Week 3 -What I learnt

Week 3

This week was comparatively lighter. I liked the idea presented in Lecture3 , “Today's course providers are only limited by their imaginations and their own and their students' access to appropriate software and hardware .”  One can make course as much as interactive as one wants to. I read in an article that, the more time you input in the course design, the more you save while teaching it. It is very true! A carefully and well-designed online course can create a shared understanding of concepts important to the learning culture and provided opportunities to reinforce them also the instructor has less burden. In such case the goal of designing the course is fulfilled.

I liked the ideas presented by Justin in Forum: 3:5 Reflections about Participation. He had a very good idea of having a chat once in a week so as to clarify the concerns and issues of the students. This idea is very important for learners who are of ages below 20 perhaps. The learners of this age tend to have apprehensions and issues. Learners who are older might have achieved the maturity level, they might be working and have family responsibly so they know how to deal with issues, stress and workload. They kind of organize their time and other matters in the life. But it ’does not’ that learners above 20 don’t have issues. They need instructor’s attention and help as well.

The reading on accessibility issue was very good. It had all the details of the issues along with the solutions. The solutions seem very much practical and to the point. The article ‘ Be successful in online learning’ evoked the question - what  are the  characteristics of an online learner. After reading this article I found that I need to develop the organizational skills in terms of planning my daily routine. Sometimes, it becomes hard to write even one line with my little boy, who has endless questions. If I am trying to write something or a good idea or phrase has come in my mind and I’m about to put it on paper, he would come and say something or urges to go out, I tend to forget what was going on in my mind.  I am trying to work on his daily sleep routine so that I can find sometime for myself.

Working in groups can bring the sense of heightened teamwork and camaraderie. I felt  the same working on the Mini project2. The Brain synch  team has 4 experienced people and I can learn a lot from them. I liked the ideas presented by Linda, Brian and Chinyere. The editing work done by Gary was outstanding. The final draft looked like perfect piece to me and I didn’t see any kind of changes I would make. I did all the research in the beginning and assembled the ideas with references. Linda, as a synthesizer organized them well. A little input and a few changes here and there further improved the draft. The editor’s polish made it to the final submission. All the team members were very helpful and co-operative. No issue like conflict in deciding the core issue and division of work came up in the team. Overall it was a nice experience working with the team members.

Brainstorming-A creative way generate ideas

In the coming week, Forum: 4:1 Course Design Team Decisions, requires teams to brainstorm. Brainstorming is a common kind of creative activity that can be used in e-learning. This activity helps in generating lots of new ideas. Questions like-“if, how,  What if” help learners to think out of the box.  The leader poses a problem for which participants suggest solutions. The goal is to generate new and unique ideas. In this kind of exercises no ideas are correct or incorrect. Thus, all the ideas are acceptable.  Instructors  make sure that learners understand the basic rule of the brainstorming-there is no bad ideas. Emphasis should be laid that participants do not criticize idea but can add better ideas.

Brainstorming is an important aspect of team work, problem solving and creative thinking. This is also useful anywhere learners need to solve problems in an original way. Brainstorming can take different forms.  The instructor can use the brainstorming in form of chat and discussion form. Learners can continue to add ideas in the forum. At the end of the time allotted to complete the brainstorming activity, instructor can grade participants based on the ideas they contributed.

Reflections about Participation

While discussing the role of the instructor in today’s  Forum: 3:5 Reflections about Participation, I came across the idea of prompting. Prompting is asking a question about the reading material. Some questions in lectures or  in the welcome page of weeks prompt learners to think. One example is “@ Things to Think About: how will you deal with broken links to referenced assignments and readings in your online course?”(Week 4 course material page). This kind of prompting helps   to increase students' interest, confidence and self-esteem. Prompting involves helping those who fall behind to get back into the discussion and comprehension and academic abilities.

Also, the feedback from  the instructor  help  students to identify the source of difficulties and the misconceptions students have about a topic.

I also came across an interesting article (http://www.ieplexus.com/company-news/5379-students-crave-social-media-in-online-education/) which talks about the social networking tools for teaching online course. Students want social media in their classes. Today’s students are generally are engaged in  social networks that utilizing them in an online class is essentially as normal as talking. The instructor has an inherent advantage in terms of creating interactivity and engagement with that tool.

Also the http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/ says clearly indicates that we should always remain current. So integrating these networking tools can help in making learning experience better and effective. 

Mini project grades

 I  got grades for my Mini project 2. When I saw the Anne's rubric at the end, a  table showing  the basis on which the grading was done, I was surprised. The  grading method is so intense. There are grades for each and every aspect. If you miss any, you lose your grades.

Thank you Anne for giving us clear, detailed and specific instructions right in the beginning of mini project. I'll take care of your instructions for the final paper. It clearly shows that how clearly communicated expectations are help instructor and learner. Also, I liked that the reading material is available to students in several formats, allowing students to select the best.

I came across, Shneiderman's "Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design", while I was doing some research for my group project. I thought, I shall copy and paste them. I'll keep these ones in mind while I would design my  own course.

These rules were obtained from the text Designing the User Interface by Ben Shneiderman. Shneiderman proposed this collection of principles that are derived heuristically from experience and applicable in most interactive systems after being properly refined, extended, and interpreted.

To improve the usability of an application it is important to have a well designed interface. Shneiderman's "Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design" are a guide to good interaction design.

1 Strive for consistency.
Consistent sequences of actions should be required in similar situations; identical terminology should be used in prompts, menus, and help screens; and consistent commands should be employed throughout.

2 Enable frequent users to use shortcuts.
As the frequency of use increases, so do the user's desires to reduce the number of interactions and to increase the pace of interaction. Abbreviations, function keys, hidden commands, and macro facilities are very helpful to an expert user.

3 Offer informative feedback.
For every operator action, there should be some system feedback. For frequent and minor actions, the response can be modest, while for infrequent and major actions, the response should be more substantial.

4 Design dialog to yield closure.
Sequences of actions should be organized into groups with a beginning, middle, and end. The informative feedback at the completion of a group of actions gives the operators the satisfaction of accomplishment, a sense of relief, the signal to drop contingency plans and options from their minds, and an indication that the way is clear to prepare for the next group of actions.

5 Offer simple error handling.
As much as possible, design the system so the user cannot make a serious error. If an error is made, the system should be able to detect the error and offer simple, comprehensible mechanisms for handling the error.

6 Permit easy reversal of actions.
This feature relieves anxiety, since the user knows that errors can be undone; it thus encourages exploration of unfamiliar options. The units of reversibility may be a single action, a data entry, or a complete group of actions.

7 Support internal locus of control.
Experienced operators strongly desire the sense that they are in charge of the system and that the system responds to their actions. Design the system to make users the initiators of actions rather than the responders.

8 Reduce short-term memory load.
The limitation of human information processing in short-term memory requires that displays be kept simple, multiple page displays be consolidated, window-motion frequency be reduced, and sufficient training time be allotted for codes, mnemonics, and sequences of actions. 

Reference: http://faculty.washington.edu/jtenenbg/courses/360/f04/sessions/schneidermanGoldenRules.html

Training Employees Online

One of the  American Management Association (AMA) survey reported that over 30% of job applicants tested by major US corporations lacks the skills  required for  job profiles.  This clearly shows that the business environment needs employees with strong skill set. I think the way to deal with this problem is to facilitate ongoing training and lifelong learning. If a business/company wants to challenge its employees and increase their productivity, then training and development is absolutely important. If the company/business has skilled work force, it will provide greater productivity. The training can be onsite training with trainers/professionals or it can be online, flexible and convenient, available anywhere, self-paced, with no need to plan around a class time.

The initial steps for training -

The first step is to identify what are the areas where training is needs and in what way the training/course will be fruitful for the company/business.

The next step is to choose the appropriate course and its duration to meet those needs.

Thirdly, establish specifications and requirements for corporate certification. You can choose a fast paced online course or it can be formal with trainer participation.

Online medium has as much potential to encourage content exploration, reflection, and participation than a face-to-face class.

Online certification programs, such as the WDC, may provide a path to quickly increase the current low supply of workforce educators by offering effective, flexible, and inclusive professional development opportunities to workforce educators.( Sharon P. Pitt, Edmund Vitale Jr., and Diane L. Foucar-Szocki "Training Professional Workforce Educators Online." The Technology Source, March/April 2002.http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=947.)

Learning in a Social Context

While writing the answer for Learning in a Social Context for my  week 3 Forum: 3:3 Readings on Characteristics of the Online Learner and Training Professional Workforce Educators Online, I remembered the paper we did on same topic in graduation. I think that Russian teacher and psychologist Lev Vygotsky is the first person in the history of education who brought the world’s attention to the ways in which social environments influence this learning process. He talked about various ways in which a teacher influences shaping the social interactions. After Vygotsky proposed his theory, the world got attracts towards tis issue.

There are few ways in which teachers can guide and enriching interaction in classroom and online. Some of the ways  teachers develop communities of learning are:

Scaffolding: “Scaffolding” means providing just enough support, depending on the needs of the student, to move students’ skills and understanding. It is not guided learning.

Project Methods: Making groups, assigning a topic and final product should be a presentation. Work is carried out through a division of labor. Students first research a topic, in order to share their expertise with their classmates, and finally perform a consequential task requiring that all students have mastered the content generated by each group (Brown & Campione, 1996a)

The job of  a teacher is acting as an expert, model, guide, and facilitator of these social interactions. A teacher will with create and design a learning environment so that students interact with each other.

Collaborative Learning and Group Work: This should be an integral part of  any classroom or online learning environment.  Daily tasks that foster more student-to-student collaboration can build on the range of strengths and abilities.

References:

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Hammond,  Linda Darling. Learning From Others: Learning in a Social Context. Stanford University School of Education.

photo credit-VCCS.edu

The Roles of E-Learning Facilitators’- Ed Hootstein

In the given reading ‘ Wearing Four Pairs of Shoes: The Roles of E-Learning Facilitators’,  Ed Hootstein highlights that e-learning facilitators have four different roles- instructor, social director, program manager, and technical assistant. Initially, I thought that, I will be most comfortable in the instructor’s shoes because that is what I have done till date. But, I strongly feel that I have also been playing the role of social director for my high school students. Thus, I can say that I will be most comfortable in the nice blend of these two roles. As an instructor, my work was to create an environment  where students could learn by doing. I used to teach chemistry to grade 10 students. They had lectures as well as laboratory classes. While doing experiments, my students and I often ‘participated together as partners in learning activities’. The experiments and their results were coupled with comments and what, how and why questions so as to stimulate their thought process. Demonstration and experimentation had very important role in my classes. Thus, as an instructor, I always tried to help learners connect content with prior knowledge; help them complete assignments and suggesting ideas or strategies for learning(Ed Hootstein).

As a social director, I helped students to learn through collaborative projects, case studies, didactic learning partnership exchanges, and one-on-one exchanges (p, 2).  The projects, presentations and discussion were held each month so that students could recognize problems, find their common interests, and share experiences. This kind of interaction helped them to identify misconceptions and find correct answers.

Chemistry is embedded everywhere in our lives. Chemistry teachers or as a matter of fact, science teachers should help learners get familiar with the type of language suited for the subject. Chemistry   vocabulary has new words and terminologies those have different meaning. For example, terms like alcohol, energy, reaction, burning, suspension, purification, and solution have   different common place meanings than specific chemical meanings. While taking chemistry classes it is very important that students can relate this subject to their day to day lives so that learning becomes more meaningful.  Therefore, learners should be exposed to small-group problem-solving sessions, collaborative and investigative learning  experience and interaction among learners. Thus, in my case a facilitator has to wear a combination of instructor and a social director role.

I personally think that the technology and the learning resources we are using also need some revision.  Web-based learning resources (WBLRs) are thought to be powerful tools for enhancing teaching and learning processes in school education. But, WBLRs are still considered as an area of technical and software experts rather than an easy to use tool for teachers and students (Nam & Smith-Jackson, 2007). The technical usability puts more strain on the  cognitive process, and as a result, the  learning process itself lags behind.

Thus, learners should get an environment that enables them to focus on learning materials without making an effort to figure out how to access the technological environment in first place. So, teachers take learning new technology as a burden

Reference: Nam, C. S., & Smith-Jackson, T. L. (2007). Web-based learning environment: A theory-based design process for development and evaluation. Journal of Information Technology Education, 6, 23- 44. Retrieved from: http://www.jite.org/documents/Vol6/JITEv6p023-043Nam145.pdf

he fear or the laziness of teachers that Michael referred to, may be because of variety of reasons, such as time consumed in learning, using and then teaching technology to students, already tight schedules, heavy workload and lack of institutional support. Sometimes the equipment and the software used are different in each class which makes the teacher’s work even tougher. So, I also understand the frustration of an instructor that Lisha referred to.

I think that instructors should learn the latest technological tools before introducing it to the class. Moreover, technical and institutional support in terms of equipment and technology issues is very important. These things will help an instructor to create a supporting teaching and learning atmosphere.

Reference:http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eqm0223.pdf