Flipped Learning: A Response To Five Common Criticisms

If you have been reading the IS/IT Blog over the past 18 months, you have read about the flipped classroom and Eric Mazur.  The response, which is linked here, does a good job of describing a balanced approach to the flipped classroom.  The five common criticisms are all important for an instructor to understand and think about when considering flipping a classroom.

My own criticism of this article comes from this quote,

"To continue, we would guess that a large majority of students who do not do their work at home are not doing it because they are either bored and feel like the work is there simply to keep them busy, or they are struggling and do not understand the work."

I would not say the only reasons for students not doing work at home are boredom or lack of understanding.  What do you think?   Leave a comment on this post.



A few quote highlighted from the article. 

"In a Flipped Learning environment, the teachers are more important than ever."

"At least in the classroom, they get some kind of interaction with me and with their peers."


"...do not replace an hour-long classroom lecture with an hour-long video."

"Make sure you provide more than just video."

"You do not have to have all of this material from the start; you can build your library over time."

"...his goal is to have the best teachers he can find teaching his students every single day."


http://novemberlearning.com/resources/articles/flipped-learning-a-response-to-five-common-criticisms-article/

Ted Talks

If you have yet to discover TED Talks, you are missing an inspiring and thoughtful resource on ideas that are shaping our present and our future.

For the uninitiated, TED talks are short videos (presenters are given no more than 18 minutes) to share their idea.  TED was started with the idea of sharing ideas in the areas of Technology, Entertainment, and Design, but has grown to include many more topics. These topics include  business, science, math, education and global issues. 

Access the videos on education here, or go their home page,  www.ted.com.

Two of my favorites.

Margaret Wertheim:  the Beautiful math of coral



Dave Egger's Wish:  Once upon a school





-Greg Noack

Deleting Quiz Attempts

Occasionally faculty need to delete a quiz attempt for a student who needs to retake an online quiz.  To do so, go the quiz and click on the Results tab.

 

Students will be listed in the order that they completed their attempt.  Next to each name is a check box.  Select the attempt(s) you wish to delete. 

After the list of attempts you will see a button for Deleting Selected Attempts.  Click it.   You will see a pop up window asking if you are absolutely sure you want to delete the attempt.  If you are sure, say yes, and the attempt will be deleted. 

Moodle Monday - Course Creation FAQ

Since we announced the new, automated course creation process for Moodle courses last week, we’ve received several questions.

Q.  How does the new process differ from the way IT has been creating Moodle courses?

A. In the past, we used a manual process to create blank courses for instructors to build courses or to back up and restore a new version of an existing course. Instructors had to contact us to request a Moodle course and to specify several details to communicate exactly what was needed. The new process is automated. A computer program has been devised to create a blank course for every class scheduled at SVCC. The import process simply copies the materials from past courses into the new, blank one. The import process is similar in many ways to the reset feature in Blackboard, with which many of you may be familiar.

Q. Do I have to completely rebuild my course?

A.  You will not have to rebuild your course; you will simply copy the materials you want into the automatically created Spring 2013 course. If you import all materials from your old course, your new course will look exactly the same as the course from which you import the materials. There is no need to rebuild your course unless you choose to do so.

Q. Will I still need to fill out the Moodle Course Request Form for each class?

A. No, the Moodle Course Request Form will no longer be necessary, since your course will be ready and waiting for you to copy your materials through the import process.

Q. How much of my time will this import process require?

A. Generally, the import process is quick and requires only a few minutes for each course.

Q. What if I don’t use Moodle with my students?

A. If you choose not to use the automatically created Moodle course, do nothing. The courses are hidden from students upon creation. Your course will only become visible to students when you make it available to them.

We’ve prepared a tutorial demonstrating how to import course materials into a new course and a tutorial on how to convert hidden courses to ones visible to students. If you prefer, you may attend any of several sessions scheduled in the Instructional Technology Center, where we will be available to answer questions and offer assistance. Dates and times of scheduled sessions appear below. Please feel free to contact us at extension 229 with any questions.

Date                                                      Time                                                      Place

November 2, 2012                           1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.                       ITC, Room 3M17

Nov. 8, 2012                                    2:30-4:00 p.m.                                ITC, Room 3M17

Nov. 16 , 2012                                 1:30-3:00 p.m.                                ITC, Room 3M17

Nov. 29 , 2012                                 2:30-4 p.m.                                     ITC, Room 3M17

Dec. 12, 2012                                     5:00 – 6:00 p.m.                             ITC, Room 3M17

December 13, 2012                          8:30 – 10:00 a.m.                            ITC, Room 3M17

January 2-11, 2013                           By appointment                               ITC, Room 3M17

Linky Thursday October 4th Edition

Are you hooked on Pinterest yet? Mentormob.com operates in a similar manner, but is for education.

See the What is MentorMob video at the link below to view an overview of the site.

http://www.mentormob.com/learn/i/how-to-use-mentormob/what-is-mentormob-7

 

Are you frustrated by a file that you received in the wrong format?  Upload your file to Zamzar.com and indicate the format you’d like to convert the file into, and you’ll soon receive the converted file as an email.

www.zamzar.com

Assignments Activity: Advanced Uploading of Files.

Today's Moodle Monday features the acitivity, "Advanced Uploading of Files".

If you have only ever used the activity "Upload a single file", you may want to take a look at the extra features available when using the Advanced Uploading of Files activity.  Here is a list of the extra features available.

• Allow students to upload more than one file to the same assignment.  Up to 20. 
• Allow Notes.  Students can leave a note about what they uploaded for you to read. 
• Hide description before available date. 
• Enable Send for marking.  When students are done uploading assignments, they send for marking, which disables the ability to delete files and upload more files. 
• When grading assigments, instructors can upload response files. 

Settings for Advanced uploading of Files. 

Student View when submitting assignments. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

View of files submitted by students.

View when grading assignments.

Create Banners

Looking for a simple tool to create a banner for your Moodle Course?  Check out the tool Banner Fans.
http://www.bannerfans.com/banner_maker.php

When choosing a size, an optimal setting is 450 pixels wide by 200 pixels high.   It's important to keep the width near 450 pixels or the center column of your moodle site will not load properly.

Also, if you need a banner created, or have an image you want to use that is too large, please email Robin or Greg.  We can resize your image or create a new one for you.

Linky Thursday

Today’s Linky Thursday includes links to some thought provoking articles and two new tools.

1.  Can creativity be automated?  You may think the answer is obvious, but technologists are working to identify and imitate the creative aspects of the human mind.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/428437/can-creativity-be-automated/

2. Open educational resources are attractive for several reasons. Here is a current article summarizing where to find copyright friendly items for your courses.

http://crln.acrl.org/content/73/6/334.full

3.  This simple to use banner creator could be handy for a variety of purposes. It could be used to make a nice graphic for any web page you create in Moodle, for instance.

 http://www.bannerfans.com/banner_maker.php

4.  Jon Mandrell shared a very nice iPad app that allows the user to create a teleprompter for use when recording video. Get it in the iPad App store under the name “Listec Promptware Plus”

Thanks for sharing, Jon!

Promoting Argumentation in Forum Discussions.

Every semester more than one instructor approaches me with interest in improving the dialogue on their forums. An article I recently read might be of interest to those with this question.   The study shares research on promoting argumentation in online forum debates.  During the study students were asked to label discussion posts as: argument, elaboration, issue, evidence, evaluate, and suggest.  While the findings were not conclusive, it led me to think that this management tool might be helpful as a guide to students new to online discussion and debate.  It also might help curb the repetitive or pointless posts that students sometimes sumbit, such as "I agree".     Read the full research at the link below.

-Greg Noack

Effects of Pre-structuring Discussion Threads on Group Interaction and Group Performance in Computer-supported Collaborative Argumentation
C. Darren Brooks* and Allan Jeong
Florida State University, USA
http://www1.open.edu.cn/elt/26/epdtgigpcca.pdf

IT September, 2012 Schedule of Learning Opportunities

Join in on one of our learning opportunities this month...in person or online on our own schedule!

All sessions are open to full-time or adjunct instructors and any staff who are interested in participating!

  

i3: Innovative Internet Instruction [online] Workshop

The i3 Workshop is designed for instructors interested in learning more about teaching online, whether you are new to online teaching or experienced and wanting to learn some of the latest best practices. Participants learn the strategies used to teach online, including instructional design strategies and online teaching approaches, how to utilize the Moodle course management system, and much more.  Full time faculty members receive one promotional credit for successfully completing the online course. To register for the fall session of the i3 Workshop: http://svcc.edu/employees/it/training/registration.html or contact us at extension 229. 

Tablets, iPads and More User's Group

Do you have a tablet PC, iPad or other lightweight mobile computer?  If it’s a new technology for you, you probably have questions that someone with experience can answer, such as what does ___mean? How do I ____?  If it’s familiar technology, you may have recommendations for how to make the most of its capabilities…favorite apps? common problems with solutions? the coolest thing? accessories?  Let’s organize ourselves into a user’s group so we can share our knowledge/questions!

Sept 14, 2-3PM, Library Conference Room

ILCCO Book Discussion

ILCCO sponsors a book discussion each semester in which faculty and staff involved in online education read a book and discuss it via web-conferencing for 4 sessions throughout the semester (begins late September). If you like to read or would enjoy engaging in lively discussions with faculty throughout the state, let us know and we'll be in touch when we know what book has been selected for the Fall term. ittraining@svcc.edu or ext. 229

Blogs

These learning opportunities are designed to meet the needs of busy faculty who may not have time to attend workshops, but appreciate ideas and resources, shared in small chunks and in easy-to-read, online formats. Comments and questions are always welcome!

1. Teaching Evening Classes

One would think that teaching is teaching, but there are a number of special issues involved in teaching evening or any extended-time classes. Check out the tips on a blog shared by Black Hawk College's Teaching/Learning Center:  http://15ideasteachingevening.blogspot.com/  Tip: Scroll down to Day One and read that first as an introduction to the blog's contents, and then read up in order to Day Twelve, as several of the posts refer to earlier posts and it will all make more sense. Let us know if you like this format and we'll do more of these over the next year!

2. Moodle Monday and Linky Thursday

Almost every Monday, we post a tip, idea or resource related to using Moodle for online, hybrid or web-enhanced teaching. And almost every Thursday during the school year, we post annotated web resources for instructors teaching with technology. Both are available on our blog at http://isitcafe.blogspot.com/  A short email will be sent to all faculty announcing each post. Comments, questions or additional ideas welcome!
 

3. Teaching Tips for SVCC

Most of us struggle to keep up in our discipline and have little time to keep up with the literature on college teaching, technology integration, online or hybrid teaching, etc. This blog will pos,t on a weekly basis, nuggets of great information from these areas to support your teaching and your students' learning. Many of the tips come from faculty or faculty support personnel at colleges all over the country, written in response to an invitation to share tips and strategies for teaching today's students! http://teachingtips4svcc.blogspot.com   A short email will be sent to all faculty announcing each post. Comments, questions or additional ideas welcome! 

  

Coming in October---Student Focus: What can we do about THAT? eFolios; Copyright...and more!

Moodle Monday - Test Banks and i3 Workshop

I3 Workshop

The i3 Workshop will be offered beginning September 10, 2012. The course is designed for instructors interested in learning more about teaching online, whether you are new to online teaching or an experienced instructor wanting to learn some of the latest best practices. Participants learn the strategies used to teach online, including instructional design strategies and online teaching approaches, how to utilize the Moodle course management system, and much more. Full time faculty members receive one promotional credit for successfully completing the online course. To register for the fall session of the i3 Workshop fill out the form at http://svcc.edu/employees/it/training/registration.html or contact us at extension 229.

Test Banks

Publisher provided test banks are one of many tools available to instructors. However, publishers utilize many different formats to publish these test banks. The procedure for uploading your test bank to Moodle will vary depending upon the format of your test bank.

Today we will share four tutorials for the most common test bank formats and has provided links to each, below. Click on the pertinent link to open a .pdf document with step by step instructions.

Import a Test Bank to Moodle: Diploma

Import a Test Bank to Moodle: Examview

Import a Test Bank to Moodle: Pearson

Format and Import a Word Test Bank to Moodle

Linky Thursday August 23, 2012

      

           

1.  popplet.com

      

     Today's first shared link features an interesting web tool with several potential classroom applications.

      Users add photos, text boxes, and so forth to the work area. This work area has the potential to     

      become the basis for a presentation with zooming effects similar to prezi.com, but also allows for

      flow charting, audio, and more. See examples at the site.

      www.popplet.com

2.  storybird.com

     This little web tool could be fun for personal use if you have young children, or could serve as the 

     basis for a classroom project for early childhood education students. The free application provides

     graphic images in the style of a child's picture book. You add the text. The books are printable and

     may be viewed on a variety of devices.

     www.storybird.com

3.     Student Success

Learner analytics is a hot topic in higher education right now. This article examines two case studies in a university setting.

       

http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/two-case-studies-learner-analytics-university-system-maryland

4.    Geometric Shapes

These geometric shapes are in a printable .pdf document and include cutting and fold lines for constructing a 3-D geometric shape. Follow this link to download a copy.

http://www.edgalaxy.com/journal/2012/8/5/great-collection-of-3d-shape-nets-to-download-and-print.html