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Levels 1 - 4
Web Supported Courses are courses in which basic material about the
course and / or instructor is placed on a web site to provide ease
of access to course information.
Online Course Materials/Handouts/Grades
Course materials/handouts and grades can be
accessed from the web. Examples include:
- Course syllabus
- Instructor Information
- Course handouts
- Grades
Course Activities
All course activities, discussions, tests, etc.
occur in the on-ground course (face-to-face).
Web-enhanced courses follow a traditional curricular design but
incorporate various online activities to enhance learning and
support class management and delivery.
Online Course Materials/Handouts/Grades
Course materials/handouts and grades can be
accessed from the web. Examples include:
- Course syllabus
- Instructor Information
- Course handouts
- Grades
Online Course Activities
Email or Discussion Board
Email or the Discussion Board is used for
communication and possibly handing in short assignments.
Example:
Prior to
class time students send an email to the instructor (or post to the
discussion board) their pre-class writing assignments, a short
paper. The instructor responds to these messages or postings in
class. No online interaction is involved.
In this paper they would;
- describe in their own words some idea from the reading
- give personal examples and state their prospective on
the topic
- state the part of the assignment they had the most
difficulty understanding (their muddiest moment)
Benefits for Students
- Informs the student what the professor finds important
- Insures that students are prepared for class.
- Helps students to master the material at a deeper level.
- Putting ideas into their own words transfers the
information they have read into long term memory.
- Students construct knowledge when they create their own
examples
Benefits for Instructors
- Instructor scans documents before class and so has a
better ideas of what students understand
Discussion Resources
Book: Talking in Class: Using Discussion to Enhance
Teaching and Learning_, by Thomas M. McCann, Larry R.
Johannessen, Elizabeth Kahn, and Joseph M. Flanagan (NCTE,
2006).
It's written for secondary English teachers, but much of what
they say is valuable across disciplines and certainly applicable
to post-secondary educators:
- Create controversy
- Use small group collaboration (have them talk in small
groups before talking as a whole class)
- Pose questions or problems that have no easy answers or
obvious solutions
- Connect the questions or problems to students' lives
- Connect students' knowledge to the [assigned readings]
- Explore questions or problems that require students to
think critically
- Give students adequate time to respond to complex
questions
Book: Barbara Davis --Chapter 3 Discussion Strategies
in Tools for Teaching.
Jump Start Discussions - Adapt these to the online
environment
- Use the classic "Think (Write) Pair Share" where
students write a response for a few minutes, talk to their
neighbor, and then the twosome has something to say.
- Ask groups of 3 or 4 to pull together and select a
paragraph or quotation from the reading. Discuss amongst
themselves and then present to all for reactions.
- Write two quotations or ideas from the reading on
distant parts of the board and ask three or four students to
go to each writing and add some thoughts of their own.
Recommended articles
"The dreaded discussion: Ten ways to star" by Peter Frederick
"Improving discussions" by William E. Cashin and Philip C.
McKnight
Both articles appear in the publication "Classroom
Communication" by Rose Ann Neff adn Maryellen Weimer, Magna
Publications
Assignment Drop Box
The Assignment Drop Box is used to Collect
Assignments and also to Distribute Initial Assignment Documents as
Needed
Example 1:
Students read the
directions for each assignment in the assignment tool. After
completing their work students upload their completed assignment
files into the corresponding assignment drop box.
Example 2:
A professor teaching a
course in database design might have students work through a series
of assignments that build on each other using the same basic
database. After each exercise the student is asked to upload his/her
database for evaluation. When the student opens the next assignment
he/she reads the directions, downloads a new copy of the database as
it should appear at the end of the previous exercise and begins
working the new exercise.
Reason for
providing a new database at the beginning of each assignment:
The instructor provides a new “correct” copy of the database each
time because she found that if she continued to ask students to work
on their own database, mistakes from the previous exercise could
possibly interfere with completing the new exercise.
Rote Learning
Create practice
drills made using StudyMate (MTSU has a site license) or a similar
program that is easy for the faculty members to use. These practice
drills can be used to help students to learn the vocabulary of the
subject they are studying.
Hybrid / Blended / or Web Centric courses are courses in which a
significant portion of the learning activities have been moved
online, and time traditionally spent in the classroom is reduced but
not eliminated; a deliberate curricular design that includes the
blending of the best pedagogy of in-person instruction with the best
pedagogy of technology-enriched online experiences to meet course
learning objectives and creates an educational atmosphere that
promotes active learning.
Online Course Materials/Handouts/Grades
Course materials/handouts and grades can be
accessed from the web. Examples include:
- Course syllabus
- Instructor Information
- Course handouts
- Online lectures, video demonstrations, or
simulations
- Grades
Online Course Activities
Communication/Collaboration: Discussion
Board
After completing the reading students are asked to make the
following postings to the discussion board. (This assignment is
similar to the email/discussion board assignment in the previous
section but instead this assignment is completed using the
discussion board with a few additions.)
Student Activity, Part 1
-
describe in your own words some idea from the reading,
-
give personal examples and state your prospective on the topic
-
state the part or the assignment they had the most difficulty understanding.
(their muddiest moment).
Student Activity, Part 2
-
Read personal
examples of all classmates and choose 2 or 3 examples to respond
to. Responses should be in complete sentences and should
demonstrate thoughtful comprehension of the original posting.
-
Respond to
responses to your original postings.
-
Read all
“muddiest thought” postings from your classmates and choose 1 or
2 postings to reply to. In your replies you should attempt to
clarify the muddiest point listed in the original posting. If
possible choose 2 different muddiest point topics when you post
your responses.
Instructor
Preparation
-
The instructor
created a new “topic” (discussion board) in the Discussion Board
Tool.
-
The instructor
posted an initial message in that new topic area stating that
students should post their assignment postings here. The
instructor could also reiterate the directions for the
assignment.
Online Reading or Reading from Book
/ Online Lecture / Quiz Tool / Assignment Tool
Instructor preparation
-
For this module the instructor has
assigned material to read. The material can be posted to the
course shell or can be from a book.
-
An online lecture was made by recording
audio narration to a PowerPoint presentation and using Impatica
to prepare the presentation for the web.
-
A multiple choice quiz was created using
Respondus and was set to close 30 minutes before class began.
-
An assignment drop box was set up to
collect the assignment that the instructor gave during class.
Student Activities
-
Students complete the reading and view
the corresponding lectures online.
-
Students then take a quiz over the
material. The quiz is set to become unavailable 30 minutes
before the class meets in person.
-
Class time is spent clarifying concepts
(muddiest points) and doing an activity that relates to the
reading/lecture. The activity might be an introduction to a
similar activity students will complete as an assignment.
-
Students complete an assignment that was
given at the end of the face-to-face class.
-
Students upload their completed
assignment to the drop box.
Lab demonstration (Online presentation
and study tool later)
Instructor Preparation
-
Instructor creates and online
presentation using PowerPoint and Impatica or a video recording
and posts it to the course shell.
-
An assignment drop box was set up to
collect the assignment that the instructor gave during class.
Student Activities
-
Students view a video of the instructor
demonstrating a lab activity.
-
Students do the lab activity at home and
answer lab activity questions.
-
Students drop the completed lab
questions into the Assignment Tool drop box.
Gaming (Role Playing, Communication,
Simulation)
Locate or create
an online educational simulation/game that corresponds with a
concept that you are teaching.
- Check out the
WebCT Digital Games for Online Learning -
http://www.webct.com/games for more ideas and to join a
learning community that uses games to increase student learning.
- Download and
use Quandary to create Web-based Action Mazes. An Action Maze is
a kind of interactive case-study; the user is presented with a
situation, and a number of choices as to a course of action to
deal with it. On choosing one of the options, the resulting
situation is then presented, again with a set of options.
Working through this branching tree is like negotiating a maze,
hence the name "Action Maze".
- Create Flash
based learning object using Macromedia Flash or Mediator 8 Pro.
Mediator 8 Pro does have require as much time to learn as
Macromedia Flash although it may be limited in some ways.
- Use
Microsoft
PowerPoint to create a presentation that manages a role playing
activity.
Example:
Instructor Preparation
-
Instructor locates or creates a
simulation that teaches the concept he/she is teaching to
students.
-
An assignment drop box was set up to
collect the completed assignment files, the summary report and
the possibly a file resulting from the assignment related to the
simulated concept.
Student Activities
-
Students manipulate a simulation using
several variables and note how changing the variable changes the
result.
-
Students write a brief summary report
describing what they learned from manipulating the simulation.
The report is dropped into the Assignment Drop Box when
finished.
-
Students complete an assignment related
to the simulated concept.
Online Learning Object Repositories
Locate learning objects developed by other
instructors and integrate their use into your courses. MERLOT is one
such repository. You can visit it by going to
http://www.merlot.org.
Courses where the majority of class interaction and management takes
place in the online environment; may include synchronous and/or
asynchronous learning activities; may require proctored exams and
may include opportunities for face-to-face orientations, but
there are no physical class attendance requirements.
Online Course Materials/Handouts/Grades
Course materials/handouts and grades can be
accessed from the web. Examples include:
- Course syllabus
- Instructor Information
- Course handouts
- Online lectures, video demonstrations, or
simulations
- Grades
Online Activities
Typically you want to keep all activities in a
fully online class, online. However, in some instances you may
provide a face-to-face orientation or proctored exams.
All examples online activities from levels 2
and 3 can be incorporated into a fully online class by reworking any
face-to-face component that was involved. Other examples can be
found in Appendix 2.
Typically, WebCT’s Content Module tool is used
to link to the various files that make up a learning module. An
example course module may contain the following links.
- A link to file that introduces the topic.
This file could be a PowerPoint presentation with audio
narration converted for the web using Impatica or a video.
- A link to a web page containing a text
transcription of the presentation or video.
- A link to a file containing a reading, or
a reference to a reading, that provides more in-depth
information about the topic. This reading could be online or
from a book, newspaper, or some other periodical.
- A link to the glossary tool (if the
instructor has typed in glossary terms)
- A link to a image database
- A link to a web address outside of the
course
- A link to content on a CD ROM.
- A link to any type of file that can be
uploaded to the web. (Students may need additional software or
plug-ins to view or manipulate the file.)
- A link to a file that contains assignment
directions.
- A link to the Assignment Tool
- A link to the Quiz Tool
A learning module usually is usually designed
around teaching a particular concept. You might want to check out
some of the learning modules (objects) posted on the MERLOT web
site,
http://www.merlot.org. You may find learning objects that you
can use with your students or you may want to post your learning
objects on MERLOT.
Content Module Settings
Content Modules can be set to become available
after a specific date or after a specific event occurs. A content
module may be set to become available:
- After a certain date
- When a student completes a certain quiz
- When a student completes a certain quiz
and earns a grade greater than a specific percentage.
- When a student uploads an assignment to an
assignment drop box.
- To only a specific student(s)
- Communication/Collaboration
(Email, Discussion, Student Presentation Tool, Student
Homepages)
- Rote-Learning
(Self Tests, Quizzes that are not graded and can be taken
multiple times, Respondus, StudyMate, Modules, Quandary)
- Simulation
(Impaticized PowerPoint or PowerPoint presentation in original
form, Flash Animation, Video)
- Presentation of New Topics
(Readings, Online audio enhanced presentations [Impaticized
PowerPoint presentations or Video presentations])
- Gaming/Role Playing
(Text based – discussion board, Flash-based, and may other
programmed tools)
- Student Evaluation
(Quiz Tool, Assignment Tool, Student Presentation Tool,
Discussion board postings and associated rubric)
- Create a detailed plan for one of your
courses at the level of online-ness that you specified in
assignment #1.
- Create a general plan for taking that same
course to the next level of online-ness. (If you are creating a
fully online course you only need to create one plan.)
- Share this plan with one of MTSU’s Faculty
Instructional Technology Center, Instructional Technology
Specialists. They will answer questions you may have and may
offer suggestions for activities that you had not included.
- Share your plan with another faculty
member who teaches the same subject as you or a faculty member
who you feel comfortable sharing with.
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Evaluation
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