OnlineInnovations

=Innovations in online instruction: Actual and possible=


 * Based originally on notes from 9 May 06 conference call among online instructors.
 * Instructors, please edit as your ideas develop or as you have something to say in response to a comment.
 * Feel free to initiate new pages on specific topics as needs be.
 * Peter will note when several changes have been made and use email alert everyone to check out these out.

How to overcome slow starts to a course, Feb 08

Olen noted that bringing in external blogs really worked. As part of his coaching module, students designed their own blogs. The blogs were public, so there would be peer commentating as well as the instructor. This became a reflective environment for students to really process their learning. The blogs served primarily as a point of reflection on the applied side of the learning.

Olen: sparks happen in the coaching corner after people have gone out in the world and check back in.

Olen also noted that it was fairly challenging to design the asynchronous lectures, but that they served as springboards for the class. From there he linked in articles and other relevant materials. The inquiry thread through WebCT was more devoted to the theory side.

Lisa said they had success with their “Sandbox.” This was a location for icebreakers and games so that people would have another modality to get to know each other with. Some things included conversation and were the same things you might do with people in a room. As creativity was part of the topic, these activities were all relevant as well. Lisa also offered to share their course site with others; that information is provided above.

Wally noted that they paired the “sandbox” activity with creativity exercises. He mentioned that it would be constructive for instructors to share syllabi from the beginning. For both the dialogue course and their course, there are crossovers to be built

Allyn has had his students conduct experiments as a direct application of their learning. They share online and build from one-on-one to groups. The dialogue among them and continuous peer review was very valuable. Students receive useful feedback throughout so that by the time they turn their work in, it’s in pretty good shape.

Peter introduced the idea of creating a Wiki page for people to come together. It would be a shared space to initiate collaboration between online instructors. On a wiki, we could have access to each other’s courses and syllabi, we can have things like the Guide for Online Instruction up and people can contribute to that as well. It would give us access to the process of thinking and sharing of one another’s thoughts. It’s an asynchronous way of doing what we’re doing in this call. (He noted that the “sandbox” in wiki is different from Lisa and Wally’s in that it is a place to go practice editing without it making a mess on the site itself. )

Olen – I’d be interested in having the more centralized space for new ideas and practices; if there is a place like a part of that wiki for new technology, etc

Allyn: teamwork works, but builds from smaller interactions one on one into 2-3 and builds later into larger teams Lisa: Icebreakers and the sandbox

Peter raised a question about dialogue. Normally we think of it as synchronously sitting with people; being able to check in to whether people are really attentive. Online, you’re trying to come up with creative ways of assessing your students’ dialogue

Wally reflected that the Creative Thinking Collaboration and Organizational Change models have been very different from one another. They first thought it would be useful to do a class project, but that did not take off – there was initially a good dialogue. The time students had to invest was a factor in moving toward them doing individual projects. Projects were very helpful in bringing out issues.

Allyn noticed that the title of that course has been used in 3 semesters and each one is quite different. Is this a problem with the students?

Peter replied that he had written the description so that it could be adapted and perhaps wasn’t thinking on online courses when he did. In the face to face versions of this course, the emphasis is on teamwork. There is a tension here between pulling people together into the kind of community where they can do a whole class project – and doing individual projects where people can apply things in the world. When he leads students in problem based learning –they identify problems and discuss in a group before working individually. In Nina’s problem based learning courses, they spend a whole semester working as a group. There are two different models and both are made to work. In response to Olen’s inquiry about group technology and supporting the group as a whole, Peter said he has been using Wiki to support PBL, but it’s not fully developed yet.

Olen suggested a software called Illuminate that he and a colleague have been exploring. It’s quite effective of getting groups of 7-30 online together – it’s more of an interactive conference call; there’s a white board; a queue for voice. He’s looking forward to applying that to the next round.

Lisa inquired how this was different from Centra. Peter mentioned that Centra is undergoing changes at the moment and he appreciated Lisa’s making the bridge for this phone call!

Allyn inquired about dialogue and collaboration online as it seemed to work for Olen’s group. Olen responded that in terms of the dialogue experience, he found in general, that it became more effective for students to explore different contexts for dialogue – personal, business – it became their practice space. They used Skype for conference calls, but as it allows only 5 people at a time, it was somewhat restrictive. The coaching concept really helped them come together and explore these dialogue concepts.

Wally noted that 7 of their 13 students were all working with UMB in another domain; Cambridge Arc (?); They were all studying applied behavior analysis and they got to benefit from the connection.

Wally – Exchanging syllabi. Posting questions for ongoing interactions from the community for ongoing feedback. Walk the application through the system – getting this all together.