Roleplay in Online Discussions

Learner types and learner motivation can greatly affect participation in online discourse (Stavredes, 2011, pp. 216-222).  By allowing students to take different roles, possibly not even identifying themselves to anyone other than their instructor, varying levels of anonymity can allow them to flourish online when posting their opinions.

For this discussion, you will propose a roleplaying discussion where each student can take a different point of view in an online debate.  You will set up the debate, the roles of the different individuals, and the point of view they are trying to teach or get across.

By Day 3

Post your scenario with at least four roles that students can play and their point of views.

By Day 5

Respond to at least of your classmates on the construction of their roleplaying scenario.  Offer advice, opinions, new suggestions and ask questions.  Make sure each response is full and over 300 words with at least two references.

By Day 7

Respond to any comments on your post.

References

Grabowski, J., Reed, A., Moore-Russo, D. & Wiss, A. (2016). Gamification in Online Education: How and Why? In Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2016 (pp. 254-259). Chesapeake, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

Stavredes, T. (2011). Effective online teaching: Foundations and strategies for student success. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Discussion Rubric

Constructing Quality Questions for Discussions

12 possible points per discussion assignment

Quality of Work Submitted	A – 4 Points	B – 3 Points	C – 2 Points	D – 1 Point
Initial Posting   The quality of the initial post and how well it answers the question asked.   Quality of the references and how well they back up the points made.	The student’s initial posting shows great understanding of the topic.   Points are well backed up by two or more references.	The student’s initial posting is relevant to the topic.   Points are backed up by two or more references.	The student’s points made during the posting are not relevant to the topic or clearly incorrect.   References are not relevant to the points made, or only one reference used.	No references mean an automatic one point score for the initial posting analysis.
Writing   Mechanics and quality of the writing.   Proper APA formatting.	Grammar and formatting help understanding of the post greatly.   Proper APA formatting is used.	Grammar and formatting are good with few errors.   Proper APA formatting is used.	Grammar and formatting are poor.   APA formatting has errors.	APA formatting is not used at all.
Response   The quality of the responses and how well they improve the discussion.   Quality of the references and how well they back up the points made.	Relevant and helpful points and questions are made directly based on the points brought up in the initial posting.   References relevant to the response are used.	Relevant points are made.   References are used.	Somewhat relevant points are made.   References are used.	No references used.

 

 

Plagiarism Detection and Prevention

There are a number of types of plagiarism software packages available to instructors.  One article lists 22 different software packages and compares their features (Singh, Ram & Satsangi, 2015, pg. 232).  Different packages use different techniques which can catch different types of plagiarism.  The top five categories are; fingerprinting, string matching, bag of words, citation analysis and stylometry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism_detection).  The first three look for patterns in the way the words are put together in a document.  Citation analysis looks for patterns in citations and stylometry looks for patterns of actual authors and their writing.

There is significant research on other techniques as well found just by browsing google scholar.  One area of new effort where there are no commercial products I could find is in cross language plagiarism, where the content is translated from one language to another (Barrón-Cedeño, Gupta & Rosso, 2013, pg. 216).  This forms a greater challenge for teachers to detect cheating when students are bi-lingual and may be copying content from a source in one language to another.

The best way to avoid plagiarism as an instructor is to give a test where students copying other work or not does not matter (Laureate Education, Video).  However, this is not always possible.  In this case, it is important to educate the student up front about what plagiarism is and what expectations are so they don’t plagiarize out of ignorance.  Walden University for example has a helpful plagiarism checklist they make available to students (http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/ASCsuccess/ASCplagiarismchecklist).  The University also makes SafeAssign by Blackboard available for students to check their work before handing it in (https://youtu.be/ZS77FrgY-DE).

As an instructor, one can’t educate students enough about plagiarism so that they are prepared, especially in the online world, for the catastrophic results that can come from cheating, even unknowingly or in error (Laureate Education, Video).

References

Barrón-Cedeño, A., Gupta, P., & Rosso, P. (September 01, 2013). Methods for cross-language plagiarism detection. Knowledge-based Systems, 50, 211-217.

Laureate Education (Producer). (2010). Plagiarism and cheating [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Singh, B. P., Ram, M., & Satsangi, A. K. (2015). Plagiarism Detection Service: Its Benefits and Challenges for Academicians and Researchers.Transforming Dimension of IPR: Challenges for New Age Libraries, 227.

 

Impact of Technology and multimedia on online learning environments

With the advent of Web 2.0 technologies being added to online learning environments, the availability of both the community aspect of learning and the feedback necessary for cognitive learning due to these tools creates enormous learning impact (Laureate Education, Video).  Even online icebreakers can be created in a way that allows the learning community to get to know each other with as much protection of privacy as the student desires (Conrad & Donaldson, 2011, pp. 51-53).

Two of the most important considerations for an instructor when implementing technology in online learning environments are; 1) what are the desired outcomes and does the tool help get you to those outcomes and 2) are you within the student’s zone of proximal development with the tools and the student’s capabilities?  If the technology is not on point or too difficult, not usable or difficult to access, the student will not learn the desired outcomes (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010, pp. 31-33).

For me, tools that allow students to express themselves and their ideas are the most appealing.  Video editors, animation tools (e.g Crazy Talk http://www.reallusion.com/crazytalk/default.html) and graphics tools like Powtoon (https://www.powtoon.com/) provide unprecedented flexibility and ease of use for students to create professional multimedia expressions of their ideas to share and comment with their classmates, especially when paired with social networking tools like Voicethread (https://voicethread.com/).

You can take a look at my week four assignment as an example of the type of creativity I would love to enable in online teaching (https://youtu.be/xS-XY17bOLY).

References

Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R.-M. (2010). The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Laureate Education (Producer). (2010). Enhancing the online experience [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Conrad, R., & Donaldson, J. A. (2011). Engaging the online learner: Activities and resources for creative instruction (Updated ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

 

Setting Up An Online Learning Experience

Minimizing frustration by students in a course so learners can learn is one of the most important tasks an instructor has.  Technical challenges can effect student’s motivation and their ability to learn and even their persistence to stay with a course (Stavredes, 2011, pp. 59-63).

Learners have a lot of work ahead of them.  They are trying to understand something they don’t know.  Adding to that burden by interfering with their learning by adding what you don’t know as a teacher or facilitator to the student’s workload is something instructors should endeavor to avoid (Laureate Education, Video).

By not knowing the technology used in an instructor’s course well, the instructor exposes the student to frustration and impediments to their ability to learn.  If students do extra work because they are lost, or don’t do well because they are not clear about what they are supposed to be doing due to a lack of clear instruction can be destructive to the learning process as well.  Communicating clear expectations to learners will minimize their frustration and help them focus on the topics they are trying to understand (Boettcher, 2010, pp. 40-41).

Whatever an instructor does, they should look at the course and ask themselves, “what will impede learning?”.  There are a number of areas that can be looked at.  Simple ones like checking that all links and references are current can have a big impact.  Students that look ahead can be discouraged if they try and get a jump on their learning and can’t due to a link-rot or something else that prevents them from reading materials.  In this course alone, the initial text-book was incorrectly identified and links to important technical tools such as Kompozer and links to resources like the Quality Matters Rubric were mis-identified.  The instructor for this course has been vigilant and posting fixes to these references as we come upon them, but it is incumbent on the instructional designer to get these links right or they impede the student’s learning.

My number one takeaway is that technical impediments negatively impact learning and they are not just a one time issue, but constant in an online course. It is up to the instructional designer and instructor to understand the technology and mitigate those impediments as much as possible. This will be one of my top activities in instruction I create in the future.

References

Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R.-M. (2010). The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Laureate Education (Producer). (2010). Launching the online learning experience [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Stavredes, T. (2011). Effective online teaching: Foundations and strategies for student success. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

 

Online Learning Communities

The theory of interaction and communication by Borje Holmberg speaks to the fact that interaction and emotional involvement between teaching and learning parties is core to distance education (Simonson, Smaldino & Zvacek, 2015, pg. 46).   Dr. Keith Pratt refers to the teacher’s role in online learning communities to be the “guide on the side”, not the “sage on the stage” (Laureate Education, video).  The spirit of this statement reinforces the interaction, personal and emotional involvement that is needed to generate a healthy online learning community.  This in turn keeps students engaged, which is even more important in the online learning communities since much of the student learning is self-directed.

Online learning environments are better when they are more learner-centered than having a single central authoritarian teacher or figure (Laureate Education, video).  In other words, they work better when there is a low power distance between community members (Stavredes, 2011, pp. 5-7).  Lowering the power distance between community members based on technology and diversity characteristics is paramount to the effectiveness of online learning in online learning environments (Stavredes, 2011, pg. 10).

Effective online community building and instruction are tied tightly by the technology used and the culture of those participating in the instruction.  An orientation course to bring students to a steady state in both areas is paramount to the success of the instruction.  Dr. Paloff and Dr. Pratt advise two weeks at least to get students to a point where they are ready to learn (Laureate Education, video).  By keeping a low power distance and making sure technology differences and understanding between learners does not have too much of an impact instruction, learning environments can be sustained as long as the content continues to engage the students and their self-directed reasons for learning in the first place are met.

References

Laureate Education (Producer). (2010). Online learning communities [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., & Zvacek, S. M. (2015). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education. (Teaching and Learning at a Distance.) Charlotte, North Carolina: IAP – Information Age Publishing.

Stavredes, T. (2011). Effective online teaching: Foundations and strategies for student success. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

 

 

First blog post

This is my first blog post for EIDT 6510.