Enhancing Online Learning Conference

E. Yasemin Tunc, Director of Technology Training

John Burton, Director of Administrative Services

The second annual Enhancing Online Learning conference hosted by Ball State University, Muncie, IN offered a wide variety of topics from Orienting Students to Online Learning Environments to How to Create a Podcast. Blackboard, a tool for course management is a corporate sponsor for the event along with University sponsors, School of Extended Education and the Office of Information Technology.

Yasemin Tunc, Director of University Libraries' Technology Training Support Services, and John Burton, Director of Electronic Programs at the School of Extended Education coordinated the conference.

The all day conference featured presenters from Indiana State University, Ivy Tech, and Ball State University. Watch for information about the 2009 Enhancing Online Learning Conference.

Enhancing Online Learning Conference Sessions:

Orienting Students to Online Learning
Dr. Kara N. Monroe
Ivy Tech Community College

Ivy Tech Community College provided an optional, self-paced, online orientation to all students enrolled in an online course. Review the contents of this orientation and learn about the student perceptions of online learning gathered from more than 1900 students who responded to surveys and participated in activities of this orientation.

More than Fun and Games
Robbie Morse
Ivy Tech Community College

This presentation explores the impact of game-based instructional strategies on distance education courses. I will demonstrate how simple memory games can be created in a variety of formats using Respondus Studymate, Adobe Presenter, Lesson Builder and other software. I will conclude the presentation by showing how game-based instruction meets learner needs for real-life experience, engagement with material, and connectedness to a community of learning.

Wayfinding in Virtual Environments
Les M. Lunce
Indiana State University

Wayfinding is defined as a set of behaviors and cognitive abilities used to reach a desired destination. Long before computers and virtual environments (VE), people employed wayfinding methods to get around in the physical world. Research indicates that wayfinding techniques learned in the physical world can be employed in VEs. Providing wayfinding affordances in VEs is crucial for successful navigation. This session addresses the integral role of wayfinding as an essential navigational affordance in VEs.

Developing a video graphic grammar for reflection and representation of learning in web formats
Dr. Matthew Stuve, Julie Biddle, Megan Noel
Ball State University

While digital video has been used as embedded web objects since the mid 1990s, the tools for production, editing, and distribution have only recently reached "consumer grade", permitting ubiquitous access and opportunity for using video as an legitimate and relevant form element for online learning contexts. As an art form, web-based videography shares a grammar with both cinema and music video; as a form of communication, it shares an epistemology with reflective practice. These two dimensions of digital video were explored in an immersive learning project in teacher education in which a pre-service teacher helped to produce a podcast video with an in-service teacher.

On-line Ethics: How do teachers deal with academic dishonesty in this format?
Rosalie Rohm-Saprzo
Ball State University

After teaching on-line for ten years, this teacher has had to deal with obvious cheating only twice (my sense is that there is much more less-obvious cheating) but wonders what others do to prevent, discover, and discipline academic dishonesty while maintaining the "convenience" of on-line class participation. I plan to survey the Faculty at Ball State using Blackboard and summarize what my colleagues are doing and how I might apply these innovations in my own classes. I would like to interact with others after a brief presentation of my results.

Simulations in the Classroom
Les M. Lunce
Indiana State University

Innovative educators have long sought methodologies and technologies to enhance the learning experience while taking nothing away from the message of instruction. Classroom use of instructional simulations has been shown to meet this requirement. Simulations can provide a deeper and more cognitively engaging learning experience while motivating students to interact with content and take an active role in learning. This session will provide a forum for participants to discuss effective use of simulations in the classroom.

Blogging: What can you do to enhance online communication?
Silvie Huang
Indiana State University

This hands-on session will focus on how to use Camtasia Studio© to record computer screen action with narration and share it as a video with students. The audience will learn how to create simple demonstrations and add interactivity, record a narrated PowerPoint slide show with Camtasia© plug-in, and publish a Camtasia© project online and in other formats. No programming knowledge or multimedia skills are required.

Plagiarism in Online Courses
Reza Ahmadi, Thelma Lazo-Flores
Ball State University

The increasing availability of online courses and the availability of online sources and online papers has increased the instructors' concerns regarding plagiarism. This presentation looks at the plagiarism in online courses and discusses methods to reduce cheating. The presentation is aimed at those with no or limited experience in online teaching.

Podcasting in the Online Environment
Hyun Suk Kim Chung
Indiana State University

Podcasting has become a popular method to convey audio lectures/instructions/presentations in online learning environments. It also provides students an opportunity to review instructional material on their computer or MP3 player. Participants will take part in creating a podcast using a software application, Audacity©, which allows them to record, edit, mix, and export audio.

This interactive session will introduce an inexpensive and simple to use camcorder to produce video for online instruction. The camcorder holds up to 60 minutes of video and has built-in software that easily allows editing video clips, capturing still photos from your videos, or creating custom movies set to music. Participants will be involved in creating a video that will be produced during the presentation as presenters share best practices for incorporating video into online instruction.

Using blogs for constructing digital portfolios with relational artifact structures
Matthew Stuve, Andrew Brubaker, Julie Biddle, Joseph Ault
Ball State University

Reflective, developmental web-based portfolios can be constructed using a variety of means and technologies. For programs in which students publish their portfolios as web sites, integrated web publishing software can enable students to more quickly develop multimedia content using built-in relational tools like blogs. As an integrated web development application, RapidWeaver offers an easy way to construct multimedia web with a robust navigational model. Blogs, whether constructed externally or using RapidWeaver's blog page type, serve as a relational model for organizing artifacts with multiple alignments to different professional competencies.

Using Wikis for Promoting Team Collaboration
Chris Lüer
Ball State University

Wikis are Web sites that can easily be edited by multiple users. They are ideal for enabling online collaboration in teams of students because they focus users towards the creation of documents as a common goal and minimize the psychological barrier for contributions. We report on our experiences in a team-based computer science course, and try to draw up general guidelines for the use of wikis in online education.

Accommodating students with disabilities in online learning: All you ever wanted to know and more!
Dr. Karen Ford
Ball State University

Do you think online accommodations for students with disabilities are really covered with an accessible course platform? Or, do you think accommodations needed in online and blended courses are the same as in traditional face-to-face courses? Not quite! Most individuals teaching online courses need to take a closer look at the issues facing those students with disabilities who enroll in their classes. This session will provide that closer look...and more!

Virtual World and Distance Education: Integrating Blackboard and SecondLife
John Fillwalk
Ball State University

The Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts and Animation at Ball State University is creating a virtual instruction environment for the study of cinema arts within the Second Life community. The course will be administered through Blackboard because it provides a robust tool set for course management and delivery, such as the Adaptive Release function to control SecondLife access based on content review and completion. The integration of Blackboard and SecondLife through a building block is expected to provide the student with a seamless experience for both the textual and the experiential content of the course.