Facilitating Online Learning - Week 1

This is the first week of a new class. It has been hectic with no break to finalize assignments from the last class before starting this one. So far, though, the class has been helpful and will help enhance my online teaching skills.

I can relate the examples of online learning to my daily experiences at work. We are trying to get some teachers to do a blended class and there is some resistance. This comes mainly from a lack of understanding of how to relate to the students in an online environment. Some of the resources that I gather in this will hopefully help them through the process.

So far, I have had no problems using the management system or using the discussion boards. Once we got past the initial login problem last week it has been pretty straightforward. I do like how it is organized and how easy it is to find our assignments.

I will be using Elluminate on a regular basis soon. We are testing some new software from Pearson called Fronter. This is a new LMS environment that is very popular in Europe. In this program Elluminate is a built-in module. We will be using this software for blended classes, for professional development, and for holding administrative meetings. This will be playing a big part in our future communications.

I tried something new in these modules. I actually took one of the quizzes on the gallery tour. This is not usually something that I do but I wanted to test my knowledge on a topic that I was not really familiar with. This gave me an idea to possibly use this method with our staff. After a professional development session we could use a tool like this to see if they understood the material.

Looking forward to next week's class.

Decision Making - Week 6

Well, I finished my last assignment last night. I am glad to be done with this class. I will admit, it was not as bad as I thought it would be. I did learn a lot about statistics and I understand it more now than I did when I was younger. Maybe it is more of a willingness to learn it this time instead of just taking the class as a filler math class in college.

I found some interesting data on the Archives web site. I was not sure what to look up then I found a search for military records. I looked up data on my Grandfather who was a World War II veteran and a prisoner in a German camp for a few months. I was able to find information about his enlistment such as where he enlisted, his term of enlistment, and more. I was also able to find out some information on his time a the German camp. It listed his date of capture, where he was held, and his status (released/rescued). This topic was something he never talked about but I have always been fascinated with. Even though the amount of data on him was minimal I did learn somethings.

I am looking forward to our next class already. Learning how to facilitate an online class will be helpful to me in the future. I am working with some software now that has Elluminate built into its interface. I plan on offering professional development to our teachers and staff starting in the Spring. This is coming just in time. Hopefully I will pickup some good tips to help me plan and manage my classes.

Decision Making - Week 5

This week we took a look at Google Trends. I have heard of people looking at this site before to see the latest hot topics on Google but I had never gone there myself. I liked that users can search keywords and see traffic on that topic over a period of time. Also, to be able to go back to that period of time to see the news and blogs posts related to the topics was nice. Overall, I think it is a good basic tool to gather information. As far as using it in a business setting, I do not think that this is an appropriate tool. There is not enough information given here to make wise business decisions.

As for the statistics part of the class this week, I found the work on z scores to be helpful. I am still a bit confused as to how to calculate it properly but a little more work on it and I will understand it just fine. I will also be glad when we are finished with this class. It has not been difficult but it has been quite a bit of work. Looking forward to moving on to the next class.

Decision Making - Week 4

This last two weeks has been a lot of work. The survey we put together was related to some information that I wanted to gather at work. So I spent a lot of time putting together questions and making sure they were worded the way I wanted. Finally the survey went out and 24 few hours had 80 responses! Great turnout and the results were good for my department.

Now that this process is done it is time to start the in-depth analysis of the results. I am looking forward to what the results really mean.

It also seems that this week and next we some larger assignments. The Hitwise assignment this week is going to take some time. Hitwise is an interesting company but I wonder how accurate they can be with the information they gather. Just because a topic is searched, for example, a political candidate, does not meant that that person is going to win or have a large turnout in their favor. It is interesting to see the trends in searching but I am not sure that it really means all that much in the end.

Decision Making - Week 3

Survey says...

That is the theme this week. I never knew so much thought and planning had to go into a survey. It is a lot more difficult than I thought.

After our group decided on the topic and our participants it was time to put the survey together. Much harder than predicted. I have created a number of surveys in Survey Monkey for our school but I never created the survey from scratch. It was always done by someone else and I just put it in the system. I thought I had a good handle on it until I started putting it in a document. Then everything fell apart.

Hopefully things will come together as we talk about it more in our group. I am looking forward to seeing the results and starting the process of analysis.

Decision Making - Week 2

Pirates and monkeys. That is what will stick with me most this week. Despite my lack of enthusiasm, the statistics part of the class has not been that bad and I am starting to understand things a bit more.

The assignment that took the most of my time was the survey comparison. One of the sites that caught my eye was Survey Pirate. I happened to see that title in the list and had to check it out. After all, last Sunday was International Talk Like A Pirate Day! (Everyone knows about this, right? Was I the only one celebrating?)

After visiting the site, not only was I disappointed that there were no pirates but the software was not that good. You can't judge a book by its cover, right?

The other site I checked out was Survey Monkey. I had used this site in the past but have been off of it for about 2 years. I was surprised at all of the new features that were added. I was also surprised that, after adding these features, the price of the site did not go up. There were lots of great enhancements and the price is great (only $200/year for unlimited responses).

I really enjoyed the Capterra site as well. What a great resource for finding any sort of software that you may need. Who knew that there were so many choices!

Decision Making - Week 1

Statistics. Not my favorite subject. I was a poor math student in high school and college. It just does not interest me unless it has to do with physics, which I find fascinating. The process of coming up with statistics is very boring to me. So, to say the least, I am not looking forward to the math part of this class.

One thing that I do like is to look at numbers and analyze them. Numbers can tell a story. When it comes to statistics at work, it my job is to export data, like grades, attendance, and test scores from our student information system and get them to others to compute and analyze.

I am hoping that this class will provide me a better toolset for dealing with statistics. I would like to know how to better analyze the statistics and put them to good use. Our school has been doing data driven instruction for the last couple of years. This is the type of class that I need to better understand that process.