Dr. Monaghan: Guest Speaker

The opportunity to listen to Dr. Monaghan explain and bring to attention the variety of ways in which online/distributed learning is being facilitated by CSUSB faculty was encouraging. It was encouraging to know that CSUSB instructors use a many different technologies to support student learning and that they have been doing so for quite some time. If I am not mistaken CSUSB faculty began using some forms of elearning features in their courses in the early 90s and have not looked back ever since. It was also during that time that the university received a very large DOD grant to provide online educational services to our men and women in uniform.
It was good to hear from Dr. M. of the progress CSUSB has made over the years in improving the the services provided the instructors to learn, plan, design, and develop online courses in a variety of different content areas ranging from Chemistry to Art with everything in between including mathematics and nursing, and of course most obviously educational/instructional technology. He has a very strong technical staff.
As explained by Dr. M. although Blackboard is the university's primary LMS other systems are available or supported. Moodle is an alternative system at CSUSB. Instructors are not limited to a single LMS. The university settled on Blackboard after it had experimented with other online tools, e.g., WebCT, and although the Blackboard version we currently have may not be the best LMS, what we have has been sufficient for most instructors.
Blackboard does provide a useful platform for supporting a variety of instructional needs. Many instructors supplement BB tools/features with other tools. Tegrity, impatica etc. were some that were mentioned in the conversation.
It is true that many students prefer online courses because such courses allow them to access learning materials when and where they want. LMS features allow instructors to enhance the quality of their course materials in some creative ways. A good online course has the potential of enhancing student engagement and learning.
It is also true that there are students who prefer face-to-face courses over online course because they prefer to have a more personal interaction with their instructors and classmates. A student will cross the oceans to learn in a face-to-face mode from an instructor of great repute. For such a student the online version of the course is a good alternative but not their first choice. It would be similar to watching the super bowl on TV as compared to watching it live. In this and in many other similar situations it would be inappropriate to paint face-to-face classroom lectures as sermons presented by a dead preacher.
I personally think that learning will take place if instructors know their students and can provide the necessary learning experiences that will meet them where their learning needs are. There are strengths and weaknesses to each teaching modality.
It is our responsibility as instructors to choose wisely.
Dr. M. interjected the economics of online courses. It is obvious that there is a great potential for attracting students from a much wider pool of candidates with online courses. With more students comes additional revenues but it also brings in the need for additional instructors to support the students. It was interesting to hear Dr. M. discuss the pros and cons of expanding the boundaries of the university through online courses. He also addressed the concerns some instructors have that the premier universities and publishing companies will draw away students from our service area through their online courses. He provided a strong economic and logistic reason as to why that would not happen.
I was quite pleased with the way Dr. BN moderated the discussion and by the responses Dr. M gave. It was a pleasant evening with a number of good questions posed by some students. I hope the others enjoyed all of the conversation.

 

My First Assignment

1. The four categories discussed in chapter 1 of the textbook incude:

• distribution of course information,
  
• student-instructor and student-student communication,
  
• student interaction with course resources, and
  
• online testing and grading.
  

These four categories incorporate every activity that takes place within an online or elearning course.

2. I use Blackboard as my LMS software. Moodle is an alternative LMS advocated at CSUSB. I have attended a couple of workshops because of my interest in supporting teachers who may not be enrolled at this university.

• Blackboard (BB) permits instructors to upload course syllabii and other course documents such as handouts, forms, etc., video and audio clips; assignments; and external links. A central function of LMSs is to distribute a variety of different course information in a variety of ways. Instructors can distribute course information by posting such information within designated BB folders or by emailing such information to students. Students benefit from the system if the course materials are available to the students via BB within folders that have descriptive names to facilitate locating them without hunting for them in obscure folders.

• BB permits student-instructor and student-student communication via email, discussion board/forums, and announcements. Student can submit their assignments via BB’s Digital Dropbox and receive feedback regarding their performance. Instructors can then communicate scores and grades via Gradebook. Instructors can post announcements for students that is visible when students log into their accounts.

• Students can interact with course resources by first accessing those resourses uploaded by instructors. Students access course syllabus, external links, assignments, handouts, forms, video and audio clips, my favorite external library links giving students access to journal articles subscribed the university library or other source.

• Student performance and evidence of work can be accessed via BB. Students can submit their work via email or Digital Dropbox. The work can then be evaluated by the instructor and feebback given to the students via the same communication tools (i.e., email or digital dropbox.) Grades/scores can be posted, updated as appropriate. Students can be tested in a variety of ways including select response and constructed response items. Items can be randomized so cheating can be reduced. I have not used BB’s testing capabilities.

I have personally used a number of BB’s functions in courses I currently teach or have taught in the past. In particular I have used the following functions: Course Documents, Course Information, Announcements, Grade Book, External Links, Digital Dropbox, Email, Library Resources, Assignments, and Discussion Board in conjunction with Group Pages. I gave up the use of Digital Dropbox because of the number of steps it took to access, score, upload and keep track of student assignments. Digital Dropbox does not have a user-friendly tool for sorting and storing student work by name or category.

Overall, I am very pleased with many of its capabilities.

3. The six steps for getting started with eLearning include

• Ask yourself why
• Make a commitment
• Develop a new vision for your course and how you teach
• Determine the resources available to you
• Acquire new technology skills and develop new instructional methods, and
• Plan

Each of these steps are important considerations when planning to use and LMS within a course. The best way for me to discuss these steps is to view them from my own perspective.

• The primary reason I choose to use an LMS is to enhance student learning. It would be irresponsible of me not to incorporate technologies that support student learning and enhance the quality of instruction. For example, learning is enhanced when students can access learning materials that are organized for easy access, engaging, and multi-faceted. Learning is also supported when there is meaningful student-student and student-instructor communication with supportive feedback.

• The nest step that required a commitment to begin the journey of planning, designing and implementing elearning was done several years ago. The decision was to begin small and to incorporate new functions within BB each subsequent year. A decision was also made to only use tools that facilitated the primary goals established in the first place.

• The step to develop a new vision for the courses I taught and how they are taught was not done in a systematic way. The author identifies a number of areas that one should examine before embarking on the journey of developing an elearning course. The vision is consistent with the needs of students who live away from the university and would prefer to access components of the course via BB. There are additional changes that are envisioned, including the use of modular activities within a science methods course for elementary teacher candidates.

• One of the benefits of working at CSUSB is that there are ample resources available to me. The university provides a number of workshops to support faculty members in their efforts to build effective elearning courses. BB has a number of functions that are consistent with my needs.

• As mentioned earlier there is adequate support at this university to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to develop new instructional methods and enhance those that I currently use. There are a number of faculty members across the university who use novel tools and instructional strategies. ACM, TRC and ODL provide regular professional development workshops and respond to faculty needs in a timely manner.

• The plan to implement elearning needs to be undertaken with a strong understanding of the content, the students who are the learners, the available technology, and effective instructional strategies for the specific content. There is a strong demand for the inclusion of constructivist teaching approaches for science. Student motivation and learning is enhanced with hands-on inquiry activities. Planning should take into these instructional components.

4. One-way communication involves the transmission of information that is directed in only one directions mostly from instructor to student. Two-way communication involves the exchange of information between students and instructor or among students. Examples of one-way communication include posting announcements, syllabii and other course documents, video clips, podcasts/audio files, external links, gradebooks, emails, calendar, etc. In each of these situations the information is flowing from the instructor to the students in a single direction. Examples of two-way communications include discussions/forums/chats, whiteboards, tests and subsequent feedback/rebuttals, and emails that require or result in replies. In each of these cases the flow of verbalizations flow back and forth at least one time between two individuals. BB has the capability of both one-way and two-way communication. BB supports each feature listed above.

About Myself

My reason for wanting to learn instructional technology is to enhance the methods through which science education is taught to elementary school teachers. I also teach assessment courses and would like to apply similar technologies there.
I've used technology since my arrival in the US some 28 years ago. My first experiences were rather hillarious. The best part of learning to use technology was the efficiency with which images, computations, and text is created and communicated.
With growing need for serving students who desire online education it is important for me to gain the necessary knowledge and skills to transition toward more online instruction.
I could outsource this task but I would be employing myself!!