Engaging eLearners Graphic Organizer

    Learners today are using a variety of technological tools that can be brought into educational settings to enhance learning.  Blogs, Skype, email, and streaming video are tools that many individuals use frequently for personal use.  These same tools can be used in online learning.    Blogging is a phenomenon that is widely used throughout society.  From DIY projects to instructional activities, society utilizes blogs to enhance their personal knowledge on topics of their choice.  Blogs can be an effective tool in an online setting.  Students can explore blogs of experts in the field to increase knowledge.  Ibraheem Almuhanna states in his blog that blogs offer a place “where authors can express themselves and reflect on their knowledge while getting feedback and comments from readers”.  Blogs can also be an assessment medium.  Students can create their own blogs and write on assigned topics to portray knowledge.  This gives students the opportunity to gather feedback from individuals around the globe instead of just the course instructor.

     Wikis are widely used throughout multiple fields.  Collaboration is getting a lot of press, and schools and educators are being urged to incorporate collaboration within their instruction.  Implementing wikis in an online setting provides students with tools to collaborate with peers from across the world.  Students can work together to complete a final product.   In addition, since wikis track changes and page edits, it is easy for instructors to identify individual contributions for assessment purposes.  The benefits of this free tool should not be overlooked.

   Isolation is a major concern for many entering an online setting.  However, video conferences tools such as Skype can help alleviate this problem.  Skype has the capabilities of recreating the face-to-face aspect that many feel is lost through online education.  Synchronous discussions can occur in online learning.  Research has shown that using a variety of tools that are appropriate for specific instructional tasks can make distance, or online, learning just as effective as traditional learning (Durrington, Berryhill, & Swafford, 2006).

Almuhanna,  Ibraheem  (2012).  Online learning tools and communication guidelines.  Retrieved from: http://onlinelearningstrategies.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-world-wide-web-offers-many.html

Durrington, V. A., Berryhill, A., & Swafford, J. (2006). Strategies for enhancing student interactivity in an online environment. College Teaching,54(1), 190−193.

Comments posted to:

LeAnn Morris

http://leannmorris.blogspot.com/2013/01/module-4-graphic-organizer-engaging.html?showComment=1359305805732#c2650712318728670290

Martha Bless

http://marthabless.posterous.com/

Assessing Collaboration

Module 3

In distance education, designing instruction that incorporates a collaborative learning community can be a difficult task.  However, assessing individual student contribution on the given task can be a greater challenge.  While it is acceptable to alter instructional methods to meet the demands of our ever changing society, we hold tight to the traditional methods of assessment.  However, as we’ve grown to learn that traditional lecture-based instruction is not always (or mostly) the best method to maximize student achievement and performance, educators have vastly remained stagnant in assessing.  This unbalance may be why assessing collaboration or “group work” so difficult for educators in kindergarten through grad school.

In order to prepare our students to meet the demands of our ever-changing society, our philosophical shifts must occur within instruction AND assessment.  Building learning communities that foster collaboration requires student participation (Palloff & Pratt, 2007).  The amount of information recall as student obtains is no longer our main concern.  However, the ways in which students use their knowledge to improve the overall success of the group is key.  Collaboration is often product focused, but assessing the final product does not give a fair or clear picture of individual student performance.  George Siemens offers multiple suggestions on how to change our assessment models to match our instructional goals (Laureate Education Inc., 2008).  Peer and self-assessment provide instructors with insight on how individual contributions lead to final product.  Educators need to assess collaboration work based on the contributions made by individual students and how those students fostered interaction throughout the group (Laureate Education Inc., 2008).  Wikis and learning management systems can track individual contributions throughout the entirety of a project and assist in accurately assessing participation in collaboration efforts.  This can help ensure that the product was completed collaboratively by all members of the learning community.

Not everyone openly embraces collaboration in a learning community.  Often, individual accomplishments were acclaimed in the past and due to the definition of collaboration, some can have a “loss of self” mentality (Laureate Education Inc., 2008).  This can lead to failure for not only the individual but the group.  Jeffery Hammond reminds us in his blog of the significance of communicating the individual importance of each group member.  Without individual participation, the group will be unsuccessful.  Instructors and learning communities can take measures to prevent this from occurring.  In the very beginning, instructors need to ensure that every student feels welcomed and clear and direct expectations are provided, and learning communities should create a team charter that explicitly defines individual roles and expectations from within the group (Palloff & Pratt, 2007).  If this fails, the instructor should step in to mediate without dominating the group or relinquishing control from the active members (Palloff & Pratt, 2007).  Regardless of preventative measures, there will be times when a student refuses to participate or participates in a negative manner.  This is why clear and concise expectations given at the start is so important.  The groundwork is laid and assessments should be given based on the initial expectations and charter.  Active participants should not be negatively assessed based on these behaviors.  The instructor may need to reconstruct groups in order for the active participants to be successful. 

Collaboration is an effective and meaningful instructional strategy that will provide students with the skills needed to collaborate in the corporate world.  Designing appropriate assessments for collaboration is essential for successful and productive collaboration learning communities.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). Principles of Distance Education. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2007). Building online learning communities: Effective strategies for the virtual classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Blog replies to:

LeAnn Morris
http://leannmorris.blogspot.com/2013/01/assessing-collaborative-efforts.html?showComment=1358101719892#c5821701707820266493

Karen Wagoner
http://wagzz1.blogspot.com/2013/01/assessing-collaborative-efforts.html?showComment=1358102334829#c4082333498262476745

Module 3 Storyboard

The Credibility of Online Learning
Introduction to Dr. Kaye Shelton

Narration	Visual
Introduction to online learning
Growth of online learning	Graph of expansion
Public’s perception	Image(s) of individuals
Introduce Kaye Shelton	Picture of Kaye Shelton
Online Credentials: A State of Wariness	Human Resources
Kaye Shelton’s work	http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring141/shelton141.html
Research findings by Monica Jeancola	Data
Do online degrees meet the needs of employers?
Best Practices	Video on tips for students and employers
GetEducatedDotCom	Video Clip from GetEducatedDotCom
Diploma Mills	Signs to spot them
Accreditation	Images of nationally or regionally accreditation
Sloan-C Quality Scorecard	Different indicators from score card
Student perspective	Video clips of students describing their satisfaction with online degree/traditional degree.
Conclusion	Future of online universities

 Blog replies to:

Lori Dodd
LeAnn Morris
http://leannmorris.blogspot.com/2013/01/module-3-video-storyboard.html?showComment=1358101984852#c7745180229869516553

Karen Wagoner
http://wagzz1.blogspot.com/2013/01/story-board-draft-1-wagoners.html?showComment=1358102599849#c2096970535602520804