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Category: CAT & Mouse: E-Learning

Published on Leave a comment on It’s Carnival Time–So Let’s Talk Avatars

by Karen Nichols

Did you experiment with avatars when they were the latest craze some years ago? Maybe you created one (or more) to enjoy gaming experiences such as Second Life. Mardi Gras is a great time to re-visit the use of avatars in education because, like masking for carnival, avatars can provide you and your students with opportunities for role-playing as well as creating conversations and presentations as well as providing information. Anecdotally, my students used to tell me that if I send them a message in the form of an avatar, they'll actually open it and listen to it because they're fun and different and not boring like words on a page. As a French instructor, I would ask the students to create an avatar that speaks French or have them use the avatar to explain a cultural event we were learning.

Voki is the most popular free site for education, although there is a paid version of it too. It belongs to the company that offers a premium range of services for monthly fees called Site Pal.

If you would like to use simple avatars to dress up an email or announcement to your students or have the students create an avatar for a particular assignment, then you can start with the free site, Voki. Voki will allow you to create one-time avatars and messages without signing up for an account. Here are the directions:

1. Once on Voki.com, click on the Create tab, top left of the page.

2. Choose Customize your Character and then play around a bit to check out the facial features, clothing, etc.  When finished, click the small green Done tab at the bottom right corner.

3. Next choose Give it a Voice.  You'll see a variety of options from calling in or recording your text so that the voki will have your voice, to typing a message and choosing one of the voices already programmed.  Note that if you type the text and choose a voice, there will be no emotion and some of the words may not be pronounced as you wish.  This is the choice I made for the little voki below so that you could hear what I'm explaining.  I also had to spell phonetically, Happy Mardi Grah, so that the US voice would not pronounce the "s".  Remember to click the green Done tab at the bottom right corner.

4. Choose a background next.

5.  Choose a player, the frame for the voki with the buttons the receivers will click on.

6.  Happy with your voki?  Click publish and name it.  When you click "publish" you receive the option to email a friend, link to it via the website, or copy the code to embed the voki as I did below.

http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=11002983&height=267&width=200

Site Pal, the premium site intended for the corporate world, is much more robust and not only offers simple avatars like Voki, but other ways to use them. My colleague who teaches Spanish and I have experimented with Artificial Intelligence in the form of a Graduate Assistant avatar. You may have seen something similar if you shop online catalogs. Our Grad Assistant was available with a click on any page in the language course. She popped up and asked how she could help. The student would type in a question, and if we had programmed in an answer for it, she would explain it to them. We used the idea of a Graduate Assistant, but you could design an avatar that's YOU answering their questions, and thus be available for your students 24/7! Instead of masking as someone or something different for Mardi Gras, here you would be creating a "virtual you" who can keep working as you try to sleep or grade or research. Sound intriguing? If so, contact me and let's talk avatars!

Published on Leave a comment on Avoid Death by PowerPoint

by Janice Florent

Nowadays more classrooms (virtual and face-to-face) have the ability to project and share a variety of computer-based materials. One of the most common methods of sharing information with students is to use PowerPoint presentations. Although PowerPoint can be a powerful teaching tool, it has been soundly criticized for producing boring presentations, full of endless content that fails to show context and relationships between ideas. This tendency of PowerPoint obviously works against what professors should strive for: stimulating students to connect ideas and engage in critical thinking.

I came across these tips in an Atomic Learning blog post that may help to resuscitate PowerPoint presentations:

  • Mix up your media – don’t rely solely on text or clipart, consider other media types (e.g. photos, video clips, music)
  • Use eye-catching graphics/software - an impactful visual experience can be created when you use eye-catching software and graphics
  • Send content ahead of time - consider "flipping" your presentation
  • Intersperse content with discussion, group exercises, and reflection time

If these tips have piqued your interest, you can read more in the article, 6 Ways to Avoid Death by PowerPoint.

Published on Leave a comment on Maximize In-Class Time by Moving Student Presentations Online

by Janice Florent

Virtual student presentations allow students to research scholarly literature related to course content, present their findings, and receive peer feedback; all outside of class time.

Virtual presentations are an option that allows for quality student presentations and does not take up too much valuable in-class time. Of course, virtual presentations may not work for all situations, but it is an option you should consider if you have student presentations and want to find a way to maximize in-class time.

Stephanie Smith Budhai, PhD, assistant professor of education at Neumann University, explains the benefits of virtual presentations and lists four steps to implementing virtual presentations in your classes. You can read more in her article Maximize In-Class Time by Moving Student Presentations Online.

Published on Leave a comment on OpenCulture.com

by Karen Nichols

When Sue Frantz was here last week, she mentioned during one of her presentations that MOOCs are being used by people who already have degrees but who are interested in lifelong learning opportunities. Well have I got a website for those of us who seek self-improvement! Do you know about OpenCulture.com?

This site is edited by Dan Colman, director of Open Culture at Stanford, and not only has links to MOOCs on myriad topics, he also searches for lectures, audio books, digital books, movies and any other educational media that he believes may be of interest to lifelong learners.

The curation of the multi-media items is well organized, so whether you're looking for a lecture lasting a few minutes or an online course on a literary movement, you can easily find what suits your needs.  If you have young children, there's even a K-12 resource site.  It's good to have a safe area to send the children to for their multi-media needs as well.

In addition, there's an area for learning another language or two. Since languages are my area of specialization, I'm anxious to try some of these sites. Having recently begun tracing my genealogy, I've become interested in Gaelic. Sure enough, there's a site in the list for learning the basics.

I also think this site may be of use to your students. Take a look at your subject area to see what may be available. If you see a film or lecture or even an introductory course for students who may need a refresher on the basics, you can post the links inside your Blackboard course for your students. There's also a section on free textbooks that are available. With the rising costs of textbooks, wouldn't it be useful if there's one that students can use for free?

I'm quite interested in the lectures available.  There's an entire series in French of Roland Barthes, one of the sources from my dissertation that I'm looking forward to listening to.  Here's one from Leonard Bernstein, part of his 1973 lectures on music at Harvard:

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Check out the site and let us know what you find interesting and useful.

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Published on 1 Comment on New Year’s Resolutions

by Karen Nichols
Happy New Year Everyone! Did you make any resolutions for 2015? I don't usually try to set goals on January 1st other than the rather nebulous "try to be a better person" one. However, Dr. Michaelis recently wrote a blog for the Huffington Post in which he recommended a few apps to help us keep our New Year's Resolutions. His recommendations are Rise (nutrition coaching), My Quit Coach (quit smoking) and Buddhify.

Perhaps one of your resolutions was to do more than use an app or two. If you've resolved to become more comfortable with technology and to try to use more of it in your courses, I have a few sites that I recommend in order to help you keep that resolution!

Try Sue Frantz' Technology for Academics! She is an expert on "finding new technologies so you don't have to".  Thousands of people have blogs with lists of new technologies, but Sue Frantz roadtests each one she writes about and then provides the most clear instructions on how and why to use them.

The John A. Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning and the Office of Information Technologies at the University of Notre Dame (the hosts of our Professional and Organizational Development listserv) has a very good blog, NspireD2. The entries are concise, relevant and numerous.

Finally (or should I have said Firstly?) CAT is always a great resource, so please consider adding a visit to us on the 5th floor of the library to your list of resolutions--we'll be happy to help you!

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Published on 1 Comment on How to Effectively Use YouTube in eLearning

by Janice Florent

Christopher Pappas, MBA, M.Ed., discusses various ways you can use YouTube to create collaborative and powerful eLearning courses. He writes,

YouTube can be an invaluable learning tool that eLearning professionals can use to make their eLearning courses more interactive, fun, and informative. In fact, it has the power to transform a potentially dull or complicated subject matter into an overall exciting and engaging eLearning experience. The key to tapping into the power of YouTube is to know how to effectively integrate it into your eLearning strategy.

You can read more in his article, 8 Tips to Effectively Use YouTube in eLearning.

Additionally, you can find more information about using videos in your courses at the following links:

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Published on 1 Comment on Don’t forget the audio!

by Karen Nichols
A few of our veteran online instructors recently had a panel on the positives of teaching online and hybrid courses. At the last minute, we decided to record the discussion. It worked out very well and we created and disseminated it as a podcast which was helpful to instructors who were unable to attend. Thanks to Bart Everson for helping us at the last minute but having forgotten this option in the beginning really gave me pause.

There are myriad programs and apps to produce amazing visuals and videos which we frequently present and write about. After the above incident, I thought I'd also provide information for the auditory side. eLearning Industry just published an article yesterday, "Audio in eLearning: Top 10 Tips For eLearning Professionals" which contains several best practices.  I've chosen three here to give you a sampling of their recommendations:

  • Have your students show their knowledge by creating and submitting an audio presentation.  I have had my French students record themselves reciting a French poem and then discussing certain aspects of it.
  • Provide audio instructions for assignments, especially the more complicated ones.  I have actually included audio files in which I read the instructions for my students.  They will hear me in French as they are reading along.
  • Include a "player" for each sound file so that your students can replay it as often as necessary and also adjust the volume and other aspects of the recording.

How are you using auditory files in your courses?  Do you narrate your power points?  Please share your best practices.  Meanwhile, in celebration of the season, here is an AUDIO FILE for you to enjoy--The Night Before Christmas as read by Louis Armstrong.  Happy Holidays Everyone!

Published on Leave a comment on Let’s grow an (Answer) Garden!

What is Answer Garden?
AnswerGarden is a new, free, quick and easy feedback tool. Use it for real time class participation, online brainstorming and feedback. AnswerGarden is standalone and embeddable, and shows hundreds of answers all at once.

How do I create an AnswerGarden?
No logins are necessary. Go to the Create New AnswerGarden page, type in your question and then press the "Create"-button. We recommend that you provide a password for your garden so you can edit it later. You can also choose a few preferences for the number of times a student can respond, etc. Your AnswerGarden is then ready to use!

Tutorials
Here is one of several tutorials created in different languages about using AnswerGarden.

There's a new free ipad app as well.

Let's grow our own Garden!  Click to give your answer to "What are your holiday plans?"

Published on Leave a comment on New York Times Webinar

by Karen Nichols:  I'm posting this message for anyone who may be interested.

Hello,

Please join me, Emily Ryan, Education Manager with The New York Times, for a brief demonstration of the various academic resources from NYTimes.com on Thursday, November 20th at 10AM PST / 1PM EST.

Learn About:

Academic resources inside NYTimes.com that will support your courses
Examples of how others have incorporated NYTimes.com into their curriculum
Special programs for core curriculum instruction and the study of leadership

Please feel free to register in advance and add this event to your calendar.

Click or copy/paste this link into your web browser: http://clearslide.com/v/k9u38s

To join the webinar on November 20th at 10AM PST/ 1PM EST simply click on the link below and dial into the toll-free conference line noted below.

Presentation Link:

clearslide.com/emilyryan

Dial in:
United States: (888) 419-5364
Conference Access Code: 3977-6248

I look forward to seeing you online.

Regards,
Emily Ryan
Education Manager

The New York Times
Sold by PCF, Inc.
(201) 560-2564

Published on Leave a comment on POD 2014 Leverage

by Karen Nichols
I attended my first POD conference last week and the theme was Leverage.  POD is our faculty development organization and such a wonderful group of people. I returned with a number of ideas and tools, not only for online teaching, but teaching with technology and general faculty development best practices as well.

I'd like to share a couple of links with you.  You'll be able to see the conference theme is well-used in a variety of ways.

One fun tool I learned about was 3M's Post-It Plus app. If you use post-it notes in workshops or classes and the students have to affix them to a board in order to see the responses from the entire group, this nifty app will allow you to snap a photo of the post-it-filled board. It then digitizes each note and allows you to organize them and share the board with everyone else. Here's a demonstration:

I'll be sharing more goodies from the conference in upcoming posts. Meanwhile, let us know if you try this app or find something that interests you in the conference links.