The March meeting of the W&M eLearning Community focused on two of the four awards for the College’s 2013 Creative Adaptation Fund that center around eLearning. Kathleen Delaurenti (Arts Librarian, Swem Library) and Anne Rasmussen (Chair, Department of Music) discussed the project, Blended Learning: A New Introductory Course and Future Possibilities in the Arts, Department of Music.

Gene Roche (Director of Academic Information Services) and April Lawrence (Technology Integration Center, School of Education), discussed the development of the Self-Directed Faculty Development for eLearning project. Building upon the success of last summer’s eLearning Professional Development (ePD) program, the Self-Directed Faculty Development for eLearning project will culminate in the creation of self-contained instructional modules for faculty development on blended learning.

If you are interested in viewing the recordings of previous meetings, they are available under “Tegrity Classes” within Blackboard. All W&M faculty and staff are invited to self-enroll in the W&M eLearning Community Blackboard course to view meeting recordings, view content and participate in Community online activities.

In response to requests from members of the eLearning Community, the topic for our December and January meetings was “Creating Recordings.” This included both audio and video recordings. The eLearning Community met on Friday, January 25, in the Swem Library Media Center. Kathleen DeLaurenti and Troy Davis lead us as we continued the discussions about how to create quality recordings that enhance students’ learning. We learned about the recording equipment, software, space, and staff support available in the Swem Media Center.

In response to requests from members of the eLearning Community, the topic for our December meeting was “Creating Recordings.” This included both audio and video recordings.  Lee Anne Sulzberger, Project Specialist, Training and Technical Assistance Center (T/TAC), School of Education, lead the group in discussions. We learned which activities work well online and what is considered “value-added.” We discussed how to match technology to learning activities and received tips on how to create effective recordings. Sara Gividen, School of Business, demonstrated various technologies that are available for producing quality recordings to enhance students’ learning. Click here to see the recordings handout. Additionally, we celebrated the completion of our first year together as a community (and yes, there was birthday cake).

If you missed the meeting, you may view the recording which is available under “Tegrity Classes” within our Blackboard course. The presentation slides and links to the sample recordings that were shown during the meeting can be found under “Meetings,” “Creating Recordings” in the Blackboard course. All W&M faculty and staff are invited to self-enroll in the W&M eLearning Community Blackboard course to view meeting recordings, view content and participate in Community online activities.

The TIME cover.

By John Drummond, cross-posted from the Academic Technology blog.

I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of the “issues” coverage offered in Time‘s recent cover article on online education, especially given its attention-seeking headline “College is Dead. Long Live College!”  I really didn’t expect it to have as much information as it did that would be of real interest to educators and .edu geeks in general.  However the author, Amanda Ripley, took the time to enroll in a few MOOC-style classes, and some of the things that struck her are the same ones I’ve been thinking about when it comes to producing e-learning.  A few highlights that struck me as particularly pertinent:

Best Practices

While e-learning is in a highly innovative phase of life (as educational trends go), there are already some best practices being established.  Chief among them, in my book, is production quality.  I’ve always been sensitive to this, and even as a child I could tell the difference between, say, a slickly produced commercial and a chintzy one with harsh lighting and distorted sound — and made corresponding assumptions about whatever they were selling.   Likewise, a bad recording of a classroom is just a crummy substitute for being in that room.

The physics class that really impressed Ripley instead had high production values, and employed a “brain-focused” pedagogy that included short segments, frequent “quizzes,” and questions to hold attention and focus.  Another technique raised in the article is to shift the focus of exercises from a culling/grading function to a learning function — allowing students to work on problems multiple times until mastery is attained.

Pros and Cons

The author also visited traditional classrooms at a couple of institutions, and after talking with teachers and students, came away with a few caveats about online education that are true no matter what production quality is on offer.  For example, working alone on an online class requires a level of motivation that’s a cut above what it takes to keep going in an in-person class; certain subjects require in-person labs that can’t be replicated online; and that there’s still “something special” about doing something in a real, live group of peers.

Deeper Conversation

The video that accompanies the online article offers an even deeper conversation that is probably of even greater interest to higher ed professionals.  The recording is of a Google Hangout that was broadcast following a larger conference of online and traditional educators and education leaders.  Participating were Michele Cahill of the Carnegie Corporation; Andrew Ng, co-founder of Coursera; and Arthur Levine of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, with Amanda Ripley moderating.  The video is just over twenty minutes, but touches on topics that get touched upon less often in e-learning conversations, such as reaching students that lack the social and economic capital to participate, the relationship of e-learning to remedial collegiate work, grade inflation, and how relative anonymity intersects with stereotype threat.  Even if you don’t read the textual article, I think you’ll find the video worth it if these sorts of topics are dear to you — especially since these are the kinds of realistic, deep, and thorny issues that must be addressed once the “disruptive technology” gilt wears off of e-learning practice.

On November 9, 2012, we held an open forum of the W&M eLearning Community. There was great discussion about eLearning, the William and Mary way. If you missed the meeting, you may want to view the recording.  All meetings are recorded and are available under “Tegrity Classes” within Blackboard. All W&M faculty and staff are invited to self-enroll in the W&M eLearning Community Blackboard course to view meeting recordings, view content and participate in Community online activities.

Are you interested in learning more about blended learning at W&M?  Please join us on Friday, October 12, 2012, at 1:00 pm in Miller 1027 when Kate Slevin, Vice-Provost for Academic Affairs, will share her thoughts on blended learning, and a panel of five faculty who participated in the ePD Summer Course will share their experiences and plans to design or redesign courses for a blended format.

The audience will have an opportunity to engage in discussion and ask questions of the Vice-Provost and the five panel members.  All W&M faculty and staff who are interested in blended learning are invited to attend. Please plan to join us for what will be an interesting and informative discussion!

Summer is drawing to a close, and the academic year has begun!  Our eLearning Community meetings will resume on September 14, at 1:00-2:30 in Miller 1082.  Gene Roche, Director of Academic Information Services, will present There Must Be Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover:  How Technology Enables a New Relationship to Learning.  He will look broadly at how a unified eLearning infrastructure can make it easier for faculty to explore new learning. The overview will add to what was presented in the Blended Learning Series, by looking more explicitly about how particular technologies shape learning tools. We invite all W&M faculty and staff who are interested in eLearning to attend.
Future meetings of the eLearning Community are planned for 1:00-2:30 pm on:

October 12, Miller 1027
November 9, Miller 1027
December – TBA

Please plan to join us!