Learning Module 5: Blog Reflection

            Overall, I found this week’s blogging helpful and enlightening because I am constantly on the hunt for ways I can improve or be more efficient with my work. I truly believe that continual education, both informal and formal, is the best way students and professionals can rejuvenate their creative minds and develop areas that need to be developed. This week’s blogging is a prime example of how sharing information on best practices can shed light on different criterion we can incorporate in our own course without having to experience the pitfalls of utilizing criteria that were less effective in student satisfaction and engagement. For example, two of my classmates mention “the Community of Inquiry [as a set of criteria that] brings a basis for the actual functional e-learning course” (Fisher, 2013), which was an idea I never put a lot of thought into. Even though I listed some aspects of the Community of Inquiry on my list of best criteria, I felt interactions among classmates and instructor was more important—as well as more influential with it comes to the experiential aspect of a student’s learning.

            Janet Canning explains this notion of student interaction best by saying, “Students are engaged on a daily basis with interacting with social networking sites… [so] it is natural then for students to want to engage in interaction.” Therefore, it is not only crucial to create an engaging environment for students and instructors to interact, but research has shown that online learners “need to feel motivated and satisfied in an e-learning course” (Sakoonphong, 2013) in order for learners to be successful.  Interestingly, I realized these interactions among students and facilitators and satisfaction and motivation in an online class have a symbiotic relationship because these connections are what learners need to achieve the outcomes design for a course—as well as attain the level of satisfaction in a course to either recommend the course or take another e-learning class.

Learning Module 5

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“The task of the instructional developer is to create online environments that bring together information, instruction, and learning elements to promote and scaffold learning” (Koszalka, 2004). Information is defined as fundamental facts and/or data, instruction as information carefully selected, organized, and place in a specific order to outline procedures and activities, and learning as student engagement and active synthesis of the knowledge presented in the course Koszalka (2004). Additionally, it is an instructional designer’s [as well as the facilitator(s) of the course] responsibility to incorporate all of these three elements into a course because a strategically designed course will increase students’ overall perception of the class. Once students’ perceptions are high those views increases their satisfaction of an online course, which will make them more inclined to recommend online classes to others and more likely to take another online course themselves.

All these elements of online learning support students’ motivation and satisfaction within an online and/or hybrid course, and so my criteria for an effective or successful e-learning course are: 1) Provide clear and concise rules and expectations for the class, 2) Outline procedure(s) to complete assignments, 3) Provide adequate interactions between students and instructors—as well as among student, 4) “Ensure assessment is congruent with intended processes and outcomes” (Garrison, 2003), 5) Scaffold learning and align the objectives of lesson to the goals of the class.

From my own experience working at a Community College, I have seen first-hand how poorly designed online and/or blended courses can decrease students’ success rates, which correlates to their fulfillment in the course, which influences their future decisions about whether or not to enroll in another online course. Students’ taking online courses like the flexibility and freedom online learning provides, so that means they do not want to spend a great of time trying to figure what to do or how to do it, they are looking for clear and concise instructions on how to complete assignments, detailed expectations of the course; most importantly, they want appropriate amounts of interaction among classmates and instructor. Above all students want interactions between instructor and students to be prompt, timely, and instructors to convey they are the expert in their field of study by the way they design their course.

References:

Garrison, D. R. (2003). E-Learning In The 21st Century: A Framework For Research and Practice. New York: Routledge.

Koszalka, T. A., & Ganesan, R. (2004). Designing online courses: a taxonomy to guide strategic use of features available in course management systems (CMS) in distance education. Distance Education, 25(2), 243-256.

 

Learning Module 4: Blog Reflection

Blog Reflection

            I found this week’s discussion on Web 2.0 tools extremely worthwhile. Learning something new is the best part of learning, so this week’s blogging on Web 2.0 and useful tools was extremely exciting. Perhaps my excitement came from my non -technology background and the yearning to know more about how I can use technology to facilitate learning in my future classrooms. Even though I am counselor I know and see the value of technology and how it can be utilized to help students (as well as stakeholders in a student’s life) achieve their level of success. However, I think I should have elaborated a bit more on my blog about my future project because I received several clarifying questions and comments like, “if students have any concerns or problem can counselors solve it or just for share abilities and expression,” and “if the only purpose is to share I would of chosen a blog.” And my response was “counselors can go to one source to add, edit and change information with a lot more ease than a blog,” making Wikis a more manageable tool for the organizer.

Overall, I learned a great deal of new tools and how they can be use in an e-learning environment in this week’s blogging; more importantly, the work I created will be added to my list of resources and documents I can refer to when I am designing my e-learning classes. By and large my classmates listed and described tools I have never heard of, and with like this exposure I am positive I am sure to create something engaging and thought provoking at the same time. Nothing is more disheartening and unmotivating than working on an assignment that is not interesting and has no value to me as a student. More importantly, I hope we have more of these exploration discussions because it is assignments like these that make learning fun and worthwhile.

Learning Module 4

 

Choose three Web 2.0 social media tools/websites and discuss opportunities and challenges of using those tools/websites in support of e-learning. Incorporate your own experience of using those tools if you have experienced using any of them. 

Wikis—The opportunities include: collaboration on coursework and/or project for the course, creating a collection of Web pages that can be edited by anyone, at any time, from anywhere, which is an ideal framework for groupwork and creating a sense of belonging and cohesion in a community like e-learning. The challenges are creating training and support for students that might not be familiar with the content or how use the technology.

Blogs—The opportunities are students can post all their responses to prompts/questions about content and curriculum presented in class, as well as post responses to reflections about reading assignments, discussions/forums and synchronous meetings in the course. Again, the challenges are creating training and support for individuals that might not be familiar with the deadlines of lesson and how the technology works.  

Twitter—The opportunity here is creating a space for students to facilitate their own learning content and follow that content anywhere, time and using any device. This tool gives students the sense of immediacy that people of today’s society look for; plus it incorporates the flexibility of time and space. Again, the difficulty here is the training and support for individuals that are not familiar with the technology, and the following and using of hash tags. I have to admit it was a challenge for me to use to the hash tags, and perhaps to some extent I am still a learning when it comes to Twitter.

Select of one Web 2.0 tool with which you will develop a learning material/resource for e-learning. Create an account if necessary. Most of the tools are free.  

I would like to develop a Wiki as a learning material/resource for e-learning.

Describe what you will develop using the tool. This will guide your Writing assignment. 

I wanted to develop a Wiki into a resource for counselors to network or share their abilities and/or expertise in a specific area so other counselors in the area can use when they are faced with dilemmas that require a consultant.

Learning Module 3

Select one or two important research topics in e-learning that most interest(s) you based on the readings. Share what topic(s) you chose for your literature review and Explain why you think the topic(s) you chose are important to you.

Topic

• How the design of online/blended course can affect students’ motivation/satisfaction and whether it can increase the likelihood of students taking another online/blended course? 

Explanation

• The topic I chose is not only important to my myself but it is also important to my profession as an academic counselor, because gaining insight into student motivation and satisfaction will give educational institutions (as well as course designers) a better understanding of how courses can be strategically created to increase student enrollment and retention in online/blended courses. From my own experience working at a Community College, I have seen first-hand how poorly designed online/blended courses can decrease students’ success rates, which correlates to their fulfillment in the course and influences their future decisions about whether or not to enroll in another online course. Although there has been much debate about whether or not distance learning is effective and cost-effective, I believe a true understanding of student motivation/ satisfaction of an online/blended course can alleviate all those concerns, especially at the community college level because of the demographics of students its’ serves, as well as understand the implications of design on student motivation.

Peer-reviewed articles

• Ausburn, L. J. (2004). Course Design Elements Most Valued by Adult Learners in Blended Online Education Environments: An American Perspective. Educational Media International, 41(4), 327-337.
• Braun, T. (2008). Making a Choice: The Perceptions and Attitudes of Online Graduate Students. Journal Of Technology And Teacher Education, 16(1), 63-92.
• Koszalka, T. A., & Ganesan, R. (2004). Designing online courses: a taxonomy to guide strategic use of features available in course management systems (CMS) in distance education. Distance Education, 25(2), 243-256.
• McFarland, D., & Hamilton, D. (2005). Factors affecting student performance and satisfaction: Online versus traditional course delivery. The Journal of Computer Information Systems, 46(2), 25-32. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/232574331?accountid=10359

Learning Module 2

1.      Discuss the value of applying the Community of Inquiry framework in the e-learning environment. Then discuss how you would apply this framework when you design your course. Discuss 3 activities you would use to facilitate the learning community. Be specific.

The value of applying the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework in the e-learning environment is directly correlated to the degree of engagement and level of complexity a student can understand the material taught in an e-learning course. More importantly, designing an e-learning course according to the seven principles of CoI are some ways to ensure students participate and get a deeper level of understanding of the material taught in class. The seven principles are:

1. Plan for the creation of open communication and trust
2. Plan for crucial reflection and discourse
3. Establish community and cohesion
4. Establish inquiry dynamics (purposeful inquiry)
5. Sustain respect and responsibility
6. Sustain inquiry that moves to resolution
7. Ensure assessment is congruent with intended processes and outcomes.

The three activities I would use to facilitate the learning community are:

1.    Create a Blog. This will be a place where students can post all their responses to prompts/questions about content and curriculum presented in class, as well as post responses to reflections about reading assignments, discussions/forums and synchronous meetings in the course.

2.    Group Collaboration on Wikis. This will be a place where students can collaborate on coursework and/or project for the course. Since a wiki is a collection of Web pages that can be edited by anyone, at any time, from anywhere, it is the ideal framework for groupwork and creating a sense of belonging and cohesion in a community like e-learning.

3.    Create a Media Rich Activity or a Synchronous meeting(s). This would be an activity that gives students the two-way communication and instant feedback students need to feel a sense of community and expands their learning to a higher level of comprehension than just having asynchronous forms of communication.

8.      Even though an e-learning environment is not same as a face-to-face classroom environment, some activities that are well established and used in traditional classroom settings can be applicable to an online environment. What kinds of classroom based activities can be applied to cyberspace?

The kinds of classroom based activities that can be applied to cyberspace are:

·         Discussions/Forums

·         Lectures/Presentations

·         Individual/Group Projects

·         Collaborative learning activities

·         Concept mapping

·         Small group work

·         Case studies

·         Reading/Writing (Journal/Reflective) Assignments

·         Guest Speaker

·         Test/Quizzes

9.      Develop an activity for an online course where motivation and effective strategies are incorporated and 2) describe what value this activity would bring to the course. When you develop an activity, refer to the following two resources: ARCS motivation theory and design strategies to bring learners back.

A typical course I would teach as a counselor would be a guidance and/or career exploration course, so an activity that would incorporate both ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction) model of motivation and effective strategies would be storytelling.  Personally, I learn best through anecdotes, so I create a lesson around a story where students can visualize how principles taught in the course can be applied to real life scenarios, which would bring learning to a whole new level.

 

Activity: Autobiography/Reflection Paper

Length: 2-3 pages

Prompt: In this paper, briefly share your life story and what you hope to learn in this course that might be useful for you with your future goals. This is your opportunity to share your strengths and weaknesses and how you would to see yourself grow and develop personally and professionally.

Process:

1.      Read the prompt

2.      Write the paper and clearly address the prompt in your paper

3.      Post your paper on your blog

4.      Reply to your classmates posts.

Evaluation:

Story Writing : Auto/Reflection Paper

 

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Focus on Assigned Topic	The entire story is related to the assigned topic and allows the reader to understand much more about the topic.	Most of the story is related to the assigned topic. The story wanders off at one point, but the reader can still learn something about the topic.	Some of the story is related to the assigned topic, but a reader does not learn much about the topic.	No attempt has been made to relate the story to the assigned topic.
Organization	The story is very well organized. One idea or scene follows another in a logical sequence with clear transitions.	The story is pretty well organized. One idea or scene may seem out of place. Clear transitions are used.	The story is a little hard to follow. The transitions are sometimes not clear.	Ideas and scenes seem to be randomly arranged.
Spelling and Punctuation	There are no spelling or punctuation errors in the final draft. Character and place names that the author invented are spelled consistently throughout.	There is one spelling or punctuation error in the final draft.	There are 2-3 spelling and punctuation errors in the final draft.	The final draft has more than 3 spelling and punctuation errors.
Requirements	All of the written requirements (# of pages, # of graphics, type of graphics, etc.) were met.	Almost all (about 90%) the written requirements were met.	Most (about 75%) of the written requirements were met, but several were not.	Many requirements were not met.

 

Reference:

Garrison, D. R. (2011). E-Learning In The 21st Century: A Framework For Research and Practice. New York: Routledge.

Keller, J. (2000). How to integrate learner motivation planning into lesson planning: The ARCS model approach. Cuba: Florida State University.

McCleskey, J. Five e-learning design strategies that keep learners coming back for more. (Webpage) Retrieved on April 20, 2013 from http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/155/five-e-learning-design-strategies-that-keep-learners-coming-back-for-more

Learning Module 1

Hi Class,

My name is Melissa Sakoonphong and I am a second year graduate student in the Educational Counseling and Guidance program at CSUSB.  In addition to being a graduate student, I also work at Chaffey Community College as a Counselor Apprentice.  My hopes and educational goals for this class is to learn as much as possible about e-learning, earn an e-learning certificate, work towards a M.A in Instructional Technology and/or Ed.D. More importantly, my professional goals for this course is to use the knowledge from this course and apply it to online guidance instruction, train new competent counselors, and ultimately develop a tool that will help counselors track and quantify one-on-one student sessions so community colleges can adequately allocate resources to increase graduation rates.   

My prior experiences with e-learning have been limited to online and hybrid courses at the community college level from an end-user’s perspective, and one E-Learning Design and Development course,  so I still have quite a way to go in terms of learning the basics of an e-learning course from an instructor’s point-of-view. Because I am comfortable with learning new technologies and desire an asynchronous type of interaction(s), I prefer online learning as opposed to face-to-face.  Whether the online course utilizes familiar technologies or not I am confident in my ability to learn new things, which is why I am super excited to be a part of this class and hope this course will take me one step closer to helping students achieve their goals.

Definitions for interchangeable terms in E-learning are:

·         Online Learning: is described by Seaman (2011) and Garrison (2011) as content driven and were at least 80% of the course’s content is delivered online.

·         Blending Learning: is also described by Seaman (2011) and Garrison (2011) as a hybrid course that integrates the advantages of face-to-face learning and the strengths of online learning by delivering 30%-79% of the course content online.

·         Distance Learning: is defined as learning at a distance, where teacher and student(s) are separated by time and space and knowledge/skills are mediated by technology at a distance.

The sector I am most interested in is higher education and here are my two articles:

 

O'Neill, K., Singh, G., & O'Donoghue, J. (2004). Implementing elearning programmes for higher education: A review of the literature. Journal of Information

Technology Education, 3(2).

 

Tu, C. H., & Corry, M. (2002). eLearning communities. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 3(2), 207-218.

 

References:

Frederick B. King, M. F.-R. (n.d). Defining Distance Learning and Distance Education. Educational Technology Review, 1-14.

Garrison, D. R. (2011). E-Learning In The 21st Century: A Framework For Research and Practice. New York: Routledge.

Seaman, J. (2011). Online Learning Trends in Private-Sector Colleges and Universities. Pearson and Babson Survey Research Group, 1-20.

Wikipedia. Retrieved April 10, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distance_learning