Retaining students in an online course...
Ah, ee, oh!
We had a "Chat-n-Chew" on this subject recently and faculty had lots to say.
Here were some suggestions...
Dean Ganio
"Assess Frequently!"
When students are being engaged and graded on material often,
they are more engaged and have less chance disapearing from a course that only recquires a small number of assignments from the students.
Iman Elginbehi
"Email students a week before the course begins"
To make sure students have the book & login information, it is important to contact your students at least a week before class starts so they will be rarin' to go on the first day of your course.
William Sheldon
Make Announcements often
Keeping students up to date with tasks and due dates and thinking, as well as respond to email
within a day during the workweek.
11.17.2008
Teaching A Blended Course
Some say that Blended is the best of both worlds. The Blended course usually consist of online activities and in face-to-face activities. Faculty teaching blended spoke about 5 key points to make Blended courses work at our most recent Chat-n-Chew.
1. WHO : Community Building
It's really important to have folks introduce themselves face to face as well as online.
Retention studies have shown that students appreciate meeting each other to work and learn together.
Professor Schmidt noted from her research that the better the class gets to know each other, the more the familiarity strengthens the co-hort and "group think" approach to learning.
2. WHAT : Importance of face to face AND Online time
Students also need to see that what happens online is just as important as what happens face to face or vice versa.
3. HOW
Students need to learn how to navigate around the online portion of the course with each other on the first day of class.Students also need to see how important each modality is to the flow of the course.
Instruction needs to refer to the online activities when face to face.
Online instruction needs to refer to what happens face to face.
Review the online discussion when meeting face to face and show the discussion board and comment positively about students who participate to further a point.
4. FLEXIBLE
The teaching needs to be flexible to note when interesting interchange comes up that you want to note
or
something that relates to what you are doing in current events!
5. FUN
Spontaneous additions, Silly links or images that relate to the content or humor in your writing or face to face
helps remind folks that learning can actually be fun and that this is a life long pursuit. We might as well enjoy ourselves along the way.
The resources below will help you to decide which information to put online and how to organize them, and which sections should remain in class. Although this information is very helpful to the pedagogy of the course, it does not cover Angel. So feel free to view our Angel page after this.
http://www.blendedteaching.org/ A great resource for information on blended courses as well as discussion boards dicussing many aspects of blended teaching.
Pedagogical Information
Here you will find links on procedure, concept maps, and more.
Conduct Policy Guidelines Blended (Microsoft Word Document) A description of the policy guidelines for a blended course.
Article on Blended Teaching
Here are some articles discussing various aspects of blended course.
Questions for the Teacher (Microsoft Word Document) A set of questions Developed by the Learning Technology Center University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for teachers.
How To Divide Up Your Blended Course Here is an example of a possible way to divide your class into online and face-to-face portions using English 102 as an example.
Blended Course How To's
Here are some short how to's on how to get started with a blended course.
CLICK HERE to look at our Angel Tutorials.
1. WHO : Community Building
It's really important to have folks introduce themselves face to face as well as online.
Retention studies have shown that students appreciate meeting each other to work and learn together.
Professor Schmidt noted from her research that the better the class gets to know each other, the more the familiarity strengthens the co-hort and "group think" approach to learning.
2. WHAT : Importance of face to face AND Online time
Students also need to see that what happens online is just as important as what happens face to face or vice versa.
3. HOW
Students need to learn how to navigate around the online portion of the course with each other on the first day of class.Students also need to see how important each modality is to the flow of the course.
Instruction needs to refer to the online activities when face to face.
Online instruction needs to refer to what happens face to face.
Review the online discussion when meeting face to face and show the discussion board and comment positively about students who participate to further a point.
4. FLEXIBLE
The teaching needs to be flexible to note when interesting interchange comes up that you want to note
or
something that relates to what you are doing in current events!
5. FUN
Spontaneous additions, Silly links or images that relate to the content or humor in your writing or face to face
helps remind folks that learning can actually be fun and that this is a life long pursuit. We might as well enjoy ourselves along the way.
The resources below will help you to decide which information to put online and how to organize them, and which sections should remain in class. Although this information is very helpful to the pedagogy of the course, it does not cover Angel. So feel free to view our Angel page after this.
http://www.blendedteaching.org/ A great resource for information on blended courses as well as discussion boards dicussing many aspects of blended teaching.
Pedagogical Information
Here you will find links on procedure, concept maps, and more.
Conduct Policy Guidelines Blended (Microsoft Word Document) A description of the policy guidelines for a blended course.
Article on Blended Teaching
Here are some articles discussing various aspects of blended course.
Questions for the Teacher (Microsoft Word Document) A set of questions Developed by the Learning Technology Center University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for teachers.
How To Divide Up Your Blended Course Here is an example of a possible way to divide your class into online and face-to-face portions using English 102 as an example.
Blended Course How To's
Here are some short how to's on how to get started with a blended course.
CLICK HERE to look at our Angel Tutorials.
Angel 7.3
“What’s New in ANGEL 7.3” tutorials
These will eventually be located at the "?" button in ANGEL
and a link off your ANGEL homepage called: Faculty Resources. http://le.suny.edu/sln/documentation/tutorials/ANGEL/7_3/7.3_welcome.shtml
Here is a compiled list of Angel 7.3 tutorials
courtesy of Niagra County Community College.
http://delicious.com/search?context=all&p=nccceljing&lc=1
And another courtesy of Dutchess County Community College.
http://www8.sunydutchess.edu/angel
Upgrade Considerations
Below is a link to a document with some major concerns from Faculty who have already migrated to Angel 7.3. Feel Free to read and review this document and consider the possible consequences of migration.
CLICK HERE to view this document.
New Features
Angel 7.3 has many new features, here you will find links and documents explaining the power of these features.
Quizzes vs Assessments. In Angel 7.3 Quizzes are replaced with Assessments, this document will so you exactly why Assessments are better and show you where you can find some of the features you are used to.
Tutorials
http://delicious.com/search?context=all&p=nccceljing&lc=1 Here is a compiled list of Angel 7.3 tutorials courtesy of Niagra County Community College.
Technical Problems & Solutions
Browser Issues: If items overly enlarged or too small, discussion boards look weird, Please update your browser to the latest version or ask OIT to do it for you.
ANGEL seems to like:
Internet Explorer 7.0
Firefox 2 NOT 3
Printing for Windows OS:
Printing in ANGEL 7.3 involves an extra step.
In order to print in ANGEL 7.3 you will need to highlight the text you want to print.
Then click File, Print.
Choose Selection then click OK.
Printing for Mac OS X:
Click File, Print
Click the Preview button
Click File, Grab, Selection
Use the tool to select the area you wish to print Click File, Print again.
The print window should only show an image of your
selection, the image should not be of the entire page.
Print
OR
CTRL+Click in the text you wish to print.
Mouse Over the This Frame option, this will open another menu.
Click Print Frame
Click OK
These will eventually be located at the "?" button in ANGEL
and a link off your ANGEL homepage called: Faculty Resources. http://le.suny.edu/sln/documentation/tutorials/ANGEL/7_3/7.3_welcome.shtml
Here is a compiled list of Angel 7.3 tutorials
courtesy of Niagra County Community College.
http://delicious.com/search?context=all&p=nccceljing&lc=1
And another courtesy of Dutchess County Community College.
http://www8.sunydutchess.edu/angel
Upgrade Considerations
Below is a link to a document with some major concerns from Faculty who have already migrated to Angel 7.3. Feel Free to read and review this document and consider the possible consequences of migration.
CLICK HERE to view this document.
New Features
Angel 7.3 has many new features, here you will find links and documents explaining the power of these features.
Quizzes vs Assessments. In Angel 7.3 Quizzes are replaced with Assessments, this document will so you exactly why Assessments are better and show you where you can find some of the features you are used to.
Tutorials
http://delicious.com/search?context=all&p=nccceljing&lc=1 Here is a compiled list of Angel 7.3 tutorials courtesy of Niagra County Community College.
Technical Problems & Solutions
Browser Issues: If items overly enlarged or too small, discussion boards look weird, Please update your browser to the latest version or ask OIT to do it for you.
ANGEL seems to like:
Internet Explorer 7.0
Firefox 2 NOT 3
Printing for Windows OS:
Printing in ANGEL 7.3 involves an extra step.
In order to print in ANGEL 7.3 you will need to highlight the text you want to print.
Then click File, Print.
Choose Selection then click OK.
Printing for Mac OS X:
Click File, Print
Click the Preview button
Click File, Grab, Selection
Use the tool to select the area you wish to print Click File, Print again.
The print window should only show an image of your
selection, the image should not be of the entire page.
OR
CTRL+Click in the text you wish to print.
Mouse Over the This Frame option, this will open another menu.
Click Print Frame
Click OK
11.12.2008
Tutorial: Angel 7.3
Niagra County Community College have created many wonderful Angel 7.3 tutorials available on-line through their delicious site. Feel free to view these videos at any time.
Angel 7.3 Videos CLICK HERE!
To View these tutorials click the above link.
Angel 7.3 Videos CLICK HERE!
To View these tutorials click the above link.
11.07.2008
Proctoring: How To Inform your Students in your Online Course
The 2008-2010 catalog covers the midterm and final exam requirements for English on line courses on pages 56 (at the end of the Asynchronous section), 165 (under the 101 description).
More...
I have the following notice posted in my on-line class in the course welcome documents and schedule area:
Welcome to English 101 on-line. There seems to be a great many questions about the exam requirements. Yes, you absolutely must come onto the Stone Ridge campus for both the midterm and the final exams. The midterm will be held on Tuesday, October 14 from 1-3. The room location will be announced in the course announcement area. The final will be held on Friday, December 12 from 12-3. The room location will be announced in the course announcement area. You will have plenty of time to make arrangements to be on campus for both exams.
If your advisor did not make it clear to you that your presence was required on campus for both the midterm and the final, you might want to speak with him or her. I cannot waive the department requirements, so please do not ask me to do so.
If you absolutely cannot make it to the SUNY-Ulster campus for both the midterm and the final because you are living at a distance that makes it impossible for you to be on campus, say Alberta, Canada, you can find a proctor through a local university/campus/high school/etc. Please don't tell me that you can't make it to Stone Ridge when you live thirty miles away. However, what you should bear in mind is that if the exam takes place on a Wednesday between 1 and 4, you must be with your proctor at that time. I cannot schedule exams at alternative times for those students using proctors.
If you choose to use a proctor for the exams, you must supply me with a name, title, academic affiliation, contact phone, and e-mail address no later than TWO weeks prior to the exam. I will contact that person to verify the information and then I will send the exam along on the day of the exam. If there are any costs involved in the proctoring process, you will be responsible for them. It will also be your responsibility to travel to the proctor and take the exam. If you cannot meet these requirements, you may want to think about withdrawing from the course. Please refer to the course syllabus for English 101 departmental requirements.
I also have the exam information posted in other versions in both the Student Code of Conduct area and the How You Will be Evaluated area.
More...
I have the following notice posted in my on-line class in the course welcome documents and schedule area:
Welcome to English 101 on-line. There seems to be a great many questions about the exam requirements. Yes, you absolutely must come onto the Stone Ridge campus for both the midterm and the final exams. The midterm will be held on Tuesday, October 14 from 1-3. The room location will be announced in the course announcement area. The final will be held on Friday, December 12 from 12-3. The room location will be announced in the course announcement area. You will have plenty of time to make arrangements to be on campus for both exams.
If your advisor did not make it clear to you that your presence was required on campus for both the midterm and the final, you might want to speak with him or her. I cannot waive the department requirements, so please do not ask me to do so.
If you absolutely cannot make it to the SUNY-Ulster campus for both the midterm and the final because you are living at a distance that makes it impossible for you to be on campus, say Alberta, Canada, you can find a proctor through a local university/campus/high school/etc. Please don't tell me that you can't make it to Stone Ridge when you live thirty miles away. However, what you should bear in mind is that if the exam takes place on a Wednesday between 1 and 4, you must be with your proctor at that time. I cannot schedule exams at alternative times for those students using proctors.
If you choose to use a proctor for the exams, you must supply me with a name, title, academic affiliation, contact phone, and e-mail address no later than TWO weeks prior to the exam. I will contact that person to verify the information and then I will send the exam along on the day of the exam. If there are any costs involved in the proctoring process, you will be responsible for them. It will also be your responsibility to travel to the proctor and take the exam. If you cannot meet these requirements, you may want to think about withdrawing from the course. Please refer to the course syllabus for English 101 departmental requirements.
I also have the exam information posted in other versions in both the Student Code of Conduct area and the How You Will be Evaluated area.
11.05.2008
Cool Tools
Add some spice to your technology tool chest! Add spice to your online site! Try these Technology Tools. Most are free but may require you to “register” or create an account.
Audio Tools
http://www.animoto.com/ Combine your mp3 music and your slides into a short (30 second) animated clip. Good for an “ice breaker” in an online course.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ Use this to record your voice. This is compatible with Windows, MAC and Linux. The default format is .wav; be sure to download the lame encoder to save as .mp3 Audacity allows editing of your recordings.
http://studio.odeo.com/ Record your voice (requires a microphone) and save up to 1 hour of audio. May also upload .mp3 files you have created using Audacity or other free audio recording device. Publish to a podcast.
Image & Video Tools
http://picasa.google.com/ Upload, caption, organize and share your images. Requires a Google account.
http://www.flickr.com/ Upload, caption, organize and share your images. Requires a Flickr account
http://www.voicethread.com/ Online resource transforms media into collaborative spaces with video, voice and text commenting.; an online media album that can hold essentially any type of media (images, documents and videos) and allows people to make comments in 5 different ways - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone they wish. Requires a voicethread account.
http://www.realnetworks.com/products/producer/index.html RealProducer Basic. Capture or create compressed video clips (Resulting files require RealPlayer.)
Windows Movie Maker - comes with Windows XP and Vista. Set up a slide show; add narration or music. Directions for using MovieMaker from MS.
http://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/index.html Capture video from your web camera.
http://www.jumpcut.com/ Video editing / hosting site on Yahoo. Will allow “private” publishing of video, photo, and audio. Requires a Yahoo and Jumpcut account. (Can be the same.)
http://www.dotsub.com/ Allows you to add subtitles to your video. Requires a DOTsub account.
Image & Audio Conversation Tools
http://www.yackpack.com/YackPack is being used by several distance learning institutions. It has allowed the students to get to know each other, even in a virtual setting, enhanced communication between students and teachers, and provided new ways to address different modalities of learning.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/camstudio/ CamStudio records activity from your screen and audio from a microphone into AVI video files and can also convert the AVIs into Streaming Flash videos (SWFs) using its built-in SWF Producer; a “poor man’s” version of Camtasia.
http://picresize.com/ Resize your images.
Blogs, Wikis and other things
http://www.popurls.com/ Here you can customize a homepage with all the buzz on the web from many sources including Yahoo!, delicious, metafilter, digg, and more! Customize yours today to view all the latest in Education and Learning.
http://edublogs.org/ “… the most important thing about edublogs, …, is also the most obvious… we’re just here for education.” Create a blogspot for your class. If discussion boards don’t work for you, consider this blog spot. Requires a registration on the site.
http://www.wetpaint.com/ Simple easy to use wiki site.
http://pbwiki.com/Have your class collaborate on this wiki site.
http://www.ning.com/ Create your own social network site. Ning is the only online service where you can create, customize, and share your own Social Network for free in seconds. Requires a Ning account.
http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/ Lists options for you to use such as YouTube (can use your google account), calendar, eBlog, sketch-up (3D modeling) and more.
http://powerbullet.com/index.php Powerbullet Presenter is a small, simple and free program for creating presentations in the FlashTM format.
http://www.zamzar.com/ Online tool to convert almost any file type to another file type.
Video / WebConferencing Tools
http://www.yugma.com/ WebConferencing and desktop sharing.
http://www.elluminate.com/ WebConferencing tool
Courtesy of SUNY New Paltz
Audio Tools
http://www.animoto.com/ Combine your mp3 music and your slides into a short (30 second) animated clip. Good for an “ice breaker” in an online course.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ Use this to record your voice. This is compatible with Windows, MAC and Linux. The default format is .wav; be sure to download the lame encoder to save as .mp3 Audacity allows editing of your recordings.
http://studio.odeo.com/ Record your voice (requires a microphone) and save up to 1 hour of audio. May also upload .mp3 files you have created using Audacity or other free audio recording device. Publish to a podcast.
Image & Video Tools
http://picasa.google.com/ Upload, caption, organize and share your images. Requires a Google account.
http://www.flickr.com/ Upload, caption, organize and share your images. Requires a Flickr account
http://www.voicethread.com/ Online resource transforms media into collaborative spaces with video, voice and text commenting.; an online media album that can hold essentially any type of media (images, documents and videos) and allows people to make comments in 5 different ways - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone they wish. Requires a voicethread account.
http://www.realnetworks.com/products/producer/index.html RealProducer Basic. Capture or create compressed video clips (Resulting files require RealPlayer.)
Windows Movie Maker - comes with Windows XP and Vista. Set up a slide show; add narration or music. Directions for using MovieMaker from MS.
http://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/index.html Capture video from your web camera.
http://www.jumpcut.com/ Video editing / hosting site on Yahoo. Will allow “private” publishing of video, photo, and audio. Requires a Yahoo and Jumpcut account. (Can be the same.)
http://www.dotsub.com/ Allows you to add subtitles to your video. Requires a DOTsub account.
Image & Audio Conversation Tools
http://www.yackpack.com/YackPack is being used by several distance learning institutions. It has allowed the students to get to know each other, even in a virtual setting, enhanced communication between students and teachers, and provided new ways to address different modalities of learning.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/camstudio/ CamStudio records activity from your screen and audio from a microphone into AVI video files and can also convert the AVIs into Streaming Flash videos (SWFs) using its built-in SWF Producer; a “poor man’s” version of Camtasia.
http://picresize.com/ Resize your images.
Blogs, Wikis and other things
http://www.popurls.com/ Here you can customize a homepage with all the buzz on the web from many sources including Yahoo!, delicious, metafilter, digg, and more! Customize yours today to view all the latest in Education and Learning.
http://edublogs.org/ “… the most important thing about edublogs, …, is also the most obvious… we’re just here for education.” Create a blogspot for your class. If discussion boards don’t work for you, consider this blog spot. Requires a registration on the site.
http://www.wetpaint.com/ Simple easy to use wiki site.
http://pbwiki.com/Have your class collaborate on this wiki site.
http://www.ning.com/ Create your own social network site. Ning is the only online service where you can create, customize, and share your own Social Network for free in seconds. Requires a Ning account.
http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/ Lists options for you to use such as YouTube (can use your google account), calendar, eBlog, sketch-up (3D modeling) and more.
http://powerbullet.com/index.php Powerbullet Presenter is a small, simple and free program for creating presentations in the FlashTM format.
http://www.zamzar.com/ Online tool to convert almost any file type to another file type.
Video / WebConferencing Tools
http://www.yugma.com/ WebConferencing and desktop sharing.
http://www.elluminate.com/ WebConferencing tool
Courtesy of SUNY New Paltz
10.27.2008
Tutorial: Printing/Saving Powerpoints
This video tutorial is mainly for students and teachers working from school or the library. It is not fair to print out full sized Powerpoints off of the server as it slows everything down for everyone. In order to avoid these bottlenecks please follow this Tutorial.
CLICK HERE! to view this tutorial.
CLICK HERE! to view this tutorial.
10.24.2008
Tutorial: Angel Re-Test
Here is our first video tutorial on the Web!
Click the above image to play
the video in a new window.
In this tutorial we show you how to create teams to allow your students to re-enter an exam in Angel. CLICK HERE! to view this tutorial.
Click the below icon to open the File Format you want.
Click the above image to play
the video in a new window.
In this tutorial we show you how to create teams to allow your students to re-enter an exam in Angel. CLICK HERE! to view this tutorial.
Click the below icon to open the File Format you want.
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