Skip to content

Author: Karen Nichols

Published on Leave a comment on The Art of Effectively Managing Discussion Board Posts

by Karen Nichols
A recent edition of Faculty Focus includes an article on successful discussions conducted online. There is after all an art to effective online communication. These considerations include the necessity to communicate with all students in the discussion forum. Personally, I respond to each of my students' original postings, but I do not intrude in subsequent conversations between the students. (I do monitor them however, to ensure that the students are communicating appropriately.)

The Faculty Focus article also describes how you should communicate with your students depending on their individual needs. For example, if a student actively and fully participates in the discussions, you may wish to challenge him/her, while students who express confusion may need more direction and time spent in explaining the goals of the discussion assignments.

Further, try to be open to a variety of responses and lengths. More is not always better so be sure to give shorter postings and unexpected opinions and answers due consideration. Along these lines, there is an art to knowing when to lead the discussions and when to gently guide them along in order for the students to feel comfortable taking the lead themselves and/or expressing their sentiments even if they may differ from those of the instructor.

Last year, Blackboard sponsored a discussion on breathing new life into Discussion Boards:

Do you use online discussions? If so, what are some of your best practices and suggestions?

Published on Leave a comment on My 1 Year Anniversary!

by Karen Nichols

Greetings! I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for this incredible first year in CAT as Xavier's Distance Education Coordinator. I have learned so much and feel so privileged to be part of such an extraordinary team. CAT has an exciting calendar of events and workshops for the upcoming academic year and I'm looking forward to presenting a few as well as participating in them.

It would be easy to look back at this past year or to look around at the current state of distance education at Xavier, but I prefer to use the opportunity to look beyond our campus instead. My professional reading has led me to a positive report on the state of distance education in Africa.

The eLearning Africa Report 2014 contains several interesting articles, from a retrospective of Nelson Mandela's contributions in the field of education to a focus on distance education in three arenas--agriculture, health and tourism. 55 countries in Africa are included in the various data analyses. I highly recommend the editorial at the beginning in order to give you an idea of the scope and fairly optimistic tone of the report.

With the beginning of the fall semester right around the corner, I'm busily making preparations for our faculty and students but I'm glad that I took the time to learn about our distance education colleagues in Africa and the hope and vision they have for the future and their students. I believe I'll celebrate my future anniversaries by "looking outward" as well.

Published on Leave a comment on Using technology for teaching … or not

by Karen Nichols

Faculty Focus just released the results of a poll of instructors which included asking them if they used technology in their classes this past year. 75% said they did. While discussing this percentage yesterday in a meeting, our Director was thinking that number was rather low. I mean, everyone uses technology these days, right?

Well, actually, there are some professors who don't wish to have technology invade and take over their face to face classes where they are bonding with their students. They prefer for their classroom discussions to be organic without the clutter of gadgets and digital distractions. I can't fault them for that.

In my own discipline of world languages, technology has greatly enhanced our ability to provide students with authentic experiences. We can take virtual tours of museums, skype with a partner class on another continent and perfect our skills using recordings and videos. But I can also remember experiencing a class on learning Bantu via the Peace Corps method of the 1960's. Just a few students and instructor and only the target language and gestures. It was intense but 25 years later, I still remember a few words and that experience helps me to empathize with how our students may feel when they approach second language learning.

So technology or no technology? That's a decision best left up to the instructor and the material. I do believe one should keep abreast of what's available in order to make an informed decision that will ultimately provide the best experience for the students.

More information on Dartmouth and the Peace Corps

Published on Leave a comment on 3 Megatrends Influencing Distance Education

by Karen Nichols

One interesting session I attended at this year's Distance Learning Administration conference was a presentation by Dr. Connie Reimers-Hild called Future-Focused Leadership: Three Mega-Trends Influencing Distance Learning. To paraphrase her three trends, Dr. Reimers-Hild discusses the rise of the "Gig Economy", the fact that more people are choosing to live with purpose and the global marketplace becoming de-centralized.

I was not familiar with the "Gig Economy" but having learned more, I can see numerous examples here in New Orleans. In fact, there's a group of gypsy adjuncts in the city who have created a social network to promote their skills, inform each one of potential employment and support each other during these difficult economic times. How this phenomenon affects distance learning is far-reaching in that we must offer support in the way of courses, advisement and training programs to assist this burgeoning sector of the workforce.

We must also prepare our students for a de-centralized global marketplace. In addition to offering appropriate courses, all of the course offerings can be designed to promote higher order critical thinking skills and include projects in which students use and develop tools they will need to be able to survive and thrive in this environment. Distance learning providers must also consider these economic conditions in their strategic planning.

Finally, I found it interesting that "living with purpose" is a mega trend. CAT has worked a great deal with contemplative pedagogy. For distance learning, I have been researching ways to include contemplative aspects in online courses. For me personally, living with purpose and meaning is a necessity. In fact, I have posted in my office a quote I found from Dr. Vicki Zakrzewski, director of the Greater Good Science Center:

"Helping students find a path to purpose is one of the noblest aspects of teaching." This is my mantra whether I'm teaching a face to face class or online.

Published on Leave a comment on Geocaching: A Real Life Scavenger Hunt!

by Karen Nichols

I've just returned from a Distance Learning Administration conference on Jekyll Island in Georgia. It's a small island that is part of the Golden Isles group and very green, ecofriendly and easily navigable on foot or bike. I discovered there were over a hundred "geocaches" just on that small island and many of them were environment, nature and/or ecology-themed. Until recently, I didn't know about geocaching even though it's been in existence since 2000.

What is Geocaching?  Geocaching uses GPS-enabled devices to play an outdoor treasure hunting game.  It's international in scope and easy to play.  Basic membership is free.  Here's a quick introductory video:

Jekyll Island is a sea turtle sanctuary and is home to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center where the turtles are given medical treatment and the center offers educational exhibits and programming. A few of the geocaches had the sea turtle as the theme.

What a great way to get children excited about discovery and learning! In our Xavier zip code, 70125, there are over 900 geocaches so you can begin exploring today.

Published on Leave a comment on Can online note taking help to limit plagiarism?

Google Chrome offers a variety of extensions for taking notes on the web page you're browsing. After my own experiences (I still teach as an adjunct and taught online over 20 years before becoming the Distance Education Coordinator) and hearing stories from other educators, I am wondering if these online note taking services could help combat plagiarism.

Copying and pasting from online sources is so easy for students. Even if they go back and try to change a few words here and there, their work is usually flagged in such apps as Turnitin. If we make it easier for them to take notes on the materials, they would then have to write more of their own content for their papers and other assignments.

Here are 5 Chrome extensions, all with various features, that we can recommend to our students. They are Simple Notepad, Note anywhere, Mini Notepad, Note Board, and Chrome Notepad. Viveka Nagar reviewed these 5 features this past fall for I love free software.

Since it's not unusual for me to have sticky notes surrounding my computer screen and liberally posted across my desk and on walls, I tend to prefer the Note Anywhere add-on.  Here's a snapshot from their app store of what it may look like:

Note anywhere screen shot
Note anywhere screen shot

I invite you to experiment with some or all of these possibilities and let us know if you and your students find them useful.  Karen Nichols

Published on Leave a comment on iPad Apps for Use in Education

I had the privilege of attending several virtual sessions of the Sloan Consortium conference on Emerging Technologies recently. Several of the sessions were interesting and quite useful. The first session I'll report on is the one on using iPads in education.

Author Sam Glicksman was the presenter. His book iPad in Education for Dummies was well-received and is a great way to get started using iPads with your students. In the presentation, Mr. Gliksman talked about a few trends and apps to engage the students.

Explain Everything is an app that allows students to add text and video while recording in real time--very much like an interactive whiteboard but more features. New School Technology reviewed this app and has a nice video to demonstrate the features.

Mr. Gliksman also suggested having the students explore time-lapse photography and experiment with a few of the animation apps.

What great ways to enhance student engagement and foster creativity! Let us know if you're using any of these apps and how they're working for you and your students.

1

Published on 1 Comment on Microlecturing

Microlecturing is a short (1-3 minutes long) multi-media presentation used to engage learners. Jana Jab, co-founder of Edynco, has a concise but detailed article discussing when one would want to use microlectures and how to create them.

What can microlectures do?

  • provide a brief overview of a topic using key concepts
  • provide step-by-step instructions (i.e. how to solve a problem)
  • provide a personal introduction to a topic to engage your learners
  • provide a breakdown of a larger lecture into smaller more manageable pieces for your learners


How can one create a microlecture?

Of course, you can always come to CAT and use our Camtasia studio and receive expert support from Bart Everson--Happy Microlecturing!

Published on Leave a comment on Spritzing: A New Way to Speed Read

Spritz, a Boston-based tech company, is releasing to the general public a new app that allows you to speed read in a different way from other similar products that are currently available.

After a few years of research and development, they are ready to launch a wearable technology product for Samsung. This reader lines up the words to our actual way of reading (slightly left of center of each word) so that one's head isn't constantly moving as we read across and down a page.

image from spritzinc.com
image from spritzinc.com

I tried samples of three different speeds provided and found it difficult to concentrate. My mind wanted to wander--make associations with other texts, search memories. While I think this app could be extremely useful for technical reading, I'm not sure I would like to use it for literature or even non-literary fiction. Part of the "fun" of reading is savoring well-written prose or conjuring up delightful images of the characters and places described. At up to 1000 words a minute, there's no time for that!

Want to experience what it would feel like to "spritz"? Elite Daily offers samples as well as additional information. If you have a need for speed and are looking for time-saving measures, this might be the app for you! And if you decide to try it, please let us know what you think.

Published on Leave a comment on I’ll have some MERLOT

According to the website, MERLOT, Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching, " is a free and open peer reviewed collection of online teaching and learning materials and faculty-developed services contributed and used by an international education community. "

A program of the California State University System, MERLOT is a great starting point for those interested in technology-infused classrooms as well as hybrid and online courses. It's also free and open--no corkscrew required.

One of a multitude of resources is a scholarly publication, JOLT, The Journal of Online Learning and Teaching. JOLT has a wonderful index so that you can easily search for specific topics (and you're highly likely to find them).

As one would expect, MERLOT is everywhere social media is as well. They've even developed a presentation on how to use the social networking features of MERLOT:

So when you have a few moments to unwind in the evening, get on your laptop and pour yourself a glass of, well you know, and be prepared to enjoy--Salut!