We found 353 results that contain "online"

Title: Rise: A Tool to Building Interactive Online CoursesPresenter: Erin Bosch-HannahFormat: Learning Tech DemoDate: May 11th, 2023Time: 10:00 - 11:15 amClick to hereDescription:Rise is a course authoring software allowing instructors to quickly build online courses that are structured easily with high levels of interactivity. This technology helps change passive online learning to active engagement. The tool is asynchronous, allowing students to utilize their course at any time without the need for the instructor to be present. Assessments can be built in and it is compatible with all devices and most Learning Management Systems. This platform is user friendly, student oriented, and instructors can use a mixture of videos, voice recordings, quizzes, timelines, descriptive photos, and other modules. The amount of features and interactivity can be altered in each module, making for new and exciting learning experiences.Educators can quickly convert their existing content into Rise, allowing their students to interact with the material through several different learning styles. By incorporating additional activities that utilize the content in Rise, an increase in retention is often noticed since material is used frequently. Rise easily allows instructors to scaffold content through lesson sections and multiple educational blocks. Labeled graphics, tabs, processes, timelines, and sorting activities encourage students to proceed through information in an organized manner. These activities encourage connections and associations since students have to manually access the content and apply the information to the next section.

Topic Area: Online Teaching & Learning
Presented by: Jonathan Choti
Abstract:
In this talk, I discuss the changes I made to help students transition to remote instruction and how these changes ensured student success. In the changes, I incorporated student voices and paid special attention to student severally affected by the sudden transition. The adjustments I made focused on student participation, assessment, delivery methods, materials, student-to-student interaction, and student-to-instructor interaction. I make changes in my instruction especially to accommodate students badly hit by the abrupt move to online teaching in the spring of 2020. Unexpectedly, these changes benefited the entire classes I taught and ensured student success. The COVID-19 pandemic exerted undue strain on specific categories of our student population. The most affected were students who a) had to work for many hours, b) lacked technology and technical skills, c) were traveling, d) had physical and/or mental instability, and d) operate under severely deprived conditions. To help such students succeed, I diversified my assessment tasks, liberalized grading rubrics and deadlines, varied source materials, and adapted a wide range of teaching techniques to capture and sustain student attention in class. Thus, I sought student views on some aspects of the courses and prioritized their voices. I encouraged student participation and feedback, student-to-student interaction via group projects and breakout rooms. I related course materials to students lived experiences and became better organized. Moreover, I expressed by willingness to help with assignments, posted lecture slides on D2L before class, improved my online communication and reached out to struggling students while applauding top performers.
Session Resources: Importance of Inclusion and Student Voices (PowerPoint)

Since 2017, the MSU Strategic Communication Online M.A. has been helping working professionals advance their careers with skills the marketplace demands. A tenet of the program has been the fostering of interpersonal engagement, by creating spaces for student-to-student interaction and student-to-staff interaction. Through surveys and interviews with current students, we measure the importance of program engagement for students by tracking the effectiveness of: various communication mediums and tools; and personal touchpoints with classmates and MSU StratCom staff.

To access a PDF of the "The importance of interpersonal engagement in an online master's degree program" poster, click here.
Description of the Poster 
The importance of interpersonal engagement in an online master’s degree program 
 Introduction 
The purpose of this report is to provide the Michigan State University Strategic Communication Online M.A. a summary of students’ perceptions of engagement in the program. This report focuses on the responses of currently enrolled students as of Spring semester 2021. Students voluntarily responded to a survey sent out via email and social media. Additionally, students were given the option to agree to a second phone interview for further insights. The report looks at engagement through students’ connection to each other, to staff and faculty, and facilitated through various tools and media. 
Methodology 
Survey Purpose and Methodology 
To gain an understanding and perspective of students’ views on engagement in the StratCom program a written survey was sent by Daune Rensing, StratCom Student Advisor, via email.  


The email was sent to the MSU email address of students currently enrolled in either the StratCom master’s or certificate program, on March 15, 2021. 


Written reminders were sent March 22 and March 29. 


A video reminder was posted by Jason Archer, StratCom Director, on StratCom’s Student Life, Teams and Facebook pages on March 29. 




The 24-question survey was closed on April 2, extended from the original deadline of March 25. 


Sixty-two responses were received with 2 incomplete surveys, resulting in 60 responses.  


Phone Interview Purpose and Methodology 
To expand the understanding and perspective students views on engagement in the StratCom program, a follow up phone interview was conducted. Forty students responded positively to a question on the survey asking if they would be willing to participate in a follow-up phone interview with a fellow student. 
Limitations 
The limited nature of the data set needs to be taken into consideration when weighing the meaning and significance of the insights reported here. The written surveys were completed by students enrolled anywhere from their first semester to last in the program, which may affect their perceptions of the program. All phone interviews were conducted by one person, which may result in some bias of interpretation. 
Research Questions 
To measure the importance of engagement in the StratCom program, the research questions in the survey and phone interview fell into three categories:  

What tools and resources are important for student engagement in the StratCom program?  
Do students feel the StratCom program is meeting their engagement needs?  
What changes/improvements does the StratCom program need to make to meet students’ expectations? 

Results 
These graphs highlight responses to our first two questions of what students do value and what they don’t value, and that we are meeting their engagement needs. The conclusion, in more detail, addresses ways in which respondents feel StratCom can improve engagement. 
Conclusion 
Overwhelmingly, respondents felt that StratCom was meeting their engagement needs, in terms of tools used and connection to faculty and staff, and that it was an important part of their time in the program. To continue StratCom’s good start, some respondents had suggestions to strengthen their engagement experience even more:

Set expectations for tools and resources 
More student onboarding  
Intentional diversity throughout the program 
Develop stronger bonds with fellow students and instructors 
Standardization in the curriculum 
Use the coursework to develop student-led engagement activities in the program 

Future Work 
Planning for StratCom’s future and creating a sustainable engagement model are themes respondents suggested. For instance, leadership contingency plans, consistency among courses and “keeping their finger on the pulse” of student needs and industry requirements were all important things to consider moving forward. 
  
 

A good starting point for thinking about building community in your online course is to begin by reflecting on the activities in your face-to-face course. The table above was developed in July 2020 by Dr. Rachel Barnard as a way to help illustrate how an online course might look different from a face-to-face course.




Face-to-face


Online




1st day of class: intro you and the course


D2L pages ("files") describing policies, norms for how often to log in to D2L, etc. with text and short "tour" videos




Student turns to neighbor to ask question


Student use the chat (if synchronous sessions), discussion board, email, and/or text a friend 




Office hours: in your office 


In a Zoom meeting room possibly with a "waiting room"




1:1 meetings about projects


1:1 Zoom meetings about a projects




Group workheet


Collaborative e-tools (Office365, Google Suite, etc.) 




Class meeting: pre-reading --> small group discussion --> share out --> post-reflection


Social reading in perusall.com --> Small group discussion notes on google doc --> individual, written reflection submitted to D2L




Class meeting: iClickers for classroom polling


iClicker REEF (if sync sessions); or videos + short D2L quizzes (if async session)




Taking attendance by roll call


Taking attendance by zoom usage reports, iClicker Reef, zoom polling question, responding to a discussion board post.




 
Another similar resource to explore is a similar table from our colleagues at LSU: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15ZtTu2pmQRU_eC3gMccVhVwDR57PDs4uxlMB7Bs1os8/mobilebasic?pli=1
Please note some of the resources in this table are not supported at MSU. This table is available in a Google Doc, where it is being updated and you can contribute to it as well. This table takes the process a step further by identifying the synchronous and asynchronous ways to achieve your goal. For more on synchronous vs asynchronous learning experiences, go to the next article in this playlist.

Topic Area: Pandemic Pivot
Presented By: Xuefei Hao
Abstract:
During the pandemic, students have been facing many challenges including but not limited to health, financial, academic, and emotional issues, which often results in poor attitudes, low motivation, and corresponding weak grades. In this presentation, I will discuss several efficient ways to stimulate students’ language interest and increase their engagement and motivation based on my Chinese language courses’ practices from March 2020 to 2021 spring semester. Through building a Chinese learning community inside and outside the classroom, students can use the target language in practical communication and feel connected and supported.

Thanks to Philip Strong, who is an assistant dean in Lyman Briggs College (overseeing undergraduate academics, student affairs, and student support) as well as the leader of the East Neighborhood Engagement Center, which is the hub for the pilot of MSU’s Neighborhoods initiative, for sharing this resource from Sarah Marshall and her collaborators at Central Michigan University. 

Topic Area: Online Teaching & Learning
Presented by: Andrew Krause, Tsveta Sendova
Abstract:
We are excited to share the redesigned departmental teaching structure that we implemented during pandemic-forced online teaching. Our department has realigned our teaching efforts into cohesive course-teams, in lieu of traditional independent (coordinated) teaching roles. No longer are individual instructors responsible for specific sections, but instead instructors have a role on a larger team that shares the instructional load. For example, 24 instructors for MTH 132: Calculus 1 worked together in a variety of roles to deliver a cohesive course to 1400 students.
This configuration has important advantages, the three most important being: flexibility, support, and adaptability.
Flexibility: With diverse roles available, each instructor can contribute with their strength -- leading online webinars, small group tutoring, assessment design, video creation, etc.
Support: The large team can support instructors who experience challenges that disrupt their ability to teach (health, family, etc.). It is easy to substitute one or a few teaching roles, rather than an entire ""teacher"".
Adaptability: Having a cohesive ""backbone"" of the course (D2L, materials for students, etc.) makes it possible to rapidly adjust to changing scenarios, such as changing guidance on in-person meetings. It is easy to plug in additional face-to-face meetings as alternatives or enhancements to the online structure.

Topic Area: Online Teaching & Learning
Presented By: Darren Hood
Abstract:
One of the most important elements in the online educational experience involves the establishment and maintenance of virtual presence. A key component of achieving this involves what is known as virtual office hours (VOH). Approaching this opportunity strategically and optimizing its execution is critical for learners and educators alike. This talk will highlight several recommendations for making the most of the VOH experience.