Time For An Extreme Syllabus Make-Over?

"The Syllabus"...the single most important document a professor shares with her students.  Professors spend hours perfecting each syllabus through rigorous revisions and each semester stress the importance of reading it to their students.  But how closely do students read it? How effective is it at communicating critical details, as well as high level information about your course?  And are you leveraging the maximum learning potential of a syllabus -- can it be more than just a reference resource?


The Value of Visual Communication
A syllabus is a reference resource that can easily span 5, 6, 7 or more pages.  Most reference resources produced today outside of higher education are designed with a blend of text and images.  Compare a college textbook published in 2011 with one published in 1995.  You'll find a significant increase in the visual diagrams, colored call out boxes, and icons used throughout the chapters.  These often function to summarize main points and weave information back and forth through a text, in an effort to facilitate connections between ideas and foster critical thinking. Images and icons are also utilized to communicate information in a secondary way, guide the eye through the content, and call out important details.  Would your students consider your syllabus a more meaningful, helpful resource if it too integrated thoughtful images and graphics along with text?


Several years ago, I transformed my 10-page, black-and-white, text-based syllabus into a visual gem.  Students responded with gratitude.  One student wrote to me on the first day of class, "I can tell you really care about your teaching."  I found it was quite amazing how quickly my careless typos were found too (evidence that they were reading it!).  

More Than Meets the Eye
But aside from the aesthetically pleasing qualities of designing syllabi with images and text, the National Center on Universal Design for Learning encourages "providing multiple means of representation" in the design and development of learning environments:  "[L]earning, and transfer of learning, occurs when multiple representations are used, because it allows students to make connections within, as well as between, concepts." 

In my syllabus redesign, I integrated images of my students at art galleries and museums -- standing in front of art works of all shapes and sizes -- in an effort to make their entrance into the class more relevant.  I also included thumbnail size images of artworks that we'd study throughout the class.  By referencing the syllabus throughout the term, students would realize and reflect on what they had learned about the images, gaining a deeper understanding of how context informs interpretation.

Resources
If you'd like to consider a syllabus make-over, you may enjoy the following shared resources:

• Educator's Guide to a 21st Century Syllabus
• Sample Visual Syllabus

VoiceThread: Effective Design Strategies and Student Perspectives

Here is a new VoiceThread presentation I'm working on to showcase some practical instructional design strategies for integrating VoiceThread into an online class, as well as powerful student comments and survey results I've collected.  Please feel free to click on the "Sign In or Register" icon in the lower left corner if you'd like to leave your own comment on the "Thoughts? Questions? Ideas?" slide at the end.

If you find this presentation helpful, please note, that you are welcome to copy the embed code in VoiceThread and share it on your own website/blog and the content remains fully collaborative and interactive! 

If the embedded version of this VoiceThread is too small for you, please click here to access the same content in a larger size on VoiceThread.com.

Hello Prezi - So Long Powerpoint!

For years I've been part of the anti-Powerpoint movement -- the group of individuals painfully opposed to educators who presumably "teach" with their entire lecture written on their slides, transforming their physical existence into a mere auditory translation of the text for the bored-out-of-their-mind students. I've considered the importance of teaching the "art" of designing effective presentations but today, I think I stumbled upon the answer.

Web 2.0 does it again -- another beautifully integrated, easy to use tool that turns the concept of a presentation inside out by focusing on key words and visuals spread out over a continuous two dimensional canvas, using hierarchy and zoom to convey importance. Now I can't help but draw the lovely metaphor between an artist's toolkit and the Prezi interface, as we embrace our new methods of creating in the 21st century (as an art history I rejoice in seeing the arts influence business innovations processes so inherently).

Here is a simple demo of Prezi so you can get the idea then you can take a trip over to the Prezi showcase to view lots more samples (many which are simply mimicking the Powerpoint interface, you'll catch on to them after awhile).




I also rejoice in a move towards a visually-centric content creation tool. This makes all the difference. Moving away from an interface that requires a user to click through pages or slides is a huge leap for the western user ... bravo Prezi! I have felt constrained and challenged as an art historian, and I've been very vocal about this in presentations I've given in recent years, as I've attempted to craft learning activities for my students to effectively achieve objectives focused on visual learning. But how does one have students engage, critique, analyze and study an image in a text-centric learning management system (like Blackboard)? That has been my biggest challenge as an online educator and that was specifically why I began to migrate outside of Blackboard and started to dabble with web 2.0 tools (like VoiceThread and Ning).

So, check out Prezi. It's quite amazing. Hmmm. Prezi training for educators and students-generated Prezi projects? Sounds like a turning point! And for those of you who are eager to ask the question, yes, Prezi offers subscription options that give you the ability to keep your content private. There is also an option for a "Public License" for students and teachers which I wasn't able to get more details about, as I am not currently teaching right now (unless somebody wants to hire me?? Grin.).

To learn more about Prezi, visit the Learning Center which provides many beautifully done, easy-to-follow video tutorials.

Cacoo for Visual Diagramming, Mind Mapping and More!

If you're plunging into a new semester or are finding yourself in the mid-year teaching doldrums and are aching to try out a new tool for teaching, check this out!

Cacoo is presented as a "real time collaboration diagramming and design" tool that I can envision many creative uses for in teaching and learning. "Real time collaboration" means that students or a class led by a professor could be online viewing a Cacoo white board with multiple users collaborating on a visual diagram at once (I'd imaging this would work most efficiently with a phone connection of some sort).

This tools appears to have much potential for encouraging students to create visual diagrams of content covered in courses. The tools built into Cacoo are pretty slick too. There are a range of options for clip art including figures and there's a very helpful screen capture tool which allows you to bring a visual of anything on your screen into your visual diagram (love that!). If you're using one of Cacoo's supported browsers (which I was not) you can also upload your own images.

Check out this tutorial video and then take a peek at my own idea for an instructional use of Cacoo:

Cacoo is a user friendly online drawing tool that allows you to create a variety of diagrams such as site maps, wire frames, UML and network charts.
Cacoo can be used free of charge.

Here is a sample of how one could use Cacoo for a student-generated content project. For example, if I was teaching an online art history class and my students were using blogs (within Ning, for example) or a wiki, I could have my students create visual maps of the art historical content we are covering. It would likely be more effective to have students contribute this content to a "class wiki" or share it in a group area (of Ning, for example) to avoid the duplication of content (or, of course, just get more creative with your ideas) but here's what I came up with on the fly. I created this visual map with the "Screenshot" option in Cacoo, allowing me to snap pictures right from Google image search.

Note: Cacoo allows the content to be shared via a url, embed code (for easy copying onto a blog or into a wiki), and it also allows for content to be downloaded into .png format (making us art historians happy -- INSTANT digital content for our in-class presentations!

A sample of how Cacoo could be used for a student-generated art history assignment. "Create an image map illustrating stylistic elements of a major 20th century art movement, include six works of art made by two major artists from the period, and include a brief definition of the artistic movement."

If you give Cacoo a try...let me know what you think!

How Web 2.0 is Solving Crime & Fair Use Teaching Tools

A couple of great items to share from the Center for Social Medial.

First - this is cool. This story from the Center for Social Media explores how police departments are partnering with newspapers to embrace the participatory nature of web 2.0 to help solve crime. That is, instead of letting cases go cold and pile up with dust after years of lack of new information, they're now wrapping the cases into dynamic web 2.0 tools and inviting the public to contribute tips. Newspapers use Web 2.0 tools to keep cold cases alive

Second, if you're an educator who encourages the remixing of social media for student generated video content, I'm sure you grapple with issues of copyright and the appropriate way to communicate "fair use." Well, take some time to check out the enlightening Fair Use Teaching Tools shared by the Center for Social Media including: Teaching About Copyright and Fair Use for Media Literacy Education, Fair Use Language for Course Syllabi, Copyright Backgrounder, and Fair Use Scenarios.

New Resources for 2010! An Educator's Guide to VoiceThread and an Intro to VoiceThread, V 2.0

Ring in the new year with two newly refreshed, popular resources, both shared with a Creative Commons license: An Educator's Guide to VoiceThread and An Introduction to VoiceThread.

My Educator's Guide to VoiceThread has been updated to showcase VoiceThread's wildly cool new methods of integrating existing Creative Commons imagery direct from Flickr into your own VoiceThreads or leveraging the beautiful, historically rich image resources now available through VoiceThread's direct partnership with the New York Public Library. Creating a VoiceThread does not require you to create your own media any longer -- a feeling a liberation for many educators, surely! I am hopeful that this partnership will generate strides in visual teaching and more engaging learning environments for our digital generation of learners. The "Educator's Guide" is written succinctly to get you off and running with your first VoiceThread "creation" experience, keeping issues of student privacy in mind.

The second updated handout I am sharing is the Introduction to VoiceThread. This handout is written for a general audience which may include educators, as well as students. Essentially, the objective of this handout is to provide instructions about what a VoiceThread is and how to leave a comment. This handout may be shared with students or colleagues who are embarking upon their first "commenting" experience. It has been expanded upon and includes more enhanced features than the first version.

Enjoy! Both resources may be accessed from the Resources page of the Teaching Without Walls webpage.

I know there are many universities and schools who utilize these resources which I think is terrific. The original versions have been downloaded hundreds of times. I'd love to hear from some of you who have found them helpful. How have you begun using VoiceThread to inspire new ways of teaching and learning? Please share a thought with us!

Cheers to a great 2010 everyone!

Online Students - The Real Experts

I'm very excited to be attending the 14th Annual Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning in Orlando from November 5-7, 2008. I have been honored with the request to participate in the pre-conference workshop on November 5th titled "Ask the Experts." This will be a panel event with presentations from last year's awards winners. My presentation will be 15-minutes in length.

I have been having a tough time framing my presentation. I want the presentation to be dynamic and convey a clear essence of what makes my online classes unique and worthy of last year's Excellence in Online Teaching Award. So, it occurred to me that I should pause and "ask the experts" directly. So, yesterday I sent out an email to all 105 of my current online students, the true experts, asking them to kindly reply with a brief description of what makes my class special or unique from other online classes. It's always interesting to ask for open-ended feedback from students like this. I learn so much.

So far I've received many responses. Common favorite aspects of my classes include VoiceThreads because "they make me feel like I'm really in a classroom" and for the web cam introductions and feedback I provide for my students. Seeing me speak to them promotes my presence in their learning experience which encourages them to participate and stay connected. Others note the benefits of hearing my voice through my audio announcements and podcasts. Students also appreciate having the option to read my lectures or listen to them or do both: "I can read and listen (which helps me learn the best)."

Ning is also a big hit this semester. I have created a Ning community for my Art Appreciation students to interact in (with required blog posts). One student shared, "the whole Ning approach is really fun and a good way of getting us to interact moreso than with any of my other 5 online classes I've taken/am taking. It makes the class feel more together, not as detached, yet a fun way of doing assignments opposed to discussion boards or just homework assignments." Also, "Ning has really helped me grasp the other students personalities." Ning seems to be a natural community builder and, personally, I love that it's closed to just those students who I invite. Much more secure than using Blogger, as I previously did for my students' blogs.

Much of this feedback is common to the results of recent surveys I have deployed and hearing the feedback is so important because it reassures me that I'm on the right track. But my reason for sharing this is because many students have also simply commented on some things that can't be conveyed through technology. Here are a few excerpts:

• "You care very much about the subject and your students and learning. You like to teach and share the knowledge."

• "You teach in a way that makes us think, that makes us view our environment differently and therefore also think about things differently."

• "The online tests are easy to understand how they work and is on materials we study...not trick questions."

• "You explain things clearly and thoroughly. Your assignments are consistent and easy to follow. Your interaction is top notch..."

• "...[I]t is your personal touch and enthusiasm that make the class so engaging and thus, effective."

Students' perceptions and overall impressions about their experiences are so important for instructor tap into. They've given me a fresh perspective on my class and I look forward to using their insights to frame my presentation.

Animoto - quick, easy, hip movies

In the past, I have used my Mac applications to create brief movies set to music comprised of images related to class topics or samples of student projects. These brief movies are a great way to grab students' attention before a lecture or recap a field trip or visual project. However, even with the easy-to-use Mac apps (iPhoto or Keynote export to Quicktime) I'd end up spending hours perfecting the movie and then was never quite satisfied with the transitions or music. And then along came Animoto. I just heard about this tool a couple of weeks ago and have had a blast making some short movies of family holidays pics. I'm excited to use it in class this semester.

Essentially, Animoto allows a registered user (free to register) to create a movie using images from one's hard drive and copyright free music (or music from their pre-selected library). Movies under 30 seconds long are free and longer movies cost $3.00 each. An unlimited annual membership can be purchased for $30. Quite a bargain, I think. And the movies hold their own against the expectations of the YouTube generation!