Thursday, June 14, 2007
Correcting errors
I just realized that this site was set up to disallow comments. I have just made the correction and want my readers to know that I welcome your comments.
In a few weeks I will be assuming new responsibilities with my university. I am moving from administration of online classes to teaching of online classes. I will be seeking to understand how best to offer online religion classes to our students in Kenya. But I hope to find out more about distance education in Africa generally. Feel free to point out resources in your comments ;-)
In a few weeks I will be assuming new responsibilities with my university. I am moving from administration of online classes to teaching of online classes. I will be seeking to understand how best to offer online religion classes to our students in Kenya. But I hope to find out more about distance education in Africa generally. Feel free to point out resources in your comments ;-)
Labels: Africa, distance education, Kenya
Friday, June 08, 2007
More about eLearning Africa
Some of the speakers at this conference gave the evidence that they have done this sort of thing before. One of those was Annika Andersson from Örebro University in Sweden. She is a doctoral student who has researched why some students persist in e-learning and others do not. She constructed a grid of factors which influence a student's persistance that I would like to use to assess the design of the courses we offer online. Areas that she examined include the student, teacher, technology, course, institution, support, and society. She found that few researchers are examining technology and teacher issues; most focus on the learner. Click on her name to find contact info if you are interested in starting a discussion with her.
Another presenter who clearly communicated was Dr. Moses Mbangwana of Cameroon. He uses Yahoo Groups quite effectively for online research and teaching. In the same session, Prof. Otto Ikome of Téluq-University of Québec presented some very engaging examples of using technology with sensitivity to cultural context. Wish you could have been there.
Another presenter who clearly communicated was Dr. Moses Mbangwana of Cameroon. He uses Yahoo Groups quite effectively for online research and teaching. In the same session, Prof. Otto Ikome of Téluq-University of Québec presented some very engaging examples of using technology with sensitivity to cultural context. Wish you could have been there.
Labels: Africa, Kenya, online education
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
eLearning Africa 2007 conference
The eLearning Africa 2007 conference was held in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 28-30. Workshops filled the first day, then there were multiple sessions on various topics the next two days. In many ways, the conference resembled education conferences one would attend in the US. Sessions were 90 minutes long with tea (and coffee) breaks between them, vendors' booths surrounded the main hall, and keynote addresses were given by dignitaries.
While I am tempted to describe all the flaws of the conference, I must keep in mind that this is only the second iteration of eLearning Africa. The organizers still have a bit to learn about effective conference planning. For example, each of the 90-minute sessions had five speakers shceduled. Many of them tried to cram all their wordly knowledge into their 12-minute slice, with PowerPoint slides displaying the notes that they read. What a nightmare!
However, some of the sessions that I attended were helpful and insightful. I also met some interesting people with whom I expect to do some followup. That said, I will list some of the more instructive findings.
More later!
While I am tempted to describe all the flaws of the conference, I must keep in mind that this is only the second iteration of eLearning Africa. The organizers still have a bit to learn about effective conference planning. For example, each of the 90-minute sessions had five speakers shceduled. Many of them tried to cram all their wordly knowledge into their 12-minute slice, with PowerPoint slides displaying the notes that they read. What a nightmare!
However, some of the sessions that I attended were helpful and insightful. I also met some interesting people with whom I expect to do some followup. That said, I will list some of the more instructive findings.
- When students in South Africa were required to use a LMS (WebCT), they were skeptical. A survey taken after they had become familiar with the features and completed a course yielded the following surprising (to my mind) results: students greatly enjoyed the quiz feature and found the discussion booard feature least appealing. Perhaps this is normal for oral cultures.
- Many institutions are using Moodle, Yahoo, and Google tools to conduct their online education. Cost is certainly a factor, but being able to have more control over the shape of a learning management system is important also.
- Because vastly more Africans have access to cell phones than to computers, a number of institutions and individuals are experimenting with content delivery and even (text) discussion via phones.
More later!
Labels: Africa, Kenya, online education
Sunday, April 01, 2007
New friends from TxDLA
I have to say that this was the friendliest distance learning conference I have ever attended. Most people were quite willing to strike up a conversation and exchange business cards. Here is a photo of me with two new friends, Ashton and Marci. (I am the nerd in the middle who forgot to take off his nametag for the photo.) We found that we had a lot in common and were interested in each other's projects. I am glad to have them as friends in this business of education.
Labels: distance learning, friends, TxDLA
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Online Teaching Standards
One of the sessions I attended described an approach to ensuring quality of online teaching via checklist. I do not think that this is the total answer (and the presenters agreed that they were not finished with the project), but it is a start.
Essentially, the office of distance learning needs to form a committee to propose standards for online courses. Representatives on the committee should be from instructional design, IT, and academic areas. Once the committee has come up with a checklist, they should use it against existing, effective courses to see what revisions need to take place.
The suggested areas of a course to examine were:
Navigation
Consistency
Accessibility
Syllabus
Content
Activities
Communication
Assessment
Off the top of my head, I would add "Resources" (library, bookstore, technical help, etc.) The purpose of the checklist would be for evaluating a course, but I think it could be useful to teachers as they build new courses.
Quality Matters
Another session dealt with implementing QM in your program. This refers to the course design, not content or means of distribution. An important factor is paying attention to the course from the perspective of the student. What will a student need to know in order to make sense of the course? Also consider that "quality" does not mean "perfection." Part of the process of review of a course will involve recognizing improvements which could be made even though the course meets quality standards.
Something that gets completely overlooked by many teachers is the relationship of the textbook to the learning objectives of the course. Each unit of the course should have objectives which align with the course objectives, NOT to the objectives of "Chapter 3" in the textbook. The learning activities, similarly, must relate to the objectives; they should not be chosen just because your textbook has those activities. Are textbooks chosen because they align with the course objectives? They should be.
Essentially, the office of distance learning needs to form a committee to propose standards for online courses. Representatives on the committee should be from instructional design, IT, and academic areas. Once the committee has come up with a checklist, they should use it against existing, effective courses to see what revisions need to take place.
The suggested areas of a course to examine were:
Off the top of my head, I would add "Resources" (library, bookstore, technical help, etc.) The purpose of the checklist would be for evaluating a course, but I think it could be useful to teachers as they build new courses.
Quality Matters
Another session dealt with implementing QM in your program. This refers to the course design, not content or means of distribution. An important factor is paying attention to the course from the perspective of the student. What will a student need to know in order to make sense of the course? Also consider that "quality" does not mean "perfection." Part of the process of review of a course will involve recognizing improvements which could be made even though the course meets quality standards.
Something that gets completely overlooked by many teachers is the relationship of the textbook to the learning objectives of the course. Each unit of the course should have objectives which align with the course objectives, NOT to the objectives of "Chapter 3" in the textbook. The learning activities, similarly, must relate to the objectives; they should not be chosen just because your textbook has those activities. Are textbooks chosen because they align with the course objectives? They should be.
Labels: distance education, standards, TxDLA
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Instructional design
One of the challenges of an expanding cadre of teachers and a stagnant budget is providing instructional design resources. A session of the TxDLA conference dealt with creating a part-time instructional design (PT-ID) team from instructors who are experienced and willing. The teams, consisting of three or four members, meet with the director of distance education on a weekly basis. They not only design courses but review existing courses for suggestions for improvement.
The team members are compensated with overload pay for one course per term and must re-apply each term. They have to be willing to work as a team and put 6-8 hours a week into the PT-ID activities.
I am thinking that we could do something like this at Wayland, using LiveClassroom to communicate between team members and individual teachers. We have enough personnel who are willing to do this sort of thing. The major challenge would be that they are not all on the same campus.
The team members are compensated with overload pay for one course per term and must re-apply each term. They have to be willing to work as a team and put 6-8 hours a week into the PT-ID activities.
I am thinking that we could do something like this at Wayland, using LiveClassroom to communicate between team members and individual teachers. We have enough personnel who are willing to do this sort of thing. The major challenge would be that they are not all on the same campus.
Labels: distance learning, instructional design
Monday, March 26, 2007
TxDLA conference, March 26-29, 2007
The pre-conference session I am attending on Monday afernoon is called "Global Voices: Interactive Podcasting and VOIP Projects." I am hoping that the information will be useful for our communications with Kenya Baptist Theological College.
The first tool that we observed was YackPack. This tool allows for leaving audio messages asynchronously, but they can be played back sequentially. The teacher could pose a question and the students could answer over the course of a couple of days. Then the messages could be played back to present a dialog.
A number of other free audio tools were presented: gabcast.com, bubbleshare.com,mychingo (which will become mobatalk in the near future), and studio.odeo.com. I will begin to investigate these tools and explore the possibilities for university online classes. The presenter has a blog at vickiwiki.pbwiki.com. If you want the password, let me know.
The first tool that we observed was YackPack. This tool allows for leaving audio messages asynchronously, but they can be played back sequentially. The teacher could pose a question and the students could answer over the course of a couple of days. Then the messages could be played back to present a dialog.
A number of other free audio tools were presented: gabcast.com, bubbleshare.com,mychingo (which will become mobatalk in the near future), and studio.odeo.com. I will begin to investigate these tools and explore the possibilities for university online classes. The presenter has a blog at vickiwiki.pbwiki.com. If you want the password, let me know.
Labels: audio, distance education, TxDLA, video
