SUNY Effective Online Practices Award Program
The Access MOOC is a free and open online course about accessibility and Universal Design for Learning in education. In order for ALL students to be able to access, engage, and benefit from online learning, designers and instructors must design courses with accessibility and principles of universal design for learning in mind from the start.
The challenge is that many designers and faculty members don’t know how to design courses and content so that they are accessible. This MOOC addresses this challenge by enabling participants to learn about accessibility in a way that is interesting and engaging. Designers and instructors can choose to participate in the facilitated session of the MOOC or they can participate at their own pace in the on-demand version of the course available in May.
Two to four times during a semester, my online students are required to create and post presentations of how to work specific homework problems and then view and respond to at least two of their classmates' presentations in the context of a Blackboard discussion.
This not only improves their understanding of the topics they choose to present, it builds a much stronger connection between the students than any other component in the course. As a bonus, it also allows me (as the professor) to get to know my students in a more personal way than is otherwise possible.
Students respond with both encouragement and suggestions for improvement/corrections. I am able to both encourage strong students (by asking them if I can post their videos in future courses) and give useful feedback.
OER content was created for TC3's Intermediate Algebra Course, was piloted and scaled up to all Intermediate Algebra sections in the college (fully online and in-class). After successful implementation, College Algebra and Pre-calculus are currently implemented using the same platform; Statistics and Beginning Algebra are also on track for implementation in OER. Our OER implementation has affected 1721 students in mathematics alone and has involved approximately 20 instructors each semester.
Binghamton University's Teaching Online Certification Program provides faculty with research-based best practices in developing online courses in addition to best practices in teaching in an online environment. The program also includes one-to-one consultations with an Instructional Designer throughout the development process. Participants in the program are required to deliver a complete online course as well as meet the designated essential criteria of our customized OSCQR rubric. The program spans multiple months and faculty consultations occur based on when the course will be taught (i.e. summer, fall or spring semesters). Faculty receive a monetary incentive once all criteria for the program are met; they also receive a certificate of completion for their Department records.
Creating a recorded lecture with a SMART Board provides the opportunity for students to control the pace of their learning.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.