http://www.vwbpe.org/

This conference is free. According to the website, the first year, over 1500 unique avatars attended and the second year, over 3800 unique avatars attended this conference.
This year there will be 192 presentations and 500 presenters with an expectation of 5000 attendees. Check out the conference website. I plan to attend for the first time and will post a blog about the experience.

Assessment- Discourse Analysis
This week, I reviewed my discussion posts from previous weeks using charts that Dr. Khalsa shared with the class. I searched the literature about this fascinating subject. Here are some interesting reads on the subject from various perspectives. The first article analyzed documents posted by distance and online learning organizations and highlights some of what the author perceives as contradictions in applying constructivist learning theories. The second is an interesting read about how to be successful in online teaching. VOCAL stands for Visible, Organized, Compassionate, Analytical, and Lead by example. I found some good tips in the article. The third is my favorite. It is part of what later became the authors Doctoral Thesis in 2005 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I have not read the entire thesis but plan to in the future. The author used ethnographic research- immersing self in the environment to understand the learning culture in an on-line game.

Kelland, J. (2006). Constructivist Theories and Online Learning Best Practices: A Discourse Analysis. 2006 National Conference On-Line Proceedings. York University, Toronto, Ontario. May 28-29. http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/CASAE/cnf2006/2006onlineProceedings/CAS2006Jennifer%20H%20Kelland.pdf

Savery, J. (2005). BE VOCAL: Characteristics of Successful Online Instructors. Journal of Interactive Online Learning. Vol. 4, Number 2, Fall 2005. http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/PDF/4.2.6.pdf

Steinkuehler, C. (2004), Learning in Massively Multiplayer Online Games. Sixth International Conference on Learning Sciences. University of California, LA.
http://website.education.wisc.edu/steinkuehler/papers/SteinkuehlerICLS2004.pdf

Steinkuehler, C. Doctoral Thesis
http://website.education.wisc.edu/steinkuehler/thesis.html

Lastly, I want to share this with my class as I say goodbye and wish you joy in your future teaching careers. It is a free conference in the virtual world Second Life. I am going to dive in and learn what is in store for the future of learning.
http://www.vwbpe.org/

Assessment- The Final Project

I worked on my final project for the Assessment in E-Learning EDUC 762 Course. My project is
Carolyn's Assessment Toolbox Wiki (click to view). I explored and practiced using a Wiki this week and learned how to do many things including downloading files, editing, creating pages, creating links, adding graphics. My biggest frustration came when I made some errors on the Wiki page and wanted to revert back to a previous page but was unable to figure out how to do so even with tutorials and PDF help files. It seemed like it would be the easiest thing to learn how to do; but it has been a challenge.
I have begun updating my e-portfolio to include links to this blog and the wiki after reading another student's post about the benefit of keeping assessments from the E-Learning courses together. I am enjoying reviewing the final projects submitted by other students because I am being introduced to other on-line assessment tools. Their projects are so creative. I plan to test some of the tools in the future and possibly add to my assessment toolbox.

Assessment - What highlights or techniques can I apply to my on-line courses

Rubrics

Online surveys

Weekly reflection

Ice breakers in the first week

Scavenger Hunts

Wiki's / Blogs / Concept Maps

I would like to try to incorporate service learning into my on-line courses in the future because I think an immersive learning experience is active and meaningful. I also think it stretches the zone of proximal development for both the student and instructor. I would like to stimulate the cooperative, creative, and community spirit in each of us. I found Blog of Proximal Development and it has some good ideas about how to stretch myself and my students.

Assessment: On-line Instructor Training
This week I reviewed the Sloan Consortium Report, Learning on Demand: On Line Education in the United States, 2009. by I.Elaine Allen and Jeff Seaman. My immediate reaction was to go back and compare the statistics from The Perfect E-Storm (2004) by Curtis Bonk relating to on-line training for educators.
According to Bonk, most teachers of on-line programs and courses had never received much formal training. When educators, administrators, and course designers were surveyed in 2003 about where typical online instructors in 2010 would be trained to teach on-line, greater than 50% responded that extensive internal training would be provided. 19% of those surveyed predicted no training would be provided.
Fast forward to the fall of 2009 Sloan Consortium Report of on-line education. Chief academic officers at all Unites States institutions of higher education open to the public were surveyed about type of training for faculty teaching on-line. 59% use informal mentoring and 65% use internally run training courses. Some schools use a combination of mentoring and internal training. According to the 2009 survey, 19% of the schools provided no training in the fall of 2009.
So it turns out that those surveyed by Bonk in 2003 were fairly accurate in their predictions about what would happen in 2010. I can not imagine teaching on-line in 2010 without some training and / or mentoring. It might be that the 19% of schools that don't offer the training rely on educators that received formal training and are experienced in teaching on-line.

Assessment-
Using Bloom's Taxonomy and other tips for Avoiding Plagiarism
Bloom's Taxonomy was the focus of discussion this week. The class participated in an exercise to convert a traditional face to face journalism class to an on-line format.
An Assessment Taxonomy Table Template (click to view) was used to organize the learning objective verbs and associated assessment activities into Bloom categories. -

Educational Origami-Bloom's and ICT Tools

Center for Teaching: Bloom's Taxonomy

Plagiarism-

Seven Strategies for Plagiarism-Proofing Discussion Threads in On-Line Courses

Useful Tips on Avoiding Plagiarism

• Both articles describe using Bloom's taxonomy of higher order thinking to avoid plagiarism.
  

Point Click and Cheat: Frequency and Types of Academic Dishonesty in the Virtual Classroom

• Research about on-line versus classroom cheating.

I have been reflecting on the assessment tools available for me to incorporate into my final project and the choice of technology for presenting. I need to remember the audience and their ability with technology for the course I am developing for the final project.