Instructional Design

Hey folks! First off, I want to apologize for the less than exciting blogging week; things have been completely insane over here! Two projects on the go, two books being written (whaaaaat?!), webinars and meetings – oh my!, and a proposal that I’m working on. All exciting things, but how does Beyonce do it?

This week I wanted to chat a bit about rubrics. The online course I’m taking is currently discussing course quality, and rubrics feature prominently in this discussion. Now, as a student, I’ve been on the annoyance side of the rubric stand-point (ugh…a table?! you want me to look at a table to figure out what I need to do?!), but I’ve also learned to appreciate the structure of a rubric and how functional it can be, especially when evaluating more subjective materials that don’t necessarily have a solid wrong or right answer – e.g. papers.

So, what is a rubric?

A rubric is an evaluation tool that allows individuals responsible for evaluation tasks to be able to easily and effectively do their jobs. Rubrics break down the criteria, providing a range of options for each item. Evaluators will select the range option that corresponds with the material for which they are evaluating. At the end of the evaluation, the score (based on the range options selected) will be added up, providing the student with their grade.

I’m with you, Ashley – these sound annoying. Why would anyone use them?

1. As I said before, they make it a heck of a lot easier to evaluate subjective materials
2. They can enhance academic achievement by providing students with a clear outline of what they need to do in order to score within a particular range.
3. They can provide students with a criteria for conducting peer evaluations, which as an instructor, ensures you don’t get an entire class  full of 5/5 peer evaluations.
4. As an instructor, they help you back up your evaluation decisions by offering a tangible explanation for students who seek to challenge their grades.

Rubric resources, please. Here you go:

• Understanding Rubrics by Heidi Goodrich Andrade
• Creating a Rubric – University of Colorado
• 3 Rubric Makers that will Save you Time and Stress – Edudemic

Lately I’ve been busying myself with an online learning opportunity, among other things (you know…things that pay the bills and put kibble in the dog’s bowl), and the concept of learning communities cropped up (more on that later) and subsequently the Community of Inquiry (COI) Model.

When I first came to work in Higher Education, I was reminded of the COI model when reviewing my first course – of which there was very little student engagement and participation. The faculty member was new to developing courses for online delivery, and their course reflected that; it looked like a straight ‘chalk-and-talk’ style conversion. In my review, I encouraged the faculty member to create a Community of Inquiry with their students and explained what I meant by that. Because I was providing my review in an academic manner, drawing on well-respected and understood concepts within the academic community, the faculty member was incredibly receptive to my revision suggestions, and I’m sure their students appreciated it! Maybe if I would have known of the COI Model when I was managing a Starbucks during my undergrad…maybe then my 16-22 year old staff members would have appreciated my criticism more…naaaah.

So, what is this Community of Inquiry Model you speak of?

The Community of Inquiry Model is a concept that takes two awesome things: scientific inquiry and the construction of knowledge and mashes them into one amazing conceptualization! In the context of education, COI is most often observed when an instructor facilitates topical discussions, allowing students to ask questions and engage with one another and bounce understanding of the topic off one another. The facilitator is important here, as they are responsible for guiding their students and keeping them on track with regard to the topic (e.g. ensuring students don’t generate incorrect information as being ‘true’ with relation to the topic).

What are some good ways of fostering COI in online learning?

1. Discussion forums – As an online student, I always loved the discussion forums! The instructor would prompt students to respond to a question (or several) in at least 500 words, and then respond to at least 2 other participants in at least 500 words. This method did just what it intended to do, generated discussion! And for me, it was a great approach to collaborative learning. If the instructor was unable to explain a concept in terms I could understand, another participant could often produce a tangible explanation for me.
2. Twitter chats – I talked about these last week (and I think the week before), but they’re really a great way of creating COI, because they allow users to participate in a palatable manner – especially if time is a concern.
3. Synchronous elements – Working at an institution that was really a pioneer in the broadcast television manner of providing distance learning opportunities, I always encourage my faculty members to include some synchronous element in their courses, and to make at least one session an attendance requirement. These are great! They allow participants to communicate with the instructor and ask questions. Some students can be hesitant to participate, so these sessions can be helpful as many students often have the same course-related questions or concerns.

But Ashley…where are my resources?!

The Community of Inquiry 

CIDER: The Community of Inquiry Webinars

The Community of Inquiry Model Framework Ten Years Later: An Introduction to the Special Issue by Karen Swan and Phil Ice

Utilizing Technology to Develop a Community of Inquiry by Nathan Hall and Michael Burri

Strategies for Creating a Community of Inquiry Through Online Asynchronous Discussions by Aimee deNoyelles, Janet Mannheimer Zydney, and Baiyun Chen 

This week’s term, microlearning, was inspired by several Twitter chats I’ve been lurking for awhile now. In times like these where information is constantly requested/searched, there’s a greater trend toward instant gratification – and the wonders of the Internet can do magic to make this happen!

Microlearning

Microlearning refers to learning that occurs in bite sized chunks or very short-term learning activities. For example, these Twitter chats. Each week, participants respond to questions posed and are able to read (and respond to) the responses of fellow participants. It’s really a great form of collaborative learning. Twitter chats are a great example, because responses occur within the constraint of 140 characters, and learners are encouraged to synthesize this information in bite-sized responses or presentation.

But who the heck would this benefit?!

Everyone involved! Well – maybe not everyone (there are always outliers), but most participants and facilitators. I’ll give you an example of how microlearning is working in an online course I worked on.

The faculty member came to me wanting to redevelop her course. She wanted to swap out some readings and make it more engaging for students. Her course consists of about 3000 pages of readings over a semester (they’re all children’s books), a midterm and final exam, and some written assignments. Holy crap! What a slave driver, you might think…the reality is not really, but I could see how students might balk at the workload. In any event, she was struggling with quality forum participation because the students were exhausted by the workload and couldn’t commit to writing lengthy posts and responses. She also tried a wiki to no avail (well – it worked, but not in an optimal manner). I suggested a Twitter chat for her; like the forum posts, she could incite participation out of a course requirement and she could require the student post one original response to the question and respond to at least two of their peers, BUT the student would only be required to write a maximum of 420 characters instead of potentially a minimum of 1500 words!

This approach benefits the faculty member in terms of her participation grading and it benefits the students by requiring less of their already taxing workload to obtain the elusive participation points (some students would just drop the participation grade of 5-10% as they were too swamped to participate, but 5-10% can mean a lot of the course of a course).

Confused by what I’m talking about? Here are some great examples and some resources!

• Lrnchat
• EdTechChat
• Microlearning.org
• Application of Microlearning Technique and Twitter for Educational Purposes by B.H. Aitchanov, A.B. Satabaldiyev, and K.N. Latuta
• Mobile Learning with Micro Content: A Framework and Evaluation by Peter A. Bruck

Next week I begin the OLC Teaching Certificate, and as a prerequisite I had to take a brief (1 week) workshop. There has been some discussion about the changing role of traditional face-to-face instructors when they begin teaching online, so I thought it might be relevant to provide my thoughts on these changing roles.

Instructor

The instructor of a class is often viewed as the Subject Matter Expert (SME), and while there are various delivery mechanisms this instructor may choose to use, instructors are often viewed as feeding students with information. Some call this a ‘banking’ model, wherein the instructor is depositing information into the bank of student minds. This is a traditional method of instruction for a reason: it’s been used for many moons, and it works. However, it’s not the only way teaching and learning can work.

Facilitator

Facilitators are often viewed as ‘a guide on the side’ in that they provide the subject matter/content to the students, but the students build upon the information collaboratively with one another. The facilitator facilitates discussions surrounding the content and keeps the students focused on the learning outcomes, but they operate in a more holistic approach.

How does this relate to online learning?

Well – in online learning, the instructor really needs to make a shift and adapt their teaching preferences according to the environment in which information is being delivered. For example, if you choose to continue with the traditional ‘banking’ style of approach in an online delivery format, your course will likely end up looking like a repository of information…which is not very engaging instructional design. In this example, you can see very clearly why the banking method doesn’t work that well for online as it does for face-to-face instruction; while, the facilitator role can work well in both contexts of delivery.

With that being said, the facilitator may need to adapt their role based on the environment in that they may need to provide more examples and explanations in the online format to mitigate the lack of face-to-face engagement.

Change is innately unwanted and there is always resistance to change, but in the interest of your audience, it’s a necessary evil!

Still confused? Here are some resources!

• The Excellent Online Instructor: Strategies for Professional Development by Rena M. Palloff 
• Army Instructors to Army Facilitators – Practical Considerations by Anna Cianciolo and William R. Bickley
• Transforming Online Teaching Practice: Critical Analysis of the Literature on the Roles and Competencies of Online Teachers by E. Baran, A-P. Correia, and A. Thompson
• Inquiry Learning: Instructor Perspectives by S. Vajoczki, S. Watt, and M. Vine