POT Newsletter #44 (October 2012)


Program for Online Teaching Newsletter #44

October 2012

 

POT First Friday is October 5 at Oceanside

Laura Paciorek hosts our successful First Friday workshop series in OC4804.

Come and discuss your online teaching adventures with fellow faculty members.  Individuals with no, little, some, and a lot of online teaching experience are all welcome.  Each First Friday will focus on what the group wants to discuss; however, prompts will also be provided to start the discussion.  Questions are welcome, too!

October 5 – 3:00-3:50 p.m.: Time/energy management – How do you manage your time/energy as an instructor and how do you help your students manage their time/energy?

Future sessions:

November 2- 3:00-3:50 p.m.: Evaluation – How do you have students evaluate your classes and how do you evaluate your students’ work?

December 7 – 3:00-3:50 p.m.: Renewal – What are your plans for your future classes?  What did you learn or what do you want to try next?

Sign up at the flex website.

Join the Discussion at the POT Cert Class

Join us by commenting at the POT Certificate Class – participants’ posts are collected at our Pedagogy First! blog. Week 5 starts October 7.
Here’s what’s coming up:

Week 5: The Online Syllabus

We’ll be reading Chapter 5: Creating an Effective Online Syllabus in our textbook (Ko and Rossen’s Teaching Online, available in the library or in the PDP office) and discussing due dates, participation, task sequence, scheduling, and creating a syllabus. We’ll also teach about creating an interactive syllabus.

Week 6: Internet Skills and Tools

We’ll be taking a quick Internet Skills quiz and exploring  Dave Raggett’s Introduction to HTML, learning about RSS feeds and setting up a newsreader account. We’ll also teach how to embed a video in a WordPress.com blog.

Week 7: The Online Classroom

We’ll be reading Chapter 6: Building an Online Classroom, to p. 159, and discussing adapting favorite teaching strategies to the online environment, whether it’s best to work in units or weeks, how much of the course one should make visible in advance, and how to handle pacing and class size. We’ll also try Twitter and teaching about building community in online classes.

Week 8: Creating Community

We’ll finish up Chapter 6, focusing on setting up communications with and among students, using quizmakers and gradebooks, tracking students, and issues in creating an online student lounge. We will also discuss how best to handle synchronous sessions, and explore Voicethread. Suggesting readings will be included on imagining a post-LMS era of open learning.

You do not need to be registered in the course to participate – just read and comment to join the conversation!

At the POT website

Check the POT website for videos of our workshops on August 14. So far, Creating Meaningful Discussion in Blackboard and Screencasting with Screenr are available. More are being added weekly. We also have information, tutorials, a Cool Tools list, and much more to help online instructors.

Don’t forget that viewing and reflecting on POT videos can count for flex. See our Get flex credit! page for details.

Quickie $40 2-week Moodle class if you act fast!

Nellie Deutsch of Integrating Technology for LifeLong Learning is offering a course to the first 15 people to sign up. The first week you’ll experience being a student in Moodle. The second week you’ll have teacher rights.

Check it out at http://www.integrating-technology.org/course/view.php?id=421.

Tool of the Month

Lately there has been a lot of interest in “pinboards”, websites where people can share images from across the web or from their own work, and put them together on a single page with information and commenting. The big name right now in pinboards is Pinterest.

 

Happy online, hybrid and technology-enhanced teaching,

Lisa

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POT Newsletter #43 (August 2012)


Program for Online Teaching Newsletter #43

August 2012

 

Online Class Tours Available

Ever wish you could take a peek inside other people’s online classes? You can with the class tours we’ve been posting at the POT site:

Elsewhere

From POT Certificate Grads:

POT Online Teaching Certificate Class starts this weekend

POT offers a very special opportunity to learn how to teach online in our free, year-long, open online class that starts this week.

There is a textbook (we have copies in the PDP office!), and activities for 12 weeks in fall and 12 weeks in spring. Participants learn about teaching online by putting their pedagogical goals first, and learning to use various technologies to fulfill their objectives, whether teaching online, hybrid, or in a classroom. The class is free and open and led by POT participants, moderators from around the globe, and graduates of the certificate program.

See the website for the class at http://pedagogyfirst.org/wppf12. If you would like to join us, just email Lisa.

POT Facebook group conversation this week

In preface to the Certificate Class, we are currently engaged in conversation about online teaching at the POT Facebook group this week. Come join us! (Remember, you can join a Facebook Group without friending anyone.)

We are currently holding a pre-class workshop in the POT Facebook group beginning August 19 – all are welcome.

POT First Fridays start September 7 at Oceanside

Laura Paciorek hosts our successful First Friday workshop series again this fall in OC4804.

Come and discuss your online teaching adventures with fellow faculty members.  Individuals with no, little, some, and a lot of online teaching experience are all welcome.  Each First Friday will focus on what the group wants to discuss; however, prompts will also be provided to start the discussion.  Questions are welcome, too!

September 7 – 3:00-3:50 p.m.: Engagement – What do you do to engage your students in online classes?

October 5 – 3:00-3:50 p.m.: Time/energy management – How do you manage your time/energy as an instructor and how do you help your students manage their time/energy?

November 2- 3:00-3:50 p.m.: Evaluation – How do you have students evaluate your classes and how do you evaluate your students’ work?

December 7 – 3:00-3:50 p.m.: Renewal – What are your plans for your future classes?  What did you learn or what do you want to try next?

Sign up at the flex website.

Featured tutorials

Excellent tutorials abound at the POT website. For example:

Getting Started with WordPress

Laura Paciorek has put together some short tutorials on how to get blogging on MiraCosta’s new WordPress system.

Learning Blackboard for flex credit

Lisa M Lane and Karen Korstad have put together tutorials on how to get flex credit for working your way through Karen’s Blackboard training modules.

Getting Started Teaching Online

On sabbatical, Lisa created a step-by-step tutorial for those learning to teach in the online environment. It’s called Where the Hell Do I Start?

 

Happy online, hybrid and technology-enhanced teaching,

Lisa

 

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POT Newletter #42 (July 2012)


Program for Online Teaching Newsletter #42

July 2012

POT All-Day Workshop: Strategies and Tools for Online Teaching

Tuesday, August 14

9:30 am - 3:50 pm, lunch included
Flex time: 6.5 hours

Limited enrollment: 40 participants (contact Lisa if it’s full and you want to get in)
Cost: $20/person includes lunch (sign up in flex and send check made out to MCC Academic Senate (put PDP on memo line) to Debby Adler, MS 8C. Deadline to pay is August 13, or you will lose your spot to someone on the wait list.

Instructors of all levels and styles are welcome to join us for an all-day exploration of the strategies and tools that can be effectively used for online, hybrid or on-site classes that use web technologies. Beginning with developing good course design through individual pedagogy, participants will work hands-on with a
selection of proven teaching tools and explore how they can be used to realize instructional goals.  If you have attended an all-day POT workshop in the past, there will be some new additions this year.

Please bring your laptop computer, tablet or smart phone if you have one – that will open up more computers in some of the sessions.

Participants will receive 6.5 flex hours for participating (attendance of less than 6.5 hours may be recorded on the sign-in sheet).

Other fall flex week workshops of interest to online faculty

Monday, August 13

  • 9 am, OC4612 Bb 101: Introduction to Blackboard
  • 10:30 am, OC4612: Creating Exams and Practice Exercises in Blackboard
  • 1:00 pm, OC4611: Internet Basics I: Critical Concepts & Browser Basics
  • 2:00 pm, OC4611: Internet Basics II: Better, Safer, More Effective Web Browsing and Searching
  • 3:00 pm, SAN107: Bb 101: Introduction to Blackboard

Wednesday, August 15

Thursday, August 16

POT Online Teaching Certificate Class starts September 1

POT offers a very special opportunity to learn how to teach online in our free, year-long, open online class!

Our next class begins on September 1. There is a textbook, and activities for 12 weeks in fall and 12 weeks in spring. Participants learn about teaching online by putting their pedagogical goals first, and learning to use various technologies to fulfill their objectives, whether teaching online, hybrid, or in a classroom. The class is free and open and led by POT participants, moderators from around the globe, and graduates of the certificate program.

The draft website is currently being put together at http://pedagogyfirst.org/wppf12. If you would like to join us, just email Lisa.

We will also hold a pre-class workshop in the POT Facebook group beginning August 19 – all are welcome.

POT First Fridays at Oceanside 4804

Laura Paciorek hosts our successful First Friday workshop series again this fall.

Come and discuss your online teaching adventures with fellow faculty members.  Individuals with no, little, some, and a lot of online teaching experience are all welcome.  Each First Friday will focus on what the group wants to discuss; however, prompts will also be provided to start the discussion.  Questions are welcome, too!

September 7 – 3:00-3:50 p.m.: Engagement – What do you do to engage your students in online classes?

October 5 – 3:00-3:50 p.m.: Time/energy management – How do you manage your time/energy as an instructor and how do you help your students manage their time/energy?

November 2- 3:00-3:50 p.m.: Evaluation – How do you have students evaluate your classes and how do you evaluate your students’ work?

December 7 – 3:00-3:50 p.m.: Renewal – What are your plans for your future classes?  What did you learn or what do you want to try next?

Sign up at the flex website.

Online Tool News

No more Talkback Badge

One of the great tools POT recommends has disappeared. Google’s Talkback Badge could be put on any web page to allow students to instantly chat with you, without downloading or having an account. It’s been discontinued.

This summer we’ve been testing plupper.com, and think it provides a good alternative, although it needs a client (such as iChat for Mac or Miranda for PC) to work. Information and other options can be found on Lisa’s blog.

No more Meebo

Pilar reports that Meebo is also gone, so plupper may provide a solution for that also.

Textbook or Wikipedia Book?

We’ve discovered Wikipedia Books, which allows you to put together (and edit) books for students comprised of collected articles from Wikipedia.

Diigo for student annotations

Diigo, the social bookmarking service, can be used to have students annotate documents. Each student needs a free account, and Diigo will give you a URL for saved documents with annotations so students can see each others’ work. You can even use Diigo’s Educator features to create a class account.

Just need a gradebook?

We’ve been testing a free gradebook, and can recommend Engrade for ease of use. It does set its own student passwords, however, which must be given to the students so they can access their grades. Intended for K-12, even with its new features it’s simple to use.

Add a Twitter widget to Blackboard

Blackboard isn’t always good at taking code from elsewhere and displaying it properly. The trick is to switch to HMTL mode and make sure the Text Editor is disabled. To add a Twitter widget to your Bb 9.1 class, see these instructions.

Create a quick and simple web page

Sometimes you just want to make something available to students on the web. Try checkthis.com.

Sharing web images with Pinterest

The latest tool for selecting and displaying collections of images and videos, kind of like an online poster, is Pinterest. You “pin” images from the web on a page, and can talk about them and share.

 Public Domain resource

Public Domain Review is a website dedicated to curating text, images and video available in the public domain.

 A style guide for citing Wikipedia

Wikipedia has a full page on the formats and methods for citing Wikipedia pages in research and student projects.

 

Happy online teaching and learning!

Lisa

 

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POT Newsletter #41 (April 2012)


Program for Online Teaching Newsletter #41

April 2012

May 4 – Last of the year: First Friday at Oceanside

Discussion/Experiment Workshops: Successes!
2:00-2:50 pm, OC 4804

Come discuss the successes we’ve experienced this year using technology in our classes.

POT Book Discussion Group: Connections: Virtual Learning Communities
3:00-3:50 pm, OC 4804

Ongoing discussion based on the  free e-book by Richard Schwier, titled Connections: Virtual Learning Communities. For more information about the book, visit:http://rickscafe.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/connections-virtual-learning-communities-ebook-launch/.  To get your free copy of the ebook (epub file):http://edmac.usask.ca/rick/ebookflyer/

Sign up at the flex website.

Free open online class for new college instructors

First Steps into Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, is a free, open, online class targeted at new lecturers, people entering higher education teaching from other sectors and postgraduate students who teach. They also welcome experienced lecturers to update and share their knowledge and expertise. The First Steps course is an element of the Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development’s (OCSLD) HEA accredited Post Graduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education (PCTHE).

Building on OCSLD’s experience of running courses for a national and international audience, First Steps into Learning and Teaching in Higher Education will be an open online course, free to the global academic community, with peer and general tutor support. The class runs May 21- June 22.

Free open online class with Curtis Bonk starts today

Free, 5-week, massively open online course (MOOC) about online teaching entitled Instructional Ideas & Technology Tools for Online Success.

 Curt Bonk is Professor of Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University and President of CourseShare.
Full participation in the course requires that each week from April 30 – June 4, you:
  • listen to a live (or archived) hour-long online session
  • read an article
  • respond via contributing to a discussion board, blog, or wiki
You can learn more about and register for the course here: http://events.blackboard.com/open

Live webinar April 30: Moodle Quizzes

A free online webinar on using quizzes in Moodle

Summer classes from @ONE

·  Introduction to Online Teaching and Learning
·  Creating Accessible Online Courses
·  Introduction to Teaching with Moodle 2 
·  Introduction to Teaching with Blackboard 9.1
·  Building Online Community with Social Media
·  Designing Effective Online Assessments 

Cool video on Flipping the Classroom

“Flipping” is not a new idea – we give students lecture material via the internet, then use class time for greater discussion and interactivity.

POT presenting at Ed-Media

For the first time, POT will be presenting at the World Conference on Educational Media and Technology in two sessions, one on the Simul-learn setup created by Laura Paciorek for out simultaneous online/on-site workshops, and one on the POT Certificate Class (see below). Laura Paciorek and Lisa M. Lane will be presenting live in Denver, with other POT leaders and certificate class members participating virtually.

Planning ahead: Fall Flex

POT All-Day Workshop: Strategies and Tools for Online Teaching
Tuesday, August 14 (tentative – not yet approved)
9:30 am - 3:50 pm, lunch included
Flex time: 6.5 hours
Limit enrollment: 35 participants
Cost: $20/person includes lunch

Instructors of all levels and styles are welcome to join us for an all-day exploration of the strategies and

tools that can be effectively used for online, hybrid or on-site classes that use web technologies. Beginning
with developing good course design through individual pedagogy, participants will work hands-on with a
selection of proven teaching tools and explore how they can be used to realize instructional goals.  If you
have attended an all-day POT workshop in the past, there will be some new additions this year.
Please bring your laptop computer or smart phone if you have one.
Participants will receive 6.5 flex hours for participating (attendance of less than 6.5 hours may be recorded
on the sign-in sheet).

Planning ahead: POT Online Teaching Certificate Class


Over a dozen of this year’s participants will be receiving POT’s online certificate, with a badge they can display on their class websites. Certificate are being awarded to participants from MiraCosta, but also from schools in Spain, Pakistan, New Zealand, and across the U.S. You can see this year’s activity at our aggregated blog: Pedagogy First!

Our next class begins on September 1. There is a textbook, and activities for 12 weeks in fall and 12 weeks in spring. Participants learn about teaching online by putting their pedagogical goals first, and learning to use various technologies to fulfill their objectives, whether teaching online, hybrid, or in a classroom. The class is free and open and led by POT participants, moderators from around the globe, and graduates of the certificate program.

More details forthcoming.
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