Sharing the distinction of 1st place both courses CEP 810 and ISB 202 offer a wide variety of technological and pedagogical achievements that raise the bar of online teaching.
CEP 810: Teaching for Understanding with Computers
CEP810 uses an elegant, custom-made, online student portfolio system which intricately links an assignment’s rubric with grades and student feedback.
Teaching for Understanding with Computers uses the Educational Technology Certificate program’s own specially designed electronic portfolio system with assignment calendar for students to submit their assignments. Dr. John Bell was instrumental in creating this system and then integrating it into Angel.
The Assignment Calendar is accessed by clicking on the Calendar tab in Angel. Students can see a list of required assignments, the start date and due date for each, where they can find more information within the course for a particular assignment, and whether or not they are late in submitting their work. The assignment calendar is thus tied to the portfolio system so when students submit an assignment it will show up as being submitted under Status. When the instructor provides feedback the student is notified through the same Status field.
The portfolio system, accessed by clicking on the Portfolio tab, provides students with detailed rubrics for each of their projects and assignments and a place to submit their work. This allows the instructor to grade the students on each of the requirements detailed in the rubric as well as provide them feedback for each requirement. Students greatly appreciate the clear expectations that are set based on these grading rubrics for each of their projects and assignments. This specific feedback from the instructor also extends their learning beyond simply receiving an overall grade, thus modeling an effective teaching approach.
Tutorials have been created covering many of the technologies discussed in class. To accommodate students at all levels the department has subscribed to a web-based software training service called Atomic Learning. This service provides video tutorials for over 110 applications at a beginning, intermediate and advanced level. Students who need additional help in a particular application or those who would like to learn more advanced features of an application can use these videos to help support and/or extend their learning.
As part of a course assignment CEP 810 students share a tip or trick that they have learned with others outside of class on a social networking site called MACUL space. MACUL (Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning) brings educators from all levels together to share knowledge and concerns regarding educational uses of computers and technology. By having students connect with others in this organization they begin to establish professional relationships with other educators from across the state.
Accessibility
When the courses were updated in 2007, emphasis was placed on making them accessible to all learners. All of the Breeze presentations and videos have been transcribed. In addition to the PDF transcripts, the text of any audio narration is included in the Notes pane of all of the Breeze presentations. Dragon Naturally Speaking was used to help with the transcription. The documents were then edited and formatted so they were easy for students to follow.
To be compatible with screen readers, headers and alt tags were added to all course pages. All .pdf files such as the syllabus and the transcripts have been tested to ensure they meet accessibility requirements.
Team
Carrie Albin, Outreach Manager, Educational Technology Certificate Program, Curriculum/Designer
John Bell, Associate Professor, Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education, Curriculum/Technology
Brandon Blinkenberg, vuDAT, eProducer
Joe Codde, Director, Educational Technology Certificate Program
Kathryn Dirkin, Graduate Student, Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education, Curriculum/Designer
Carolyn McCarthy, Adjunct Faculty, Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education, Instructor
Brook Thompson, Assistant to Director, Educational Technology Certificate Program, Transcriber/Accessibility
Sue Way, Former Master’s Coor., Educational Technology Certificate Program, Curriculum
Tae Seob Shin, Graduate Student, Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education, Curriculum
ISB 202: Applications of Organismal and Environmental Biology
ISB202 is a fully online MSU course taught by a comic strip superhero professor and his friendly sidekick, “Globie” (planet Earth).
The primary concern of this course for non-majors was to set a relaxed tone so the student might engage with the material more fully, approach the instructor if they needed help, and consequently improve their success in class (reflected in attitude or assessment scores). The literature on teaching science to non-majors makes it clear that one of the main hurdles to learning is fear, ranging from fear of past failures to fear of material, class format, or even the instructor
ISB 202 turns perceived weaknesses of online classes such as lack of physical instructor presence into strengths by taking advantage of online flexibility of format to create an environment specially designed to reduce fear and increase student engagement and performance with comic artwork and interactive exercises. The comics serve as a vehicle to scaffold students’ learning, from simple concepts into more difficult material. This course applies this technique universally, not just to specific material.
Student performance is assessed using quizzes, discussion forums, simulations, and exams. The quizzes are formative assessments that test students on their readings for the week. The quizzes are low stakes, in that students can retake them if they are unsatisfied with their grade. These quizzes then “unlock” the lecture for the week. The goal for this design is that students are expected to reach a level of competency from their textual readings before interacting with the lecture material.
The 10 question quiz is pulled from ~100 question pools. To be sustainable and to reduce the threat of question pool stagnation, these assessments should ideally have new questions added somewhat regularly. To this end, as part of their summative assessment, students are asked to create a multiple-choice questions on topics covered in the course. Students must not only construct the questions, the correct answer, and distracters, but also also write why an “intelligent” person might choose each incorrect answer.
Student-generated questions serve to replenish the question pool, and cause students to approach the material differently and think like teachers, in line with the adage “you don’t truly learn something until you teach it.” Populating pools with vetted questions students come up with keeps the assessments fresh and the students thinking, while giving them a sense of ownership in their course.
Applications of Organismal and Environmental Biology begins each week with a weekly comic strip depicting the instructor interacting with an imaginary side-kick, “Globie,” humorously introducing the topic. Students interact with simulations, multimedia lectures, and activities. To help students apply the concepts to real-life situations, they listen to podcasts from the Environment Report featuring short stories about environmental issues, most of which are in Michigan.
Evidence of Effectiveness
Students’ views of the class were significantly more favorable than their general view of science, and when compared to their grades, students’ views on the class were a better predictor of their course grades than was their view of science. Taken in conjunction with many of the written final evaluation comments, there is a strong indication that the course format reduces student anxiety and increases student engagement and success.
Team
Stephen Thomas, Ph.D., Vis. Asst. Professor, Zoology
Jessica L. Knott, vuDAT, E-Producer
Tory Sawyer, vuDAT, E-Producer
Ben Rhodes, vuDAT, Flash Developer
Chris Irvin, vuDAT, Banner/watermark art
