2006 LiveText – Ralph Wolff from WASC

Friday morning.

Learning is what it's about, not accreditation.

Referred to the Commission on the Future of Higher Education (CFHE). This is a group that includes Pres. Bush's friends who started NCLB. There is a report out (maybe you saw the Chronicle's piece/reaction to the first edit on 7/18/06). People are concerned that higher ed is not doing the job.

20 years ago America was #1 in all areas. Now we are #7 or below, including in workforce preparation, access, affordability, grades, etc. 19% of 9th graders will graduate from college within 6 years of graduating from high school. NAAL shows they have trouble with maps, checkbooks, prose. The National Survey of Student Engagemt shows they are spending less time on tasks, but grades are up. They are unskilled and unable to work as a team.

We are moving from assessment to accountability. Shifting the National, State, and System levels as opposed to local. Clear and comparative measures are needed: such as a NCLB for higher ed? Quality would be driven by public knowledge of test results.

NASULGC - an accounting and assessment study by McPherson and Shulenburger (2006). Also Sandy Aston shows an income correlation to learning and predictive outcomes. NASULGC paper #2 comparative public information. Look at tests CLA (College Level Assessment). (ASCU = Association for State Colleges Universities).

WASC accreditation is regional, specialized; they have 50 accrediters for 3,000 institutions. Reform so we are learning centered, no longer: input, but outcomes; episodic, but value added; one visit, but many, traditional values to change agent. CFHE found regional accreditation no longer makes sense. Comparative learning results and transparency of results is important. Change the role of testing to the role of consulting.

There is greater diversity at top institutions, they are often refered to as non-majority institutions 70% of UCLA and 50% of Berkeley did not grow up in an English speaking house.

More than assessment itself is what you will do with the results.

(This speech was acronym hell.)

Assessment should be a systematic process about setting goals. What are you gathering? Why? You probably only need 50% of it. We know more about how people learn and we can use that.

Amnesia is when they think they know, but they forget. Fantasia is when they think they know, but it's made up.

2006 LiveText - Beyond Reflection and Assessment

Digital Portfolios in Teacher Education: Beyond Reflection and Assessment
Paula Land and MaryAnn Nickel
Friday morning.

MaryAnn Nickel and Paula Lane of Sonoma State gave an intriguing presentation on what they have discovered after implementing an ePortfolio requirement a few years ago regarding the value added, or the opportunities that were created with ePortfolios. These included work entry, math explorations, and faculty analysis.

One fear they had when initializing ePortfolios is the idea they were just “feeding the accreditation beast”. They wanted to investigate TPAs (Teacher Performance Assessment) as implemented by the state of California, but they wanted their implementation to be more comprehensive than linear. They used a Venn diagram to show how their Vision/Belief and Assessment can meet together to provide evidence of high quality teacher preparation. They found interesting conversations emerged from faculty and students, and once SSU passes accreditation they took a good look at the real data and evaluated the information ePortfolios provided. They now have an ePortfolio review day where they invite campus folks and local school administrators. See http://www.sonoma.edu/isee/portfolio/

2006 WebCT - MERLOT PowerLink

MERLOT has 14,000 items, 35,000 members

New look, new features: including ePortfolio type area, workforce teaching commons (initially with safety and security, and fire prevention. Next will be nursing.). They made a wizard the help contribute materials, and the profile area looks like an academic resume. They have a federated search w/ O’Reilly – who is sponsoring many of the IT team positions.

With the CSU Teaching Business as an example, Teaching Commons service is available to partners.

Integrated w/ LMS: Angel, BB, WebCT, and Desire to Learn.

2006 LiveText Keynote: David Dobbs

Education mechanics – get them to behave in order to learn. Teach them things for use in their live. New: mechanisms of learning – Learning/Behavior.

Attention consciousness neurobasis of learning. The search for memory – Eric Kandel from Columbia – Acquiring a memory is learning. William James – my experience is what I agree to attend to. (It is what you make it???)

Learning doesn’t add neurons. Learning adds or strengthens synapses – connecting in different ways. Our minds are malleable /flexible. Imitative learning: observe, experience, learning. Mirror neurons fire when you hear or read a verbal description of an action or experience.

Model to embrace knowledge – neurological action is different when you watch a video of a person giving a presentation than when you are in the room with them. Educators are not just vessels – they filter and direct attention. They are models of engaging information – how to look at the world. Personal learning experience will lie in the heart of education.

At any given time a small percentage of our brain (which weighs about three pounds) uses 20% of our oxygen and glucose.

Memories don’t go extinct. They are obscured by new memories.

Oxford Primer or Cambridge Guide: In Search of Memory, by Kandel

See Brainconnection.com for mirror neurons.

Web CT – ePortfolios Early Access Partners Review

Jordan, Lori, and Jason - University of Northern Iowa.
They had a home-grown portfolio system, but wanted a central model for five colleges. Staff and faculty group (ePortfolio Advisory Committee) reviewed eportero, something else, open source, and were really close to purchasing the oracle model last year. (They also did surveys to students and faculty)

Integration into LMS was important – they also liked single login, the learning object tools and link to artifacts, and the reflection tool. (Note: many ePortfolio products have worked w/ LMS vendors to incorporate single login. Most ePortfolio vendors support artifacts and reflection.) They wanted a standardized tool to demonstrate proficiency.

PLAN, TRAIN, PROMOTE.

NOTE: Student class/professor evaluations are pushing faculty to use WebCT!!!
UNI is counting on students to promote this. They also have an ePortfolio conference which is faculty-to-faculty and student competition.

University of Strathclyde, UK

Institution concentrates on English, Science, and Business.

National Requirement: K – 20 Student Personal Development Planning (PDP) – each school could implement as they see fit.

Staff wanted: Intuitive learning objectives, Structure by learning objective, e-mail notes for reviewers, group ownership portfolio. Students wanted: Oblective linked to calendar, a flexible calendar.

Nevada State College
Sam
Getting accreditation and meeting core education requirements were main goals. Students liked this product because they wanted on space. (Couldn’t a portal work???) The Director for Teaching and Learning Excellence wanted Vista to be the center of information. They are embracing it for alumni. Faculty will use it for tenure and promotion. Previouse instance was not used much, separate system, ignored by faculty. Set three year plan – will love Caliper when it is integrated. (NOTE: Caliper is the system Blackboard is promoting as a complex report writer/data aggregator.)

Learner centric (personal, goals, outcomes) vs course centric (degree/program outcomes, institutional outcomes, core educational outcomes).

ePortfolio philosophy must be worked out. Is it just a digital repository?

WebCT - eLearning Strategy

The e-Learning Imperative: Does Strategy Matter
S. Quinsee & B. Casey from City University (England)

Scenario Planning – what does the future look like?
Benchmarking audits – how is this changing?
What will teaching look like in 2010?

Strategies for learning and research – all other things are sub-strategies. Strategies have action plans. First they speculated on 2012, then they broke that down to three year plans knowing the technology we have now will change and probably not be applicable in six years.

Does it make a difference?
1. How many strategies does your institution have and what do they cover?
2. Does your instititution have an e-learning strategy? IF not, should they have one?
3. If so, do you know what is in it? Should you?

Blackboard has a strategic planning consultant group (originally w/ WebCT) working in Europe that will be coming over to the US.

Strategy works with policy. Academic vs. infrastructure – which is sometimes too tactical, vs. support. If funding is tied to strategies, the strategies sometimes get out of proportion and unrealistic.

Traditional eLearning Approach to Strategic Planning: Aspirations; Pedagogic improvement; Technical targets (what are definitions); communication plan.

Alternative Embedded Approach:
Embedded learning; put the user in the center; cut across all strategies – vision embedded into other strategies. Short, concise idea of where to go – supported by action plan. Flexible and responsive to change.

Embedded Approach - this was a Venn diagram:
Learning and Information Strategy meet at eLearning vision.

What would you like eLeraning development to be?
How can it be achieved?
What is your vision?
Do you need a strategy?

WebCT - BoF lunch: ePortfolios

At the birds of a feather lunch at WebCT
ePortfolios
Iowa State University is using eDoc for an electronic portfolio system. Niki Davis Linda Futch – Lead Instructional Designer University of Central Florida Scott Beadenkopt – Director Academic Technology, Neumann College, Aston PA

There was a suggestion to look at Virginia Tech’s Math Emporium http://www.emporium.vt.edu/.

WebCT - Understanding & Improving the Online Environment

Understanding and Improving Teaching and Learning in the Online Environment
Dr. Catherine Finnegan from Georgia

Review of four studies – all interesting.
eCore is fully online, all GE courses, humanities, language, social sciences, math, science. They say you can do two years online, but usually supplemental to f2f courses. 25 courses are available, 2,000 students in spring semester. Approx 70% completion rate.

Georgia has a policy: free tuition if GPA is 3.0 or up.

High School GPA plus SAT math scores predicted success w/ 65% accuracy. Financial aid plus internal motivation predicted success w/ 75% accuracy.

They followed student to report on their habits w/ LMS, how much they viewed content, discussion board, created discussions, responded to discussions. 400 students, 13 sections, 3 courses, 3 semesters. Successful students were engaged and online one hour per hour of class.

WebCT - TaskStream PowerLink

TaskStream PowerLink
C. Mattix
http://www.education.purdue.edu/edit

Using portfolios for assessment and accreditation – What do you want your students to be able to do?

GPA is no longer an indicator of competency. There is a rubiric per course/assignment OR assessment over day to day work. And can be cross-discipline.
Learning outcomes is where it starts.

Accreditation agencies want to see what you are doing with the data.

WebCT - Portfolio

Wednesday after lunch

See www.webct.com/portfolio for more info.

Internal goals:
Increase learning
Improve student recruitment and retention
Improve faculty development and collaboration
Improve alumni participation and relations

External goals:
Community building (business and other schools)
Promote Institution identity
Be seen as an innovator

Can:
Collecting (“save to portfolio” options, easy upload
Presenting – folders, binders, and gallery views
Collaborating – discussions, message center
Reflecting – blogs, goals, guest activity reports
Planning – goals – advisor support
\control over views/access/guests

Available on Vista 4 and CE6 – it’s in the Plus application pack – but you need the license.
Course artifacts can be saved to portfolio (option click, name file, and save – without leaving WebCT. NOTE: artifacts (such as tests) can be tagged within the system so they can’t be saved.

Career Materials – transcripts, resumes (in resume builder or upload), best work.
Binders
Gallery collections – media based
Manage goals (“goals” is on the nav bar)
Blog tool – for example, you can open up volunteer work so you can have a blog allowing outside access.

You can have a build area, a publish and share area, a guest area (who has access and what they have access to. After you add guest you can control what they see – edit by list of people.
You can browse by course, add potential employer, mom and dad, new guest. Roles are defined as Reviewer or Designer. Portfolio item usage – see where guests spend time. Students can be creative in look and feel.

My thoughts: interesting, seems easy to use. Questions remain: What happens after the student leaves? (Are you prepared to keep ePortfolios available to alumni?) How can this information be used for accreditation? (Currently there is no report writing or data aggregator available.) Still convinced this is multidimensional – there is the technology (which can be a vendor), the pedagogy, and the philosophy (goals/vision).

WebCT - Training on a Large Scale

A Systems Approach: Training on a Large Scale
tkrutt@commnet.edu, fskalicky @ comment.edu
www.commnet.edu/academics/webct

Connecticut Community College system had to train all 12 campuses to use Vista.

They had to decide if they should develop or license the training materials. They licensed the student orientation, some online tutorials, three online courses: Getting online, teaching online, and designing online.

Phase 1 – get it done - 700 people already CE users w/ 3 trainers. They focused on the tools not the pedagogy. 1 3-hour core sessions, 2 – 3 day bootcamps, one-on-one labs w/ reservations required. (CSU Chico – well known rubric. Faculty were paid to attend once (but could attend as many times as they wanted with no extra pay).

Also had “lunch-n-learns”
Traingin redesign – meld pedagogy and technology
Video demos and cheat sheets
Online training per campus
facilitated vs. self paced
certification – they love things for their files!

Phase 2 – focus on pedagogy

Goal 1: behind the scenes lobbying for resources and support. (Who delivers the message is important.)
Goal 2: went to the faculty to provide equal access classrooms: hybrid & online. Just In Time rescourse based (carbonwear).
Goal 3: pedagogical best practices.
Note: system provided formal training for a period of time, then counted on local support.

Important: They may not remember HOW to do something, but they will remember it can BE DONE.


Start Early
Marketing/Communications/Training
– VISTA a peek under the hood - designed for presidents, deans, department chairs, and other champions.
– Lots of emails
– Online classroom video
– Student centered brochures.
–
NOTE: Communicate to all.
What and Who is important – CIO – should be used to communicate, as well as deans and president

Train the Trainer – Time to make decisions: roles, template, intellectual property, backups. Communicate!

WebCT - Keynote: Dr. Weinberger

WebCT keynote on Wednesday: Re-thinking Knowledge: Everything is Miscellaneous – Dr. David Weinberger www.evident.com, email self@evident.com. I don’t know if the slides will be available through WebCT, Dr. W also spoke at the IA conference: http://www.iasummit.org/2006/conferencedescrip.htm#openplen and the slides are up there.

A fun presentation. Dr W was at the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
If miscellaneous gets too big, something is wrong.
Assumptions –Properties of Knowledge
1. Knower/Knowledge/Known
2. One knowledge – the same for everyone
3. Knowledge is simple.
4. Knowledge is independent of knower – it doesn’t matter who said it.
5. It’s bigger than we are and it outlasts us (like a library).
6. Filtered –usually by white men.
7. Knowledge is orderly.
8. Has a knower.


Knowledge moves from simple to complex – through conversation, and weblogging now.

Filtering used to be done by white middle aged men, but now with the web, it’s more democratic. Front page news is through being in a box – see digger.com.

Atoms – lumping and splitting –organized like laundry. Used to be one item can only be in one pile, but with the internet you can have crossover. Digitized info does not follow these rules. The principles of organization are changing: messiness is successful, a camera at a store can only be in one place and a camera on line can be in many.

North Carolina library has faceted information – tree construction is happening dynamically.
Del.icio.us (owned by yahoo) is social – the world can do research for you tagging etc.

It costs more to exclude information than to include it. Sometime including it is postponing a sorting of the information. (weeding out). An authority can help you sort out, or wade through information.

Knowledge is social context rather than mental. They have knowledge as opposed to is now getting knowledge.

Neutrality is when you stop editing – well, when the piece is no longer edited.

Also new is sharing links – deferring or referring people to a higher authority. Links tell people to go somewhere else. There is something more interesting than my site.

Syllabus is a playlist. There knowledge is between us – we have to trust each other. Authorities are no longer and this is hard for some.

WebCT - July 2006 Opening Remarks

WebCT – Welcome (Tuesday Night)

Tuesday night’s announcement that the ‘WebCT’ in WebCT will be replaced by BlackBoard seemed to shock some – though I don’t know why. The well-oiled – perhaps too slick for the audience - Mike and Matt tag team did their dog-and-pony show, and used “behind the red curtain” slides as a precursor to announcing their hot ideas. They also had a very lengthy statement of legalese that said all of these ideas were ideas and there was not a commitment by the company nor a timeline for any of these ideas to really take place. I believe they mentioned this had something to do with being traded publicly. They said they’d continue to support version 4, though most people I talked to still seemed set on making the conversion over to 6. Maybe they need more