Week 7 Final Post

Was the thread lively and showed evidence that your assignment prompted an engaging conversation? I think it did to an extent, but technical issues with blogger over the weekend detracted from the conversation too.

Why or why not? Other students brought up good points about assessment and how we must keep in mind our target group when creating them.

Conclude your reflection with any thoughts on what you might do differently in the future to ensure your Discussion Question assignments are a worthwhile experience for your students.
I would not change much, but just continue to be strident in tailoring my assessments and assignments so as they are approriate for the level of my students.

Wrapping up the coversation

My fellow students who commented on my blog post for this assignment made some very good points, even though my blog appears to be malfunctioning for some reason today.

I thought that it was interesting that both talked about fitting assessments to a given group of students and it's funny because this always one of my goals as I set up assessments for a given class or group.
Thanks for the comments guys.

Week 7 Blog Assignment EIDT 6511

Creating Quality Assessments-




In creating quality assessments one must consider many things including each of the following- skill to be tested, what type of skill it is, best way to test the skill, etc. All of these are important factors to consider as one creates an assessment to test a certain set of skills or knowledge. Appropriate assessment is the first key to student knowledge.



After all these factors have been considered then one must sit down and create said assessment. One must consider the learning objective to be covered, the type of assessment to be used, and how it shall be scored. Whether a rubric, scoring matrix, or some other type of scoring tool is used one should make certain that it is appropriate for the skill set to be assessed.



Discussion question- Different students learn and retain information in different ways. In creating a quality assessment what factors must be considered and why? Is there a predefined length for all assessments or should they be tailored for the content and skill being tested at the time? Explain in a paragraph or two your answers to these questions.

Week 6 blog assignment

What plagiarism detection software is available to online instructors?




I prefer to use Turnitin. We have access to this at my school and I find it to be a great resource; it takes a lot of the work out of checking research paper sources. Sometimes I will investigate a source a bit more closely, but normally I am satisfied with what it tells me.



How can the design of assessments help prevent academic dishonesty?



I feel it is important for these programs to be easy for an instructor to use, but very clear cut in defining plagiarism or not. How these are designed can greatly affect whether they will used widespread or not.



What facilitation strategies do you propose to use as a current or future online instructor?



I think that this is a very slippery slope here. At my school first and foremost students sign an academic integrity statement when they enter my class. Then they are required to initial this at the end of any online assignment as further verification. I think that this is a good method to remind them of this responsibility to honesty, which will serve them well not only in my class but in others throughout their college career.



What additional considerations for online teaching should be made to help detect or prevent cheating and plagiarism?



We should certainly use a plagiarism detection program, such as Turnitin, but we as instructors and ID's must be conscious that some students are going to look for ways to circumvent our best efforts to thwart cheating and we must always be wary of an assignment or essay, etc. which seems too good to be truly written by a student who we might think was incapable of such work. We do not want to accuse a student who s improving of cheating, but we must always keep that possibility in the back of our minds, in m y opinion.

Week 5

What impact does technology and multimedia have on online learning environments?

I feel that these two things are extremely important, especially in an online learning environment. The impact of technology can be far reaching; in that if the technology does not work or is inappropriate then this could very easily have an extremely detrimental effect on student success and learning in a given online course. Technology and multimedia should be used to enhance an online learning environment and to supplement in ways that enhance student learning by appealing to the different ways that different, unique students do learn. If these two things work and work well it can make an online learning experience that much better for students and if the opposite is the case it could very easily make it virtually unbearable.


What are the most important considerations an online instructor should make before implementing technology?

They should first and foremost ensure that the technology that they have picked works well, is navigable, user-friendly, and is not beyond the level or scope of the learners in a certain online educational experience. Also they must make sure that all programs, videos, games, or simulations that are included work and are not date restricted.

What implications do usability and accessibility of technology tools have for online teaching?

Both of these are integral to success in an online course. If the users can not access the program or use it then they undoubtedly will the course. This also will reflect badly on the instructor that chose the programs that do not work and that students can not use. The implications for this are far reaching because it could affect student grades and retention which in the long run could adversely affect program renewal and thus instructor job security.

What technology tools are most appealing to you for online teaching as you move forward in your career in instructional design?

I like to use the newest BlackBoard program as my CMS of choice and I prefer one the Pearson-based supplemental grammar programs, such as MySkillsLab or MyCompLab, for the programs I work with at my college. Once I get into these it really depends on the course, whether it's 85 or 95. I tend to use more interactivity in the 95 with videos, wikis, games, etc. while in 85 I am still getting students, who are returning to school after an extended absence, used to using new technology so I tend to use more Power Points and other programs that are more simple to work with.

Overall whatever technology one uses in designing or teaching a course it must be user-friendly and regularly accessible so as to lead to student success and retention.

Week 3 Application

What is the significance of knowing the technology available to you?

  
        Not knowing the technology available to you, whether as an instructor or as a student, is a quite perilous situation. The problems with not knowing how to operate a certain technology can vary from mild ignorance to almost total ineptness, in the case that one might  be teaching in a hybrid or online course setting.
      This could certainly change the outcome of the learning experience for every student invcolved and this could result in the instructor's contract for the course not being renewed.
      On a lesser basis, not knowing how to use the functions of let's say BlackBoard will hinder students in getting their grades back, It will giove an instructor fewer options as they look for ways-YouTube viodeos, PowerPoint presentations etc- which could help to bolster a lesson for auditory or visual learners. This could also have many other unforeseen troubles too.
     In my opinion, it is extyremely important for an instructor to know how to use the available technology to the best of their abilities to make for the best possible learniong experience for their students.
Why is it essential to communicate clear expectations to learners?

       It is extremely important to clearly communicatye all expectations to students at the beginning of a course because this easily impact the ways in which they approach the course, work in the course, and even if they decide to audit or to drop the course. The clear conveyance of expectations puts everyone on the same page as a new class begins, thus no student can say that they started out at a disadvantage.
       Even if this is not done the first day of class, it surely must be done in a clear, concise way within the first few days. This will alow for a better start to the semester and tghus a better flow, in my opinion.


What additional considerations should the instructor take into account when setting up an online learning experience?


Certainly, they must considera technology, students, classroom miscellaneous factors, but I feel that it is important to keep in mind the functionality of all programs that are chosen to complete a certain part of a course. Instructors should be familiar with all aspects of the techgnolgy that are relevant to the course sio that they can be sure to supplement lectures, labs, etc. with these things to make for a better overall educational experience for the students, thus they may gain more, additional  knowledge from these supplemental materials.


As far as new things that would assist me in setting up an online class, I feel that just the reminder to use all necessary aspects of a given technology to the betterment of the learning experience is a grand thing. I was reminded to do things that I do not do each semester because I have set up BB BlackBoard templates for the courses that I teach and thus I only change these every other semester or so to keep up with my videos dating out or other technical issues, but I can say that this helped me to see that streamlining the info available on these could certainly help student information retention and functionality. 

Week 1 Application

How do online learning communities significantly impact both student learning and satisfaction within online courses?


     Online learning communities are the backbone of online learning, in my opinion. These communities form a network of students/teachers involved in similar projects and as such they allow students to interact and discuss related class topics with other students who are concurrently working on similar projects, etc. In this way I feel that this sort of set up can greatly enhance student learning, which will help student grades and retention and thus these two things will go hand-in-hand with ensuring that students are satisfied with the level of education that they are receiving as well as with communication between the teacher and with other students as well. So in turn all these things come together to benefit all students and teachers in an online community as the course of a semester progresses.

What are the essential elements of online community building?

First and foremost is communication within the community; without proper community communication things can get fragmented and thus become less enjoyable and useful for many members of the community. There should also be more than one method of communication available so as to allow community members to communicate effectively.

Secondly, the online community must be functionable. Programs that are easily navigable and that are user friendly, to an extent, should be chosen so as to make certain that all students are capable of being successful in said course.

Finally, all members of the online community must be made to feel like they are parrt of the group. This will allow for better, open communication and discussion as the semester wears on.

How can online learning communities be sustained? They can be sustained by updating and upgrading software so as to ensure that everything is up-to-date and also they must be managed-grades must be posted, e-mails, BB messages, and other correspondence must be answered on a regular time table, and all this must be done in a way that is set up early in a semester so as students/teachers know what to expect and thus they are satisfied and continue to participate because they can see the advantages of doing so.

What is the relationship between community building and effective online instruction? They go hand-in-hand. In my opinion, one does not really work without the other and vice versa. One is rather heavily predicated by the second, as it should be. Without this seamless transition from one to the other a program's problems stick out, rather than its successes.