How Laughing Leads to Learning

Did you know that a little levity in the classroom actually improves learning outcomes? It's TRUE! The American Psychological Association reports that a certain amount of appropriate levity in the teaching and learning process actually improves scores as well as the learner's qualitative perceptions of their learning experiences.

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

(Dr. Maya Angelou, poet and educator)

Moment in Meme

BamaBUG 2013 Academic Technology Conference

On May 31st, the BamaBUG (Blackboard Users Group) will host a one-day academic technology conference on the campus of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. Registration is free and you can find everything you need to know HERE.

Special thanks to Linda Skeete for the heads up!

PBS hosts TED

Don't miss it! Tomorrow night at 10e/9c, TED will debut on broadcast television for a one-hour special dedicated to education. Check it out here and be sure to TUNE IN! John Legend will be hosting and there will be some amazing and inspirational talks given by some of the greatest minds working on the crises plaguing education today!

TED talks are always available at TED.com and there are some great theme-based playlists like TED Talks for Teachers on YouTube.

If you haven't yet met TED ... your time has come!

UPDATE: IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, click HERE for the FULL episode!

I loved the whole episode, but especially this talk!

Watch Rita Pierson: Build Relationships With Your Students on PBS. See more from TED Talks Education.

Salman Khan: Let's Use Video to Reinvent Education

New Training Program Page

If you check out my new training program page, you'll get a couple of added surprises!

One, the page is a freebie hosted by Weebly.com. You can make free Weebly Web pages too! This is the first free site I've used that hosts multiple pages, and it's a great feature, indeed. Weebly Web pages (I just love saying it, I admit it) would make a great tool for organizing course content as well! The production area is feature-rich and the publishing is as easy as blogging updates (I don't miss the days of FTP!), so even the newbiest of newbs can figure this out. We may just hold a Weebly workshop, though, so that we can play together and see what sort of inspiration is sparked!

Another wonderful surprise is the upcoming POWER THROUGH SERIES of seven workshops designed to guide and motivate the e-course developer through the e-course development and certification process. The series is a pilot inspired by the needs of an academic department to get a majority of a degree program online for fall enrollment. We decided to open the opportunity up to other faculty course developers facing similar deadlines (or perhaps a few who might need help catching up to theirs) and anyone else interested in developing an online course!

Welcome, summer!

Moment in Meme

FREE Micro-MOOC: Academia and the MOOC

Here's another intriguing mini-MOOC that starts Monday! Academia and the MOOC offers this to learners (per the Canvas site):

The New York Times said 2012 was “the year of the MOOC” and EDUCAUSE said MOOCs have “the potential to alter the relationship between learner and instructor and between academe and the wider community.” Many elite universities are offering Massive Open Online Courses, but most colleges and educators are unsure about what MOOCs are and if they are worthwhile. 

Can an "open" course offered at no cost to a very large number of participants who receive no institutional credit be a worthwhile venture for a college? And can a course be effective if participants and course materials are distributed across the Web?

In this class, we will briefly cover the history and development of MOOCs. Participants will engage in discussions about why institutions offer these courses, and the possible benefits to both schools and students. This four-week course will examine MOOCs from four perspectives: as a designer building a course, as an instructor, as a student, and as an institution offering and supporting a course.

And of course—it's FREE! Enroll now and we'll take it together!

FREE Micro-MOOC: Instructional Design for Mobile Learning

I'm back from the Sloan-C Emerging Technologies conference full of ideas, inspiration, resources and big plans! While I catch up and organize, I want to make sure you're aware of the FREE micro-MOOC Instructional Design for Mobile Learning running April 15 through May 12. It comes from the Faculty e-Commons, a "social learning ecosystem for faculty" that warrants a deep exploration by anyone involved in e-learning in a higher ed context.

e-Learning Conferences

I've been busy recuperating from the e-Learning Guild's Learning Solutions 2013 conference in Orlando last month, as well as preparing for the Sloan Consortium's 6th Annual International Symposium for Emerging Technologies for Online Learning next week! While I dread the travel and the days away from home, I know that I always gain tremendously when I attend such conferences. The information and knowledge sharing is great, but the enthusiasm of the crowd and the very high energy of most attendees is always contagious and rejuvenating! I get some of my BEST ideas at conferences, and there's no denying that being in there in person adds to the experience.

I have not yet attended a full conference via online connection and wonder how popular that option has become. Viewing archived webinars is a fabulous way of catching a workshop after the fact, but being relegated to "view only" (for a big question-asker, suggestion-maker like me, especially!) can be limiting. But one can participate live in a conference or Webinar via an Internet connection if the technology used is robust and comprehensive in its ability to let every participant interact with the workshop content.

Have you noticed the link in the resource bars to the right of the blog for e-learning conferences? The choices can be overwhelming, but I can vouch for the Educause and e-Learning Guild conferences as great investments of your time and money! I'm excited to be attending my first Sloan-C conference next week in Las Vegas.

Which do you like best?

Som Sabadell Flash Mob

This was just for fun—because it's just so spectacular!

Global Giveback 2013

One of the best take-aways from the e-Learning Guild's Learning Solutions 2013 conference was the opportunity to join fellow instructional designers around the world in volunteering to design e-courses for Nongovernment Organizations (NGOs) doing good work in developing nations.

LINGOs is a not-for-profit consortium of over 75 international humanitarian relief, development, conservation and social justice organizations that share learning resources and experiences. By providing the latest learning technologies and courses from our partners, LINGOs helps our member nonprofits to increase the skill levels of their employees, and therefore increase the impact of their programs. (LINGOs Web site)

You can connect with LINGOs and the Global Giveback 2013 initiative by joining the Global Giveback group at LinkedIn. It's a great way to build a portfolio, network with colleagues and do good work in developing nations from the relative comfort of your first world environment!

Courses designed for this initiative may be entered in an annual competition which recognizes excellence in volunteer course design from across the NGO sector. The Last Mile Learning Library provides a great peek into the curriculum and an overview of the four certificates currently offered to staff of NGOs across the globe.

Social Media 101 Workshop (Please Register Now! Open to the Public!)

It's not too late to register for our Social Media 101 workshop being held this coming Tuesday, March 26 in the Clyde Foster Multipurpose Room in the College of Business on Alabama A&M University campus. The public is welcome and attendance is FREE! We'll be serving light refreshments and welcome you to bring your own (fully charged) wifi-enabled device (encouraged, but optional)! If you can't make the workshop, you're still welcome to join our Social Media Learning Community by way of this Social Media Reference Guide shared document.

(I like to use these shared document "reference guides" to create a little learning community in association with each of our workshops. It's a great way to get warmed up for the event, as well as stay in touch afterward, sharing success stories, links and ideas for best practice!)

e-Learning Conferences for 2013-14

Just stumbled on a great resource at the e-Learning Tech blog! HERE is a massive list of e-learning conferences coming up in the next year or so. I'll keep a link to this in the link lists to the right, and will try to keep it updated year to year!

Anyone else going to be in Las Vegas next month at the Sloan-C conference?

Creative Commons Announces “School of Open” with Courses to Focus on Digital Openness

This is exciting! Check out Open Culture's announcement of the Creative Commons' "School of Open" launched recently. The online courses will orient and guide course developers through the world of open educational resources available for course building!

Although the first slate of online classes have already started, there is a great list of upcoming topics and a Google group to join if one wants to be part of the discussion and course development. I signed up!

Robert Ballard on Exploring the Depths of the Oceans

"I had to give the wrong answer to get an A." (RB)

BITS: (FREE) Blackboard Weekly Webinar Series

Have you heard? Blackboard hosts a no-cost weekly webinar series called BITS: Blackboard Innovative Teaching Series. From the site:

BITS is a training initiative to help augment (not replace) your internal training efforts. Harnessing our community of Blackboard users, BITS will share the top strategies and pedagogy for both increasing educator efficiency and improving learning outcomes. BITS is free to Blackboard’s clients and is easy to participate. The program consists of weekly faculty training webinars that are taught by faculty and supported by Blackboard experts.

I'm signing up! There will be a permanent link to the series in our Blackboard resources section on this page!

Moment in Meme

17 Ways i-Pads Will Be Used in Schools in 2013

The article's title caught my eye first—17 Ways i-Pads will be Used in Schools in 2013! And then I noticed that #1 refers to a program in one of our own communities! School administrators in Arab, Alabama are putting i-Pads into the hands of their students and I couldn't be more excited for both the learners AND the instructors! But the list certainly doesn't stop there.

As encouraging as this list is to read, I am still looking for more details about using i-Pads (and similar mobile technologies) for learning assessment purposes. The mobility afforded the instructor/learner team is unprecedented. How can the i-Pad's power and mobility enhance teaching and learning? How can teaching and learning be enhanced with the use of mobile technology? What makes mobile technology so powerful in teaching and learning?

Communication/Collaboration
If the teaching and learning process is no longer limited to the time/place of a classroom meeting, learners are more easily able to ask questions when they occur (and receive answers in a more timely manner than waiting for the next class). But what if instructors are not available when learners ask questions? It's important to remember that instructors are not (and shouldn't be) the SOLE source of information and feedback for learners. With a mobile device, learners have access to each other as well as the World Wide Web for resolving questions and problems when instructors are not there to help. The process of this digital collaboration can be easily guided and monitored by creating and maintaining learning communities where learners can safely interact with each other and with learning materials and resources both in the absence and presence of the instructor. This more deeply integrates the teaching and learning process into the life of the learner, with greater probability of comprehension, retention and application of new ideas and information.

Engagement
The best instructors know that all the knowledge in the world is useless to a learner who finds the learning process inaccessible or irrelevant to their own lives. With the addition of animated graphics, multimedia and video to the instructors' arsenal of tools, students engage more deeply with learning material, and for longer periods of time.

As an example, I remember one of my first encounters with a student on the campus where I now work. I asked him what his professors do with Blackboard that makes him happy and he said that just being able to review video recorded lectures had had a huge impact on his grades (and overall GPA). He said that he worked out in the gym every day with his i-Pod, listening to lectures over and over again as needed. He found that he often got lost during the lecture and appreciated the ability to rewind and replay sections as needed before moving on to increasingly complex discussions of ideas and facts. Without this mobile access, he speculated that he would get lost and remain lost and would eventually "check out" of the course experience by either withdrawing completely or engaging on only a minimal level to get through the course. With the simple addition of recorded lectures, he felt much better able to engage and maintain the engagement over the duration of the course.

Interactivity
Traditionally, the teaching and learning process has been somewhat one-sided except in the most progressive and exceptional of learning environments. The instructor gives, the learner receives. The instructor provides, the learner absorbs. Or doesn't. Who really knows until the final exam is given and grades calculated, and then what happens if someone was lost along the way? Too late.

The interactivity of mobile technology facilitates the exchange of teaching and learning between instructor and learner in a more balanced model. In fact, mobile technology provides the ideal platform for formative assessment (especially those models incorporating self- and peer-assessment practices) in replacement of summative assessment tools like multiple choices quizzes, which most agree are not the most reliable tools for assessing learning outcomes.

Using Blooms Digital Taxonomy as a reference, it's easy to see how the digital tablet can help achieve learning objectives that emphasize context, relevance and application of learning material. When students can demonstrate the application of knowledge rather than mere reflection of data and facts, we know that true learning has occurred. The digital tablet empowers students to demonstrate, list, build, illustrate, design and record the teaching and learning process to such limitless levels that I would personally deem the digital tablet the most promising tool for learning outcome assessment ... ever!

Context
Mobile technologies allow for teaching and learning to happen in context—in the real world. Which is a better measure of learning: passing a text-based timed multiple choice quiz on plant identification, or submitting photographic sampling (taken on a mobile device, of course) of the same plants as they grow in the learner's physical environment (home, park, garden, forest, etc.)?

This is a prime example of how mobile technology can enhance learning assessments. How can learners give us evidence that they have learned? How can learners share learning with each other? Can learners who share physical environments/communities provide each other context for learning?

Relevance/Application
By allowing the teaching and learning to "go mobile" via tablet and smart phone technology, we are sending the subject matter content INTO the world of the learner, rather than simply wrapping around it from the far reaches of academia. Even without faculty guidance, the realization of relevance and application of subject matter knowledge is much more likely to lead to real-time integration of the ideas learned when they are physically available (via mobile technology) in the context of the learner's "real life" as opposed to the relatively sterile and institutional environment of a physical classroom.

The digital tablet (i-Pad and various Android devices) can be an amazing educational tool with vast benefit to both teacher and learner, but only if both instructors and learners connect on that platform in a virtual environment that meets the needs of all. Luckily, that's getting easier (and more fun) every day.

Truly Amazing!

Copyright and Fair Use: 3 Tips

I really can't disagree with anything written in Copyright and Fair Use: Compliance Guidelines for Faculty. I try to follow this issue somewhat closely and keep up with the discussion. (And will add this link to our resource list on this page.)

But one thing I often find missing in the discussion is the mention of alternatives to using copyrighted material in curricula. Where is the discussion about open source, creative commons and copyleft movements that break down the barriers of proprietary intellectual property and broaden the offering of how those materials can be used?

Creative Commons, open source and copyleft licensed content is virtually EVERYWHERE on the Web! Some social media networks have even embraced the Creative Commons by allowing users to safely browse content in a discrete section of the Web site. Flickr's Creative Commons is rich with photographic content available for free use! This blog has scads of free resources linked in the navigational bars to the right of this narrative post.

The Understanding Copyright vs. the Creative Commons provides a straight-forward overview of the comparison and contrast between copyright and Creative Commons licensing. And a simple Web search will produce hundreds or thousands more great resources for information on this movement.

So the next question is usually: But WHY? Why would anyone want to give away their intellectual property? If we stop to think about the way that technology has changed the way that we learn and consume information, the answer becomes clear. Distribution. How great is an idea if its audience is drastically limited by cost and copyright?

If we are browsing an online bookstore or searching the Web for a good reference book on a given topic and our search results bear both free and costly alternatives, which will we be most prone to choose? Which will we be more prone to share, to pass along and to distribute to others? Credibility and quality being somewhat equal, the free one, right? And with all the free high-quality textbooks out there (and increasing in number every day), fewer and fewer course developers are relying on expensive traditional textbooks when opting for the free, open-license textbook gives learners easier accessibility earlier in the academic semester (since many students must wait for financial aid refunds to even purchase their books). And how likely are learners to carry those books around with them through their daily life? (HINT: Not nearly as likely as they are their smartphone or i-Pad tablet.)

So how does the author/creator make a living by giving away their product? Again, the magic is in distribution. The more widely distributed your work, the more widely recognized your name. The more widely recognized your name, the higher the demand for your presence in academic professional environments, speaking at conferences and leading teams of academics. While it would certainly be easier to stick with the way things have always been and wait for royalty checks from a book publisher, the potential in that paradigm is limited (after all, who would BUY a textbook if they weren't a registered student compelled by a professor's syllabus? And yet millions eagerly absorb no-cost academic content for free from outside of academia!). And quite honestly, the model flawed. We are still fighting copyright battles everyday in court!

In fact, many universities are very anxious about how the e-learning boom will be impacted by the copyright laws currently on the books and those yet to be written in response to the new challenges brought by technology and an increasingly open academic environment on the Web. Like it or not, times are changing and we have to decide where we fit. In fact, it's time for us each to decide. Which team are you on?

Open Access Textbooks provides guidance for authors wanting to apply Creative Commons licensing to their works, as well as several ways for educators and learners to get involved in the open textbook movement.

Moment in Meme

Best Practice: Top 10 Online Bachelor Programs

Sometimes the research of "best practice" for a given program involves lots of research, data-gathering and analysis. Sometimes you can look at the success of those who are doing what you want to do with the success to which you aspire. In that spirit, we are closely watching these top ten online bachelor programs to see what they are doing and we are not (yet).

This list further highlights my experience that every institution has its own program design, its own objectives, its own priorities and resources for meeting its goals. There is no single solution to making an online degree program successful, but there are lots of ideas, tips and suggestions that can be gleaned from watching these programs in action.

“People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.”
(George Bernard Shaw)

i-Pad Training Workshop

I am temporarily parking THIS EVALUATION link here for my workshop participants today who don't have access to Google Drive (yet) ... !

Today around fifty learners will gather with i-Pads in hand to learn how to tame the beast and make the most of its use in the classroom. Students are ready for us! They told me themselves!

(UPDATE: We had a great turnout for the workshop but a high demand for more! I am scheduling another for Feb. 26 at the same time and location. You do NOT need to from AAMU to register/attend—we welcome anyone! Please contact me to arrange your parking in advance if you do not work for AAMU or go to school there.

THIS WORKSHOP SCHEDULE is permanently posted in the links to the right of my blog posts. Please feel free to share the link and register for any workshop! And let me know which topics you would like to see offered!)

Best course flyer ever

Oh, how I would have loved to enroll in this one! (Click on the graphic for a closer look!)

(From thenearsightedmonkey.tumblr.com)

PS ... I have been deeply enmeshed in studying ADA/accessibility issues for online education. A full report is in the making!

Google+ in 2013

I'm going to go way out on a limb here and suggest that you make a New Year resolution of MY choosing. Presumptuous of me, I know! But this one is really important, and this time next year, you're going to thank me!

Make this the year (or better yet, make January the month!) that you get (back?) on Google+ and give it (another?) shot. It's true that many came last year and it was a ghost town that left us all wondering where the party was happening. Our posts were met with silence and you could almost hear the echoes. But this year it's different.

Now there is a concerted effort being made to bring folks like us into the existing circles of communication that give Google+ its fire. If you haven't already been brought into a vibrant, active circle of communicators, come and "circle" me and I'll help you get started!

You might be asking if Google+ is really necessary if you're on Facebook already. My answer is: Yes! Let me explain.

Facebook's strongest suit is its connection on personal levels. Many of my colleagues have only one Facebook account and if they "friend" persons who are colleagues, they have to go through a lot of extreme measures to maintain private/professional privacy walls OR they end up blurring the line between the two realms, sometimes irreparably. It can be very uncomfortable. Some have separate accounts for personal and business on Facebook but tend to ignore the professional account and spend less time cultivating it. It seems like fewer people are on Facebook to do business anyway.

Google+ is similar to Facebook in how it connects people for RSS-feed style (if you're really old school!) communication but those communications on Google+ seem to be more about expanding one's horizons, networks and sharing of information than Facebook, which favors the more personal and intimate sharing of photos and personal views between established friends and family. On Facebook, we have more "real world" connections (family and friends we know in person) and on Google+, the balance tips the other way and most of our connections are strangers we've never met who are connected to us by mutual friends and/or shared interests and views. These observations are based on perceptions, but they are perceptions widely shared by many of my friends and colleagues, both online and "real world." There's plenty of Facebook-style banter (memes, politics, jokes, etc.) on G+ but there is ALSO a much stronger support of and access to connectivity of new people and new ideas.

The features between the two are different in some significant ways and you'll have to play with the settings to find your comfort zone. For instance, on Facebook, my posts to public sites can only be seen by someone who is connected to me, but anyone who finds my profile on Google+ can see my posts aggregated from several public sites on my profile page. (EDIT: Fixed that issue through privacy settings! Google is very responsive to the needs of its community of users, and there is plentiful timely support for your issues in tech support circles.) While it can be a little unnerving on the privacy issue, it's a great networking tool for letting folks know where to find you and where you stand on relevant issues.

Perhaps most importantly, the Google+ environment offers connectivity tools that are linked to (the majority of) our students academic email accounts. By learning to use and integrate tools like Google Hangouts (the G+ video Web conferencing tool), we are acquiring critical skills for our own academic technology tool boxes, but also giving learners critical opportunities to build their technology/communication skills in preparation for the professional world that awaits them. The ability to use Google Drive (think Apps, Docs, etc.) and related tools is showing up in job ads and descriptions in the "Minimal requirements" section across myriad fields. How do we prepare ourselves AND our learners for the (r)evolution that Web technology is leading?

By using it. Every chance we get. Will I see you on Google+? I certainly do hope so!

(Here are 25 Google+ Accounts to Check Out and Six Google+ Hangouts About Educational Technology to get you started. And to be sure you see this great list of educational technology hangouts that were RECORDED and available for your use, be sure to check THESE out! In fact, check out archived hangouts on the Google Education on Air site and lose yourself in the recordings! And seriously, circle me! We're all in this together!)

A MOMENT IN MEME* 

What are your favorite memes? Visit me on Facebook or Google+ and let's connect!

*(a new series!)

Happy New Year!

Anyone who works in a university setting knows that the months of December/January are both the quietest and most frenetic of the year. After final exams are done and the semester wrapped, everyone retreats from campus for a virtually universal holiday of a couple of weeks, only to return to the chaos and high energy of getting a new semester and calendar year up and running.

Here we are also celebrating the launch of Alabama A&M University's first ever entirely online degree program. The undergraduate degree in management is now fully available online, including general education requirements and electives. This was no small feat! I have to hand it to the incredibly dedicated faculty and staff of the University for the monumental effort and passion that went into preparing fifty-four (yes, that's 54!) courses for online certification and delivery. It was a massive group effort and this team of professionals stepped up to the plate with admirable enthusiasm!

Now that we've passed that milestone, we are developing new training/educational workshops and looking for ways that we can enhance the course certification process. I've been spending a LOT of time in Google+ as I'd like to adopt it as a Web conferencing tool for the delivery of online workshops for faculty and staff. If you don't already have a webcam and headset, you should be getting them ready! For 2013 is going to be the "Year of Multimedia" at AAMU!

More soon!

It's official!

Alabama A&M University is launching its first entirely online degree program next month! The University received its approval from SACS (its regional accreditation agency) to offer the bachelor's degree in management as an entirely online program beginning with the spring 2013 academic semester.

AAMU is a land grant HBCU institution founded in 1875 and steeped in a rich heritage and tradition of excellence in academics, research and community service. It's beyond exciting to bear witness to—and be a part of—bringing such an historical institution's academic opportunities to a global community of e-learners!

Go e-BULLDOGS!

Learning Solutions 2013

I'm getting back in the swing between the Thanksgiving holiday, a brief personal leave and the chaos that ensues when exam time is upon us. While I put together my next post, I wanted to let you know that I will be presenting at the Learning Solutions 2013 e-learning conference in Orlando in March and I hope to see you there! Hosted by the e-Learning Guild, the event provides an open highly collaborative learning environment for e-learning professionals from higher education, government and the private sector to come together and share best practice as well as collaborate on emergent online learning solutions.

I will be discussing the course certification system that I designed and how it does double duty for e-learning administrators who manage course development by faculty and/or instructors. In addition to giving us a great cloud-based system for collaboration on the quality control process of individual course development, our course certification system MODELS the hands-on, project-based self- and peer-assessment strategies that we would most love to see our online courses rely upon for assessment of learning outcomes.

Join us!

Resubmission in Formative Assessment

In this excellent blog post by a fellow educator, a great case is made for the opportunity to resubmit assignments as a formative assessment strategy (see Nov. 7 post on formative assessment). 

When I taught my course online at ETSU, whenever I gave a graded assignment back to a learner, I always gave them a chance to raise their grade by resubmission under certain circumstances. If the reason that the grade was low was due to poor grammar and writing, I required a documented visit to the Writing Center to precede a corrected resubmission. If the problem was related to content/course material, I would add additional questions to my feedback that would lead the learner in the direction I had been hoping that they would take on their first assessment attempt. By making sure that there were some new specific objectives to be met, I knew that the learner would not be able to simply rely on the feedback given to his or her peer to fulfill my requirements for resubmission. The resubmitted assignment always took on just a bit more depth than the original assignment—by design.

When the resubmission option was exercised, it worked well! But not everyone wanted a second chance. What are some strategies I could employ to inspire those who didn't take the opportunity to want to improve their learning, their grade and their overall course experience?

15 Lesson Plans for Making Students (and Ourselves!) Better Online Researchers

I was overjoyed to find this in the Edudemic feed on Facebook this morning. I know that my online research skills could use some refinement, but I also know how much more effective my research efforts became when I began learning the mechanics of how search engines work. This is the sort of critical infrastructure that should be a foundation of every person's digital literacy, fluency and mastery, including our own.

And Google is not the only search engine! There are hundreds of search engines, many of which are dedicated to specific fields or topics. Some are even open source!

I'm going to work my way through those fifteen lessons, to refresh my existing skills and add new ones to my digital toolbox. Join me?

Formative e-Assessment of Learning

In the world of learning outcome assessment (testing), things can get complicated in an online learning environment. The nature of the LMS (Learning Management System, such as Blackboard or Moodle) encourages the automation of assessments with tools like multiple choice and true/false question quiz banks. But before deciding on just how to use those assessment tools, it's best to think about and answer a few questions.

Do you want to use summative or formative assessment strategies with your learners? If you're not familiar with those terms, think of the question as a learner might. Would you rather that your grasp of the information being learned be evaluated at the end of the learning process, or at intervals throughout the process itself, to make sure that you are staying on track and not getting lost along the way?

The practice of assessing learning outcomes at the end of the learning process (whether we're talking a unit of curriculum or at the end of the course) is summative assessment. Using summative assessment, the instructor (and perhaps even the learner) might be unaware that there are problems or misperceptions on the part of the learner until its too late to remediate the process and ensure learner success.

Formative assessment, however, "checks in" with the learner at various points throughout the learning process to make sure that they are grasping the information being presented and synthesizing it appropriately. By checking in with the learner at various points along the way, the identification of learning obstacles occurs much earlier, while there's still time to get the learner back on track and ensure ultimate success.

It may daunting to an online instructor to think about increasing the frequency and depth of assessment efforts in courses that are being taught to what are likely increasingly larger student enrollments. That's quite a time commitment! However, the carefully considered use of self- and peer-assessment strategies can help both mitigate the level of instructor involvement as well as provide additional learning opportunities through self-reflection and collaborative peer-to-peer learning opportunities for learners.

There is a lot of information out there in the world of e-learning about the use of formative assessment (using self- and peer-assessment strategies) in online courses. Here's one journal article that lays out the basic concepts involved but still sticks closely to the traditional tools. It presents sound research that provides a rationale for using formative assessment in online learning environments.

While the traditional multiple choice quiz banks certainly have value as one component in an overall assessment strategy, I'd like to suggest that we all look at assessment with new eyes and think about ways that we can integrate reading, writing, critical thinking and new forms of expression into the assessment process in online learning environments. How can we inspire and document critical thinking and problem solving in our e-classrooms?

I will be on the lookout for both research in this area and more practical information and tools that help integrate formative assessment strategies into online course development. I am also launching an ASSESSMENT section of my blog resources to highlight the resources that I find. I welcome your input, questions and suggestions!

Mistakes that Online Students Make

I just found THIS GREAT LITTLE BLOG POST at Schoox that provides some good points to share with students who are enrolling in your online courses. It might be worth linking to the same blog post or citing its content in an introductory course document that helps the learner assess his or her own readiness for asynchronous online learning. Take a look! What would you add to this list?

10 Must-See TED talks

Anyone who knows me knows that I have nurtured a long-standing adoration for TED. And it's not just TED. It's the whole TED-x phenomenon as well as the community of folks who love, live, watch and talk about TED. TED is a way of life for us.

TED devotees tend to be lifelong learners who embrace new opportunities for growth and insight, even when those opportunities come wrapped in dramatic change!

So it was with great excitement and anticipation that I found 10 TED Talks Perfect for the e-Learning Industry. I haven't watched them all yet, but I recognize a few. I just had to rush over and share with you all before I lost the link in the information avalanche that I plow through every day in my adventures in e-learning.

I'd love to hear your feedback on any and all of these great talks! And do you have suggestions for others we should include?

Trick or Treat!

In honor of Halloween, I'm going to give you a couple of treats just for the fun of it!

First, scoot on over to Open Culture to download your free audio Halloween story by Neil Gaiman entitled "Click-Clack the Rattlebag" and available through Audible. For every download, Audible has agreed to donate a dollar to one of Gaiman's favorite charities, so your download is for a good cause as well! From Open Culture:

Gaiman also has a few requests: first, you need to download the story by Halloween in order to make the donation; second, please don’t give the story away—encourage people to go download it for themselves; and lastly, “wait to listen to it until after dark.” Atmosphere matters.

Your other treat is a tip on a Halloween app that is fun for all ages! Mojo Masks is a simple camera overlay app that allows you to choose a mask, overlay it on your face (to which it oddly adheres so that you can play with different expressions as the mask moves with your features), and simply snap for a great Halloween photo that could work for your Halloween greeting card or Facebook profile. Here are a couple I snapped this morning:

Note that while the base app is free
and comes with a few masks, the best
masks are available in sets for
99¢ per collection.

Happy Halloween! Stay safe and stay tuned!

Ubuntu on Chromebook! (and Using Open Source in the classroom!)

For those OS (Open Source) fans out there, know that the Chromebook hybrid (think: laptop meets tablet) supports the Ubuntu operating system. (Thanks to Scott D. for this tip!) For anyone who is not sure exactly what that means, it's significant to mobile technology (like tablets and smartphones, devices you can take on the run) to be able to run software that is Open Source—I have an OS section of resources started and welcome the contributions of any OS veterans!

We have a workshop coming up in November that will address OS integration in the classroom. Dr. Maurice Dawson and a few of his student colleagues will be presenting! It'll be one of those don't-miss presentations, so we'll be giving you plenty of notice, as well as recording the session for online delivery next semester. (Any off-campus readers can contact me directly for access.)

For the novice, OS means using FREE software for you and your learners. The OS software movement is user-driven and much more accessible to the computer novice than ever before. Watch for our workshop announcement and join the discussion!

The Art of Positive Skepticism

This great article posted at Psychology Today on the Moment of Youth blog really hits the nail on the head in describing the difference between cynicism and skepticism and the value of positive skepticism in learning. But how to inspire such positive skepticism in your learners? Great tips there too!

The Self-Organizing Computer Course

This TED talk was sent to me by my colleague, Everett Alexander. The video talks about the surprising level of motivation found in learners who are flocking into the free, open course movement to participate. I don't want to say too much—this is another TED talk that simply speaks for itself.

iPad Workshop

I'm throwing together an impromptu iPad workshop at the CETL Conference Room (#309) in the LRC on Friday at 8:30 a.m. Anyone interested in learning more about the iPad is welcome to join us! I will give a 1-hr workshop credit to all learners! Hope to see you there!

Digital Natives

What We're Learning from Online Education (TEDTalk)

"The mind is not a vessel that needs filling;
it is wood that needs igniting." (Plutarch)

ACCS e-Learning Symposium (FREE!)

It's that time of year again! The ACCS e-Learning Symposium (Friday, Nov. 16) held at Athens State University claims to be the largest e-learning conference in Alabama—and I wouldn't doubt it! I attended last year and had a great time networking with colleagues in the region and learning about new online educational products and emergent technologies in our field.

Why not register now so that we can sit together at lunch and compare notes?

Lettrs: Making Writing Meaningful in a "Slow Communications Movement"

The Lettrs [sic] social media platform is creating a stir in both secondary and post-secondary learning environments. A common refrain from educators at all levels is that learners simply don't know how to write well. I'm seeking resources that would help in the classroom (digital or brick-and-mortar) with developing/remediating reading and writing skills.

I know as a learner, an educator and a parent that there are two key components to the development of great writing skills: reading and writing. The more one reads, the better one writes. And the more one writes, the better s/he becomes at writing.

So how do we encourage the development of these skills while teaching other course curriculum at the same time and at a post-secondary level of academic rigor?

Here's a great idea that can be adapted to any academic level of learning and any topic or curriculum. Writing is a great form of learning assessment as well.

Do you have other great ideas for developing reading and writing skills at a college level? Please share!

QUICK TIP: Peer Review in Discussion Forums

A really great way to work peer review into an online course involves allowing learners to rate each others' discusson posts. Here's a quick how-to video from Blackboard.

I'll be adding more "quick tip" blog posts going forward!

Universities in the Digital Age (audio)

Wondering how all this techie stuff is impacting higher education?

The digital revolution—which has upended journalism, publishing, movies and music—is poised to storm the ivory tower. Under enormous financial pressure, and facing a strong push to "democratize" knowledge, the university is being asked to re-imagine itself. In question: the very nature and purpose of higher education, at a time when demand for it has never been greater.

Listen HERE. (The feed was down when I posted this, so I haven't previewed the audio file. I'll remove this post if we can't get it to play!)

(Thanks to Stephen Downes and the OLDaily).

xEDUCATION: Book on MOOCs & Education (Sneak peeks!)

George Siemens announced on elearnspace that he and a few others will be starting a book for John Hopkins University on MOOCs and their potential impact in education. He posted:

Bonnie Stewart, Dave Cormier, and I have signed on to write a book on MOOCs and other such trends in education. The book will be published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2013.

See the blog post at elearnspace for more details.

The book will be closed, but the field notes will be collected and published on the Web at their new blog for this purpose. We'll be keeping an eye on them!

Free Tutoring Software

Susan Smith Nash offers us a tidy little blog post outlining the essentials for online tutoring software and her recommendations for the most economical and effective options. I haven't tried them yet, but hope you'll experiment and let me know what you find!

Blog updates!

I have just added a few new sections to the links on the right! You will now find a section dedicated to Open Source software as well as a section titled "How to Get Started Guides" that will cover various facets of online curriculum development. We are starting with a guide to getting started designing apps for mobile devices, but will be adding content to ALL the sections as time goes on. Please feel free to make suggestions!

And don't forget to keep an eye out for additions! I just added a new infographic that profiles the college student of 2012. Check it out on the right hand side of the screen (click on the graphics to enlarge, then use your browser magnification to zoom in for detail.)

New goodies are arriving daily!

Free Online Blackboard Design Course!

In its determination to join the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course)/open learning movement, Blackboard is joining the fray with Designing an Exemplary Course Online. Registration opens September 19 for the course which runs September 26 through October 17. And yes, it's really FREE!

Whether you are just getting started or are an advanced online educator, this course will provide you with a framework to help identify and apply best practices for designing engaging online courses.

This is an exciting opportunity to dip your toes into the fast-moving MOOC waters as a learner—and learn a great deal about Blackboard-based course design to boot!

I know I'm signing up! Please join me!

PS ... And here's ANOTHER great learning opportunity delivered via a MOOC! The Current/Future State of Higher Education (Oct. 8–Nov. 18) is another FREE, open online course yours for the taking!