Disappointed.com

Preparing on-line courses... not prepare to be disappointed. After an amazing course in January, I can only say that I am totally disappointed and disillusioned with the course this time round. The course is a) more designed for learning technologies who will prepare teachers for on-line courses and not lecturers wanting to prepare on-line courses as the module depicts; b) the instructions are far from clear and ambiguous at best; c) I have learnt relatively little in the three weeks I have been on the course. I have focused on who is my learners and most of all I have learnt how NOT to teach on-line. When I as well as many others on the course are clearly struggling and worrying about the work we have to produce by close of play tomorrow not one tutor has expressed their concerns or talked about the task. It is like wading through treacle blindfolded with no senses what so ever. The instructions to the tasks are bad they are unclear and after having read them about 20 or 30 times I am still unclear. So what am I doing. Well I shall not be beaten and along with my other foolhardy group we are ploughing ahead with what we think we should be doing but at a great time cost to us. Not to mention grey hairs! Umm not sure I really want to do the third course in Dec now. Now to decide whether to post this on my weekly reflection discussion board??? Comments please?

North Group - north by north west....

OK after several discussion posts which made me look very simple indeed I have a list of things that our group is needed to complete by the end of this week. It is Wed today. This list did not come from a tutor - no it came from the group leader who is very good at working out the work required by the course tutor....

1. We will design a learning activity to enable learners to meet the learning objectives we have agreed upon (i.e. the learners are tutors who want to use twitter to make available good quality sources of information to their students).

2. The group needs to decide which technology it will use to teach the task

3. The group needs to design the task based on the AUTC framework

4. The group needs to then create a poster/powerpoint/representation to demonstrate out outputs to Frances.

5. The group then sends a link to this final piece of work, to Frances.

I am meant to be a) specifying the task with the learning by 5pm on Fri and creating an output for the task by Noon Monday...arggggggg

I still don't know what it is we are doing - I am being so stupid. 

One good thing that has come out of this muddle is for me to learn to provide very clear and precise instructions for the students to follow. Honestly I was very close to giving up last night and I have never give up on anything in my life...

Wish me luck as my north group flies north by north west....

Week three's tasks

In this weeks task we have been asked (I think) to design a learning activity for our students using a learning framework. In truth I have no idea what is going on and I cannot get to the bottom of this course at all. I am losing heart with it all because I cannot follow the instructions, I cannot participate in the discussions and despite being on-line logged in and ready to work the instructions are so unclear and imprecise that I cannot fathom what is going on. I am not unintelligent and cannot understand what is going on. OK I am ranting but surely I should be able to grasp it.
I am working with a good group of people and have had a meeting and from what I can tell we are designing a learning activity to teach people about the use of twitter in education. This has nothing to do with the title of the course, preparing on-line courses. I think the course is much more designed for those learning technologist and not those who are actually preparing on-line courses.... I shall not give up though.

Student retention and on-line learning

In last weeks discussion boards we were talking about the issue of student retention should on-line learning not be suitable for the student. I have had an interesting discussion with a follow bod on the course who is doing research into this and I thought it may be useful for you to see the discussions. The thread was started after completing the quizzes last week to assess how ready you are.

Subject: Are you ready?	Topic: Are you ready?
Author: Barry Gregory	Date: 21 June 2011 11:42 AM

From a survey design point of view, I can see two problems with asking people overtly about their level of confidence/ability with certain tasks. The first is that people's assessments of their own skills are often unrealistic (especially if the tasks concerned are new or unfamiliar ones). The second is that once gaps in experience/skill have been identified, then what next? Does the student autonomously go away and 'skill up', or just feel anxious about these gaps ("Maybe I shouldn't be on this course at all!"). I agree with others here (Anne, Paul) that where there is scaffolding to be done, this is much better handled within the course.

I agree with Ben that the Muskegon quiz at least prompts learners to think about time management, and their own study environment - two things they CAN easily do something about.

Reply

Subject: Re:Are you ready?	Topic: Are you ready?
Author: Clare Chambers	Date: 21 June 2011 2:31 PM

I had this worry too Barry regarding student retention should they think they are not suitable for an on-line module within their degree. Also unless it is compulsory are they going to take the quiz in the first place.

Reply

Subject: Re:Are you ready?	Topic: Are you ready?
Author: Barry Gregory	Date: 21 June 2011 4:10 PM

Yes, that's a concern too. I wonder if there's a balance to be drawn that'll, on one hand, tell us something about students' initial level of confidence/competence, but on the other hand, not give them extra cause for pre-course anxiety.

I think the better approach might be to ask some questions that'd tell US something about their level of experience, and use this to better target support/attention/scaffolding once the course is underway.

The other danger, I think, is to go overboard once you start asking questions, and end up with a survey several pages long. Others have mentioned the dangers of 'quiz fatigue' and I can imagine the groans of students opening, say, the Muskegon quiz and seeing 'Questions 1 to 7 of 20'...

Coincidentally, I've been researching around retention for online courses lately and the issue of 'appropriate course choice' (i.e. are students on the right course for them in the first place?) seems far more fundamental. Any gaps in 'online-readiness' seem relatively easy to address in-course, provided the right support mechanisms are in place.

Reply

Subject: Re:Are you ready?	Topic: Are you ready?
Author: Clare Chambers	Date: 22 June 2011 8:10 AM

Your research into student retention sounds really interesting what are your main findings other than perhaps the course itself was not the right one?

Reply

Subject: Re:Are you ready?	Topic: Are you ready?
Author: Barry Gregory	Date: 22 June 2011 12:04 PM

Hi Clare,

I'd say that the clearest things to come out of it are:

a) make sure students are on the right course to start with
b) identify those at risk of dropping out early, and provide support to these on a pro-active, not reactive basis (given that those who need help the most tend to ask for it the least)
c) build in as much flexibility as possible, particularly around assessment deadlines (sounds obvious but 'work/family commitments' is the No.1 reason for exit)

I'm working on a table that sets 'Factors influencing retention' against 'What can be done to maximise retention in respect of these things?'. I can wing a copy to you if you like, although it is very much a 'work in progress' at the mo.

Reply

Subject: Re:Are you ready?	Topic: Are you ready?
Author: Clare Chambers	Date: 23 June 2011 8:24 AM

Hi Barry, thanks for getting back to me and if you could wing it to me that would great. It is clare.chambers@uwe.ac.uk 
I find your research really interesting. We do have an issue of students thinking they want to be Alley McBeal and then the reality of law school kicks in and we lose a lot of students. I want to use different methods of teaching to try and keep these students interests and engage them in a more dynamic manner than just lectures/seminars.
Thanks again
Clare

First time ever I am lost for words

The second task which we have been asked to complete is the following:

This wiki page is for Week 2: Task 2, where you are asked to extend the table below to bring it up to date. The table maps types of mediating technology onto the learning tasks they could help to support. A fuller version of the table is shown in Appendix 3 of Rethinking Pedagogy.

 To extend this table, you could:

·         Add links to examples of new tools in each media type.

·         Add links to examples of activities/courses you know of where tools have been used effectively. 

·         Annotate the potential advantages and risks, drawing on your own experience as a teacher and/or learner

My issue here is that I am new to on-line learning and use twitter, discussion boards, reflective logs and that is about it. Oh and hopefully pod casts. I am struggling to see where I can add any value in this task? I also am wonderinf what the purpose of the task is? In the previous course I learnt something new every day but on this one, we are covering two tasks per week which can be done (apart from this one) very quickly and easily. I am not sure I am learning anything. This task is an example of this as I have said I have posted a comment on the cafe space saying I am unsure what to write and the reply was not very helpful. I really don't see what I can add. Its rather down casting. I suppose what I can take away is how my students may feel and realise that I need to have clear instructions as to what do and if someone is unclear then proper help should be supplied. Here is what the others in the group have done so far....

 Media Type: Narrative

Learning tasks mediated by narrative technology	examples of technology	potential advantages	potential risks
Narrative tools can be used for assimilating, reproducing and sharing representations of knowledge.	powerpoint slides andslideshare	access at time and place to suit learner.	information overload, learners can access every presentation from every researcher in the field.
	Curation tools such as Storify	Gather together news from various social media into one place, to create a story.  Ephemeral, but often relevant  news can be gathered and saved in context.	Relies on a free service which is relatively new.
	Video Sharing tools such as YouTube	People can see other people's stories, views, perspectives. Can see visually exactly what people are talking about.	Almost anything can be shared on YouTube which can make it difficult to find specific things or limit what people see.

Sharing on-line journals. Can create a comprehensive discussion and get students to read around a relevant topic. Can be very time consuming for the student and not worthwhile if there are not specific questions asked around the journal

	Omnium - for online collaborative creativity	Promotes online collaborative creativity (even from different countries) and allows for dynamic interactions. Is ideal for use within disciplines that rely on high visual content (like visual arts and design disciplines).	No gradebook. Support somewhat limited with no means of incorporating backend admin support at institutional level.

Media Type: Communicative

Learning tasks mediated by communicative technology	examples of technology	potential advantages	potential risks
Communicative tools can be used to promote dialogue and reflection, which are central to learning.	Weekly reflective discussion forums in this course.	Dialogues recorded for review	Lack of immediacy and slow response times
	Online polling such as Poll Everywhere in a lecture of small group session	Allows for anyonymous comment, reflection and Q&Q, and allows for interactuion in a traditional lecture.	Free service limuited to 30 users.  Participants need access to a mobile device.
	Shared synchronous notepads like Open EtherPad	Very immediate and quick to set up, no sign up required.  Can collaborate uin real time.	Free service, could be withdrawn at any time/
	Collaborate mind mapping tools likeMindMeister	Allows groups to work on synchronous brainstorming
	Web Conferencing tools such as Adobe Connect or Elluminate	Allows people to meet either via audio, video or chat function synchronously for conversation, feedback and reflection. Helps people get to know their peers and build a community, possibly preventing feeling of isolation of learning online.	Synchronous nature can sometimes make it difficult to meet at the same time.

Media Type: Interactive

Learning tasks mediated by interactive technology	examples of technology	potential advantages	potential risks
Interactive tools give learners a response depending on their input.	online quizzes	engaging for learner, tailored feedback	learners don't engage with feedback
	short flash simulations	allows access to experience potentially dangerous/difficult/rare/expensive situations	no experience provided of the other factors that would be presented, such as stress and discomfort

Media Type: Productive

Learning tasks mediated by productive technology	examples of technology	potential advantages	potential risks
Productive tools allows learners to produce something e.g. manipulating data to promote analysis  e.g manipulating text and images to articulate and express themselves	digital storytelling	learners develop information handling skills
	Curation tools such as Storify	Gather together news from various social media into one place, to create a story.  Ephemeral, but often relevant  news can be gathered and saved in context.	Relies on a free service which is relatively new.
	Collaborative technology such as Titan Pad.	Allows students to all work together on document or page where they can each see their inputs and additions to the document as well as providing a chat function.	This is text based only, like a basic Word document. Doesnt allow for other types of input or media.

E-portfolio. Allows students to reflect on past learning, careers etc. Not all students will participate if it is not a formal part of the course.

	Mahara - ePortfolio Tool	Mahara is an open source e-portfolio system with a flexible display framework.  Other features – social networking system, blogs. Online learning communities.	Does not integrate well with Moodle 2

Media Type: Adaptive

Learning tasks mediated by adaptive technology	examples of technology	potential advantages	potential risks
Adaptive tools allow the environment to be changed by what the learner does	virtual worlds	can model real world complexity	simulations cannot substitute for real life
	Scenario based games.	Route taken by the student through the game or topic will depend on how the students has answered questions or performed tasks.	Students may be able to guess what is expected in order for them to progress.

Media Type: Integrative

Learning tasks mediated by integrative technology	examples of technology	potential advantages	potential risks
Integrative tools support the management and learning activities and recording of outputs and achievements	e-portfolios	record the learning journey through a programme	Individuals vary in their response. Can be seen as extra hoop to jump through.
	Wikis within a VLE.	These can be structured to a set format set my the tutor for the students to follow, particularly useful for work placements.	May be limited on different formats and media allowed within the wiki and therefore not being able to express themselves fully.

Blogs within the VLE or stand alone. Can chart the students journy and progression. Is time consuming for the students and needs to be made a formal part of the course if it is to be taken seriously.