What Are “Best Practices” for Online Learning? EDC&I 505 J 2 May 2012

Our Agenda Today Project Check-In Discuss last week’s readings Horton (Chs. 4, 10); Garrison; Cui Last week’s presenters: Demo anything more? Promising Practices: Scoping the Field Discuss this week’s readings Palloff & Pratt; Koh et al.; Chang & Tung Feedback on “New Tools” presentations Prepare for 5/9 synchronous online session Gear check Procedures Formats (on-screen materials) Audio connectivity

“Practices” and How They Change Another way of asking this: What are existing practices for face-to-face instruction/learning? What are existing practices for online instruction/learning? And, given current tools and development trajectories, what could or should change in online education to create a more supportive environment for learning?

What We Do OL Now Lots of text Threaded “discussions” Various other resources (that often exist on different platforms) Notion is widespread and commonly accepted that OL participants make up a “community of practice” or “professional learning community”

How Do We Discuss when OL? Discussion – What does it mean to structure a multi-party OL discussion? To manage it? To summarize or represent it? – If we manage a discussion closely (as it’s possible to do online), do we lose something as a result?

Are We a Community OL? The common notions of OL participants as a “community of practice” or “professional learning community” seem underspecified – Not all are there because of intrinsic interest in subject – Not all are there because they want to learn – Not all see connection of materials with own interests, needs – (…but could they become/do more OL?)

Promising Practices What did you find? How did you define “promising practices” for yourself as you searched, thought about this? What did you find that knocked your socks off? (Something really impressive, explicit to online learning, or that seemed genuinely new to you?) How much of what you found seemed like it was just tweaking some practice already well- established from face-to-face instruction?

Questions (from 4/25) Horton, Ch. 4 (“Connect” activities) – Imagine that you are designing online materials to train people in a critical task that affects the safety of others (airline pilot, HazMat team member, police officer). What sorts of “Connect” activities would be most appropriate for particular aspects of their work? Horton, Ch. 10 (Virtual Classroom) – We’ll be using Adobe Connect for our synchronous session on 5/9. In light of Horton’s discussion of teaching in a virtual classroom, what are the special constraints, tasks that you will need to be aware of in being either a presenter or a participant that evening? Cui et al. – What factors are most central to your own definition of “social presence” for online learning (or in CMC in general)? Garrison & Cleveland-Innes – Did the approaches we used in our asynchronous session facilitate a “deep approach” to learning? What could have promoted deeper engagement?

Questions (5/2) Koh et al: – How is an OL course like - and not like – a “virtual community”? How could OL courses develop a model of “leadership” in the vein suggested here (esp. in relation to offline activities)? Chang & Tung: – Given rapid technological change, how should constructs like “computer self-efficacy” and “perceived system quality” be taken into account by OL course designers? Palloff & Pratt: Think about the “categories of need” for development as an online instructor that P&P present (“personal – pedagogy – content – technology”). As you think about these in relation to your own experience with OL education, in which category do you feel the greatest need for expansion/improvement, and in which do you feel proficient? What steps would you take to expand your abilities?

5/9: Synchronous Online Session Gear check Make sure you can connect to Adobe Connect ng_test.htmhttp://uofw.na4.acrobat.com/common/help/en/support/meeti ng_test.htm Procedures Number of presenters; time allocations; roles & responsibilities Formats (on-screen materials) Recommend that we try sharing screens (not post to whiteboard) Audio connectivity Recommend that we use the conference call rather than laptop mics and speakers Recording: We’ll record the session

For Next Week Get online by 4:30 pm Expectations: plan for about a 90-minute session This sort of session can be exhausting! If you have difficulties, call me on my office phone: – (Will ring through on 2 nd line even if we’re using first line for our web conference)