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Going Analog: The Why versus the How in Instruction

Note: Listen to this entry at Everything that FITS, an ongoing podcast for the DePaul community and the world at large, sponsored by DePaul University’s Faculty Instructional Technology Services department. Tune in for tips, tricks and useful information to help you teach smarter every day.

Technology is inescapable these days. It has made some things in our lives easier, and has changed the way we communicate with the world. It serves as our portal to our homes, schools, and jobs, and is in some cases the center of our social lives. Many technology tools that we now take for granted have augmented, and in some cases replaced, older analog technologies, enabling us to streamline and simplify our tasks. In many cases we ask ourselves how we ever got along without such a resource. Consider where we are now compared to twenty years ago with technologies like cell phones, e-mail and the Internet—or even just ten years back when social networking with Facebook, MySpace, and Friendster was just beginning—and you can see how much the landscape has changed in just a few short years. Kids growing up today don’t remember not having cell phones and always-on Internet access; now social networking sites aren’t just for amusement but have become a way of life for most of us. If you do anything embarrassing while someone is filming, you can bet that it will show up on YouTube for the world to see. All of these, in varying degrees, have changed how we interact with one another and with the world.

However, as we grow accustomed to these new technological innovations, are we developing new skills to our benefit, or are we simply replacing older analog methods of accomplishing the same thing? And are there advantages to the new way over the old one, or are we “phasing out” skills that might still have some importance from time to time? Consider these examples:

  1. Although kids are still taught to read analog clocks in grade school, the majority of clocks being installed in schools these days are digital, or if they are analog, they include a digital readout at the bottom. The majority of clocks in most homes are digital too (your DVD player, clock radio, computer, etc.). As a consequence, fewer and fewer kids can read a wristwatch because they aren’t getting the practice. My wife teaches 8th grade, and she says she has a lot of kids who can’t tell time without a digital clock! This trend makes traditional wristwatches seem almost like relics of the past, but for those who still treasure these timeless pieces, watch repair services are essential to keep them in working order and preserve their charm. And for those interested in starting their collection, be sure to check out these replica watches for sale.
  2. Lots of people these days use maps from the Internet or GPS to get directions. But what if the information on the GPS is outdated, or the Internet directions are wrong? This happened to me recently in Colorado: after Google Maps led us into the middle of nowhere and off course, we pulled over and bought a state map, and that got us on the right track. However, this was only because I know how to read a map, which obviously won’t give turn-by-turn directions, and to use the compass I carry with me. We are losing the ability to navigate with map and compass, because the majority of the time you don’t have to know how to read them anymore. Many people are content to turn on their phone’s location service or their GPS and follow blindly from there, without truly knowing where they are or where they’re going; they just follow the directions and assume they’ll get there.
  3. The last time you had to do some mathematical computation, how did you do it? I bet you whipped out a calculator, used your computer or phone’s built-in calculator, or did a formula operation in a spreadsheet program. You probably didn’t reach for a pencil and paper to do some long division. Like telling time on analog clocks, they do still teach this in schools, but these days calculators are used at least as often, even on standardized tests. The state of Illinois gives aspiring teachers a Basic Skills Test that is roughly equal to the abilities in math and English of an 8th grade student. This test has a 77 percent failure rate as of 2010, and the failing scores are predominantly in math. Why? As someone who has taken this very test, I can venture a guess: calculators are not allowed, which means that test takers have to navigate that long division unaided. They are failing because they have been using calculators for so long that they have forgotten how to calculate by hand.

So what does this mean for us? Operations like telling time, navigating, and doing math haven’t changed, but the way in which we find answers in each system has, and our increasing reliance on these electronic devices is slowly removing the old ways simply because using them is easier. In most cases, the failure we are seeing isn’t the inability to choose what operation to perform; it’s the failure to do so without an electronic device’s aid. Thinking back a number of years to when we still needed road maps, we didn’t have any more trouble getting around than we do now even though mapping is available on nearly every phone. The ease of using the electronic counterpart is now overshadowing the old fashioned tried-and-true way. This may not be a problem in everyday usage, but it can be catastrophic when the technology doesn’t work. What if you don’t know how to do it the low-tech way?

This phenomenon of new technology replacing old has huge implications for the teaching world. More and more, students are coming out of K-12 and college with a set of skills that are predominantly plug-and-play; that is, they have the ability to solve a problem using a tool, but they don’t have the know-how to tell you what procedure they are following, or even why they are following the steps in that order. Instead, they know a procedure that says, “If I do thing A with tool X, I will get answer B.” There’s no intuition in this; the cognitive process has been removed altogether and replaced with an instruction manual of sorts. Problem solving cannot happen here unless the information to be plugged in is presented in the same way the student learned the procedure.

In the last decade, educational philosophy has increasingly focused on creating “authentic,” “real-world” problem-solving processes. The argument is that students need to be able to apply learned concepts to actual situations they will encounter instead of doing purely theoretical exercises. This concept is a fantastic idea in theory, but the catch to this is that many of the electronic replacements we are using are removing the theoretical portion and leaving only the process. There is no opportunity for students to see the theoretical knowledge being applied or to understand how it is being applied; they just plug in numbers and variables and get an answer. If the answer was all we were looking for, this would be enough, but obviously as instructors we are interested in students’ mastery of the theoretical, not their ability to plug and chug. We need to be sure that we’re teaching students the “why” part of the process, and not just the “how.” If you are going to use an electronic replacement for an analog activity, it is important to make sure that the resource still requires the student to do some thinking on his/her own outside of number-crunching. If there is a process that can be done by hand, the resource should be used to simplify that process rather than replacing it, and instructors should make sure that students can still perform the specified actions without any electronic help. If possible, teach the analog method first, so the tool will be perceived as a helper rather than the primary problem-solving method. For example, students learning to do bibliographic citations could be told to create citations on their own by hand, and then use an online bibliography tool like EasyBib or NoodleTools to check their work. In this way students learn to do the work on their own, and perceive the tool as a helper for difficult citations rather than as “the way to create citations.” Students learn to do the heavy lifting first, and the tool is secondary, rather than being the heavy lifter.

In this age of electronic conveniences, it’s often difficult to try and “go analog” and do things the old-fashioned way when there are so many easy ways around to do it faster, cheaper, and with less human involvement. Still, the benefit to learners has remained the same, even though the times are a-changin’. Regardless of what the electronic world can create to “enhance” our lives, there’s still no substitute for old-fashioned know-how and human reasoning, and those who don’t need electronic crutches will always have an advantage. It’s important to remember that sometimes the old way is still a useful one, even if it’s not the easy one.

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+1 Intellect: Can Experience Points Improve Student Motivation?

When was the last time you felt a sense of accomplishment so gratifying that you threw your hands above your head and shook your fists with pride and elation? This gesture has been identified by psychologists as a universal expression made by people of all ages all around the world when they feel a sense of personal triumph. Italians call this feeling fiero, and the term has been adopted by game-designers to describe one of the most essential feelings a good game should provide.

In Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, Jane McGonigal proposes that most people’s everyday lives are shockingly fiero-deficient, and I have to agree. Most of us don’t complete our workdays with a fist-shaking gesture or spontaneous dance as we revel in our daily achievements, and much of our leisure time is spent on escapist forms of entertainment. If you can remember the last time you experienced a true fiero moment, chances are it was vicarious (e.g., watching a football player score a last-minute touchdown) or of no use to anyone in the real world (e.g., defeating a challenging level in Angry Birds).

McGonigal wants to change all that. To make the case for the ambitious assertion found in her book’s subtitle, she focuses on three key points.

  1. Reality is filled with tedious obligations and overwhelming problems that leave human beings feeling bored, powerless, and isolated.
  2. Games are humanity’s most effective tools for fostering engagement, empowerment, motivation, human connection, and a sense of accomplishment.
  3. The same principles that make games so rewarding and addictive can be used to change how we feel about and tackle unpleasant and daunting tasks in the real world—from cleaning our toilets to reducing global energy consumption.

To provide specific strategies for translating the best qualities of a good game to the real world, McGonigal proposes fourteen “fixes” for reality. Almost all of these fixes can be applied to education, and I hope to eventually assemble a group of DePaul faculty to read the book and discuss them further. For now, however, I’d like to focus on one of my favorites: “Meaningful Rewards When We Need Them Most.”

To introduce this fix, McGonigal describes a talk she gave at a conference in which she lamented,

‘If I have one regret in life, it’s that my undead priest is smarter than I am.’ Technically speaking, it’s true: if you were to add up every A I’ve gotten in my real life, from junior high through graduate school, the total still wouldn’t come close to my World of Warcraft character’s intellect stat. Never mind the fact that there’s no score at all for getting smarter once you’re out of school.

McGonigal frequently refers to the motivational power of “leveling up”—a concept commonly found in role-playing games that provides players with progress milestones and encourages them to keep striving for higher levels of expertise. When a player levels up, it means his or her character has accumulated enough experience points to get improved strength, stamina, weapons, or other tools to help the player complete increasingly challenging missions.

In some games, completely leveling up a character can take hundreds of hours of gameplay. Yet players are rarely daunted by these lofty requirements because they are provided with a steady stream of smaller victories and positive feedback as they move closer to their next goal. During her conference talk, McGonigal mentioned that she wished some of this positive reinforcement could be extended to reality, allowing friends and strangers to give her experience points in recognition of her latest achievements. As a result, an audience member at the conference created plusoneme.com. The site bills itself as “gold stars for grownups,” and it provides a simple online tool that allows users to quickly recognize each other whenever someone demonstrates an admirable trait.

Initially, I thought, “What a great idea! Who doesn’t love to be recognized for their efforts? And wouldn’t it be great in an online course? This could make students feel more valued and connected without a big fuss or hokey bonding activities.” I even signed up for an account on plusoneme.com to try it out, but my blind adoration for the site was short-lived. Within a day or two, I opened my mailbox and pulled out the latest issue of The Atlantic. The headline, “How the Cult of Self-Esteem is Ruining Our Kids,” practically leaped off the page.

The text and image on the cover were promoting an article by Lori Gottlieb titled, “How to Land Your Kid in Therapy.” Based on the headline and article title, it should come as no surprise that Gottlieb is one of many pundits blaming the indulgent parenting methods of the last few decades for creating a generation of entitled, neurotic, self-absorbed kids who are now entitled, neurotic, self-absorbed adults. It’s a backlash parade with Amy Chua serving as the Grand Marshal for 2011.

McGonigal seems to agree that most people born around 1980 or later are particularly frustrated and bored with reality. However, instead of blaming parenting trends, she points out that these younger generations have grown up with engaging, empowering games, and that these games have made the shortcomings of reality more obvious and stifling than they have ever felt before. Rather than try to put the genie back in the bottle through humiliation or forcing a toddler to play piano until her fingers bleed, scholars like McGonigal ask, “Is there a way to increase motivation, productivity, and fulfillment by turning the task at hand into a game?”

In McGonigal’s world, the answer is almost always yes. In one example, she notes that she and her husband have used the website Chore Wars to turn everyday household chores into competitive challenges. In the game, chores are assigned various point values, with the most unpleasant tasks receiving the highest number of points. By default, the points that players accumulate in Chore Wars have no material value. In McGonigal’s case, the current high-score holder has the right to choose the music whenever she and her husband drive somewhere together.

McGonigal claims this simple and free reward system has changed the way she and her husband view everyday housekeeping. She says the Chore Wars over-the-top fantasy world, in which users can collect experience points every time they “conjure clean clothes” or “rid the kingdom of toilet bowl stains,” has left her home cleaner than it has ever been. While I doubt that driving-music veto power would motivate me to clean my bathtub, McGonigal does provide more than her own household as a case study. Other users claim that Chore Wars’ has turned their children into an army of competitive cleaning machines, which I’m sure most parents would agree speaks volumes to the power of a little virtual encouragement.

That’s great for McGonigal, who could probably game her way through a root canal, and for kids, who aren’t embarrassed to think of a duster as a magic wand. But what about the rest of us? Can we really use game principles to make completing our grown-up, mundane obligations more gratifying?

At the risk of sounding like an over-indulged millennial, I wouldn¹t mind a little excitement and a virtual gold star once in a while for all my hard work. And I’m not ashamed if it takes a little imagination to get others to participate. After all, fiero is in short supply in these troubled times, particularly here in the land of Scholarshire, where the shadow of the evil Lord Profitus has cast a pall of terror across the land. If all it took was a kind word of praise in ye mystical comment box below for my blogger character to level up, wouldst thou aid me in my quest? Or wouldst thou side with the dark forces and leave me to rot in a cubicle, denied any reason to throw my hands above my head and shake my fists with pride and elation?

Let’s make a game of it and see.

Learning About Word in the Mile High City

The topic of accessibility in course design is important, often overlooked, and for me a bit intimidating. So when I saw “Creating More Accessible Word Documents” as one of the breakout sessions at the Fusion 2011 Desire2Learn User Conference in Denver last week, I knew it was time to step outside my comfort zone and attend. Going into the hands-on session, I expected to be overwhelmed, but hoped to come away with a better understanding of accessible documents for online courses. The session exceeded my expectations, and I learned that designing Word documents for screen readers is actually quite simple. I also learned some really great tips about Microsoft Word in general and walked away feeling empowered with knowledge to better use Word and design with accessibility in mind. The presenter, Karen McCall, is a beta tester/accessibility consultant for Microsoft and Adobe, and you can find resources about accessible document design on her website: http://karlencommunications.com.

Here are some of Karen’s tips for creating more accessible word documents (in Word2007—directions vary slightly for other versions).

  • Screen readers cannot read any text in a text box, shape, or object , like those cute speech bubbles you can insert or an equation inserted as an image.
  • For an equation image, a screen reader needs the equation written out. For example, “Forty plus two minus twenty seven.”
  • Always supply “alt text” if you use an image. Insert alt text by right-clicking the selected image, selecting Size & Position (or Format Picture) and then typing in one to two descriptive sentences for the image.  If the image is a link,the alt text should explain where the user will be taken upon clicking the image.
  • For text hyperlinks, only link the word(s) describing where the user will be taken. Screen readers can compile a list of links in a document, and if all links start with “click here to,” the generated list will not be easy to use. If, however, “Yahoo,” “Google,” and “YouTube,” are the link text, an alphabetized list of sites will be generated.
  • Apply styles like Heading 1 and Heading 2 appropriately in the document by highlighting the heading text and selecting from the Style menu. Screen readers recognize properly-styled headings, and this creates navigational points for the user to access the text. Creating a Table of Contents from your headings is also a helpful feature. Never set a sentence or paragraph as a heading, as it will make for a confusing navigation point.

Select Heading Styles in Word

  • If you are making a list, use the bullet or numbered list button, as opposed to just hitting Enter between lines. Again, the screen reader recognizes proper lists and will provide the user with information about the list (e.g., how many items in the list).
  • Do not type using all caps. Even those without a visual disability have trouble reading words in all caps because the brain cannot use the word shape to predict the word. (Every word in all caps is basically a rectangle.)
  • To turn your accessible Word document into an accessible PDF, do not “Print to PDF.” Instead, use the Save As PDF function, or use Acrobat to convert to PDF. When using Save As PDF, check the box for “Create bookmarks using Headings” and “Document structure tags for accessibility.”

The presenter also demonstrated several keyboard shortcuts that were new to me. As someone with a visual impairment, she finds it easier to use these shortcuts and keep her fingers on the keyboard than use the mouse to make several clicks on different parts of the screen.

Here are some miscellaneous fun Word tricks

  • To quickly create filler text on a page—especially helpful when creating a template—open a Word document and type “=RAND(5, 6)” (without quotes). In this example, 5 tells Word to create five paragraphs of text, and 6 indicates that each paragraph should have 6 sentences. These numbers can be adjusted to your need. If you want Latin text, substitute “LORM” for “RAND.” Otherwise the text is randomly pulled from the Microsoft Word Help.
  • Some PC keyboards have a key near the top that functions like the right-click on a mouse.
  • To style words as Heading 1, select the words, then type Ctrl + Alt + 1. For Heading 2, just substitute a 2.
  • Ctrl+Enter will create a new page. If you do this command with the cursor in front of the first word, you will create a blank page 1 and push the starting text to page 2.
  • Ctrl+End will take you to the end of a document.
  • Ctrl+Home will take you to the top of a document.

In addition to using these accessibility tips, I would like to try using different screen reading technologies to get a better idea of the user experience. Designing for screen reader use is just one piece of the accessibility puzzle, but it is a good start.

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Building a Box to Think Outside of It: Standardizing Online Content Layout

The Article of the Future project, an initiative of Elsevier, recently released prototypes for the web-based display of research articles in six discipline areas. The templates amazed me with their thoughtful design that allows readers to easily breeze through research articles on the screen. The design is as simple as a three-pane view we usually see on a web page, with the article outline, the content, and the references section. But what strikes me the most is the design philosophy behind the project: to leverage the use of technology to make reading more convenient, efficient, and rewarding, which is the philosophy needed for online-course design.

For example, the layout prototype for a business-management research paper offers a content view with tabs that can expand the layout to include an outline on the left, a context information pane on the right, or both of them, with a single click.

In the content area, the prototype takes full advantage of the multimedia and user-control capacity offered by the web: from graphic animation and video abstracts to interactive charts and diagrams, it offers a full spectrum of options to the readers.

The idea that Elsevier has of building a standardized online layout for research paper coincides with the desire our students have expressed to have a common structure for all of their online courses. In this summer DePaul Online Teaching Series (DOTS) program, during the online student panel discussion, one faculty member asked, if there was one thing that the students could name as the most important for an online course, what would it be? The answers given were: feedback and structure.

While it is quite understandable how important it is for faculty to provide feedback to students they’ve never or rarely met, why would the structure matter?

“So we don’t have to worry about where to find stuff,” the student said.

The “stuff” is the content and the “where” is the structure. If we save students from using their mental power to seek and search for the content, they can then use that mental power for the content itself. And, as Ruth Clark pointed out in her efficacy in learning theory, one critical goal of instructional design is but to achieve the efficacy in learning by reducing the wasted mental power and maximizing its use for the instructional purpose.

Parallel with the Article of the Future project, DePaul’s Faculty Instructional Technology Services (FITS) is moving toward creating a standardized course shell for online and hybrid courses. This master course shell includes not only preloaded menu items and module structure but also built-in content such as orientation, instruction on course navigation, online learning guidelines and expectation, and where to begin with the course.

But if all the courses look the same, will it be like an attack of the clones? What about creativity, innovation, and character?

As an instructor who strives to make every class refreshing, memorable, and profoundly “unique”, the hat that I also wear as an administrator of instructional technology helps me face reality, in which, as Gerry McGovern pointed out, the formality is merely the shell, the content inside of it is the one that is winning us the competitive advantage—whether for a web site or for a course. Besides, a consistent format, as Lee Schulman pointed out during his speech at DePaul Teaching and Learning Conference, is critical for student success. Without a box, no one will be able to think outside it!

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Ideas for Using D2L to Make Better Use of Your Class Time

I hope we’ve gotten past the point where some instructors out there believe the Learning Management System is only for online classes. At the very least, it’s a great way for instructors in a face-to-face class to post the syllabus and other course documents and to e-mail students between class meetings. But Learning Management Systems, like Desire2Learn, have so much more to offer to the face-to-face class, especially if you’re one of those instructors who never seems to have enough class time to cover everything. Here are some ideas for using Desire2Learn to get more out of your class time.

  • Course Q&A Discussion – Set up a discussion area for questions about course or assignment requirements to minimize the amount of class time you spend on these questions. Any question you answer online will be permanently accessible to other students with the same question later. There’s an added benefit to you, because there’s a possibility a more attentive student will answer questions so you don’t have to.
  • Set up Groups – If you use groups in your class and have students select their own groups, consider using the D2L Groups tool instead. You can post a description of what each group will have to cover and have students choose which group they want to belong to. D2L allows you to set up how many groups you want or select the maximum numbers of members for each group.
  • Primer Discussions – If you like to start your class with a discussion to get students thinking about the subject-matter, consider moving these discussions online and having your students respond before class. You can even pull up your course site on the projector at the beginning of class to highlight certain student responses.
  • Course Introductions – You want to allow your students to get to know each other, but you don’t want to use class time for all of your students to tell everyone their interests and aspirations. Set up a discussion area, or simply ask your students to fill out their profile.
  • Assignments for the First Class – You won’t win any popularity contests, but if you have a lot of material to cover, and your course only meets once a week, you might want your student to do some reading before the first class. Use D2L to email your students and post a news announcement to tell students they have an assignment before the class starts.

These are just a few ideas. The possibilities are endless. If you’re a DePaul instructor and need some help getting started, we encourage you to contact the FITS department.

D2L Migration: A Look Back

Last September, I reported on the Blackboard to Desire2Learn migration at SNL Online, as we moved from our initial planning and design phases to full production and review modes. I promised then I’d keep you posted; I had no idea how all-consuming the migration would prove to be.  Changing requirements, mission creep, and faculty training kept us continually challenged; here’s a look back at each:

Changing Requirements

We developed a course template through an iterative process that included a couple of rounds of user testing with faculty and students. Though we did extensive requirements gathering before developing our prototypes, because of extremely tight time constraints we did so based on our test instantiation of D2L. Platform strengths and shortcomings became known as the actual D2L production environment was installed, and we found ourselves in a long cycle of review and redesign. These redesigns came while our course migration was well underway, which resulted in having to rebuild courses already converted in a meticulous, labor-intensive process. Much of this was likely unavoidable, given we were gathering requirements and developing templates while our IT department struggled to integrate an unfamiliar and untested platform. More time to research, design, test, and iterate on a stable installation in advance of the actual migration would have prevented a lot of headaches.

Mission Creep

We designed our migration procedure to include a course-author review process; authors would review their converted course to ensure accuracy and in doing so would become oriented to D2L.  However, what had been envisioned as essentially a proofreading exercise quickly morphed into rounds of actual course revisions, which exponentially increased the workload. The courses were better for it, but once again more time to plan and allow for contingencies like this would’ve been helpful.

Faculty Training

The paradox of D2L is that the very features that are so empowering for some faculty are confusing and intimidating for others.  FITS devoted enormous amounts of manpower to create extensive documentation and video tutorials for faculty university-wide, but because of the unique nature of the SNL Online template and program we had to have specialized materials and training for our faculty. Changing user and system requirements complicated this process, and my team is still developing training materials as new needs and problems are identified.

The Rollout

Though there were problems both avoidable and unanticipated, the initial rollout of D2L in January was remarkably trouble free. Our user testing gave us a template that leveraged D2L’s strengths and that students found easy to use. Faculty unfamiliarity with the platform and its tools—despite generous training and support resources—required far more attention than student difficulties.
Overall the migration was a tremendous success.

Some problems remain. Certain D2L tools still don’t work properly in our environment; intelligent agents don’t work at all. However, the folks at D2L are dedicated and responsive, and I’m hopeful that these issues will be resolved.

We plan to do a follow-up study to determine how our design can be improved and another to test whether students do better academically with one design versus another. There’s some debate in my department on whether usability and pedagogy are sometimes incompatible; I’d love to see the results of a study addressing that concern.

In a future post I’ll look at lessons learned and what I might do differently given similar circumstances.

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Instructors as User-Experience Designers

In April, Dr. Constance Stanley of the University of Colorado gave a day-long workshop titled “50 Ways to Teach with Impact” to the Chicago Area Faculty Development Network. To my surprise, the workshop presented techniques grounded in user-centered-design best practices. The workshop was geared toward instructors teaching in a face-to-face classroom; however, many of the strategies could easily be transferred to an online class. As a former user-experience analyst and current instructional designer, I found the bent of the workshop to be a welcome integration of these two disciplines.

Whitney Hess wrote the blog post “Guiding Principles for UX Designers” for UX Magazine that went gangbusters in the Twitterverse. Her guiding principles correlate nicely with Dr. Stanley’s “50 Ways to Teach with Impact.” Let’s take a look.

Guiding Principles for UX Designers

50 Ways to Teach with Impact

Understand the underlying problem before attempting to solve it

Pre and post interviews

Make things simple and intuitive

Metacognitive activities throughout course

Acknowledge that the user is not like you

Administer VARK learning-style preference

Have empathy

Realize that the student is bombarded with information and pressure to multitask

By taking the student perspective and needs into consideration, the instructor becomes a user-experience designer of the classroom environment. Dr. Stanley provides numerous techniques that emphasize engaging the student at multiple levels so as to “hook” each student. This is similar to the best designs, which allow users easy and seamless access to a service or product.

Details on Dr. Stanley’s strategies:

Pre and post interviews: To get a feel for the prior knowledge and assumptions of the students, instructors require that students take an online survey with questions about the content at the beginning of the course. With the results, the instructor now “understands the problem.” Tweaking the content and its delivery to make it accessible and engaging for a particular class of students is “attempting to solve the problem.” The post interview gives the student a sense of “where they have come” and gives the instructor valuable feedback on their content-delivery choices or user-experience design.

Metacognitive Activities: Dr. Stanley stated that, “these activities ask the learner to observe ‘the way things are’ versus ‘the way I make them as a learner.’” In other words, students are put into situations that ask them to reflect on their process and understanding of the content. Examples of these types of activities are: self-assessments; selecting from a choice of activities based on their preferred modality of learning; or having a dialogue with peers about their understanding of the content. By creating these opportunities, instructors provide pathways for students to access the content in simple and intuitive ways.

VARK (Visual, Auditory, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic) learning preference assessment:Students and the instructor answer a quick sixteen-item questionnaire to find out their learning preference. The instructor receives the student results anonymously. By knowing the breakdown of learning preferences within a particular class, the instructor can adjust the delivery of the content to meet student needs. In addition, the instructor can be cognizant of his/her own learning preferences so as not to tilt the presentation of content towards that modality; thereby “acknowledging that the user is not like you.” The assessment is available at: http://www.vark-learn.com.

Influx of Information/Multitasking: Being empathetic to the bombardment of information students are faced with via text messages, e-mails, twitter feeds, etc. is essential in understanding the “user.” Designing a course experience that capitalizes on these devices and information streams encourages students to participate, because their frame of reference is being acknowledged. Rather than competing, play along with it. Poll Everywhere presents a content-related question to the student that is answered via text. Instructors can project the real-time results on a screen in the classroom or present them in an online collaborative environment. Multitasking and information overload are part of our students’ realities; so let’s use the very devices and technologies that vie for their attention.

The instructor as a user experience designer—I like that idea. Through the strategies presented by Dr. Stanley, instructors get a sense of the audience, their needs, and their preferences. Using these “specs” to inform the design of content delivery will lead to student engagement and participation. As one of the pioneers of user-experience design Donald Norman said, “Academics get paid for being clever, not for being right.”

“Online Class Boring You? Let Us Take It for You!”

“We can take your classes! We can help you in virtually any subject. Our experts can take any online math, science, or business class. We will work with you on a budget and a deadline and get your work done on time. Also, with our services we will not ask you to pay upfront. Our students only pay AFTER work has been completed. with our services we stand behind a 100% money back guarantee.”

Hawaii Craigslist, 5-15-2011
http://honolulu.craigslist.org/oah/lss/2382899652.html

Well, obvious ethical issues aside, there is clearly a problem with boring online classes, at least in Hawaii. Unfortunately, the tools available to us in D2L to create online classes are limited. It also takes time and, seemingly, a lot of technical expertise to create engaging, interactive online material for students. As a result, we upload a combination of text-based lectures and slideshows to D2L, making it a parking lot for static content. In this blog post, I would like to introduce you to SoftChalk, an easy-to-use eLearning authoring solution that allows you to create, share, and deliver engaging, interactive content.

Introducing SoftChalk

The best way to introduce Softchalk is to show you a short lesson embedded right here in the blog. This is a complete lesson on learning Greek and Latin word parts and was created by an educator and shared with the SoftChalk community (more on that in a bit).

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As you can see, there are numerous activities mixed in with the delivery of the content, providing the students with the opportunity to become engaged with the lesson, rather than have the material simply delivered to them though a static lecture or readings. All of the content you see was created within SoftChalk and uploaded to a sharable content repository. The same module could be easily uploaded and integrated in D2L.

What is SoftChalk?

SoftChalk is a site-licensed software package that runs on both Windows and Macintosh operating systems. While it delivers complex, interactive lessons, there is a simple, nontechnical interface for module authoring. Here is a partial list of some of the features that you can build into a SoftChalk lesson or activity:

  • Text annotation
  • Six types of interactive self-check questions
  • Seventeen interactive activities and games
  • Images, audio, video, and media
  • Widgets
  • Polls and ratings (SoftChalk CONNECT)

The news gets better when you look at the different ways you can publish a lesson created with SoftChalk. Of course, you can certainly publish to D2L but you can also publish lessons as stand-alone Web pages, executable lessons on PC and Mac, or to SoftChalk CONNECT which is a sharable content repository under Creative Commons licensing. It is also worth mentioning that SoftChalk lessons are section 508 compliant for accessibility.

In short, SoftChalk allows you to create professional-looking lessons with no HTML programming required. You can choose the style, page navigation, and layout options. SoftChalk will generate a set of integrated lesson pages with built-in navigation and a professional-looking layout. Further, it will create a single file that you upload to D2L. If there are embedded assessments, you can extract a report of student performance from within D2L.

Need Ideas?

Are you short on ideas for your lesson? SoftChalk, from within the application itself, provides the ability to search content with its open technology partners, MERLOT, CONNEXIONS, College Open Textbooks, and the IMS Global Learning Consortium, as well as SoftChalk CONNECT.

SoftChalk CONNECT is a free repository for sharing open educational resources under Creative Commons licensing, allowing you to host your content in the “Cloud” for delivery anywhere. You can also create a private area on SoftChalk CONNECT for your own materials. If you only want to use one small feature of SoftChalk, you do not have to create a complete lesson; you can publish your activity as a widget and embed it in any Web page. Here is a sample accounting activity from the public area of SoftChalk CONNECT.

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How do I get it?

SoftChalk is site licensed by DePaul and can be downloaded from the Media Production & Training website at http://www.itd.depaul.edu/website/faculty/TechnologyTools/SoftChalk.asp.

You may want to visit both the SoftChalk and SoftChalk CONNECT websites for more information and additional demonstrations.

http://softchalk.com/

http://softchalkconnect.com/

Finally, if you need help with SoftChalk and want to know more about how you can integrate it into your online course, contact your FITS consultant, and they will probably call me.

Oh yes, one last thing. SoftChalk will release a new version this summer. The big news is that the published modules will also be compatible with mobile devices: smartphones, iPads, and other tablets with six new activities targeted specifically at these mobile devices. Fortunately, SoftChalk takes care of creating the proper content for each device; no intervention is required by the author.

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Studio in a Box: Getting Started with Audacity

In recent years, the increasing digitization of our world has given the everyday user the ability to do things at home that only the pros used to be able to do. While these capabilities have not gone unnoticed, we are not always aware of our new abilities—until someone lets us know they’re out there.

Take audio recording, for example. Software to record audio in single and multi-track formats has been available on computers for a long time but has usually been the domain of expensive software packages such as ProTools, Logic, or Adobe Audition. Software like this gives users the ability to do at home what used to require purchasing studio time and hiring an engineer; Grammy-nominated artist Moby recorded his first major album in his own house. However, he was still doing so on professional-level equipment with professional-level software.

So what’s the average user to do if he just wants to record some audio without taking out a second mortgage to pay for studio gear? Recently, these capabilities have come to the average user, sometimes for free. The open-source movement has made great strides in advancing everyone’s application libraries through widely available free software. This time I’ll talk about Audacity, for those who want to get their feet wet in the world of audio.

Audacity is a free, cross-platform, open-source audio recording and editing application that was originally developed in 1999 at Carnegie Mellon University. It is surprisingly powerful for free; in fact, it rivals the expensive programs in its features for recording, mixing, and processing audio. I included it on my list of downloads for students in my Music in the Electronic Medium class, since students could record at home or continue editing files they had produced in class on other software. The price point was appealing to them too, since most college students can’t afford a 700 dollar audio recording suite for only a couple of courses.

Let’s get started. First, download Audacity. You can get that here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net. Also, while you’re at it, download the LAME MP3 encoder, from this link: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&i=lame-mp3. The LAME encoder will allow you to produce MP3 files with Audacity. Because the software is Open Source, they cannot by law include the ability to produce MP3s, since that is a patented, proprietary format; instead, you install this separate piece and it takes care of the rest.

Once you install and open the software for the first time, you’re presented with a blank canvas:

It looks pretty daunting at first, but it’s a lot easier than you think. A couple of things to point out here:

The recording selector is at the top right-hand side of your screen. It is most likely set to “Internal Microphone,” but your preferences can change depending on what sorts of sound devices you have installed. For instance, you may be able to record from an attached microphone, or select the sounds from your computer as a source. Pull down the box to select what you’d like to use to record. Many computers and most laptops now have pretty good built-in microphones, and for most simple voice recording, a microphone like this is more than adequate.

The recording buttons are at the top left-hand side of your screen. Once you’ve selected your recording device, hit the red Record button and you’re off and running!

This image shows a recording being done. You can see two audio waveforms in one track; these are the left and right audio channels, so you are recording in stereo. There are a few things to pay attention to while you are recording as well.

The moving red lines you see while making your recording are the volume levels. A thin red line marks the loudest sound in the track; a thin blue line marks the threshold at which the sound will begin to distort. Ideally, you want your sound to be as close as possible to the blue line without or only very occasionally going over it. You can use the microphone volume control (located farther right) to adjust your recording volume if necessary. Just press the orange Stop button when you’re done.

If you want to add another track, just push the Record button again, and it will begin recording a new stereo track for you. You’ll be hearing your first track at the same time though, so before you record, you may want to Mute your first track (see image).

Now comes the slicing and dicing part. Let’s say you want about half of what you just recorded. Click on the audio timeline in your track at the place you want to start cutting, and drag the cursor along the track until you have the rest highlighted.

Hit Delete, and it’s gone.

So now what? You’ve got some audio you like and might want to share with someone. It’s time to create an audio file. First, we must make a distinction between Saving and Exporting in Audacity. If you simply choose “Save As…” you will end up with an Audacity project file. This is not an audio file, but the information saved from your recording session. Basically, it is the links to the tracks you have recorded and all of the data you have created. Audacity also creates a folder in the same place as your project file for all of the raw data. Neither the project file nor the stuff in the folder is usable unless you have Audacity, so this isn’t the option to choose if you want to make an audio file. Furthermore, if you take the project file somewhere and don’t have the data folder too, your project file won’t do you any good either, because it won’t be able to find anything you’ve done. It’s like that PowerPoint presentation with all the great sounds that you copied to another computer for a presentation and none of the sounds worked! However, it can be a good idea to save project files, especially if it’s something you might come back to later to edit. You might want to add some more tracks to a recording or some effects to the sound. You can’t do that if you don’t have a project file.

Let’s Export this to an audio file now. Choose FileàExport. A save dialog box appears, and you can choose the file name and destination. Pull down the Format box at the bottom to pick what kind of file to create.

You may see a number of different options depending on the programs you have installed. The most commonly used choices, though, are AIFF, WAV, MP3 and WMA. MP3 is usually the best choice for sharing audio with people, because it presents a combination of pretty decent audio fidelity with small file size. I know there are audio purists that will disagree with this choice, and it’s true—if you’re looking for the absolute highest quality sound, you should be picking WAV. However, you’ll pay for it with the storage it takes up: a typical MP3 file is about 1 megabyte per minute of recording, while a typical WAV file is more like 11 megabytes per minute.

This has been a very quick and dirty overview of audio recording in Audacity. There are many, many more features in the program, including variable speed playback, effects, mixing and mastering tools, and even advanced features like audio spectrum analysis and the ability to add metadata to exported tracks, so that your media player will display what it’s playing automatically (no more of that 01 Track 1 stuff). Audacity is powerful and a lot of fun to use, and with a price like free, you can’t go wrong. I encourage all of you faithful readers out there to give it a try; I think you’ll be glad you did. You just might surprise yourself, so go get creative!

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The Instructional Technology X-Files: Enchanted iPads, Magical Clickers, and Online Courses that Beat Face-to-Face

“Students performed 20 percent better in the hybrid version of this course compared to the face-to-face sections taught by other instructors.” When I heard this statement during a presentation at the Educause Learning Initiative Annual Meeting in February, I did something I rarely do: I closed my laptop, looked straight at the presenter, and stopped multitasking for a full twenty minutes.

I find most educational-technology conferences are a lot like an episode of the X-Files with a cast made up entirely of Fox Mulders. Everyone wants to believe. There are a lot of technology cheerleaders and a lot of iPad sightings, and no one seems to notice that Dana Scully—the skeptical, pragmatic agent designed to bring Mulder back down to Earth—has gone missing. So when someone offers up a bold promise backed by actual bar graphs, I take notice.

The presenter, Professor T. Warren Hardy from the University of Maryland–Baltimore County (UMBC), stated that his students performed significantly better on their final exam largely due to his use of online self-assessments. Upon hearing this, I immediately put on my Agent Scully trench coat and asked myself why his conclusions could be off.

  • Was his final exam easier than the one used in other sections? No, all sections take the same final exam.
  • Did he give his students an unfair advantage by using final exam questions in his self-assessments? No, the final exam is designed by other members of the department who are not currently teaching the course. To ensure a level playing field, the instructors have no knowledge of the specific questions that will appear on the final exam.
  • What if he’s just a better instructor than the faculty teaching the other sections? That might hold water if it wasn’t for the fact that Professor Hardy’s students scored considerably higher than his own past students after he converted the course to a hybrid format with online self-assessments.

Of course, I’m sure there are other variables that might impact the validity of Professor Hardy’s findings. Yet, after hearing the unique steps that UMBC’s economics department takes to ensure a rigorous and standardized final exam for the five-hundred students who take ECON 122 every year, I felt the 20 percent difference on Hardy’s final exam scores were hard to dismiss.

In addition to praising his students’ performance, Hardy’s co-presenters from UMBC noted that his course was a regular in the University’s list of most-active Blackboard courses. Hardy attributed his students’ extensive and frequent use of Blackboard largely to his course’s reliance on adaptive release. Adaptive release refers to a set of restrictions that can require students to view and interact with certain online content and/or assessments before new instructional materials are made available. In Hardy’s course, students were required to access learning materials and complete quizzes for each module before subsequent modules could be accessed. Hardy and his colleagues believe this approach helped students pace themselves and decreased the odds that they might skip vital content needed to succeed on the final exam.

Perhaps even more impressive than the student performance in Hardy’s initial hybrid offering was the fact that his hybrid students continued to score higher than their peers in subsequent course offerings. In addition, when the course was offered fully online in the summer of 2010, students scored even higher than those in previous hybrid sections.

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly how much of the improved student performance was due to the online self-assessments, adaptive release, or other unique aspects of Hardy’s online course design and teaching style. However, his findings clearly show that low-stakes knowledge checks and conditional release of content can have a significant impact on student performance. While I still consider myself a skeptic, even Agent Dana Scully had to admit once in a while that supernatural phenomena do exist. Whether it’s the wolf-man, alien abduction, or online courses that prove more effective than face-to-face, the truth is out there and we owe it to our students to keep digging.

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