Diana Bang's ETEC 565A e-portfolio

Write an entry for your course weblog about your experience here (on your “Home” page and posting a new entry). How labour intensive was the process? What worked well? What was challenging? What surprised you?

I found the e-learning toolkit particularly useful and inspired me to pick up some books on web design and accessibility. For the web design software, I downloaded a 30-day trial version of Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, and open source WYSIWYG editors Amaya and Kompozer (from NVU). Sketching out the basic website layout was the premise of the storyboarding exercise which definitely helps organize and plan the website structure prior to its implementation. I drew a storyboard that was similar to my WordPress blog and used the web design principles I learned from the “web pages that suck” checklist (of what not to do in web design).

Next, I created an account on Bravenet to upload my webpage creation and found the process fairly simple and straightforward. After the initial registration, I chose a template design and then edited the content of my webpages. For now, it’s a pretty basic site which I’m using as my storyboarding practice at: http://etec565storyboarddiana.bravesites.com. I checked the appearance of the site using two different web browsers, IE9 and Opera. Both appeared to be similar and so I moved onto testing my website’s accessibility using the Web Accessibility Evaluation (WAVE) tool at: http://wave.webaim.org/report?url=http%3A%2F%2Fetec565storyboarddiana.bravesites.com&js=2. I “WAVED” my page by entering the url, and got a surprising error message: “Uh oh! WAVE has detected 1 accessibility error. The following are present in the head section or apply to this page in general.” I located where this error was in heading 1- where the WAVE tool outlined with a red icon that there was an empty heading without any content. It was sort of confusing since I did have a heading in there as “Navigating the tumultuous terrain of storyboarding.” Also, in a yellow icon it stated that there was one or more javascript elements present. In any case, this just means that I’ll have to go back to my storyboarding site and try to fix the error(s) that the WAVE tool found. Overall, I found this was a great exercise to practice storyboarding, learn about web design principles, web design software, website accessibility, and HTML authoring. My next step is to try out the web design software I’ve downloaded to determine which one to use for my Moodle site and start developing the content for my e-learning modules.

I developed an e-learning portal for healthcare practitioners with the intention that it would complement the existing f2f training sessions that I currently offer without the constraints of time and location. My goal is that it will help them become more familiarized with the available resources and learn how to use them effectively in order to improve their research skills. One of the first communication tools I created was a course announcements section to relay information to healthcare practitioners asynchronously. Additionally, there is a technical support discussion forum developed for students to troubleshoot and help each other with minor technical issues. However, for more urgent matters, there is a contact email provided for additional technical assistance.

Also, an asynchronous icebreaker activity was created as a discussion forum to help develop a sense of community as clinicians get to know each other. This will also help me gauge what I can do to support them to achieve their learning goals. Here are my icebreaker questions below:

– Introduce: yourself to your fellow colleagues.

– Share: your online research experiences and techniques.

– Reflect: What are the key skills and approaches that you feel you need to develop in order to meet your e-learning goals?

Another learning space I created was a synchronous chat room where practitioners can go to discuss aspects of their self-study modules as a virtual meeting space. Since this e-learning portal is meant to supplement the f2f training sessions that I’ll continue to offer, I’ve also included a calendar widget to alert students to any upcoming learning events. As well, I added a new events section, a who’s online section and a messages box so students would have the option of sending instant messages to each other. There’s also a newsfeed of upcoming events to supplement the calendar view and a recent activity section to help me keep track of online student activities.

All of the modules will be available for students since they can decide to learn at their own pace/time. At the end of each module I’m thinking of using quizzes to assess their understanding of the material. I’m considering embedding some recorded video tutorials and perhaps even schedule a synchronous, live web-conferencing session similar to our Wimba Moodle sessions. Another communication tool I’m thinking of implementing is the use of student webblogs or reflective journals based on an article I recently read about the merits of reflective practice for healthcare professionals at: http://meds.queensu.ca/ohse/assets/reflective_practice__a_systematic_review.pdf. I’ll have to figure out where I want to include the journal activity (if it’s within each module or one at the beginning that they would use throughout their learning activities).

In any case, here’s the link to my Moodle site that I’ve worked on so far: http://moodle.met.ubc.ca/course/view.php?id=243. Any useful suggestions and/or feedback is welcomed.

Were this a F2F course, she would set up office hours – but that’s not an option in an online course, is it? Post your ideas in the what could Trinh do discussion forum.

After much consideration, I think some of the options available for Trinh includes the following:

– Make the case for getting a teaching assistant (or more for each course section) to help her out with managing 150+ students (addressing their course inquiries, providing formative and summative assessments, etc).
– Distinguish what questions can be addressed to the TA and/or instructor to students enrolled in her course.
– Use one designated email for all course communications and let students know to send course-related messages just to this email address (rather than multiple email addresses).
– Clearly let students know when you’re available/not available (for example let students know when she’ll be away for a period of time via announcements, emails, and/or discussion postings so they understand why you may not be able to reply back to them right away).
– Create different types of help sections in the discussion forums so that students can obtain assistance and support from their peers to address their inquiries.
– Use filter/labelling email management strategies to help organize the content of her emails (i.e. if she’s using Gmail’s mail forwarding service then she can also filter out the messages being sent to her designated course email address and put it into a labelled folder to address all course-related inquiries).
– Offer scheduled online chats and/or videoconferencing sessions essentially setting up “virtual” office hours to address students’ questions.
– Build presence by offering YouTube video presentations (that may also address students’ questions and clearly communicate your expectations of them).
– As Anderson (2008) suggests on p.356, the virtual teacher has to set and adhere to appropriate timelines to help student have realistic expectations and relieves the teachers of the unrealistic expectation of providing instantaneous 24/7 feedback.
– Time management is key for Trinh- rather than checking online activities or email constantly.
– Develop and implement an explicit assessment framework for students so they understand what is expected of them throughout the course (i.e. assignments, participation, etc).
– Make assessments a reflective exercise by assigning students the task of using their discussion postings in their blogs to show evidence of their understanding. As Anderson (2008) states, this moves the responsibility from the teacher to the student and can save the teacher time.
– Use student moderators to help lead class discussions and act as peer support (leading to less emails from students for Trinh to manage).
– Provide an archive of the live streaming presentations so students in different time zones that may have missed these sessions can catch up.
– Clearly communicate course expectations, assignment deadlines, weekly readings, etc. from the onset via the course syllabus. Perhaps this information is not clear for students or it’s located in several different sections so she may want to consider amalgamating into one area and letting students know that it’s their responsibility to diarize this information (i.e. assignment deadlines, live presentations, etc).

Reference
Anderson, T. (2008). Teaching in an online learning context. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.), Theory and practice of online learning, (pp. 343-365). Edmonton, AB: Athabasca University. Retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/14_Anderson_2008_Anderson-DeliveryQualitySupport.pdf

Something that I’m planning to use in the development of my Moodle splash page is Wordle in order to create some nifty images of word clouds. I’ve played around with it before but never really used it for anything (not yet) so I’m excited to try it out for my course site. Anyways while I was writing this, I got started on creating one (just for this post) so if you look above you’ll see my first “official” creation. 🙂

Also, I found a useful blog post which offers other options for creating word clouds (not limited to Wordle): http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/waiting-for-wordle-free-word-cloud-options-to-use-now/

Although, I haven’t yet followed the e-learning toolkit instructions for WebCT/Vista I thought I’d try out its features since we recently got access to it as a ETEC workshop. First, I watched the embedded YouTube clip that John created which offered a good preliminary overview. Next, I noted that there were 3 different tabs: build, teach and student views which I clicked through. I then tried creating a chatroom calling it “Moodle vs. Blackboard- that is the question.” In the description field I typed in “Chat forum to discuss the affordances of these two LMSs” and limited it to 25 participants. I did notice that some students chose to max it out to 1000- I wonder though will there ever be that many students in one course? Anyways, I digress. The other nifty thing I tried out was adding a calendar entry for today (June 17) writing that reflections were due today. In the instructions I wrote “write a blog reflection about your experience testing WebCT/Vista and funny enough here I am attempting my own assignment. 🙂 Overall, thus far I think that WebCT/Vista is more intuitive to use and user-friendly than Moodle (but it’s not a fair comparison just yet since I need to dabble in Moodle more to get used to it). Also, I liked using the tabs in WebCT/Vista to navigate back and forth from the build, teach, and student views which was akin to Moodle’s “Turn on/off editing feature” links to toggle back and forth from the instructor to student views. As John’s suggested, priority #1 is Moodle so I’ll be focusing on this LMS moreso for the rest of the course.

Keeping in mind your own experiences as a teacher and as a student, consider what Anderson means when he describes the attributes of learning in terms of being learner-, knowledge-, assessment-, and community-centred. To what extent have you experienced online or mixed-mode courses that achieved this kind of learning environment?

As a MET student, I’ve noticed that there’s a greater emphasis on community-centred learning through asynchronous and synchronous discussions/chats compared to some of the previous online courses that I’ve taken outside of this program. I find that everyone is actively trying to build their knowledge through ongoing inquiries and commentaries in their discussion posts. Also, it seems that the amount of instructor-led interaction varies from course to course. Some instructors choose to actively participate in the online community alongside students whereas others have left it mostly up to the students to lead the discussions.

I recall in ETEC 510, we had the opportunity to work on a group project and instead of using the available discussion forum space or Google Docs (both of which we were familiar with) our group decided to step outside of our comfort zone to try something new and used Teambox. It helped us to not only learn how to use a new tool, but also to collaborate on our group project using social software features and enabled us to stay connected with each other outside of our virtual classroom. Additionally, in terms of a learner-centred context, Anderson (2008) suggests offering virtual icebreakers and opportunities for student to introduce themselves. I can definitely attest to the fact that all of my MET courses so far have consistently included an opportunity for student introductions during the first week of classes to help us all get to know each other. As well, the activities have focused on the learner and I think each student realizes that he/she is ultimately responsible for their learning experience throughout the program. The learner-centred approach is about balancing the amount of assistance instructors offer their students and encouraging them to become more independent learners. Even in terms of the weekly discussion topics, I appreciate that it takes into account the diversity of learners and their previous teaching/learning experiences. It seems that the topics have been strategically selected in order to promote students’ interests and act as motivation to engage in active learning.

Also, in regards to the assessment-centred context some of my MET courses so far have used both formative and summative evaluations. However, for the most part assessments have been summative in nature. Yet, in ETEC 500 students were encouraged by the instructor to share drafts of their assignments (i.e. article critiques, etc) on the discussion forums prior to submission so that everyone had the opportunity to receive peer feedback to improve their papers (which also draws upon the community-centred approach). In terms of the knowledge-centred context, all of the MET courses have thus far grounded itself in relevant theoretical frameworks, and have offered additional online resources to help students reflect and further develop their knowledge. As Anderson (2008) states the internet has definitely expanded opportunities for learners to deepen their knowledge base however it is up to the skillful e-teacher to effectively offer the “big-picture scaffolding” so that students can discover relevant information on their own.

How might you use the learning technologies tools you have at your disposal to help you to create meaningful interactions?

I currently utilize WebEx meetings to connect with my colleagues who are located throughout the province and use Google Docs to collaboratively work on projects. However, I’m looking forward to applying the knowledge and skills that I’ll be learning from developing a functional Moodle site directly to my work as there is no e-learning library instruction in place as of yet. I’d like to incorporate some interactive features including discussion forums and live chats to help support the development of community-centred learning among healthcare practitioners.

Reference:
Anderson, T. (2008). Towards a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson (Ed.). The Theory and practice of online learning (2nd ed.) (pp.45-74). Athabasca, AB: Athabasca University. Retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/99Z_Anderson_2008-Theory_and_Practice_of_Online_Learning.pdf

The LMS Moodle Proposal is available from the “Proposal” tab of my blog. For your viewing convenience it’s been appended in Word, PDF and text formats. Enjoy and happy reading to all!~

Initially, I was unable to work on the Moodle activities from the e-learning toolkit as I couldn’t view the “Turn on editing” button. I later found out that I had been enrolled as a student rather than a teacher. However, with that fixed I foraged onwards and upwards starting with the first activity of adding a “simple” welcome webpage. The experience of setting one up was pretty straightforward and was almost akin to following a cookbook recipe. I have to admit though I didn’t get too creative with the name of the course (using the example of “Canadian Literature in the 20th Century” to the letter). In contrast though, the subsequent activity of adding a discussion forum wasn’t as cookie-cutter in its approach as it asked to create a bulleted list of instructions for an Icebreaker activity. After adding some brief instructions asking students to provide an introduction about themselves, I ended up changing roles from teacher/creator to student as I had to reply to my own message. 🙂 Anyways, all in all it wasn’t a labour intensive process and everything seemed to work well. I’ve now got to get cracking into the “official” Moodle user manual which I briefly skimmed through as it appears to be a hefty read. I’m sure there’s more Moodling in store for me as I’ll have to start (and continue to) develop my Moodle online course site (right after the LMS proposal). 🙂

Anju has several options for developing a resource on diabetes (not limited just to creating a DVD). Considering her scenario, she could try out any number of things including: a) create a diabetes information video and upload it online so that it’s more accessible for her clients, b) videotape her workshop and distribute DVD copies to her clients, c) create an email listserv for her clients so they can discuss what they’ve learned with each other and stay connected (with links to the video archives), d) create resource handouts customized for her clients’ health literacy level and language, e) research the available online resources about diabetes and liaise with staff at the seniors’ home and community centre to teach how to access this information online (for those who may not be proficient with computer use and email). Also, clients can be taught how to utilize online translation services such as Google Translate and Yahoo’s Babel Fish to communicate with each other since they may have difficulty with written English.

For the general content of this resource, she could begin with an introductory overview about what diabetes is, the different types, etc. If she were to go ahead with the DVD option (or uploaded versions of it online) then this could potentially be a multi-volume resource, with the subsequent volumes covering more specific topics (for example, self-care for adult diabetics related to their diet, etc). Also, rather than merely recording her workshops she could try to intersperse her video segments with interviews from clients, healthcare professionals and even chefs demonstrating potential healthy meals that are culturally relevant.

Furthermore, I’d recommend that Anju contact and try to work together with her local neighbourhood agencies including the Port Alberni Diabetes Education Centre located at the West Coast General Hospital: http://www.viha.ca/phc_cdm/phc_cdm_prog/diabetes_education_centres.htm, and the Port Alberni public library branch of the Vancouver Island Regional Library: http://www.virl.bc.ca/pages/index_e.aspx?ArticleID=217 as they may already have an array of current print and electronic resources available in various languages that her and her clients could use.

Conducting a preliminary online search for Anju led me to a useful resource compilation from the Vancouver Island Health Authority: http://www.viha.ca/phc_cdm/cdm/diabetes.htm. HealthLink BC offers a dial-a-dietitian service available at: http://www.healthlinkbc.ca/dietitian/ with interpreter services available in over 130 different languages upon request: http://www.healthlinkbc.ca/dietitian/translations.stm. This site also offers translated resources in Chinese and Punjabi at: http://www.healthlinkbc.ca/dietitian/translation_Ch.stm and http://www.healthlinkbc.ca/dietitian/translation_P.stm. Anju could also get in touch with the Canadian Diabetes Association (CDA) as I noticed that they offer a diabetes information line for the Chinese-speaking community at: http://www.diabetes.ca/get-involved/programs-entry/information-line-a-vital-link-for-chinese-speaking-community/. The CDA also provides a list of programs specifically for individuals living in B.C. at: http://www.diabetes.ca/get-involved/programs/category/british-columbia/. Providing links to all of these resources to her clients would be a useful way for Anju to ease her workload as she is part-time and also get her clients to stay connected and maintain their health through these available resources.

Also, I noticed that Anju’s scenario accounts for those who attend her workshop, however I think she should also attempt to address those who are unable to come to these f2f sessions. For example, depending on the level of computer proficiency of her target group she can try to organize a virtual workshop (in addition to the f2f ones) via Cisco’s WebEx meeting platforms. Considering Anju is a part-time dietitian she may opt instead to record her training workshops and then post it onto an online resource portal (whether it’s integrated onto the seniors’ home and community centre websites) or she can upload these webcasts to YouTube, on her blog, or create a simple website to store all her video archives for her clients. This could also become a community portal and Anju could stay better connected with her clients as well as the community members could stay connected with each other.

In terms of a timeframe, creating a DVD as Anju originally envisioned would be a matter of recording her live workshops and any additional editing she wanted to do prior to burning it onto a DVD. So, one hour for her workshop and 2-4 hours editing time would total about 5 hours. If she also wanted to do some research online so she could better target this for her ESL/EFL audience then I’d say she might want to take 1-2 weeks researching information online then subsequently designing and preparing her workshop agenda. Overall, conducting some research online, tailoring her workshop so it better meets the needs of her clients and creating a DVD would take 2-3 weeks. Any further work (i.e. creating online workshops, collaborating with local agencies, etc) may take upwards of a month or more and then additional time for ongoing maintenance of online resources, email listservs, etc.

Hmm…it would seem that the majority of people here are leaning more towards Lenora not creating a website from scratch. Based on the given scenario, my first impression was the same however after much consideration I would have to say that she should initially begin by creating a community of practice using existing online resources (i.e. social networking sites such as Facebook, Ning; wikis- wikispaces, mediawiki; blogs- WordPress, Blogger) then after developing her skills gradually move towards creating a website using easy-to-use, intuitive online sites like wix, weebly, googlesites, etc. She could also look into learning how to use drupal, dreamweaver, microsoft sharepoint, microsoft expression, etc to create her website (perhaps as a long term goal). Perhaps she could also connect with her IT department to obtain support and figure out whether they could host the site on their server at no cost to her.

I’d recommend though whatever Lenora decides to create she should make sure it links to the Cradleboard site (either under the “Teachers Circle” or “Cradleboarders” sections) so that other teachers can access her online anti-bullying resource through that web portal. Also, given that she has dial-up to contend with the resource she creates should not be too graphics heavy as the page would be very slow to load (in addition to lengthy amounts of time spent uploading and downloading files). This leads me to wonder whether all teachers’ web access at her school is dial-up only or is she using dial-up at home? I mean regardless of whether she’s accessing the Internet from school or home why can’t she upgrade to high-speed internet access? One of the major limiting factors right now is her internet speed and if she can upgrade her access then the only other temporary roadblock would be for her to learn (on her own and through her network of peers) the skills to develop a website (which is what she wants). However, she’ll have to consider and do some research into whether she wants this online space to be simple, or complex. Perhaps, outlining her layout by sketching out all the components she would like to have on her site would be a useful start (before she decides on what type of resource to use to create her site).

Thus, the amount of work that it would take for her to create an online forum on social networking, wikis, blogs, or simple starter websites may be anywhere from 4-6 weeks (or less) depending on her skill level, the amount of time she has to work on this, and the learning curve that may be needed to practice and fully implement her online anti-bullying resource. Additionally, it wouldn’t hurt for her to seek the advice and support of her fellow colleagues about her plans to develop and implement this resource. For example, she may want to connect with her colleagues to find out whether they may be already using some of these websites and then obtain assistance, possibly even working collectively to create (and manage) a group resource. Overall, I think that if this is a team effort and all her colleagues from the Pro-D workshop contributed to the ongoing creation and maintenance of this online anti-bullying resource, not only would her timeframe be cut in half but ultimately it would become a beneficial, learning experience for everyone involved.