Distance Learning Mentoring Group
Minutes for May 1, 2008 CTL Workroom, 3:15 P.M.- 5:15 P.M. AS192
In attendance at the DLMG meeting: Alex Cheroske, Scott Gustafson, Laura Kobar, Georgianna Anderson, Sharon McLaughlin, Linda Evans, Shabana Kausar, Marianne Arini, Misa Vening, Biray Alsac, and Peggy Johnson.
Shabana, Biray and Georgianna showed the online courses they have developed.
SHABANA
Shabana developed an online version of PSY 260, Personality Psychology, a course she has not taught on campus previously. The course homepage has a colorful banner and three attractive icons. It includes the legal disclaimer that the district wants faculty to include on all their online resources (http://www.maricopa.edu/disclaimer.php).
The three icons are Welcome, Course Info, and Learning Modules. The Welcome icon leads to information on the instructor (teaching philosophy, background, how to email instructor), First Week tasks (setting up students MCC email account, WebCT tutorials, how to post introduction on Discussion board), and FAQ's (frequently asked questions, including lots of "how to's"). The Course Info icon leads to information about the text (students can purchase an Ebook, which is totally online, for less cost than a regular textbook), course description [(including course competencies), format of course, information on how each assessment is linked to specific course objectives), grading criteria, withdrawal policy, class schedule, a printable syllabus, instructions for students with disabilities, and a link to download Powerpoint reader]. The Learning Modules contain the lessons.
Shabana directs her students that it is their responsibility to keep a copy of all their work until the course is completed. This prevents some potential problems if students' work is somehow lost in cyberspace or not received by the instructor.
Shabana has established consistent dates for course tasks. For example, quizzes will always be available on Thursdays and Fridays. This helps students plan their schedule and complete work on time.
The course is divided into five units. There is a chapter outline for each unit. Students complete a practice multiple choice quiz (may take it five times, score doesn't affect their grade), graded multiple choice quiz, submit an assignment (answers to essay questions), post to a discussion board, and write a reflective journal that is visible only to the instructor and the student who authored it. Shabana will lock the Discussion board at the end of each week to force students to comply with due dates.
Shabana plans to use the Announcements tool for updating students frequently.
Note: The Date Rollover tool can make it quicker for you to change dates in your course. To access it, select the Build tab. Then choose Manage Course. Finally, select Date Rollover. If you need directions on how to use this tool, click on the Help button at the top right side of your screen when you are in your WebCT course.
Shabana plans to make the FAQ file and First Week files accessible from her homepage also, so students can access them outside of WebCT (they won't have to be registered in the course to view them).
BIRAY
Biray has created a very unique Principles of Fitness and Wellness course. Students have nicknamed her "Miss B", so she is using the bee theme. For example, her homepage reads, "Bee Fit, Bee Well, Bee Healthy". The three icons on the course homepage are clip art figures of a bee, bee hive and honey jar.
The bee icon (Buzz in before you get stung) leads to general information about the course. The hive icon leads to the eight units (learning modules) of the course. Each unit lists key concepts from the chapter that Biray created in Powerpoint. She made them available to students on slideshare.net, so the hive icon has a link to this site, though students access the link through WebCT. Assignments located in each unit often direct students to an external website and ask them to complete an activity (such as take a wellness quiz or set up an account at Gyminee.com for later use in the course) at the website. The Honey Jar icon leads to information on the final course project. Once students become familiar with these free websites, they can continue to use them for their own personal growth for years to come.
On Gyminee.com (http://www.gyminee.com/), students log their workouts and nutritional intake. They create their profile online and track it. Features of their profile (e.g. weight, waist size) may be public or private, as the student desires. They can link to other folks as their gym buddies (which will include their classmates).
The assignments for these websites correlate with the chapter concepts in the textbook for the course. They will be adding pieces to their fitness program one program at a time as the course progresses.
Biray is using Ning.com (http://www.ning.com/) for class discussions. This is a private network, similar to My Space. Each student has a forum. Students will post their photos and the photos appear with each posting they make on Ning. Biray creates the questions students must answer in creating their profile. Biray can include private questions, to which only she sees the answers (e.g. email address, phone number). Biray will post two questions on the forum for each unit. The student chooses which of the two questions they will answer.
Students can embed the statistics they create in Gyminee in their Ning site.
Ning allows Biray to pull in an RSS feed on the class Ning site for individual groups. Students can also create their own RSS feeds into their Ning accounts.
If you contact Ning and let them know you are using a site for educational purposes, they can turn off all the ads for your site.
Biray directs students to create a composite photo that contains information the student learns about a particular topic, e.g. something they learned about honey. Biray creates a class album with all the student submissions in her Bee Educated Photo Album. The class album can be embedded in an email, blog, etc. Classmates can rate the photo (e.g. give it two stars).
The Final Project in Biray's course is that each student creates a video. The video is a montage of photos which is rated by the students in the class.
Biray's course includes a podcast she obtained from a professional trainer. Students listen to this podcast as they conduct the workout the trainer describes. Such podcasts are commercially available resources that trainers might use with their clients in the future.
Biray has been using Twitter to send text messages to her students this semester. About half the students made use of this technology. She hasn't decided yet whether she will use Twitter with this online class.
GEORGIANNA
Georgianna created an online Medication and Wellness course (WED 162). She has taught the class for Phoenix college as a face-to-face class, which is helpful in developing her online course.
Unfortunately, the WebCT server was down at this time so Georgianna was unable to show her course with DLMG. However, she told us about the course. Lessons were developed in SoftChalk. They include a number of interactive activities (popups) to hold student attention.
The lesson for each week of this eight-week course include a five-minute audio centering piece with music appropriate for meditation, a practice meditation piece (can be a You Tube video), a reading assignment, a quiz, and directions for posting a private journal entry.
The first week students are linked to Georgianna's Always Yoga website (http://www.alwaysyoga.com/). Students take a quiz on the syllabus and view a video.
A discussion ensued regarding how to grade private journals. Perhaps students should get credit for any journal posting effort. Linda Evans has had experience with these and concludes that it is extremely important the instructor make serious, reflective comments on the postings (more than just "good job"). Students respond positively when instructors are processing what they read and reflecting on it, providing feedback.
FEEDBACK
Faculty provided for suggestions on how to improve DLMG in the future:
1. show more online courses of MCC faculty; perhaps spend only part of a meeting on any one course and then grant guest access
2. incorporate more deadlines earlier in the semester; perhaps faculty have to do a project using a particular resource (e.g. software program) and show the group
3. meet more often earlier in the semester - perhaps twice a week - so faculty have time to decide on the approach they will take in their course earlier and begin creating their lessons; perhaps later sessions are more of an open lab setting where faculty work on their course and help is available
4. rather than showing faculty how to use specific software, perhaps cluster them as "if you want to do this task, here are the tools you might consider using"
5. make a checklist of the things faculty absolutely need to remember to do for their courses, such as the district's legal disclaimer statement
(Note: Earlier in the semester I did send the beginnings of such a checklist. Here's a link to it: http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~johnson/Some WebCT Tips.htm)