When I first read this article my first reaction was to post a comment suggesting that there are many well established standards of quality for online education. So when I scrolled through all the comments it was clear that almost everyone who commented had the same idea. Except for the sarcasm the first commentator Steve Foerster really captures the essence of what I was planning to say:
You’d think that online education were some new thing no one had ever heard of before. Why this and not one of the existing organizations focused in this area? I wonder sometimes whether anyone out there is better at reinventing the wheel than higher education administrators. They seem to be masters of leaping to the front of whatever parade they see and shouting “Follow me!”
I also have to agree with DrDave8563 who stated:
…Except instead of leaping to the front of this parade, they are leaping somewhere into the middle of the last third of the parade shouting “Follow me!” This parade has been going on since the Bulletin Board days – it’s hardly something new. There is a great deal of history and data about online education that already exists in both for-profit and not-for-profit realms.
There are many educators like myself who have been teaching online since the early 90’s and we have all seen a healthy complement of standards developed from organization like the Sloan Consortium, Quality Matters or any one of the many Universities who have been involved in online learning since its inception. So when I read the following statement by Hunter R. Rawlings III, the president of the Association of American Universities I have to sadly admit just how out of touch some of our academic leaders can be:
I think too many people are trying to deliver final judgment on the quality of online education, on the value of online education. It is just much too early in my mind to give any kind of final judgment. Let’s give this some time, and some real scrutiny.
We know what constitutes effective learning and exceptional learning designs. The technology plays a secondary role to effective learning design and whether the courses happens fully online, in a blended format or fully face2face we KNOW what good constitutes good education. I have always been hesitant to pile on and take shots at academic administrators because I have spent time in senior leadership so I understand the challenges. However, I have to admit that this is one time when a group of administrators are publicly demonstrating just how out of touch they are with the reality of the learning environment and the research. As one of my peers was so apt to point out with their comment this is an example of the
“blind leading the sighted”
On a positive note, I expect this group of academic heavy hitters to leverage their positions and influence and produce a report that will satisfy the online learner critics.
Abilene Christian University’s (ACU) mobile-enhanced inquiry-based learning (MEIBL) is a blended learning strategy which creates an active and engaging learning environment, producing increased student engagement, maintenance of academic performance and improvements in student persistence and course completion. MEIBL addresses the greatest barriers for inquiry-based learning, minimizing time requirements of providing differentiated instruction and providing the fundamental guidance necessary for the inquiry process. Time saved on information transfer through MEIBL strategies enable faculty to mentor learners to engage course content at a deeper level.
Perhaps the most exciting part of the MEIBL initiative is that it can be replicated or extended to almost any learning environment. While Delmar College (DMC) in the southern Texas, and California University (UCal) of Pennsylvania are the first two formal partners in the ACU MEIBL research project the program principles found on the MEIBL site can easily be extended to any other post secondary institutions.
ABILENE, TX April 12, 2011 — In its continued effort to increase student engagement using innovative technology-enabled approaches, Abilene Christian University’s (ACU) mobile-learning initiative, Connected, today announced it was awarded nearly $250,000 from Wave I of the Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) grants.
The grant money will be used to scale ACU’s mobile-enhanced inquiry-based learning (MEIBL) program demonstrating its effectiveness in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programs at two schools — Del Mar College and California University of Pennsylvania — both that have low-income students who are at the highest risk of failing or dropping out. MEIBL is a blended learning strategy which helps creates an active and engaging learning environment, producing increased student engagement, independence, and persistence to course completion.
Research conducted through ACU’s Mobile Learning initiative, Connected, provides evidence that mobile device usage consistently results in creased ratings of student engagement (Perkins & Saltsman, 2011). Findings also show that student teams effectively use pre-class viewing of instructive podcasts to reduce in-class instructional time and to facilitate just-in-time review which fosters independent, collaborative and active learning processes in basic science labs (Powell, 2009; Saltsman, Crisp, Perkins & Powell, 2010).
“To provide new methods of learning to students who otherwise would drop out or fail is precisely the foundation of ACU’s mobile learning initiative,” said Dwayne Harapnuik PhD, Director of Faculty Enrichment at Abilene Christian University. “It’s an honor that the NGLC recognizes the benefits of our MEIBL program.”
Over the next 18 months, California University of Pennsylvania and Del Mar will implement MEIBL with students in biology, zoology and botany courses. ACU currently uses MEIBL with over 400 students in chemistry and biochemistry courses and will apply the MEIBL to additional classes with a portion of the grant money.
In this first wave of grant funding, NGLC awarded a combined total of $11 million to organizations developing promising education technology solution. The $20 million grant program is run by Educause and sustained mostly by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
ABOUT ACU’S MOBILE-LEARNING INITIATIVE, CONNECTED
In a world of search engines, social networking, and mobile computers, students have access to more information than one could process in a lifetime. In 2008, Abilene Christian University launched a mobile-learning initiative, Connected, which trains students to not merely consume these vast amounts of information, but to assess information, synthesize thoughts, generate new ideas, and contribute meaningfully to conversations of global importance. The university hosts live and online conferences for educators and administrators to engage in dialogue, research and idea-sharing. ACU was named one of “America’s Best Colleges” by U.S. News and World Report in its 2011 edition. In 2010, Forbes rated ACU in the top seven percent of colleges and universities in its “America’s Best Colleges” rankings. It enrolls 4,700 students, generally from 50 states and territories, and 42 nations. For more information visit http://www.acu.edu/connected
If you are interested in using the Learner’s Mindset Study Skill in your class/course/program please fill in this Google Form and we will send you the access information when the program launches – https://forms.gle/gDFZhZvvYQzhqHGw9
In the Applied Digital Learning (ADL) program students develop an innovation project that they work on throughout their time in the program. In contrast EdTech students only have 4 courses in the ADL. To help you with the adjustment to the ADL program and to deal with the authentic learning opportunity/project focus of the ADL we have put together the following resources specifically for EdTech students.
EdTech and Educational Leadership students will need an innovation project to work on for the 4 courses you are taking in the ADL program. The Leadership Project that is part of your practicum log can/should be used as the project in the ADL courses. It will add 20 hours to the overall Internship/Practicum Log so you need to pick a project/topic that fits under the Leadership umbrella and that you can then build on in each of the ADL courses. You have control over the choice of the project/topic and we encourage you to use the Choosing your Innovation Project section below to help you decide on what you can do. If you have spent any time at all in an instructional environment you can easily see many things that may need to be fixed. Focusing on fixing one of these problems is a good start for your innovation plan project. The ADL Why & Principles page provides the theoretical background for why authentic projects are so important for what we ask you to do in the program.
The ePortfolio (eP) is another very important component of ALL ADL courses. You will need an ePortfolio to complete all of the assignments in each of the courses. We suggest creating one with a simple tool such as Wix or WordPress. Both applications have lots of video help. You must include a blog page on your site, so Google Sites is not typically recommended because there is no built-in blog page. The Minimalist Fundamentals of ePortfolios section below will point you to the same resources that ADL students use to create ePortfolios.
Hopefully, the following information we have put together will give you a better idea of the how, the why, and the what you are heading into. In every course from the ADL program, there are facets that you will be able to include in the practicum report.
What to Expect from the ADL
The Applied Digital Learning (ADL) at Lamar University is designed with and uses constructivist principles that make it different from traditional programs. We believe that it is important to more than talk the constructivist talk and actually walk the constructivist walk have moved beyond the rhetoric by a creating significant learning environment (CSLE) in which we give learners choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities (COVA).
To better understand the CSLE+COVA vs Traditional table comparisons in the video please take a few moments to review the full tables and explanations found at:
How the ADL is Different and What That Means to You
You will NOT find checklists, progress bars, completion status checks, competency or activity-focused rubrics, quizzes, and other related lower-order thinking or behaviorist tools or methods that will help you to check a completed activity off a list in the ADL program. The post Why I Don’t Use Checklists, Progress Bars & Other Activity Monitors will help you to understand and work through the constructivist and outcome-based education foundation that we use in the ADL.
Change in Focus
Shifting your focus from traditional information and content-focused instruction to using authentic learning opportunities, summed up as projects, will help you to make the adjustment to the ADL program. You can view Part B of this video series and explore additional resources that will help you with your Change in Focus.
Minimalist Fundamentals of ePortfolios:
I make the argument that ePortfolios can and should be simple to understand and, more importantly, simple to create and maintain. Especially if we keep the academic and scholarly jargon down to a minimum and focus on what we need to know and do to effectively use ePortfolios to enhance learning. Dwayne’s Minimalist ePortfolio Fundamentals
Why Do You Need to Have an Innovation Project?
In EDLD 5315 you will be asked to create an action research plan to measure the impact of your innovation project. Being able to effectively measure the impact of a learning innovation project is a key responsibility of all educational technology leaders.
In EDLD 5317 you will be asked to create a podcast or long-form video and a publication about some aspect of your innovation project. As educational technology leaders, we need to be able to share how others can bring out an effective change in the learning environment. Being able to promote these enhancements to learning is an essential part of our professional responsibility.
In EDLD 5318 you will be asked to create an online or online blended course that will be related to your Innovation Project. If you consider the above example moving your Professional Learning online would be a great option that will benefit you and your learners.
In EDLD 5389 you will be asked to create a Professional Learning Plan/Strategy that will be based on your Innovation Project. Once again we encourage you to look to your organization and consider what needs to be improved or enhanced. The remote teaching that most people have resorted to because of the pandemic doesn’t work that well and you may want to look at how you can move from remote teaching to blended learning; this would be a great innovation project that will require considerable professional learning.
Blended Learning Resource we use in the ADL:
Horn, M. B., & Staker, H. (2014). Blended: Using disruptive innovation to improve schools. John Wiley & Sons.
Course Design & Fink’s 3 Column Table
The online course you will be asked to create in EDLD 5318 will require the development of a course map that will take the form of Fink’s 3-Column Table. Consider the following video to help you develop the course map for the course you will be putting online. Even though I refer to EDLD 5313 where ADL students have the opportunity to develop their course maps this applies to the course map you will be asked to develop for EDLD 5318. Also note that the development of the course map was one of six activities students addressed in EDLD 5313 and this task can be accomplished in over a few hours. Once you are familiar with the process you can develop a course map for an existing course in very short order so this is a very useful tool to learn how to use.
4 Keys to aligning outcomes activities & assessment – There is an easy way and a difficult way to work through Fink’s taxonomy and the 3 column table – please take my advice and use this post and use the easy way.
Mapping Your Learner’s Journey – It is our responsibility to guide our learners through their personal development journey and help them take ownership of their learning.
Why Create Significant Learning Environments – Are you looking at the bigger picture or have you intellectually stepped far enough back to see the full learning environment?
Why you need a BHAG to design learning environments – Use a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) to help define a visionary type goal that is more strategic and emotionally compelling rather than being simply tactical.
