SUNY Effective Online Practices Award Program

"As institutions continue to pilot and implement models where students in remote or satellite locations join an existing on-campus classroom through a videoconferencing system, the literature shows that these environments fall short as an extension of that classroom. It is not enough to add video conferencing technology where the remote students end being spectators and can easily disappear (Gillies, 2008); or where students physically present with the instructor are ignored to, unintentionally, accommodate their remote counterparts (Valentine, 2004).

It is clear that a synchronous learning environment is itself its own modality with its own strategies and pedagogy. It certainly requires a strong infrastructure and system (Ardley, 2014), and a robust training program for the faculty teaching in this modality (Szeto, 2014). But the first and most important strategy that cannot be overlooked is to ensure that the students’ experiences are equitable by having the instructor teach from a studio-like room and having all students join from similarly equipped remote classrooms—whether located on campus or off campus."

E-service-learning is a pedagogical technique in which instruction and/or service occur online. Students in a distance learning section of Atypical Development course created a Google Site with resources for individuals with developmental disabilities. Additionally, students met with youths with developmental disabilities biweekly via Blackboard Collaborate Ultra sessions. At the end of the semester, students completed a questionnaire assessing their e-service-learning experience. Students reported that the e-service-learning experience was related to course content, increased their understanding of individuals with disabilities, increased student engagement, helped them relate the subject matter to everyday life, positively impacted their future academic and career choices, and overall had a positive experience. Students in a face-to-face section of Atypical Development who completed an in-person service-learning project did not significantly differ on any of the aforementioned measures. Course evaluations were also examined for both sections. Students in the e-service-learning section reported greater satisfaction than the in-person service-learning course. Specifically, e-service-learning students reported: the instructor attempted to make the course relevant to students; the assignments helped me learn the subject matter; I enjoyed the class greater than students in the in-person service-learning course. These results indicate that e-service-learning is an efficacious pedagogical practice in distance learning courses.

SUNY Canton has for decades held a Professional Clothing Fair on campus sponsored by the local chapter of the AAUW. Due to volunteer changes and limited physical space on campus, the prospect of having the traditional clothing fair was limited. This coincided with an increase in our campus conscious of looking for opportunities to bolster engagement with online students and the idea of holding an Online Professional Clothing Fair was born. The goal is to provide access to all our students through on online portal and we would provide free shipping to our online students as a return on their activities fee investment.

Assessment of online learning looks at formative and summative feedback, understanding what a learning objective is and effectively create them, investigating assessment tools and assignments for online learning, and understanding why active learning and assessment tools are important for online learning. It also looks at rubrics and other examples for assessing written assignments, as well as how to use the LMS as a learning tool.

Only a small percentage of students participate in study abroad programs and many groups are underrepresented. There is little diversity in race, gender and ethnicity nor access for non-traditional, lower socioeconomic groups, those with disabilities and first generation college students (Fischer, 2012). Using synchronous online meeting tools to create globally networked learning experiences can enable all students to have a meaningful international experience, combat a student’s sense of isolation in fully online courses, and build community. However, simply calling for all your students to be online at the same time does not create a meaningful experience that will contribute to meeting course objectives. It is important to allow time for thoughtful planning about how you will design the sessions and collaborate with your partner. Here is an approach for planning your collaboration with your partner and setting up your synchronous session around role playing.

When the majority of instruction takes place in an online environment, it may offer more challenges for monitoring student learning and understanding of course content. Certain pedagogical techniques that combine theories and practices from face-to-face instruction can be infused in online teaching to help address these concerns and keep instruction engaging, rigorous, and responsive to student need. One practice that has research support from the field, particularly at the college course level, is the “Pause Procedure” (Ruhl, Hughes, & Schloss, 1987). This procedure has been researched in the college classroom to enhance factual recall from college lectures, with both short and long-term success, including on examinations (i.e., Hughes, Hendrickson, & Hudson, 1986; Ruhl, Hughes, & Gajar, 1990; Ruhl & Suritsky, 1995). The Pause Procedure typically includes approximately three 2-minute pauses spaced at logical breaks during lectures where students can take time to take notes, engage in brief discussion of lecture content, update notes, or engage in free recall. The idea is that students take a formal period to “encode information in meaningful units” (Ruhl, & Suritsky, 1995, p. 6). This is the time that also enhances student active engagement and thus, academic learning time, leading to increases in student performance (Berliner, 1987).

"QbD is designed around the COTE OSCQR rubric and therefore it falls across all the categories.

The elements of the OSCQR include:
- learner support
- content presentation & accessibility
- interaction & collaboration
- evaluation & assessment"

In my Urban Economics, I created an engaging research project.

The project consisted of a policy proposal on an urban economics issue. It had to be specific and policy related to New York City, Nassau or Suffolk County. The policy proposal had to be clearly structured, have a policy recommendation, as well as a clear discussion of the argument in favor and against its implementation.

This project was split in two parts

1: PhotoVoice
PhotoVoice is a research method in which a person photographs their surroundings to increase knowledge of topics important to them.

Students had to take six photos related to their Urban Policy Issue. At least two of the photos should show strengths and characteristics of their community that positively contribute to the issue. And, at least two photos should show weaknesses and negative characteristics of the issue. The 5th and 6th photos can be positive or negative—their choice. Each photograph had to be title and have a 1-2 sentence description.

2: The Web Site
The final product was a well written website that included all the relevant information about the topic, the policy question and proposal and included links to articles, photos, graphs, data, videos, podcasts.

Digital humanism is the understanding that people, not technological tools, are the center of the digital ecosystem. The term digital humanism was established by Gartner (2015) as a business principle to think about tech tool innovation as an opportunity to “redfine the way people achieve their goals and enable people to achieve things not previously possible.” The term has since been co-opted in academic spaces, most notably the 2019 Vienna Manifesto, set forth by the Vienna University of Technology, with the aims to “shape technologies in accordance with human values and needs” and to “promote democracy and inclusion.” Thinking through this philosophical framework of digital humanism, I curated features on BlackBoard to support five key strategies for student success in my online class, and by extension progress toward SUNY Gen Ed degree requirements. For these strategies, the instructor: 1) posts frequently; 2) invites student questions through a variety of modalities; 3) responds quickly to student queries; 4) solicits and incorporates student feedback; 5) demonstrates a sense of care and concern for student wellbeing.

Feelings of isolation and lack of social interaction have been cited as major reasons for dissatisfaction with online learning environments (Hwang & Song, 2018; Kuong, 2015). Activities are required that create opportunities for social interaction, collaboration, dialogue, creative expression, and building feelings of connectedness (Alt, 2018). To prevent isolation of the online learner and preserve a sense of community, students describe wanting feedback which “encourages sharing” (Maliotaki, 2019, p. 198) and is “dialogic” (p. 200). During the Fall of 2019, VoiceThread, an interactive, cloud-based communication tool, was used in an online course to deliver “dialogic” feedback during student development of a research proposal. As a pilot, a total of 20 students dialogued with their instructor for a major component in the development of their written proposals. This technology tool allowed for multi-directional asynchronous dialogue, with both the instructor and student sending and receiving information to benefit the learner.