Poster/Technology Demonstrations
Wednesday June 11, 2008
7:30 am - 8:30 am
A Truly Collaborative e-Learning Environment – Using Wimba to Build Connections, Enhance Learning, and Improve Student Outcomes.
Penny Rosner, Horizon WimbaThis presentation will demonstrate how Wimba’s Collaboration Suite empowers educators with a unique collaborative approach that facilitates learning interactions, addresses multiple learning styles, and builds community online. Regardless of discipline or subject, faculty can EASILY add interactive elements to blended, hybrid or online courses.
Cheaters Sometimes Prosper: Authentication and Secure Testing in Distance Education
Pam Cabalka, Kryterion
Cheating has been around forever but distance education programs are being held to an ever higher standard to ensure that students who receive a credential have done so with honesty. Legislative issues, market competition and brand integrity
issues in distance education make student authentication and secure
measurement critical issues. Learn how schools like Penn State are piloting
new methodologies and technologies (biometrics, data forensics, webcams,
remote proctoring) that make secure online testing possible. You can be
certain that 1) it’s the right person taking the test 2) they are not cheating
during the testing process and 3) your test items are secured. DE students
can now take a test affordably and securely wherever they live work or learn.Facilitating a Public Speaking Class Using Breeze Meeting and Blackboard
Nick White, Capella UniversityCapella used Breeze Meeting and publisher content to facilitate an online public speaking course that won the Blackboard exemplary course award in 2007. This poster session will illustrate the challenges and value of implementing this webconferencing software to support undergraduate learners at diverse locations around the country and the world. The public speaking experience was found to be authentic for learners while the use of webcams, headsets, and Breeze Meeting still presents some limited challenges. In addition, especially in undergraduategeneral education, the use of publisher content can greatly enrich the course experience for learners in a cost effective way. This course includes speech examples with outlines and commentary, audio abridgements of the textbook in mp3 format, self assessment quizzes from the publisher's testbank, flashcards, and a speech outliner application.
Managing the Professional Curriculum: What to do with Essential but Non-Traditional Topics
Robert J. Bulik, University of Texas
In professional education curricula, teaching essential skills like communication are often overlooked in favor of traditional, subject-specific content. In medical education, as in other professional disciplines, the curriculum is already filled to capacity and clinical faculty time is stretched to the maximum, yet new and emerging knowledge continues to inundate the field and needs to be taught to novice learners. The exponential growth in information will only continue to stress both the boundaries of the curriculum and the resources of faculty. Using the Design-A-Case© (DAC) template, faculty can efficiently and effectively create web-based cases on nontraditional (but essential) topics that can be infused into professional education courses. We have conducted and published four studies on the case authoring template, the cases, and a unique group peer review process that we utilize. Read more..Mobile Learning and the Military
Betty Keese, DANTES
Melissa Fleischmann, Hezel AssociatesSince 2003, several colleges and universities have developed and delivered courses on iPods and PDAs to help meet the needs of highly mobile military members. In the summer of 2007, DANTES (Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support) partnered with Hezel Associates to evaluate outcomes of courses delivered on handheld devices. Schools sharing their data and experiences for this initial study that concluded in April 2008 were Central Texas College, Coastline Community College, Dallas TeleCollege, Duquesne University, and University of West Florida. Presenters will share findings and implications for future mobile learning research.
Online Identity: A Review for Distance Educators
Gary Greenberg, Greater Dayton Public Television and The Ohio State UniversityWe know a great deal about our students, but there is even more to know. The ways in which students structure their identities online is turning out to have major significance for how we create courses and do research. This session will review some of the recent major work about online identity (Nakamura, Bell, Silver, Hine), and the ethical issues of doing online research.
Point of Contact (POC) Model for Distance Students
Ronnie Rowe, Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteThis poster presentation describes a single “Point of Contact” (POC) model for student services via distance learning that is currently in operation at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Within the POC model, distance students are assigned to one staff member who is their POC and serves as their liaison to the campus for all student services, including admission, registration, plans of study, degree clearance, etc. The POC also provides information to other office staff responsible for supplying materials and handling course logistics for the distance students and advocates for the distance students in discussions about policies and procedures that affect distance students.
Redesigning Freshman English I and II for Today’s Students
Bob Crook, Dallas TeleLearning, Dallas County Community College DistrictThese courses are vital building blocks for student success, and they pose particular challenges for students in a distance learning format. In collaboration with the National Center for Academic Transformation, the LeCroy Center (Dallas CCCD) has partnered with Texas Tech University to design and implement a “course redesign” which uses specially-designed videos, interactive activities, and other elements in a hybrid (blended) course format to teach English I and II. The videos deliver course content, present realistic scenarios, feature interviews with professional writers, and provide animated “quick tips” to reinforce learning. The interactive activities give students immediate feedback on learning exercises. These courses integrate electronic and print learning resources to meet the diverse needs of today’s fast-paced student population.
RUReady.net: Helping Students Achieve College Readiness & College Success in Mathematics
Nava Livne, University of Utah
Oren Livne, University of Utah
About one-third of college students are either placed in remedial math or repeat math courses, costing the nation over $1.4 billion every year. The University of Utah developed RUReady, a state-of-the-art online interactive learning and assessment tools for introductory college math courses. RUReady poses open-ended questions, representing a unified K-12-University curriculum. Through a mathematical response analyzer, ParseIT, RUReady provides instant error feedback on students’ constructed responses, highlighting correct segments vs. error patterns. The parser generates partial credit scoring (0-100), which was validated against human graders with a .91 correlation. Student creative math thinking is measured by scoring brute force vs. elegant solutions. An innovative adaptation trains students more on weak topics, through more interest-based questions in which they performed better. Error feedback raised minority students’ scores by 22% and engagement by 38%. RUReady boosts math learning/performance in a technology-rich environment. Teachers reach more students, save time on grading; institutions reduce remediation cost and better prepare graduates who pursue math, science and technology careers.
What comes first: the Vision or the Technology?
Jennifer Couvillon, Louisiana State UniversityThis poster presentation focuses on the process involved when implementing new technologies in higher education. The experience summarized occurred in a school of nursing research intensive health science center. The presenter will cover the state of science literature on technology utilized in higher education, the process of implementing new technology, and lessons learned. Examples of software and hardware needs assessments are offered. The presentation concludes with suggestions for technological utilization.
Utah Libraries of the Future
Utah Academic Library Consortium
