These are a few of my favorite things

In honor of my mother (who loves The Sound of Music) and in the spirit of Julie Andrews, here are some of my favorite things from OL101:

1. FlipGrid.  I don't know why, but I just like this more than VoiceThread. Maybe it's the bright colors that make me happy and the fact that you can take your own selfie rather than having the video freeze when you're making an awkward face.  (I don't know about anyone else, but my videos always seem to freeze when I look like I'm in mid-sneeze.)  I also have soooo many ideas about how you can use the different timing settings for different assignments.

2. Screencast-o-matic.  I'm still not good at speaking while clicking around on a website, but I love this tool so much. Again, I've had tons of ideas of how I can help students in my own classroom, and I also had tons of ideas of how I could use it from the academic support side. There are so many useful applications, and it was really easy to share. At least, I'm assuming people could access mine and that it was easy to share.

3.  New moodle. I never had huge problems with the old moodle, but there are some delightful changes in new moodle. I love the different colors for different tools (i.e. link, PDF, forum).  I am super happy to have the due date and the number of submissions right on the assignments page rather than having to enter the assignment.  And I'm really happy that the editing button is colored and easier to see, as is the reminder to unhide the course.

4.  Articles and instructions.  When it comes to technology, I'm a "follow the steps" kind of girl, so I'm keeping all the step-by-step instructions that Rick gave us. I'm also saving a lot of the articles, since they provide really helpful "checklists," even if they weren't in checklist format.

5.  Sharing ideas. I have truly appreciated people opening up their classes, reflecting on their experiences, and sharing how they used the different tools. It helped me to think more creatively about my own classroom set-up and how tools could be used in new and different ways.  It has been a privilege to be classmates with all of you!

You'd think I'd be better at this

I work in the Office of Learning Services (OLS).
We work with students with accommodations.
So you'd think I'd be better at understanding ADA compliance.
Granted, I've been in the OLS for less than a year, but I was shocked by how many things I had not considered for making courses ADA compliant.

To be honest, I never even realized that a course could be ADA compliant. I knew we could help and offer accommodations and work with students, but I never realized how the structure of the content itself could be ADA compliant - and that such compliance could help all students!

Needless to say, it probably does not come as a surprise that I LOVED the article "5 Tips for ADA-Compliant Inclusive Design" by Salena Rabidoux and Amy Rottmann.  I've actually read it three times now, because I keep thinking about its content and how it can help myself and others.

When I started in the OLS, one of my goals was to help it become more of a resource for faculty as well as for students. I wanted to be more proactive in providing concrete information that would help faculty connect with their students in helpful ways.

I was thrilled when one of my students told me that capital letters on multiple choice tests help students with dyslexia since the lowercase b and d are more similar than the uppercase B and D. So I nervously sent my first tip to faculty and invited them to join me in using uppercase letters. Now every time I receive an exam with uppercase letters, I smile.

This article reminded me of more simple ways that I could help faculty, and I'm considering sending this article to everyone!!! (So thank you, Rick, for curating such an incredible resource.)  I'd like to pay particular attention to the font style.  I try to find easy changes that a) make sense to people b) benefit all students and c) are not as time intensive. While changing fonts are a bit more time intensive than moving from lowercase to capital letters, I still think this is a simple enough change that faculty can rally around it.  Personally, I'm going to start looking at my documents and see what changes I can make with my fonts.

And in time, hopefully we'll all get better at ADA compliance.

Gettin' tired

Module 3 is full of so many interesting new tools, I can barely process one before I move on to the other. And as I try to understand how one tool works, I'm simultaneously trying to think of ways to actually use the tools for an online/hybrid class.

My brain is tired.

Perhaps this is why I adapted to some tools more easily than others.  Certain ones seemed to connect with me right away, and I immediately knew how to input content.  Other tools just sort of sat in front of me... and as I flipped through old lecture notes, I still couldn't figure out a good way to use them for the fake course I'm designing. So I just sort of tried to use the tool itself, and perhaps later, I'll figure out the kind of content that lends itself more strongly to that medium.

Despite the fatigue, I was still able to reflect what resonated with me and what didn't:

FLIP GRID = Clearly, it's good for introductions, since we've all been using it in such a way. :)  I also think it would be fun to have students summarize a chapter they read or give a 30-second explanation and example for certain terms or concepts.  Basically, I love that you can change the amount of time for responses, which gives me so many ideas! 

AUDACITY = I can see that the software is super cool, but I am soooo not a podcast person in the sense of a serial broadcast. (I'm not an auditory learner, either, so this isn't quite my thing... unless it's "Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me.")  And if it's just going to be a lesson, then I'd rather have a video than just audio because I really miss the personal connection in an online class.

SCREENCAST = Love this!!!  It was really simple, although I had a hard time talking while typing and clicking around. I'm sure it's a learned skill. I don't have any other ideas for my course right now, other than the website I showed, but Beth and I talked about how this might be useful for reminding students steps of how they use the applets in MATH151.

EDPUZZLE = It may have worked. Maybe not. I think people need to sign in when they click on the link. And I cropped the video and added a question, but I don't think I quite grasp how useful this may or may not be. I use video clips in class all the time, but I didn't really resonate with this tool.

GOOGLE DOC = Great!  I know people use Google docs all the time (my ultimate frisbee team used to use it to track attendance and jersey orders), so it was fun to think about how to use it in a classroom setting.  Google docs: not just for ultimate frisbee.

GOOGLE SITE = I felt like this was unnecessary considering all the other tools we had available in moodle. But maybe I'm just not being creative enough.

So I'm tired. But I'm proud of myself for experimenting with so many different resources in one week.  And I'm hoping that some of you can help bridge my tiredness by sharing some of the ways you were able to use the tools that did not work as well for me.

Quiz me!

I took a lot of quizzes this week (Emily's, Shari's, Michael's, Beth's, and Janna's), and I immediately reverted to my recovering perfectionist self. I wanted As. I even took Shari's quiz twice to make sure I got my A.  And I used google a lot.  Although I am proud to note that I got a perfect on Beth's quiz by simply using my math skills.  (Insert the pat on my back here.)

In the midst of my recovering perfectionism, though, I was also able to think about student experiences with online quizzes, and here are some of my thoughts:

1.  I learned that I don't like having quiz questions on separate pages because I feel like I waste time waiting for the next page to load. Granted, it is super fast, but when there is a timer running, I want all the time there is!

2.  One of the most common test/quiz taking strategies I've taught students is to answer the questions they know right away and then go back to the ones on which they were unsure. I also encourage them to look through the test/quiz itself to see if there are any answers or hints in other questions.  These are also my favorite test/quiz taking strategies!  But in order to have these F2F tips work on moodle, I need to set up my test/quiz so that they can see everything on one page.

3.  Unless students are required to use a lockdown browser, I don't know how much I want to trust any type of quiz result with general information.  I used google for the untimed quizzes, and I was reminded of how quickly information can be searched.  So I need to ask myself, "What is the point of the quiz? What do I want to assess? And do I care if students use internet/resources/friends/etc.?"

4.  I loved seeing the feedback at the end, like Shari's quiz. I liked seeing what I got wrong, and I loved seeing my perfect score and all the green bars when I got all the questions right the second time. It was really anticlimactic to simply have my answers submitted... and I'm pretty sure that's how I set up my quiz!  But I think students like as much immediate feedback as possible.  It would be more work to type in the correct answers, but it might be worth it.

Try, try, and try again

I admit: I started Module 2 a bit cocky.

It was focused on moodle, and moodle is pretty easy for me since I was first introduced to this platform when I was attending Northern Seminary. The version they used was horrific, so coming to Trinity was like a dream.  Not only did it work better, but Rick has always been around to answer my questions.  (There was zero tech support at Northern.)  And Rick's AMAZING at explaining technology in a clear, easy-to-follow way.

So I started following our learning guide, and I was uploading content left and right.

Weeks. Done.
Files. Done.
Folder. Done.
Quiz. Done.

I was on a roll until I visited Emily's page to take her quiz.
Her page is INCREDIBLE.
It looks like an online class that is ready to launch today.
(Great work, Emily! You rock!)

And that's when I remembered that I was not only trying to work with moodle, but I was trying to use moodle for an online/hybrid class.

If someone were to look at my hodgepodge of weeks, files, folders, and quizzes, they would have no idea what was going on.

So I started over.
I started organizing the course with a topics format, and I hated it.
So I started over again.
This time I used a weeks format - and hated it.
So I started again.

At this point, I can't even begin to enumerate how many different formats, images, and documents I've used in a fake class that doesn't even exits. 

Yet through all the starts and re-starts, I learned a crucial lesson: always keep in mind that I am creating an online/hybrid course.  My temptation was to take my good content from my F2F course and then upload it into moodle.  I used the same weeks and same assignments, but it was too disconnected without the classroom discussion. So I had to think about what were some valuable classroom discussions that could be modified and shared in a way that would create interaction with the content and with the classmates.

As I continue to try, try, and try again, and as we learn more cool tools we can use, I'll try to keep in mind that I'm creating an online/hybrid course and not just completing an assignment.

Who is this Joan person?

I've been teaching my students to vet sources, so I clearly needed to do some research on Joan Thormann after reading her article "Encouraging Online Learner Participation."  I could not simply rely on the brief description that she "is a professor in the Division of Educational Technology at Lesley University and coauthor of The Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Designing and Teaching Online Courses."  Besides, this article was from 2014, so I wanted to know what else this mysterious "Joan" had done.

Here's what I found from Magna Publications:

• She's been developing and teaching online courses since 1996.
• She worked for an educational software company.
• She developed, implemented, and directed projects relating to technology for students with special needs.
• She's presented at over 100 conferences nationally and internationally.
• She edits a column on technology and special needs.
• She holds a PhD in special education and philosophy from the University or Oregon.

Joan checks out.

And her vast experience helps explain why her article was by far my favorite one of everything we read for Module 1.

I love reading and learning about different subjects, but I often become frustrated when books and articles tell you what to do without offering any insight onto how to do it.  I also don't like a "one size fits all approach," as if every personal experience can be directly applied to diverse contexts and situations.  So it should not be a surprise that I appreciate when people simply share their experiences and allow the reader to make their own connections and applications.

I loved that Dr. Thormann spoke of how she uses discussions as assignments rather than assigning an overall participation grade.  I love that she reflected on why she believes that The Coffee Shop is a helpful forum.  I loved how she identified go-getters and how they can be utilized as catalysts.  I loved how she broke down the responsibilities she assigns student moderators. And I loved that her straight-forward writing helped me make connections between her online classroom experiences and my own face-to-face classroom experiences.

My biggest take-away came from her section on using student moderators. I used to do this all the time when I was a youth pastor, assigning students leadership roles for facilitating discussion. When I read her praise for how student moderators bring a different perspective to the course, I thought, "Yes!  I've seen this!"  And I immediately thought, "I can do this in my face-to-face classroom again and online!  I know how to do this!"

So I'm grateful to this formerly-mysterious Joan for sharing her experiences in a way that I was able to make connections to my own experience in a way that will hopefully benefit my current and future students.

Seven Principles for Good Practice

I took one hybrid course when studying for my MDiv, and I absolutely hated it.  It was an exercise in frustration and futility. 

This was not the fault of the professor or the content. In fact, two of the major reasons why I took the course was because of the professor and the content:

1. I knew students who had taken face-to-face classes with the professor during their undergrad studies, and they highly complimented his intelligence, connection with his students, and mastery of his content.
2. The topic was Luke and the American Road Movie. I absolutely LOVE analyzing, digesting, and discussing movies, so I was super excited.

I was not super excited about the hybrid format since I learn better in a classroom setting, but I was willing to give it a try.  After all, half of the class was going to be in the classroom.

And that half was pretty good. The professor was everything students claimed he would be: intelligent, good at connecting in the classroom, and knew his material. I still remember my final project and some of my take-aways, even though I took this class years ago.

Sadly, I also remember the thwarted attempts at conversation and connection.  There was a small number of students in the class, and no one took the time to engage online.  I was constantly replying to people with open-ended questions and discussion starters, and no one would reply. I even started writing some more off-the-wall assessments of movies to see if anyone would counter my thoughts.

No one ever did.

The professor engaged online. He encouraged people to participate. He sent me notes thanking me for my contributions. Basically, he followed a lot of the insight in the articles we read about fostering collaboration and building community in an online classroom.

To no avail.

And I eventually found out why.

After one of our in-person classes, I spoke with one of my classmates and asked her if she had trouble reading my posts. She said something like, "Oh no!  You sure write a lot of interesting comments. But I don't have time for this, so I'm doing the bare minimum to pass and moving on."

I spoke with some other classmates, and they had the same attitudes.

One of the seven principles for good practice in the online classroom was listed as, "Develop reciprocity and cooperation among students."  But what do you do if the students have no desire to reciprocate or cooperate?  And what do you do with that online, which I believe can be even harder to monitor and correct than in a face-to-face classroom?

My personal experience has caused me to wonder how much we can control and how much is out of control when it comes to fostering community in an online course.