SUNY Effective Online Practices Award Program

While updating the structure and content of “Understanding Music” to better suit the realities of remote learning, I also set out to design a friendlier syllabus: one that was (1) more visually engaging, (2) easier to navigate on mobile screens, and (3) more accessible to every student. The redesigned syllabus now presents the contents of each week in a “movie poster” format, complete with a thematic title and rights-free photography from https://unsplash.com. The new document features narrower margins and extra-large headings, allowing students on mobile devices to locate and then zoom in on the content they need. (For those who continue to prefer a more traditional view, the pages fit neatly inside a 2-up print layout.) And despite the more elaborate visual design, I was able to increase the document’s Blackboard Ally accessibility score from 46 percent to 94 percent by adding image descriptions, document headings, and high-contrast text.

The saying “there’s an app for that” has now become “you can build an app for that” with platforms such as Microsoft PowerApps, a low-code app development tool. With the Covid crisis quickly requiring schools to convert student support and services into digital formats, we were asked to reimagine the Harry Van Arsdale Jr. School of Labor Studies’ student Midterm Portfolio Review from a seventeen-year-old physical, paper-dependent process to a remote, digital solution in less than six months.

By using the Microsoft Power Platform, currently included in all O365 educational licenses, we designed and developed two PowerApps that were user-centered, prioritizing the digital experience of both students and reviewers. These mobile apps provided:
1) an easy and simple interface for students to attach, comment, and submit their documents;
2) a robust experience for reviewers to filter submissions, easily access the students’ files, and complete the review with a built-in rubric;
3) automated emails to confirm receipt of submissions and to notify students of the feedback on their work.

After the first semester of its use, the ease of functionality, effectiveness, and scalability were the most repeated feedback we received from the director and users.

A structured research assignment is often the culmination of most social sciences and humanities courses within higher education. These assignments tend to be paired with 1-2 library instruction sessions that take place during the course of a semester. During these time-limited sessions, students are instructed by academic librarians on matters of scholarly research and are prepared to effectively approach their respective research assignments. While library instruction is both beneficial and necessary to the success of student research, conducting such instruction within a limited amount of time can hinder an academic librarian’s ability to ensure that their students attain all scholarly research learning outcomes. When transitioning to online learning, these library instructions are often allotted even less time, reduced to tutorials, or simply eliminated. Such measures curb student online learning and diminish the quality of their research-based assignments. In addressing such issues, I have redesigned my online history courses to provide comprehensive and blended research instruction which runs concurrently with existing history content modules. Through the course of a semester, my online learners will successfully meet their history and scholarly research learning objectives simultaneously and progressively.

Nominally asynchronous online distance learning environments were augmented by video-conferencing in order to increase dialogue, instructor presence, and a sense of instructor care and concern. The video-conference component was limited time-wise (40 minutes per weekly module) and focused on explaining learning content, integrating learning activities, and interacting with learners. The aim was not to transform these courses into synchronous or blended learning ones.

Preliminary feedback from student reflective journals indicates the innovation was well received and contributed significantly to student appreciation, satisfaction, and overall engagement. The augmentation is simple, minimal, and effective. It may be an approach that is particularly relevant in designing and facilitating online distance learning environments in an era of uncertainty, disruption, and far-reaching educational changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is argued that the introduction of an active learning component has significant implications for learner performance, satisfaction, and persistence with distance learning. Although attempts to increase social presence and engagement are not uncommon in online distance learning, this particular approach is simple, easily enacted, and has perceived elements of originality and innovation that appeal to learners. It contended that video-conference augmentation contributes significant value to the quality and outcomes of the distance learning experience.

The reality in which higher education existed has been completely challenged with the global crisis of COVID-19. We must rethink how we deliver lasting concepts and principles in light of a radically changed landscape for professional practice that bears little resemblance to the past. How can we reimagine education in a more human and interconnected way? I realized that education that brings forward our humanity is what is actually required. All activities modeled in my classroom intentionally engage students to spark their imagination. Inspiration Sessions are set with professionals from my own network to practice our whole-human skills and unleash the students' creative thirst. That is, in a fully online synchronous environment, the opportunity of facilitating dialogue with professionals from my own network offers a pluriversal, multidisciplinary, interactive and human learning experience for students.

With more traditional students taking online degrees, the needs of online students are changing. Students are now looking for a fuller college experience beyond the usual links to campus resources and services. As one student stated, “It would be nice if the online student were included with campus (brick & mortar) student’s events, anything that shows we are just as important and equal to the brick & mortar… activities to make me feel like a true student of SUNY Canton.”

At the same time, institutions are struggling with the challenge to retain students in their online programs. Both traditional and nontraditional online students are more likely to drop out of their programs than their classroom counterparts due to feelings of isolation. To reduce isolation and increase retention, SUNY Canton developed a “campus life” model for connecting online students to the campus community. This model, using engagement strategies mapped to the different dimensions of campus life (academic, social, and co-curricular) showcases effective practices for building community for students limited by time and geography.

Funds from an Innovative Instruction Technology Grant (IITG) were used to launch the model fall 2017; outcomes will continue to be assessed throughout spring 2018.

This innovative composition pedagogy is designed to prepare students for writing in multimodal environments by creatively integrating emerging computer technologies into first-year college composition courses.
Coined in the mid-1990s by the New London Group, multiliteracies are abilities to orchestrate various meaning-making modes. In the digital age, multiliteracies become a powerful skill set to maximize creativity of expression by allowing writers to mix, match, or replace texts with audio, video, and other different modes (New London Group, 1996). Accordingly, multiliteracies help writers enrich their writing creatively and find effective communication platforms for different audiences. Accordingly, multiliteracies have been recognized as the core of 21st century literacy skill set by the National Council of Teachers of English and a must-have outcome of first-year composition by the Council of Writing Program Administrators.
However, the first-year composition course at my institution is heavily weighted in conventional text-based expository writing. A documented argumentative essay is one of the typical writing requirements. Thus, with the aim of fostering first-year composition students’ multiliteracies and creativity, I have explored effective composition pedagogies that transform first-year composition from heavily text-based to creatively multimodality-enriched.

My adoption of Excelsior College’s Online Writing Lab (OWL) and Online Reading Comprehension (ORC) lab as my primary text for my ALP courses meets head-on a number of factors threatening this particular population of students’ success and retention. The OWL/ORC is an Open Educational Resource, which means it is free and immediately accessible to students who might otherwise be unable to afford a textbook. Further, because it is an OER, it is flexible, meaning I can tailor and adjust my use of it to the specific needs of my students. It is multimodal and interactive, speaking to the ways in which 21st century learners interact with information. Because it is available digitally, it provides the kind of “just in time” feedback at-risk students need as they work through conceptual challenges. Further, it’s a resource they can—and do—transfer to their other courses, helping them to recognize the nuances of the writing situation and the myriad ways they are always doing writing. Finally, the OWL and ORC offer a rich array of downloadable and printable handouts and transcripts which can be compiled and provided to students who desire hard copies of the material.

Bridging the psychological, instructional, and emotional chasm that can be present in online instruction has been my biggest challenge in my almost 20 years of teaching online. Although I use and publish about many different emerging technologies (videos, wikis, socially-networked instruction), the most compelling pedagogical advances have come from the use of avatar-navigated virtual-reality (VR) environments. Here I create an open-source, accessible, affordable, personal “classroom” experience. My students and I share ideas, presentations, poster sessions, virtual tours, guest speakers, and even building and development in a non-hierarchical, comfortable environment (very different from instructor-dominated webinars and Skype sessions). Most recently, Dr. Jelia Domingo has had her students working within my virtual island. And, in my VR-development course over 20 students have created their own VR environments, continuing to share with me a collective and emerging sense of the new pedagogical dimensions coming forward through 2d/3d virtual and even augmented realities, becoming an informal think tank envisioning completely new approaches to teaching and learning, all 100% online. I challenge Open SUNY and SUNY to join me this semester in an immersive adventure, coming to my world and taking my mini-course.

Since coming to SUNY Empire State College in 2010 and subsequently joining International Programs (Dominican Republic, Turkey, Lebanon, and Cyprus) in 2014, I have spent a significant amount of time developing expertise around the scholarship of national and international teaching and learning, including research in OER development and design, PLA assessment, Digital Anthropology, and Virtual Exchange opportunities for students. I am a firm believer that every experience in academia can lead to new and innovative ways of teaching and mentoring students. Teaching to me is truly a collaborative process, which can only be successful if it is built on a reciprocating, mutually respectful relationship. I believe that all students should be given access to learning and education, no matter their situation in life, location in the world, and access to wealth. My approach to teaching and emphasis on OERs, cross-cultural communication, and international virtual exchange opportunities has enhanced the learning process for students.