Media Components

I created five flash media components for a little presentation I gave recently. The idea was to provide instructors with a relatively easy and slick way to include media in their online courses or web pages. The contents of each component are customizable by gathering media and editing a simple xml file. Instructions as well as all the support files are available at the link above. The media components include: Image Presenter (basically just a slideshow), Audio Presenter, Video Presenter, Flashcards, and MediaMatch (a drag-n-drop multiple choice type activity).

If you are a developer and improve these components, I would love to know about it.

Zamzar.com

This might just be the mother of all file conversion tools. Ever receive strange file formats from students you can't open? Try converting them to something you can with Zamzar.com. Handles documents, images, audio and video. Will come in handy if you need some flv formatted video and only have mpgs or mov or avi or many others...

Download Youtube

This TechCrunch page proved helpful today. If you need a quick way to download a video from YouTube, and don't want to install anything, this one worked great for me. It downloads in Flash video format (.flv), so you will need some kind of player. The files do not play natively in a browser or even the Flash player. It just so happens I have created a little component to play and organize Flash video (.flv) files on a webpage. I call it the Video Presenter.

iPod Video Converter

Another tip from Geekbrief.tv today that might prove useful if we can ever get off the ground with podcasting or vidcasting. This little aptly named software (IPOD Video Converter for Free) converts many formats of video into iPod friendly format. And it's free! I'd play with it, but I don't have a video iPod. Maybe this is the reason to get one? There are also other options out there. Check out some of the comments on the lifehacker post.

jott.com

Ever wish you could remind yourself to follow up with a student or colleague without wasting a post-it note? Well, now you can! All you need is a dedicated phone to register. Sign up with Jott.com and leave yourself a message that will be transcribed and emailed to you. Now, I am a certified mumbler and quiet talker, so I was apprehensive. But my fears were pointless since the audio is also attached to the email file. If I can't make out the transcription, I can always listen to my audio.

Game Play

Here is one more entry for the eLearning conference. Gaming is still receiving its fair share of attention for its ability to motivate and engage the learner. There was a session on Second Life, which is technically not a game but more like a whole world. Educators are using this. There is a whole campus there with galleries and lectures. It's worth exploring.

I didn't attend that session though since I already know a bit about Second Life. But I did attend a student orientation game-model session. Presenters from Mercer Community College demonstrated a game-show style orientation for online learners. The software they are using (Game Show Presenter) is not free, but was inexpensive enough to make this possible on a shoestring budget. The orientation is currently delivered F2F, but the presenters will be exploring the online version of the tool in the near future (it was just released).

I recently found a template for Captivate that creates a Jeopardy style quiz/game. Might be fun as part of an online student orientation.

eLearning 2007 Summation

I'm back in a strangely warm Iowa. Feels good here.

The conference was a wonderful learning experience. I'd say the biggest lessons for me centered on instructor training for online course development. It seems there is or soon will be a mandate for some kind of more formal processes. The Department of Defense is supposed to be come out with a list of criteria that must be met for online courses to be listed as certified. Without their stamp of approval, current officers will not be able to receive funds from the military to take our classes. And this could expand to veterans too. And from there, I expect any accreditation agency will want some more formal process in place. I'll be looking into this more.

Another area of interest at this conference was, as always, student success. And this ties into the first point as well. As you might imagine, instructors who are well trained in course design principles have an easier time helping students. But it goes well beyond this too. It seems everyone agrees there needs to be readiness to learn online. And there are surveys measuring students' readiness. We have one at Kirkwood. What we are missing is a compelling procedure to bring that tool to students. I know we already mail our students a slew of paper they rarely read, but I might try emailing them. It won't reach everyone, but every little bit helps, right? I spoke with one college President at lunch -- his college requires a 2.7 gpa OR (and this is or is crucial) a student can take an online learner orientation course to make up for the less than awesome gpa. I'll be looking into this more.

If you have never been to New Mexico, plan a trip. It's amazing.

Student Characteristics

A single study measuring similarities and differences of online and F2F learners. The students were all in the veterinary technician program. The aim of the study was to make sure they were recruiting the right students or better inform their recruiting and advertising choices. They used four different measures to gather data: Demographic survey, Readiness for Online Learning survey, KOLB Learning Styles, Trice Academic Locus of Control (Motivation).

A summary of their study concluded that, compared to F2F students, online learners were more employed, more prepared to learn online, more internally motivated to be learning, and more abstract thinkers, among others. Nothing outside what you might expect there, but it's always nice to have the numbers to back up claims. (The one number they did have that was surprising was modal age was 31-32. I need to work on our demographic stats.)

The Cheating Debate

Every year eLearning/ITC hosts a somewhat formal debate on a burning issue in the area of distance learning. Last year was Blackboard vs. Moodle. This year the argued statement was "cheating is rampant in distance learning courses."

There was an overwhelming consensus that cheating is not such a big deal. The arguments against the claim really focused on the word "rampant" which he took to mean "unchecked and widespread." This allowed him to focus less on whether or not it existed, but how much everyone was already doing about it. The message was that it's there, as it always has been, and we are dealing with it.

I did find one argument presented by the against side compelling. He claimed software like Turn-It-In created a culture of cheating and is ultimately illegal. We value, and pay for, a service that asks us to publish our students papers without their permission. It's interesting. I wonder if any student has thought to file suit, or if institutions have sought blanket permission from students.

SPOC

Any guesses what S.P.O.C. stands for? I'll give you a hint: It's a product of St. Petersburg College, and assists instructors with online communication. If you guessed Selective Product for Our College, you are not entirely wrong.

SPOC consists of a suite of tools created for Angel LMS using Flash and Flash Media Server technologies. They are impressive tools adding rich functionality, with simple interfaces for instructors and students, currently missing from most LMS packages. Not that the same functionality doesn't exist in other third party tools such as Wimba, but alternatives and competition is typically a good thing. Some of the tools include live classroom, video recorder (for students and instructor), audio recorder, video responder (allowing instructor to add text comments to a student submitted video), and more.

Unfortunately, the tools are currently only built for Angel, although could potentially ($$$) be customized to fit other LMSs. The suite is also tied up in legal ownership issues since they were built with grant money from the federal government. So, here are these impressive tools and nobody is really allowed to use them outside of St. Petersburg College. But it's something to check in on from time to time.

If only this was built with an open-source model.