541_Testing Online Educational Materials

1. List the two levels of testing as outlined in the presentation and discuss each one in turn. Then describe the types of testing activities for each level of testing.

Testing of online materials involve two types of testing; first type is to ensure the fidelity of the media that is being used, and second is to ensure that the material that is being presented leads to the desired student outcomes.

 There are two levels of testing that are used to ensure the fidelity of the media being used. The first is done when the media is being created. It is done to ensure that the media that was produced is both complete and of acceptable quality. The second level involves testing of the media when it is as close to its release as possible. This is usually done by having someone review the material; as described in the reading, basically states that the media is tested under reasonable set of circumstances that (in our case) students are expected to encounter; for example, testing with different operating systems and  using different web browsers.

2. What is ADA and how does it apply to the design and development of eLearning materials?

ADA is the acronym for Americans with Disabilities Act. This act requires that universities need to provide equal access to everyone- even those with disabilities.

I was very surprised, although in retrospect it makes perfect sense. There are quite different disabilities in e-learning that in a f2f classroom. Disability accommodations that I expected to read, were maybe seating, walkways, railing, even parking. However, e-learning disabilities are quite unique; they include students with no vision, color blindness, auditory issues, seizures or motor function issues.  Accommodations for these disabilities include: changes in contrast, color combinations, changeable fonts, animation/strobe usage, text –v-audio alternatives, navigability.

 

3. What is your institutions (You may use CSUSB’s) policy towards ADA and eLearning? Explain what this means in practical terms and what you think the strengths and weaknesses of the policy.

CSUSB adheres to both and ADA policy and an online web page accessibility policy; its online webpage accessibility policy can be found at http://policies.csusb.edu/webpageaccessibility.htm                                                                                                

I took this directly from the link:

PURPOSE

The purpose of this policy is to identify standards that will constitute web page accessibility for those with disabilities, establish procedures for creating and maintaining accessible Web pages, and establish the accountability for assuring accessibility for all Web pages that officially represent California State University, San Bernardino within the scope of this policy. This policy does not apply to instructional websites or instructional web content. Instructional materials are managed under the Instructional Materials Accessibility Plan (IMAP). A website or webpage, as well as the contents of such pages, is instructional if its primary function is as an informational resource for course completion. This includes, but is not limited to items such as course syllabi, reading materials, test materials, and multimedia.

If I comprehend this correctly, the policy only relates the official CSUSB website. It does not pertain to e-learning, as it does not apply to instructional websites or instructional web content.  I am assuming, that whoever it is that is creates the instructional sites (Blackboard, for example) is in full compliance of ADA. However, I have never been able to make changes to the content; the only changes I can make (in regards to contrast, font, color….) are all done through my computer, not thru the Blackboard system. Maybe I just don’t know how to do these things- which entirely possible.

4.      Revisit the 11 instructional design steps presented in chapter 1 of the text (Design Quickly and Reliably).* Revise this 11 step system using what you now know about development and testing. Try to create your own instructional design process/template that you might actually use. Briefly explain your modifications.

As we discovered during our team project, following the 11 steps led to repetition. I searched the web and found so many different processes, many included ADDIE. Addie seems to be a very basic set of steps- I felt that I would break it down a bit more. I also am taking in to account all of the different module topics we have covered in this class.

1.      Analysis:

a.      Identify needs and expertise of students/instructors

b.      Technology access and capabilities

c.       Characteristics of instructor/students

d.      Content

2.      Set Objectives/goals:

a.      What the instructor expects and how the student will achieve those expectations

3.      Activities:

a.      Apply the absorb, do and connect activities

                                                              i.      Absorb- how content is presented (presentations, readings, stories)

                                                            ii.      Do-  transforming the information (absorb) into knowledge (practice, simulation, discovery activities)

                                                          iii.      Connect- bridge the gap; tie together new skills/knowledge with previous skills/knowledge

4.      Interaction:

a.      Provide for 3 types of interactions

                                                              i.      Student-content

                                                            ii.      Student-student

                                                          iii.      Student-instructor

5.      Assessment:

a.      Ensure student understanding of content

                                                              i.      Quizzes/ exams/ finals

                                                            ii.      Papers

                                                          iii.      Projects

                                                           iv.      Discussion forums

6.      Select the media

 

 

 

541_Session 7

Session 7

1. Why is media selection important in eLearning?

Media selection is important in order to create a successful learning environment. Most students who chose to take e-learning courses, generally, have very busy schedules and find this style of learning to be convenient. If the media selected is not conducive to these needs, the success of the learning and experience will suffer. So, when e-learning courses are being designed/developed, the selection of the media needs to meet the busy lifestyles of the students as much as the needs of the instructor and the course content.

As we have continually been discussing, interaction must always be considered, including in media selection- meaning that it must support all three major interactions- student-student, student-content and student-instructor.s in these classes have busy lives; most do not have extra time toe

2. Define "new media"?

New media refers to on-demand access; in the e-learning environment, this would be access to content, interaction and participation. This access would be available to the student anywhere, at any time and on kind of digital device, such as smart phones or tablets. New media allows us to interact and share information in an instant.

3. Choose a "new media" and explain it's strengths and weaknesses for supporting eLearning.

I took a class that used facebook as its media. We received our content via links, we collaborated through postings. I found one of the biggest strengths to be access; we had access to content and each other anytime of any day. I personally was able to do my studies on my iPhone at work, in the car waiting for my kids to get out of school or in the comfort of my living room.  Another strength was privacy; our facebook was only able to be “friended” by invitation of the professor.

The greatest weakness was that it forced students to get a facebook. For most people that would not be a big deal, but we did have one student that voiced her dislike of being forced to join a social network.

4. Explain the term "Mobile Learning" and discuss the importance of "Mobile Learning in the current eLearning environment and in future eLearning environments.

Our texts describes mobile learning with two meanings: 1- participation in learning events while mobile, and 2- learning from the world in which we move.

I can say that currently I have taken advantage of our university’s mobile web app on my iPhone on numerous occasions. I have had to look up an activity or even post to my blog from time to time. I can say, that I have trouble commenting on other blogs; but that is probably a user issue rather than a tech issue. The main issue I see at this time is the size of the screen or keyboard on the mobile devices- not as easy to see or use as a laptop or desk computer.

The lifestyle of students is becoming more and more busy, and convenience and instant gratification is a way of life. Everywhere you look, people are on their smartphones or tablets, emailing, checking facebook, texting….thus, creating a cultural environment that is demanding instant, on-the-go education. We must, as e-learning designers/developers, take advantage of technological advances and meet those needs.

 5. Explain the term "Virtual Classroom". Describe how a "Virtual Classroom" can be used in eLearning.

The text explains that a virtual classroom can be in two formats: a webinar or a course. A webinar is an individual online meeting that is generally a one-time course. A course is a complete program of learning; which could be a series of webinars. Webinars and courses are taken online.

Instructors have a great deal of work and effort creating the syllabus and all of the technicalities of making the virtual classroom as effective in content and interaction as a f2f classroom- as we learned in our team project. The students have an added advantage of learning from each other through collaborations more in a virtual classroom than in most f2f (or in classes I have experienced). In my other class, I discussed the isolation that students feel (it was on K-12 e-learning). Virtual classrooms, if designed and developed correctly, require students to be more involved- both with the content and other students.

*I apologize for any typos or crzy mitakes..... as I am dealing with a mobile learning environment that I am not used to- which is what led me to my weaknesses in question 4. Ironic for this session- I think. Laptop crashed.

541_Session 6_ Absorb, Do and Connect from team activity

Objective:

• Understand the complex relationship between historical events, historical context, and human culture

1. Describe an "Absorb" type activity for one of the objectives in the course plan your team developed.

Student will read various readings of “Greek Philosophy and History” and “Alexander the great and the Hellenistic Philosophy.” Students will also receive both f2f and online video lectures where the instructor presents the information as well as shares stories for a deeper understanding of the topic.

2. Describe a "Do" type activity for one of the objectives in the course plan your team developed.

In our team’s plan, student will complete 2 “Do” activities. 1) complete the weekly CFU (check for understanding) and Quiz #1. This allows the student to analyze the objective and apply their knowledge and understanding of the information.

3. Describe a "Connect" type activity for one of the objectives in the course plan your team developed.

Students and instructor will discuss: philosophy and the Individual in Greek Culture. This discussion allows students to form a deeper understanding of the subject and share their views and perception with the instructor and other students.

4. Choose one of the above activities and discuss the process you would use to create this presentation. For this task assume that you have no additional assistance other than the instructor who would be able to write content as you describe it and perform for a recording as needed.

·         Create a PowerPoint presentation:

·         Create and present an outline for the topic

·         Include charts

·         Include links for supportive readings

·         Include a podcast link for pertinent information and instructions

 

5. Discuss how would your approach for the above task would be different if you were directing the development efforts of a team that included a graphic designer, a video editor and a web programmer along with all of the tools that such a team would typically use.

A graphic designer could ensure that the charts, pics, and overall appearance is aesthetically pleasing and not distracting to students. Video editor can add text and other supporting information to the chunks of video lecture the instructor has recorded. We discussed the programmer intermingling quizzes (CFU’s) following each reading and lecture, if the student did not demonstrate understanding of the material he/she would be redirected to another area for added information until student is able to show understanding. The site would include a variety tools, such as videos, chat, discussion boards, animation and links.

6. The text presents test types and presents a list of common types of test questions. In light of these, describe a test that would be appropriate for the class your team planned in the previous session.

The syllabus provided by the instructor includes 2 quizzes, 1 midterm and 1 final. Our team decided that we would add a weekly CFU (16 total)- each consisting of  2 questions.

According to the syllabus the instructor has his students take 2 quizzes, 1 midterm, and 1 final.

Our team decided to add 16 CFU’s (check for understanding) that would consist of approximately 2 questions. Quiz #1 will be taken in class and #2 will be taken via online.

Quizzes will consist of T/F, multiple choice, fill in the blanks and short answer questions.

 

 

 

Session 5_ Our roles and application of the 11 step process

My role in the activity was to 1) pick the approach LOT will use to meet each objective; which we applied to both the course itself and to the weekly activities, and 2) determine the teaching sequence of our objectives; which we took from the provided syllabus. I found this all very interesting; there never seemed to be just one approach, or just one sequence; I think it is because we chose to design this course as a hybrid. Upon collaboration with teammates, we all determined that these were accurate to our design plan.

Wow! Our team worked very hard to get this assignment together. Several people attended the first Skype meeting with Dr. Hunziger (AKA Dr. Newberry). This was very helpful in areas where there was confusion as to the direction we would take various areas. We successfully collaborated in several different ways, sometimes as a group and other times individually via email, texts and phone calls.

Nicole has been an awesome primary. She has explained that this is a new area for her, and I can say that you cannot tell. She has stepped in and taken charge like a real pro. Immediately after the Skype meeting with Dr. Hunziger, she arranged for a group Skype meeting the very next day; she later set up more Skype meetings and due dates. At one point we all seemed a bit confused, she called one last Skype the very next morning. She also took on the responsibility of creating the Google doc that we used for collaborating our tasks, editing the doc into a great final draft and submitting it to the professor.

Laura was her right hand- or that’s the way I saw it. She was so very helpful to everyone. Although she had to catch a flight the next morning, she attended the first Skype with Dr. Hunziger and diligently began working on our project late into that night. She also met and communicated with the group regularly, despite the time difference. I know other people needed help with some clarification on their parts and she stepped in and met with them via Skype, email and texting. That was so awesome. And personally, I sent her my part and she offered great comments and considerations.

Everyone else attended regularly and shared ideas and help via email throughout the whole process. I can say I have emailed back and forth with nearly every member. We had a new member add and we were quite concerned as we had not spoken with her, but she stepped in a provided great contribution to the project. Every team member met deadlines and attended meetings (except with legitimate reasons).

When it comes to my thoughts on the instructional design process, specifically in light of this project, I am not a fan. I am speaking specifically about the 11 step process. It seemed like a great thing when I first read it (remember- I have 0 experience in this area) but as we applied it to the project, we found it to be very repetitious. I thought it was just me, but as I was writing my portion, I felt like I was repeating things I had already read. But, we are presenting it to an instructor who needs to be sold on the idea, as he is comfortable and set in his ways.

Designing an educational course is nothing like I thought it was when coming into the class. I really thought it was just a matter of an instructor, basically, filling in a template with the stuff from his course/syllabus and boom- you’re done! Wow, was I wrong. Every step of the process relies on the previous step. In a team collaboration, that means relying on the person before you getting their part done, and done accurately, because you rely on their information to complete your own step.

I feel like I am learning so much more with every step we make. My team members not only offer such great insight, they also are very understanding in the fact that several of us are new and have no experience in this area of expertise. I admire that quality!

Class Blog List

Scott - http://auggienation.org/etec-541-blog.html
Mona -
Gerri - http://gerrietecblog.wordpress.com/
Crystal - www.heer541.wordpress.com
Dennis - http://tunerdj.wordpress.com/
Jeff - http://jlo1010.wordpress.com/
Kathryn - mccoolkat.blogspot.com
Laura - lamitobe.wordpress.com
John -
Vanessa -
Nicole - http://nicolewobken.wordpress.com/

541_Session 4_ Team Project Blog

 

Our team seems to be a good fit. Nicole stepped in right away and volunteered to be the primary contact for our team; together she and Laura attended the Skype meeting with Dr. Newberry and collaborated and set up a group Skype meeting. The team had a very good meeting. We were assigned the task of coming up with questions to ask Dr. Newberry at their next Skype meeting. We collaborated at that meeting, and agreed to get our final suggestions to Nicole by Friday.

I am really pleased with our first team meeting, our ongoing Google docs collaboration and our initial list of questions. I do not normally like working with groups and was actually worried when the mention of team project came up. But, following our first meeting, I am very excited to be working with a great team of people.

We have not assigned roles to each member. We decided that we would wait until the next meeting with Dr. Newberry and learn more about our course and the project.

The 11 steps listed in Chapter 1 of the text has given us a great place to start and a reference point to keep us on topic and make sure we hit key points throughout this project. However, we cannot get started on those crucial steps until we receive the answers to our questions on the next instructor-learner Skype.

We need to gather crucial information before we can continue, including such things as: course, teacher preferences and tech experience and skills, students experience and skills, content information…

I am actually excited to see it unfold!

Session 3_ Responses to Prompts _ Absorb, Do, Connect

	Learner-Content	Learner-Instructor	Learner-Learner
Video Presentation	X
Lecture	X
Chat		X	X
Discussion		X	X
PowerPoint Presentation	X
Skype		X	X
Email		X	X
Blog		X	X
Podcast	X
E-book/texts	X

 

 

If I haven’t mentioned before, I am not currently a teacher. I am the director of a homework center is in partnership with the SBCUSD. I tutor students grades K-12; so my teaching style and experience is quite different than my fellow classmates/colleagues. It also varies from day to day. For the purpose of this blog (and the class in general) I am going to cater my responses to the subject and general grade level I deal with most… 2^nd -3^rd grade math (my course). In addition, my job description requires me to help my students with their assigned homework, but I am allowed to incorporate any other help of my choosing.

Since taking 546, and now this class, I have been working to incorporate different technological aids in the center. I have already created several short videos helping with beginning algebra and multiplication. The center is located and operated by the church. The church has its own website and is going to allow me a page on the site for my center; which I now intend to dedicate to e-learning.

So- enough of this….. I just wanted you to know where I am coming from.

B. Discuss of the types of interactions that are most often used in the content area for which you expect to design instruction. Be sure to explain the content area, the types of students and types of objectives with which you will be working.

Content Area:

2^nd-3^rd grade Math-  This course will cover numbers and comparing, equations, variables, estimation and rounding, place value, logical reasoning, money, time, graphs, multiplication and division, measurement, fractions, decimals and probabilities.

Types of Students:

The types of students who will use and benefit from this course are 2^nd and 3^rd grade students who are struggling with math skills in their everyday classroom.

Types of Objectives:

Students will be able to:

More fully comprehend, master, the particular areas of difficulty.

Improve classroom test scores, as well as their state standards scores.

Student will be able to discuss and describe the processes of areas of difficulty.

 

C. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of the Horton text discuss three categories of activities: Absorb, Do, and Connect. After reading these chapters you are to locate one or more online classes and identify one Absorb, one Do and one Connect activity. Present your findings using this format:

URL:

Course Content:

Intended Students/Probable Student Characteristics:

Instructor Characteristics:

Identify the Type of Activity: Absorb - Do - Connect

Identify and Discuss the Interactions in the Activity:

 

Absorb Activities: usually consist of information and activities that help students (learners) comprehend information; especially used to update and extend current knowledge. The text describes presentations, readings, stories and/or field trips as types of Absorb Activities.

Do Activities: transform the “absorb” information into knowledge and skills. Examples of “Do” activities are: practice activities, discovery activities and game simulations.

Connect Activities: integrate what we are learning with what we know. The purpose of “Connect” activities is to link to something already known. Examples include: ponder activities, questioning activities, research activities… Connect activities are useful when application is crucial, yet not adequate, teaching a general subject, learners doubt applicability of material and the learners cannot make the connection on their own.

 

1.

URL:  http://www.ixl.com/math/grade-3

Course Content: 3^rd grade Mathematics

Intended Students/Probable Student Characteristics:

Intended for students who want to get extra practice with skills they have learned in the classroom and/or students struggling with their everyday math class.

Instructor Characteristics:

A 3^rd grade teacher with limited to good computer skills. Instructor is probably savvy enough to use the computer for personal use, but not likely to have experience with technology in the classroom. The teacher is teaching math to a large classroom and on a strict state schedule, so has little to no extra time to devote to struggling students.

Type of Activity:

Do:  This activity is primarily “Do” type activity, in that it provides drill and practice activities, hands on activities and guided analysis. It allows the student to practice their specific areas of struggle, test their skills with hands on testing, and provides reports designed to pinpoint trouble areas, measure progress and view improvements.

I didn’t actually apply “Connection” type activity at first. It wasn’t until I linked to a new area of the course that it clicked to me.

Connect: This course provides students with the connection between the course activities and real-life application. Connect activities are done through word problems. It is obvious in activities such as time and money; the application of multiplication is more difficult- the word problems are delivered in real-life terms and situation.

 

I found a second site that I thought was good for this session as well.

 2.

URL: http://www.connectionsacademy.com/pennsylvania-cyber-school/curriculum/elementary/3rd-grade-classes.aspx

Course Content:  3^rd grade Mathematics

Intended Students/Probable Student Characteristics:

Intended for students who want to get extra help with math; these students my either be struggling students, students preparing for future skills or self-testing students.

Type of Activity:

Absorb: this course provides for “Absorb” type activities, in that it provides not only provides students with a textbook and workbook, it also provides an e-text, online lessons, and 24/7 communications (chat).

Do: this course provides for “Do” type activities through, on line practice drills and tests,  hands-on activities - at-home games and supplies (used for both hands on and online), and guided analysis throughout the course.

Connect: this course provides students with the connection between the course activities and real-life application. It is obvious in activities such as time and money, but a lot less obvious to a third grader how they would apply, for example, multiplication. This connectivity is done through activities, such as word problems.