My project involves establishing a Personal Learning Network (PLN) for myself and faculty on our campus. It involves establishing an online presence and building a community on various social media sites for myself and our CTLE. I will research blogs, organizations and professionals to include in this community, as well as produce content for our blog covering the best pedagogical practices in online teaching. The goal of the PLN is to get faculty “to connect, collaborate and contribute so that we can become aware, connected, empowered, and confident learners.” I will spend time researching and learning about creating a successful PLN and how to get others involved. Attending a national conference, researching and reading will help me produce PLN content and connections.

As an online instructor and eCourses Faculty Lead for my college, the general purpose of my project is to increase my knowledge and the knowledge of our ecourses faculty of the best pedagogical practices in online teaching by establishing a Personal Learning Network (PLN). “Personal Learning Networks are systems that help learners take control of and manage their own learning.” It’s a system of lifelong learning and provides support for learners to manage their learning and to communicate with others in the process of learning. This PLN will be used for professional development and will help myself and other faculty learn from content-area specialists and each other. In order to create this network, I need to improve my skills and knowledge in the process and learn about best practices for creating such networks, as well as learn how to help and motivate others to join the network. The true value of this project is that the learning doesn’t end after the final report is submitted.

My goal is to do this by first attending The Teaching Professor Conference to learn theoretically sound ideas covering the following topics:  course design, teaching and learning with technology, learner-centered teaching, active learning techniques, teaching and engaging unprepared students, and assignment strategies. My participation in this 3 day conference will equip me with new skills and strategies that will augment my strengths as a teacher and leader for eCourses on our campus, and give me a chance to make connections for the PLN, but also to gain ideas for content for our contributions to the network.

We currently have social media on our campus: Twitter, Google+ and a WordPress blog; however, these tools are not currently being used effectively, not in the manner I know they can be. I will do research to learn from other institutions who have developed PLNs, find appropriate communities to join and create an easy plan for others to join our network. Considerable time will be spent on learning about Google+ and the new “Communities” feature, as well as developing my own resources. In addition, I plan to set up several new tools that will add value to the PLN, those being LinkedIn and Diigo.

This project aligns with my college goals in that we are piloting Google+ right now as a way to distribute communications across the campus. It hasn’t taken off as our marketing department had hoped, but my project will help with that. My project gets at the why and how of connecting, collaborating and contributing that is important for learning new things. Our eCourses Strategic Plan Mission Statements states that our plan provides guidelines, course management goals, and strategies within the context of the changing environment of distance education. Participating in this projects helps me stay abreast to the changing environments, gain the skills and knowledge necessary to support our strategic plan goals and help our ecourses faculty in the process.

Scottsdale Community College hosted SCC TechTalks 2013, a series of live, 18-minute presentations on how technology has impacted teaching and learning on February 1, 2013. The event followed a similar format to the widely popular TEDTalks and was put on by SCC’s Instructional Strategic Technology Advisory Committee (ISTAC).I was honored to be invited to be one the speakers of this inaugural event and had a great time participating.

Event description: “The thought-provoking talks feature presenters from a variety of professional backgrounds covering an array of subjects — from theater and music to math and science. Presenters include faculty members, tech gurus and students.”

Below is a playlist of all the talks featuring Maricopa’s past and present technology leaders. So go grab some popcorn, get comfy and enjoy the show.

7 Habits of Highly Effective Online Discussion Participants

Most students hate online discussion. It’s true. Ask them. I don’t blame them. I hate it too. Ha! Yep, I just admitted that. It’s not the idea behind asynchronous discussion that I dislike. It’s how it is implemented in most online courses. It’s almost as if it’s an after thought. Oh wait, I need some student to student interaction, so I’ll throw a few questions in a discussion forum and be done with it. There’s no clear purpose. Then 24 students all jump in and try to manage what can quickly become unruly or worse boring and meaningless. First, my horror story. How do 24 students “discuss” this question: What was the theme of the story? Yes, I’ve seen that discussion question in an online course. Well, after the first student nails the answer, and it didn’t take long in this case. Everyone waiting 4 days until the one brave soul responded with the correct answer. Done. What was everyone else supposed to say after that? Not much and the discussion was a flop. Twenty-four students echoing the same response. And I’ve seen worse.

There’s a lot that goes into creating successful asynchronous discussion in online courses. I talk a little about some of it in the video at the end of this post. Instead of elaborating on that further, I’d rather share with you a very rewarding asynchronous discussion going on right now in my ENG102 online course. Discussions don’t have to take place in a traditional discussion forum. That’s the first lesson. In this case, my real goal, aside from getting students to interact with each other, was to have students help each other out with their writing by offering some valuable feedback. This discussion begins in Connect Composition where students submit their latest essays. I set up a peer review assignment and put students in groups of 3. Their goal at this stage is to review the other two papers in their group and offer feedback based on the 6 questions I set up for them to answer.

The objective is twofold: challenge students’ knowledge and understanding on the concepts required to write the paper and help each other discover strengths and weaknesses in the paper based on those general concepts. For instance, one of the questions students respond to is based on one of the competencies on the rubric for the paper: Does the paper clearly define the issue or problem only and not state a position or proposed solution? Does the writer remain objective or can you tell which side of the argument he/she is on? It’s more like a check list, but students are encourage to comment as well. They are not asked to grade the paper or edit the paper – just answer the questions.

In the second phase of this discussion activity, students are ask to participate in a more free discussion to offer more general feedback. Here is my discussion prompt:

Group 3: Discussion 3: Peer Reviews Paper 2

On Monday, after you have submit your paper in Connect, participate in the peer review process in Connect where you will peer review your 2 teammates’ papers. Watch how: http://youtu.be/N-gYmdV_P0A

After you’ve done your peer reviews, come back here and reflect on your experience. Did you get good feedback? Was it helpful? What else do you need to know to help make your outline better? Provide feedback and ask questions here to complete discussion 3.

Most students are so excited to participate in this part of the discussion. They thank each other for the feedback they receive. They sum up their thoughts on the individual papers and offer suggestions to make it better. It’s turned into something completely different than what I anticipated. See below for an example of part of a discussion from a group. Students have expressed that they like the peer review and the concluding discussion because they feel they are helping each other and they feel bad if someone helps them and they done reciprocate.

Click to image to see in full size

As a result of these types of discussions, students have found friends in the course and “hang out” with each other online. A key element to this is I haven’t done much changing to the groups. Some groups are not as successful and when a change has been made, students have been thankful. An added benefit for me is that the rewrites on these papers after the peer reviews and discussion are much better and students are more confident about their work. I can’t wait until the end of the semester when I poll students on which aspects of the course they found most helpful in their learning. Usually the discussion forum ends up dead last. I have a feeling this semester, they might be at the top of the list. We’ll see.

Two Components of Successful Asynchronous Discussions in Online Courses

I can’t remember when I first started using SoftChalk, but it seems like it’s been about 10 years. That’s how long the company has been around (since 2002). I’ve been using the tool to help create interactive lessons for my online and hybrid courses. We’ve had it available to us (Maricopa) for quite a while now, but when our current contract expired, we decided we needed to go out for RFP to make sure we were using the best product and paying the best price. I’d never thought much about it until I realized there might be a possibility of having to use something else. But when I express my concerns to my colleagues, all I ever get in response is: “What is SoftChalk?”

Well, that’s part of the problem, not enough faculty know the answer to that question. So the few of us who do know, may suffer the consequences. There will always be a need for an interactive lesson builder,  and I vote that we keep what we already know.  However, if there is something else out there that will blow me away without causing me stress learning how to use it, I’d be open to that too. In the mean time, here’s hoping others in the district find this video interesting enough to start using Softchalk while we await the verdict.

The following is content from my wiki for a presentation I did in the CTLE on creating audio for a podcast last week. You can visit the original wiki page here: http://tinyurl.com/CreatingAudio

Creating Audio for Podcasts Using Audacity

Itinerary for Podcasting Series II Learning Lab

• Overview of recording tools for the Mac, PC and web: (Garageband, Audacity)
• Developing a plan for the podcast
• Equipment needed (hardware)
• Locate and Import Podsafe Audio into Audacity
• Record voice using Audacity
• Edit and Save audio using Audacity
• Export as Mp3 file
• Import into Canvas

Video of Part of this Workshop: Recording Audio Using Audacity

Overview of Recording Software

Garageband

The best way to record music on a Mac is now the best way to record podcasts. GarageBand 3 puts you in the control room of your own full-featured radio station. And new iWeb integration gets your voice on the Internet in minutes.

View a Screencast on how to create a podcast with Garageband

• Handout: Enhanced Podcast Creation Overview with GarageBand

Audacity 

Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.

• Audacity ABCs.pdf
• Download Audacity
• Download LAME MP3 Encoder

Developing a Plan

First Things First: The Plan

From Beginner’s Guide to Podcast Creation By Kirk McElhearn

Amazingly enough, this first step is the one many podcasters skip: develop a plan. Before you start recording, think about what you want to say, and organize your show accordingly. Make notes, prepare your interviews (if any), and try to improvise as little as possible. While a completely spontaneous show can sound good if you’ve got the knack, the best podcasters prepare their shows in advance and work hard to provide interesting content. (See Kirk’s Eight Rules of Effective Podcasting) for some tips on creating good podcasts that people will come back to listen to.) There are thousands of podcasts available today, but it’s easy to pass most of them up because they don’t stand out – figure out your angle, and run with it!

1. Choose theme music
2. Design a standard introduction (Your name, show name, date, etc.)
3. Outline your show notes
4. Design a conclusion
5. Outro music

Equipment Needed for Recording Audio/Podcasting

Headsets

Please try to bring your own headset or earphones/mic with your for the workshop. We have only a limited supply.

Cheap Coby headsets at Target for $10. Or go with a USB headset for better quality. I use the Logitech Premium USB 350. It goes for about $50 at BestBuy. We’ll talk more about microphone and headset options in the learning lab.

Inexpensive Podcasting Kits if you want more.

What I use: 

 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hands on Section

Record Intro Music

• directly from internet using Audacity or
• upload a saved music file to Audacity (no copyrighted music)
  • Download:   Corn Liquor 20.mp3 or Kick It 20.mp3
  • Visit: Free Music Sites for Podcasting (Not all free anymore)
  • Visit: Podcast Legal Music: Here are some record labels and sites that feature podcast-legal music
  • Get Creative Commons Media by using the Creative Commons Search Engine.

Edit music file

• cut to 8-15 seconds
• fade music out

Record voice directly into Audacity

• Edit audio using tools in Audacity
  • Selection Tool
  • Envelope Tool
  • Time Shift Tool

Export as mp3 file

• via Audacity
• via iTunes

Additional Information

KB to MB Converter from Egret.net

Sample conversion:

30 minute WAV file = 141MB file

30 minute Mp3 file = 26MB file at 128 kbps, 44 KHz (Most common)

OR

30 minute Mp3 file = 3MB file at 16 kbps, 16 KHz

File Formats

File Format Sizes from Cal Berkeley

Links

• How to Podcast
• Beginner’s Guide to Podcasting
• Audacity Wiki
• Podcast Legal Music
• Podcast Spot is the best place to get conversational with podcasting! Create a podcast and share it with your friends, family, or even the world. Just send us your media file and we’ll do the rest.
• Use a Teleprompter When Creating Your Podcast

Below is a guest post from Gary Lawrence, adjunct English faculty member teaching online and hybrid at GCC. He shares his experience with doing peer reviews using Canvas and points out one minor flaw in Canvas that everyone should be aware of to help out this process. If you have any questions, let me know and I’ll pass them on to Gary.

This is the way the peer review process works in Canvas: As part of a draft assignment, I usually let Canvas assign the peer reviews automatically. The cleanest way to do that, I think, is to “lock” submissions, so you don’t have a bunch of late contenders to deal with.  So under the draft assignment, I give a due date, and then  I select “more options” (shown in blue box below) and check “require peer reviews,” “automatically assign peer reviews,” pick the number of reviews per student, tell Canvas when to assign the peer reviews (default = assignment due date), and then “lock submits after (date)” to keep it clean.    I also happen to restrict inputs to .doc or .docx files so students can use “track changes” features of MS Word for line comments.

The issue:  Setting up new assignments is fine.  Be cautious using this “lock” function: When the assignment “locks,” the students literally don’t see any more text except the assignment title/due date et al and the words “assignment locked.” The text of your assignment disappears to them.  But you still see it in full.

The main issue is when you copy a course from one semester to the other.  While (I believe) the due date and date for peer review assignments carries over to new dates, the assignment “lock” date DOES NOT — it remains the original assignment date.  So a spring 2013 draft assignment (Jan – May) had an assignment lock date of December 2012, because I copied the contents from a Fall 2012 class.

These occurrences are hard to discover but easy to fix — they are often discovered during class presentations (LOL).  To the instructor, the entire text of the assignment is still there — but there is a little note at the top saying, “Assignment locked December XX,  2012 at 12:01 am”).  To the students, the entire assignment is blank, no text, nothing more than the assignment title, due date, and points.

The fix?  Go in to the assignment, click “more options, and manually CHANGE the “assignment lock” date to sometime AFTER the “reviews assigned” date/time.  My assignments are all due at 11:55 pm, so my “lock” times are 12:01 the next morning.

Requested Fix from Canvas: Make “locked” dates change along with “assignment due dates” and “peer review assigned” dates.   This is currently a manual function to fix and as noted, easy to miss.

To learn more about how to create your own peer review assignments in Canvas, read the next post that shows you how to do that. Gary has a video that I share with you.

I’ve talked about Piazza before, but that was before I really had a chance to use it. I introduced it to students in my online ENG102 course last semester, but I think students asked about 3 questions all semester. They resorted to texting and emailing me most of the semester, and I pretty much didn’t enforce the “Ask Piazza rule.” But this semester, not only am I insisting that students use Piazza to ask questions, I’m also using it for discussions. This is part of my MIL project I’m working on this semester.

Using Piazza is very easy, especially since Piazza has an LTI that lets you integrate the tool right into Canvas. So I have a button on the menu bar that opens Piazza right in the Canvas window. It also takes the user information from Canvas to authenticate the user in Piazza, so they only have to log in once (to Canvas) and then they can go straight to Piazza without having to log in again there. I think I’ve already talked about how the Q&A works in Piazza. This post is more about using it as a discussion forum.

In Piazza instructors and students can ask questions or post notes in the Q&A forum. If they post a question, users are prompted to supply an answer to the question. Instructors have a place to answer and students have a separate box to answer in. Student answers are like a wiki. Other students can edit the answer to try to improve it. The instructor can then mark the answer as a “Good Answer.” I plan to use this feature in some manner later down the road. For now, I’m using the “notes” posts for small group discussions. When you post a note, users are not prompted for an answer, but are encouraged to post “followup discussions.” Follow up discussions let students post their own responses and then let’s others reply. Each student can post a followup discussion within a note.

So to get students started and familiar with this new tool usage, I put them in groups of four and ask for them to discuss the topics they were considering for the research projects. I asked that they each run their topics by the four group members and then provide feedback to each other. These smaller discussions are easier to manage in this setting because it’s easy to create groups in Piazza. Students only see their own group discussions, and with only 4 students, the pressure is on to do their part and participate. At least that is the hope.

So far students are slow to share their ideas in these smaller groups. It’s early in the semester and I think most are still trying to feel their way around Canvas and the new class. Also they still have to learn good online course habits, like not waiting until the weekend (last minute) to do their work. Checking in on the last day of the week to do work can be overwhelming, and it doesn’t give them the chance to actually engage with the other students in the discussions. And that is the purpose of these small group discussions.

For two years we’ve been discussing a common assessment tool to use in all of our freshman composition courses at GCC, from ENG071 all the way up to ENG102. I participate in the ENG102 assessment group since I teach that course every semester. The course competency that we decided to focus on was: Find, evaluate, select, and synthesize both online and print sources that examine a topic from multiple perspectives. Our course competencies are so broad, as you can see, so we started by writing several Student Learning Objectives (SLO).

We then choose SLO 3: Locate at least one online source and determine the credibility of it by evaluating the validity of information contained within each source. We came up with a few tools that we could use for this assessment in our individual classes. This semester we have started to collect data from this common assessment, but I think we still have some ironing out to do.

For instance, we’ve agreed on a common tool or a collection of tools to use in this assessment, but we’ve never really discussed a rubric in which to evaluate this assessment. I think coming up with a rubric will help make the assessment valid. That way if won’t matter which tool we use to assess the SLO. How we evaluate our students’ work will be the key to success. With this in mind, I actually give students a choice in which evaluation tool they want to use in this assessment, but no matter which one they choose, I use the same rubric to evaluate their work. I think we should adopt a rubric for everyone to use in this process.

Below is my rubric followed by the assignment (Assignment #4) that I give students.

In my ENG102 Freshman Composition course I have 10 assignments and four papers that students do before they submit their final research projects. Five of the assignments are research assignments and are required in order to submit a final paper. I named the research assignments Odysseys, something I borrowed from a colleague years ago when I first started teaching at CAC. The whole idea of the Odyssey assignments is to get students practicing several research skills in one assignment that are directly related to their final projects. This is how I introduce these assignments to students.

What is an Odyssey?

An odyssey, famous for a Greek epic poem (attributed to Homer) describing the journey of Odysseus after the fall of Troy, is a long wandering and eventful journey. This is a perfect description for writing a research paper. It’s not something that we put together in a day. Writing a research paper is a long wandering and eventful journey, so some of the key journeys in this process have been labeled odysseys to indicate their importance. All Odyssey assignments are required and must be submitted in order for your final paper to be accepted. No skipping Odysseys. They are mandatory.

The Odyssey assignments include:

• Locating Sources on the Internet
• Locating Books on the Online Library Catalog
• Locating Periodicals in Databases
• Scholarly Journal Search
• Locating References Sources (in the Library/not online)

All five assignments have similar elements. For one, at least one of the sources they discover during each of the research assignments must be used in the final paper. This helps eliminate students turning in some random paper at the end. It’s more difficult if they have to integrate these sources into a paper that is already written. Or if they are doing it correctly, it makes it easier to integrate sources into a final paper by doing it a little at a time.

Each assignments also calls for students to either summarize, paraphrase or quote from the sources found. Each assignment focuses on just one note taking skill in each assignment. Each assignment asks for students to think critically about the usefulness of the chosen source, both specifically on the topic and on the source type in general. For instance, when searching for reference sources, they must choose four different types of references sources and discuss how each is useful for the given project. In addition, they contemplate how the specific information discover can be used in their final paper.

Lastly, each assignment requires that students practice documentation style by adding all the new sources to a working bibliography. The first half of the class they learn MLA, and then we switch to APA in the second half. So students are required to take a MLA working bibliography and transfer it over to APA format. They have several lessons on the major differences between the two and in what situations they would choose one or the other.

Each assignment, including the other five non-odyssey assignments, build on the final project. When students have worked their way through all the assignments in the class, it’s just a matter of revision, editing, and expanding their final paper. They have plenty of sources and plenty of notes that they’ve already spent time evaluating, citing and synthesizing into smaller assignments. It’s teaches students that writing a research paper is process, and if done right, it’s not that difficult to do.

This post is the first in a series of posts about Google+ (G+). Our college is making a push to use G+ as a communication tool, but because it is so complex, many are finding it difficult to wrap their heads around. I agree. It took me a good 2-3 months to completely understand why this is valuable tool and why I should care about it. Now I want to try to convince others, especially my colleagues at GCC, why they should care about Google+ too.

Part 1 covers registering for Google+, which essentially means setting up a profile for an existing Gmail account you already have. It’s super easy. Then I walk through Google+ Communities, which is where our Gaucho Plus initiative stems from. Gaucho Plus is a profile, but it’s also a way of saying a collections of communities. That’s what’s confusing, but I try to explain that in the video. So if you’re curious, and you want to know why you should care about Google+, check it out.