Learn Calculus Online - Mooculus

This guy will teach you calculus online. When he talks, people listen  - https://mooculus.osu.edu/

Google Vs. Apple - Who is better for the internet?

I was tweeting these thoughts but it's too complex for a series of tweets/sound bites so here is a blog post to elaborate. First the facts. Both Apple and Google are Corporations and therefore have the goal of making profit for their shareholders. Both are doing everything possible to make their shareholders money so there is no good guy/bad guy scenario, it's just economics. However, there is a distinct advantage for the consumer and the evolution of the internet regarding Google's business model vs. apple's business model. This is because of how these companies make their money. Google is, first and foremost, an advertising company and their mode of delivery is the interwebs. Their goal is to get as many people online as possible AND make the online experience as awesome and cheap as possible so they will stay online longer. period. The more people are online the more money they will get from Google Ads. This is how they make 97% of their money and since most people don't even know that fact, I think that just shows that their ads are not so annoying as to bother people surfing the interwebs. Google doesn't care if people are on a mac or pc or really what browser they are using as long as the browser displays ads. They don't make any money from selling Chrome or Android, etc. Those are actually free and open source tools that anyone can use. Motorola can thank Google for the free Android OS that they built their phone on. Yes, these tools serve google's money making purposes in the long run because the android OS makes the internet more accessible, and that's where they want people to be, but they are still free and open and high quality, which makes for a good competitive environment where consumers win. Companies that make money from selling proprietary tools at high cost don't like a company like google who pretty much gives them away in exchange for the hope that you will click on their ads some day. I personally think thats a fair exchange.

Apple is a different company with a completely different way of doing business. Apple makes money not from advertisements, but from selling cutting edge software, hardware, and media. They also sell a computing experience that they believe deserves a premium price tag. Unlike Google, whose main interest is getting people online to click ads, Apple wants people online to buy their media primarily through itunes (music, movies, books, computers, etc). So Apple has to be thinking, "how can we get the most amount of people to buy our media?" Solution = Iphone-like OS and App store. This allows them to control the entire experience from what apps go on the system to whether or not flash will work in the browser. Their method to get what they want means a closed system of control in which they call all the shots. The method for google to get what they want = an open and free internet. I think Apple makes some awesome products, but I still like choices. Though google and apple are very different companies, they both affect the evolution of the internet. Google's ad driven approach creates a much more open internet ecosystem. Apple's app store approach creates a user friendly experience, but a more closed-off internet, in which apple calls all the shots with their app approval system. Which company do you think is better for the internet?

Predicting the future of online learning

Predicting the future is tough business because often times unpredictable things happen, which change the course of life. [i.e. Movable Type, The Internet, Google (the search), etc.].

So the question is: What is the future of online learning?

The following are ideas that surfaced at the Sloan-C Conference from a presentation on this topic. I don't endorse all these ideas, however many of them make sense and are worthy of discussion. What are your thoughts?

• More mobile
  
• More modular
  
• Student expectations will rise
  
• More inter-insitutional collaboration
  
• Expansion of informal learning context
  
• Faculty development will be on demand
  
• People will aggregate there own learning spaces
  
• People will learn through YouTube (and other video web-sites)
  
• Re-evaluation about what it means to be an expert
  
• The rise of open source learning
  
• More visualization
  
• Everyone will be teaching with tech
  
• Learning will be more ad-hoc
  
• More fantasy-based learning
  
• Things will be more un-bundled just like in banking, publishing, music, dvd’s.
  

More terms associated with the future of online learning (some were repeated)

• modular
  
• synchronous
  
• asynchronous
  
• collaborative
  
• consumer driven
  
• media rich
  
• competency based
  
• visual
  
• networked
  
• accountable
  
• flexible
  
• audio enabled
  
• learning on the go
  
• gaming
  
• social networking
  
• student-created content
  
• blogs
  
• podcasting
  
• cross platform learning
  
• bricolage
  
• diverse organization and delivery
  
• just in time learning
  
• external certification
  
• more faculty issues
  
• second life

Teaching Online - What to Expect

What to expect from an Online Course – A Teacher’s Perspective
Since I have both assisted college faculty with course design as an Instructional Designer and have taught Masters level online courses, I have come to learn first- hand what teachers can expect from an online course. Depending on how well an instructor prepares an online course, facilitating one can be a great adventure full of exciting discussion and engaging assessments resulting in a rich learning community, or it could be a confusing information dump with little interaction resulting in bitter students and low or no future enrollment. So to answer the question of what an instructor can expect in teaching an online course, I would say that you can expect to get out of it what you put into it. Faculty teaching online at BGSU have the opportunity to work with the IDEAL Group, Instructional Designers, Multimedia Developers, and e-Learning Specialists, to ensure the highest quality online courses.

It's Like Planning a Wedding
I will have been married for 3 years in October, and I remember the kind of planning and preparation that went into the wedding to make that day run smoothly. Well I should say I learned a lot by watching my wife, but anyhow, I noticed a similarity between planning a wedding and planning for teaching an online course for the first time. There are a lot of decisions that need to be made up front so that when the day comes, you can thoroughly enjoy it. You can spend more time talking with your guests and sharing stories rather than having to worry about baking a cake the day of the wedding, or trying to get a limo to take you to the reception. Similarly, the more time you spend preparing your course, the fewer snags you will have throughout the course and the more time you will have to interact with the students, facilitate meaningful discussion, and effectively facilitate the course! Hopefully this article will help you better prepare for teaching online.

Preparation Phase: At least 3 months before start date

• During the preparation phase, teachers will set up the course by creating their course modules in the LMS (Learning Management System). A module is like a lesson on a topic which includes all reading material, assignments, quizzes, etc. Instructors have the option to work with Instructional Designers from IDEAL who specialize in online delivery. The following might be included in a module:
  • Required Readings
    
    • Textbook
      
    • Websites
      
    • Journals
      
  • Lecture Materials
  • Powerpoint Presentations (with or without audio narration)
  • Video Lecture
  • Audio Lecture
  • Word Documents
  • HTML Lecure (website)
  • PDF's
• Communication and Collaboration Opportunities
  
• Discussion Forums
  
• E-mail
  
• Live Chat (Text, audio, video)
  
• Online Document sharing
• Wikis
• Blogs
  
• Module Assignments
  
  • Case study (i.e. turn in paper and/or discuss the case at the discussion board)
    
  • Essay
  • Research Papers
    
  • Quantitative and Qualitative Assessments
    
  • Journal
    
    
• It is very important that students know exactly what is expected of them at all times so a detailed syllabus should be created to set student expectations such as reading materials, assignments, tests, participation requirements, and all due dates.
• Once you have all of your modules built and the preparation phase is complete, you will enjoy the fruits of your labor and can focus on interaction and feedback during the delivery of the course.

2 Weeks before the start of class

• E-mail your students the course syllabus, introduce yourself, set student expectations, and give them access to the course so they can look around and explore the online classroom before the official start date.

Facilitation Phase – These are common activities during my facilitation phase

• Once class has begun, I include a welcome announcement in the LMS (Learning Management System) explaining all facets of the classroom and setting my students’ expectations again. Repetition of information is a key in online facilitation.
• Throughout facilitation, you can expect many questions from students. For this reason, I created a “Questions for the Instructor” forum in the Discussion Board so that all questions are streamlined to a central location for all students to see and learn from. I let them know about this in my welcome announcement on Day 1.
• If you have a weekly classroom discussion at the Discussion Board (which I highly recommend) you can expect to spend a few hours per week adding your personal insight and expertise to the discussion and helping coach students to critically think and explore the topic further. I outline the student discussion board participation expectations in the syllabus, welcome announcement, and at the discussion board. Again, with the repetition.
• Every week I communicate updates, changes, summary of weekly lessons learned, and other major announcements.
  
• Try to update grades and provide feedback every week to help the online students stay on task and motivated.

The result of a teacher who takes adequate time to design and prepare their online course will enjoy facilitating the course for many years.

Online courses fuel innovation to eliminate cheating

People often ask me if I am worried that people will cheat in my online courses. The question of academic honesty is a good one and one that is not exclusive to any particular environment. It has always been my position that it will be online technologies that deter cheating more than anything we've ever seen. I believe that as our technology matures it will be more difficult to cheat online than it would be to cheat in a physical classroom. If you know anyone that is in high school or college, ask them how difficult it is to cheat and how many people they think cheat. Ask them how students do it. I assure you the numbers will be high and their techniques will be pretty innovative. Regardless of the environment, cheaters find ways to cheat. Personally, I think that if they applied their innovative spirit for discovering new ways to cheat to thinking critically about coursework, they would probably be quite successful. I also blame teachers that design extremely boring courses that rely too heavily on purely quantitative forms of assessment, but that is a different post all together.

In a previous post about University 2.0, I briefly discussed how online technologies would deter cheating more than ever before, and the following article by CNN describes how this is being done currently. "The new development is a small Web cam and microphone that is set up where a student takes the exam. The camera points into a reflective ball, which allows it to capture a full 360-degree image." I believe this is one of the first of many innovations to come in curbing cheating in any environment. Just like cheaters will have to come up with new ways of cheating, people that are anti-online education will have to find new reasons to hate on it. Read the full article. http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/06/19/online.testing.camera.ap/index.html

Online Degrees

"Online degrees like those offered by Almeda University have taken the continent by storm. For many years, there have been questions and reservations about Online Degrees--but no longer. The corner has been turned and Online Degrees are now not only acceptable and accepted, but desired and desirable." Read more

Though the following article reads sort of like an advertisement for Almeda University, the basic premise of it is on target. Articles like this one are going become more and more common over the next couple years. Technology is connecting people and learning can happen virtually anywhere. (no pun intended). The universities that "get it", understand that its about more than having the ability to use technology to teach at a distance but that it's about using technology to enhance the student experience and the overall quality of learning for all students. If you missed it, view my University 2.0 post for more on this topic.

Join the Revolution - The Social Network for Online Educators

I have been thinking about ways of connecting with the folks that visit TerenceOnline and I thought one way to do it would be to create a social network. Join the revolution of online teaching & learning and harness the collective intelligence of your peers. Use this network to stay connected, share ideas, collaborate, and more.

JOIN THE REVOLUTION TODAY!

http://onlineteaching.ning.com/