May 27, 2010

Hello Developers!

I hope you’re having a great week. It’s been a hot one here in Minnesota….definitely makes me feel like summer is on the way!

A quick reminder: The 25% completion date is coming up one week from Memorial Day Monday, so hopefully you have all had a chance to review your course syllabus and textbook, access your Blackboard shells, and peruse any online resources that are available via the publisher…all of these elements will help you formulate a development plan for your course.

Over the next week, as you begin creating the various course assessments for your new development, consider how you can design assignments and projects that not only engage students in the content, but also engage them with one another. Here are few ideas:

• Discussion Board Leaders – Back in September, Amy Ode blogged about having students take on the role of “facilitator” in the discussion boards….I encourage you to try this if you’re developing an upper-level course. Using this approach, instructors assign each student to be a “facilitator” for a particular unit’s discussion (depending on the number of students in the class, a unit would likely have multiple student facilitators). As facilitator, students would be responsible for taking on a leadership role during their assigned unit’s discussion: asking probing questions, sharing supplementary resources, encouraging critical thought, clarifying points of confusion, etc. If you’re interested in trying this in your course, let me know and I can offer some specific examples of how it’s been implemented in other courses.
• Group/Team Projects – Does your new development have are particular course objective(s) that might be effectively met by completion of a group project? Considering there are limited career paths where our graduates won’t be required to interact as a team in their workplace, it is important that students experience teamwork during their educational career. I know what you’re thinking….how can a team project really work online? Trust me, it can! Blackboard has a Team Project area where the instructor can create groups so students have a space to discuss topics and share files. Thus, we don’t need to worry about the logistics of how teams will communicate with one another….we just need to work together to make sure the project is purposeful and well-designed. So, if you have an idea for a possible group/team element to your course – or you would like to include one, but aren’t sure how to get started – please contact me! I would love to help you formulate a workable group project for your course.
• Peer Review – If your course includes a large writing or research project that students work on over several weeks or units of the course, you may want to consider implementing a Peer Review component that allows students to exchange feedback with their classmates on their projects. Not only does this technique allow students to connect with one another outside the unit discussion boards, it is also a great way for them to offer support and generate ideas that can improve the quality of their final product. Peer Review does not need to be a complicated element within the course (we have successfully implemented it in many of our writing courses), but rather, can be a simple way to increase student interaction while simultaneously strengthening their writing and critical thinking skills. Again, please contact me if you would like some assistance implementing something like this into your course!

That’s it for this week….my goal here is to offer inspiration for designing courses that are engaging and interactive for students. Hopefully these suggestions spark an idea!

Enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend! And please contact me if I can be of any assistance as you get your new developments off the ground….

Kelly

May 19, 2010

Hello Developers!

This week marks the start of our new course development cycle; all of you are beginning the development of courses for Fall Quarter, 2010.

Speaking of new….allow me to introduce myself to those of you who may not know me: I am Kelly Schmidt, and I’ll be taking over as Manager of Online Course Development as Heather transitions back into teaching and technology training. While I am taking the lead on this new development cycle, Heather will continue working in development through the end of June, so please feel free to contact either of us if you have any questions or concerns.

I want to thank all of you for your willingness to work on these new courses and for the effort you put into your developments. As course developers, great online courses start with you! The course you design will be used by any instructor who teaches the class online...in fact, most online faculty take the master course content and run with it as is – making minimal, if any, additions or enhancements of their own. Therefore, we rely on you – our developers – to create courses that are engaging, organized, and rigorous to ensure our instructors have a good foundation for teaching the content and, more importantly, to ensure our students have a quality online learning experience. (All this pressure, I know…and it’s only the first week of the cycle – some of you may not have even cracked the course textbook yet!)

That being said, my job is to offer assistance, support, and motivation as you develop your courses. As the cycle progresses, I will be blogging more about various resources and enhancements that you might find useful in your developments. A big focus of mine during this development cycle will be on helping you create a strong connection in your courses with the GEN Online Library – both with Elaine Settergren, our stellar Online Librarian, and with the numerous resources the online library website offers for students and faculty. Look for more on that in the weeks to come…

A few final notes as you get started:

• Your 12-unit shells have been created and you should have access to them in Blackboard.
• If you have developed courses for GEN in the past, you are likely familiar with the Online Course Development Checklist as well as the Peer Advising survey. If you are a first-timer, please take a look at these documents, as they will help guide your development from the perspective of what we want to see as the final course development.
• The 25% completion date is June 7, 2010. I look forward to seeing the start of your developments at that time! However, in the meantime, please feel free to keep me updated on any progress you make or contact me with any questions that arise.

I look forward to working with all of you on these new developments. Have a great week everyone!

Kelly

May 5, 2010

Good Afternoon Developers!

This is the last weekly blog for this round of development. All developments must be 100% complete by Monday, May 10, as this is when the peer advisers go into the courses to provide feedback. I have heard from most of you already that your 12-week shells are 100% complete. If I have heard from you I have copied your course to its 10-week shell for you to work the course conversion in by Monday also. If you don't have access to your 10-week shell yet, please send me an e-mail as soon as you are finished with your 12-week development so that I can go in and check it and then create the 10-week shell for you. Once again, both the 12-week and 10-week shells should be 100% complete by Monday morning.

Thank you for all of your hard work this quarter in your developments, your dedication to our students makes a huge difference!! I am particularly pleased with the added audio elements you have made available to our students in this development round, great work!

I have enjoyed working with all of you this quarter and I know Kelly Schmidt looks forward to the opportunity to work with on developments in the future.

If you have any questions please let me know.

Thanks again and have a great rest of the week!

Heather