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- Dr. Michael E. Scheuermann
- Associate Vice-President
- Instructional Technology Support
- Information Resources and Technology
- Drexel University
- Philadelphia, USA
- April 7, 2009
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- In Memoriam: President Papadakis
- Drexel University 1995-2009
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- "Anytime-Anywhere" is a marketing phrase to entice students to
consider taking online courses. Unfortunately, that very phrase also
eliminates the opportunity for online course facilitators to include
mandatory (or even optional) synchronous course elements and strategies
in their teaching and learning initiatives.
- This highly-interactive session will focus on group interaction relative
to synchronous course element strategies, successes, challenges, and
failures.
- Attendees will leave the session more fully informed on what inclusion
of synchronous elements in their online courses can bring to their
teaching and learning initiatives and course offerings. They will have
seen many actual student responses to their experiences in participating
in real-time course activities, what they liked, how it enhanced their
learning, and the overall experience.
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- What faculty, and others, typically have to say about synchronous
elements
- “The Myths”
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- “Anytime – Anywhere”
is the way that online learning needs to be!
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- “I will never be able to get my students together for any synchronous
online chat sessions!”
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- “My students will either think it is impossible to do chat sessions – or
– they will not find any value in them anyway.”
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- “By the way - conducting online chat sessions will be too much work for me!”
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- Skeletal set of topics to cover during the online chat
- linked to the reading assignments
- Students determine the direction of the chat session
- Instructor role:
- alternate topics (aligned with assigned readings)
- heighten student engagement
- energize the conversation
- redirect / correct ~ only when necessary
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- Students are randomly-assigned to the chat nights (based on enrollment)
- Students can switch chat nights
- session-by-session, or, across the term
- Students make “the switch”
- Contact course colleagues and make the switch
- Students advise the instructor of the switch
- Builds learning community!
- Diminishes instructor administrative role!
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- “Should I eliminate these chat sessions in future offerings of this
course and make them completely
asynchronous?”
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- “NO !! Please do not eliminate these on-line chat sessions. This is a
great way to garner everyone's thoughts, comments, opinions, expertise
and examples of how principles in this course are applied in real world
situations. I look forward to these sessions.”
- “No, I like the chats. It makes me feel like I am in a more interactive
environment, like I am in a classroom setting rather than 100% online.”
- “No, keep these chats, they are very beneficial to the class and
learning experience. They bring a personal feel to this virtual class.”
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- “I think you should keep it as is, because it allows direct interaction
between classmates and it makes it feel like a class room atmosphere.”
- “No, do not eliminate. This is good, it makes people a little bit more
accountable to this class, and you can hear people answer to questions.
It kept me up to date with the reading knowing that I needed to do this
chat.”
- “NO, I believe that the chat will continue to improve and provides an
interesting, classroom type medium, to improve the interaction with
students. Perhaps some student-to-student chatting should be
considered.”
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- “I think you should keep the chats. Being able to associate a voice with
a response also helps to assume the personality of the individual.
Because we don't meet face-to-face, this voice-contact is important.”
- “No, the chats really made me feel closer to my classmates and made the
on-line class more ‘real.’
Hearing the opinions of others helped increase my knowledge of
each of the subjects.”
- “No. You should keep it. I think the interaction that we have in these
chats is a valuable addition to the takeaways that we receive in this
class. It's a chance for us to get together and actively probe one
another on some topics. You can't get the level and pace of interactive
participation in the asynchronous threads.”
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- “I would prefer not to do the chats. I like being able to do the course
when I want to and not have to log in at any specific time.” [Winter 2008]
- “I think making it asynchronous would really help as I choose online
classes for their flexibility. but i did enjoy the chat sessions but I
would miss it but I did have difficulties in keeping this time clear of
my schedule.” [Spring 2008]
- “Although I find these Chat Sessions very interesting, I think it should
be eliminated because there may be some students in different time
zones. In addition, Drexel E-learning did not inform applicants that
there will by synchronous chats. So there is some disconnect there. It
would have been helpful to have adequate information.” [Summer 2008]
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- “How have you utilized Wimba Classroom elements in your online teaching,
and, what has that meant to you and your students?”
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- “I don’t know how innovative it is, but I use Wimba classroom to hold
virtual office hours for our students who are in Sacramento. They log
in, turn their webcam on and we talk as if we are in the same room.”
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- “Yes... I have used it several times in all my courses this term. The
students appreciate the live atmosphere yet in the comfort of their
dorm, apartment, etc. I have used voice-over PPT and asked the students
to listen to the lecture over a two day period. I thought they would
like this method better than the time-constricted Live Class room. They
did not. They preferred the Wimba class.”
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- “Wimba Classroom continues to enhance my graduate courses in toxicology
as a method by which individuals can chat with me in real-time during
our weekly 'ToxCHAT' sessions. I have found that if I offer these
sessions as 'voluntary', student participation is still good. I've
done this now for two terms [4 sections] and have found that individuals
who find it helpful will use it...[numbers vary but 1/3 to 1/2 of the
class utilize it regularly].
- I think this is an interesting example of offering flexibility and
watching students respond depending upon their individuals needs,
schedules, and interest in further discussion about the course
materials.”
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- “Mike, I have been using Wimba on a Weekly basis. My students are
enjoying a lot. Some nice features that I like is the capability of
uploading a PPT presentation, and then using my tablet to make marks on
the presentation, and/or write my math equations. Also, I am starting to
use the polling feature. That gets my students excited. And it seems as
though they interact even more after the each polling. It is kind
spicing up the presentation a bit more. Another important feature that I
like is the sharing stuff. I can show my desktop, and walk the
students through a series of computations using a financial calculator.
I have a program in my computer that simulates a financial
calculator's operations. With that said, I was not only able to
teach my students how to set the financial calculator up,
but also carry out time value of money (TVM) computations, bond
valuation, and advanced problems in capital budgeting and M&A as
well.”
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- Conduct “online office hours”
- Solicit student feedback
- Should OCs be regular parts of the class?
- Try some optional Chat sessions
- Extra credit opportunity, perhaps?
- Introduce a few mandatory sessions
- Regulate the number of participants
- Solicit student feedback
- Should the # of OCs be increased?
- Constantly monitor student feedback
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- Make-up credit
- Prep for mid term / final test and/or papers
- Student “group work”
- Guest speakers, e.g., “Ask a Librarian”
- Mandatory ~ at a low level, initially
- Provide instant feedback
- Appeal to various learning styles
- Focus on best practices
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- “Participants reported utilizing different types of technology for
different tasks. To establish initial contact and exchange personal
information, teams preferred to rely on a less personal technology, like
e-mail or discussion board. To brainstorm ideas and formulate a problem
to be addressed, teams favored video/audio conferencing with
simultaneous usage of chat to keep track of the discussion and create a
chat log. Teams found audio/video conferencing
- Karpova, Correla, & Baran, Iowa State University
- The Internet and Higher Education, Vol. 12, No. 1, 2009
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- “to facilitate rewarding and meaningful computer-mediated teaching and
learning experience (e.g., distance education, cross-border
collaboration), it is no longer enough to rely on a single technological
solution (e.g., discussion board)” (p. 50).
- Karpova, Correla, & Baran, Iowa State University
- The Internet and Higher Education, Vol. 12, No. 1, 2009
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- “…educators should consider including interactive components that
utilize both synchronous and asynchronous computer-mediated
communication when designing web-based courses” (p. 114).
- Lavooy and Newlin, University of Central Florida,
- International Journal on E-Learning:
- Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education Vol. 7, No. 1,
2008
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- “Certainly, as these results suggest, students will avail themselves of
the opportunity to meet with an instructor and fellow cyber-students
when afforded
a synchronous environment” (p. 114).
- Lavooy and Newlin, University of Central Florida,
- International Journal on E-Learning:
- Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education Vol. 7, No. 1,
2008
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- “Shouldn’t we as instructors, make use of all available tools that serve
to benefit the student in web-based, web-enhanced, and traditional, live
courses? As we continue to evaluate course components, we can better
address the needs of students, thereby increasing the chance of success”
(p. 115).
- Lavooy and Newlin, University of Central Florida,
- International Journal on E-Learning:
- Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education Vol. 7, No. 1,
2008
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- Anytime – Anywhere” is the way that online learning needs to be!
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38
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- Anytime – Anywhere” is the way that online learning needs to be!
- “I will never be able to get my students together for any synchronous
online chat sessions!”
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39
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- Anytime – Anywhere” is the way that online learning needs to be!
- “I will never be able to get my students together for any synchronous
online chat sessions!”
- “My students will either think it is impossible to do chat sessions – or
– they will not find any value in them anyway.”
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40
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- Anytime – Anywhere” is the way that online learning needs to be!
- “I will never be able to get my students together for any synchronous
online chat sessions!”
- “My students will either think it is impossible to do chat sessions – or
– they will not find any value in them anyway.”
- “By the way - conducting online chat sessions will be too much work for me!”
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41
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- Anytime – Anywhere” is the way that online learning needs to be!
- “I will never be able to get my students together for any synchronous
online chat sessions!”
- “My students will either think it is impossible to do chat sessions – or
– they will not find any value in them anyway.”
- “By the way - conducting online chat sessions will be too much work for me!”
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- What other approaches do you take with Chat in your courses?
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- Dr. Michael E. Scheuermann
- Associate Vice-President
- Instructional Technology Support
- Information Resources and Technology
- Drexel University
- Philadelphia, USA
- April 7, 2009
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- 10 topics each week, +
- 1 “open” topic, 1 “Water Cooler” topic
- 1 “Report LMS Problems” topic
- Requirements:
- Read all of the topics
- Post in four of your choosing
- Make 4 “original” posts by 11pm Tuesday EST
- Read your colleagues’ posts
- Make 4 “response” posts by 11pm Thursday EST
- Participate in (at least) 8 different topics
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- What constitutes “a post”?
- A few salient sentences on the topic (consult the Syllabus ~ rubric)
- Encourage the participation of others
- Defend your position
- Dispute others’ positions with which you do disagree
- Link posts to course / text content
- Cite sources whenever possible
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- Heightens student-student interaction / builds learning community
- Students:
- read the available topics
- post to four topics that interest them most
- read posts of colleagues
- make response posts in four other topics
- participate in at least 8 different topics each week
- spread the work across the week
- no “wait-for-the-one-deadline” procrastination
- “Water Cooler” / “Report Problems” / FAQs
- Students can author their own topics in the “Open” topic
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- 100% of available points
- Read all of the topics in a given week
- Post a salient, original comment in four of them
- Read 80% of the postings of your colleagues
- Post a salient response to four of them in four different topic areas
- 75% of available points – doing the above, but
- making original and response (O&R) posts in only 6-7 topics, or,
- making posts of mediocre quality in the required number, or,
- reading 60% of your colleagues’ postings
- 50% of available points – doing the above, but
- making (O&R) posts (good quality & meaning) in 4-5 topics, or,
- making posts of lesser quality in the required number, or,
- reading 40% of your colleagues’ postings
- 25% of available points – doing the above, but
- making (O&R) posts (good quality & meaning) in 2-3 topics, or,
- making posts of little quality in the required number, or,
- reading 20% of your colleagues’ postings
- 0 points - not participating at all that particular week
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- Courses is “seeded” with multiple topics for each week
- Each week also includes space for topics that students author (the
“Open” topics)
- Participation in those additional topics counts the same as the
instructor-authored ones
- Student-authored topics this term could become permanent topics in
subsequent terms
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- What other unique approaches do YOU take with Discussions in your
courses?
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Notes