With the rapid growth of its distance learning offerings, Athens State University has found that it is of the utmost importance to employ teaching methodologies that engage students, provide forums for collaboration, and encourage interaction. This session, designed for practitioners, will detail ways to incorporate asynchronous/synchronous technologies, YouTube, Mobile Media, and wikis into online courses through approaches such as; a) course orientations, b) student introductions, c) virtual study groups, e) exam reviews, and f) student presentations.
Collaborate, Engage, and Interact in Online Learning
1. Collaborate, Engage, Interac
t in Online Learning:
Athens State University Success Stories
Dr. Lisa Rich
Chair, Dept. Management of Technology
Associate Professor, Information Systems
Dr. Wendy Cowan
Assistant Professor of Health & Physical Education
Michael Gibson
Assistant Professor of MIS & CIT Coordinator
2. Athens State University
• Founded in 1822; oldest institution of higher education in
Alabama 's state educational system
• Upper-division university; serving transfer students from
across the state of Alabama
• Approx. 3,000 students; 1,800 FTE
• 93 FT faculty; 125+ adjuncts
• Three colleges:
– Arts & Sciences
– Business
– Education
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3. Distance Learning
• First online course offered in 1998; basic web site
• Current software available for DL classes:
– Blackboard 8 Academic Suite
– Tegrity Campus; Wimba Classroom & Voice Tools; Learning Objects
Campus Pack; Respondus LockDown Browser & StudyMate
• Spring 2009 semester enrollment:
Total Credit DL Credit
College Hours Hours % DL
Arts & Sciences 9,718 5,305 54.6%
Business 9,988 8,414 84.2%
Education 10,013 6,273 62.7%
Total 29,719 19,992 67.3%
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4. Interaction @ Athens State
• Hardware:
– Tegrity Cart in IT conference room
– 30+ labs/classrooms equipped to capture lectures
• LCD projectors / plasma display
• Most with Wacom/STAR smart tablets
– Tablet PCs currently used by 40+ faculty
• Software:
– Phase 1: Blackboard: Asynchronous Discussions
– Phase 2: Tegrity: Asynchronous Lecture Capture (Fall 2005)
– Phase 3: Wimba, Wikis, YouTube, Mobile Phones, LiveText
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5. Ways We Use Tegrity
• Use tablet PCs/starboards to capture hand-written notes
• Demonstrate use of physical objects/experiments
• Start with blank documents or slide presentations –
“build-as-you-go”
• Conduct web site/product tours
• Share video from site visits/interviews
• Upload movies, TV clips, or other videos
• NEW – Capture student presentations for grading and/or
sharing with classmates
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6. Tegrity Examples
Tina Sloan Stacie Hughes
Education Accounting
- Physical demo -Tablet PC annotation
Susan Herring Laura Lynn Kerner
Librarian Marketing/Management
- Web tours - Site visits/interviews
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7. Tegrity Features
No longer a one-way Students can also view
street! recordings:
• Faculty lectures Student • Through a course in
viewing Blackboard
• Student presentations • Podcasts/vodcasts via RSS
Faculty grading (e.g. iTunes)
• Student presentations • Facebook via the Tegrity
Student viewing Campus Application
• Documents/Files Student • DVDs
downloads/opens Professor Gary Valcana
• Student Biographies
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8. Wow ‘Em with
Bill Wilkes Jeff Johnson
Economics Management
-Course Orientations
-Virtual Lectures and Discussions
-Virtual Audio Chat Sessions
Lisa Rich Wendy Cowan
Information Systems Education
-Virtual Study Groups -Oral Exams
-Student Presentations -Student Introductions
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9. Go Wild with Wikis
Wendy Cowan
Education
-Training Website
-Student Portfolios
-Course Wiki Site
Lisa Rich
Information Systems
-Student Introductions - Course Bibliography
-Group Project Mgt - DL Technology Help
-Student Organizations - Collaborative Presentations
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10. You Tube
• Who needs paper and pencil anymore?
– Engage – students presented a problem
– Collaborate - to create videos
• Provided students with Apple ibooks and video
cameras
– Uploaded to www.Youtube.com
– Interact – faculty, staff and students critiqued
and graded video presentations
• Student video
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11. Mobile Phones
• You mean phones ARE allowed in class?
– Engage – students given an assignment
– Collaborate – work in groups to answer
questions
– Interact – use text messaging to connect with
the outside world
• Health facts; do your friends and family know the truth? –
students were given a set of questions and could only
reply with answers received via different text messaging
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12. Livetext
• Connecting universities in one project
– Engage – students in two different universities
given an assignment
– Interact – work with classmates on the
assignment
– Collaborate – work with partner at other
university to design finished project
• Faculty and students shared a LiveText account for the
purpose of completing a group project throughout a
semester
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