Online Learning Resources

Not sure, can we provide directory in a blog? Over the semester I came across few websites of interest. I just wrote short description and what interested me in these sites. Here you go......

a. ) Journals associated with Distance Education

1. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning
The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning is a journal in which readers can inform themselves about distance education developments in theory, research, and best practices in the field of distance learning.

http://www.irrodl.org/


2. The Journal of Distance Learning Administration
The Journal of Distance Learning Administration is a peer-reviewed electronic journal offered free each quarter over the Internet.

http://www.westga.edu/%7Edistance/jmain11.html


b. ) Websites which provide resources on Distance Education

1. The Distance Learning Network
This website has various information including DE accreditation.

http://www.distancelearningnet.com/


2. elearners
It has information on available online degrees and other resources.

http://www.elearners.com/


3. accreditedclass
This site has searchable directory restricted to regionally accredited universities offering distance learning degrees.

http://www.accreditedclasses.com/


3. ) Associations, Organizations in Distance Education


1. The DETC Accrediting Commission
This accrediting commission is recognized by the Council for Higher Education.

http://www.detc.org/


2. Global Network Academy
This is a non-profit organization whose purpose is the research and development of open source tools those promote distance learning.

http://www.gnacademy.org/


3. The American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC)
ADEC is a national consortium of state universities and land grant institutions providing high quality and economic distance education programs and services via the latest and most appropriate information technologies.

http://www.adec.edu/


4.) Major providers of Distance Education in Higher Ed, K-12 or Business


1. The University of Maryland University College (UMUC)
With headquarters in Adelphi, Maryland, UMUC has an extensive distance learning program.

http://www.umuc.edu/gen/virtuniv.html


2. The University of Phoenix
This is a for-profit university, founded in 1976, that specializes in adult education. It is currently the world's largest private university, with over 100,000 students in its online programs.

http://www.phoenix.edu/


3. Open University, UK
The largest distance education university in the UK was founded in 1969.

http://www.open.ac.uk/

4. University of South Africa
One of the oldest distance education universities is the University of South Africa, which has been offering DE courses since 1946.

http://www.unisa.ac.za/

5. FernUniversität in Hagen
In Germany the FernUniversität in Hagen was founded 1974. It has an extensive distance learning program.

http://www.fernuni-hagen.de/

Rubric for Evaluating Online Asynchronous Discussion

In our class discussions also in one of the in-class activities Rubric for Evaluating Online Asynchronous Discussion was discussed. Here are some criteria I found would be useful....

1. Did the learner posted adequate number of responses?
For obvious reason. Eventually students have to be evaluated and would receive a grade.

2. Did the learner’s reference reading materials demonstrate knowledge of the subject?
A good, reliable, and bona-fide source has no substitute in knowledge building.

3. Did the learner use appropriate examples?
Examples would cause learners to think critically and would give a clear view of the subject matter.

4. Did the learner demonstrate some logical thinking?

5. Did the learner participate online in a timely manner?

6. Did the learner build social rapport by engaging other learners with her post?

7. Did the learner structure statements well and demonstrate use of grammar?

8. Did the learner’s discussion demonstrate scholarly aptitude?

9. Did the learner’s discussions raise creative and/or original concepts that participants freely argued/debated/discussed?

10. Did the learner’s quality of the responses match the level of instruction?

Outcome of the Special Topic Discussion

At the end of the my special topic presentation we talked about different universities converting F2F course to online course: What would be the correct methodology to apply when converting a traditional course to an online setting?

I believe, as some of my fellow students mentioned, we should conduct a needs assessment or some initial planning and analysis on the part of the instructional designer. We should determining whether it is feasible to convert the course to an online one. If it is suitable, there may revisions and updates required. We should not forget the stakeholders and their interests. In addition, we need to do a task analysis to assist in implementing the best instructional strategy. I think, it is important to understand the learner characteristics in the analysis phase. Last, but not least, it is crucial to determine the financial constraints involved in converting the course to online. Of course, the best way to do this would be to create a budget.

Another important requirement is the need to provide instructor and student support for teaching and learning in this new environment. If the instructor does not have the necessary support, it is almost certain the conversion initiative will not be successful. Other issues to take into consideration are the content to be included, the level of interactivity (to ensure active and engaging learning), and ways to incorporate constructive learning techniques for the learner.

In essence, the analysis phase of instructional design may be the most important part of an online conversion project. Also, instructional designers should be highly cognizant of the instructor’s new role as a facilitator in the online environment and include support for the instructor in the design phase of the conversion project.

To be precise to get the endevour going I would target following three sectors. Some of them require more budget allocation some don't:

1. Provide Incentive:
- Pay raise or bonus is a perfect incentive.
- Other low-cost incentives would include recognition.
- Those who will convert their courses to DE will have guarantee to continue with their
courses longer period of time (i.e. they will have some kind of job security and
ownership of the courses they have built).

2. Provide Training:
- In addition to attending the in-house training I would urge Instructors to attend
college where Distance Education courses are taught. And, they will be
fully reimbursed. These courses will make many instructors interested in DE and
fear-factor will be eliminated to some extent.

3. Provide Assistance:
-Promise to provide FIT to those who will adopt DE.
-Allocate hours of in-house technical support specifically for DE courses.

Misc. Online Course Experiences

1. We had a situation where we wanted help from another department to start a joint degree. Both of the departments didn't have resources to implement it unilaterally. But, the other party insisted they would join the endeavor if only the degree is granted under their department. We found it would not help us much. It went on months long negotiation...... Then on a good day we struck a deal...both of us will have their own degree but we will share resources. Now both the departments have new degrees, basically they are the same, but in different names.

2. Long ago..I recall a news that Shaquille O'Neal received his Master's degree from the Univ. of Phoenix. They showed the graduation ceremony. I think this is a great form of advertisement for them to have such a well-known individual come out of their program. I don't remember what degree he received, but I don't think it really matters. I'm sure the convenience factor played a big role in his decision to get his degree from this institution. He is always on the road, and he may switch teams at any times, so he would be living in a different cities, and not always able to attend "brick and mortar" classes.

My Special Topic In-Class Activity

I tried to incorporate an in-class activity to my special topic presentation - Security Issues in Online Assessment. The objective was to weigh the value of an online degree in light of security issues is heavily debated and under a lot of scrutiny. To address these concerns online universities are pushing to get accreditation. In response to the growth of DE and Online degrees the Education Department is finding ways to help students make informed choices.

I described the Scenario as below: "You are an instructor. A student comes to you for advice. She is considering enrolling in a Masters program at an Online University. Should she do that? Or should she go to a traditional brick-and-mortar school? What would you say to her? What considerations would you bring into the conversation? You could choose to be an advocate of DE, or not. Please construct your argument in light of security issues."

It is interesting to note that most responded the questions with some conditions. If the conditions are met the student in question was advised to attend the online course, otherwise, she was advised to attend the brick and mortar institution. Overall the online degree was considered a second choice.

Some participants also raised some very subtle issues. Like a fully online institution versus a brick and mortar institution offering part of its courses online. There was a good discussion about the perception of online degree. Some participants argued that personal preferences, job opportunity, time commitment, ability to participate in an online course are major factors in deciding which path to pursue. The issue of technological prerequisites for enrolling in a distance learning course was also brought up.

Some participants went deep and analyzed the issue in detail. Like while most of the discussion was revolving around the value of the online degree in general, some mentioned that it is important to find out if a degree is valued in a specific area of work.

Some discussed the tricky issue of academic transcript. It was revealed that most, if not all, brick and mortar institutions do not reveal the nature of the course in the student transcript. Almost all participants predicted that eventually distance education will "catch up" with other modes of education.

There are also suggestions about 'how we can speed up the acceptability of online education'. The tone of the forum was to support it by enrolling in it.

There are also discussions about 'diploma mills' and rampant fraudulent degrees. The general tone of the diccussion was that these 'institutions' are one of the reasons of bringing 'wrong' perception about online learning. Enforcement of accreditation is the solution suggested. There are also consideration that an online degree from a premier institution may note deem inferior to a degree from an ‘average’ brick and mortar institution. Though the conversation did not take the intended path of security issues in DE there were cross-references between the responses which made the whole discussion a truly integrated one.

On I T 7130: Facilitation of Online and Face-to-face Learning

It is self-evident that the one of the main objectives of this course would be learning about facilitation issues of online learning as well as in face to face learning…in process which would help develop instructional technology researchers as well as practitioners a deeper meaning of facilitation. The criterions of online learning are well emphasized in this course. Threaded blogs were required for the course. We extensively exchanged excellent ideas on facilitation. As a graduate course there were much flexibility and liberty to express any other supportive ideas students can prove beneficial.

For me, the most important thing I learned from this course is the theoretical base for facilitation issues. My understanding is that in a graduate course students should seek deeper thoughts and ideas to explore their intellectual capabilities. We often design instructional materials and, especially, distance learning activities without much thought given to the theory and research available. A great amount of research articles on facilitation has been provided in this course. Also, we were introduced to one of the prominent researches on online learning – Dr. John Keller. Introduction to these researches helped me in developing groundwork for facilitation in online and face-to-face learning we practiced throughout the semester. Now, I can find the rationale behind a good instructional design involving sound facilitation methods and techniques. On the other hand, I believe I am developing a sense of reasoning which will help me develop better learning materials.

I started the course with a much lesser background of employing facilitation techniques in instructional technology. This course showed me the ways to achieve that expertise. I learned the crucial differences between providing information and ensuring interaction in a learning environment. The course brought up many ideas which looked at facilitation in learning from different points of view. With the help of the textbooks which are one of the most authoritative resources in the field we came across the standard tools and practices in the facilitation in online and face-to-face learning.

The structure of the course with its “blended” approach was a firsthand experience for me to learn about online learning. We discovered many of the fundamentals of online learning while practicing it through the online facilitation. I felt more confident about the theories taught when I found ideas presented in those theories reflected in the practice.

In conclusion, I can rightly say this course was an excellent learning experience for me. Many courses give emphasis on either the theory or the application. This course was a unique blend of both of them. We learned both the theory and the process of its application in depth. In short, it was a “complete course”.

On FIT Group Project

Okay... I should call it FIT Team Project. Our FIT group truly became a team. First few weeks we had two obstacles to overcome. First, there were not much happeing for us in the online course we were dealing. We were merely observing. Second we had to figure out what to include in the project...more importantly, what not to include.

We categorized the tasks in hand and start working in those tasks in depth. Category of the tasks essentially gave us a neat plan. Once this plan is followed..rest came automatically.

We had some thoughts for the improvement/justification of the site. We made sure we work together in the same direction, instead of duplicating issues. One idea was to walk the students through all of the tools available and how the course is run, the assignments, grading, etc. second idea was to scheduled Elluminate sessions from the beginning, so that the students can plan for them and be available on those nights, instead of scheduling them a week before the session. We also wanted to Develop rubrics for online discussion board postings, to encourage more in-depth and thought-provoking discussions. In addition to that, we can suggest improvement in the interface. For example, IVHS site can have search option. There are some more interface improvements can be done. We divided the topics among us then elaborated it with justifications.

We updated regularly the whole team on what we were working on. In the new activities sections, we suggested "This Week in History" link. Actually, the instructors just have a link to it from the website, but they don't have the students do any activity with it at this point. We also modified assignment in Week 10 and in Week 9.

One of the new activities involves the students creating pod-casts as part of their discussion board postings and to create at least one pod-cast as part of their final Napoleon assignment. We suggested students could post the pod-cast on their class site where they would be more comfortable with posting. More importantly, we throughly visited and investigate the entire site...that enabled us to find out and establish the course objective, purpose, facts, and activities. Overall, it was an excellent experience.

Special Topic: Security Issues in Online Assessment

I took the opportunity of special topic to do little research on security issues in online assessment. This enabled me to look into the overall online learning process which is a two way communication between administration, instructor, technology, and learners. It is evident that security issues will arise in each of these communication channel.

Now, the Online Assessment tecniques can be categorized into many categories...Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Demonstrating Techniques, lSelf management, Information Access/Management, Demonstrating Knowledge, lDesigning/Creating, Communicating, and Teamwork and Collaboration are few of them.

All these techniques has their advantages. Ease of Distribution, Inexpensive, Timeliness, Provision of Feedback, Links to Tracking and management Systems, and Interactivity are few to name.

To talk about disadvantages.... Learner Isolation, Impersonality of Computerized Assessment, Uneven Access of Learners to Technology, Technical Problems, Learner Anxiety, Learners’ and Instructors Technical Skill Levels, and Fatigue are most common disadvantages.

Now, what kind of Security Issues can arise when we implement an online assessment technique...the list is evergrowing...with Impersonating, External Help, Technological Glitches, Poor Planning, Collaborating, Time Issues, and Misrepresentation are most common.

Solutions? No Real Solution Yet ! Right now some of the remedies include...Holding Proctored Examinations, Minimizing Objective Tests, Constraining Access to the Test Website, Embedding Quizzes into Exercises and Readings, and Randomizing questions. Also, we can consider online materials as Take-home Tests, Virtual Communitie's Reality Checks would help too. Some other solutions include Integrating Collaborative Elements, having Large Amount of Questions, Customized Questions, Timed Test, and using Better Technology like SSL (secures server link).

What lies in the future....Planning Issues have Exhausted...now we have to seek for more Technological Solutions that would include Increased Interactivity, Authentication System
like Video Surveillance and Biometrics. Most probably, that future is not far away.

On Team and Group

How many times I have used the words team and groups interchangeably…many times. A discussion in the class on the difference between these two terms lead me to have a hard look at it.

Let’s look at the dictionary…the online Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary among dozen other definitions described team as “a number of persons associated in some joint action”. While group is defined as “a number of persons or things ranged or considered together as being related in some way”. So, the basic difference between a group and a team is that to become a group the members has to be somehow related. So, we can say IT 7130 students are a group because they are enrolled in the same course. On the other hand, to be a team, members have to have a common vision, goal, and interest.

I goggled the terms group and team to find many sites explaining the difference. Followings are the conclusion from them…

There are few criteria among others that differentiate a team from a group…

Why we are here: While group members might think their being together is for administrative purpose only, team members understand they are there to get results or achieve victory. Team members also do not need to engage in territorial dispute within the team. They have their assigned tasks and responsibilities. That is not the case in a group where one might need to struggle over “Turf”.

Who is the leader: Group does not have a clear structure of leadership. Accountability is not well enforced. But, in a team the leader takes much more responsibilities. A team leader has to be a beacon for the other members.

Who is responsible: In victory or in failure of the whole team all the team members are equally responsible. That is not the case with a group. A group member is only responsible for her or his own deeds.

In fact, it’s the responsibility of the manager of any organization to transform a group into a team. In a competitive world a team is more likely to perform better and bring result than a group.

Now, here is a quote I found in the net...

"Teamwork is a make or break situation. Either you help make it or the lack of it will break you." – Kris A. Hiatt

Mid-Semester Reflection: F2F Special Topic Facilitation

One of the most memorable moments of this course was to experience presentations with wide variety of topics throughout the semester. Starting with Collaborative Learning Through Wikis,
I liked the idea of presenting the Wiki’s different aspects. In addition to the benefits of Wiki the presenter methodically described the disadvantages too. The presentation was equally poised between public and business use of Wiki. The in-class activity enabled us to have a critical view of Wiki. Simultaneously, we had some hands-on practice of Wiki use.

Online Readiness Assessment presentation was unique in bringing up presenter’s personal experiences into the subject matter. I believe, the findings will be very useful for online learners in deciding their goals and objectives. The presenter systematically developed the assessment benchmarking which will help prepare online learners before embarking in an online course. The references provided with the presentation are very informative. It was a very thought-provoking presentation. Another thought provoking presentation was Virtual Work Teams.
The Presenter’s focus on cultural differences in virtual work teams was very informative and thought provoking. The discussion was facilitated very well. She delivered her presentation agenda very systematically.

In Critical Pedagogy and Online Learning the idea of conducting a debate was very unique. Informative video link at the beginning made the presentation more interesting. Definition of pedagogy was well described. Other informative presentation was Learning Environment Design. The presentation opened a new window of thoughts for me. It showed, all things taken care of, a poor environment design can diminish the effect of instruction. Moreover, the presentation adequately covered the points to be considered in designing environment in online learning. The logically organized presentation held the audience with its sharply designed visuals.

Presentation of Mobile Learning was informative in its introduction of new technology. Moreover, the presentation enabled a first-hand experience for the audience with the introduction of Mobile Learning gadgets in the presentation. I enjoyed the in-class activity of opening a podcast account which showed the user-friendliness of today’s educational technology. The presenter raised the question whether it is appropriate to adopt mobile learning in Instructional Technology in certain circumstances. The discussion showed careful examination of context has no substitute. Another technology related presentation was Organizational Podcasting. Presenter’s introduction of the dilemma in employee communication was best fit for this presentation. She raised the question whether we should spent bulk of our time in facilitating employee communication or maintaining our daily business. The answer was revealed in this presentation in applying moderation and in utilizing technology hence podcasting. It was a very thought-provoking presentation. . In essence, all these presentations were very enjoyable learning experience for me.

Facilitation in Online and Face-to-Face Learning

This course fascinates me with its scope and versatility. To be frank, most of the courses which teach the technicalities and management of online learning touch very little on the facilitation of online teaching. Some do, but the topic gets lost in the discussion of other topics.
Facilitating online learning clearly reflects the needs for today’s distance education. As online learning becoming more and more prevalent and complex in nature catering the diverse target population definitely is a huge and sensitive task.


It will be interesting to see how facilitation in online and face to face courses differ or agree. The difference between just a presentation and facilitation can be exemplified in following video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aLkYDWmOtA


Want to know other’s experience in online facilitation? Stanford University implemented its online CLAD/CTEL program which gives us some ideas how it like to be an online facilitator. Please check with the following videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TujGsjoSmtk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXl0PbMw5vk&feature=related

Welcome!!!

Thank you for visiting this page.
Blogs will be posted shortly.