Capstone Video

Here is my capstone video for this project. I've really enjoyed the opportunity to focus on digital technology - I'd like to do so much more, but time is always so short! It's been great having a motivation to complete some projects.

My Big MOOC Adventure

MOOCs have been a hot topic for a little while now; I've read a lot about MOOCs and I have friends who have taken several MOOCs for personal enrichment and just loved them. As a person who would become a professional student if I could, I've been curious about the MOOC experience, so I decided to give one a try.

I started off by Googling "MOOC" and checking out the course offerings on various sites, like Coursera, edX, and Udacity. Fortunately for me, I'm particularly interested in STEM topics - MOOC offerings seem to be heavy on the math and science. I wanted to find a course that would be interesting and self-paced, as I wasn't sure that I'd be able to stick to a regular schedule of study. (Some MOOCs are more like traditional classes, in that they have set schedules and require submissions of work at certain times.) For this initial experiment, the ability to work independently was a higher priority than the possibility of interaction with other students.

I eventually ended up looking at courses on iTunes U, Apple's "store" for educational materials. I settled on a Calculus course [Calculus I (MA005)] offered by Saylor via iTunes U. I chose this mainly for ease - because of the Apple connection, I'd be able to easily download all of the materials onto my iPad, so I'd have them with me all the time. I've been interested in reviewing Calculus for a while now (since it's been years since I've studied or taught it), so that seemed like as good a subject as any to start with.

I was pretty excited to get started. I bought myself a new grid paper notebook, got out my favorite pencil, and set up a schedule for completing lessons. The materials provided for this course included textbook sections, practice exercises (with answer key), and a link to a graphing calculator app. This was a truly self-paced, self-study course, and I was ready to go...

Until I got incredibly bored. Several lessons in, I lost my enthusiasm entirely, and I knew exactly why. The text was pretty good, and the exercises were interesting enough, but there was no human element to the course. In addition to being self-study, this particular course did not even include any kind of video instruction or messages from the instructor. One thing that I know about myself is that I'm very much a visual learner, and I really missed watching an instructor explain concepts and draw out supporting charts and graphics. The text was not very visually engaging, either, so it was even difficult to do the reading.  I missed the interaction with other students and the opportunity to ask questions or listen to the questions asked by others. Wow, I thought - if I can't stay motivated to do this, how could students ever stay motivated through a course like this? I've heard people advocate MOOCs as an option for developmental students, and based on my experience, I'm just not sure I can see that working.

So, my intitial experiment with MOOCs was an utter failure in terms of reviewing Calculus, but I did learn some important lessons about virtual classrooms and independent study. I've since downloaded another Calculus course (also from iTunes U) from Ohio State, which is much more engaging - in addition to a text, dozens of videos are provided, and they're well-produced and fun to watch. The instructor, Jim Fowler is animated and has clearly thought about how to keep students engaged online. I'll post more on this course when I get further into it - stay tuned.

Note to self: the Dig Co-Lab Blog is a wealth of information!

Funny story...after working through my little Moodle badge experiment, I felt pretty good for having successfully navigated the process for creating and issuing badges on Moodle. I was especially happy that I'd figured out a feature that's only been available on Moodle for a short time. Not long after, though, I was scrolling through the posts on the Dig Co-Lab blog and Moodle page, only to find that Adrienne Mitchell had already posted a screencast on creating Moodle badges. You can imagine me smacking my forehead...

Badges on Moodle!

Since I first wrote about digital badges back in June, I've had badges on my to-do list. Moodle now has integrated badges, so it's possible to assign badges to students for just about any reason. I finally got around to playing with Moodle badges this weekend, and though I'm sure I have a lot to learn about creating and assigning badges, I did manage to assign my first badge.

Moodle allows instructors to assign course badges to students, either manually or automatically based on the completion of activities. For my first badge, I chose to create a badge that students will receive when they successfully log into Moodle for the first time. (This is actually a pretty big task for our students, because some of them really struggle with their intial MyLane log-ins, creation of pass phrases, etc. In addition, the way we assign CRNs in our department is a little different, and while students usually get populated into the correct Moodle classes, sometimes they need to self-enroll.)

I created my first badge by feel and a good dose of trial-and-error. There is a "Badges" link under Settings in Moodle now, with options to manage badges or add a new badge. Since I was starting from scratch, I chose to add a badge. Adding a badge is as simple as giving your badge a title, entering a description of how students earn the badge, uploading an image for the badge, entering issuer name and contact info, and then setting the expiration date ("never" is the default).

This all seemed pretty straightforward, but I wanted more information about creating badges elsewhere (on a site such as Credly, for example) and then importing them or connecting them to Moodle. I spent some time searching through Moodle Docs, but I never really found the information I was looking for. (Generally, I find Moodle Docs to be less than satisfying - I find the explanatory information to be little more than what I can figure out myself by playing with Moodle features, and following its links to track down information is like wandering through a maze.) I found some forum posts that implied that you could import badges made on other sites, but I never found instructions on how to do anything more than use an image of a badge. So, that's what I did. I copied the image of a badge that I created in Credly, and pasted that into Moodle.

Once I had added my badge, I was given a prompt to make the badge available and manually issue it to students. This was easy - I simply selected eligible students from a list. From there, I did a little searching around and figured out that to make the badge visible on the Course homepage, I needed to add a "My Latest Badges" block to my course page.

Sooo...I think that I successfully added a badge to my Moodle page. If it really is that easy, I'll be adding more badges soon. Still on my to-do list will be to do a little more research outside Moodle Docs and figure out the connections between Moodle badges and all of the other badge creation and collection sites. I'd like to figure out not only how to import badges from other sites, but how students can take their badges with them. There's always more to learn...

Sharing Resources: Study Blue

One of my colleagues is now teaching the Core Reading class that I've been teaching for the last few terms, and we were discussing vocabulary study a few weeks ago. She's had the same struggles with her students that I had with mine around vocabulary - despite trying a variety of vocabulary practice exercises and context work with her students, they were not performing well when it came to quiz time. We were comparing notes on the activities, exercises, and study tools that we had used with our students, and one tool that I had used that she had not was Study Blue.

We did a quick tutorial together - she quickly set up an account, and we created a couple of sample flashcards. We also went over joining classes, sharing cards, and the other review materials that Study Blue provides. I explained how I used Study Blue in class to set up cards and teach students to use the system, then gradually gave students responsibility for creating their own cards.

This past week, my colleague told me that her students had done much better on their last vocabulary quizzes. I'm sure that using a resource like Study Blue is only one small contributor to this - most likely, students are benefiting from practice with the study of vocabulary and with the various study tools they're developing for vocabulary. But, I do think that for some students, digital tools like Study Blue are effective, and all students need exposure to a number of study tools and techniques so that they can find and develop study skills that work for them.

Video Series: Exponent Rules. Still Learning...

We recently spent some time working on exponent rules in my Math 4 class, so I decided to make some explanatory videos covering the rules we practiced in class. My students already had several resources to help them learn exponent rules - links to Khan Academy videos, textbook sections from CK12, and a CK12 study guide on exponent rules. I decided to supplement these other resources with my own videos because a couple students seemed to really struggle with the various rules, and some of those same students have said that they've had a hard time with the Khan Academy videos. I'm hoping that they'll have an easier with videos in which I explain concepts the same way that I explain them in class.

I made this series of videos with Screencast-o-matic and Smoothdraw 4, a free program that does a pretty good job with freehand drawing and handwriting (it's the same program that Sal Khan started with). I think I've got my video-making workflow down pretty well, but I still occasionally have some issues with pen skips or stray marks on the screen. Also, I notice that when I upload my videos to YouTube, some of the videos look a little fuzzy when played fullscreen. I'm not sure what to do about this, as I am recording at the "Full HD" setting. Ideas?

The exponent rule videos are available on my YouTube channel - enjoy!

My Open Math

Another great OER I've been using for my math classes is My Open Math. My Open Math just about does it all - course management, prebuilt math courses at several levels, the ability to customize courses or build courses from scratch, extensive problem banks - and it's all free.

Signing up for a teacher account is quick and easy, but does require verification by MOM. Once you've set up your account, you can create as many course sections as you'd like. You can base your course on template courses ranging from a 010-level arithmetic course up to 150 Calculus, with a number of course options in between. Or, you can start from scratch with a blank course. Template courses generally are set up as chapters or modules, and offer a variety of resources - textbook sections, video tutorials, problem sets, quizzes and tests. 

Assessments in MOM can be customized in numerous ways. Problem types are chosen from libraries and generated for each assessment. You can choose to have multiple copies of a problem generated, give students one or multiple attempts, control scoring and feedback, and set open/close dates for assessments. One of the things that I like best about MOM assessments is that students can complete them online or you can generate print copies (with up to three versions) and answer keys.

When I first started using MOM, I had students create accounts and join the classes I created. I used template classes, occasionally adding my own material to the course shells. Mainly, I used the online assessments to give students practice working math on the computer in preparation for the math placement test and the 2014 GED test. I referred students to the other materials as supplementary study materials. I also created a number of print version problem sets to use in class and for homework assignments.

This term, I'm essentially doing the same thing, but I've connected my MOM classes to Moodle, so students never have to log in to MOM. (There are basic instructions on this process in the help section of MOM, and videos on YouTube covering this - it's a bit of a tricky process, but once I figured it out, it didn't take long.) Once a week, we have computer lab time, and students log into Moodle, where they can access an assessment I've created to review concepts from previous weeks and practice concepts we're currently working on. I leave the assessments open and available to students for the remainder of the course so that they can go back and complete problems for review throughout the term. 

In the future, I may try to import and use an entire course template in Moodle. This would be an easy way to create some variety for students who repeat the course. In any case, I've found My Open Math to be an invaluable resource for my math classes.

Digital Flashcards and Study Guides with StudyBlue

I've been using the StudyBlue flashcard app/website for a couple of terms now, mainly as one of the tools I encourage students to use to study vocabulary.  I've found that most of my students are not really sure how to study vocabulary for their classes - not surprising, really, considering that many of them lack college-level study skills. I've always included vocabulary study in my reading classes because I think it's an essential skill and because many of my students have limited vocabularies. I tried to help students develop a range of tools for working with vocabulary - I teach context clues and dictionary use and show them various methods they can use to study vocabulary (flashcards, partner quizzing, puzzles, etc.).

Now that I'm teaching only math, I'm still teaching vocabulary, but my approach has changed somewhat. I really focus on using the appropriate terminology for math concepts (saying "numerator" instead of "top number," for example) so that students can be prepared for more advanced college math classes. The study of math and science terminology is unique in some ways, though - it can require the study of both words and symbols, it's a little harder to use context clues, and much of the terminology is completely foreign to students. For these reasons, I've been spending a lot of time this term not only teaching vocabulary, but teaching students how to learn the vocabulary.

StudyBlue is a digital flashcard program that can be accessed through a website or an app. It's a pretty simple, straightforward program, though they are slowly adding more features. The program allows you to create decks of digital flashcards that you can then quiz yourself with by "flipping" the cards back and forth. Cards can be as simple as a term on one side and a definition on the other, or you can make them richer and more interactive by adding pictures, sound, or equations. When creating cards through the website, entering a term on a card brings up a list of cards that other users have created for that same term - you then have the option of continuing to supply your own information or inserting someone else's card into your deck. (This feature is not available on the app.)

Decks of cards get saved to your virtual "backpack," and can be used to study via simple flipping or to create study lists or true/false or multiple choice quizzes. When studying by flipping cards, you record whether you answered correctly or not; when you study that same deck again, you then have the option to see only or more often those cards you missed.

When teachers create a StudyBlue account, they have the option to create "classes" that they can invite their students to; when students sign up, they are prompted to join a class. Members of a class can then share study cards and chat with each other.

I like StudyBlue for two reasons - first, it's a clean, simple app that students can quickly learn to use. Additionally, it's convenient - students can install the app on their phone and use it to study whenever they have a few free minutes. They might not carry actual study cards around with them, but they've always got their phones, so they can study while they're waiting for the bus, etc. I've found that international students, in particular, really like and use the app.

I've been sharing StudyBlue with students and other instructors - stay tuned for a post in which I describe more about these experiences.