Webinar Recording: Copyright Considerations in Online Learning (1/24/2017)

Link: http://carmenconnect.osu.edu/p798ti0c8rv/
Date: 1/24/2017

One of the coolest things about online education is that it makes it so easy — near effortless — to incorporate multimedia. Pictures, videos, well-written chunks of text, snippets of code… you name it.  Those of us with a certain, um, longevity in our educational experience will remember how much difference such a simple thing as a photocopied course reader once made.  Instead of having to assign a whole textbook — or not assign it because it was too expensive — the teacher could just give Kinko’s the few pages you needed to read, and everybody was learning.

The challenge is that the easier it is to copy stuff, the easier it is to harm the people who had hoped to make a little money by creating the stuff in the first place, so the more important it becomes to draw lines about what people can or can’t do.  The internet creates a whole new world of complications, and for every opportunity, there is an equal and opposite risk.

What does that mean for you as an instructor?  In brief, it means you need to pay attention to whether or not you have the right to share a particular thing with your students online.

How do you know whether or not you have that right?  Well, that is where Marley Nelson and her colleagues at The Ohio State University’s Libraries’ Copyright Help Center are your friends and allies.  As described in the webinar she presented for the Office of Distance Education and eLearning’s Learning and Teaching Academy on Jan. 24, Marley describes a basic set of best practices you can use to answer the kinds of questions that are raised by copyright restrictions in an online world.

This one goes to 11: Faculty Focus

So the joke from Spinal Tap has worn a bit thin, I realize, but this is such an excellent resource that I’m not too worried about needing the perfect hook.

Namely, Faculty Focus has published an end-of-the-year Top 11 Teaching and Learning Articles, which seems like a perfect occasion to direct your attention to this high-quality resource.  I also recommend that you sign up for their free newsletter (aka, listserv), which you can do via the form on the right side of their page.

The Faculty Focus newsletter provides a judicious and manageable stream of e-mails with brief but insightful (and minimally booster-ish*) explanations of advice about teaching.  Articles usually emphasize issues specific to online but always address them with a mindset that remembers that learning and teaching retain some fundamental identities whatever the medium.  It is neither the be-all nor the end-all of teacher PD, but I find it to be a useful regular occasion to re-learn or re-think.

*While “less booster-ish,” their free newsletter does recommend paid services from time to time.

If you have similar resources you find particularly helpful, please recommend them in the comments below, along with a brief explanation of why you find them useful.

 

Cheers,

Henry

Technology Empowered Transformative Learning

Thanksgiving turkey illustrationHappy post-Thanksgiving everyone!  If you are like me, you are still recovering from over-eating wonderful food and, of course, a an edge of your seat game on Saturday.  Whew!

Now that I’m back at work, reading through emails and checking Twitter posts, I have come across a post by the director of the Office of Education Technology at the U.S. Dept. of Education, Joseph South.  He discusses what transformative learning is and how technology can be used to empower teachers and students through transformative learning experiences.  Although there is a certain k12 slant to his perspective, much of what he discusses is easily relatable to higher education whether we are talking about face-to-face, hybrid, or online modes of course delivery.  I’d like to share South’s post with you and gather your thoughts on how you have or are thinking of using technology to engphoto of OSU students working together at computer in classage your students in transformative experiences.  Click here to read South’s article. 

Have a great week back at work!

Marcia

2016 #NDLW National Distance Learning Week Recap

Whew! It’s been a busy and engaging National Distance Learning Week here at the Ohio State University!  With an event each day, we’ve had the opportunity to meet new associates and long-standing colleagues and discuss the rewards and problem-solving opportunities that the internet provides for college education.

Monday: Twitter Chat

On Monday Team DELTA and our MarComm colleague Skylar Fought hosted our first Twitter chat, with an assist from the Center for Online Ed.  With about a dozen attendees from across the country, the conversation demonstrated the power of Twitter to be more than just a mass of disconnected one-liners.

Tuesday: Webinar

On Tuesday, our colleagues in OSU’s Writing Across the Curriculum program presented a webinar on Real World Writing in Online Learning filled with practical tips and scholarly advice for crafting effective online writing assignments with an emphasis on the kinds of activities and assessments that best prepare students for the workplace.

Wednesday: Online Instructors’ Forum

On Wednesday, a small but engaged group of online instructors gathered in the Faculty Innovation Center to dine on Buckeye Donuts and converse about the joys, obstacles, solutions, and needs of those who teach online for Ohio State.  It was the first of what will be a series of DELTA-hosted events designed to build community and provide this new population of teachers with a venue to commune with their online colleagues in much the way they already do with those who teach similar subjects.

Thursday: Blog Chat

This is a short week at Ohio State, with Veterans Day (11/11) observed as a holidy.  Many people leave early.  Thus, for this culimating day of National Distance Learning Week, we are launching an asynchronous Blog Chat, a post the proposes questions for folks to reply and discuss.  We look forward to hearing from you at http://u.osu.edu/delta/2016/11/10/2016-ndlw-blog-discussion/.

2016 #NDLW Blog Discussion

computer-generated icons of a computer screen, a light bulb, and a check markGreetings and welcome to ODEE DELTA’s blog discussion in honor of National Distance Learning Week! To round out our events for the week, we are hosting a blog-based discussion about what makes distance learning effective (when it is), what online instructors need, and what we ought to expect from the future.

To engage in one (and hopefully all three) of these conversations, please post your thoughts on one or other of these topics and reply to what others have to say:

 

  • Topic #1: What aspect of distance learning do you think works best?  What would you say to peers to recruit them to try teaching (or learning) online?
  • Topic #2: What kinds of guidance and support have you found most useful for teaching online?  What kinds of guidance and support do you think new online instructors most need?
  • Topic #3: What does the future hold for distance learning?
    • Tools?
    • Pedagogical models?
    • Economic arrangements?
    • Institutional pressures?
    • Student demand?

Thank you for all you do, and we look forward to continuing the adventure with you all.

Team DELTA

photo of Marcia Ham

Marcia Ham

photo of henry griffy

Henry Griffy

photograph of Skylar Fought

Skylar Fought

Real World Writing in Online Learning

Yesterday, as a part of our celebration of National Distance Learning Week (#NDLW), Chris Manion and his team from Writing Across the Curriculum presented a webinar on incorporating real world writing in online learning.  In case you were unable to attend, here is a link to the recorded session: http://carmenconnect.osu.edu/p4e3dxhvgxl/.   Please feel free to post any questions you have about the webinar discussion here.

Have an idea for a future webinar topic?  Let us know by clicking on the Webinars tab at the top of this blog site!

Online Engagement Strategies Twitter Chat (11/7/2016 Monday)

Are you looking for ways to connect with your students via social media? Or maybe you’re curious about the ever-changing realm of Twitter and whether it can play a role in your courses? If so, we have the perfect opportunity for you!

graphic adaptation of the twitter bluebird icon made up of the word twitter repeated multiple times

Image by Pauline Arias

You are invited to join Team DELTA and colleagues from Ohio State and beyond in a Twitter chat on Monday, Nov. 7 from 1 p.m. via the @InnovateOSU account to help celebrate National Distance Learning Week. The theme of this chat is online engagement strategies, where you are encouraged to discuss your experiences in online learning and teaching.

“A ‘Twitter chat’?” You may be thinking. “What’s a ‘Twitter chat’? I thought Twitter was an asynchronous microblogging platform on which millions of users, celebritweens, journalesques, brand marketers, bots, trolls, and major party candidates for the presidency post 140-character utterances and images loosely joined to each other through a basic system of handles and hashtags.  Now you’re telling me there’s some fancy new way to use it that might have use for academic discourse?”

Indeed.

A Twitter chat aims to create a new kind of conversation by leveraging the use of handles (e.g., @InnovateOSU) and hashtags (e.g., #NDLW) to create just enough structure around the torrent that is your Twitter feed in order to bring the raw flat energy of Twitter to subjects that are more often discussed in highly routinized and usually hierarchical ways.  The basic rules are pretty simple:

  1. The organizer posts one or more questions, which they flag using a hashtag set up for the event (in our case, it will be #NDLW)
  2. Anyone can respond to that question tweet by posting a tweet flagged with the organizer’s handle (in our case, it will be @InnovateOSU), and the designated hashtag, #NDLW
  3. Anyone else can continue that thread by adding the other @participant’s handle

For more background on the emerging Twitter chat genre and guidance how to participate, see:

We also recommend getting together with a friend or two, especially if this is your first.

We hope to see you online,

Team DELTA

 

Ready, Set, Engage! Interactive OER for Student Engagement Webinar

When?  THIS FRIDAY, 11/4 from 12-1pm (EDT).""

Where?  Link: https://carmenconnect.osu.edu/oida 

Who?  Presented by Lynn Lease, PhD

Topic Overview

Wish your students would be more engaged? Come explore the world of interactive Open Educational Resources! In this webinar, we will explore and discuss repositories filled with interactive OERs, often linked directly to educational standards, shifting the paradigm from passive text-based instructional materials to interactive and engaging content. Participants will receive a checklist with specific strategies for locating, selecting, implementing, and evaluating interactive OERs.

Presenter Bio

Lynn Lease, PhD is the founding Director of the Center for Educational Excellence providing support for on-campus faculty in curriculum development, instructional design, student assessment, and teaching and learning strategies. She earned her PhD in Education with a specialization in Instructional Design for Online Learning. Beyond her position at UNOH, Lynn serves as a Master Reviewer for Quality Matters and is a member of the Ohio Instructional Designers Association.

Access Link: https://carmenconnect.osu.edu/oida

(Feel free to forward the meeting link to others who might want to join.)

Sponsored by:  Ohio Instructional Designers Association

The Ohio Instructional Designers Association is open to all of those who are passionate about education. The group is not limited to those who have the position title of “Instructional Designer.” Instructional Design can occur throughout the world of education. The group contains educators fulfilling various roles around the state of Ohio.

Follow them on Twitter! @ohioida 

Join their group on LinkedIn! https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7484981

Improving Student Online Learning through Writing, October 4, 2016

Writing is well-understood to be a powerful tool for learning, but it can seem daunting to include writing in an online course.  DELTA recently partnered with experts from OSU’s Writing Across the Curriculum program to present an hour-long webinar that describes how to incorporate writing in your online classes most effectively and without over-burdening yourself. For those who were not able to attend in real-time — or who might want to review the excellent discussion — we are hosting a recording of the webinar in CarmenConnect.

In this recording, you can learn how to design engaging, effective assignments that won’t overload your ability to grade them. Learn ways to pitch the complexity of writing assignments to your learning goals, ranging from brief informal writing through longer complex projects. Presented by Dr. Chris Manion, Nora McCook, and Genevieve Ritchie-Ewing of the OSU Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing and hosted by the OSU Distance Education Learning and Teaching Academy.

screen clip from writing online webinar

Click on this image to view the webinar