Emerging Technologies in Online Education: The Sloan-C

8/14/2019 Emerging Technologies in Online Education: The Sloan-C

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J O H N B O U R N E

K A T H L E E N I V E S

B E T H A N Y B O V A R D

T H E S L O A N C O N S O R T I U M , I N C .

Emerging Technologies in Online

Education:The Sloan-C Perspective


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Outline of Panel Presentations

Sloan-C

Emerging Technologies Mobile e-learning

The social networking component of e-learning

Technologies for disabilities Virtual Worlds

Learn More

Emerging Technologies for e-Learning at the Sloan-CSymposium in San Jose, July, 2010.

Online Workshops


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The Sloan Consortium

We are a professional not-for-profit membershiporganization for both institutions and individuals

We operate on membership fees, workshop and conferencesurpluses , research fees and publication income

We provide professional development to higher educationprofessionals, hosts conferences, publishes materials,conducts research and delivers online workshops.

Our objective is to improve quality in online education


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Elements of Quality The Sloan-C Pillars

Frank Mayadas first proposed using the pillars for measuring quality.


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Over 8000 enrollments in1345 courses offered

At 158 institutions


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Mobile Learning Defined

Learning that happens when the learner is not at afixed, predetermined location

AND/OR

Learning that happens when the learner takesadvantage of the learning opportunities offered by

mobile technologies.


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Mobile Learning Facts

Over 50% of undergrads say they own an internet-capable handheld device

Email, student admin systems, and learning managementsystems are the most accessed

Almost half (45%) say they fully expect to be usingmobile devices more for learning in the next 3 years

97 percent of U.S. college students own a cell phone,

and 79 percent own a mobile computer.


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Mobile Learning Technologies

Smart Phones / Pocket PCs- iPhone, Blackberry,Droid

Use anywhere there is phone access

Capable of accessing web sites, variety of content

Netbooks

Use anywhere phone or wireless access is available

Similar access to standard desktop computers

eBook Readers / eBooks


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Mobile Learning Scenarios

Accessing Content Teacher creates podcasts of lecture materials that students access via

their smart phones or netbooks

Students attend live synchronous sessions via smart phones ornetbooks

Interacting with Others Instant messaging with instructor to get assignment clarification

Voice messaging with learner team to collaborate on group projects Social networking (e.g. Twitter) to connect, engage in personal

learning, and locate relevant resources and support


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Teaching / Learning Benefits

Anytime/anywhere access

Just-in-time learning and support Increased opportunities for interaction/engagement

Reduced communication barriers

Increased support for diverse learning modalities

Increased focus on self-directed learning


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Teaching & Learning Challenges

Creating and maintaining content in appropriateformats (due to rapidly changing technology)

Learning curve increases for faculty and students

Potential for inappropriate use (repackaging same

old content in new ways) Potential to bias learning opportunities in favor of

the more tech-savvy students

Possibility of isolating non-tech-savvy students


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Institutional and Teaching Challenges

Cost infrastructure, training, support

Usability content creators and users Tech Choices Smart Phones, Netbooks

Security/Privacy complying with national

requirements to protect student data andinformation


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Overcoming Challenges

Cost, Usability, Privacy - use infrastructure alreadyin place

Learning Management Systems

Blackboard Mobile - iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry; podcasting

Desire2Learn 2Go - Blackberry

Web Conferencing Systems

Elluminate podcasting

Horizon-Wimba podcasting

Lecture Capture Systems Tegrity iPhones, YouTube publishing

MediaSite webcasting/podcasting


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H E L P I N G S T U D E N T S C O N N E C T , L E A R N , A N DA C C E S S I N S T I T U T I O N A L R E S O U R C E S

Social Networking


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Social Networking Defined

Connecting and communicating with others in acommunity using tools provided by the socialnetworking service

A social network service essentially consists of a

representation of each user (often a profile), his/hersocial links, and various additional services. Mostsocial network services areweb based and provide

means for users to interact over the internet(wikipedia entry)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_basedhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_based


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Social Networking Facts

85% of U.S. college students use Facebook

At least 136 universities have an education channelin YouTube

65% of handheld computing users cite accessing

social networking sites as one of their primaryactivities


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Social Networking Sites

There are hundreds of social networking sites. Theseare a few of the more popular in higher education.

Twitter / Yammer

YouTube

Facebook LinkedIn

Ning Delicious/Twine/Diigo


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Scenarios

A professor sets up a twitter tag so all her studentscan share resources

A university librarian establishes a twitter account tosupport student access and use of library resources

A university creates a YouTube channel to publishstudent support, sports, news, and alumni videos

A professor creates a facebook group for his class for

social and academic support


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NMSU Tw itter: Campus Info,Student Suppor t & Mor e

Ber keley Yo uTube: Lectur esand More

Examples


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Benefits

Supports self-directed learning

Can support important literacy (media, informationtechnology, and critical thinking skills

Increases presence, interaction, engagement

Promotes and supports collaboration Reduces communication barriers

Provides for 24/7 access


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Challenges

Copyright/Intellectual Property social networksmake it very easy to copy/distribute materials.Students and faculty need to be aware of

Access & ADA not all sites are ADA compliant

Privacy social networking sites ask users to createprofiles with email and personal information.Faculty and students need to understand issues of

privacy, anonymity, etc. Institutional networks require dedicated staff to

establish policies, maintain networks, etc.


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L E S S O N S F R O M T H E F I E L D A B O U T T H E U S EO F T E C H N O L O G Y I N O N L I N E E D U C A T I O N

Disabilities


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Online Learning for Students with Disabilities

Making education accessible/providing digitalopportunities to students high on White Houseagenda

Students with disabilities are make up close to 10%

of the population of students currently enrolled intraditional institutions of higher education

Disabilities can range from visual

impairment/hearing loss, to mobility restrictionssuch as paraplegia/muscular dystrophy to traumaticbrain injuries/epilepsy


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Sloan-C Workshops

Faculty-reported Challenges

Not tech savvy; do not know how to adapt curriculum toaccommodate individuals with disabilities

Too tech savvy; creating content with bells and whistleswithout consideration of individuals with disabilities

Not my problem

Do not know how to facilitate in a disability diverse classroom


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Sloan-C Workshops

Observed Faculty Challenges

Online classroom limits instructors ability to watch studentand ascertain what s/he is capable of doing

Students do not self-identify

Students perceive disability not to be a problem

Lack of understanding on the part of disability providers aboutthe differences between onground and online students


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Sloan-C Workshops

Common Faculty Questions

Are students with disabilities in my online classes supposed toidentify themselves to me or to the administration?

If students are to identify to me, what am I supposed to donext? What is my responsibility in the accommodation

process? How will I be notified if there is a student with a disability

enrolled in an online class?

Who should I contact if I have either questions or ideas aboutthe accommodation process?


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Sloan-C Survey (2008)

A survey of faculty who teach online indicated that:

50% of had never taken an online course

Majority were unsure of the process by which they would benotified if a student with a disability was taking their course

Majority reported having no idea IF a student with a disability

was in their online course Most had little or no knowledge of the technologies available to

assist a student with a disability in their online course

Most had little or no knowledge what types of disabilitiesrequired special accommodations


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Current Sloan Consortium Initiatives

Through a grant funded by the Alfred P. SloanFoundation and in collaboration with CANnect:

How-To Guide for Creating Accessible Online LearningContent

Testing Moodle for Accessibility

Online Workshops: Accommodating Students with Disabilities(third year); Web Accessibility for Online Learning (new)


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Basic Principles for Technology Usage

Making an adaptation to ones online course toaccommodate a student with disability helps not onlythat students, but other students as well

By being disability conscious, instructors pay more

attention to course navigation, clarity, objects, andreason you are assigning certain activities andassessments


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Social Model for Disability

Medical Model Social Model

Disability is a deficiency or

abnormality

Disability is a difference

Being disabled is negative Being disabled, in itself, isneutral

Disability resides in theindividual

Disability derives betweenindividual and society

The remedy for disability-related problems is cure ornormalization of the individual

The remedy for disability-related problems is a change inthe interaction between theindividual and society

The agent of remedy is theprofessional who affects thearrangements between theindividual and society

The agent of remedy can be theindividual, an advocate, oranyone who affects thearrangements between theindividual and society

Source: Gill, C. (1994) Two Models of Disability. Chicago Institute of Disability. University of Chicago.


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The Good News About Technology

Access to these tools assists faculty in better meetingneeds of students by tapping into learning styles and

strengths Howard Gardners multiple intelligences

David Kolbs four learning types

Innovations in technology tools allow faculty tomodify the way they teach so all students haveopportunity to succeed


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Technology Access Is Not Enough

Blind students Access to an institution's website is controllable; but not to the

rest of the Internet Issue of text book conversion

Deaf students Audio components to online presentations

Need for oral communication during some elements ofcoursework


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Technology Access Is Not Enough

Mobility-Impaired Students

Architectural access may still be an issue

Physical limitations may prove difficult in accuracy/speed ofonline participation

Students with Non-Visible Disabilities

Asynchronous classes may have timed elements


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Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners

Faculty should not assume they know what is neededto accommodate a learner with a particular disability

Ask!

The learner can provide the best information on

what types of accommodations are needed


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Some learners do not know what they do not know

May not be up-to-speed on recently developed andimproved technologies that can aid/support learning(e.g. screen readers, voice recognition, other

technologies)


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Knowing key resources at ones institution who canhelp with issues listed on previous slide proves keyfor faculty

Faculty members do not have to be experts

However, in addition to access to the neededtechnology; a resource list is beneficial


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Creative Thinking

Ideas learned from a learner with one type ofdisability can be useful to persons with different

conditions For example, a student with back pain from an

accident who needs to lie down frequently may

consider audio books or a computer screen reader These are solutions typically employed by blind

students


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Summary

Technology does not remove all the access barriers inonline education

Various strategies are needed to accommodate studentswith disabilities

The more faculty members, staff, and distance learningspecialists know about technical problems facingstudents with disabilities, their legal obligation to removebarriers, and practical approaches to improving access,

the more likely these barriers can be removed


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V I R T U A L W O R L D S P R O V I D E A N I M M E R S I V EL E A R N I N G E X P E R I E N C E T H A T E N H A N C E S

S O C I A L C O N N E C T I V I T Y .

T H E E X E M P L A R V W W E U S E I S S E C O N D L I F E( S L )

Virtual Worlds


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Higher education and Virtual Worlds

Many institutions of higher education have islands inSecond Life for the purposes of

Teaching at a distance

Supports presence, development and use of simulations, roleplaying, and more

Marketing & Retention Prototyping and Research

.g. testing marketing layouts for grocery stores, museums


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Companies and Virtual Worlds

Virtual Interviews

Meetings of non-collocated staffs Testing consumer acceptance of products

Distributed design meetings

Organizing events, including conferences (cite IBM)


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..and in the government and military

NASA

Examples of what NASA is doing, tours

NOAA Examples of weather-related phenomena

NUWC Examples of Navy activities and training venues

Some examples:


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Landing point for NUWC


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Teleport to educational areas in Naval venue


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Immersive education


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Tactical Training


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Collaborative Exercises


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Meeting Spaces (war room)


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Rose Island Lighthouse Newport, RI

Rose Island historical monument; used in both worldwars by the navy as a Navy Torpedo Station

SL great for tour of national monuments, battlefield,etc.

Loyalist College massively improves test scores and training


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Loyalist College massively improves test scores and trainingoutcomes in border crossing simulation


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Tomb of Unknown SoldierVietnam Veterans Memorial


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Opportunities using virtual worlds include:

Ways of reaching new populations with online education

Blended opportunities, localness

Corporate, alumni, and others

Workforce

K-12

Improving retention, graduation rates

Increasing Learning effectiveness

Cost reductions, improving scale

International connectivity and liaisons

Creating Do-learn experiences that are risk-free


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Summary of Key Points

Military educator persona instructors that havestudents who are needy; all army folks get 4500/year at atop rate of 250/semester hour = 6 courses a year. Or 18hours. There are about 100 schools with LOI (letter ofinstruction) can get reimbursed from others. Throughe-army page.

Disability how to deal with each type of disability Social networking how to add in people at other

schools into the network and how to augment yournetwork

Mobile just the ticket for lectures VW more immersive, interactive, engaging, social,

observable that classroom.


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Learn More

Conferences Annual Conference, Orlando, Florida, October, 2010 Blended Workshop, Chicago, Ill, April, 2010 Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learning, San Jose,

CA, July, 2010 http://sloanconsortium.org/et4online

Online Workshops http://sloanconsortium.org/workshops Accommodating Students with Disabilities: Leveraging the Online

Learning Environment 4/7 - 4/13

Supporting & Engaging Students Through Social Media 6/9 6/18

Selection, Incorporation, and Assessment of New and EmergingTechnologies for Online Courses 6/16 - 6/25

Great Web 2.0 Tools to Improve Learning 9/22 - 10/1

Beginning Second Life 10/20 - 10/29
http://sloanconsortium.org/et4onlinehttp://sloanconsortium.org/workshopshttp://sloanconsortium.org/workshopshttp://sloanconsortium.org/et4online


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In conclusion, a beginning:

The greatest real thrill that life offers is to create,

to construct, to develop something useful. Toooften we fail to recognize and pay tribute to thecreative spirit. It is that spirit that creates our jobs.

There has to be this pioneer, the individual whohas the courage, the ambition to overcome theobstacles that always develop when one tries to do

something worthwhile, especially when it is newand different.

Alfred P. Sloan


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Questions?

Visit the Sloan Consortiumhttp://sloanconsortium.org
http://sloanconsortium.org/http://sloanconsortium.org/

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Emerging Technologies in Online Education: The Sloan-C