Continuing the ONL 191 Group 12 Exploration into Community and Communication

Online learning communities need to communicate and today I am going to invite the reader on a short tour of some of the important findings that our Group and our ONL 191 community have uncovered in our journey so far. Research into what contributes to successful online courses typically include a discussion on two important characteristics: Establishing a community and effective communication that engages the students. Strang [1] introduces a collection of common methods that support communication within online course communities - the top two being:

• Discussion-board questions with required responses
• All members of the community (teachers and students) post introductions on the discussion board

Other examples are illustrated in the survey below [1]:

Interviews with the survey respondents also revealed a recommendation for instructors to form a support group that meets at least once a week where ideas and experiences can be shared and questions answered. Building on this introduction, I found an interesting discussion on what makes for a successful online course in a paper investigating successful online courses in California community colleges.

In their paper on Successful Online Courses in California's Community Colleges, Johnson et. al. ask "What is it that makes a a few online courses successful when most are not?" [2] To answer this question, the authors first provide a definition for success: "We define an online course as highly successful if at least 70 percent of its students earn a passing grade, and if student performance is at least as good as in traditional versions of the same course. Another key element in our definition of course success is whether students in an online course continue to do well in subsequent courses (either online or traditional) in the same subject. By all these standards, only about 11 percent of online courses in the 2013–14 academic year were highly successful." [2] Important findings include:

• The need to provide training and support to teachers on developing online courses - to get full benefit from the tools, teachers must be trained and supported
• Mentoring students not just on the course material but on using the online tools - additional benefit can be derived by using online learning management systems that provide feedback on student performance (both to the student and to the instructor), which allows intervention to help students that are having a harder time
• Facilitating communication in an online setting by using forums, chat rooms, and face-to-face meeting technology is important
• Providing rapid feedback to student work - the authors provide examples in which the success rate of online courses exceeded the success rate of traditional courses because of the immediate feedback that students received from the online course
• Students can often provide better answers to other student's questions in community discussions and activities

In the Topic 3 discussions and examples, mentoring and coaching were not addressed; however, the authors in this paper note that mentoring is a critical success factor in teaching online courses. The authors then go into describing the two models used in developing online courses: The Individual Model and the System Model as summarized below:

• The individual model is rooted in the academic tradition of giving faculty members substantial autonomy in course development. It offers greater flexibility and speed, but requires an instructor to take on the roles of subject matter expert, course designer, media developer, and—sometimes—programmer. The instructor is also the course advocate in the process of gaining distance-education course approval. Under the individual model, online course development typically does not start from scratch. Instead, faculty members design and develop courses based on what has worked for them in traditional classrooms. Learning materials from these classrooms are repurposed for online use. For a course to succeed, the instructor must know how to use the online platform effectively, and traditional course content must be adaptable to the new medium (Hawkes and Coldeway 2002). [2]
• The systems model can better maximize the potential of the online medium. In this model, teams develop courses. An instructional designer takes the lead managerial role. The faculty member, acting as a subject expert, collaborates with a media developer, programmer,  and instructional designer. The model’s main advantage is the access to a variety of skills that no single person is likely to have (Oblinger and Hawkins 2006). The combination of project management practices and instructional design theory leads to greater course consistency and quality (Chapman and Nocolet 2003). [2]

Between these two models, the authors advocate the System Model based on their research findings that the System Model offers the most reliable and consistent approach to developing online courses - they counter the argument that the increase in investment and required costs are offset by greater quality and better student results. They also point out that it is easier to support a teacher with specialists than it is to train a teacher to be a master of all the skills required to develop a successful online course.

One of the key elements for success in education relies on effective communication and technology that engages the student. Taking PowerPoint as an example, James Thomas [3] illustrates the importance of communication on his April 15th (2019) blog where he discusses the often misused PowerPoint application. He points out that reading PowerPoint slides to students is not teaching and having students read PowerPoint slides is not learning. He also points out that the common phrase "death by PowerPoint" can be literal as illustrated in the two short excerpts and PowerPoint slide that contributed to the deaths of seven people.

Mr. Thomas wrote "As an educator I push against ‘death by PowerPoint’ and I'm fascinated with how we can improve the way we present and teach.  The fact is we know that PowerPoint kills.  Most often the only victims are our audience’s inspiration and interest.  This, however, is the story of a PowerPoint slide that actually helped kill seven people."

After discussing the case in detail, Mr. Thomas concludes "The salient point was whilst there was data showing that the tiles on the shuttle wing could tolerate being hit by the foam this was based on test conditions using foam more than 600 times smaller than that that had struck Columbia.  This is the slide the engineers chose to illustrate this point:" [3]

Mr. Thomas then summarizes the following six problems with the slide presented by Boeing engineers to NASA:

• Confusing heading (is there a problem or not?)
• Numerous facts presented with no explanation of relevance or importance
• Most important points were buried at the least significant levels (four levels of indentation)
• Use of general terminology that left the reader to come up with an interpretation (qualitative instead of quantitative descriptors)
• Too much text for the reader to wade through
• The most important message - that the "flight condition is significantly outside the test database" - is not explicitly stated (That the test used a sample insulation size of 3 cu Ln versus the 1920 cu Ln actual size of insulation that hit the shuttle wing - a 640 times difference in scale (1920  ÷ 3 = 640)

This image of the STS-107 shuttle Columbia crew in orbit was recovered from wreckage inside an undeveloped film canister. From left (bottom row): Kalpana Chawla, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon. From left (top row): David Brown, William McCool and Michael Anderson.(Image: © NASA/JSC)

Because of poor communication in the slide, NASA chose to allow the space shuttle to go ahead with its scheduled landing - instead of taking other options available that would have prevented a disaster. This points out that technology on its own is not sufficient - people need to invest in communicating effectively - in other words, keep the discussion pithy - short and to the point. And when there is something critical or important to convey - state it in a simple and obvious manner.

I highly recommend the following three articles from which I took my inspiration for this blog - each delves into their respective subject areas in more detail and offer valuable insights on establishing online communities that communicate effectively.

[1] Strang, T. Tools and Methods for Building Community in Online Courses (Blog). CENGAG. URL: https://blog.cengage.com/tools-methods-build-community-in-online-courses/

[2] Johnson, H., Cuellar, M., and Cook, K. Successful Online Courses in California's Community Colleges. Public Policy Institute of California. 2015 June, URL: https://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/report/R_615HJR.pdf

[3] Thomas, J. Death by PowerPoint: The Slide That Killed Seven People (Blog). McDreemie-Musings. 2019 April 15. URL: https://mcdreeamiemusings.com/new-blog/2019/4/13/gsux1h6bnt8lqjd7w2t2mtvfg81uhx

Practical implications of open learning

Open learning presents a myriad of implications for both institutions and educators, which were investigated and mapped by ONL191 Group 12 in the Coggle diagram below.

Coggle Diagram

From the scenario:

I’m interested in opening up some of my courses and sharing the resources in a responsible way, but I don’t really know where to start. What options are there for offering courses that are open? How do I get support from my colleagues and how do I introduce the idea to my students? What are the opportunities and dangers of “going open”?

Our group explored the theme Practical Implications of Open Learning, which lead, in turn to three sub-themes:

• Techniques for Structure and Discipline to Assist
• Institutional Impact of Open Learning
• Institutional Support

The transition to adopt Open Learning poses both institutions and educators new issues and consequences that need consideration...

A good learning program does not exist within a vacuum - it requires institutional and educator investment to ensure quality. Open Learning platforms need to be developed and maintained, instructors need to be trained and supported, students need to be engaged, and investment in Open Learning needs to derive value. Increasingly, privacy and ethics are also becoming significant factors impacting Internet services - including Open Learning.

In our group's Journey in answering these questions, discussing our collective experiences, and trying out new tools, we note the many advancements and tools that are available today with more coming... for new entrants, there is a lot to learn, but the goals of Open Learning still lie close to the core of education - to engage the student and to impart knowledge.

Important concerns raised by our group include:

• Open Learning exposes both the institution and the educator to public scrutiny - this is an important consideration from both a reputation and transparency perspective and when the quality and student experience is good, the impact to both is positive.
• High course quality can generate interest in other courses.
• Using technology that promotes student interaction and engagement adds value to the educational experience and improves student retention.
• Open Learning can help close social gaps by making quality education available to more people in more places.

Traditional options for online learning focus on learning management systems - but there are new tools emerging that offer more opportunities for engaging students. Most offer free trial opportunities that allow educators to try out and experiment with. Institutions can offer training and seminars to help educators learn about and how to use technology in online learning. Instructors can both attend and put on workshops to share knowledge and experience, and to investigate new tools and techniques. Finally, students can be encouraged to use the tools and to get more engaged in the learning process.

Openness in Education - Ideals and Challenges

Advances in web technology increasingly enable the classroom in terms of creating a more interesting and engaging environment. The challenge is how to take a product "off-the-shelf" and turn into something that both instructors and students like to use. Many institutions take a formal approach to eLearning by providing IT support and training. As eLearning has advanced from a classroom perspective, there have been an increasing movement towards more open education. In Europe, GDPR has brought an important aspect on privacy in the classroom - but there are other ethical points that also need to be addressed: Do instructors want their material open to everyone? Do students want their work open to everyone else in the course - or everyone who wants to browse the open content.

As a consequence of ethical considerations and regulations on privacy, it is becoming increasing important to engage with both instructors and students regarding how they participate in open learning. For the current ONL191 topic on open learning, our group is investigating two areas of concern:

1. Practical implications of open learning
2. Advantages and disadvantages of open learning

I will be joining the team that is working on practical implications and I have already been looking at regulatory and ethical aspects; however, I am also interested in understanding the thoughts that both instructors and students have towards participation in open learning.

The continuum of life in the web

This week's discussions focused on how we, as a society, perceive web literacy. A short recap is in order to help understand my thoughts on this...

An older view of looking at online technology literacy compares "natives" - those who grew up with technology and engage with it versus those that are older and engage less.

An alternative proposal is to view online technology literacy as a continuum with two axes using a compass as an example with West-East representing Visitor-Resident and North-South  representing Personal-Institutional.

Visitors approach online technology and the web from the context of a toolbox where a tool is used to achieve a specific task or outcome such as using a search engine or Wikipedia on a research paper. In this context, a Visitor does not leave any trace of them self on the web.

Residents approach online technology and the web as a "habitation" where they create and establish a persistent presence - blogs, social networking sites, and leaving comments on blogs and social media are examples. In this context, a Resident leaves a trace of them self on the web.

The Personal-Institutional continuum comes into play as people "filter" or "assume a persona" on the web - for example, a professional wants to establish and maintain credibility so they will filter and control what they say and do. In contrast, a people interacting with friends and family within a closed or more private setting will tend to much more informal.

To get more information, visit the video at: http://youtu.be/sPOG3iThmRI

My thoughts gravitate more towards the alternative proposal of the two continua. Before the Web, there were many online communities accessible via dial-up modems (a few examples in the US include CompuServe, AOL, and Prodigy). Later, as the web evolved, more feature rich services replaced earlier types of social media. As bandwidth and technology matured, more people engaged with online technologies. Many of the people using these earlier sites were older and had not grown up with technology - the attraction was to stay in touch with family and friends, re-establish ties with friends and family, and to meet new people with similar interests. As technology itself has become easier to use, bandwidth has increased, and the Web has become more pervasive geographically, more people are connecting, which I feel is also an important factor in people adopting and engaging with the Web.

The first week, the first foray into new types of media... As our group introduction, we decided on Padlet (ONL191 Group 12) as the media with which to introduce our group to the ONL191 community. Here, each of our group members introduces themselves and, for those that have relevant skills, any special skills that can help out the group. I am looking forward to the coming weeks to explore new ideas and technologies.

In the Beginning...

This is my first post for ONL191 and my first foray into the world of Blogging... Nothing better to incentivize oneself than to seek further knowledge, which is why I enrolled in ONL191. I am an institutional learner from Stockholm University here in Sweden at DSV. I am looking forward to exploring PBL as a learning tool and to get to know more about the members of the ONL191 community.