Setting Up an Online Learning Experience

The significance of knowing what technology available to you is so you can familiarize yourself with it and find the most appropriate technological tools for your course. Most online learning communities take place in a course management system or a learning management system. It is highly important that the instructor know how to navigate around the system before the beginning of the course. Knowing what technology is available is also so significant because you can use them to enhance the learning experience and interactivity of the course. However, Boettcher and Conrad (2010) that just because the technology is available to you doesn’t mean that you have to incorporate it all into the course. You should only use what you are comfortable with, preferably one to three that are best suited for the learning goals that you’ve established.

Communicating clear course expectations to the leaners is essential because it will help clear up any misconceptions that may arise during the course.

Additional considerations that should be taken into account are presence, community, and patience (Boettcher &Conrad, 2010). Presence is important because the instructor has to be there in order for the students to have some sort of satisfaction and sense of trust. Presence is broken down into three smaller categories which are social, cognitive, and teaching. Social presence is establishing your personality through discussion boards and chat. Cognitive presence is the students wanting to understand and learn ideas in depth. Teaching presence consists of the course materials and the instructor mentoring, guiding, and shaping the knowledge of the learners in the course. Community is important because the lack of face to face interaction, learners need strong system where they can learn from, support, and share with each other. This is done by building and establishing a community. Last is patience, because it is easy to become frustrated with yourself and the learners if things are not going as you’ve planned.

Resources

Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. (2010). The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Online Learning Communities

Learning communities are defined as a group of people, usually consisting of students and faculty that explore content together in order to construct meaning and gain knowledge and to support and challenge each other academically (Pallof and Pratt, 2011).

Online communities significantly impacts both student learning and satisfaction within online courses in that it gives learners a better perception of learning, a feeling of being a part of something larger, and increases social pressures to succeed.

The elements essential to the building of an online community as discussed in the video are people, process, and purpose. I think that this is important because you cannot have a community let alone an online community without people. Also essential is social presence because it helps to define who the people are as they participate in the course. Next, you need to have purpose. The purpose for people coming together would be to take a course. Then there is process which is how and when the course is delivered. In addition to process, there is also method which is how the people/learners communicate within the course. Although not mentioned as an essential to building an online community, I’ve added the facilitator because you need someone to actually build and facilitate the course. There would be no course, purpose, and people without a facilitator.

Online learning communities can be sustained by keeping the learners engaged and participating in the course. They need to have activities and dialog that will provide continuous reflection, challenge, and support each other. This can be also be achieved by setting up Rules of Engagement which dictates how the learners will engage, how often they’re expected to participate, and how often the institution expects the students to participate.

References

Palloff, R. and Pratt, K.(2011). Online Learning Communities [Video]. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5089770&Survey=1&47=6354370&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1&BrswrOK=1&PrevRef=http%3A%2F%2Fsylvan.live.ecollege.com%2Fec%2Fcrs%2Fdefault.learn%3FCourseID%3D5089770%26Survey%3D1%2647%3D6354370%26ClientNodeID%3D984650%26coursenav%3D1&submit1=Continue

Welcome

Hi Everybody!!

Thank you for stopping by and reading my blog. Please feel free to leave a message. :)

Analyzing Scope Creep

My experience with scope creep occurred a few years ago when I was working as a graphic designer at an event planning company. The company was planning a women’s convention. My role for and during the conference was to create the program, a PowerPoint that would run during the fashion show and through the conference, and to sit at the door and sale tickets. Little did I know that I would soon end up donning a head set and running around taking care of a majority of all the behind the scenes work and more for a conference with little to no budget.

A majority of the problems consisted of poor planning, lack of a budget, and an inattentive owner. I and three others had to pretty much take over her responsibility. I had to deal with vendors and talent whose needs were not being met and ticketing and security issues. These people were promised a lot of things that I had no knowledge of (because I was only in charge of the program design and selling tickers) but yet I had to find a way to somehow accommodate them. The programs were supposed to be in color and there were only 50 of them for 200 people and the videographer was MIA. A fight broke out. There wasn’t enough A/V equipment for the demos and the venue was too large so they could hear over the fashion show that was going on. It’s a long list of issues. And where was the owner?? Sitting on her butt watching it all.

A lot of thing could’ve been to make sure these issues never happened. For the resources that were available, I and the three other people handled our situations well. Like I stated before, this all could have been avoided if proper steps had been taken for planning and budgeting, creating a contingency plan, and if the person in charge had taken been a bit more proactive. Portny et al (2008) states that project managers should identify risks, assess potential impacts, develop plans for mitigations, and monitor that risk status, and keep others informed. Since I had been thrown into the mix, I felt I had to do all of these steps in a matter of minutes. This event was definitely a lesson in risk management. Everything that could’ve gone wrong did go wrong. But the good thing about was that the convention attendees didn’t know.

References

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Communicating Effectively

How did your interpretation of the message change from one modality to the next?

In my opinion, my interpretation of the three different modalities were about the same. I did however feel that the email was somewhat too wordy. The tone of the voicemail seemed to have more urgency than the email because you could hear Jane's tone. Voicemail may not be the best choice seeing as how a lot people do not check their their messages. During the face to face, Jane's tone was different than the voicemail like it was less urgent. But on the other hand that was the fact that she was visibly standing in front of you conveying that the report that she has yet to receive is vital to her.

What factors influenced how you perceived the message?

The clear language and the tone.

Which form of communication best conveyed the true meaning and intent of the message?

I think that the face to face communication best conveyed the true meaning and intent of the message for me because it forced me to stop, listen, and focus on what Jane had to say. I was presented with an audio and visual of the message so I was able to see and hear the message. To a certain degree I think that face to face communications holds people more accountable because then the other person can't say that they weren't told something or didn't know about it.

What are the implications of what you learned from this exercise for communicating effectively with members of a project team?

From this exercise, I learned that everyone has there preferred method of sending and receiving communication. In choosing the most appropriate form of communication depends on the audience and the message being delivered. Dr. Stolovich explained that effective communication is influenced by spirit & attitude, tone & body language, timing, and the personality of the recipient.

References

Media Program "The Art of Effective Communication"

Stolovich, H. [Video]. Communication with Stakeholders Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com.

Project Post Mortem

Ok... so I don't really have a real project that I can share with you all. But in our textbook Portny et at(2008) in chapter 1 talked about how baking a cake can be considered a project, since they defined projects as temporary endeavors that result in some type of product or service. So here goes...

The Conceive Phase
Last weekend my friend and I baked a carrot cake. I wouldn't necessarily say that the project was a failure, but one of the steps could have gone a little better. I guess I can be considered the project manager of "Project Cake". So as project manager and baker extraordinaire, I was approached by my friend (upper management) with "We're baking a carrot to take to Mo's for dinner on Sunday". Of course, I was caught off guard because it was random. But I went along with the idea anyway.

The Define and Start Phase

These phases were combine because it was just the two of us. The unknown of the project was the recipe. My friend had lost it the last time we made a carrot cake. The project was scheduled to start on Sunday and end that same Sunday before 6pm. There was no projected budget. As long as it was within reason. The stakeholders were me, my friend and Mo (the consumer). The An analysis of the resources (the ingredients) was done in the store. The defined tasks included going on line and finding another recipe, getting the ingredients from the store, and making the actual cake and baking it.

The Perform Phase
The tasks were actually further broken up and assigned in this phase. My responsibilities included finding the recipe and mixing the cake batter, and making the frosting. My friend was to grate the carrots and ice the cake. We both went to the store together. The the oven balked the cake. Now the issues:

• some of the cake decided it wanted to stay in the pan
• the frosting was a little too thin for the cake
• there wasn't enough batter for 2 9in pans
• we bought duplicate ingredients

The Close Phase

The cake was completed with in time and within the budget. The consumer (Mo) was happy. The cake turned out great despite the issues. In fact, I just had a piece an hour ago. It's even better now than it was on Sunday. All of the issues were solved but they were not anticipated. They were my fault (except the cake sticking to the pan. I greased and floured both pan thoroughly!) The frosting I could have whipped a little longer til I got the consistency that was suitable for the cake or the frosting could've been put in the fridge to chill. As far as the batter, the recipe I used called for a 9x13in pan. So I made another batch of batter and cut the recipe in half. The duplicate ingredients could've been prevented if my friend had written down what we had already instead of going by memory. For future references we decided to get the spray oil with the flour in it for the pans and add pineapple.

Reference

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc

Final Reflection: The Future of Distance Learning

Distance Learning has come a long way over the past 160 years. From correspondence study to courses on the World Wide Web, distance learning is an ever evolving phenomenon. This is evidence that distance learning, although slowly is gaining acceptance all over.

I think that the perceptions of distance learning in the next 5-10 years will be positive ones. I don’t see distance learning taking the place of traditional face 2 face classes, but I do see it being more widely accepted by the masses. As new technologies are created, improved, and more readily available, people will be more inclined to take advantage of distance learning. According to Dr. Siemens (2010), acceptance of distance of learning will be fueled by an increase of online communications, practical experience with new tools, the ability to communicate with diverse and global groups, and comfort with online discourse.

As an instructional designer I can be a positive force in improvement in the field of distance education by staying up to date on the currents events in the instructional design field and continuing to build my skills. I can also continue to design effective and interactive learning modules. In addition, I can help people to become computer literate so that they are able to use the minimum technologies that are involved in distance education.

I can be a proponent for improving societal perceptions by educating the public on the pros of distance learning by giving them positive examples from a student perspective and from an instructional designer perspective. I will inform them that online degree programs can provide one with a quality education just as much as a traditional program. Society should also be taught how to look for quality accredited distance learning programs. In addition, encourage institutions to take more pride in their distance learning courses and to promote them more.

References
Siemens, G. (2010). The Future of Distance Education. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4603379&Survey=1&47=6354370&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1&BrswrOK=1&PrevRef=http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn%3FCourseID%3D4603379%26Survey%3D1%2647%3D6354370%26ClientNodeID%3D984650%26coursenav%3D1&submit1=Continue