DLMG Minutes Feb 5 2009

Distance Learning Mentoring Group

Minutes for February 5, 2009 AS192 4:30 P.M.- 6:10 P.M.

In attendance at the DLMG meeting: Mona Scott, Joe DePinto, Corki Stewart, Megan Garvey, Glenna Bayer, Marie Hatch, JoRita DeFrancesco, and Peggy Johnson.

Peggy showed faculty the online biology course she created. Desirable features/pedagogy were discussed, including the following:

1. FIRST WEEK - The first week of class students should do each type of task that will be required of them in the course. Research suggets this lessons student anxiety about the course dramatically. So if students will be using the Discussions tool, they should be required to post a discussion (an introduction is good). If they are to submit assignments using the Assignments tool, they should submit an assignment the first week. If they are taking online quizzes, they should take an online quiz (a quiz over the syllabus is good evidence they have read and understood how the course will be conducted). If you choose not to have students take a quiz on the syllabus, have them sign a form indicating they read it and understand how the course will be conducted. Keep this for your records in case of student complaints.

2. INTRODUCTIONS - Various tools for introductions were examined, including photos put to music (http://animoto.com/), animated avatars at Voki (http://www.voki.com/ or Sitepal (http://www.sitepal.com/).

3. HIDING COURSE CONTENT - WebCT allows you to make items in the course visible only when certain criteria are met. So you can make only the course syllabus and quiz over it visible to students when they first log into the course. You can authorize students to take the quiz as many times as they wish, but they cannot see the rest of the course materials until they earn a certain grade on the quiz (e.g. 80%). WebCT automates all this for you when you give it the proper directions.

4. GRADING FORMS/RUBRICS - The advantages of using grading forms/rubrics was discussed. Grading forms, which are easily created with WebCT, alert students to the criteria on which they are being evaluated. Sample grading forms can be found at http://ctl.mc.maricopa.edu/wiki/index.php/Category%3AHelp_Resources Look under the letter "R" for rubrics and/or the letter "G" for grading forms on the screen that appears. Megan recommends the Ideal.gov site for their rubric maker program. Although designed for AZ K-12 educators, you can log on as a guest https://cas.ideal.azed.gov/cas/login?service=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ideal.azed.gov%2Fcas%2F

5. LIST OF RESOURCES - An extensive list of resources can be found at the Treasure Trove document on the CTL website: http://ctl.mc.maricopa.edu/wiki/index.php/Treasure_Trove_of_Ideas_for_Teaching_Online

6. CYBER CAFE - It's a good idea to have a CyberCafe discussion board in your course for questions of a general nature.

7. COURSE COMPETENCIES AND OBJECTIVES - Align the district course competencies/objectives with your lessons and your assessments. Alert students to which objectives are being addressed in a given learning module. Search for your course competencies at http://www.maricopa.edu/academic/ccta/curric/search_engine.php

8. LEARNING MODULES - Organize the course into learning modules. The modules may be a week or two weeks in length (or whatever you choose). Ideally there is a pattern for the learning modules. So each learning module might contain a list of tasks, URL's and/or textbook reading assignments, discussion board posting, assignment submission, and/or online quiz. Students know what they need to do for each module because there is a mini-table of contents within the learning module. They click on the links within the table of contents to take them to the various tools (discussion, quiz, etc.).

9. CALENDAR - You'll need a course calendar for your class. Google.com offers a free calendar creation
option that works well for uploading into your online class. For a short video showing
you how to create your Google calendar and upload it into your WebCT class, click on
this link: http://screencast.com/t/eGWdlRGc2ip
Alternatively, you can create a course calendar using Microsoft Office Word, creating a large table.

10. GROUP WORK - Do you want your class to do some group work? WebCT allows you to assign students to groups (directed or at random) or let students pick their own groups. You can then direct discussions, emails, and/or assignments to specific groups. While working together has definite benefits, students often complain that some group members don't do their share of the work. Base part of the grade for the assignment on rankings students provide of their peers' contributions. A rubric for this purpose is available at
http://www4.nau.edu/assessment/oaalibrary/Rubrics/Group_Participation_Rubric.htm

11. BANNER - It's easy to create an attractive banner for your online course using Powerpoint. Click on this link for step-by-step instructions http://ctl.mc.maricopa.edu/wiki/index.php/Category:Help_Resources
Under the letter C on the screen that appears, click on the title Creating a Banner for Your
Online Course.

12. GENERIC COURSE - Minimize the references in your course that are keyed to a specific textbook/figure/page. Put the specific references on your course calendar, but not scattered throughout the course. Then you'll just have to change one file (calendar) when you get a new edition of the textbook. Within the course, make references to "as directed on the course calendar".

13. ANNOUNCEMENTS TOOL - The Announcements tool allows you to post a message that all students will see the next time they log into the course. If desired, it will pop up over the course homepage and also be archived behind the Announcements tool.

14. FILE FORMAT - It's desireable to use htm/html or pdf format for files that students view in your course. If you have a Microsoft Office Word document, choose File>Save As. From the drop-down menu, the can choose the option to Save For Web. This will give you the document in htm/html format. To get a pdf document, you can download cute pdf (http://www.cutepdf.com) or primo pdf software (http://www.primopdf.com/) - both are free. Alternatively, bring your files into the CTL and use a computer in the pod area there. Adobe Acrobat, which is loaded on these computers, will convert your files to pdf very quickly.

15. SCREEN CAPTURES - If you want to make screen captures of what you are doing on screen, try Jing at http://www.jingproject.com/. It's free and will capture all your keystrokes and screens as you complete some project, such as posting a discussion to the WebCT discussion board. It's great for giving students a visual set of directions on exactly how to complete some computer/course task.

16. COURSE INFO PAGE - Eventually you will want to create a webpage outside of WebCT that describes your online course for prospective students. When you get inquiries about the class, you direct your students to that site. If they have further questions, they can contact you again. To see Peg's course website, click here: http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~johnson/online100.html
Ideally you'll link this page to your department's webpage and your own homepage.

17. COPYRIGHT - Be sure to follow copyright guidelines in your course. For details on copyright for educators, examine the resources on this site: http://ctl.mc.maricopa.edu/wiki/index.php/Treasure_Trove_of_Ideas_for_Teaching_Online
Scroll down to the section entitled Copyright.

18. EXPECTATIONS - Provide students with specific guidelines on how fast to expect you to answer their emails and get assignments graded and returned. Most faculty try to answer emails within 24 hours on weekdays. Assignments should generally be graded and returned within a week, unless it is a particularly lengthy assignment.Whatever guidelines you post, honor them. It is a contract between you and your students.

19. AUDIO-VISUAL RESOURCES - You can link to wonderful audio and visual resources that are on the web, such as experts explaining the real-life repercussions of a particular policy or event. National Public Radio (NPR) interviews. http://www.npr.org/ A large number of fascinating interviews are available to you at this site.
A number of very expensive videos are available for free viewing at the Annenberg Media site. Go to http://www.learner.org/index.html Type in your discipline in the Teacher Resources search tool at this site.
TED: Ideas Worth Spreading provides short online videos of talks by the world's great thinkers and doers that you can share with your students. At http://www.ted.com, categories include technology, entertainment, design, business, science, culture, arts, and global issues.
Teacher's Domain, http://www.teachersdomain.org/a service of WGBH, the PBS station in Boston, offers a collection of multimedia resources (many clips from PBS series such as American Experience, Nova, etc.) that are readily available for download and educational use. Registration is free.

Items we didn't get time to cover that you need to know about:

1. DISTRICT LEGAL DISCLAIMER - By direction of our chancellor, you need to include a link to the MCCD District Legal Disclaimer in your course. At least put it on the course homepage, but you can put it on every page in the course if you wish. The URL for the disclaimer is http://www.maricopa.edu/disclaimer.php

2. CLASS ROSTER - Students can upload their photos to the class roster within WebCT if you choose to make the Roster tool available.

3. SAMPLE STATEMENTS - Sample statements are available for you as you develop your course.http://ctl.mc.maricopa.edu/wiki/index.php/Sample_Statements_for_Your_Online_Course
Feel free to copy/edit these in any way you choose. They are merely suggestions for getting started.

4. SYLLABI - Maricopa Community College District has very specific guidelines for what needs to be incorporated in your class syllabus. Familiarize yourself with these guidelines and view examples of excellent syllabi crafted by MCCD faculty at
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/syllabus/index.php

5. STUDENT RESOURCES - You don't have to create all the directions your online students will know. Many of these are available at the MCC Online website. You can just link to them in your course. Check them out at http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/mcconline/current.html One advantage of this approach is that as things change, you don't have to update them. The MCC Online office should take care of keeping the site current.

6. CHEAPER TEXTBOOKS - Do you use just a portion of that expensive textbook for your class? If so, consider using iChapters.com. (http://www.ichapters.com/market/index.html) Your students can download just the chapters you want them to have, saving them big bucks. The student needs to know the name of the textbook and download a recent copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader (free at Adobe.com). When the student clicks on the View button by the eChapters option, he/she can see a list of all the chapters in the textbook. The student selects what chapters he/she wants to download. Chapters can be charged to the student's credit card. Students can download the chapters all at once or throughout the semester as needed.

7. SURVEYS - Consider having formative assessments in your course, as well as summative. Formative assessments provide feedback as the course as in progress, rather than just at the end of the course. Using the Assessments tool in WebCT, you can create anonymous survey questions for your students. Utilize them periodically in your course - perhaps after the first few weeks of the semester. Get feedback from your students in time to incorporate their suggestions. WebCT gives you student responses but does not identify which student made which specific response. It does let you know which students completed the survey, in case you want to give them credit for their time.

8. GUEST EXPERTS - Consider interviewing/recording experts in your field. You can have a live chat where students and guest are on the computer at the same time. Authors of textbooks have been known to willingly participate in such an exchange. The chat can be archived for future use. Alternatively, you can record the interview as an audio file and post it in your course. Or if you're really ambitious, you can create a video interview and post it. Consider interviewing local professionals in your discipline or experts who participate in a professional conference you attend. These can add great interest to your class.

8. LEARNING HOW TO USE WEBCT - We will be learning the details of how to use WebCT at our DLMG meetings on Feb. 26 and March 5. But if you can't stand to wait, you can get specific help on the CTL website at http://ctl.mc.maricopa.edu/_resources/webct/index.html

ASSIGNMENT: Complete the Module Overview and Details worksheets for another module in your course. Submit them to Peggy at our Feb. 12 DLMG meeting. Biray Alsac and Laura Kobar will be sharing the online courses they developed as part of last year's DLMG group.

Peggy Johnson