A Learning Design MOOC (Carpe Diem MOOC)

Swinburne University of Technology, in Australia is about to run a MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) on learning design. This course has been designed for anyone interested in improving learning and teaching, including teachers, tutors academics, educational technologists, learning designers, librarians and instructional designers.

Using an agile and rapid course development method, participants will be encouraged to be innovative, with the aim of future-proofing student learning. The participants will learn to use their existing Learning Resources, Learning Management System, Virtual Learning Environment and other collaborative tools to design scaffolded student activity,  enabling small teams to design a learning course once, and deliver it many times.

Completion of the MOOC will provide participants with:

·         The ability to create fast and effective learning design

·         Sound experience collaboratively working online

·         Skills to design online learning activities to engage participants

·         The ability to reflect on learning design and apply to practice.

Instructors Professors Gilly Salmon and Janet Gregory, along with Dr Kulari Lokuge Dona, will run the course over six consecutive weeks, beginning DAY 10^th March – 17th April 2014. Participants would be expected to invest around three to four hours per week.

Dates:  10^th March – 17th April 2014

Format:  online

Cost:  Free

To enrol:  http://tinyurl.com/CDMOOCenroll

More information: http://swin.coursesites.com

Enquiries:  cdmooc@swin.edu.au

Interactive Educational Toys for Kids

How kids play is also changing, like many other things that have changed with technology. Qboo is an interactive educational tablet application for kids, with a bunch of smart plush toys. These plush toys can be used to lead kids to a magical world of farm animals revealing their secrets and whereabouts. Kreyonic

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/qboo-smart-plush-toys-for-kids#description

openbadges:

Badges: New Currency for Professional Credentials
Session 2: Badge Fundamentals
#openbadgesMOOC

On Monday, our second live session of the #openbadgesMOOC, New Currency for Professional Credentials was streamed on Blackboard Collaborate. Having discussed the concept of “openness” and the...

Engaging students

Engaging student is one of the major topics that we discuss these days. We talk about flipped classrooms, active based learning, problem solving learning activities and project based learning.
http://www.creativity-project.net/ is a project that University of South Australia has begun with OLT funds as a project that is investigating design as a catalyst for engaging students in creative problem solving.

The project methodology, tools, and case studies can be found on the website. 

eportfolio for education

 I have been investigating on eportfolio for education for sometime now. Even though there are many tools available to use, it has been a challenging task to decide on a particular tool that will suit a large institution.

My recent findings are by connecting to experts from the area. Desire2Learn eportfolio has quite a number of interesting functions that is useful for educators. Also, Shane@ shanenuessler.blogspot.com.au talks about how they have used eportfolios at their University. He further provides suggestions and ideas how to leverage the functions of eportfolios.

Intelligent assessment

http://www.intelligentassessment.com/index3.htm

I was in a webinar about the the Intelligent Assessment, about online assessment tool. This tool is used for short answer questions. The most interesting component was that it is capable of gathering facts from the students answers to build its knowledge base. However, setting up the question and feedback takes time. Once it is set up marking seems to be much more easier compared to human manual marking.

The interesting evidence was provided about human error and capabilities of this automated system with different rules to mark short answer questions. The system was linked to a LMS and currently it is available with Moodle.

More information can be found in Sally's Blog: http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/SallyJordan/
 

OERs

OERs

OERs are always interesting. OERs provides an opportunity to use pre-created learning resources. Sometimes it could be only part of the resource that we will need. However, rather than re-inventing it is good to re-use and be sustainable.

With ocTEL the following links were provided as some interesting OER resource hubs.

• Jorum
• Merlot
• LearnHigher
• Higher Education Academy – Resources Centre
• Open University – OpenLearn
• Re:Source (Further Education orientated)

Jorum and Merlot has been around for sometime, and I have used resource from these two hubs in the past. 

Learning Theories #ocTEL

As we all know there are many learning theories, and often we can find loads of articles about each of these theories and what it does.


www.learning-theories.com/ was introduced through week 3 learning resources of ocTEL and it provides the summary of many of the learning theories that we have come across so far. It provides the summary paradigm and the model.

online readiness

As part of the lesson this week, learner readiness for online learning.

• Penn State University: Online Readiness Assessment
• San Diego Community College: Online Learning Readiness Assessment
• Illinois Online Network: Self Evaluation for Potential Online Students
• University of Houston: Test of Online Learning Success  

Are some of the tools that were investigated to check whether the learner is ready for online learning.
It is interesting to learn about the areas that were investigated. The ability to use computers, ability to use time, organisation skills and ability to make mistakes and learn.

One of the main things with new technology and new methods such as online learning is, that you need to have people who are willing to experiment the idea of trialing and learning from the mistakes that they make,

More than checking whether the learner and teacher are ready, this exercise has generated new interest in checking how innovative can we be with this learning environment.

Learning theories

A mind map of a learning theories

This is an interesting Cmap (mind mapping tool called Cmap- Concept Map) that has been created with different learning theories and summary of the different learning theory. This cmap provides the key concept, thew learning paradigm, learning theories, and scientific discipline. This is a very concise summary of many learning theories.

Adding voice comments to a document

Adding a voice comment is a great way to provide personalised comments.




With Google docs, it is possible to provide audio comments free.

As shown by Jennifer Roberts in the above video, it is as simple as using an app to add audio comments. They can be edited, re-recorded and deleted.

Features:
Add audio to a documents
Edit and delete an audio comments
The comments are saved and attached to the documents
The audio comments can be shared


Limitations:
You need to have a Google account
The documents are linked through Google docs

B F Skinner Teaching machine and programmed learning

Teaching machine!
The important facts about the teaching and teaching machine:
1. The students can learn at the most effective speed, slow, fast or medium
2. The students are provided with a report about the speed that they carry out their tasks
3. Creates an environment for the learners to continue to learn
4. Allow students to go through learning resources and go through them without feeling left behind or feeling demotivated to do the same again and again, compared to asking the same question in a classroom environment.

The initial idea of a computer for education, it is fascinating to read through a psychologist, educators point of view. However, now this teaching machine that we have today- the computer sometimes considered as a distraction rather than a motivator.

The teaching machine has been around for some time now and it has been used for various purposes from distance learning, accessibility and generating the love for learning

E-Learning Helen Keegan

Helen is discussing about how chaotic it can get with different tools that we start using.



I think after all most of these tools are allowing people to be connected without any boundaries. Therefore many people with different ideas, capabilities around the world. Social media has taken us to a new environment, while it allows positive connections it has developed a new environment that we are still getting used to.

Hi-tech tools for dental students

This is a resource developed for dental faculty.

 It checks out how the physical emphases is on the patient, in a simulated environment. Simulated environments help people to learn in an environment that they can not create easily in the real world. This allows mastery through repeated practice, without creating too much hassle.

George Siemens on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

George Siemans is talking about the MOOCs and how people start with a great idea to research and develop concept. Sometimes these ideas get put into real use within other applications. Most of the time small ideas get turned out to be great projects.

Also, the concept of MOOCs - it not just having a great course delivered within a LMS or in a class. It is all getting to a point of making connections, sharing ideas, knowledge and skills.

VideoNotes

VideoNot.es

http://video.unishared.com

VideoNot.es is a tool that you can use to watch a video and make notes. The notes that you create can be stored in your Google drive. These can be edited and then accessed at a later time.
The notes will save the video link as well as other comments that have been added to the notes.

Found information about this tool on www.freetech4teachers.com Tried and loved it!

Articulate Storyline and publishing.

Articulate Sotryline is capable of producing HTML5 output, output for the iPad and LMS. All these outputs are great and it will be even greater if one format can be accessed through all these devices/tools. However, so far Anroid devices have not been incorporated with Articulate. This is a concern as there is a large number of users who are using Anroid devices.

1. How to publish to the LMS
http://community.articulate.com/tutorials/products/publishing-a-project-for-lms.aspx

2. How to publish for mobile devices and iPad
http://community.articulate.com/tutorials/products/publishing-a-project-for-ipad-or-html5.aspx

3. How to publish to web

Even though as a product Articulate is great, sometimes publishing can be troublesome. Specially if you are working with password protected LMS or websites. The following link provides some factors to consider:

http://www.articulate.com/support/kb_article.php?product=st1&id=9rco1wa3ebjp

General system requirements for storyline:
http://www.articulate.com/support/kb_article.php?product=st1&id=4mau4vyvbq4n

Articulate and Dropbox

Dropbox to be your server!

We generally use Dropbox to share files with friends and business partners. I have never used Dropbox as a server. However, when I was looking for a mechanism to produce mobile compatible resource taht can be accessed without login, option of using Dropbox was investigated.

Justin, in the Screenr explains how this can be done (http://www.screenr.com/wcA8). Also, Nancy in elearning heros explains how people are using Dropbox for sharing learning resources, as well as an e-portfolio where files can be uploaded and shared (read more).

"The hole in the wall: self organising systems in education" - Sugata Mitra at ALT-

This is really an interesting video where he speaks about the research that he started with "the hole in the wall"

The idea of learning happens when there is a need...which raises the question of how many things are needed for our students. Sometimes the students who come to study Design, Arts are taken through subjects like Mathematics, Language etc and then we find that they are not interested in the subject...which is explained by his research.

He also shows that how something like language can be self taught if there is a need to learn it.
It is an amazing project how he assist people with different resources. Using ex-teachers, grandmas and many other resources.

He also, teaches us how to be innovative and make things work with less resources, just by taking things as it comes but innovate and motivate. 

Curiosity
Self organising streams
Motivators
Not to replace teachers but to train them to raise the right question

The Scientific approach to teaching

1. Cognitive dessonance
2. Brain stores models
3. Models needs time to be digested.

Is it the demo or explanation that help people remember and apply knowledge?

As you invest more time, discussion ideas digesting understanding, there is a direct correlation between understanding. Give time and space to adjust the mental model

Seeing is not believing...what you see depends on what is there in your head. But a change can happen if it is discussed, re-visited, digested!