Posts tagged ‘online teaching’
MOOCs: Retention rates, challenges, and more
Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013A recent NY Times article, reminds us that MOOCs {Massive Open Online Courses] and their usefulness for credit bearing degree programs still may remain illusive. While the article rates the usefulness, the interaction with the ‘star’ professors, the variability in course content, the retention rate is still dismal. The author also indicates for many of the MOOCs he…
Dealing with Trauma
Thursday, April 18th, 2013In the wake of Boston Marathon tragedy, some of these resources may be helpful for discussions in classes or offices. The American Psychological Association provides a series of helpful strategies on a number of topics and is easily searchable. The APA has several suggestions for Managing Traumatic Stress. Other sources, such as Massachusetts Government help…
Competency Based Education
Monday, March 25th, 2013Will competency based education do away with the traditional credit hour? Recently the federal government approved a liberal arts associate degree fully competency based program at Southern New Hampshire University and other locations. Others explore how such a change may influence the traditions of 15 week semesters and three credit courses. Colleges are beginning to…
CC Online courses: widens achievement gap
Thursday, February 28th, 2013More recent reports suggest that online courses may widen the achievement gap. Online students are less likely to achieve a degree. Black students, male students, younger students, and students with lower grade-point averages are most susceptible to attrition in online courses. Skill sets of students enrolling in online courses. Columbia University’s Community College Research Center researchers examined 500,000 courses…
MOOC Crashes
Monday, February 18th, 2013As MOOCs [Massive Open Online Courses] expand and are absorbed/developed at colleges and universities, inevitably technology will be challenged. Early in February, a MOOC on how faculty can set up an online course crashed. Courseera who had over 40,000 faculty enrolled, had to suspend the course after only 5 days. The explanation of a ‘design’ flaw in using Google Documents…
Rights in Online Courses
Monday, January 28th, 2013Recently HASTAC [Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Advance Collaboratory] published an online learner’s bill of rights and dealing with critiques of such a bill of rights. Another posting addresses the issues of online assignments in public sites, such as blogs, wikis and other forums. The issue of credit and enrollments for MOOCs [Massive Open Online Courses] has also been…
Professional Development Spring 2013
Thursday, January 24th, 2013The professional development calendar of activities has many workshops, activities and resources for spring. Updated List Notice Important Dates for Spring 2013 2-5-13
Syllabus Preparation and Lectures
Sunday, January 20th, 2013ProfHacker of the Chronicle of Higher Education regularly posts ideas, fixes, make-overs, and concrete suggestions for syllabus creation. Teaching resolutions for the new semester provides some syllabus guidelines. Previous posts on Teaching and Learning site also provide other syllabus ideas. A new view of the potential value of multiple choice exams is also provided. For those…
Online Pedagogy
Friday, November 23rd, 2012More emphasis about online pedagogy has been discussed more. A relatively new online journal, Hybrid Pedagogy, focuses on teaching online, moving beyond the technical aspects of delivering online course content. Connectivism and Connective Knowledge is an open online course that explores the concepts of connectivism and connective knowledge and explore their application as a framework…
MOOCs
Thursday, November 15th, 2012Massive Online Open Courses [MOOCs] have received more attention. An article described the Big Three companies and others describe the training potential. A short video describes MOOCs and their potential. MOOC’s are creating partnerships with colleges to offer college credit for the online courses. More community colleges are entering agreements to use MOOCs, including Massachusetts…
