Module 8 MVMs

Module 8 marks the end of this course and my last course before the Practicum. I've learned a great deal. The series has not been an "eye-opener" for me, because I have been teaching online for over 10 years. However, it has given me solid, practical tools that I will use.

I have been reviewing and revising my ePortfolio for this class over the past week. I probably have missed quite a few changes; however, I incorporated the suggestions made in my grading sheets right after receiving the grading sheet. Now I have to go back through and remember what I changed. The nature of the my classes require that we fix our work before we go on--if there is a problem in your database, you must fix it or the next steps will not work. I should have kept better track of what I did. However, I did not receive any serious "error messages." I wrote introductions for all my pages. It didn't make sense to me to create something without an explanation of what it was. Perhaps that is just the teacher in me coming out.

Internet in Cabarete has been up and down for the last few days. Fortunately, I finished the review of my ePortfolio on Wednesday. I'll do the proofreading on Friday.

What did I get out of this particular module? I tend to be very organized, so I did not pick up many organization tips. Unfortunately, I don't have the option of using Subject Lines; our new LMS just doesn't have that feature at this time.

I did feel like I was apologizing all week for wanting to have a life. I have given 150% to my job for 16 years. For the first 10 years I felt valued and was rewarded. Over the last five years the politicking and morale have gotten so bad that I have had to check out to stay sane. My support group has retired or is retiring. I planned to retire four years ago, but the economy nixed that. I don't think I have copped an attitude. I think that I am just coming to the realization that the people who are rewarded are the ones that give out A's and pass all their students. Those faculty get to be "real" online instructors and don't have to come to campus. The rest of us do the work that they are not on campus to do.

I got some great tips for tools. Google Docs is built into Canvas and I need to revisit all the Google tools. We have had issues with the built in tools in Canvas. Instructure's vendors we overloaded and Scribd was running nearly a week behind in translating documents. Our Camtasia Relay was locked up too and it was taking days to render a video. I am so glad that I know how to use other tools and have learned more from my classmates. As I have found an item that I think a colleague would enjoy, I've forwarded it. They have all thanked me and said it was a new resource they would use. Thanks to all my classmates.

Next stop? The Practicum. But that will have to wait until Summer--maybe Spring, but likely summer.

Thanks!!

Added on 11/17/2012

I have to admit I am surprised at the manner in which we all just "checked out" without closing. In my summer class we almost did not want to say "good bye." This course is about online community and we exited silently. Was the community building too intense and we burned out on communication? There is much to consider.

Module 7 MVMs

My reading on Monday began with Chapters 7 & 8 in Making the Move to eLearning: Putting Your Course Online. The two passages that follow hold particular importance to me in light of the week that just passed.

"When planning for a cooperative project in the course design phase, the most important thing is to determine a product that will not only showcase the important knowledge and skills but is also a task that would be difficult, if not impossible, to complete alone. This compels the group to work together to accomplish the task." (p. 81)

 "The project needs to be meaty enough that all group members will need to be involved if the group is to complete it within the required time frame." (p. 103)

The cooperative project that was assigned was an exercise in patience because it was too simple to be a group project. The coordination detracted from the product rather than adding to it. As it was, I did about 1/3 of what I normally would have done and it took about three times longer. What I will take away from this exercise is to review all of my group projects to make sure they are truly suitable from the number of students assigned.

I have rediscovered something I already knew about myself--I love to chase tangents to see how they may be relevant to the topic. In our classes at UW-Stout I often extend discussions; however, I don't  redirect the discussion back to the original topic. However, in studying my interactions with my students, I find that I extend and redirect as necessary. Only one of my classes is discussion based. All my other classes use the discussion board to surface issues, answer questions, and provide a forum for team work. In database classes there are correct answers. The answers are situational, but there are rules that govern the creation of databases that are founded in math. We can discuss and argue theory, yet math does create answers.

Most of my classes are entry level in which students are given the initial groundwork to develop critical thinking and the objectives must to approved by the Curriculum Committee. Each instructor teaching the class must teach to the same set of objectives. I will need to rewrite my lesson objectives to incorporate the EASy method while adhering to the class objectives stipulated by the program.

Resource:

Lehmann, K., & Chamberlin, L. (2009). Making the Move to eLearning: Putting Your Course Online. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Education.

Module 6: MVMs

After reading Chapter 12 of Making the Move to eLearning: Putting Your Course Online by Chamberlin and Lehmann, I have discovered that I am not an online instructor. I am a full-time, tenured faculty member that happens to sometimes teach her entire load online. There is a difference that is worth noting.

I am required to be involved in college governance. That means that I spend about 20% of my time attending meetings and participating in activities that contribute to managing the campus. I am currently a member of the Tenure Review Committee and the Instructional Pluralism Committee and I am an alternate on the Faculty Commons Council. I am required to be on campus for college governance meetings. I am also required to hold on campus office hours equal to the amount of time that I teach F2F. In Winter I will teach 5 credits F2F and 11 online. I will need to hold 2 hours per week on campus.

My normal work hours are 7:00 am to 3:30 pm Monday through Friday. I am able to stay in touch with my online classes all week between classes, office hours, and governance. I grade papers at night and on the weekends, because there just are not enough hours during the week to get it all done.

Because I normally work Monday through Friday all day, I take the weekends off. In all the years that I have been teaching online, I have had only a few quarters when I taught completely online and only one in which I was able to teach from a remote location. Contact instructors who teach completely online have a very different life from FT, tenured faculty who are involved in governance. If we try to live the life on an online instructor, we are criticized, and rightly so, for not contributing to the college committees. When we are protected by tenure and have a guaranteed load, we have certain obligations on campus to fulfill.

The work we did in class this week centered on using different methods of moving discussions forward. I felt mostly disengaged from the large group topic because there was no real discussion. I can see how the reply only technique can be used to create lists and documents, but it should be used for specific purposes and in limited amounts--in my opinion. We also continued to practice our facilitation techniques in small groups.

What I took away from this week is that reply only technique appears to limit discussion. Because our Canvas LMS allows only replies and side comments or the creation of a new discussion as forms of threaded discussion, I have to pay special attention to how this method is working in my classes.

Resource:

Lehmann, K., & Chamberlin, L. (2009). Making the Move to eLearning: Putting Your Course Online. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Education.

Module 5: MVMs

Looks like I jumped the gun last week when I commented about the best practices in the Subject Lines in a threaded discussion. I don't like the technique of starting the response in the subject line and finishing it within the text of the message. It is something that I may try; however, likely something I will not choose to keep in the my tool kit.

Changing the subject line of a reply in a discussion posting (and in an email) is someithing I need to which I need to pay more attention. I am usually pretty good about changing the subject line when I change the subject, but I don't always think to change it when I am replying directly to the question. Actually, I don't think the it is actually necessary if my response (re:) is directly related to the subject line.

This week was (still is) my turn as guest facilitator for the discussion. I selected a question to which I believed the other participants would reply using the assumption that the student was in the right class but was being negative about taking the class. It was my plan to present the other side of the scenario--the student really is in the wrong class. When students self-advise they often end up in the wrong class or don't know about the challenge tests or substitutions.

I enjoyed working as the facilitator, but I am concerned about overstepping the boundaries of the assignment. For example, when I posted the scenario I also gave instructions. The activity instructions did not tell me to do that; however, it made sense that I should give some instruction as if I were talking to my own students about their assignments. I was following a discussion on deleting messages to see if anyone would question the practice. This must have been an issue that had particular impact on Kay as she addressed it quickly. I thought this was a little out of character for her and that is why I ventured the guess that she has some experience with altered or missing messages.

I think I may have posted too many messages. My thinking on this was that, since there was no other discussion this week, I should be interacting with the material as well as moving the group along.

I also decided that the group had done a fine job of beating up the scenario I posted and that they should be able to post a question that had meaning to them. I thought it might be a risk, but I was rewarded when Kay sent me a kind note stating that is was  appropriate.

Friday was professional development day at Bellevue College and I attended a seminar on UDL and one on cultural awareness in online classes. They were both very well done. Using the checklist on UDL I was pleased to see that I was hitting over 75% of the principles of good design, but I have plenty of room for growth. In the cultural awareness class I connected with one of our new tenure candidates that wants to pick my brain and share ideas on designing online classes. I felt honored.

What things will I take with me from this week?

• Remember to change the subject line of a reply with I change the subject.
• Make sure that my precourse emails are warm and welcoming.
• I can't stop students from griping, so I need to direct their energies in more positive directions that benefit the students and help me improve my classes.

Module 4: MVMs

Module 4 is about creating connections between Learners and Content, Learner and Facilitators and Learners and Learners using facilitator skills and Web 2.0 tools. My main "aha's" came from reading the comments of my peers and learning from their experiences. I also learned that I tend not to challenge directly but to use questions to stimulate learners to question their ideas or to find alternative methods.

We also explored creating connections with Web 2.0 tools and to use them to enhance the learning not simply because they are cool or interactive. I did a lot of work with Web 2.0 tools this summer in my Intro to Web Technology class. I also use YouTube and Screencast-o-matic regularly in my classes. I am using Twitter more often and just started using our program's group page on Facebook. I'm also a big fan of PollEverywhere.

I am definitely on the fence about the instructor's best practices for this module. I think addressing a speaker by name is polite. Anything posted to a discussion board is by nature public. It is no different than two students engaging in a public discussion in a classroom. Although the discussion started between these two, the rules of open discussion allow anyone to join into the interchange. Additionally, I do not like starting a sentence in the subject line and finishing it the body of the message. I find that I have to reread the sentence several times to grasp the meaning. Probably just the way my brain works; however, since I find that I have to reread the sentence several times, I would not use this method in my own classes.

Module 3: Most Valuable Learning Moments

My first learning moment of this week occurred on Sunday when I discovered that one can be stung by a dead bee. Of course you have to touch the stinger in some way. Placing one's arm on the bee does accomplish just that. Ouch. Large, swollen, itchy spot.

My second learning moment came when I received my grades from Module 2. On Monday I read the materials for Module 3 and made a note next to this paragraph on the Background page: "Instructors need to watch argumentative dialogues carefully to make sure that ideas are challenged, but people are not." My note read--felt like Kay did this to my post in 2B or not 2B. Kay's comment on my grading sheet for Module 3 read "And then you let me challenge one of your points a bit to build the conversation!" I am pleased that I was able to see what was occurring and respond appropriately.

One technique that I have used in facilitating online discussions is to know who can be challenged to take the discussion to the next level. The other students will often see that it is okay--even safe--to engage with the instructor in that manner and the student being engaged can feel more connected with the materials and the class.

One of the techniques that I learned this week that I will definitely take to my online classes is summarizing the discussion. I don't do this enough. I think if I were to do this after a particularly informative series of messages, I could enhance the understanding of the materials and reduce the number of similar questions. As much as I don't like this, I believe that my students are more likely to read my posting then those of their classmates. Students in my software classes have stated that they prefer to hear from me than from their classmates. I try to temper this my commenting on how accurate the posting of their classmates usually are.

AKK--Ichiro just hit a home run for the Yankees in the 9th. I hate the Yankees. Go Tigers!!! Double akk--Raul just took one long-AGAIN. I love Raul and hate the Yankees. Just goes to show you that professional players may not come out strong in the first half but they finish strong when it counts.

Module 2: Most Valuable Learning Moments (MVMs)

Module 2 was focused on social constructivist learning theory and personality instruments.

Beaumie Kim offers this explanation of Social Constructivism: Social constructivism emphasizes the importance of culture and context in understanding what occurs in society and constructing knowledge based on this understanding (Derry, 1999; McMahon, 1997).

We explored social constructivist learning theory and looked at personality instruments that could be used to create high functioning groups. I learned how even some of the shorter personality assessment instruments can deliver meaningful results. We discussed the importance of stressing to students that these instrument are used to improve communications and not to pigeon hole students.  I was fascinated by the discussions of the impact of culture in constructivism. This discussion will help me be a more effective online instructor by increasing my understanding of how adults learn and giving me more options for creating better functioning student teams.

I posted Teaching Perspectives Inventory and took several of the assessments that were posted by my group members.

• Team Roles Test posted by Tom Sagstetter
• Learning Styles Inventory posted by Lori Pennock
• QUEST Enneagram Test posted by Amy Chenoweth
• Learn Myself posted by Tina Rabideau

The results from each instrument added to my self knowledge and made me question how I might better present myself to my peers and students.

References:
Kim, B. (n.d.). Social constructivism. (M. Orey, Editor) Retrieved October 1, 2012, from Emerging Perspectices on Learning, Teaching, and Technology: http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Social_Constructivism