More
answers to Scott
Hello everyone:
><cut>
>
>What
would be helpful for a newbie like me, if any of the regulars
>have
the time or inclination, is some sort of "getting started"
>testimonial
document. I'm sure what I have in mind has already been
>done
and I've just not looked hard enough on the various webpages that
>have
been referred to recently. But the sort of questions I have in
>mind
are: How does a teacher bring about the transformation from f2f
>to
online teaching?
Scott,
For
what it's with my progression into this field went something like this:
1)
first of all I started taking materials from the Net into the classroom
2)
next step was to actually take students into a computer room to do web
based
activities
3)
next step was to get students to build webpages with their own images
and
writing (slow and painstaking but worth it in the end)
4)
next, get all your students an email account and hook them up with other
students
via sites like Dave's ESL Cafe (there are many others these days
6)
eventually I started emailing students the day's lesson plan which they
would
open and do in self-paced mode
7)
around this time I started volunteer online teaching with EFI
(http://www.study.com
where Vance and Maggi also taught. Even with the skills I
had
picked up via integrating the Web into my classroom teaching the true
fully
online teaching experience was like jumping in the deep end!
So
I guess the way I got started was spending about a year gradually
incorporating
the technology into my normal classroom practice. As my
skills
and confidence grew, so it did with my students and it became more
and
more satisfying. Wherever I am today is the result of many small steps,
and
A LOT of assistance from dedicated online colleagues (professional
listservs
were invaluable) like Vance, Maggi, and other Webheads. I asked
hundreds
of questions for a couple of years and am eternally grateful for
the
endless patience of others. I discovered this amazing spirirt of
sharing
knowledge on the Internet, which is exemplified by this current WIA
group.
-
Michael C.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Scott wrote:
>How
does a teacher bring about the transformation from f2f to online
>teaching?
What are some of the obstacles and issues that have been
>encountered
in the process? What have been the high lights as well as the
>"low
lights" for you as you've made the move?
Hi
all,
Others
have already posted on this topic raised by Scott. The following may
be
interesting too. I happened to see this information forwarded in an OU
alumni
community conference:
*****
Please
find information about a free course below. For further information
contact
Shirley Bennett - S.Bennett@hull.ac.uk
The
Centre for Lifelong Learning at the University of Hull is running a
short
course intended for practising teachers and trainers of adults and
focussing
on "Course Design for eLearning / Online Learning". The course
will
run in May / June 2003. It will be an online course, accessible over
the
internet from anywhere in the world, at any time of the day or night
and
is open to any teachers or trainers with an interest in Course Design
and/or
eLearning. The course is being run as part of a European Leonardo
project
(European eTutor) and there will be NO COURSE FEES. For further
information
contact Shirley Bennett (Course Leader) on s.bennett@hull.ac.uk.
Andrew
G. Holmes
academic
co-ordinator lifelong (vocational and work-based) learning, Tel
01482
465429
*****
This
free(!) course might be a relevant follow-up on the programme in WIA
week
5 (see Dafne's post "reflections").
I
am currently involved myself in another similar international online
course
from the University of London (Institute of Education), acting as
the
regional tutor for a group of Dutch colleagues. But that one (which is
not
free) will only be delivered again next January (2004).
Arnold
P.S.
My own experiences, Scott, stretch out over a period of some five to
six
years and they have involved subtopics of your main question such as
online
course design, student support, quality assurance, assessment. The
approach
described by some of the colleagues in their postings seem to
favour
a carefully and gradually built-up online presence - taking small
steps
and bringing things online 'organically' as it were. Very sound advice.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
It
is just becoming a fast-going activity or engagement to participate in
WIA
and meet people from various parts of the world with the focus on
online
learning and teaching. Here are my reflections:
1.
How does a teacher bring about transformation from f2f to online teaching?
I am not sure I bring about transformation from f2f to online teaching
personally.
I have taken many courses on instructional technology and
learned
about how to use web tools to design online environments; but, I
had
not had any opportunities to offer an online course for various
reasons.
So, WIA is my first online (live) experience to participate in.
What
I have been thinking was You design, They would come type of approach.
However,
I am noticing that transforming f2f to online teaching is much
more
complicated and multi-phased process rather than a web page design in
(or
for) adaptive learning environments. I have mostly used the online
activities
as supplementary to my courses and asked my students experience
online
coursewares, e-portfolios, etc. However, I still had the
opportunities
to see my students f2f, which is a different paradigm from
f2f
online teaching. What I can speculate though is that both the
environment
and participants should be flexible in design and approach to
online
teaching in general.
2.
What are some of the obstacles and issues that have been encountered in
the
process?
I would like to refer to our conference with Vance last year. I had my
students
join in a conference with Yaodong's students in China with the
help
of Vance. We have talked about these obstacles and issues in detail in
our
paper, too. The main issue for me was the providing the necessary tools
to
my students. We have about 150 students in the department, and we do not
have
a computer lab to use with them. I have tried to organize our personal
computers
for students to use. However, they were very limited. Moreover,
the
connections at the campus was pretty slow so it was mainly just an
experience
to see how things work, rather than how things go!
3.
What have been the high lights and the "low lights" for you as you've
made
the move?
I guess the low lights are the lack of support from the administrators at
the
faculty, and the limited bandwidth to access the Internet. The high
light
on the other hand is the fact that students were motivated to explore
and
pursue more with CMC tools and a live experience of using the
technology
for a purpose rather than a toy.
more
later,
arif
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Although
Vance will probably be playing the world's smallest violin as
he
reads this :-) , I am back after a
weekend
of hard work and play. Work: finally submitted my formal
dissertation
proposal ( to be posted shortly in the files section of our
group)
and Play: a successful party of Mexican food and night of song.
Here
are my answers to Scott's questions:
1.
How does a teacher bring about transformation from f2f to online
teaching?
I
started doing this in 1995, was alone, and made about every mistake in
the
book: silly chats, wierd Web sites, etc. I joined Webheads by
contacting
Vance through a mutual friend and colleague, with whom I did
some
online work. What I have got from WIA is a great support group,
multiple
ears for different software and Web applications, multiple uses
of
these tools (e.g., Daf's ESP chat activities), constant reflection,
instant
batch of test users for new applications, a case study group for
my
dissertation (who are very interested), and a great bunch of
people!
If you want to teach online, here is the group - a great
network
of collaboration! It would have been great to have them there in
`95.
What
are some of the obstacles and issues that have been encountered in
the
process?
1.
Lack of any material support from colleagues and institution. A lot
of
colleagues and departments liked the idea of online learning (not
everyone),
but few wanted to commit any resources (class time, software,
technical
support) and were content to watch me sink or swim. I did
indeed
sink a few times, but came out swimming. Web- ased learning is a
buzz-word
to many people, but it took my Master's/Ph.D. work to learn
that
it is different and has lots of problems....and lots of benefits.
2.
In Germany, a bridge between technology and pedagogy is severely
lacking
(hence, my major). They are a lot more concerned with pure
technology
& CBT (computer based training - students interacting with
computers
via multimedia) than CMC (using computers to communicate).
Maybe
I will land a professorship addressing this issue ... or maybe I
will
get fed up and go back to the States.
3.
What have been the high lights and the "low lights" for you as you've
made
the move?
Highlights:
Students coming to me semesters later and asking me about
how
my online simulation has developed and how they told me it was the
best
course they have ever had at the university.
Low
lights: My boss telling me the same simulation was too time
consuming
to evaluate via rubrics - because it took more time to correct
that
a multiple choice exam. Also, in general the neutral response of
some
students.
Chris
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::
SOME SNAPSHOTS to answer Scott's questions about
starting to teach online
1996-1997
The first thing I took online was a module about storying in the foreign
language class. Its design followed the so-called wrap-around model:
existing learning materials enriched and supplemented by an online element.
I did not know the term 'wrap-around' in this context at the time. In this
particular case my group of student teachers used Andrew Wright's book
Using Stories with Children as a source and reference for a number of
practical activities for which I offered them ideas and suggestions on the
Web. These web pages also contained the organisation of the
course including assessment, deadlines for assignments etc. It was a
modest beginning.
My editor at the time was PageMill which is no longer available now. This
editor was an excellent middle case editor somewhere in the centre of the
spectrum having applications like Notepad and Word - used for creating html
pages - at the primitive end, and full blown editors like Dreamweaver and
Golive at the sophisticated end. PageMill was a perfect editor to get
started with. This is a site I composed and wrote in 1999 still using
PageMill:
www.educatievestad.nl/am/portfolio/khan
(Most of the content may still be relevant today. I do not know if all the
links are still working properly.)
1998-2000
These years were my formative years as far as open and distance education
is concerned, and online learning and teaching. As a UKOU student at a
distance and a trainer/tutor at my place of work, I learned how to enrich
study programmes by integrating relevant technology and I got to know the
ins and outs of a large number of applications on the way.
I became a staff developer during the third year of my OU studies. This was
the time when I ran into all sorts of problems. The biggest was probably
the lack of support we got from management. We had also miscalculated the
time it takes to create online programmes, and getting people together to
do some collaborative work was often a difficult thing due to priorities
and different time-tables. It was a cross-departmental project you see.
The early WebCT courses I designed or helped design were still mainly
text-based though, even if the second year of my studies had given me
plenty of ideas and know-how related to multimedia design (Tom Boyle's book
'Design for Multimedia Learning', Prentice Hall was a bit of a classic I
dare say). In later years my experiences extended to other virtual learning
environments (VLE) or learning management systems (LMS) as they are also
called: BlackBoard, TeleTop (University of Twente Netherlands) and
FirstClass (which is a highly sophisticated email based platform for
discussion rather than a VLE).
Over the years I have seen a great many online courses delivered in several
different VLEs. My guess is that the design of a great many courses could
be greatly improved on these points: narrative structure, 'voice' of the
teacher, inspiring examples, challenging activities, conversational tone in
readings or study guides, relevant and 'mature' assessment. There are
plenty of challenges ahead therefore.
In an exploratory essay I wrote about multiple intelligences theory
informing computer supported (creative) writing. I would still love to see
this 'blueprint' turned into an interactive multimedia learning environment
created in Flash and/or Director on CD with excursions to the web for
inquiry and collaboration. Are there any Macromedia wizards reading this or
people who know of such wizards in their midst? I will gladly send you the
essay and my thoughts.
More recently
I have only started to experiment with the potential of multimedia in
online courses over the past year or so. (My participation in WiA since the
beginning of December last is going to accelerate this thanks folks!).
The crucial thing about multimedia for learning I think is to know when
they is used with effect and when it is not. This is a larger challenge
than we may think.
Arnold.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Hi
Arnold and All,
Thanks Arnold for sharing with us the roads you have traveled in
online education.
I enjoyed your "old" site, and found very interesting the letter from
a student about her concerns with the kind of online evaluation she
had experienced.
I also agree with a quote you have there:
Discrepancies in a given course between the type of assessment and
the espoused methodology of the programme often have ruinous effects
on the learning process. The same will happen in web-based
instruction unless suitable assessment techniques are developed
(Nichols, 1997)*.
It was written in 1997, but, unfortunately, it is still so in most
online courses or online components, as I found in a research I
carried out last year.
Somewhere in the site you write:
"Perhaps we should look more into the possibilities of integrating
assessment in the learning process in such a way that the quality of
performance and participation can be established by teachers as they
move unobtrusively in the same learning environment as their
students. This poses a real challenge for the future."
I totally agree with this, and that is what I tried to accomplished
in my online unit for architecture students.
I like the collaborative process carried out to set the criteria to
evaluate sites. In sum, I think that that the material you have in
that site is still very relevant, and can offer many hints to those
like me who are giving the first steps towards e-teaching.
Thanks for sharing it with us.
This comment you wrote:
" My guess is that the design of a great many courses could
be greatly improved on these points: narrative structure, 'voice' of
the teacher, inspiring examples, challenging activities,
conversational tone in readings or study guides, relevant
and 'mature' assessment. There are plenty of challenges ahead
therefore."
And the closing sentences, are a good prelude to our week 6 topic:
quality in e-learning:
"The crucial thing about multimedia for learning I think is to know
when they is used with effect and when it is not. This is a larger
challenge than we may think".
Hope to hear from you next week expanding on this issue.
Cheers,
Daf