Get out there and observe

I have been so lucky recently to have multiple opportunities to observe my colleagues teaching on-campus and online. It has served to rejuvenate my own teaching...encouraging me to reflect on my teaching and course design decisions. These observations have reinforced for me the following:

• The importance of connecting with students and enhancing social presence.
  
• The value of establishing and continually reminding students of the relevance of their coursework in terms of the profession for which they are preparing.
  
• The need to use a variety of instructional strategies in order to engage all of the students in the room.
  
• The criticality of providing students with clear directions and expectations at the get-go.
  
• The usefulness of consistent and frequent opportunities for students to receive feedback.
  

If you are able, ask colleagues if you can observe them in action (or, better yet, for a learning community with a group of colleagues that allows for observation and follow-up and continued discussion about teaching and learning). Or, check with your Center for Faculty Development. Ours has a list of faculty who have agreed to allow colleagues to visit their classrooms. Definitely an opportunity to take advantage of.

Rockin' Robin, Tweet, Tweet, Tweet... My adventure with Twitter

It has been awhile since I have posted to this blog because I've been focused on sharing ideas and connecting with folks in different ways (e.g., through my Ideation blog, webinars, online newsletters, LMS). For example, one social networking tool I've been exploring with students and colleagues is Twitter.

My reason for getting into Twitter, and inviting interested online students to try it out with me, is because I wanted to have an informal, playful way for my online students and I to connect throughout the day (see the my course ideation blog for an overview of my decision to use Twitter and my immediate thoughts after launching it). This has to do with me overarching interest in enhancing social presence in online learning experiences. I have found that I can't accomplish all I want to accomplish in terms of social presence withing the structure of a learning management system (LMS). What has consistently been lacking for me is the informal, playful banter and chit-chat that I have with students in my on-campus courses. This banter helps students connect with me, experience my personality. And, it helps them connect with each other in a more emotional way. To address this in the LMS, I have incorporated weekly fun activities (such as coming up with captions for goofy photos, or competing in an online game), established discussion forums for non-academic topics, had students produce music playlists for the week, and so on. But, although helpful, these strategies didn't seem to do enough to enhance social presence. Twitter seems to have potential to further support my efforts in this arena, and the results so far have been positive (although I now wish that I had more strongly encouraged all of the students to participate).

I have also used Twitter to connect with colleagues, especially within the university, via Twitter and have found this type of connection rewarding. Besides our playful banter which I have found refreshing, we are able to immediately point each other to interesting articles, YouTube videos, webinars, events, and the like. And, we also use it to ask questions, in a pop-into-your-office sort of way. For example, I have been in meetings and needed a quick answer to a question, posted my question in Twitter, and quickly received responses that I then shared with the meeting group to help the discussion move forward. That's pretty powerful.

At this point, I am not following or be followed by that many folks. That works for me. But, some folks have very large social networks in Twitter. That's exciting. When used effectively, Twitter helps you stay connected with students and colleagues in a fun and meaningful way...and provides immediately connection with a brain-trust of practitioners and experts that can provide on-the-job performance support. And, can tell you when there is free pie in the lobby!

Check out Twitter...and connect with me. My username in Twitter is jonidunlap.

Improving the odds of effective collaborative work in online courses

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting with a group of online course designers and faculty to talk about how to improve the odds of involving online students in effective collaborative activities. In preparation for the discussion, I revisited a set of guidelines I had put together for other workshops and talks I deliver on the subject. Many of these guidelines have already found there way into this blog, but I thought it might be helpful to have them all in one place. So, the following are some guidelines and suggestions I've found helpful when designing collaborative (groupwork and teamwork) activities.

A couple of basic definitions

Tenets of collaborative/cooperative learning ~
– Positive interdependence
– Individual accountability
– Promotive interaction
– Development of teamwork skills (with guided practice)
– Regular assessment of teamwork functioning

Groupwork ~
– Activity spans short time frame.
– Groups formed spontaneously.
– Groups breakup after a session (little or no commitment).
– Most students equipped with skills to do groupwork.

Teamwork ~
– Activities span long time frame.
– Teams formed carefully.
– Teams stay formed and have commitments.
– Students are ill equipped with skills to do teamwork.

A few basic guidelines about collaborative work

1. Balance individual and collaborative work, online and off-line work.
   
   
2. Make sure collaborative work is relevant, and that learners understand the relevance.
   
   
3. Even if you are not involving learners in collaborative projects, assign learners to study/support groups or involve them in other collaborative activities: role-playing, debates, discussion protocols (e.g., jigsaw, rotating stations, the final word), peer review, case studies, game/quiz show, competitions, group test taking, “Naked Came the Manatee” co-construction/writing, and so on.
   
   
4. Assign learners to teams with 4-5 members. Form team with goal to spread abilities, skills and learning preferences/styles. [Follow a method, such as mixed ability, or learning preference assessment, or learning goal focus.]
   
   
5. Keep learners in same teams during the whole semester.
   
   
6. Build time into the course schedule for team formation.
   
   
7. Establish explicit individual learner roles and responsibilities (e.g., organizer/project manager, main researcher, section writer, editor, etc.). Roles and responsibilities should lead to a fair division of labor. Rotate roles with each project.
   
   
8. Have learners construct a team agreement, including ramifications of non-compliance with the agreement.
   
   
9. Consider easier team projects early on, building towards more complexity.
   
   
10. Establish a mechanism for checking in on teams and individual team members.
    
    
11. Break a collaborative project up into a subset of deliverables (smaller, more manageable team projects), with due dates spread out across the timeframe.
    
    
12. Engage in structured walkthroughs at various points during the project. [Use synchronous tools to meet with a team and ask pointed questions of each team member regarding contributions to the project, etc.]
    
    
13. Require weekly status reports from each team/team member (e.g., summarize what the team accomplished this week, describe your most significant contribution to the project this week, describe why the contribution was significant, describe with other team members contributed, and describe what you need to accomplish on the project next week).
    
    
14. With each project, include a team-graded component and an individual-graded component.
    
    
15. Assess process, and/or product, and/or outcome.
    
    
16. Consider “no jeopardy” approaches to collaborative work that allow for a submitted product to be complete without a missing member’s contribution. Examples include: each student completes an allocated task that contributes to the final team product and gets the marks for that task; each student writes and submits an individual report based on the team’s work on the task/project; each student takes an exam, with exam questions that specifically target the team project, and can only be answered by students who have been thoroughly involved in the project; each student’s contribution is assessed via individually-produced evidence such as status reports, journals, time logs, and direct observation; each student produces an individual paper based on the team project.
    
    
17. Allow for the use of a variety of collaboration tools, not just those tied to the CMS/LMS. Also, use tools and technologies commonly used in the profession for which you are preparing students.

Assessing collaborative work: A few suggestions

1. Teamwork rubric. Create a rubric for assessing collaborative contribution (see Figure 1), with clear criteria. Make that rubric available to learners well in advance of a collaborative project.
   
   
2. “Rules of Engagement” contract. This contract should include information on:
   
   • Who will post: Which team member will be responsible for posting the group’s deliverables?
     
   • Leader or not: Some groups chose a leader to keep things moving, some groups change that leader each week (or every other week or whatever), and some groups decide not to do this.
     
   • Communication and deadlines: How will they communicate with each other? How often? Will they set interim deadlines? Some groups like to set certain deadlines, such as initial work done by Wednesday, rewrites by Friday, and final posted Sunday.
     
   • Equal contributions: How will work be distributed?
     
   • Preferred work style: Some people like to get things done during the week and take the weekend off and others prefer the opposite. What is your style? How will you handle style differences?
     
   • Not getting work done: What will the group do if one member cannot fulfill his or her obligations? Will that member be docked points, or can the member make up the work?
     
   • Known problems: Issues you know will come up, how to handle dates you know you will be out of town?
     
   
   
3. Team Review Form: Figure 2 is a form learners use to assess each other’s contributions to team projects (as well as their own contributions). These assessments can have ramifications, such as if a team member receives less than 50 points on the Team Review Form from more than one team member then that learner’s points for the deliverable will be reduced by 20%. This form can be completed at the end of projects, or at key points throughout a project.
   
   
4. Weekly status reports. Have learners submit weekly (or biweekly) status reports (see #13 under basic guidelines above).
   
   
5. Public and semi-public structured walkthroughs. Use synchronous tools to meet with teams/groups during a project. In advance, provide the group with a set of questions you will ask about the project. When together, randomly select group members to respond to particular questions.
   
   
6. Project quiz/exam. Once the project is complete, test team members on the content of the project.
   

Figure 1.


Figure 2.



And, a bonus. A fun video on the joys of teamwork.

The essence of good storytelling

For me, storytelling is everything. When I pull it off and do it well, it helps me achieve so much as an educator -- engaging learners, establishing social presence, illustrating relevance, encouraging connections between theory and practice, holding attention, having fun, being in community, and so on. It is the key to connecting, to making sense of the world, to contributing to the world. To be a good educator, in my humble opinion, one has to be a great storyteller.

All of us have had people who contributed to our educational, professional, and personal journeys through storytelling. The person who most influenced my love of storytelling as a vehicle for connecting and educating is my father, Ray Dunlap. He was always telling stories (and jokes...humor is an important aspect of storytelling too). Ray died in June 2008. Luckily, I have one of his stories to share here, as an example of good storytelling. It illustrates what stories can accomplish (the laundry list above) with little fanfare. A good story works, even without a big media production to support it. Share your stories with others, it makes a difference.

Thank you, Ray, for sharing your stories.

Appropriate class size for online courses?

What is the thinking these days about class size for online instruction? I was asked this question today. This is a question that online educators frequently examine. My professional recommendation, supported by the literature, is that online class sizes be limited to 15 to 20 students. Why? Here is what we know:

1. Attrition in online courses and programs is a problem. The attrition typically has three sources: inconsistent expectations, underdeveloped time management and self-directed learning skills, and lack of social presence. In terms of expectations, students continue to think that online courses are easier than on campus courses, that they will be able to fulfill the requirements of the course at their own pace, and so on. As for time management and self-directed learning skills, online educational opportunities tend to require students to take on more responsibility for tracking course requirements, due dates, and the like. Students need to be more autonomous than many of them are used to (e.g., the structure of on-campus courses and the weekly required face-to-face classes with professors tends to eliminate the need for students to manages a lot of the logistical overhead). In terms of social presence, if students experience limited to no connection with the professor and fellow students, they can feel disconnected, disengaged. If they have no voice, or feel that they have no voice, they don't/won't use it...and drift away.
   
   
2. Effective graduate-level teaching (whether online or on campus) involves students in relevant, meaningful projects that help prepare them for the profession; requires professors to provide high levels of constructive feedback; offers students multiple opportunities for exploration, practice, failure; engages students in mentoring and coaching relationships with faculty; involves highly engaging instructional experiences and formats; and so on.

Addressing the issues above (#1) in a way that reflects effective teaching practice (#2) is intensive, especially when the course is online. The transactional distance involved in an online course -- the fact that we are not all in the same room at the same time, and that we are working together asynchronously in a primarily text-based format -- exponentially increases the amount of time a professor needs to attend to the course and the students. So, when there are more than 20 students in an online course, something has to give, something suffers. Either the professor cannot adequately address the issues in #1, or has to significantly scale back the teaching approaches and strategies, or both.

Therefore, since we do not want to compromise on either front, my answer to the question is -- Allow online educators and students to get the most out of the educational opportunity by limiting class sizes to 15 to 20 students. Please.

Presentation on social presence in online courses

I delivered this presentation in May 2008 at the CU Online Symposium. A number of the strategies I share during the presentation are described in more detail throughout the blog. [Note: As stated in other posts, I struggle with delivering presentations in conference and conference-like settings because I do not use PowerPoint or other presentation software well. I recently completed a workshop offered by Edward Tufte...the future -- on the presentation front -- looks brighter, but I'm not making any promises about improvement.]

Presentation description: Enhancing social presence in online courses Because of the critical role that social presence plays in inspirational and meaningful learning, online courses need to include opportunities for rich and relevant learning opportunities that (1) create a sense of learning community in which learners learn from each other and from the teacher, (2) encourage the sharing of multiple perspectives, and (3) promote high quality work through collaboration and peer review – without creating an instructional situation in which everyone is online constantly. In this presentation, we examine various instructional strategies that can be used to accomplish an appropriate level of social presence in online courses.

Web link (sorry, I couldn't make the embedded video work): http://video.cudenver.edu/departments/CUOnline/symposium_08/Enhancingsocialpresenceinonlinecourses.wmv

Presentation slides: Social Presence

I write the songs...digital music in the classroom

I am very interested in figuring out how to use digital music with students. Whether teaching online or on campus, my students are often carrying mp3 players, iPods, or some sort of device for playing and listening to music. Instead of asking them to set that stuff aside, I want to use music in instructional ways. Here are a few ideas:

• Pick a course topic and have students find songs that say something about that topic. For example, I teach educators, so I have students find songs about school (such as School's Out, We're Going to be Friends, Be True to Your School, Hot for Teacher, and so on). Then, they share their songs and we discuss what the songs tell us about the experience of school...the good, the bad, and the ugly.
  
  
• Related to the idea above, have students pick a word (e.g., power) or an event (e.g., when they felt like they had really succeeded at something) or an emotion/state-of-mind (e.g., confidence), and find a song that represents that word/event/emotion. Students can include an explanation of how/why the song represents that word for them, or students can engage in a 20-question activity to ferret out why each student selected their song.
  
  
• Have students bring in a song and rewrite the lyrics to reflect a particular course topic (everyone can write lyrics for a 12-bar blues, after all). I have a colleague who does this at the end of a course, and students perform their songs (original or rewrite)!
  
  
• Have students select a song, and then create a music video for the song. The video should reflect a particular course topic. For example, if I was teaching a course on language, literacy, and culture, I could have students pick any song, but then create a video in support of the song that reflects diversity. [This idea relates to the various digital storytelling posts in this blog.]
  
  
• As a way for students to get to know each other, each student could share a song and explain why the song is meaningful to her or him (I call this the "Soundtrack of Your Life" activity). Or, alternatively, students could share their songs, and then the group could ask questions about the song -- sort of a 20-questions activity -- to figure out why each student selected the song she or he did. Finally, the shared songs could be used to consider the groups shared interests, differences, and so on (e.g., how many folks like jazz, or female songwriters, or sad songs). A great tool for this is Finetune. Finetune allows you to create playlists from a large library of music, and then makes it easy to share your playlists with others. Songza is a similar tool that I also like. So, for the Soundtrack activity, I ask students to create Finetune or Songza playlists that are shared with others in the class. To give you an idea of what you end up with, here are a few examples of my playlists:
  
  June 17, 2008 (in Songza) ~
  
  
  
  Easy Listening Groove (in Finetune) ~
  
  http://www.finetune.com/playlist/2284782
  
  Living in London 1978 (in Finetune) ~
  
  http://www.finetune.com/playlist/2285010
  
  Is that the Amtrak train, already? - Chico, 1988 (in Finetune) ~
  
  http://www.finetune.com/playlist/2289503