Undergraduate Expectations

In the research survey Undergraduate Perceptions of the Usefulness of Web 2.0 in Higher Education: Survey Development, undergraduate expectations of Web 2.0 use in education was analyzed.

Take a few moments to answer some of the following questions through comments on this blog post.

Questions

·         What would be your answer to the two research questions?

1.    Which Web 2.0 technologies are currently used by undergraduate students in different disciplines on-campus?

2.    Which  Web  2.0  technologies  do  undergraduates  find  most  beneficial  for  learning  in  their respective disciplines?

·         Were any of the findings in this survey surprising?

·         The article makes the claim, “digital natives expect to learn with new technologies,” did you have this assumption when beginning classes? Has your experience at DePauw altered your expectations of technology use?

·         What do you currently use technology for? (word processing, email, surfing the Internet, creating content?) Since the beginning of the year, have you begun using additional technologies?

·         Based on the survey’s findings, how should Universities approach using technology in teaching and learning?

·         Will undergraduate expectations change as technology is used more frequently in teaching and learning?

Embracing Social Technology

In the article 3 Ways Educators Are Embracing Social Technology, a description of the uses of three social technologies are explored in the context of classroom application. The use of Skype, Mobile Phones, and Twitter in the classroom provides a few examples of how Educators can effectively utilize social technologies.

Take a few moments to answer a few of the following questions in a comment to this blog post.

Questions

• The article states that “budget cuts have caused ballooning class sizes,” thus Educators have attempted to utilize technology to engage students. Is this an effective approach?
•  How can Educators and Universities effectively use technology with such a vast range of devices?
•  Is there an expectation that all students be familiar with and have access to technology. Is this assumption correct or should there be steps to combat technology issues (Student Technology Support)?
•  How should Educators deal with “distracting technologies”? Is incorporating technology an effective way to eliminate the distraction?
• What are your opinions on the way Educators used the three technologies? (Skype, Mobile Phones, Twitter)
• Are there different approaches or technologies that would have been more effective in these situations?
• How can other social software be integrated into a classroom?

Course Management Systems

Moodle is a course management system (CMS) or learning management system (LMS), depending on who you talk to, that is open source and free to use. Moodle is used worldwide by universities, schools, companies and independent teachers. At my new job as an Instructional Technologist for DePauw University, I have been introduced to Moodle. So I suppose I can now officially be called a Moodler! Previously, I have used such CMS as Oncourse(Indiana University's CMS) and Blackboard (Vincennes University and University of Southern Indiana's CMS).


There are many pros and cons for each CMS mentioned. I have less familiarity with the ins and outs of Oncourse, since I have only had a user's experience. However, I have used both Blackboard and Moodle through the faculty perspective. I will become DePauw University's admin for Moodle over the course of the next few months. From this outside perspective, I can see many benefits for University's switch to Moodle over Blackboard. Moodle's most obvious appeal is that it is FREE. Blackboard, on the other hand, comes at a significant cost for any University or Organization that wishes to use it. It also seems that Blackboard has taken note of the threat of Open Educational Resources (OER), since they have recently implemented a way for content sharing in their CourseSites.


One of the biggest concerns that I have noted is the question of security. With Moodle being completely open source, there are concerns with that hackers will be able to access student information such as grades if a course is being hosted on Moodle, or even worse post pornographic materials that the students will unknowingly access. Moodle's quick response to these security threats, updated security patches and other measures, can calm nerves. It seems there will be no tolerance for the security holes in Moodle. With both CMS having pros and cons it seems that the final decision boils down to available funds and preference.

From Paper to Internet

Summary
The article introduces the concept of moving from a paper prototype to web-based instruction. Servers, browsers, and other basic information is explained to first-time users. Individuals have a two main options for creating web-based instruction, since the Internet was not developed to provide feedback.
Designers can:

• Create a player/plug-in (or buy one)
• Include scripts in HTML
• JavaScript
• Java
• Perl
• PHP

Another consideration that Designers must keep in mind, is whether the instruction will be purely between the Learner-computer or if the computer will merely be a mediator between Learner-instructor. The chapter continues to outline the different formats for delivering information to students. The sharing of basic files (through email, course delivery tools, home-brewed delivery), sharing of hyperlinks (website), instructor-learner interactions (discussion boards, chat), or learner-computer interactions (online tests or quizzes).

Creation of templates and rapid prototyping are discussed. Frick & Boling break down usability testing:

• Find (new) authentic subjects
• Determine authentic tasks
• Consider authentic conditions
• Create a test plan and hold a pilot session
• Conduct the session
• Analyze the results
• Decide if another round of usability testing is needed

Thoughts
The majority of the information presented in chapter 5 & 6, was information that I was already aware of. Some of the issues presented, such as deciding what kind of interactions the designer intends, are important to define. However, I feel that most individuals reading this book should be aware of all of the concepts presented at the beginning of the chapter. The process of usability testing is always helpful to have laid out in a nuts and bolts kind of way.

~Mikah

Resources
Frick & Boling (2002). Effective Web Instruction (Chapters 5 & 6)

Reflection

Thoughts
My overall thoughts about the project are positive. I enjoyed the realistic context and approach. In contrast to others, I thought pushing us to develop a mock-up of the Wix site and then switching gears to a Dreamweaver site was incredibly realistic. I do agree that there was a lot of confusion because of this (with deadlines and other such things). How many times are we going to face similar pressures and frustrations in our jobs? Also, I feel the experience was more about the process and challenge, rather than the final project. I did learn to use some new tools (HotPotatoes) but other than that, I relied on my previous knowledge for most of the deliverables. Perhaps providing some relevant tutorials or knowledge before beginning the group projects would be helpful?

Teamwork was an important part of this project. Kevin was wonderful in coming up with the content for both the What If... page as well as the Save the Earth page. Kevin also came up with the assessments. To put it simply, Kevin was the brains of the operation and I suppose I was the brawn! I simply tried to use my knowledge of Dreamweaver and Graphic Design skills to put together a functional and appealing website. Thanks Kevin for critiquing my wording!

I feel slightly disappointed in all of the navigation problems with the site. I put a lot of work into trying to make all of the links work and the overall functionality of the project. I should have been more attentive to the Spry issues and went with some other option. I tend to obsess over these kinds of things, but I suppose I should take this knowledge and apply it to my individual project and move on.

As far as adjustments to the site goes, I would rely heavily on the comments we received from others over our project. I have pulled a few of the pertinent comments out to address.

Adjustments

Navigation

"I think your next image is a great idea (touch the hand with your hand), but it feels strange to be moving my cursor to the left to go next. Perhaps you might place it at the end of the sentence?"

This first comment is a quick fix. Originally I had placed the hand image on right alignment, but I felt that it was at odds with the sidebar being on the left. I'm mainly a graphic design person, so I was sacrificing common sense for alignment and flow of the page I suppose. =)

"Is it just me or is there an issue with the navigation bar across the top? It looks good, but it doesn't seem to work for me. I'm using Chrome."
"My only critique would be that the navigation was a little confusing for me. I expected the words in the top banner to be actual links. I can understand why you chose to keep the course linear but I guess I always prefer to jump around to topics that interest me most. Actually, that brings up a question. Is it necessary to have a linear course in order to implement the First Principles correctly?"

The main feedback we had was confusion over navigation. When I originally altered the template, I wanted a navigation bar with a drop-down for the Basic Concepts. I felt it was important to have them together, but on separate pages. When I went to the Dreamweaver Help menu, it pointed me to the Spry Navigation Bar but cautioned that there were many issues with navigation because the HTML (XML) was not supported by all formats. I went ahead and made the navigation with Spry but added the bottom navigation to offset any problems with moving through the site. I take sole responsibility on this decision, since Kevin left the design mostly up to me. I apologize for any issues this caused!


Assessment

"Your assessment takes an interesting approach, and I like the in-depth questions, but it is unclear to me how this would function. How will you provide feedback to your users?How do they know if their answer is good? Are you reviewing them? If so, how will you get responses back to the user since you don't have their contact info? Also, the scrolling makes it difficult to work with"

I think this comment is regarding the Google document that is embedded on the Lend a Hand page. We went with this format because we had continuous issues with HotPotatoes and wanted a quick fix. I could easily add sections for contact information to be sent along with the individuals answers. However, I assumed that since this was a course for a virtual High School, that some log-in information would be required from each individual before they accessed the course. I should have clarified this beforehand. The document can be embedded without any scroll bars, but it sent the template into whack, so I down-sized it. If I were to continue working on this project, I would fix the sizing on the box as well as the template being off-center on high resolution screens.

~Mikah

References
Sustainable Development