Teaching an Online Class

Handout for MACUL Speech March 10, 2000

Eileen Heasley and Sherri Johnson worked as a team to teach this course and give this presentation. You can find out more about them at http://edcen.ehhs.cmich.edu/~eheasley/bio.html

Summary:
This is the summary of a MACUL session that took place, March 10, 2000, with Eileen Heasley and Sherri Johnson in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They discussed their online course that provided professional development in instructional technology, Engaged Learning and Multiple Intelligences. Teachers met both physically and online in chat. The participants were challenged to work in teams to develop a lesson for their discipline that included the elements of Engaged Learning, reflected the Michigan Curriculum Framework, contained more than two Multiple Intelligences and involved no less than 2 best uses of technology. Teachers who participated as learners, were challenged to produce homepage as their final project. These will be posted and shared with educators around the world, by the end of the year. The series was funded by The Michigan Governor's NextDay Grant Project. In addition, Western Michigan graciously donated server space for project implementation. Here are links to key project materials.

The Summary http://www-ed.fnal.gov/lincon/w99/projects/multiple/present.html

The Scenario: http://www-ed.fnal.gov/lincon/w99/projects/multiple/scenario.html

The Schedule http://www-ed.fnal.gov/lincon/w99/projects/multiple/timeline.html

WWW.Blackboard.com: http://www.blackboard.com/ (CourSite is multiple101)

Preparations Before the Course:

Let's Talk Technology (http://edcen.ehhs.cmich.edu/~eheasley/schedule.html)
Eileen and Sherri met awhile attending a MACUL TAG Grant Let's Talk Technology. This is the third year of that grant which brings Detroit area teachers together to network and hear speakers. Let's Talk Technology was initiated as a MACUL TAG Grant and is funded this year by State of Michigan NextDay Technology Innovation Grants for Educators
For more information about Let's Talk Technology see (http://edcen.ehhs.cmich.edu/~eheasley/schedule.html)

LiNCon Fermilab Course (http://www-ed.fnal.gov/lincon)
Fermilab (near Chicago) offers a 14 week online course that models Engaged Learning (Project Based Learning) and includes participants from all over the country. It is not a class for those beginning in technology. Participants develop a project proposal for their subject area that aligns with Curriculum Framework and includes the principles of Engaged Learning. Sherri and Eileen took the Fermilab class during the winter of 1999 and developed the Multiple Intelligence and Technology course as part of their assignment. A strong part of the LiNCon class involved Engaged Learning. We modeled our sessions on their model. These are just a few of the Fermilab lessons that we adapted for chat sessions.

• The Elements of Engaged Learning: (http://www-ed.fnal.gov/lincon/el_prop_elements.shtml)
• Understanding and Analyzing the Components of Engaged Learning (http://www-ed.fnal.gov/lincon/el_homepage.shtml)

During the Course:

The Discussion Board:
Blackboard.com (http://www.blackboard.com)
We chose www.blackboard.com which is free to anyone on the Internet. Our course site is open to visitors. The course title is multiple101 (no spaces). Blackboard was chosen as our course hub, because it included all the components needed to teach an online course. The participants posted their work to the Discussion Board. Each participant posted a homepage under Communication/Personal Pages.

Comments: Our original plan was to post assignments on webpages. We found Blackboard much easier. We did have some trouble printing assignments when using Netscape but not when using Internet Explorer. Blackboard had some unstable times when we could not log in. This usually happened in the evening during peak times. We also had some problems uploading pages. It seemed to help if we emptied out cache. We had the option to pay $100 to get online technical help from Blackboard. We chose to wait to see if we needed this help. We did email questions to HELP and received immediate replies. We did not pay the $100. Blackboard has a newer chat format available but we chose to use IRC because it was more stable and gave us the option to open more than one room at a time. This was wise because at time Blackboard would sometimes run very slowly and not let us log in during class time. To use Blackboard effectively, instructors need to know some HTML when posting assignments.We found that the evaluation section to be weak and created web pages outside blackboard for evaluation rubrics. Blackboard does have a great tracker that allows us to see who reads the board by date.

The Listserve
eGroups (http://egroups.com)
This is a free list service for any group. It allows you to invite members to join your list, lets you see who has joined and who is waiting to respond back. There is also a place to view all posted messages. To join, members are sent an invitation from the list. and join by responding.

Comments:
Some participants were confused in the beginning joining the list. It allows you to poll your group. You to go to egroups and find all posted messages.

The Chat Software:
Our chats were from 7:15 PM to 9:15 PM on Thursdays.We followed a modified version of the model given to us by Fermilab and used IRC software. The objectives for each chat was different. Sometimes we explored web pages and followed a formal lesson. Some chats broke into sub chats with each team working alone and with with instructors rotating. One of our most highly engaged chat featured a guest speaker discussing cyberlaw and related education copyright issues. This is the chat software that we used.
MS_Chat for PC (http://www-ed.fnal.gov/lincon/tech_com_mschat.shtml) (freeware)
ChatNet for MAC (http://www-ed.fnal.gov/lincon/tech_com_chatnet.shtml) (10 license for $100)

Comments: We were very appreciative of Western University, who sponsored us for this project and helped us to set up IRC chat on their server. This allowed us access to a private chat server that was extremely dependable. The IRC software allowed us to have many chat rooms open at the same time. This was used to give choices to and foster student-directed learning. We found it best to begin with each participant arriving in one chatroom,but quickly move them on to another room. Late arrivals could be greeted in that same chartroom and given directions, without disturbing the class. There were some problems with participants getting bumped out of their ISP connections. AOL users seemed to experience such problems most often.

Mavica Digital Camera  (http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/consumer/dimaging/browse_the_products/digital_mavica_camera/)
This camera allows you to take one minute movies and digital pictures that can be stored on a standard Windows-formatted HD floppy disk. Michigan schools can purchase the Sony Mavica Digital Camera FD-91 through the Michigan REMC Bid List. (http://www.remc.org/AVBid) We used the camera for the digital pictures posted in Student Home pages on blackboard. And, as part of our project evaluation, we asked each participant to state their project expectations on video. Some stated they wanted to learn to make homepage, some wanted to get a team working in their school, while others wanted to experience, first-hand, the dynamics of teaching and learning in an online environment. At our final face-to-face meeting, we will each video clip, then ask whether multiple101 met their expectations.

Netscape Composer 4.7 (http://www.netscape.com)
We chose Netscape 4.7 because it is free and available to everyone. Special help was given during a face-to-face lab and in chat. We used LViewPro and Graphic Converter as a graphic converter for each participant.

WS_FTP (PC) and Fetch (MAC)
Animated directions for transferring files http://www-ed.fnal.gov/lincon/tech_ftp_fetch.shtml
Detailed directions for using Fetch and WS_FTP

The Evaluation:

1. Prior to the start of our course, participants completed surveys. These same surveys will be re-administered at the conclusion of the course:
http://www-ed.fnal.gov/lincon/forms/skills.shtml
http://www-ed.fnal.gov/lincon/forms/classroomelpre.shtml

2. Each participant submitted weekly progress reports.
http://www-ed.fnal.gov/lincon/w99/projects/multiple/survey2.html

3. An informal oral evaluation was made midway through our course, during a face- to-face lab to determine ways to improve the final sessions.

4. These are the project assessment rubrics
For tasks completed: http://www-ed.fnal.gov/lincon/w99/projects/multiple/tasks.html
For attendance: http://www-ed.fnal.gov/lincon/w99/projects/multiple/attend.html
For final projects http://www-ed.fnal.gov/lincon/w99/projects/multiple/rubric.html

Other Links

Multiple Intelligence Links
1. A summary of information on the web(http://www-ed.fnal.gov/lincon/w99/projects/multiple/multiple.html)
2. We used the textbook Teaching and Learning Through Multiple Intelligences by Linda Campbell. Bruce Campbell, and Dee Dickinson.. Participants read test weekly and commented on the discussion board.
3. We invited an expert speaker, Anne Campbell to speak to the class.

Michigan Framework and Benchmarks

• Michigan Curriculum Framework (http://cdp.mde.state.mi.us/MCF)
• Technology Draft Benchmarks (http://cdp.mde.state.mi.us/MCF/ContentStandards/Technology/default.html)
• Search the Michigan Curriculum Framework (http://cdp.mde.state.mi.us/MCF/search.html)

• $1,5000 EDS Technology Grants (http://www.eds.com/community_affairs/com_tech_grants.shtml)

(For schoolteachers of children ages 6 through 12  Schools must be within 50 miles of an EDS office.)
• Get vendor support.  We have found that vendors are very cooperative when asked.  LViewPro gave each member of the class a copy of its graphic converter.  In  Let's Talk Technology, these vendors supported the project with free materials: Hyperstudio, Classroom Connect, Microsoft FrontPage, EudoraPro, Scholastic Network, Scantron Quality Computer, and more.

Last Updated: 2/27/00