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Category: CAT & Mouse: E-Learning

Published on Leave a comment on The 12 Apps of Christmas

by Karen Nichols
The University of London and the Dublin Institute of Technology both launched on 1 December their respective 12 Apps of Christmas. It's not too late to sign up. These are free online courses, aimed at students and instructors of all ages who are interested in learning more about integrating mobile learning technologies into their studies or classes. I have to admit that I was disappointed on December 1st when the University of London revealed the first app--Google Translate. I thought I knew all about this app, but I was surely wrong! Their presentation was easy to follow and well-illustrated. I truly had no idea that sound files would work on Google translate. Each app includes educational applications and actual activities for you to try of which there are several for Google translate. So check out the site and see if you may be interested in participating in reviewing the apps and these mini-courses and providing feedback. 15-20 minutes a day are kindly requested for you to give feedback to them. Here's the link:
http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/en/news/new-edition-successful-12-apps-christmas-online-courses-students-and-teachers

And here's a demonstration of Google translate and the song LaBamba!

Published on Leave a comment on 3 Facts about Mindset in Learning

by Janice Florent

mindset in learning infographic

Mindset is a crucial factor in learning. In a Learnnovators.com blog post, Arun Pradhan lists three well established aspects of mindset in learning. They are:

  1. You can prime your brain
  2. Interest drives learning
  3. A growth mindset matters

Each fact is supported with a tip for learning design to make the most of that fact. For more information refer to his 3 Facts About Mindset In Learning infographic.

Published on Leave a comment on Another Great National Distance Learning Week!

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?

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Published on 1 Comment on When “Alt Text” is not Enough

by Janice Florent

Computers can read text on a screen but images, graphs, and charts are meaningless to visually impaired users. Alternative text (alt text) is an alternate method for supplying information about images, graphs, and charts to users who are visually impaired.

Adding alt text to images, graphs, and charts is an important part of making them accessible. Most images, graphs, and charts can be made accessible using alt text descriptions. However, complex images, graphs, and charts require more detailed description than the limited one or two brief sentences that are used in the alt text.

complex scientific images

Examples of complex scientific images

What should you do when you have a complex image, graph, or chart whose meaning cannot be conveyed with alt text alone? There are several ways to handle complex images where a short description is not possible. The best solution is to include a thorough description of the complex image in the content of the page, immediately before or after the image. If you don’t want to add more content to your page, another preferred alternative is to create another web page with the thorough description of the complex image and link to it near the image.

You may be wondering what exactly should you include in the thorough description. The Diagram Center (Digital Image And Graphic Resources for Accessible Materials) is an excellent resource that provides comprehensive guidelines to make it easier for you to make complex images accessible to all learners.

Here are a few additional resources to help you with describing complex images:

It is extremely important for students with disabilities to have access to accessible course content. Describing complex images utilizing these tips is good course design. Even though you may not have a student with a disability currently enrolled in your course, you will find students without disabilities will take advantage of accessible content as well.

Published on Leave a comment on Have a Tweet Spree Using Twitcam!

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!

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Published on 3 Comments on Accessibility is for Everyone

by Janice Florent

mobile phone with the caption accessibility is not only for the impaired

Although there are legal mandates requiring institutions of higher education to make educational materials accessible (e.g., the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act), accessibility is fundamentally just good design. Content that is accessible is better organized and therefore more usable by all. Accessible content renders properly on a wide variety of devices, it is easier to navigate, and it conveys information in a consistent, logical manner. Moreover, changes in how we view the content are occurring. More and more content is being displayed on mobile devices. For content to appear properly on all devices, it must be well designed.

In my recent series of accessibility tips, I identified some things you can do now to design with accessibility in mind as you are creating content and setting up your courses. Designing with accessibility in mind will save you some time in the event you do have a student with a disability. Remember accessible content is not only for the impaired.

Just in case you missed my accessibility series of blog posts, I provided links to them here:

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Published on 1 Comment on Power of Podcasting

by Janice Florent

headphones laying on a desk

“Podcasting” is a term inspired by the Apple Computer Corporation’s iPod—a portable digital audio player that allowed users to download music from their computer directly to the device for later listening. Podcasting has changed in that it no longer just refers to audio but can also be video content which can be listened to live or downloaded for later use.

A podcast is similar to a radio show in that each show consists of a series of individual episodes you can listen to on your computer or on a digital audio player like an iPod. What distinguishes a podcast from a traditional radio show is that you can listen to a podcast whenever and wherever you want to, and you can subscribe to a podcast series so when a new episode is available, it automatically downloads to your computer.

Podcasts have changed the way people share their knowledge with others. This revolution has touched education industry and a lot of educators are using podcasting for teaching and learning.

The Office of Instructional Consulting at Indiana University Bloomington suggested some pedagogical uses of educational podcasting, benefits of podcasting, and things to consider if you are planning to use podcasting in education. That information is as follows:

Pedagogical Uses of Educational Podcasting

  • Preview/review lectures or course content
  • Language learning
  • Student-created content/projects
  • Reverse lecture
  • Screen/software demonstration
  • Situated (contextual) learning opportunities
  • Guest presentations (via podcast)
  • Supplementary course materials
  • Lecture recording
  • Mini lessons with audio and visuals

Benefits of Educational Podcasting

  • Doesn't require lots of bandwidth (as opposed to streaming media)
  • Network connection not needed in order to play (only needed to download)
  • Allows for timeshifting (both instructor and students)
  • Source for multimodal learning
  • May allow for re-use of content over time

Things to Consider in Educational Podcasting

  • Privacy and intellectual property
  • Value of human interaction and student-teacher relationship cannot be ignored
  • Potential barriers for technology challenged students
  • Potential barriers for students with different learning styles
  • Consider type of podcast in regard to purpose, audience, and file size
  • The time it takes to produce podcast

For more information about educational podcasting you can read the Ed Tech Review article “How and Why Teachers should use Podcasts.” In it, Prasanna Bharti explains how to create a podcast, suggests tools for creating podcasts, and lists some education podcasts that have experts and thought leaders sharing insights on various fields of educational technology.

Additionally, it is best practice to include transcripts and closed captions with your audio and video content. Many people believe closed captioning and transcripts only benefits students who have a hearing impairment or have a language deficit. This could not be further from the truth. Closed captioning and transcripts can also help students with cognitive disabilities, as well as learners accessing podcasts in noise sensitive environments, learners accessing the internet with low bandwidth or with a limited data plan, and basically all learners. Presenting information in multiple ways can help address the diverse needs of learners in the classroom and engage students on multiple levels.

Attend the upcoming "Creating Accessible Course Materials: Transcripts and Closed Captions" workshop to find out how to make your podcasts accessible.

Photo credit: Music Appreciation 101 by Dustin Gaffke used under CC BY 2.0 / cropped from original

Published on Leave a comment on Ways to Use Video in Your Courses

by Janice Florent

Video is one of the most powerful, motivating, and visual ways to learn. Videos can be used to promote critical thinking and active learning. The use of videos in education has become a lot more mainstream due to the accessibility and ease of use of equipment and software, but also due to the growing realization of the pedagogic benefits of video content.

In a recent Technology Enhanced Learning article, Phil Vincent suggested ten ways to use video in education. Those suggestions are:

  1. Record content for an online or ‘flipped’ course
  2. Record an interview
  3. Create a video introduction to a course or topic
  4. Create a screencast demonstrating a tool, technique, process, or software
  5. Record lectures/presentations for revision
  6. Capture a recording with a green screen or PowerPoint slides
  7. Create a microlecture
  8. Record assessment guidelines for students
  9. Review/present a journal article or text book
  10. Record module evaluation feedback

In Phil’s article “10 Ways to Use Video in Your Teaching” he provides examples of each of these. If you are interested in seeing examples of any of these refer to the article.

Additionally, it is best practice to include transcripts and closed captions with your videos. Many people believe closed captioning and transcripts only benefits students who have a hearing impairment or have a language deficit. This could not be further from the truth. Closed captioning and transcripts can also help students with cognitive disabilities, as well as learners accessing videos in noise sensitive environments, learners accessing the internet with low bandwidth or with a limited data plan, and basically all learners. Presenting information in multiple ways can help address the diverse needs of learners in the classroom and engage students on multiple levels.

Attend the upcoming "Creating Accessible Course Materials: Transcripts and Closed Captions" workshop to find out how to make your videos accessible.

Published on Leave a comment on OLC Conference Highlights

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

Published on Leave a comment on Annotate Videos in MoocNote

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!