Diary of an Educational Developer

Designing and Delivering Effective Lectures

2012-01-24T13:34:00.001+11:00

“College is a place where the professor’s lecture notes go straight to the students’ lecture notes, without passing through the brains of either.” – Mark Twain

Today's posting to Tomorrow's-Professor by Rick Reis is a reprint of an article by Jason N. Adsit at the State University of New York, Buffalo and is entitled "Designing and Delivering Effective Lectures". I've found Adsit's original paper online at http://sites.iiitd.ac.in/indo-us/papers/Paper_Jason%20Adsit%5B1%29.pdf

Contrary to current educational theory that promotes moving beyond the lecture, this article acknowledges that the lecture remains the most common instructional model in Higher Education today. Instead of "lecture bashing", it identifies scenarios where the lecture is still relevant and provides practical tips on how to design effective lectures.

The 12 tips include:
Tip #1: Plan Your Lectures
Tip #2: Avoid the Tyranny of Content
Tip #3: Know Your Audience
Tip #4: Create a Complete Lecture
Tip #5: Develop Lecture Notes
Tip #6: Audience Engagement and Interactivity
Tip #7: Create Visual Backups and Supports
Tip #8: Quality Control
Tip #9: Enthusiasm
Tip #10: Ask Questions
Tip #11: Answer Questions
Tip #12: Reflection

Each of the tips are supplemented with simple, practical advice. I highly recommend having a read and subscribe to the notion that "like a good research paper" lectures must be "designed".

I Need My Teachers To Learn

2012-01-19T12:25:00.000+11:00

Starting off the new year with an inspirational video about the changing nature of students and teacher response by Kevin Honeycutt. The power really is in the (catchy) lyrics, such as:

"The kids are changing any fool can tell and the way that you're teaching has to change as well"
"Prepare us for the future and not your past"

What is WATTLE?

2012-01-19T12:14:00.001+11:00

A short, sharp competition winning video about Wattle (The ANU installation of MOODLE) was made by one of the 2nd year Engineering students, Chris Arnold. It's a great clip about the different features in Wattle and reinforces how important the LMS is to students as central to their academic life.

You can view this video and others on technologies important to students at:

http://information.anu.edu.au/about_is/doi/news_events/2011/video_contest_2011_winners.php

Engaging students by improving staff/student interactions

2011-12-08T13:46:00.001+11:00

This afternoon I've been engaged by this video on engaging students by improving staff/student interactions.

ENGAGE Webinar: Improving Faculty Student Interaction: from Susan Metz on Vimeo.

It is a 45min recording of a live webinar presented by Dr. Becky Wai-Ling Packard for the ENGAGE Project that offers research-based, time-effective tips to engage students. It has an engineering focus as it was co-sponsored by the American Society for Engineering Education, but I believe that the tips are transferable to a variety of disciplines.

The slides aren't overly attractive and the last 10mins can be skipped as they relate more to the people that attended the webinar as a live event, but the content and tips are good.

The focus is on the major barrier of time and what lecturer's can do to make the most of their time with students to maximise the interactions.

Some key points in the video for me:

3:48min: "Interactions with faculty members especially make a difference for female students"
16:27min: "Students are often alone with feedback on their assignments"
16:55min: "When the grading process appears arbitrary or vague, student motivation can really go down as can the quality of their work. This can translate into more office hours for faculty and a really discouraging teaching environment."
20:47min: "Faculty expectations influence student performance"
26:20min: "When students are in class, they're often wondering about their future engineering careers. So they're more motivated to engage in the learning in the course when they view the class as relevant and important to their future."

Some of the tips provided by Becky that resonated with me:

Use a grading rubric. When I have suggested rubrics to people in the past, a frequent comment is that they take to long to fill for each student in when they have a large class size. I appreciate this, however when feedback is important to students (and the institution), rubrics can be an efficient way of combining marking time with time spent giving feedback. You don't need to write copious notes on what the student did well or not so well, as the allocation in the rubric communicates this clearly.
Start the class with a 1 min message to link academic work to the professional career. I agree with this one. Just recently I've been involved in conversations with my colleagues about the fact that students often don't see the relevance of some compulsory courses at the time of completing their end-of-course evaluations, so that course can be perceived in a negative light. Instead of accepting and allowing for this, I agree with the suggestion of helping the students make the connection between the course and the real world. Tell them how the course is relevant to their future careers by conveying messages from former students, relating it to research areas etc. This can help students see the bigger picture and increase student- and staff- satisfaction.

The slides from the webinar without sound are available at http://www.engageengineering.org/associations/11559/files/ENGAGE_ASEE_FSI_Nov292011.pdf

CASS Ethel Tory Centre - New Flexible Teaching and Learning Space at ANU

2011-04-19T12:34:00.000+10:00

The ANU CECS Education Development Group recently took a tour of the new CASS teaching and learning space. The Ethel Tory Centre is primarily for use in language studies and is designed to promote student collaboration while enabling flexible teaching and learning modes.

The Centre’s design, development, implementation and training were driven by the College Education Development Studio in consultation with College academic staff, and with reference to the growing body of literature on learning spaces for Higher Education. Funding was contributed from each School and the ANU Division of Information (DOI). All furniture was custom made and the modern space was designed to make the best use of limited available space, in consultation with architects and ANU facilities.

In line with current literature on innovative learning spaces (see Further Reading), the Centre’s design is creative and has a motivating effect with natural light, modern architecture and open-plan social areas. The distinct spaces in the Centre consist of different colours and furniture types which provide cues to assist learners to adjust their behaviour according to the purpose of the space. "These represent shifts in attitude that welcome and support all types of learners and promote different ways of learning" (JISC, 2006).

Below is a summary of the Ethel Tory Centre’s features and a selection of images.

Wireless internet enabled throughout
Floor boxes throughout with power and network ports, to allow for multiple desk configurations
All screens powered by Mac Minis
Collaborative Learning Studio

Movable jelly bean shaped desks for group work, with power for personal laptop use
'McDonalds style' bench for individual workspaces, with secured stools and power for personal laptop use
Two technology enhanced booths, with power and network ports as well as a screen with Tidebreak software (pending) for collaborative work

Internal and external break out areas

“Chill-out” furniture
Screens to display current language news programs
Small kitchenette with vending machines

Three Technology and Learning Studios each with:

4-5 Jellybean shaped, movable tables with 5 Mac laptops per table.
4-5 monitors (1 per table) for sharing/presentations
Laptops are equipped with language specific software
Tidebreak software pending
Retractable data screen and projector
Whiteboard
DLD facilities

State of the art video conference facility

3 monitors
Movable furniture
Microphones over entire ceiling
Document camera
Mac laptop
Audio recording through DLD and laptop

Brightly painted throughout
Custom made furniture
24hr access for all ANU students and nominated staff

References:

Ethel Tory Centre

http://cass.anu.edu.au/story/ethel-tory-centre

CASS Education Development Studio

http://cass.anu.edu.au/education/education-development-studio

Designing Spaces for Effective Learning: A guide to 21st century learning space design (JISC, 2006). http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/publications/learningspaces.pdf

Further Reading:

Learning Spaces: A New EDUCAUSE e-Book- “Learning Spaces focuses on how learner expectations influence such spaces, the principles and activities that facilitate learning, and the role of technology from the perspective of those who create learning environments: faculty, learning technologists, librarians, and administrators.” http://www.educause.edu/LearningSpaces

Many Australian Universities are investing in flexible teaching and learning spaces. The University of Wollongong's website showcases Innovative Learning Spaces around the Globe including examples of collaborative, connected, flexible, informal learning spaces as well as enhanced professional and lecture learning spaces- http://cedirsd.uow.edu.au/ils/globe.aspx

Positive results and lessons to learn from a case study on the implementation of a First Year Engineering Learning Centre at the University of Queensland- http://www.uq.edu.au/nextgenerationlearningspace/5.14.pdf

Images:

Translating Learning Outcomes in Moodle Continued....

2011-04-19T12:27:00.001+10:00

In a post last August, I showcased a project I have been involved in called Translating Learning Outcomes in Moodle.

This project was well received by the Moodle Community when it was presented at the MoodleMoot in July 2010 and MoodlePosium in October 2010. We received many indications of interest to contribute and take this work further and one particularly well known Moodler Tomaz Lasic likened the work to a Moodle-Wizard in this entry on his wiki.

Unfortunately, I noticed that the page on the MoodleMoot site where we had collated our work are now disabled. A version of my slides from the presentations are available on Slide Share and embedded below.

We are keen to progress this work further to include more learning outcomes. If you are interested, please get in touch with us by emailing ed_dev@cecs.anu.edu.au

Translating Learning Outcomes in Moodle

View more presentations from Lauren Kane

ePortfolios: a novel way to assess engineering interns

2010-11-02T10:27:00.000+11:00

This afternoon I am heading off to Melbourne for the ePortfolio Australia Conference 2010. This event promises to "highlight the ways e-portfolios are serving as a catalyst to support and engage adult learning from the vocational education and training (VET) sector, higher education (HE) sector, and adult and community education (ACE) sector".

The program looks promising and as usual, it is difficult to choose between the presentations in the concurrent sessions. I will be participating in the twitter-back channel at the conference hash tag #EAC2010.

I will also be presenting a poster on behalf of our Hubs and Spokes team, click the image below for a sneak peak! The handout to accompany the poster is also available here.

Image Chef

2010-10-12T15:47:00.001+11:00

In this month's edition of the SA E-Learning Newsletter, Marlene pointed us to a rather fun site to add some flare to websites, emails, Moodle sites etc.

The ImageChef allows you to choose a template and customise it to convey a short message in a unique way.

Below are some of my creations, each taking only a few seconds to generate. So as Marlene says, the next time you tell students their assignments are due or that they have 3 days left to hand in their reports, wh not use one of these images to get their attention!

Student attendance and engagement in lectures

2010-09-30T12:29:00.000+10:00

This blog post is a collection of my thoughts on recent discussions around ways to increase student attendance and engagement in lectures. As my colleagues and I have been discussing this topic, many elements of ‘traditional’ University teaching have been under scrutiny and we have been considering the effect of lecture recordings and trying to determine exactly why students are so passive in lectures.

Many useful papers have been found that have inspired our conversations and thinking. An opportune, well referenced discussion on the effect of widespread lecture capture was posted on the Tomorrow’s Professor Blog entitled Lecture Capture: A Guide to Effective Use.

Of particular interest to us was this part:

"The availability of lectures in podcast form may change students’ learning behaviors as well as their expectations about the use of class time. Since students take fewer or summary style notes in courses using lecture capture (Brotherton & Abowd, 2004), they have more time to process course material on the spot, which may lead them to ask more questions and want more interactivity during lecture. Students may, therefore, expect the format of lectures to shift from a process of information transfer to a more student-centered and interactive format. As a result, instructors may need to devote more time to in-class activities that enable students to practice skills, think critically about material, and apply what they’ve heard in lecture to grappling with real-world problems (McKenzie, 2008)."

Another topical entry from Tomorrow's Professor on lectures and student behaviour, Why Are Students So Passive and What Can Teachers Do About it? writes “students are passive in part because instruction continues to be so didactic" and goes on to discuss what students could be doing in class if teachers were to lecture less. The result being better student engagement, retention of content, greater facility in applying what has been learned, and/or a deeper understanding of the content.

Finally, another study I have just come across describes another alternative approach to traditional lectures, The Conversational Classroom method. The authors describe their “experiment with an existing course [required for all students in Electrical and Computer Engineering and all students in Computer Science] that had a stable syllabus, a fixed set of assignments, and a set of examinations that varied little. Moreover, this course had been taught many times by the same professor. Only one aspect of the course – the classroom culture – was changed.

They share their challenges and results and also give practical examples of lecturer-student interaction techniques;

Asking students questions about readings
Developing opportunities for discussion, such as by identifying points in the readings and assignments and posing questions about them
Using short (3-5) minute informal small groups to work on problems
Using non-defensive, supportive language (not being threatened by questions and critique, demonstrating a willingness to change)
Encouraging students to ask questions
Having students (rather than the instructor) answer other student's questions
Giving students sufficient time to answer, even if it means noticeable periods of silence

and also presence techniques:

Instructor walking the aisles – physically coming closer to the students
Instructor taking part in small group discussion
Instructor repeating a question to be sure that it has been understood before answering it
Calling students by name
Referring by name to earlier student contributions (“As Jane said earlier...”)
Not interrupting student contributions

One of our lecturers is going to be implementing the conversational classroom methods in his course for 2011. I look forward to being involved and learning from the experience- stay tuned!!

SpicyNodes- an online mindmapping tool

2010-08-02T12:42:00.002+10:00

This morning I have been trialling a new online tool called SpicyNodes. According to the website, "SpicyNodes will do more than organize your web site. It will entice visitors to explore and savor the experience of visiting your site — allowing them to scan large quantities of information and linger over the details important to them."

SpicyNodes has a tree structure, which organizes information in a logical way, where you can drill down to information whilst seeing the connections between the information. The end result is similar to another, more commonly known, online tool called Prezi. The main difference in the output here is that SpicyNodes gives the end user the control of the navigation, whereas this is defined in a Prezi. Both ways have their merits and therefore lend themselves to different uses.

I spent a little bit of time testing SpicyNodes out and I did find building one of these much easier than the few attempts I have had at building a Prezi. This is primarily because with SpicyNode you build your 'tree' in a linear way and it then turns it into the flashy version for you. This appeals more to my way of visualising concepts as I found with Prezi that I got stuck worrying about how the user would step through my presentation and how I could move the page and items to look impressive as they move through.

I can certainly see how a SpicyNode presentation could be used as a teaching aid and the website outlines many suggestions and reasons for it's educational value including:

Richly visual and interactive.
Appeal to various learning styles.
Engage students’ creativity.
Easy to learn.
Do more with less
A sensible use of technology.

My sample SpicyNode is below, enjoy! (best viewed in full screen)

Translating Learning Outcomes in Moodle

2010-08-02T12:19:00.001+10:00

It has been a while since I have posted to this blog. I have been very busy lately with the start of Semester 2 at ANU and have been delighted to assist many of the lecturers in the College with setting up new activities in Moodle (or Wattle as it is known here) to support their teaching.

I have recently been down to Melbourne for the 2010 MoodleMoot Conference where my colleagues and I presented our work on Translating Learning Outcomes in Moodle. The motivation for this work stemmed from the identified difficulty in translating learning outcomes into an effective course design using tools provided by a Learning Management System. We developed a process and online tools to guide lecturers and enable them leverage educational technologies to the maximum extent to effectively deliver a quality course that meets its identified goals and intents.

Our work is outlined at the presentation Moodle Site here. We are interested in taking this work further and are keen to develop online tools for other learning outcomes. If you might be interested in collaborating or would just like to give some feedback or suggestions, please leave a comment below!

Lauren

Moodle Tool Guide

2010-05-25T14:08:00.000+10:00

The number of resources and activities in Moodle can be overwhelming and confusing at times. Which tool will be the most efficient for my purpose? What do the tools do and how easy are they to set up? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the different tools?

E-learning instructional designer Joyce Seitzinger has created a fantastic, visual guide that will help you decide what tool(s) to use.

It looks at not only what the Moodle tools can do, but allows you to look for what you want to achieve pedagogically and then rates the tools accordingly for your purpose. It also contains creative suggestions for using discussion forums to encourage active learning in your course.

I highly recommend it to anyone using Moodle!

Check it out at-

http://www.cats-pyjamas.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/MoodleToolGuideforTeachers_May2010_JS.pdf

Superstickies!

2010-05-11T21:03:00.001+10:00

DimDim trial

2010-05-11T12:41:00.001+10:00

This morning I have looked the the Open Source web meeting software DimDim

Overall I found the system very intuitive and simple to use. The terminology used made it very easy to find exactly what I wanted to do:

Share my desktop = "Show computer screen"
Use the eBoard = "Show whiteboard"
Use a powerpoint = "Show presentation"
Visit a URL = "Show website"
Lock talk = "Hands free"

"Showing" any of these then turns the button to "Stop computer screen" etc, making it very clear how to turn these features on and off.

Below is my brief comparison of DimDim with Wimba Live Classrooms which is the web conferencing software currently being trialled at ANU.
Disclaimer- this comparison was done with the free, trial version of DimDim that does have some limited features to that of the full version. I am unaware of all of the differences, and as such the comparison above is written from my experience with the free version only.

The presenter controls in DimDim are very easy to use and access to the controls can be granted or taken away from participants with a click of a button. This feature seamed much easier and more intuitive to me than the same feature in Wimba. DimDim has a handy laser pointer for the presenter to use when describing a slide in a presentation or on the whiteboard.
I prefer the aesthetics of the DimDim interface to that of Wimba. The screen was set out in a logical, clean way and the presentation of powerpoint slides within the shared window appeals to me. This, however is a personal preference and does not impact on functionality.In DimDim, you cannot load content prior to the meeting start, which is a nice feature in Wimba. However, loading on the fly in DimDim was very quick and easy to do.
DimDim does not allow the presenter to 'promote' a participant to the role of presenter. This is a handy feature of Wimba and means that a participant can take over if the original presenter had to leave.
Wimba allows for formal (M/C, short answer questions) and informal (tick or cross to a verbal question) polling, which is used frequently in large groups. Room statistics are also available after the room closes, which can be valuable data for the presenter. Informal polling is possible in DimDim, however it requires "setting your mood" from a drop down menu, which is not as quick and obvious to participants. DimDim suggests using the free tool PollDaddy for getting the pulse of the room during a session. The presenter prepares the poll prior to the session, and then shares the URL with participants during the session. This is a workaround, but achieves the same effect as Wimba's polling tool.
Wimba allows "raising of hand" which is not available in DimDim. This is a very useful feature, especially when presenting to a large group and has been identified as a required feature for ANU.
Break out rooms in Wimba are available, which means small groups of participants can hold a smaller, private meeting away from the main group. This did not appear to be an option in DimDim.
The website share in DimDim follows the presenter's view. This means that when the presenter scrolls down a page, it is mirrored on the participant's screen. The participant can scroll on their own, however if the presenter moves the page then their actions take priority. I believe this feature is the same in Wimba.
Both have public (to whole group) and private (to a nominated person) chat rooms and allow the web meeting to be recorded.

DimDim is Open Source and therefore, as stated on the website, "anyone can mash-up Dimdim with everything from Twitter and Facebook to Zimbra and YouTube. We also pride ourselves on our open roadmap - taking your suggestions to build all our future product enhancements." This means that features required for any institution, if not available, can be developed to meet the need. There is already a Moodle module that lets you start DimDim sessions from within Moodle (the ANU learning management system).

I did find DimDim to be a little slow, but this may be due to my wireless Internet connection. Overall, this brief trial has impressed me and I would like to test it further with a larger group of participants.

No grading, more learning?

2010-05-05T12:02:00.003+10:00

Recently I have been reading about an interesting experiment by Duke University's Cathy Davidson. She announced that she would not be personally assigning grades her course, instead turning the responsibility over to the students. To obtain an A, students had to attempt and hand in each piece of work throughout the course, accumulating points along the way. Also included is peer assessment. The idea was to take the emphasis away from grades and move it towards learning "which should be a deep pleasure, setting up for a lifetime of curiosity".

I can see how removing the pressures of formal grading would benefit some students and allow them to become engrossed in learning for learning's sake, however I can also see the flip side where students could float through, come out with an A and no real depth of understanding.

One of Davidson's defense for this method is that there is "no second-guessing 'what the prof wants'". I don't believe that simply removing traditional assessment is the answer here. Students need to be set clear expectations for each piece of assessment. These expectations can be communicated in the form a well designed and written assessment that aligns the task with the learning outcomes for the course. Students should be given a copy of the marking rubric that will be used to assess the work at the same time as the assignment is given and, where appropriate, showing examples of past student work will assist withcommunicating expectations.

One sound method that Davidson used as she has in previous courses, is peer assessment. "Students lead us in every class, they read all the class blogs and pass judgment on whether they are satisfactory." Whilst care should be taken and a process devised when asking students to formally judge each other's work, if students are aware their work will be shared with their peers (and not just thelecturer or tutor) often they will perform at a higher standard.

Another sound practice demonstrated in Davidson's approach is that of feedback. Timely and constructive feedback is vital to any student's learning, to help guide and shape their understanding. Not only is feedback to students important, but feedback from students is equally valuable in informing course design.

There are several articles about Davidson's experiment, followed by passionate comments from either side of the fence at the links below:

Cat in the Stack- Cathy Davidson's blog
http://www.hastac.org/blogs/cathy-davidson

No Grading, More Learning
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/05/03/grading

Getting out of Grading
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/08/03/grading

Duke Professor uses 'Crowdsourcing' to grade
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Duke-Professor-Uses/7538/

Technology and Grading Experiments
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology_and_learning/technology_and_grading_experiments

I am interested in hearing your thoughts on these articles and the underlying concepts identified above, please feel free to leave your comments below.

Teacher or Facilitator?

2010-04-14T10:14:00.000+10:00

I have recently come across an amusing (or worrying?) article at Inside Higher Ed. The author David Galef reveals a colleague's secrets for saving professors time and easing their workload in the classroom in the article "Teaching Tips".

Overlooking the obvious comical remarks, the tips are actually pedagogically quite sound:

break students into groups and have them mentor each other
peer review for assessment
students leading classes
frequent revision lessons

The article (and subsequent comments) also highlights a common theme I've been discussing with many colleagues this week, the ever-increasing role change from 'traditional teacher' to 'facilitator of learning'. The ANU Festival of Teaching held it's first event on the 12th April in the form of an ANU/USQ Workshop on Technology-Enhanced Learning. The workshop sessions were well documented by colleague Tom Worthington on his blog.

As mentioned, a common theme that is becoming apparent among ANU/USQ 'educationalists' is that of facilitation of learning, and similarly using technology to create and scaffold opportunities for student's learning. This is a concept that has long been accepted in the secondary school sector, perhaps they're onto something!

Book review: Mahara ePortfolio Beginner's Guide

2010-03-10T15:37:00.002+11:00

Today's post is a review of the recently released eBook- Mahara 1.2 ePortfolios: Beginner's Guide.

I have discussed Mahara in a previous blog post and at ANU are currently trialling the software as our student's Personal Learning Environment (or ePortfolio for the purposes of this post).

To myself personally, Mahara is quite intuitive and was relatively easy to work out. But for those who do not have the same fearless attitude as me and who don't like clicking buttons without knowing what they will do, I can understand that Mahara may be confronting and a little confusing. It took a bit of trial, error and 'what does this switch do' for me to initially set up my Profile and Views- although this is all part of the fun!

Luckily, Packt Publising, providers of many books on specific technologies and solutions, have just released the informative and useful Mahara ePortfolio Beginner's Guide.

The authors, Derrin Michael Kent; Richard William Hand; Glenys Gillian Bradbury; Margaret Anne Kent are all experienced Moodle users, as well as learning designers, web designers, developers and Mahara end-user trainers.

Their collective passion, knowledge and social-constructivist learning approach becomes evident as you read through the pages of the book with pop-quizzes at the end of each chapter for readers to test their understanding and practical challenges to give readers ideas for experimenting with what they have learnt.

The book comprehensively covers topics from "What can Mahara do for me" through to "Site settings and exporting your Portfolio". Being an eBook, it was of course very easy to navigate through the chapters and topics and is formatted well to allow for distinguishing between different kinds of information.

Suprisingly for a textbook, it is written in very down-to-earth and easy-to-read language. For new users, it is a quick and easy implementation guide to set up a feature-rich ePortfolio that teaches you how to "display your own stuff in your chosen way". I don't usually enjoy reading text books from cover to cover, however this book really pulled me in. It was written in a way that seemed to 'speak' to me, it was relatable and full of real case studies and practical examples. The authors made the experience very interactive and hands on, quite different to that of other textbooks and reference materials. I also noted that it followed the good old teaching technique of: Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you've told them- very effective and encouraging!

One thing that the book made me consider was the use of Mahara as a collaboration tool. I had previously regarded it only as a personal space and/or a place to build up work for assessment. The book gives practical examples on the how and why of using Mahara to work and learn in groups and make connections online.

This book is not aimed at administrators, however the last few chapters do give advice to these people, such as management of institution level installations. The main target audience is clearly enthusiastic students and educators and as such it addresses topics in a logical order for these readers. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is new to Mahara as well as to experienced users who want to polish their knowledge and perhaps even learn or consider a new thing or two!

The kind folks at Packt Publishing have provided me with the first chapter 'Getting Started with Mahara' to give you a taste of the book. This sample will give you insight about the book and will no doubt entice you to want more! You can download it in PDF format from here: http://www.packtpub.com/files/9065-mahara-1-2-ePortfolios-sample-chapter-2-getting-started-with-mahara.pdf

After looking at the sample I am sure you will want to purchase your own copy. It is available through Amazon or directly from Packt Publishing.

Enjoy!

DoppelMe - Free Avatar Generator

2010-03-10T11:30:00.002+11:00

New cool tool found!

Sometimes you don't want a photo of yourself as your profile picture and it is times like these that an avatar is a great alternate! There are many websites out there that help you create your own, however most of these that I have trialled have catches such as making you install their toolbar or worse, letting you create your avatar for free then making you pay to retrieve or use it!

DoppelMe is the best site for free avatars that I have come across so far. I did have to sign up, however it IS free and you DO get full access upon log-in.

Below is the avatar I created, embedded in the various coded formats provided and easily cut and pasted from the website.

Check it out at http://www.doppelme.com/

Animated Mahara Video

2010-03-09T16:08:00.006+11:00

I am currently reading the eBook Mahara 1.2 ePortfolios: Beginner's Guide. As my head is on all things Mahara today, I came across the great video below that highlights the software's features and practical student uses. Thumbs up to Southampton Solent University Student Karl Impey for the great animation and storyline!

Tagul- Clickable and embeddable Word Clouds!

2010-03-04T10:13:00.009+11:00

At last!

A free tool that allows you to create beautiful looking word clouds (similar to Wordle) with the added advantage of it acting like a tag cloud- clickable!!

See the Tagul website http://tagul.com for an example of a great cloud.

Each tag in the cloud is linked to a URL, allowing you to use it as a navigation tool or as a collection of linked resources. Tagul also has some features that Wordle doesn’t, like custom shape selection and the ability to set multiple fonts in one cloud. The only real downside is that you cannot search for or use other people's Taguls, which is one of the things I do like about Wordle. If anything else it is always good to get some inspiration from the great work of others!

I signed up to Tagul (something you don't have to do with Wordle) and had a play. There are a lot more options to consider than with Wordle, however there is straight forward information to guide you through them on the Tagul Docs page.

Creating a cloud in Tagul, as you would expect, does take a fair amount more time than with Wordle. You can create a simple one by using the default settings where the tags link to a google search (eg. the tag 'money' when clicked will show google search results for the term 'money'). However, to make use of a Tagul for navigation purposes, of course you would want to customise your links. I had a go at this using API format and some basic HTML.

After a bit of fiddling, I was able to create a simple Tagul for a few links in my blog. When I say a few links, as you can see below I only set six links and it does look fairly empty....if I had the time and was going to use this for more than a tester I would definately want to increase the number of words for visual effect.

Overall I was impressed with Tagul and I would certainly recommend this cool tool to those who are interested in jazzing up their webpages, blogs or even course pages!

USING MOODLE: Free E-Book Download

2010-03-02T11:13:00.002+11:00

Using Moodle is an eBook all about (as you would guess from the title) the Learning Management System Moodle!

It is split into logical chapters and outlines not only the how-to for the numerous Moodle tools, but also ongoing management and capabilities of each. The authors, Cole and Foster discuss effective practices for using the tools in an educational context and suggest creative uses for each. They also gives sound advice on dealing with common issues such as plagiarism, cheating and

This is by far one of the very best Moodle resources I have encountered and I highly recommend it to all!

It is free to download and very much worth the effort. Grab your copy from:

http://docs.moodle.org/en/Using_Moodle_book

Listed below are just some of the suggested creative uses outlined for the various Moodle activities.
Forums

Peer Assessment
Q&A forums for problem solving
Interviews
Debates
Role-playing and storytelling
FAQs
Study groups
Social forum

Chats

Online office hours
Group chats
Last-minute exam preparation

Quizzes

Chapter checks- mini tests
Test practice
Data/feedback gathering
Progressive testing

Glossaries

Collaborative glossaries
Mini-projects
Collaborative quiz questions
Auto-linking + credit for word use

Lesson

Branching quiz
Flash cards
Simulations
Case studies

Wiki

Group lecture notes
Group project management
Brainstorming
Contributing to external wikis

Blogs

Group work with tags
One-minute responses

Database

Student files area
Collaborative research
Voting and comments

Choices

Polls
Voting

Happy Moodling!!

Create your own free animations!

2010-01-13T13:45:00.002+11:00

New cool tool found!

http://gickr.com/

At this website, you can create your own free animations or 'photos in motion'. It is as simple as uploading your gif images to the website and choosing your settings. No log in required! You can then save the animation and get the embed code and/or URL to use your image where you like.

SlideRocket presentations

2010-01-11T11:34:00.007+11:00

This morning I have trialled the presentation software SlideRocket. I have not heard of it until now, and am sitting on the fence as to whether or not I would use it in future. The concept is great and output is impressive, however I found it to be rather slow and clunky to use.

You can view the sample presentation I created by clicking here or pressing play on the embedded copy below. Note: there is a music file attached to the presentation, apparently there is no control for the viewer to stop this, so please just turn down the volume on the player if you do not wish to hear it.

New cool tools

2010-01-04T11:34:00.006+11:00

Happy New Year everyone!!

Have had a productive morning so far for my first day back in 2010, been exploring new cool tools to determine their suitability for use in education. I have outlined three of these below and included examples of what I have created as a demonstration of the tool, enjoy!

Wall wisher- http://wallwisher.com/

This is a free online tool that allows you to build an online noticeboard in seconds! It is rather basic yet I think this is part of the appeal. Anyone can sign up and build a wall by choosing the colour and giving the wall a name, description and an image. You then choose the settings (only you can post, or anyone can post) and create your custom URL for the wall. This can then be sent out- say to students- where they can either contribute or just view the information you provide. Check out the noticeboard I created and feel free to leave a comment! http://wallwisher.com/wall/educationaldeveloper

Wordle- http://www.wordle.net/

Another free online tool that has a promising use in the classroom. You do not even need to sign up to use this tool, just go to the website and press create! Referred to as a 'toy' I can certainly see how it can be played with in a wide variety of contexts. You provide text in any of 3 ways-
- pasting in a slab of text (for eg. a worksheet or program of study)
- entering a URL for a blog or RSS feed
- typing in a Delicious username to get their tags from pages they have bookmarked

Wordle then generates a word cloud giving prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source you provided. You can then 'randomise' your cloud and view it with different fonts, colours and layouts. Below are some (yes, small) examples of a word cloud I created for this blog in a range of formats.

Once finalised, the word cloud can then be printed, saved to share or as I have done here, the code can be inserted into a blog or webpage. I can see these word clouds having great use in webpages, worksheets and online courses. It could also be used for revision or vocab exercises, students could even create their own! It adds interest to the page or document whilst conveying clear and important details about the content of the information.

Voki- http://www.voki.com/

Voki is another free tool that allows you to create personalised avatars. You can add speech (text to speech or even your own voice recording) and use them on blogs, profiles and in emails. Again, it is an easy to use tool that doesn't take very long to use. Once your avatar is created, you can add a unique voice message each time you share it.

- The email option worked rather well. The recipient receives an email with a link to view the Voki at a unique URL. Then they can play the avatar's recording and view the written message that was sent with the email. Below I have shared the special URL that I received in the test email, hopefully you all will be able to view this, if not it is because it was sent to my email address.
http://www.voki.com/php/viewmessage/?chsm=2f45ecca7443cc13bb1223a73e2e2ecb&mId=400797

- You can also get the code to embed the player into a variety of web applications, as shown below for Blogger. The only downside is the advertising that appears on the player, but I guess this is expected with some free applications.

I am impressed with the ease at which the avatar was created and think it would be quite effective in some classrooms, online courses and provide an element of interest in emails sent out to (perhaps young) students.

I am (as I hope you are) keen to trial some of these tools in our Moodle LMS to add further interest and give life to the course pages. Stay tuned for results!
Lauren

The Internet is a scary place?

2009-12-17T13:34:00.002+11:00

I have just read a provocative post by Jose Picardo on his blog: Technology and Education, Box of Tricks. He likens the fear that surrounded the dreaded Y2K millennium bug to the fear of using the Internet for educational purposes- the bug that never bit!

"How long before we realise that we must abandon this rhetoric of fear and adopt a more positive attitude towards teaching and learning using the tools of the 21st century?"

Worth a look!

Mahara as an ePortfolio

2009-12-16T10:23:00.006+11:00

At ANU we have just begun to trial the open-source ePortfolio system Mahara. The intention of this product is to provide students with their own personal space online that supplements our Moodle-based learning management system. Mahara provides users with blogs, a resume builder, a file manager and a 'view' creator - a tool to help users create arrangements of their content in a particular way for others to see.

While looking into Mahara, I came across a great podcast by Julian Ridden (shown below) where he explains the correlation between Moodle and Mahara. An interesting comment he made was about why the name Mahara was chosen. Apparently it is a Maori word that means "to think" or "thought", quite appropriate for the tool!

I like that Mahara is completely customisable, allowing students to make it as much or as little as they want. Building a view is fairly intuitive, users can add a whole range of widgets by clicking and dragging. It contains simple social networking tools and allows students to network together in groups.

After having a play I am quite pleased with Mahara, I have created a view that is able to be copied by others. My intention for this is to have a proforma for students to copy and use as a base to populate with information on their Engineering Internship. Students can then share this view as they create it with named ANU Mahara users (such as their supervisor) or share a 'secret URL' with external users. Secret URLs are difficult to guess and can be emailed to people such as the student's workplace mentor. Here is an example of how to view will look when shared: http://mahara.anu.edu.au/view/view.php?t=hzKNbmGPLMEaxJeQVk35

One thing I am particularly interested in and will be looking into further is the functionality of assignments across Moodle and Mahara, stay tuned on this!

A rational response to an irrational environment

2009-11-26T10:49:00.002+11:00

A recent discussion that has peaked my interest is one surrounding student's poor skills in time management for large projects. In the conversation A rational response to an irrational environment started by Greg Wilson, it was noted that "the main problem is the find a way to keep people motivated to a point that they feel the project is a priority but without having strict deadline."

The concept of requiring students to submit weekly 'I did a,b,c and I am going to do x,y,z' is posed as 'micromanaging' the students and what follows is an interesting discussion.

Comments against micromanaging:

One of the points of this course is to give you a chance to find out what it’s like to set and then meet your own goals.
The student ..... becomes more of a co-investor in the experience
It seems like it’s putting more effort into talking about getting work done, rather than just getting anything done.

Comments for micromanaging:

For a conscientious person, a realisation that they’re not working hard enough can then help ameliorate procrastination.
It can help you work better and faster on the next project.
The nice thing about university assignments is that you have a good sense of where you are standing at all times.
I found that it feels like I’m putting in way more hours than I actually am when it's written down
Being able to quote the cost and delivery date of a software project with reasonable accuracy is a necessary skill (to have in the industry)
Having to do status report each week prevent us from slacking or at least make us aware we are slacking.

Comments in the middle:

Is that view a renouncement of my responsibility as an instructor?
I think it is a gross oversimplification to assume that there are only two options: micromanaging each individual student to death, and leaving them entirely to their own devices.

I thought a good solution was suggested by Filips at the end:

"I would suggest doing something like SCRUM demonstration – a regular, frequent (once per two weeks) demonstration of what you have accomplished, followed by discussion what needs to be done next in what order of priorities. No judges, no grades. Make sure, though, students actually show (hence demonstration) the things they have done.....Uneasiness about having to come to demo empty handed should be enough to motivate most"

The full discussion can be found here: A rational response to an irrational environment

Sloodle Experience

2009-11-23T09:41:00.001+11:00

Last week I had an interesting 'In-world' experience in Second Life at the Sloodle Classroom- Sloodle being an integration of Second Life and the LMS Moodle.

My thoughts prior to the session was that Sloodle would be a good platform for some simulations here in Engineering. It was certainly fun and exciting, and I can see how students would be engaged in this environment! That said, due to the nature of what can be carried out in world, I would say it would be more applicable in a distance ed mode of teaching where all of your contact is remote.

The person running the session was Fire Centaur or Paul Preibisch as he is known in the real world. He is a research assistant for the Sloodle Project who works on new Sloodle tools and the integration with Moodle, whereby Sloodle is an extra module that is installed allowing Second Life objects to talk to the LMS.

The most important lessons I learnt during the session was that:

Navigation is a big problem for new users, and can be distracting when giving a lesson.
Hardest part is getting your students enrolled correctly.

Fire demonstrated a new Sloodle tool called the Game Show, similar t the Quiz Chair shown below.

In the game show, groups are are connected to Moodle. The scoreboard also has a timer and the control panel is built in. The buzzer shows first 3 ppl who press it, if first one gets it wrong, can go to the next etc. Game show is integrated with Sloodle award system and gradebook (any award is given as a grade in Moodle)

Fire Centaur's YouTube channel has videos on all modules in Sloodle:
http://www.youtube.com/user/fire2006

Another good feature Fire discussed is the 'Prim Drop'. This appears as a 'safe' that links with Moodle assignments. Students can put anything inside it securely, submits assignments and teachers can retreive it and record mark in grade book. At the moment, it only transmits the name of the file in Moodle, can't retrieve it from here.

Also mentioned were the Sloodle "choice" tool which connects to a Moodle choice tool to bring a Poll into SL, and the MetaGloss tool which connects with a Moodle Glossary.

More information is available at http://sloodle.org and you can see how Moodle and Sloodle works by joining the Cypris eLearning website on Cypris Village island in world.

Blended Learning in Higher Education

2009-11-20T07:53:00.002+11:00

I as do most fellow 'educationalists' have an appreciation of Blended Learning in terms of what it entails and the benefits for staff and students. Whilst this is understood, it is often hard to concretise. There is a vast array of research into the benefits of blended learning, yet little that attempts to understand WHY this approach is so effective. I was recently asked to draw together my thoughts and identify some reliable research into blended learning.

The result was designed to be shown to both students and staff alike, and as a provocation for further investigation. You can view the short presentation I created here: "Blended Learning in Higher Education"

Since then, I have recently found an interesting article written by Norman Vaughan, co-author of "Blended Learning in Higher Education". He identified key opportunities and challenges for students, staff and administration when developing a community of inquiry in a blended model:

Opportunities:

Students

• Increase in student accountability for ownership of learning (control and responsibility)

• More flexible and accessible course format (convenience, options for courses with multiple sections)

• Improved learning outcomes for students

• Decrease in student drop-failure-withdrawal (DFW) rates

Faculty

• Borderless teaching, reaching more students

• Enhanced teacher interaction with students

• Increased student engagement in learning

• More flexible teaching and learning environment

• Continuous improvement

Administrators

• Overall improvement in cost/effectiveness ratio;

• Lower structure & associated front-end design costs;

• Decreases drop-out and failure rates;

• More flexible teaching and learning environment;

• Some economy of scale possible;

• Greater quality

• Greater frequency of content refresh & increased course redesign (incremental improvement)

Challenges:

Students

• General

• Transition – from a passive to an active & collaborative learning approach

• Study and time management skills

• Expecting that fewer classes equates to less work

• Accepting responsibility for completing individual & team activities;

• Technical

• Obtaining high-speed Internet access;

• Learning to use more sophisticated technologies

Faculty

• Time commitment

• Lack of support for course redesign

• Difficulty in acquiring new teaching and technology skills

• Risk factors

Source: Designing for a Blended Community of Inqury by Norm Vaughan, retrieved online, 19th November 2009 from: http://www.uic.edu/depts/oee/blended/workshop/DesigningForABlendedCommunityOfInquiry.pdf

Transitioning from Face-to-Face to Online Instruction

2009-11-18T08:36:00.001+11:00

I have just attended an online session delivered in Wimba Classrooms from America. My experience so far with these lecture presentations has been worth the early morning starts, however this morning I was a little disappointed with the technology and it's impact on the session.

What was offered:
Even though most schools have transitioned some aspects of their in-classroom instruction to the online environment, there are still so many ways to do so effectively. Learn from two customers who have successfully helped their faculty make the leap. Join Gary Shouppe of Columbus State University (GA) as he replicated a face-to-face (f2f) masters degree program into an online degree program, and then hear from Cliff Eberhardt of Central Michigan University as he explains how using Wimba and Blackboard have helped ease faculty into online instruction because they feel it's easy for them to create effective online courses.

The result:
The first presenter Gary had some valuable thoughts and points to share. He is teaching a Masters in Leadership Program online and since transitioning to this online mode, enrollments have increased 100%. Their initial advertising was in the form of a mass email that directed receivers to a website. The success has led to more revenue and funding for further technology and they are currently using some of their profit to film commercials that will be aired on Cable TV, in the hope to attract further interest. The technology and subsequent training was a steep, vertical learning curve for some instructors, however it was necessary to keep the curriculum as rigorous and relevant as possible for the students, they were determined that it would not be a 'watered-down' program.
Gary is using similar tools that we have explored for use here at ANU:

Wimba live classrooms
Google Docs- we're using Wiki's in Moodle
Blackboard/WebCT- we're moving to Moodle
Epsilen e-Portfolios- we're looking at Mahara

http://www.epsilen.com/LandingSite/Home.aspx
Free access to students, similar to and links to Facebook
Can link from the LMS out to the student's e-Portfolio, but it was not mentioned if the students can send work back to the LMS from this e-Portfolio
Good ice-breaking activity: Gary put together 20 questions about the students drawn from their e-Portfolios and sent students out on a scavenger hunt to identify who the question or fact was about. Helped students who were studying via distance ed to get to know each other.

The second presenter Cliff unfortunately was experiencing problems with the technology from his end- a little ironic considering he was presenting about the success and ease he has had with online learning. It was frustrating to be on the user end of this and highlights the importance of investing the time to ensure quality equipment and output. Cliff seemed unaware of the audio issues and was obviously not following the chat box going on with fellow participants voicing their inability to hear him.

He also tried showing a website to viewers- we could all see this as soon as he put it up, however he did not realise we could see it (even though we said we could in the chat box) and spent a few minutes trying to get it to work. The result was that he actually took it off the screen, and the facilitator had to interject and suggest sending the link around later. Lesson #2- in this distance mode, it is even more important to listen to your students and be flexible in your presentation so you can respond as required.

Despite these issues, Cliff did manage to convey some good points about the lessons he learnt with transitioning to online instruction:

Barriers to online education:

Lack of prof dev
Full time equivalent (FTE)
Devaluation of prestige traditionally placed on getting a degree
Lack of an adequate time-frame and resources to create online lessons and activities that can stand the scrutiny of evaluation
Lack of a formalised agreement or protocol to sustain educational commitmentLack of a national agenda and funding
Lack of imagination from instructors in constructing lessons and activities for onlin

What face-to-face instructional techniques can be blended online?

Group collaboration
Lecture by instructor
Student presentations
Group presentations
Class discussions
Assessment (testing authentic)
Debating?
Visiting lecturers
One-to-one instructions
Instructor/class evaluations

Advantages

Technology is cross-platform
Access to servers and the Net is widely available
Online ed is flexible and convenient
Accessible and functional for all subject areas
Institutional cost and time savings over f2f

Technology and Education: Box of Tricks

2009-11-17T22:15:00.003+11:00

This blog by Jose Picardo lists and briefly descibes some of the best (and fun!) Internet resources for educational use.

http://www.boxoftricks.net/?page_id=29

Digital Natives vs Digital Immigrants

2009-11-17T22:03:00.004+11:00

This is a humerous video that highlights the differences between those who grew up with technology and those who didn't. Looks at the impact this has on their learning and the implications for today's teachers.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEDulInv9rE&feature=related

A vision for 21st Century Learning

2009-11-17T21:50:00.002+11:00

A provocative video that challenges traditional education in today's classrooms. It makes some good points however it takes a rather 'blue sky' approach.

"Teacher's become mentors....students become empowered.....and ultimately students learn"

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mirxkzkxuf4&feature=related

I teach, therefore you learn

2009-11-17T21:34:00.007+11:00

The following video by Jose Picardo addresses 21st century skills with a particular view on the changing educational landscape. Although a little slow to start, it makes some good points around the fact that this is a concept worth examining and reflecting upon.

Source: http://www.boxoftricks.net/?p=863

ScreenToaster: Free online screen recorder

2009-11-17T10:19:00.001+11:00

New cool tool found at www.screentoaster.com/

This screen recorder is similar to Camtasia. It provides the basic functionality, without the bells and whistles of advanced editing. It does have the added advantage over www.screenr.com in that you can record the video and audio separately.

Could be used to capture demonstrations on how to use a program or navigate around a web page. Output can be viewed at the given URL or downloaded as .mov or .flv. You can embed them on blogs and web pages or can share via email. For student viewing, you can upload the file into your Learning Management System (Wattle at ANU).

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009

2009-11-17T10:14:00.003+11:00

This SlideShare Presentation compiled by Jane Hart aggregates the contributions of 278 learning professionals worldwide.
It is a great starting point for those wanting to learn more about technological tools. Even those who have been using some of these will most likely find a new entry or two.
Jane has done a great job of providing a brief description and pointing you in the right direction to learn more about each tool.

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009

View more documents from Jane Hart.

First Post

2009-11-17T09:47:00.001+11:00

Hello,

This is my first post on my blog, welcome!

My reason for setting up this blog was initially to help me organise my thoughts and reflections and to add some structure to my work.
I currently work as an Educational Developer in the College of Engineering and Computer Science at the ANU in Canberra. We are doing a lot of interesting work around flexible and blended learning and amongst other things, I am fortunate enough to be exploring educational technologies to support this.

My aim for this blog is that it will be an ever-evolving space about teaching and learning, that colleagues can use to search for interesting articles, to read my opinions on educational technologies I find or to view my notes from the numerous seminars and conferences about Education that I attend.

I will start by posting some older notes and move forward from there!

Stay tuned!

Lauren