Online Technologies
What existing online technologies are available to you, to incorporate active learning strategies into your online course?
Collaborate is the online technology that I incorporate into my online course. Collaborate has a variety of options that engages the students when attending weekly live labs. Three features I like are the ability to upload PowerPoint presentation for my visual learner. The polling feature allows me to present question and receive feedback in the form of a poll and finally the chat feature. This feature allows students to share thought, opinions and comments with fellow classmates.
Shundra Mosby
Shundra,
Yes, students actually seem to enjoy the online polling features as it keeps them current and engaged.
Renee Shaffer
I also like to use Collaborate - when it works! There have been many instances where I have been in my virtual office and the students cannot see my presentation or me, or they cannot hear me. This is frustrating for both the students and myself. In my institution we are encouraged to embrace technology, but it has been my experience that many times the technology we embrace is broken. I find this particularly heinous in an online environment.
Amy,
Unfortunately, technology is not perfect. It is always good to have a plan "B" in place just in case the tech doesn't work.
Renee Shaffer
For our online classes, we utilize a combination of technologies. We utilize Adobe Connect to provide a one hour live chat per week, where we go over that unit's concepts, the assignments, and it gives us an opportunity to interact with the students. We always ask questions to get discussions going with the students, so that they are actively participating and not just listening. The chats are recorded for those that cannot attend. Then we have a discussion board for each unit, providing asynchronous communication between the students and also with the instructor. Lastly, they have individual projects which they submit each unit.
My institution recently started using Collaborate, which is easier to access and gives the students more options for interaction. I am still learning how to incorporate different aspects of active learning in my group sessions. I would like to do more polling and also have students do some exercises together in a breakout session, then come together again and demonstrate how they came up with their answers.
Interactive white boards are highly valued by teachers. These boards can be used to display a computer desktop to the whole class. Teachers can also write on the boards and save the information for future use. Instructional sequences, including the teacher's voice, can be recorded for review. Several different brands -- SMART Board, ActivBoard, eBeam, Mimio, Webster -- with slightly different features are available. Clickers or Student Response Systems (SRS) are used mostly at the college level. They allow teachers to conduct quick surveys of the class or get answers to review questions. Current wireless and virtual web-based systems have made these systems cheaper to implement. Graphing calculators are the most common handheld device used in classrooms. Laptops, tablets, e-readers, smart phones, and mp3 players, widely available to the general public, are also considered potentially valuable classroom resources by many teachers. Many high school and college level classes are now entirely web-based. Learning management systems such as Blackboard help teachers organize, manage and conduct their classes online. Teachers can post course materials, give quizzes and save grades while students can share files, submit assignments and participate in discussions using these systems. Online collaborative tools such as Google Docs and spreadsheets are available to teachers and students for group projects. Practically all teachers today download teaching material, including lesson plans and activities, from the Internet for use in their classes. They also use streaming videos, online games and simulations to augment their teaching. Teachers often develop wiki sites to post class content and reference material for student use. Students can post educational content online as well using blogs, YouTube and specialized websites. Live webcams used by some research projects -- for example, a webcam placed on an eagle's nest -- let classrooms follow events online anywhere in the world.
Vimlarani Chopra
Vimlarani,
Thank you for a thorough assignment. You already have such a good source of knowledge and i loved your example of the webcam in the eagle's nest.
Renee Shaffer
The online "Chat" or Web Meeting features of various tools allow me to conduct short meetings with students. These meetings may be regular short synchronous lectures or they could be impromptu problem solving sessions where we discuss a difficult part of an assignment or review some theoretical constructs. There are many tools available that can be leveraged, even things like the pod-cast can be used to create mobile mini-lectures that students can use at their leisure or fallback upon if needed.
Currently, we are able to use live chat sessions, instant messaging, telephone, class announcements, email, discussion boards, and e-portfolio. Group activities can be conducted using the small groups functionality of the LMS.
Chats using Adobe Professional Connect are one obvious way we can interact with students and facilitate active learning but all of the other tools in the LMS can be also used. Communication with students can happen in many ways and even the IM and email are tools for active learning.
SMART boards and clickers are great in F2F classes. I also like your suggestions on Google docs and other technologies.
Tomi,
Does the IM work for you? Just curious.
Renee Shaffer
I actually use adobe acrobat as we connect once a week to invite live students to discuss weekly outcomes. If they are not able to join, they are recorded.
There are four separate areas of the e-classroom which come to mind for me. They are: the announcements, the live chat, the discussion board, and emails. These are the four main ways that we communicate with students, so they are the four areas where we can implement active learning.
Announcements and emails can specify what the expectations for each assignment are; what sort of involvement, and time commitment should a student expect? They can also present "inspirational" information that can nudge a student toward self-actualization. And, they can also pose questions, or present "tangential" information that enriches the student's experience and knowledge.
The Live Chat can be used to create dialogue, and reflection. As can the Discussion Board.
These are the main ways that I anticipate adding more active learning elements to my classrooms.
Leigh,
I like the idea of giving them the opportunity to add inspirational information. Students who may be shy about participating may be able to "unwind" and talk about themselves first.
Renee Shaffer
I have blackboard collaborate available to me and I find it very useful.
I also use the four approaches mentioned in your posting. Frequently I'll post an article related to the discussion board and ask students to comment. Links to related areas of healthcare (which I teach) are also posted in the announcement area as they relate to specific careers tips and association news. Many students can't afford the subscriptions to the journals I receive so posting (with association and subscription approval) is always of interest.
I find that LMS is a wonderful and expansive tool for active teaching and learning. The weekly chat sessions are delivered in two parts in my courses (ten week sessions, five Modules). The first is a thorough discussion of the assignments with recommended research sites, explanation of concepts, sharing of various approaches to the work by the students and me, along with applications and examples of the assignment concepts. Various tech forms are used to walk through the topics. The second week session is a case study for open discussion. The case is presented in the announcement area along with the discussion area. Since the cases involve ethics, management decision making, operational considerations, and sometimes a life/death scenario, these sessions are the most lively.
