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.

Week 6 Post

Describe a project, either personal or professional, that experienced issues related to scope creep. What specific scope creep issues occurred? How did you or other stakeholders deal with those issues at the time? Looking back on the experience now, had you been in the position of managing the project, what could you have done to better manage these issues and control the scope of the project?




When one is working on a project, whether it be as merely a stakeholder or as the Project Manager, scope creep can certainly occur. This can cause previous plans to be restructured and tweaked to fit this new problem, or series of them, which has come up from an unexpected occurrence. Scope creep does not necessarily derail your project, but it is one of those little things that may pop up along the way and cause us to revise, rethink, and to rearrange certain aspects of project. This can range from monetary changes to our budget, adding or removing team members, or even changes in software to minor things like classroom scheduling and other logistics.

Last summer as my team and I initially began to change from the previous English course offering (ENG 80 and 90, Reading 80 and 90) to the current content (Eng 85 and 95) we found that scope creep occurred weekly, if not daily in some cases. It all began as we shuffled team members only a few weeks into our project due to unforeseen circumstances. This caused there to be more English instructors creating modules and caused a deficit in the number of Reading instructors who were to contribute to our final proposal.

We worked around this as I and another former Reading instructor chose to create the bulk of the material which was destined to cover that part of our state competencies. While this allowed us to mold those modules in the ways we wanted it also increased our workload by doubling it. It forced us to push our deadlines back a week or two, but in the end we were better off because of this, in my opinion.

Another type of scope creep that occurred during this project was when our new attendance software killed two computer labs in two days, the first two days of summer school. We were forced to find a better solution in a hurry, and thus turned to the tried and true method of using a traditional sign in sheet. In the end this data was a bit more difficult to gather in this manner, but we dealt with it and I think it made us function better as a team as well.

In conclusion, as I look back at this there are several things I would have done differently as the PM. First and foremost, I would have been more discerning in choosing the team members and secondly I would have made sure that all competency areas were equally covered.

Also I would have tested the software a bit more vigorously and I also would have had a back-up plan in place just in case something did not work. We all learned a lot from this experience and now we have created two functional learning experiences which are now being used at a variety of college campuses across NC.

Week 3 Blog Assignment

How did your interpretation of the message change from one modality to the next?




No matter which version of the three I viewed I was sadly unenthusiastic because for me none of them did a good job of getting the message across. Whoever was attempting to communicate with other group members in this manner has failed miserably. It was best simply as written text. I felt that the video did not really do anything to convey the message that the text version had not already covered. The audio version could have added much to either of the other two, but I was sadly unimpressed with this version as well.

This communication could have certainly been done in a better way, whether it involved mixing several of the methods which were attempted here or not. But the bottom line is that there are certainly better means of communication than the ones used here.



What factors influenced how you perceived the message? Each of us certainly looks at material in different ways. Much of communication is the way that the sender of the message chooses to convey it to their audience. For me personally text along with sound makes for the perfect learning experience, but when we separate the two into one or the other, it can make it a bit more difficult for an audience or student to get the gist of what is being communicated.

As far as video goes, when one is done well this can be the pinnacle of communication; at least one can understand every example etc. when it's done with a video with an audio component as well.

In this case there was not much difference, for me, in the way that the info was given to us as the audience. Once again the text component was the best of three for me personally.





Which form of communication best conveyed the true meaning and intent of the message?

I feel that the text component got across the gist of the exercise because I found both of the others kind of busy as I tried to view and listen to them. The text mode laid out the message and got its point across; whereas, the other two means did more distracting than conveying, in my opinion.

What are the implications of what you learned from this exercise for communicating effectively with members of a project team?



I go back to what I have learned from this, as well as other experiences, in saying the simplest means of communication can be the best. This way your point gets across, the team members know what to do, and everything runs along the way it is intended to. When we try to blend too much audio, video, technology into sending a simple message a lot of times this can skew our message because other team members can get caught up in what they're seeing that we added to supplement our message and in a lot of ways this can distract our team members and thus detract from our message as a whole.

Week 2-6145

What processes, project artifacts, or activities did you include in the project that contributed to its success?
     Originally, before we chose to revamp our English curriculum for developmental into ENG 85 and 95 we considered merely expanding the four courses-Reading 80 and 90 and English 80 and 90- that the two new ones replaced. The numbering for these courses would have been ENG 85 and 95 and Reading 85 and 95. In retrospect, this pilot program was doomed from its inception. We had six team members as part of the group to whom this task was assigned. This seemed like a good number because we are all competent in our given areas, but in the end this number proved to be our first fatal flaw. In our SOW we broke up the work amongst the group, but due yop our numbers it could not be split up equally, in any way. Next we ran into the problem of redundancy. Because all the courses had a very similar set of goals and such, we soon were faced with the type of overkill that pushed us to want to make a change initially. The software was yet another challenge because we were charged with adding a technology component to these new courses by the college. Due to our different goals and ideas for this program we could never really agree on much of anything, except in the end to scrap this effort and start again fresh with the new ENG 85 and 95 format that we now use regularly.
     There was not a lot that could be deemed successful about this initial attempt, but we did narrow it down to two classes and discovered suitable software that could be used for each of those. Also we decided to limit our team members and to install Project Managers for each course. Those were really the only bright spots in this endeavor.


What processes, project artifacts, or activities did you not include in the project that might have made the project more successful?

    To have made this offering more successful we could have structured our hierarchy of leadership better, as we did with the second offering. Also we set a schedule with firm deadlines for the completion of modules during this second attempt and this would have helped us a lot in the first offering. Also using a PM for each course seemed to give us a bit more structure and thus more cohesion as we got closer to launching our efforts for our students.
  As far as activities go we chose these through our small groups and each of us had an equal vote with the PM as the tie-breaker in that case. This worked well and soon we had completed our task.
  If we had chosen to operate in this manner in the first place we could have finished our task of on deadline, but it is probably best that we went through the growing pains of revamping a curriculum because now it will be that much easier if we are ever faced with this obstacle again.