Today I am looking at my Global Studies course through the lens of Quality Matters Standard 3 on Assessment and Measurement.
First, I realized, I should have this course organized on a course map. Since I already have all of the course and module level outcomes written out in the course, I just copied and pasted them into a table. I also thought this would be easier since I repeat the exact same assignments during each week of the quarter. The next step will be to make sure everything maps, per Standard 3.1. This standard requires that the assessments measure the learning objectives and are consistent with the course objectives.
So, as I fill in this chart, I am putting the specifics of each assignment in and making sure everything maps to the course outcomes. So this is draft 1 and later on I will post the final version. If something doesn't map properly, I can either adjust the assignment so that it does map or I can create something new that will map.
I am also planning on using the LMS to map my outcomes, something I have never done. You can do this in ANGEL and in Canvas. I will be teaching in ANGEL this summer, so I'll be using its its outcome mapping feature. I will show it to you in this little Jing video.
Standard 3.2 requires a clear course grading policy, which I have in my syllabus, in my course orientation and in my rubrics. I always have to check that things add up properly, since when I change stuff, the calculations always seem to get a bit messed up. When we do Quality Matters reviews, that is one place we often see small problems.
Standard 3.3 makes sure that specific and descriptive criteria are provided for the evaluation of student work and that they are tied to the grading. Again, this is in my rubrics. I make heavy use of ANGEL's rubric tool. I understand that Canvas has a nice rubric tool as well, so I'm looking forward to learning that.
Standard 3.4 makes sure assessments are sequenced, varied and appropriate for the level of the class. Although I have the same assignments throughout the class (ie. 10 essays), all of the work get more complex as the class goes along. I add variety also through the activities attached to the discussion. I always have them do something, like look for invasive species in their neighborhoods, and then discuss the activity on the discussion board. The thing you don't want to do here is have a midterm and a final. That is pretty much the opposite of sequenced and varied.
Finally, Standard 3.5 gives students multiple chances to measure their own learning. This is the standard that, in my experience, people most often fail to meet. The commentary in the rubric notes that this can be met through self tests, interactive games with feedback built in, peer reviews and model papers. I have model papers, but that used to be it. To add more opportunities, I added a second chance on my weekly quiz. Now, instead of getting to take the quiz once, they can take it twice, making the first time a self test. They get the highest of the two scores. Students LOVE this, it makes them very happy and it was really very easy for me to do. Talk about win/win.
Reference:
Mapping Outcomes in ANGEL in 3 minutes - http://youtu.be/wE3SkSqckk0
Using Rubrics in ANGEL - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL1SZmbcuLc - from Centralia's amazing Kathy Brooks.
Using Rubrics in Canvas - http://guides.instructure.com/s/2204/m/4210/l/40813-what-are-rubrics-in-canvas-video
See the links in the Navigation bar for links to my class, the Quality Matters Rubric and more.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
More sources for Open Textbooks
I noted in my last text about open educational resources that it was hard to find actual textbooks. However, just today Tom Caswell from the Open Course Library sent out 3 new resources for Open Textbooks. Sweet!
Here are 3 new tools for your OER toolbox:1. Open Stax College (http://openstaxcollege.org/) – offers students free textbooks that meet scope and sequence requirements for most courses. These are peer-reviewed texts written by professional content developers. Adopt a book today for a turnkey classroom solution or modify it to suit your teaching approach. Free online and low-cost in print, OpenStax College books are built for today’s student budgets.2. Online Textbook Adoption Tool – Akademos recently launched a new textbook adoption tool at http://adoption.akademos.com/.They want to add more Open Textbooks to their reviews, and I’m working with them to line up some promotional codes that will give faculty reviewers a $40 credit in TextbookX.com. They ask that those interested please leave reviews on two books (1-2 paragraphs for each book) and fill out the rating rubric. I’ll send the codes out when they come. 3. Open Academics textbook catalog (http://open.umn.edu) – a great effort out of the University of Minnesota to create a peer reviewed catalog of open textbooks. U of M's press release is below. There's also a great story on NPR: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/ 2012/04/23/university-open- source-textbooks
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Back to the Course map
A couple of days ago, I posted about using Canvas for my American Government class. I forgot to add, however, that it is way too early to actually be putting things in the LMS. I am still working on my course map, which is limited by the fact that I am still working on my module level outcomes. Once I have sketched out my module level outcomes and my initial ways of measuring the achievement of those outcomes (the assessments), then I'll have a basis for selecting my materials.
Now, I know this seems convoluted and backwards. But if we are really centered on outcomes and student learning, then the outcomes and measurement needs to be at the beginning, not at the end.
Resources:
American Government Course Map
Blank Course Map
The Dangers of sitting
For a lot of us, especially those of us who teach online, sitting is an occupational hazard. How much of a hazard has been in the news a lot lately (see, for example, last month's story on NPR, Sitting All Day is Worse For You thank You Might Think). So, making little notes about staying healthy is something I've tried to incorporate into my training for online faculty. A story yesterday in Mashable (The More You Sit the Sooner You'll Die) reminded me that I should share with this group. I thought this Infographic from Mashable pretty much says everything you need to know.
I bike as my primary way of getting to work, but, as the NPR and Mashable stories makes clear, that's not enough. I have a ball chair and a standing desk and a bike desk (though I admit I don't use either half as much as I should). Sitting continues to be a huge challenge for me. What, if anything, are you doing to limit the dangers of sitting?
(I had a cool infographic here, but was asked by the creator of the infographic to remove it and the reference to their website)
Resources:
Just how Dangerous is Sitting All Day (contains the above Infographic) from Mashable
The More You Sit the Sooner You'll Die by Sonia Paul on Mashable
One Year at my Standing Desk from Lifehacker
Sitting All Day is Worse For You thank You Might Think from National Public Radio
Monday, April 23, 2012
A quick post about Instapaper
I don't know if many of you are Instapaper fans, but today I found an article that solved a big problem and I was so delighted I thought I would share it.
I find lots of articles through email newsletters and one of my favorite ways to browse through those is on my iPad during a found moment. The downside is I had no way to save the articles I wanted to read later without copying and pasting, which is annoying and time consuming. Today I found a way to add an Instapaper Read Later bookmark for Safari on the iPad. Woo hoo!
Here are the instructions. They are, I admit, rather cumbersome, but if you are a big user of the iPad and Instapaper, they are well worth the 5 minutes or so needed to follow them.
Reference:
A visual guide for installing the Instapaper read later bookmark on the iPad by Lorenzo Orlando Caum
I find lots of articles through email newsletters and one of my favorite ways to browse through those is on my iPad during a found moment. The downside is I had no way to save the articles I wanted to read later without copying and pasting, which is annoying and time consuming. Today I found a way to add an Instapaper Read Later bookmark for Safari on the iPad. Woo hoo!
Here are the instructions. They are, I admit, rather cumbersome, but if you are a big user of the iPad and Instapaper, they are well worth the 5 minutes or so needed to follow them.
Reference:
A visual guide for installing the Instapaper read later bookmark on the iPad by Lorenzo Orlando Caum
New twist on the flipped classroom
The flipped classroom has been in the news a lot lately. This is when you have students prepare for an interactive classroom experience by getting the lecture online before class. This idea stems from the understanding that lecturing isn't a great way to teach nor is it a very good use of classroom time. With the rise of tools like Tegrity for lecture capture and the ease of course management systems, putting the lecture online is becoming more and more popular for hybrid and traditional instruction.
In a great article titled Rethinking the Way College Students are Taught by Emily Hanford, on instructor goes a step beyond simply flipping the classroom. He engages the students in teaching each other by tying the preparatory reading (or lecture) with student generated areas of confusion. He then uses those points of confusion as the basis for peer instruction, where the students help each other understand the confusing topics.
I spoke last week at the Tegrity Conference on the future of lecture capture. One of the questions that came up in my presentation was, if we don't spend our time in the classroom lecturing, students will feel cheated, like the teacher isn't doing their job. Well, my response was that the teacher needed to be engaged, not just sitting sipping a latte and reading a magazine while the students were in conversation. This is a great model for that engagement.
It is also a great model for hybrid instruction and the overarching challenging of tying together the online with the face to face instruction.
I'm struggling, though, to think of applications of this idea for the fully online classroom, which is generally asynchronous and thus slower moving. While this can and does happen in a discussion forum, it doesn't seem like it would be quite as dynamic as what is described in the article.
What do you guys think? How might you implement dynamic peer instruction in the fully online classroom? Have you tried this in your hybrid or face to face classes? How has it worked?
Reference:
Rethinking the Way College Students are Taught by Emily Hanford
In a great article titled Rethinking the Way College Students are Taught by Emily Hanford, on instructor goes a step beyond simply flipping the classroom. He engages the students in teaching each other by tying the preparatory reading (or lecture) with student generated areas of confusion. He then uses those points of confusion as the basis for peer instruction, where the students help each other understand the confusing topics.
I spoke last week at the Tegrity Conference on the future of lecture capture. One of the questions that came up in my presentation was, if we don't spend our time in the classroom lecturing, students will feel cheated, like the teacher isn't doing their job. Well, my response was that the teacher needed to be engaged, not just sitting sipping a latte and reading a magazine while the students were in conversation. This is a great model for that engagement.
It is also a great model for hybrid instruction and the overarching challenging of tying together the online with the face to face instruction.
I'm struggling, though, to think of applications of this idea for the fully online classroom, which is generally asynchronous and thus slower moving. While this can and does happen in a discussion forum, it doesn't seem like it would be quite as dynamic as what is described in the article.
What do you guys think? How might you implement dynamic peer instruction in the fully online classroom? Have you tried this in your hybrid or face to face classes? How has it worked?
Reference:
Rethinking the Way College Students are Taught by Emily Hanford
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Experimenting with Canvas
Here in Washington, the community colleges are preparing for a presumed move from our ANGEL learning management system to Canvas. This is in its very early stages and it will be several months before eLearning departments will have access to Canvas classrooms to play around with.
In the meantime, my colleague, Renee Carney from Lower Columbia Community College, told me that you can get a free for teachers Canvas account from the Instructure website. I'm going to give it a shot and see if it will work as a staging place for my course while I wait for our real access to Canvas to begin.
Sign up was easy and, while waiting for the confirmation email, I watched the 5 minute overview video. I set up my course, added an assignment and one student. It was all terribly simple yet robust. As soon as I get some content in there, I'll give you a log in to check it out. In the meantime, you might want to get your own Free for Teachers account with Canvas.
Resources:
a free for teachers Canvas account from the Instructure website
In the meantime, my colleague, Renee Carney from Lower Columbia Community College, told me that you can get a free for teachers Canvas account from the Instructure website. I'm going to give it a shot and see if it will work as a staging place for my course while I wait for our real access to Canvas to begin.
Sign up was easy and, while waiting for the confirmation email, I watched the 5 minute overview video. I set up my course, added an assignment and one student. It was all terribly simple yet robust. As soon as I get some content in there, I'll give you a log in to check it out. In the meantime, you might want to get your own Free for Teachers account with Canvas.
Resources:
a free for teachers Canvas account from the Instructure website
Course Objectives
It is an amazing sunny Saturday here in the Pacific Northwest and sitting inside at my computer is almost a crime. Still, the thrill of Quality Matters calls :-)
Standard 2 on Learning Objectives (also known as Course Outcomes) is the heart of the Quality Matters rubric and the heart of a course. Everything needs to lead back to the objectives. If something does not connect to the objectives, it does not belong in the course.
Today, we are looking at learning objectives in the context of refreshing my existing Global Studies class. Standard 2.1 wants to insure that my course outcomes are measurable. Here is a link to my syllabus, where you'll see my measurable outcomes as one of the first items.
Measurable outcomes is something that folks really struggle with. In teaching the QM rubric, I've learned about great resources that I will share with you. One is the Helpful Hundred, 100 verbs that are active and measurable. Exchanging your passive or non-measurable verbs with these active and measurable ones is a great way to improve your course.
Standard 2.2 looks to the module level objectives, making sure they are consistent with the course level objectives and measurable. I talked a little about module level objectives already, so I'll refer you to that.
Standard 2.3 makes sure that all of the learning objectives are written from the student's point of view. What will the student be able to DO when this objective is met? So phrase your objective like this, "At the end of this unit, you will be able to _______".
Standard 2.4 requires that instructions clearly explain to the student how to meet the objectives. I do this in my syllabus and in each of the course assignment descriptions. In the syllabus, it looks like this:
Finally, Standard 2.5, which require that the learning objectives are appropriate to the level of the course. Another handy tool I learned about from my Quality Matters training is the Bloom's Verb Wheel. This looks at the different levels of the Blooms taxonomy and aligns it with appropriate verbs and activities. For example, for an intro course, "knowledge" is a common goal. In the verb wheel, I see that aligned with verbs like "describe", "recognize", and "label". Next I see appropriate assessments like "text reading".
Resources:
The Helpful Hundred
Blooms Verb Wheel
Find the links to the Quality Matters Rubric and other helpful links in the navigation bar on the right.
Standard 2 on Learning Objectives (also known as Course Outcomes) is the heart of the Quality Matters rubric and the heart of a course. Everything needs to lead back to the objectives. If something does not connect to the objectives, it does not belong in the course.
Today, we are looking at learning objectives in the context of refreshing my existing Global Studies class. Standard 2.1 wants to insure that my course outcomes are measurable. Here is a link to my syllabus, where you'll see my measurable outcomes as one of the first items.
Measurable outcomes is something that folks really struggle with. In teaching the QM rubric, I've learned about great resources that I will share with you. One is the Helpful Hundred, 100 verbs that are active and measurable. Exchanging your passive or non-measurable verbs with these active and measurable ones is a great way to improve your course.
Standard 2.2 looks to the module level objectives, making sure they are consistent with the course level objectives and measurable. I talked a little about module level objectives already, so I'll refer you to that.
Standard 2.3 makes sure that all of the learning objectives are written from the student's point of view. What will the student be able to DO when this objective is met? So phrase your objective like this, "At the end of this unit, you will be able to _______".
Standard 2.4 requires that instructions clearly explain to the student how to meet the objectives. I do this in my syllabus and in each of the course assignment descriptions. In the syllabus, it looks like this:
Weekly Quizzes – For each week you will have a short, objective quiz. The quiz questions will be multiple choice or true/false and will be graded automatically by ANGEL so you get instant feedback. The assignment goals are to
Insure you have read and understood the material
Give you a quick measure of how you are doing
Provide alternative for people who are uncomfortable with writing to demonstrate knowledge
Finally, Standard 2.5, which require that the learning objectives are appropriate to the level of the course. Another handy tool I learned about from my Quality Matters training is the Bloom's Verb Wheel. This looks at the different levels of the Blooms taxonomy and aligns it with appropriate verbs and activities. For example, for an intro course, "knowledge" is a common goal. In the verb wheel, I see that aligned with verbs like "describe", "recognize", and "label". Next I see appropriate assessments like "text reading".
Resources:
The Helpful Hundred
Blooms Verb Wheel
Find the links to the Quality Matters Rubric and other helpful links in the navigation bar on the right.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
The hunt begins - Looking for American Government Resources
Today I am beginning to hunt for open educational resources (OER). I say "open educational resources" rather than "open textbooks" because "open textbooks" can be misleading. People want to Google "open American government textbook" and have the equivalent of their $150 textbook pop up, except for free. It usually doesn't work that way.
Instead, you may end up cobbling together resources, a little here and a little there, until you have a comprehensive whole. This is, as you can imagine, way more time consuming than simply finding a free textbook, already arranged in handy topic based chapters, etc.
The subject is important too. Some subjects are harder to find than others. Fortunately, the subjects I teach have been kind to me. When I converted my Intro to Law class to open resources, I actually did find a great textbook published by the Government Information Office. Unfortunately, it only covered the first 5 weeks of the course, so I cobbled together materials for the last 5 weeks.
Wait - how cool is this? When looking up my Intro to Law text, I found they have one for American Government too. Woo hoo! They even have it translated into 8 languages.
A Google search also revealed a Flat World Knowledge text on American Government called American Government and Politics in the Information Age. I was planning to emphasize media literacy in my course, so this might be a good fit. Plus, I am really impressed by the Flat World Knowledge model - students can read the book online for free or can pay varying amounts for different kinds of formats, including audio. This puts cost control in the hands of the students. Plus, they have an open license and are very customizable. Finally, unlike the text from the Government Information Office, the Flat World Knowledge Text has supplemental materials including an instructor manual, PowerPoint lectures and a text bank. I've written a textbook and I know how incredibly long it takes to develop those supplemental materials. As a part time faculty, time needs to be an essential consideration.
I also had a look at the College Open Textbooks list, organized by topic. They listed several resources I was familiar with plus a couple of others. Also available from the Community College Consortia for Open Educational Resources is a list of free but not open materials. Another great resource is the Textbook List at the OER Commons. I've found that some of their textbooks are not textbooks in the traditional sense, but more like the resources I mentioned earlier.
So, in less than an hour, I have found what is likely all the materials I need for my course. However, I won't stop here. I've got to read though it all, comparing resources, evaluating the quality and what will work best for my students. I'll write about OER quality in a future post.
A couple of other things to think about:
Resources:
Instead, you may end up cobbling together resources, a little here and a little there, until you have a comprehensive whole. This is, as you can imagine, way more time consuming than simply finding a free textbook, already arranged in handy topic based chapters, etc.
The subject is important too. Some subjects are harder to find than others. Fortunately, the subjects I teach have been kind to me. When I converted my Intro to Law class to open resources, I actually did find a great textbook published by the Government Information Office. Unfortunately, it only covered the first 5 weeks of the course, so I cobbled together materials for the last 5 weeks.
Wait - how cool is this? When looking up my Intro to Law text, I found they have one for American Government too. Woo hoo! They even have it translated into 8 languages.
A Google search also revealed a Flat World Knowledge text on American Government called American Government and Politics in the Information Age. I was planning to emphasize media literacy in my course, so this might be a good fit. Plus, I am really impressed by the Flat World Knowledge model - students can read the book online for free or can pay varying amounts for different kinds of formats, including audio. This puts cost control in the hands of the students. Plus, they have an open license and are very customizable. Finally, unlike the text from the Government Information Office, the Flat World Knowledge Text has supplemental materials including an instructor manual, PowerPoint lectures and a text bank. I've written a textbook and I know how incredibly long it takes to develop those supplemental materials. As a part time faculty, time needs to be an essential consideration.
I also had a look at the College Open Textbooks list, organized by topic. They listed several resources I was familiar with plus a couple of others. Also available from the Community College Consortia for Open Educational Resources is a list of free but not open materials. Another great resource is the Textbook List at the OER Commons. I've found that some of their textbooks are not textbooks in the traditional sense, but more like the resources I mentioned earlier.
So, in less than an hour, I have found what is likely all the materials I need for my course. However, I won't stop here. I've got to read though it all, comparing resources, evaluating the quality and what will work best for my students. I'll write about OER quality in a future post.
A couple of other things to think about:
- Keep track of your research. Write down where you looked and what you found. When you get stuck and ask for help, this information will be really helpful to the folks assisting you. plus, nothing is more frustrating than knowing you saw something and not being able to find it again. Ideally, whatever you choose will have a bookmarklet or some other way to integrate it into your favorite browser so that when you find something you like, the effort to save that info is incredibly easy.
- I'm using a Google Doc, to keep it organized with the other stuff for this blog, but otherwise I probably wouldn't recommend it because it takes an extra step of copying and pasting info.
- Have I mentioned my love of Zotero (http://www.zotero.org/)? This totally saved me during my doctoral studies and is pretty useful in this kind of research as well. Here is a great Lifehacker article about it.
- Think about Delicious (https://delicious.com), a social bookmarking site. Someone mentioned this in one of the comments a few days ago. I love, love, love Delicious and it is a great tool for this kind of work. However, it was slated for death by its owner, Yahoo (or maybe former owner, I lose track). Anyway, Delicious has survived to live another day, but I keep my delicious bookmarks backed up just in case.
- Evernote (www.evernote.com) is, of course, a great option as well.
- Your librarian is your friend. Contact your subject matter librarian and enlist their help. They are incredible resources. For my intro to law course, I used a lot of library database content for the class. It was free for students (though not open) and some of the databases had audio options for the students, which a lot of students really like.
- Call your bookstore NOW and find out any info you need to know about creating a course pack. While some of the students will read the info online, many prefer a printed copy. I work with the bookstore to get a copy of all of my course materials and my syllabus and other key documents bound and available for students. The lead time on that varies and you don't want to miss any deadlines. I don't order enough for the whole class, but generally a little more than half. So, for class of 35, I usually order 20 and that works out fine.
Resources:
- College Open Textbooks topical list
- Flat World Knowledge Catalog
- A list of free but not open resources from CCCOER, sorted by discipline
- OER Commons Textbook List
Why Open Resources?
Today the real fun begins - hunting for content. As you know, I am not planning on using a traditional textbook. My rationale for this is important in understanding some of the decisions I may make as I go along.
1. I am philosophically in favor of the idea of open educational resources. "The Open Educational Resources (OER) movement encourages the creation and reuse of free, high-quality content and open source learning systems to replace expensive and proprietary systems. By promoting OER, community colleges can create sustainable academic resources for students and provide collaborative professional development opportunities for faculty. " (from the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources). I have participated in both phases of the Open Course Library, an effort to put Washington's highest enrolled classes in an open format with materials costing students less than $30.
2. I think it is an obligation of faculty to consider the cost of textbooks. The cost of textbooks is a huge burden on students, particularly the students generally served by community colleges. The Student PIRGs did a study on the adoption of courses from the Open Course Library. "The study also found that on average, use of the Open Course Library materials would save students $102 per course, or $5,499 per course adoption. These figures take into account that many students purchase traditional textbooks at a discount or go without them."
3. My own students prefer it. I polled a couple of classes and asked them about how they were influenced by the cost of textbooks. They indicated that, as the PIRGs found, they just skip buying expensive textbooks and hope for the best. Not a single student indicated that they thought the materials I selected were inferior to a textbook or that clicking through the different materials each week was a burden compared to just opening up a book.
So, with my rationale in place, I will go forth and hunt for some open resources.
1. I am philosophically in favor of the idea of open educational resources. "The Open Educational Resources (OER) movement encourages the creation and reuse of free, high-quality content and open source learning systems to replace expensive and proprietary systems. By promoting OER, community colleges can create sustainable academic resources for students and provide collaborative professional development opportunities for faculty. " (from the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources). I have participated in both phases of the Open Course Library, an effort to put Washington's highest enrolled classes in an open format with materials costing students less than $30.
2. I think it is an obligation of faculty to consider the cost of textbooks. The cost of textbooks is a huge burden on students, particularly the students generally served by community colleges. The Student PIRGs did a study on the adoption of courses from the Open Course Library. "The study also found that on average, use of the Open Course Library materials would save students $102 per course, or $5,499 per course adoption. These figures take into account that many students purchase traditional textbooks at a discount or go without them."
3. My own students prefer it. I polled a couple of classes and asked them about how they were influenced by the cost of textbooks. They indicated that, as the PIRGs found, they just skip buying expensive textbooks and hope for the best. Not a single student indicated that they thought the materials I selected were inferior to a textbook or that clicking through the different materials each week was a burden compared to just opening up a book.
So, with my rationale in place, I will go forth and hunt for some open resources.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Refreshing with QM Standard 1 - Part 2
A couple of days ago, I wrote about Using the Quality Matters rubric to refresh a class. In part 1, I wrote about the first few specific review standards of Standard 1 - Course Overview and Introduction. Today, I'll finish that up.
Standard 1.4 makes sure that any policies that students are expected to comply with are clearly stated. This is new in the 2011 rubric and is aimed at things like plagiarism policies and behavior policies. You might include a link to the Student Code of Conduct and be sure students know that it applies to the online classroom as well as the physical classroom.
Standard 1.5 makes sure you note any course prerequisites - you are probably required to have this in your syllabus anyway. Standard 1.6 notes any technical skills needed. I satisfy that with a link to a college web page that lists that information in a general way for distance education students (at least I think I do - I'd better double check).
Standard 1.7 is about the instructor's self introduction. Instructor presence is really important and your introduction is the first step towards establishing that. Think about how you want to project yourself to your students. Remember, they may not see you, they may have no idea about your reputation. Take a moment to establish your credibility and set the tone for the class. You'll find mine in the Global Studies class under the Global Studies Orientation folder, the last link. Instructions on how to access the class are in the navigation bar on the right. I posted a couple of articles on instructor presence below - try Googling the phrase "instructor presence" for even more.
Standard 1.8 is about student introductions. This is a great way to begin to establish a feeling of community in your class. Although I generally don't participate in discussions, I try to reply to every student introduction. I give them a specific intro assignment that I got from one of my faculty at University of Nebraska, Lincoln. The Four Nouns asks students to use 4 nouns to introduce themselves. You'll find the specific assignment under the Global Studies Orientation, Step 2 - Post Your Personal Description. During the class, I post my own 4 nouns to set the tone and then sit back and enjoy the creative student introductions that follow.
The QM rubric makes an important note about introductions in a hybrid course. It is good to have them online even if the students introduce themselves in class (which they often don't), so that students can refer to them later. It is also a great way to get the hybrid class started when the first face to face session is not until later in the week.
Resources:
Find a link to the Quality Matters Rubric under Resources on the right.
The Indicators of Instructor Presence that are Important to Students in Online Courses another report on a scholarly study from JOLT
Standard 1.4 makes sure that any policies that students are expected to comply with are clearly stated. This is new in the 2011 rubric and is aimed at things like plagiarism policies and behavior policies. You might include a link to the Student Code of Conduct and be sure students know that it applies to the online classroom as well as the physical classroom.
Standard 1.5 makes sure you note any course prerequisites - you are probably required to have this in your syllabus anyway. Standard 1.6 notes any technical skills needed. I satisfy that with a link to a college web page that lists that information in a general way for distance education students (at least I think I do - I'd better double check).
Standard 1.7 is about the instructor's self introduction. Instructor presence is really important and your introduction is the first step towards establishing that. Think about how you want to project yourself to your students. Remember, they may not see you, they may have no idea about your reputation. Take a moment to establish your credibility and set the tone for the class. You'll find mine in the Global Studies class under the Global Studies Orientation folder, the last link. Instructions on how to access the class are in the navigation bar on the right. I posted a couple of articles on instructor presence below - try Googling the phrase "instructor presence" for even more.
Standard 1.8 is about student introductions. This is a great way to begin to establish a feeling of community in your class. Although I generally don't participate in discussions, I try to reply to every student introduction. I give them a specific intro assignment that I got from one of my faculty at University of Nebraska, Lincoln. The Four Nouns asks students to use 4 nouns to introduce themselves. You'll find the specific assignment under the Global Studies Orientation, Step 2 - Post Your Personal Description. During the class, I post my own 4 nouns to set the tone and then sit back and enjoy the creative student introductions that follow.
The QM rubric makes an important note about introductions in a hybrid course. It is good to have them online even if the students introduce themselves in class (which they often don't), so that students can refer to them later. It is also a great way to get the hybrid class started when the first face to face session is not until later in the week.
Resources:
Find a link to the Quality Matters Rubric under Resources on the right.
An Examination of Online Instructor Presence via Threaded Discussion Participation, report on a scholarly study from the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT)
Balancing Act: Managing Instructor Presence and Workload When Creating an Interactive Community of Learners, a quick article from Instructor Focus
The Impact of Instructor Immediacy and Presence for Online Student Affective Learning, Cognition, and Motivation, a scholarly study from the Journal of Online Educators
The Indicators of Instructor Presence that are Important to Students in Online Courses another report on a scholarly study from JOLT
Instructor Presence in the online classroom, a blog post from Online Learning Insights
New Class Syllabus
Today I'm working on my syllabus. Now, this is something you should really never start from scratch. Most colleges have a model syllabus and there may even be one on your specific class on file somewhere. That is a good place to start. Also, if you college has model syllabus language for common things like the accessibility statement, instructions for using things like the library and tutoring center, work with that as well. There is no point reinventing the wheel.
The possible downside is that most of these statements were designed for face to face instruction. Some modification may be necessary for your online or hybrid class, so be sure to read your entire syllabus carefully and edit where needed. Students really pick up on language that does not apply to their online class.
I have a checklist that I share with my faculty called Syllabus Checklist for Teaching with Technology. It is designed to call out those areas that people might not think about when teaching a face to face class with some technology components or when using a face to face syllabus as a template for an online class.
Also, I'm just thinking it would be helpful to think about what Quality Matters items I would expect to see in a syllabus. Here is my basic list (I put in bold the things I still need to work on in my syllabus):
Resources:
American Government Syllabus
See the Quality Matters Rubric in the Resources link on the right.
The possible downside is that most of these statements were designed for face to face instruction. Some modification may be necessary for your online or hybrid class, so be sure to read your entire syllabus carefully and edit where needed. Students really pick up on language that does not apply to their online class.
I have a checklist that I share with my faculty called Syllabus Checklist for Teaching with Technology. It is designed to call out those areas that people might not think about when teaching a face to face class with some technology components or when using a face to face syllabus as a template for an online class.
Also, I'm just thinking it would be helpful to think about what Quality Matters items I would expect to see in a syllabus. Here is my basic list (I put in bold the things I still need to work on in my syllabus):
- 1.2 Students are introduced to the purpose and structure of the course
- 1.3 Etiquette Expectations for online discussions, email, and other forms of communication are stated clearly
- 1.4 Course and /or institutional policies with which the student is expected to comply are clearly stated or a link to current policies is provided (I have some of these, but I want to be sure I have them all)
- 1.5 Prerequisite knowledge in the discipline and/or any required competencies are clearly stated
- 1.6 Minimum technical skills expected of the student are clearly stated.
- 2.1 The course learning objectives describe outcomes that are measurable.
- 2.3 All learning objectives are stated clearly and are written from the student perspective ( I have to find out from my college whether I am allowed to change the learning objectives, which don't meet this currently. QM takes that into consideration when courses are reviewed.)
- 2.4 Instructions on how to meet the learning objectives are adequate and stated clearly (in progress - I can't really do this until I am done writing all of the activities)
- 2.5 The learning objectives are appropriately designed for the level of the course.
- 3.1 The course grading policy is stated clearly
- 5.3 The instructors plan for classroom response time and feedback on assignments is clearly stated.
- 5.4 The requirements for student interaction are clearly articulated.
- 7.1 The course instructions articulate or link to a clear description of the technical support offered and how to access it.
- 7.2 Course instructions articulate or link to the institution's accessibility policies and services.
Now, other people might craft this list differently. When I do a Quality Matters course review, I look first in the syllabus for these things. Other stuff might also be in the syllabus, but these are the things that I think really need to be there. I've never listed the QM standards in this way, as a sort of syllabus checklist, but I think could this is a useful way to think about the syllabus in the context of QM adequacy.
What do you all think? For those of you familiar with QM, are there things you would add or take away? Why?
Resources:
American Government Syllabus
See the Quality Matters Rubric in the Resources link on the right.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Some recent reading. . .
I thought I would share a couple of articles with you all. As I do, I should note that I use Instapaper for saving all the stuff that I don't have time to read. Once I read it, I forward the stuff I want to save to my Evernote account. Like all my favorite tools, Instapaper is everywhere - I use the app in my browser to save articles, I can forward articles that I get via email, I can read the articles on my phone or iPad - it even syncs with my eInk Kindle. It's very cool. I think I saw someone mention this in the Cool Tools post, so I know I'm not the only Instapaper fan here.
Anyway, on to the articles:
Anyway, on to the articles:
- You're breaking the law every day (and what you can do about it) - a good article on copyright from a consumer prospective (think - your students as they are working on assignments). This is from Lifehacker (http://lifehacker.com), probably my #1 favorite website.
- How to Scan Books for your Personal Library (and why you'd want to) from my favorite blog, the Chronicle of Higher Education's Profhacker, about using Goodreads for keeping track of all your books. This is a genius idea - I can't believe it never occurred to me.
- Web 2.0 at Your Own Pace - from Inside Higer Ed - looks at faculty using technology from the student perspective.
- Tool Roundoup: Productivity Helpers for the New Year - from Insde Higher Ed's GradHacker. It recommends "iffit", a sort of automation tool, which is on my "try this" list for this year.
Objectives in the Course Map
Today, I made a bit of progress on my American Government Course Map. Now, it is important to note that this is something one works on over time, so don't let it seem overwhelming. Ideally, you would start out with your objectives. The nice part about the objectives is that it shouldn't be much work on your part.
Course Level Objectives - you should have these from your Syllabus or from the Course Outline on file at your college from when the course went through the course approval process. The course I am teaching went through the course approval process in the early 1990's and the outcomes were not measurable. So, I tweaked them slightly to be measurable. I pasted the objectives at the top of my course map and numbered them.
Course Topics - I took the topical outline from the approved course outline as well. I pasted these topics, one per row, in the the first column of the course map and added the heading "Course Topic". This wasn't in the template, but I found organizing things by topic easier to wrap my head around. The
Module Level Outcomes - this is the thing you are least likely to have on hand, but should be relatively easy to find. If you have a textbook, there is a good chance that there are chapter objectives at the beginning of each chapter. Those are a fabulous starting point for your module level objectives.
However, as you may recall, I'm not planning to use a textbook for this class. Since I have not taught it in several years, I don't even have any old American Government texts laying around. I will hit up some colleagues next week to look at what they use, but in the meantime, I found some other starting points to use. I found a Moodle Course on American Government. (Cautionary note - even though the heading says Open Access, the copyright notice at the end says "All Rights Reserved" - not open.) I also found the outline for McGraw Hill's American Government text. The chapter objectives are there and are a nice starting point for my module level outcomes. I'm just using these as inspiration and will be developing the actual module level outcomes as I go along.
I pasted those in, row by row, putting the module objectives under the appropriate topic. The next step is to map the objectives. That means to note which course level objectives are met by the student achieving the module level objective. For example, when a student is able to "describe the nature of democratic government" they are moving towards meeting several course level objectives, including "Explain the concepts and themes of American Government". Since this is outcome #1, I put a #1 in the Course Outcomes column. I also added the other relevant outcome numbers in that column.
After all of the module level outcomes are mapped, I'll start the real fun - finding the content that helps the students learn the outcomes. In other words, looking for my open source textbook or its equivalent.
I should note, in all honesty, that I am a little behind. I should have done this course mapping in the first week and worked on the syllabus during the second week. We move on to reviewing content in the third week (good grief - week 3 already?!?). I'll have a quick look at my syllabus tomorrow and try to get us back on track. Have a look at the handy new To Do List to see it all in one place.
Resources:
Blank Course Map
Course Design To Do List - I'm keeping a list, with handy links to the relevant
Course Level Objectives - you should have these from your Syllabus or from the Course Outline on file at your college from when the course went through the course approval process. The course I am teaching went through the course approval process in the early 1990's and the outcomes were not measurable. So, I tweaked them slightly to be measurable. I pasted the objectives at the top of my course map and numbered them.
Course Topics - I took the topical outline from the approved course outline as well. I pasted these topics, one per row, in the the first column of the course map and added the heading "Course Topic". This wasn't in the template, but I found organizing things by topic easier to wrap my head around. The
Module Level Outcomes - this is the thing you are least likely to have on hand, but should be relatively easy to find. If you have a textbook, there is a good chance that there are chapter objectives at the beginning of each chapter. Those are a fabulous starting point for your module level objectives.
However, as you may recall, I'm not planning to use a textbook for this class. Since I have not taught it in several years, I don't even have any old American Government texts laying around. I will hit up some colleagues next week to look at what they use, but in the meantime, I found some other starting points to use. I found a Moodle Course on American Government. (Cautionary note - even though the heading says Open Access, the copyright notice at the end says "All Rights Reserved" - not open.) I also found the outline for McGraw Hill's American Government text. The chapter objectives are there and are a nice starting point for my module level outcomes. I'm just using these as inspiration and will be developing the actual module level outcomes as I go along.
I pasted those in, row by row, putting the module objectives under the appropriate topic. The next step is to map the objectives. That means to note which course level objectives are met by the student achieving the module level objective. For example, when a student is able to "describe the nature of democratic government" they are moving towards meeting several course level objectives, including "Explain the concepts and themes of American Government". Since this is outcome #1, I put a #1 in the Course Outcomes column. I also added the other relevant outcome numbers in that column.
After all of the module level outcomes are mapped, I'll start the real fun - finding the content that helps the students learn the outcomes. In other words, looking for my open source textbook or its equivalent.
I should note, in all honesty, that I am a little behind. I should have done this course mapping in the first week and worked on the syllabus during the second week. We move on to reviewing content in the third week (good grief - week 3 already?!?). I'll have a quick look at my syllabus tomorrow and try to get us back on track. Have a look at the handy new To Do List to see it all in one place.
Resources:
Blank Course Map
Course Design To Do List - I'm keeping a list, with handy links to the relevant
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Refreshing an existing class
In addition to prepping my new American Government class, I am refreshing my summer Global Studies class. I've taught this class every summer for over a decade, so it is comfy and well worn, like a good pair of slippers. Still, even the best slippers lose their shape after a while and a good course is no different.
I like to use the Quality Matters Rubric to spruce up my class. The rubric itself gets refreshed every 3 years, with the last update launched in Summer 2011. So, I'll go over my class element by element, hopefully getting through a standard a week. Today, we'll tackle half of Standard 1: The overall design of the course is made clear to the student at the beginning of the course.
In my Learning Moment post, I noted how important it is to have good, clear instructions on how to get started. (Standard 1.1). Standard 1.2 makes sure the students know why they are taking the class, which I have noted in my Syllabus. I also explain it orally in my Course Orientation.
Standard 1.3 asks about Netiquette. Netiquette explains to the students how you expect students to behave in the online classroom. Ideally, this netiquette language would be in my syllabus, but it's not. I could have a link to a standard set of netiquette, but I don't.
I've been pretty fortunate over the years and have had very few incidents of bad student behavior in the online classroom. Of course, the time to manage these issues is long before they happen by having good policies in place. I don't want to be in the position of making up rules as I go along. So, this is definitely one for my to-do list this week.
Does anyone have some netiquette language that they like? Or a link to a good netiquette resource? Most of the ones I read online seem rather lame or don't get at the nuances of bad behavior that I would want students to consider. Share your thoughts and resources in the comments area below.
Stephanie's Global Studies Class -
I like to use the Quality Matters Rubric to spruce up my class. The rubric itself gets refreshed every 3 years, with the last update launched in Summer 2011. So, I'll go over my class element by element, hopefully getting through a standard a week. Today, we'll tackle half of Standard 1: The overall design of the course is made clear to the student at the beginning of the course.
In my Learning Moment post, I noted how important it is to have good, clear instructions on how to get started. (Standard 1.1). Standard 1.2 makes sure the students know why they are taking the class, which I have noted in my Syllabus. I also explain it orally in my Course Orientation.
Standard 1.3 asks about Netiquette. Netiquette explains to the students how you expect students to behave in the online classroom. Ideally, this netiquette language would be in my syllabus, but it's not. I could have a link to a standard set of netiquette, but I don't.
I've been pretty fortunate over the years and have had very few incidents of bad student behavior in the online classroom. Of course, the time to manage these issues is long before they happen by having good policies in place. I don't want to be in the position of making up rules as I go along. So, this is definitely one for my to-do list this week.
Does anyone have some netiquette language that they like? Or a link to a good netiquette resource? Most of the ones I read online seem rather lame or don't get at the nuances of bad behavior that I would want students to consider. Share your thoughts and resources in the comments area below.
Resources:
Quality Matters Rubric - If you don't have the QM workbook, I encourage you to print out this handy 1 pager to follow along as I reference various standards in the rubric.
Stephanie's Global Studies Class -
- go to http://angel.seattlecentral.edu
- Enter the user name guestscccgs
- Enter the password gs
- Look for the Courses nugget and click on the Global Studies link
(note: I put this same info in an earlier post and I could have expected you to go back and find it (assuming you (1) saw it in the first place and (2) remembered where to look). But it only took a moment for me to copy and paste it here and isn't it way more convenient for you to have it here than to hunt for it? Try to do the same extra steps for your students and make their lives a lot easier)
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Two Favorite Tools
As I get started with my course planning, I thought I would share two of my favorite tools for course planning.
1. Evernote (www.evernote.com). I use Evernote for everything. If I hear a great story on NPR, I save it in Evernote and code it with the course name and subject. If I see a great article online, drive past an interesting sight and take a picture - Evernote saves all of these things and allows easy tagging to effortlessly find the info later. Plus, it lives on every device I own, so my notes and the ability to make them is always with me.
2. Jing (http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html) I make a lot of quick videos for my courses and the absolute easiest way to do it is with Jing. Now, I am not a perfectionist (which will rapidly become apparent to you), so the lack of editing features in Jing is a big plus for me. With the 5 minute time limit, it keeps presentations tight and focused. I use Jing Pro, which lets you save the videos in a format (MP4) that you can easily upload to YouTube. However, Jing Pro is being retired (I'll blog on this later) and Snaggit is replacing it. I'll let you know what I think about that soon. Still, the free Jing tool isn't going anywhere and it is really a super simple way to make videos.
I'd love to hear about some of your favorite tools. Why don't you add them to the comments area.
1. Evernote (www.evernote.com). I use Evernote for everything. If I hear a great story on NPR, I save it in Evernote and code it with the course name and subject. If I see a great article online, drive past an interesting sight and take a picture - Evernote saves all of these things and allows easy tagging to effortlessly find the info later. Plus, it lives on every device I own, so my notes and the ability to make them is always with me.
2. Jing (http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html) I make a lot of quick videos for my courses and the absolute easiest way to do it is with Jing. Now, I am not a perfectionist (which will rapidly become apparent to you), so the lack of editing features in Jing is a big plus for me. With the 5 minute time limit, it keeps presentations tight and focused. I use Jing Pro, which lets you save the videos in a format (MP4) that you can easily upload to YouTube. However, Jing Pro is being retired (I'll blog on this later) and Snaggit is replacing it. I'll let you know what I think about that soon. Still, the free Jing tool isn't going anywhere and it is really a super simple way to make videos.
I'd love to hear about some of your favorite tools. Why don't you add them to the comments area.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Getting Started with a Course Map
It's time to start actually planning this class. The last time I taught American Government, it was around 2003, so this is essentially a new prep for me. If I was doing things the way I used to, I'd start by hunting for a book. But that is actually a step that is a ways down the path. The first step really is my course outcomes. Now, I'll be honest with you - I taught for years before even really reading my course outcomes. They certainly were not the starting point of my course planning process. But, as a Quality Matters master reviewer, I now know that the course outcomes are what it's all about.
I’ve been working as an instructional designer in the Open Course Library and we’re using a great Course Map that is really making course planning easy, systematic and outcomes based. I’m all about easy, so this is what I’ll be using. Here is a link to the course map. I'll start filling out my version this week and share it out with you.
Friday, April 6, 2012
Learning Moment
Late afternoon on Wednesday, I was in my hotel room in Yakima working to get my first Stephanie Plans a Class post up before my evening meeting. I knew if I didn't get it up then, it wouldn't happen until today. In my haste, I forgot to update the instructions in my copied course. This was a big error.
The first rule of online instruction (or instruction in general, really) is that any way that students can be confused, students will be confused. For those of you familiar with the ANGEL learning management system, you probably ignored my announcement that said "Click on the Class tab to get started". You knew where to go to find the content. But, for the folks who are either not familiar with ANGEL or who are very detailed about following instructions, this slight error can and did cause great confusion.
The Quality Matters rubric addresses this issue. Indeed, Standard 1.1 says "Instructions make it clear how to get started and where to find various course components." Clarity (and accuracy) are essential.
Also, it's a trust thing. Every interaction with students builds or undermines trust. Some of you read those instructions and thought, "Geesh, if she can't even tell me where to click, why should I believe anything else she has to say?" I'll have to work extra hard to build that trust back, but some folks will be so put off by that encounter that they won't come back and give me the chance. If you came back, thank you and I'm sorry for making you confused.
I read a study once that said the more experience an online faculty member had, the fewer Help Desk tickets were generated by their students. I'd also venture the instructors themselves had fewer panicked email messages from students. This is because you experience and fix every are where folks can be confused.
Student confusion can be really hard to anticipate. One tip though is to take the time to follow your own instructions. Step by step. Where could there be ambiguity? Clear that up. Even if it seems perfectly obvious to you, just say it. It usually doesn't take much time to add clarifying language and what time it does take is less than the time it will take to answer the confused questions from students.
One more note - as you're poking around my Global Studies class, note that I repeat stuff over and over. I say the same thing in 4 or 5 different places. This is all in the pursuit of clarity. The first place I would think to look for instructions is not the first place that some students will think to look. Thus, I try to put the information in every place they might look.
References:
The Speed of Trust by Steven Covey - great book. I'm nearly done and am finding applicability for its lessons in all aspects of my life. I'm listening to it on Audible - it's read by the author.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Some thoughts on Discussion Grading
A faculty member emailed me about my thoughts on grading discussions. She was thinking of posts worth 50% of the total grade and students would either earn all of the points or none. But she wondered if this was too harsh and asked for my feedback. I thought I'd share some of my response.
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I think it is possible to convey the importance of the discussion without having an all or nothing grading scheme. Indeed, when there are high stakes assignments in classes, studies show that tends to lead to more plagiarism. So you might get more engaged and authentic work if you grade based on the quality of the interactions and increased the chance that they would get at least some credit for their efforts.
In my discussions (worth 30% of the grade) I give about 50% of the credit for simply making the minimum posts (1 main post and 3 replies on at least 3 different days). The remaining credit is based on the quality of their interactions, which I judge based on a fairly simple rubric (pasted below).
Additionally, I provide model posts from students in previous quarters, so students have a clear idea of what good work looks like. I also post announcements pointing out quality posts (I do in in announcements because I do not generally participate in the discussion board).
In the first two weeks of the class, I give very detailed feedback individually on each student’s post. This is a lot of work, but by week 3, everyone knows what is expected and grading is a breeze for the rest of the quarter.
Discussion Rubric:
SCORE:
INITIAL POSTING (15 points):
* This posting reflected that the student read and understood the assigned material, referring specifically to assigned reading or related research - Yes
* The posting has a clear purpose: to inform, persuade, or raise an interesting question. It may also provoke conversation or offer an opposing view of the devil's advocate - Yes
* The posting refers to outside sources in supporting its arguments - Yes
* The post answered the question presented, meets the word requirement of 150 to 350 words, is timely and has no proofing or spelling errors - Yes
REPLIES: (15 points, 3 x 5 posts)
* Replies are substantive and reflect that the student read and thought about the student’s post, the assigned reading and any additional sources posted by the person they are replying to - Yes
* The reply moves the conversation forward or makes a reply to a question asked in response to their own posting - Yes
* Replies are timely and posted on a variety of days – Yes
Overall (points deducted if missing)
* Posts are made on 3 or more days
* Student replies to some of the replies to the initial post
Overview
Hello world! I'm planning a class!
Now, this is nothing revolutionary - most of the people reading this blog do this activity all the time. What is rather odd is that I'm doing it rather publicly - as I write, over 170 people have signed up to follow along. Wow!
I'm really looking forward to giving folks the opportunity to peer in on one online instructor's process. I'm hoping this will give folks the opportunity to learn something new. And, as I look at the names on the list, I know a lot of pretty brilliant people will be playing along and we'll all get the opportunity to learn from each other. This could be really cool.
I'll be posting throughout each week for the 10 weeks of Spring quarter, with a plan to basically have the course planned by the end. Each week, I'll make posts on course planning, Quality Matters, cool tools, selecting open resources, and learning analytics.
Several people have asked what LMS I'm using. I hope to use Canvas, recently announced as the presumed next LMS for the state of Washington. However, we won't have access to it during this quarter that I'm working on this, so my plan is for this course to be LMS neutral. I will, however, be looking where I can for tidbits about Canvas and will share them when I get them.
Along with designing this new class, I'll be sprucing up my Global Studies class that I teach each summer. I like to methodically go through the course periodically, using the Quality Matters Rubric as my guide. Since a new rubric came out last August, it is the perfect time time for sprucing up. There is a link to the course in the Resources area below.
One note about sharing - what's mine is yours. If I share it with you, it is with the anticipation that you might find it useful and can use it in your teaching or training. I'll try to remember to put creative commons license notes on stuff, but please feel free to use. I hope that others share as well and but they don't make a clear statement, please be sure to get their permission before using their content.
Now, this is nothing revolutionary - most of the people reading this blog do this activity all the time. What is rather odd is that I'm doing it rather publicly - as I write, over 170 people have signed up to follow along. Wow!
I'm really looking forward to giving folks the opportunity to peer in on one online instructor's process. I'm hoping this will give folks the opportunity to learn something new. And, as I look at the names on the list, I know a lot of pretty brilliant people will be playing along and we'll all get the opportunity to learn from each other. This could be really cool.
I'll be posting throughout each week for the 10 weeks of Spring quarter, with a plan to basically have the course planned by the end. Each week, I'll make posts on course planning, Quality Matters, cool tools, selecting open resources, and learning analytics.
Several people have asked what LMS I'm using. I hope to use Canvas, recently announced as the presumed next LMS for the state of Washington. However, we won't have access to it during this quarter that I'm working on this, so my plan is for this course to be LMS neutral. I will, however, be looking where I can for tidbits about Canvas and will share them when I get them.
Along with designing this new class, I'll be sprucing up my Global Studies class that I teach each summer. I like to methodically go through the course periodically, using the Quality Matters Rubric as my guide. Since a new rubric came out last August, it is the perfect time time for sprucing up. There is a link to the course in the Resources area below.
One note about sharing - what's mine is yours. If I share it with you, it is with the anticipation that you might find it useful and can use it in your teaching or training. I'll try to remember to put creative commons license notes on stuff, but please feel free to use. I hope that others share as well and but they don't make a clear statement, please be sure to get their permission before using their content.
Resources:
Stephanie's Global Studies Class -
- go to http://angel.seattlecentral.edu
- Enter the user name guestscccgs
- Enter the password gs
- Look for the Courses nugget and click on the Global Studies link
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