Reflection to Discussion Question Blog

Personally, this assignment did not work to my advantage. I was not clear on exactly how to set up the Discussion Question blog and the two individuals who were supposed to review my post did not. Fortunately, for me two other classmates stepped in to contribute.

The thread was not as lively as I wanted it to be. First, I experienced technical issues with my blog post. When I posted my comments and came back the next day they are no longer there. My colleague mentioned it was sent to him as an e-mail instead. The only thing I can think of that happened was when I hit submit, the webpage did not finish processing or the wrong “ID” was selected which caused it to send an email from my Google account instead of my Blogger ID.

I think if I had checked back more often to notice there was an issue with comments, I could have communicated on the Walden discussion board and it could have been livelier. Additionally, the two individuals who posted on my page contributed great ideas regarding their experiences. I feel my directions were clear, but the participation level may have been low due to the other factors mentioned above (my comments did not post and I did not check back often enough to write something that would have kept the discussion going).

In the future, I will be sure to establish very clear guidelines on what I am expecting my learners to do. I will also follow up more often to ensure the leaners are contributing and not experiencing any issues. This will help the discussion continue.

Effective Community-Building Activites

In an online learning environment, community activities are important to promote learning among students. As learners collaborate, instructors find that there are higher levels of participation, productivity, and achievement when compared to those who choose not to participate (Oosterhof, Conrad and Ely, 2008). As an instructor it is important that we understand the purpose behind these collaborative projects and developing a plan to help their community building activities be more effective for student learning.

 

The framework of the discussion or collaborative project is very important. If students are not given the proper support and level of interaction it may cause the community building to fail or be less effective than it could have been. As you go through your resources, focus on Chapter 13, Interaction and Collaboration Online. Consider your own personal experiences when using collaborative activities and online discussions and how they may relate to the best practices described in the chapter. Then, reflect on the following questions.

 

• Using your personal experience with online discussion, did the instructor implement the best practices described in the chapter?
• What are the characteristics of effective community-building activities?
• Which elements are important to take into consideration when creating groups for projects?
• In which ways will the instructor assess the project or discussion?

By Thursday:

 

Provide an example of a community building activity that you may have personally experienced or created as an instructor. In your example, provide a scenario that may occur if the best practices described in this chapter are not used. Provided at least 2-3 examples in your response. Be sure to use your resources to support your thinking.

 

By Sunday:

Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings. As you read their responses, note those to which you would like to respond with advice, questions, comments, and/or encouragement.

Respond to two or more of your colleagues’ postings in any of the following ways:

• Build on something your colleague said.
• Explain why and how you see things differently.
• Ask a probing or clarifying question.
• Share an insight from having read your colleague's posting.
• Offer and support an opinion.
• Validate an idea with your own experience.
• Expand on your colleague's posting.
• Ask for evidence that supports the posting.

Return to this Discussion in a few days to read the responses to your initial posting. Reflect on what you learned in this activity and/or insights you gained this week.

Reference:
Oosterhof, A., Conrad, R., & Ely, D. P. (2008). Interaction and Collaboration Online. Assessing learners online (pp. 202-213). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall.

Discussion Rubric: Visit http://inside.waldenu.edu/c/Student_Faculty/StudentFaculty_15198.htm to view a rubric for the Discussion. 

Plagiarism Detection and Prevention

I think it is important for instructors to incorporate the topic of plagiarism into their courses. Students need to be aware of other options and what the consequences could be. There are a lot of software programs now available for institutions to help check for plagiarism. Additionally, encouraging the student to recall on their own experiences and teach them how to properly cite sources could help deter them from plagiarizing, intentional or unintentional.

What plagiarism detection software is available to online instructors?

Turnitin.com, mydropbox.com, and scanmyessay.com are great tools for online instructors to check papers for plagiarism. Additionally, the students can upload their papers directly. This saves the instructor time and may help the students keep in mind proper rules of citations knowing their papers will be reviewed.

How can the design of assessments help prevent academic dishonesty?

Assessments can be created to encourage students to respond in their own words or based on their own experiences when possible. This would help eliminate academic dishonesty as the student would need to recall their own past experiences.

What facilitation strategies do you propose to use as a current or future online instructor?

I would be sure to educate my students regarding what plagiarism is, what the consequences are, and how to properly cite resources. According to Christine Jacoy and David DiBiase (2006),  “…students who received no explicit plagiarism instruction plagiarized twice as often as those who participated in active instructional activities such as class discussions of definitions of plagiarism, review of Turnitin.com plagiarism reports, and exercises requiring students to identify instances of plagiarism in example essays (pp 5).”

I would follow similar strategies to reduce plagiarism such as require students to upload to Turnitin.com and activities that help students identify plagiarism.

What additional considerations for online teaching should be made to help detect or prevent cheating and plagiarism?

Knowing your students can help. If you are familiar with their writing style in the discussion boards and how they interact with others, you can use this information when reviewing their papers. If the writing style is completely different then in other assignments, you may want to take a closer look. Additionally, if you know your student is struggling in writing or not properly citing resources, you could provide additional support.

References:

Jocoy, C., & DiBiase, D. (2006). Plagiarism by Adult Learners Online: A case study in detection and remediation. International Review of Research in Open & Distance Learning, 7(1), 1-15. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Week 5: Impact of Technology and Multimedia

Technology can greatly enhance the online learning environment for the student. New technology available today can be used for collaboration, which is extremely important for online learning. “Collaboration can energize learners, promote deeper learning, and make learners more self-reliant (Horton, 2000, p 334).” Examples of collaboration tools are Wikis and Discussion Boards. New technology software also allows for live collaborative tools including Adobe Connect, Skype, and live chat.

In addition to making collaboration easier, technology also provides a way for individuals to enhance the instructional material to allow for interactivity. This would include technology used for games and simulations that enhances the students’ learning.

It is important for the online instructor to consider how well they know the technology, how well they feel their students will be able to use the technology, the level of support needed, and how the technology will help accomplish the course objective.

There are many technology tools out there, many of which the instructor may not be familiar with. It can be an overwhelming task to feel like you have to learn them all. It is a best practice to learn a few you feel will help meeting your learning goals and discipline (Boettcher and Conrad, 2010).

It is also important to consider how the instructor will support the students in the event they have trouble using the technology implemented. Technology that may be complex in nature can frustrate, distract, and discourage learners. This can cause them to feel like they wasted valuable time or give up altogether (Horton, 2000).

To help reduce any frustrations or the time it takes to support the students, only technology relevant to the course objectives should be used. “Focus on the essential tools, and build your first course around those tools. You can branch out later as you teach the course a second or third time and gain experience, confidence, and a sense of exploration (Boettcher and Conrad, 2010, p 57).”

Usability and accessibility of the technology tools is very important in the online environment. To keep students from becoming distracted or discouraged with technology issues, it makes sense to use technology tools that more students will be able to access. Instructors should avoid unnecessary technology to reduce technical hurdles. It is important for the instructor to consider what technologies their learners may already be familiar with and use those rather than require them to learn new technologies (Horton, 2000). If the students do not have the proper web browser or plug-ins to access the course’s multimedia, the students can easily get discouraged.

Of the tools I have become more familiar with, the ones most appealing are Wikis, Discussion Boards, and synchronous collaboration tools like Adobe Connect.

Technology, if used properly by the instructor, can provide significant benefits to the students’ learning experience in the online environment. Technology is always used, even just the Course Management System that displays the basic instruction. It can be frustrating for students if there is a long list of technology requirements to attend the course. Students that may be less familiar with technology may be more inclined to pass up online class altogether (Horton, 2000). In addition, instructions must be able to provide the proper level of technical support for their students.

If you are able to overcome the possible technical hurdles, technology can really enhance the user experience. There is a considerable amount of technology available for online learning, a lot of which now has tutorials to learn it and may come at no expense. “These tools make it possible to design almost any learning experience that you have designed for your face-to-face environment (Boettcher and Conrad, 2010, p 58).”

References:

Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. (2010). Phase One:What's Happening, Themes, and Tools. The online teaching survival guide: simple and practical pedagogical tips (pp. 57-62). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Horton, W. K. (2000). Overcoming technical hurdles. Designing Web-based training: how to teach anyone anything anywhere anytime (pp. 334-484). New York: Wiley.

Week 3: Setting Up An Online Learning Experience

It is important to know what technology is available to you when designing an online course. It is especially important when designing activities and other learning assignments. Knowing which activities you can utilize or create may vary depending on the tools available to you. According to Boettcher and Conrad (2010), there is a variety of tools that can be used for virtually any learning experience. Additionally, you can simply choose the one that is best suited for you and your class. Without know what is available, it would be harder to design activities.

It is very important for learners to know what is expected from them. In an online learning environment, it may be harder for an instructor to tell if a student is clear or has a misunderstanding until after the project of activity has already been completed. “Clear and unambiguous guidelines about what is expected of learners and what they should expect from an instructor make a significant contribution to ensuring understanding and satisfaction in an online course (Boettcher and Conrad, 2010, page 55).”

In addition to knowing your technology tools and communicating clear expectations to learners, it is also important to have a sense of presence and community online. According to Boettcher and Conrad (2010), an online community builds knowledge and competencies among the students and is a network for mutual respect and encourages the sharing of ideas.

It is important to try and make the online learning experience as successful as possible. Some individuals will struggle with online technology and how it varies from traditional face-to-face classroom instruction. Knowing this ahead of time can help you prepare your learners for the online environment. Helping them achieve their learning goals and objectives is significant.

After further research, it is clear that a social presence, community and clear expectations are important factors in the overall success of the online class. While this has been mentioned quite often, I didn’t realize how it can impact successful learning. “Presence is the most important best practice for an online course (Boettcher and Conrad, 2010, page 53).”

I will keep this in mind as a requirement for the class, not just an added value.

 

Reference:

Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. (2010). Phase One: What's Happening, Themes, and Tools. The online teaching survival guide: simple and practical pedagogical tips (pp. 51-70). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Week 1: Online Learning Communities

Having an online learning community where the students can interact with each other will help impact learning and their experiences. The online classmates can provide support, as well as, challenge each other in positive ways in taking the learning to a new level. Students can provide each other professional, honest feedback in a way that an instructor may not be able to, considering the relationship with student-to-student differs from instructor-to-student. Students may feel more comfortable discussing certain projects and topics with each other, and look to the instructor for guidance and knowledge. These communities help to build and foster positive relationships and possible friendships.

It is important for the instructor to create the online community, monitor it, and increase participation. It is important to develop a supportive online course community that balances the dialogue between student-to-student, and student-to-instructor. It may help to section an area of your CMS that will focus solely on discussions, student-to-student interaction, similar to Walden’s “Student Lounge”.  It is also important for the instructor to be familiar with the technology of these communication tools and to help make it easy for students to use.

An orientation class would be helpful to teach students how to learn communication tools online. It is important that students are comfortable using these communication tools so this online community will continue and be beneficial to the students.

Effective online instruction includes strategies for developing online communities. According to Conrad and Donaldson (2004), “In a learner-centered environment, those experiences are honored and woven into the academic experience through discussion and activities that provide opportunities for learners to lead (p 19).”

Reference:.

Conrad, R., & Donaldson, J. A. (2004). Designing Online Engagement. Engaging the online learner: activities and resources for creative instruction (pp. 16-23). San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass.

Reflection

Based on the growth of distance education in the past 10 years, I presume that it will continue to grow at a rapid rate over the next 5 to 10 years. Once individuals’ perceptions are cleared up about the quality of distant education programs, more individuals may be inclined to take classes. Web technologies are created and enhanced to allow for more effective communication and learning. As these technologies continue to grow, it will help enhance distance education courses and communication methods. It seems probable that distance education will become more main stream and be used in unison with traditional face-to-face classrooms.

As an instructional designer, it is important when creating distance learning environments, to utilize the tools available today. It is important that we stay current with web technologies and continue to advance forward to keep our learners engaged. We can incorporate our ideas and proven learning methods that incorporate distance learning in our work. I think it is also important that we be willing to try new technologies to test the effectiveness as new learning tools are introduced. This will keep us moving forward with technology and avoid being “stuck in the past”.

In addition to our own work, we can also share our ideas and our findings (backed by research and proven results) with our colleagues, friends, and family. This will help us improve the current perception of distance learning.