This week we spoke with Mary Engstrom about plans for a revised program for supporting faculty developing online courses at The University of Montana. The proposed plan is available at: http://instructionaldesigning.org/content/draft-faculty-development-process. Please feel free to comment.
 

This week Cammy Bean interviewed Robert Squires about how he became involved in Instructional Design as well as current design projects.
Texts mentioned in the discussion:

• Mark Pegrum: From Blogs to Bombs
• Brinck, Gergle and Wood: Designing Websites that Work: Usability for the Web

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Click 'Instructional-Design-Live#2-2010-01-08' to view Chat:

Today, Danielle Wozniak, Assistant Professor in the UM School of Social Work, discussed her thoughts on developing online community and utilizing online supplements in her graduate and undergraduate courses.
 
References:George Lakoff, Metaphors We Live By: http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/10/27_lakoff.shtml
 
Chat log:

This week, we discussed how to promote learning through asynchronous discussions, in many cases, the heart of online courses. Issues considered include: developing a sense of community, structuring discussions, setting expectations, assessment and strategies for facilitating quality interactions.
 
Resources mentioned:
 
Joanna Dunlap: Down and Dirty Guidelines for Effective Discussions in Online Courses
                       Protocols for Online Discussions (excellent discussion board activities)

This week we interviewed Ana Donaldson, author of Engaging the Online Learner and candidate for AECT president. (Read more about Ana's work). It was a great fun!
 
Ana offered the following information on upcoming events and opportunities for those in the field of educational technology: (Click on 'Read more' underneath the audio to access the resources).

 
This week Cammy Bean, VP of Learning Design for Kineo and ID-live co-host, discusses what e-learning means from a corporate perspective. The discussion focusses on the following issues:
 

• E-learning in the corporate environment
• How corporate and academic instructional design intersect
• How to design effective e-learning materials
• Skills that are expected of today's Instructional Designers

Additional Resources:
 
A brief intro to Backwards Design: http://iearn.org/civics/may2003workshop/Understanding%20by%20Design%20Teaching%20Ellen%20Meier%20CTSC.pdf
 
You can read more from Cammy at http://cammybean.kineo.com/
 

Professor Charles Reigeluth from Indiana University shares his thoughts on Instructional Theory for education in the Information Age. Charles and Allison Carr-Chellman recently co-edited Volume III of the seminal Instructional Design Theories and Models (The Green Book): http://www.amazon.com/Instructional-Design-Theories-Models-III-Knowledge/dp/0805864563
 
Key points discussed include:

This week, we explored differences and similarities between Instructional Design work in corporate and higher education settings with Karl Kapp: http://karlkapp.blogspot.com/, http://karlkapp.com. Karl's background teaching e-learning classes and experiece training CEO's and front line staff gives him a unique perspective on desiging learning for these environments. Some of the points discussed include:

• Differences in the purposes of desigining learning
• Designing instruction to suit the different environments
• Assessing the effectiveness of e-learning design

Chat transcript: (click link)  Cammy's Live-blogged notes

This week, we discussed the experience of online learning with two students at The University of Montana. Amanda Armstrong, an undergraduate student taking a fully online degree in Media Arts and Jamie Lockman, a graduate student taking an online political science course. Topics discussed include:
 

• Factors that influenced the decision to take online courses
• The differences between online and face-to-face learning--and the surprises
• The challenges of online learning
• How instructors can make online learning more effective for students
• Technology that would help support learning
• Changes that would make online learning for effective for Amanda and Jamie.

Great Transcript (Click Title):
 

This week, Jennifer Maddrell discusses the focus for her dissertation work: the Community of Inquiry framework: http://communitiesofinquiry.com/. Her primary research question focusses on whether there is a relationship between learner's perceptions of "community" and actual learning outcomes as identified by grades, papers, tests, etc. The discussion took a very practical turn as we sought to identify particular strategies that may be used by instructors to develop community within online courses. Look for a three-part series investigating the pillars of the Community of Inquiry framework in April 2010.
 
Click Title for Transcript

This week, we were joined by Maggi Savin Baden, professor of Higher Education Research at Coventry University in the UK. She has been investigating problem based learning for a number of years and is currently pursuing research into applications within Second Life.
 
Topics include:
 

• Getting started with PBLonline: key recommendations
• Effective teambuilding in online courses
• Value of Second Life for PBLonline
• Institutional perspective on PBL: Can it serve as a model of learning at an institutional level

There are a number of helpful links to her work in the chat transcript. Happy Spring break to many of you!

This Week, Michael Power of the University of Laval, Québec joined us to discuss the prototype that he developed to engage faculty in the development and delivery of effective blended online learning courses. in addition to discussing how he developed his prototype, Mike address the following key areas: 
 

1. What key factors informed the modifications you made to the prototype?
2. A university's culture or context can influence faculty views about online education as well as pedagogical beliefs about teaching and learning.  To what extent is your prototype applicable/transferrable across various campus cultures?

The show was conducted via Elluminate, so you can access the video recording by clicking on 'Click to Play' below.

Click to Play

Chat Transcript:

00:08 to: Anthony
 
Actually - what you would here is <franglais>
 
01:13 to: Michael
 
yes I do
 
01:25 to: Michael
 
we can make it informal
 
01:34 to: Michael
 
suret thing
 
02:33 to: mary engstrom 1
 
What a great idea to keep an ID log book!
 
02:51 to: Robert
 
Agreed
 
04:01 to: mary engstrom 1
 
Wow, I can't imagine creating an online course in one month!
 
04:18 to: mary engstrom 1
 
Yes.
 
05:31 to: Robert
 
:-)
 
05:35 to: mary engstrom 1
 

According to Garrison (2009), Social presence is “the ability of participants to identify with the community (e.g., course of study), communicate purposefully in a trusting environment, and develop inter-personal relationships by way of projecting their individual personalities.”
 
Defining, creating and maintaining social presence in online courses is the focus of this week's show and is part of a three-part series that considers the Community of Inquiry framework.

Jennifer Maddrell leads the discussion as we address issues such as: differences between a Community of Inquiry and Community of Practice, how certain tools may help improve social presence and delivering meaningful activities that can enhance sense of being an integral part of the learning experience. 
 
Cammy's live-blogged notes: http://cammybean.kineo.com/2010/04/creating-social-presence-in-online.html
Web-conference Recording
Frequently cited articles and authors re: social presence:

Jennifer Maddrell leads a discussion of another key aspect of online teaching and learning--developing cognitive presence in online courses. In addition to discussing the definition of cognitive presence, we consider how it can be facilitated, and the challenges that students face when the instructors emphasize collaboration without adequate supports.

Viewable on the web

 
Transcript
Apr 16, 2010 10:03:20 AM - IDL 14 - COMMUNITY OF INQUIRY II: COGNITIVE PRESENCE
 

00:59 - Cammy
I am an ID on the corporate side of things.
 
01:11 - Cammy
I may just stay quiet then... (Cammy is our third co-presenter, but had audio difficulties)
 
01:53 - Joni
Sorry, too many windows open so couldn't click on the mic fast enough. I'm an associate professor at the University of Colorado Denver.
 
04:51 - Joni

This week is the final part in a series exploring the Community of Inquiry Framework. Jennifer Maddrell leads us in an exploration of the practical dimensions of establishing teaching presence in online courses.
 

Viewable on the Web

Key questions considered include:

Webquests have been defined as “a scaffolded learning structure that uses links to essential resources on the World Wide Web and an authentic task to motivate students’ investigation of a central, open-ended question, development of individual expertise and participation in a final group process that attempts to transform newly acquired information into a more sophisticated understanding. The best WebQuests do this in a way that inspires students to see richer thematic relationships, facilitate a contribution to the real world of learning and reflect on their own metacognitive processes.”    Tom March 2003. In this show, we explore how WebQuests can be used to promote critical thinking and engaged learning. A number of resources are provided to help those new to WebQuests investigate this powerful strategy for facilitating learning.

Available on the Web

Chat Transcript

As part of a series that focusses on practical strategies for designing effective online courses, the IDL team focus on how to avoid cognitive overload this week.

 
We discussed a numberof practical suggestions from experience and the research and indulged a little in information overload. Lots of good discussion and resources!

• Chat Room Protocol

Research

• Research on Cognitive Load Theory and its Design Implications for E-Learning
• Research on Cognitive Load Theory: Application to E-Learning
• The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing Information
• Less is More When Developing PowerPoint Evaluations

Available on the Web

Chat Transcript
 

Authentic assessment is within the reach of most online instructors. It's just a matter of starting small and considering some basic principles in designing effective learning experiences, notes Mary Engstrom, senior instructional designer at the University of Montana. Mary discusses a framework for developing authentic tasks and identifies a number of examples. A key take away is the notion that individuals receive personalized feedback throughout the process of completing authentic tasks and can develop the ability to self-monitor their development if the opportunities are provided.
 

PowerPoint Slides

As a student or instructor in Higher Ed institutions today, it is almost inevitable that learning management systems such as Blackboard or Moodle will play a key role in the learning and teaching experience. But is there a problem with using a single, centralized system to manage learning? David Wiley and Jon Mott argue that there are certain limitations to such centralized systems, including:

• the perpetuation of the industrial age paradigm of learning;
• privileging the role of the instructor at the expense of the learner; and,
• limiting the power of the network effect in learning.

Join the ID live team this week as we discuss the practical implications of using such a system and whether we agree with these statements.

Available on the Web

Chat Transcript:

Having recently discussed the need to avoid cognitive overload in online courses, we take a step back to consider whether or not cognitive overload is actually an issue. As Arlene Walker-Andrews, Associate Provost and Psychology Professor at the University of Montana, points out: “I do not believe that attention and cognitive capacities are limited. In my view, attention shouldn’t be considered a finite resource, rather it should be characterized as “attending,” which suggests flexible, skilled action. Recent theories about attention suggest that although not all stimuli are analyzed, nonattended stimuli are not all filtered out and their impact on learning and memory will vary depending on relevance and/or personal experience.” Great stuff!

Join Arlene and the ID team this week to listen to what this means for individualizing the learning experience and tailoring instructional strategies to the cognitive abilities of learners.

Avaliable on the Web

Arlene's Notes for the Discussion

Dr. Helen Barrett, recipient of the EIFEL lifetime achievement award for her contributions to e-portfolio research and development, joins us this week to put a firm emphasis on having students control their learning through e-portfolios. In addition to highlighting the ‘two faces of e-portfolios’, Helen makes the case that universities have been placing too great an emphasis on e-portfolios for summative learning. 

 

Available on the Web

Live Blogged Notes: http://cammybean.kineo.com/2010/06/two-faces-of-eportfolios.html
 
Chat Transcript

Xiaojing Liu, Senior Research Analyst at Kelley Business School, Indiana University, joins us this week to discuss how to design effective online cased-based learning courses.  Drawing on her research into cased based-learning startegies used in an MBA program, Dr. Liu considers the benefits and challenges of case-based learning from both a student and faculty perspective. Some insightful commments in the chatroom as well.

In a slight departure from our traditional format, we discuss several research papers that are being presented at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology Research Symposium being held in Bloomington, Indiana from July 20 - July 23. Jennifer Maddrell, presenting on the influence of Backchannel Communication on Cognitive Load, discusses her paper and several others in this 30 minute discussion. All papers presented at the symposium are freely available on the AECT website.

Available on the Web

Chat Transcipt:

Despite the caveats identified in the research, the conclusion, for some, was still: Online learning is better!

Available on the Web

Inspired by a number of discussions at the Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning in Madison Wisconsin,  we consider the process of transitioning from a proprietary learning management system such as Blackboard to an open source system such as Moodle. Keith Lynip, director of Extended Learning Services at The University of Montana, discusses the nature of this process from the request for information from vendors to the selection of an open-source provider. Questions such as how to support faculty in this transition/transformation process are addressed.
  afkatws

 
Zuochen Zhang, Assistant Professor in the School of Education at Windsor University, and Richard F. Kenny, Associate Professor at the Center for Distance Education, Athabasca University, joined us this week to discuss the perspectives of International students in online courses.
It is becoming common practice in higher education for online distance education programs to enroll international students, but what are the implications for online course designers and instructors when faced with learners from diverse backgrounds that may not be familiar with cultural references, discourse conventions or a constructivist pedagogical approach.  Tune in to find out more.
 
Discussion is based around Learning in an Online Distance Eductaion Course: Experiences of Three International Students

Time to put a little fun into online learning--with good reason: 'Emotional arousal helps the brain learn'. Medina, Brain Rules (2008). Joni Dunlap leads the IDLive team in considering how to incorporate fun into the fabric of a course to provide a more stimulating learning experience.