Office Chat: Importance of Quality Children’s Literature

Now you may be wondering about the connection between children’s literature and teaching and learning online. With apologies to Malcom Knowles, it is my belief that we can benefit greatly by investigating how successful teaching and learning occurs with any population. Here Kelly Andrus of the University of Mary Washington College of Graduate and Professional Studies discusses issues related to reading and the importance of using visuals to help those students having problems with text-only books.

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Office Chat: Culturally Responsive Teaching

I had the pleasure of talking with Dr. Kavatus Newell today about Culturally Responsive Teaching. In this interview Dr. Newell explains that culturally responsive teaching is a method for differentiating our instruction to facilitate learning for students of differing cultural backgrounds.  Just as we can enhance learning by incorporating visuals for visual learners and multimedia for auditory learners, we can assist students from diverse cultures by creating an inviting environment in which to learn.

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Office Chat: English as a Second Language

I am fascinated every time I visit the office of one of the professors here at the University of Mary Washington College of Graduate and Professional Studies. The topics have been important and the discussions absorbing. Here Patricia Reynolds brings to the venue her many years of research, experience, and caring about second language learners and their success.

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Office Chat: Parallel Curriculum Model

Today, I continue my conversations with University of Mary Washington (UMW) faculty by talking with Dr. Rebecca Hayes about the Parallel Curriculum Model (PCM). My purpose is to stimulate my own thinking (and hopefully the reader’s thinking as well) about new ways to support learning in online classes.

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Office Chat: Strategy Instruction

In this office chat, Dr. Norah Hooper describes two systems of visual organizers in use in her field of special education. Again, as I have mentioned before, the topics covered in these office chats have application to online instruction as well. If we listen with our minds open, Dr. Hooper is describing a deliberate and methodical approach to learning and teaching that may be leveraged as part of our teaching tool set.

The first system of graphic organizers which Hooper discusses are “Thinking Maps” as developed by David Hyerle and published in his 1995 book, Thinking Maps: Tools for Learning. She mentions that such meta-cognitive tools are helpful in working with students with learning difficulties. One thing that makes these maps work is that they are constructed by the learner rather than “hand-outs” from the teacher.

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Office Chat: Understanding by Design

We have a tremendously talented faculty here at the University of Mary Washington. Dr. Beverly Epps teaches in our College of Graduate and Professional Studies in the area of education. I sat down with Dr. Epps the other day so she could share her insights into “Understanding by Design.”

What strikes me in these conversations with our education faculty is how these principles, which are being taught to practicing or future school teachers, are just as applicable in teaching university students both in the traditional classroom or online.

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Office Chat: Differentiated Instruction

It is often beneficial to step back from our current processes and look at what we do through the lens of others - from a different perspective. Just as inventions developed for space exploration have been adapted for use in our daily lives we in distance learning can benefit by looking into the common practices of educators in other areas.

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Office Chats

A new feature on the Online Learning blog is a series of informal conversations with faculty on teaching and learning online. Our first chat asks Dr. Mukesh Srivastava, Assistant Professor of Computer Information Systems, for his understanding of social constructivism as applies to professional students at the University of Mary Washington College of Graduate and Professional Studies.

The video is available from the “Featured Video” section on the right of the blog home page or directly from YouTube or shown below:
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Issue: Pre-term Requirements Due upon First Class Meeting.

Here’s an interesting issue with application both to traditional face-to-face instruction and to online teaching and learning. It is not uncommon for a professor to have students complete some reading or other assignment before the first class meeting. This allows the first class to be more than a “greet and meet”.

Here is a possible framework for discussing the issue.

Assumptions:

• It is the professor’s prerogative to assign pre-term activities.
• Such pre-term requirements should be reasonable.
• It is theoretically possible to assign a level of pre-term activities which would be more than reasonable.
• Especially in an 8 week term, little time can be wasted.
• It is difficult, if not counterproductive, to lecture for the entirety of the first class meeting in an evening 3-hour class meeting or Saturday six-hour class meeting.

Considerations:

• Course expectations should be available to students at the time of registration in order to make course selections appropriate to that student.
• Access to the professor should be available during some period of time before the registration period so that students may inquire about the course requirements.

Questions:

• What is the maximum time commitment that should be required for pre-term activities (per class type)?
• Who should establish such a standard?
• Should pre-term assignments affect grading?

Ideas for pre-term and first class meetings:

• Post info on “Additional Requirements” section of Class Schedule in Banner: http://www.umw.edu/registrar/course_schedules_registrat/default.php.
• Post “Out of Office” message in email/voice mail which contains information about pre-term requirements.
• Write boilerplate reply for complaints – while in a pleasant frame of mind!
• Realize that email is sometimes misread in tone and tenor. Student inquiries may not be pejorative but rather looking for encouragement.
• Consider using phone call to respond rather than e-mail.
• Use portion of first class meeting for exploratory activity in class (possibly facilitated via web).
• Use portion of first class to have library services explain online database access.
• Use Senteo Clicker system, especially for first class meeting.
• Begin small group facilitation by forming groups in class for short activity to be followed by outside class collaboration.
• Begin work on long term projects during first class – brainstorming, group selection, interest inventory.
• Establish and record parameters for use in “action research” project.
• Use online collaborative concept mapping/brainstorming tool (Gliffy, Bubbl.us, Mindmeister, etc.) on overhead or in small groups with laptops.
• Use online collaborative document system (Google docs, Zoho, etc.)

Follow Up Activities:

• Examine syllabus for possible alteration and accommodation to minimize pre-term assignment load.
• Re-examine and compare learning outcomes from 14 and 8 versions of class.
• Program (departmental) meeting to discuss and come to consensus on pre-term assignments.

Faculty Interest & Needs Assessment

The University of Mary Washington is investigating the need and interest in teaching some of its courses in a blended or fully online environment. As part of this process, the interest level of the faculty is being gauged along with potential needs for professional development and/or technological support. A survey is available to full and part time faculty. The survey is being administered to faculty on the CGPS campus first with a subsequent administration to CAS faculty at a later date. If you are a part time or full time instructor on the CGPS campus and have not been emailed a link to the survey, please contact John St.Clair, Director of Distance and Blended Learning.

The software tool being used for this survey is Zarca and is available on the web.

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