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Concurrent SessionsMonday, April 15, 2002
Union Room 205 - Session Presider: Mike Parker, Highland Community CollegeWeb Design for Psychology Course Management and Student Resources This session will discuss and demonstrate a website designed to provide students a different learning experience that would prove to be engaging and thus improve understanding and retention of the material. Pre-and-post surveys used to evaluate the experience will also be shared. Audio Streaming in an Online Course This presentation will demonstrate innovation of course delivery. The University of Kansas Edwards Campus has customized Blackboard for delivery of web-based instruction to fit educational needs. The use of online course lectures in PowerPoint converted to jpeg and synchronized audio will be demonstrated and technically explained. Audio streaming is on the rise and it would be helpful for faculty or support staff to see how another institution is utilizing this technology. Riding the SCORM This presentation will be an introduction to SCORM standards and how they could impact e-learning. Everyone seems to be getting into the business of building digital content for courses these days. To fully realize the potential of web-based learning, content must be sharable, discoverable and reusable. The Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORMTM) defines a Web-based learning "Content Aggregation Model" and "Run-time Environment" for learning objects. At its simplest, it is a model that references a set of interrelated technical specifications and guidelines designed to meet the Department of Defense high-level requirements for Web-based learning content. Union Room 206 - Session Presider: Gail Simmonds, Kansas State University-SalinaSurvey of Science Online: A Student-Tailored Experience Survey courses by their nature offer a broad, superficial sampling of content. The content of better survey courses is characterized by a single unifying theme or complementary themes situated in meaningful contexts. This presentation dissects an internet-based survey of science course capitalizing on the affordances of technology. This particular competencies-based online course invites students to select from a list of discipline-specific units those units matching their career needs and personal interests. Course design, development, delivery, quality control and program integrity, provision of learner support, relevant institutional policies and cost considerations will be highlighted. Journey to Enhancing Enrollments in Physical World 2 This session will highlight experiences gained when switching from a Blackboard environment to more modern technologies in a Physical World 2 course. This journey has allowed lectures to take lass than half the time. A Personnel Resource System permits online voting on questions, while quizzes, activities and in-class assembling of homework all play a role. Class enrollments have almost doubled and students are more interactive and interested. Using K-State Online and an In-class Personal Response System in a Large Enrollment Physical Science Class K-State Online was used extensively in a large-enrollment Physical World Class taken by non-science majors. Students were expected to complete online homework, download class materials, check grades and send email using K-State Online. Simultaneously, a classroom response system and Power Point was used to enhance interactivity in class. This presentation will describe how K-State Online and the Personal Response System along with Power Point were used in this class, the logistical issues involved and the perceived benefits to student learning and attitudes. Feedback collected from students from on an end-of-semester survey will also be presented, as well as proposed future changes based on this feedback. Teaching and learning Contemporary Physics Online According to a report from the American Institute of Physics, 27% of all high school physics teachers in the United States do not have a physics degree and they have very little physics teaching experience. If high-quality teaching is the leverage point for improving mathematics and science education, and professional development is a prerequisite for a well-qualified and effective teaching force, new ways are needed for making the opportunity of professional development more accessible to busy high school teachers. These opportunities are now possible with the use of the World Wide Web and software that is currently available. For the past 15 years Kansas State University has offered a course on contemporary physics that targets secondary education majors. The course is a non-mathematical introduction to twentieth century physics and has been adapted to an online format. This presentation is based on the content of this online course and its current progress. Union Room 202 - Session Presider: Betty Stevens, Kansas State UniversityCrossing the Digital Divide: Kansas Distance Learning Consortium By August of 2002, hundreds of Kansas students will walk into interactive distance learning classrooms for the first time and begin a new year of learning. Although the technology may seem like magic to students, connecting classrooms to a digital network that provides seamless audio and video transmission is not magic at all. The Kansas Distance Learning Consortium was created in 2000 to implement a STAR School grant providing funding to establish a distance learning network connecting schools in Kansas and Nebraska. This presentation will share the journey to establish a video network in the backdrop of KAN-ED during the 2001 legislature and diminished budgets and funding sources during the current legislative session. EduKan: A Consortium of Community Colleges In 1998, six community colleges in Western Kansas, (Barton County, Colby, Dodge City, Garden City, Pratt and Seward County) formed a consortium known as EduKan. EduKan provides student access to quality higher education via distance learning through associate degree programs, individual courses, and support services that render a premier student learning environment. In the first semester (fall 1999), 72 students enrolled in 16 classes. In Spring 2002, over 500 students enrolled in 44 general education courses that are offered entirely online to students in western Kansas and beyond. This remarkable growth in enrollment shows that EduKan is meeting a need for our students. This presentation will review the history of the consortium and discuss some of its challenges and opportunities. KAN-ED: Creating the Kansas Information Highway for Schools, Libraries, and Hospitals The KAN-ED Act, enacted by the 2001 Kansas legislature, says the following: "The purpose of this act is to provide for a broadband technology-based network to which schools, libraries and hospitals may connect for broadband internet access and intranet access for distance learning. For that purpose, the state Board of Regents shall contract in accordance with this act for the creation, operation and maintenance of such network to be known as the KAN-ED network." This presentation will present the KAN-ED concepts, network design, future plans, and funding updates by the 2002 Kansas legislature. It will also include an introduction to a KAN-ED multimedia CD-ROM, which will be distributed to attendees. Union Room 207 - Session Presider: Shannon Thom, Western Kansas Community Services ConsortiumCan Our Students Read a Web Page?: Information Literacy for the Digital Learning Environment Information literacy requires that students are able not only to access resources available online but also to evaluate the information they retrieve and to create new ideas from that information. Information literacy is therefore a necessity for all courses which integrate online technologies, but the need is even greater as we move from high tech face-to-face teaching to online teaching. If students cannot critically evaluate the material they encounter on the web, how will they succeed in an online course, a hybrid course, or a technology-rich face-to-face course, all of which rely upon web resources for course materials and student research? This presentation will first briefly outline the results of our technology assessment survey and our recent experiences integrating web technologies into the English classroom. It will then highlight several implications of these results for digital learning in general. Finally, several strategies being developed that will foster information literacy in our undergraduate students will be outlined: 1) a technology intensive pilot course for preservice teachers; 2) a partnership between the English department and the KSU Libraries; and 3) future partnerships with other colleges and universities within Kansas. Designing An Effective Cyber-Syllabus The cyber-syllabus is the instructor's means to establish both an academic as well as personal link to the online learner. This is the document to which the student looks to for the traditional syllabus elements such as the course title, required materials, course description and outline, learning objectives and course competencies. This presentation will address how the instructor can use the cyber-syllabus as a tool to set the tone of the course. Topics to be covered will include: expectations, intellectual rigor, different assessment styles to accommodate multiple learning styles, specific policies, academic integrity issues, netiquette, distribution and technical issues. Always a perpetual work in progress, the cyber-syllabus allows the instructor to skillfully guide the student along the informational highway of online learning. Where have all the lectures gone? A Case Presentation of a Web-Enhanced Graduate-level Course in Infant Development Despite some challenges and limitations, web-based instruction appears to hold great promise for educating the workforce of the future. This presentation will discuss and demonstrate how a graduate-level course in infant development was enhanced with web technology and guided by a philosophy of teaching that emphasizes active learning. Students log on to the class during regularly scheduled class periods to participate in learning activities. Online materials include slide shows, web pages, short video clips and links to sites outside of the course. Guest experts occasionally answer student questions in the chat room. Every fourth class period, students meet on campus to view more lengthy videotapes. Examples of the online tools and pedagogical features used to promote interaction and engagement with the course material will be provided. Union Room 209 - Session Presider: Roger Terry, Kansas State UniversityLibrary Services to Distance Learners: Challenges and Opportunities in 2002 Ideally, distance learners should have access to library resources equivalent to that of traditional on-campus students. The definition of a distance learner is broadening and may now include individuals in a variety of formal and informal, distant and local learning environments. Increasing numbers of learners are taking advantage of remote-access library services that are often served with little or no option to seek librarian help. This presentation illustrates how librarians are moving into new roles and developing programming to address the current realities of high-tech information tools, changing library user needs and newer options for the delivery of library services. Distance learners will benefit when librarians, course instructors, and virtual education administrators collaborate in the development and delivery of library services designed to support specific distance-learning environments. Blending Learning Technologies: Linking Information Age Learning Environments with Exemplary Digital Education Resources Even with the continuous transformation of learning environments resulting from the use of digital technology applications, public education has yet to benefit from breakthroughs in the broad spectrum of available media-rich, instructional resources like digital video. A new approach is needed to initiate scalable use of exemplary digitized resources in education. It is imperative that creative capacities for teaching and learning with multi-media instructional resources be developed so that schools and districts can make full use of the most powerful new learning environment applications. To address this challenge and contribute to national scale efforts that will extend interoperability for multiple-platform technologies beyond the last mile, the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) and Kansas City Public Television (KCPT 19) are organizing the Midwest Partnership for Digital Development (MPDD). By forming this strategic alliance to coordinate resources, project organizers will: 1) Build capacity for interconnectivity; 2) Blend available technologies to promote access to, and use of, rich media for teaching and learning; and 3) Connect the pieces of rapidly evolving education technology platforms and applications with a prototype network of digital towers that will blanket three states in this phase (2003-2005). Among the proposed activities, this project will engage test beds of high performance learning communities linked with networks of under-performing schools, develop and deploy exemplary digital resources to support teaching and learning in mathematics, and make specialized collections of digitized resources and innovative instructional media available at the highest speed data-cast capabilities available. An Assessment of the Student Experience in an Online Degree Program Assessing the student experience in an online degree program can be very valuable. Why are they taking courses? What do they really want in terms of support services? How do they perform? This presentation will give an interesting perspective on students and faculty based on the assessment of the Online Bachelor of Integrated Studies at Emporia State University. Council Chamber - Session Presider: Ted Kaltoff, Cloud County Community CollegeElectronic Grading For those writing instructors who want to develop a computer-based evaluation program suitable for distance learning, this presentation will describe the procedures for creating a platform by which essays and reports can be graded electronically. This platform consists of a toolbar with fifty or sixty macro buttons. No software is needed other than Microsoft Word. From an instructor's perspective, electronic grading has a number of advantages. Most importantly, electronic grading reflects the instructor's pedagogy. In addition, the procedure can reduce the number of minutes required to identify errors in punctuation, spelling, and mechanics. At the same time, computer evaluation allows the instructor to include specific tutorial information for each error. Electronic grading can also encourage participation. Because the electronic image is easily manipulated, the student tends to be more actively involved in a discussion of his or her essay. The electronic form is also ideally suited for the display of an essay for class discussion. Using technology as a vehicle to enhance General Sociology course The implementation of this Teaching Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (US Department of Education grant) initiative took place during the Fall 2001 semester. Components included the utilization of a class web site with relevant information for use both in and outside the classroom and the use of PowerPoint for lectures over the major sociological theoretical paradigms. A technology Application Pre-Survey was given to two General Sociology classes to determine prior usage of technology application and also the confidence level of the students in using technology. A Technology Application Post-Survey was given to the same classes to determine the overall effectiveness of the project on student learning. This presentation will discuss and demonstrate the components developed as well as the results of the Pre and Post-Surveys Ragtime Women: Then and Now "Ragtime Women: Then and Now" is a research project of the ragtime music of the turn of twentieth century and the women composers of ragtime music at that time. Ragtime was an exciting new music, which had a "tingling" effect on its listeners. To as many who welcomed this new musical experience, there were those who felt it was a vulgar and inappropriate music. "Ragtime Women" has been presented at two national conferences and eight universities in the past year. The complete lecture is presented in a Power Point-audio format and highlights will be shown during this session. |
