Wednesday, December 14, 2011

December 14, 2011

Good Morning Online Instructors,

It is hard to believe we are already in Unit 11 of the quarter and that 2012 is just around the corner!  As you are working to finish up the quarter with your students and begin to look toward 2012 and winter quarter, I encourage you to take this opportunity to check in with your students to get their thoughts on your class and your overall teaching style.  It is the time of year many of us begin to make New Year's Resolutions, so what better time to make New Year's Teaching Resolutions too; having our students' perspectives to help us make these is even better!

I encourage each of you to create and share with your students a brief online survey to gauge their thoughts on the course and your teaching style using SurveyMonkey.com.  You can assure them their responses are anonymous and will simply help you to improve your own teaching in the future.

Some possible questions to include in your survey could be:
  • What was your favorite part of the class?  Why?
  • What was your least favorite part of the class?  Why?
  • Did you find the assignment feedback I provided helpful?  What would you have liked to have seen me offer differently?
  • Did you find the assignments beneficial to your overall understanding of the course concepts and objectives?
  • If you were to change one thing about the class, what would it be and why?
  • Was there enough variety in the course?
  • Was there enough interaction within the course?
  • If you were to describe the course in one phrase, what would that phrase be and why?
Not all of these questions would need to be included, these are just some ideas to help you get started.  I strongly encourage you to give it a try.  Your students appreciate the opportunity to share their feedback with you.

And in the spirit of creating professional New Year's Resolutions, I have created my own survey that I would love for each of you to participate in.  I would like to hear from you what types of training topics and courses you'd like to see offered in 2012 and what types of online instructor training gaps you believe might be present.  Please click here to take the survey.

Thank you and Happy Holidays!
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

December 7, 2011

Good Morning Online Instructors,

Last week I shared with you resources for creating and facilitating online flashcards to help your students study from and end the quarter strong.  Another great resource available to our students that I like to remind instructors of at this point each quarter is our free online tutoring center, Smarthinking.com!  It truly is an excellent free resource we should be reminding our students about, especially as they work on final projects and prepare for final exams.

Please feel free to share the following tutorial with your students so they can take advantage of this great studying and writing resource:  Smarthinking.com tutorial 

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

November 29, 2011

Good Morning Online Instructors,

I hope you all had a nice and relaxing Thanksgiving holiday and are ready and motivated to finish out the quarter strong.  It is hard to believe we are already in week 9!

At this stage in the quarter I often ask myself what I can be doing to help my students end strong and pull all of the course material together.  One great tool available to help us accomplish this is online flashcards. As an instructor you can create flashcards for your students to study from, or you can have students make their own flashcards (this way they will be studying as they create them, which is yet another added benefit).

Many online flashcard sites have various study techniques that allow students to print cards, study on their computers, send to their personal mobile devices to study on the go, etc., making studying very user-friendly.

A few online flashcard sites include:
Check these out to find one that best fits your own teaching style and course needs.

If you have any questions on any of these online flashcard resources, please let me know.

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

November 23, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving Early!

As mentioned in last week's blog, this week I am going to focus on effective online group project assessment strategies.
  • Before a group even begins its project, it is important - as the instructor - to point out that there are multiple personalities and perspectives at play in each group.  Therefore, laying everything out on the table as far as group members' expectations and project result desires will help to ease anxieties or concerns. Requiring groups to create Team Charters or sets of rules and expectations will set the stage for effective accountability and assessment later on.
  • Research has shown that effective online group project assessment should be broken down into four areas:  Instructor Assessment of Project; Project Process Assessment; Student Self Assessment; and Peer Assessment.
  • Not all of these areas should be equally weighted, but all areas should be addressed in some capacity.
  • Instructor assessment of project:  Using a pre-developed grading rubric that was originally shared with the group in conjunction with the group project assignment details, the instructor will grade the end group project product.
  • Project Process Assessment:  Using the touch point stages of the project, the instructor will gauge and assess how the group is working holistically and assess the process, once again using a pre-developed grading rubric.
  • Student Self Assessment:  Most effective in the form of a reflection paper, students should individually analyze and evaluate his/her participation in the group process and contribution to the end product.  Each student can individually assign a score to him/herself, but the real grading of this component is the instructor's evaluation of the student's reflection.  Did the student really engage in the reflection process and did he/she exhibit an understanding of his/her strengths and weaknesses in the process?
  • Peer Assessment:  This final phase of the assessment process allows students to use their Team Charter guidelines to evaluate one another on overall group process participation and contribution.  A quick and easy way for students to evaluate one another in this fashion is to assign points to each team member based on his/her evaluation of the Team Charter criteria, then the instructor will average the scores from all team members.  That averaged score will be what is recorded for individual team members in the grade book.  
If you have any questions on any of these assessment strategies, or if you have approaches you have used that have worked well and differ from what is stated above, please share those with me.

Thanks and once again Happy Thanksgiving!
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

November 16, 2011

Good Morning Online Instructors,

This week's and next week's blog posts are going to be dedicated to offering some research findings, some tips, and some observations your fellow colleagues shared in their "Facilitating Online Groups" instructor training courses this quarter.  The great insights gained from the training sessions can benefit all of us as online instructors.

First of all, the following article is one I shared with all participants in the training course.  I received several positive comments about how much the instructors liked the article that I wanted to share it with all of you:
Collaborative Learning for the Digital Age

Now, to some of the great insights your fellow instructors shared in terms of being effective online group project facilitators:
  • From the beginning of the project, instructors should take an active role in each group project by helping groups define project goals and objectives.  This doesn't mean the instructor should define these for the group; rather, the instructor should facilitate the process by making it a requirement for groups to engage in this step whether through a discussion board or some other means (graded or non-graded in nature).
  • In addition to the group project's goals and objectives being defined, having each team create a Team Charter or set of rules to abide by helps to have all team members have a say and be on the same page.  (Specific standards for participation and consequences for non-participation can be clearly laid out here, making it easier to address non-participation issues later on.)
  • Instructors should create touch points throughout the group project where instructors can "check" in on the progress to see how things are progressing and "assess" in some fashion throughout.  This also teaches students how to effectively manage group work in the future.
  • A great strategy to help individual groups and group members take more control and ownership of their work and progress is to assign and rotate the group leader role.  This person, which can and should change throughout the process, can help to keep the group on track and "monitor" overall progress.
  • Research has revealed that student selected groups tend to be more harmonious, so this is something to consider when organizing groups.  
  • Research has also shown that students take their work and specifically their writing more seriously when it is evaluated by  peers rather than teachers.  This offers strong support for group work and the group peer review process on writing projects.
  • While this probably seems obvious, it is something we often forget to really evaluate when creating and facilitating online group projects:  Make sure the project is a Group necessary project.  By verifying that student understanding of the course content and objectives are more effectively met by group collaboration you are creating justification for group work.
Next week I will be focusing on some points raised in terms of group work assessment, so please be watching for that post too.

I hope you find these tips useful and I encourage you to implement them into your courses by altering the way you may currently facilitate group projects or by giving group projects a try in the future.

If you have any questions please let me know.

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

November 8, 2011

Good Morning Online Instructors,

I'm posting this week's blog a bit early as the focus this week is offering tips on the Grade Center as you finish up grading of Unit 5 material and prepare to submit midterm grades.  I've shared these tips before, but in case you are new or would like a refresher, I wanted to share these again.

Click here to access a tutorial on how to set the grade center total column to display students' running total percentages and letter grade.

Also, as you are working on individual assignment grading, please don't forget that you can download grade center columns into an Excel document to be able to enter all student scores and feedback on one document to then upload back into the grade center quickly and easily.  Click on this tutorial to walk you through this process.

Finally, you can also download all assignment submissions for a particular column, making downloading of assignment documents more efficient.  Click here to access a quick tutorial on how to download all submitted assignments at once. 

If you have any questions on any of these tricks or processes please let me know.

Have a great rest of the week!

Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Thursday, November 3, 2011

November 3, 2011

Good Afternoon Online Instructors,

A couple of weeks ago I shared with you an excellent YouTube on proper APA paper formatting.  I have heard from several of you that you really liked the video and have already shared it with your students, which is great.

As a result, I wanted to share the YouTube video with you again in case you missed it the first time.  And more importantly, I wanted to share with you the fact that a quiz has now been created around this YouTube video that can also be placed into your courses to help students with APA formatting even more.

If you are interested in having this APA YouTube video and video quiz placed into one or more of your courses, please let your ADOF, Kristen O'Connell, Kelly Schmidt, or myself know and we will be sure to work with you to make that happen.

Thanks and have a great week!
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

October 26, 2011

Good Morning Online Instructors,

Do you have a Group Project in your course?  Are you trying to figure out new ways for your students to virtually and effectively connect and work together on the course material?  If yes, I encourage you to check out Google Docs as a student resource.  With Google Docs, individuals can collaboratively work on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations without having to physically be in the same room or working on the same computer. 

As Kristen O'Connell, Online Dean of Faculty, articulated, "the coolest thing is you can do real-time collaboration... If [students] picked a time, they [could] all work on the same document at the same time and their edits [would be] 'live'."

It also has the benefit of being able to edit documents from any computer or smart phone.

I encourage you to check it out, give it a try, and let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

October 19, 2011

Good Morning Online Instructors,

In last week's faculty meetings Kristen discussed the need to synchronize Safe Assignments in each of your sections if you have a Safe Assignment component in a course.  Click here to access a brief tutorial demonstrating the process of:
  1. Checking whether or not your course has a Safe Assignment;
  2. Synchronizing your course if it does have a Safe Assignment.  
It is a quick and easy process but one that needs to be completed in each section, each quarter in order for your students to be able to submit their assignments without error messages or difficulty.
If you have any questions on this process please let me know.

Thanks and have a great rest of the week.

Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

October 12, 2011

Good Morning Online Instructors,

As you are finishing up the grading of the first assignments for the quarter, you may be finding yourself wondering how you can help your students with proper use of APA formatting and citations.  Here is an excellent YouTube video that I encourage you to share with your students as they are working on their writing assignments throughout the quarter.  It does an excellent job of walking students - and instructors - through the proper APA process.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

October 5, 2011

Good Morning Online Instructors!

Welcome to Fall Quarter 2011; I hope you are having a great first week.  As you are getting to know your students and helping guide your students through your course expectations and assignments, I wanted to share with you two great resources Kelly Schmidt, Online Curriculum Manager, put together that can be used in courses where Oral Presentations are a requirement.  Or, if you have a "presentation" component in one of your courses and you'd like to add in the oral recording aspect, these can be great resources to use within your assignments and instructions.  Screencast-o-Matic is an excellent option for our students when they are recording presentations and these resources walk you and your students through the process.

How to use Screencast-o-Matic to Record an Oral Presentation:
How to Record Your Presentation training doc (if you’re prompted for credentials, use your CampusConnect login)
Video Tutorial   

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to let me know. 

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

September 14, 2011

Good Afternoon Online Instructors,

This will be my last blog post for Early Fall Quarter 2011, but I will start back up again during week one of Fall Quarter 2011.  As such, I'd like to take this opportunity to remind you of the many resources and instructional tips I've shared with you in the past as you prepare your fall quarter courses.  If you haven't tried a new course enhancement before, now is a great time to start!  Or, if you've added things in, I encourage you to try out yet another enhancement or resource during fall quarter. 

If you look at the right hand side of the blog you will find a list of all of the different topics I have mentioned in this blog.  Simply click on the item that sounds interesting to you to learn more about that particular resource!  I encourage you to give one or more a try in your fall course(s).  (And don't forget to let me know how it goes :))

Finally, I'd like to take this chance to also ask you what you'd like to learn more about.  Drop me an email and let me know if there are certain topics you'd like to see covered in the blog during fall quarter or if you have a tip or trick that might be very beneficial to share with other online instructors.

Thanks and have a great rest of Early Fall quarter.  I'll be blogging again in fall :)

Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

September 7, 2011

Good Afternoon Online Instructors,

It is crazy to think it is already September!  I sent my oldest off on the bus yesterday for his first day of Kindergarten so I guess fall is "unofficially" upon us (even if the calendar says otherwise).  With the onset of fall it also means the coming to the end of Early Fall quarter, which is a very busy time for our students as they are finishing up research papers/projects and preparing for final exams.  As they are working on these course aspects, I encourage you to share with them this Smarthinking.com tutorial.  I know I've mentioned Smarthinking.com before, but it truly is a great resource and something all students can benefit from, especially at this time of the quarter, so it begs a repeat.

If you have any questions on this, please let me know.

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

August 31, 2011

Good Morning Online Instructors,

It is crazy to think today is already the last day of August!  I hope you have all had a wonderful summer!

Today I'd like to share with you an Elluminate Live! facilitation tip that I got from one of our other full-time faculty members, Julie Phillips.  If you find yourself as an Elluminate moderator and have difficulty downloading a live session in order to access it and it appears to get locked at the audio module, it may be because you have multiple versions of Java installed on your system.  This confuses Elluminate as to what version should be used and the different versions basically fight one another when trying to download Elluminate, which probably will result in none of the versions winning out and your inability to download the session successfully.

Once you uninstall an older version of Java, you should then be able to download and access the Elluminate Live! session without difficulty.  Thanks, Julie, for this great insight!

Also, don't forget to check out the different Elluminate tutorials found on this blog by clicking on the Elluminate tab on the right side column.  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to let me know.

And finally, if you have a great tip or trick that you think would help other instructors, please don't hesitate to let me know so I can share with the masses :)

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

August 24, 2011

Good Morning Online Instructors,

This week I'd like to share with you a quick trick on how to streamline your discussion grading so that you can grade non-participating students right along with students who have participated in a unit's discussion.  Click here for a quick tutorial on how to do this quickly and easily.  If you have any questions, please let me know.

And if there is anything you are wondering about in terms of using the new CampusConnect system, please don't hesitate to let me know!

Thanks!
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

August 17, 2011

Good Afternoon Online Instructors,

This week we are in the midst of calculating midquarter grades and asking our students to participate in the midquarter evaluation.  With these two things occurring it made me think about the importance of checking in with our students on a regular basis too.  In a residential classroom a common "checking in" process is asking students to write down, anonymously, any questions or concerns they have about the course or the course content.  As online instructors I encourage you to do the same thing, but you have an even greater advantage as you can utilize technology to assist you with this.

Why not try out SurveyMonkey.com to help you connect even further with your students by asking them at the end, or toward the end, of a unit what questions they have about the unit material or to inquire about any concerns they have about the course.  It is also a great way to assess student comprehension of the unit material in yet another fashion. 

The survey link could quickly and easily be emailed to your students and while you won't hear back from all students you'll most likely get the questions and concerns that students may have but haven't had a forum to ask them in before, and that is the intent of an exercise such as this.  And with the surveys being anonymous, students will then feel comfortable expressing those questions and concerns. 

Whether you do a weekly or even a bi-weekly survey, your questions could be simple and to the point.  Some question ideas could be:
  • What was the main concept or idea you gained from this unit?
  • What main question still lingers in your mind about the unit content?  
  • How do you feel about the unit content?
  • What concerns do you have about the unit content?
  • What questions or concerns do you have about the course content overall?
  • Are you comfortable with the pace of the course?
I encourage you to give this strategy a try and let me know how it works for you.  Have a great rest of the week!

Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

August 10, 2011

Good Afternoon Online Instructors,

This week's blog posting is quick and to the point with the intent to help you as you prepare to submit your midterm grades next week during Unit 5.  Click here to access a tutorial on how to set the grade center total column to display students' running total percentages and letter grade.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

August 3, 2011

Good Morning Online Instructors!

I hope you are becoming more and more comfortable with CampusConnect now that you have a couple of weeks under your belt.  The below questions are some questions I've connected with various instructors on over the past week, so I thought I'd share them (and their answers) with all of you in case you had similar questions.
  • Have you tried out the new and improved discussion board grading feature within CampusConnect?   Click here for a tutorial on how to do this.
  • Would you like to pull up your class roster?  Click here for a tutorial on how to do this.
  • Curious on what your level of participation is in discussion boards?  Or curious where and when your students are participating in areas in the course?  Click here for a tutorial on how to run reports.
Any questions on any of these items, please let me know.

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

July 27, 2011

Good Morning Online Instructors,

As you are becoming more involved in the grading of your students' work now that we have completed Unit 1, I'd like to share with you some grading tips and tricks to help make your grading more efficient so you have more time to focus on feedback and content rather than navigation and downloading.

Previously, in Blackboard 8, I shared with you how to download grade center columns into an Excel document to be able to enter all student scores and feedback on one document to then upload back into the grade center quickly and easily.  We can do the same thing in CampusConnect and this tutorial will walk you through the process that is specific to CampusConnect.

Within CampusConnect you can also download all assignment submissions for a particular column, making downloading of assignment documents more efficient.  Click here to access a quick tutorial on how to download all submitted assignments at once.  

If you have any questions on how to use either of these great features, please let me know.  Happy grading :)

Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

July 20, 2011

Good Afternoon Online Instructors!  And welcome to Early Fall Quarter!

As much of the country is being blasted by a heat wave, I hope you are fairing the weather okay.  Personally, I am ready for a bit of reprieve from the oppressive Minnesota heat.  I love warm weather, but I could do without the extreme dew points and high humidity.

I also hope you are becoming comfortable with the new CampusConnect system.  It truly has so many great features for both instructors and students!  If there are things within CampusConnect you have questions on, please don't hesitate to let me know.  Even if I don't have the answer immediately, I'll definitely look into it and see if I can't find an answer for you.  And if you have a question, others may have the same question so it could be a great benefit for all of us...just let me know what your questions are :)

For today's blog, I'd like to show you how to navigate Elluminate Live! within the CampusConnect system.  If you are used to using Elluminate Live! in Blackboard 8, you'll be very familiar with how to use it in CampusConnect.  If this is your first time considering facilitating an Elluminate Live! session, hopefully you'll find these tutorials helpful.


Let me know if you have any questions and have a great rest of the first week of the quarter!

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

June 8, 2011

Good Afternoon Online Instructors,

Throughout the quarter I have been sharing various audio and video resources you can quickly and easily add to your online courses, but I haven't yet talked about how using the features within PowerPoint may be a great option for you, particularly if you already have publisher created PowerPoint lectures as part of your course units.

Simply using your headset you can click on the "Slideshow" feature of PowerPoint and then "Record Narration" as you walk your students through the PowerPoint presentation, just as you would if you were presenting to them in a physical classroom.  What a great way to add additional insights, information, and even examples to the prepared slides.  And also what a great way to personalize the "lectures" for your students!

Give this feature a try and let me know what you think!

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

June 1, 2011

Good Evening Online Instructors,

With the new CampusConnect Instructor training course now available to you, I thought I would take this opportunity to encourage you to look through your courses and archive any enhancements you have used so that you can continue to use them in the new CampusConnect system starting Early Fall 2011 quarter. 

In the training course it discusses and outlines the "My Content" area within CampusConnect's Content Collection area.  This is the perfect place to save any course enhancements, whether they are files (which you would then use the "upload files" feature) or links (which you could then use the "links" tab).  By storing these items within "My Content" you will have easy access to them each quarter and if you make a change, the change you make will only need to be made in one location (within "My Content") and will be reflected in all sections that you may use that item in. 

So, as you are going through the instructor training course, remember all of the great enhancements you may have already added to your courses or some enhancements that you've been wanting to add and how the "My Content" section of CampusConnect will be a great place to house these items!

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

May 25, 2011

Good Morning Online Instructors,

This week's video resource will be particularly beneficial to any instructor that teaches business, finance, communications, or general organizational courses.  The Wharton Video Lectures from the Wharton Leadership Lectures Series and the Wharton Entrepreneur Workshops at the University of Pennsylvania can offer our students first-hand exposure to industry leaders and executives.

I encourage you to check this great video resource out by clicking on the above link, browsing through the numerous videos, and adding one or more to your course.

Let me know what you think, how your students respond to the videos, and whether or not you have any questions.

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

May 18, 2011

Good Afternoon Online Instructors,

For much of this quarter I have blogged about many different audio resources that are readily available to you for use in your classrooms.  I encourage you to continue checking these resources out.  In addition, I encourage you to also personalize your classes with your own audio presentations (and maybe even give video recording a try too).

There are many great, free tools available to you for audio development, but the three that I'd like to highlight today are:  Jing, Screencast-o-Matic, and Screenr.
  • Jing:  Some of the great features of Jing are that you can create short 5-minute screencasts that allow you to share a URL link or save and upload the actual file within Blackboard.
  • Screencast-o-Matic allows you to record 15-minute screencasts without the requirement of any software downloads.  You do need to share via some form of a YouTube account though.  AND a really fun feature of Screencast-o-Matic is that you can do webcam recordings if you'd like to physically demonstrate something for your students or even just talk to them more "in-person" with the video feature.
  • Screenr , in essence, is a blend of the best of both Jing and Screencast-o-Matic.  Screenr has the user-friendliness of Screencast-o-Matic in terms of not needing any software downloads (you simply click record and talk) but also the sharing friendliness of Jing as you can quickly and easily share the recording's URL with others rather than needing to upload to a YouTube site, etc.
Regardless of what you use, I definitely encourage you to at least try one of these out and connect with your students on yet another level.  If you have any questions as you are trying out these resources, please let me know.

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

May 4, 2011

Good Afternoon Instructors,

As promised, I will continue this week's blog with another video and podcasting resource, but there is one caveat, it is a resource geared directly to science instructors.  So, science instructors, here you go!!!  Check it out and let me know what you think!  (And for the rest of you - and myself included, since I'm not a science instructor either - if you have found a discipline specific resource that you use in your own courses that you think others that also teach in your program could benefit from, please send it my way so I can share it with your colleagues too!)

The Wildclassroom is a science focused online resource with the tag line "Education for the Next Generation."  This online resource offers many professional, educational, and intentionally humorous video episodes, podcasts, lesson plans, and other resources.  As stated by The Wildclassroom, the following is its mission:  
"As an organization of next generation scientists, The Wild Classroom and sister site Explore Biodiversity work to promote an interest in conservation, ecology and biology in a manner appealing to our youth and young at heart"  (http://www.thewildclassroom.com/home/nav/mission.html).

I encourage you scientists to check this resource out and once again, let me know what you think.

Thanks!
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

April 27, 2011

Good Afternoon Instructors,

In my last two blog posts I discussed a couple of great, free online video/audio lecture repositories, and I have received some wonderful feedback from you on these resources.  I'm glad so many of you are giving these resources a try, and please keep me posted as to what your students think once they've viewed/listened to the lectures you have shared with them.  They may be lectures we want to add to the master shell so all future sections can benefit from too, so keep me posted on how things go! 

Because of the great response from the past two postings, I'd like to share a couple of more resources over the next few weeks, with today's focus on LectureFox.com.   LectureFox.com is another free university video/audio lecture repository from institutes such as MIT and Yale.  While on first glance it may appear to be a science based repository, when you begin to look through the listing you'll actually see lectures on literature, art, and language too, so whether you teach in the areas of the hard sciences or the soft sciences, I encourage you to check this resource out (and as always, let me know what you think!).

A couple of really cool features of LectureFox is that it identifies for you whether or not it is a video lecture or an audio lecture via specific icons to the right of the lecture title in the lecture list, and many even include notes for study that accompany the lecture, which could be a huge benefit for students.

Once again, check out this resource and let me know what you think!

Have a great rest of the week!

Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist 

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

April 20, 2011

Good Afternoon Online Instructors,
Last week I blogged about a great video repository titled "Khan Academy."  This week I'd like to introduce a similar resource titled "Academic Earth."  In fact, Khan Academy is a part of the instructor team for Academic Earth.

Academic Earth was founded to offer world-class education for anyone on earth and houses online courses and lectures from leading professors from the following universities (and the list of academic institutions contributing is growing each day):
  • Berkeley
  • Columbia
  • Harvard
  • Khan Academy
  • Maryland
  • Michigan
  • MIT
  • Norwich
  • NYU
  • Princeton
  • Stanford
  • UCLA
  • UNSW
  • USC
  • Yale
And Academy Earth offers courses and lectures (available for free download and addition to your online courses) on topics for the following subjects:
  • Art & Architecture
  • Astronomy
  • Biology
  • Business
  • Chemistry
  • Computer Science
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Engineering (Except Electrical)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Environmental Studies
  • History
  • International Relations
  • Law
  • Literature
  • Mathematics
  • Media Studies
  • Medicine & Healthcare
  • Philosophy
  • Physics
  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Religious Studies
  • Writing
I encourage you to check out this resource and let me know what you think!

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

April 13, 2011

Good Afternoon Instructors,

You've heard me talk about TED before (if you'd like a reminder of what TED is, please simply click on the TED tab on the right side of this blog page), now I'd like you to learn about another great lecture site called Khan Academy.  A great way to learn about Khan Academy is actually via a TED lecture from the founder of Khan Academy.  If you click here you'll be taken to the TED lecture given by Salman Khan.

Then, to learn more about Khan, browse the Khan library, and give it a try yourself, please click here. 

This is a very solid and very reputable online educational source that can add audio and video elements to our online courses to make the course material that much more attainable for our students.  I strongly encourage you check out this site and its many wonderful video resources.  And if you teach any of the following types of courses, checking out this site is a must:
  • Math
  • Business
  • Finance
  • Statistics
  • Science
Once you've had a chance to check it out, let me know what you think!

Thanks and have a great rest of the week.

Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

April 6, 2011

Good Evening Online Instructors!  And welcome to Spring Quarter!

As you immerse yourself into your new courses, I encourage you to challenge yourself to implement at least one new resource, tool, approach, etc., into one or more of your courses this quarter.  The more interactive and engaging our online courses, the more responsive our students will be, which ultimately leads to higher student retention and more student success. 

As in past quarters, I will be posting to this blog on a weekly basis and sharing with you various online teaching resources, tools, strategies, etc.  Please use this information as it best fits your teaching needs, and if at any time you have questions on anything I'm blogging about, please do not hesitate to let me know.  And on the same line, if you use something and find it to be great (or even not so great), please let me know that too!

For this week's posting I'd like to introduce you to a new Social Teaching tool called Sophia.  In the words of the organization, Sophia is described in the following way :  
"Some people describe Sophia as a mash up of Wikipedia, YouTube, and Facebook — focused solely on  teaching and learning. It’s where you can teach what you know and learn what you don’t. Whether you’re a high school student, college student, teacher, professor, tutor or parent, Sophia makes knowledge easier to share, easier to find, and easier to organize. And it’s free" (http://www.sophia.org/).  

And what I really like about Sophia (in addition to it being a Minneapolis based source!), is that it directly offers suggestions and ideas for ways educators can use this social teaching site.  By clicking here you can check out some of these suggestions and ideas.  And if you click here you'll get a first hand tour of Sophia from the Sophia organization.  

Subject areas for Sophia.org include:
  • Applied Sciences
  • English/Literature
  • Humanities
  • Learning Strategies
  • Mathematics
  • Sciences
  • Social/Behavioral Sciences
  • Visual and Performing Arts
  • World Languages
But if you don't teach in one of the above listed discipline areas, that doesn't mean Sophia couldn't be helpful and beneficial to you and your students.  For example, research and writing are found in almost all courses of study at GEN, and Sophia could serve as a great resource for your students as they are working on research or writing assignments or projects in your courses.

I encourage you to check out this tool and let me know what you think.

Thanks!
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

March 16, 2011

Good morning instructors,

As you are winding down winter courses I wanted to share one last blog with you for the quarter.  Research shows that students, particularly in the younger generations, are looking for education to reach them where they are and in the mediums they are most drawn to.  For many students that means entertainment and videos of some sort.

While it is essential to retain the integrity and content of our courses, why not think outside the box a bit to share that information with students in a new fashion.  Two unique - and a bit quirky - options to help with this are Animate videos and Xtranormal videos.  Each approach allows you to quickly and easily transform text into cartoon videos.  While the cartoons may seem quirky, it is actually a great way to connect with students where they are...after all, look at the success of Wii games and Wii me's!

I've talked about Xtranormal.com in the past, but Animate is a new topic I'm introducing, so if you have already checked Xtranormal out, I encourage you to now look at what Animate may be able to do for your courses.  And if you haven't seen either, I encourage you to check out both.  And maybe even think about creating one of your own for spring quarter!

Click here to view a video on what Animate is and how you can quickly and easily create your own Animate cartoon.

Click here to learn more about Xtranormal and then click here to see how one GEN course is actually using an Xtranormal video in its online course.

Let me know if you have any questions and have a great rest of the quarter!  I'll be blogging again spring quarter!

Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

March 9, 2011

Good morning instructors,

Have you ever wanted to work with students collaboratively and in real-time demonstrating a process (such as an accounting or math problem) or participating in brainstorming or mind mapping together?  Or maybe you've wanted to work with students on writing concepts but haven't wanted to send Word documents back and forth.  Or even better yet, maybe you want students to work on things together in real-time.  Well, TypeWith.me would be a great option for you if these are things you've ever thought would be nice options to be able to do.  Please click on the following tutorial to learn more about what TypeWith.me is and how to use it within your own classes, and then click here to access TypeWith.me directly.

This is a really fun and productive teaching tool that I encourage you to check out.  Let me know what you think and how it goes!

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

March 2, 2011

Good Morning Instructors,

As we get closer to the end of the quarter I wanted to share a unique site with you that might be a great option for your students if they are creating individual or group presentations.  Slideshare is a presentation hosting and sharing site - that was voted the 5th Top Rated Learning Tool for 2010 by the Center for Learning & Performance Technologies -  and could be a great way for students to collaboratively work on or share presentations with one another.  Having students share their presentations with one another takes the learning experience to the next level.  Why, as instructors, should we be the only ones to see our students' great works!  The presentations, most often done with PowerPoint, can be silent or have audio added. 

In addition to presentation publishing, Slideshare also carries with it many other benefits and opportunities.  In addition to being a great free tool for your students' use, it is also a great repository of already created topic based presentations and videos.  Click here to view a tutorial on how to use Slideshare and then click on the following links to take you directly to the repositories of already created slidecasts and  videos.  Yet another tool for added course enhancements.

I encourage you to check this resource out and look around a bit.  If you give it a try - or have your students try it out - let me know how it goes!

Thanks and have a great rest of the week!
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

February 23, 2011

Good Afternoon Instructors,

To continue with my discussion on eFolio from two weeks ago, I have created a Screencast Tutorial for your use (feel free to share with your students also) on how to set one's eFolio account to be shared with others either Publicly or Privately.  Within this tutorial I also guide users to the eFolio Log-in Troubleshooting steps if individuals are having difficulty accessing an already created account (most likely computer settings simply need to be reset, which is very easy to do).

Please feel free to use this tutorial however you feel is best.

Thanks and have a great rest of the week!

Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

February 16, 2011

Good Morning Instructors,

This week I'd like to discuss a great resource within Skillsoft that allows us to share brief expert lectures with our students; it is something called QuickTalks on Skillsoft's Learning Channel. These brief expert lectures are under 10 minutes in length (and often under 5 minutes in length) and can help to connect with our audio and visual learners.

First, click here to access the SkillPort log-in page. Your username and password should be the same: firstinitiallastname (i.e. jdoe). If you have any trouble logging in, contact the GEN Helpdesk. Then access Books 24X7 to search the Learning Channel repository. Click here to access a tutorial on navigating around the Learning Channel within Skillsoft.

If you have any questions on this resource, please let me know. And if you find a great QuickTalk to use in your online course(s), please let me know that as well!

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Thursday, February 10, 2011

February 9, 2011

Good Afternoon Instructors,

The eFolio Instructor Training course in Blackboard started this week, and there have been a couple of really good questions raised during this course.  I wanted to share this information with all of you in case you have wondered the same things.

Question 1:  Students often mention they cannot log back into their eFolio accounts once they are set up.
Answer:  In 99.9% of situations where this has occurred, students have forgotten their password and have become frustrated and often try to just re-create a new account.  If they already have an account, a new account cannot be created. 

Instead, as the instructor, you'll want to direct them to do the following:
  • Click on the eFolio log-in page located at: 
https://login.efolioworld.com/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fOwner%2fAdminUI.aspx&ui=mouse
  • Direct students to then enter their student email account into the User Name box (it is important students use their student email account - and they are directed to do this in all eFolio instructions - but as instructors please reinforce this requirement with students).
  • Click log-in and the password box will appear.  Directly below this box students can click on a password reminder button.
  • This is an automated process and once the Password Reminder link has been clicked, the student's password is temporarily reset and the information is instantly sent to the student's school email account.
  • Once the email is received, the student can use the temporary password to log-in; upon initial use of this temporary password, students will then be required to reset their password.
As mentioned, this will remedy 99.9% of student log-in difficulties.  If this does not work, you can definitely direct students to the eFolio Help Site, which can be accessed on the eFolio log-in page, but I would recommend directing students through the above automated process first.

Question 2:  There is a reminder in the course shell for students to upload an assignment to their eFolio account, as the instructor, what should I be doing with this? 
Answer:  Throughout each program or course of study at GEN, specific assignments have been identified as end products for students to upload to their eFolio portfolios.  There are reminders and instructions on how to do this within the specific courses and they are tied to the specific assignments required.

Toward the end of a student's academic career, he/she will take PD250 Career Development.  It is within this course that, among other projects, students will pull together the final product and culmination of their eFolio portfolios.  To assist students in developing and fine tuning their eFolio portfolios throughout their time at GEN, we have added in the above mentioned assignment submission reminders and instructions.  It is in the student's best interest to work on this throughout rather than wait and scramble at the end.  

As the instructor, it is encouraged that you also remind students of these submission requirements when they are located within a course shell you may be teaching.  I'd also recommend that you encourage students to implement any suggestions and feedback you have offered in the grading process of the assignment/project before a student uploads it to his/her eFolio account.  That way the finest product can be displayed in their electronic portfolio. 

If you have any questions on eFolio or on anything I've mentioned above, please do not hesitate to let me know.  Earlier this week Kelly Schmidt sent out the below information on the URL change for eFolio's log-in page so wanted to include that here again as well.

If you are teaching a course with an eFolio component, please note that the URL for the eFolio login page has changed to:

Please update the eFolio Login link in your section(s).
If you have any questions about how to do so, the directions are below, otherwise you can contact me for help.

How To…Modify An External Link (eFolio Login link)
1.       Open the Course you want to work with
2.       Click on the Control Panel Link (left side of your screen, at the bottom)
3.       Click on the Unit Content Link
4.       Scroll to the unit that contains the eFolio Login link and click on that Unit to access the contents
5.       Find the eFolio Login link and click the Modify Button (to the right of the link)
6.       Delete the current URL and paste in the new eFolio Login URL: https://login.efolioworld.com/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fOwner%2fAdminUI.aspx&ui=mouse
7.       Click the Submit Button (bottom, right side of the page)
8.       Click Ok 

Have a great rest of the week!

Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

January 25, 2011

Good morning instructors,

As we are getting closer to mid-quarter, I thought now would be a good time to share some writing and tutoring resources with you and your students. 

First, did you know we have an excellent Writer's Reference Center database available to you and your students via the online library?  It has some really great tools such as:
  • Cliché and proverb dictionaries
  • A rhyming dictionary
  • Grammatical terms
  • A section on frequently confused words.  
  • Many materials to support the writing process, including a research guide and writing fundamentals. 
  • And many other great aspects.  
Whether you teach a writing specific course or not, this reference database can be very helpful to you and your students as I would guess students are required to complete some element of writing in your course at some point during the quarter (even if only in the discussion boards, and I think many of you would agree with me that this is an area we can help our students improve their writing skills).

Another great resource available to our students is our free, online writing and tutoring center called Smarthinking.com.  It is a building block within our Blackboard courses and can be accessed via the Tools tab on the left side of all our Blackboard courses.  I have shared this "How To" video on Smarthinking in the past, but we have many new instructors so I would like to share it again.  And I will share the URL link within this week's email message so you can access the link and share with your own students if you would like also.

Once again, let me know if you have any questions on these great student resources, and I encourage you to pass them along to your students.    

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

January 19, 2011

Good morning everyone,

During last week's faculty meetings, adjunct instructor Cathy Kennedy mentioned she uses PhraseExpress on a regular basis to streamline her student communications and grading processes.  I wanted to take this opportunity to expand on Cathy's great tips by sharing this resource with you directly.

What is PhraseExpress?  PhraseExpress is a resource that "eliminates repetitive typing and manages frequently used text snippets in customizable categories" (download.cnet.com/PhraseExpress).  And some of its key features as articulated on its website are:
  • Organize frequently used text snippets.
  • Expand abbreviations as you type.
  • Launch programs with text shortcuts.
  • Auto-complete repetitive phrases.
  • Quick access to the Windows Clipboard History.
  • Correct spelling mistakes in any application.
And some additional benefits are:
  • Multiple clipboard phrase capabilities.
  • Free download and usability.
  • Works with any application, meaning it works in Blackboard and in Excel depending on the grading approach you use.
To see just how beneficial this resource can be, I encourage you to click here to see a visual timed demonstration.  I think you'll agree that this tool can be a big time saver for you!  Any time we can streamline our processes, it is a win-win for ourselves and our students as we can then spend more time on enhancing the learning environment for our students.  

And to view a full video tutorial on what the many features are, please click here

Check out this resource and let me know what you think!

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

January 12, 2011

Good Afternoon Online Instructors!

During Fall Quarter 2010, I introduced Eyejot and VoiceThread as two video messaging opportunities for your online courses and additional ways to connect with your students. Today, I'd like to extend on this discussion of video and voice messaging by introducing you to a quick and easy video email messaging system called MailVu and an audio email messaging system called Vocaroo. Both of these tools are free to use and do not require any software downloads.

Some of the key features of MailVu are:
  • Plays on most smart phones
  • Video mails up to 10 minutes.
  • Self-destruct after # of views
  • Retract video email at will
  • Send and Read notifications
  • Video stored up to 365 days
  • No account or downloads

And for Vocaroo it is simply the click of a button to record an audio message to then quickly and easily email to one or more recipients.

Click here to view a video tutorial I found online that explores both of these resources. The tutorial was created by a language professor so the focus is on using these tools as ways for students to practice their language skills and pronunciations for example, but I am certain either tool could serve a benefit in any online course of study.

I could see either being used as a way to connect directly with your own students on a weekly basis beyond simply a text email (for example, you could email the video or audio message to yourself first and then forward on to your students using a Group under Contacts within your email account that you would only need to create once at the beginning of the quarter). Or you could have students complete an assignment via a presentation format (video or audio in nature) to then be emailed to you. It could even be an assignment submission option rather than a specific requirement. Students love when they have assignment options.

I encourage you to check these two resources out and let me know what you think!

Have a great rest of the week! And as always, let me know if you have any questions.

Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Thursday, January 6, 2011

January 6, 2011

Happy New Year! And welcome to a new quarter! I hope everyone is having a great start to the new year and new quarter.

This quarter I will be offering two instructor trainings - both as Blackboard courses facilitated asynchronously just like the courses you facilitate. If you are interested in participating in either of the trainings, please just drop me an email as soon as possible. The training topics and dates are:
  1. eFolio Training Course: February 7 - February 20
  2. Jing: February 21 - March 6
Upon 100% completion of each of these training courses (and yes, you can sign up for both if you are interested) you will earn 2 hours of professional development compensation and certification.

Both are excellent tools we can use to help our students be even more successful.

If you are already familiar with Jing and use it on a regular basis, that is great! I'd now like to share another great screencast audio and video capable recording tool that you may also want to try out. Screencast-o-matic is very similar to Jing and offers a few additional resources. Three things in particular that I really like about Screencast-o-matic are:
  • Screencast-o-matic allows recordings of up to 15 minutes in length (Jing allows recordings up to 5 minutes in length);
  • If you have a Webcam you can do Webcam recordings quickly and easily; and
  • No software is required to be downloaded onto your computer system; rather, you simply click record, run, and go.
I could see this being a very useful tool in offering students various presentation assignment submission options. Students could very easily record an audio or even video presentation to submit for grading through the use of Screencast-o-matic.

I encourage you to click here to check out screencast-o-matic for yourself and let me know if you have any questions.

Have a great rest of week 1!

Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist