Chemistry Instructor at Grand Rapids Community College
Washington State University is using a wiki to create a repository for tutorials and information for technology on campus. Various groups on campus (Student Computing Services, Center for Teaching and Learning Technology, Information Technology, Help Desk) have the ability to modify the wiki. The wiki can be viewed at http://wiki.wsu.edu.
Linda Behling Gillis Ed.S presented various techniques to create a productive online discussion boards. The focus of this session was K-12, but the material definitely contains helpful hints for sustaining an online community.
The presentation and handout is available at the following link: http://www.texasvirtualschool.org/
The presentation can be found directly at http://www.texasvirtualschool.org/LetsTalk/start.html
Session was a presentation on collaborative learning in online courses. Much of the material presented reflected experience with group activities and some best practices that have worked in presenter’s online courses. The presenter uses a continuum of active and collaborative learning techniques which range from:
Individual Activities which are projects done individually and then shared with group.
Cooperative Activities which are projects parsed out to individual group members then combined to form a product.
Collaborative Activities which are projects that force groups to work together to produce a product.
Developing a community is important before assigning collaborative activities.
Things to consider:
Availability/Accessibility
Usability/Navigation
Flexibility/Structure
Clarity of Ownership
Permissions
Learner Support
Learner Management of Files
Storage Capacity
Training
Public Access
Public Access
Time of Functionality
Aesthetics
Archiving/Retention/Safeguard
