Creating OER Text with CK-12

 

One of the resources that I've been using for my math class this term is CK-12. CK-12 is a nonprofit foundation supporting OER for STEM subjects, with content from elementary to high school level. On the student side of their website, students can complete assessments and lessons, access text and videos, and work on interactive activities. Teachers can not only access these materials, but edit files or create new materials from scratch.

I've been using the CK-12 textbook resources for both of my math classes. CK-12 calls their texts "Flexbooks," because there are a number of options for selecting, editing, and downloading texts, and I've tried a few different things. On one end of the spectrum, you can access and print or download full textbooks that have been created by other educators. There are dozens of Flexbooks on the site - almost 20 just for Algebra alone. For each subject, there are generally a variety of basic, standard, and advanced  level texts, as well as texts in Spanish. Some are better than others, but they are all generally high quality. Some have answer keys; many do not. Flexbooks can be copied, printed, and downloaded as pdf's or ereader files - you just have to include the attribution page for each file if you plan to distribute it. On the other end of the spectrum, the site has tools so that you can upload and create your own text, completely from scratch. (Texts must be approved by CK-12 before being shared publicly on the site.)

I have two Flexbooks that I've selected for use with my algebra and geometry classes, though I sometimes I will use a section from a different text if I like that particular section better than the one in my Flexbook. (You can search the site by topic to find stand-alone copies of text, quizzes, activities and other study materials.) Flexbooks are divided up into lessons which can be downloaded individually; I usually select a section for a lesson I'm going to teach, edit it to remove references to content we haven't yet covered or that I don't want to cover and make any desired adjustments to the problem sets. I then save my edit and download the lesson file as a pdf. I've been posting the pdf's to Moodle so that students can access the files as a reference; sometimes they are required to read the section for class.

I have also used some of the online activities on CK-12 (interactive quizzes, etc.), but I've found that I have to preview them before directing students to them, as some are glitchy or simply don't load correctly. Another resource that my students have found really useful is a series of study guides, which are two-page summaries of important concepts, suitable for printing out and keeping in a binder.

Overall, I've found CK-12 to be a great resource for basic OER math texts - the site is easy to navigate, stocked with a good variety of resources, and pretty reliable. If you're looking for a math or science text, give it a try.

New Term, New Student Survey

Last term I created a Google Forms survey for my reading students so that I could assess their reading skill, comfort, and habits, and gather some basic information about their goals. Students accessed the survey through Moodle and completed it during the first week of classes. This worked well for me as an instructor, because I was able to quickly get a sense of who my students were as readers and gather information that helped me decide how to focus my class. For example, I learned that while I had some GED students in my class, the majority of those students planned to go on to take the LCC placement test. Knowing this, I was able to set up a term plan that included some GED-type questions, but a greater focus (especially at the end of the term) on Accuplacer practice.

The other thing that I really like about using the Google Form is that after the survey results are in, Google Drive can generate a graphic summary of the data.  I went over this with the class once everyone had completed the survey, and it lead to discussions about reading preferences, anxiety, and goals. Seeing the similarities and variations among the group was really valuable to students, who often have trouble seeing other students as a peer group and may not know how they fit in to the group.

This term, I'm teaching only math, and I wanted to collect similar information from my math students. I also had a second goal, which was to collect up-to-date contact information for students. To do this, I created a Google Form similar to the Reading Survey, but with questions about contact information and preferred means of contact. Students again accessed the survey through Moodle during the first week of class. Results for Google Forms compile in a Google Drive spreadsheet, so when all of the surveys were completed, I was able to assess the data and print out a contact list for my own records. I was then able to share some of the survey summary with my class (I took out data for the questions relating to contact information) so that we could discuss the range of previous experience, math anxiety, etc. in the class.

I imagine that I'll continue to adjust this survey over time, but I feel like I've created a useful tool that I can continue to use in my classes for many terms. If you'd like to see the survey in full, click here. If you'd like an editable copy of this form, email me and I will send you a copy.

Screencasting with Explain Everything

For my classroom flip, I recorded a short video on solving and graphing inequalities in one variable, using the iPad app Explain Everything. [See the "screencasts" section of my blog for a more detailed post on Explain Everything.] I chose to make my own video for this lesson because I wanted to use some real life situations as examples of inequalities, and I couldn't find exactly what I wanted on Khan Academy or other similar sites.

I started by creating slides in Google Drive Presentation with my title, headings, and examples. Explain Everything can import Powerpoint slides, but not Google Drive Presentations, so I had to save the Presentation slides as photos, then import the photos into the app. This was a little cumbersome, but I'm trying to work with the Google Universe and wanted to test out this workflow.

The app worked well for this video, especially now that I'm getting more comfortable working with the options while recording. The one thing that I don't like about this app is that the microphone on the iPad picks up quite a bit of ambient noise - at a couple of points you can hear my computer chiming in the background. This will happen to some extent with any microphone, but I notice less ambient noise when I record with my Logitech headset.

Uploading the video takes a bit of time, but works smoothly. You can find the video here on my YouTube page.

I took the plunge and flipped my classroom...sort of.

I've been feeling really challenged this year by homework. I think that because the classes I teach are nongraded / no credit classes, students sometimes see them as "no effort outside the classroom" classes. Even those motivated students who are diligent about completing homework sometimes just don't know how to approach homework - they've never learned how to study and how to make the most use of out of class assignments. And because attendance is often an issue (sometimes for totally legit reasons; sometimes for pretty sketchy reasons), I'm always looking for resources for students who need to catch up on things they've missed. I've toyed with the idea of flipping my classroom for a while now and finally decided to give it a go this term because I believe that flipping my class can help me deal with many of those issues.

If you're not familiar with the flipped classroom model, here's the quick and dirty explanation: a flipped classroom inverts the usual model of "students learn something new in class and then practice the new skill/content outside of class." In a flipped classroom, students are first exposed to a new concept or skill before they come to class - usually via a video or reading - then spend class time practicing and applying the new concept/skill with the teacher's guidance. My hope was that flipping my classroom would make students more likely to do the assigned work because they would see more reason to do so, would give me more opportunities to help students with the practice part of the cycle, and would lead to a situation in which students who missed class could easily access information on the content they missed rather than just getting a make-up homework sheet that they hadn't been taught to do.

Since this was an experiment for me, I decided to start with a "mini-flip" of my math class. I began assigning my students a video (or videos) to watch on whatever topic I planned to cover the next day in class. Most of the time, I use Khan Academy videos and/or videos that I create. To add some accountability, I created questions to accompany each video - sometimes questions related to how information was presented in the video, sometimes questions related to the content itself, sometimes questions about the connection between the video content and what we'd already studied in class. Other times, rather than a video, I gave the students a reading and related questions. In class, we discussed what they'd watched or read, cleared up any areas of confusion, and did small group work or independent problems and projects to apply and practice the new material. I do still periodically assign practice and projects for homework, so I haven't truly flipped my classroom.

So far, this routine is working well. While there are still a few students who are not doing homework regularly, some of the students who were not doing homework before the flip have been willing to do the "flipped" work. Students show up to class with questions nearly every day, and we've had great discussions and "aha" moments. I did have to work out some technical bugs related to accessing videos - I started off posting links on our class web page, but some students who were accessing videos with their cell phones were bypassing the class page and trying to search directly for videos on YouTube, with varying results. I worked around this issue by continuing to post links on our class page, but also creating a playlist for our class on my YouTube page. Each week, I post a comment on my YouTube page that links to the class videos, which allows students to more easily find videos with a YouTube app or phone browser.

For more information, Vanderbilt University's Center for Teaching has a great explanation of flipping and suggestions for successfully flipping a classroom. A recent Inside Higher Ed article looks at the pros and cons of flipping. You can also check out the Flipped Learning Network for more information and resources.

Videos with Screencast-O-Matic

Despite my recent post about making instructional videos in which I teach on screen, I decided recently to make a set of videos using Screencast-O-Matic. Why? Two reasons. First, the practical reason is that I haven't gathered the tools and created a space for recording myself. Second, I've never used Screencast-O-Matic, and I know that it's been a popular tool for other instructors. In the interest of exploring options, I decided to give it a go.

For this project, I created a series of videos about place value, expanded notation, and writing numbers. I chose this topic because it's one that I used to cover in Math 10 but currently do not cover in my ABSE Math 3 or 4 classes. I've found that my students could often use a review of these concepts, however (especially if they are preparing to take the math placement exam). You can find the videos on my YouTube channel.

I created these videos on my laptop, using a Logitech microphone headset and my Wacom Bamboo tablet. Fortunately, I already owned the Bamboo tablet - I use it for editing digital photos - so I didn't need to buy or borrow one for this project. I love my Bamboo tablet, but as you'll see if you watch the videos, I did discover that I really need to practice handwriting with the tablet. Because of the small size of the tablet and the friction between the tablet and the pen nib, I found handwriting to be less than natural. I find writing on my iPad to be easier, and I think that most iPad apps also give you more pen/ink options. I used Powerpoint slides for my "background," and the pen options on Powerpoint are limited.

I generally liked using Screencast-O-Matic. I found the controls intuitive, and I liked that I didn't have to create an account or download any software to create videos. I might go ahead and sign up for the pro account, though, because I would like to be able to use some of the pro features, such as the greater variety of publishing options, editting tools, and the ability to publish screen shots.

I also recently downloaded another screencasting app for the iPad, called Playback. Stay tuned for a review!