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.