Transcript Notebook Universities do not have to be Expensive

Tools of the Trade: Using
Technology in Your Course
Ms. Darla Runyon
Assistant Director/Curriculum Specialist
Northwest Missouri State University
Dr. Roger Von Holzen
Director—Center for Information Technology in Education
Northwest Missouri State University
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Focus of Course Redesign
• Three options:
– DFW reduction
– Cost reduction
– Increased enrollments
• Three approaches to cost reduction
– Keep student enrollments the same while
reducing the instructional resources devoted to
the course
– Increased student enrollments with little or no
change in course expenditures
– Decrease costs by reducing the number of
repetitions required to pass the course*
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Begin with Course Site
• Redesign the entire course
– Design using a tool such as Quality Matters as a
guideline
• Eight Quality Matters General Standards
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Course Overview and Introduction
Learning Objectives
Assessment and Measurement
Resources and Materials
Learner Engagement
Course Technology
Learner Support
Accessibility*
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Begin with Course Site
• Need to gain agreement on:
– core course outcomes
– instructional formats
– textbook or eTextbook selection along with digital
assets for interactive learning
– publisher materials and resources
– topic sequences/course site navigation
– setting up a common course site
• Library research module
– created and monitored by librarians*
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Continuous Assessment and
Feedback
• Create low-stakes online quizzes to test
assigned readings and homework (formative)
• Allow repeated quiz taking to achieve mastery of
material (within the confines of a set course
schedule)
• Provide automatic grading and feedback to
students via course site grade book
• Provide faculty member with feedback to detect
challenging content (item analysis on
quizzes/exams from the CMS)*
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Increase Interaction Among
Students
• Creating "Small" Within "Large"
– Create small online discussion groups (10-12
students)
– Have group discuss instructor questions
– Create group guidelines
• Assign roles
• Allow students to vote out inactive or unproductive
group members
• Generate and submit for evaluation a group
response*
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Promote Active Learning
• Replace lecture time with individual and small-group lab
activities
– Have labs staffed by faculty, GAs and/or undergraduate peer
tutors
– Provides greater one-on-one assistance
• Online Tutorials
– Design interactive tutorials to take over the main instructional
role (SoftChalk and/or Flash learning objects)
– Check digital repositories such as Merlot
– Use quizzes to test mastery of the material before proceeding to
next topic
– Use the learning path or mastery tool in the CMS to track
mastery and guide students to mastery levels*
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Move Lectures Online
• Create short (5-10 minutes) mini-lectures:
– historically difficult content or concepts
– critical content not covered in textbook
• Use a web conferencing software such as
Elluminate to record short lectures for
posting and/or to provide tutoring sessions
• Use Jing for screen recordings
demonstrating software, web tours, and/or
problem explanations with a Tablet*
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Undergraduate Peer Tutors
• Better at assisting their peers than GAs due to:
– greater understanding of the course content
– appropriate communication skills
– awareness of the common misconceptions about
computers held by the students
• Able to assist instructors by:
– addressing non-content specific questions
– staffing virtual office hours to answer contentrelated questions
– monitoring student progress*
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Additional Cost Reduction
Techniques
• Reduction of space requirements
– Scheduling of blended/hybrid classes
• Use of online course management system
– Development of shared resources to eliminate
duplication of effort
• Faculty resources site (separate or included within course
site but hidden from students)
• Online automated assessment of exercises,
quizzes and tests
– Need for large test banks
– Use of Respondus to organize test banks*
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Implementation Issues
• Need for buy-in by Faculty, Chairs, Deans
and Provost to sustain redesign effort
– Sustained through faculty turnover and
textbook changes
• Willingness to use an appropriate blend of
homegrown (created by faculty) and
purchased earning materials
– Avoid “not-invented-here” syndrome*
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Implementation Issues
• Need for adequate laboratory classroom
space and equipment
• Able to handle student technical and
logistical issues*
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Additional Key Redesign Practices
• Avoid optional activities
– Students participate more, score higher, and
spend longer on supplementary activities
when course credit is at stake
• Avoid self-paced design
– Most students function better in structured
environments*
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Ms. Darla Runyon
[email protected]
Dr. Roger Von Holzen
[email protected]
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