What is it about online?

When I tell people I work online and work from home, the first reaction is usually “Oh, I would love to do that!” Followed by “You get to work whenever you want AND in your pajamas! That’s challenging to my thinking given I am more likely to be working in a suit jacket than a pajama top. What is it about working online that results in so many misconceptions?

The same is true for teaching and learning online; misconceptions abound. That’s not to say that learning or working online is for everyone. It’s not! For example, those pajama people… how productive can they really be?!

This month we are going to look at what makes a good online student and what makes a good online instructor.  What characteristics help insure success working online?

Perhaps you’ve thought of teaching online but were unsure what requirements… or skills you needed. Several universities and learning entities have put together a vast amount of information including assessments that help you determine if you are a good candidate. The Illinois Online Network has posted a concise list of criteria for online facilitators. Would you prefer a short quiz? Check out an excellent assessment from OnlineLearning.net.

If you are considering taking a course online or know someone who has an interest, access the Student Online Readiness Tool. Also, look at the Illinois Online Network for a discussion of unique student qualities needed.

What characteristics do you think point to online success? Are you the perfect candidate for online? Join our discussion!

August Wrap Up: Give or Teach?

Assessment is a challenging subject, no matter the form it takes. Natalie pointed out that formal assessments, through the use of Kirkpatrick’s four levels of evaluation, are effective up until a certain point.  One could argue that our end of course surveys hover in the 3rd or 4th level of evaluation but it seems that they would have to be offered several weeks after the end of course to really be considered “transfer” or “results”.

Christy, on the other hand, emphasized the hands on nature of authentic assessments and offered a variety of examples from online PLS courses. These are much like what students would find in the work place but, again, there is no way to really know if the knowledge transferred on a permanent basis without some kind of long term follow up.

Whichever type is used, it is important to remember that assessments must somehow measure how effective the learning objectives were and, as a secondary consideration, if we as designers are on the right track with objectives and activities. This may mean that some courses include both formal and informal (or authentic) assessments while others lean heavily in one type or the other.

The real question, though,  is do our courses and their assessments give our students fish or teach them to feed themselves?

Assessment Beyond Smile Sheets and Tests

Christy took some time to review the concept of “Authentic Assessment.” Now let’s think about traditional assessments used in a face to face classroom. What options do we have? Which ones can be used in online assessment and how?

Many of the traditional forms of assessment can be conducted online. The table below only reviews a handful of examples.

But assessing the students successful attainment of skills and knowledge is one thing? What about determining if they have been able to use and apply these skills in their own work and classrooms?

Kirkpatrick’s four levels of evaluation provide a basis for holistic evaluation of learning. This post will attempt to see how and if these levels of evaluation can be applied to our own courses. While Kirkpatrick’s model is traditonally applied to training and learning delivered in a business or workplace. We can still see how it can be appropriately applied to our courses and teachers in a successful school environment.

Level 1 – Reaction: refers to reactions to the training. This type of evaluation is often referred to as “Smile Sheets.” Our current evaluation for our systems asks students of our courses to share their reactions to the training? Did they like it? Did they think it could be used in their own classrooms? Did the students like the way the facilitator handled the course? These questions give a good example of initial student reactions but they do not provide a in depth look at the effectiveness of the overall course design and activities.

Level 2 – Learning: refers to actual knowledge or content learned. Traditionally level two assessments can take the place of tests, quizzes, or written and project work that demonstrates that students mastered the original learning objectives of the course. Our current courses contain many learning activities that provide this type of assessment of learning objectives.

Level 3 – Reaction: indicates whether or not students applied the learning in the field. This evaluation or assessment of application must pertain directly to the original learning objectives of the course or content. This sort of assessment could be done with surveys sent to class participants several months after they’ve taken the course. These surveys could ask them whether they’ve actually applied the learning objectives, how and to what extent.

Level 4 – Results: refers to successful results from transfer or applications of the learning. This is the most difficult form of evaluation, and many students  Again, the level 4 assessment must measure  the applications/transfer of the original learning objectives. In the case of our audience this might be problematic, since we would be evaluating the success of the students in the classrooms of the participants of our online courses. This data can also be gathered from managers or administrators, by asking them for their perceptions of the course participants application of their learning.

While it would be ideal to be able to conduct Level 3 and Level 4 evaluations, it is not as easy to successfully conduct these evaluations. Also many additional factors cannot be filtered out in determining the successful application of the original learning objectives.

Both Level Three and Level Four evaluations can take the form of the following:

• Post-course surveys to be filled out by course participants online
• Interviews with students and their administrators to determine if  objectives have been met online.

Conducting these types of evaluations may seem straight forward but there are a few caveats to both Level Three and Level Four evaluations. Kilkpatrick’s model fails to account for other factors ‘in the field’ that may impede the application and success of the course’s learning objectives. Also, Level Four evaluation data is often problematic to collect because it may be difficult to collect the data. It is also hard to pinpoint the direct connections between teacher’s learning and student’s success. In addition, the learning organization would face difficulties in collecting this data.

While this post has reviewed some of the challenges presented by applying either Level Three or Level Four evaluations to measuring the success of our courses, it is still worth while to consider additional methods of evaluation to help improve the quality of our courses.

Authentic Assessment in Online Courses

Fishing on a lake

Maybe it’s my background as a band and music teacher that makes me such a fan of authentic assessment. After all, in band it’s expected that people actually be able to play and perform, not just talk about playing and performing. In fact, music education often has the opposite problem of many other areas of education: rather than people who can talk about theory but not apply it, musicians can often play and perform but lack a fundamental understanding of music theory.  But in much of academia, the expectations aren’t about “doing” tasks actively. That’s especially true in online learning, where assessment can easily fall into a rut of “read-write-reflect.” With authentic assessment, the goal is to do real world tasks, measuring actual performance. Authentic assessment is the difference between writing an essay about how to fish and actually going to the lake and bringing home supper.

Why Authentic Assessment?

John Mueller, creator of the Authentic Assessment Toolbox, lists four benefits of authentic assessment:

• Authentic Assessments are Direct Measures
• Authentic Assessments Capture Constructive Nature of Learning
• Authentic Assessments Integrate Teaching, Learning and Assessment
• Authentic Assessments Provide Multiple Paths to Demonstration

Authentic Assessment Examples

How do we do authentic assessment in our online courses? Our participants are classroom teachers, but we can’t directly measure classroom performance (not without the technological challenges of extensive digital video and the permission challenges of recording students anyway).  But we can include activities where participants create projects that they can take back to their classrooms and use. Lesson plans are common authentic assessments in our courses, but we also have some bigger projects that give participants more significant end products.

Local History Project

The major assessment for Using Online Resources to Bring Primary Sources to the Classroom is a local history project where participants use primary sources to make connections between their local area and broader trends in the world or curriculum. For example, one past participant created a project connecting literature depicting Native American culture to the culture of a local tribe, both now and historically. Another project used a walking tour of the town in combination with primary sources to create a travel brochure highlighting local history.

Educational Game

In Simulations and Gaming Technologies for the Classroom, participants don’t just examine ways to use existing games for teaching: they actually create their own game during the course. Creating games themselves gives learners a deeper understanding of game mechanics than would be possible just through playing and using games created by others. This is a great example of how authentic assessment integrates learning with assessment; the process of building a game is a challenging learning activity, not just a way of measuring learning after the fact.

Interactive Multimedia Project

When Merging Educational Goals and Interactive Multimedia Projects was revised earlier this year, a major project was woven through a number of the modules. This allows students to have more time practicing using the multimedia tools (an authentic performance assessment in itself), and it provides a way to build a significant project rather than a collection of independent lesson plans. By the end of the course, participants have projects including example multimedia, an implementation plan, a timeline, and strategies to address problems that may occur.

Your Authentic Assessment

What have you done for authentic assessment in your classroom? Do you have a favorite project or authentic assessment success story you’d like to share? We’d love to hear from you!

Online Assessments

Give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day;
Teach a man to fish, he’ll eat for the rest of his life.

- Chinese proverb

That particular proverb reminds me of how we assess student work:

Eat for a day: give information, test on it, and offer no feedback

OR

Fish for life: exchange of information, offer feedback, and apply new skills

Since we want our students to fish for life, we take assessment into careful consideration when developing online courses. Blogs, wikis, chat, and other assignments are created to assess learning as well as encourage students to apply what they know. While assessment seems fairly straightforward, there are a plethora of issues surrounding online assessments.

Some things we’ve had to consider include:

• What type of assessment to use for which activity?
• Does the activity define the assessment or the other way around?
• Which assessment types are most affective for online learning?
• How do we assess students’ finished activities?

While we may not be able to catch the answers to those questions this month, we will cast our hook into the swirling waters of online assessment and see what we pull up.

Won’t you join us in our fishing expedition?

Social Media and Learning

So far we’ve mostly talked about social media in general, focusing on keeping it professional and preconceptions about Twitter, but this week I’m going to build on April’s post look deeper at how social media can be used in learning.

Why Social Media in Learning?

So why would we use social media in learning? Pedagogically, it fits with the social constructivist model: humans are inherently social, and people learn better together. Learning communities can be supported through these tools. These communities can help people build their understanding whether they are students in traditional academic classrooms or teachers looking for ongoing professional development. A lot of early online learning focused primarily on content: people converted face-to-face courses to online by simply dumping content into an LMS, thinking that reading content would be enough to promote learning. But it isn’t enough. Jane Hart points out that social media can help us transform online learning from content-focused to people-focused.

Besides the pedagogy, another reason to use social media tools in learning is that how people interact with information in their lives is changing. To borrow a phrase from danah boyd, these tools are “reshaping information flow,” providing new ways to collect, process, share, and use information. Being able to navigate these rich sources of information is an important skill, and one that teachers can help their students learn.

Educators have a critical role when it comes to helping youth navigate social media. You can help them understand how to make sense of what they’re seeing. We can call this “media literacy” or “digital literacy” or simply learning to live in a modern society. Youth need to know more than just how to use the tools – they need to understand the structures around them. (danah boyd)

What to do?

So what should you do? Here’s a few ideas from other sources (found in the Further Reading below).

• Talk to them: Talk to your students and find out what they are doing with social media already. Find out why they use the tools the way they do. (boyd)
• Learning Purpose: If you use social media, especially social networking tools, as part of your classes, have a specific learning purpose. That helps establish some boundaries and can alleviate the “creepy treehouse” effect. (Reynard)
• Use multiple tools: Different tools can (and should!) be used for different purposes. Give students a variety of ways to collect, process, share, and use information. (Reynard)
• Focus on student engagement: Use these tools as a way to make sure you engage every student. (Reynard) Students who are quieter in a physical classroom may have an easier time opening up with social media.
• Not Just Classrooms: These tools might not always make sense directly pulled into the classroom. (boyd) Social media tools may be part of your students’ Personal Learning Environment, or PLE, which should ideally integrate learning from all sources, formal courses and informal learning.

Ultimately, you can’t really be successful with social media with your students unless you are really using the tools yourself. If you haven’t tried any of them yet, then dip your toe in the water with one to start. If are already using some social media, then you might try some more tools or other features of tools you already use. Either way, when you use the tools, reflect on how you use and share information through the tool and how it can help your personal learning. If you start by focusing on how you can personally learn with social media, you’ll be better prepared to help your students learn how to use the tools more effectively.

Further Reading

• Beyond Social Networking: Building Toward Learning Communities: This article from T.H.E. Journal on how to use social media to support learning communities. Our own April Hayman is cited in the article.
• Living and Learning with Social Media: A talk by danah boyd on teens and social media, specifically the implications of research for educators.
• Social Media & Learning Handbook & Toolkit: This is a “quick, easy-to-use, structured introduction to social media for formal and informal learning as well as a practical guide to using social media tools,” created by Jane Hart. Jane’s focus is primarily on corporate training, but much of it is applicable to K-12 classrooms. This is one of the most comprehensive sites out there on the topic.
• Social Media, Social Networking & Social Learning Reading List: Part of Jane Hart’s Social Media & Learning Toolkit, with lots of links with current reading on these topics. A fair amount of this is focused on corporate learning, but you can still find plenty of articles related to education.

Unlearning my preconceptions about Twitter

Click the image to check out Twitter

Last weekend I attended a family reunion for my husband’s family. A very sharp eighty-eight year old relative noted: “I just don’t understand the point of Twitter. It seems like a bunch of nonsense.”  I laughed because actually a few months ago, I held a similar perception of the social media tool. The idea of using a web ap to tell people what I was doing all the time seemed at the very least an annoyance, and at the very most compromising to my privacy.

I, like many others who misunderstand Twitter, made the erroneous assumption that you are on it almost all the time. Moreover, to me, the very idea that you are telling someone what you’re doing at any one moment seemed a bit pompous and self-important. Why would anyone want to know I’m folding laundry and watching my favorite TV programs?

If you are unfamiliar with the social networking tool, according to Wikipedia Twitter is:

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers.

You can view a CommonCraft video explaining Twitter as well:

Less than a month ago I decided to give Twitter a shot, and I discovered that I was wrong about the tool. Twitter is a respond-as-you-please type of program. You don’t have to be on it constantly and posting tweets.  Also, in the past few weeks, I’ve learned more and found more connections to people in the field of learning and education, and I found these folks in briefer period of time than I would if I was just surfing the blogosphere.

I’ve also discovered that many people are using Twitter for learning including educators. For example, they are using it to keep in touch with students and manage classroom affairs. There is a very comprehensive list of how Twitter can be used by teachers and academics. Some teachers are even developing learning activities using the application.  Others are using the tool for professional development and support via networking. As one educator writes:

Together we’re better…Teaching can be a lonely business. In a school where lessons are long and lunchtimes are short, not enough conversations between teachers I work with are about learning. We simply don’t have time. Twitter can be like a virtual staffroom for me, which I can step into when it suits me: in the queue at the supermarket or waiting for the kettle to boil. – Laura Walker

One thing that does disturb me a bit about Twitter is that with each tweet or post we share, we are telling a cumulative story about ourselves. These stories could be very used as marketing and manipulative tools to advertisers and marketers. However, on the other hand, these groups of people have been gathering data about us for decades based on all our behaviors (consumption, choices, actions, etc.) rather than just our Internet usage. My husband’s elderly relative asked me how Twitter could be so successful if it was free. “You don’t get something for nothing! If I’ve learned one thing in life it’s just that,” she said firmly. I nodded my head. “I think we pay for Twitter by providing information about ourselves. We collaborate with a larger group of people, but in a sense everyone wins when we do that.”

Social Media and You..and You…and You, too

Twitter. Facebook. YouTube. Social media is all over the place, even on CNN (if you’ve been following the drag-down-knock-out-fight between Ashton Kutcher and CNN on Twitter). Well, that’s good because it means that you, as an instructor, can tap into your students interests and parlay that interest into motivation.

Don’t think its feasible? Or that its a colossal waste of time? Depends on your plan of action. If you know how to use the tool correctly and focus it as a part of the lesson, rather than the point, then it can be an interesting and effective means to reach students. Several instructors at Marquette University are using Twitter as a means to communicate with students and connect them with experts in the field.

But, before you start signing up for every single social media site on the Internet, take the following into consideration:

1. Do you really need a social media tool to help students comprehend and, hopefully, apply the content?
2. Do you have the time and resources to integrate social media into your lesson planning?
3. If you answer yes to the above two questions, which social media tool do you use?

You might consider going “old school” social media and use a blog, like WordPress.com. Or, if you really want students to become media producers, create a wiki for interaction and knowledge building (try Wikispaces).

If you’re willing to push the boundaries, though, why not look into a few of the more esoteric social media like:

• Travbuddy.com – Blog posts, images, and maps make this a great stop for traveling around the world right from the classroom.
• Wattpad.com – ebooks for all! Upload your ebook and your students can read it on their mobile devices.
• Greenvoice.com – A small social networking site that has big ambitions: saving the environment one grassroots campaign at a time.
• Shelfari.com -Create a virtual bookshelf to inspire others to read.

The list goes on and on and updates daily. If you’d like a better look at some of the hundreds of social media sites available on the Internet, read through Social Networking God: 350+ Social Networking Sites (hosted on Mashable, a social networking site).

Before you sign off, I’d like to leave you with this thought:

Social media has been around for a long time. Friendster in 2003 was probably the earliest known online media of choice. It’s still around but has been supplanted by Myspace and Facebook. Thinking about using Twitter with the teens in your class? You way want to rethink that since most Twitter users are college age and above.

Knowing the history of why social media is used as well as what the fundamental mechanics of social networking are can help shape your understanding and usage of this tool within your classroom. Before making the final choice in adopting social media in your lesson planning, read “Social Media is Here…Now What?” It’s an interesting look at why we network and how different age groups use network sites.

Do you think that social networking has a place in the classroom (face to face or online)? How can we as educators effectively incoporate it so that it is only a facet of the learning process rather than the focus?

Keeping it Professional – How To

With all the discussion about Social Networking, specifically Facebook and Twitter, how do you keep your interactions and information sharing professional?

The stories about new college graduates’ Facebook pages coming back to haunt them in their job search, is a topic that we as professionals also need to pay attention to. How much sharing is too much? What are the “rules” or etiquette we need to follow? That’s the focus of a PC World article I recently read.

A primary point in the article focuses on the question of “what type of interaction are you using the media for?” Is it for personal connections or professional? There are different ways that you handle how and what you share depending on to whom you are sharing. Think about your face-to-face interactions. Do you share the same kinds of info with professional colleagues that you do with your friends and family? Hopefully, the response is a vehement “No!” If not, you may want to rethink that practice… I just saying!

The article walks you through setting up your privacy profile within Facebook and specifics on etiquette to consider. Who should you friend? How often do you update your information? How many friends? Remember it is not a competition but a vehicle for interaction.

Twitter etiquette is also discussed. Some of the strongest messages in the article are found in the disaster scenarios. Do you really want to tweet your every thought or move? Remember Twitter is more open than Facebook. Anyone can choose to follow your tweets unless you choose to protect your updates.

Like any online tool, social networking can be amazing, allowing us to connect in ways we never imagined. To make this type of media work for us, it’s worth the time to think through the process of our interactions and reasons for connecting.

Ice Cream Social Media

What is social media? The Wikipedia article on social media explains it this way:

Social media is online content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. It’s a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologues (one to many) into dialogues (many to many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers.

Mmm...ice cream!

Traditional broadcast media concentrates content publishing in big organizations—TV stations, newspapers, textbook publishers. It used to be that the tools were so expensive and required so much expertise that you had to keep it centralized with those big organizations. Now tools for creating content are easy, usually requiring very little specialized technical knowledge or training. But if everyone just created content and posted it, it still wouldn’t really be social; it would be broadcast on a smaller scale. The “social” part of the media is also in the comments, ratings, and conversations now possible.

For a great metaphor on social media and how it differs from traditional media, check out the Common Craft video “Social Media in Plain English.” Instead of media, this talks about ice cream. This is the story of how the town of Scoopville has a great Big Ice Cream company and what happens when everyone gets their own ice cream machines and can make unique flavors at home.

This month our blog posts will focus on social media, sharing some of the different tools and different ways social media can be used for learning. We’ve written a number of posts related to this topic previously. Grab some ice cream to cool off from the summer heat, take a look at some of the posts below, and be social—leave us a comment!

• Using Wikis with Net Generation Students
• Learning from the Ning learning community
• RSS: Controlling the Flow of Information
• Ten-Minute Tasks for 21st Century Literacy
• Educating the Net Generation
• Sharing the Wealth
• Teaching Online Through Conversation
• Using wikis to teach writing