: Faculty then move on to the last phase by brainstorming and identifying appropriate formative assessments for each of the proficiencies. This part seemed hard and simple at the same time. The thinking process that was required to determine appropriate evaluations for each of the proficiencies was simple though more creativity was encouraged. In turn, each of the formative evaluations identified needed to align with the summative assessment. This was the harder part of the thinking process. For example, if the summative assessment was an essay, then one of the formative assessments needed to be some type of an essay to provide students with the opportunity to have their writing skills evaluated prior to the summative assessment.

At the end of the retreat faculty presented their Course Poster and discussed their rationale for how they mapped the pathways for student learning clearly identified.

Violetta Miles Course Poster Presentation

There were many ah-ha moments as faculty wrestled with the complexity of their own course design in order to ensure that they built a pathway to set students up for success in their courses. The course poster provides transparency for their course design and shows the integration of the five phases. Faculty discussed whether they would share their course poster with their students or not. The jury is still out on this one.

My appreciation and gratitude goes to Ken Sagendorf in the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) for the opportunity to participate in this course design retreat. I will use this course design framework to help me as I work with faculty moving forward. I believe this is a wonderful process to pull apart a course and fit it back together (like a puzzle) in a more cohesive and aligned manner. I am grateful to my department, Instructional Design & Technology (IDT) for their support of me in attending this retreat. My hope is to share what I’ve learned with my colleagues and that we may all focus more on student learning rather than primarily on course content development.  

eLCC May 2015 monthly meeting

Professional development

The May 2015 eLCC monthly meeting was hosted by Red Rocks Community College at their beautiful campus nestled in the foothills near Golden.

Jon Johnson, Director of Instructional Technology and eLearning, and Kai Savi, Instructional Designer, both at Red Rocks, got things started with a professional development session on the use of of universal design concepts when developing course content. The session spurred a lively discussion on the struggles faced at institutions with the acceptance of universal design principles.

Three attendees work at institutions that have, or are working on, an institutional policy for ADA compliance. Others shared that training is being provided to faculty course developers on how to incorporate ADA-friendly universal design concepts. There was unanimous agreement that, although federal mandates and lawsuit threats will ultimately force compliance, that instructional designers should focus training efforts on the learner benefits of universal design rather than compliance mandates.

Jon and Kai then went through several slides on methods for incorporating ADA-friendly electronic course elements. Their PPT will be shared with eLCC members in the near future.

Jon then took attendees on a tour of the multi-purpose building that houses, among other things, the library, IT, cafeteria, and classrooms. Of note were the dedicated classrooms equipped with short throw projectors and adjustable seating that easily accommodates small group collaborations.

Business meeting

Conference update

• Overall a great success
• Some discussion on a possible change in location for 2016 conference
• Bidding process used to determine location
• Thursday luncheon speaker Robbie Melton was a big hit with attendees
• Many institutions are no longer allowed to purchase door prizes

Website

• WordPress corporate site got hacked, causing eLCC site to be down for several days
• eLCC site had to be recreated from scratch by Nate Wadman
• Front page now sequential by date
• Still needs ADA compliance verification
• Will soon incorporate an RSS option

Listserv

• New listserv tool coming this summer
• Paid site, funded by eLCC
• Should be much easier to manage

Professional development day

• October 23rd at Metro State
• May or may not co-sponsor with Metro State
• If not co-sponsoring, eLCC will have a separate event
• eLCC members attend free of charge
• RFP coming this summer

Upcoming eLCC meetings

• June 26: Colorado Mountain College (campus TBD)
• July: virtual meeting hosted by Pikes Peak CC
• August: none
• September: retreat, location TBD (possibly at Penrose House in Colorado Springs)

My favorite session last week at the eLearning Conference was titled, Ethics Game.  See free trial at the bottom of this posting.

 

EthicsGame, a leader in online ethics education provides practical and experiential ethics education for strong learner-engagement. Our web-based learning tools are used by over 10,000 students in over 300 universities throughout the world. They can be used in a class as an assignment, built throughout a syllabus, or integrated across the curriculum to expose students to ethical decision making within their core classes both undergraduate and graduate. Our simulations align into business, nursing, healthcare, education, public administration, sports management as well as general education classes. Attached are detailed product overviews and below is a sampling of our tools, including a trial access you may share with other faculty. If you would like to see some of the tools for nursing or education, just let me know.

• The Ethical Lens Inventory ™(ELI) is a typology to help learners understand what core values influence the choices they make when no rules tell them what to do. The ELI provides a an awareness about your specific ethical priorities, strengths and blind spots.  Free tools are provided to faculty to expand the ELI within the classroom including Group Exercises, Structured Controversies, and a written assignment entitled “Your Personal Values Statement”.
• Ethics Exercises for Academic Integrity™ challenge students to understand Academic Integrity and the Student Code of Conduct. The Compliance Sequence consists of two exercises regarding Academic Integrity and the Culture Sequence has four separate exercises combining the Ethical Lens Inventory results with the questions around societal norms and the Student Code of Conduct including student loans, teamwork issues, plagiarism and cheating and social media.
•  Ethics Exercises for Accounting™ is based on the new AICPA Code of Professional Conduct which became effective on December 15, 2014. This three- part series makes the Code's conceptual framework for critical thinking easy to grasp. In a straightforward approach, your students will learn how to tackle issues of: 1.  Integrity; 2. Independence and Objectivity;  3. Firm Activities including Duty of Care, Professionalism, and Contingent Fees.
• Ethics Exercises for Critical Thinking™ is the newest addition to the EthicsGame Product Portfolio combining the short, iterative feature of Ethics Exercises with the Baird Decision Model. As students role play through these iterative exercises they will identify different ethical lens responses and learn common business practices, practicing the principles of critical thinking and ethical decision making. Merger Madness deals with a start-up that is being courted by two separate companies and the decision is which company is the best match. The various business decisions are all included in the Ethics Exercises, so learners will have to evaluate ethical strengths and weaknesses across the various functions of the company. In addition, because both companies have business strengths and weaknesses, the ethical assets and liabilities will have to be balanced against the business strengths and liabilities.
• Hot Topics Simulations™ are a much deeper experience, taking about 2 hours as an out of class assignment. Hot Topics puts learners into 2 real-world ethical dilemmas, engaging them in the ethical reasoning and value commitments used to support choices from each of the four ethical perspectives. At the end of each dilemma, learners write a formal business memo about their decisions and consider the law and compliance aspects of their decisions.  Quantitative assessment data are calculated based on simulation questions and two written memos provide a qualitative explanation of the students decisions.

EthicsGame Trial for Business - available to everyone

1. 1.      Go to www.ethicsgame.com
2. 2.      Under Register for a New Course, enter the class code CVQRER
3. 3.      Enter your email and a 6 digit password.
4. 4.      Click on the Ethical Lens Inventory, Ethics Exercises-Merger Madness, or a Hot Topics Simulation.
5. 5.      You can log in and out using your email and password as you like and the tools will recall where you left off.

Article in BizEd Magazine. http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/100231/30

BizEd is published by AACSB International–the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business www.BizEdmagazine.com.

 

ELCC 2015 Conferencef: Short thoughts on Academic Integrity.

I recently attended the eLearning Consortium of Colorado’s conference in Breckenridge. I went for one day and due to the fact that it happened to be same day we got our wonderful spring storm, my attendance was limited, but I did manage to catch Heather Tobin ‘s presentation on Academic Honesty. Heather, an Instructional Designer at the University of Denver and an adjunct instructor for CCCOnline, provided several strategies for reducing the possibility of cheating.

1.   Examine your syllabus, where in your course might students be most tempted or most capable of succeeding at cheating.

§  Once identified find new ways of assessing these activities that will reduce or eliminate the cheating.

2.   Build a culture of academic integrity in your course.

§  One attendee shared that he has the students sign an oath pledging not to cheat. As a practice this gives a point of discussion if cheating does occur and helps remind students that you do care.

§  Heather mentioned that just discussing it as a group brings cheating out of the shadows and gives students a chance to hear how the others feel about it.

3.   Utilize Turnitin to assist students with checking rough drafts.

§  Regis University has an enterprise license of Turnitin and it is available online and it WorldClass for all instructors.

§  Encourage students to submit drafts for analysis to see where they might be plagiarizing.

§  Use Turnitin as teaching tool for students.

§  This will give students experience with the tool you may be using to evaluate them before they are graded with it.

                                                                  

I’m pretty certain that some if not all of these are known and used by many faculty, however a review of good ideas never hurts. Hope it is helpful.

eLCC Reflections

Guest authored by Dr. Terry Buxton, Assistant Professor, Regis University Loretto Heights School for Nursing

I had the great fortune of attending an amazing local conference this past week (I didn’t know existed). The Reach the Peak: Scale New Heights put on by the eLearning Consortium of Colorado was held up in Breckenridge, CO. Often at large conferences you hear from national speakers, brush past vendors, and briefly network. At the Reach the Peak conference, I met with local experts and vendors who were able to spend more time opening my eyes to some new technology “YOUSEEU” and possibilities. The keynote speaker, Dr. Robbie Melton was sensational. My only regret is that I attend a one day conference rather than the full conference. Lesson learned, I’ll be back next year for the full conference of colleagues and experts. 

Terry

ELCC 2015 Conference: Nicole's Take-aways and Gems of Info

ELCC 2015 Conference “Reach the peak, scale new heights”
Breckenridge, CO

Nicole’s take-aways and gems of info

Overall, it was a great conference, as expected. My favorite thing about the conference this year was the stellar keynote, Dr. Robbie Melton, an educational and workforce consultant for Tennessee. She was like a whirlwind of energy, hope and excitement for the future and potential of educational technology. I was amazed at the wide variety of technology gadgets and tools that she brought with her and shared with us. With each one she showed us she pushed all our thinking by saying “hmmm? How can we leverage this for learning?” or “Why aren’t we already using this for learning now?” Of all of the tools and gadgets I was intrigued by the little hologram set up with the smartphone. The paintbrush and fine tipped styluses were really cool since I am an artist and would find those very useful. All of the itools for personal health were amazing such as the blood sugar monitor, blood pressure and even the wearable shirt that monitors your heart rate while exercising. Much excitement was stirred but it just goes to show that there’s so much potential for drawing deep connections about how these tools are going to change our lives and change teaching and learning forever!

The other keynote, Diego Madero focused on the world of 3D printing. It was amazing to see all the different applications and the impact it is already having on life! They can print human tissue and make ears! You’ve probably already seen how several people have printed functioning arms and hands for much much less the cost then other prosthetic creations. Adults and children are getting a new lease on life with their 3D printed limbs. There are 3D edible creations and there are even large scale creations such as HOMES! Gadzooks look at what we can do and how this is impacting our world! Truly amazing.

Here's a nice video I found on YouTube that displays a wide variety of complex and simple 3D printed objects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xaj9jx7648 and this video gives you a good overview of 3D printing technology and you can see how the printer works in action. https://youtu.be/IS4Xw8f9LCc

One of my other favorite things about going to conferences in general is to collect a nice list of ed tech tools and apps to investigate. Here’s a little list I’d like to share:

Tools and apps to explore:

• https://snapguide.com/ (a place for how-to guides)
• iMuscle2 (an app that transforms your workout and helps you target muscles)
• https://www.thinglink.com/ (create interactive images with hot spots)
• https://vialogues.com/ (create meaningful discussions around videos)
• Kobo (millions of ebooks)
• dermoscreen app (this actually gives a prescreen for skin cancer)
• Make up genius (this is cool app that you can use your own reflection and apply makeup in real-time- I realize this may only be interesting to the women out there....)
• Touch Xylophone app (make beautiful music or at least some noise)

Nicole Ellison    MS.Ed

Instructional Designer  |  Department of Instructional Design & Technology (IDT) 

3333 Regis Blvd., Denver, CO 80221 G-7

Main Hall 339

P 303.964.5291  |  F 303.964.0000  |  E nellison@regis.edu |  IDT.REGIS.EDU