Part 2: Blog Assignment: Impact of Technology and Multimedia

What impact does technology and multimedia have on online learning environments?

According to our book, because of the technology and the multimedia used in the online courses, all of the this can easily transfer from the traditional sit-down classes. (Boettcher, 2010, p. 58)

If it were not for technology, online courses would not exist, or function properly. Because online learning can be difficult at times, when it comes to learning complex concepts, multimedia helps to aid the student during this process. For instance, which I have used numerous times in previous discussions, learning how to tie a shoe. I think that I have seen this on YouTube at one time or another, the narrator informs you how to tie your shoe, step by step, in addition to presenting this information visually. Without mulitmedia, a student probably would not be able to learn how to tie their shoes successfully while taking an online course.

So, basically, without technology or multimedia, online courses would cease to exist, or not function properly.

What are the most important considerations an online instructor should make before implementing technology?

Our book stated that for a first time Instructor to learn the basic, essential technological tools, and to ask the students when necessary, so that they feel like part of the process. (Boettcher, 2010, p. 56) To me, I feel that an Instructor should know how to utilize the technology that will used for the particular class. I only say this, if a student is having trouble, for instance, narrating their teacher introduction in a PDF, the teacher should be able to answer. I realize that this information is available online, however, sometimes it is too hard to understand, or the instructions are too vague.

What implications do usability and accessibility of technology tools have for online teaching?

Usability in this instance encompasses effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction that students can achieve specified learning goals in a particular enivironment with tools and learning resources (Cooper, 2007, p. 232)

Accessibiliyt is the flexibility of the e-learning system or learning resources to meet the needs and preferences of all users. (Cooper, 2007, p. 232)

If an assignment is created for students, all technological tools within the Blackboard, for example, should be working properly and efficiently, so that student can enjoy the full experience. Why devise and assigment if all of the technological elements are not suffice, or in place? This would be a waste of everyone involved time. If usability and accessibility cannot be created, then other options should be looked at, such as a different LMS or CMS, or modifying the technologicial tools.

What technology tools are most appealing to you for online teaching as you move forward in your career in instructional design?

Course Announcement: I plan to use to the fullest - I have been in some online class when the Instructor never posted anything to it. This is essentially how the Instructor communicates important information to the students.

Grades: I know how important this for me as a student. I like to know just where I stand as far as grades are concerned - every student is the right to know.

Peer Reviewing: I use to be afraid to have my school colleagues read my papers, I was embarrassed to say the least, now, I thrive on peer review. Why the change? I realized that we are all in the same boat, and everyone has their own writing style.

Skype/iluminate - For complex course assignments, by providing this service to answer any questions or concerns in beneficial to the student's succcess.

Blogs: Used for social networking purposes and an informal assignment (let your hair down, so to speak).

I could go and on, but I am not - I mentioned just a few.


References:

Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. (2010). The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Conrad, R., & Donaldson, J. A. (2004). Engaging the online learner: Activities and resources for creative instruction. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Cooper, M., Colwell, C., & Jelfs, A. (2007). Embedding accessibility and usability: Considerations for e-learning research and development projects. ALT-J: Research in Learning Technology, 15(3), 231–245.

Roblyer, M. D., & Wiencke, W. R. (2003).Design and use of a rubric to assess and encourage interactive qualities in distance courses. American Journal of Distance Education, 17(2), 77–98.

Application: Setting Up An Onlne Learning Experience

What is the significance of knowing the technology available to you?

First off, the course facilitor will need to become familar with the Course Management System, such as Blackboard or E-College. Some of the technological tools may differ from CMS to CMS. The university that I am employed with, we have part of our dedicated online courses on Blackboard and E-College, which is totally confusing to our students and facilitators.

For a first time class, a facilitator should have focus on the basic technological tools, such as uploading text documents, setting up and creating class discussions, and setting up and using the gradebook. (Boettcher, 2010, p. 57) As the facilitator teaches more and more online courses, they will become very familiar with all of the technological tools that are available.

I think that it is very important for the facilitator to split discussions into groups, especially if the class is rather large. An example, my son told me last night that he is feeling overwhelmed with his online dicussions, because it is not split into groups, and his class is very large.

Why is it essential to communicate clear expectations to learners?

Clear and concise communication is very essential in the online learning environment. Information can be misconstrued so easily. For example, a rubric for a particular assignment is very helpful, as it scores using a matrix with more than one category basing it on a point scale system. (Boettcher, 2010, p. 97) A rubric is cut and dry, it keeps assignment grading consistent, and across the board. However, the rubric should be very clear and concise, and understandable to the student. For instance, The rubric should not contain medical terminology for the instructional design student.


What additional considerations should the instructor take into account when setting up an online learning experience?

I am just naming a few:

Course elements that consist of the course syllabus and assessment plans. (Boettcher, 2010, p. 63) I think of the course syllabyus as a bible. This document is the keeper of the course informaton, relating to performance goals, learning outcomes, and requirements just to name a few. (Boettcher, 2010, p. 64) For assignments, for example, the syllabus provides information as to how an assignment might be formatted. Take for instance, our Reflection assignments, they need to be completed in APA format. The assessment part encompasses discussions, assignments, quizzes, and projects. (Boettcher, 2010, p. 67)

The development of creating and developing class lectures. (Boettcher, 2010, p. 64) This task consists of the preparation of short text, audio or video introductions, or mini-lectures, developing and managing threaded discussions, and the management of student spaces. (Boettcher, 2010, p. 64) I like the idea of a short video piece for each week of the class that provides the student with goals and the activities for the week. (Boettcher, 2010, p. 64)

The reviewing of the course textbooks to see if it meets all of the course. Textbooks should be relevant to the course. Perhaps, paperback books would be relevant with digital material to complement them.

Be sure you are able to access the course site, and that all necessary functions work. There is nothing like trying to enter a class when there is no access. Where I work, we had some Blackboard issues in regards to students and facilitators having problems entering.

The university where I work, the class facilitators are not allowed to change their course shell. All they have the power to do is to modify assignment dates and delete assignments when necessary.


References:

Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. (2010). The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Conrad, R., & Donaldson, J. A. (2004). Engaging the online learner: Activities and resources for creative instruction. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Palloff, R., & Pratt, K. (Narrator). Launching the Online Learning Experience [Online video]. Laureate Education. Retrieved March 13, 2011

Blog Assingment: Online Learning Communities Link

People
X
Purpose X
Process X

Blog Assignment: Online Learning Communities

How do online learning communities significantly impact both student learning and satisfaction within online courses?


Student learning: The class focus is no longer on the Instructor, but on the student. The Instructor now becomes a Facilitator of the course. The Facilitator acts a guide, they hold the key to how the class is run, keep the class safe, provide support, and assess student work.


Student Satisfaction: The student in this instance is labeled a professional participant. The student takes an active role in their learning process. They continuously reflect on the learning process, therefore, causing a deeper learning perception and increased self-direction. Scholar practice goes hand in hand with social constructivist, engaging the student, and figuring out the meaning.


What are the essential elements of online community building?


People: The student accomplishes their social presence online when they interact and connect with their colleagues and Facilitators.


Purpose: This is when the student comes together for their class. They follow specific guidelines answering the following questions: how often will the class meet, and Facilitator expectations and grading criteria for assignments.


Process: This has to do with the delivery of the class. Some courses may be labeled fully online or blended (hybrid).


How can online learning communities be sustained?



Reaching Out: Many students who took the traditional sit down class before the concept of online courses are now coming back to obtain their graduate degrees. These students may feel isolated, by college administration, advisors, and/or facilitators reaching to each student during the first couple of weeks of class. During the first couple of weeks of the class is essentially when a student drops or goes on.


Mandatory New Student Orientation: As I stated above, many of the graduate students took classes before the concept of online was available. All students, young and old should go through an intense new student orientation class, this way this would enable the student to determine if online is the right choice for them or not.


Facilitator Presence: The facilitator sets the tone for the class. For instance, if the facilitator decided to not answer e-mails or questions promptly, make their presence known from time to time through the discussion boards, or vanished without for days without communication then this would certainly contribute to low sustainability.


Responsibility: Each class member and facilitator is charged with equal responsibility. If one fails to take ownership of responsibility then sustainability will fail.


Miscellaneous Items to Consider: The facilitator keeps the course environment safe, they provide a safety net. Any breakdown of the facilitator’s role contributes to sustainability, for instance, no assessments are being performed to indicate to the student how they are faring, or students not receiving any support.


What is the relationship between community building and effective online instruction?

Community building encompasses everything pertaining to the delivery of online instruction as discussed above. Community building involves a 100% responsibility from the student and the facilitator that ranges from interaction, communication, and social presence just to name a few. If just one facet of community building is not being met satisfactorily then online instruction is not effective.

References:


Palloff, R., & Pratt, K. (2011). Online Learning Communities [Video]. Laureate Education.

Week 6 -Managing Ongoing Projects

What specific scope creep issues occurred?

The only thing that comes to mind is something that occurred in my personal life.

My scope creep would be our Christmas family vacation to Disneyland. We started this family tradition about three years ago, one year after the passing of my hubby. He passed away right before Christmas in 2006. We chose this particular tradition to essentially to get through the holidays in one piece emotionally, which has worked so far. Another important factor is because, Disneyland is dubbed, “the happiest place on earth.”
I tend to be more organized in my professional life opposed to my personal life. I write out lists of what I need to do for work, but I neglect to this in my personal life. This is why my vacations never go as planned as far as bringing my family’s personal items, such as toothpaste, shampoo, etc. It is as if my brain turns to mush the instant my vacation begins. Because I forget my family’s personal items, this means that I must head to the local Target instead of going into the park as soon as we arrive. I mentioned that I do not make lists for anything pertaining to my personal life, right?. I end up going to Target again, because I forgot items that I originally set out to purchase.

How did you or other stakeholders deal with those issues at the time?

My stakeholder in my example instance is my 21-year-old son. My son normally takes one of his friends on vacation with us, but they bring their own personal items.

My son becomes frustrated with me, because instead of going into the park after our arrival, I have to run to Target. He laughs with me when I inform him that I had to run to Target again. He shakes his head and states that me going to Target has become another family tradition.

Looking back on the experience now, had you been in the position of managing the project, what could you have done to better manage
these issues and control the scope of the project?

I need to incorporate some of my professional organizational skills into my personal life. I should start writing lists in my every day personal life, as this has become a bad habit more than anything. I could attribute this to a habit that possibly cannot be broken

Blog Assignment: Communicating Effectively

E-mail: I felt that the e-mail was firm, only because at the end, there was no thank you or respectfully added before the name of the sender. The last sentence had an exclamation point that sends me the message the sender is not very happy. This is why I only use an exclamation point with a smiley face afterward. An exclamation point can be defined as, “An exclamation point, exclamation mark, or bang (!) Is a punctuation mark usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or high volume…” (Exclamation Mark)

Best Message: Voicemail: The message sounded very businesslike – I think that she spoke like a true professional, conveying the urgency of the matter in her voice. She did not sound mad or unhappy at all. She was very clear and concise. She thanked the recipient is a business manner. The tone of her voice was even-keel; she did not emphasize any words. If for some reason the recipient did not catch something that the woman said, he can replay the message at his leisure at anytime.

Face-to-face: The message was spoken, as a friend would talk to a friend. I noticed some hesitation in her voice at times too. Her voice was not strong; she spoke softly most of the time. There was no urgency in her voice, she sounded and acted like whenever the recipient could get around to doing it.

She had her arm propped up on the cubicle; she was not facing the recipient directly in front of his desk. Perhaps, the timing was not right for the lady to communicate with the recipient, he could have been busy doing something at that time – we cannot tell this, we only see the lady. I know that if I am doing something and someone is talking to me, most likely, I did not hear the conversation. The woman never received a confirmation that the message was indeed heard.

Information I learned:

“93% of communication conveyed comes from body language, not words” (Stolovitch, 2010)

Clear and concise to communicate effectively.

“Spirit and attitude count as effectively communicating.” (Stolovitch, 2010)

“The personality of the recipient has alot do with how the message is conveyed.” (Stolovitch, 2010)

"Document oral communication." (Stolovitch, 2010)

"Make sure that the timing is right when communcating important information." (Stolovich, 2010) For example: You don't want to say something important when someone is typing a report for unrelated subject matter.

References:

Exclamation Mark (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved November 15, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclamation_mark

Stolovitch, D. (Actor). (2010). Communicating with Stakeholders [Video].

Blog Assignment: Learning from a Project “Post Mortem”

Project:

Just recently, I had to gather Veteran’s Assistance (VA) information for our senior staff. This information included how many of our student’s used their VA benefits to fund their classes, more specifically, how many courses each took during the fiscal year, 2009 -2010 (July 1st to June 30th).

I was given this project on a Tuesday afternoon; it was due at 5:00 PM in two days, on Thursday. Between the three campuses, I was the only employee who had access to the VA Ounce System. I literally had to go in each students’ (200) VA Ounce accounts, to see how many units they registered for during the summer, fall 1, fall 2, spring 1, and spring 2 (2009 – 2010). This work was considered tedious and time-consuming.

History:

Now bear in mind, that in all of my years with my employer, I have never learned to do the VA for our students. I volunteered to do this because two colleagues that provided the VA assistance left their jobs at the same time. It took at least a couple of months to replace my two colleagues after they resigned. There was ultimately no one who could do this job without a volunteer. This job certainly had to go on, as tuition and students needed to be paid. Therefore, I volunteered to take over the VA until my new colleague was trained adequately. I performed all of the aspects of VA as I went along; I had only minimal help at best. Lastly, I performed this job along with the other position that needed to be filled, plus my own position.

The Project’s Success and Failure:

On top of everything that I had to do, I was not sure that I could complete this project by 5:00 PM on Thursday. I would certainly do my best to meet the prescribed deadline.

I came into the office early on Wednesday and Thursday to complete, and worked on throughout both days when I had the chance, but that did not work. I needed extra time to complete, as during business hours, students’ needed immediate help in regards to their accounts and registration. My supervisor let two of my colleagues take vacation at the same time during this very same week. In the meantime, two brand new colleagues started this very same week, neither had access into anything.

I informed my supervisor that I could not get the project completed by 5:00 PM on Thursday. He told me that I should have put everything else aside to complete this project. I respectfully disagreed with him, I told him in all of my years working in the customer service arena, I must serve the student first.

Additionally, because of the current situation, my first priority was to help the student no matter what. Honestly, I would have done this again if the project and the circumstances surfaced again. I finally completed the project at noon on Friday, that was the very best that I could do under the circumstances, I felt very bad.

Conclusion:

I felt very proud of myself, I was a day late in completing and submitting the project. I served every student in a prompt, efficient, and excellent manner who required my assistance. I satisfied almost everyone without pulling every hair on my head out and maintaining my sanity.

My Frustrations:

1. My supervisor should have never let my fellow colleagues go on vacation at the same time, knowing the circumstances.

2.The senior staff requesting this information could very easily obtain the very same data through our system.

3.The senior staff should have been more on top of what was expected at their meeting way beforehand. The project data was needed for their meeting with the VA senior staff, and come to find out, they needed additional information (I will save for another story).

4.My supervisor not fully supporting my efforts.

Team Mates in EDUC 6145

If you are following me for our current class, EDUC 6145 - Project Management in Education and Training with Dr. D., please leave your post. I look forward to working with you all. Good luck, and welcome to my blog.

Janet C.