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From: Beth Wheeler <bwheeler@sbctc.ctc.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov>
Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:1297] Re: Online PD
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nickie, thank you for your some great ideas to build the online "learning
community". it is encouraging to hear someone with your experience state
you feel you know your online students as well as you get to know your
students face-to-face.
beth wheeler
office of adult literacy
washington state
-----Original Message-----
From: Eunice Askov [mailto:ena1@psu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2004 12:28 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:1286] Re: Online PD
Hi, David! In response to your question ("... what helps to build
interactivity: effective discussion boards and projects. And can you
tell us what else is effective in building online "learning
communities" and what a successful online learning community looks
like?"), I'll tell you what we do at Penn State in our World Campus
courses. During the first week of the course (orientation), students
are asked to create a very simple home page using a template. They
are also asked to post a riddle on the "Introductions" discussion
board about themselves (to be answered only by looking at their home
page). This activity seems to loosen up the atmosphere and to get
the students to look at each other's home pages. They start noticing
commonalities of hobbies, etc.
After about a week into the course, I ask students if they have
preferences for group membership. When the online groups are
established, they are given specific tasks to perform as a group.
They know that they are given the same grade as their group projects
so they each have a vested interest in the group's performance. Each
group is given a private discussion board (not available to the rest
of the class) for their group work, or they may communicate by the
course email and chat systems. (I have found that chat does not
generally work well with the entire class. However, at the beginning
of a course I hold "office hours" occasionally in a chat room so that
students can ask questions. We then post the chat logs so the entire
group can read them.)
What stimulates the development of online learning communities? I
think it is having a common task that about 5 people are asked to do.
The task should be "problem-based," requiring thinking and
reflection. (If it's too easy, they won't work together. For
example, one group task in my research course is to design an
evaluation strategy given a workplace literacy scenario.) They are
supposed to trade off leadership of the group for the various
assignments. An effective online group is one that does work
together with everyone participating to produce a thoughtfully
developed product. Every semester I get the comment in evaluations
that they expected to learn from the instructor, but they did not
expect to learn so much from each other.
I like the checklist that someone recently posted for participants to
ask themselves in posting to a discussion board. (I will use that in
the future.) I usually tell students to post only if they have
something new or different to say. If I see a student posting, "I
agree with So-and-so," I send that student a private email reminding
him/her of the ground rules for posting. Students are evaluated for
the quality and quantity of their postings on team and general
discussion boards. I weigh participation very heavily in assigning
grades because it is the only way to know how and what the student is
learning in an online course. I see my major role in the course, in
addition to evaluating individual and group assignments and
participation, as stimulating thoughtful discussions. I often post a
question to elicit further depth in a discussion. Often some of the
students will do the same!
These strategies may work only in credit-based courses. I have never
taught in any other type of online professional development. Maybe
Jere Johnston will add to these remarks. Nickie Askov
>NIFL-AALPD Colleagues
>
>Nickie Askov wrote:
>
>> Penn State's Adult Education Program has been doing credit-based
>>distance education (M.Ed.) for at least 15 years, starting with
>>audioconferencing, then videoconferencing, and now online through
>>Penn State's World Campus <www.worldcampus.psu.edu>. We now offer
>>the M.Ed. in Adult Ed. <www.worldcampus.psu.edu/pub/adted/> as well
>>as the Certificate in Family Literacy
>><www.worldcampus.psu.edu/pub/famlt/>, both completely online. In
>>this unique kind of professional development, because many people
>>want the courses to apply to a master's or bachelor's degree,
>>retention has not been a problem. In other words, they have a
>>clear purpose in registering for the courses. Our discussion
>>boards are lively, centered around the issues in the courses.
>>About half of our assignments are done as group projects so that
>>online "learning communities" truly do develop. As an instructor,
>>it has been very rewarding for me to have been teaching online
>>since January 2000. I feel that I know my online students just as
>>well (if not better) than my face-to-face students.
>
>I wonder if others have found, as Nickie suggests, that a key to
>retention in online adult education PD (more than a short online
>course or module) is enrollment in a tuition-bearing course which
>leads to credit, CEU's and/or a degree.
>
>Nickie has partially answered my earlier question about what helps
>to build interactivity: effective discussion boards and projects.
>Anything else, Nickie? And can you tell us what else is effective
>in building online "learning communities" and what a successful
>online learning community looks like?
>
>Thanks.
>
>David
>
>David J. Rosen
>djrosen@comcast.net
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