Augusta State University • 2500 Walton Way • Augusta, Georgia 30904 - 2200
Last Modified: June 16, 2008 by csvmja
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| Information Technology Services - Instructional Services | |||
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INFORMATION FOR Prospective
Students
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A common groan heard from faculty often comes after hearing a student say "But I studied for 4 hours, how could I have failed the test?" or "You never taught us that!" or "I don't understand what I'm supposed to be learning." It's one thing coming from a student who obviously doesn't care and will not do anything to help themselves. It's another thing coming from a student who does care but is clueless. For those students, we, as teachers, need to help them by providing alternatives that will help them to learn. The problem here is that alternatives means additional work, often crammed into schedules (yours and the students') that are tightly packed already. Fortunately, the technology tools available to help you create materials and to present materials to students have become increasingly "friendly" to faculty. On this page we will explore some strategies and optional ways of presenting material to students, many of which can be used in the classroom or from a student's home.
When a student takes a math intensive or writing intensive course, it can become obvious when the student is missing or rusty with particular skills. Similarly, if the gap between an intro class and an upper level class is too long, even a decent student might need a refresher on details. A faculty member often has to take precious time away from the current class to re-teach skills or concepts that the student should already have. Fortunately, it does not have to be that way. Our ability to construct (and share) computer-based teaching materials makes it possible to present these common problem areas to students without taking away from valuable contact time. Even better is that we don't have to build everything ourselves. "Learning Object Repositories" are designed to hold materials, written materials, video or audio files, or a combination, that teach or review key learning objectives. These materials are often fragments of much larger lessons. This makes it easy to pick quality materials that work best for your students. You can place them individually into a course management system, like GeorgiaVIEW Vista, and tell your students that they are there for their study or refresher purposes or link them to other web sites that present the material well. Some common repositories of course materials include:
Don't overlook other faculty also or your own favorite material from lower level classes. Handouts from previous classes are an easy way to remind students of materials they should already know. It has the added benefit of reminding them that material learned in an earlier class is not isolated to that class. "Learn it now or learn it later when it is harder to include it in with the other material you have to learn".
Self-tests help students know that they haven't learned the material as well as they might have thought they did. Self tests can be administered in a manner like a traditional test or in other forms, such as games for individual testing or for group testing. Because students expect games to be challenging, the shock of not doing well isn't seen as a discouragement for not knowing, but instead becomes a challenge to do better. Consider the longevity enjoyed by the TV game "Jeopardy". Opinions regarding using the same test questions for exams and as game items is mixed among faculty. Some see it as "teaching the test" to inflate scores and some say that students shouldn't be surprised on a test, that the test should reflect the material that was taught. Depending upon your stance, creating games may be not much more work than creating a test. or it may mean a small additional effort to create a separate pool of questions. Many faculty make use of the test banks that accompany textbooks. these often have far more questions than time permits on a test. That can be used to your advantage. Online tests can often take a large pool of questions and present a small subset to students. Many, such as GeorgiaVIEW Vista (for online self-tests) or StudyMate (game creation) can take the large pool of questions and present a subset in a randomized manner, even to the point of randomizing the answers to multiple choice questions. StudyMate can import test bank files from Respondus or from Microsoft Word. (Check out the Respondus Publisher's test bank program.) Faculty that write a fresh test each time often use "old" tests to present sample questions to students for review purposes. These "old tests" can become the pool of questions needed to create the self-tests or games. Of course, you can also write fresh questions to go with the material.
Respondus can create online self-tests. StudyMate can create multiple variations of games or learning materials. Learning activities created by StudyMate include:
The old saying "A picture is worth a thousand words" recalls that some people process information better if it expressed in graphics, in videos, or audibly. Not an artist? Not a problem.
Remember that today's society is becoming increasingly mobile and think in terms of materials that can be loaded onto an MP3 player, a portable video device, or even onto a cell phone. The parent who has to take a child to ball practice may appreciate the ability to study while waiting. Good materials are those that can be easily seen and understood within the limited display screen. If you want to show fine details, consider showing the large object first to orient the student and then "zooming in" to display the details in the screen.
It isn't always important to be highly technical or highly detailed in your graphic, video, or audio efforts. Students who are jogging or driving or cleaning or doing dishes, etc. can appreciate a clear audio-only piece better than a video that they must watch closely. Audio-only files could be a file captured during a regular lecture or it could be one recorded within a faculty member's office. The free software Audacity makes it easy to capture and edit audio files. Is this worth the effort? See Deubel's "Podcasts: Where's the Learning?". Video files are more technically difficult to create than audio files; the technical specifications are more extensive, and the resulting file size is much larger resulting in storage and distribution issues. It is suggested that you contact Instructional Services at 706-737-1484 to discuss your plans and receive advice on locally available software programs and support for video.
Students often benefit from small group activities, but such activities can pose challenges. Classrooms: Short classroom-based activities can be assisted by projecting instructions on the board and by displaying a timer showing the amount of time remaining for the activity. The results from the activity of each group can be compiled into a file and the compilation distributed using a file sharing method for review later by the students. Recommended file (non-video files) sharing methods include:
Sending files as email attachments to your students is NOT a recommended method. Such distribution clogs student email inboxes, makes it easy for students to irretrievably delete the message (with the attachment) and can place a strain on the email distribution system, depending upon the size of the class and the size of the file. Distribution of video files is recommended only through placement on one of the servers dedicated to video. The link to the file can then be placed through one of the recommended non-video sharing methods. Contact the HelpDesk or Instructional Services for assistance with posting video files to:
Online or project-based: The biggest challenges for a student attempting to do a group project is communication and file-sharing among the members of the group. The biggest challenge for a faculty member is grading the project fairly. Fortunately, GeorgiaVIEW Vista can assist with each of these challenges. GeorgiaVIEW Vista (a.k.a. WebCT) and Small Group Work: GeorgiaVIEW Vista will assist with the creation of the groups. It allows for sign-up sheets (also helpful for signing up for exam times or lab times) for students to select their own groups - with or without seeing the names of the other students. It will also allow for automatic generation of groups. Tell it the number of groups you want and the number of students for each group, and what you want it to do with any "left-over" students. Of course, it will also allow the instructor to assign individuals to groups. GeorgiaVIEW Vista will allow you to create a "discussion board" or a "chat room" and restrict it to a specific group and the instructor. That reduces the meeting time challenge for students. They can communicate with each other in such a way that the instructor can evaluate the interactivity and provide assistance for incorrect assumptions, refocus misdirected efforts, or smooth poor group dynamics. Because "who said what" is recorded, it makes it easier for the instructor called upon to judge the "fairness" of a particular student's effort.
The file attachment capability of the discussion board allows students to pass related files to each other and to review the current progress of the overall report. The restricted-access discussion board, and the mail tool, allow students to trade other contact information, such as home phone or cell phone numbers without broadcasting it to the entire class. The important number is then available even if the paper on which the number is copied is lost or destroyed accidentally. Students can follow the shaping of a report through various revisions instead of seeing what others have written when it is late in the stage of the report. If the final "report" is a file or a link to a video-based file, that can be placed into a common area within GeorgiaVIEW Vista for all students to see. These tools take much of the sting from small group work, allowing this instructional strategy to be possible even with a totally on-line class of geographically divided students.
Collaborative work is similar to small group work in that the end result is the work of more than one person. Small group projects can become unwieldy when the number of students in each group exceeds 5. However, it is possible and can be desirable for an entire class to work on a single document or for an entire class to create a listing of bookmarks to Web sites related to a study topic. Formerly, an instructor would have students turn in their comments or list of links and then the faculty member would compile the results.
A wiki allows for writing and illustration done collaboratively with multiple people altering the same writing, if they have been granted the "edit" privilege. Control, in the sense of a person who can detect and eliminate unwanted changes, is possible through a "revision history" and the capability of reversing back to a specific point in time. Wikis often allow "comments" to be posted to accompany a writing, allowing those who object to voice their opinions separate from the document itself. A blog is a "public diary" in that it allows for the creation of short pieces that are time-based (the diary) and those pieces are available to others (public) to read and comment on. "YouTube" is a web-site dedicated to short video pieces submitted by its viewers. Also known as "grassroots video", it takes advantage of the easy to use tools that are commonly available to the "average person" . The videos on the "YouTube" reflect the wide diversity of creativity available and allow users to "rate" the video in terms of helpfulness or popularity. Comments can also be left to guide the development of future videos or revisions of this one. The techniques and technology used can be utilized for learning as well. For example: View "Social Media in Plain English" by the CommonCraft Show. (under 4 minutes in length) If the player below does not appear to work for you, use the CommonCraft link to view it from their site.
CommonCraft has similar videos to teach people about Wikis, Blogs, etc. Confluence is a wiki that is, or will be shortly, available at ASU. At the time of this writing, it is in final stages of testing and documentation. This tool includes a social bookmarking page, a blogging/news page, as well as content pages that can be edited by multiple people. If you have a desire for your own wiki space, accessible only to the active ASU community, please contact the HelpDesk or Instructional Services. A publicly viewable blogging tool is expected to be available shortly after Confluence becomes available. Web 2.0 tools are expected to develop rapidly. If you wish to use one that is not listed on this page, please contact the HelpDesk or Instructional Services to see if that tool is locally available now or will be shortly. A member of the University System of Georgia Augusta State University • 2500 Walton Way • Augusta, Georgia 30904 - 2200 Last Modified: June 16, 2008 by csvmja Send comments about this website to Information Technology Services |
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