Twitter in the Classrooom

Check it out ... “A new study, scheduled to be released next week by the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, suggests that using Twitter in class might in fact lead to greater engagement and higher grades ...” 

Read the full story...
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/11/08/sloan3

Are you using Twitter in your online, hybrid or face-to face classes?  Let us know!

-LT

How to Spot a Turkey in Cyberspace: Information Literacy PPT

How to Spot a Turkey in Cyberspace

This Information Literacy PowerPoint was presented at the 2005 NMC conference.

As global citizens become increasing reliant upon web-based information - AND web resource quality varies tremendously. Information literacy helps separate quality information treasure from the massive collection of cyber trash inhabiting the Internet. Information Literacy …enables us to analyze and evaluate the information we find on the Internet, giving us confidence in using the selections to make a decision or create a product.
 How to Spot a Turkey in Cyberspace suggests the 5 + 1 Evaluation Criteria:

• Accuracy
• Authority
• Objectivity
• Currency
• Coverage
• 5+1. Design /Navigation /ADA

~~CS Robinson

2011 Blackboard Exemplary Course Program

The 2011 Blackboard Exemplary Course Program is now open!

Since its launch in 2000, the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program aims to help faculty use e-Learning technology more effectively by identifying and disseminating best practices for designing engaging online courses.  Using a rubric, instructors and course designers are able to evaluate how well their own course conforms to best practices for Course Design, Interaction & Collaboration, Assessment and Learner Support.

Please consider participating in the 2011 Exemplary Course Program by submitting a course of your own or volunteering to be a reviewer or both!  The deadline for nominating your course for review is January 18, 2011. Feel free to forward this message on to faculty or instructional designers you think would benefit from participating in this program.
There are many benefits to participating in the Exemplary Course Program:

• Learn course design best practices to improve the engagement, collaboration, assessment and learner support within your own courses
• Develop a fresh perspective by seeing how other instructors and designers from your discipline or area of interest are developing their courses
• Apply lessons learned from the Exemplary Course Rubric to your own courses or those you are helping to develop
• Receive detailed feedback on your own course development on the best practices you are employing or areas in which it can be improved
• Gain professional development experience and recognition for your accomplishments and participation in the program

This is a valuable learning experience for even the most seasoned instructor or designer.
To learn more about the 2011 Exemplary Course Program visit www.blackboard.com/ecp where you will find information on how to:

• Volunteer to be a reviewer
• Download the Exemplary Course Rubric and Submit a Course for consideration
• Explore best practices and past winning courses
• Learn about how to participate in the 2011 Exemplary Course Program

We hope that you will be participating in this year's Exemplary Course Program. If you have any questions please send an email to ecp@blackboard.com.

-LT

Using Distance Education to Increase College Access and Efficiency

The LAO has a new report out on distance learning in higher education and degree programs:

"Distance Education Provides Additional Tool for Advancing Master Plan’s Goals. Fifty years ago, California adopted the Master Plan for Higher Education, a framework document designed to promote universal access for students and cost–effective coordination among the state’s colleges and universities. At the time, postsecondary education generally required students to travel to a campus for in–person classes with an instructor. Today, many students have another option: using technology (primarily the internet) to access instruction wherever they are. The California Community Colleges (CCC) are the largest provider of distance education among the state’s public higher education segments, with the California State University (CSU) also offering a considerable amount of instruction using this delivery method. (Currently, the University of California [UC] system’s use of the medium is limited, though UC is planning a pilot project that could eventually result in a much more extensive distance–education program.)" ...

Read the full report: http://www.lao.ca.gov/reports/2010/edu/distance_ed/distance_ed_102510.pdf

Below is a video presentation related to the report:


-LT

Overview: The Assessing Online Facilitation Instrument

The Assessing Online Facilitation (AOF) instrument and accompanying Facilitation Activity Record were developed by the California State University Tigers Grant Committee as a primary resource for the following:

• Checklist for self-evaluation in combination with student evaluations to gauge both areas of course strengths and areas of needing improvement.
• Framework for invited peer evaluation.
• Outline for a department’s expectations with simple modifications.
• Guide for faculty training.

The Assessing Online Facilitation (AOF) Instrument is essentially a self /peer assessment component of a process representing a cooperative effort to continuously improve online instruction.  It is comprised of organized tips and techniques from the literature into an easy-to-use checklist called the Assessing Online Facilitation Instrument, or the “AOF”.

The AOF can:

1. Serve as a checklist for self-evaluation in combination with student feedback to gauge both areas of course strengths and areas needing improvement.
2. Function as a framework for invited peer evaluation.
3. Outline a division/department’s expectations with simple modifications.
4. Guide for faculty training.

The Facilitation Activity Record is an optional companion document for the Assessing Online Facilitation (AOF) Instrument. A blank template is available on the AOF website at http://www.humboldt.edu/aof/far.htm.

 ~ CS Robinson

Course Redesign Developments to Increase Math Student Success

~ From Carol A. Twigg, National Center for Academic Transformation President and CEO

Changing the Equation Selects 38 Institutions

The National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT) has selected 38 two-year institutions* to participate in Changing the Equation, a new program focused on redesigning remedial/developmental math supported by a $2.3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Institutions participating in the program will improve student learning outcomes while reducing costs for both students and institutions using NCAT's proven redesign methodology. Collectively, these 38 redesigns will impact more than 100,000 students annually.

Each participant in Changing the Equation will redesign its entire developmental math sequence-all sections of all developmental courses offered-using NCAT's Emporium Model and commercially available instructional software (ALEKS, Carnegie Learning, Hawkes Learning Systems and MyMathLab.) Each redesign will modularize the curriculum, allowing students to progress through the developmental course sequence at a faster pace if possible or at a slower pace if necessary, spending the amount of time needed to master the course content.

Scaling a Proven Innovation

Changing the Equation builds on NCAT's ten years of experience in conducting large-scale course redesign programs that improve learning while reducing costs. Math redesigns at NCAT partner institutions have

  

• increased the percentage of students successfully completing a developmental math course by 51% on average (ranging from 10% to 135%), while reducing the cost of instruction by 30% on average (ranging from 12% to 52%), and 
• increased the percentage of students successfully completing a college-level math course by 25% on average (ranging from 7% to 63%), while reducing the cost of instruction by 37% on average (ranging from 15% to 77%) 

*Institutions selected to participate in Changing the Equation include:

·        Anne Arundel Community College

·        Bowling Green Technical College

·        Cecil College

·        Cochise College

·        College of Central Florida

·        Cossatot Community College of the University of Arkansas

·        Cumberland County College

·        Dakota College at Bottineau

·        Delgado Community College

·        Genesee Community College

·        Guilford Technical Community College

·        Hazard Community and Technical College

·        Heartland Community College

·        Henderson Community College

·        Iowa Western Community College

·        Laramie County Community College

·        Leeward Community College

·        Lurleen B. Wallace Community College

·        Manchester Community College

·        Mercer County Community College

·        Mesabi Range Community and Technical College

·        Miami Dade College

·        Mid-State Technical College

·        Mountwest Community & Technical College

·        Nashville State Community College

·        Northern Virginia Community College

·        Northwest-Shoals Community College

·        Northwest State Community College

·        Oakton Community College

·        Pearl River Community College

·        Robeson Community College

·        Somerset Community College

·        Stark State College of Technology

·        Volunteer State Community College

·        Washington State Community College

·        West Kentucky Community and Technical College

·        West Virginia University at Parkersburg

·        Wilbur Wright College

~CS Robinson

iPad used for Holographic-type Animations

The iPad is used to create animated glowing light boxes which are placed into scenes in a video.

Innovative and worth five minutes to chck out the demonstration.
 http://vimeo.com/14958082


~CS Robinson

INTELECOM Blackboard 9.1 Building Block

INTELECOM is pleased to announce the availability of a Blackboard Building Block for the INTELECOM Online Resources Network®.   This will enable Blackboard users to conduct keyword searches of the repository from within the Blackboard environment.    Compatible with Blackboard version 8, 9, and 9.1, the Building Block is free and may be downloaded from the Blackboard Extensions website at:

 http://www.blackboard.com/Support/Extensions/Extension-Details.aspx?Download=Y&ExtensionID=32607

INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications, a non-profit corporation and joint power authority of 29 California community colleges, is a premier producer of curriculum-based media for online, distance and classroom learning.  INTELECOM brings together instructional design, content development and digital technology to offer teachers and students alike a universe of content for lifelong learning...anytime, anywhere.

~CS Robinson~

Screen Cloning Software

~CS Robinson~

What is iTALC?

iTALC is a powerful didactical tool for teachers. It lets you view and control other computers in your network in several ways. It supports Linux and Windows 2000/XP and it even can be used transparently in mixed environments!

A version fully supporting Windows Vista and Windows 7 will be available by the end of 2010

In contrast to widely used commercial equivalent software, iTALC is free! This means you do not have to pay for expensive licenses or things like that. Furthermore the source-code is freely available and you're free in changing the software to fit your needs as long as you respect the terms of iTALC's license (GPL). Freedom in two waysiTalc is open source and free.

10 Questions to consider when redesigning a course for hybrid teaching and learning

A hybrid or blended course, by definition, reduces face-to-face "seat time" so that students can pursue additional teaching and learning activities online. To be successful, a hybrid or blended course requires careful pedagogical redesign. These ten questions offer you a way to start thinking about some of these design issues.

1. What do you want students to know when they have finished taking your hybrid course?
2. As you think about learning objectives, which would be better achieved online and which would be best achieved face-to-face?
3. Hybrid teaching is not just a matter of transferring a portion of your traditional course to the Web. Instead it involves developing challenging and engaging online learning activities that complement your face-to-face activities. What types of learning activities do you think you will be using for the online portion of your course?
4. Online asynchronous discussion is often an important part of hybrid courses. What new learning opportunities will arise as a result of using asynchronous discussion? What challenges do you anticipate in using online discussions? How would you address these?
5. How will the face-to-face and time out of class components be integrated into a single course? In other words, how will the work done in each component feed back into and support the other?
6. When working online, students frequently have problems scheduling their work and managing their time, and understanding the implications of the hybrid course module as related to learning. What do you plan to do to help your students address these issues?
7. How will you divide the percent of time between the face-to-face portion and the online portion of your course? How will you schedule the percent of time between the face-to-face and online portion of your course, i.e., one two hour face-to-face followed by one two hour online session each week?
8. How will you divide the course-grading scheme between face-to-face and online activities? What means will you use to assess student work in each of these two components?
9. Students sometimes have difficulty acclimating to the course Web site and to other instructional technologies you may be using for face-to-face and online activities. What specific technologies will you use for the online and face-to-face portions of your course? What proactive steps can you take to assist students to become familiar with your Web site and those instructional technologies? If students need help with technology later in the course, how will you provide support?
10. There is a tendency for faculty to require students to do more work in a hybrid course than they normally would complete in a purely traditional course. What are you going to do to ensure that you have not created a course and one-half? How will you evaluate the student workload as compared to a traditional class?

Further information may be accessed at http://www4.uwm.edu/ltc/hybrid/faculty_resources/questions.cfm

~CS Robinson~

VoiceThread: a collaborative, multimedia slide show

Penn State is doing pilot testing and provides a link a published white paper published about the VT interface: http://tlt.its.psu.edu/hot-team/2009/voicethread

VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways - using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too.

Users can doodle while commenting, use multiple identities, and pick which comments are shown through moderation. VoiceThreads can even be embedded to show and receive comments on other websites and exported to MP3 players or DVDs to play as archival movies.


~CS Robinson~

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video

"Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances."

This video with accompanying information is useful as an introduction to the Fair Use law:

http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/fair-use/related-materials/codes/code-best-practices-fair-use-online-video

Flipbook Your Text!

A book made of PDF files that turns pages may be just the vehicle to engage your students to read!

Universal Accessibility:

Magnification is built in to the flipbook and the mouse navigates the page the page turning. I am not sure how a screen reader would work. A cohort suggested having an accessible PDF as an alternative format.

http://www.flipviewer.com/

http://www.flipviewer.com/download/indexmacfv11.php

http://www.flipviewer.com/download/indexfvenp.php

If you are looking for a specific flipbook or want to find a free flipbook service, Google brings up a huge array of options.

~CS Robinson~

NEW! Network ID Lookup and Student Technical Support Form

Students who use our Blackboard/WebCT8 system have some new technical support tools which are available from the Blackboard log in page: http://pcc.blackboard.com/

1. A Network ID Lookup. If students do not know his/her network ID, they can look it up using their Lancrcard number and last name.

2. A Student Technical Support Form.  Instead of you (the instructor) calling the PCC Helpdesk to seek Blackboard help for your students, they can fill out a technical support request form 24/7.  The support requests go directly into the PCC Helpdesk and will be responded to by a Distance Education Department staff member during business hours.

We need 24 hour support for both faculty and students!!!
These above services are stop-gap measures to fill our need for Blackboard student support until we can subscribe to a 24/7 live technical support service for our college.  The Distance Education Department is investigating Presidium support, a service employed by many California Community Colleges and Universities, to provide 24/7 live support to faculty and students for course management systems.
-LT

goo.gl URL shortener

Google has just released its goo.gl URL shortener to the public. They created a standalone website so that anyone can use Google to shorten and track the URLs they share via social media sites and e-mail (... and Course Management Systems!)  Check it out... http://goo.gl/ 
-LT

The Evidence on Online Education

Online learning has definite advantages over face-to-face instruction when it comes to teaching and learning, according to a new meta-analysis released ... by the U.S. Department of Education.

The study found that students who took all or part of their instruction online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through face-to-face instruction. Further, those who took "blended" courses -- those that combine elements of online learning and face-to-face instruction -- appeared to do best of all. That finding could be significant as many colleges report that blended instruction is among the fastest-growing types of enrollment...

Read the whole article: Inside Higher Ed 6/29/2009

See the full report:  Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies

California Enacts Law to Ease Community College Transfer

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ... signed legislation that will ensure admission to the California State University System for students who earn a newly established transfer degree from one of the state's community colleges. SB 1440 requires each community college district to create an associate degree for transfer and guarantees admission to Cal State for any student who earns one of those degrees. A second measure, AB 2302, directs the University of California to develop a better transfer pathway to its campuses.  From Inside Higher Ed 9/30/10

Your thoughts on how this will affect distance education?  Post your comments...
-LT

What is Wolfram Alpha?

Wolfram Alpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com) is a computational knowledge engine.  It generates output by doing computations from its own internal knowledge base, instead of searching the web and returning links.  Check it out!  It is great for math but also a wide range of other subjects.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/introducingwolframalpha.html

Have you used Wolfram Alpha in your class (face-to-face or online)?  Let us know!
-LT

Blackboard Down

Important Notice

PCC’s Blackboard System will be undergoing scheduled maintenance and will be unavailable beginning Sunday, October 3rd at 9:30 PM, for a total 12 hours.  The system will available no later than 9:30 AM on Monday, October 4th.  

Thank you for your patience and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.
-LT