Showing posts with label depaul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label depaul. Show all posts

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Back for more DOTS - Virtually!

I had the pleasure to be invited back for my 4th presentation for the DePaul Online Teaching Series, more properly known as D.O.T.S. Sharon Guan, Director of Instructional Design and Development at DePaul University, invited to my first D.O.T.S. presentation back in 2007 after I was awarded my Sloan-C award. I've been back three more times since then, twice in person and yesterday presented virtually. My topic, again, was VoiceThread which seems to have become a favored topic of the Depaul faculty audience (and many others I've shared it with).

In my presentation, I shared some of the varied ways I've used VoiceThread in my online classes and presented the feedback that students have shared about how it has enriched their learning experiences (which I've shared here previously). I created the slide below to illustrate how I design the use of VoiceThreads into my courses as formative assessments. I theorize these VoiceThreads, which are weekly activities that students complete at the end of learning unit and apply learned concepts and ideas that help them achieve the week's learning objectives, are like “learning Spaces” where all levels of understanding are encouraged and made visible to all. The instructor's role is to facilitate learning through modeling mastery and encouraging growth. Mistakes are ok and necessary. This approach is very much influenced by Branson's "How People Learn." Perhaps some will find this slide useful or helpful in some way:



Of course, the formative assessments tie directly into preparing the students for successful performance on the summative assessments which are more comprehensive, individual evaluations of learning objectives.

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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

D.O.T.S in Chicago!

Last summer I was honored to be invited as a guest presenter in DePaul's Online Teaching Series (D.O.T.S.). I was recently contacted by Joann Golas of DePaul University and invited to participate in their December offerings of D.O.T.S. This time I'll be presenting in person in Chicago and also offering a hands-on VoiceThread training workshop to their participants. VoiceThread has revolutionized my online teaching and I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to share it with more educators, especially in higher education. The potential to engage our students in visual, interactive critical thinking activities utilizing voice and text comments with VoiceThread still feels like a dream to me everytime I use it. Chicago here I come...can't wait! My boys are hoping I get to see Barack Obama while I'm there. :-)

Thursday, June 26, 2008

DOTS - DePaul Online Teaching Series

This week I was invited to present as part of the DePaul Online Teaching Series. There were a few things about this experience that I am reflecting on now. First, how cool is it that I could present to a group of faculty in Chicago while in my office in California? My presentation was delivered through Wimba which enabled me to present my Keynote (well, it didn't take Keynote so it was turned into a PowerPoint, really) and then share my screen with the participants. The application share tool allowed me to take the participants through a tour of my online class. It was very fun, although very odd not being able to see the facial expressions of those I was speaking to.

The topic of my presentation was "Extreme Makeover: Online Course Edition." I shared my own personal journal as an online faculty who had been teaching for three years and had the epiphany that my class was "flat" while my medium of delivery, the internet, had transformed from linear to interactive and dynamic. My class had to change. I would have it no other way.

The presentation is shared on SlideShare so if you'd like to see the slides click here. I'm thinking of developing it into a VoiceThread too. This was a great experience for me to share my stuff. I appreciate DePaul for contacting me and this experience leaves me with only one, unanswered question: Why doesn't every college do this?