Online Blogucation

Campus internationalization is a hot topic in higher education. While it may surprise some, many fully online universities also seek to expose their student body to multiple perspectives and have mission statements similar to traditional universities seeking to develop intercultural awareness in their graduates. While it may seem that online programs don’t belong in discussions about international education, the medium provides unique opportunities to bring students together from a wide variety of contexts. Many of the differences such as race, age, weight, general attractiveness and disabilities that we can see in the traditional classroom are invisible in the online environment.

While online students don’t often study abroad, there are some internationalization advantages in the online environment. Online programs are time and space independent so it’s possible for students to login and participate actively from all over the world. It makes for some different intercultural opportunities; especially if the faculty are looking for opportunities to draw upon the local contexts of students. I was fortunate to teach a course once with students from over 70 countries participating in the same classroom. It was the best intercultural experience of my life and something I’ve sought to inspire in other programs since then. So, step out of the box and try something innovative to internationalize your course, program, or institution.

Brian McKay Epp
Academic Trainer and Consultant

Do you want to get started with Web 2.0 tools or digital storytelling but don’t know where to begin? Maybe it doesn’t matter what tool you start with, as long as you just start somewhere.

If you’re looking for some inspiration, here’s a neat website to introduce you to 50+ Web 2.0 tools to help with digital story telling. Alan Levine created an initial story about his dog Dominoe, and then decided to try telling the same story with a variety of Web 2.0 tools. The site gives a link to the 50+ Dominoe stories (actually up to 64 now) so you can see what the same story looks like when presented with the different tools. Some tools have audio, some don’t, and some aren’t what you’d initially think of for digital storytelling … like Wayfaring (#36, a map site). The site also gives a short blurb about each tool and lists whether the resulting piece can be linked or embedded in a website (or, hopefully for my ideal purposes, a course management system). The site also lists tools that ended up on the “cutting room floor” in that they didn’t work well for his purposes, or were sites that disappeared, which can definitely happen with Web 2.0 tools. Unfortunately, some of the links don’t work (so it’s possibly time to retire some more to the cutting room floor), but nonetheless it should give you some creative inspiration to get started with some new tools.

– Gail E. Krovitz, Ph.D. –
Director of Academic Training & Consulting

Levine, Alan.  http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/Dominoe+50+Ways

The eCollege Academic Trainers & Consultants teach courses for our Educational Partners in order to stay involved with the instructional environment at online institutions. At the college I teach for it’s the start of a new term and I am again dealing with multiple situations of student angst in my course Introductions discussion area.

I’m again reminded of a great article from our Educator’s Voice newsletter on “Emotions in the Cyber Classroom” by Dr. Charlotte Redden. As Dr. Redden notes, “emotions mediate all learning . . . and drive . . . attention, meaning and memory.”

I like the idea of identifying and proactively dealing with student emotions before they overwhelm students, especially those new to the online environment. Dr. Redden’s article describes student apprehension around being a student, dealing with course content, and dealing with online technology. More importantly, the article notes best practices for addressing these states of apprehension. For example, establish a clear instructor presence in the course and begin to develop a robust learning community.

There are important opportunities to improve our understanding of the play of emotions in our cyber classroom and to ensure student success in the online environment. Which of Dr. Redden’s observations ring true for you and your classes and which best practices can you profitably apply in your online classroom?

- Ken Switzer, Ph.D. –
Senior Academic Trainer & Consultant

Redden, C.A. October 12, 2005. Emotions in the Cyber Classroom. Educator’s Voice Volume 6, Issue 10. Accessed online at:
http://www.ecollege.com/Newsletter/EducatorsVoice/EducatorsVoice-Vol6Iss10.learn

Do you remember the haunting words sung by Frank Sinatra – “When I was 35…it was a very good year…”? As eCollege turned 13, which incidently is 118 in Internet years, a LOT happened. But more happened to set up 2010 than many people may know. Let’s look back for a moment as we look ahead.

Do you know the saying, “Measure twice, cut once?” That is exactly what Pearson is getting ready to do with LearningStudio OE (formerly eCollege). For the past year, we’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars, hired dozens of new employees, and worked overtime to move the current systems into tighter integration so as to be able to measure more than was ever possible before. Measurement of (and subsequently) performance on outcomes has already proven to make online education stronger in some situations than face to face (http://www.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf). But moving forward, and as technology becomes increasingly seamless with life, the measurement that online education brings to the table will change teaching and learning.

For example, we’ve always had the ability to correlate time on task or clicks in the system to grades, completion rates, retention, etc. In 2009 we helped a number of schools identify hierarchies of outcomes that could be tagged and reported on at any level. Every day we give statistical measures of outcomes, activity, grades, portfolios, etc., to schools so they can better understand their students. Does time in threaded discussions lead to higher completion rates? We know the answer. Does the amount of time a student has to wait for an assignment to be graded lead to program retention? We know that too.

But in the next decade…heck, in the next couple of years, all of the measuring will become much more significant. A much more holistic view of students will be available based on more than formative & summative feedback. It will be based on more than activity or grade data. The LMS is almost to a place where we can both report on and predict behaviors as they lead to learning. This individual learning path that students will be able to take will come with complete measurement by the faculty and the institution.

I’m talking about measuring students on a lot more than tests and project feedback. We’re talking about measuring the intensity by which a student acts – the number of clicks, the types of interactions with peers, the amount of time spent with a teacher, the number of hints needed to succeed, etc. We’re talking about the measurement of far more than raw scores on tests. We’re talking about understanding the p value for a question, the median scores for the class, the confidence by which students answered a question – all much more than the answer itself.

All of this measuring will give teachers and/or schools the ability to set students along a path that pushes them into higher levels of learning, regardless of how much time or how much interaction takes place between the student and the system. We’ll measure when learning happens, how learning happens, and we’ll give individuals the tools to reshape their learning priorities so as to make it more meaningful.

That is the future of the LMS. That is the decade before us.

Will Apple release a tablet in 2010 that will revolutionize that market? Maybe. Will the iPhone 4G come out in conjunction with Verizon, thereby making it even more prolific in all circles, including education? Probably. And a dozen other cool technologies will change the landscape of how we interact and communicate. But what matters to me as I advise Pearson about education and technology isn’t each cool new toy. It’s not the fun new widget that Sony or Microsoft or Google brings to the party. (Have you seen Google Wave yet?…)

No, what matters is the big picture. We are heading to a place where technology is simply an extension of ourselves. A place where homework isn’t done at home and school work isn’t done at school (at least as we know it). Christensen predicted 50% of all K-12 happening online by the end of our new decade. I agree. And if that’s the case for K-12, imagine higher ed. We’re coming to a place where technology, school, work, life, and everything else just merge together. It’s the ultimate mash-up. It’s teaching, learning, and living. It’s…well…it will be what we just call “life”. Not virtual life – just life.

So, if you are looking for what’s coming in 2010, it’s the set up for all the rest of the next decade. It’s going to be amazing I think. I hope you think so too.

So here is to 2009. May all of the preparation and activity help us get to that educational dream as fast as possible. And here is to 2010 – where that dream is going to start to be realized. Here is to changing education and, ultimately, to changing lives for the better.

Over the past year I’ve attended academic conferences in the U.S., Mexico, Spain, and Bahrain. Here are a few key takeaways I can offer from my perspective as a higher education assessment consultant.
Academics worldwide are debating the scholarship of teaching and learning quite intensely due largely to the disrupting change of the online for-profits, the ubiquitous acceptance of social networking, and the reality of user created content. An article in last week’s The Chronicle of Higher Education nicely summarized the online for profit sector’s impact on challenging all colleges and universities to do a better job not only of creating and tracking student learning outcomes but also for using the data collected to refine curriculum and instruction with an eye toward improving the student learning experience. Most online programs are able to track all activity in a course including page visits, class discussions, assignment uploads, exams, and grades. They are also able to standardize learning outcomes for all sections of a course to ensure comparability of data. This is the point where traditional academics will raise the academic freedom argument, however, I’ve seen traditional faculty agree on a common set of outcomes and even common assessment rubrics even though the assignments they develop to assess student progress may differ by instructor.

I also just returned from the SACS-Commission on Colleges Annual Meeting in Atlanta. I noticed that many universities were talking about course level assessment of student learning outcomes this year which was new. This is an area where I’ve been focusing for the past 18 months so it was nice to see the academy starting to recognize the importance of getting more granular in the assessment of student learning. Previously nearly everyone was satisfied with program level assessment. Program assessment is still important but it should be triangulated with course level assessment data along with indirect measures such as NSSE, CSSE, or Noel Levitz. Many institutions also participate in either the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA) or the University and College Accountability Network.

The rise of social networking and user created content is another salient takeaway this year. If Web 2.0 or education gaming was in the session title you could count on a packed room. This was the case worldwide. These technologies are moving beyond the early adaptor stage and more into the mainstream. It is important for digital immigrants (those born before 1995) to recognize that digital natives are used to processing multiple channels at once and having just in time access to information. There are theories circulating that indeed even the structure of a digital native’s brain is different. This means we must adapt our method of teaching to be more of a facilitator as opposed to a lecturer who disseminates knowledge. During a Web 2.0 presentation in Guadalajara, Mexico last week I challenged participants to start using at least one new Web 2.0 application first in their personal lives and then to try to integrate the application into their teaching in the Spring semester. I’d be happy to share my presentation with anyone who’s interested. You can email me at briane@ecollege.com if you’re interested.

It’s truly an exciting time in higher education. The next decade is going to bring about dramatic changes at colleges and universities. I look forward to participating in dialogue with many of you as we do our best to make education more accessible and effective for both learners and employers.

Brian McKay Epp
Academic Trainer and Consultant

I recently came across an interesting book called Is it still cheating if I don’t get caught?, by Bruce Weinstein (“the Ethics Guy”). Weinstein describes five Life Principles that help people make ethical choices, which are: #1 do no harm, #2 make things better, #3 respect others, #4 be fair, and #5 be loving. The book covers a wide range of ethical dilemmas for teens, including dealing with relationships, work, friendships, etc., and Weinstein uses these principles to help teens navigate through scenarios they may find themselves in. For the purposes of this blog, I’m most interested in two scenarios he presented on a student’s responsibility if they witness another student cheating, and whether or not it’s wrong to purchase an essay online.

Imagine a scenario where student A sees student B cheating, and student B says they are going through a tough time at home (their parents are getting divorced) and will never do it again. However, there is an honor code at school and student A wonders about the right thing to do. This violates Life Principle #4 (be fair), since cheating is not fair to those who do the work honestly. Additionally, Weinstein discusses that students often continue to cheat because they are never held accountable for their actions, and “the school has to be willing to punish her and make it clear that further misconduct will not be tolerated” (p. 102). As for the student’s reluctance to “be a rat,” Weinstein wonders what repercussions could happen to student A for knowing about the violation to the honor code and yet doing nothing. Interestingly, when considering how the school should respond to student B, while they must follow Life Principle #4 and punish the student, they should also remember Life Principle #5 (be loving), and consider the support services that the student may need given their home situation.

In another scenario, a student is assigned a report on a novel that looks long and boring, and given that they still need good grades despite their busy debate tournament schedule, they wonder about buying an online essay on the topic. Weinstein’s discussion shows that this student will not gain the skills they are supposed to get from the assignment, and so buying an essay online violates Life Principle #1 (do no harm), by harming the student’s educational experience. Additionally, this violates Life Principle #4 (be fair) by not being fair to other students who have done the work honestly, and by not being fair to themselves by pretending to be someone they are not (the author of the essay). Finally, this also violates Life Principle #3, since lying to someone is not treating them with respect.

So for those of us who work with teens, or have teens I the house, this book seems like a great way to start some interesting conversations about the “right” thing to do in different situations. You can also check out his website for more information.

– Gail E. Krovitz, Ph.D. –
Director of Academic Training & Consulting

Weinstein, B. 2009. Is it still cheating if I don’t get caught? Roaring Book Press, New York.

Do you ever find yourself suspecting plagiarism but you don’t have access to a for-fee plagiarism detection service like TurnItIn.com? A good stand-in is Google’s I’m Feeling Lucky. Cut and paste a chunk of the text you suspect is plagiarized (several sentences should be enough), and click the I’m Feeling Lucky button located on the Google Homepage next to the default Google Search button. Instead of the usual search engine results, you’ll see a list of pages containing that same text, with the one containing the most matching text on top. This will not help you catch term papers purchased from paper mills unless another student has published the paper online, but it will help you find the little swipes and wholesale dumps from Wikipedia, from online study guides, and from the free “teaser” papers that the paper mills put out as window dressing.

Vicki Galloway Harsh
Sr Academic Trainer and Consultant

As I do frequently, I was talking with an online adjunct instructor a few days ago – listening to a fairly common complaint: “Why do students post comments online that they would never say aloud in the face-to-face classroom? Sometimes it is an unacceptable comment to another student in a unit discussion or team interaction and sometimes it is an inappropriate comment to me – the instructor.” My acquaintance went on to give the details that last week a student had posted in the middle of the weekly discussion the statement that “I am really mad an Instructor X this week. I bet a lot of you are too.” After an email exchange the instructor found out that the student was disgruntled with the week’s assignment, something that this adjunct instructor had no control over as he taught the course but had not designed it – a course situation that many, if not most, adjuncts have experienced. As might be expected following the incident, this instructor sent an email to the class and posted an announcement reminding the students of expected “netiquette’ behavior in the course.

As we continued our conversation we covered such areas as student emotions and student views of fairness in the classroom, both topics covered by articles in the Educator’s voice newsletter. We also noted that there can be a “distance” issue that leads to impersonality in the online course and a lack of understanding on the students’ part as to who is responsible for course content.

We can certainly address the “distance” issue, as well as some emotion issues, by establishing an instructor presence in the course and developing an online learning community including both students and the instructor. Active communication with students and a stated desire to hear from students, such as an online Office, might alleviate the type of “flaming” noted by my acquaintance in his course discussion. Let students know that you are accessible and also make sure that they know how to contact you in an appropriate manner. I like to recommend my online office for course related questions and email for personal issues. And, I let the students know exactly when I respond to both office and email so they are not anxiously awaiting a reply and know that I am not available 24/7.

Issues of perceived fairness can be addressed by clearly stated course and grading policies and procedures in the Syllabus accompanied by rubrics for major, subjective assessed materials. Constructive feedback in the course can also meet student needs for fairness as well as an instructor presence. I also post a link to the Ten Core Rules of Online Etiquette and require my students to read them and to send me an email acknowledging that they agree to abide by them in the classroom.

As an adjunct instructor I let students know that the institution I taught for was responsible for the design of the course content, assignments and discussions. I was responsible for course communications, questions about how to accomplish assignments, the grades and comments I issued, and facilitating the discussions. I asked students to contact me about any questions or issues within my purview and to contact the institution with concerns about course design and content. In my case the institution did have a mechanism for students to provide comments on courses.

While we can not foresee every student frustration in our online environment we can take proactive steps to help ensure that our students know about appropriate behavior in an online course, understand how to contact us, and appreciate that we are available and accessible.

Ken Switzer, Ph.D.
Senior Academic Trainer & Consultant

Redden, C. October 12, 2005. Emotions in the Cyber Classroom. Educator’s voice Volume 6, Issue 10. Accessed online at: http://www.ecollege.com/Newsletter/EducatorsVoice/EducatorsVoice-Vol6Iss10.learn

Switzer, K. September 16, 2009. Fairness in the Classroom. Educator’s voice Volume 10, Issue 5. Accessed online at: http://www.ecollege.com/Newsletter/EducatorsVoice/EducatorsVoice-Vol10Iss5.learn

The Ten Core Rules of online etiquette. Accessed online at:
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html

They say a picture is worth a thousand words….let’s see how true that is.  I’d like to present you with about 10,000,000 pictures (including sound!) to see if you think it’s worth it. 

Here are a collection of my favorite YouTube videos.  They are educational, entertaining, funny, fascinating, and all around helpful when it comes to teaching & learning.  At least I feel that way.  See what you think of this collection.  (I don’t think it will take more than 1 hour to watch them (with the exception of the Randy Pausch lecture…)

Over the past month I’ve consulted with both K-12 and higher education leaders in the U.S., Mexico, and the Middle East. Tracking student achievement and the value add provided by an academic program is high on nearly everyone’s priority list. In fact, in a time of shrinking resources this is one area that is still receiving budgetary support.

In his October 26 article Assessment vs. Action on the Inside Higher Ed website, Scott Jaschik summarizes the results of a survey sent to senior academic leaders at 2,809 regionally accredited institutions in the U.S. The survey was commissioned by the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) which is a joint project between the University of Illinois and Indiana University.

Academic leaders and assessment experts should read the Jaschik article and also bookmark the NILOA website which is an excellent collection of resources and current thought surrounding learning outcome management. Conclusions from the NILOA survey were just released in a report titled “More Than You Think, Less Than We Need: Learning Outcomes Assessment in American Higher Education”.

Essentially, the survey found that nearly all U.S. institutions are actively measuring student learning outcomes driven primarily by accrediting body requirements. The gap that remains, however, is to actually use this data to improve student achievement.

Forward thinkers are actively developing a culture of assessment on campus. They’re using assessment data to drive decisions about everything from curriculum and instruction to admission standards and to inform the strategic planning process (Kuh and Ikenberry, Jaschik, 2009).

Over the past year I’ve been fortunate to work with progressive thinkers who are leveraging technology to enhance the outcome management process and to maximize the time that faculty spend providing meaningful feedback and support to students. I look forward to continuing this work and to identifying and publishing best practices in outcome management.

References

Jaschik, S. (2009, October 26). ‘Assessment vs. Action. Retrieved November 2, 2009 from Inside Higher Ed, Web site: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/10/26/assess

National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (October 2009). More Than You Think, Less Than We Need: Learning Outcomes Assessment in American Higher Education. Retrieved November 2, 2009 from Web site: http://www.learningoutcomeassessment.org/NILOAsurveyresults09.htm

Brian McKay Epp
Academic Trainer and Consultant