Accomplishments:
- Prof Dev
- Reflection on Rousseau: https://sites.psu.edu/rep129blog/2013/02/22/reflection-on-rousseau/
- PSU enters the land of the MOOCs: http://news.psu.edu/story/265374/2013/02/21/academics/penn-state-joins-mooc-movement-offer-free-online-courses. It will be interesting to see how things develop in this environment. From one of the initial course offerings, it looks like Penn State will take a different approach: . https://www.coursera.org/course/cic?fb_action_ids=10151431551467560&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=28838148123758.This offering looks to hit on a topic of interest that would engage many learners.
- MOOC on Evolution
- Beginning to dislike this course. I really feel like what this course needs is some common sense to become better.
- One reason is that I’m tired of doing the course as an undergrad. I have a degree and am interested in knowing more about Evolution and its theories. If I have the time and energy, I’d be able to ace this course. But I’m interested in learning more about Evolution. I’m sure I’m not the only person in this boat. But this is just a way for Duke to repurpose what they are already doing. How does this benefit an adult learner like me? The answer is that it doesn’t.
- Another problem that I have is that the pedagogy that is being implemented is using an expert lecture format. Dump the information then I regergitate exactly what has been dumped on me. There is so much more to this topic than what is being taught and assessed in the course. Do I have to prove that I can do a bunch of math problems before I can understand evolution? If this is the opinion of experts in the field, then no wonder so many question the validity of evolution. Even if there are discussion forums, they mostly focus on the course itself.
- What I would do to fix this course
- Don’t assume that all learners are the same. Don’t teach this online course with an approach that everyone should take the course as an undergrad at Duke does. It would benefit the course and the mission of the prof and the university to get to know their audience and use a varied approach that involves leveraging the community of learners to accomplish a shared goal.
- Use multiple choice questions to assess students informally instead of making most of the assessments multiple choice. This does a disservice to both the students and the topic being taught. While it is nice to assess what you may know and can do, these multiple choice questions only test how well you can imitate what they are being taught.
- Leverage the community to answer questions that remain unresolved or should be considered. I think that a good place to start in this course is to focus on the question on why so many discount a valid scientific principle such as evolution. It may also be worth the effort to challenge students to provide ways that evolutionists can overcome this.
- MOOC on Personal Finance
- More videos to watch
- Peer assessment is just a series of 6 questions that don’t connect on how I should counsel others on how to apply principles being taught in the course. Very disappointed that this course is not encouraging a larger discussion on personal finance and how it impact our society.
- Multiple choice questions vaguely tied to the content of the lesson. There were no graphs in the lectures, but over half of the quiz was on the graphs and one was definitely incorrect. While I was able to answer most of those questions correctly, I’m having a hard time seeing why I’m spending the time to learn the information since I already have a basic understanding of personal finance.
- Many are engaging in the forums, but I find that environment overwhelming.
- To me, I need a focused topic and a way to engage in an issue or problem that points back to the material. This course has done little of that.
- I received the following note after putting a comment about my frustrations stemming from the last multiple choice assessment which really didn’t match the content from the lectures:
Dear Ravi Patel,
We listened!
Week 6 quiz will be discounted from your final grade. Coursera staff has assured us that this can be done. We have increased the number of tries to 5, in case some of you would like to continue practicing.
There will be no substitute quiz. Please use the time and energy instead to complete your evaluations of the peer assessments.We regret the frustration this may have caused you.
Fundamentals of Personal Financial Planning Course Team
- I must say that I’m impressed that they actually read my comments in a large course like this. Hopefully, they do more than customer service on this and actually change their approach to this course. I decided to take a look at the discussion forums in this course, and as I guessed there were tons of items about the correctness of the materials. When put out information that is not correct? It should speak volumes that students in the course knew enough to put this info up. It would be better to pose a larger question and let students supply to scaffolding. Then the instructor or experts in the class could vet the information for correctness, at the very least.
- MOOC observation: Overall, I’m seeing that instead of using Connectivist pedagogy and embracing what will improve society and engage learners that institutions who are entering the MOOC environment are using it and many weak approaches to clutter and, in my opinion, bring down what could be a good idea. Another thing on my mind is over selling. When I read the descriptions and watch the videos, I get excited because I’m intrigued about the possibilities of the learning experience. When the descriptions don’t match the course, I get frustrated. Also, when the course becomes about credit, I lose interest because I’m not their to get credit as much to continue on the trek of life-long learning. It’s hard to learn when all of the restrictions of courses are put on someone who doesn’t have the time or energy to accomplish the goals set about by the course creation team. It’s important to make the environment so that everyone can feel like they were able to accomplish a reasonable goal.
- Spring ’13 revisions/developments
- IST 230 (Newcomer)
- Larry says that he will take a look and let us know. The lesson has come and gone without any correspondence. Honestly, disappointed that we didn’t get a chance to implement something that we worked on for quite awhile. My first thought is that we did alot within our team, but we weren’t successful in engaging the prof. That is something to consider next time.
- 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 doc for me to update
- Met with Brett on 1/30 to discuss adjustments
- IST 420 (Ocker)
- Have readings for the course & need to get someone to create pdf’s – delegated this to Audrey (still waiting)
- Double checked to make sure this was okay with Amy G, & it was
- Spring ’13 Courses
- IST 110
- Sec 007 (Jim F)
- Asked about SRTEs
- Sec 007 (Jim F)
- Summer ’13 Courses
- IST 110
- Sec 001 (Farugia)
- Emailed Farugia and got the okay to set up the course based upon Spring ’13 version
- Completed 2/13/13
- Sec 002 (Newcomer)
- Emailed Newcomer and got a reply. Still waiting for 2nd confirmation
- Sec 001 (Farugia)
- IST 111S
- Sec 001 (Folkers)
- Set up the course based upon SP 13 version
- Follow up email with Deirdre to let her know that it is done on 2/12/13
- Sec 001 (Folkers)
- IST 210
- Sec 001 (Gary H)
- Sent Gary an email n 2/21 about what he would like done to populate his section
- Copied and completed setting up for Summer ’13 on 2/21/13
- Sec 002 (Fred A)
- Sent Fred an email n 2/21 about what he would like done to populate his section
- Sec 001 (Gary H)
- IST 220
- Sec 001 (Nick G)
- Talked to Nick on 2/21 & agreed that moving his section from Spring ’13 and making adjustments to fit the summer makes the most sense. I plan to wait until the end of April to move items
- Sec 002 (Mike M)
- Emailed Mike on 2/21 about plan. He was fine with it.
- Sec 003 (Hyunjeong)
- Contacted Hyunjeong about when she would like me to move her materials over to Summer ’13 section
- Sec 001 (Nick G)
- IST 295B
- Sec 001 (Kari)
- Contacted Madhavi on 2/20/13 about populating the Summer ’13 section
- Sec 001 (Kari)
- IST 495
- Sec 001 (Kari)
- Contacted Madhavi on 2/20/13 about populating the Summer ’13 section
- Sec 001 (Kari)
- IST 110
Ongoing Projects:
- Updated google spreadsheet for Summer ’13
Immediate Decisions / Issues:
- Need LMS that better integrates and includes tools that we use in our classes. Too many tools are open-source and unpredictable to count on
Important Dates:
- MOOC Jan 4 – March 15 called Introduction to Genetics and Evolution
- MOOC Jan 14 – Mar 4 called Fundamentals of Personal Finance
- Feb 4-6 EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Annual Meeting in Denver, CO
- Feb 14 Vacation Day
- Feb 18 WAH in AM
- Feb 19 WAH
- Feb 28 Vacation Day
- March 4 Vacation Day
- March 5 Vacation Day
- March 6 WAH all day
- March 15 Out for the day
- March 18 WAH in AM
- March 29 Vacation Day
- April 1 Vacation Day
- May 3 Vacation Day
- May 6 Vacation Day
- May 27 Memorial Day