DE Oracle @ UMUC

Using Social Software in the MDE Program

As with the delivery of instruction, student support is also an area that requires a change in perspective from that used in traditional higher-education settings. These become even more significant, when we consider the fact that online students tend to demonstrate feelings of isolation and lack of a supporting network when studying at a distance. It has always been evident that providing MDE students with supporting services that go beyond the classroom is key to the success of the students and therefore of the program. With the steady progress of the so-called web 2.0 technologies empowering users to become generators of content and manage information on the web, online educators and students have slowly started to include such tools for instruction as well as for learner support functions. The goal was to create an integrated MDE program-wide community and set of initiatives, which would enable unstructured interaction, sharing of information, and creation of an ongoing and long-lasting common knowledge base. The rise of social media technologies has provided the perfect platform to address such challenge, creating enormous synergy among all MDE stakeholders.

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Stella Portos MDE Social Media Suite list

Social Media and Distance Education

Social media is probably not a new term to you if you are a distance educator. To me, I heard of social media, social networking technologies, social learning, and other similar terms at various educators conferences, educational technology Webinars, Web 2.0 training sessions, and more. Presenters normally name some examples when talking about social mediasuch as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google Docs. However, I found that my understanding of the concept of social media was still vague.This article attempts to clarify the concept and help yougain ideas on how you can use social media tools to enhance youronline teaching.

What Is Social Media?

Social refers to the interactions among people, and media refers to the Web-based technologies that store and transfer electronic data or information. Combined together, social media can be definedas Web-based technologies that facilitate information sharing and user interaction.

Web-based technologies have been developing and growing for years, and they are becoming more mature. It is the social element that differentiates social media from conventional media technologies. Social media efficiently bridges connections among users. It offers platforms for online users to find others who share the same interests and build virtual communities based on those shared interests. Users no longer review content in a passive or isolated way. Instead, they can easily create, share, and publish content, and they can review and comment on other users products. With the prevalence of social media technologies and services, content sharing and user interaction has become relatively easy and efficient.

Typical Social Media Tools

There are hundreds of social media tools on the Web, and more are emerging every day. Social media tools take various forms, such as blogging, social networking, social bookmarking and multimedia sharing. Here are some of the most popular and well-known examples of social media tools:

Blogging/micro-blogging - Blogger, WordPress, Twitter
Social networking - Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Ning
Social bookmarking - Delicious, Diggo
Collaborative authoring - Wikipedia, Google Docs, Zoho Office Suite
Multimedia sharing - Flickr, YouTube, Qik
Web conferencing - WebEx, GoToMeeting, DimDim

Most people connected to the Internet today have used or come acrossa social media tool orservice.

Features of Social Media

Social media services encourage user contributions and participation, and the services are more user oriented instead of content oriented. The services allow users to participate in online activities in a proactive way. With social media services, users easily share information, vote,comment, and even modify other user-created content. The open atmosphere greatly encourages content sharing and allows users to get feedback on content they have created. Compared to traditional media, social media promotes two-way communication among users.

Social media also facilitates community building for users of similar interests. In a user group community, users can stay focused on relevant content and topics that everyone is interested in, and with the connections to other users, they can easily keep up on what is happening in a particular field. All of these features not only benefit professionals and computer geeks, but they are also valuable to distance educators and learners.

Implications for Learning

When appropriately integrated into the online classroom, social media can offer innovative learning experiences and enhanced learner engagement. With the prevalence of various social media tools, faculty can design creative online learning activities by asking students to use one or more tools to work on their learning tasks and achieve their learning objectives.

Online collaboration becomes much easier when it is facilitated by social media technologies. For instance, students can collaborate on team project documents. Students in the same study group can co-draft documents, spreadsheets, presentation slides, andmore with Google Docs. Each study group can also create a presentation through a Web conferencing tool such as Wimba.

With the popularity of blogging and micro-blogging, it is not uncommon for faculty to use blogs as additional teaching/learning resources. Faculty may publish academic journals or articles on his/her own blog and students may post discussion comments on them in the threaded comments area. Many professors use Twitter to have students tweet all their academic-related activities. The word limits in micro-blogginghelp students stay focused on a topicin a concise way when they are tweeting. Discussions can become an extension of learning in theonlineclassroom, andthey can help students keep up with what is happening in the real world. Some faculty have even used Twitter to remind students of homework, upcoming events, and other important items. Students can immediately receive these reminders through their mobile phones if they have the correct setup in their Twitter accounts.

Academic research can also benefit from using social media tools. In particular, social bookmarking is extremely useful for literature reviews and collaborative research. Many professors teaching graduate-level classes found that Diggo, a research tool and knowledge-sharing community,is an attractive tool to assist students with their own research projects.By using the highlighting and sticky notes features of Diggo, online reading becomes much easier. Students can review and respond to the reading notes from their classmates and the instructor. As a result, reflective thinking and collaborative learning are highly encouraged with this tool. Diggo also allows studentsto build or join communities to connect with people who share the same academic interests,leading them toeasily share and locate more resources that are relevant to their research topics.

Itcan also be a good idea to use more than one social media tools in a class. At Duke University, a professor incorporated a few social media tools into his online teaching of an introductory film class. The professor asked students to watch relevant video clips, tweet lecture topics for discussion, make weekly postings on blogs, and comment on each others work. With creative integration of social media tools in a class like this, students can participate more and be more engaged in the learning process.

In addition to online teaching, many universities use social media to showcase their educational projects. For instance, Stanford University showcases faculty and student projects on its Facebook page by publishing videos, pictures, and other relevant information. Current students can search, access, and gain inspiration from these posted projects for their own work.

Summary

In summary, there are clear advantages to using social media in distance education. With social media services, online teachers and learners can experience new and better types of communication and interaction, and they canbe more connected to each other than ever before. Social media tools help online learners feel less isolated. With social media technologies advancing, distance education will continuously evolve with the trend.

NOTE: This article mentions only a few examples of social media technologies. These references should not be taken as an endorsement of any particular tool, technology, or company. If you are thinking of implementing any of these tools into your course, check with your academic administrator for suitability. CSI team members are available for consultation on the use of some of these tools if you have questions or concerns.

Resources

Best Online Universities LLC. (2009, August 11). 13 enlightening case studies of social media in the classroom.Message posted to http://web20teach.blogspot.com/2007/08/twitter-tweets-for-higher-education.html.

Mayfield, A. (2008). What is social media? Retrieved December 20, 2009, from http://www.icrossing.co.uk/fileadmin/uploads/eBooks/What_is_Social_Media_iCrossing_ebook.pdf.

Michigan State University Center for Teaching and Learning. (2009, April 16). Social media in the classroom. Message posted to http://ctt.educ.msu.edu/2009/04/16/twitter-in-the-classroom/.

Social media. (2009, June 12). Retrieved December 23, 2009, from http://onlineanddistancelearning.com/social-media.

Instructional Technology Council Grants Awards to CSI, MBA Program

The Instructional Technology Council (ITC) recently named UMUCs Center for Support of Instruction (CSI) and the MBA program among the recipients of its 2010 Awards for Excellence in eLearning. CSI won the award for Outstanding Technical Support and Service, and the MBA program was named Outstanding eLearning Program. The awards will be presented to the recipients at ITCs annual conference, eLearning 2010, in Forth Worth, Texas, in February 2010.

The Awards for Excellence in eLearning recognize exemplary individuals and institutions in distance education nationally. Winners are selected on the basis of their nomination forms, which are reviewed by a panel of judges from the ITC board of directors. The award judges reviewed numerous applications for seven award categories and selected as winners those which exemplified the highest, best-practice standards in eLearning.

CSIs nomination detailed how it has established significant value in UMUC for delivering quality service and support to faculty and other constituents within the university community, including providing online and off-line assistance and maintenance, contributing to improved student retention, supporting online course delivery, and continuously improving services and support.

The Center for Support of Instruction is committed to supporting the universitys educational goals. Im proud thatourteam has been honored for its innovative and effective efforts in advocating and supporting best practices with instructional technologies,said Kathleen Puckett Ford, Director of the unit.I amespecially pleased that the ITC has recognized the importance of technical service and support in contributing to a successful online educational experience for both faculty and students.CSI will continue to provide and promote activities that distinguish UMUC as a leader in distance education.

The MBA programs win was basedonfactors such as its course development, innovation, student services, faculty development, and use of educational technologies.

We are delighted that the MBA program has received yet another award recognizing the quality of the program, said Robert Goodwin, Chair, Business and Executive Programs.Last year we were honored by the Maryland Distance Learning Association with the award as the Distance Program of the Year and in 2005 we received the Sloan award for the best online MBA program.This recent award from the Instructional Technology Council confirms the continuing high quality and national reputation of the UMUC MBA Program and we are very proud to be associated with it.

The ITC represents higher education institutions in the United States and Canada and helps advance distance education by advocating, collaborating, researching, and sharing exemplary, innovative practices and potential in learning technologies. Congratulations to all!

UMUC 111 Virtual Meet & Greet Wins WOW Award

UMUC 111 Virtual Meet Greet was named a recipient of a2009 WCET Outstanding Work (WOW) Award in October for its efforts in improving interactionsamong online students and facultyin Computer Information Systems and Technology (CITE) programs.

WOW awards are given to organizationalmembersof the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET) through an annual competition that recognizes innovation and best practicesin implementing educational technology in higher education.

UMUC 111 is the brainchild of Dr. S. K. Bhaskar, Assistant Dean of CITE, and Kimberly Chung, Director of Strategic Enrollment Initiatives.Dr. Bhaskar sought to create a virtual community where he could proactively reach out to all current CITE students. He wanted a space where students could develop relationships with their peers, learn about program offerings, and get advice on course selections from program advisors. Ms. Chung was instrumental in planning, setting up, and organizing the virtual space where the interactions and information sharing could occur.

The UMUC 111 development team hoped that when they offered the first Virtual Meet Greet in Fall 2008,they would get about 20 to 30 CITE students to enroll. Much to their surprise, over 100 students signed up. One of the conference activities asked students who had been in the program to share some advice that would help new students succeed at UMUC. One student shared, My advice to new students is to give it your all, do not slack off, and enjoy the amount of resources you have at your fingertips with UMUC. I am currently serving in the Army and UMUC has been my home school since 1997. The standards are high, and the awards are many. You need to stay on top of the postings, do your homework, take responsibility for your actions, and learn, but do not be discouraged from any setbacks made. All can be overcome!

A survey of the students who participated in the UMUC 111 Virtual Meet and Greet indicated that they found the session of value and were pleased to have been able to participate. Below are a few comments that students anonymously provided:

I would recommend this class as a supplement to take for anyone taking their first Web Tyco class. Thanks for all the great info; I look forward to learning more in the future.

Thanks so much for creating this session. It helped me see the distinctions among the various majors. Particularly the emphasis on Java in CMSC and all the TechKNOW modules.

Ifound UMUC111 very interesting and was able to come away with a better understanding of the courses and the direction that they take. I would have like to have seen a chat on Graduate programs for those of us going on that path after obtaining our degrees to answer questions in that arena. Thank you once again for this experience in the two plus years Ihave attended UMUConline this is the first one of these sessions that I was aware of and completely enjoyed it.

UMUC 111 was very helpful after a prolonged absence from taking on-line courses. I will be taking 2 courses this coming spring semester, and taking UMUC 111 was instrumental in getting the rust off so to speak and to prepare me for the rigors on the on-line curriculum. Thanks to the instructor and other students for their feedback, it really helped. Ill see everyone in the spring!

UMUC 111 will be offered each fall and spring, with the hope that student participation will continue to increase. Congratulations to Dr. Bhaskar and Ms. Chung on their accomplishments with UMUC 111!

Mapping Web 2.0 Benefits to Known Best Practices in Distance Education

Introduction

The last several years have been filled with enthusiastic discussion regarding Web 2.0 technologies and their positive, dynamic enhancements to a users experience on the Internet.This same wave has somewhat belatedly crashed over the realm of online education, and it has been a much-mulled subject ever since.The reason is for this is simple: The potential positive impact of Web 2.0 tools on the online learning experience is believed to be myriad and vast.

Recent research has confirmed and identified benefits to the use of Web 2.0 technologies within the online classroom.Such benefits can be mapped to known best practices from the distance education literature to help enhance and optimize their potential positive effects within the online classroom. This article outlines the suspected and documented benefits of Web 2.0 technologies and links them to known bestbest practices in distance education.

Potential Benefits of Web 2.0 Technologies

The benefits of using Web 2.0 tools and technologies in the online classroom reaches far and wide. This section looks at both documented and undocumented advantages.

Undocumented/Presumed Potential Benefits

Since their inception, Web 2.0 tools have widely been believed to produce several positive impacts:

They provide a constructivist-friendly toolkit. Constructivist theory is generally acknowledged and utilized in online education as an effective roadmap towards successful, deep learning outcomes for students. The requirements of a successful constructivist approach include encouraging the students own role in the continuing process of constructing knowledge and deep learning. Prior to Web 2.0, one of the key assumptions was that online classrooms would serve well as platforms for creating constructivist learning environments, but they actually often proved to simply act as transmission models of education (Allen Long, 2009) usually due to the high expertise levels required of earlier technologies. More recently, the surge in user-friendly Web 2.0 tools such as wikis, blogs, video sharing services, social networks, and other collaborative tools have lent support to a key component of constructivist practice: the promotion of collaborative learning, capable of helping to create an entire constructivist learning environment (Seitzinger, 2006, p.13) within an online class.

They create a connection to todays students (and our own) real world. Web 2.0 has also already proven valuable in various corporate, government, and institutional settings, and its adoption has been quite rapid compared to other IT technologies (Bughin, 2008). As such, implementing thse tools in the educational arena can help prepare students to use them in real-world venues.

They allow for authentic assessment. The effects of Web 2.0 simply cannot be ignored today. It is now a nearly unavoidable aspect within the daily lives of most students and even some instructors these days. Some have argued that it must now be accounted for in creating an authentic assessment of learning objectives, and of the formal and informal learning going on inside and outside the classroom. Allen (2009) goes so far as to note that developments in assessment using the Internet will only be authentic if they take account of the way the Internet functions outside of higher education, rather than seeing it as an educational technology divorced from its own authenticity (p. 1). Allen goes even further to state:

Since this kind of knowledge work is becoming the norm, without a social media / Web 2.0 approach to assessment, traditional approaches (essays, tests, student-centred discussions and presentations) will begin to appear inauthentic if they do not, to some extent at least, recognize and embrace Internet-enabled knowledge networking. (p. 4)

They can be repurposed for multiple stakeholder levels within an organization. The same Google Apps for Education tools used for student collaborations can also be used by an instructor to share documents with a colleague, possibly allowing them to co-author research in a much simpler and efficient manner than ever before. The administration can also benefit from use of such tools for the same reasons.

They are cost efficient. An institution making use of Web 2.0 tools will see efficiencies of scale due to savings in cost (usually free) and resources expended to create the tools (virtually none). These are ample savings potentials compared to the usually large fixed costs required to produce similar proprietary materials. Web 2.0 tools are proving beneficial to institutions seeking affordable, scalable solutions for course content.

Some institutions are using Web 2.0 technologies for course management (Rienzo Han, 2009). It would seem such institutions must examine these tools now, when considering the threat of a truly Web 2.0 style service such as Ududtu.com, which offers a free method of not only creating learning objects but also a means of creating a standalone LMS within the confines of Facebook, a popular social networking site. The user can upload interactive content made at Udutu and then track a students graded progress within the LMS app. Some of the more hyperbolic enthusiasts of Web 2.0 applications such as this have claimed that it brings a transformation of learning (Selwyn, 2009, p. 1). While there is ample room for skepticism of such lofty claimsand some of it well deservedrecent research has discerned and noted definitive benefits to using Web 2.0 technologies in the online classroom.

Documented Benefits

While there seems to be a general paucity of directly measurable data on the benefits of Web 2.0 technology for online education, there is some relatively fresh evidentiary research that can be referenced. A recent research report funded by Becta, a British government agency charged with effective use of innovative technology in learning, recently released a major report on the impact of Web 2.0 technology on secondary schools (Crook, Fisher, Graber, Harrison, Lewin., 2009). The report is based on evidence gathered from field studies, guided surveys of 2600 students, and interviews and online surveys conducted with instructors, technical staff, administration, and parents.

The report contains many fascinating findings regarding usage of Web 2.0 technologies, challenges to implementation, policy, and more. It also explicitly cites four potential benefits of Web 2.0 on teaching and learning:

It stimulates new modes of inquiry.
It creates new opportunities for collaborative learning.
It allows students to engage with new literacies and express themselves in different media.
It encourages a proficiency in the publication of content, which creates a sense of ownership, audience engagement, peer assessment, and informal learning.

These documented benefits lend much support to the undocumented benefits being on the right track in terms of how Web 2.0 technologies can positively impact the teaching and learning process. But how do these benefits play out against the most commonly known and agreed-upon best practices in online education?

Mapping Benefits to Best Practices

Much has been written in the literature regarding best practices in distance educationfrom Chickering and Gamsons seven principles (1987) to Hacker and Niederhauser (2000) to Berge (2002) and many others. Throughout the literature, four common themes are reiterated as being best practices for online/distance education. In short, faculty need to:

Facilitate learning
Foster interaction
Use collaborative problem solving
Provide prompt feedback

The examples below discuss these four best practices in more detail and examine where Web 2.0 technologies align with them.

Facilitate Learning

In pursuit of Lewis and Al-Hamids (2006) notion of the importance of facilitating learning in online education, the authors note that [t]he use of learning objects such as video clips and other digital resources was another strategy for some of the exemplary faculty (p.12). One of the richest Web 2.0 veins to be mined is learning objects. Users of such sites may simply access and utilize the pre-authored content on a site, or may, in the true spirit of Web 2.0, create and share their own content with the community. Additionally, the user may collaborate with others in this creation and sharing of content.

If an instructor or student is not interested in authoring his or her own content, thousands of free videos are available from services such as YouTube, Hulu, and dozens of other lesser-known video-sharing sites. Pertinent videos on virtually any imaginable subject can now be found online, and they can be embedded directly within an online classroom via auto-generated HTML code supplied by the servicescreating a highly contextualized, engaging experience for the learner. Video services continue to develop additional features, making the content even more beneficial to learning via functions such as Hulus ability to select and embed only a segment of a video and YouTubes new automated closed-captioning service.

Other types of learning objects abound, like those found in repositories of pre-authored interactive learning objects such as Merlot, where objects are freely shared. Learning objects themselves may actually be authored and then shared within a Web 2.0 service community such as Flickr for pictures, ZohoShare for presentations, or Google Docs for collaboration on various types of documents. Students themselves may then participate in the selection (or outright creation) and sharing of such learning objects within a class, supporting Anderson and Warks (2004) vision of a classroom that is populated with student-supplied content and their conclusion that

an instructional design based on student construction and sharing of knowledge in a web based portal is perceived to be a valued and worthwhile learning experience. Students report this design provides as much or more learning, challenge and skill acquisition as other courses in the program do. (Conclusion section, paragraph 2)

Not only does this sort of model enable constructivist learning to occur, but the content itself, which is located or created by the students, can also save instructors the time investment required to locate or create such materials themselves.

Foster Interaction

The importance of interaction between the online instructor, students, and peers has been noted numerous times in the literature, due to a sense that isolation can arise in the online learning experience (Lewis Al-Hamid, 2006). While attempting to meet online learners expectations of the instructors constant presence, or at least the appearance of a constant presence, the already heavy workload of the instructor can be increased. Various strategies, which are supported by Web 2.0 technologies, are available to the instructor to lessen the strain of maintaining a high degree of interaction, including the use of a synchronous peer tutoring mechanism (Westera, De Bakker, Wagemans, 2009).

Web 2.0 technologies and services are by their very nature about interaction, some more specifically than others. Internet phone services such as Skype and instant messaging services such as AIM enable synchronous interactions; blogs and microblogs, wikis, and social networks all offer ample asynchronous interaction opportunities. Googles highly anticipated Wave tool promises to take interaction to a whole new level (Devaney, 2009).

Use Collaborative Problem Solving

Theorists and practitioners alike have often flagged collaborative activities as a best practice for enhancing online learning. Research (Gokhale, 1995) has also shown this to be true. However, the Internet prior to Web 2.0 could not offer a great variety or very dynamic modesof collaboration. This situation has been transformed by the possibilities that Web 2.0 technologies can offer. Powerful new tools abound to enable enhanced collaborative learning opportunities. One such class of tools involves Web conferencing environments. At one time, Web conferencing was a technically challenging and expensive resource of the elite. Even a short time ago, a proprietary Web conferencing system would require large sums of money and time to support it. Now, with the availability of Web 2.0 versions of this class of tool, the door has been opened to all. Tools such as Mikogo offer a large array of collaborative features, such as desktop and application sharing, remote keyboard and mouse control, meeting recording and playback, whiteboards, file exchange, and more for free.

Other sorts of Web 2.0 tools for collaboration include the document sharing class of tools. Web 2.0 versions of office suites are numerous, but perhaps the most notable is Google Docs and its sister project, Google Apps for Education. Google Docs is free and available to anyone with Internet access. It allows one to use the Internet cloud as a new sort of desktop, with all the functionality of a users local computer. The key difference is that the documents created in Google Docs are available to the user from any computer in the world that has an Internet connectionand they also allow for synchronous or asynchronous collaboration.

For synchronous usage, a user could overlay the use of Skype to collaboratively examine, review, and discuss a particular phrase in a document, a formula in a spreadsheet cell, or the images included in a PowerPoint presentation. An asynchronous approach could involve a user simply making edits and then inviting the collaborator to visit and review automatically tracked changes at his/her convenience. Other services related to these initiatives include Google Groups, which creates interest groups, and Google Sites, which allows collaborative creation of Web sites and related files. All of these tools are examples of Web 2.0 technology that encourage publishing proficiency.

Provide Prompt Feedback

There seems to be nearly unanimous agreement in the literature on the need for prompt feedback in the online classroom. This task is also acknowledged as being time-intensive for the instructor. It is possible that the creative use of some Web 2.0 tools could help eliminate this burden.

In an earlier age, the notion of using voice-based feedback to reduce the writing load and speed up the feedback process was technically difficult and required ownership of software to create and edit the recordings. The instructor would then be responsible for sending the file to the student. In a Web 2.0 world, the whole process becomes much simpler, with a free service offering the entire process from a single location in the cloud. Services such VoiceThread, for example, can create a sort of voice thread (not surprising then, its choice of name) that goes one step further in that it can enable asynchronous comments and feedback from students and tutors alike around pieces of media such as video clips, images and presentations (Burden Atkinson, 2008, p. 2).

Conclusion

While it has been believed for some time that Web 2.0 technologies held strong promise to benefit online classrooms, there is now also corroborating evidence from recent research that testifies to Web 2.0s positive impact on teaching and learning. These benefits can be directly aligned to key existing best practices in online education, which serves to further substantiate the validity of these tools for the educational environment.

NOTE: The references to specific tools, technologies,or companiesmentioned in this article should not be taken an an endorsement.

References

Allen, M., Long, J. (2009, October). Learning as knowledge networking: Conceptual foundations for revised uses of the Internet in higher education. Paper presented at the World Congress on Engineering Computer Science 2009, San Francisco. Retrieved November 18, 2009, from http://netcrit.net/content/wcecslearningasknet2009.pdf

Allen, M. (2009, October). Authentic assessment and the Internet: Contributions within knowledge networks. Paper presented at the E-Learn 2009 conference of the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education, Vancouver, Canada. Retrieved November 18, 2009, from http://netcrit.net/content/aaceauthenticassessment2009.pdf

Anderson, T., Wark, N. (2004). Why do teachers get to learn the most? E-Journal of Instructional Science and Technology, 7(2). Retrieved November 18, 2009, from http://www.usq.edu.au/electpub/e-jist/docs/Vol7_no2/FullPapers/WhyDoTeachers.htm

Berge, Z. L. (2002). Active, interactive, and reective e-learning. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 3, 181190.

Burden, K., Atkinson, S. (2008). Evaluating pedagogical affordances of media sharing Web 2.0 technologies: A case study. In Hello! Where are you in the landscape of educational technology? Proceedings ascilite Melbourne 2008. Retrieved November 18, 2009, from http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/melbourne08/procs/burden-2.pdf

Bughin, J. (2008). The rise of enterprise 2.0. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 9(3), 251259. Retrieved November 18, 2009, from https://secure.palgrave-journals.com/dddmp/journal/v9/n3/full/4350100a.html

Chickering, A. W., Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles of good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39(7), 37.

Crook, C., Fisher, T., Graber, R., Harrison, C., Lewin , C. (2008, September). Implementing Web 2.0 in secondary schools: Impacts, barriers and issues. Retrieved November 18, 2009, from Becta website: http://partners.becta.org.uk/upload-dir/downloads/page_documents/research/web2_benefits_barriers.pdf

Devaney, L. (2009, June 8). Google Wave has great potential for education. New online collaborative tool combines eMail, instant messaging, and file sharing in a dynamic environment. Retrieved November 18, 2009, from http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=59086

Gokhale, A., (1995). Collaborative learning enhances critical thinking. Journal of Technology Education, 7(1), 22-30. Retrieved November 18, 2009, from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.3.6959rep=rep1type=pdf

Hacker, D. J., Niederhauser, D. S. (2000). Promoting deep and durable learning in the online classroom. In R. E. Weiss, D. S. Knowlton, B. W. Speck (Eds.), Principles of effective teaching in the online classroom (pp. 5364). San Francisco, CA: Jossey- Bass.

Lewis, C. C., Abdul-Hamid, H. (2006, May). Implementing effective online teaching practices: Voices of exemplary faculty. Innovative Higher Education, 31(2), 83-98. Retrieved November 18, 2009, from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=5hid=7sid=5b9203bc-2b39-4c7d-93ba-0ba274a26c67%40sessionmgr11

Rienzo, T., Han, B. (2009, Summer). Microsoft or Google Web 2.0 tools for course management. Journal of Information Systems Education, 20(2), 123-127. Retrieved November 18, 2009, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4041/is_200907/ai_n32128804/?tag=content;col1

Seitzinger, J. (2006, July 31). Be constructive: Blogs, podcasts, and wikis as constructivist learning tools. Learning Solutions e-Magazine. Retrieved November 18, 2009, from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.121.4071rep=rep1type=pdf

Selwyn, N. (2007). Web 2.0 applications as alternative environments for informal learning - A critical review. Paper presented at the OECD-KERIS International Expert Meeting on ICT and Educational Performance, Cheju Island, South Korea. Retrieved November 18, 2009, from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.117.9470rep=rep1type=pdf

Westera, W., De Bakker, G., Wagemans, L. (2009). Self-arrangement of fleeting student pairs: A Web 2.0 approach for peer tutoring. Interactive Learning Environments, 17(4), 339-347. Retrieved November 18, 2009, from http://dspace.ou.nl/bitstream/1820/2005/1/Preprint%20PAIR.pdf

New One-Stop Access to Faculty and Student Research and Scholarship: Faculty and Student Research @ UMUC

The new Faculty and Student Research @ UMUC Web page from Information and Library Services provides one-stop access to the growing body of research-related materials produced by UMUC faculty,students, and visiting scholars. The resource allows for the systematic collection, accessibility, and preservation of scholarly materials created at UMUCand also provides records of academic and scholarly activities at the university.

From this researchpage,you can gain access to dissertations from UMUCs Doctor of Management program, discussion and working papers, and presentations from visiting scholars and UMUC faculty. You can also learn about upcoming events such as presentations by visiting scholars, Lunch and Learn Faculty Research Seminars, and the Orkand Chair Distinguished Lecture Series. Future planned enhancements will include more immediate access to all of UMUCs Doctor of Management Dissertations, integrated searching across resources, and materials related to UMUCs history.

Visit Faculty and Student Research @ UMUC today for more information.

Success with Wimba Classroom Application Share - December 16, 2009

Success with Wimba Classroom Application Share

The Application Share (AppShare) feature of Wimba Classroom is a great resource for showing processes to your students or participants. It is invaluable for demonstrating step-by-step instructions for a variety of programs from Excel and Word to online applications like WebTycho, etc. Unfortunately, some may find it challenging to master smooth application sharing without practice. Jen Thies discusses a few tips on how you can improve your use of Wimbas AppShare.

Archived Recording:

Launcher Link:

http://67.202.210.31/launcher.cgi?room=deoracle_2009_1216_1409_01

Wizard Link:

http://67.202.210.31/wizard/launcher.cgi?wc=wms

Slide Presentation:

Printable Version: PDF

Student Response Systems (Part II)

The first article in this two-part series, entitled Student Response Systems Part I,explained the types of Student Response Systems (SRS), their purpose, and how they are used in the face-to-face classroom. Online options were also briefly described. Part II below discusses an SRS pilot conducted at the Universities at Shady Grove (USG) during the spring 2009 semester, including general feedback and reactions from two UMUC faculty who participated in the pilot.

USG Clicker Pilot Program

According to USGs Center for Academic Success (CAS) Director Marsha Youngblood, the idea for a clicker pilot was expressed by faculty at the USG Issues and Innovations for Effective Teaching roundtable discussion in October 2008. In April 2009, the CAS and IT departments collaborated to facilitate their first pilot program in which faculty could borrow (via a check-in/check-out procedure) SRS devices and software purchased from Turning Technologies. Twenty-three faculty from five University System of Maryland (USM) institutions attended online, text-based, or face-to-face training on using the system, offered and supported by USGs IT staff.

Clicker Pilot General Feedback

According to Dr. Youngblood, the mid-term pilot assessment results submitted by seven faculty indicated that the SRS pilot was overall a positive experience for them and their students. All seven faculty reported that student engagement had increased and made the class more fun and light-hearted, gave students instant feedback, and enabled them to better evaluate for themselves what they knew and what they didnt know. As far as instruction, faculty said that using clickers improved their teaching because it improved studentsenjoyment and retention of information, allowed them to slow down and ask questions,and kept them engaged.

Negative responses related mainly to difficulties with technology. For example, the SRS system uses Microsoft Office 2007 products, but not all classrooms at USG had been updated with this software during the pilot. One faculty said that using clickers was too time consuming, but did not provide further explanation. The majority of faculty said they have plans to use clickers again in future classes.

Comments from UMUC Faculty in the Clicker Pilot

Two UMUC faculty members, Dr. Joyce Henderson (HRMN, EDCP) and Dr. Constance Woolcock-Henry (IFSM, CMST), were involved in the USG SRS pilot and plan to continue using clickers based on their positive experiences. Their answers to the questions below about their own and their students experiences show that using SRS in the classroom can assist faculty with instruction and encourage student engagement.

Did you find using SRS a positive experience?	BOTH: Yes CWH: I find that whenever I used the SRS, students were more engaged and class participation increased. Students were eager to know if their answers made a difference in the scores and tended to prepare the assigned readings more.
What differences did you find in your classroom?	CWH: The most observed differences I found in my classroom were higher attendance, more class participation, maintained concentration, and more completion of reading assignments. JH: The SRS allowed the students to be a little more engagedyou cant hide when the responses are shown on the screen! The students were able to answer questions on their own without knowing what the other students were going to answer and then see if their answer differed from the otherswithout letting on how they answered. I still used my basic teaching methodology of posing questions with PowerPoint but occasionally added the SRS for variety, review, or emphasis.
Did using SRS change your methodology for teaching, facilitating, etc.? If so, how?	CWH: Using the SRS, I changed my methodology of teaching from purely lecture and discussion to lecture, interjected by review questions and discussion questions to reflect on students understanding of the material. JH: It enhanced my methodology and allowed more in-depth discussion.
Did using SRS change the way you deliver content? If so, in what way did it change?	CWH: Using the SRS did change the way I delivered content. On occasion, the materials were presented in a question format so students were forced to think and problem-solve. Questions and answers were prepared as part of the lecture notes. JH: The only change was that I added some questions for the SRS use and also used the SRS to review for the final exam. I think thats the piece that the students liked the most and found helpful.
Did you find that the SRS experience added educational value? If so, in what way?	CWH: The SRS helped to achieve active communication and is a quick form of feedback between the students and myself. It also increases comprehension, which is an essential added educational value. JH: The fact that the students could freely answer the questions and know if they answered in the same way as the other students was helpful. There were times when the minority answer was the correct one. Without the SRS the student may not have spoken up if it appeared they were the only one with a different answer.
Would you recommend SRS to your colleagues? If so, do you have any recommendations on usage?	CWH: I would strongly recommend its use especially in classes where instructors tend to do a lot of lectureit reinforces key topics by posting questions during or after a lecture. SRS is a good method to collect students immediate feedback and test their understanding about what they were taught. JH: Definitely would recommend it. The only suggestion is to allow the time to design the questions; it takes time to load everything and set it up the first time around.
Did your students find the SRS experience positive?	BOTH: Yes JH: Since the class was an evening class with most students arriving after working all day, they liked the entertainment value of the SRS. It helped them stay alert.
Were students more engaged? Or, did student active learning / participation in their learning increase? How? (Critical thinking, participation, understanding, etc.)	CWH: Students loved the engagement and interaction the SRS provides. In most cases, the students thought the system was helpful especially with participation and comprehension. They liked the fact that their answers could be kept anonymous and the possibility of comparing their answers with other students. Students also liked the fact that they could immediately obtain the correct answers to questions. JH: I believe that critical thinking was enhanced since they had the ability to question each other after seeing the answersand I questioned them also.
Did student attendance change as a result of SRS usage?	CWH: Although there was no marked increase or decrease in attendance during the time SRS was used, students enjoyed coming to class and actively participating, The SRS system provided timely breaks in the lecture and also a quick review of materials learned.

CAS Response to IncreasingInterest

Director and faculty interest continued to grow during 2009 with requests for more clickers and advanced training. In response, CAS purchased 50 more clicker sets and IT provided further trainingin the fallon SRS technology, instruction, and best practices. Since the fall training session, Dr. Youngblood noted that 18 faculty from six USM institutions are currently using clickers in their classrooms and said that recent feedback from faculty currently using SRS continues to be positive. Dr. Youngblood noted thatone instructor recently reported an increase in scores on reading comprehension quizzes using clickers, and several faculty commented that interactiveclickerquestions promote effectivecritical thinking.

The extended USG SRS pilot continues at the Shady Grove campus. UMUC faculty who would like to use the clickers in classes at the Shady Grove campus can contact Dr. Marsha Youngblood at sg-cas@umd.edu and request to participate inthe program.

Resources

EDUCASE hasa list of excellent resources that provides information on best practices, how to develop questions for clicker use, case studies, and evaluation results.

For a more comprehensive list of resources on clickers, check out EDUCAUSEs complete list.

Using Second Life in Educational Settings

Second Life (SL) has morphed from an amusing online curiosity with limited appeal to a virtual space with almost unlimited educational opportunities. Beyond the hype of Second Life, actual learning takes place. The book Learning and Teaching in the Virtual World of Second Life explores the pedagogical designs and learning projects of SL. International institutions of higher education are well represented in the twelve chapters written by various contributors from New Zealand, Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, and the United States. This article examines some of the lessons learned from these various virtual educators and briefly discusses UMUCs own work with SL.

Best Practices in Second Life

The books contributors shared a lot of best practices and tips based on the lessons they learned from working in the SL environment. The list below is a brief summary of just a few of the tips in the book, both technical and pedagogical:

Itemize what students will need to do before joining SL and attending a class.
Show students where to find the free SL software, indicate whether headsets will be necessary for voice chat or if text chat be used, and how to locate the actual classroom in SL.
Take a few hours creating an avatar, navigating through the virtual environment, and communicating with other avatars in SL.
Because low-bandwidth users will not be able to access Second Life, it is important to understand the connectivity requirements.
Clearly explain SL class session expectations to students prior to the course.
Text chats can be archived in SL, but voice chats cannot be. If voice chats are used, assign one person to take notes and then save it as a notecard.
Practice using white boards and video players in SL before conducting class sessions.
Plan for technical difficulties during class sessions by explaining what students should do in case their audio does not work, for example. Alternatives include using Skype and cell phone numbers.
Conduct de-briefing sessions at the end of class sessions to garner student feedback.
Use surveys to gather data about students SL experience.
Ask an individual student a question because multiple students may respond to your undirected question all at once.
Courses that require discussion, presentation, and team activities tend to work better in SL than those that do not employ such methods.
Archiving both private and public written text, with permission, can assist students who may want to refer to the information later.

Cool Examples of Second Life as a Tool for Learning

The book identified several projects in which SL was used in various disciplines.The following two examples stood out(you need to have a Second Life account to view the examples):

A project called Virtual Harlem at the University of Central Missouri enables students to explore and interactin a replica of Harlem, NY, as it existed in the 1920s Jazz era, which includes the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater.
In one learning environment dubbed the Digital Humanities Island, a joint venture by the University of Pisa (Italy) and Kings College in London (UK), students made models of historical buildings, such as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Tower of London, and Galileos Laboratory. Recreating historical buildings was identified as appealing projects for students future employment.

Second Life at UMUC

At UMUC, an SL committee has been charged with constructing an island in SL for educational purposes. Small and large classrooms have been installed. Trees, birds, and even flowers adorn casual walkways, which hopefully will encourage small group discussions and meetings. A Welcome Center greets new visitors. The Effective Writing Center (EWC), with Senior Advisor David Taylor, has a building with a prominent view. The EWC will be moving in shortly. You can catch a glimpse of what the island looks like in the screenshots below:

Were very excited about the possibilities of using SL at UMUC Island, and the tips and ideas mentioned earlier will prove helpful when faculty and staff begin using SL to further enhance teaching and learning. The UMUC Island is expected to be completed by early 2010. Currently, faculty and staff of the Center for Support of Instruction (CSI) are putting the final touches to the island. Additional faculty involvement in the project is welcome; please contact Garth Gerstein, Assistant Director for CSI, at ggerstein@umuc.edu if you are interested in participating.

References

Molka-Danielsen, J., Deutschmann, M. (Eds.) (2009). Learning and teaching in the virtual world of Second Life. Trondheim, Norway: Tapir Academic Press.

Transcript for "Obtaining Open Educational Resource Media Through Creative Commons" Video Tutorial

Return to Tutorial

In this tutorial we will walk through the process of obtaining a media piece that is licensed through creative commons and includes permissions for use in our course.

Begin by visiting the creative commons website at CreativeCommons.org. From the home page, navigate your mouse to the Search button at the top of the website. Take note of the Creative Commons Search page features. Beyond the standard query box, Creative Commons provides direct access to popular media search services that provide Creative Commons licensed materials. The search page may also include featured materials.

For this demonstration, I will be seeking images that include bats. Click go to search. Creative Commons defaults to its previous search page, in this case Google. We can view our additional search results by clicking on the tabs: Yahoo results, flickr image results, blip.tv video results, OWL music results and finally, Spin Xpress results. Each results tab can feature entirely unique types of shared content.

Im going to return to the flickr results for images.

Im going to select this illustration. In order to identify the permissions for our image we first click the All Sizes button. We can scroll to the bottom of the image, or just click the Creative Commons license link above the image.

The icons at the bottom indicate that:

There is a Creative Commons license,
Which we are required to recognize the creator of the material,
That we cannot use this piece for profit,
And that we must use the piece in its entirety, unaltered.

We can now scroll to the top of the image and click the Download button. Select Save File and Click OK. The image is then downloaded and available for us to use.

When searching for Creative Commons Licensed materials for use in your courses, keep in mind that the Creative Commons site is constantly incorporating new search features to accommodate its growing archive of materials. The basic search techniques used in this tutorial can guide you through the process.