Article: What Makes an Online Instructional Video Compelling?

“Online courses and programs continue to expand.1 The potential benefits of online programs often cited include the ability to reach different audiences such as nontraditional students, working professionals, and international students; the variability and flexibility of online learning tools; and the possible reduction of costs — particularly relevant given rising tuition.” Read full article here>>

Article from Educause Review Online, published 4/7/2014

Putting current content first in your Moodle site

Some general feedback that we have gotten from students about Moodle is frustration with having to scroll to the current week’s information. “Isn’t there a way that the most current info can be listed first?”
Good news! There is! The first step is to change your course format to Collapsed Topics. (You can do this under your course settings.) When you make this change several other fields will become available to you in the Course Settings page.

 

Course settings

 

In the Set Structure field, select either “Current Topic First” or “Current Week First”. The Collapsed Topic format (with default settings) will look similar to this:

Collapsed Topic view

By clicking the triangle on the left hand side of the content column that section will expand. (The Set Elements field allows you to remove the “Toggle” text.)
This video provides more details on how to set your current topic/week, and how this will appear to students. (Keep in mind that the video is presented by another college so the theme is different than ours at Middlebury.)
Please let us know if you have any questions (lisct@middlebury.edu). (Also,  as always, it’s best to try out these changes before class starts so you can feel comfortable with the way the site functions with the new format.)

 

Article: Is Your Use of Social Media FERPA Compliant?

Article from Educause review online published 2/24/2014

“It is hard to imagine holding a university-level class today in which students do not engage with the web or social media in one form or another, whether by using Google search, bookmarking or sharing an article, taking an online survey, posting or commenting on a blog, or using e-mail or text messaging. So, what rules should we, as instructors, follow to ensure no legal or Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) issues arise?” Read article here >>

3 Steps to an Infographic

Over the past few months several people have expressed an interest in learning more about how to create infographics. We’ve broken it down into a three step process that consists of:

  1. Collecting your data
  2. Working with the data
  3. Creating & sharing the infographic

We hope the video below will offer a brief snapshot of some tools and tricks to help you get started, but please feel free to contact me (hstafford@middlebury.edu) if you’d like to learn more! We are also considering offering a workshop over j-term, so let us know if this would be of interest to you as well.

Hint: Excel pivot tables are a great way to manipulate data quickly. They are not covered in this video, but you can get more info via an entire Lynda course devoted to the topic here. (Sign in with your Middlebury credentials to access.)

[middmedia cd6868ebca83648aedf8ca834ba11026 hstafford infographics.mp4 width:600 height:400]

 

 

Multimedia Stories

Several classes at Middlebury create multimedia stories as a part of their curriculum. Want to see what students create? Check out the work of the students in Peter Lourie’s 2014 Adventure Writing J-term class here. Watch the video below to learn more about how the digital media tutors and curricular technology staff can assist with these types of projects.

[middmedia cd6868ebca83648aedf8ca834ba11026 hstafford Digital%20Storytelling.2.mp4 width:400 height:300]

 

 

Flip Tips

Peggy Bacon in mid-air backflip, Bondi Beach, Sydney, 6/2/1937 / by Ted Hood Format: Film photonegative (copied from original nitrate photonegative) From State Library of New South Wales via The Commons on Flickr

Flipping the classroom is getting a lot of attention lately. If you’re anything like me, learning about concepts is interesting but actually figuring out how to implement a new technique is what really draws my interest. I’m banking on the fact that I’m not alone on this so let’s dig in.

Robert Talbert is a mathematician and educator who writes for Casting Out Nines in the Chronicle. Over the last few months he has been writing a series of posts about a calculus class that he flipped for the Fall 2013 semester. In his article “Getting Off On The Right Foot in an Inverted Calculus Class” he offers instructions for how to integrate the out-of-class component with class time. These tips pair pedagogy with action to help practioners figure out how to activate prior knowledge, employ formative assessment techniques and integrate time management methods into their usage of the flipped classroom. (Robert expands on the necessity of certain student skills here. It’s an eye opening read.)

I want to flip! Who can help me?

We’d love to talk to you about your goals and ideas! Contact Heather (hstafford@middlebury.edu) or Joe (jantonio@middlebury.edu) so we can get started! There are also several faculty on campus who are already actively working on this in their classrooms. If you are a faculty member who is working on the flip and interested in developing a community of practice with others who want to do the same, please let us know!

 

Using Videos to Explain Problem Examples

This article may be helpful to faculty members in the areas of mathematics and science who are considering utilizing video podcasts as support materials to help students work through problem sets for their class. Please note that although the journal article mentioned below is free to access, you will need to establish a username and password on the journal site to do so.

In the article “Developing a Framework for Creating Effective Instructional Video Podcasts” R. H. Kay studied the development and use of videos to share “worked examples” online with students. Worked examples are “instructional devices that provide an expert’s problem solution for a learner to study” (Atkinson, Derry, Renkl, & Wortham, 2014, p. 181).  Kay then used these findings to develop a framework organized into four main categories:

  • Establishing Context
  • Creating Effective Explanations
  • Minimizing Cognitive Load
  • Engaging Students

as well as 16 subcategories which can be viewed via the article link above. Please see page 24.

I want to do this! Who can help?

Contact Heather (hstafford@middlebury.edu) or Joe (jantonio@middlebury.edu) to get started!

Sources:

Atkinson, R. K., Derry, S. J., Renkl, A., & Wortham, D. (2000). Learning from Examples: Instructional Principles from the Worked Examples Research. Review of Educational Research, 70(2), 181–214. doi:10.3102/00346543070002181

Kay, R. H. (2014). Developing a Framework for Creating Effective Instructional Video Podcasts. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET), 9(1), pp. 22–30.