Idra's Learning Blog

Health of our OLC

2007-11-25T11:43:00.000-08:00

OLC Healthy Indicators

We’ve spent a great deal of time during this unit discussing what a healthy community looks like. Many of us share some thoughts about interaction and feeling safe to express ideas as indicators of health. But an anonymous e-mail comment makes me wonder if the community really is as healthy as we think. I also think, as with most things, the health of the community is in the eye of the community member. My interactions with group members have been healthy and true learning experiences. But others may not have had such experiences and the fact that this person doesn’t feel free to express their thoughts in the community makes me wonder about the health of the community as a whole.

Nevertheless, on a scale of 1-4 with 1 meaning the OLC is on its deathbed and 4 meaning it is aglow with health – I would rate it at a 2.5.

Using my rubric – here’s how it scored:

Active Interaction – 2/4 - Somewhat healthy OLC - Interaction between students in discussions occurs sporadically – less than 4 days during the week – many tend to not respond until later in the week so those who respond earlier in the week are left with little interaction

Comments are directed Student to student – 4/4 - Healthiest OLC - Discussion comments occur between students 90% of the time – this would have been lower earlier in the semester when we were just getting started but now comments are student to student.

Discussion quality – 1/4 - Unhealthy OLC - Discussion comments include questions or clarification requests < 50% of the time – what I observe is that we don’t seek clarification of ideas but try to get our response in most of the time. We generally agree with each other and avoid questioning others thoughts. At times, when there are questions or clarification requested – there is no response. In addition, there are many single postings with no comments or questions.

Support and encouragement - 3/4 - Pretty Healthy OLC - Discussion comments are supportive and encouraging 80% of the time. This speaks to discussion quality as well but for the most part comments are supportive and encouraging. Again there are those single postings with no comments or questions hanging out there.Critical evaluation of each others work in a supportive manner – 3/4 - Pretty healthy OLC - Evidence of critical evaluation of other’s work in supportive manner 80% of the time. I may be generous with this one but when we were asked to critically evaluate others work it is generally done in a supportive manner. Sometimes work is just critically evaluated without any supportive comments and sometimes there is no critical evaluation – just supportive comments.

TOTAL SCORE – 13/20 = 2.6

OLC Health Reflection

My two scored were pretty close – 2.5 and 2.6. I think that this indicates that my scoring system or what I see as a healthy online learning community is similar to Julia’s rating scale of “on it’s deathbed” and “aglow with health”. I also believe that after 4 weeks of reading discussions and discussing indicators of online learning communities that I understand what it means.
I did not weight any criteria more than the others. In doing this assignment I left all items as equally important. However, I believe that the importance of certain items change as the community develops. For instance, in my rubric the criteria for Comments directed Student to Student and Active Interaction would have been more important earlier in the semester when we were forming our community. However, at this point, it should carry less weight.

I think that I need to weight certain criteria depending on when I am gauging the health of the OLC. As stated above, earlier in the semester weighting the Student to student comments higher would be important but as the semester progresses more weight should be placed on critical evaluation.

Online Learning Community Exploration

2007-10-07T16:42:00.000-07:00

I explored several. The ones that I liked the most were MERLOT and SLOAN-C. I have evaluated MERLOT - which was my number 1 favorite.

Online Learning Community
MERLOT

What is the goal or purpose of the community?

“Putting educational interventions into practice.”

What types of interactions are available to the community?

Majority are asynchronous, members can add suggestions/comments to wiki’s or blogs.

Do the interactions support the goals/purpose?

Yes – since the point is to provide examples of educational tools that are discipline specific that should be put into practice – synchronous activities are not needed.

What is the best quality of the community in terms of interaction?

It is discipline specific – many of the others focused on teaching in no specific area.

If you were a member, what changes would you like to see made in the community interactions to make it more suitable for you as a learner?

I think it works fine the way it is. It might be nice to be able to schedule a chat about a specific topic if you had questions – or engage in a chat with those who have posted the educational interventions. One way to do that would be to have the intervention developers post times they would be available for chats.

Developmental Process of Online Learning

2007-09-22T15:02:00.000-07:00

Another thought from our chat facilitated by Judy -

Julia introduced us to a developmental model of online instruction which I have posted above and the link that talks about it is: http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde8/reviews/etivities.htm

It seems these stages move linearly and I wonder if it is linear. At times, if I connect with what someone says or have a great interest in the topic, I might move 2 or 3 steps up the developmental stairs.

I will probably buy this book because I think it is interesting and learn more about this framework.

Of course - it still doesn't tell me how to get students moving along the steps!

Online Learning Community

2007-09-22T14:46:00.000-07:00

I wanted to follow up from our chat session facilitated by Judy (Thanks Judy!). In that session we were discussing differences between online community and online learning community. The main difference being that in an online learning community there is specific content that is covered and Julie stated that the community will often end when the course ends. There are times, of course, when members of the community will stay connected and continue in the community. I am interested in facilitating that continuing community in my graduate courses. I think that is what Bethany and Julia are hoping to do in these courses. So, how to do that....

Julia mentioned using all of the "tools in her arsenal" to build community during courses. We are learning many of those tools in this course. I have taught online for several years and have learned some things along the way that have helped to keep students engaged - and now I know that these are strategies for building community (didn't realize it before!).

Things that we have added to our graduate program and that I do in my courses that facilitate community:

F2F meeting at the beginning of the semester - students are strongly encouraged to come but some can't
First week using discussions for students to introduce themselves
Small group discussions about topics that students facilitate ( I do the first one and students facilitate 2-3 during the semester)
Small group presentation that should be collaborative but often ends in dividing up the pieces and presenting individual parts
Synchronous Centra events for group presentations
Online chats for office hours (am considering Centra for office hours but may go with Skype)

I have gotten some other ideas from this course, of course, but am interested to know what others have done and how successful the strategies are.

In terms of my success, I think it's mixed. I always have students each semester that don't participate in the discussions and end up dropping out. Julia mentioned that has happened in our course as well. I'm wondering how many others have that kind of problem and what supports we can build in to prevent that?

Thoughts and comments are greatly appreciated!!!!

OLE Elements

2007-09-04T13:51:00.000-07:00

Based on the discussion postings and readings, here is a list of OLE elements that I believe are essential. I'm sure this will change as I learn more, but it's start for building an OLE course. I liked the idea of categories or a taxonomy so I have categorized them - although I'm sure there is debate over the categories. I know we'll be exploring more about this but this is where I'm starting!

FRAMEWORK
This is the most important because it involves the organization of the elements, how they're laid out and why. Requires much planning prior to going live with the course. The maxim form follows function is important here:

Course layout - where you place the elements to not overwhelm students and make it easy to navigate - familiar course format might be important
Homepage
syllabus
schedule - in multiple places
Assignments - text heavy,
Learning outcomes for assignments - multiple ways to meet learning objectives
assessment - process and outcome assessments

Design - These elements are closely connected to framework but include the aesthetics of the OLE elements.

Attractive colors, displays, etc.
Appropriate colors, displays, etc.
course flow - organization of elements
Energy of course displayed

Interaction - Those OLE elements that facilitate interaction

Ground rules up front
safe environment/community for interaction
productive discussion elements
measures of student interaction
communication with faculty available and easy
feedback timely
opportunity for synchronous interaction built in

Technology - OLE elements specifically related to use of the technology

Faculty/student know how to use the technology - opportunities to learn
Minimal technology requirements communicated before course selection and reinforced
Skype or other synchronous modality available and learned before use
Blog, wiki, etc - introduction of more advanced elements is planned - not done in first class to overwhelm students
Support opportunities/sites built in for technology support

Flexibility - Need for this should be acknowledged up front with some opportunities for adjusting built into course design

Flexibility addressed in syllabus
Adjustments made or built in for different learning styles and student diversity

Looking forward to more interactions about OLE elements!

2007-09-02T09:44:00.000-07:00

Learning Log

This is my 17 year old son Bradley who is a senior this year. While he paints a persona of punk that makes many people stare, his personality is charming and outgoing and he tests the limits of being outrageous in dress and music. He is a wonderful, creative child who has struggled in traditional learning environments. In keeping up with him I have learned video gaming and some about on-line communities. My experience with on-line learning has convinced me that traditional classes are not the only way to teach and this course will help me to learn to develop on-line learning communities.

Week 1

Blogs, wikis and vokis - I missed the afternoon orientation and while I thought I could figure it out - I couldn't. Saturday remediation session really helped - thanks!

Previous on-line learning experience with discussion posting had been: read assignments, post early and respond thoughtfully so that the discussion builds on all postings. Norm for this course seems to be: read assignments, carefully consider answer and post when that is complete and discussion will build on more thoughtful initial postings. Good way to do it, more careful considered answers from me - different than a face to face class discussion but a good way to do it.

Thoughts about creating learning community and elements needed for that:

In teaching my courses, many of my students are returning graduate students who are not computer literate. Not only are we exposing them to graduate level content but also a new technology. We have tried to build face to face time in the beginning of each semester to provide some level of comfort with the technology and the course logistics but they still struggle - particularly in the early coursework. I think that introducing elements such as wiki's, blogs and voki's would be intimidating but they are great for building community.

I have always believed, as Fran stated, that if you really wanted to learn you would find a way to do it - which is what I have done in my life. But technology can create roadblocks that become frustrating...when to introduce the elements is an important consideration.

John was right about the students not really getting the community building built into the course - they are trying to meet the (sometimes only minimally) requirements of the course and get a grade. Our classmates are professionals, here to learn about building community and improving their techniques for communicating with this technology. Motivation to learn and continue learning will enhance the ability to create a learning community that will probably survive the courses - (what happens to the community after the course - is it only for a semester and then it goes away?).

Can you truly create an on-line learning community with students who just want the grade?