Author: bhirata
An Instructor Preview of Leeward Online Learning Orientation for Students
Tips for Online Learning
Much time and thought goes into trying to delivery an online course designed for students success. Besides course design, what else can contribute to a successful online learning experience? Leeward CC provides our students with a online learner orientation originally developed by the University of Hawai’i Information and Technology Services and modified with permission for our Leeward students.
Sharing Tips & Best Practices
This resources is sent out to all distance education students via a broadcast email prior to the start of the semester. However, instructors may also consider sharing this resource with their online students as a prior to the start of the semester or as a week 1 activity. After students register themselves (http://go.hawaii.edu/3V7) the Laulima site provides them tips and best practices for learning online and is divided into 5 sections.
- Basics of Online Learning
- Communication & Engagement
- Self-Management Strategies
- Technology
- Support & Resources
Recognizing Completion
At the culmination of the orientation students may request a personalized certificate of completion which they can share with their instructors as proof of completing the orientation. The following is a brief overview of the Leeward Online Learning Orientation highlighting its benefits and potential application in a course setting for instructors to consider.
Thoughts, questions, or feedback, please comment below. – Mahalo
Differentiate Learning – Giving your Learners Choice
Voice and Choice
Are you looking for a dynamic way to gauge student learning beyond assigning a traditional quiz or discussion forum post? Have you ever considered asking your students how they would like to demonstrate their learning? Consider giving students voice and choice by differentiating learning. Doing so also provides you, the instructor, differentiated student submissions to look at for grading (how refreshing 🙂). With a little pre-planning, organization and communication, differentiated learning can be a meaningful enhancement to your course. The following is an example of applying this concept to an online class.
Learners’ Choice
In this example, students are presented with a Learners’ Choice Activity Board and four categories to choose from. Students can complete each category only twice. Leaners’ Choice is a weekly culminating activity and is applied to 8 weeks of the course. One student-chosen activity is due at the end of each week. The content of the activity must be focused on the subject topic from that week. Rubrics can be helpful to assessment. Since topics vary week-to-week, activity rubrics can be designed at a higher level (independent of a specific subject topic) yet still provide students feedback on meeting activity requirements and the depth of the learning that they have demonstrated for the week’s topic.
Thoughts, questions, or feedback, please comment below. – Mahalo
Why Exceed Proficiency?
Shoot for the Stars
Do you have a rubric listing a range of developing proficiency to meeting proficiency and have wondered how to recognize students who’ve exceeded proficiency? Have you seen a rubric that ends with exceeds proficiency, stating that exceeding equates to full credit for the assignment? If so you may have pondered, how can I encourage students to push themselves to strive to exceed proficiency. Awarding extra credit points each time students exceeds proficiency may not be practical, but if a student shows an established record of exceeding proficiency shouldn’t they be recognized for it?
Recognizing Exceeding Proficiency
Single Point Rubrics
The idea of a single point rubric (composed in Laulima Lessons) is that you simply specify a single column for what the students need to do in order to demonstrate they Meet Proficiency and receive full credit. Student who do not meet all the criteria would be in the Developing proficiency and receive less than full credit. Conversely students to truly Exceed Proficiency receive full credit and recognition on the class sticker board. Overtime should a student receive four stickers they will then receive extra credit.
Simple Sticker Chart
The idea is to recreate (in a Google Doc) the classic motivational sticker chart found in many grade school classrooms. Gamification of your teaching can be complex, but the classic sticker chart incorporates some of the core gaming elements in an easy to update and maintain leaderboard which recognizing individual student accomplishments. This type of sticker board can be easily created in a Google Doc and embedded into a Laulima course site. The instructor has Edit access while the students have View access. For the instructor it is as simple as copying and pasting the sticker icons as appropriate.
Thoughts, questions, or feedback, please comment below. – Mahalo
Enhance your Laulima Course with H5P
Have you been linking various third party tools and services into your Laulima course to enhance and engage your students in formative learning activities? If so you may be interested in learning about the H5P + Laulima pilot and how it can enhance students’ Laulima (Learning) Experience.
Take a look at these benefits:
- An open source program based on HTML 5, it is a stable, web and mobile device friendly software.
- Student’s do not need a new account, authentication occurs through Laulima Lessons
- Support for over 40 types of instructor created formative learning interaction types
- Interactions display within Laulima Lessons
- Student scores from H5P interactions save to course Laulima Gradebook
- H5P + Laulima support community (UH Pilot)
This pilot is a led by UH ITS (UHOIC) and Ed Tech/ID collaborators from several campuses, including Leeward’s EMC. For this systemwide pilot participants were accepted from throughout the UH system.
Congratulations 2021 – 2022 Leeward CC faculty who have participated.
- Darci Francis
- Jiajia Garcia
- Tracie Losch
- Danielle Mizuta
- Janet Wang-Lee
- William (Bill) Wright
Take a moment to view and interact with the H5p Interactives they’ve built and implemented (into fall ’21 and spring ’22 courses). View the complete UH System H5P + Laulima interatives library. Check out what the 2021-2022 H5P + Laulima cohort pilots accomplished.
Consider applying to be in the second cohort of participants this fall, 2022-2023 H5P + Laulima Cohort applications are now open! Deadline to apply is Friday, May 20, 2022. Applicants will be notified by mid-June.
Thoughts, questions, or feedback, please comment below. – Mahalo
Increase Participation for Course Evaluations
Here are three steps you can take to try to increase your Course Evaluation System completion rate.
First, frame it in a positive light and explain why you value their input. Add some pep to this routine activity by encouraging your students to complete the course evaluation and give progress updates leading up to the deadline.
Second, promote it through your course (e.g. Laulima Lesson page, Announcements, Calendar) and directly email them to disseminate the message in multiple ways and times so they’ll be reminded to do it and that you value their input.
Third, consider giving the whole class a small amount of extra credit (conditionally). A simple, effective, and efficient way to do this is to offer a small amount of extra credit to the whole class if the evaluation response rate for the class reaches a percentage (for example 80%). This may encourage more students to do it to not let the class miss out on the extra credit points. To calculate the response rate percentage, you can view the number of completed evaluations and simply divide the number of completed by the total enrolled in the course (or actual “active” students in your course if an adjustment is needed).
Do you have any strategies or tips to increase course evaluation participation? Please comment below to share. (If you don’t see the reply box, click on this post’s title to view the full post).
Thoughts, questions, or feedback, please comment below. – Mahalo
Apple Pencil and Digital Paper Delivers
User Review of Apple iPad Pro with Apple Pencil
I have used several graphics tablets over the years, unsuccessfully. There was always something impractical about them. First, writing on a black plastic surface off to the side of the screen displaying the actual content is not intuitive and takes some hand-eye coordination. Second I’ve found that often the black plastic surface is a scaled down version of the display on which I was trying to write. The combination of the two traits often gives traditional graphics tablets a high learning curve for integration into a workflow and hinders adoption.
Why the iPad Pro with Apple Pencil?
Apple’s iOS ecosystem and iPad are significant players in the educational technology field. It therefore makes sense to start with a device that integrates with a large share of the educational technology market and established workflows to improve instructors integration and adoption. Specifically the iPad Pro 12.9″ (measured diagonally) provides a writable surface similar to a standard 8.5″ x 11″ sheet of paper. The Apple Pencil 2 is a precise and well designed stylus made to compliment the iPad. The stylus magnetically sticks to the side of the iPad and charges wirelessly. The tip of the stylus is durable and does not scratch the iPad’s screen. Writing on the iPad glass does take a little bit of practice. If that is of concern films are sold online to stick on the iPad screen to provide the resistance of writing on paper.
Advantages of Digital Note-taking?
I tested this package with the free Notability app which provides an intuitive way to leverage the benefits of iPad, iOS and Apple Pencil. Specifically there are numerous combinations of pen styles, stroke widths, and ink colors available. Notability allows for inserting pictures (new or from your photos), can concurrently record audio while note-taking, as well as export notes in multiple file types, email or Google Drive.
I’ve found the combination of iPad Pro and Apple Pencil to be stable and very usable, which increases the chance of it being used as a replacement to paper and pencil.
Pros:
- iPad/ iOS ecosystem
- iPad Pro 12.9″ (diagonal) writable surface is about 8.5″ x 11″
- Aim stylus directly at the image being displayed
- Precision stylus
- Ability to take and insert images into notes
- Share out notes to multiple file types and services
Cons:
- Cost
- Weight
Leeward Community College instructors interested in learning more can contact edtech@hawaii.edu to arrange a demo and schedule a trial today!
Thoughts, questions, or feedback, please comment below. – Mahalo
Highlights from the Leeward CC DE Student Survey for Fall 2021
Would you take another online class from Leeward CC?
The Fall 2021 DE student survey was sent out to (5,935) online students, a mix of DE and C19 students. Three reminders were sent out over the course of three weeks resulting in 605 respondents. By opening up the survey to all online students we hoped to gather general online student feedback helpful to the broad range of instructors teaching online. Keep in mind that there could be a difference in quality between DE and emergency transitioned C19 courses. At Leeward CC, DE designated courses should align to Leeward DE Guidelines (for quality course design) while C19 designated courses may not be aligned with the Leeward DE Guidelines.
Of the 605 online students who participated in the survey 118 took a few additional minutes to responded to an open ended question, “Would you take another DE course at Leeward CC?” (with optional open ended feedback), 94% said they would, a few common themes emerged. There were specific statements of appreciation (27%) specifically stating support for the online course modality, one student declaring “DE is amazing” (response #353) and a few (4.2%) requesting an increase in online offerings. Specifically, many students appreciated the safety of learning from home during the COVID-19 pandemic (4.2%) and saving of time and money commuting (2.52%). They also noted the flexibility online provides (9.24%) in allowing them to care for family members/ childcare (7.56%). Several with full-time employment (7.56%) / or returning adults to further their education. They also spoke of the convenience (5.88%) of online and asynchronous learning (5.04%).
As can be expected with a mix of online students (i.e. self-enrolled in DE courses by choice and those who had to switch to remote learning due to the pandemic), several stated they prefer in-person instruction (6.72%). Students also commented on their instructors’ lack of aptitude for teaching online (5.88%).
Overall several examples of positive and negative experiences were received. A notable theme throughout were student comments highlighting the influence instructors have in their online course being a positive or negative experience (9.24%). Let us not forget to encourage student-to-student and instructor-to-student interaction, and to teach with passion!
For additional analysis, view the Fall 2021 Leeward CC DE Student Survey Summary Report.
Thanks for taking the time to visit our EMC Blog. If you have thoughts, questions, or feedback, please comment below. – Mahalo
Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash
Laulima Gradebook Tips and Techniques in 5 Minutes or Less
In this EMC Workshop on the Go Laulima series:
- Laulima Gradebook Manual Entry
- Laulima Gradebook Forums
- Laulima Gradebook and Assignments Tool
- Laulima Gradebook Categories
According to the Spring 2021 DE Student Feedback Survey completed by 522 Leeward CC students, the most helpful Laulima course tool was the Laulima Gradebook 87.93%. We also know that 80% of respondents said that the gradebook was used and kept up-to-date in their online course. This is in alignment with Leeward DE Guideline (6.5). Let’s continue to explore the Laulima Gradebook tool to increase the effective use of this helpful, student-favorite tool. (Note: This series shows using the recently new Laulima “Gradebook” tool and not “Gradebook Classic.”)
Manual Entry
Let’s begin by looking at how to add a manually to your Laulima Gradebook. This task will allow you to create a graded item in your Laulima Gradebook in which you can manually input a student scores and have it factored into their calculated course grades in Laulima. (Watch it get done! 1:32 min.) This is useful for adding items that are not already/automatically created in Gradebook like if you wanted to add an item for participation, forum discussions, or extra credit. (Note: Laulima Assignments and Tests & Quizzes tools already have the functionality to create/associate an assignment or test/quiz to the Gradebook without adding a manual entry.)
Forums
One Laulima tool that does not automatically create and associate a gradebook item entry for is Forums. Creating a manual gradebook item, first, is required prior to associating your graded Laulima Forum Topic to your Gradebook. Once you associate your Forum Topic to your manually created Gradebook item, when you grade students’ posts in Forums, their scores will automatically reflect in the Gradebook. (Watch it get done! 1:30 min.)
Assignments
Another popular item to include in a gradebook are Laulima Assignments. This is one of the tools that can automatically get created and associated in Gradebook when you create the assignment. To do that, create/edit the assignment to accept student work and submissions and setup a closing date. When you grade them in Assignments their scores will automatically reflect in the Gradebook. (Watch it get done! 1:13 min)
Categories
As you begin to accumulate Gradebook items it is helpful to know how to organize them under headings otherwise know as Categories. Creating and organizing your Gradebook by Categories is helpful to students to ensure they don’t feel overwhelmed and creates a helpful dashboard to easily respond to student questions. (Watch it get done! 1:01 min.)
Resources
Thanks for taking the time to visit our EMC Blog. If you have thoughts, questions, or feedback, please comment below. – Mahalo
EMC Workshops on the Go (Microlearning Series)
About our EMC Workshops on the Go (Microlearning Series)
- Colleagues will receive an open invitation via email and registration button to announce the latest microlearning series.
- Simply register once for this workshop series by clicking the button and you will receive an email on Mondays and Tuesdays of the week featuring overview and link to view examples that support interaction and/ or student engagement.
- When you receive the email, take some time to review the contents. Give it a try, too, and use the resources for additional help. Reflect on how you can apply it in your classes. Jot down some ideas.
- Come to our optional Virtual Open Lab (Zoom sync session) on Thursdays at 1:00-2:00 p.m. to further engage in your learning by practicing what you learned with your peers, asking questions, getting ideas for your classes, etc.
- Example of microlearning series:
- Monday (date): Topic
- Tuesday (date): Topic 2
- Wednesday (date): Independent work time for hands-on exploration
- Thursday (date): Virtual Open Lab, live online office hours for sharing participants work, responding to questions and reflections.
- Example of microlearning series:
Thanks for taking the time to visit our EMC Blog. If you have thoughts, questions, or feedback, please comment below. – Mahalo