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Putting the Learning in Distance Learning
Mary Beth Orrange
AMATYC Math on the Web Themed Session
Thursday, November 20, Washington D.C.
http://south.ecc.edu/orrange
Who’s online?
Last year 3.5 million college students were enrolled in online college courses.
That’s 20% of the students in higher education in the US.
Each category of students are represented in that number.
Why are they online?
Top reasons cited in ECC’s survey data:
Course flexibility 69%
Family responsibilities 39%
Changing work schedule 32%
Had a good experience with online courses before 28%
Who’s Teaching Online
In the beginning a few hardy souls.
Now it’s expanded to how many of us teach.
We have better tools and more tech savvy students.
Have we lost something?
Personal Connections
Balance the email - frequent but not too much or they delete it like spam.
Use announcements – give the students a reason to login to the course site.
Let your personality through.
Teacher as a role model• Respond to their emails quickly.
• Return their phone calls, even if via email.
• Give them a reason to “come to class.”
• Fix typos and errors as students point them out.
• Be available during your office hours.
Create a learning community
• Use the resources of the internet, but create your own materials and techniques.
• Include tools that encourage the richness of a face-to-face math class; such as a question/answer discussion forum or encouraging them to work together on projects.
Confessions from an experienced online math
teacher
Attend AMATYC each year and return to my online class with fabulous techniques that I learned.
Stuff more “things” into an already bloated course.
Some good things I learned about here …
• online products such as MathXL, MyMathLab, and ALEX from AMATYC
• the use of projects to replace the rigidness of these products
• techniques to make my students comfortable with me and learning math online
Projects
http://www.makeitreallearning.com
Frank Wilson’s site
http://www.mathguide.com/projects/
A guide to developing math projects
http://amser.org
Applied Math and Science repository
Math Anxiety
Weekly Participation Activity:
1. Give one difference between the high school learning and college learning. (2 points)
2. What quality do you consider most important in learning math? (1 point)
3. Give one example of something you plan on doing while studying for this test that helps you learn math. (2 points)
Web 2.0 Tools
Another weekly participation activity:
Go to http://youtube.com and search for Math. Post the link of your favorite math video by Monday, May 12 for 5 Participation points. No points will be given for an example already posted.
Web 2.0 Tools - Wiki• In order to help everyone learn how to use their
graphing calculator I have set up this discussion forum for us to share what we know about our calculators. I have included several threads in an attempt to organize the postings. Feel free to ask questions about your calculator.
• To earn 2 points (up to a maximum of 10 points for five individual postings) describe how to use one feature of your calculator. These postings must be substantive, just describing how to do something simple such as adding two numbers is not enough! The posting might be a response to someone else's question or an original idea.
Calculator help
Links to help students learn how to use their calculators: http://mathbits.com/MathBits/TISection/Openpage.htm
http://www.prenhall.com/divisions/esm/app/calc_v2/
http://web.fccj.org/~mbasse/ti84/index.html
Resources
Free online graph paper:
http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/
Free graphing calculator online:
http://www.padowan.dk/graph/
General resources:
http://www.mathbits.com/
Common Sense
• Always proof-read anything you post
• Re-write materials that students find confusing
• Check links on a regular basis
• Limit the number of sites you use for communications – too many will frustrate students
Common Sense• Respond quickly to students – tell
them your expected response time up front
• Let students know if you will be gone or need to change your response time temporarily
• Make students aware of computer requirements and any plug-ins they will need ahead of time
Want more information?Find this PowerPoint show in (2003 version)
http://south.ecc.edu/orrange
Or on the AMATYC conference website
Contact Mary Beth at [email protected]
Thank you!