NorthWest Teaching of Psychology ConferenceDes Moines WANovember 23,2009

“Online education is possibly the biggest event in American intellectual life in the past 40 years. What’s happened is that a critical mass of intellectual capital in the country has moved outside the academy.”

Dr. Gerald Heeger

The Search for the Emerald City Characters of Dorothy, Scarecrow, Lion

and Tinman The Wizard Journey back to Kansas There’s no place like home!

History of Distance Education DE Factoids Research on DE Pleasures, Pitfalls, Drawbacks of Online “The Emerald City” – 7 Principles

1728 – first course advertised 1833 – Swedish distance ed course 1840 – Isaac Pittman in England

gives shorthand at a distance 1874 – Illinois Wesleyan University – degrees at a distance

1883 – Correspondence University of Ithaca NY founded

1878 - Chautauqua Movement founded 1892 – University of Wisconsin – appears in catalog 1896 – William Rainey Harper found

University of Chicago; university level correspondence courses

1920 – educational radio 1962 – Telstar launched; advent of telecourses 1960s – computer based instruction sets the

way for online learning 1983 – appears as a distractor in ERIC 1990 – world wide web protocol developed 1998- Distance Education Demonstration

Project 2006 – federal financial aid rules changed

66% of post-secondary schools gave courses in 2006-2007

97% of two year schools offer distance education Public institutions give more distance courses 12.2 million enrollments in 2007 (college-level, credit

granting 77% of these enrollments are online Asynchronous online delivery is most common Growth rate of 20% In 2007-2009, 1 million plus K-12 students took online

courses

http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=80

Most studies compare F2F and distance delivery No significant differences found Some found online students performed better Hybrid or blended was found to be best of all! Studies also look at student outcomes, student

satisfaction and student attitudes Need for more randomized, controlled studied Need to examine total programs not just individual

courses

Participation Level of answers Variety Relationships with students Lab for testing psychological principles Mobility

Greater time required Time-intensive nature of course

creation Changing technology Time management issues for students Technology glitches Informality

Expands accessibility Learning is a two-way street Easier access to information Web 2.0 What Do I Want my Students to Learn?

Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education

American Association for Higher Education

Chickering and Gamson, 1987 Guiding principles for undergraduate

education

Good Practice Encourages Contact between Students and Faculty

Contact is the most important factor in student motivation and involvement in the discipline and school

Online courses promote interaction through easier access, discussions, space for interaction to occur, attenuation of perceived barriers

Good Practice Develops Reciprocity and Cooperation Among Students

Learning is enhanced when there is a team effort and it is collaborative.

Online courses facilitate student to student contact through a ready space for communication and the reduction of time and space obstacles

Good Practice Uses Active Learning Techniques

In online courses that require active learning, students fare better than in passive courses.

Active learning promotes thinking skills and touches on multiple learning styles.

Online courses are tailored for active learning

Visit the New York MetropolitanMuseum of Art’s online collections.http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/index.asp. You can also visit the M.E.Escher site at http://www.mcescher.com/. Have students identify Gestalt elements.

Have students visit the site http://www.greylabyrinth.com/Puzzles/puzzle151.htm

Do the Christmas present problem. (Do NOT look at the solution until you have completed this activity.) As you solve the problem, take note of your thinking process. If you have a tape recorder handy, thinking out loud can be helpful.

After you have thought about your thinking process, tell us what it was. Reread the section on problem solving. How might you better solve problems? Now, go back to the Grey Labyrinth site (or find another problem solving site) and try solving a different problem. How did you do the second time?

Have student play a game of cards or a board game. This gives them a chance to spend some time with their kids!

Give them a list of brain parts. They must identify the function of each during the game. (e.g. occipital lobe – see the cards, board, pieces)

Put students into pairs. Have them go to http://www.psychologymatters.org ( a compendium of research with applications to daily life – it is from APA). They are to read one of the studies, then outline the components (question, IV, DV, etc). Finally they are to find an example from the news (or other popular press) related to the research. Each pair then posts to the conference. Each student must then respond to one posting with a suggestion for another related study.

Have individuals (or pairs or groups) choose (or assign) ahistorical figure. Their task is to find biographical

information about the person including their biggest contribution topsychology, one primary source by the person, and one

obscurefact that is interesting about the person. Each then

shares theirsummary with the whole class. http://www.biography.com http://psychclassics.yorku.ca

Several sites exist to assist you in building a webquest which is an inquiry oriented activity in which most or all of the information comes from online sources. They generally focus on the use of information, rather than the search.

http://webquest.sdsu.edu http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/oct00/

march.htm http://www.spa3.k12.sc.us/

WebQuestTemplate/Webquesttemp.htm#introduction

Good Practice Gives Prompt Feedback

The online environment enables the instructor to give almost immediate feedback. There is no need to wait for the next class.

Most CMS (course management systems) have gradebooks that enable the student to see grades without any Buckley worries.

Good Practice Encourages Time on Task

Online courses can make time on task more efficient.

Online courses makes it easier for the instructor to track student time on task and to remediate when necessary.

Online courses record all participation so students can see what they are doing.

Good Practice Communicates High Expectations

Online courses can more easily post expectations in terms of objectives, etc.

Online courses make it easier for an instructor to highlight good work, thus giving other students examples of work that meets expectations.

The same high expectations held for face-to-face students must be maintained for online students.

Good practice respects diverse talents and ways of learning.

Different students have different learning styles and talents.

The online environment allows the instructor to tap into all of these. While it is primarily a visual element, it is possible to gear some aspects to auditory or kinesthetic learners.

Assignments can be somewhat customized to tap into various strengths.

Like the Wizard, can online solve all the problems of education today?

Technology makes things easy – it won’t be a problem.

Teaching online is just like teaching face-to-face.

Teaching online will take less time. Students today are tech-savvy so I can

worry about content. I’m good in the classroom, I’ll be good

online. Teaching online will be easy – I can just post

my lecture notes.

The class dynamics will be different online; there won’t be any interaction.

I’ll never get to know my students. I can’t do active learning online. I didn’t have any special training to teach in

the college classroom. I don’t need any to teach online.

Know your own learning style Know your own teaching and

learning philosophy Recognize your tolerance for the

unexpected Acknowledge your own technology

literacy levels Assess honestly your motives and

beliefs about online learning

Faculty selection Time demands Equipment needs – both faculty and student Technology literacy requirements Student expectations Enrollment limits Intellectual property rights

New paradigm for teaching Technological competencies Course design issues Teaching as a skill Time management issues Support service issues

MERLOT – http://www.merlot.orga free and open resource

Hawaii Community College faculty site – http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebook/teachtip/teachtip.htmA terrific site with innumerable resources

http://www.nosignificantdifference.org/website of students related to technology

Quality Matters – course design issueshttp://www.qualitymatters.org

Sloan Consortium http://www.sloan-c.org/workshop/certificate09

Tips from the U. Michiganhttp://www.crlt.umich.edu/tstrategies/tsot.php

Benjamin, L. T. (1991). Personalization and active learning in the large introductory psychology class. Teaching of Psychology, 18 (2), 68-72

Berge, Z.L. (2002). Active, interactive and reflective elearning. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 3 (2), 181-190

Chickering A. W. & Gamson, J. (1987) Seven principles for good practice. AAHE Bulletin, 39. 3-7

Clements, A. D. (1995). Experiential-learning activities in undergraduate developmental psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 22 (2) 115-118

Gamson, Z. & Chickering, A. W. (1992) Applying the Seven Principles of Good Practice for Undergraduate Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Lesgold, A.M. (2001). The nature and methods of learning by doing. American Psychologist, 56 (11), 964-973.

McKeachie, W.J. & Hofer, B. (2001). McKeachie’s Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research and Theory for College and University Teachers, 11th ed.. Lexington, MA: D.C. heath & Co.

U.S. Department of Education. (2009. Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies. Retrieved 10/1/2009 from http://www.ed.gove/about/offices/list/opeed/ppss/reports.html

Dr. Diane FinleyDepartment of PsychologyPrince George’s Community College301 Largo Road

Largo MD 20774301-322-0869dfinley@pgcc.edu