December 22, 2008

Good Morning!

I hope everyone is staying warm - the temp in Minnesota hit -12 this morning, yikes! Today and tomorrow I will be going into your courses to check for 50% completion, if you have any questions or concerns please let me know. Last week I mentioned that I would be gone on the 24th and 25th but back on the 26th. Turns out the offices are also closed on the 26th, so I will be back in the office on Monday, December 29th and will be sure to answer any questions at that time.

I hope you all enjoy your holidays!

Here are a few links to some articles regarding the Web and online education in the news. It is important for us to stay up to date about what is happening in these areas - enjoy!

Here is an article about using YouTube videos in the classroom and as a virtual tutor: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-12-11-youtube-tutoring_N.htm

Here is an article about how students use iPods for a med school study: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=56389

Here is an article about the new web accessibility Guidelines: http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3512/consortium-releases-new-guidelines-for-web-accessibility-for-disabled

Here is a link to a Visual Dictionary - check it out!: http://visual.merriam-webster.com/index.php

December 15, 2008

Hello Developers,


Please note that next week I will be going into your courses to check for 50% completion next. I will be out of the office Wednesday, December 24th and Thursday, December 25th, but will be back in the office on Friday, December 26th.

Blackboard 8.0:

On December 24th we will be converting to Blackboard 8.0. This version includes a "Grade Center" instead of the Grade book. The new Grade Center is more robust and contains more features. I have e-mailed out the "how to" document on the new Grade Center so be sure to read through it so that you are familiar with it for the remainder of your development.


**Please refrain from doing any of your development work on December 24th and December 25th. Because the conversion will be during this time we would like to keep Blackboard usage to a minimum to help ensure that the rollover is a success.


Ten Week Summers:

Starting with Summer Quarter 2009 Globe Education Network will offer summer quarters on a 10 week schedule instead of a 12 week schedule. We have done this to improve summer retention and offer our students a more desirable summer break. This means that for every master course we create, we need to have a 12 week shell and a 10 week shell.

When you complete your development I will copy your course into a new master labeled .10wkmaster.09SUM. You will then need to go into the 10 week master and combine the information to be delivered into 10 units instead of 12 units. Two folders will be deleted from the Unit Content Page.

When combining the curriculum you will want to think of the course as a whole to keep the "flow" of the curriculum while fitting into 10 weeks. You may want to consider:

• Is there a midterm/final?



• Is there a group project?



• Are there assignments that build on each other?



• Keep the course objectives in mind, what assignments might be eliminated, added, enhanced, or combined to make the 10 unit course as cohesive as the 12 unit course

Whether you keep all 12 discussion boards depends on the content of the discussion boards and if the content can be combined. Some courses will work better to double up on discussion boards in a unit (Discussion Board A & Discussion Board B) and some courses will be able to combine the content of two discussion boards into one discussion board while still reaching the same outcome.

Be sure to look at all areas of the course: Announcements, tests, assignments, discussion boards, unit introductions, and external links all mention unit names. Be sure to rename items so that they fit into your 10 week structure. The course calendar will also need to be converted to a 10 unit format.

HTML codes for the dates are currently in the unit folders so that they can be updated every quarter. When you have completed your 10 week/unit conversion you will need to go through each unit folder and make sure the HTML code is correct. The "how to" document on this will be coming in the next couple of weeks.

Although it creates an extra step we are very excited to be offering 10 week quarters in the summer with the expectation that more of our students will enjoy the three week break, and then persist through the summer quarter, rather than taking the quarter off. On the annual survey there was an overwhelming support from our students to offer the 10 week summer quarter.

Thanks everyone! As always please let me know if you have any questions.

Have a great week!

December 8, 2008

Good Morning Developers!

I would like to spend some time talking about interactivity and why it is necessary in online courses. Interactivity serves to minimize students' feelings of isolation and to promote critical thinking skills, learning, and retention. There are four types of interactivity:

Student to Instructor (SI): e-mail, discussion boards, graded papers and assignments, live lectures, and office hours

Student to Student (SS): e-mail, discussion boards, peer review activities, collaborative writing, group projects, chat areas, blogs, wikis, peer mentoring, debate

Student to Resource (SR): Textbook, publisher's online extras, webquests, URL exchange, guest lectures

Student to Content (SC): Reading, drill-and-practice, multimedia, Flash activities, summaries, outlines, practice quizzes

It is important to have sufficient activites that cover all four of these areas of interactions in your online course development. Many activities cross over into two or more areas of interactivity. Please use the list below to give you ideas for interaction in the courses you are developing.

• Lecture Notes: SC


• FAQ Lists: SR


• Flashcards: SC


• Drill and Practice: SC


• Webquests: SC, SR


• Virtual Field Trips: SC, SR


• Presentations/Slide Shows: SC, SS


• Workbooks: SC


• Blog Activities: SC, SI, SS


• Graded or peer-reviewed literature: SI, SS


• Graded or peer-reviewed reading summaries: SC, SI, SS


• Panel discussions: SI, SS, SR


• Simulations: SC


• Interactive games: SC


• Collaborative writing: SS


• Graded Research Projects: SC, SI, SR


• Graded Case Studies: SC, SI, SR


• Group role play activities: SS


• Debate: SS, SR


• Graded learning logs: SC


• Online portfolio work: SC, SR


• Peer mentoring activities: SC, SS


• Graded critiques activities: SC, SI, SR


• Self assessment activities: SC


• Online office hours: SI


• Email: SI, SS


• Live chats: SI, SS


• Newspaper/journal activities: SR

Additionally, here is a link to the Journal of Interactive Online Learning that contains all of their current and past editions. Check this journal out for some great ideas

Have a great week!

Amy

December 1, 2008

Hello Developers,

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday! I know many of you used the days off to do some of your developing to be ready for the 25% deadline today - I will be going into your courses this week and providing you with feedback :-)

This past week the latest issue of Online Classroom became available so be sure to check out the latest information in this great newsletter! The article that I found the most interesting was titled "Document Sharing Can Help Students Collaborate". This particular article discusses using google docs to document share however we have a document sharing feature within Blackboard and students can share documents by using the "team function". I have been talking about interaction between students for quite some time now, so I was happy to see an article in this newsletter that backed up the idea of collaboration in the online environment.

If you have questions about how to access this newsletter just let me know! Have a great week - stay warm!

Amy

November 24, 2008

Good Morning Developers!

I came across an interesting article this week titled "Seven skills students desperately need" http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=56127

The seven skills mentioned in the article are:

1. Problem-solving and critical thinking
2. Collaboration across networks and leading by influence
3. Agility and adaptability
4. Initiative and entrepreneurship
5. Effective written and oral communication;
6. Accessing and analyzing information
7. Curiosity and imagination.

As you read through the article and read through the list, think about how you are incorporating the learning of these skills in your online class. It is easy to "teach to the test" and tell students to answer end of chapter questions and answer multiple choice quiz questions when the answers are in the book. But it is a bit more challenging to teach students how to analyze information and generate curiosity and imagination. I know that all of you are up to the challenge! It is not only our job to teach our students the textbook information, but we need to be teaching them how to be successful in the workforce. If you are interested in bouncing ideas off of me I would be more than happy to discuss these with you!

As a reminder, for most of you the 25% completion deadline is on Monday. If you have questions about this or any concerns about reaching this deadline please let me know ASAP.

Have a great Thanksgiving week!

Amy

November 17, 2008

Good Morning Developers,

Some very interesting news articles came out over the past week and they contain information that will help you to keep current with where online education is in the spectrum of higher education.

Here are the links to the articles:
College life in wireless age: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/education/story/756174.html
As economy wavers, online enrollments climb: http://insidehighered.com/news/2008/11/13/sloan

The first article about college life in the wireless age doesn't specifically relate to taking courses in the online environment, but it is important because it helps us to understand the lives of our students and what our competition is doing in terms of everyday campus life. Web based social networks are changing the face of our interactions with each other and these types of changes will inevitably carry over into online education. These types of changes tell us that when we design online courses it is important to keep up with the changing face of communication. Students are used to interacting over the web and our assignments, discussion boards, and group projects are just a few ways that we can guide them toward that type of interaction in our courses.

The second article confirms that online education isn't going anywhere and is in fact growing at an unpredicted pace! Every year we have double-digit growth in online education and this growth might continue due to the stagnating economy. When people don't have jobs, they go back to school. Keep this in mind as you are creating your courses. It is likely that your courses will be seen by hundreds or thousands of students. The responsibility to give these students a high level of education rests in your hands and in your course design. Have fun with it! Keep your course design fresh and interesting to keep the students engaged. Remember, when people interact with each other they are likely to view their experience as a more positive one.

Have a great week!

November 10, 2008

Hello Developers,

I would like to use the blog this week to talk more about learning objects. Learning objects are a new way of thinking about learning content. Traditionally, content comes in a several hour chunk. Learning objects are much smaller units of learning, typically ranging from 2 minutes to 15 minutes. They are self contained and reusable. When you are developing your courses please try to incorporate learning objects into the content as much as you can. Online learners need to practice what they are learning and learning objects are a great way to do that.

By visiting this website from the University of Wisconsin you will find links to learning object collections and great information about how learning objects can be used in your courses:

http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/CIE/AOP/learningobjects.html

You can work learning objects into your courses thorough additional learning resources or by working the learning object into an assignment, discussion board, or project. There are a lot of fun ways to incorporate learning objects into your courses and I am excited to see the creative ways you all find to use them in your courses!

Stay warm!

Amy

November 3, 2008

Hello Developers!

To those of you who are new to online development I would like to welcome you and to encourage you to read this blog weekly. I use it to update everyone with announcements and up to date online development news and current information. I try to give new and fresh ideas and encourage you to try things with your development that you have never tried before. Please feel free to post comments to this blog or to e-mail me personally with any questions at aode@msbcollege.edu!

Here are a few announcements:

• By this time you all should have returned your signed contracts to me, if you haven't done so yet, please do so ASAP. Additionally, please take a couple of minutes to read through the User's Guide that I sent to you. There is a lot of information in there and even if you have read it in the past, it is always good to refresh your memory by looking through it again.
• I have ordered textbooks for all of you so if you don't receive them shortly please let me know ASAP.
• The 25% completion date is December 1st. If that deadline starts nearing and you don't believe that you will be able to make it, please drop me an e-mail and we can chat about the best way to move forward.

The following link was sent to me from Brian James and I wanted to pass it along to all of you: http://blog.lsc.edu/onlinepeerreview/

I think this blog is very interesting and is full of great information. If you have a couple minutes I would encourage you to look through it to spark some ideas for your new developments! Try to be creative with your developments - it is fun to try new assignments and projects. Not only will you be more interested in the development, but the future students of the course will be able to tell that you put in the extra effort and time to make it interesting and fun and they are likely to learn a lot more from the course. Have fun with it!

Have a great week and remember to vote!

Amy

October 27, 2008

Good Morning Developers!

This is the last weekly blog for this round of development. All developments must be 100% complete by Monday, November 3rd as this is when the peer advisers go into the courses to provide feedback. Please send me an e-mail as soon as you are finished with your development so that I can go in and check it and then cross it off the list. If you finish before November 3rd that is great as it allows me to check it before the peer advisers do so that you can make any last minute changes that need to be made.

Just to send along a few announcements from Globe University/Minnesota School of Business as a whole:

• The Elk River and west Madison campuses are scheduled to open summer quarter 2009! This means there will be even more students taking online courses :-) After these campuses open we will officially have 20 campuses that offer online courses to their students (that includes campuses in Utah, the Institute of Production and Recording, and the Cosmetology school)
• We have three online divisions for which our online courses serve as the academic basis for: MSB Online, UCC Online, and GU Online
• We will be growing from our fully online population of 750 students to well over 2000 in only a few short years (this does not include the thousands of residential students that take our online courses - see bullet number one).

Thank you for all of your hard work this quarter in your developments, your dedication to our students makes a huge difference!! I have enjoyed working with all of you this quarter and hope to work with you in more developments in the future.

I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween this Friday!

Amy

October 20, 2008

Hello Developers,

With the 100% completion date 2 weeks away I would like to spend this blog reviewing a few reminders to make sure you double check before the peer advisers go in to take a look at your course:

• You will want to make sure your course includes student to student interaction, engages the students, motivates the students, uses student centered techniques, and is free of errors (typos/spelling, etc.).
• It is important that students use their critical thinking skills in every course. They should have an opportunity to tell others their opinions and then discuss them, rather than always just stating facts and figures.
• Assignments should be creative - they shouldn't always be question and answer from the book. Encourage students to do activities and report back on what they learned. These types of assignments will help them learn more than simply learning everything from a book.
• Double check to make sure the total points in your course calendar matches the total points in the grade book.
• Add in some additional learning tools such as Books 24 X 7 or online journals. If you are not sure what online journals are available for your course topic please don't hesitate to contact Elaine, the online librarian. If you need her contact information just let me know!
• Remember that students should work in the course approximately 1 hour/credit/week as well as work outside of the course approximately 1 - 3 hours/credit/week. Also, as the course increases in number (100 level vs. 400 level) you should expect that students taking the higher level course have become more proficient in the material offered due to an increase in the amount of pre-requisite courses that are required. Therefore, upper division courses should contain readings, assignments, discussions, and exams that require a deeper evaluation of the course material.
• Make sure every unit has a reading assignment, discussion board, external link, and assignment at a minimum.

Thank you for all of your hard work this quarter! Only 2 more weeks left and one more blog for this development cycle. Please make sure to let me know if you have any questions or concerns at all!!

Amy

October 13, 2008

Hello Developers!

This week I will be going into your courses to check for 75% completion. The 100% completion date is November 3rd and at that time there will be peer advisers that will be going into your courses to give you feedback on your development. Please let me know if you have questions about the peer advising process. If you finish your course before the 100% completion deadline please let me know!

Globe Education Network made it into the Star Tribune today! Here is a link to the most recent article posted today about our new campus opening up in the IDS center in Downtown Minneapolis: http://www.startribune.com/business/30706574.html?elr=KArksUUUU

The students that enroll at the new IDS center campus will be technically residential students, but we know that many of our residential students very much enjoy to take some (or a lot!) of their courses online. The type of student that will be attracted to this location will likely be the working professional so we can definitely expect to see these busy students in our online courses. I hope you enjoy reading the article!

Amy

October 6, 2008

Hello Developers,

Just a reminder that the 75% completion date is on Monday. If you have concerns about meeting this deadline please contact me ASAP. Additionally, please be sure to look over your online course development users guide to make sure that you didn't miss anything in the course of your developments.

In this months edition of Online Classroom there is an article that discusses how to develop interaction activities for distance education. Students often have a tendency to feel isolated and alone in online classrooms. As a course developer it is important that you develop the course in such a way to foster a sense of community in the classroom. There are a number of interactions that need to take place in order for a sense of community to be present:

• instructor to learner
• learner to instructor
• learner to learner
• learner to content
• learner to medium
• learner to context

This article will discuss how to incorporate all of these types of interactions throughout your development. To check out this months edition of Online Classroom follow the instructions below:

To access Online Classroom simply go to www.magnapubs.com/licenses/suscribe.html. Enter your individual email address and password as well as the other required information. You will need to enter a Voucher Code and PIN number where prompted - I have e-mailed this information to you.

September 29, 2008

Hello Developers,

Back even 15 years ago, many of our students didn't know how to use e-mail. Papers were allowed to be turned in when they were written by hand and people had no idea what "Google" was. I remember when I would send letters through the US Mail to my friends who lived across the country because it was too expensive to call and I didn't have a computer in my house. Wow, how times have certainly changed! And you are a big part of the change!

These days our students are coming to Globe Education Network with an expectation of being able to take online courses. The courses you are developing are being asked for by our students and as I mentioned last week, more and more students are taking online courses. They are coming to us knowing how to use web cameras, how to put videos on YouTube, how to sync their e-mails to go directly to their cell phones, and so much more. Now, it is even becoming more common for students to be taking online or hybrid courses in high school. Here is a link to an article that discusses an entire high school that offers all of its courses in a hybrid format: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/news-by-subject/curriculum/index.cfm?i=54655

The fact that students have all of this knowledge when they come to us pushes us to do our best in the development of our online courses. It is important that we use the technology that we have available to us to meet all of the student learning styles. Students are used to being able to be a part of a community in the online world through social networking web sites. It is important that we create this type of community environment in our courses. The stage has certainly be set, now it is up to us to create courses that are going to provide our students with the best learning environment possible.

We have 50% of the development period left for this development cycle. I challenge you to push yourselves to be creative and come up with assignments that are going to both challenge and engage our students. I look forward to seeing what all of you have created when I go into check your courses at the 75% completion date!

Have a great week!

September 22, 2008

Hello Developers!

Today marks another check point. I will be going into your courses this week to look for 50% completion. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Today I would like to highlight an article titled: The School Bell Rings Online. http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080917/BUSINESS/809170364/1003

This article discusses a number of things that I feel are important to developers. First, the number of students taking online education is increasing. From 2002 to 2006 enrollment has nearly doubled to 3.5 million students! Second, there is still a very large scare about diploma mills. Diploma mills exist, but Globe Education Network is not one of them. The requirements that you follow during your development come directly from ACICS (Accrediting Council of Independent Colleges and Schools). Third, this article discusses both fully online courses as well as hybrid courses. It is important for you to know that the courses you are currently developing are being used for both purposes. Additionally, the material you develop is also becoming available to all residential instructors.

All of these factors come together to show you the importance of the courses you are developing. Students are relying on these courses for a quality education and residential and hybrid instructors are relying on the information you give them to help guide them in teaching their classes.

Thank you for your dedication to these courses and I look forward to going into your shells this week and taking a look at the material you have developed thus far!

September 15, 2008

Good Morning Developers!

I apologize for missing last week - it has been busy lately! I hope all of you are on track to meet the completion date of September 22nd - as always, please let me know if you have concerns about meeting this deadline. This week I would like to make sure that I remind you of a few things as you do your developments:

• On the Unit Content page where you write your unit introductions and objectives you will see that there are dates already included in this area. You will notice that the dates are an HTML code that is embedded within this area. Please do not change the dates or the HTML code. We have set it up so that all of the courses have the same code and instead of going into each course to change the dates every quarter, we simply have to change this copied code and it automatically updates in all of the courses. This is a HUGE time saver on our end :-) So, no need to change any dates or figure out what the dates of the next quarter is going to be, we will take care of that for you in administration!
• Please remember that if you are creating tests in your course that you will want to add the "no print" feature to your tests. I have attached the "how to" document to the e-mail I sent to all of you. If you have questions about this please let me know, but the basic theory is that we want to add this code to the tests so that students can't print them out and study the questions or give the questions to their friends. It is just an extra safeguard.
• All documents should be created using, or converted to, Office 97 - 2003. When you create any documents with the Office 2007 suite, if the person who is opening the documents does not have MS Office 2007 or the Office 2007 file converter plug-in the files will not open. If you are unsure of how to save your 2007 documents as 97 - 2003 please let me know and I will send you instructions.

Have a great week!

Amy

September 2, 2008

Good Morning,

Can you believe how fast the summer went - I hope you all enjoyed the long Labor Day weekend! With September arriving, our first 25% checkpoint is upon us. I will be going into your courses this week to check for 25% completion.

As we develop online courses it is important to stay in touch with the current research regarding online technologies. In a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education there was a report on digital textbooks and whether or not students preferred the digital textbook over the printed textbook.

At Globe Education Network we use a combination of both, but for the most part have stuck with printed textbooks and supplement with online resources. It looks like we are on track for now. 75% of surveyed students prefer a printed textbook over an electronic one. And 60% said that even if a free digital copy were available, they would still pay for a low-cost print version. As you ask students to read information online, please keep this information in mind. Your students will often print out the information so that they have it in paper form. To read more from this article please visit:

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3272&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Have a great week!

Amy

August 25th, 2008

Good Morning!

As a reminder the 25% completion deadline is fast approaching. It is Monday, September 1st which is only one week away! Offices are closed on Monday, September 1st so I will begin to go into your courses on Tuesday, September 2nd. If you have any concerns about meeting that deadline please let me know.

I want to remind all of you that here at Globe Education Network all of our employees can subscribe to Online Classroom for free. Online Classroom provides practical advice and examples of proven, research-based pedagogical techniques to help instructors and course developers create and teach outstanding courses. To access Online Classroom simply go to www.magnapubs.com/licenses/suscribe.html. Enter your individual email address and password as well as the other required information. Enter the following Voucher Code and PIN number where prompted:

• Voucher Code: MSB
• PIN: 1010

There is a new issue that just came out today and it contains an article about synchronous learning. Here at Globe Education Network we typically design our courses as being asynchronous, but try to work in synchronous learning through instructor office hours. However, a great way to work in a simulated version of synchronous learning is to provide students with audio lectures. Please let me know if you have an interest in adding audio lectures to your course and I would be happy to help you with that process! We have gotten great feedback from students about the benefits that audio lectures provide them. They enjoy listening to the content to get the material in a different fashion.

Have a great week!

Amy

August 18, 2008

Good Morning!

I would like to take a little time this morning to talk about rubrics. I believe I have mentioned them in the past, but this topic is important enough to talk about again. Rubrics are a simple way to set up a grading criteria for assignments. This tool is useful for both students and instructors so that everyone knows what is expected of a student to receive a certain grade on an assignment.

When you are creating your assignments please remember to clearly write out what the expectations are. Rather than simply asking students to "answer a question" identify what you are looking for from their answers. Because these students are taking online courses, they may not feel as comfortable asking questions because the personal relationship with the instructor is a little bit more difficult to form. Therefore it is very important to give them all of the needed information up front.

There is a lot of information on the web about rubrics. Here are a few web sites that can give you a little bit more information on this topic:

www.uen.org/rubric/html/know.html
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/teaching-methods-and-management/rubrics/4521.html

Have a great week!

Amy

August 11, 2008

We have now started the new round of development! Welcome to you if you are a new developer and you are new to the process - we are happy to have you aboard :-) Please take some time to look back on past posts in this blog to get ideas for your development. Even if you aren't new to online development it is always good to look back to use ideas from the past!

Company News:

Starting this fall quarter we will be offering online programs to students out in Utah! In the past Utah students have taken GU/MSB courses online through a consortium agreement, but now the courses are being developed for Utah Career College students as well! What does this mean for development? Mainly, please stay away from referring to Globe University or Minnesota School of Business in your verbiage. Additionally, as always, as you are creating your courses, please remember that students all over the country will be taking them. This means that if you mention something local or Minnesota specific, students may not understand what you are referring to.

General Updates:

The 25% completion date will be upon us before we know it - September 1st is the date. If you are having trouble getting your textbook or getting started please let me know ASAP. As you are starting your development please take a look at what items might be good as an audio lecture. You can send them to me right away so I can get started working on them to have them up and running for you. All I need is a power point presentation and a script! Also, if you would like to have a "review quiz" in the middle of the presentation or as a stand alone this is also possible. The review quizzes could test a student's knowledge without counting in the grade book. This is a wonderful way to test reading/listening comprehension.

Have fun with starting your new developments!

Amy

July 28, 2008

Welcome to the last week of development!

Monday, August 4th is the 100% completion date for the development of Fall, 2008 courses. At that time the courses will be opened up to the peer advisers and they will have one week to provide you with their feedback. At that time you have one week to work in the pertinent feedback and then we will copy them for Fall Quarter - time flies when you are having fun! Please let me know ASAP if you have any concerns about meeting the August 4th deadline (unless we have previously talked about it).

Many times the last week of development is when you are putting the finishing touches on your courses and create the exams and/or quizzes. I have attached a link to a paper that presents and evaluates different types of student assessment measures--including discussion-generating questions, multiple choice questions, essay questions, and authentic projects--for on-line courses. This paper is available via the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) and the full text is available via the PDF document on the top left hand side of the screen.

The paper asserts that assessment should mimic how students will be evaluated on the job site in the real world, meaning that they should be team members and problem solvers, with the technological and academic skills to communicate the results of their actions. I am sure that reading through this paper will provide you with a plethora of ideas and inspirations! Have fun!

http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED430659&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED430659

July 21, 2008

Good Morning!

The 100% completion date, August 4th, is fast approaching. If you have concerns about meeting that deadline please let me know! At that time the peer advisers will be going into your courses to provide you with feedback. I will be encouraging peer advisers to sign up this week via e-mail. When you get the e-mail, if you are interested in peer advising on another course that is being developed, please go ahead and respond!

I would like to introduce you to a web site that has some great information about online development (http://vid.vinu.edu). VID is the public site for the Virtual Instructional Designer, a LAAP grant-based project designed to assist faculty in developing online courses. The grant went through 2002, but all of the information is still available. The main content areas are Jump Start, Communicate, Content and Assignments, Motivation, Evaluation, Media and Technology, and Tutorials. It is free to sign up so go ahead and take a look around! I am sure you will find information that will be valuable to your development!

Have a great week!

Amy

July 14, 2008

Good Morning!

I am going to use this post to go over some reminders to keep in mind. These are items that I would like for you to double check for in your development:

• When you are creating your tests please be sure to set them up so that the printing and copying of the test is disallowed. If you are unsure of how to do this I would be happy to send you the "how to" document
• Please make sure all of your documents are in 97 - 2003. Not all of our students have upgraded their computers to 2007.
• Remember to have a discussion board in every unit
• Remember to have at least one external link in every unit (all external links must open in a new window)
• If you are running out of ideas, don't forget to look at the materials we have housed in our online library!
• All spelling errors should be corrected
• All documents should be uploaded as an HTML document (except for those attached to assignments). If you are unaware of how to do this please let me know.
• The total points in your gradebook should match the total points in your course calendar
• Remember that students should work in the course approximately 1 hour/credit/week as well as work outside of the course approximately 1 - 3 hours/credit/week.
• Online courses range from 100 - 400 level. As the course increases in number, course developers should expect that students taking the higher level course have become more proficient in the material offered due to an increase in the amount of pre-requisite courses that are required. Therefore, upper division courses should contain readings, assignments, discussions, and exams that require a deeper evaluation of the course material.

Have a great week!

Amy

July 7th, 2008

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are all staying cool in this July weather. :) We are nearing our 75% completion deadline and gearing up for recruiting peer advisers to give you feedback on your course development. As we are nearing the "fine tuning" stage of development I would like to introduce a new tool that we now have called "Adobe Presenter"!

Adobe Presenter can turn power point presentations into flash presentations complete with narration and interactivity (quizzes, etc.). Right now I (Amy Ode) am the only one currently with a license so to use this awesome tool all you need to do is send me a power point presentation with a script and instructions and I can create the flash presentation and add it to your course! One developer has already taken advantage of this opportunity and the presentations are turning out great! Here is the link to the Adobe Presenter site:

http://www.adobe.com/products/presenter/

Check it out! I look forward to receiving your presentations and scripts!

June 23, 2008

Good Morning!

For several of you I will be going into your courses and checking for 50% completion this week. We have quite a few of you on different schedules due to late hiring, so please be sure to check your contract closely for completion deadlines. Please let me know if you have any concerns about your completion dates.

Here is a link to learn more about student learning styles and multiple intelligence: http://www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm

It is important to keep in mind throughout your development that all of our students have different learning styles. In the online environment we are heavily driven by the visual learning style. However, through a few small tweaks and changes during development we can also tap into the audio, tactile, and kinesthetic learning styles. To tap into the audio learning style you can send me scripts of audio lectures I would be happy to record a lecture for you and put it into your course. Additionally, there are all sorts of podcasts and audio learning resources out there that you can link into your course.

To tap into the kinesthetic learning style you can have students complete tactile type assignments and report back through discussion boards. Additionally, learning objects also tap into the kinesthetic learning style.

Just because you are designing a course in the online environment it is important not to forget to utilize the other types of learning.

Have a great week!

Amy

June 16, 2008

Good Morning!



I do believe it has finally turned into summer here in Minnesota! I hope you are enjoying this beautiful sunny weather :-) I apologize for not posting a blog last week as the to-do list was quite long and the week slipped away from me. Hopefully this week, you will find that the information is "doubly good" and makes up for the missing blog last week!



The majority of you are coming up to your 50% deadline next Monday (6/23/08). If you have any concerns about meeting this cut off point please let me know ASAP. There are others of you that are just starting your development now and have a quick development cycle. If you have questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to e-mail me at aode@msbcollege.edu or post to this blog for other developers to help you out.


I would like to spend some time talking about Wikis in Instruction. Here is a link to the Wikipedia page on Wikis in Instruction (Ironic huh?): http://wikis.lib.ncsu.edu/index.php/Wikis_in_Instruction

This page contains a lot of great information on the definition of a wiki, services that host wikis for instruction purposes, when to use a wiki, and examples of wikis in instruction. I think that if you are at all confused about wikis, the purpose of them, and/or how they can be used in instruction, you will find this link incredibly useful.

I can't stress enough to HAVE FUN with your developments and to stretch yourself to work in new and exciting features. Wikis are just one example of a way to stretch your development muscles and incorporate new and exciting technologies into your developments.

Have a great week!

June 2, 2008

We have reached the 25% deadline! I will be going into your courses this week to check for this completion and answer any questions you might have.

Last week I discussed the New Languange of Learning and mentioned that I would go into further depth on some of these topics in later blogs. This week I would like to discuss the Digg web site. In all of our courses we are required to have an external link in every unit. It is sometimes difficult to find an external link that is relevent and interesting to the students. This is where digg.com can come in handy. Check out this site to find very interesting web sites on the following topics: Technology, World & Business, Science, Gaming, Lifestyle, Entertainment, Sports, and Offbeat topics. There is also a search feature so that you can find websites related directly to what you are looking for.

For example, for our Career Development course I found an article on the cnn.com website through digg.com. The article is titled: "You're Not Getting The Job: 25 Reasons Why" There is no way I can go on every web site every day to look for meaningful articles, so digg.com helped me find a current article from CNN.com (a reputable web site) that would be interesting to our students. It is a wonderful way to keep the course fresh!

I hope that this website is helpful to you in finding web sites that your students will be interested in!

Have a great week!

May 26, 2008

The New Language of Learning

On May 22, I had the opportunity to go to the e-learning conference at Normandale Community College and was able to learn a lot about the new trends in web based learning. The conference was a great experience, and provided me with a lot of new ideas, but one thing that really caught my eye (or ears!) was the newly emerging language of education.

It appears that many of our students already know this language, but us administrators and instructors are a bit behind the times. I would hear words such as “twitter”, “widgets”, and “avatar” and realize that an entirely new vocabulary was forming in the education environment! All levels of education are now using these words. No elementary, middle school, high school, or higher education school is excluded.

I would like to present you with the new vocabulary of e-learning in the year 2008! Not all of these products, web pages, or words are used in all e-learning environments, but as time goes on, it will become important to at least have a working knowledge of what these words mean. You may already know some of these words and not know others. Either way, I hope this list provides you with a good working knowledge of the new e-learning vocabulary. Enjoy!

• Avatar: A computer user's representation of himself or herself by using a picture or an object. For example, when you see that someone has put a picture of Bart Simpson next to their name, that is their Avatar.
• Blog: A website maintained by an individual with commentaries. You are currently reading my blog!
• Del.icio.us: A social bookmarking website. Allows users to tag web sites with keywords so that popular websites can be found simply by entering a key word. Check out the web site
• Digg: Websites are submitted to digg.com by users, and the users vote on the websites they like best…essentially “digging” the good websites to the top of the list!
• Jott: A free web page where you can call in a voice message and have it converted to text and sent to an e-mail address or to a text message account. Messages can be sent to individuals or groups of people.
• Learning Management System: The software system used to facilitate online learning. GU/MSB uses Blackboard as our Learning Management System.
• Learning Objects: Small chunks of learning units that provide students with opportunities to practice what they have learned. Often times are electronic and interactive. University of Wisconsin and MERLOT have free learning objects available for educators to use.
• Personalized Start Page: A personalized web page that is organized into tabs, with each tab containing user-defined modules. Modules could include RSS Feeds, local weather forecasts, a calendar, bookmarks, notes, to-do lists, web mail, social networking sites, etc. Examples of start pages include netvibes, Pageflakes, My Yahoo!, and iGoogle.
• Podcast: Audio information or video information that is delivered via the internet.
• RSS Feed: A way to filter information from several web sites into one spot. For example, if you like to check the news from various entertainment web sites you can have them all filter into one spot so that you only have to go to one page to check several different sites.
• Second Life: A virtual world created by its own residents. I encourage you to play around on the Second Life website!
• Social Networking: Online networks or communities of people who share similar interests or activities. Examples are My Space and Face Book
• Twitter: Small updates to a social networking page (up to 140 characters). Check out the twitter.com website!
• Web2.0: A term used to describe the trend of more creativity and interactivity on the Internet. Rather then flat web pages and no interaction, we are moving to 3-D technology and social networking.
• Widget: Anything that can be embedded into a web page. It adds content that is not static such as the weather or a clock.
• Wiki: Used to create collaborative websites and community web sites. All users can contribute to the information on a wiki page.
• You Tube: Video sharing website where users can upload their own videos

These definitions are quite simplistic so to learn more be sure to check my future blogs for more in-depth definitions. I will also be discussing possible ways they can be used in e-education!

May 19th, 2008

As we narrow in on the 25% completion deadline all of you should have received your textbooks by now. If you have not received your textbook please let me know and we will contact the publisher to see where it is at in the shipping process.

Now is about the time that you are likely thinking about assignments for the courses you are developing. I would like to encourage you to create rubrics for any assignments that you develop.

A rubric is a scoring guide that seeks to evaluate a student's performance based on the sum of a full range of criteria rather than a single numerical score. Many experts believe that rubrics improve students' end products and therefore increase learning. Here is a link to several articles that describe what rubrics are and uses a "chocolate chip cookie" to help give an example. Being as chocolate chip cookies are one of my favorites, I thought this article was a good one to pass along :-)
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/teaching-methods-and-management/rubrics/4522.html

Additionally, a couple of weeks ago Kelly Schmidt sent out this link as a great tool that helps create grading rubrics: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php

The website offers specific examples for assignments in a variety of disciplines and also helps you design original rubrics based on the course and assignment type.

Happy Developing!

May 12, 2008

Good Morning Developers,

You are all starting to get your developments underway and your textbooks should be arriving soon! At this time you are likely thinking about what new and exciting things you can bring into your developments. Might I suggest blogging as an option for a new way to integrate technology into online learning! Here is the link to the Wikipedia site that explains blogging very thoroughly:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

More and more instructors have been working blogs into their online courses and I would like to suggest an article from Online Classroom that talks about 13 ways to integrate blogging into the Web 2.0 classroom. Remember, to log into Online Classroom by going to www.magnapubs.com/licenses/suscribe.html Enter your individual email address and password as well as the other required information. Enter the following Voucher Code and PIN number where prompted:

• Voucher Code: MSB
• PIN: 1010

Lastly, here is a link to the Top 100 Education Blogs that might be of interest to you: http://oedb.org/library/features/top-100-education-blogs

Happy Blogging!

Just a few housekeeping reminders:

• Your 25% completion date is June 2nd
• Please remember to save any document that you attach to your courses as a Word 97 - 2003 document. Not all students have upgraded their computers so they won't be able to open the file if it is saved in a different format
• If you would like to add audio to your courses but don't feel comfortable recording it yourself, simply send me a script and tell me where to put the audio, and I would be happy to record it for you!

Have a great week!

May 5th, 2008

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

We are now beginning the online development cycle for courses that will be available to be offered for Fall Quarter, 2008. Those of you that are developing this cycle have all developed courses before and feel comfotable with the development process. I would like to take this time just to send out a few reminders about online development to refresh your memories:

• Please review the Online Development User's Guide. This guide contains best practices guidelines and provides great web links to give you development ideas.
• It is important to have external links in every unit. Students benefit greatly from being able to go to the web to get additional information on the topic that they are learning in a particular unit.
• A discussion board is required for every unit - even units 6 and 12.
• Have fun with your development! Because all of you have done online development before, really try and stretch yourself to be creative and implement some new ideas. Blogs, group work, and fun outside projects are great ways to keep a course fresh and interesting.

All of you should be getting your textbooks fairly soon. If you don't have your textbook by next week please let me know and I will contact the publisher for you. Additionally, if you have not yet returned your contracts please send them to me ASAP.

And now for an update regarding the popularity of online courses. As Globe University/Minnesota School of Business continues to work on getting more and more classes available through the online medium, I am happy to report that it looks like we are right on track. Here is a link to a press release from April 22 that states that the demand for online learning opportunities is growing by leaps and bounds!

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2008/4/prweb881074.htm

Have a great week!

April 21, 2008

Good Morning!

Our development cycle is winding down and we are down to 2 weeks left before the new courses are opened up for our peer advisers. If you have any concerns about completing your course on time please let me know ASAP. As you wind down on your development, please double check your courses to make sure that there are no spelling errors, that all of the assignments are consistent throughout the course (i.e. points add up in all places, assignments are titled the same in all places, etc.), and that there are external links in every unit. It is important to polish up the courses so that they are professional and error free.

I will be starting the hiring process for the next round of developments next week. Please let me know if you have an interest in working on any of the new developments listed below:

AG420: Commodities, Futures, Options
CJ280: Criminal Justice Exploration
HS400: Sales and Marketing of Fitness Programs
HS405: Online Coaching and Personal Training Skills
KY160: Legal Keyboarding and Transcription
MG450: Derivatives
NS135: Microbiology
NS140: Anatomy and Physiology I
NS150: Anatomy and Physiology II
NT340: Management of Information Technology
OA270: Medical Office Procedures II
SC320: Ethics in Information Technology
SD320: Project Management
XXXX: Political Science

Have a great week!

April 14, 2008

Good Morning Developers!

Today is the 75% completion date for your developments. I will be checking into your courses this week and giving you feedback on your development progress and answering any questions you might have. I also sent out the information about the Peer Advising process this morning via e-mail. Beginning May 5th peer advisors will be able to go into the courses you developed and provide you with constructive suggestions on your course shell.

I included you on the e-mail that I sent to the online instructors regarding peer advising and I would encourage you to take part in the peer advising process for a course you did not develop. It will give you insight into what the peer advisors will be looking for!

On May 11th I will be e-mailing you all of the feedback and at that time will have instructions on how to imcorporate the feedback into your course shell. Here are the questions the peer advisors will be answering:

1. Do you feel that the content in the course is written at the appropriate level?
2. Is the course split into manageable segments?
3. Are visual and auditory stimuli used to motivate students?
4. Are appropriate supplementary resources made available as part of the course content?
5. Does the use of technology enable critical reflection and analysis of content?
6. Do the assignments/activities that require the use of technology clearly explain how technology is to be used by the students?
7. Do you believe the instructional strategies employed in the course cause students to be effectively engaged with the course content?
8. Do you bleieve the expectations defining or explaining required levels of student participation are clear?
9. Do you believe there is a deliberate attempt to create a learning community through the following methods: Discussions, E-mail, Chat Rooms, Videoconferencing, Group Projects, or other collaborative activities?
10. Do you believe the assessments/assignments in the course are aligned with the stated objectives/learning outcomes?

April 7, 2008

Good Morning!

Please remember that your 75% completion date is next Monday. I will be going into your courses at that time to check for completion and answer any questions you might have.

I would like to blog today on the importance of discussion boards. There has been a lot of research on the importance of building a learning community through threaded discussion boards. One of the main components for building a successful online course is to create an effective system for student interaction. This can be done through learning groups, team work, and threaded discussion boards. To accomplish a high level of interaction and overcome the isolation of online learning we need to have an engaging a thoughtful discussion board in every unit. Please take a look at the discussion boards you have developed for your courses. Not only should they engage the students in the course material, but they should allow the students to think beyond what they have read or learned in other places, and should allow the students to be able to interact respectfully with each other.

I have had people ask me if there should be a discussion board in the last unit of the course. The argument is that because it is the last unit of the course that students no longer need the learning community because the course is over. I strongly feel that it is important to finish a quarter in a manner that enables students to integrate and summarize course material at more complex levels and to increase retention of learning for application in later course work or living. Therefore, your discussion question should encourage students to recall what they have learned through the duration of the quarter and to comment on other students posts.

I look forward to seeing your progress in your courses next week!

Amy

April 1, 2008

Happy April!

This past week I received a question from an instructor wondering why it was so important to keep consistency in our courses. I told this instructor that course to course consistency is very important because with the amount of students who take courses at GU/MSB, it is important that the level of education they receive is consistent. We differ from a traditional university in that we are a career college and have guaraanteed to various career licensing agencies that students will meet specific outcomes in our courses. The majority of our instructors have not made a career out of teaching and often times still work full time in their area of specialty. They teach at a career college so that they can give back to the career field that they love and we have built the backbone of our college on the real world experience they bring into the classroom, it is invaluable to the students. However, as an accredited and licensed career college institution we need to make sure that the students are reaching specific outcomes that we have guaranteed to licensing agencies. Additionally, in the online world it can be quite complicated and time consuming to develop a course (as you all know!). Therefore, we have guaranteed quality when we use consistent course shells from quarter to quarter.

As a developer of online coursework what you will develop will be used over and over again in courses for many years to come. We appreciate the effort you put into your course development and I know that the future instructors of your course appreciate the thought, creativity, and time that you put into your course.

Have a great week!

March 24, 2008

Good Morning!

Today is the 50% completion deadline. I will be going into your courses this week to look for 50% completion of course development. I will also be looking for creative course development and interesting course design strategies. Please let me know if you have any concerns about meeting this deadline.

As you are developing your course, you might be wondering if you are meeting expectations of what your course should look like and should encompass. Please view the online course development rubric at the following web page:

http://www.csuchico.edu/celt/roi/

This rubric evaluates a course based on Learner Support, Organization, Instructional Design, Assessment, Innovative Teaching with Technology, and Faculty Use of Student Feedback. As you look through what is considered "Baseline", "Effective", and "Exemplary" in each of these categories compare the descriptions to what you have done with your course design. We are looking for your course to fall in the Exemplary category as much as possible!

March 17, 2008

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Just a reminder that next Monday is the 50% completion date for your developments. I will be going into your courses at that time to check for completion as well as offer suggestions. Please remember to have at least one external link in every unit! It is important to provide students with additional web links that relate to the information they are learning in that particular unit.

Books 24 X 7:

Books 24 X 7 is the largest online book resource offering unobstructed access to the complete unabridged contents of thousands of the latest and best business and technology books. You can gain access to Books 24 X 7 by logging into Skillsoft and searching within Books 24 X 7. All of these books are free to our students and you can assign a reading from any of these books.

In order to search Skillsoft for any materials that are available you go to http://msbcollege.skillport.com. Your username will be the same as your e-mail name. For most employees it will be firstinitiallastname (i.e. jdoe). Your password will be your e-mail name as well (i.e. jdoe). Your username and password are the same. You can then search for a course by keyword at the top of the page.

Have a great week!

Amy

March 10, 2008

Good Morning!

It looks like your developments are coming right along and all of you are working in creative and engaging assignments for your future online students! This past week I came across an article from Magna Publications titled "Student Moderators In Online Courses" and wanted to share this idea with you.

This article talks about the idea of having students within the class be assigned as discussion board moderators. The author of the article describes her approach and how it worked for her. She admits that having student moderators is not the best approach for every course and every subject matter, but shares some of the benefits as well as tips to make the approach easier to facilitate. Please read this article and determine if it would be a good approach to work into the course you are currently developing:

http://www.magnapubs.com/issues/magnapubs_ff/5_3/news/601248-1.html?s=FF&p=MFCFEZ

March 3, 2008

Good Morning Developers!

Today is the 25% completion date for most of you. I will be going into your courses this week to offer suggestions and check for 25% completion. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

It is important to not get stuck in a rut when it comes to developing assignments and activities for students in the online environment. It is easy for students to get bored in the online environment and it is the responsibility of the course designer to keep the course and assignments interesting and fun. There is no end to the different types of assignments that can be required of students in the online environment. Here are a few assignment options.

Art Projects Jigsaw
Journal Critiques Journaling
Podcasting Kinesthetics
Blogging KWL (Know/Want/Learn)
Case Briefs Lab Experiments
Case Studies & Case Based Instruction Learning Contracts
Concept Mapping Literature Review
Debate Oral Reports
Design Projects Peer Editing/Review
Discussion Question Activities Portfolios
Document Analysis Presentations
Drill and Practice Procedural Demonstration
Essays Q & A (student questions)
Fieldwork Quizzing
Fishbowl Reflections
Gaming Reviews
Group Debugging Role Playing
Group Problem Solving Scavenger Hunt
Group Reports Simulations
Hypothetical Situations Socratic Dialogue
Ice Breakers Webguest
Inductive Reasoning Wikis
Interviews

Visit this web page to learn more about each of these assignment options and see an example of how each of the above can be used in an online course: http://www.ion.illinois.edu/resources/otai/

February 24, 2008

Good Morning Developers!

We have a small group of developers this round so you will be getting lots of personalized attention from me :-) Please don't hesistate to ask me any questions as you go through the process, that is what I am here for! Just a few reminders:

• The 25% completion date is March 3rd. Please let me know if you have any concerns about being able to meet this deadline.
• Thank you to Sherry Sonnenberg for the following tip: If you are trying to copy from a word document into Blackboard you might be having some difficulty. Try pasting the information from the word document into "notepad" and then copy from notepad and paste it into the online editor. It adds an extra step but may alleviated some of your frustrations!
• REMINDER: Please note that your documents should be saved in Word 2003 rather then Word 2007. Blackboard manages 2003 documents better then 2007 documents because of the new extension. We are looking to update Bb but in the meantime please save the files as 2003 for now. you are not sure how to do this please see this help document: http://students.msbcollege.edu/helpdesk/pdfs/save_in_2007.pdf
• REMINDER: Please make sure you are not using additional resources that have not been bundled with the textbook in order to develop your course. If the publisher has sent you additional items that go along with the book, before using them in your development please make sure that the students will be receiving these additional resources in addition to the textbook. Often times these additional resources come at an additional cost for the students.

Have a great week!

Amy

February 11, 2008

Good Morning Everyone!

Right now there are two sets of developers that I am currently working with.

Those developers who just completed your Spring 2008 developments, the peer advising feedback is rolling in and I am hoping to send all of the feedback to you by tomorrow. When you get this feedback please read through it carefully and let me know if there is anything that you disagree with. I am happy to go through the feedback with you and determine which points should/could be worked into your course(s) and which points could be considered for a later implementation or no implementation. This will be the last weekly blog e-mail notification you receive, but feel free to check back to the blog for continued online development information!

For those developers who are just getting started with the Summer, 2008 developments you are likely waiting for your textbooks to arrive. While you wait for your textbook please feel free to start looking around the internet for online resources that go along with the content for the course you are developing. Once you receive your textbook you can go ahead and jump right into the development of your new course. I you have any questions or run into any issues please contact me ASAP at aode@msbcollege.edu

As a reminder Online Classroom has released their February Issue Update. Topics in this issue are:

• 11 Practice Priorities to Promote Empathy in Online Courses
• Tips from the Pros: 7 Indicators of Community
• Difference = Flavor: Embracing Cultural Diversity in Online Learning
• Online Teaching Fundamentals: What to Evaluate, Part 1
• Professors Online: The Best-Case Scenario for Discussion Group Success
• Online Teaching With Errol: Giving Positive Feedback Online Even When It's Negative

The Minnesota School of Business/Globe College has an institution subscription to this newsletter. If you would like to receive these articles every month follow these instructions:

Go to: www.magnapubs.com/licenses/subscribe.html

Enter your individual email address and password as well as the other required information. You will need to enter a Voucher Code and PIN number where prompted - I have e-mailed this information to you.

Have a great week!

Amy

February 4th, 2008

We have reached our 100% completion date for the Spring, 2008 development cycle, congratulations! Today I will be opening up your courses to the team of peer advisors and will be providing you with their feedback by this time next week.

• You still have access to your course so if there are items that you would like to adjust please feel free to do so.
  
• If there is something that you would like me to tell the team of peer advisors please let me know and I will make sure to get the information to them.

I will be submitting payroll for the new developments for the February 15th paycheck. If you do not see your development payment on that paycheck please let me know ASAP.

Last week I visited another Higher Education Institution in Texas and acted as the ACICS evaluator for their Distance Education program. It was an enjoyable experience and a wonderful learning opportunity. I learned that what we are currently doing in our courses matches what other institutions are also doing, so we are competitive in our industry. I also got ideas from looking through their courses that I would like to suggest for our course developments here at GU/MSB.

• It was a requirement in their courses to have a discussion board for every week. This ensured that there was a high level of student interaction


• Many of their tests were essay rather then multiple choice. Although it may be a bit more time consuming for the instructors to grade, it requires the students to really know the material in order to answer the questions. Essentially every online test is an "open book" test, so therefore essay questions allow for a true synthesis of the material.

Please post an opinion to the above suggestions if you have one. I am looking for feedback to the above ideas.

January 29, 2008

Good Morning!

Please note that your course must be 100% complete by Monday of next week. If you do not feel that your course will be complete by that time please let me know ASAP. The Peer Advisors will have access to your course on Monday morning. As soon as you finish your course development please send me an e-mail to let me know and I will check it over.

Here is a link to an article titled “Is Online Learning For You”. It is important to understand the types of students that will be taking the courses you are designing. Read through this article to learn about the types of students that are most well suited for online learning: http://www.online-learning.com/articles_foryou.html

Have a great week!

Hello Developers,

The peer advisor volunteers are rolling in and I wanted to make sure you knew what they were going to be looking for when they go into your courses beginning February 4th. As you finish your developments please make sure you keep these questions in mind. They will be answering the following questions:

• Do you feel that the content in the course is written at the appropriate level?
• Is the course split into manageable segments?
• Are visual and auditory stimuli used to motivate students?
• Are appropriate supplementary resources made available as part of the course content?
• Does the use of technology enable critical reflection and analysis of content?
• Do the assignments/activities that require the use of technology clearly explain how technology is to be used by the students?
• Do you believe the instructional strategies employed in the course cause students to be effectively engaged with course content?
• Do you believe that the expectations defining or explaining required levels of student participation are clear?
• Do you believe there is a deliberate attempt to create a learning community through the following methods: Discussions, E-mail, Chat Rooms, Videoconferencing, Group Projects, or other collaborative activities?
• Do you believe the assessments/assignments in the course are aligned with the stated objectives/learning outcomes?

If you finish the development of your course early please drop me an e-mail to let me know

Enjoy your week!

January 14, 2008

Welcome to the GU/MSB Online Curriculum Development Blog Spot! All of my weekly announcements will now take place on this blog and will be archived so that developers can look back at past announcements, up and coming topics in online development, tips and tricks, etc. You can also post feedback and additional thoughts for other developers. This will be a community created for all of us to share online development information

• The 75% completion date is today. I will be going into all of your courses and providing you with feedback on your development. If you do not feel your course is 75% complete please let me know ASAP.




• On Friday you all should have received an e-mail about peer advising. You are welcome to sign up to peer advise upon other courses that are being developed. This process begins on February 4th




• As you all know, we need to add any word documents to Blackboard as HTML files so that it is faster and easier for the students to view the documents. You may have encountered problems in the past when trying to save a word document as an HTML document when the word document contains pictures. Well, I have good news for you! All you need to do is create a .zip file containing the HTML document and all the pictures. Then upload the .zip file into Blackboard, and identify the HTML file as the source. I have e-mailed the How To documents that walk you through step by step how to do this.

Here is a link to an article from e-learn magazine on Development Principles for Online Learning: http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=best_practices&article=33-1

This article discusses the ideas of learning objects, procrastination, level of content, etc. Read through this article and feel free to post your opinions for other to see on this blog!