Summer 2008 faculty opportunities and FCTL's Technology in Teaching & Learning Program

Beyond Migration: Rethinking How We Design and Build (Old and New) for Face-to-Face or Online Teaching and Learning

About
The Summer of 2008 will present an opportunity for Ferris State University faculty to design and build new face-to-face courses, update old courses and migrate current WebCT enhanced, blended and online courses to FerrisConnect. To support faculty course development efforts, the FCTL is facilitating a hands-on workshop that focuses on instructional design principles that apply in all learning environments. The workshop will include a deeper look at how to leverage the new FerrisConnect tools. Guided practice development time will follow each module to support faculty learning.

Logistics
Facilitators: Bea Griffith-Cooper, Meegan Lillis, and Bill Knapp

We will meet Mondays from 10 AM until noon for 6 weeks beginning the week of June 2. (Since Summer University is also scheduled at that time, we will work around those activities if necessary.)  At the completion of this project, you will have a completed Module that faculty may use in their courses.  You will also have the opportunity to purchase appropriate software for the course design, delivery, and student learning purposes that you identify.

Faculty participants are encouraged to bring a chapter or single class example that they want to design or redesign.

Details
The tentative schedule for this project is outlined below.

Week of June 2 -- Module 1
Rethinking how we design in all learning environments – face-to-face, enhanced, blended or fully-online courses

  • Upstream planning: Are we asking the right questions to pick the best modality/strategy to accomplish the learning?
  • E-learning research
  • Scoping our project: Resources, e-tools, support, time needed, roles, responsibilities, and pilot testing
  • Planning templates

Week of June 9-- Module 2
Instructional Design – basic principles that apply in any environment

  • Using a model such as the Critical Events Model
  • Getting started: Writing terminal objectives or outcomes
    • What will the learner know, be able to do, or believe afterwards?
    • Verbs and Bloom's taxonomy
  • Demo/Practice (worked example): Write (Navigation) module objectives
  • Considering domains of learning
  • Writing enabling or supporting objectives
    • Demo/Practice (worked example): Expand upon (Navigation) module objectives
  • Translating enabling objectives to activities
  • Planning the time and materials needed for success
    • Demo/Practice (worked example): Document the activities, time, and materials
  • Using formative assessment rubrics: Advanced organizers help learning
  • Planning summative assessment
    • Demo/Practice (worked example): Build a formative rubric
  • Using the Goals tool in FerrisConnect
    • Let’s Try It: How to link goals to content and activities in FerrisConnect

Week of June 16 -- Module 3
Content Techniques and Tools

  • Answering the buy outside or build in-house question (MIT Courseware)
  • Organizing and chunking the content
    • Writing concise materials-Essential versus extraneous content
    • Analyzing quality materials for purchase
  • Actively engaging students in content creation
  • Picking the most effective technology tools to support activities
  • Converting materials to web-friendly formats (e.g., PDF, FlashPaper, html)
    • Introduce the use of web-friendly formats instead of Microsoft documents
    • Demonstration/Hands-on: Creating documents with built-in table of contents to take advantage of the outlining feature of PDF and FlashPaper files
  • Using SnagIt
    • Introduce the use of screen capture
    • Demonstration/Hands-on: How to capture anything on your computer screen.
  • Using Adobe Presenter (add-in to MS PowerPoint)
    • Introduce the use of an alternative add-in to enhance low (or high) bandwidth courses
    • Demonstration/Hands-on: How to add audio to your PowerPoint presentations and export them as flash presentations

Week of June 23 -- Module 4
Incorporating Rich Media: When, Why and How

  • What cognitive load theory research tells us for e-learning
  • Making good choices
    • From static docs to simulations
    • You Tube
    • Teacher Tube
    • Wikipedia versus Wikis

Week of June 30 -- Module 5
Assessment and working with test banks

  • Review examples of rubrics for formative and summative assessment.
  • Review the importance of categories in the question bank.
  • Demonstration/Hands-on: How to export and import entire test banks from a WebCT course to a FerrisConnect course.
  • Demonstration/Hands-on: How to use Respondus to retrieve test bank categories or quizzes from one course and publish them to another course.
  • Demonstration/Hands-on: How to create tests in Respondus and publish them to FerrisConnect.

Week of July 7 -- Module 6
Orienting your users: Things to remember face-to-face or online

  • Reviewing the syllabus, your class culture, and preparing students for success
  • Explore e-learning navigation research – asynchronous and synchronous
  • Demonstrate a modular approach
  • Demonstration/Hands-on: Using learning modules in FerrisConnect
  • Controlling the environment
  • Demonstration/Hands-on: Using selective release in FerrisConnect

To register for this session, please contact Laurie Daniels at ext. 2440 or danielsl@ferris.edu.  If you have any questions about this session, please contact Bea Griffith-Cooper at ext. 3827 or griffib8@ferris.edu; Meegan Lillis at ext. 2406 or lillism@ferris.edu; or Bill Knapp at ext. 5439 or knappb@ferris.edu.

Using Wiki's, Blogs, Podcasts, and Social Networks to Engage Students in Active Learning

About
This course will introduce faculty to a variety of teaching tools that are all part of the Web 2.0 and social networking tools that so many of our students use today to communicate with each other. These tools offer an opportunity to enhance students' learning because they are already a part of how many of our students learn today.

The course will explore how to use these tools, look at samples of these tools in use, discuss best uses of these tools to engage students' learning, and how to assess students' work using these tools.  No previous experience with any of these tools is needed to enjoy and benefit from this course.

Faculty will be asked to implement one of these learning tools in a course in Fall 2008 and assess its effectiveness or usefulness in achieving the intended outcome or purpose.  Faculty will be asked to share their findings with other members of the course through a blog, brown-bag discussion, or workshop.  A $300 PDI is available upon successful completion of the work in Fall 2008.

Logistics
Facilitator: Terry Doyle

We meet from 9 AM until 1 PM on June 3, 4, and 5. (Since Summer University is also scheduled at that time, we will work around those activities if necessary.) 

To register for this session, please contact Laurie Daniels at ext. 2440 or danielsl@ferris.edu.  If you have any questions about this session, please contact Terry Doyle at ext. 2808 or doylet@ferris.edu.

A Discussion of Here Comes Everybody, by Clay Shirky

About
The discussion group will meet for one hour each week for six weeks. Our face-to-face time together will focus on discussion of specific chapters and topics of the book, Here Comes Everybody, by Clay Shirky. In addition to the weekly get-together, each member will post his or her reflections on the reading and discussion to a WordPress blog. WordPress permits bloggers to tag their entries, which may facilitate linking to and following one another's postings. Each group member will post to his or her individual blog by a specified day of the week and then follow up a couple of days later by commenting on one another's postings. The goals of the discussion group include investigating how social networking impacts organizing and the organization, and to reflect on the potential impact on how we teach and learn in the 21st century.

Logistics
Facilitator: Bill Knapp

We meet from 9:30 – 10:30 AM on June 2, 9, 16, and 30, and July 7 and 14.  A copy of the book will be provided to each participant.

To register for this session, please contact Laurie Daniels at ext. 2440 or danielsl@ferris.edu.  If you have any questions about this session, please contact Bill Knapp at ext. 5439 or knappb@ferris.edu.

Introductory Flash Training

About
Participants will learn to navigate the Flash CS3 interface, create, and modify graphics and text, animate graphics, add interactivity, and deliver video and sound in their Flash products.  We will explore examples of how Flash is used to create interactive learning objects and investigate how we can apply the technology to our courses.

Logistics
Facilitator: Bill Knapp

We meet from 1:30 – 3:30 PM on June 2, 9, 16, and 30, and July 7 and 14.  Participants will receive the textbook and software. The software will be installed in the training room; upon successful completion of the training program, the software will be transferred to the participant's computer.

To register for this session, please contact Laurie Daniels at ext. 2440 or danielsl@ferris.edu.  If you have any questions about this session, please contact Bill Knapp at ext. 5439 or knappb@ferris.edu.