Chapter 21 Using Reflection Surveys to Improve Teaching and
Contents
1. Normal E Cambria Bo 18 E Kl A Home Layout Document Elements Tables Thu ende Unit 1 survey results Unit 1 Reflection Survey El Hhink hat aroye story is a good digital mto to introduce u seo pot instructor s i time itis not Ea one of the options for my Jackie and Patrick Is this because of the focus of your EdWeb If you have additional B Unit 1 Survey_Sept12 Tthought they were a lot of fun Hs great lo get do know a lille piece of everyone in the class E makes me fell y doser to my classmates There is definite potential for use in my ediieb will think about the possible usels of zome kind of digital video story a E Jackie and Patrick We love this assignment because you can find out so many little things about each Respond a other that you didn t know before Digital stories are also very effective instructional strategies they E bring the content to life 3 T don t think digital stories suit my EdWeb d Jackie and Patrick They are not a good fit for all EdWebs 3 Tlove to make videos that tell short siories for fun If I m able to create the EdWeb wani there will definiteh a be a place for a digital story though it might be tricky to find an actual subject for one Jackie and Patrick Often a good place to start is whether or not there is an appropriate story to tell 3 about your content If there is then using images music and narration can be a powerful wa2. 132 136 141 143 144 148 161 165 166 61 107 161 Jing 2 18 33 60 61 62 63 64 65 68 69 83 MUSIC cis ccaresdecorsctesecviessscasesties 80 97 Pedagogy scccssrrecceserreceeseeeeees 5 7 Podcast 134 135 136 137 PowerPoint 20 21 26 61 82 84 122 123 128 132 157 166 168 169 Rubric essssssssssssssssnsnnnnnnnn 79 118 Share dns 1 A seines 22 51 Social presence 35 112 Video 23 68 124 136 138 152 153 154 162 VoiceThread eereeeesseeeeeee 70 104 Web 2 0 26 34 35 76 88 100 101 104 107 108 110 111 112 120 134 137 3 71 169 YouTube 20 21 22 104 117 118 168 173
3. answers are more thoughtful Explain the Purpose of the Reflection Surveys in the Syllabus Clearly explain what the reflection surveys are how they will be used when they will be administered and if points are associated with them Be Consistent Once you decide when and how often you will administer the reflection surveys be sure to follow through on it Also strive to be consistent with how you handle the surveys For instance if you plan to make the results of the survey s public in the course shell be sure to always do that We try to post the results within five days of the close date on the survey and we post the results in a threaded discussion so students can comment or ask additional questions Ask Qualitative and Quantitative Questions While quantitative questions can provide quick and easy feedback especially in a tool like Google Docs where the form tool will calculate the results for you we find that we get the most useful and thoughtful information through open ended qualitative questions While they take longer to read and summarize we often find we get results we never expect Here are some open ended questions we ask What is the most important thing you learned in this unit What three words best describe your thoughts about this course so far What did you find surprising or interesting in the small group discussions What questions or concerns do you have about How are you feeling about name of
4. happy struggling and so forth or do you want to use your reflection surveys much like we have in which you inquire not only about students satisfaction but also about how they are acquiring specific knowledge Consider the Power of Anonymity Decide whether you want the surveys to always be anonymous never be anonymous or to give students the choice on whether they want to submit their feedback anonymously Since we assign points we ask students to share their name with us but we do not include any student names in the results document we share with students We think it is important for us to have student names for the occasional situation where we want to contact a person individually to work on a problem they expressed or a misconception they described in the survey However because we use Google Docs to administer the survey and do not make the first question about their name a required question students always have the ability to submit feedback about the course anonymously Consider Adding Points Decide whether or not you will assign points to the survey or not If you are making the surveys completely anonymous it is basically impossible to assign points unless you give everyone points regardless of whether they completed the survey or not If you are going to administer reflection surveys each weck or unit we highly recommend assigning points for the assignment because in our experience students take it more seriously and their
5. price educational use For the most part an operating system is an operating system Educators should not have to worty about the platform they use to run their applications In the case of Android Google makes it clear that the future does not belong to the iPhone the Blackberry or any other system The educational use of Android or mobile computing in general has yet to be realized However futurists predict that mobile computing whether with phones or tablets is one of the next big trends in education pros amp cons Every phone platform has its proponents and detractors As a Google phone system Android comes with built in integration with Google tools such as Gmail Google Maps and Google Docs However multiple versions of Android means that many phones aren t running the latest OS what s it cost New Android based phones typically run from 150 and up depending on the mobile carrier and phone contracts alternatives iOS Windows Phone 7 resources http www android com Ardour www ardour org A digital audio workstation what is it Ardour is a digital audio application that allows you to record edit and mix multi track audio You can produce your own CDs mix video soundtracks or just experiment with new ideas about music and sound Ardour s capabilities include multichannel recording non destructive editing with unlimited undo redo full automation support a powerful mixer unlimited tracks
6. to collaborate on diagrams together in real time Cacoo also offers users the ability to comment on diagrams and embed them in other blogs or websites educational use Cacoo can be used by faculty and or students to create graphical organizers and other types of diagrams or mind maps pros amp cons Perhaps the best part of Cacoo is how easy it is to create diagrams and mind maps as well as the ability to collaboratively create diagrams that then can be embedded into webpages what s it cost It s free to use But they also offer paid accounts with additional features alternatives Some alternatives are Mindmeister http www mindmeister com Microsoft Visio http office microsoft com en us visio Bubbl us http bubbl us DropMind http web dropmind com and Inspiration http www inspiration com resources Cacoo Video http vimeo com 7502521 149 Chrome www google com chrome Free lightweight and fast web browser what is it Chrome is a cross platform web browser developed and launched by Google in 2008 It has begun to set the benchmark for its speed in processing web pages and has been noted for its unique minimalistic interface A unique feature of Chrome is the omnibox The omnibox keeps the interface simple by merging the search box web bookmarks and history and address box into one educational use Google Chrome integrates well with web 2 0 apps like Delicious Picnik and Flic
7. tour 152 Doodle www doodle com Coordinate meetings with ease what is it Ever need to find the best day to schedule a meeting with a bunch of different people Need to decide where to go to lunch with a big group Want to make sure everyone doesn t bring meatloaf to the next potluck Doodle provides a simple tool for setting up polls that let people make selections and display the results back to the group educational use Whether coordinating meetings with faculty administrators or students it takes only a few minutes to set upa Doodle poll Email the poll link to the participants and they select the days that work for their schedule Once everyone has replied you simply look for the column total with the most available participants and select that day The same system would work for selecting what to bring to a group picnic to doling out topics to students Simply set up a poll and have participants reply They can type in what they will bring or the subject for a class report As new participants come to add to the poll they can see what has already been taken Fast flexible and free Doodle is an elegant solution to a tricky problem of coordinating groups pros amp cons Doodle works so well at what it does that eventually you will find you want it to do things that it doesn t But if you can deal with its straightforward approach to group polls then there s nothing not to like about this tool what s it
8. your movies what s it cost It s free to use but you do need to sign up for an account to make movies alternatives While there are a variety of animation tools nothing features the ease and quality of Xtranormal Voki is one possible alternative http www voki com resources Tutorials http www xtranormal com state_tutorials 168 Part 4 Resources 170 A Review of Selected Timeline Applications Patty Meek Capzles http www capzles com Capzels is a timeline like presentation of multimedia content It let s you create a timeline of floating photos like a photo documentary It doesn t appear to provide much space for text to describe the images There is potential for multiple but separate timelines It is free to use xtimeline http www xtimeline com Xtimeline is a straight forward web based timeline application It provides a single axis with years months etc It also provides the ability to layer events of a sort kind of like bullets overlapping It is free to use ReadeWriteeThink Interactive Timeline http www teadwritethink org files resources interactives timeline index html This is a basic timeline for younger students It enables students to type in as they go There is not currently a way to save them You can only print them TimeRime http www timerime com TimeRime is one of the more advanced timeline applications available You can overlap events
9. Chapter 21 Using Reflection Surveys to Improve Teaching and Learning Jackie Dobrovolny gt Patrick R Lowenthal Faculty are being held accountable these days for quality teaching student learning and student satisfaction like never before Lowenthal 2008 While research and publishing are in many ways still the sine qua non for faculty success and promotion as well as institutional prestige Boyer 1990 more emphasis is being placed on quality teaching these days Lowenthal 2008 At the University of Colorado Denver like many other institutions end of course student evaluations called FCQ s are one of and unfortunately more often than not the most often used method to assess how well individual faculty are teaching And while research suggests that these evaluations can be useful and even improve aspects of teaching if used in certain ways e g with a consultant or a peer McKeachie 1997 these evaluations often suffer from a number of weaknesses see McKeachie 1997 For instance researchers have expressed concern regarding how such things as class size grading leniency workload and even learning environment and delivery format influence these evaluations d Apollonia amp Abrami 1997 Greenwald amp Gillmore 1997 Kelly Ponton amp Rovai 2007 Marsh amp Roche 1997 While the average faculty member tends to be suspicious of their value these evaluations appear to do a decent job of measuring student satisf
10. Guide Want to know what s showing online Well checkout clicker com This meta guide for video on the Internet classifies shows into genres and provides an easy to use search engine Is last week s Nightline online Miss an episode of the Daily Show and want to see if it s posted Search clicker com get your answer and even watch the program on their site educational use Looking for some video about Frank Lloyd Wright A quick search reveals a Ken Burns produced PBS documentary Like to show some political commentary on the Obama presidency There are scores of videos available from both sides of the aisle Because the service indexes videos from free sources like Hulu as well as paid sources such as Netflix and Amazon it is easy to find out what s available to your students Clicker com makes finding video relevant to your courses a breeze pros amp cons Having a search engine focused on commercially produced video is a great boon to faculty looking for professional online video to assign to students Of course many times the search comes up blank Not everything you d like to watch is available online what s it cost The service is free But some movies that are indexed are from pay sources alternatives Google or Bing allow for searching of video assets resources About Clicker com http www clicker com about FAQ http www clicker com faq 151 Createdebate www createdebate com Organize onl
11. action Issues of selectively and inconsistently using these evaluations for tenure and promotion aside perhaps the biggest problem we find with these evaluations is that faculty often do not receive their end of course student evaluations for weeks if not months after the semester This is too late to fix any problems with the course in question Instead faculty have to wait to make adjustments to the course and their teaching strategies until the next time they teach the course in question In addition to this timing problem in our experience every group of students is slightly different So if we make revisions to the spring version of course B based on end of course student evaluations from the fall version of course B we may address a problem that does not exist We may also make a change that creates problems with this different group of students To address this problem we began using periodic reflection surveys in our courses We started using them a number of years ago in our face to face courses but over time we began using them in our online courses as well Basically we use these periodic reflection surveys to customize our courses to each group of students to help students link new information to their prior experiences and to encourage students to establish a reflective approach to their career In the following chapter we describe how we use reflection surveys some lessons we have learned and some tips for ways you can use ref
12. ages instead of just text what s it cost Free to use alternatives http www bing com visualsearch resources A helpful video demonstrating the application http www youtube com watch v Hhgfz0zPmH4 157 Google Sites sites google com A free and easy way to create and share webpages what is it Google Sites is a free website creation tool that enables users to create a website with a single click of amouse Webpages can be created from dozens of pre built templates Their website boasts that Google Sites is powerful enough for a company intranet yet simple enough for a family website Some of the features of Google Sites include the ability to easily use Google Analytics to track your sites statistics the ability to control who has access to your site and finally the ability to easily add other Google resources e g Google Calendar Google Docs and so on and widgets educational use Google Sites can be used to set up a course website as well as individual student websites or group projects But faculty could also use Google Sites to setup a personal website to promote their scholarship pros amp cons The greatest thing about Google Sites is how easy it is to create a website You can also set up your own domain for a small fee so that Google Sites essentially becomes the content management system of your personal website Some drawbacks to Google Sites are that you do not have full control to edit t
13. al Comics Unit 1 Reflection Survey Results Reflection Survey Figure 1 An example of a reflection survey The questions we include in the reflection surveys are different for each unit We typically include a few questions based on the unique discussions assignments and ot problems in the current unit However we also always include the following 138 question Additional comments questions concerns issues suggestions for improvement The answers to the questions we ask provide us with the data with which to improve the course and customize it to meet the needs of the students in the course Additionally we strive to make this a 360 degree feedback loop So after students answer the questions on each reflection survey we compile all of their answers anonymously to each question and respond to themes and patterns as well as individual answers We then post our responses to their feedback in the course shell for every student to read and comment on if they want see Figure 2 We have found this to be a very effective way to a be real with our students and have informal exchanges with them b elaborate on course topics c clarify misconceptions d calm fears and anxiety and e ask them for suggestions on what we can do to help them be successful in the course Unit 2 Dreamweaver Unit 1 Reflection Survey Results e00 Unit 1 Survey _Sept12_2011 docx 2 HB GD El me E Qaleri Document
14. and staff can utilize this as a teaching learning or research tool Gimp gives you all the benefits of an easy to use editing tool you can use to jazz up an image for a class project a course banner for an online course or simply your favorite family photo but also offers more advanced editing features pros amp cons This very powerful tool gives you all the benefits and features of a full packaged editing software for free From adding multiple layers visual effects palette selection this tool has become quite a popular tool even among professional users what s it cost Free to use alternatives A notable competitor of Gimp would be Adobe Photoshop due to its increase functionality resources User Manual http www gimp org docs Tutorials http www gimp org tutorials Google Calendar www google com calendar A free time management application what is it Google calender is a free application that allows users to create and share events with each other However you must have a Google account to use Google Calendar Since it is a web based application all events scheduled are stored online This enables you to access your calendar and events from any location You can also create customizable reminders so you will never miss an important event again educational use Faculty and students can easily schedule and monitor events with each other whether that be important classes guest lectures or even w
15. ay to rich cartoon animations Type in a script select characters choose settings camera angles motions and special effects Click the action button and Xtranormal does the rest Within minutes you can create humorous animations ready to embed in your online courses and other webpages educational use Faculty have found making an Xtranormal movie can help break up the dull text of an online course For instance you can cut and paste a course announcement into Xtranormal spend a few minutes customizing the movie and then embed the result in a course Now the What s new this week becomes a humorous monologue delivered by a robot superhero or even a stuffed animal Animate a course or section introduction complete with dance steps and bows Have students complete subject reports in the tool adding a little fun to a serious assignment Instructors using the tool report that students enjoy this break from the normal day to day of a course See Chapter 14 for more on how one faculty uses Xtranormal pros amp cons While the system is remarkably easy to use it does take some time to tweak videos to get them ready for prime time Also while the system offers a wide variety of customizations it is not sophisticated enough to actually model or otherwise act out instructional material Also be sure to preview your productions The system s text to speech conversion can sometimes create amusing and unexpected moments in
16. busses plugins timecode synchronization and hardware control educational use Ardour is a great tool to record and edit a lecture for class Students can also use Ardour tool to record themselves for a presentation or class assignment pros amp cons Ardour is currently only supported on OSX and Linux platforms what s it cost Ardour is free but donations are recommended alternatives Notable competitor s of Ardour are Audacity and Apple s GarageBand resources Ardour Support is located at http ardour org support 146 Aviary www aviaty com Edit images and audio online what is it According to its website Aviary is a suite of powerful creative applications that you can use right in your web browser From image editing to applying various effects to even editing audio Aviary is a great imaging and audio editing suite of applications educational use Aviary is so versatile that faculty students and staff can utilize this as a teaching learning and resource tool Whether you want to create a quick banner for your online course or create a simple audio announcement Aviary is the tool for you pros amp cons Aviary offers similar functionalities as other imaging and audio editing software but for free One possible drawback of Aviary is that it is a web based application and therefore you must have access to the Internet to use it what s it cost Aviary offers a free and a premium plan T
17. cost It s free to use but they now offer paid accounts with additional features as well alternatives When all participants are Exchange users the Outlook tools work well to coordinate meetings Google Forms works well when coordinating input from a group of people but it is not as effective at coordinating meetings Whenisgood net is another application for scheduling meetings resources About Doodle http www doodle com about about html 153 Dropbox www dropbox com Sync your files online and across your computers what is it Do you ever struggle managing files across multiple computers Well Dropbox might be the answer to your file management problems Dropbox is an online file storage application that synchronizes files across multiple computers So this is how it works Setup an account at www dropbox com and then download and install the Dropbox application on cach computer you regularly use From there all of the files placed in the Dropbox are automatically stored and synchronized online on Dropbox s secure server The files can then be accessed from any computer mobile device or even at the Dropbox website This gives you the ability to access the files you need at any time from any computer Say goodbye to thumb drives educational use Some educational benefits of Dropbox are that it enables faculty and students the ability to access their files whether the files are resources or assignments for a co
18. crosoft Office OpenOffice is a free alternative and can easily read documents created in Microsoft s suite pros amp cons The best part of OpenOffice is that it is free Another benefit of OpenOffice is that an average user would barely be able to tell the difference between many of OpenOffice applications and Microsoft s counterparts what s it cost Free to use alternatives There are several web based alternatives to Open Office including Google Docs http docs google com and Zoho http www zoho com resources Open Office Support http support openoffice org 163 Posterous posterous com Blogging as easy as emailing what is it Posterous is a blog but unlike other blogs Posterous enables you to post to your blog by email Simply send photos videos and files to post posterous com and you will instantly receive an email reply with the address to your new posterous blog educational use Posterous like any blog has a number of educational uses ranging from an casy way to self publish all the way to having your own class website Checkout the 2009 CU Online Handbook for other educational uses of blogs http www ucdenver edu academics CUOnline FacultyResources additionalResourc es Handbook Documents Chapter_6 pdf pros amp cons Though lacking several advanced features found on other blogging platforms Posterous is dead simple what s it cost It s free alternatives Po
19. e SlideShare enables you to simply add the embed code to each course you are teaching Second embedding a SlideShare presentation into your courses enables students to access a flash based version of your presentation which enables users regardless of operating system or presentation software to view the same presentation assuming they have the flash plug in installed in their browser Third by posting your course materials online you are able to contribute to the larger open education movement that aims to make educational materials open and available Finally posting your course materials online helps eliminate the need to make copies to lug to class and hand out pros amp cons The best things about Slideshare are the ability to store all your presentations in one location the ability for you or others to embed and distribute your presentations and the ability to make your work available to a larger audience e g you can track not only the total number of views but your presentations will also come up on a Google search what s it cost It s free to use but there is a paid version as well alternatives Some alternatives to SlideShare include Slideboom http www slideboom com SlideRocket http www sliderocket com and authorStream http www authorstream com to name a few resources SlideShare Quick Tour Summary of features amp capabilities http www slideshare net AmitRanjan quick tour Wordle w
20. ending their thoughts to the world on a full featured blog in minutes educational use WordPress like Posterous or any blog has a number of educational uses ranging from an easy way to self publish all the way to having your own class website Checkout the 2009 CU Online Handbook for other educational uses of blogs http www ucdenver edu academics CUOnline FacultyResoutces additionalResourc es Handbook Documents Chapter_6 pdf pros amp cons With more than 70 themes and several widgets for connecting things like Twitter Flickr and Delicious WordPress com makes it easy for users to create and customize their blog Its features are limited compared to the massive customizability of a self hosted version of WordPress what s it cost The basic service is free WordPress com offers additional features such as video custom CSS and ad removal are available for a fee alternatives Popular alternatives to are Blogger http www blogger com Live Journal http www livejournal com and Tumblr http www tumblr com resources WordPress com Support http en support wordpress com User Forum http en forums wordpress com 167 Xtranormal www xtranormal com Create cartoon animations what is it Xtranormal s tagline is Create movies in real time on your computer But the tagline fails to mention just how easy it is Xtranormal is an easy to use Web based tool that has you point and click your w
21. es to store data Flickr can easily store your images for example and Google Docs allows users to upload and store any document type What Mozy provides is a behind the scenes process that can quietly back up everything on your computer without any intervention on your part One important point Mozy files are backups If you delete a file on your computer Mozy deletes it from the backup Backups only mirror what s on your computer Also keep in mind that the initial backup can take hours if not days as gigabytes of data must transfer from your computer to the Mozy server what s it cost The service is free for 2GB of storage Currently Mozy offers two types of paid back up plans 50gb for 5 99 a month or 125gb for 9 99 a month alternatives Two alternatives to Mozy are Carbonite http www carbonite com and SOS Online Backup http www sosonlinebackup com resources For a review of several services see http www pcmag com article2 0 2817 2288745 00 asp 162 OpenOffice www openoffice org A free alternative to Microsoft Office what is it OpenOffice is an open source application suite of tools It has full featured set of office applications for creating word processing documents spreadsheets and presentations It is available for free and serves as a good alternative to popular applications like Microsoft s Word Excel and PowerPoint educational use For faculty and students that do not have access to Mi
22. he CSS and HTML on your web pages and there are storage limits what s it cost It s free to set up and use an individual account However there is also Premier Edition that companies can license alternatives Some alternatives are Weebly http www weebly com and Webs http www webs com resources Introduction to Google Sites http www youtube com watch v tkTGrOcFiz0 amp feature player_embedded 158 Google Voice www google com voice Enbance the capabilities of your phone what is it Google Voice is a telecommunications system that organizes user s phone numbers and voice mail into one manageable web interface Google Voice can answer forward screen record and transcribe phone calls Google Voice also offers users the option to choose a master phone number that can be set to ring their home work mobile or any other phone without revealing those numbers educational use Using your Google Voice master number on a syllabus is a great way to control when and what phones ring when your students call It also has full functioning voicemail that can be emailed to you as an audio file or a transcribed format pros amp cons Google Voice puts users in control of their phones It lets them decide when they want their home mobile office and other phones to ring Features allowing users to decide to answer or send a call to voicemail are great Users can also configure the system to filter phone
23. he Premium Pro Plan costs 24 99 per year alternatives Picnik http www picnik com is a notable competitor of Aviary however Picnik cannot edit audio or create vector based images resources Aviary Tutorials http aviary com tutorials http aviary com userwiki 147 Blabberize blabberize com Animate a picture with sound what is it Blabberize allows you to upload a photo add sound recorded message and then animate the mouth so that it appears that the image is talking educational use Blabberize is a fun tool that can be used as an ice breaker during the first week of class Students and faculty can select a picture of a person animal avatar or any other object with a mouth record a message and then Blabberize it that is make the mouth move in the picture to say a recorded message The topic could range from a favorite class most memorable teacher or a favorite color Blabberize could also be a fun way to provide a weekly overview in an online course pros amp cons The best thing about Blabberize is its overall simplicity and ease to use what s it cost Blabberize is free to use alternatives Notable competitors are Voki and Xtranormal resources 148 Cacoo cacoo com Collaboratively create diagrams online what is it Cacoo is a free online drawing tool People can create such things as mind maps site maps and network charts with Cacoo Cacoo offers multiple users the ability
24. hen certain assignments are due Google calendar can also be accessed on any smart phone thus making it more accessible than ever pros amp cons Google Calendar is free to use and has the ability to sync with other email applications such as Microsoft Outlook Apple iCal and Mozilla Sunbird Another benefit of using Google Calendar is that you can share your schedule with other Google Calendar users what s it cost Free to use alternatives A notable competitor is Windows Live Calendar resources Calendar Help http www google com support calendar hl en 156 Google Goggles www google com mobile goggles Visual searches on your mobile phone what is it Goggles turns Android based or iPhones into visual search engines Simply point your phone s camera at a book take a picture and Google will return search results based on the book title including online availability and reviews Goggles can also help identify landmarks works of art logos and business cards educational use The future looks bright for visual search Sending students to an art museum with a Goggles powered device can turn the trip into an active experience When looking at a painting they can easily find information about the work on the Web pros amp cons Even Google admits that Goggles is in its early stages The search often cannot recognize simple things But as the capability grows expect to see widespread use of search based on im
25. ine debates what is it Pick a question and choose two sides In a discussion forum like system participants debate the pros and cons of the question vote each others comments up and down and cast votes for the side that they think makes the most sense Visual and easy to use this website makes debating controversial subjects easy to start and simple to manage educational use While plenty of online discussion forum tools work well for stimulating conversation createdebate com s streamlined system helps visually demonstrate how sides present their cases keeps track of how the conversation is going and makes it easy to find out what a group of people think In the paid version instructors can also add grades to participation and manage classroom focused conversations pros amp cons The free version provides both public and private options Private options require that students create accounts and the instructor manually adds students to the debate Public debates are open to anyone on the site to view and participate While the paid version does not integrate with course management systems it does provide additional tools useful for managing class level debates what s it cost The basic service is free A 99 a year account allows an instructor to manage up to a 250 students in a debate community alternatives Any online discussion forum can be set up to facilitate debates resources http www createdebate com
26. kr as well as the Google suite of applications such as Docs Gmail and Blogger Chrome has a feature allowing users to open web pages in an incognito window This window displays web pages without saved cookies and login information as if the page was opened on a separate computer This feature can be used for testing applications and websites without being logged in pros amp cons Google Chrome is the highest performing web browser around and still manages to maintain a light footprint on your systems resources Its innovative interface and features will change the way you use the Internet Chrome is optimized for standards compliant websites and can perform poorly on nonstandard compliant learning management systems such as BlackBoard and eCollege what s it cost Free to use alternatives Alternative web browsers include Microsoft s Internet Explorer http www microsoft com nz windows internet explorer default aspx Mozilla Firefox http www mozilla com en US firefox firefox html Opera http www opera com and Apple s Safari http www apple com safari resources Chrome Introduction Comic http www google com googlebooks chrome index html Chrome Help Documentation http www google com support chrome hl en Chrome Introduction Video http www whatbrowser org en 150 Clicker www clicker com An online TV Guide for Web Video what is it Want to know what s on TV Look at the TV
27. lection surveys in your courses Background The focus of this chapter is on how reflection surveys can help faculty improve the instructional quality of their courses and meet the needs of their students The 137 research on the effectiveness of reflection as a learning strategy is expansive and consistent Fosnot 1996 argues that reflection is the driving force of learning Jonnasen and Reeves 1996 define reflection as deliberate and careful thinking that enables us to make sense of our experiences And Boud Keogh and Walker 1985 suggest that reflection is an interpretative process of abstracting meaning in an effort to understand reality While research argues for the importance of reflection in our experience most students need some structure and encouragement to engage in reflection and that is where reflection surveys come in Our students benefit from reflection surveys because many of the questions we ask require them to carefully think about their learning experiences how those experiences link to their prior experiences and what additional questions or concerns they have about the new information they are trying to learn Reflection surveys also help us For instance we as faculty benefit from reflection surveys in that they provide data with which to engage in continuous improvement perhaps even real time improvement Given these benefits we are now going to describe how we use reflection surveys in our courses H
28. lu com Self publish what is it Everything might be going digital but Lulu gives you the chance to turn your digital bits into hardcopy As a print on demand publisher Lulu lets you create and publish paperback and hardcover books in quantities from a single copy up to hundreds of books educational use From printing out course texts to publishing student work the possibilities seem limitless Special products such as picture books allow you to produce full color books that collect student work or other research material Many academic presses such as Carnegie Melon s etc press use Lulu to produce and publish their line of books In fact the CU Online Handbook was published on Lulu Students can publish hardbound portfolios in small quantities to share their work in a polished package Because you can print on demand it usually takes a week or two to get books you can easily share printed material in a professional format pros amp cons Even though Lulu makes it easy to publish books it still can take a lot of work Creating the content editing and content layout can take a significant amount of time For those who want to spend the money Lulu offers a variety of services to help expedite your publication An online store makes it easy to sell your final work Lulu lets you determine the mark up setting the price and the profit margin that works for you One subtle con Some people perceive on demand publicatio
29. major assignment What can we do to help How will you apply name of chapter or article to your professional life What did you learn from the name of assignment Concluding Thoughts We have been using reflection surveys in our online courses for a number of years now Asking students for their feedback then responding to their feedback and then sharing our responses to their feedback has been one of the single best things we have done in the courses we teach We highly recommend that you begin using them in some way in your online courses While they add a little work we are confident you won t be disappointed References Boud D Keogh R amp Walker D 1985 Promoting reflection in learning A model In D Boud R Keogh amp D Walker Eds Reflection Turning experience into learning New York Kogan Page Boyer E L 1990 Scholarship reconsidered Priorities of the professoriate New York John Wiley amp Sons d Apollonia S Abrami P C 1997 Navigating student ratings of instruction American Psychologist 52 11 1198 1208 Fosnot C T 1996 Constructivism A psychological theory of learning In C T Fosnot Ed Constructivism Theory perspectives and practice pp 8 33 New York Teachers College Press Greenwald A G amp Gillmore G M 1997 Grading leniency is a removable contaminant of student ratings American Psychologist 51 11 1209 1217 Jonassen D H amp Reeve
30. ns a lower quality form of publishing Of course in the end the quality of the content matters most what s it cost The cost of each book varies based on book size length binding style number of books ordered But in general prices are about 7 10 per book of average length alternatives Two alternatives are iUniverse http www iuniverse com and CafePress http www cafepress com resources http www lulu com en about demo php cid en_tab_demo 161 Mozy www mozy com Automated online backups what is it As computer hard drives have grown in size the amount of information we store on our machines grows From important documents emails and photos of our families our computer s storage is filled with stuff we don t want to lose Online backup services such as Mozy simplifies storage and backup of your desktop and laptop computers for a low monthly cost educational use Not sure where to keep years of research data articles and lecture material Setting up a Mozy account insures that in a worst case scenario e g an unrecoverable hard drive crash or the loss of a laptop computer that you do not lose all of your valuable files Encouraging students to back up their machines is a good practice as well Don t let your graduate students end up with a thesis or dissertation that disappears with a smoking computer pros amp cons With cloud computing becoming more popular there are a variety of plac
31. nt issues in online instruction is whether the instruction is group paced like the courses she and Patrick co teach or whether the instruction is self paced like the preceptor training course she recently developed for nurses in health care facilities throughout the US Patrick R Lowenthal is an Academic Technology Coordinator at CU Online at the University of Colorado Denver He is also a doctoral student studying instructional design and technology in the School of Education and Human Development His research interests focus on instructional communication with a specific focus on social and teaching presence He also has a MA in Instructional Design and Technology as well as a MA in the Academic Study of Religion 142 Part 3 Emerging Tools and Applications 144 Android www android com Free open source mobile platform what is it Mobile phones like computers run an operating system Android is Google s attempt to provide a powerful low cost mobile phone operating system that can compete with devices such as the Blackberry or the iPhone Unlike some of its competitors the Android operating system is open source which allows mobile phone companies to modify the system to their liking This means that there are many different versions of the Android OS Having an open source platform means that Android powered devices such as the Droid The My Touch and the Nexus One are available on a variety of carriers at a competitive
32. numbers allowing certain calls to ring to a selected phone or go to voicemail what s it cost Free to use Rates apply for international dialing alternatives VoxOx http www voxox com and 3Jam http 3jam com are two alternatives resources Google Help Support http www google com support voice bin topic pyPhl en amp topic 16497 Feature Videos http www youtube com googlevoice 159 Jolicloud www jolicloud com Linux based operating system for netbooks what is it Jolicloud is a linux based operating system design for netbooks It is a free application that allows users to run various web apps over the cloud network educational use As more universities around the world face budget cuts Jolicloud could be the solution to bring old computers back to life and save thousands of dollars Among other things running apps off the cloud can enable users to tap into web based resources thus allowing for a faster boot up and increased computer and network performance pros amp cons While cloud computing is still a relatively new concept storing apps and data on the cloud has huge advantages However at the same time many people are skeptical with storing personal information on the Web what s it cost Free to use alternatives Google Chrome OS another cloud based operation system is an alternative to Jolicloud resources Jolicloud Support http www jolicloud com support 160 Lulu www lu
33. ow We Use Reflection Surveys In our online courses we administer a four to six item reflection survey to our students at the end of each unit each unit is two weeks long See Figure 1 for an example of what one looks like While we currently use the Google Docs form tool which is shown below in Figure 1 to administer these surveys we have also used Surveymonkey in the past In fact essentially any survey tool could work In our case we strive to find a tool that is easy to use and enables students the option to provide anonymous feedback if they want We have experimented with making these reflection surveys optional as well as assigning points In our experience we get a much better response rate and therefore better data to improve our courses if we assign points for this assignment while at the same time giving students the ability to provide anonymous feedback Students in our courses currently earn 25 points for completing each survey Students have approximately three days to complete the survey once it is administered INTE 5670 Unit 2 Fall 2011 Reflection Survey Unit 2 Applicable objectives Questions 1 Your name in order to earn your 25 points for this reflection assignment Dreamweaver Basics CSS Basics LT amp ID videos 1 Small Group 2 What is your take away from this unit That is what important surprising or Discuss things did you learn over the past two weeks 2 Small Group Discuss Fun Instruction
34. post pictures and zoom into window to provide information about the pictures There is a fee to use TimeRime Dipity http www dipity com Dipity is another fully functioning interactive timeline application like TimeRime Dipity is free to try but you might shortly need to upgrade to a paid account According to its website users can create share embed and collaborate on interactive visually engaging timelines that integrate video audio images text links social media location and timestamps 171 172 Adobe Connect 2 13 33 51 82 83 84 85 122 123 124 125 Audacity 3 135 148 149 150 152 153 156 157 160 161 162 164 165 168 171 122 124 138 Blackboard 20 22 31 40 126 127 131 Blogger cocoooocccccnnnnonono 3 153 167 170 Blogging emmmoccccccnnnnnnnannnn 23 119 167 Blogs 2 23 116 118 134 collaborate uuusssnnsnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnns 1 Collaboration uuu0000000000000 51 75 CU Online 1 15 34 38 49 54 60 73 81 102 114 125 134 137 138 145 164 167 169 170 Design 6 7 15 38 69 72 73 112 114 137 145 DisCusSiONns cccssccesecceseceseceeees 6 eCollege 16 17 41 42 43 44 45 55 57 61 83 127 130 132 153 Facebook 20 22 23 35 37 102 103 109 113 130 Feedb ck suisenssreieeesssiuieis 51 63 64 Index Flickr 20 70 72 153 165 170 Google Docs 2 92 93 94 96
35. pular alternatives to posterous are Blogger http www blogger com Live Journal http www livejournal com WordPress http www wordpress com and Tumblr http www tumblr com resources FAQ http posterous com faq Tutorials http howdoi posterous com 164 SlideShare www slideshare net Upload and share presentations with the world what is it SlideShare according to their website is a business media site for sharing presentations documents and pdfs So what does that mean Well basically once you set up an account you can upload your PowerPoint presentations or documents and pdfs and share them with the world You can even upload and link slides with audio to create slidecasts as well as embed YouTube videos into presentations SlideShare also generates embed code which enable users to embed their own or others presentations documents or pdfs into web pages But SlideShare also has a vibrant professional community in which people download favorite comment and follow others in the community In many ways SlideShare is essentially YouTube for PowerPoint presentations documents and pdfs educational use SlideShare has a number of educational uses and benefits First it serves as one place for faculty and students to upload course materials So rather than uploading course materials each semester into each shell in your Learning Management System and as a result needlessly taking up server spac
36. s T C 1996 Learning with technology Using computers as cognitive tools In D H Jonassen Ed Handbook of research for educational communications and technology pp 693 719 New York Simon amp Schuster Macmillan Kelly H F Ponton M K amp Rovai A P 2007 Comparison of student evaluations of teaching between online and face to face courses Internet and Higher Education 10 89 101 Lowenthal P R 2008 Online faculty development and storytelling An unlikely solution to improving teacher quality Journal of Online Learning and Teaching 4 3 Retrieved from http jolt merlot org vol4no3 lowenthal_0908 pdf Marsh R W amp Roche L A 1997 Making students evaluations of teaching effectiveness effective The critical issues of validity bias and utility American Psychologist 52 11 1187 1197 McKeachie W J 1997 Student ratings The validity of use American Psychologist 52 11 1218 25 141 Bios Jackie Dobrovolny Ph D is currently a Clinical Professor teaching online graduate courses in the Information and Learning Technologies ILT program at the University of Colorado Denver UCD Her dissertation focused on how adults learn from online self paced instruction and she replicated her dissertation research methodology with the Mountain Plains Aids Education and Training Center MPAETC which is part of UCD She also taught online for Capella University Jackie thinks one of the importa
37. urse as well as an easy way to share large files e g large PowerPoint presentations or videos that cannot easily be emailed due to their size pros amp cons The best thing about Dropbox is how easy it works There are other alternatives out there but none of them seem to work as seamlessly across PC s and Mac s as Dropbox does Dropbox also keeps 30 days of history for all your files so you can essentially go back in time and undelete or undo changes to files Perhaps its biggest drawback is its pricing structure what s it cost The basic account is free and comes with 2gb of storage However if you want more storage than that you will need to sign up for either a Pro50 account which comes with 50gb of storage for 9 99 month or a Pro100 account which comes with 100gb of storage for 19 99 month alternatives There are a number of alternatives to Dropbox Some alternatives include Skydrive http skydrive live com box http boxnet and SpikerOak http spideroak com resources Dropbox Tour http www dropbox com tour 154 Gimp www gimp org Manipulate images for free what is it Gimp is an open soutce free image manipulation program Its primary purpose is to retouch and edit images Gimp can also be used to create basic animated images and offers many of the same features as higher end software such as Photoshop educational use Since Gimp can be run on multi platforms faculty students
38. ww wordle net Create word clouds with ease what is it Wordle according to its website is a toy for generating word clouds from text you provide This simple to use application enables users to visually depict a cloud of words with its association educational use There are a number of educational uses of wordle ranging from visually displaying data from a research project to having students brainstorm to adding exciting diagrams like text based concept maps to your online course or PowerPoint presentations But if you want to read about some exciting uses of Wordle check out Joni Dunlap s chapter on Wordle in 2009 CU Online Handbook http www ucdenver edu academics CUOnline FacultyResoutces additionalResources Handbook Documents Chapter_10 pdf pros amp cons Wordle is free and easy to use Perhaps the only drawbacks to wordle are limitations with saving editing and sharing Wordle word clouds Another drawback could be the overuse of word clouds could begin to bore students overtime what s it cost Free to use alternatives WordItOut http worditout com and Tagul http tagul com are two alternatives to Wordle resources Wordle Tutorial http www youtube com watch v xhL5D9nz5al 166 WordPress wordpress com Start a Blog what is it WordPress com is a service that provides users with blogging tools utilizing the WordPress blog platform After a quick registration process one can be s
39. y to tell the 3 story 3 Digital Stories are extremely effective in communicating a message enjoyed looking at all of my classmates gt and falt like learned something about each of them Given the nature of my EdWeb yes certainly think can use a digital story as a way to provide an example of the type of storytelling imaging we re trying to get our associates to use Jackie and Patrick Great to hear Can t wait to see how you might do this Figure 2 An example of a reflection survey results document with our responses posted as an attachment in a threaded discussion Another benefit of these end of unit reflection surveys is that students tell us that they get a sense of community and camaraderie in reading the results of the reflection surveys In other words the reflection survey results documents seem to help students feel that they are a part of a group or community of learners 139 Tips on Using Reflection Surveys 140 So based on our experience using reflection surveys we recommend the following Identify Timing of Surveys Ahead of Time If possible decide how often and therefore how many reflection surveys you want to administer during a given semester While we administer surveys every unit you might decide to administer yours only 2 3 times during a semester Identify Purpose of Surveys Identify the focus of your reflection surveys In other words do you simply want to check in to sce if students are
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