quality in online teaching
TRANSCRIPT
Quality in online teaching:Tools and strategies to enhance quality
in virtual learning environments
Morten Flate PaulsenA 45-minutes presentation at Nordic Knowledge on the Web
Vasa, 24.11.2011
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http://twitter.com/MFPaulsen
http://nettstudier.blogspot.com http://home.nki.no/morten
www.slideshare.net/MortenFP
www.facebook.com/mfpaulsen www.eden-online.org/blog/
About me
• Worked with development of online education at NKI Nettstudier since 1986
• Professor of Online Education
• President of EDEN
• Doctor of Education from the Pennsylvania State University, working for the American Center for the Study of Distance Education
• Has been Adjunct Professor, at the Athabasca University in Canada and professor associado at Universidade Aberta in Portugal
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• 20th anniversary in 2011, 8 in secretariat, 11 in EC• EDEN members from 400 institutions in 56 countries:
– 20th anniversary
– 200 institutional members
– 2000 potential members of NAP – Network of Academics and Professionals
• Conferences– Research Workshop, Budapest October 2010
– Annual conference, Dublin June 2011
– Open Classroom conference Athens October 2011
– Annual conference Porto 2012
• EU-projects with 168 institutions
• European Journal of Open, Distance and E-learning www.eurodl.org
www.eden-online.org
Members in Finland
• HCI Productions OY
• TKK Dipoli
• University of Helsinki
• University of Turku
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www.eden-online.org/2012_porto.html
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NKI Nettstudier was established as a correspondence school in 1910
• One of Europe’s largest providers of online distance education• About 150 000 enrolments in online courses since 1987• Broad range of subjects from secondary to master level• About 400 distance education courses online (all in Norwegian)• About 12 000 online students in about 40 countries• About 70 % women• Individual progress plans/individual follow-up• Thousands of potential learning partners• Global student catalogue with 1200 profiles• Always room for more students• Exams at local schools and embassies
November 2011
www.nki.no
College, vocational- and secondary school
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Picture from: http://youtu.be/NXBNVauG9bE
http://issuu.com/mfpaulsen 8
Cooperative Freedom is discussed in these booksthat are fully available on the internet
Resources on cooperative freedom
• Cooperative online educationwww.youtube.com/user/nki2008#p/a/u/2/HVXtbLg5ycE
• Kooperativ frihet som ledestjerne i nettbasert utdanning www.nettskolen.com/forskning/kooperativ_frihet/
• E-viva em Portugal http://nettstudier.blogspot.com/• Transparency in Cooperative Online Education
www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/671/1267• Cooperative Online Education
http://seminar.net/index.php/volume-4-issue-2-2008-previousissuesmeny-124/100-cooperative-online-education
• Cooperative Freedom and Transparency in Online Educationwww.slideshare.net/MortenFP/futuralia-3400339
• Visualizing student profileswww.slideshare.net/MortenFP/visualizing-student-profiles-through-nkis-online-catalogue-and-student-network
• Transparency for Cooperationhttp://toonlet.com/archive?m=s&i=11245
Six Dimensions of Freedom
It is difficult to combine individual flexibility and cooperationhttp://ppel4.pbworks.com/
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One may say that:
Individual learning is conducted alone
Collaborative learning depends on groups
Cooperative learning takes place in networks
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NKI provides cooperative online educationIndependence with the help of others
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The most interesting pedagogical challenge in our lifetime is to provide online education that combines individual freedom with meaningful cooperation.
I have struggled with this challenge since I first introduced my Theory of Cooperative Freedom in 1992.
www.ednews.org/articles/10626/1/An-Interview-with-Morten-Flate-Paulsen-Focusing-on-His-Theory-of-Cooperative-Freedom-in-Online-Education/Page1.html
Cooperative learning
• Cooperative learning seeks to develop virtual learning environments that allow students to have optimal individual freedom within online learning communities.
• Cooperative learning is based on voluntary participation in a learning community
• Cooperative learning benefits from transparency
NKI’s Philosophy: We facilitate individual freedom within a learning community in which online students serve as mutual resources without being dependent on each other.
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NKI offers flexible start and progression plans
• Unique tool for individual planning and progress support
• Individual deadlines
Example of individual progress plan
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Tools and strategies to enhance quality in a virtual learning environment with:
• 12.500 students• 400 courses• 150 part-time teachers• 60 full-time employees
should be systematic, continuous and cost-effective
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Strategies and tools to enhance quality
1. Large scale online education needs systematic, continuous and cost-effective quality measures
2. Transparency improves quality
3. Teacher Support Services
4. Quality Barometers
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Transparencyor
privacy?19
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Transparency improves quality
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…of system data, course content, course work etc….
Audio Journalism: Berghs School of Communication (Sweden)Video Journalism: UPDATE – Danish School of Media and Journalism
Text Journalism: NKI Distance Education (Norway)
Transparency promotes cooperation
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Dalsgaard, C. and Paulsen, M.F. (2009) Transparency in Cooperative Online Education. IRRODL, Vol 10, No 3.
The ideas are adopted by the EU-project e-teacher 2.0
| E-teacher 2.0 | www.e-teacher-2.eu |
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Three degrees of transparency
1. Low: Private e-mail
2. Medium: Class forum
3. High: Global web2.0 services
Transparency provides better quality and more cooperation, but both students and teachers should be comfortable with the chosen transparency level.
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26Transparent feedback to the right people
Online Education Barometersshould have individual readings
cooperative readings, aims,, warning levelsand transparent feedback loops
Ideal for Individual Startand Progression
Barometer Questions
1. What to measure?
2. Which scale?
3. Transparent for whom?
4. Possible to show trends?
5. What about Evaluation Moment, Frequency and Fatigue?
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Online teachers deserve decent support serviceshttp://nettstudier.blogspot.com/2011/08/online-teachers-deserve-decent-support.html
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1992: Online course for online teachers2004: Response Barometer
2010: Peer counseling and self-evaluation2011: Quality Barometer for Teachers
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Response Barometer for Teachers
• Introduced in May 2004• Resulted in much discussion in the
teachers’ online forum• A few teachers voiced strong criticism,
doubts and reservations
The average response time for all150 teachers in 2010 was 1.77 days.
In 2008 NKI introduced an automatic e-mail
reminder to the tutors who had one ore more
assignments waiting for 7 days or more.
Quality Barometer for Teachers
Percentages shown in the teacher’s individual barometer and the cooperative barometer for all 140 teachers, are updated continuously as
additional evaluations are submitted.
The impressive barometer readings show the percentages of Very satisfied and Satisfied evaluations.
After a random anonymity delay, the student’s comments are shown in the Teacher Details Report.
The Teacher Evaluation Window
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Barometer Reading after 4017 Evaluations
Evaluation Number Percent
Very Dissatisfied 15 0,4
Dissatisfied 26 0,6
Neutral 364 9,1
Satisfied 1565 39,0
Very Satisfied 2047 51,0
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Peer Evaluation of Teachers
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In 2010, NKI introduced an online course structure for systematic peer evaluation among all the teachers. Random feedback the teachers have given on student submissions are sent to a colleague who evaluate it and give advice on possible improvements.
Professor Torstein Rekkedal has conducted a survey among the first participants and concluded that they perceive it as motivating and informative. They also reported that they learned at least as much from giving feedback as they did from receiving feedback. They will therefore both give and receive feedback on each other's work in the future.
Teacher Self-evaluation
Last school year, the majority of the teachers also delivered self-evaluation of one of the feedbacks they gave on student assignments. The experiences were so positive that future self-evaluation will be included in an online course structure in which the teachers will use the online submission system to evaluate their personal presentations, activity in forums and feedback on student submissions.
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Star teachers deserve Golden Apples along with other stars who are awarded
with gold medals, Oscars and Grammies. Therefore, NKI has introduced a new, and hopefully sustainable, scheme for
nominating and awarding online teachers of the year.
Årets nettlærere
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Thank youI care, so I share:
http://nettstudier.blogspot.com
http://home.nki.no/morten
https://twitter.com/MFPaulsen
www.slideshare.net/MortenFP
www.facebook.com/mfpaulsen
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www.eden-online.org/blog