Pitfalls of OL Course Design #4

Posted on October 15, 2013 by jenningb

This pitfall suggests that we need to open up spaces for our students to experiment with material as a means of learning and should reject the banking theory of knowledge that dominated education in the modern era.  I’m fairly sure this idea works well in more creative endeavors, but statistics at the undergraduate level does not provide much room for stumbling on to truths (provided one wishes to finish in 10 weeks).  To this end, I feel that students may require a set of boundaries to their play areas that allows them to work with ideas and then move forward.

In my course, students are working on an original piece of research, so they have selected a pair of concepts in a relationship and then must figure out ways to measure these concepts, describe their data, and ultimately test the relationship.  While there is a most right answer to measuring each of the concepts with the data provided, by letting students stumble around the right answers while keeping them in touch with their classmates looking at similar ideas, students should have the experience of being allowed to freely play with the information while not actually being subject to the multitude of rabbit trails unsupervised researchers may follow.

This can be further facilitated by setting up discussion groups based around specific concepts or statistical methods to allow students to pool their knowledge; however doing so does allow for the pooling of ignorance as well.  This reality will require a deft hand in balancing the need to let students explore on their own and make mistakes while keeping them sufficiently on track to finish the course in time.

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The Web is the New Pencil

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Sara Q. Thompson

As a librarian I see a lot of different habits and workflows when it comes to finding and organizing information from the web.  No matter what discipline we might be in or position we might hold in academia, we all use web browsers and digital information every day, and yet many of us still struggle with how to manage all the searching, writing, and organizing we need to do across this wealth of information.

My hybrid course is slightly different in that it is actually a series of individual workshops for specific skills, rather than a complete credit class.  This creates the opportunity (and challenge) of arranging the online materials for the workshops in such a way that participants (be they students, faculty, or staff) can have some flexibility in how they approach the different segments – either sequentially building up from basic skills to more advanced lessons, or jumping from one topic to another as their interests and needs lead them.

At the most basic level, this “course” (or workshop series) will be a collection of blog posts summarizing the skill in question, offering some resources for more information, and describing hands-on activities available for classes or in-person workshops.  I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from collaborative programs like York University’s 23 Things and the Personal Knowledge Management blog.

I do fantasize about offering this series as an online non-credit class – like a mini-MOOC or a professional development opportunity – where the hybrid elements become synchronous and asynchronous pieces rather than online and face-to-face.  I see this as a mix of weekly synchronous chats with asynchronous discussion threads and individual exercises.  Since it would be non-credit, participants would have options for how involved in the class / workshop they want to be according to how much time they want to spend on each module.

According to Arthur C. Clarke, “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” By the end of this course I hope students will feel comfortable enough with the ubiquitous advanced technology that is the web to feel like magicians in their own right.

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So you think you aren’t a leader…….

Posted on August 24, 2013 by dollarn

Communicating Leadership is a 4-credit hybrid course, which will meet F2F once a week for 110 minutes for 10 weeks. Having taught the course only once, as a special topics course, I have some experiences to build on in converting to a hybrid yet not too much “baggage from the old way of teaching the course” to drag me down in design. The course is part of the Community Development and Leadership Option within our Social Science degree and will attract SS students as well as students from a variety of majors interested in this topic.

Much of my redesign has focused on not losing the “service learning” aspect of the course in converting to hybrid. In some ways, I am discovering I had already taught the course in a “sort of hybrid” manner yet there are some nuances in the service learning approach that I don’t want to lose in the redesign such as their term-long partnership with a local leader. As noted in my previous blog posting I believe a course blog will be one way to bridge service learning and hybrid aspects in the course.

The course focuses on a different approach to leadership than the more traditional—trait, born, situational—to explore leadership as a COMMUNICATION process that everyone, not one designated individual, has opportunities to take part in. Using video clips in class we will work on identifying key communication concepts (supportive climate, rhythms of communication, for example) in differing leadership contexts—non-profit, for-profit, education, legal, etc.

As students often enter a leadership class thinking they are not leaders I am hopeful that the hybrid approach to this course will allow the students to gain experience communicating leadership. By integrating in-class brief lectures, discussions, activities and exercises with the “active” hybrid components I hope to provide a PLACE and SPACE for students to “try on” leadership.

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Getting in the Weeds with Chronic Disease

Posted on August 23, 2013 by witzkek

By the time EXSS students reach their senior year, they’ve learned a lot about a “normal” person and how to prescribe exercise for someone who is young and apparently healthy. They are excited about graduation and how they will use all that they know to go out and change the world…in our case…to make everyone aware and convinced of the benefits of exercise and enthusiastic about getting off the couch and moving for health. That is…until I have to break the news to them that only 10% of Americans are regularly physically active and most really have no intention of changing their sedentary lifestyle. To make matters worse, I have to tell them that most of the clients they will encounter come nowhere near to fitting the definition of “apparently healthy.”

EXSS 436 is all about Exercise Management for persons with Chronic Disease. In a nutshell, this hybrid course that meets F2F once/week for 75 minutes, will explore the myriad of chronic diseases that plague our nation, specifically heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and metabolic disease, stroke, osteoporosis, cancer, and Alzheimer’s, and how exercise can be used to effectively manage these diseases and improve quality of life. The very interesting part about all of these diseases is that they share a common trait…inflammation. I will use this common link as a way to introduce and connect each chronic disease we will cover:

Inflammation

Students will leave this course with an understanding of the physiology of several chronic diseases, more confidence in their ability to program exercise for “real people” and with an appreciation for the complexity of chronic disease from a biopsychosocial perspective.

While I have incorporated active learning activities into this course in the past, I have not taught it as a hybrid before. I am looking forward to being the conductor but allowing my student orchestra to infuse the class with their enthusiasm, creativity, voice, personal experiences, and collaborative talents (lets face it, they don’t want to listen to me drone on and on for 3 hours a week). Students will be assigned to research one chronic disease as a small group of 3 or 4 and will present a current, relevant research study related to the use of exercise to manage/treat the disease. All students will read the article but the group will present the study in whatever creative means they wish, including online tools. They can present in person or post a video of their group presenting the article (bonus points for creativity), host a discussion or class blog, or anything else with my approval. I may also require them to work on this using a small group wiki or Google Docs or another collaborative online tool (still mulling that one over).

In addition to the group assignment, I will also post weekly online lectures with a short quiz, weekly blogs related to the topic/article they’re reading (requiring them to comment), and a variety of interactive/active small group activities during our face to face time. A F2F panel of individuals with chronic disease who have successfully discovered “exercise is medicine” will round out the term. The midterm exam will be take home and the final exam will be in class, with a reflective essay from which I an assess their appreciation for the social/emotional challenges faced by those with chronic disease.

 

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Addictive Behavior Counseling

Posted on August 22, 2013 by bilesk

Addiction is something that almost every single person will encounter at one time or another in our life. Whether from a family member, a friend or co-worker, neighbor or even one’s own addiction; addiction’s impact is far reaching.  In TCE 533 counseling students learn to recognize signs of substance abuse and addiction, along with methods and models of counseling and treatment approaches.  Students will learn about the use of assessments, from a basic four question assessment to more in-depth assessments used in different milieus. Additionally, students will learn a model (SBIRT) that has been recently introduced into the field of healthcare, where nurses and doctors are able to quickly “screen, provide brief intervention, referral to treatment.”

Students come to this class with their own world view of addiction.  One of the first discussions and lectures that take place in this class is the etiology of addiction and the disease concept.  Students then read two autobiographies of a father and son who live with the son’s addiction to drugs.  By reading these two stories, students are also introduced to the concept of co-occurring disorders, and the impact on families. In the hybrid format, students will discuss their weekly readings each week, either online or in class and provide written reflections online.  These readings also will be connected to each week’s lectures, either on-line or in class.

During face to face time, students will learn and practice motivational interviewing, a brief counseling model that is evidenced based and now widely being used in the addiction field.  To help student understand the challenges with addiction and making behavioral change, students will be required to “quit” a habit/substance for the duration of the class.  These substances are ones they use on a regular basis, such as coffee, soft-drink, nightly dishes of ice-cream.  This exercise serves students in several ways.  First, they get to experience firsthand what it means to “quit or give up” something they enjoy. Secondly, it helps them as they “real-play” clients in a counseling setting, as each student practices motivational interviewing.

TCE 533 will be held during winter term, 2014 and will meet for 3 hours every other Thursday evening – for a total of 5 meetings. I expect about 30 students, from both the clinical mental health and school counseling tracks.  There will be brief lectures both online and in class.  I also would like to provide “video samples” both online and in class for students to view and use while practicing the skills of motivational interviewing.  Students will be required to lead demonstrations in the class and post a video online as well.  Students will be assigned reading groups and will meet for discussions each week, either in class or online.  The weeks they post their discussions online will be asynchronous.

Finally, students will be required to keep a habit journal of their experience online.  Each student will choose an addiction to research and write about and will post their papers online for peers to review.  Students’ work online will be consistently linked to in class experiences and online/in class discussions.

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Diagnosis and Assessment Class

Posted on August 20, 2013 by fordamy

Mental health counselors are required to have a diagnosis and assessment course in which they learn how to identify, correctly diagnose, and treat mental disorders (such as depression or anxiety). This requirement is by Oregon State law and the accreditation standards for the counseling profession.

Diagnosis and assessment is taught in every counselor education program, and usually in a face-to-face format. The title and course number for the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program’s course is TCE 577 Psychopathology and Advanced Psychodiagnostics. Given the high amount of content, the course has been typically delivered by lectures with practice in class.

The new hybrid version of TCE 577 will be taught spring quarter 2014. The anticipated enrollment is 20 students. All of the students will be completing the first or second year of their program, which means that they will have seen actual clients through their practicum. Thus, it will be easy for them to apply their learning concepts onto real cases.

I anticipate that this course will meet every other week for 3 hours at a time. My plan to hybridize the course is to put most of my lectures online via video. To ensure that students master the large amount of content, I will give reading assignments which are quizzed. Finally, I will post an actual case every other week, where students will be required to diagnose during class. These cases will be quite complex, and they will require the students to perform a full data collection, diagnostic assessment, mental status examination, and treatment plan. In this manner, the online and in class learning will be simultaneous and linked through ongoing discussion and application.

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Balancing field experiences, F2F, and web-based learning

Posted on August 18, 2013 by newsomej

The course that I am transforming into a hybrid course is TCE 309: Field Practicum (3 quarter credits). This course is designed for undergraduate students who want to explore teaching in formal and/or informal settings by allowing them to engage in 66 hours of observations or small group interaction with students in a school or community education setting. Currently, the class size will be very small – perhaps only 1 to 3 students in a term -drawing initially from only undergraduate General Science students. The student numbers may grow in the future as the new Social Sciences undergraduate major comes on board, or as we consider opening up the course to other undergraduate majors.

The key challenge of the course was determining how to best balance and integrate the three course features: field observations, face-to-face meetings, and web-based interaction.  The course that I inherited had few supports for student observations, such as introducing fundamental education concepts, practices, and vocabulary for topics such as classroom management or diverse learners. My goal was to provide those supports, primarily through Blackboard online readings, quizzes, and surveys. The original course met four times for 2 hours; my plan is to meet only three times for one hour.

Prior to the course, the students must complete a number of steps including applying for a field practicum setting, completing (and passing) a criminal history check, applying to be a volunteer in the public schools, completing and passing a Safe Schools tutorial and quiz (indicating an understanding of rules and regulations surrounding appropriate interactions with minors), and applying for personal liability insurance with the National Education Association.

Course assignments are minimal: Class attendance and participation, an Activity Log documenting observation activities and hours (monitored in Google Docs), six written reflections (with evidence of incorporating materials from readings and f2f discussions – using a separate journal entry for each in order to have individual grades), and a final evaluation from the Cooperating Teacher, mostly related to professional ethics and dispositions. The course is Pass/No Pass and all elements of the course must be passed at minimum standards in order to pass the course.

The first course session will involve a welcome and introductions, course expectations, an experience/tutorial on Blackboard, and an introduction to expectations in clinical settings, professional dispositions and ethics, and introductory activities that the students can use to engage the cooperating teacher.  Since students will not start their field placement until week 2, I will engage them online with additional readings about professional dispositions and ethics, a professional dispositions self-assessment, and a Student Belief Inventory about the Nature of Schools. These two items will be used to inform the first reflection:  What do I believe about teaching and learning?

The remaining weeks are a self-paced combination of field observations and readings (with online quizzes to make sure that students have completed the readings). Tentative reading topics will be classroom climate, classroom management, student engagement, classroom demographics and diversity, instructional strategies, and content standards and objectives.  Written reflections 2 and 3 are due at week 5, reflections 4 and 5 at week 9, and reflection 6 (what I learned) and the Cooperating Teacher Evaluation and Activity Log are due at the end of finals week. Face to face sessions will occur at week 3 (feedback on first reflection, check in on placements, additional information on professionalism) and week 6 (feedback on reflections, check in on field, and professional learning and growth-to support reflection 6).

I hope that there is a seamless interplay of observation, online support, and reflection. I will have the students use the Journal feature of Blackboard so, if more than one student enrolls in the course, we have the option of sharing one or more journal entries.  The course is repeatable for up to 6 credits. For students taking the course a second time, the course structure and assignments are the same, though the support materials will be different, allowing for the variation of the student experience, but also allowing for a single instructor to monitor the low enrollments of simultaneous first and second time participants.

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Blogging – I just might have something to say!

Posted on July 31, 2013 by bilesk

Developing a blog, and blogging in general, has been an interest of mine recently. The handful of blogs I’ve been following provides entertainment and enjoyment, time for reflection, and a sense of connection with others through reading their stories (or subjects they blog about).

In the pursuit to learn more about blogs and how to blog, a colleague and I have been working with our “wonderfully supportive, talented, and knowledgeable” librarian, Sara Thompson (yes Sara – you deserve a huge shout out).  The actual goal is to develop an e-portfolio template for our students to create and submit as part of their final competencies requirements.  In this endeavor, Gene and I will create a blog, while setting a template for students to follow – and build on as they create their own portfolio/blog.

While reading the materials for our hybrid learning community – Five Common Pitfalls of Online Course Design, some learning moments emerged as I connected what I’ve done in my own online components of my classes, what I’m learning now, and my quest for blogging and e-portfolios.

Learning moment #1 – Students have something to say and want to share with one another.  In Pitfall #5, believing that individual student posts – are considered two way dialogue between each student and the instructor, not only misses opportunities to learn from one another, but I believe it sets the students up to possibly hide their authentic selves from one another.  Much like a F2F classroom where our quieter students can remain quiet, knowing that there are always students who like to talk, these students who have much to say, may not say much.  Blogging assignments, where students can share experiences, ideas, and who they are with one another provides greater learning moments.

Learning moment #2 – Confession – I am guilty of just putting “content” online and expecting students to consume content and call it learning.  As Sara helps Gene and I set up our blogs/e-portfolios, my hope is that the students share their practice, their experiences and have fun doing so.  In the counseling field, students may learn foundational information through lecture and reading, but it is the application of this information, integrated with counseling skills that tells us how much students have truly learned.  Each year I am amazed at the creativity, compassion, and competence my students demonstrate during their final oral defense.  With blogging, e-portfolios, and even uploading their individual practice sessions through video sharing, students can learn from one another and I can see their work throughout their time in the program.

Although I may only teach one or two hybrid courses each year, I plan on integrating blogs and student blogging into other classes.  After all – I know my students have many things to say and share with one another.

 

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So many sites, so little time….

Posted on July 30, 2013 by newsomej

I appreciate the potential advantages of online courses, especially using the power of the internet to make courses more interactive. That said, I also appreciate the potential to just upload text materials and stop there. So how does one harness the potential in a reasonable amount of time? I looked at the Merlot site, hoping to find video clips of classroom instruction that could be used to illustrate a particular instructional feature: classroom management, working with diverse learners, using a particular instructional strategy. I was overwhelmed by the number of resources available and felt like I was drowning in possibilities. Is there an easier way to narrow down possibilities without spending hours on the web?

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Engaging Leadership: Revisioning How We Learn to Lead

Posted on July 26, 2013 by dollarn

This is my first blog post and I must admit that I do not follow/read any blogs. I will have to begin to do so to get a better idea of how I might use a blog in my Communicating Leadership course. One idea I am considering is creating a blog for students and the local leaders with whom they will partner for the 10-week course. I envision this blog as a place where all students and local leaders gather for conversations thus extending the students’ engagement beyond one leader to all leaders who have partnered with their peers. This idea was stimulated by my reflection on the course as taught in the past: Students have a hard time deciding which leader (non-profit, for-profit, government, education, etc) they are most interested in engaging throughout the course. Often the students ask to work with multiple leaders which isn’t practical for the leaders who volunteer their time. Perhaps a blog would provide this access and interaction. Another possibility is to work with the leaders to identify blogs relevant to their careers. Students and their leader could possibly read, reflect on and post to the blog collaboratively. This would allow for more focused engagement with the leaders as well as networking.

I hope to learn more about how to utilize blogs—when, to what ends, etc. My struggle is not to assign “busy work”. Instead, I would like the work to reflect the type of blogging used in their desired profession.

Lastly, I am reflecting on how to combine my service-learning components of the Communicating Leadership course with the elements of hybrid courses. As is, I ask students meet with their partner leaders about once a week, often the second time the course meets that week. I don’t want to loose this engagement in the workplace setting yet I want to incorporate more hybrid elements in the course as currently designed.

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