Week 8 Blog: Best Practices Blog

My personal philosophy is somewhat laxed. I believe that a community is what makes a traditional and an online learning environment successful. My Christian spin on my philosophy is to, "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6, ESV) 

 When there is a community of dedicated learners, then the instruction or teaching part becomes a breeze and is fun. Merrie Kaas states that she tries to develop creative ways to make a maintain a sense of community online. (Kaas, 2012)

Before you can understand someones philosphy of best practices in distance education, you must first understand the concept behind a best practice and distance education. Best practices in eduation is the most efficient (least amount of effort) and effective (best results) way by which society transmits its accumulated knowledge and skills from one generation to another. (Baghdadi, 2011)) In other words, a teacher or instructor must be able to communicate learning in the best possible way as quickly and seamlessly as possibly in the least amount of time. Distance education is a form of education where the instructor and the students are separated by distance and/or time. (Hutchens & Kaas, 2009) When combining the two, it is my outlook that it is imperative that a teacher who now is considered more of a guide, purpose is to create a condusive environment that is student-centered and capable of developing a course curriculum that will appeal to students by increasing enjoyment and interest in the material. 

Miller and Hutchins findings also showed that instructional technology sginificantly increases student satisfaction. (3) Students reported that they enjoyed the use of online discussions, chats, assignments, simulations, demonstrations, PowerPoints shows, and the ability to check their grades using the course management tools. 

As an instructor, online, a best practice that I agree with is that the instructor must actively participate in all dimensions of the online classroom. (Baghdadi, 2011) A great example of an active instructor would be Dr. Courdoff. She has participated in every aspect of our planning and implementation of our projects for EDUC 633. An online instructor should serve as a guide to cacilitate learning and must do that in a more pronounced way because of the lack of face-to-face interaction. (Baghdadi, 2011) Its a good practice to create and manitain a well developed syllabus addressing proactively  many of the course dynamics and the use of frequently asked questions..." and by having a welll developed syllabus, this would construct a learning environment where the students guidelines and expectations for the course is set. 

These are the some of the best practices that I would use to enhance my online classroom. I have always been one who believed in creating a "fun," yet condusive environment for my students whether it be in the classroom or online. 

References

Baghdadi, Ziad; (2011). Best practices in online education: Online instructors, courses, and administratiors. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education. July 2011. 

Hutchens, Scott; (2009). 21st century teaching technology: Bes practices and effectiveness in teaching psychology.

Kaas, Merrie J.; (2012). Lessons Learned: Providing Access through Distance Education. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses; 4 January 2012.

Week 5: Webliography

Clark and Mayer summarize that research shows that people learn more and/or better from audio only teaching as opposed to audio and narrative. When there are words on the screen showing the same thing that is being said, this is redundancy and is ineffective. "The psychological advantage of presenting words in audio alone is that you avoid overloading the visual channel of working memory." (Clark & Mayer, 2008) In contrast to those who are audio learners, there are those who are visual learners. Because of this belief or knowledge, it is believed that, "words should always be presented in both spoken and printed form so learners an choose the presentation format that best matches their learning preferences." (Clark& Mayer, 2008) This idea is known as the hypothesis idea. It's all about the amount of information received.There are three different delivery routes for information. There is delivery by pictures, narration, and on-screen text. It is however possible to use the audio and narrative at the same time however, using the narrative and graphics will not. IN summary, it is best believed that text be presented in both formats for both audio and visual learners so that  they have the chose as to which of the formats will be more effective for them. 

Clark and Mayer talk about coherence as having a strong impact on learning. It calls for educators to be consistent and not overdo what needs to be taught. The coherence principle states that we should eliminate any unnecessary tools such as graphics, background music, or extraneous words. What ever is necessary to teach someone is all that is needed at that time for them to understand what is being taught. Anything extra seems to take away from what is being taught, and can be seen as a distraction to the goal of the lesson. Students learn better when extraneous material is excluded rather than included.

Using extraneous graphics can interfere with learning in three ways; distraction, disruption, and seduction. Distraction takes away the learners limited attention, disruption prevents them from building appropriate links among pieces of relevant material because irrelevant material is in the way, and seduction primes inappropriate existing knowledge. Background music can tend to overload working memory and seems to be distracting. Extraneous words aren’t needed because it may expand focus on what the learner really needs to know, so keeping it simple will better benefit the learner. 

Overall, the designer should always consider the consequences of adding extraneous graphics, music, or words when creating content. There should be a focus on whether the additions will distract, disrupt, or seduce the learner’s process of knowledge construction (Clark & Mayer, 2008). The purpose of the coherence is to make the course effective and concise. Designers should focus on stimulating student’s interest without adding extraneous materials. They should find a way to add interesting words, sounds or graphics that match instructional goal while at the same time promote learners interest.

Patricia's Personal Reflection 

I found that in both of the chapters, I have some personal experiences. In chapter 7, I find that I process information by visual learning. I have recently experienced where I rented a movie and noticed that the captions were on the movie. Same thing when its in a different language. I find myself paying attention to only the words on the screen and missing the movie itself. Its very frustrating and even if it is a movie that I really wanted to see, I will stop. Chapter 7 reminded me of that. In chapter 8, I find that it related to myself because I do not do well when there is no organization. I don't like confusion and I can't function efficiently or effectively. Syllabus and rubrics are my best friend with online courses. When it comes to noise in the background, I can not work in silence. Perhaps it has something to do with having children, but I can't even sleep without background noises. I have had instructors with my online course, who have presented the weekly class materials on a video and power points were also made available for the same information and then we had to turn around and read the chapter which was the long version of all of the other information that was received in the video and the powerpoint. It is a form of redundancy however,i almost always find that I learn and retain more information from the power point and the video. 

As we talk about chapter 7 and 8, as it pertains to our groups ISD project, I find that we will be using a combination of the two. In particular in we have chosen to use media tools which will touch on the redundancy principle and not using the narration and text at the same time. We made a point to make sure that the information was clear and concise so that the learner can effectively retain the information being provided. One of the things that we are also doing is making sure that the information flows well and is coherent with the goal of the project. The tutorial will be set up to be easy to understand and maneuver through. We want the learner to understand at the end all of the basic concepts so that they can effectively integrate technology into their classrooms. 

Marcus' Personal Reflection

My personal reflection on redundancy and coherence is thinking about the way we live today. So much goes on in our everyday lives that we lose focus on our purpose. So much habit (redundant) of doing things our way, which includes unnecessary (coherence) stuff that we miss out on what it is we really need to live. God’s plan for people is to live like Him, love one another, and be thankful of every day of life while being focused on the His word. But yet, we get distracted by the “good” things of the world and tend to get off track from what we stand for and how we should be.   

References

Clark, R.C., & Mayer, R.E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for     consumers and designers of multimedia learning (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Wiley & sons. ISBN: 9780470874301.

EDUC 633 - Week 4 Blog Assignment

Face-to-face contact is one of the things that have created challenges for assessment. In traditional classes, instructors would rather proctor an assessment so that they can see if a student has indeed prepared themselves to demonstrate their knowledge. It is my personal opinion that this just something that reaffirms to an instructor that they did something well as opposed to the thought that a student can still come into a classroom after crashing before an assessment and regurgitate information as well. 

The challenges that are faced with mobile and online education is and will continue to be whether a student is learning enough and actually focusing on the task. Is there someone else taking a course for someone or if there is help being provided instead of a student completing a course honestly. 

Another challenge would be accessibility for a student to attend and complete assessments online. (Vigo, Arrue, & Abascal, 2011) Versions of different softwares that are being used, compatibility amongst the instructors and the students, are all valid challenges.

Where the effectiveness of current online and mobile assessment methods being used are concerned, from interactive systems for getting instant student feedback to software that lets educators jot down observations on the fly. mobile assessment tools provide immediate impact. The author states that, "mobile assessment technology, in an ideal world, expands instructional time and improves instruction, but if the system you purchase doesn't integrate easily with the existing curriculum, then it will not get used." 

(2005)

References

Mobile assessment tools. (2005). Technology & Learning, 26(5), 44-44,46. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/212096544?accountid=12085

Vigo, M., Aizpurua, A., Arrue, M., & Abascal, J. (2011). Quantitative assessment of mobile web guidelines conformance. Universal Access in the Information Society, 10(1), 33-49. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10209-010-0186-8

VB: Week 2

http://youtu.be/rtpcuz1faP4

References

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2012). E-learning and the science of instruction, proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.

My Family!

EDUC 633 - Module 1