Sail Into Online Student Success: Come to San Diego This June!

We've finalized the program for the 2014 Online Teaching Conference and looks like a terrific lineup! If you're an online educator, you spend a lot of time alone with your computer and your problems. At OTC, you're not alone! You can get critical insights directly from your colleagues, share your experiences, learn the latest strategies, and become a part of our wonderful community of online professionals. Join us June 20 and 21 for a comprehensive exploration of online teaching and learning. Get ready for two interactive days of learning that will prepare you to lead your institution with new ideas to power up online student success.

The OTC team has put together a top-notch program of sessions - presented by real online education professionals. Join us in San Diego for a unique professional development and networking event with opportunities to learn from distance education leaders about online teaching techniques and tools that will improve your bottom line and help your students fulfill their educational goals.

Online teaching conference 2014 from bvmorrow

Online Teaching 2013: The State of the Art

The 2013 Online Teaching Conference in Long Beach, California encompassed myriad topics that reflect the major trends and concerns of the profession: MOOCs, legislation related to distance education and open educational resources, YouTube, the rapid changes in the educational environment, hybrid options and design, collaboration, faculty training, social media, online student services, digital textbooks, tutoring, disruption, and innovation. Thanks to the great work of the OTC professionals, here's a sample of the recorded sessions.

Be There Now (or Later): How to Be Present When Your Students are Somewhere (or Somewhen) Else

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In 1971, Ram Dass published Be Here Now, a life-changing book for many of the Boomer generation. The book emphasized spiritual truths and the admonition to be present at the only time that matters - now - and in the only place that matters - here. With quotes like "the next message you need is always right where you are," it brought many readers to an awakening based on the present moment.

Teachers in the virtual classroom often have a difficult time with the concept of "presence" and "here and now." They miss the eye contact with students that the traditional classroom provides, making it difficult to hold the audiences' attention or even to know when they are holding it. Non-verbal signals (facial expressions, body language, hand gestures) are also missing online. Students who wish to can get up and walk around, turn their backs on the instructor, switch screens, feed babies, etc.: there is little physical control granted to the instructor over the virtual classroom. Distractions - barking dogs, incoming text messages, e-mail, Facebook prompts, etc. - are difficult to control and have the potential to destroy instructor presence. We've all got horror (or humor) stories about that: one that recently appeared in The Chronicle's Wired Campus spoke of "barking dogs, wailing babies, and a naked spouse" as intruders in the virtual classroom.

The potential for disconnectedness or distraction is so great that virtual classroom instructors have to be proactive, just as the readers of Ram Dass's book were urged to "wake up" and "be here now." They must pay attention to what they're saying, how often they pause to ask questions and wait for answers, and how they recognize opportunities to solicit feedback and participation. They regularly check the class roster and call on students to contribute thoughts or materials. They know that injecting humor or surprise is an effective method for breaking the ice and getting everyone's attention. They find ways to personalize their presentation, often by using the Web cam judiciously to show themselves and/or their environment or by inserting personal pictures (of themselves, their garden, a pet) onto slides or whiteboards.

Where synchronous collaboration is possible (i.e., where you have an online audience now), it should be encouraged and planned for. I like to make my students believe that they can be called on anytime to do something - and then prove it by calling on them randomly and often. If more than three minutes go by without my pausing to engage my online audience, I'm in danger of losing both them and myself in the lecture, not the present moment. I like to insert a PAUSE slide about every 10 slides in my presentation to ensure that I use it and "wake up" to my audience. The chat back-channel is a great way to reinforce presence and engagement, as long as you pay attention to it and encourage student participation.

Vicki Davis cites 12 healthy habits to grow your online presence in her Cool Cat Teacher Blog:

1. Share.
2. Respond.
3. Comment.
4. Link Generously.
5. Read (or Listen) Prolifically.
6. Distribute Yourself.
7. Beware of Flattery.
8. Live Life Online and Off-line.
9. Latch Key Your Legacy.
10. Laugh (a lot).
11. Take Every Presentation Seriously.
12. Expect Criticism.

Be there!

Lighten Up Online (Seriously!): The Value of Humor in the Virtual Classroom

"A joke is a very serious thing." - Winston Churchill

In Carla Meskill's forthcoming book on Online Teaching and Learning, N. Anthony has contributed a chapter entitled, "Perceptions of Humour in Oral Synchronous Online Environments." Anthony interviewed and surveyed students and teachers using the Wimba classroom specifically to determine the role of humor in this synchronous online environment. Here are some of the students' comments:

• "It helped with the anxiety levels. The times we had humor, it did kind of lighten the mood and took the pressure off...."
• "It helps me to relax and not feel pressured."
• "It makes it more fun and makes it more ok to try and make a mistake than being afraid to speak...."
• "Making it funny helps people feel less insecure about messing up."
• "I believe that teacher-initiated humor relaxes the classroom and leaves us all more willing to participate because we aren't afraid to mess up because there is a portrayed sense of light-heartedness."
• "It just makes it easier to feel relaxed and speaking in conversation is less intimidating." 
• "It's easier to remember something that is funny than something that is boring... Words are remembered better when presented in humorous situations."
• "Often humor makes the content more memorable and therefore helps to learn it faster and better."
• "I tend to remember things more easily if I have a phrase to associate them with, and humorous phrases are particularly memorable."

Other researchers have noted the beneficial role of humor - both from teachers and from students - in the online classroom. Mirjam Hauck and Regine Hampel investigated the factors in the virtual classroom that facilitated interaction (with students and with instructors) and observed, "making humorous comments or observations to improve the interaction with individual partners and the group as a whole was also identified by several students as a motivating factor." They describe a particular use of humor by a student who did so because he perceived that "some of his peers still felt uncomfortable in the synchronous online environment and were therefore exposed to techno-stress and cognitive overload."

Michael Eskey notes that "humor, whether in the form of jokes, riddles, puns, funny stories, humorous comments or other humorous items, builds a bond between the instructor and students; bridging the student-teacher gap by allowing students to view the instructor as more approachable." How you introduce and use humor will depend on your teaching style, your pedagogical objectives, and your comfort with the tools available in the online classroom, but there is a growing body of evidence that students learn better when they are allowed to "loosen up" online and enjoy themselves and one another.

In the Confer classroom, instructors will inevitably be doing some things by "trial and error": the technology changes, for one thing. Successful instructors demonstrate a fearless attitude and don't mind making public mistakes in the process: it's probably the best way to encourage experimentation and exploration on the part of students. By letting your audience (students) "in on the joke" while you try to figure out how a new tool works, you're allowing them to participate (naturally, you won't allow your experiment to last so long that it interferes with instructional time or time on task).

Have fun!

Alone (or All One) Together Online: What Keeps Us Together in the Virtual Classroom

The constructivists maintain that social interaction leads to knowledge construction, higher order learning, and greater student success rates (i.e., achievement and completion). Students have to socially network in order for the neural network to do its thing and make connections between concepts and ideas. Sherry Turkle's wonderfully insightful book Alone Together is about, as she says, "how we are changed as technology offers us substitutes for connecting with each other face-to-face." The danger may be that if we use substitute (artificial) networking online, we may produce artificial learning or hamper the connections needed to enable real comprehension and mastery.

How do we build a community of learners from strangers who only meet online? Etienne Wenger prescribes course design elements that encourage interaction and reification (making things seem real). The use of real-time voice and video is one method the Confer instructor uses to deliver to students a sense of a real-time, articulate, caring, human. As Walsh et. al. reported in their study of Web conferencing learning communities, students may struggle with video and audio, but they prefer it to the alternative. "I think seeing someone on screen during the tutorial can keep you interested and makes the tutorial feel more interactive," says a Humanities student. Another student says, "I think the tutors who use this need to try and make it as interactive as possible ... [and to] input their own thoughts and ideas." Asked how the instructors could improve their use of the Web conferencing technology, students suggested:

• "Find ways to ensure students participate in the live sessions"
• "Develop and encourage methods for collaboration between students"
• "Remember to use students' names to help make it a more personal experience"

McBrien and Jones cite similar observations from the students in their synchronous online learning study. "Talking through the microphone really helped me connect my thoughts, knowing that I could only express myself verbally. It also made me feel more in control of how I communicated my ideas because a large group of people weren't staring at me..." "Voting was great - great to see what everyone else in class felt - you don't always get that feedback." Their students reported these negatives in the virtual classroom:

• Missing friends
• Lack of support when presenting
• Missing non-verbal gestures

One student observed that the class "needs to be planned more carefully and maybe tried the first session with all of the students in the classroom, not home."


We may be years away from taking these general suggestions and translating them into practical course design for the synchronous virtual classroom. As Mia Lobel et. al.  observe: "There is virtually no data describing how existing successful pedagogies, which are predicated on real-time interactive immediacy and skill practice, could be adapted to online learning environments. Much discussion and exploration is needed concerning the delivery of human relations skills online, when the pedagogy is based on group interaction, specifically active experiencing, concrete observation, abstract conceptualization and active practice and the content design is predicated on theories of group development, and observational and facilitation skills which necessitate participation and interaction."

 

Online Teaching: What the Experts Say

The Online Teaching Conference is days away, and there will be lots of exciting and informative presentations in Long Beach June 19-21. But why wait? Some of the presenters have already pre-recorded their presentations. Take a look - and make sure you register for the conference so you don't miss more!
You're Teaching a Course Online! Did You Do It Right? In this session Mauricio Cadavid discusses strategies for student success, engagement, and a positive learning experience. The audience will learn about developing rapport with their online students, as well as acquire a list of web-tools that can be used as effective design of class activities and participation.



The Importance of the Application of Critical Thinking in the Online Classroom.
Michael Eskey addresses teaching critical thinking skills to our online students. Research indicates that academics and students have differing perceptions of what happens in university classrooms, particularly in regard to higher order thinking, in particular, critical thinking. Higher education is challenged with encouraging students to pursue higher-order thinking and often fall short according to industry standards. The current research that will be discussed is directed at responses from full-time and adjunct faculty teaching either face-to-face or online mainly in the disciplines of criminal justice and political science to assess their views and application of teaching critical skills. The findings are applicable to all disciplines and emphasize the importance of specific instructor training to apply to the classroom in this area.



Yo Ho Blackboard Inline Grading For Me!
Eric Wilson explains that Blackboard recently updated the way you can grade Assignments and Discussions! With the new Inline Grading System, this recorded workshop will show you how to create Assignment and Discussions and how to grade both with the new inline system and paperless. Eric reviews the built in rubric system as well. It is so easy and can literally make grading painless.




Recruiting, Training, Maintaining, and Retaining Online Adjunct Instructors
Dr. Henry Roehrich with Dr. Michael Eskey explain that the development of online adjunct instructors requires a professional adult learning approach that incorporates a facilitation training program, mentoring process and instructor informational resources. The presentation outlines and discusses how this process can be effective and tailored to the needs of institutions in higher education. This will include the required online adjunct recruiting process, required training, online resources, professional development opportunities, the formal / informal mentoring process, required and optional refresher training. Additionally, there is a discussion of online adjunct and online student perceptions of instructional needs and requirements.



Does a Face Make a Difference? Comparing Synchronous Online Education with Other Instructional Methods at California Community Colleges and the Impact on Student Retention Rates
Claudia Tornsaufer
The main focus of this study was to investigate whether there is a difference in mean institutional retention rates among California community college students by the following institutional characteristics: 1) instructional method (on-campus, asynchronous and synchronous online courses); 2) ethnicity; gender; and age groups. The study’s findings on student outcomes will shed light on the impact of increased online student-teacher, student-student and student-content interaction in synchronous online courses and how it compares to the interaction on on-campus and asynchronous courses.

What DOESN'T Work in the Virtual Classroom?

I've written a lot about the benefits of the virtual classroom and included many examples of what works well in this environment. In the 10+ years of CCC Confer, we've seen exponential growth in popularity among faculty and students, and we've watched Web conferencing technology become more and more reliable and stable for our thousands of users.

But it wouldn't be accurate or fair to pretend that Web conferencing is always  the best option or that it is always the best way to reach students and deliver online instruction. In fact, there's evidence to suggest that Web conferencing provides some barriers for students and instructors, which must be recognized and overcome for a successful experience and for effective instruction to take place. For example, I just previewed an article in the June 2013 Journal of Computing Sciences in College entitled, "Under What Conditions Does Web Conferencing Inhibit Learning in a Computer Science Classroom?" The authors - Jami Cotler of Siena College and Dima Kassab and Xiaojun Yuan of SUNY-Albany - drew conclusions from two lectures (one delivered face-to-face and one delivered online via Web conferencing) and students' reactions to the experience of these lectures. I'll reserve comment on the methodology or validity of this study, but I'm interested in the students' perceptions.

Distractions. In the Cotler study, 31% of the students reported problems with distractions during the virtual lecture. The nature of these distractions were not disclosed, but we can guess that they may have involved the typical distractions online students encounter: e-mail messages, tweets, Facebook posts, instant messages, and other Web excursions. It may also be that these students found the Web conferencing interface itself distracting, with its chat window, video, whiteboard, etc. The face-to-face classroom also has distractions, of course, but eye contact with the instructor is often inhibition enough for students to block them off and pay attention to the lecturer.

To help students overcome these distractions, the experienced Confer instructor gives guidelines to students before their first online class session and even at the beginning of the session. Disable notifications from your online applications (noises, signals, pop-ups): they will interfere with your concentration. Some instructors even provide specific instructions for turning off, say, Facebook notifications. And, while the class is meeting online, it's good practice to keep the students alert by mixing up the delivery.

Engagement. Cotler's students reported that they were 38% less engaged in the virtual classroom than in the face-to-face environment. Oddly, though, 88% "felt they were able to participate during the [Web conferencing] lecture" and 56% "felt highly engaged in the course materials and the course activities" in the online classroom. So the perception of less engagement may have been related to distractions or some other subjective factor. Many (69%) of the students reported "less connection to the instructor" when using the virtual classroom. However, they reported using the whiteboard and chat features, and most of the students claimed to have reached out to either another student or the instructor during the online session.

We know from long experience that keeping students engaged in the virtual classroom is more challenging than in the traditional environment. You can't see all of your students, and you're not going to be able to validate all of their behavior all of the time. Your sense of control online is compromised because of the distance between you and the "desks" in front of you. But you can keep students engaged by doing some extra work: preparing breaks in which students provide examples, express opinions, or vote on issues. Work in assessments or chat activities, and use breakout rooms to divide a large class into manageable small groups where it's harder for students to hide or let others do all the work. Several of my blog posts provide examples of these strategies.

Unfamiliarity with Technology. I was surprised to read in Cotler's study that unfamiliarity with technology accounted for only 13% of the reported problems with the virtual classroom. Half of all the students "stated that it was convenient and that they like that they could remain in the comfort of their home," and an amazing 81% reported "feeling less stressed about tasks accomplished during the [Web conferencing] session in comparison to the face-to-face session." So technophobia (or at least fear of synchronous online interaction), while not dead, is on the wane with today's students.

It's a good idea to orient students to the virtual classroom before you make them do something in it. This can happen during a "practice" session, in a "sandbox" (we offer several on the CCC Confer Web site), or via training materials (videos, slides, documents) you provide for them. Given these results and the increasing popularity of synchronous online rooms (Skype, Google Hangouts, etc.), it may be just as important that you orient yourself to the virtual classroom and feel comfortable showing its features to your students.

What doesn't work in the virtual classroom? Mainly, not having a plan to use it!

Controlling Mayhem in the Synchronous Classroom

A seemingly ubiquitous commercial for an insurance company uses an evil, smug character called "Mayhem" to illustrate what can happen to change an ordinary day into a catastrophe. Mayhem falls through roofs, wrecks cars, spills coffee, drives lawnmowers through windows and boats, and diverts the attention of or misdirects drivers. All in all, he's a scary character.


There are moments when the Confer classroom may seem to have been invaded by Mayhem. A guest lecturer or speaker fails to connect or has audio problems, and your students begin to discuss things on their own that have nothing to do with the course. Students logging on have technical problems and insist on immediate attention; meanwhile, the rest of your online audience becomes irritable and even hostile in their chat remarks. Your network goes down in the middle of your lecture. A fire engine roars by your window, siren blaring. The software you're using freezes up. And so on.

Here are some suggestions for controlling the mayhem (and, no, these do not involve buying an insurance policy).

Roll With It

Understand that the nature of Web conferencing - like teaching itself - invites an element of mayhem. There are human factors, as in the traditional classroom, and these interact with (and sometimes exacerbate) the technical factors. If you use this technology often enough, something is sure to mess up at least once, and it will mess up when it's least convenient for you. 

When this happens, your reaction will be the most important factor in determining the outcome of your online session. Rage at the machine, roar at the outrage, or dissolve into a blubbering heap and you're certain to make the session a memorable failure. Roll with the punches and you at least have a chance of salvaging something from the shipwreck. If you remain upbeat and conversational, your audience will be more likely to wait out the problem with humor and patience.

I suggest that you deal with the problem directly instead of trying to mask or ignore it. If it's a human problem, confront the disrupters and enlist their help in restoring order. Coach your audience by explaining what you expect to see happen and providing alternatives to disrupting the session (e.g., call the help desk, take the discussion offline). Be quick to bring disruptive students on task, using the tact you would expect to receive if you were behaving similarly. When all else fails, boot them out. All the time you're doing this, keep a cool head and a smile (if possible). You're setting an example that your audience will find comforting: yes, there's a problem, and yes, I'm going to deal with it and move on. 

If the problem is technical, your best bet is to have a backup or fallback option. For example, about a month ago my campus network went down in the middle of a Webinar I was hosting. My remote presenter and the majority of our audience didn't experience the problem, but I was lost, temporarily. I have a backup network option (actually two), fortunately, and was able to re-join the session without anyone realizing that there had been a problem.

Know how to mute and un-mute your audience and speakers so that you can avoid the annoying disruptions that are otherwise beyond your control. Test your equipment, and have backups available, just in case. Deliver your slides to another moderator just in case you're prevented from presenting them. Have a way to communicate with at least one other participant without using the Confer tools (e.g., cell phone, IM, text message). 

Fortify Yourself

You can keep mayhem at bay by building a fortress that is impermeable. Get a room that can't be opened by co-workers, family members, etc. and put a "Do Not Disturb" sign on it. In selecting the room, try to make sure that it is well insulated from outside sounds and noises. If you're going to be on-camera, choose a non-distracting background. Clear your desk, get rid of the party hats, wash your face.

Check your network and phone status, and have a backup for each if possible. I like to use two computers whenever I'm presenting, and I also generally have each connected to a different network. 

Your audio equipment is important, and you can't easily handle an emergency if your audience can't hear you. Use a good microphone or headset and have substitute equipment, even if you're sure there's nothing wrong with the set you're using. Earlier this month, I used a high-end wireless microphone for a keynote speaker at a conference and was overjoyed to see the glowing reviews by online attendees at the sound quality. I used the same microphone the next day and got nothing but complaints until I plugged in the alternate equipment. 

If you have to use the bathroom, make sure you can get to it quickly from your spot and that it will be open. Likewise, prevent voice cracks by having water handy while you're speaking.

Warning: Danger, Will Robinson!

Let your students or online audience know that they're using technology that requires a certain amount of technical checking and may be susceptible to interruption. If possible, have them do the technical checking before joining the session, either by using a practice room or by running setup wizards in advance. Make this a requirement so that you're not greeted with indignant protests when they try to join the room with incompatible equipment.

You can spend some time orienting students to the environment and to acceptable behavior in your classroom. Show them how to participate, ask questions, raise hands, and communicate. Stress that you expect them to be open-minded and patient. 

Some instructors I know enlist the aid of students to perform some of the moderating tasks. They assign someone the duty of monitoring the chat, letting the instructor know when there's a question that needs answering, and some even assign students to provide the answers if possible. Another student will be asked to remind the instructor to start the recording, and another may have the job of looking for raised hands. This method - particularly if it's re-distributed over a semester - helps to keep students engaged and on-task.

An Ounce of Prevention

The worst way to come to a Confer session is on time. ALWAYS plan to be in the room at least 15 minutes early, so that you're able to deal with the unexpected in advance. It's also a good idea to have students come early, so that their problems can be fixed before the class actually begins. 

Design your class so that there are breaks where minor problems can be addressed or corrected. Have a plan of action, complete with re-actions, and keep planning right up to the time of the presentation. Sending e-mails to students to inform or remind them of the event and what you expect them to do in advance is always a good idea. Have a slide where emergency numbers are listed so that students will know what to do when all else fails. 

Know how to use private messaging so that you can deal with disrupters directly and quickly without embarrassing them. Calling out one of the audience for bad behavior has negative consequences that are very difficult to overcome. Be the adult in the room.

Your audience does not really expect a perfect world, even online. And they've all made mistakes or experienced situations where things didn't go as expected. A hint of mayhem won't send them into a panic, provided you deal with it cheerfully and appropriately. Your professionalism and commitment to getting them the materials and content you're paid to deliver will impress them.

Don't Just Tell Them: Show Them! (Application Sharing and Lecture Capture)

With the Web conferencing tools incorporated in CCC Confer, you can reach students visually as well as orally, and in more dramatic fashion than is usually possible in the face-to-face classroom environment. As our friend Donna Eyestone says, "With CCC Confer, every student has a front row seat." Would you show a blank wall to a student sitting in the front row?

Why Bother?

Confer lets you record and display anything your computer screen can display, and talk about it while you're doing it. For example, you can demonstrate software and how it works, or show students how to log into a Web application you want them to explore. You can enhance your lecture materials for both synchronous and asynchronous viewing (i.e., flip your classroom to allow for more in-class discussion and practice). Application sharing makes it possible to provide how-to instructions for assignments, and is a great solution for providing remedial materials. You can even allow students to use this tool to provide their own presentations, demonstrations, or assignments.

This is a way to avoid the typical pitfalls of lesson delivery. In a typical class, you spend a certain amount of time (say, 10 to 20 minutes) introducing a topic and trying to get the students to understand it or become interested in why it's important. You may spend some more time providing supportive materials - slides, whiteboard screens, your own notes, anecdotes, textbook content, etc. - with the hope that the students will warm to the topic and relate to something you've presented. And you spend a good part of the remainder of class time repeating the process because students didn't catch it the first time or missed something critical in your explanation, demonstration, or presentation.

Why not record what you have to show them before you ever meet with them in real time? That allows your real-time interactions to skip the 40 minutes or so you've spent repeating yourself because they've already let you do that (they can play your recorded demonstration as many times as they like in order to understand it). You now have class time for independent practice, and even to present students with more difficult or nuanced aspects of your topic. The most distracting and difficult part of the typical class - the time when individual students have to be shown how or what they didn't understand - has been moved to the pre-class period, when they're viewing your pre-recorded material and re-playing it to their hearts' content. Absent students can also benefit from this approach because they haven't missed everything.

General Guidelines

If you'd like to see how this is done, visit the Confer archives to see how others have done this. We have several tutorials on the subject, along with some helpful videos from experienced instructors. 

You'll need to be confident: this can and does work, and you can do it! Learn the basics of the software and start practicing. Record a few sessions and see what you're doing right and/or wrong. Get some good sound equipment, start writing a plan, and plan to make mistakes and learn from them.

Tips for Good Application Sharing and Recording

Plan well before you start your application sharing and recording. Write a script if you're at all uneasy with the process. Winging it inevitably produces "uhs" and "ums" that annoy your online audience. Having a storyboard for the process - where will you make transitions, what effects you want to include, which screens to bring up - will help you stay on track. Know which applications (software) you plan to use, when you want to use them, and whether or not any logins or forms need to be filled out. 

During the recording, speak slowly (this is my biggest downfall) and clearly. You don't have to talk all of the time, so don't ramble. Stick to your script if you have to. Begin with an introduction of what you're going to demonstrate or discuss and end with a summary of what you did: this helps with the casual viewer. 

Even though this is a video demonstration (mostly), the audio quality is critical to its success. If the sound is poor quality, students won't watch it. It's a good idea to test-record at least part of your demonstration to ensure good sound. You should also find a quiet place to do the recording to eliminate background noise or interruptions. 

Clean your desktop (computer screen) before sharing it with students. Too many background icons or gadgets will distract attention. Turn off applications you're not going to be using, especially those that

produce pop-up reminders and notifications. Resize the windows of the applications you'll be using so they'll fit optimally in the area of the screen you'll be sharing.

When you're sharing your desktop or an application, use slow mouse movements. When the mouse jerks around or makes circles on the screen, your students will not be amused. For similar reasons, make sure that any text you'll be showing or discussing on the screen is large enough to read and that the font is easily legible.

In the age of short commercials and frequent commercial breaks, it's a good idea to limit your recordings to 5 minutes or less. Do several short demonstrations rather than a single long one. Separate sessions will also ensure that you're at your best for each of them.

The Year 2012 in Web Conferencing, Month by Month

The year 2012 saw many changes at CCC Confer and in the world of Web conferencing in higher education. Here are some highlights worth noting.

January Garry Falloon, writing in the Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning, presented findings from a study of post-graduate students who used Web conferencing to achieve a postgraduate diploma in education. The students' views of the technology were favorable, but the value of the tool was found to be a function of the instructor-imposed tasks and several technical factors.

February Deb Nielsen and Kealin McCabe described the "Embedded Librarian" presentation, which outlined how university librarians are taking a unique and proactive approach to student learning by embedding themselves directly in various non-library venues, including Web conferences.

March Two University of Wisconsin engineering professors presented "Online Delivery of a Project-Based Introductory Engineering" to the American Society for Engineering Education. They reported:

 

"The online instructor believed that the use of Blackboard Collaborate for the virtual office hours and synchronous meetings was vital to the success of the students in the online section and to their working as a team and producing quality projects. The use of Blackboard Collaborate aligns with Moore’s theory of transactional distance. The theory states that distance is a pedagogical phenomenon and the learner is not considered with location, but with student interaction and engagement. The use of Blackboard Collaborate allowed the students to be connected with the professor and with their teammates."

April Steven E. Stockdale at University of New Mexico recorded a Web conferencing session to demonstrate what he had learned about synchronous online instruction technology. His 9-minute demonstration is entertaining, informative, and instructive: he actually explains what he did wrong when first using the software and how he learned to adapt and ultimately use the tool effectively.

May Will Stewart at University of Bradford presented a case study of a re-design of an existing face-to-face post-graduate educational module for online delivery. As he puts it, "the challenge was to design a course that reflected a 21st-century approach to teaching and learning, rather than simply to replicate a traditional didactic, classroom model in an online setting." This included Web conferencing as part of the online delivery, and the results were encouraging: "The use of Blackboard Collaborate (Elluminate) was seen by most (85%) as a key tool in supporting learning, and a major factor in the success of the module. One student commented:

'Elluminate was the most effective tool we ever used for real-time learning.'"
 

June Simon Kear described in the Association for Learning Technology's newsletter how he and his associates conducted the "Follow the Sun 2012" conference using Web conferencing technology. Kear concluded, "The technology is very stable, and it performed flawlessly, which really is all a learning technologist cares about."

July
August Blackboard Collaborate announced its mobile app and Ian Coronado at Lane Community College posted that:

• The user experience on the mobile app is just as good as the computer based version and perhaps better on the iPad version due to the simplicity of the interface
• It is easy to use.  If you know the Collaborate app, you will have little difficulty using the mobile version.  Simply click on a link to a session and the app will automatically launch..
• The mobile app is geared towards participants and is not suitable for moderators or presenters.
• Webcams are not available for participants to use on the mobile version.  I hope they are able to add this in with future versions.
• Screen sharing is also not supported on the mobile app.
• Perhaps the biggest deal is that the mobile app does not support playback of recordings at this time.  Only live events.

September Brett Stephenson and Jillian Downing studied "The Affordances of Web conferences in Online Pre-service Mathematics Education" and confirmed earlier research that Web conferencing was effective as a tool in online teacher education. Among the observations of student teachers in this paper:

"Being an online student you can feel very isolated. The webinars have been really helpful in feeling connected. The feeling I have is that the setting is more intimate than a large lecture, with more interaction than in a regular setting. This has made learning the content more interesting and hence easier to assimilate. Also you can ask questions or participate without feeling like everyone is looking at you."

"The webinars have been great in the ability to offer distance students more collegial experiences than units that do not utilise them. The units that do not use them would benefit distance students by utilising them or at least by recording tutorials so that online students can observe."

 

"I think the idea of a teacher standing up the front and talking to a set group of students may change in the future. Rural or isolated students would benefit. Being able to do special classes in a regular school would be cool."

October At Bowling Green University in Ohio, Armen Ilikchyan and John W. Sinn presented a Proposal for Change with three objectives: 1. Build a Web-based student community; 2. Simplify the student membership registration process; and 3. Expand connections between students and practicing professionals. They decided that Web conferencing, with Blackboard Collaborate, was the ideal solution for accomplishing these objectives.

November At the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, librarians use a virtual room to offer orientations, workshops, meetings and office hours:
"Hosting online workshops not only allows us to teach distance students, but allows both students and staff on campus to participate and learn virtually from their desks and get comfortable with online meetings and training. As online learning continues to grow and budgets continue to shrink, less travel is possible for training both internally and externally - but online learning opens more opportunities for all."

December UNESCO announced its "Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Online Course", which will cover Intercultural dialogue and citizenship; Freedom of expression, freedom of information and understanding the news; Representation and languages in media and information; Advertising and citizenship; Information literacy and library skills; Communication; MIL and teaching/learning; MIL policies and strategies; Citizens and the media and technologies; Global media/technologies in an increasingly connected world; and Internet opportunities and challenges. The course will be delivered via Web conferencing.
 

How to Flip Your Classroom

Image from Edudemic

Hack Education lists "The Flipped Classroom" as one of the "Top Ed-Tech Trends of 2012", noting that "the practice became incredibly popular this year." In the Chronicle of Higher Education, Dan Berrett says the Flipped Classroom "describes the inversion of expectations in the traditional college lecture. It takes many forms, including interactive engagement, just-in-time teaching (in which students respond to Web-based questions before class, and the professor uses this feedback to inform his or her teaching), and peer instruction." Generally, though, the model is that of taking the lecture out of the classroom and putting it online so that class (face-to-face) time is spent working with students on mastery. Here's one of the many available images that illustrate the "flip" -

 

From Deseret News

- and (if you're collecting them), here's an infographic from Edudemic that provides more details:

There are several ways you can flip your classroom. You can use a lecture capture utility. You can try Google Hangouts. One writer lists these tools as options: YouTube, Facebook, TED Ed, Khan Academy, Screencast-o-matic, Edmodo, Schoology, Spreaker, Podomatic, Audacity, Podbean, ShowMe, ScreenChomp, Explain Everything, Educreations, and ScreenCast Video Recorder.

Here at the California Community Colleges, we have our own classroom flipper: CCC Confer. With Confer, you can record your lectures anytime, from anywhere, and deliver them to live online students, face-to-face students, both at the same time, or to students who will view them at an unspecified time and date of your choosing. The archives can be accessed from anywhere at any time, and they can be made portable (i.e., as MP4s or uploaded to YouTube) if you choose.

Here's how easy it is:




You can discover more about how instructors like you are flipping with Confer archives here. By recording lectures, they're extending class time, providing options for students who miss class, providing for searchable content, accommodating diverse learning styles and abilities, and making it easier for students to apply themselves to learning and mastery, rather than to taking notes and interpreting.

Interested in more information about the flipped classroom? Try this link, which will take you to my curated articles on the subject.

Oh, the Places You Can Go with Web Conferencing!

Now that we've institutionalized Web conferencing, it's beginning to become apparent that this kind of collaboration can support many more kinds of learning and support than the traditional teacher-to-student interactions we originally envisioned. Even in the latter, of course, I've been constantly (and pleasantly) surprized by how innovative educators adapt the tools and their own approaches to instruction in order to create learning environments that make full use of the rich tools of the Confer classroom. But here are some examples that transcend the classroom and potentially open doors for students who might not otherwise be served.

Psychiatric Care. At the University of Rochester (NY) Strong Ties Community Support Program, members of the inpatient and outpatient teams have been meeting since 2010 using Web conferencing. Leslie Tomek and J. Stephen Lamberti, two of the psychiatrists, describe the use of this technology: "Initially it was peculiar speaking to a video monitor instead of face to face, but the monitor quickly seemed to disappear and we became one large team of clinicians working collectively to provide effective care for our most acute patients." Among the benefits they report from adopting this technology: better discussions of patients' progress; streamlined planning for discharges; enhanced follow-up decision-making. Web conferencing "allows large groups of people to communicate concurrently. We have also found that patients and their families are pleased to hear about our new form of communication." In higher education, one can imagine that regular Web conferences between physicians, counselors, nurses, and other health care providers would have similar benefits.

Psychotherapy Training. Allan Abbass et. al., in Web-conference supervision for advanced psychotherapy training: A practical guide, report that the "advent of readily accessible, inexpensive Web-conferencing applications has opened the door for distance psychotherapy supervision, using video recordings of treated clients. Although relatively new, this method of supervision is advantageous given the ease of use and low cost of various Internet applications. This method allows periodic supervision from point to point around the world, with no travel costs and no long gaps between direct training contacts. Web-conferencing permits face-to-face training so that the learner and supervisor can read each other's emotional responses while reviewing case material. It allows group learning from direct supervision to complement local peer-to-peer learning methods."

Language Instruction. Sng Bee Bee and David Gardner report in the International Journal of Web Based Communities on research they conducted to determine the viability of Web conferencing for language instruction. (I have reported elsewhere in this blog about California Community College instructors who have successfully taught Spanish and other languages using CCC Confer.) Two groups of learners, one Thai and one Vietnamese, were located in two different countries: Thailand and Singapore. They met by means of Web conferencing and - based on participants' feedback - concluded that this technology was effective in helping to accomplish the learning objectives.

Library Research Skills Instruction. Sheila Bonnard and Mary Anne Hansen of Montana State University report that they have successfully taught library research skills to online students in real time for the last two and a half years. Their article, "From Two Dot to Turkey", provides tips and lessons learned, along with amusing anecdotes about the rural communities (including Two Dot) served.

Tutoring. Karen Kear et. al.from the Open University describe a Web tutoring pilot that involved about 140 tutor groups and report that "tutors and students reacted positively to the opportunities Web conferencing provides for interactive learning and teaching." They also stress the need for prior preparation and "real-time improvisation" in this environment, along with the challenges of establishing social presence and avoiding cognitive overload. (As with language instruction, I have written elsewhere in this blog about successful tutoring efforts using CCC Confer).

Research and Data Collection. David M. Glassmeyer and Rebecca-Anne Dibbs describe in "Researching from a Distance" how geographically separated learners can use Web conferencing software to collect qualitative interview data by conducting interviews in an online graduate education course. And Yang et. al. describe "Use of Webinar and Web Meeting to Support Research Collaboration Between Italy and China" in the 2012 Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications.





CCC Confer: Where Do I Start?

Another semester and you're still not ready for online real-time interaction with your students? It's not that hard! You can do it! Let's get you started with some simple suggestions.

1. Try It Out! You don't have to start blind with your students or anyone else. There's a simple way to get your feet (or at least your toes) wet without having to feel embarrassed or under pressure. Try our practice rooms for free. You can sign into the rooms any time, from anywhere, and see how this thing works. Try the whiteboard, upload a PowerPoint or some image files, share your desktop applications, go on a Web tour. No one will see you making mistakes, and you'll soon discover exactly which tools make you comfortable and which you might want to practice with more before using them with students.

2. Get Some Training. You can get live online training from our expert (and oh-so-understanding and patient) Client Services team, or you can choose recorded training or self-paced instruction. It's a painless way to pick up the tips and techniques that will make it possible for you to be successful online with your students.

3. Sign up for an Account. If you're an instructor in the California Community Colleges (any of them), you're eligible for a free account. Follow this link to register for a MyConfer account, which will make it possible for you to schedule classes, office hours, conferences, etc. whenever you like. With this account, all of your meetings and archives will be available to you when you login.

4. Review our Videos. The "Two Minutes to Better Confer Meetings" series provides quick reminders and tips for the most common Confer uses: application sharing, file sharing, polls, privacy settings, recurring meetings, the timer, uploading PowerPoint and image files, Voice Over IP, Web cameras, Web tour, and the whiteboard. And our Confer channel features real instructors (like you) demonstrating and explaining how and why they use CCC Confer in their online classrooms.

5. Record a Trial Session. Before you schedule a live session with your students, schedule a session without an audience. Get everything ready in advance (PowerPoints, activities, polls, Web sites, and so on), login to your session, and press the "Record" button. Deliver your lecture or presentation as if you were doing it with a live audience, pacing yourself and pausing in appropriate spots for student feedback, and stop the recording when you're through. When the archive becomes available (generally in a few hours), look at it critically for mistakes or things you'll want to change the next time. This is an excellent way to improve your online teaching skills: see yourself as your students will. You may want to repeat this step a few times, and even to allow students or colleagues to view the archive and give you constructive criticism or feedback.

6. You're Ready: Schedule Your Class. If you've taken these five steps, you're ready to "go live" online with your students. Does that mean your first class will go smoothly, without a hitch? Maybe and maybe not. I belive, however the first class goes, that it guarantees you'll know what to do when the unexpected happens, and that you're likely to keep going despite minor setbacks.

Be sure to let us know how things go!

Do I HAVE to Teach Online in Real Time?

A good friend of mine is a model of effective educational technology. She exemplifies good online teaching and is skilled in the use of CCC Confer with students and with her peers as a workshop leader and evangelist on her campus. She's been teaching online classes for several years, and using CCC Confer for about five years now. But she's only begun in the last year to use CCC Confer in real time with her students.

What took her so long? Well, she didn't see the need for synchronous online instruction, and she certainly didn't feel comfortable with the thought of having to "be perfect" with a live audience. This instructor (let's call her Arianna) had worked tirelessly on making recorded sessions (via Confer) that taught the concepts she wanted to teach and were re-usable and captioned, thus ensuring maximum accessibility for her students. Because she could delete and re-record the sessions that didn't go as she'd planned, she was very comfortable with this method of providing personalized lectures and teaching to her online students. In the synchronous world, there aren't any "do-overs" if things go south. Why ruin a good thing?

What happened with Arianna is that she was exposed to other instructors who were using Confer in real time with their online classes. She heard about how much these instructors enjoyed the social interactions with their students and their discussions about the merits of hearing and answering questions in real time. She began to wonder about her isolated online students and whether or not some of them might be better served if they could access their instructor in real time. Perhaps most importantly, she discovered that her peers - people just like her - were doing it. If they could do it, why couldn't Arianna?

She's discovered that there are some things that work in real-time and others that she believes are still best left to asynchronous delivery. For example, she believes that synchronous content delivery is best suited to simple lessons that can be "chunked" and discussed, or for which students can be encouraged to react quickly. When the topic is more complex, or requires reflection by students, she still prefers to present it asynchronously and review it in real time later.

You may be like Arianna; if so, relax. It takes time to become comfortable with this technology, and we're all still discovering the best ways to use it. Try some recorded lectures and see if those are a good fit for your students. Hone your skills and become familiar with the tools (e.g., whiteboard, chat, application sharing) so you can adapt your presentations to fit your teaching needs. And keep an open mind about going online with a live audience.

Maybe not today, but there may come a time when you'll want to take that step.

Two Minutes to Better Confer Sessions

The hard-working Client Services team at Confer have produced some very useful - and conveniently short - videos to help you succeed online in your Confer sessions. They all use the new sleek interface and are designed to show you quickly and clearly what you need to know to use the tool you want to use. Enjoy!

























Dandies, eh? Let us know what else you'd like to see a short video tutorial about!

Using Students Experts

"An expert knows all the answers - if you ask the right questions." - Levi Strauss. "Have you heard of this new thing called the internet? It's giving people new expectations. It's allowing them to become their own expert. Knowledge lies anxious at their fingertips." - Roy H. Williams


Angie Thompson's "daily experts" technique is a simple way to encourage student participation - both in traditional and online classes. "I list five or six students’ names on a PowerPoint slide at the beginning of my classes.... These individuals, assuming they are in class, then become my daily experts—the first ones I ask questions to or opinions of before opening discussion to the whole class. " Thompson says this technique breaks the ice and helps students realize that she is approachable. Other benefits she cites are providing for one-on-one interaction in large classes, encouraging class preparation, allowing all students at least one chance to speak in class, helping the instructor to learn names, and offering engagement to the entire class. I suspect that the accountability for class attendance - knowing that your name may be on the board today - may be positively affected as well. 


Anonymity in the Confer classroom is both a good and bad thing. It's good when students don't feel embarrassed about their opinions or lack of skill. It's bad when students become disengaged, alienated, and feel that their performance and/or participation are unimportant or ignored. Having a technique like "daily experts" - which reinforces accountability - allows you as an instructor to make sure that your students feel individually responsible for paying attention, coming to class prepared, and participating in their own learning experience. 


Since you have a class roster with the names of students always available, you don't have to prepare a PowerPoint slide before class with the names of the day's experts. Instead, you can select from the list of those present. Using the whiteboard tools, you can have the experts posted (see the image above) as an initial class activity, which will add to the intrigue and anticipation of the session. Doing this acknowledges students' presence and helps you (and the other students) get to know them as individuals. Students will begin to appreciate that there is no "hiding" in your classroom. And you'll benefit from the insights they give you into how well the material is being absorbed and understanding is growing.