When adapting your course assignments from a face-to-face course to an online course:
1. Provide detailed instructions in the course assignment description. Think about the detailed instructions you would have provided to your face-to-face students and write out these details in the link to the assignment in the online course. Quality work from students is guided by clear, well-defined instructions.
2. It is more effective to have smaller assignments due throughout the course and perhaps one cumulative assignment due at the end of the course than to have just one significant assignment required for the entire course.
3. Consider using rubrics for grading, which are excellent tools for outlining expectations, requirements, and standards. Click here for documentation on Using the Rubric Grading Method.
4. Outline the purpose of the assignment - explain to students how the assignment relates to the material they are learning and what objectives will be met. Learners (especially adult learners) want to know how the assignments and learning activities contribute to the big picture and the learning objectives of the course.
5. Utilize the best options for assignment submission.
a. Moodle provides the option for online text submission. With this option students type text directly into an online text box. This type of assignment submission works well for journal type writing activities or essay questions.
b. Another option is to require students to type their assignment in a word processing software, save the file, and upload it in the assignment link. This type of submission allows the instructor to download the student file and using tools such as "track changes" or "comments", give the student feedback on their assignment.
c. Click here for documentation on Adding Assignments to Moodle ISU 2.
Information adapted from: online learning insights: A Blog about Open and Online Education.
Coming next: Adapting Your Course Materials for Online Instruction
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Adapting Your Assessment Activities for Online Instruction
When adapting your assessment activities from a face-to-face course to an online course:
1. Do not implement course grading that relies heavily on exam or quiz assessments. A heavily test based course in the online environment is less than desirable for several reasons:
a. The opportunity for cheating is high;
b. Student engagement with the material is low;
c. Multiple choice and true & false tests assess the ability to recall facts and lower level knowledge which provides less opportunity for the development of critical thinking skills and application of actual knowledge.
2. Consider weighting the exams/quizzes at 40%, participation and contribution at 10%, and the remaining 50% consisting of a variety of assignments spread throughout the course.
The opportunity to cheat can be lessened if not avoided by using a variety of assessment methods such as participation in threaded discussions, contribution activities, and group assignments. Discussion boards and chat sessions help to establish the student's individual "voice" and provides the opportunity to be actively engaged in the course. Well designed group activities encourage collaboration and prompts students to engage with course content and construct new knowledge collectively. Including a peer review or peer-grading component is another excellent method of assessing authentic student work and providing additional opportunity for active engagement.
Information adapted from: online learning insights: A Blog about Open and Online Education.
Coming next: Adapting Your Assignments for Online Instruction
1. Do not implement course grading that relies heavily on exam or quiz assessments. A heavily test based course in the online environment is less than desirable for several reasons:
a. The opportunity for cheating is high;
b. Student engagement with the material is low;
c. Multiple choice and true & false tests assess the ability to recall facts and lower level knowledge which provides less opportunity for the development of critical thinking skills and application of actual knowledge.
2. Consider weighting the exams/quizzes at 40%, participation and contribution at 10%, and the remaining 50% consisting of a variety of assignments spread throughout the course.
The opportunity to cheat can be lessened if not avoided by using a variety of assessment methods such as participation in threaded discussions, contribution activities, and group assignments. Discussion boards and chat sessions help to establish the student's individual "voice" and provides the opportunity to be actively engaged in the course. Well designed group activities encourage collaboration and prompts students to engage with course content and construct new knowledge collectively. Including a peer review or peer-grading component is another excellent method of assessing authentic student work and providing additional opportunity for active engagement.
Information adapted from: online learning insights: A Blog about Open and Online Education.
Coming next: Adapting Your Assignments for Online Instruction
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Adapting Your Syllabus for Online Instruction
When adapting your course syllabus from a face-to-face course to an online course:
1. Do not use the same syllabus that you used for your face-to-face course. This is a common error when transitioning a class to the online format considering the time, energy, and effort that have gone into developing the face-to-face course. However, creating a revised instructional strategy for the online format is necessary. An instructional strategy for online learning involves revised teaching methods, learning activities, and assessments.
2. Create a new syllabus with the online student and the virtual environment in mind.
3. Include course instructor contact information that will be accessible to online students such as email, text number, Skype address, Google + contact info., etc.
4. Consider recording and posting a brief video clip of yourself (the instructor) reviewing the most important points in the syllabus, just as you would for a face-to-face class.
5. Post the syllabus in PDF format for easy download, or use the Book resource within Moodle.
6. Provide a list of Web resources that relate to and supplement the course content for deeper learning opportunities.
Information adapted from: online learning insights: A Blog about Open and Online Education.
Coming next: Adapting Your Assessment Activities for Online Instruction
1. Do not use the same syllabus that you used for your face-to-face course. This is a common error when transitioning a class to the online format considering the time, energy, and effort that have gone into developing the face-to-face course. However, creating a revised instructional strategy for the online format is necessary. An instructional strategy for online learning involves revised teaching methods, learning activities, and assessments.
2. Create a new syllabus with the online student and the virtual environment in mind.
3. Include course instructor contact information that will be accessible to online students such as email, text number, Skype address, Google + contact info., etc.
4. Consider recording and posting a brief video clip of yourself (the instructor) reviewing the most important points in the syllabus, just as you would for a face-to-face class.
5. Post the syllabus in PDF format for easy download, or use the Book resource within Moodle.
6. Provide a list of Web resources that relate to and supplement the course content for deeper learning opportunities.
Information adapted from: online learning insights: A Blog about Open and Online Education.
Coming next: Adapting Your Assessment Activities for Online Instruction
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Completion tracker for forums in Moodle
With any one, or a combination of requirements you can encourage and facilitate a lively discussion in your Moodle course. For example you might require that a student start their own thread, and reply to at least three other students’ comments. Once a student has met that criteria you could (if setup properly) verify completion simply by using the completion block.
- Completion tracking options include: “…when conditions are met”, students can mark completion or “do not indicate activity completion” for those assignments/resources you don’t want to track. To make all of the completion options available and automatic you’ll want to utilize “…when conditions are met”
- Require view: just that, the student must click the link to mark the activity complete
- Require grade: students will need a grade or a pass/fail for the assignment
- Require posts: students must post (and you can choose to require X posts)
- Require discussions: students must start a new thread (you can also choose a quantity)
- Require replies: students must reply (again, you can choose quantity)
1. In the Settings block, click on Edit Course Settings.
2. Scroll down until you see the section titled "Student Progress" and use the drop down options next to Completion tracking to choose "Enabled, control via completion and activity settings".
3. Save your changes.
4. Completion tracking will now be available for all activities. The completion tracking activities are set-up individually.
For more information about Activity Completion in Moodle visit: http://docs.moodle.org/24/en/activity/completion.
Or the ITRC google doc: Activity Completion
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Open Education Resources
Open Education Resources (OER) have been defined by the Hewlett Foundation as teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open education resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge. Hewlett.org
In the recent report, Growing the Curriculum: Open Education Resources in the U.S. Higher Education compiled by the Babson Survey Research Group the following information is provided with regard to faculty opinions about OER:
In the recent report, Growing the Curriculum: Open Education Resources in the U.S. Higher Education compiled by the Babson Survey Research Group the following information is provided with regard to faculty opinions about OER:
- In 2011, most surveyed academic leaders report that open education resources will have value for their campus; 57% agree that they have value and less than 5% disagree.
- Nearly two-thirds of all chief academic officers agree that OER have the potential to reduce costs for their institution.
- There is wide agreement among academic leaders that OER will save time in the development of new courses.
- Over one-half of academic leaders agree or strongly agree that open education resources would be more useful if there was a single clearinghouse.
- Among faculty, cost and ease of use are most important for selecting online resources.
- The time and effort to find and evaluate are consistently listed as the most important barriers by faculty to the adoption of OER.
- Older faculty have a greater level of concern with all potential barriers to OER adoption than do younger faculty.
Monday, November 19, 2012
No Signficant Difference Phenomenon
What is the "No Significant Difference Phenomenon?
In the early 1900's, as correspondence courses came into vogue, there was a question that weighed on the minds of educators: could students learn as well at a distance as they could face to face? As with most controversial issues, there were proponents on both sides: traditionalists held face to face as the gold standard, while innovators held that distance courses could deliver equivalent, if not improved, learning outcomes. Both sides were eager to gather evidence to substantiate their claims - and thus began the movement in media comparison studies (MCS) in education. In these studies, researchers looked to compare student outcomes for two courses that were delivered through two different methods, thereby identifying the "superior" method for teaching effectiveness. The "No Significant Difference" phenomenon refers to a body of literature consisting of a particular type of MCS - those comparing student outcomes between face to face and distance delivery courses. An overwhelming number of studies have shown that when the course materials and teaching methodology were held constant, there was no significant differences (NSD) between student outcomes in distance delivery courses as compared to a face to face course. The student outcomes were neither worse nor better in either delivery method. Thomas Russell has compiled a collection of the results of these studies and coined the now common identifier phrase "No Significant Difference Phenomenon" for this body of literature.
Just when we thought it was safe to move beyond the “no significant difference” phenomenon, knowing that scarcely any college class today is untouched by technology – we find ourselves in 2012 still engaged in debates about “online” versus “traditional” instruction. In September 2012, the Colorado Department of Higher Education released a comparison study of Colorado Community College System students who took science courses online versus in traditional classrooms, and then tracked those students who transferred into four-year institutions in Colorado. The study suggests that students who took online science courses at the community college level perform just as well in science classes at four-year institutions as students who took traditional on-campus science classes.
As the Colorado study has shown, research once again supports the efficacy of online delivery, even in science courses. Now we must work together to ensure that the online education we are delivering is relevant, high quality, and accessible.
Click here for more information about the No Significant Difference Phenomenon and Thomas Russell's research.
Click here for more information about the Colorado Study.
References:
Epper, R. (2012, June). Colorado study finds "no significant difference" in online science courses. WCETblog. Retrieved from http://wcetblog.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/co_nsd/
Thomas L. Russell, “The No Significant Difference Phenomenon.” 2001, IDECC, fifth edition.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Supporting Students with Learning Disabilities
Not all students are forthcoming about letting others know that they have learning disabilities which makes supporting these students difficult for online instructors.
Some suggestions for ways online
instructors can support students with disabilities:
- Open and constant communication
o
Feedback on assignments – an opportunity to
maintain communication
o
Contacting a student that is not participating
in the discussions/forums and asking if they understood the assignment or had
any questions
o
Making it clear when the instructor is available
for questions and/or help
- Compassion and a willingness to bend the rules
o
Extension of deadlines for those who need extra
time to complete
o
Working with disabilities services to help
students get access to assistive software
o
Working individually with the struggling student
o
Refer a struggling student to support services
such as tutoring
- Pay attention to course elements that might be problematic for some students
o
Make sure the text is distinguishable from the
background colors
o
Provide closed captioning or a transcript for
videos
- Ask the disabilities services department to look at your course for accessibility issues in order to prevent problems before they happen
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