Category Archives: LD Community Meeting

Reflection 7/22/13-7/26/13

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Accomplishments:

    • IST 220
      • 2 notes from Nick G about items that he’d like to see done to improve the course
        • One is about a screen cast that shows how to do a screen cap in VHOL
        • One is about creating a better survey in ANGEL for team creation
        • Received another note from Nick about cloudshark
          • The way that he’s thinking of implementing it would erase many of the IT related issues that we currently have
          • It would also allow us to focus our efforts on exactly what we want students to learn
          • Emailed Amy S & Nick about getting together to talk about major revision that Nick has planned
      • Met on 5/2 from 11:00-12:00 to discuss
        • He would like OIDI to create a virtual Finite State Machine
        • He included a powerpoint with examples of what he would like
        • Need to assemble a team to get this rolling
        • Spoke with Allison and Ranjani about possible participation in this project
        • Emailed Marc on 5/31 about getting together to discuss the project
        • Meeting planned for 6/5 concerning project
        • Alison, Ranjani, and Will are working on the project. Plan to meet in a week or so
        • Ranjani sent a prototype for Marc to view on 6/26
    • IST 230 (Newcomer)
      • The truth tables are completed
        • Feedback from Kent about video on the page (& in the rest of the course)
          • Would be nice to point students more clearly on where to start the tables – Done
          • Can make the video accessible by ios devices. Here is an evernote on how.
      • Email sent to Larry on 4/9
        • Reply from Toni D; positive about the final product
      • Amy G pointed me to some resources that were available from the past.
        • I plan to take a closer look and share with Larry for possible inclusion in later semesters
      • Note from Larry on 5/9 that there is something that needs to be fixed
        • Emailed Greg for help
        • This should have been done earlier but it’s another reason we need professional ed tech
        • Texted Greg on 5/31 and worked with Ranjani to fix the issue
      • Eric is starting work on making videos accessible by mobile on 7/1
    • IST 240 (Fonseca)
      • Talked to Lisa and she was going to touchbase with Mary Beth about reforming committee
      • Meeting on 5/1 about the course with Fred rescheduled for 5/8 b/c of grading needs
        • Meeting again rescheduled for 5/15 b/c of being behind
      • Received note on 5/20 that Fred could make meeting this week, so I shared my feelings about the project getting behind.
        • He sent me materials and nice note.
      • Moved Hal’s materials into an Archive folder in the dev section and deleted gradebook
      • Updated the course and made a few more adjustments based upon the file sent and a google+ hangout session on 5/23 & 24
      • Received an email on 5/29 that Fred changed his mind and is revamping the course
      • Looked more closely over the edits and plan to make adjustements next week when I have time
      • Fred sent me materials up through Lesson 11 over the weekend
        • Plan to work with Ranjani on setting up the course
      • Meeting planned for 6/24 on google hangout from 1:30-2:30
        • Able to determine a few items for the course. Here are my notes:
          • When: Jun 24, 2013 1:30:00 PM
            Where: Google hangout
            Proposed Agenda

            Syllabus

            • I did a bit of rewriting to firm up the syllabus and fit other items into the standard template
              • See Course Objectives
              • See Materials
              • See Tech Specs
              • See Grading & Assignments
            • Can’t find Sams text about Java in Safari Books. – found under java development
              • Should we be asking students to purchase this?
              • Or should we move to a different text.

            Final Project

            • Reworked Project Overview
            • Added Evaluation to Rubric in ANGEL to connect to dropbox

            Lesson 00 contents

            • Need criteria for survey – file sent

            Lesson 01 contents

            • Talk about basic flow for the lesson – put content on drupal, the order should b
              • Content
              • Labs
              • Assignment
      • On 6/25, began to move things into drupal and could see that there is a ton to process
      • Help from Amy G to think about how to leverage student help
      • Put place holders in ANGEL with materials from Fred
      • On 6/25 & 26 able to get materials into drupal for Lessons 1 & 2. Plan to add one per day until it is all in
      • On 6/27 able to get materials into drupal for Lesson 3.
      • On 6/28 finished Lesson 4 and Allison did Lesson 5, 6, & 8. Will finished up Lesson 9 and updated content to formatted.
      • Also, Will and I worked on making the self assessments open upon submission in ANGEL. Need to send a ticket to ANGEL Support next week about this.
    • IST 250 (Bixler)
      • Met with Brett on 1/30 to discuss adjustments
        • Mostly items that Brett will fix
        • He will send me changes to the curriculum as Word docs for me to update
        • Sent Brett a meeting request for Wed. 7/24 from 1:30-2:30
          • We met, & I received items to adjust the course with
    • IST 302 (Clark)
      • Sent note to Shawn about new text
        • He replied that if the book changed significantly we would have to do a revision
          • I sent a reply back to let him know that it didn’t change much and to see if he needed a copy
          • He said yes, and I sent a request to Kathy W on 4/8
          • Checked in with Amy S about the possibility of revision
          • I don’t think it’s necessary
            • Talked briefly with Shawn on 5/21 that I didn’t think the course needed a revision
            • Received the book and clarified with James C on 5/31 that we were going with the 7th edition
          • Jan said that she planned to add quizzes to the course
    • IST 402 (Jansen)
      • Meeting set up by Amy S for 6/12 to discuss new topic around Jim Jansen’s f2f 402 “The Google Online Marketing Challenge”
      • Sounds like a good idea from several perspectives:
        • student engagement via competition
        • marketing to students in other majors for minor
      • Few possible obstacles
        • Not enough students from other majors with complementary skills
        • Large need for synchronous meetings
        • Large time commitment
      • Email sent on 6/12 to Jim to set up meeting for June 24-28
        • Meeting planned for June 24 from 3-4
          • Looks like lots of captivates
          • Need to put together a process to share with him to make this streamlined
          • Need to have a drupal space created
          • He probably won’t be able to get me product until August 1
      • Put in request to IST Helpdesk to create ist402gomc site for Jansen’s course
        • received notification on 6/26 that this was done
        • sent a footprints request to set up the site on 6/27 to Ranjani and Will
        • Will overlayed template on the course
  • Summer ’13 Courses
    • IST 230
      • Sec 001 (Larry)
        • No time to grade or call Larry this week b/c of catching up from the iTech Academy
  • Fall ’13 Courses
    • IST 110
      • Sec 001 (Garbrick)
        • Ok from Amy G to copy last version into the space
        • Export/Import done on 6/4
        • Let Amy that it was done and ready for her to set up
      • Sec 002 (M. Lipton)
        • Checked in about copying in last version of the course into her space on 5/31
          • Reply on 6/1 that it was okay
        • Finally got to uploading on 6/12 and emailed Mary
      • Sec 003 ()
        • See it on my profile, but no word of what is going on
    • IST 111S
      • Sec 001 (Deirdre)
        • Emailed Deirdre on 6/12 about populating her space
        • Received note on 6/17 that she needs to make a few adjustments before this should be done
        • I replied that I would bring the course over on July 1 if I hadn’t heard anything
        • Set up the section & sent email to Deirdre on July 1
    • IST 210
      • Sec 001 (Gary)
        • Started on 6/13 after consultation
          • Finished & ready for Fall ’13
      • Sec 002 (Liz)
        • Started on 6/13 after consultation
          • Finished & ready for Fall ’13
    • IST 220
      • Sec 001 (Mike)
        • Populated & finished the course on 7/22
        • Note from Mike that he’d like the Collaborate sessions to be published
          • working with Eric on getting these ready for his section
      • Sec 002 (Hyunjeong)
        • Populated the course on 7/17
        • Finished setting it up on 7/22
    • IST 260W
      • Sec 001 (Long)
        • Note from Amy S on 6/26 that the section is filled and adding Wilson for section 002
          • Sent out note on 6/26 about populating section next Monday
          • Finished setting up the course on 7/9
      • Sec 002 (Wilson)
        • Sent out note on 6/26 about populating section next Monday
        • Finished setting up the course on 7/10
    • IST 295B
      • Sec 001 (Kari)
        • Finished setting up the course on 7/9
    • IST 301
      • Sec 001 (Jan)
        • Sent email on 6/26 letting her know that I populated section from Spring ’13 into her Fall ’13 section
        • Completed the course set up on 7/1
    • IST 302
      • Sec 001 (Jan)
        • Started on 6/13 because she would like to add exams for each lesson
          • My part is done
    • IST 331
      • Sec 001 (Wenk)
        • Set up the course on 6/17 based upon sp13 version upon Bill’s request
        • Talked to Emily on 6/18 via google+ hangout about the course
        • Plan is to have a 3-way conversation with Bill about how best to set the course up for her in Fall
          • Did this on 7/22
            • I deleted the materials from the course & copied over Summer ’13 materials from Bill’s course
            • Plan to have video on paper prototyping added to drupal
              • Eric working on this part
    • IST 402
      • Sec 001 (Jansen)
        • Received a note that he wants the section populated
        • Didn’t find this on my profile, so asked him to add me if he sees it on his
        • They added Melissa instead of me, so Jim added me.
        • Set up the section and sent him an email on 6/5
    • IST 420
      • Secs 001 & 002 (Ocker)
        • merged secs 001 & 002 together
    • IST 421
      • Secs 001 & 002 (Cantor)
        • merged secs 001 & 002 together
    • IST 440W
      • Sec 001 (Jim W)
        • Populated on 7/9
      • Sec 002 (Rob L)
        • Populated on 7/9
    • IST 495
      • Sec 001 (Kari)
        • Populated and notified Madhavi

Ongoing Projects:

    • Updated google spreadsheet for Fall ’13 google schreadsheet 

Immediate Decisions / Issues:

    • Need LMS that better integrates and includes tools that we use in our classes.

Important Dates:

  • July 2 Sick Day – Family 4h, Self 4h
  • July 4 Holiday
  • July 5 Vacation Day – 8h
  • July 11 Vacation Day – 8h
  • July 12 Vacation Day – 8h
  • August 19 Vacation Day – 8h
  • August 20 Vacation Day – 8h
  • August 26 Vacation Day – 8h

Learning Design Community Meeting 07/26/13

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Invigorated by my time at Learning Design Summer Camp, so I got myself to July 2013 Community Meeting. Angela Dick & Megan Kohler shared their experiences on how the MOOC’s are going.

Since Angela was working on the art mooc & Megan is working on the Epidemics MOOC. I found myself comparing & contrasting both of their experiences.

Here are some similarities:

  • Target audiences in the MOOC’s are varied and always moving. This can be one of the issues with preparing for the experience. It is interesting to know that seasoned artists would be interested in an intro to art course. Sounds like since the Epidemics course is open & free that many from the medical education community are going to use the course as an opportunity to give their students a chance to apply their knowledge and skills. I would imagine that this will not be the only type of learner. It’s refreshing to see those from different walks of life get an opportunity to share a learning experience. I’ll be interested to hear more about the interaction.
  • Short timeline for preparation
  • Issues with the backend of Coursera

Here are some differences:

  • Design team constitution. Art had 2 id’s, 2 videographers, an instructor, and a ta while Epidemics has 8 faculty, 3 graphic designers, an id, and a production crew
  • Costs. It sounded like Art didn’t have as much of a budget while the Epidemics course is way over their allotted 50 K budget (actual spending is several millions.

I have some other thoughts that resonated with me:

  • As Megan talked about her experience of designing without objectives and goals that you have to think differently about MOOC’s because of the time for development and other factors. I was reminded of the ELI Annual Meeting that Cassandra Horrii & Leslie Maxfield talking about having to think about certain factors when creating MOOC’s in their session Roadmap to Launching a MOOC. Here is what Cassandra & Leslie presented along with some of my thoughts: https://sites.psu.edu/rep129blog/2013/02/07/eli-meeting-day-3/. 
  • Angela was surprised at how serious the students in the Arts course were despite it being a free an open experience.
  • The notion of cost came up a few times. I’m not sure we can currently know the financial impact of MOOC’s. I’m sure that much of the benefit lies in the future. But are the initial, up-front costs too much to overcome? This is a question that will be answered soon, I’m sure.

LD Community Meeting – May 2012

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RToday’s meeting was about perception and how it applies to Instructional Design.

Here is the TED talk by Rory Sutherland “Perspective is Everything”

Idea from the discussion: Does Control=Happiness? According to the video, this is true. How does this relate to how we design courses?

Reflection:
To me it is important to use theory and experience to design courses. Analytics are becoming more and more a part of the discussion. But do students always know what’s best for them. I think that many times student do not realize how important ideas that they learn are until later.

Idea from the discussion: How many options are we providing? We should control options thoughtfully.

Reflection:
This is a great point made by Kent Matsueda. We cannot inundate students with every permutation possible. We need to widdle down choices for students so they can choice from options that make sense for leaning.

Idea from the discussion: Art vs. science – there is no difference

Reflection: Brian Young made a comment that made me think about the relationship between art and science. In education, we always try to break everything down into compartments. But do ideas actually exist that way. The idea of techne was brought up by Jeff refering to how we cannot separate art from science and that the dissection is more of a Western idea.

Idea from the discussion: It is possible to control instruction not the learning

Reflection: There was a discussion started by Stevie Rocco on yammer within the ID community that revolved around this. I tend to agree with this. It affects the way that I design in that I want to put students in a position to have success, but many of the factors that lead to learning are out of my control.

I enjoyed the meeting and the opportunity to think about Instructional Design and look forward to the continued discussion at the Learning Design Summer Camp 2012.

Reflection 03/12/12-03/16/12

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Accomplishments:

  • Spring ’12 courses running
    • IST 110
      • Received a question from Rob L about how UPick Quizzes worked for implementation and grading
        • Responded to question and follow up question
      • Found a question in the Chapter 4 set that needed to be fixed in ANGEL through the Canvas pilot and fixed in the development section
    • IST 420
      • Met with John H and crew
        • There is a new version of the textbook coming out; need to update for fall
    • Spring ’12 revisions
      • IST 210 (Heberling)
        • Meeting with Gary H discussed things done and addressed the future
          • I adjusted the peer eval to match what is currently in the WC version for criteria
          • Gary will look at labs and team project milestones
          • He also requested to see the Google Docs Activity from 110
            • Provided him access to the 110 development section and sent him both the Team Video Project and Google Docs Activity documents
      • IST 220 (Bertin)
        • Received a call from Lisa that she had completed the edits
        • Directed her to drupal to make the edits
        • Discussion forums, Review Questions, Team Project, Introduction Documents, and Virtual Labs all revised
        • Plan to take a closer look to be updated in the development space
      • IST 240 (Smith)
        • Received a note from Hal & files for Lesson 10
        • He plans to send Lesson 11 by the end of the week
        • Placed lesson 10 in the course
        • Three videos transcribed and added under the video
      • IST 402 (Cameron) – I’ll be assisting Melissa when needed
      • IST 402 (Saab)
        • Met with David on 3/12
        • Plan for David to put together the topics for online deployment by April 2
      • IST 421 (Hill)
        • Sent out a meeting request to John for Friday March 30
    • Madison proposal
      • Received confirmation that I have been selected to present for the 28th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning in Madison, WI in the lightning session format. The session title is “An overview to providing accessible videos using free tools.”
      • Deadlines
        • May 4 – Upload required paper for Conference Proceedings and Resources publication
        • June 4 – Register for the conference (instructions will be sent)
        • July 4 – Upload session handout(s)
    • Attended the Learning Design Community Meeting. Here are the notes and reflections on this opportunity:https://sites.psu.edu/rep129blog/2012/03/16/ld-community-meeting-march-2012/
    • Attended the Educational Gaming Brownbag Session. Here are the notes and reflections on this opportunity: https://sites.psu.edu/rep129blog/2012/03/16/educational-gaming-brownbag-economics-university/
    • Summer ’12 Course Prep
      • IST 110
        • Sec 001
          • Larry notified about course being prepped and consulted about whether it was okay to use the dev space materials or Fall ’11
          • Sent a reply that he would check & then I can move from there
        • Sec 002
          • Rob notified about course being prepped and consulted about whether it was okay to copy materials from Spring ’12
          • He replied saying yes, and I export/imported materials
          • I also adjusted the current Spring ’12 schedule to fit into the Summer ’12 schedule. This is a tentative schedule based upon feedback from Larry on the schedule
        • Sec 003
          • Awaiting Larry’s reply before populating the space
          • Probably should check in with Amy S about who she thinks will teach it to determine which version to populate the section w/
      • IST 111S
        • Sec 001
          • Deirdre notified about course being prepped and consulted about whether it is okay to use Spring ’12 as the section to copy
          • Plan to remove course schedule from the syllabus since she already places the course schedule under the Lessons tab in ANGEL

    Ongoing Projects:

    • Updating google doc for Summer ’12
    • Working on Summer 2012 courses: 110, 111S, 210, 220, 230, 240, 295B, 301, 302, 420 EA (Melissa), 421, 495
    • Still need IST 260W content added in drupal
      • Got notification that ticket closed, then reopened
      • Once this is completed, I’ll check it with the WC offering
        • Began the process but looks like there is a reference to an old textbook in the content

    Immediate Decisions / Issues:

    • None

    Some things that I learned this week:

    • Asked about finding the actual time stamps on a blog post in tumblr
      • Found out through Melissa that clicking on the rss feed provides this

    Back Burner:

    • Gaming, Simulations, and Virtual World Research Committee

    Days off / Conferences:

    • February days out of the office 3 (half day vaca in pm), 6 (vaca), & 24 (half day sick-dental/half day vaca)
    • March 13- 3 hours in am sick for dental
    • March 22 S.T.A.R.T Conference
    • March 24 TLT Symposium
    • April 10 – 4 hours vacation
    • April 13 – 8 hours vacation
    • June 11 & 12 Web 2012 Conference
    • June 22, 25-29 vacation days
    • July 10 AM Sick time for Dental Appt
    • August 8-10 Madison Conference

    LD Community Meeting – March 2012

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    To assist members of the greater Penn State Learning Design Community, Jeff planned a discussion on making great presentations since it’s presentation season. He used the following TED talk to facilitate the discussion 
    Here are the main points from the discussion with a few extra thoughts and ideas.

    Idea through story

    • Stories are a great way to share an idea since they elicit emotions in the listener
    • Caution here that the story should connect to the content of the story so not to be tangential
    • Throughout history, stories have been the main vehicle to share and teach
    • I couldn’t help think about how my father used to tell us stories, both fiction and nonfiction, that engaged and taught us. I often find myself doing the same thing with my kids

    Audience is the hero

    • During presentations, we often get caught up thinking of ourselves as the hero in the story, but the audience is who we are trying to make the protagonist by equipping them with new knowledge and skills
    • It is often effective to think about the nature of the hero based upon what type of story that is being told (i.e. Comedy, Mystery). 
    • Began to ask myself if it’s best to start with a story or content first in developing a session
      • Reminded that they are intertwined
      • Not sure if I have the answer clear in my own mind

    The power of story

    • Humor is a strong tool especially because something that starts out tragic for you may be hilarious in the long run or to someone outside the scenario (just ask Woody Allen)
    • Good suggestion made: Ask participants to the session what questions that they have at the beginning since they chose the session for a reason. Intentionally focus on those questions during the session and recap by answering the questions at the end
    • Question that I thought about during this part of the presentation: How can you write a story that starts and includes the audience?
      • This is the trick to an effective session
      • Important to anticipate before and during the session to give the audience what they need

    The shape of a great presentation
    duarte_great_presentation_graphic.jpg

    • Duarte used the graphic above to describe the form of all great speeches.
    • It moves from the current state to what can be and concludes with a statement of the eventual state of bliss.
    • A question arose about the need for such a form when teaching something like Chemical Bonding.
      • I pointed out that the issue is not the subject but the conflict (in this case understanding the principle).
    • Question arose in my mind during this part of the session: How do we assess the audience? What are they understanding? What resonates with them?

    iPhone Arc

    • Need a plan b if the technology fails

    I Have a Dream Speech

    • There are several key elements to the effectiveness of the King speech
      • Repetition
      • Metaphor
      • Familiarity

    Your Dream

    • How do we react when we encounter obstacles?

    Final Thought

    • Embrace silence during the session

    LD Community Meeting – Feb 2012

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    Attended the meeting today.

    There were three agenda items.

    1. TLT Symposium – Good to be reminded of this. I went to the site to register today. I also grabbed guidebook on my iphone for the schedule. Great to see that most of this year’s session is going to focus on gaming in education.
    2. Captioning of media – Pat Besong talked about what is going on with captioning. Sounds like there will be more to come. Here is a link to an interview that he did earlier on the topic: http://tlt.its.psu.edu/about/news/2012/five-questions-with…..pat-besong-on-captioning-video
    3. Horizon Report 2012 – This was more of an fyi, but I’ll try to spend some more time looking over this later.

    LD Community Meeting – Jan 2012

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    I decided to attend this meeting in person since it’s really not that far and a great way to see and touch base with others in the larger LD community.

    Here are a new notes:

    9:00-9:05 Welcome by Jeff Swain
    9:05-9:20 Suzzanne Shaffer discussion on critical thinking

    • http://www.criticalthinking.org/ – great place to dig deeper into what it really means by critical thinking
    • critical thinking is something that must be taught alone and changes based on the content area

    9:20-9:40 John Dolan discussion on the use of wikis in a history course

    • Start with a discussion with faculty
    • Provide a prototype for faculty to see
    • Had ITS support
    • ID sets up the wiki
    • Created groups – only those in the group could access
    • Used PSU wikispaces
    • Had some trouble with permissions and restricted pages (one student)
    • Met with faculty to discuss why students weren’t participating early in the semester
    • Removed restrictions to the wiki later in the semester – had to be done manually
    • Used versioning to salvage work that had been deleted by a teammate
    • Prof will use wikis in the future for other classes

    9:40-10:00 Matt Meyer on Yammer Experience

    • Best for more global use, rather than with one course
    • Members are added to Yammer – contained
    • Hard to filter comments