Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Audio Lecture Insights

With being almost half-way through fall quarter, the first quarter for required weekly audio lectures, I wanted to share some insights from fellow faculty members as you move into the second half of the quarter with your audio lecture creations:
  • As stated by adjunct faculty member Bev Kile:  "the lecture must sound like you’re talking to the students and not like you are reading from a script to them."
  • Something adjunct instructor Kirk Lewis is mindful of is the need for "finding balance between spontaneity and deliberately reading/covering information presented on the slides" so as to sound natural and engaging. 
  • Adjunct instructor Stacy Engel has been reminded of the importance of keeping audio lectures to under 10 minutes in length to retain interest and engagement and prefers to include shorter lectures in length but more in number in each unit.
  • Full-time math faculty member Melonie Sebring has had wonderful success implementing interactive lectures using educreations: "Educreations pulled images of assignment problems directly from my iPad photos in order for me to show how to solve them on the whiteboard. I could not believe how user-friendly Educreations was; plus I was able to immediately send a link to the video to myself via e-mail." 
    • And students have responded really positively to Melonie's lectures and have even sent her requests for lectures on certain problems to work through. 
    • These student requests really show how much our students are embracing these lectures!
So as we move into the second half of the quarter, I challenge you to think of yet another new strategy you could try in your weekly audio lectures and remember the above insights from your fellow instructors!

Have a great rest of the week!

Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

App Application!

Adjunct Instructor Renee Bipes has been diligently, enthusiastically, and successfully enhancing her Abnormal Psychology and Human Behavior courses through the use of various apps this quarter.

In Unit 2 of Abnormal Psychology she incorporated the free 3D Brain app that allows students to view every structure of the brain.  What a great and complementary visual for that unit's neuroimaging reading content.

She has also successfully incorporated various apps into her discussion topics.  For example, in Unit 3 of Human Behavior students downloaded the free Youth for Human Rights Online Education and United for Human Rights International apps in preparation for their discussion on advocacy for human rights, social and economic justice, and discrimination. 

The iPad truly is deepening the educational experience for Renee Bipes' students!  

How are you incorporating apps into your classes?  Let me know so I can share your successes with others too!  After all, we can all learn from each other!

Thanks,
Heather Thomton-Stockman
Online Instructional Specialist