Online Blogucation

Whether you teach K-12 students or teach adult learners, I’m pretty sure you’ve heard that question at some point in your career.   

I recently read an interesting article in The Chronicle of Higher Education titled “Portfolios Are Replacing Qualifying Exams as a Step on the Road to Dissertations,” by Paula Wasley.  In it, she chronicles the University of Kansas’ History department’s switch from traditional examination methods to portfolio assessment for their PhD students.  The catalyst for switching from final exams to portfolio assessment was initially an attempt to move students through the program more quickly.  Wadsley found that students were taking eight to nine years, on average, to complete their degree.  Interestingly, in many cases, the students completed their coursework earlier and then took two to three years to sit for the final exam.   In an attempt to speed things up, they switched to portfolio assessment.  Students were given a three ring binder at the outset of their program and were instructed to keep all of their work in it. 

While the experiment was successful, the students were moving through the program, the school found that implementing a portfolio based assessment provided unforseen benefits.  From the student perspective, one student stated that the portfolio experience helped him stay focused on the end goal.  He mentioned that he changed his perspective for assignments, “every class I take, every paper I write, should be aimed at this end product.”  Isn’t this what we want out of our students?  Don’t we want them to become critical thinkers rather than robots who are just trying to complete an assignment for a grade?  From the faculty perspective, the immediate value added came in the form of identifying struggling students more quickly.  One faculty member commented, “we don’t end up with any nasty surprises.”  

Ultimately, I say congratulations to the University of Kansas History Department.  Not only are you raising the bar for your students, you are encouraging a cultural shift in education.  Its time for us to embrace cultural change as educators and raise the bar for our students.  Expect the best from them and provide them with an opportunity to give you their best.

Stephanie Pfeifer, MA

Academic Trainer and Consultant

There are currently four generations* involved in education — with participants filling roles as instructors, administrators and support staff, and students. Those populating the generational categories have diverse world views, goals and values based in large part on their past experiences and the economic, political, social and technological climates they encountered on their path to adulthood. Not unexpectedly, tensions arise when the generations don’t understand each other. Institutions can diffuse tension by assisting individuals in learning about and appreciating differences among colleagues and between the institution’s educational providers and the student population. Institutions that achieve an effective balance among educational participants learn from each generation’s past experiences and understand the barriers encountered by members of the generational groups working and learning together.
Bridging the Generational Gap – Colleagues in the Workplace  There are some general approaches that can assist in bridging the gap between colleagues among faculty and administrators. For example:

• Know who you are talking to and which generational climate influenced them
• Learn to accept and appreciate others’ perspectives and approaches
• Learn to cut bureaucratic rules or to explain necessary policies and procedures
• Keep up with and use appropriate technology and tools
• Focus on mutual goals and make everyone feel included in the process

Bridging the Generational Gap – The Students  Not surprisingly, learning preferences are often tied to a student’s generational identification. Suggested approaches would include:

• First and foremost, know the make-up of your student body
• Design online courses with:
• goals/objectives of “knowing” plus “doing” leading to measurable change and growth
• multiple presentation formats, such as text and/or PowerPoint plus audio or video clips
• appropriate online case studies, labs, simulations, websites, etc. fostering active engagement and additional exploration of topics
• required discussion participation fostering active engagement
• relevant graphical icons and graphics  
• appropriate visual design for pages — font, color, graphics, white space, “chunking,” etc.
• interactivity between students, instructor and students, and students and content
• development of a learning community and a visible instructor presence
• timely, supportive communication/feedback from instructor to students
• clear, redundant (Syllabus, announcements, emails) guidance on policy and procedure, grading rubrics, deadlines and consequences, submission procedures, participation, online etiquette, plagiarism, obtaining assistance (technical and course content), etc.
• authentic, multiple (portfolio) approaches to student assessment
• attention paid to “interactional,” procedural and outcome “fairness”
• attention paid to the multiple “emotions” that students bring to the online environment

In Conclusion
We ignore generational differences between colleagues or between educational providers and students at our own risk. One challenge we face is how to work together as faculty, administrators and staff across generational divides. In the student realm, many educators routinely stress that the learning process should be “meaningful” or “authentic” but fail to take into account how to achieve these objectives for a diverse student body. A second challenge we face is how educational providers can effectively engage and teach students across generational divides. The opportunities, of course, allow us to learn from others’ experiences and employ creative and effective approaches to providing educational experiences that are rewarding both to the providers and to the learners. What is the situation at your institution? Are there programs in place to deal with the generational divide?
* Note that the names given the generations may differ and also that the dates given may differ by a few years for any generation. You may also find that some materials reference “Twixters” or “Cuspers,” those who fall within a couple of years on either side of a dividing year. These individuals will likely display traits of two generations.
Traditionalists (Silent Generation) born 1925 to1942-45
Baby Boomers (Boomers) born 1943-46 to 1960-64
Generation X (Gen Xers) born 1960-64 to 1980
Millenials (Gen Yers) born 1980 - 2000
–Ken Switzer
  Senior Academic Trainer & Consultant

A lot has been and will be written about Randy Pausch’s life and death.  Talk of his zest for life, his imagination, and his willingness to let the world watch his final (typically private) months of existence will be discussed for years.  And they should be. 

But I would like to look at a different side of Randy Pausch, professor of Computer Science (human-computer interaction) at Carnegie Mellon University.  I want to talk about a model of education that we had and have with Professor Pausch’s work. 

If you haven’t seen the Last Lecture, you are missing out.  Without going into too much detail, this lecture about achieving childhood dreams is as much about tomorrow as it is about yesterday.  But the application to life that this dying man shared also has great ramifications to teaching and learning.  This educator showed what it is to be a great teacher in addition to a great person. 

1. Professor Pausch talks about imagination.  Having worked at Disney as an Imagineer, creativity, innovation, and inspiration seemed a steady diet in his life.  But this translated to his interactions with students as well.  Pausch relates the story of a team of uber-creative students who surpassed his wildest dreams two weeks into a semester that was supposed to last sixteen.  What did he do?  He pushed them to do more.  He pushed them to be more creative, more innovative, and more daring.  And what happened along the way was beyond Disney magic.  One example is the creation of Alice software, a 3-D, open-source software program that uses drag & drop to create models and worlds will change more than the movie landscape.  The work that Professor Pausch began will likely craft the education landscape that my 1 year old daughter experiences in her lifetime. 

2. What do you know about head fakes?  One of my favorite education concepts that this science teacher (of all things) figured out and embraced, is the idea that students often learn best when they don’t know they’re learning at all.  Brilliant.  Of course, anyone who understands the power of educational gaming knows about this.  Unfortunately, not many people know about gaming!  But Randy Pausch did.  He saw the amazing power of learning happen in the realm of coding and designing while college students were busy creating virtual worlds and movie scripts.  He called this the “head fake” of life – I call it good teaching.

3. Finally comes the notion of a respectful learning environment.  There is a mountain of research that illustrates the power of learning in an environment where you are pushed but praised, criticized but cared for, and expected to excel but allowed to fail.  The “Last Lecture” describes this attitude in life, but it obviously translated to Professor Pausch’s classroom.  Taking a group of students on a vacation when he got tenure because of their efforts is a pretty obvious sign that he walked the walk.  He explains the importance of listening when being confronted or criticized because of the real-life truth that criticism stops when people stop caring.  Showing collegial relationships with students who were mentored to become educators themselves demonstrates the power of positive learning that took place in his classrooms. 

So, let me finish by letting Randy Pausch close.  I think the statement he makes in the video that I found most profound was the statement that talked him into becoming a teacher.  One of Randy’s mentors suggested he be a teacher.  “Why?” he asked.  His friend said, “…because you’re such a good salesman that any company that gets you is going to use you as a salesman. And you might as well be selling something worthwhile like education.”  With that, the lecturer looked down, paused, looked up at the crowd and found his mentor.  “Thanks,” he replied.

Thank you Randy Pausch.

Randy Pausch: 1960-2008

We know that students have to learn to learn online in order to be able to grow in the workplace. But how much attention are we as individual instructors paying to developing the student into a successful member of today’s simultaneously autonomous and team-oriented workplace? As I travel and train on the eCollege system, I often get questions about how to keep students “on track” in the online (or onground, for that matter) classroom. One suggestion I have is that any academic undertaking be framed in terms of the workplace—just as the students are my “clients,” so too am I theirs in terms of needing a quality deliverable on time and at or under budget. (Budget for me is the amount of time I spend remediating when it is clear that the student isn’t making an adequate effort to actively learn. For the student it is the amount of time spent actually actively learning and coming to me with content-related questions, and not complaining about or making excuses for being behind, procrastinating, etc….)

Many of today’s online students are returning to education as adults because they recognize that they have a gap in their skill set that is preventing them from moving forward in the workplace. Often they might identify that gap as “I don’t know XYZ.” I find, however, that the gap is accentuated by the fact that many of our students have not developed the habits of mind that make them successful employees in either a team-oriented or autonomous workplace. They need to be told what to do and then dragged through the process just as they possibly were in their first encounter with education, and just like many of us continue to do when teaching them now.

I am a German instructor. I don’t expect that the majority of my students will take what they learn in my beginning German courses, add it to their resumes, and apply it (“it” being a capability to produce beginning German grammar structures, along with some cultural awareness of German speaking peoples) to a career position. But I do think that the study of a foreign language, among many other studies, is a good simulation of what one encounters when embarking on a new or advanced career path. Successfully completing each semester or even each unit of study is analogous to what happens when an employee is able to carry out daily job duties as well as to coordinate and complete longer projects, autonomously or as part of a group. I therefore make it clear to my lagging students, or ones who are not participating fully (or at all) in their group projects, that they will likely experience, or continue to experience, performance issues in their workplace. When students fall behind and then send me the panicked email of “What should I do?,” I reply that they need to look at what aspects of this project we call German Class they are behind in, and then they need to make a plan to remedy the situation so that they can end up the semester on time, with a product (successful completion) for which they receive a payment (grade). I find that framing their efforts or lack thereof in terms of the workplace makes some students think about what they are doing in school (or even back in school) differently.

 Thanks for reading. What do you think? What do you do to this end?

–Vicki Galloway Harsh
Sr. Academic Trainer and Consultant

Years ago, as a fourth grade student teacher, I was completely overwhelmed at the prospect of teaching.  I had no idea where to begin, no idea how to teach, and certainly no idea how to assess student work.  Fortunately for me, I had an incredible cooperating teacher who guided me through the process of creating and assessing portfolios.

The first assignment she had me present to the students was a creative writing assignment - PERFECT for portfolios!  I presented the portfolio concept to the students and explained that, just as artists carry portfolios with examples of their work in various stages of completion, we were going to create a portfolio for writing.  With excitement filling the air, mainly because the students got to decorate their folders, they began creating their portfolios.  Once decorated, all students created sections within it to help organize their work.  These sections included topics like ideas for future writing, drafts, final product, etc. 

Using the district curriculum as a guide, it was easy for me to determine which objectives I’d like to teach for the writing assignment.  I outlined the objectives for the students and used them as the basis for creating a class rubric or scoring guide.  Armed with a giant sheet of paper, a yardstick, and a Sharpie, we worked as a class to create the rubric.  Together we defined expectancies for each objective.  Much to my surprise, the students quickly grasped the concept of the grading scale and were easily able to identify characteristics which would warrant one score over another.   When the rubric was complete, we hung it on the wall and used it as a reference tool as the students wrote.  

During the remainder of the year, we created rubrics and used our portfolios for all sorts of projects, across all disciplines.  I found that this method of organizing, assessing, and reflecting, forced us both to look more critically at our work.  I have used portfolios in teaching ever since.

You may be asking yourself, does this relate to higher education?  The answer - YES - it can!   ePortfolios are becoming more prevalent in higher education and they offer tremendous benefits for both the individual and the institution.  While adult learners may not want to decorate their portfolios as my fourth graders did, it is in their best interest to save examples of their work to share with future employers.  Adult students are often taking courses for the purpose of career advancement.  Why not help them show off their best work in the form of a presentation portfolio?  From the institutional perspective electronic portfolios offer the ability to tie artifacts to standards, and, with reporting tools, will provide the institution solid data for program improvement or even accreditation purposes.  The great news is there are quite a few ePortfolio vendors out there today, so your program doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel!

Stephanie Pfeifer

Academic Trainer and Consultant
 

Most instructors would say “Of course I’m fair. Just ask my students.” The large majority of instructors (online or classroom) would undoubtedly feel that “fairness” pervades their instructional behavior. Yet, studies have shown that students often do not rate their instructors as high on the “fairness scale.” How often have you, or parents, heard: “The instructor doesn’t like me and isn’t fair.” Why does this disparity in views exist? One explanation is that the perception of fairness, the very definition of fairness, often differs between instructors and their students.
In order to create a climate in online courses that students consider “fair,” instructors must understand how students perceive fairness in an educational environment. Dr. Rita Rodabaugh’s typology of perceived fairness provides an excellent starting point: Interactional fairness—the nature of the interaction between instructor and student(s), Procedural fairness—the policies for assessment and course administration, and Outcome fairness—the distribution of grades among students.
Interactional Fairness
The majority of students consider interactional fairness as key to a fair course environment. The prevalent view appears to be that if interactional fairness is present then fairness in grades and other important (to students) areas will follow. Fairness in the interactional area is perceived to include:
Respect: Students commonly enter a course respecting the instructor, and they want to be respected in return. Respect includes being polite to all students in the tone you use in Announcements and the Syllabus, and calm and professional with individual students in postings to discussions, emails, and feedback on assignments and exams. If a student must be corrected in any way, it should be done in a private manner.
Impartiality: Students expect a instructor to treat everyone in the course equally. In the online environment, equality of treatment is most apparent in the tone and frequency of an instructor responding to individual students in a threaded discussion or chat room interaction.
Concern: Students want their instructors to care about them and their success in pursuit of their educational goals. Concern can begin with an effort to get to know students—such as by using an Introductions threaded discussion site and by introducing yourself to your students in the course syllabus. Concern can also be shown by having an online office, emailing students who seem to be struggling, and providing constructive feedback on assignments.
Integrity: Integrity revolves around clarity in presenting course policies and procedures and consistency in applying them to all students in all situations. This argues for a well-written, thorough course syllabus that ensures students understand policies and procedures and any consequences for failure to comply with course requirements.
Propriety: Students expect instructors to act in socially acceptable ways and to follow the rules. In the online environment, propriety is most clearly applicable in communications with students whether in discussion postings, emails to individuals or teams, or comments on written assignments and exams.

Procedural Fairness
From the student viewpoint, procedural fairness also ranks above outcome fairness. Again, if procedures are fair as established, and followed fairly, then students believe that fair outcomes will logically follow. Fairness in the procedural area is perceived to include:
Policies: Policies should be seen as fair by students. To this end, policies and procedures should be clearly set forth and explained in the course syllabus. Policies of particular concern to most students involve such items as participation in discussions, plagiarism, other students’ participation in team assignments, and the handling of late assignments. The degree to which policies are applied equally reflects upon perceived instructor integrity, a factor in interactional fairness.
Workload: Students must see the required workload as reasonable given the type of course and course overview/objectives as stated in the school’s catalog. What is reasonable will depend, to some degree, on the type of students in your courses and the level of students in the school. Commonly, the workload will be higher for high school students than middle school and higher in advanced courses than lower level courses.
Assessments: Students appear to consider a number of factors when deciding if assessments (exams and quizzes) are fair. For example:

• Do the assessment questions align with the learning objectives in the syllabus?
• Do the assessment questions relate to content presented in the course?
• Is the level of difficulty of assessment questions appropriate for the level of course and the students?
• Are the assessment questions well designed?

Feedback: Students consistently provide high ratings to online courses where the instructor presence is visible. Providing constructive feedback on assignments and assessments helps ensure that students (1) view these activities as fair and (2) view the course in a positive light.
Student Input: Student involvement in the educational process increases the likelihood that they will view a course as “fair.” One way to involve students is to periodically solicit their input on the course. This holds true at both the middle and high school levels.
Outcome Fairness
Grades, obviously, are important to students. In general, students want (1) to know the policies and rubrics by which they are graded and (2) their grades to reflect their actual performance. Fairness in the outcomes area is perceived to include:
Information: Students believe that fairness requires they be given detailed information, preferably written in the course syllabus, specifying:

• The assessment tools and graded assignments that will be used to determine their course grade.
• The weight each assessment tool and graded assignment will have in determining their course grade.
• The grading rubric in a percentage or point basis as well as information about grade determination. For example, is a preset cut-off score used or relative standing in the student group?

Policy Change: Students expect that the grading policies and rubric set in the course syllabus will be firm and applied equally to all students. If a grading policy is altered for any reason, the rationale should be explained fully to the students.
Multiple Assessments: Students commonly feel that the use of multiple assessment tools if “fairer” than reliance on a single type of assessment, such as a mid-term and final exam. In the online environment, instructors frequently use a mix of exams and quizzes, written assignments, individual and team assignments, and participation in discussions. This “portfolio” approach to assessment is generally well-received by students.
Individual Performance: Almost universally, students believe that fairness requires their grade to be based on their individual performance. This holds true for team or group projects as well. Students feel that their grade should reflect their contribution to the team assignment and not what the team achieved overall.
In Conclusion
Student perceptions of instructor “fairness” can contribute to student/instructor success in a course or lead to discontent that can negatively impact student success and even retention rates in an online program. Apparently unimportant omissions or actions, from the instructor’s viewpoint, can negatively impact students’ perceptions of the instructor’s fairness. Many online instructors have found it useful to conduct their own “fairness audit” of their courses. Try it yourself! Then use your conclusions to decide how you can enhance your students’ perceptions of the fairness of your courses and your instructional activities.
Rodabaugh, R. C. (1996). Institutional Commitment to Fairness in College Teaching. In L. Fisch (ed.) Ethical Dimensions of College and University Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
–Ken Switzer, Ph.D. 
Senior Academic Trainer & Consultant

Oprah.  Coke.  IBM.  These names are iconic.  The meta-communication surrounding these simple words is extensive!  A name can evoke an image of trust, friendship, or power.  Of course, a name can also instill anger, frustration, or pain!  (Think of your school’s rival college, a name like “Hitler”, etc.)  Back in the 1970’s, it was rumored that the Chevy Nova didn’t sell in Central America as the name itself meant, “No Go.” 

So, it seems there is a lot to a name!  One year ago, my wife and I labored over what to name our new daughter.  We wanted a strong name that was still feminine, a name that would age with her into adulthood, but not be so stuffy that she would get (overly) teased.  My wife has an Irish heritage, so we wanted something that felt ancestoral, but wasn’t hard for American kids to pronounce.  And of course…we wanted to like the name itself!  One year later, we love Addison’s (Addie) name.  It suits her!

Which brings us to the name of this blog!  If you saw our debut last week, you noticed the “name our blog” contest we held.  Blog names are important - they try to convey the topic area, yet they also infer ancillary descriptions and slants.  There are some great ones out there relating to education, online learning, technology, and teaching!  “Edublogger” seems to be a popular one.  Like www.theedublogger.edublogs.org, http://edubloggerdir.net, and http://edublogger.spaces.live.com/, just to name a few.

Other educational blogs are written by industry experts or speakers who others look to for new ideas and grounded wisdom.  http://edtekker.blogspot.com/2005/07/future-view-by-checker-finn.html, http://www.commoncraft.com/blog, and http://jeffpresents.com/blox.aspx are a few examples of expert blogs that come to mind.

Or perhaps you are interested in the plight of the day to day teacher.  The operations administrator who knows your struggles and troubles!  http://mrmoses.org/, http://21stcenturyed.com/, or http://gigagod.blogspot.com/ might make your daily reading lists.

But, as you’ve seen with many of the blogs mentioned here, several of these innovative technorati members have interesting and unusual names for their blogs.  As such, the Academic Training & Consulting team at eCollege has asked for someone else to find our name!  Something that captures who we are and what we are about.  And we think we have it!

So, I am proud to introduce our blog page, “Online Blogucation.”  We hope you will find a mix of every aspect of a blog listed above in our posts.  Industry expertise, day to day teaching, learning community members and leaders, we are going to try and help foster new ways of learning and doing, using technology.  That is what our blog hopes to accomplish. 

As well, we look forward to your own insights!  Please post a comment or two - perhaps we’ll even start a dialogue.  Thanks for taking a few minutes to read this.  See you next week!  Good luck - and good teaching.

– Jeff Borden –
Director of Academic Training & Consulting

Welcome to the first eTeachers’ Blog from eCollege!

Technorati be advised!  The eCollege Academic Training & Consulting team is entering the world of blogging today!  What better place to begin our constructed entrance onto the Web than the CCA conference in Las Vegas?  I can’t think of a better way to kick off our addition to the eWorld, and I hope you agree.

As the leader of this team, I know in this weekly (essay-style) blog, you will find interesting ideas, great links and engaging online teaching concepts in both theory and application.  Knowing this group of educators as I do, in the upcoming weeks and months I imagine you’ll get some quality resources to bolster your online class as well as some ideas to challenge your current ways of being and doing.  You’ll read about research, assessment, Web 2.0, rubrics, the semantic web, leadership, teams and communication, just to name a few potential blog posts.  We’ll talk wikis, chat, discussions, images, Podcasts, video, screencasting and much, much more.

But, as you know if you are a veteran of this particular medium, bloggers and blogs often have a clever, pithy name to capture the imagination. Their blog’s name is as much about the blogger as the audience intended to read the blog.  As such, the eCollege ATCs would like to invite our first piece of reader-generated content.  Yes, we’re applying a significant tenet of Web 2.0 – FEEDBACK and user generated content.  We would like your help clarifying our vision and our goal on these pages through the submission of a name.  What should our blog be titled?

The winner of this suggested moniker will be awarded the distinct honor and privilege of knowing they contributed to the annals of eCollege history and made their mark on the Net!  (Ok, we’ll also come up with a prize TBD.)

So, please post some feedback to this blog for consideration.  If the right name jumps out at us, we’ll take it!  If there are several options, we’ll likely set up a vote of some kind.  And, in the meantime, we’ll start generating some great content for you to think on, apply, and use.  Thanks for reading and welcome to our blog.

-Jeff Borden, eCollege Director of Academic Training and Consulting