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by Karen Nichols

National Distance Learning Week 2015 has been a whirlwind of free webinars and events across the country and even a few other countries participated as well.  I'd like to share with you a few of the webinars I attended that I found interesting and useful. When you click on these links, you'll be taken to Blackboard Collaborate so you'll need the Bb Collaborate Launcher installed in order to view the archived presentations.

"Discover The Latest Mobile Learning & Collaboration Technology" This one includes a discussion about the merits and disadvantages of native apps and web-based apps as well as some good questions posed by the participants.

"Virtual Presence: Inspire and Engage in the Virtual Classroom and Beyond" An actually inspiring presentation to me as a trained actress discussed techniques to use as an instructor in an online environment to engage your students.

"10 Signs That the Shift to Digital Is Underway – and 5 Ways to Get Ahead of the Curve!" One of the signs is that we have proof that students really do their homework at 1am!  This presentation contains several resources including the one below.

e-Literate TV is also an interesting concept introduced in this latter presentation. What do you think of it?

by Karen Nichols

I attended a presentation on using social media to engage underrepresented students at the most recent Online Learning Consortium in Orlando.  Several apps were discussed and Twitcam was one of them.  I decided to investigate it for myself.  If you go to the twitcam website:  http://twitcam.livestream.com/ the directions say you can begin in three easy steps.  Well, that wasn't quite my experience, but it was still pretty easy just the same.

So, from the Twitcam homepage, I was told that Flash needed to be installed.

Then I was told to set up my webcam.  Fortunately, mine is built in.

Next I have to log into Twitter.  But wait, there is no sign of Twitcam inside my Twitter.  What they should say is to "scroll down to the bottom of the Twitcam page and click on Broadcast Live.  THEN you'll be taken to Twitter where you can log in and see Twitcam.

Once there, you must "allow" Twitcam to access your webcam and microphone and then it really is easy to follow their directions.  You will be tweeting live which could be a really wonderful learning experience for various concepts you're teaching.

When finished, click on stop recording and you'll be asked if you want to archive your video.  So not only could you reach students as you streamed your video live, you can provide the link to the video for anyone who missed it or who would like to replay it later.

So here's just a quick example of a twitcam video I made.  Because this is a free service, you'll have to view all or part of an ad before the video will play.  Since you can tweet as you're videotaping, you can add the text of what you're saying to make it accessible since I don't see any way to add captions, or add something else like an assignment.  You can provide a link to the archived video or embed it.

http://twitcam.com/giovj

I'm really interested to know if you think you may like to try something like this and create a video tweet spree for your students.  If you do, please share!

by Karen Nichols

I'm back from Orlando and so excited to try, share and continue to learn about all of the presentation topics from the 21st Annual Online Learning Consortium International Conference 2015. There were hundreds of sessions so I couldn't attend all of the ones I would have liked, but I did my best to sample a bit of everything.

Congratulations to Xavier's own Richard Peters who received the award for best in track for: Going High-Tech in Higher Education: The HBCU Dilemma. (If the streamed session is no longer available when you read this, please reply to the blog post for more information.)

College of Arts and Sciences Dean Anil Kukreja and I co-presented on Taking Shape:  A Collaborative, Comprehensive Faculty Development Plan for Our Online/Hybrid Instructors. (If you're interested in a copy of the powerpoint and accompanying documents please reply to the blog post with your email address.)

MERLOT representatives were also present to talk about three new or updated features they're offering to educators:
  1. Content Builder actually hosted by MERLOT
  2. MERLOT Bookmark Collection
  3. Course ePortfolios (click this link to see sample course eportfolios)

The conference featured Discovery Sessions where you could browse an assortment of "how-to" type presentations as well as a Technology Test Kitchen where various gadgets were showcased along with educational uses.  Numerous opportunities to meet and connect with peers were also available.

The big news of the OLC conference was that they were awarded a 2.5 million dollar grant from the Gates Foundation.  Member institutions will be able to compete for grants in order to improve outcomes for underserved students.

As I was leaving Orlando, I took this photo and it really captures the soaring feeling I had concerning the future of online education, thanks in large part to the people I met from the conference and their dedication to continuous improvement and ultimately to the students we serve.

Hot Air Balloon Over Disney Springs
Hot Air Balloon Over Disney Springs

by Karen Nichols

Since Inverted Learning is this year's theme for CAT+FD and we are having workshops and information on flipping, here's a free, handy tool for annotating videos that you may wish your students to watch in advance of class. MoocNote does require an account but it's very easy to set up and does not ask for all of your personal information.  Here are the steps to getting started:

1.  Go to the MoocNote homepage and click on Sign Up.

2.  Enter your email and choose a password.  You're in!

3.  Once you're inside MoocNote you may import one video or an entire playlist from YouTube by entering the URL.

4.  Assign your video to a group (it can be a group of 1 if you wish).

5.  Begin viewing the video and stop it at key points to use add notes, questions, a resource link, etc.  The textbox and buttons are located directly beneath the video you're viewing.

Add notes links hotkeys

6.  Once you've finished, return to the Dashboard and you will see all of the notes you've made on the right side of the screen.  In the center, you will see the option to Share the video with others.

7.  Note that your students or anyone with whom you share the video will need to create a MoocNote account in order to view it.   I'm looking into any plans the company has to make links available in Blackboard to view from there.  Perhaps that will be coming later!

We've experimented with this in our ETC (Educational Technology Community) virtual meeting and some of the instructors find this may be a useful tool.  I want to share a video with my French 1020 students to get their feedback as well.  Please let us know if this app is handy for your needs too!

by Karen Nichols

I've been asked to share the following information about Global Collaboration Day:

Over the next couple of days, students, classrooms, teachers, administrators, parents and organizations will be either attending and/or hosting events online that are designed to showcase and promote global collaboration. We (Lucy Gray + Steve Hargadon, co-chairs of the Global Education Conference) are the calendar coordinators but not the direct conveners: that is, over 100 groups have designed and planned their own events which we have then organized into a directory and in special calendars to allow these events to be seen in any time zone in the world.

This is a huge worldwide experiment to demonstrate the power of globally-connected learning.

Examples of projects and events include: a teacher in Australia who will lead others in learning to dance Greek-style via Skype and Edmodo; African students and teachers answering questions through Whatsapp; and classrooms participating in a global virtual amazing race. There are professional development sessions for individual pre-service teachers, in-service educators, and other adults; as well as projects for entire classrooms to join in. We encourage you to browse the event directory or the calendar and choose a compelling event to attend!

Here are some tips to keep in mind as the next couple of days unfold:

Read directions and our website carefully to prepare.
If you have a question about a particular event or project, contact the host of that event directly. Their contact information is posted in each event listing.
Join our Remind texting and email group for event reminders.
If you need live help, we’ll do our best to be available. We will be in and out of this Blackboard Collaborate room as our own schedules allow.
Be patient! Things may not always go as well as intended! Learning to be flexible and adapting to situations online is a big part of becoming a global collaborator.

We appreciate the time and energy that our hosts have invested in this special day, and hope that our participants learn something new and become more

See you online,

Lucy and Steve

by Karen Nichols

A few interested instructors and I are experimenting with various video conferencing apps and software now like Google + Hangouts, Microsoft Skype, Apple Facetime and the fairly new Firefox Hello.  Firefox Hello has a very useful feature right off the bat.  It doesn't require you to install software nor set up an account with log in and password.  One person enters, gets a link, then sends it to the other person with whom s/he wishes to video chat.  You are required to use Mozilla Firefox as your browser, but it doesn't matter if you're used to skyping and your friend or colleague is used to Facetime.  You don't have to install then sign up for each other's videoconferencing service.

Screen-sharing is also an option with Firefox Hello.  You can share photos, discuss travel plans, collaborate on a project and myriad other activities.

Firefox Hello also boasts WebRTC-grade encryption to ensure your privacy.

I love the fact that a student and I wouldn't have to exchange personal information like phone numbers for Facetime, nor set up yet another account for another app, but I don't see a way to video conference with more than one person at a time and for a class, that can be a drawback.

Nonetheless, I'm happy to share with you this snappy little video from Mozilla Firefox about Firefox Hello and you can decide for yourself if this is a service that can meet your needs.

by Karen Nichols

Welcome back to our fall semester Everyone! I hope you had a great summer. I wanted to make you aware of this service from Respondus since Xavier has a subscription. They are offering a webinar soon on how to use Microsoft Publisher and Respondus Test Bank Network to quickly create tests. Here is some additional information Respondus has provided:

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  • Over 7,000 ready-to-use test banks are available for the leading textbooks in higher education.
  • Whether you use Blackboard Learn, Brightspace, Canvas, or Moodle, you'll quickly see how the Respondus Test Bank Network can save you countless hours each term. Best of all, it's FREE with your Respondus 4.0 license.

I plan to attend the webinar so if you're also interested and would like to attend from my office, please let me know (knichola@xula.edu).  You may wish to search the test bank first to see if there are any tests you can use for your discipline.

Wishing you all a wonderful new school year!

by Karen Nichols

As a followup to my previous post on discussion boards, I thought I would outline some best practices for responding to underperforming students.  All too soon, we'll begin a new academic year and it's so important to stay on top of our students' status and provide help to them, especially if they are struggling.  In a recent issue of Faculty Focus, Dr. Maryellen Weimer offers suggestions for feedback based on why a student is not doing well.

For the student who just isn't trying, she recommends offering alternate assignments and trying to find ways to engage that student.  When I'm teaching French online, I do tell my students to make suggested alternatives or I may give more than one choice for an assignment, but that is still not enough motivation sometimes.  When a subject is required and a student has no interest in it at all, what feedback do you give to help them?

For the student who lacks self-confidence, Dr. Weimer recommends focused feedback.  Be descriptive and specific--not evaluative.  Focus on each individual task that the student must complete and celebrate the progress with that student.  Learning a new language can be quite overwhelming for many students and getting them focused on completing the task at hand can be tricky.  When a student tries to read a paragraph in French and only understands 20% of it, s/he must be shown skills to apply to figuring out the other 80%.

There are other reasons for underperformance such as not possessing the requisite skills to be taking the class (you're trying to take French 1020 without 1010 because you had French in kindergarten?) or a student just can't grasp a certain concept (verb conjugation--what's that?).  In all of these cases, Dr. Weimer's article gives good tips on how to work with your students to help them improve their performance and hopefully succeed.

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by Karen Nichols
I know that a few of us in CAT have already posted suggestions and hints for success in using discussion boards. But I just have to share this guide with you from the Teaching Effectiveness Program produced by the Center on Teaching and Learning at the University of Oregon. Licensed to share through Creative Commons Generating and Facilitating Engaging and Effective Online Discussions (choose the discussionboard.pdf) is an 11 page how-to document that is chock-full of information, resources, research and examples. It is the best attempt I've seen yet that successfully pulls together the myriad pieces of what makes discussion boards work. A bit overwhelmed when I saw "11 pages," I soon discovered that it's actually an easy read. I would love some feedback from you to see if you find this resource as wonderful as I do.

 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike3.0Unported License.

by Karen Nichols

Sue Frantz just posted two items in her Technology for Academics blog that you may find useful in a variety of settings The first post offers up a great way to foster student collaboration no matter what modality you're using to deliver your course. Dropbox has a new feature that allows others to deposit files into your Dropbox account via a URL. Sue Franz does a great job explaining the how-to part in the blog, so let's think of ways we can use this feature called File Requests. If you give your students a group project and they are each responsible for a part of the project, they can then deposit their contribution into the Dropbox of their other group members. Once complete, the group can in turn deposit their final project into your designated Dropbox. I can also see applications for this feature when collaborating with colleagues at a distance.

 Collaboration
Collaboration

Sue Frantz' second post centers on engagement. In this instance, ParticiPoll works in a face-to-face setting when you want to use polls and embed the polls in your Power Point presentations. How cool is that? Again, the Technology for Academics blog post explains the how-to. In addition to using it in class, wouldn't this be a useful feature to add engagement in a conference presentation? I've just attended two conferences back to back plus a virtual one this week and the polling attempts were not 100% successful. I want to experiment with this polling app myself for an upcoming conference, but also to see if we can adapt it to be used virtually or at least via Blackboard Collaborate.

Polling
Polling

So if you find you have a little free time on your hands this summer, I recommend checking out Dropbox File Request and Participoll. Let us know if you do and what you think of these two tools.