Retired Camosun Instructor, Linda Cross, asked new instructors to give her a list of questions they would like to have answered by teachers who could draw on years of experience to provide realistic answers.
As a result six experienced teachers were asked questions about 6 topics related to teaching:
- Encouraging Student Participation
- Delivering Course Content
- Managing Classroom Behaviour
- Designing a Grading Process
- Evaluating Student Work
- Developing as a Teacher
Click here to see the insightful video responses…
Check out this viral video where professor Richard Quinn of University of Central Florida gives his students a lecture they will never forget. More than 200 admitted to cheating on a midterm exam as a result.
Join the CID on Sept 15 & 16th as we attend an Educause Focus Session titled, Blended Learning: The 21st-Century Learning Environment online from VCC. This event offers a great opportunity to learn more about blended learning environments while building a community of practice with your colleagues right here at VCC!
The goal of this focus session is to revisit the potential of blended learning instructional models, student learning outcomes, and successful implementation practices. The maturing of online learning practices and engagements has opened new possibilities for curriculum design, including both face-to-face and online learning opportunities. The ability to design a course that uniquely blends face-to-face and distributed interaction allows institutions to address learners’ specific needs and customize the learning environment rather than rely on a “one size fits all” approach. But these options lead to a variety of questions:
- What’s the right mix of face-to-face and online?
- How do you decide when to employ an online activity or interaction?
- How can you best map the mix of blended elements to student needs and requirements?
- How can these elements be orchestrated to meet a course’s learning objectives?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of various online techniques and methods?
Click here for more information about the session at the ELI website…
This event is sponsored by the Centre for Instructional Development and no registration is required. If you are interested, feel free to attend all or just parts of the sessions that fit into your schedule.
Schedule:
Wednesday September 15, 9:00AM – 2:30AM at Broadway (Room TBA)
Thursday September 16, 9:00AM – 2:30AM at Downtown (Room TBA)
All VCC employees are welcome to attend both sessions – hope to see you there!
Oh yeah, please BYOLunch
Filed under: Distributed Learning
Don’t miss this popular semiannual PD opportunity as offered by the BC Campus Educational Technology User Group (ETUG)…
Join us June 7 and 8 for ETUG’s Spring 2010 Workshop held at the University of Victoria. Our theme is “3 Cups of T: Teaching, Technology, Transformation”. This alludes to the bestseller, “Three Cups of Tea” – an inspiring story of a brave, pioneering educator in a hostile situation who, against great odds, makes a big difference in the world. He did this in small increments, by working “failures” into successes, and by learning to really listen and consider stakeholders and their needs. The power of patience and building relationships in order to innovate and bring about change are themes we can relate to in our work in education and technology. Not to mention, our workshop is taking place in Victoria, BC (a high-tea hotspot). It will be a tea-riffic event!
Come share your challenges and triumphs with teaching with technology and views on system trends and changes.
Visit the ETUG site for more info
Registration is $100 + GST and includes all workshop sessions, 2 continental breakfasts, 2 lunches, morning refreshments, and the Monday evening BBQ dinner.
*Note: Hands-on lab sessions which have limited space will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
RECORDED SESSION NOW AVAILABLE – Click here to view now…
Don’t miss this excellent opportunity organized by in the BC Educational Technology User Group (ETUG).
Research and experience shows that a strong start toward building community can do wonders for learning and engagement in your online course. For most online courses, this begins with the Introductory post or icebreaker activity in Week 1. During this combined 1-hour web conference and one week discussion we will explore (easy, fun, and free) ways to go beyond the plain text forum post.
Live Session in Elluminate: February 12, 2010 at 11:30 GMT (your time zone)
Seminar Facilitator: Gina Bennett
Live Session Facilitator: Tracy Roberts
Visit the session page in SCoPE…
Filed under: Uncategorized
My colleague Tannis Morgan and I were invited by Nancy Nowlan to give a workshop at Capilano University.
We focused the presentation of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), while providing access to resources that inform good research practices.
The link to the materials for the May 14th workshop (e.g. powerpoint slides, articles, tools) were posted on a blog.
I hope you find it useful.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Distributed Learning, OLT, Online Teaching, Resource, UBC
The Office of Learning Technology (OLT) at UBC has been working on a project called Orientation to Teaching Online (OTO).
The objective of this project is to develop orientation materiales for faculty delivering online courses. These materials are posted on the UBC Wiki.
These resources are meant to provide faculty with access to a comprehensive set of resources related to online facilitation.
The OLT has have done a very good job combining the ideas and referencing the key researchers in the area.
Even though the tool used to present the materials is a Wiki, the layout follows good instructional design an can be used by faculty as a self-paced course.
I invite you to take a look:
- http://wiki.ubc.ca/Introduction_to_Online_Teaching
- http://wiki.ubc.ca/Creating_the_Online_Learning_Environment
- http://wiki.ubc.ca/Cultural_Issues_in_Teaching_Online
- http://wiki.ubc.ca/Supporting_Critical_Thinking_Online
Filed under: Uncategorized
Vancouver Island University (VIU) Workshop
http://www.viu.ca/teaching/sotl2009.asp
Delegates from BC’s teaching and learning centres attended a workshop at Vancouver Island University’s (VIU) beautiful Nanaimo campus on May 8th 2009. The workshop was hosted by the Vancouver Island Educational Developers Alliance (VIEDA) which is associated with the broader provincial group, the Universities, Colleges and Institutes Professional Developers (UCIPD). VIEDA is composed of North Island College, Vancouver Island University, University of Victoria, Camosun College and Royal Roads University. Participants were present from all VIEDA member institutions as well as BCIT, Mount Royal College in Calgary, SFU, University of the Fraser Valley and VCC.
Delegates were welcomed at the base of the spectacular, VIU campus structure by smiling greeters who ushered them to the workshop. The workshop itself was very well organized and educational. Break-out groups were created by synthesizing data from a pre-assessment survey to determine special interest. The workshop was so popular with BC’s education developer community that there was a long wait list after the 50 participant limit was easily met. Worskhop proceedings will be posting on the VIU SoTL Learning Together Collaboratory WIKI http://www.viu.ca/teaching/index.asp
Ginny Cathcart attended on behalf of the VCC Centre for Instructional Development (CID). One of the pillars of the VCC-CID is the Study of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) making this workshop relevant and timely. The commencement of the Bachelor of Science Nursing (BSN) program at VCC has created a need for research and scholarship support. The VCC-CID also believes that all educators need to consider the value of researching student learning outcomes and sharing SoTL findings among its programs.
The CID is interested in supporting faculty members wherever possible with relevant information about posing good research questions, using evidence-based research principles and methodologies, managing information literacy skills and human research ethical processes in the study of teaching and learning.
Highlights of the day included the following
• Asking questions of value; making the most of the scholarship of teaching and learning
• Philosophy is to understand, make public and learn from SoTL
• Focus on what your students are doing
• SoTL includes inquiries about shared goals, policy, needs-based, peer-oriented, opportunistic, geographic, idiosyncratic, extra-ordinary, or even once-in-a-lifetime opportunities
Scholarship of meaningful change: Important themes for learning “higher value” issues
• Empathy and tolerance
• Equity and social justice
• Activism and empowerment
• Responsibility and engagement
• Civic participation and cosmopolitanism
Formulating and Structuring a Research Question: Key features
• A good research question focuses on student learning; starts with what you see and have seen; what is important in context
• Good questions come from your class; a persistent issue or difficulty; an important concept or skill set; a road not yet taken
• Good questions matter because of focus and trajectory; evidence and argument; ethics and accountability; dissemination and improvement
• Question sof value include I individual considerations and concerns; context-oriented issues and ideas; community-oriented beliefs and intentions and collaborative or collective possibilities.
Efficiency is a reality of our working environments but you can still study higher value learning as above.
The workshop aspect was then developing questions and helping each other to funnel them from a larger concept through to a testable focused researchable question.
Disciplinary Affinities and Affiliations: Considerations examining inquiry through a disciplinary lens
• What ways of knowing are acceptable to your colleagues?
• What matters in your field and how do these ways of knowing apply to answering questions you might ask about student learning?
• What does a typical research design look like and what methodologies are commonly used to solve research questions in your field?
• How might these be used or adapted to answer questions about student learning?
• Might there be other methods you would like to use instead about which you would like more information?
• What do “rigour, sufficient evidence and supporting data” mean to you?
• How is the process of ethical review typically handled? Click here for VCC’s Research Ethics Review process http://cid.vcc.ca/p5-stl/index-stl.html
• Is your field typically used to dealing with human subject research?
• How will you know that your question has been answered to the satisfaction of your peer group?
Some SoTL questions from the workshop
• What works best to recognize prior learning in new degree programs?
• What works to cultivate an integrative and intentional affective learning outcome in aboriginal education courses for non-aboriginal students?
• How has student identity changed as colleges and university colleges have changed to universities?
• What do ESL students bring to English classes that instructors might be missing if viewed through Eurocentric lenses?
• Do hierarchical learning strategies help students learn complex concepts?
• Do nursing students and their preceptors have the same definition or notion of safe practice?
• Would removal of letter grades result in better learning?
• How do you measure the benefits of collateral unintended learning outcomes?
• Is the way we currently teach the best way to elicit academic writing learning outcomes?
• How do we measure an affective change in students regarding social issues?
• What is the process that students go through when visualizing a 2D picture into a 3D setting?
Some links on BC’s education development websites to get you started asking questions of value:
www.tag.ubc.ca/about/institute/documents/ISoTL_Steps_For_Getting_Started.pdf
http://www.ltc.uvic.ca/events/SOTL.php
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- SoTL open space brainstorming circle
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- Spectacular view from VIU library
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Animation, Awards of Excellence, CNIE, Instructional Design
For the third year on a row I volunteer to judge the CNIE Awards of Excellence. This year we had more than 14 submissions to review. The quality of the submissions keep improving every year, making it harder on the judges to decide on who to give the awards too.
Every Instructional Designer, Faculty, Media and Web developer would benefit from participating in such a neat activity. It is just fascinating to see what other institutions are doing with media.
For example, take a look at this learning object created by Ryerson University, the quality of the instructional design, animation, and composition are outstanding.
http://de.ryerson.ca/lo/universities/
This learning object really inspired me, I wonder if the “digital natives” would feel the same way.
What do you think?
Filed under: Uncategorized
Are you considering teaching on-line, putting one of your courses on-line or just exploring Web 2.0 learning management systems like Moodle? Do you believe that the transition from onsite teaching and learning to online instruction is either way too hard or just too easy? Are you hoping to retire or win the lottery before you actually have to face teaching online? Well I certainly had all these thoughts just before I enrolled in VCC’s School of Instructor Education Certificate in Online/eLearning Instruction.
I thought that all my years of teaching experience and taking courses up to graduate school would make the transition to teaching online relatively easy. I was very proud of my knowledge of adult education theory and practice. The outcomes of my experience in the first course of the certificate were unexpected to say the least.
Online teaching and learning is absolutely not just about reading volumes of text instead of listening to PowerPoint lectures. It is not just about navigating websites instead of sitting in a classroom or laboratory and asking questions. I would say that the first course was more like a practicum or an apprenticeship than a cyber-classroom. It allowed me to apply prior knowledge and experience and really learn how learning takes place online and how traditional adult education theory applies online.
Our instructor Sue Birtwell really designed the course in an interesting way so that she taught and role modeled new ways to collaborate and learn online but she also assured that we learned from our experiences as teachers. Most importantly fellow students were encouraged to learn from one another as we worked effectively in groups and reflected on our learning together. Yes even made new friends in our cyber campus bonding with people you have never met in the physical world.
So why not try it now? You will be pleasantly refreshed by what the ecertificate may open up to you in terms of opportunities to teach and learn in different and surprising ways. Log onto www.vcc.ca and see if there is a course being offered that fits your schedule and lifestyle.
The Internet has become a medium for people to carry out a whole range of life’s activities, including education. Instructors of online eLearning need to prepare themselves with knowledge and skill sets directly related to this teaching and learning environment.
This certificate program builds on a foundation of professional preparation in instructor education and on professional experience as an educator. Completion of the certificate is a follow-up to prior instructor training. The three course descriptions in the VCC Certificate in Online/eLearning Instruction
1. Online/eLearning: Principles and Processes (EDUC 4150)
In this course, multiple perspectives on learning are reviewed as a foundation to examine various concepts, principles, and processes that relate to online/eLearning instruction. With a focus on characteristics and preferences of different groups of learners, course participants assess, select, and implement appropriate learning strategies in the development and delivery of eLearning. Credits: 3.0
2. Design and Develop Interactive eLearning (EDUC 4151)
In this course, participants design and develop suitable online/eLearning environments to support instructional and learning interactions that accommodate multi-dimensional learning. Credits: 3.0
3. Design and Develop an Online Course (EDUC 4152)
In this course, participants employ the necessary and appropriate processes and technologies to design, develop, implement, and manage an online course. Credits: 3.0
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- Ginny Cathcart networking online with invisible fellow students in Education 4150
