Canvas LMS: Technology that facilitates good pedagogy

All LMS's (learning management systems) are not created equal. The design of the LMS must be done right to facilitate good pedagogy.  It needs to be easy enough for the  non tech person to use, yet it must do very sophisticated and complex things in the background to facilitate the learning process. I would also say that pairing a faculty member with an instructional designer/academic technologist at the onset, will yield the best courses possible.

The Canvas LMS does design right and consequently facilitates good pedagogy.  That is the key, because all LMS's say they do the same things, but Canvas does them right, which makes it a tool that improves, not hinders the learning process. Here are just a few reasons:

• Easy and efficient access to content, instructor, and students
• Content is easily mapped to learning outcomes by instructor 
• Assignments can be assessed using rubrics you can easily create in canvas (HTML5 anyone?)
• Canvas makes grading assignments very engaging and efficient. Instructors can leave feedback (text, audio, or video) in the rubric or as a side comment. Students can comment back seamlessly (text, audio, or video).
• You can easily pull learning outcomes into rubrics to ensure mastery of content

More to come in my next post...

Have you used Canvas yet? How would you compare it to other LMS's you have used?

Resources to learn more about online learning today

The following are resources to learn more about online learning today.

Blogs

• Ray Schroeder Online Learning Update http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/onlinelearning/blogger.html
• Tony Bates e-Learning and Distance Education http://www.tonybates.ca/
• George Siemens ElearnSpace http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/
• Stephen Downes Online Learning Daily http://www.downes.ca/news/OLDaily.htm
• Seb Schmoller Fortnightly http://fm.schmoller.net/
• Chronicle of Higher Education Wired Campus http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/
• Online Learning Tips http://onlinelearningtips.com/
• University of Mary Washington Online Learing http://online.umwblogs.org/

Twitter

• @rayschroeder http://twitter.com/#!/rayschroeder
• @onlinelearningu (twitter of Online Learning Update) http://twitter.com/#!/onlinelearningu
• #elearning http://twitter.com/#!/search/elearning
• #onlinelearning http://twitter.com/#!/search/onlinelearning

Wikispaces Study Groups

• Wikispaces Study Site http://edumooc.wikispaces.com

Disrupting Trends - Online Learning

• Clayton M. Christensen, Michael B. Horn, Louis Caldera and Louis Soares Disrupting College: How Disruptive Innovation Can Deliver Quality and Affordability to Postsecondary Educationhttp://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/02/pdf/disrupting_college.pdf

Sites

• Online Learning learning http://www.onlineeducation.net/internet-revolutionizing-education
• Sloan annual survey http://sloanconsortium.org/publications/survey/class_differences
• Sloan-C http://sloanconsortium.org
• US Distance Learning Association http://usdla.org/
• League for Innovation in the Community College http://www.league.org/
• iNacol http://www.inacol.org/

Ezines, Journals and Articles

• Journal of Online Learning and Technology (JOLT) by Merlot http://jolt.merlot.org/
• International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl
• Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/
• European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning http://www.eurodl.org/
• Journal of Interactive Online Learning http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/
• Journal for Asynchronous Learning Networks http://sloanconsortium.org/publications/jaln_main
• Turkish Journal of Online Distance Education http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/
• THE Journal http://thejournal.com/Home.aspx
• Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology http://www.cjlt.ca/index.php/cjlt/issue/view/71
• eCampus News http://www.ecampusnews.com/
• Infographic: How the Internet is Revolutionizing Education: http://www.onlineeducation.net/internet-revolutionizing-education
• iNACOL Fast Facts about Online Learning in K/12 http://www.education.virginia.gov/docs/NACOL_fastfacts-lr%20Oct%202010.pdf
• What Does Online Learning Really Mean? - SkepticLawyer blog: http://skepticlawyer.com.au/2011/06/22/what-does-online-learning-really-mean/
• Putting Online Learning Statistics in Perspective - MyEducation.com http://www.myeducation.com/blog/2011/01/19/putting-online-learning-statistics-in-perspective/
• Future of E-Learning is More Growth
  http://campustechnology.com/articles/2010/03/03/the-future-of-e-learning-is-more-growth.aspx
• University of the Future is Here!
  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/university-of-the-future-is-here/story-e6frgcjx-1226066713881

Reference

https://sites.google.com/site/edumooc/edumooc-week-one-online-learning-today

Khan Academy is Tip of the Iceberg in Education Reform

The first time I learned about the Khan Academy about a year ago, I thought, "this is just the tip of the iceberg in reforming education." I posted Sal Khan's TED talk a few posts ago and I recommend checking that out if you are unfamiliar with his story. Free, easy to follow, online educational videos in subjects such as math, history, science, languages, etc will equip schools like never before. Instead of getting lectures and lessons in class and getting homework at home, we flip that around. We get the lectures at home via free video tutorials and online lessons and we get hands on learning, active discussion, and assistance from the teacher during class in real-time. The online videos actually make it easier for the student to learn as they can pause, rewind, and fast forward the videos. The Khan Academy is loading thousands and thousands of curriculum based videos to the web for free along with assignments, quizzes, and even games that encourage achievements in learning. Khan says his method of learning, "will liberate teachers from the standard "one-size-fits-all" lesson plan and help to "humanize the classroom." I think these videos represent just a fraction of the potential that can be harnessed in online and blended learning. The fact that one guy made thousands of educational videos that are actually pretty good, will give schools something to think about regarding how they can use asynchronous learning to improve the educational system. These are exciting times. Check out this article - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/04/the-khan-academy-and-educ_n_844390.html

Online Courses Increase Access to Courses Students Actually Want to Take

Universities that offer online courses and programs enable students to choose classes based on what they want to learn rather than what fits into their schedule. Online course content can be accessed and engaged any time, any place, so that students are not bound by geographic locations, scheduling conflicts, building conflicts, etc. When I did my undergrad work, I never once got the class schedule I planned on because classes were either full or conflicting.

Let's use video (and the internet) to reinvent education

Salman Khan talks about how and why he created the remarkable Khan Academy, a carefully structured series of educational videos offering complete curricula in math and, now, other subjects. He shows the power of interactive exercises, and calls for teachers to consider flipping the traditional classroom script -- give students video lectures to watch at home, and do "homework" in the classroom with the teacher available to help.

Jetpack for Learning” Design Challenge Winners Announced at SXSW : The Mozilla Blog

“Jetpack for Learning” Design Challenge Winners Announced at SXSW :: The Mozilla Blog

“Jetpack for Learning” Design Challenge Winners Announced at SXSW
Posted by Erica Jostedt

March 14th, 2010 · Mozilla Labs, Mozilla News

Editor’s note: On March 13, Mozilla Labs announced the Jetpack for Learning Design Challenge winners at the the Mozilla SXSW Happy Hour. For more details, check out Aza Raskin’s announcement on the Mozilla Labs blog, reposted below:

Three projects of the Jetpack for Learning Design Challenge were awarded special prizes at the Mozilla SXSW party today. Ten projects already selected as Design Challenge winners participated in a design camp in Austin, TX over the past three days. Today three of these projects were chosen for special awards: ClozeFox was selected as “best use case”; the project leader of Mupple received the prize for “sharing knowledge with others”; Expression Widgets was chosen as the “best web hack”. You can find more information about them and download all Jetpacks-based add-ons from the Design Challenge wiki.

A few of my distance learning principles for success

First, you have to have a passion for learning new things. You can't ever be satisfied with the status quo, especially since we live in the "Information Age." My action steps for this principle are to start subscribing to prominent bloggers in your field today. And if you want to be looked upon as an expert in your field, start contributing to the conversations in your field by starting a blog and writing about issues in your own field that you are passionate about. This will open up a whole new world to you and lead to many new connections. This is one of the reasons I eagerly developed a University-wide blogging system for BGSU (https://blogs.bgsu.edu). Every student, faculty, and staff member can create as many blogs as they want. It has been awesome to see what happens when everyone at the university has a voice on the web. They create, communicate, and collaborate in ways not possible in years past. The day of hording information is over because information is ubiquitous and we have now entered the day of sharing information. It's those that know what to do with all the good information on the internet that will make a difference in the world. If you don't believe me, ask yourself why MIT has uploaded 1900 courses to the internet as well has hundreds of other schools. They understand that information is not the commodity, it is the interaction with experts and peers from a community of learners around that information. Second, if you are an online instructor, communicate, communicate, communicate, with your learners. Many people just entering the world of distance learning may think of it as a glorified correspondence course, however they could not be further from the truth. Online learning actually facilitates many new streams of interaction and communication and the best instructors leverage those streams in their courses (i.e. social networks, blogs, twitter, youtube.) However, they must use these technologies appropriately and with much wisdom, as they may end up just generating noise instead of true learning opportunities. It is for this reason at BGSU that we have an expert staff of educational technologists in the Center for Online and Blended Learning, to work with our online faculty.

The World is Open

News: 'The World Is Open' - Inside Higher Ed

Technology is changing higher education in more ways than can be counted. Distance education has become common. Leading universities are putting course materials or even entire courses online -- free. The Obama plan for community colleges envisions free online courses that could be used nationwide. Curtis J. Bonk, a professor of instructional systems technology at Indiana University, surveys this landscape in The World Is Open: How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education (Jossey-Bass). Bonk responded to questions about the book in an e-mail interview.

A very fascinating read.  The open access to educational materials and experts is virtually limitless. What role do universities play in such an open educational world.  For example, in years past, one aspect of accreditation for colleges involved access to scholarly journals, but as the article reveals in the following quote, this has changed drastically in the information age, "When I was in primary school in the 1960s and 1970s, I had to walk next door to borrow the Compton Encyclopedia volume that I needed. They were free for me to use when the neighbors were home. Today, Yahoo! Education provides free access to the Roget’s II Thesaurus (260,000 synonyms and cross references), Colombia Encyclopedia (more than 50,000 entries and 84,000 hypertext cross-references between the content), and American Heritage Dictionary (definitions, word spellings, and word suggestions as well as more than 200,000 entries, 70,000 audio word pronunciations, and 900 full-page color illustrations). If that is not enough, there is the Encyclopedia Britannica, and yes, that trusty Wikipedia that is now the seventh most accessed Web site in the United States." After reading the article, "What are a few ways you expect these movements to change higher education in another 10 or 20 years?"

BLOGS.BGSU a Digital and Educational Revolution at Bowling Green State University

There is a lot more than meets the eye to BLOGS.BGSU.EDU, the homegrown blogging platform developed by Assistant Director of COBL, Terence Armentano. Blogs and microblogs such as Twitter have taken the world by storm. Why? Because they blast open the floodgates of communication. They give everyone a voice and anyone with an internet or even a mobile phone connection can listen in and talk back. Upon closer inspection of BLOGS.BGSU, one will notice it is not just about new technology, it's about a movement, a change in thinking, a paradigm shift, a leveling of the proverbial playing field. It's about what happens to a university when everyone has a voice. For the first time in history, we can leverage the collective intelligence of the university to potentially solve greater and more complex problems in the world. Think about the following scenario: Everyone at the university has unique life experiences and varying degrees of expertise in life. Some have much more life and work experience than others, but surely the sum is greater than its parts. For example, if we have around 20,000 faculty, staff, and students here at BGSU and the average age is 25 then we have 500,000 years of experience between us that we can learn from. BLOGS.BGSU is a great way to leverage such experiences as everyone can contribute. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

BLOGS.BGSU is built upon the Wordpress platform, and everyone with a BGSU email account can login today and start blogging. However, upon closer investigation of the system, one will notice that it can be used to do more than blog. In fact, one will discover the nerve center of a web 2.0 revolution at BGSU in which students, faculty, and staff are creating, consuming, categorizing, and publishing content to the internet as well as networking, interacting, discussing, and critiquing each others posts. The system is so flexible it can be used to build everything from a simple news blog to a web 2.0 portal complete with static and dynamic web pages, blogs, podcasts, flickr integration, Google statistics tracking, and more. Depending on one's goals, the system can be leveraged to create websites, portfolios, tweets, podcasts, journals, news sites, and more. One of the best ways to understand this phenomenon is to view examples of how it is being used. The following are just a few of the creative ways in which people and departments at BGSU are using the system:

Center for Online and Blended Learning
Academic Technology
BGSU Strategic Planning Blog
Dr. Sue Mota - MBA 6070x
Brad's Art 101 Blog
Blackboard Video Tutorial Database Blog
MBA Blog
Jake Graving's Art 101 Blog
Music Library and Sound Recordings Archives News
Center for Teaching and Learning

News from the Curriculum Resource Center

The Rec Well Wire - Connecting Recreation and Wellness Enthusiasts
Dr. Natvig’s BGSU 1000 Blog -This blog is the main site for the music section of BGSU1000

SMC Blog - School of Media and Communication news/event blog
Second Life Virtual Campus
BGSU University Libraries News
Carolyn Kraut - Instructional Designer, COBL
Terence Armentano - Assistant Director, COBL

International Studies - The blog for International Studies majors at BGSU!
Dr. Gwen Evans - Companion site to Third Year Review
Language Learning

Interactive Communication Technologies Course Blog

Jordian Ross - Student Blog and Portfolio

US Department of Education Release Study Indicating Online and Blended Learning to be Most Advantageous

This is something that those of us in the field have known for quite some time. I think what is extremely important about this study is that the source of this study is the Department of Education. It can be quite time consuming trying to convince some people about the quality of online education, so this just adds more credibility to what we have been saying.

News: The Evidence on Online Education - Inside Higher Ed

WASHINGTON -- Online learning has definite advantages over face-to-face instruction when it comes to teaching and learning, according to a new meta-analysis released Friday by the U.S. Department of Education.

The study found that students who took all or part of their instruction online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through face-to-face instruction. Further, those who took "blended" courses -- those that combine elements of online learning and face-to-face instruction -- appeared to do best of all. That finding could be significant as many colleges report that blended instruction is among the fastest-growing types of enrollment.

10 Online Learning Tools for Students

Check out this blog for details about these 10 online learning tools for students:

The list includes:

Dynamic Periodic Table -Chemistry
Periodic Table of the Elements - Chemistry
Foldit - Biology
Mathway -Math
SpeedCrunch (Windows, Mac, Linux) - Math
LiveMocha - Languages
VerbaLearn - Languages
Bullfighter (MS Word and Powerpoint plugin) - Languages
wePapers - Literature
Zotero (Firefox extension) - Literature/Resource manager

The New Learning Landscape; The Future of Education

I highly recommend all teachers watch this video of Michael Wesch at the University of Manitoba on the Future of Education. In addition, you should show this to to your students and have some solid discussion about it. If you teach online, simply post it on a discussion forum and have at it.

Michael does a good job of giving you the BIG picture regarding the current state of education and technology and what he is doing with his class to improve the learning landscape. This video is a very good companion to my University 2.0 blog post. At the core we find that the collective body of knowledge is all around us in the air via the internet so why are we still emphasizing memorization as the primary form of education. Almost any question that can be asked on a test can be looked up in minutes, even seconds on a phone, so how is our educational system adapting? How are they preparing students to think critically, creatively, collaboratively, and communicate digitally? The Internet and specifically the more evolved web 2.0, is moving culture and education from an authoritarian one-way download of information to a collaborative upload/download/interactive experience. Because so much information is readily available, teaching students how to ask good questions, critique ideas, and disseminate quality information from bunk is quite central to the new learning landscape.

University of Manitoba: Information Services and Technology - Michael Wesch and the Future of Education

During his presentation, the Kansas State University professor breaks down his attempts to integrate Facebook, Netvibes, Diigo, Google Apps, Jott, Twitter, and other emerging technologies to create an education portal of the future.

Small Worlds - A simple yet powerful MUVE

Small Worlds is a simple, neat, fun, and "potentially" educational virtual world that doesn't require any downloading and installing of special software such as in Second Life. According to the developers, "SmallWorlds brings together the best aspects of online games, instant messaging, social networks and digital media, and wraps them into a persistent 3D virtual world." It's very easy to use and the graphics are pretty cool too. It kind of reminds me of the Nintendo Wii in some aspects. You can play mini golf, shoot pool, watch youtube videos, import your flickr photo album, etc. It might be an easier way for online students to hang out in a MUVE (multi user virtual environment) because there is no special software and getting around is quite easy. Plus, it might be cool to have office hours with your instructor over a game of pool or mini-golf. The gaming aspect of Small Worlds has great potential since the entire site is Flash based. Plus, they are opening up their API to flash developers so the games and widgets will probably be pretty cool; and if educators get a hold of it, I think they could develop some pretty neat educational materials as well. Go ahead and check it out and let us know what you think. My avatar's name is Ter Rock. I think a lot of research still needs to be done to discover what educational scenario's are most beneficial in the MUVE environment. What are your thoughts?

Voices of Learning Video

This is video from some of the "voices of learning" at the Learning events in Orlando, and contains some solid nuggets of information regarding the application of technology to enhance learning, retention, and production.

OLN Expo, resource of the day, and ipods

It has been about a month since my last posting so I plan on getting back into the swing of things. It has been a busy month! I was recently honored that the Ohio Learning Network chose to highlight the BGSU Weblog and Podcast Solution as their resource of the day on April 22nd. They started doing the resource of the day back in march 2007 and they actually highlighted a web 2.0 wiki I put together back then as well. I'm glad to be able to contribute to their mission as they do a great job aggregating "services and resources so Ohioans can meet their learning potential, Ohio’s economy can grow, and Ohio colleges and universities can continue to be knowledge leaders. "

They also invited me to do a break out session about the development, implementation, and administration of the system at the OLN Teaching and Learning Expo 2008 on May 19th in Columbus, OH. Every educator in Ohio should check it out if they can go that day.

In keeping with the theme of weblogs and podcasts, I thought this article was pretty cool. It lists 10 ways you can turn your ipod into your own portable personal learning environment.

How would you describe online teaching and learning to faculty that are curious but skeptical about quality?

I posed the following question in my online teacher training course, and thought the answer given by Dr. James McKean from Ohio University, would be beneficial to share, with his permission, on the blog. How would you respond to this question?

After participating in this course, how would you describe online teaching and learning to faculty that are curious but skeptical about quality. What advice would you give the faculty about how to best prepare to teach online? What advice would you give students to help them become successful online learners.

I will describe online teaching to other faculty who are skeptical about quality in the same manner that a qualitative researcher explains the underlying theoretical construct of naturalistic inquiry in a qualitative research project--there is more than one path in our quest for knowledge. Quality in online classes like quality in traditional classes is dependent upon sound pedagogical practices, development of learning outcomes and appropriate learning assessments. Students learn when they are actively engaged and online teaching offers a variety of pedagogical aids to facilitate learning. For those faculty who as Parker Palmer stated possess the "courage to teach," I would encourage them to embrace online teaching as another means to the same end--learning.

The best advice I would give faculty is to broaden their knowledge of course design and online teaching by completing an online teaching and learning course. Experiential learning is powerful as I have discovered over the past two weeks. I would advise students to shift their learning paradigm and understand that online learning requires them to devote the same or an even higher commitment to the learning process as a traditional class--or as my statistics professor used to say, "junk in, junk out." In the final analysis, online teaching can be a rewarding and satisfying experience for both students and faculty.

Excellent example of visual communication online

When designing online courses for the education environment, we are always asking ourselves how we can best communicate a message online and capture the emotion and humanness within the digital medium. The human element is crucial to a good learning environment. I found this example from the NY Times Online to be an excellent model for conveying a message using multiple forms of media to enrich our understanding. In this example, they use text, audio, video, and images within the digital medium to convey a human element through stories that impact our understanding of the situation in Iraq. As someone who reads the NY Times daily I find that more stories than not, focus on the negative aspects of the war and how much has gone wrong, so it is encouraging to see the other side presented in such a rich way and that progress is being made. If this example were incorporated into an online course, it might be followed up with discussion in the forums or an individual or class blog contribution. Those that are interested in designing online courses at universities should consider these examples and share them with your multimedia and instructional design team on your campus. View example

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