Self-paced vs. group-paced courses

Hi!

I was searching about these theme and i found something that i consider interesting in one article written by T. Grandon Gill and Carolyn F. Holton from University of Florida, USA.

" To address these challenges, the course utilizes a self-paced format. Making the self-paced format work required three systems: 1) Content delivery: extensive multimedia aids and web content to support textual materials and to substitute for classroom lectures, 2) Peer support: peer-tutoring and assignment validation, drawing from approaches used in nuclear submarine training that provide flexibility and enhance rigor, 3) Progress monitoring: an administrative information system, used to track student progress and provide students with weekly reports."

"Confronted with such diversity of background and motivation, there seem to be three generic strategies that an instructor or department might pursue."

"The first involves teaching the course at a fast pace, and accepting the fact that DWF (D-grades, withdrawals and failures) rates will be high—often as high as 50%. The second strategy involves slowing the course to the point where even ill-prepared or unmotivated students can keep up—typically by reducing the amount of material covered. The third approach is to partition the course into cohorts that proceed at different paces, sometimes accomplished by establishing different tracks within a program."

..."the third strategy involves designing a course in such a manner that each student is allowed to proceed at his or her own pace."

"Doing so allows well-prepared students to forge ahead quickly, while students with little or no background can take the time necessary to master the fundamentals. This strategy is the selfpaced approach."

"There does not seem to be any evidence of self-paced approaches built around more traditional approaches to teaching programming, such as the use of lectures and group projects."

Link:http://informingscience.org/jite/documents/Vol5/v5p095-105Gill114.pdf

Sorry about my english,

Telma Jesus

Unit4- Annotated Bibliography

In the Annotated Bibliography for the final Unit (Unit 4), i decided to organize all the AB that i have wrote for the other Units and i will start once again with the questions that i am trying to answer. This way i will have done the tasks: compiling, refining and expanding the three annotated bibliographies that i have written so far for this course. I will also put at the end of each AB the reference to the articles that i used.

For the first Unit, the 3 questions were:
1.How much freedom should online students have?
2.Is online collaboration really worth or just a waste of time?
3.How can we facilitate cooperation in paced and unpaced learning environments?

For the Second Unit, the 3 questions were:
1.Which online teaching techniques do you prefer?
2.What are the implications of using individual and group assignments in online education?
3.How can we secure a reasonable workload for online teachers?

And finally for the third Unit, the 3 questions were:
1.How much transparency should we allow in online education?
2.What are the implications of transparency in online education?
3.What are the pros and cons of global student catalogues?

The answer to all these questions resumes all the content that was taught in this class. So I will take some of the already written AB, change some that i consider that need to be refined and introduce new articles if some subject wasn´t approached and i will take also in consider the comments and feedback that were made by Professor Morten.
The first i consider important to stablish the difference between Cooperative Learning and Cooperative Learning. In the article written by Ted Panitz, "A Definition of Collaborative VS Cooperative Learning", in 1996, I considered this article so important that i copied it all and put it in the my first post. It helps us to distinguish between collaborative learning and cooperative learning. It points out the main aspects of each type of learning. Collaborative learning people must join a group and as a group member must contribute to the development of a specific work. people must work together. Everyone is responsible for the work that is developed. This is a student centred learning. Has a qualitative approach. In Cooperative Learning, people work and interact for a specific goal. It is applied a quantitative method. It is a teacher centred learning and each teacher must design the cooperative activities.

Panitz, Ted, 1996, " A Definition of Collaborative vs Cooperative Learning"
http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/deliberations/collaborative-learning/panitz-paper.cfm,
accessed in 20 October 2009 (3 pages)
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Cooperative Freedom
First, i noted that Professor Morten Flate Paulsen is the driving force behind the theory of Cooperative Freedom. He is professor of online education and he is in Portugal for his sabbatical and working with us in Universidade Aberta.
Whenever we talk about distance learning or cooperative learning, arises the teacher's name Morten Flate Paulsen.
Issues such as Cooperative Freedom, Flexibility, Cooperative Learning, Online Learning, Online Education, Learning Freedom and Distance Learning can be found in this work.
There are also some of his works translated to Portuguese: Relatório do Estado da Arte: Qualidade do E-learning para PMEs Europeias - uma Análise de Experiências de E-Learning em Pequenas e Médias Empresas and CLIPs e outros instrumentos de apoio à aprendizagem cooperativa realizada em ambientes virtuais.

Paulsen, Morten Flate, 11 September 2008, "Personal Presentation"
http://home.nki.no/morten/index.php/english-menu/personal-presentation.html
accessed in 20 October 2009 (1 page)
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Cooperative Learning
I found several information about Cooperative learning in this site: Informations like What is it?; Why use it?, How does it work?,What are some examples of specific programs?, What else does it do?, What else does the research say?

Balkcom,Stephen, June 1992, " Office of Research Education CONSUMER GUIDE"
http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/OR/ConsumerGuides/cooplear.html
accessed in 22 October 2009 (1 page)

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Self-paced vs. group-paced courses

I was searching about these theme and i found something that i consider interesting in one article written by T. Grandon Gill and Carolyn F. Holton from University of Florida, USA.

" To address these challenges, the course utilizes a self-paced format. Making the self-paced format work required three systems: 1) Content delivery: extensive multimedia aids and web content to support textual materials and to substitute for classroom lectures, 2) Peer support: peer-tutoring and assignment validation, drawing from approaches used in nuclear submarine training that provide flexibility and enhance rigor, 3) Progress monitoring: an administrative information system, used to track student progress and provide students with weekly reports."

"Confronted with such diversity of background and motivation, there seem to be three generic strategies that an instructor or department might pursue."

"The first involves teaching the course at a fast pace, and accepting the fact that DWF (D-grades, withdrawals and failures) rates will be high—often as high as 50%. The second strategy involves slowing the course to the point where even ill-prepared or unmotivated students can keep up—typically by reducing the amount of material covered. The third approach is to partition the course into cohorts that proceed at different paces, sometimes accomplished by establishing different tracks within a program."

..."the third strategy involves designing a course in such a manner that each student is allowed to proceed at his or her own pace."

"Doing so allows well-prepared students to forge ahead quickly, while students with little or no background can take the time necessary to master the fundamentals. This strategy is the selfpaced approach."

"There does not seem to be any evidence of self-paced approaches built around more traditional approaches to teaching programming, such as the use of lectures and group projects."

Gill, T. Grandon and Holton, Carolyn F.,2006 ,"A Self-Paced Introductory Programming Course"
http://informingscience.org/jite/documents/Vol5/v5p095-105Gill114.pdf
accessed in 26 October 2009 (11 pages)
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Teaching with Technology-Distance Learning
I found this article that focuses some aspects about distance Learning that i consider very important.
It refers to aspects like: is the distance learning only a target for working adult students;Is a course that uses media richer and more understandable; Is it better to work self-paced in one assyncronous way; Can technology help to promote interaction with all the intervenients(teacher and students); Sould the student work his way.( James G. Lengel, Hunter College, CUNY, 11/20/08)

Lengel, Jim, 20/11/2008, " Teaching with technlogy- Learning Online" Hunter College and Boston University,
http://www.powertolearn.com/articles/teaching_with_technology/article.shtml?ID=97
accessed in 23 October 2009 (2 pages)
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Teaching with Technology-Downloadable eTexts!
...
"Does talking about etexts limit our ideas of what online learning might be? It's not just traditional book content that we want our students to access, it’s course content with all those supplementary and enrichment materials—videos, educational games, audio segments, panoramic scenes, teaming projects, 3D animations, and immersion into online environments with students throughout the world—content and ideas that could whisk our students off into their own learning place. Master teachers are doing this on their own today with the resources they find online, but gathering dynamic course-related resources and making connections for interactive learning is a daunting task 180 days a year for five different class sections and in many cases, several different courses.
My ideal online book company or whatever we might call it, would not only have what teachers and students need in easy-to-access format, it would allow teachers, together with their students, to select what will work for their learning in their courses, therefore eliminating what they would not use. Teachers and students would be creating their own "learning centers,"centers students would want to and need to enter. I can see it now, and I know it will come. We just need to figure out how to get there.
My ideal online book company or whatever we might call it, would not only have what teachers and students need in easy-to-access format, it would allow teachers, together with their students, to select what will work for their learning in their courses, therefore eliminating what they would not use. Teachers and students would be creating their own "learning centers,"centers students would want to and need to enter. I can see it now, and I know it will come. We just need to figure out how to get there."(Marsh,Merle;May, 2009)


Marsh,Dr. Merle, 05/13/09, "Downloadable eTexts!"
http://www.powertolearn.com/articles/teaching_with_technology/article.shtml?ID=111
accessed in 23 October 2009 (1 page)
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Teaching with Technology- Learning Online

I found this article very interesting and similar to what happens in Portugal.
First the teachers have to use as a resource LMS like Moodle, then plan one course where we can find all the materials needed for the course, like, ebooks, etexts, and all the library the teacher thinks it's needed for the discipline.
We don't need any paper or pencils. In High School in Portugal most of the teachers also use Moodle as a resource in their classroom, but not only in the Classroom, also as a distance learning component.
Our student's can work at home, classes or anywhere at anytime they want.
The plan for each online course must be well prepared and the teacher will spend much in the begining, before using it.
The quality of the content and material used in each online course must be diversified, carefully and richly.
Here are some rich aspects that i found in these article.
..."Students expect readings, assignments, and quizzes they see on the computer to be better thought out than what they see in the classroom."
" when students confront your teaching material online, you are not there in person to explain it, or provide further details: the document they see must cover all bases. Each piece of content posted online must be self-contained and self-explanatory, so that students know exactly what they are supposed to do and have all the support they need to do it."(Lengel,2008)
"It's not what you do, it's what they do. In the classroom the teacher is at the center; students focus on the professor; it's what the faculty member does that makes the difference. Not so with online work. The only thing you get to do is prepare the content and pose the assignments; from then on, learning is dependent on what the students do. So the key to successful online courses is to craft a set of activities for the students to do: read this, look at that, ask yourself this, write that, discuss all of it together with your classmates. The clearer and more active the assignments, the more likely your students are to follow the course of study."
"The teachers in the new start-up high school are learning to structure their courses for an online environment. They are now thinking of each course as a sequence of activities that students go through as they learn the material. "
"Collaborative work. Contacting and conversing with classmates online to create a short presentation of ideas. "
The learning sequence:
Pre-assessment. A short, two- or three-question self-correcting quiz to see what he already knows (and doesn't know) about the subject.
Close reading. A serious and detailed look at the key concept, often guided by an essential question.
Written response. An opportunity for the student to summarize the key idea in her own words, and get online feedback from the teacher.
Wide browsing. Moving beyond the text to explore numerous (and perhaps conflicting) online sources about the concept.
Discussion contribution. Responding publicly in writing to the questions posed by the teacher and commenting on the contributions of classmates.
Collaborative work. Contacting and conversing with classmates online to create a short presentation of ideas.
Capstone project. Putting all that you have learned about this concept into a paper of presentation, and submitting it online.

As online learning grows, we will all learn more about what works best. But by following the guidelines above, you have a better chance to develop an effective course of study."(Jim Lengel, Hunter College and Boston University, 09/22/2008)

Lengel,Jim, 09/22/2008, " Learning Online", Hunter College and Boston University,
http://www.powertolearn.com/articles/teaching_with_technology/article.shtml?ID=88
accessed in 23 October 2009 (1 page)
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This annotated bibliography will respond to the questions raised by the professor. I’ll use different articles to answer to the following questions:
1. Which online teaching techniques do you prefer?
2. What are the implications of using individual and group assignments in online education?
3. How can we secure a reasonable workload for online teachers?

From the several Online learning techniques refereed by Paulsen, I prefer starting with a Learning contract, a technique that is considered to be used to individualize the learning process, by making an agreement that details what’s going to be learned, the objectives, competencies, the course contents, the work methodology, the resources and all the required readings, the learning environment that’s going to be used, assessment and the timeline that shows the temporal distribution of all activities.
Another teaching technique that I found important in teaching online is the Debate, consisting of as “Seaman and Fellenz (1989, 65) wrote: “A debate is a structured discussion during which two sides of an issue are presented and argued by two or more individuals within a given time period.”
Knox (1987, 88) offered another explanation: “Similar to a lecture or panel, but two or four debaters argue two sides of an important issue to clarify differences and related reasoning… Clark (1992a, 58) offered these guidelines for an electronic debate with regard to participation, preparation, coordination, and evaluation:
▪ Participation. A debate could engage two classes that agree to participate actively, two teachers who know how to telecompute, one impartial coordinator who knows how to telecompute, an experienced debater to help students learn the process, and two or more evaluators familiar with the proposition.
▪ Preparation. Give the coordinator a list of curriculum-related issues, become familiar with the evaluation criteria, and decide whether a winner will be declared. Set up speech deadlines within a four-week framework, and agree on a maximum word length for each speech. Organize classes into teams by role or by speech, and have groups research both sides of a proposition
▪ Coordination. The coordinator should formulate and announce the proposition, randomly assign groups to affirmative or negative, and channel speeches between the two sides. Further, the coordinator should mediate the debate, keep team identities secret until after the last speech is sent, and enlist evaluators and manage the evaluation process.
▪ Evaluation. After the debate, feedback from the evaluators could be discussed and students could exchange comments on the issue and process. “

Another teaching technique that I prefer is Role-plays that is “according to Rothwell and Kazanas, role-play is “a range of methods in which trainees put themselves in dramatic situations and act out scenes like actors in a play.... There are essentially two kinds of role-play: structured and spontaneous.... Structured role-play is based on a case study.... Spontaneous role-plays are based on momentary experiences.”
Another one is Discussion, where discussion groups may be implemented as buzz groups, subgroup discussions, expanding groups, and colloquies.
Buzz groups are “small clusters of learners who are temporarily grouped together for a short period to address a topic presented by a facilitator.” (Seaman and Fellenz 1989, 131)
Forums is another teaching technique that “can be defined as “an open discussion carried on by one or more resource persons and an entire group. It is used when large groups of twenty-five persons or more meet for the purpose of diffusion of knowledge, information, or opinion. The forum tends to be semiformal in nature and is directed by a moderator. The moderator is responsible for guiding discussion during which the audience is encouraged to raise and discuss issues, make comments, offer information, or ask questions of the resource person(s) and each other.”
Harisim, phrased some teaching techniques and I selected the ones that I consider importants :”
▪ Small group discussions. In small group discussions, three to ten users discuss a particular topic, usually guided by an instructor or a group leader. The discussion often follows a seminar discussion or a plenary discussion. It may also complement a parallel face-to- face or online activity.
▪ Learning partnerships and dyads. In learning partnerships and dyads, learners are paired for mutual support and group work. These techniques can serve as icebreakers in early phases of online classes and they are also useful for joint writing projects.
▪ Small working groups. Small working groups can facilitate collaborative work. Student groups can, for example, solve problems, undertake research projects, and write reports. Effective groups, though, require clearly defined tasks, roles, and timeliness.
▪ 6. Simulations or role-plays. Simulations and role-plays allow students to apply and test theoretical knowledge in a simulated environment. Examples of successful role-plays in online environments.In the evaluation manor, learners assume the perspectives of various evaluators to debate evaluation procedures and approaches.
▪ Debating teams. In debating teams, learners have the opportunity to improve their analytical and communication skills by formulating ideas, defending positions, and critiquing counter positions.
▪ Peer learning groups. In peer learning groups, learners assist one another with writing assignments, problem solving, etc. Students may, for example, collaborate online to improve their writing skills.
▪ Informal socializing: the online cafe. Since social communication is an essential compo- nent of educational activity, online educational environments should provide opportuni- ties for informal discourse. An online cafe can contribute to a sense of community among the users, forging a social bond that may offer motivational and cognitive benefits.
▪ Mutual assistance for help. Valuable online support, based on mutual assistance, can be organized in an online conference where students can ask one another for help. Such a conference may be especially useful with regard to technical problems and system support.
▪ Access to additional educational resources. Additional online resources for educational use include international networks, databases, library catalogues, and information pools. To benefit the curriculum, these resources could be an integral part of the online activities.”

The Teaching Techniques Discussed by Rekkedal and Paulsen were:"
1. Distribution of information. Distance teaching systems need to increase the efficiency of distributing and updating information to students, faculty, and staff. Computer con- ferencing can, for example, be used for distribution of updated learning materials and information about courses, seminars, examinations, and student activities.

2. Two-way communication between student, tutor and staff. In most distance teaching sys- tems, submission of assignments for correction, evaluation, and feedback is important. Research shows that extended turnaround times may have destructive effects on course completion. It often takes too long for students to get help when they encounter prob- lems in their studies. To some extent, telephone support has been used in these situa- tions, but computer conferencing systems function more conveniently. Students may, for example, ask questions at any time, without the time delay of land mail. Draft solutions may be discussed, introducing a more flexible organization of tutoring and assessment. Student answers may be made available to other students, before or after submission deadline. Computer-scored tests can also be included in online systems, as a substitute for traditional off-line computer scoring. In higher-level education, two-way communi- cation by e-mail may be used in the guidance of individual student projects.

3. An alternative to face-to-face teaching, introduction of group discussion and project work.
4. Many distance education programs include occasional face-to-face meetings between tutors and students, but practical or geographical considerations restrict many students from taking part in these meetings. Sometimes, face-to-face meetings develop into one- way presentation of subject matter. Computer conferencing, on the other hand, mainly involves information exchange and interpersonal discussion. Electronic classroom discussions can develop into exciting experiences of group learning. In the same vein, the medium seems to foster equality of status between the participants. Finally, special group-learning techniques – such as group submission of assignments, group learning and presentations, seminars, and project work – may be applied.
5. The public tutorial. Most distance education systems are designed for individual learning, but communication between one tutor and a number of individual learners is time- consuming. Questions, answers, and comments from one student will, however, often be of relevance to others. In a conferencing system, such interaction could be made accessible to all students along with pre-produced information of general interest.
6. Peer counseling. Informal peer counseling and cooperation are regular activities in on- campus programs. In computer conferencing, the possibilities for such collaboration are obvious and actively supported in the majority of learning programs. Peer help in solving problems may often come from an unknown friend. Peer counseling may be of particular value in large-scale systems where hundreds of learners are studying the same subject.
7. Free flow discussion. A number of educational conferencing systems have established social conferences, such as the cafe, the pub, or the coffee shop. These conferences have shown that informal discussions and non-academic activities can thrive in edu- cational conferencing systems.
8. The library. In an online text database, articles, lectures, research reports, etc. can be made available to the students.
2
Teaching Techniques Discussed by Kaye
In a literature review paper on collaborative learning, Kaye (1992) described the following seven applications of CMC in education and training programs:
..."2. The online classroom. Applications of the online classroom model have often been inspired by the “virtual classroom”. First, the group size is comparable to that in a face-to-face class. Second, there is at least one person responsible for guiding the group’s activities and, third, computer conferencing represents the principal mode of communication. Varieties of online class- rooms depend on the age of student groups, the educational levels, and the roles taken by the people responsible for the groups."
...
"4. Computer-supported writing and language learning. Since the combination of CMC and word processors essentially has a textual nature, it has attracted interest within the field of the teaching of writing and language skills. Examples include Connected Education’s creative writing courses and Rio Salado Community College’s courses in creative writing, technical writing, and English composition."

6. Lecture-room adjunct. In large on-campus lecture classes, there is little time for individual students to ask questions and the format does not invite discussion. In such a context, universi- ties may establish conferences where students can get help from teachers and other students.
7. The education utility. The education utility is a set of online resources that students and faculty can access.

Paulsen, Morten, (1995)"Framework for Online Teaching Techniques"
http://www.emoderators.com/moderators/cmcped.html
accessed 21 November 2009 (43 pages)
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I leave here some tips and tricks for teaching online:how to teach like a pro!

Teaching online is an alternative to teaching in a classroom. Sometimes instructors use teaching in classroom methods while teaching Online.

Sometimes online instructors may feel inadequacy and illprepared.

For teaching online, the instructor needs to use multiple tools and the internet.
Then, the course must be prepared early, the learning invironment must be structured and all the materials that are needed introduced.
Planning and preparating a course is necessary even before the course is open to students.Course objectives must be defined, early posting and late work policy defined.Sometimes it is necessary to define deadlines for the students work.
the instructor must attend to the student´s expectations, that should be clearly defined.
Students must always be awared to save their work in two or more storage device.
In the first day of the course, the instructor must break the ice and welcome the students to his course.Sometimes using emoticons helps.
Communication is always needed.
The teacher can define whether students can work in groups or not. If so, he can define the number of elements for each group. The ideal is 4 students per group.
Finaly, it is necessary to assess the students and instructor's work. See what went well and what went wrong and if necessary make some improvements for the next season.
Students can improve the teacher's teaching by sending feedback, and this can be done at any time, not only at the end of the course.
When the course is finished, at the end of the semestre,course or year the instructor should revise and refine both course design and teaching.


Shelton,Kaye andSaltsman,George, 2004, Tips and Tricks for Teaching Online:How to Teach Like a Pro!
http://itdl.org/journal/oct_04/article04.htm
accessed in 19 November 2009 (13 pages)
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In the previous post i didnt answer these 2 questions:
What are the implications of using individual and group assignments in online education?
How can we secure a reasonable workload for online teachers?
First in the article Online Study Orientation to Online Study, i found this important information about online courses.

"Elements of Online Courses

Online courses at UMUC often include the following elements:
■Asynchronous, frequent student and faculty participation
■Lectures and assigned readings (from textbooks and online resources)
■Individual and group assignments (for example, case studies and discussion questions)
■Individual and group papers
■Literature analyses
■Use of online library resources
■Online quizzes and exams. "

Using individual and group assignments in online education is another question.
Evaluating an online group activity is an important issue.
Another question emerged from this issue: How Fair are Group Assignments?written by Marilyn Ford and Jenny Morice, 2003 from the Journal of information technology education.

second to answer the question How can we secure a reasonable workload for online teachers?, i found this article that contains all the important information: The Online Teacher's Workload--What to Expect and How to Handle It, that was written By Elizabeth Armentor, focusing aspects like "Teachers want to help their students succeed in class, and technology has improved their accessibility. Instead of waiting to talk after class or going to your office hours, a student can shoot off an email at midnight and you can answer it the next morning. An online class increases the prevalence of this phenomenon, but being too available can quickly lead to the impression that you're always "on call." This can contribute to burnout. Consequently, organization and time management are the keys to handling the workload of an online class. "
you as a teacher must Organize Your Workspace, Organize Yourself, Organize your Class,Automate When Possible, Set Boundaries and specialy Be Patient.
In the article How to manage your Online Teacher workload ,written by Kate Buttler (2003) i found another perspective of how to organize the teacher's work as the author's say "Quite often when considering online workload issues, it can be tempting to focus on how to minimise it, though care should be taken as reducing workload can have a negative impact on student workload and learning quality. It may be more productive to think about how to manage online teacher workload effectively and this can be done in context with maintaining overall learning experience. Online teaching workload can be managed through successful time and information management, aspects of course design and effective teacher and technical support."
Aspects like Time management, Information management, Course design, Technologies, Timing and structure, Teacher Support and Technical Support must be considered.

"You will find, with experience, that you develop your own strategies for managing your workload, depending on the type of programme you are teaching, your students and your work arrangements. It may be that some workload management strategies need to be provided by your employer whilst others depend upon your own awareness and needs. With attention to time and information management, sympathetic course design and suitable support, you should be able to find an approach that works for you and allows you to manage your workload effectively."

Blagojevic,Nina,Online Study Orientation to Online Study-An Online Education with UMUC-University of Maryland University College
http://umuc.learnhub.com/lesson/14721-an-online-education-with-umuc
accessed in 18 November 2009 (1 page)

Lewis, Kadriye O., 2006,"Evaluation of online group activities: Intra-group member Peer evaluation"- 22nd Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning,
http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/Resource_library/proceedings/06_4136.pdf
accessed in 18 November 2009 (4 pages)

Ford, Marilyn and Morice,Jenny,2003, "How Fair are Group Assignments? A Survey of Students and Faculty and a Modest Proposal"-Journal of Information Technology Education
http://informingscience.org/jite/documents/Vol2/v2p367-378-42.pdf
accessed in 18 November 2009 (12 Pages)

Armentor, Elizabeth, , "The Online Teacher's Workload--What to Expect and How to Handle It"
http://www.worldwidelearn.com/teachers-aid/article/the-online-teachers-workload.htm
accessed in 18 November 2009 (1 Page)


Butler, Kate,13 August, 2003, "How to manage your Online Teacher workload"
http://community.flexiblelearning.net.au/ManagingFlexibleDelivery/content/article_4180.htm
accessed in 18 November 2009 (2 Pages)

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This annotated bibliography will respond to the questions raised by the professor. I’ll use different articles to answer to the following questions:
1. Which online teaching techniques do you prefer?
2. What are the implications of using individual and group assignments in online education?
3. How can we secure a reasonable workload for online teachers?
From the several Online learning techniques refereed by Professor Paulsen

This annotated bibliography will respond to the questions raised by the professor. I’ll use different articles to answer to the following questions:
1. Which online teaching techniques do you prefer?
2. What are the implications of using individual and group assignments in online education?
3. How can we secure a reasonable workload for online teachers?
From the several Online learning techniques refereed by Paulsen in his free web version, entitled Online Education and Learning Management Systems. I prefer starting with a Learning contract, a technique that is considered to be used to individualize the learning process, by making an agreement that details what’s going to be learned, the objectives, competencies, the course contents, the work methodology, the resources and all the required readings, the learning environment that’s going to be used, assessment and the timeline that shows the temporal distribution of all activities.
Another teaching technique that I found important in teaching online is the Debate, consisting of as “Seaman and Fellenz (1989, 65) wrote: “A debate is a structured discussion during which two sides of an issue are presented and argued by two or more individuals within a given time period.”
Knox (1987, 88) offered another explanation: “Similar to a lecture or panel, but two or four debaters argue two sides of an important issue to clarify differences and related reasoning… Clark (1992a, 58) offered these guidelines for an electronic debate with regard to participation, preparation, coordination, and evaluation:
▪ Participation. A debate could engage two classes that agree to participate actively, two teachers who know how to telecompute, one impartial coordinator who knows how to telecompute, an experienced debater to help students learn the process, and two or more evaluators familiar with the proposition.
▪ Preparation. Give the coordinator a list of curriculum-related issues, become familiar with the evaluation criteria, and decide whether a winner will be declared. Set up speech deadlines within a four-week framework, and agree on a maximum word length for each speech. Organize classes into teams by role or by speech, and have groups research both sides of a proposition
▪ Coordination. The coordinator should formulate and announce the proposition, randomly assign groups to affirmative or negative, and channel speeches between the two sides. Further, the coordinator should mediate the debate, keep team identities secret until after the last speech is sent, and enlist evaluators and manage the evaluation process.
▪ Evaluation. After the debate, feedback from the evaluators could be discussed and students could exchange comments on the issue and process. “

Another teaching technique that I prefer is Role-plays that is “according to Rothwell and Kazanas, role-play is “a range of methods in which trainees put themselves in dramatic situations and act out scenes like actors in a play.... There are essentially two kinds of role-play: structured and spontaneous.... Structured role-play is based on a case study.... Spontaneous role-plays are based on momentary experiences.”
Another one is Discussion, where discussion groups may be implemented as buzz groups, subgroup discussions, expanding groups, and colloquies.
Buzz groups are “small clusters of learners who are temporarily grouped together for a short period to address a topic presented by a facilitator.” (Seaman and Fellenz 1989, 131)
Forums is another teaching technique that “can be defined as “an open discussion carried on by one or more resource persons and an entire group. It is used when large groups of twenty-five persons or more meet for the purpose of diffusion of knowledge, information, or opinion. The forum tends to be semiformal in nature and is directed by a moderator. The moderator is responsible for guiding discussion during which the audience is encouraged to raise and discuss issues, make comments, offer information, or ask questions of the resource person(s) and each other.”
Harisim, phrased some teaching techniques and I selected the ones that I consider importants :”
▪ Small group discussions. In small group discussions, three to ten users discuss a particular topic, usually guided by an instructor or a group leader. The discussion often follows a seminar discussion or a plenary discussion. It may also complement a parallel face-to- face or online activity.
▪ Learning partnerships and dyads. In learning partnerships and dyads, learners are paired for mutual support and group work. These techniques can serve as icebreakers in early phases of online classes and they are also useful for joint writing projects.
▪ Small working groups. Small working groups can facilitate collaborative work. Student groups can, for example, solve problems, undertake research projects, and write reports. Effective groups, though, require clearly defined tasks, roles, and timeliness.
▪ 6. Simulations or role-plays. Simulations and role-plays allow students to apply and test theoretical knowledge in a simulated environment. Examples of successful role-plays in online environments.In the evaluation manor, learners assume the perspectives of various evaluators to debate evaluation procedures and approaches.
▪ Debating teams. In debating teams, learners have the opportunity to improve their analytical and communication skills by formulating ideas, defending positions, and critiquing counter positions.
▪ Peer learning groups. In peer learning groups, learners assist one another with writing assignments, problem solving, etc. Students may, for example, collaborate online to improve their writing skills.
▪ Informal socializing: the online cafe. Since social communication is an essential compo- nent of educational activity, online educational environments should provide opportuni- ties for informal discourse. An online cafe can contribute to a sense of community among the users, forging a social bond that may offer motivational and cognitive benefits.
▪ Mutual assistance for help. Valuable online support, based on mutual assistance, can be organized in an online conference where students can ask one another for help. Such a conference may be especially useful with regard to technical problems and system support.
▪ Access to additional educational resources. Additional online resources for educational use include international networks, databases, library catalogues, and information pools. To benefit the curriculum, these resources could be an integral part of the online activities.”

the Teaching Techniques Discussed by Rekkedal and Paulsen were:"
1. Distribution of information. Distance teaching systems need to increase the efficiency of distributing and updating information to students, faculty, and staff. Computer con- ferencing can, for example, be used for distribution of updated learning materials and information about courses, seminars, examinations, and student activities.

2. Two-way communication between student, tutor and staff. In most distance teaching sys- tems, submission of assignments for correction, evaluation, and feedback is important. Research shows that extended turnaround times may have destructive effects on course completion. It often takes too long for students to get help when they encounter prob- lems in their studies. To some extent, telephone support has been used in these situa- tions, but computer conferencing systems function more conveniently. Students may, for example, ask questions at any time, without the time delay of land mail. Draft solutions may be discussed, introducing a more flexible organization of tutoring and assessment. Student answers may be made available to other students, before or after submission deadline. Computer-scored tests can also be included in online systems, as a substitute for traditional off-line computer scoring. In higher-level education, two-way communi- cation by e-mail may be used in the guidance of individual student projects.

3. An alternative to face-to-face teaching, introduction of group discussion and project work.
3. Many distance education programs include occasional face-to-face meetings between tutors and students, but practical or geographical considerations restrict many students from taking part in these meetings. Sometimes, face-to-face meetings develop into one- way presentation of subject matter. Computer conferencing, on the other hand, mainly involves information exchange and interpersonal discussion. Electronic classroom discussions can develop into exciting experiences of group learning. In the same vein, the medium seems to foster equality of status between the participants. Finally, special group-learning techniques – such as group submission of assignments, group learning and presentations, seminars, and project work – may be applied.
4. The public tutorial. Most distance education systems are designed for individual learning, but communication between one tutor and a number of individual learners is time- consuming. Questions, answers, and comments from one student will, however, often be of relevance to others. In a conferencing system, such interaction could be made accessible to all students along with pre-produced information of general interest.
5. Peer counseling. Informal peer counseling and cooperation are regular activities in on- campus programs. In computer conferencing, the possibilities for such collaboration are obvious and actively supported in the majority of learning programs. Peer help in solving problems may often come from an unknown friend. Peer counseling may be of particular value in large-scale systems where hundreds of learners are studying the same subject.
6. Free flow discussion. A number of educational conferencing systems have established social conferences, such as the cafe, the pub, or the coffee shop. These conferences have shown that informal discussions and non-academic activities can thrive in edu- cational conferencing systems.
7. The library. In an online text database, articles, lectures, research reports, etc. can be made available to the students.2
Teaching Techniques Discussed by Kaye
In a literature review paper on collaborative learning, Kaye (1992) described the following seven applications of CMC in education and training programs:
..."2. The online classroom. Applications of the online classroom model have often been inspired by the “virtual classroom”. First, the group size is comparable to that in a face-to-face class. Second, there is at least one person responsible for guiding the group’s activities and, third, computer conferencing represents the principal mode of communication. Varieties of online class- rooms depend on the age of student groups, the educational levels, and the roles taken by the people responsible for the groups."
...
"4. Computer-supported writing and language learning. Since the combination of CMC and word processors essentially has a textual nature, it has attracted interest within the field of the teaching of writing and language skills. Examples include Connected Education’s creative writing courses and Rio Salado Community College’s courses in creative writing, technical writing, and English composition."

6. Lecture-room adjunct. In large on-campus lecture classes, there is little time for individual students to ask questions and the format does not invite discussion. In such a context, universi- ties may establish conferences where students can get help from teachers and other students.
7. The education utility. The education utility is a set of online resources that students and faculty can access.


Paulsen, Morten Flate, 2003, "ONLINE EDUCATION LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS"
REVIEW COPY
http://home.nki.no/morten/index.php/norsk-meny/artikler/mine-powerpoint/doc_download/8-online-education-and-learning-management-systems.html
accessed in November 2009 (37 pages)
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I found the article “Preparing Instructors for Quality Online Instruction”, written by Yi Yang and Linda F. Cornelious from Mississippi State University, very interesting and with some interesting information.
As the author’s of the article say …”there is a considerable interest in online education, particularly as it relates to the quality of online instruction.” Exists many issues that must be discussed, such as the answers to the following questions placed by the author’s: …” What will be the new role for instructors in online education? How will students' learning outcomes be assured and improved in online learning environment? How will effective communication and interaction be established with students in the absence of face-to-face instruction? How will instructors motivate students to learn in the online learning environment?”
It depends on the instructors, the success of one online course, first of all, it is an innovative technique of teaching and online instruction must be effective, attending to the challenges and barriers of the online teaching and for the Instructors.
The instructors will have new roles to play and new responsibilities and they have to adapt themselves to this new era in teaching. They must be prepared to leave the learning centred in the teacher in one classroom and accept the challenge of the centred student education.
There’s a role shifting that the teacher/instructor must assist, accept and join.
It’s not only the instructor that is changing but also the learner. They both have to play multiple roles and adjust to new roles. They must adapt to new environments, and they also must be open mind for the usage of technology. Teachers must deal with feelings such as frustration and must help students to overcome with their problems on the usage of technology.
Both teacher/instructor and learner must be motivated and be prepared for the asynchronous communication.
The learner must play a more active role.
The students must ensure their integrity and their honesty while attending to an online course.
The quality of online education must be assured by facing the new challenges and adjusting the attitudes facing the new opportunities, new teaching styles, adapting new strategies in the course design, new teaching methods, new learning environments, and all this must start before the online course and must be carefully planned.
“… online education has the following features: (a) it provides a learning experience different than in the traditional classroom because learners are different, (b) the communication is via computer and World Wide Web, (c) participation in classroom by learners are different, (d) the social dynamic of the learning environment is changed, and (e) discrimination and prejudice is minimized”

“…face-to-face interaction can be substituted by online discussions in bulletin board systems, online video conferences… Online education can also promote students' critical thinking skills, deep learning, collaborative learning, and problem-solving skills.”
“Alley and Jansak (2001) have also identified 10 keys to quality online learning. The authors suggested that online courses will be high quality when they are student-centered and when:
• Knowledge is constructed, not transmitted.
• Students can take full responsibility for their own learning.
• Students are motivated to want to learn.
• The course provides “mental white space” for reflection.
• Learning activities appropriately match student learning styles.
• Experiential, active learning augments the Web site learning environment,
• Solitary and interpersonal learning activities are interspersed.
• Inaccurate prior learning is identified and corrected.
• “Spiral learning” provides for revisiting and expanding prior lessons,
• The master teacher is able to guide the overall learning process.”
“To ensure the quality of online instruction, the qualification of the instructors should be a first consideration. Since the preparation of instructors is also paramount, those who teach online courses should understand what their roles are and adjust their attitudes for this role change. Second, it is important for instructors to master, design, and delivery strategies, techniques, and methods for teaching online courses. Third, the institution should provide technical and financial support for faculty. Fourth, school administrators should also realize what their role and responsibilities are in ensuring quality online instruction. Critical to this process, administrators should recruit qualified faculty or instructors for their online education programs. Moore (2001) also noted that to effectively deliver online courses, faculty must promote student-to-student interaction with minimal faculty intervention, engage students in regular assignments, cultivate students' self-directed abilities, and then provide specialized attention to students who lack self-directedness.
The increasing diversity of the nation's student population and advancements in the development of educational technology has encouraged the popularity of online instruction
(Bi, 2000). However, academic institutions that offer courses online still face many challenges. Therefore, administrative support is crucial if programs are to be successful. Administrators must consider issues related to intellectual property, pedagogical rigor and methods, course management, and instructional compensation of faculty (McAlister, Rivera, & Hallman, 2003). In essence, successful online instruction does not happen by magic. It is a collaboration of instructors, administrators, students, and the community at large. The courseware development industries should keep the instructors tuned in about their product updates and provide training and technical service support to instructors. The government, community, and parents should also help the school to ensure the quality of online instruction.
Moving from traditional methods of teaching to online methods of instruction often create dramatic shifts in the perspectives of instructors and their students (Dringus, 2000). Moreover, many issues have been raised about the quality of online instruction:
• Administrators should not force faculty to teach online courses who do not wish to do so.
• Training in WebCT should be made more user friendly.
• Mentors should be available in each department or college who can answer questions that come up from faculty who have limited experience in teaching online courses.
• Departments should limit the enrollment in online courses so that instructors will be more focused on communicating and interacting with online students.
• Instructors need to take courses to better understand technology; specific classes need to be taken in order to design websites for online courses.
• Instructors must have the support of other instructors who have taught online courses before, as well as administrative and technical support.
• Instructors should consider how to increase the interaction between students-instructor and peer-interactions by using various types of instructional design methods.
• Instructors should encourage students to evaluate the courses continuously and periodically so as to improve online teaching.”

Yang,Yi and Cornelious, Linda F., Spring 2005,"Preparing Instructors for Quality Online Instruction"-Online Journal of Distance Learning
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6682339656181159349&postID=102141284252878044
accessed in November 2009 (18 pages)

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Online Learning Techniques

I found this teaching tips very interesting.
101 THINGS YOU CAN DO THE FIRST THREE WEEKS OF CLASSthat was writen by Joyce T. Povlacs Teaching and Learning Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

...and since we must be carefull with the verbal comments, personal behavior, physical environments, and printed signs, you also must see these list of items, made by William Watson Purkey and John M. Novak.

Because we all need some tips about THE MOST IMPORTANT DAY: STARTING WELL by Delivee L. Wright
Teaching and Learning Center, University of Nebraska.

Where do we start? the first day of class: WHAT CAN/SHOULD WE DO?By L. Dee Fink.

Well, i found that everything in this page is so interesting that you should visit in here. It talkes about what procedures to take from the first day, how to prepare a course, how to prepare a lesson plan, teaching techniques, course design, tools for students, assessment, teaching organization, motivating students, dealing with stress,etc.and was reprinted by Delivee L. Wright,
Teaching and Learning Center, University of Nebraska.

Povlacs, Joyce T., , "101 THINGS YOU CAN DO THE FIRST THREE WEEKS OF CLASS"-
Teaching and Learning Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/101thing.htm
accessed in November 2009 (5 pages)

Purkey, William Watson and Novak,John M., 1994,"FORTY SUCCESSES"-Inviting School Success, Wadworth
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/40succes.htm
accessed in November 2009 (4 pages)

Wright, Delivee L., July 30, 1999,"THE MOST IMPORTANT DAY: STARTING WELL"
Teaching and Learning Center, University of Nebraska.
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/dayone.htm
accessed in November 2009 (5 pages)

Fink,L. Dee, July 19, 1999, "FIRST DAY OF CLASS: WHAT CAN/SHOULD WE DO?"-University of Oklahoma
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/firstday.htm
accessed in November 2009 (2 pages)
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In this annotated bibliography, i will try to respond to this important questions raised by professor Paulsen. I'll try to comment different articles in order to answer the following questions:

1.How much transparency should we allow in online education?
2.What are the implications of transparency in online education?
3.What are the pros and cons of global student catalogues?

The first article is Transparency in Cooperative Online Education by Christian Dalsgaard,
Aarhus University, Denmark and Morten Flate Paulsen, The Norwegian School of Information Technology, Norway

Transparency can be considered as a strategy that reach, catch, hold, motivate, and inspire students. Transparency gives students insight into each other’s actions.The pedagogical potential of social networking lies within transparency and the ability to create awareness among students...A central characteristic of social networking is the potential to facilitate transparency between students. The basic assumption is that transparency is important to cooperative online education. People can cooperate only if they know about each other and have access to some common information and services."(Paulsen and Dalsgaard, June 2009)

Here is a definition of Transparency by Paulsen and Dalsgaard: "Transparency means that you and your doings are visible to fellow students and teachers within a learning environment. For instance, transparency could mean that students and teachers are made aware of and have access to each other’s interests, thoughts, concerns, ideas, writings, references, and assignments. The purpose of transparency is to enable students and teachers to see and follow the work of fellow students and teachers within a learning environment and in that sense to make participants available to each other as resources for their learning activities."

Each individual creates his/her own page wich he/she develops and modifies as it develops its activities. Other people can follow these pages. It is called passive form of communication and sharing.

The discussion forums, are the opposite of this type of personal page and is a place where students send comments, posts, messages or documents in order to communicate or share.
Having a personal page (weblog or other...) is a form of socialization since it is connected to other personal pages and the indivudual is notified whenever a page is modified. In general it is buildt a network of personal relations. This is what is happening with us in this master. We are enable to follow the work of our colleagues and be aware of the activities they are developing and even make use of that information that we consider important. Everyone should be voluntary engaged to a network and contribute to the learning community. A commitment should be established so that the individual can serve as a resource for all the learning community.

"This transparent information may include personal information about the users and statistics related to the users’ deployment of the online tools. It may further include work students and teachers provide in online notebooks, blogs, and discussion forums as well as results from quizzes, surveys, and assignments."

" Transparency is also an important driver for improved quality. It has the following three positive effects on quality:

Preventive quality improvement
We are prone to provide better quality when we know that others have access to the information and contributions we provide.
Constructive quality improvement
We may learn from others when we have access to their data and contributions.
Reactive quality improvement
We may receive feedback from others when they have access to our data and contributions."

"Transparency may reduce the number of low quality contributions and may make high quality work more accessible as paragons for others. In transparent online learning environments, poor contributions from teachers and course designers cannot be hidden easily behind closed doors. It is important to realize that transparency must be handled carefully with regard to privacy issues. The users must be confident that their privacy is assured. They should be able to choose their preferred privacy level and understand how this choice controls how much of their personal data and contributions will be available to others."

In the article written by Christopher Hill, Principles for Improving Online Transparency, Quality it is focused aspects like: What are the benefits of every online student be well-informed,..."." A key focus of the plan is providing program-specific outcomes data that allows students to make informed decisions about their education investment",he says.

“To meet the education needs of adult students, we must provide them with trustworthy and transparent ways to choose among many available options and to gauge the potential of each one to further their careers.” The goal of the program is “to lead universities and colleges toward greater accountability and transparency.”, said Michael Offerman, president of Capella University.

"All types of transparency in Online education are very important, aspects like student demographics, completion rates, costs, student engagement, and knowledge and skills learned are essencial information for students.This kind of data can be viewed in annual reports." Most important, Transparency by Design reports include outcomes at the program specialization level, allowing prospective students to assess how well a program will prepare them for their professional pursuits."

"One of the requirements for implementing Transparency by Design is the development of a new set of best practices for participating institutions. “You want to make sure things are in place at the institutional level,”" says Merle Harris, president of Charter Oaks State College, who has been instrumental in developing just such standards. “Collectively we went back and we looked at best practices that have been put out by other organizations for online learning and then we developed our set based on those,” she says.

"Merle Harris, president of Charter Oaks State College and her associates concluded that there were a few basic principles for institutions that really want to be transparent." You can take a look on them by reading this two articles: Principles for Improving Online Transparency, Quality and More Principles for Improving Online Transparency, Quality.

The principels for improving online transparency are:
#1 Make distance education a central element of your mission:
#2 Accountability to stakeholders:
#3 Responsiveness:
#4 Faculty competence:
#5 Institutional integrity:
#6 Excellence in student services:
#7 Integrity in marketing:
#8 Curricular quality:

“The keys are disclosure, transparency, the ability to interact with students easily and the quality of the curriculum. So that we know what we’re trying to achieve and we regularly measure it.”

In this blog entitled Higher Education Management Group
A LinkedIn Group (Founded by Keith Hampson, PhD) if found one post that consists in an interview with Dr. Mike Offerman, Capella University entitled: Quality, Access and Transparency in Higher Education focusing aspects like: Quality in higher education, the capacity (and willingness) to meet the needs of “non-traditional” learners, What role does increased access to data on institutional performance and student learning play in higher ed reform.
"It was access to data that drove the creation of Transparency by Design. We realized that the online delivery format generates huge amounts of data. Unprecedented data—data on every interaction in the learning exchange, including data about demonstrations of learning outcomes. But, most of us were not looking at the data in any coherent manner.", says Dr. Mike Offerman.

I also foud this list of 21 questions that will help you (student) choose the degree program that is right for you.

"Learner characteristics are influenced by several factors, including:

•Locus of control: Is the individual student in control of the learning or are there external forces in charge of what the student learns?
•Task orientation: Is the learner able to stay on task without going too far astray?
•Level of motivation: Is the learner intrinsically motivated or extrinsically motivated?", as refered by Christopher Hill in his article:Online Course Design Should Consider Learner Characteristics.

In my opinion, distance Education Resistance is origined by the lack of transparency in all aspects. See tha article:Distance Education Resistance: Understanding Its Origins, written by Christopher Hill.

Paulsen and Dalsgaard considered that "Student catalogues are important tools for showing students that they have access to a learning community. A comprehensive catalogue that provides relevant information about students is crucial to students acquiring an overview of the learning community. Student catalogues usually provide information about all students enrolled in a course; however, if students can access information about the students enrolled in other courses offered by the institution, they may benefit from taking part in a larger learning community. Moreover, a catalog that includes alumni could be of interest to students who seek advice on courses they are considering or on future employment.To facilitate cooperation, a student catalogue should include information that makes it easy to initiate and maintain communication, such as e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, chatting identities, etc. It may also include information on geographical location (e.g., zip codes) to facilitate identification of potential partners for occasional face-to-face meetings. Similarly, it may include progress plan information so that students can identify peers who are working with the same study unit. Finally, one may argue that student catalogues should include CV-type information to make it possible to search for peers who have special competencies.

Student catalogues must address privacy issues appropriately. Some information in student catalogues may be regarded as sensitive and may require student consent. Some students may also be opposed to inclusion in a student catalogue."

The students who seek learning partners are asked to do the following:
1.Register their personal presentations.
2.Decide who may access their presentations.
3.Search for potential learning partners.
4.Invite somebody to become their learning partner. "


"The new challenge is to motivate students to engage in joint work...transparency is a prerequisite for distance students to work cooperatively.
Transparency enables students to be visible to each other as potential partners and resources
an important objective is to support an individual’s consciousness and awareness of the activities of others. This can be achieved by making a variety of information transparent, for instance by developing student catalogues and learner profiles, by encouraging learners to become partners, and by sharing personal learning tools.
Whereas discussion forums and other tools for direct communication and collaboration focus on direct sharing, social networking can support students’ indirect sharing of resources, thoughts, ideas, productions, writings, notes, etc. This kind of sharing can provide students with insights into the workings of other students, and, thus, give them an increased consciousness and awareness of the activities of other students.(Paulsen and Dalsgaard, 2009)

"The pedagogical potential lies within developing social networks in which students’ activities are visible to other students. The potential is to support transparency through a combination of personalization and socialization and through sharing personal information and tools within social networks". (Social networking sites: Transparency in online education, Dalsgaard 2006)

Paulsen, Morten Flate and Dalsgaard,Christian, June 2009, "Transparency in Cooperative Online Education"
http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/671/1267
accessed in 5 January 2010 (22 pages)

Hill,Christopher, October 20, 2009, "Principles for Improving Online Transparency, Quality"
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/distance-learning/principles-for-improving-online-transparency-quality/
accessed in 5 January 2010


Hill,Christopherin, October 20, 2009, "More Principles for Improving Online Transparency"
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/distance-learning/more-principles-for-improving-online-transparency-quality/
accessed in 5 January 2010

Offerman, Mike , November 18, 2009, "Quality, Access and Transparency in Higher Education"
http://highereducationmanagement.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/dr-mike-offerman-capella-university-quality-access-and-transparency-in-higher-education/
accessed in 5 January 2010

http://www.collegechoicesforadults.org/welcome/questions
accessed in 5 January 2010

Hill,Christopher, August 6, 2009, "Online Course Design Should Consider Learner Characteristics"
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/distance-learning/online-course-design-should-consider-learner-characteristics/
accessed 6 January

Hill,Christopher, July 14, 2009 "Distance Education Resistance: Understanding Its Origins"
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/distance-learning/distance-education-resistance-understanding-its-origins/
accessed in 5 January 2010


Dalsgaard, Christian,, "Social networking sites: Transparency in online
education"
http://eunis.dk/papers/p41.pdf
accessed in 6 January 2010 (6 pages)




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Transparency in Cooperative Online Education

I found this interesting article "Transparency in Cooperative Online Education" that was written by Professor Morten Flate Paulsen
and professor Christian Dalsgaard that discuss: What is the potential of social networking within cooperative online education? the authors argue about transparency as a unique feature of social networking services.
The article talks about cooperative learning, virtual learning environments and transparency based on experiences experienced by the authors.

Paulsen, Morten Flate and Dalsgaard,Christian, June 2009, "Transparency in Cooperative Online Education"
http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/671/1267

accessed in accessed in 5 January 2010 (22 pages)

Ppel-Learning Object

In order to compile and publish all the Learning Objects that i produced for these course, i registered here the learning objects links.

The first LO for Activity 2 it was purposed to produce a learning object related to cooperative freedom. I worked in group with Sónia Valente and we build a Carton in toonlet.com entitled “A morning walk - Online Education”. In this LO we’ve made an approach somewhat informal but always looking for theoretical rigor. We tried to cover the important issues in the theory. As this is an application available in the Internet after made it we published it and introduced it in the discussion forum. Each of us putted one post in each of our blog. This work was improved as suggested by the professor and colleagues.
It was very important working in group with Sónia. We used the messenger for talking and the e-mail for changing documents and interesting ideas to structure and implement the work. We worked in the same application (toonlet), once at a time.

The second LO for Activity 2 it was purposed to produce a learning object related to Online Teaching Techniques. I worked alone in this activity. So I decided t publish a blog entry and I entered a talking avatar that was built in readthewords.com entitled “Learning Object- Teacher´s workload”
Before doing this final work, i did my first attempt also entitled "Learning Object- Teacher´s workload" I made this films using readthewords.com and i have built this article based on the original article of Elisabeth Armentor and hope it will help understand the teacher´s workload.
"Teachers want to help their students succeed in class, and technology has improved their accessibility. Instead of waiting to talk after class or going to your office hours, a student can shoot off an email at midnight and you can answer it the next morning. An online class increases the prevalence of this phenomenon, but being too available can quickly lead to the impression that you're always "on call." This can contribute to burnout. Consequently, organization and time management are the keys to handling the workload of an online class."

The third LO for activity 2 was a eBook made by me and Sónia valente. It´s a two individual work about Transparency in Online Education!


My idea of making this post was to compile them and join the entire work done previously. To make the tree LO were used three different applications, all of them available from the Internet. Each one made with a different proposal. The first one was to captive and motivate, the second was destined to people with a disability and the third was to meet a large amount of information. Each tool was carefully chosen according to the amount of information that we have and the sum that I/we could build.
The forth LO was made for Unit4 and once more the reason was to try another new tool.

Unit2/Activity3-Review of LO

Hello!

I'm going to start my reviewing with the video made by Pedro Teixeira.

Pedro has made a video about teaching and presented some tips and techniques for a successful online learning course It’s a short term video with a 1 minute and 20 seconds long. It talks about important aspects like: how to develop and structure an online course, some important aspects to consider while defining the course, contact information, the importance of defining the objectives of the course, attendance requirements, course schedule, orientation aids, grading scales/rubrics, communication practices, technology policy, aspects to consider in the opening of the course, nurturing the learning community, and assessment. He focuses the essential aspects to consider in this mater ans synthesizes them also. I think Pedro must be careful with the background and text colors, because I think that he should avoid light backgrounds and light text and on the other hand dark backgrounds and dark text. The images were very well chosen and associated with the content. He has sound (music) accompanying the video.

Pedro I have some suggestion that I would like to make: if you should accomplish your video with the sound of your voice reading the information that is in the video would be an added value. Another suggestion is that you should delay the transition between slides or in the other hand make each sentence appear at a time. Always use the same type of letter.


Telma Jesus


The second Learning object that I choose for my review is the work done by Marco Freitas, Maria Lurdes Martins and Teresa Fernandes. The reason why I choose this learning object is because I never used this tool.

They’ve made a small journal about teaching online. It’s very colored journal attractive to the reader. The images chosen are adequate to the content.

I didn’t try this tool but I shore am willing to do so. I considered their work interesting, motivating and captive. This journal is understandable to any one and makes an excellent approach on the contents.

They approached contents/themes like tutor’s perception and focus their attention on two many-to-many techniques: the forum and the role-play.

The benefits of the online forum and the reason why we should choosing it are also focused.

What is the role-play, his objectives, the types of role-playing exercises, and the types of online role-playing: the synchronous and the asynchronous are explained.

Some colored schemes are presented to explain the role-playing strengths and weaknesses. As a weakness on their work i consider the font size on the schemes that are small and not noticeable enough. Finally they ended their journal with a humor section about honesty on the internet and the references they consulted.

Telma Jesus

(Posted in Moodle on Wednesday, 2 December 2009, 06:26 PM and 8:34 PM)

Unit3/Activity4-Brainstorming on transparency

Hi everyone,

Due to other commitments only today i was able to write few words about the discussions and leave here my contribute.

This week I had a meeting about computers in school and one of the subjects that were discussed was LMS Moodle.

One of the intervenients was saying to us that the platform Moodle is a closed system and that the information is only available to whom we want.

What was initially proposed and was said about these LMS was that it was a system that you can use to share information with your students, colleagues and other people. But as we all know, not all the information is available; the teacher can choose whether someone can have access to some discipline or not.

Well about online forums, I am shore that I would like to have access to some forum’s, specially if i´m interested in the subjects that are debated inside. For the teacher it will be more difficult to manage the forum due to the growing number of students. The excess of information can distract students that loose too much time reading the posts, so this is a disadvantage.

As a result we can consider that the Moodle system is a closed system and that the learning that involves this kind of resources is not that transparent.

First of all we may want to think about transparency involving the institution, the teachers and the students. The institutions should consider being the most transparent as possible to increase the number of students rolling for a degree. The teachers should choose the amount and type of information that each one should provide and it depends on the level of transparency that he considers to be enough and appropriate.

The availability of information from each online course depends on the criteria of each institution and teacher.

What about the students? Should they provide all types of information? What about personal information: should they keep it in a secret? Well, exists a check list that helps students on this issues and it exists a form that can be written in order to publish and make transparent students information. Students can be categorized according to the amount of information available about them. UA should think about this.

In my opinion we don’t need to share much personal information in order to get a work partner. But the confidence level depends on how much information each student share. Data like Name and birthday, sex, number of forum contributions can be shared, but , social security number, addresses, telephone numbers, grades, course enrolments, previous education, exams, payments, log in frequencies can be shared only if the student allows the Institution to do so. Some data must be considered anonymous in order to keep some personal privacy. Does this consists in an advantage to students?

For transparency to happen people should be as much transparent as possible regarding their privacy.


Best regards,

Telma Jesus

Unit3/Activity3- Review

Hi,

The Learning object that I choose for my review is the Quiz made by Luís. The reason why I choose this learning object is because I found this tool very interesting, since it give us some feedback about what we’ve just answered.

It is a small and simple Quiz that can be improved and increased whenever the author wants. It consists of a relevant 7 questions and focuses on the principal aspects of transparency .

I don’t know if the result of each test arrives at the author’s mailbox. Do you have configured this aspect?

This Quiz would be more attractive to the user if you put some images adequate to the content and if you put some colour in the background. I really don’t know if this is possible.

Did you use Quiz Faber to make this Quiz or another tool?

I considered the work interesting, motivating and captive. This Quiz is understandable to any one and represents a great way to know what people understand about transparency. The objective is to apply this test to Whom ?

At the end when it shows us a page with the results, and to synthesize the subjects/answers discussed in the Quiz you could give a list of links with bibliography. Or in the other hand, when it gives us feedback sending a message with the right option when we gave a wrong answer to question, in that same window, you could provide a link to a page that has the information needed to give the correct answer.

I hope you accept my suggestions and clarify my doubts.

Good Work!

Telma Jesus

Unit 1 /Activity 4 - Role Play

Being a e-student!

Well, I will leave here my personal testimony and experience.

As a teacher I felt the thirst of enlarge my knowledge (and if possible to improve in my career). In my school I play coordination tasks, such as ICT Coordinator (now responsible for the Technical Component of the PTE) and administrator of the Moodle platform and other tasks that I have been assigned for, not to mention the many meetings that we have to watch.

I don’t have much time to spend with studies or trips to the university and attend classes.

Conciliating the family and professional life it’s a difficult task, well, and if we add one more task the academic life, more complicated it will be.

To have a husband, a four year old boy and a four month old boy asking for our attention during all day and all night, little time remains to dedicate to studies.

Another aspect that weighed in the decision to attend or not the course was the fact of having to spend extra money from the family budget to pay for the course and once the number of family elements would grow also the family expenses would increase too.

Once, it passed through my mind giving up this master, but, as this was something I always wanted, something related to technology, I decided to go ahead.

Since, this master can be done in part-time and this was a plus because I knew that I could never finish my studies in such a short time.

In this master we (e-students) have the opportunity to try and experience new programs, new technology and many virtual learning environments, and I consider this as something that I was looking for . It’s really a different learning style, which prevents exclusion of students with limited access to or little knowledge of high technology media.

We can work as a group, we can work in pairs, and we can work as a team. We can learn with our colleagues and with our teachers.

I’ve had so far very good experiences of working in group, working in pairs, and working individually at a distance.

Things can really work at a distance….i can access to each course everywhere and anywhere I want, I can work in building documents, search on the internet, talk with my colleagues just by having with me a computer (laptop) and a mobile net. I can choose during a 24 hour which time will be spent with each course and the best day of the week to work. I can access instantly to information and completely regardless of time. That’s what freedom of Time and pace means along with freedom of space.

Every new course that we start, there’s always so many new things to learn, so much new information, and many activities and tasks to develop. This can be done not only as an asynchronous way but also as synchronous. We have flexibility and option choice too. We can manage the time needed to spend with each activity or task. We can decide whether we want to deepen knowledge or to search information about related contents.
(This was posted on UAberta Moodle on Sunday, 15 November 2009 by 4:39 p.m.)

Review of 2 Learning Objects

The first Learning Object that i reviewed was Sandra Brás work published in toonlet.com and the second is Pedro Teixeira´s video published on Youtube.
These Learning Objects were chosen for different reasons, such as, their content, simplicity and attraction.
First I will talk about Sandra´s work and then Pedro.
Sandra has made a simple and comic cartoon using a new tool: Toonlet that I really consider interesting, motivating and captive. This cartoon is understandable to any one.
She has made this cartoon that talks about the importance of The Learning Partner, a very interesting issue. She focused the importance of not feeling lonely while/during a study process, whether it might be a course or other learning situation. Sandra refers that e-students can combine meetings by Chat, e-mail, phone, personally, or other recurring to other technological means.
The results can be much more positive and higher and the learning process simpler and motivating.
Good and expressive cartoons were applied and very expressive too. The background color was carefully used and the dolls well chosen.
Pedro has made a video that explains very well the Theory of Cooperative Freedom. He gives us a brief explanation (like he said)…”in a few steps” about this theory. He focused in the principal aspects of the contents. He took on individual learning and collaborative and led us to Cooperative Learning.
In the video, Pedro uses key words and brief sentences, making the video very understandable and objective.
The video made by Pedro is simple and attractive, and due to the fact that he didn’t use too much colors and animations in the video it didn’t scattered the watcher’s attention, on the contrary, captive. He combined very well backgrounds and text together with images.
It´s a short term video that is not boring due to his short lengths and the combination of text and images.
The sound (music) accompanying the video is not too strong, so I considered it adequate.
Globally, I liked both works and my colleagues are to be congratulated for their Learning Objects.
(This was posted on UAberta Moodle on saturday, 7 november by 7:54 p.m.)