One of the highlights of the sessions attended was a presentation by John Krutsch that he titled Mash-ups and Their Potential to Change the Face of Academia. He started the session by defining mash-ups as a combination of content from multiple sources. He then demonstrated several examples. One was a very recognizable melody but with different lyrics added. Another was a video of a George Bush speech where his words were rearranged to create a different outcome. Check them out by going to his "Movie Madness" resource page.
Of particular note were the examples given on course content. John first asked whether a music enthusiast would want one CD of a single artist or an iPod containing multiple artists. He then broadened his example by asking whether a student would want to learn a subject from a single textbook or whether they would want the benefit of multiple sources of information.
John also mentioned a new mash-up he called Stoodle, a combination of the CMS Moodle and the virtual world Second Life. A concept with fascinating potential but a quick Google found nothing as yet.
Thanks for another great session, John.
Resources mentioned:
TweetClouds
Movie Madness
OhDontForget
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Orientation for Online Students
The first afternoon session was Effective Components of an Orientation for Graduate Distance Learning, delivered by Jennifer Quinones and Meline Kevorkian of Nova Southeastern. I'm from a community college but all online students need some sort of orientation. And the session didn't disappoint, with some good information provided.
One thought was the use of a Web-based introductory video. The video had their provost going to various student services offices for brief introductions. Impromptu and quite effective. They also mentioned the use of geocaching to get students familiar with the campus. This would not be effective for online students unable to come to campus but a blast for those with a GPS. In fact, I Googled a couple of geocaches on the island during the session and my wife and I went hunting that evening.
They also suggested embedding both audio and video into each orientation module. Topics to include would be student advising, library services and tech training.
Emphasized was the importance of student engagement and connectedness to other students.
Food for thought.
BTW, a great starting site for geocaching is:
Geocaching
One thought was the use of a Web-based introductory video. The video had their provost going to various student services offices for brief introductions. Impromptu and quite effective. They also mentioned the use of geocaching to get students familiar with the campus. This would not be effective for online students unable to come to campus but a blast for those with a GPS. In fact, I Googled a couple of geocaches on the island during the session and my wife and I went hunting that evening.
They also suggested embedding both audio and video into each orientation module. Topics to include would be student advising, library services and tech training.
Emphasized was the importance of student engagement and connectedness to other students.
Food for thought.
BTW, a great starting site for geocaching is:
Geocaching
Distance Learning Student Services
Another outstanding session at the DLA 2008 was Spotlighting the Often Ignored Area of Online Student Services: Five Initiatives Your College Can Use, presented by Catherine Binuya and Stefanie Wright of Georgia Perimeter College. They presented a model of student services that has supported an increase in online enrollments of close to 400% over the past couple of years.
Of note was their focus on the student as customer. They emphasized personalized services and mentioned how students are having to fit education into other areas of their live rather than making education the primary focus.
Marketing of online programs was key to increasing enrollments. This was done using Google, Yahoo, and MySpace. They also split out the tuition and fees so that distance students would be paying only for the services received. Thus, online students would not pay parking fees but may pay for a technology fee.
Online students received extended hour email support. They also have a new fully online student orientation, learning styles assessments, life skills training, and an online student success course that is auto-loaded into their CMS home page. Welcome letters are mailed to all distance students prior to the start of the term. Formative eval is obtained using a student satisfaction survey.
GPC provides these services using an online student services director and student success coordinators. Current initiatives include marketing, ID on all PR materials, presence on college Web site, and advocating online services for both seat-based and online students.
Additional resources:
GPC Online
Of note was their focus on the student as customer. They emphasized personalized services and mentioned how students are having to fit education into other areas of their live rather than making education the primary focus.
Marketing of online programs was key to increasing enrollments. This was done using Google, Yahoo, and MySpace. They also split out the tuition and fees so that distance students would be paying only for the services received. Thus, online students would not pay parking fees but may pay for a technology fee.
Online students received extended hour email support. They also have a new fully online student orientation, learning styles assessments, life skills training, and an online student success course that is auto-loaded into their CMS home page. Welcome letters are mailed to all distance students prior to the start of the term. Formative eval is obtained using a student satisfaction survey.
GPC provides these services using an online student services director and student success coordinators. Current initiatives include marketing, ID on all PR materials, presence on college Web site, and advocating online services for both seat-based and online students.
Additional resources:
GPC Online
Web 2.0
One of the best sessions of the DLA 2008 conference was one entitled Getting Distance Administrators to Make Time for Web 2.0. The session was presented by Jason and Kim Huett, faculty from the University of West Georgia. The presentation was a discussion of a survey done of faculty and administrators on the use of Web 2.0 technologies.
They started with a summary of Steve Hardagon's 10 Web 2.0 Education Trends. Other points mentioned were the use of blogs rather than Web pages for faculty Web presence, and using wikis to replace CMS/LMS systems. Also emphasized was the importance of collaborative scholarship.
A phrase new to me was passion-based learning. Providing learners with a passion is what drives self-directed learning. Get learners passionate about the subject matter and content immersion will follow.
It was suggested to create a mentoring program for faculty to assist in guiding them to appropriate uses of Web 2.0 technologies. It was also suggested using Web 2.0 in daily activities and to form a club that would meet monthly to discuss learning technologies. My first thought was some sort of brown bag session.
The presentation was enhanced by the use of a conference wiki for supporting materials
Other Web 2.0 technologies mentioned:
Gliffy
Goo 411
A thoroughly enjoyable session.
They started with a summary of Steve Hardagon's 10 Web 2.0 Education Trends. Other points mentioned were the use of blogs rather than Web pages for faculty Web presence, and using wikis to replace CMS/LMS systems. Also emphasized was the importance of collaborative scholarship.
A phrase new to me was passion-based learning. Providing learners with a passion is what drives self-directed learning. Get learners passionate about the subject matter and content immersion will follow.
It was suggested to create a mentoring program for faculty to assist in guiding them to appropriate uses of Web 2.0 technologies. It was also suggested using Web 2.0 in daily activities and to form a club that would meet monthly to discuss learning technologies. My first thought was some sort of brown bag session.
The presentation was enhanced by the use of a conference wiki for supporting materials
Other Web 2.0 technologies mentioned:
Gliffy
Goo 411
A thoroughly enjoyable session.
A summary of DLA 2008
I have been in distance learning administration for the past 8 years. However I've never attended the Distance Learning Administration conference put on annually by West Georgia University. I'll admit that I've always been curious as to the quality of sessions. Being an administrator in this field can be incredibly frustrating, particularly when there are a lack of colleagues to gather round the water cooler to discuss topics such as course quality, technology, faculty development, Web 2.0, accreditation, substantive changes, and on and on.
So this was the year that the stars aligned and I finally made the trek to Georgia. This year's DLA was held June on Jekyll Island, a beautiful hideaway an hours drive from either Savannah or Jacksonville. Fortunately I was able to have my wife come along to enjoy the gorgeous scenery. But I digress...
The conference far exceeded my expectations. Many of the sessions were top-notch and every session provided something to take back. A conference highlight was the inclusion of the Distance Learning Administration Annual & Conference Proceedings 2008, a bound journal of conference papers for most (but not all) of the sessions presented.
To assist my educational technology admin colleagues, and to help me remember all of the information provided, I'll be summarizing highlights from each session attended. Had I access to a slick little Macbook Air like my colleague, Ed, I could have blogged this during each session using the conference-wide wifi. However suffice it to say that pen and paper were the order of the day for those on limited organizational budgets.
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