Retention: YOU are the Key! Instructor Strategies for Retaining Students

1. Retention: YOU are the Key!Instructor Strategies for Retaining Students Troy University eTROY Colloquium April 17-18, 2012

2. Engaging Courses • Designing and Delivering Courses That Engage Learners • Anne Douglas, eTroy Instructional Design • Dr. Mac Adkins, Adjunct Faculty

3. Agenda • Theory • Application at Troy • Tools

4. What Makes an Experience Engaging? • An experience is likely to be engaging if: • You experience some type of challenge. • You must make some decision. • You are allowed to explore. • You are allowed to make mistakes without being disciplined. • You have funShone, B.J., Twenty-Five Ways to Keep Learners Awake and Intrigued, eLearningPulse.com.

5. Engaging Things • What are some things in life that you consider engaging? • Post your ideas at http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/engageonline • Double click anywhere to post a sticky note • After you have posted refresh to see other posts or close the browser and we will view the results later.

6. Recommended Resource • Engaging the Online Learner: Activities and Resources for Creating Instruction, Conrad & Donaldson, 2004. At one point during this session we will ask a bonus question and one person who answers correctly will win a copy (hard or electronic) of this book.

7. Agenda • Theory

8. Engagement Matters • A 2010 qualitative study (Heyman) involving 20 distance education experts revealed these three leading factors in online student retention: • Student Support and Student Connection with the Institution. • Quality of Engagement between Faculty and Students. • Student Self-Discipline.

9. Early and Often • Educators should engage students early and often, using different learning strategies customized to the class content and the students’ pre-existing knowledge. • Angelino & Williams

10. Categories of engagement • Learner to Faculty • Learner to Learner • Learner to Content • Learner to Interface

11. Learner to Faculty • This interaction can take the form of the instructor delivering information, encouraging the learner, or providing feedback. Conversely, this interaction can include the learner asking the instructor questions or otherwise communicating with the instructor regarding course activities.

12. Learner to Learner • The exchange of information and ideas that occurs among students about the course in the presence or absence of the instructor. This type of interaction can take the form of group projects or group discussion. The learner-learner interaction can foster learning through student collaboration and knowledge sharing.

13. Learner to Content • The method by which students obtain information from the course materials. The content can be in the form of text, audio or videotape, CD-ROM, computer program, online communication, etc.

14. Learner to Interface • The actions conducted by a students as they use the functionality of a learning management system. The form of the interface may vary depending on the device (computer, phone, tablet) that the student is using.

15. Authentic Activities • Instructivist vs. Constructivist Design • Passive vs. Active

17. Characteristics of Authentic Activities • Authentic activities have real world relevance:Activities match as nearly as possible the real world tasks of professionals in practice rather than decontextualized or classroom based tasks. • Authentic activities are ill-defined, requiring students to define the tasks and sub-tasks needed to complete the activity:Problems inherent in the activities are ill-defined and open to multiple interpretations rather than easily solved by the application of existing algorithms. Learners must identify their own unique tasks and sub-tasks in order to complete the major task. • Authentic activities comprise complex tasks to be investigated by students over a sustained period of time:Activities are completed in days, weeks and months rather than minutes or hours. They require significant investment of time and intellectual resources.

18. Characteristics of Authentic Activities • Authentic activities provide the opportunity for students to examine the task from different perspectives, using a variety of resources:The task affords learners the opportunity to examine the problem from a variety of theoretical and practical perspectives, rather than allowing a single perspective that learners must imitate to be successful. The use of a variety of resources rather than a limited number of preselected references requires students to detect relevant from irrelevant information. • Authentic activities provide the opportunity to collaborate:Collaboration is integral to the task, both within the course and the real world, rather than achievable by an individual learner. • Authentic activities provide the opportunity to reflect:Activities need to enable learners to make choices and reflect on their learning both individually and socially.

19. Characteristics of Authentic Activities • Authentic activities are seamlessly integrated with assessment:Assessment of activities is seamlessly integrated with the major task in a manner that reflects real world assessment, rather than separate artificial assessment removed from the nature of the task. • Authentic activities create polished products valuable in their own right rather than as preparation for something else:Activities culminate in the creation of a whole product rather than an exercise or sub-step in preparation for something else. • Authentic activities allow competing solutions and diversity of outcome:Activities allow a range and diversity of outcomes open to multiple solutions of an original nature, rather than a single correct response obtained by the application of rules and procedures.

20. Generations of eLearning • First Generation – Correspondence Courses • Print based, postal mail • Second Generation – Multimedia Courses • Print, audio tape, video tape • Third Generation – Conferencing Courses • Computer based learning, audio/video conferencing • Forth Generation – Online Courses • Learning management systems • Fifth Generation? – Mobile Courses • Phone, iPad, other mobile devices

21. Experiential Learning • Learning through reflection on doing

22. Engagement • How NOT To Engage Your Learners Anyone?....Anyone?

23. Engagement Survey Results Podcasts AIM Wimzi –Ask the Prof. Reflective Activities Talk/write-synchronous Constructive peer comments NBC Learn Videos Powerpoints Groups –cooperative learning

24. ToolsApplication at Troy University • Starfish • Troy Online - An Introduction to Online Learning course – first time online students are concurrently registered • How eTroy Classes Work • Graduate Orientation

25. Top 10 Engaging Ed Technolgies • EmergingEdTech.com

26. Video Resources • YouTube.com (school or course channel) • TeacherTube.com • EduTube.org • SchoolTube.com • The Khan Academy.org – Over 2700 videos • Monitor the videos your students are watching

27. Video Resources

31. Digital Presentation Tools • PowerPoint – Only use it if you have power and a point. • SlideShare.net • Prezi.com – You have got to try this • Voki.com – Use a talking avatar to make your point • Fotobabble.com – Create talking photos • Zoho.com – Like MS Office but free and online

32. Digital Presentation Tools

35. Collaboration and Brainstorming Tools • GoogleDocs – Group document editing • Wikis - • Dabbleboard.com – Free online whiteboard • Bubbl.us - Like an online white board • Virtual Worlds – SecondLife • Results of the Wall Wisher activity • http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/engageonline

36. Blogging • Blogger – Google’s blogging tool • WordPress.com – Nice, graphical blogs

38. Social Networking • Facebook – if you dare • Room21 – 21st century social learning • Edmodo – Feels like a Facebook just for you and your students • ePals – For K-12

41. Lecture Capture • Flip the classroom – Discuss now, lecture later • Wimba • Elluminate • Sonic Foundry • PanoptoCourseCast • Echo360 • DyKnow Vision

42. Online Student Response Tools • Polldaddy.com – Are they thinking what you’re thinking TAKE A POLL NOWhttp://poll.fm/3n0r0 • SurveyMonkey.com • Doodle.com – Surveying or scheduling

43. Educational Gaming • Funbrain.com • Discovery.com’s Games • National Geographic’s Games

46. Open Education Resources • OER Commons.org • Open Textbooks • Classroom management tools • Leadership in Education • Science as Inquiry • Art as Inquiry • Harvard University • Open Learning Initiative – View lectures of Harvard professors for free.

49. Mobile Devices • Top 10 Apps for Teachers • Quick Voice Recorder • Dropbox • Things for iPad – task manager • Discover – like an encyclopedia • Evernote • Pages for iPad • Numbers for iPad • Google Reader for iPad • Mobile Air Mouse – remote control for white board • Write Pad – handwriting converter

50. Benefits of Going Mobile • Course content available when the student is available – small chunks of time • Student services access at time of need • Live feedback capabilities • Alternate Internet access point – when the cable modem goes out • Natural student-to-student medium