I am interested in improving the application of exams in the eLearning arena to address the criticisms aimed at rigor in associated programs. What has been yoru experience with various classes, and how would you suggest removing subjectivity from grading, particularly for exams?

Hi Everyone -- I'd sure like to obtain ideas from other learners in this course about whether you think quizzes and exams are an absolutely necessary graded component of an online course. I see the utility of quizzes as self-assessments and ego-boosters, but I facilitate courses in an environment where, for the most part, quizzes and exams are not used at all for assessment of student learning. The emphasis at this particular institution is on "real-world deliverables" through which students demonstrate their learning by applying their ideas about course material to scenarios, cases, and other types of assignment instructions. What are your thoughts and experiences on the use of quizzes and exams in online courses? Thanks in advance for your input, Debra

Do you think it is a benefit to student teaching them how to install programming softwares in an addition to the course contents or leave them on there own to learn how to install the software?

Love this video clip Randy Nelson on Learning and Working in the Collaborative Age http://www.edutopia.org/randy-nelson-school-to-career-video. He says that now he wants to see the proof in portfolios rather than the promise of a resume. By having students create artifacts of their learning, we are helping them develop an ePortfolio to show potential employers.

I provide a lot of options for student to use Web 2.0 tools like Voicethread, Animoto, Voki, Flickr to do their assignments. What have you used?

Who is using mobile devices in their classes? see http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/communication-activities-using-mobile-devices/ for some example activities I used in my course.

I have been exploring MOOCs - which offers an even more dynamic, non-linear means for online and blended learning. Large universities such as MIT and Harvard have been using them. Here are some resources: MOOCs: a massive opportunity for higher education, or digital hype? - http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2012/aug/08/mooc-coursera-higher-education-investment MOOCs, Learning Points - http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2012/08/26/moocs-learning-points/ How do others see them fitting into the models that were discussed in this unit?

Before problems arise. Know what they may be. Reflect. Cite Advise.

Students must be poistively reinforced to produce original authentic analysis instead of cutting and pasting.

Give students the ways to improve and be positive!

I think intellectual interaction is not represented by a comprehensive final exam; especially not one online that does not include authentic performance. A comprehensive final exam might measure what they can remember until the exam is over but "intellectual INTERACTION"? I disagree.

An Invitation to Student Creativity Focusing on creativity in student assignments has been found to elicit a higher level of concept application with regard to making connections between diverse information and new contexts. Instead of asking a student about his/her previous class experience, some faculty members require a CREATIVE initial post. Here is an example from a class: MOST INSTRUCTORS ASK YOU TO INTRODUCE YOURSELF UPON ENTERING A CLASS…WELL, SINCE I LIKE TO DO THINGS A BIT DIFFERENTLY, I AM GOING TO ASK FOR A VERY UNIQUE “HELLO” FROM YOU! WHAT IS YOUR MISSION STATEMENT? OK…I HEAR YOU OUT THERE…NO I AM NOT NUTS. COMPANIES HAVE MISSION STATEMENTS, SO DO PEOPLE. PLEASE SHARE YOUR SCHOLASTIC/PROFESSIONAL MISSION STATEMENT WITH THE CLASS. (Try to keep it around 50 words) I WILL START… MISSION STATEMENT FOR THE PROFESSOR I am an energetic, innovative and creative professor who seeks the same from her students. I will provide professional, comprehensive, and timely feedback to aid my students in their pursuit of lifelong knowledge and quality-enhancing skills. I seek to facilitate and foster an environment wherein the students are empowered to succeed. Some of you may think that it sounds like a posting for a singles ad, at least at the beginning, but from a faculty standpoint, this assignment does wonders. First issue that comes up: student posts the “normal” intro…hello! Guess what, this student may not READ anything that is posted...ALARMS should sound. On the flip side, the content of the introduction provides an insight into one’s creativity, abilities, and how much energy a student will expend in the class. At what level of Bloom’s taxonomy is s/he functioning? These postings are often quite telling. Other things that can be gained from the postings: grammar, spelling, development of an idea and logical thought, and tendency to COPY other people’s work. It is amazing how many students post an intro that is nearly identical to another. In the past, around 75% of the students who did this would plagiarize their first assignment. What is YOUR MISSION STATEMENT?

When Failure is Imminent A certain number of students fail classes every session. This is a hard fact. While we do everything in our power to help students succeed in the early weeks of class, some students will arrive at a point of no return where they no longer can pass a class. Our messages now need to shift. Confronting failure is a serious blow to a student’s ego, make no bones about it. How can an instructor mitigate the circumstances and nurture a failing student's willingness to take the class again next session? And feel good about doing it? If you teach a class with a typically high fail rate many repeats and three-peats will share their past experiences with you regarding their failures, while others you discover through TURNITIN when they resubmit her/ her own failing work. A good number of these students can be successful in your class, but it’s often up to you and how you enable their success. A good way to start a dialogue is to ask the student to show you past work along with instructor's comments. This way you have a starting point to help with areas of non-mastery. The sooner you can get a student engaged in proactively learning, the more successful your collaboration. Let me put this into perspective. If there are 30 sections of a course and each instructor saves one student who had previously failed and was at risk of dropping, you have populated an entire section in the next class session. One more instructor gets assigned a class. If all 30 students had dropped, that is a cancelled section and a teacher without a class. What if you were the instructor who lost the section due to lack of enrollment?

The first step toward a more interactive and animated discussion is faculty members who guide the learning experience. The instructor’s actions and interactions are what drive activity in the classroom. In order to make your job more fulfilling, working with your colleagues and lead faculty to update discussion assignments is something you should consider. By improving the "discussability" of DB assignments, students and faculty can enjoy a richer and more interactive environment with more learning opportunities. Interactive methodologies of faculty-student contact in our online student environment, is a powerful retention tool and can add value to both internal and external University marketing missions. As competition heats up in the online educational universe, the time is now to gain market share based on sound customer service and forward-looking strategies.

And then there are software issues: Most recently, a spate of Excel errors sought to derail Statistics students in Week 5. An add-in called Data Analysis Tools was malfunctioning. Three faculty members reported the problem to the lead and each came up with different possible solutions to mitigate the technical issue. In this case, if each had failed to communicate to the lead, a pattern would not have been recognized and never addressed on a universal level. Several sets of workarounds were established for the particular tech issue. In a proactive move, the Statistics team is researching workarounds for each assignment so that a glitch in software does not stop a student from successfully completing the work and mastering the concepts. Once the list of "fixes" has been researched, the list will be distributed to course faculty, leaving them a ready-to-use solution for a student tech problem. No lag time, just a quick answer for a student who is struggling, discouraged, or frustrated. Perhaps the most common student technical impediment is lack of internet access. Depending on the situation, there are a number of solutions. • Free wifi at places like Starbucks (for laptop users) • Free, trial or low cost temporary internet: http://www.free-internet.name/country/United-States/ • Public computers (libraries, community colleges) • Internet cafes or pay by the hour services for students who are traveling Communicate with the student and find out if any of the solutions can work for them. Open up dialogue and work together to overcome. You need to be smarter than the obstacle. Use your critical thinking skills to outsmart technology. Sometimes all it takes is a quick internet search of free service or other temporary solutions in the student's area. You are the highly educated individual in the relationship, use that to your advantage; take the time to be part of the solution NOT part of the problem.

I post similar Rubrics for each assignment. Unit 5 IP Rubrics objectives: point scale 3-5 pages With proper citations Need to follow APA citation style. 5% What are the alternative forms of financing Multination corporations 10 What is external financing and what are the possible sources of external financing 35 What are the characteristics of the various external financing alternatives, including the advantages and disadvantages of each? (Maturity, Risk and return etc.). 30 Make a recommendation to ACME management of which alternative (or combination of alternatives) should be used to finance the overseas investment 20

If you have never taught a hybrid class, but are expecting to do so, how would you apply the insights in the presentation to your own course? How would you structure your course schedule and what would you emphasize in your communications to students? Hybrid class facilitators need to consolidate f2f facilitation tools with the online facilitation tools. As stated above the facilitator should delineate and communicate his/her class rules in advance. Facilitator must post class greetings, syllabus, expectations, requirements, announcements, feedback, grading rubrics and grades on a timely manner.

Dear Learners; Please note the DB assignment requirements posted on each DB assignment as a reminder. Please adhere to the assignment submission policies. Pleas let me know if I can be of any assistance. Best, The Discussion Board (DB) is part of the core of online learning. Classroom discussion in an online environment requires the active participation of students and the instructor to create robust interaction and dialogue. Every student is expected to create an original response to the open-ended DB question as well as engage in dialogue by responding to posts created by others throughout the week. At the end of each unit, DB participation will be assessed based on both level of engagement and the quality of the contribution to the discussion. At a minimum, each student will be expected to post an original and thoughtful response to the DB question and contribute to the weekly dialogue by responding to at least two other posts from students. The first contribution must be posted before midnight (Central Time) on Wednesday of each week. Two additional responses are required after Wednesday of each week. Students are highly encouraged to engage on the Discussion Board early and often, as that is the primary way the university tracks class attendance and participation. The purpose of the Discussion Board is to allow students to learn through sharing ideas and experiences as they relate to course content and the DB question. Because it is not possible to engage in two-way dialogue after a conversation has ended, no posts to the DB will be accepted after the end of each week.

Week one assignment Go to BusinessWeek.com and in the left margin link to Special Reports. Find the Business Week 50 special report, a list of the top fifty performing companies in the previous year. Read the report. 1. What are the criteria that were used to select the Business Week 50? Review the BW50/S&P 500 Scoreboard from a link on the BW50 page. Which of the performance measures is best related to shareholder wealth maximization? Why? How do the companies rank using the "wealth maximization" variable? (In the BW50/S&P 500 Scoreboard, click on the performance measure and the list will reorder/rank based on your chosen criterion). Review the Glossary to see how each performance measure is calculated.

I have found that computer tablet or white board usage can definately aide in my students education, but in the field that I teach I found that more students retain the information better and have a greater understanding of a systems operation through a "cause and effect" delivery method. I have lectured and/or used white board presentations on a many topics and found that allowing the student to see the normal operation of a given system and then "causing" a fault within it's normal operation and then watching the "effect" from that fault has helped more students retain their maximum learning potential than most other approaches and it seems to do so without the need to hold their hand, so to speak.