Thursday, December 15, 2016

 Another whirlwind 15 weeks and Fall Semester 2016 is wrapping up!


Themes from IA699; Technology and Teaching: Under the helpful guidance of Gretchen Gibbs


1.       Saving Time from effective Course Design:

·         We learned how to use D2L in a one week short-course on how to design effective online courses. This allowed me to learn the capabilities of the platform and how to integrate time-saving functions into the initial design of the site, such as using weighted grade schemes, organizing content by module instead of date, clearly labeling and organizing content, linking grade items and building test banks. Being shown other effective D2L courses and hybrid courses allowed me to see a broader scope of what is possible with the learning program including the potential of D2L discussion and quizzes. I am excited to integrate many of these tools into my own site design.
·         Also learned about the philosophy of the design of the D2L tool and how to work within and around the design of the tool.
·         We learned how to incorporate backwards design: how to envision a final learning goal or objective, and see how the technology might facilitate (or in some cases not) reaching those objectives.

2.       Technology as an avenue, not an obstacle:

·         When designing content, “if you are spending too much time developing content, you’re not utilizing all of your web resources” (Gretchen Gibbs)
·         Getting comfortable, being uncomfortable: looking to find web resources that give instant feedback for learning tasks that are developing mastery of skills through repetition and practice. Automatic questions integrated into online reading can help students practice retrieval of concepts. 

·          We can use web-designed fonts, and integrate universal design and resources for students requesting disability accommodation.

·         Guiding students with navigational prompts and learning objectives helps them to better navigate external resources.
·         Measuring student’s computer literacy and only introducing one to two new tools a semester keeps technology from being frustrating and distracting from learning goals.
·          Using automatic functions and instant feedback for short quizzes can help students master skills.
·         Keep it simple, keep it short, keep it real. Using Mayer’s design to using human voice and graphics when designing presentation. Students need objectives on the front end to identify important information, highlighted main concepts and cues to wade through the information in a structured way.
·         Using Lang’s small-learning practices, even in an online course, to help students learn better. Using automatic functions in D2L and external quizzing resources like Cerego and StudyBlue can help facilitate practice, prediction and mastery.  
·         Accessible collaborative platforms like Adobe Connect, VoiceThread and Google can allow synchronous and asynchronous group work. Assessing students’ literacy and the purpose of the collaboration will help determine which platform is most appropriate.  

3.       Technology- Making our courses pretty=Engagement!

·         Gretchen introduced us to basic graphic design tools, introduced us to free graphic design programs- even things like using the html code editor to integrate twitter feeds onto the homepage.
·         Using graphics for complex concepts can improve understanding (Mayer’s Design principles)
·         Keep it simple, keep it short, keep it real. Using Mayer’s design to using human voice and graphics when designing presentation. Students need objectives on the front end to identify important information, highlighted main concepts and cues to wade through the information in a structured way.

Overall, we want the technology to allow us to reach learning goals in our courses. Using cognitive science to understand how effective learning takes place and how to use technology, especially in online courses, can help us to help our students learn more effectively!