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.

Student Satisfaction Data

This is the second year I attended this session on student satisfaction data as gathered at Lake Superior College. They are using the PSOL survey from Noel-Levitz and have been directing their attentions for improvements, in part, based on these results. The survey measures both importance to the student and how satisfied they were with that element of the online experience. It's important to note that the survey asks students to evaluate the program and not a particular course. Whether or not students realize this distinction with every question is impossible to know.

Much of the survey adds quantitative figures to otherwise un-quantified notions that we likely share. Items like students find it most important to have a reliable Learning Management System and they find it very important to have responsive faculty.

Other areas suggest a mismatch in our efforts to promote collaboration when students rate it as only somewhat important. Of course, I would argue that the benefits of learning to work together only make themselves known years later.

Barry Dahl, the presenter, is setting up the Online Student Satisfaction Blog for the ongoing dissemination of his analysis.

ION QOCI

It's pronounced "kwaki" like the final syllables in Meskwaki. The Illinous Online Network (ION) has created, tested, facilitated and benefited from the Quality Online Course Initiative (QOCI). And they are sharing!

The rubric for course improvement is based on Quality Matters but goes much more in depth and really just looks much much cleaner. It purposely separates course from instruction. This rubric does not evaluate instruction, but instead provides extensive feedback on course design. It's nice - I'd like to incorporate this tool into an online training course. Look for that in the near future.

CATs Online

Classroom Assessments Techniques were outlined and it was proposed that they could be just as effectively used online as in the F2F classroom. The most common CATs:

• Minute Paper
  
• Muddiest Point
  
• One-Sentence Summary
  
• Directed Paraphrase
  
• Application Cards

It's healthy to be reminded there are more than just a few ways to authenticate learning.

Retaining Students

I came a bit late to the session on tips, tricks, and how-to's for retaining online students. It was a frenzied session with an exuberant presenter. So exuberant she blasted through her slides and left some chuckling (not mean-spiritedly) when she asked for questions:

"Okay, anyone have any questions? (No pause) Because now I am going to on to the next slide, and here we have more ideas on how to connect..."

I'm not exaggerating. I envy those minds who were capable of keeping pace. But in the end, I was not sure how any of the tools she presented or had other attendants suggest really improved retention. Actually, I never heard her even mention retention. I think there is an assumption that using a variety of tools and multiple presentations would increase retention. It sounds good, and I wouldn't disagree. But I also think the energy of this instructor/presenter could have more than a little to do with her success in the classroom.