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Preparing to Teach Online
Self-Paced Online Modules

Online Kick-Off: Monday, June 3, 2-3pm
Online Wrap-up: Thursday, June 27, 2-3pm

Overview

Are you planning to teach an online course, or just curious about online teaching and learning? Then you can be among the first to explore the new Preparing to Teach Online self-paced learning modules by participating in this pilot offering! As you complete the modules, you will learn about the practices and principles of online teaching and plan for applying them to a course you may want to teach online. The modules cover these foundational online teaching topics:

• Best practices for online teaching
• Methods and models for online teaching
• Technology to communicate, collaborate, and assess
• Communication strategies
• Assessment techniques

Preparing to Teaching Online consists of 6 modules and may take 8-10 hours to complete. Because the modules are self-paced, you can complete the modules at any time before the wrap-up date and at your own speed. You have the flexibility to decide if you want to spread the material out over the entire 3.5 week period or complete them all in a week or even a single day! Each module includes a short narrated tutorial, suggested readings, and a quiz. Periodically, you will reflect on what you have learned thus far and how it will influence your course design. Throughout the modules, there are opportunities for you to work on the design for a course you plan to teach online. The modules are based on best practices in online teaching, were developed according to industry-standard quality rubrics, and have been reviewed fully by internal as well as external reviewers. 

Module Topics

While the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center has offered extensive training on online teaching, this is the first time the training is available for self-paced learning online. The modules and this pilot offering for a faculty cohort group are made possible by the partial funding received through NIU Foundation’s Venture Grants. Participants will be requested to provide feedback on the module design, content, and overall experience so that the modules can be enhanced further. Please note that the modules cover issues related to preparing to teaching online and do not include hands-on training that may be necessary to teach online.

Technology Requirements

Participants must have a computer running a browser compatible with Blackboard (more information is available at http://kb.blackboard.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=72810639). In addition, participants should have Java and Flash installed. For the kick-off and wrap-up sessions, speakers or a pair of headphones is necessary.

Alternatively, participants may also complete the modules from their iPhone, iPad, or Android phone or tablet. Mobile participants will need to download the free Blackboard Mobile Learn and Blackboard Collaborate Mobile apps. 

Participants should have basic computer skills (internet browsing and file management) and prior experience with Blackboard.

Registration Information

This online course is open to all faculty, instructors, and teaching staff (SPS and Civil Service), but the registration will be limited to 25 participants for this piloe offering. Registered participants will receive access to the Preparing to Teach Online Blackboard course. Participants who complete all of the assessments by the wrap-up date will receive a certificate of participation. Advance registration is required.

Attendance at the online Kick-off and wrap-up sessions is strongly encouraged but not required for participation or completion. These sessions will be recorded and available for viewing after the event.

Registration Deadline: May 28, 2013. Due to the advance notice needed for ensuring access to the course and managing the cohort group, please register for this course online at http://facdevprograms.niu.edu/ERAP/Login.aspx?eID=254. Please register only if you plan to complete all of the self-paced modules by June 27, 2013. 

After you register, if you are unable to attend, please cancel your registration by May 30, 2013 at http://j.mp/facdevprograms so that those on the waiting list may be given the opportunity to participate in this effort.

Questions?

If you have any questions or need clarifications about this self-paced learning course, please contact the Center at 815-753-0595 or facdev@niu.edu. 

Sponsor:

Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center and NIU Foundation Venture Grants

Blackboard Learn, the course management system utiilized by Northern Illinois University faculty, staff, teaching assistants, and students, continues to be an important platform for facilitating teaching at learning at NIU, with over 97% of students and 82% of teaching faculty using the system during Fall 2012.  Over the past several years, there have been significant upgrades implemented to the system which have added many new features as well as an improved overall user experience.

The next upgrade to Blackboard Learn at NIU scheduled for June 8, 2013 will provide an even more user friendly and modern experience for students and faculty alike. Educators and students were in fact the driving force behind the development of the latest release, with nearly nearly 640 institutions, including NIU, as well as over 600 educators and nearly 600 students contributing to the development process.  This has made Blackboard Learn simply better for educators and students.

Many existing features have been improved and some exciting new features added to make the user experience more efficient. The following is a quick overview of the tools that you can expect to be using soon.

Take a Peek at What’s New

New features include:

• New Content Editor: Vastly improves the user experience for formatting text, pasting content from Word, and more.
• Assessment Item Analysis: Provides statistics on overall test performance on individual test questions.
• Assessment Fill-in-the-Blank Question Enhancement: Fill-in-the-Blank and Fill-in-Multiple-Blanks questions now offers regular expression options for grading answers.
• My Blackboard: Create your own profile and discover and interact with others in your academic network.
• Inline Assignment Grading: View, annotate, and grade student-submitted files “inline” without the need to download any files.
• Retention Center: Identify at-risk students by using pre-configured rules or by creating your own.
• New Calendar: Sporting a new UI, the new calendar now integrates fully into your courses. Never miss an assignment again.
• Blackboard Drive: View, edit, and manage your Content System files right from your desktop.

Learn More

For a complete listing of new features coming in Blackboard 9.1 SP10/11, visit http://www.niu.edu/blackboard/upgrade/features.shtml or sign-up to attend an upcoming workshop, details at http://www.niu.edu/blackboard/upgrade/workshops.shtml

The live online trainings are available in the form of scheduled group workshop classes, or in private one-on-one training sessions by request on a date and time that works for your schedule. All live online trainings (group or private) will take place on a web conferencing platform and will require participants to have a headset with a microphone. For those who would rather take a comprehensive self-paced course complete with practice activities and assessments, these courses will be hosted on a learning management system and can be completed at any time without a deadline. These self-paced training courses would be perfect for teaching assistants or any faculty needing to work through training at their own pace. All training options deliver the same content – participants simply choose the training format that is best for them and their schedule. Participants may sign up for the live group online classes based on the current calendar of offerings; for live one-on-one training or to enroll in a self-paced training course, please contact Kevin Herrholtz, Training Manager, directly via email at training@turningtechnologies.com or via phone at 330-599-4936. For more information, refer to the following links:

Information on Live Online Classes: http://www.turningtechnologies.com/online-classes

Information on Self-Paced classes: http://www.turningtechnologies.com/self-paced-training

All of these training options are offered at no cost, so please take advantage of these trainings! When signing up for training, participants should note the version of the TurningPoint software they will be using. Faculty teaching in a Provost-sponsored smart classroom are using the latest version of TurningPoint; all other campus buildings may still be on the legacy version. For faculty teaching with clickers for the first time, they should request training on using the hardware and on the PowerPoint Polling feature of the clicker software. Various levels of training for these different features are available.

Moving forward, any faculty, staff, and teaching assistants interested in using clickers for the first time are strongly encouraged to consider registering for training workshops through Turning Technologies. Those needing a free clicker kit (containing a clicker and receiver) should contact the Turning Technologies account manager, Melinda Caban, at mcaban@turningtechnologies.com or 330-599-4925. If anyone has any general questions related to clickers, please contact the Faculty Development & Instructional Design center at facdev@niu.edu, or 815-753-0595.

The Never Stop Learning Tour is also a unique opportunity to plug into your community and engage with fellow Blackboard users in your region. Transfer knowledge and come away with all the answers to your most pressing questions.

Blackboard’s next stop is at the University of Illinois at Chicago in Chicago, IL! Blackboard invites you to this FREE, one-day event to:

• Connect with other Blackboard users in your area
• Learn about the latest in new features in Blackboard
• Ask questions or share feedback with Blackboard product experts

Faculty Track

The Higher Education Faculty track includes a series of presentations designed to help you improve your online teaching experience. You’ll get new ideas and learn best practices to increase efficiency, improve student engagement and further enhance your skills on creating engaging content to meet course objectives. Presentation topics might include:

• Meet the Grade Center
• Methods for Encouraging Academic Honesty
• Wikis, Blogs, Forums, Journals – Which One Do I Use & Why?
• Methods for Engaging Your Students with Media

More Details

When: Thursday, May 23, 2013
Where: University of Illinois at Chicago, Student Center West
Registration: REGISTER NOW >>

Background

The historical roots of metacognition first took hold in the 1970s—the concept was introduced by developmental psychologist John Flavell, whose “work focused on children’s metamemory” (Baker, 2013, para. 3). Flavell’s definition of metacognition comprised both knowledge and control of ones cognition, in which knowledge is what a person knows about how they know and perceive information: Knowing how one learns best, what the person is supposed to do, and the best ways the person can accomplish a task (Baker, 2013). The control component considers how the person understands the process of knowing: The actual plans and strategies used to make progress in learning something. The process can include a using a specific method to learn a task, evaluating the progress made, and making changes to accomplish a task if necessary (Baker, 2013).

At the Spring 2013 Teaching Effectiveness Institute, Get Students to Focus on Learning Instead of Grades: Teach Them How to Learn, Dr. Saundra McGuire (Louisiana State University), offered ways to incorporate metacognitive strategies in the classroom. Dr. McGuire suggested that students who take an active part in thinking about their thinking, and analyze what they are doing, are better able to comprehend information which can lead to better grades. McGuire contends that metacognition is “the ability to think about one’s own thinking, be consciously aware of oneself as a problem solver, monitor, plan, and control one’s mental processing (e.g., “Am I understanding this material or just memorizing it?”), and accurately judge one’s level of learning” (McGuire, 2013 citing Flavell).

McGuire stresses the importance of helping students who may be struggling “to make the grade” through individual learning consultations. During these meetings, McGuire suggests a series of steps in which you can motivate students to improve their academic performance. First, build a relationship with students by making them feel comfortable – helping them realize that they can be successful. Creating hope – show how previous students’ low scores have been improved when they use learning strategies. In building confidence, have the student work on an activity that demonstrates how failing one part of the exercise can be turned into A or B level performance just by having them use one learning strategy. Guiding analytic reflection is where you ask the student to distinguish the difference between studying and learning, where they often reveal that they have been in study mode instead of learn mode. Introducing new ideas such as metacognition and Bloom’s Taxonomy helps students connect what they know to strategies they can actually use and succeed. At the end of the consultation, you can build motivation to change by reviewing the usefulness of the strategies and encouraging students to actually use them to succeed.

Strategies

Below are strategies you can implement in your teaching that can make an immediate impact on students’ learning to help them think about their thinking:

• Establish a nurturing and engaging classroom environment where students are more likely to feel emotionally secure and confident that they can succeed
• Create a community of scholars where students are accountable to each other (everyone must participate or there will be a quiz next class session; implement group quizzes)
• Assign classwork and homework that require higher order thinking skills (refer to Bloom’s Taxonomy)
• Provide students opportunities to teach course content (these “mini lectures” will allow students to prepare and check their understanding of the content)
• Assess students’ learning frequently (formatively, throughout the semester through quizzes, questions, observations, discussions)
• Provide frequent feedback to students (use rubrics; include substantive written comments on papers, projects, exams; make affirming in-class comments about student input, achievement, etc.)
• Create learning goals for your students (to help them become better learners and keep them on task)
• Show students how to use concept maps and graphic note taking strategies for textbook readings and class notes
• Provide multiple opportunities for students to reflect on what is being taught (think-pair-share, journals, classroom discussions, questioning)
• Teach students concrete learning strategies (demonstrate strategies in class and provide resources such as SQ5R, Study Cycle, Intense Study Sessions for access outside of class)
• Use Skip Downing strategies, which are innovative ways to help students achieve greater academic success and retention

You can share the following strategies with your students to help them think about their own thinking (helping them learn and positively impact their grades).

• Establish a set of personal learning goals (How do you learn?, How do you take tests?, etc.)
• Create a self report card (self report cards allow students to think about their own progress in class)
• Focus on the whys instead of the whats
• Look at relationships between concepts and ideas
• Think of analogies in your lives that relate to the new information being presented and how you are using it
• Analyze and write down what specific learning strategies you will use between learning new information and taking a test of that information (SQ5R, Study Cycle)
• Analyze what questions you missed on the first test and determine why you missed those questions
• Solve problems without first looking at examples or solutions (this will help you think critically and creatively)
• Use concept maps, notetakers, and other visual note taking devices to outline textbook readings and lecture notes (these devices can assist you in learning how to learn, helps with review, helps improve higher order thinking skills – refer to Bloom’s Taxonomy)
• Ask students the following question: “If you were asked to teach this class, what kinds of strategies would you use to help you learn new information?”

To introduce students to the importance of thinking about their thinking, McGuire suggests a Metacognitive Get Acquainted Activity by Simpson and Rush (2012) that can be quickly implemented in class. If conducted early in the semester, the results can also serve as formative feedback. This feedback can serve a number of purposes: first, that you value students’ opinions; second, to help students focus on what they know and what they can do; and third, that you can adjust course content to meet students’ needs before the semester ends. Here are the three open-ended questions:

1. What do you believe is important to understand and learn in [insert your discipline here]?
2. What do you believe to be critical characteristics of successful students in [insert your discipline here]?
3. How will you study and prepare for exams in [insert your discipline here]?
   Simpson & Rush (2012, p. 268)

Developing a mindset that can help you motivate and encourage your students to think about their own thinking takes time and effort. Saundra McGuire (2013) recommends, therefore, the following points as you search new ways that can help make you a better educator:

• Embrace challenges rather than avoiding them.
• Persist when presented with obstacles rather than giving up easily.
• Take the path to mastering tasks that require effort rather than considering them fruitless.
• Learn from criticism rather than ignoring it.
• Find lessons and inspiration in the success of others rather than feeling threatened by them.

Summary

“We can significantly increase student’s ability to learn by teaching them the learning process and provide specific strategies; avoid judging student performance on initial performance; encourage students to persist in the face of initial failure; and encourage students to use metacognitive tools to help them succeed” (McGuire, 2013). Implementing metacognitive strategies in the classroom will help students transition from being passive to actively engaged learners who can impact their own learning both in and out of classroom.

Saundra McGuire recommended a number of books that you can use to help your students understand their own learning, all of which are available online.

How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School by Bransford & Brown (2000)

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Dweck (2006)

Teaching Strategies in Developmental Education: Readings on Theories, Research, and Best Practice by Hodges, Simpson, & Stahl (2012)

The Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About Genetics, Talent, and IQ is Wrong by Shenk (2010)

References

Baker, L. (2013). Metacognition. Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/metacognition/

Flavell, J. H. (1976). Metacognitive aspects of problem solving. In L. B. Resnick (Ed.), The nature of intelligence (pp. 231-236). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Livingston, J. A. (1997). Metacognition: An overview. Retrieved from http://gse.buffalo.edu/fas/shuell/cep564/metacog.htm

Simpson, M., & Rush, L. (2012). College students’ beliefs, strategy employment, transfer, and academic performance: An examination across three academic disciplines. In R. Hodges, M. L. Simpson, & N. A. Stahl (Eds.), Teaching study strategies in developmental education (pp. 265-275). New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s Professional Resources.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013
10:00am – 3:30pm
Online

Education leaders and innovators around the world are transforming education today. Join us for this online webcast to explore amazing trends that are shaping the future of education. Learn about leading-edge strategies and practical solutions that are improving the quality of education, everywhere.

Overview | Agenda | Register | Speakers | FAQ

Preserving the integrity of student learning assessment is as much of a priority for online courses as it is for traditional face-to-face instruction. Although there is concern that academic dishonesty or ‘cheating’ might be more likely to happen in an online setting, studies comparing face-to-face and online settings have yielded mixed results (Grijalva, Nowell, Kerkvliet, 2006; Lanier, 2006; Stuber-McEwen, Wiseley, Hoggatt, 2009). Yet, a perception persists that challenges to preventing cheating are somewhat different in an online setting because faculty and students are physically separated from each other. This remoteness certainly makes it difficult to monitor various types of learning assessment activities.

Watson and Sottile (2010) have reported that cheating online can manifest in a number of ways including students who: (1) submit others’ work as their own, (2) receive/send answers from/to other students (by texting, using instant messaging, talking on a phone) while taking a test or quiz, (3) receive answers from a student who has already taken a test or quiz, (4) copy other students’ work without permission, (5) knowingly plagiarize from an article or book, or (6) use a term paper writing service.

Although it may be difficult to prevent cheating entirely, faculty can implement steps to reduce its impact in the student learning assessment process for online courses. The following are some practical tips to prevent or reduce cheating for two common learning assessment activities, namely testing and homework assignments.

Tips for Testing

• Purposefully Select Assessment Methods – Use online testing, particularly objective test (i.e., multiple choice, multiple answer, true/false) for lower stakes assessment of student learning. In assessing student mastery of course goals and objectives, objective tests should be only one option considered among a spectrum of methods considered. Each type of assessment method may be designed to measure different indicators of student learning based on course goals and objectives. While an objective test can measure a student’s ability to recall or organize information, other methods can be used to assess higher order/critical thinking skills including understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating (Krathwohl, 2001).

• Mix Objective and Subjective Questions – While online testing can include objective measures (multiple choice, multiple answer, true/false, fill in the blank, etc.), faculty can also include short answer or essay questions. This type of question is more subjective in nature and may demand a deeper understanding of the subject being tested. While mixing objective and subjective type questions may not discourage or stop sharing of information, it may limit the effect on the student’s final grade (Watson and Sottile, 2010).

• Use Question Pools – Rather than using a fixed number of items that remain unchanged for each administration of the test, consider creating a question pool. Questions can be grouped by any number of criteria, including topic, subject matter, question type or difficulty of question. A pool will generate an assessment with randomized questions selected by the faculty member. Pools can be created from new questions or questions in existing tests or pools. Pools are most effective when there are large numbers of questions in one group. For example, one might have a pool of true/false questions, another of multiple choice and a third for fill in the blank. The faculty member could then create an assessment drawing a specific number of questions from each of the question-type pools. Faculty can also add new questions to pools each time the course is taught to expand the variability of questions. Conversely, older questions can be removed. Check the Teaching with Blackboard Question Pools web page for more details.

• Randomize Questions – When creating a test in Blackboard, one test option allows faculty to randomize the selection of test questions as well as the order in which they appear. The result is that students are not likely to get the same questions in the same sequence when taking a test. This strategy can address the issue of students who take a test at the same time in order to share answers. This is also relevant if faculty allow students to repeat the test. Each time this occurs, a test will be made up of questions that are randomly selected and ordered.

• Limit Feedback – Limit what types of feedback is displayed to students upon completion of a test. Available test options include test ‘Score’, ‘Submitted Answers’, ‘Correct Answers’, and ‘Feedback’. Providing test scores is important feedback that indicates how well students have performed and should be made available. However, through a process of elimination, students may be able to determine the correct answer for each test question if their submitted answers are identified as incorrect, or if the correct answer is provided. Students could lose the incentive to both prepare for testing or to seek out correct answers by reviewing lecture notes, assigned readings, or through group discussion after completing tests. Thus, faculty might reconsider whether to include ‘Submitted Answers’ as an option to be displayed to students. This is especially relevant if faculty have allowed students to repeat tests. Each time a test was taken, students could attempt a different answer for a test question that was previously graded as incorrect. Correct answers to all test questions could eventually be accumulated and passed on to other students, or to students of future classes.

• Set Timer – Recognizing the fact that students taking an exam that is not proctored are free to use open book/notes, faculty may decide to use the ‘Set Timer’ feature in Blackboard. Students who adequately prepared for a test may be less likely to rely on open book/notes compared with students unprepared for testing. By setting a test with an expected completion time, unprepared students could have the most to lose as they spend time going over material, and risk not having sufficient time to respond to all the test questions.

• Display Questions One At A Time – If a test has more than 5 questions, do not choose the ‘All at Once’ option for displaying all the questions on the same screen. It is quite easy for students to take a screen capture of the displayed questions and share them with other students. While students can still screen capture pages with single questions, or even type them into a document, it is more time consuming and unwieldy.

Tips for Homework Assignments

• Create Application Assignments – Create assignments that require students to apply essential course concepts to a relevant problem. This may force students to seek relevant information beyond the assigned readings and lectures, and conduct independent research by identifying credible sources to support the development of their assignments. Students can be required to report their progress on a regular basis through email, or through the Journal feature in Blackboard. This documentation makes it easier for faculty to see the development of a student’s work from inception to completion, and possibly identify unexplained gaps that could occur if students used the work of others and claimed it as their own. Faculty can add input at any point in this process to provide guidance, and perhaps suggest new directions for students. Both documentation of progress through regular status reporting and occasional faculty input can add a greater level of scrutiny to students, making it more difficult to pass off the work of others as their own.

• Create Group Assignments – Create group assignments that require students to interact with group members regularly. Groups can be made responsible for determining the functional roles for each member, establishing a mechanism for accountability (i.e., submitting weekly progress reports), and sharing drafts of individual progress on a group project. For a project to be truly collaborative, each group member should be familiar with everyone else’s work, and be able to describe how every group members’ contribution supports the whole group assignment. Students who are using the work of others may not be able to adequately describe the significance of their ‘own’ work, or how it integrates with the group’s overall project.

• Create Assignments that Require Presentations – Faculty with a Blackboard course can use the web conferencing tool, Blackboard Collaborate, to conduct a synchronous online session for class presentations. Students may be asked to submit a progress report or use a Journal to reflect on what they have learned in the past week that supports work toward the presentation. To further scrutinize work on the presentation, students may be asked to include time for questions and answers. Students who have developed the presentation should be comfortable answering a range of topic-related questions. Faculty Developments offers workshops and one-on-one consultations on the use Blackboard Collaborate.

• Check for Plagiarism using SafeAssign – SafeAssign is a plagiarism prevention tool that detects matches between students’ submitted assignments and existing works by others. These works are found on a number of databases including ProQuest ABI/Inform, Institutional document archives, the Global Reference Database, as well as a comprehensive index of documents available for public access on the internet. SafeAssign can also be used to help students identify how to attribute sources properly rather than paraphrase without citing the original source. Thus, the SafeAssign feature is effective as both a deterrent and an educational tool. You can learn more about SafeAssign by visiting the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center’s Teaching with Blackboard SafeAssign Web page. Faculty Development also offers workshop and one-on-one consultations to faculty and staff on using SafeAssign.

• Use Discussion Assignments – Create a Discussion Board assignment that requires students to demonstrate critical thinking skills by responding to a relevant forum topic. Faculty may also design a rubric that is specific to the Discussion Board assignments, and develop questions that require students to respond to every rubric category. Having assignments that are very specific makes it more difficult for students to use portions of a previous term paper or other sources that may only indirectly touch on the Discussion Board topic.

• Include Academic Integrity Policy Statement in the Course Syllabus – Faculty should consider including a policy statement regarding academic integrity in their course syllabus. In addition, faculty may want to reiterate academic policies to students taking an online course and clarifying guidelines for completing test and assignments so that students are not confused about what they can and cannot do. While this, in and of itself, may not be sufficient to change behavior, its acknowledged presence in the syllabus recognizes a commitment to honesty in the academic arena and establishes the clear expectation that academic integrity is an important principle to live by. Faculty may also choose to mention this policy using the ‘Announcements’ feature in Blackboard, or while conducting a live web conference session.

Learn More

Preserving academic integrity is an ongoing challenge for traditional face-to-face, blended, and entirely online courses. While a number of expensive technology solutions, such as retinal eye scanners and live video monitoring are being developed to prevent cheating in online courses, the practical suggestions offered above can prevent or reduce the impact of cheating on assessing student performance in online courses. For more information on this topic, readers are invited to view the archived online workshop, “Tips for Assessing Student Learning Using Blackboard.”

In addition, the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center offers many Blackboard workshops, including those that touch on assessment. You are invited to visit the Faculty Development Web site that lists upcoming faculty and staff programs. Finally, readers are encouraged to review the following suggested readings and resources.

Suggested Readings and Resources

Grijalva, T., Nowell, C., & Kerkvliet, J. (2006). Academichonesty and online courses. College Student Journal, 40(1), 180-185.

Hi-Tech Cheating: Cell Phones and Cheating in Schools – A National Poll. Common Sense Media. Retrieved from http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/NEWS/PDFs/2010_PDFs/100202_CellPhoneSchoolCheating.pdf.

Krathwohl, D. R. (2001). A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy: An overview. In L.W. Anderson & D.R. Krathwohl (Eds.), A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Longman.

Lanier, M. (2006). Academic integrity and distance learning. Journal of Criminal Justice Education, 17(2), 244-261.

Luce, A. (2012, Sept. 17). How do I know students aren’t cheating? Instructional Design & Development Blog. Retrieved from http://www.iddblog.org/?p=1194

McNett, M. (2002). Curbing academic dishonesty in online courses. Pointers and Clickers: ION’s Technology Tip of the Month. Retrieved from http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/resources/pointersclickers/2002_05/index.asp.

Olt, M. R., (2002). Ethics and distance education: Strategies for minimizing academic dishonesty in online assessment. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 5(3), Fall 2002.

Redmann, E. (n.d.) How Technology Is Raising the Stakes In Classroom Cheating. Edudemic. Retrieved from http://edudemic.com/2013/01/technology-classroom-cheating.

Stuber-McEwen, D., Wiseley, P., & Hoggatt, S. (2009). Point, click, and cheat: Frequency and type of academic dishonesty in the virtual classroom. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 12(3), 1-10.

Trenholm, S. (2006-2007). A review of cheating in fully asynchronous online courses: A math or fact-based course perspective. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 35(3), 281-300.

Watson, G., & Sottile, J. (2010). Cheating in the digital age: Do students cheat more in online courses? Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration. Retrieved from http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring131/watson131.html?goback=%2Egde_52119_member_208797940.

Badges Defined

Digital badges, which are similar to Boy or Girl Scout merit badges, are a new way to add game-like elements to your course. Essentially, badges are digital artifacts that recognize an individual for learning or mastering a new skill. This could be the result of a formal learning experience, such as taking a university course, or something more informal, such as taking a community education course or belonging to a club, group, or other organization.

Depending on their implementation, badges can serve one or more of five social psychological functions (Antin & Churchill, 2011): goal setting, instruction, reputation, status/affirmation, and group identification. By defining goals for students, badges can motivate students to achieve the goal. Badges also provide instruction about the types of activities and social norms expected, particularly for students new to a field or system. Badges visually convey a student’s reputation within the system and provide information about their skills and expertise. Because badges also serve as a reminder of achievement, they also serve as a personal affirmation of past success, like a trophy on display. Finally, when badges reward a set of shared activities, badge ownership indicates group membership and can create a sense of solidarity among members.

Uses

Photo courtesy Girl Guides of Canada

Many social websites have made use of badges, including Foursquare, Codecademy, and Khan Academy, to motivate users and increase use of the site. Some MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) use badges for recognition and achievement. In many cases, like the social websites, the badges are contained within the system and can only be viewed or shared internally. However, many systems are adopting the Mozilla Open Badges framework that puts the student in control of the badges. The open framework allows the learner to decide which badges to display and how they want to share them. In this way, badges can supplement a traditional resume or portfolio.

Course Implementation

The first step to implementing badges in a course is to define outcomes, goals, or skills that are significant. Many badge systems reward incremental progress rather than only completion, so it is possible to break large goals into smaller milestones. Based on the five social psychological functions, consider including badges that are not tied to mastering specific knowledge or skills. For instance, students could earn a badge for getting started, like submitting a first assignment or demonstrating knowledge of the syllabus and course structure. Badges could also be effective for encouraging and rewarding contributing to the course community, like taking the lead in a group project or being active on a course discussion board or blog.

Once the outcomes have been identified, create the images for the badges. Generally, badges have to be a .png image file. The image files are usually square and range from 150×150 pixels to 260×260 pixels (the final size will depend on the system used to deploy the badges). Be creative with the badge design. Most badge graphics are round, but other shapes, like shields, stars, and award ribbons are common as well. The image can include shapes, icons, photos, and text. Any graphics editing program can be used to create badges, like Adobe Photoshop, Inkscape, or pixlr. It is even possible to build the image on a PowerPoint slide, then save as an image (by right-clicking).

Finally, decide how to deploy and distribute the badges. One of the easiest systems to use is badg.us. It is a free service that establishes a redemption code for each badge. Students redeem the code to claim the badge. Purdue University is developing Passport, a learning system that demonstrates academic achievement through customizable badges. At the time of this writing, Passport is in beta but looks promising. It includes a badge-builder to create the graphic as well as student tracking to determine who has earned the badge.

In January, 2012, the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center offered its first badge for participating in the Teaching Effectiveness Institute on Teaching in the Digital Classroom. The response was very positive.

Intro to Badges

Non-traditional credentialing, through MOOCs and other means, is gaining popularity. The digital badge movement is part of the overall trend towards more granular and less formal methods of demonstrating competency. It is easy to get started with awarding badges for courses or organizations, and it may even add some fun to the experience!

Note: You have earned your first badge by reading this article! Click here to redeem your badge: http://badg.us/en-US/badges/claim/rw7kwa. (You will need to create a free badg.us account to accept the badge.)

Suggested Readings

Educause. (June 11, 2012). 7 Things you should know about badges. Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/7-things-you-should-know-about-badges

Hickey, D. (October 30, 2012). Introducing digital badges within and around universities. Retrieved from http://remediatingassessment.blogspot.com/2012/10/introducing-digital-badges-within-and.html

Mozilla. (2012). What are open badges? Retrieved from http://openbadges.org/en-US/

Young, J. (October 14, 2012). Grades out, badges in. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/What-If-We-Got-Rid-of-Grades-/135056/

References

Antin, J., & Churchill, E. (2011). Badges in social media: A social psychological perspective. Paper presented at the CHI 2011, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Retrieved from http://research.yahoo.com/pub/3469

You may have heard of an “MP3 Player,” the digital audio player that first appeared on the market in the early 2000s. A file saved as an MP3 format is an audio file only, where an MP4 format can include both audio and video content. When converting Blackboard Collaborate recorded sessions, MP4 will not only include audio, but also the whiteboard and application sharing.

The Advantages

The advantage is now you can quickly and easily create formats that your students can view using any device that supports playing these formats.  This includes iOS devices such as iPhone and iPad, but viewers can also use Android devices and most other internet enabled devices.  It is recommended iOS users download to their desktop or laptop computers and then use iTunes to copy/sync the files for use on the iPhone or iPad. A hosted streaming service can be used to stream the sessions, synced locally and played back offline.

Session owners simply create the mobile friendly archives through the Recordings page within Blackboard Learn.  An MP3 conversion should only take a few minutes whereas an MP4 conversion will take at least the length of time the original session took and in some cases more than twice as long.  More often than not you will want make an MP4 recording with audio and video.  The system will suggest that you check back later.

When students are accessing the recorded session, which was converted into an MP3 or MP4 format, they will be provided with an option to view the session in that format.  Session owners set up access by choosing an email notification, a course utility, the Recordings area, or a link added to a website.

Limitations

Currently the Recording Converter supports MP3 and MP4 and not .wmv and .mov formats.  The tool does not generate captioning fields or chat transcripts; however, text transcripts can be generated using the Publish Client application.  When the original Collaborate recording file is deleted, the MP3 or MP4 format archive file will be deleted.  However to avoid the loss of the file, the user can make a local copy on their computer.

Learn More

The MP3/MP4 Recording Converter is available at Northern Illinois University! The following tutorial demonstrates how easy it is for faculty to create MP3/MP4 recordings from Blackboard Collaborate archives:

Reminders

• Plan accordingly as it may take up to 24 hours for the conversion process to finish.
• Use the Recordings page within the Blackboard Collaborate tool in Blackboard to convert recordings to MP3/MP4 files.
• Look for quick guides and tutorials on the Teaching with Blackboard Web site.

For more information about conducting live online class sessions using Blackboard Collaborate, visit http://www.niu.edu/blackboard/communicate/collaborate.shtml

This software upgrade does not impact the receivers or the clickers, but the new version does consolidate a number of familiar applications into one central user-friendly interface. Previous legacy versions contained several software components that had to be downloaded and installed separately. Those who use the TurningPoint software with Blackboard will be pleased to know that the Blackboard building block integration has also been updated, which provides several enhancements to current features enabling faculty to import and export class rosters and data from polling sessions within the TurningPoint software. As of Spring 2013, faculty teaching 39 course sections involving 3,400 students made use of the TurningPoint clicker software.

Features

The new TurningPoint software version includes a host of new and updated features:

• Simplifies user workflow and user experience for all current applications (PowerPoint Polling, Anywhere Polling, and Self-Paced Polling) by consolidating them into one central interface. Previous legacy version had each component as a separate stand-alone program.
• Robust HTML content editor that supports pictures, special characters, subscripts and superscripts
• Math equation editor
• Simplifies ability to create, import, and export participant lists from the new participant list editor
• Newly enhanced area to manage aggregate session data
• Newly enhanced report interface that can create six new customizable reports for all polling environments
• Ability to import and use session data and presentations from previous legacy version of TurningPoint
• Mac version is available, but the Mac integration with PowerPoint is forthcoming (update expected later in Spring 2013)

Software and Training

To download the software, please click here and navigate to the “Current Release” tab to get the appropriate version for your machine. In addition to periodic workshops on clickers offered by Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center, Turning Technologies also offers TurningPoint training in the form of tutorials, instructor-led online classes, and self-paced training. All of these trainings are offered at no cost to faculty using TurningPoint and clickers. The faculty-led online classes are available multiple times each week and are typically an hour in length. These training workshops are highly recommended for faculty looking to use clickers for the first time or to learn how to use the new upgraded software. In addition, please visit the Training Documents area to download and view guides on how to use TurningPoint 5.

Support

New faculty who plan to teach with clickers can request a free instructor kit from Melinda Caban, the Turning Technologies account manager. She is also available to answer any questions regarding ordering and product information:

Melinda Caban
Account Manager
Phone: 330.599.4925 | Email: mcaban@turningtechnologies.com

As a general reminder, students are recommended to purchase clicker devices at the bookstore (upon faculty adoption), or through the Turning Technologies Student Store using NIU1 as the school code. Students using a web-enabled device such as a smartphone or laptop also have the option of purchasing a ResponseWare license to respond in polling sessions without needing a physical clicker device. Students considering this option will need to be in a Wi-Fi hotspot or be willing to use their own internet data plan on their devices. Please contact Melinda for more information about ResponseWare.

For general questions regarding the Blackboard integration with clickers, faculty can contact our office at 753-0595 or facdev@niu.edu. More details regarding the system are available from Turning Technologies at http://www.turningtechnologies.com.