SUNY Effective Online Practices Award Program
The use of an effectively designed participant survey, which is administered at the outset of an online course, can provide information that is useful in the management of the learning environment and in its subsequent redesign. Providing such information can help to clarify the participants’ prior experience, expectations, concerns, and even anxiety. The very act of inquiring about the learner also signals the instructor’s social presence, relational interest, and desire to enter into an authentic dialogue during the learning engagement.
A poorly designed discussion forum adds little teaching presence and can actually be detrimental to an effective online learning environment if it is perceived by the learner as a waste of time or as busy-work. By applying the principles of Self-Determination Theory and Self-Regulated Learning, the discussion forum design I advocate becomes an enjoyable and vibrant interactive learning activity with empirically demonstrable pedagogical value.
The template allowed for consistent training of faculty migrating from ANGEL to Bb. Additionally it is my first step toward a more consistent look and feel to courses.
The Scavenger hunt activity allow learners to engage with and to learn about resources, experts, and other sources of knowledge important to their discipline of study and consistent with their individual learning needs. In a traditional learning experience discussion and application is often limited to the interest area of the professor or the most vocal participants in the discussion. Use of the scavenger hunt transforms the learning experience as learners explore course concepts by visiting designated online sites or by searching for content related to a specific concept or objective. As the outcomes of the scavenger hunt are shared, the richness of the experience becomes evident. The scavenger hunt activity brings the real-world perspective to course concepts.
This practice uses Microsoft Access and the tools available within Access to process and track a large number of course records selected for migration of course content from ANGEL to Blackboard
This solution is an effective practice for faculty members because it gives them control of their attendance so students can see how important attendance is to their overall success.
This effective practice doesn’t fall neatly into any of the existing categories. This effective practice is a highly structured, asynchronous discussion forum assignment with an explicit emphasis on critical thinking. The assignment requires a high level of interactivity. Students are required not only to submit replies to classmates’ first posts but to respond and later reflect upon replies submitted to their own first posts. In addition, students are required to reflect upon responses submitted to their own replies to their classmates’ first posts. These requirements ensure meaningful interactivity amongst students in the classroom.
BYOC crosses the listed categories, and addresses another (capacity-building) because:
1. It involves building the capacity of both individual faculty and the campus, to increase quality online offerings.
2. It incorporates faculty interaction and collaboration, as well as that of students enrolled in well-designed online courses.
3. It incorporates well-designed feedback/assessment strategies with faculty enrolled in BYOC, as well as in their own design of undergraduate and graduate courses.
Over the past 5 years I have been developing OERs and sharing them with colleagues in and out of my institution. I have created websites to support the sharing of my work with OERs and OER development. I have included them below:
http://www.ciudadelaproject.com/
https://sites.google.com/site/photosynthpbl/home
http://commons.esc.edu/rhiannarogers/blended-learning/
http://commons.esc.edu/rhiannarogers/the-buffalo-project-an-ethnographic-study-of-western-new-york/
Starting in 2014, I became an Open SUNY Fellow and I was one of the inaugural presenters in the COTE series, titled "Fostering Creativity in Learning: How to Incorporate OERs into Assignments," focusing on strategies for OER implementation. I am currently on reassignment to develop more OERs related to Latin America.
The Tools of Engagement Project (TOEP) ( http://suny.edu/toep ) is an on-demand cloud-based facilitation format that is a viable and dynamic alternative to traditional workshop-based professional development. TOEP addresses barriers by enabling large numbers of faculty to participate at their own pace. TOEP is a series of online activities that encourage faculty to explore and directly interact with emerging technologies. All TOEP activities contain an interaction and collaboration component where faculty and design staff post and discuss in a Google+ Community. This Community links faculty across several SUNY campuses. TOEP campus-based Fellows support participants in this Community providing a formalized mentoring and coaching.