Category Archives: LDSC

Reflection 7/15/13-7/19/13

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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
          • Note from Amy S about doing a revision in 1 semester. I’m going to try to extend this to 2 semesters.
      • 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
    • 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
        • Need to have template overlayed on the course
  • Summer ’13 Courses
    • IST 210
      • Sec 002 (Fred)
        • Fred sent out a note about something that needed to be updated & Gary mentioned that he’d fix it for next semester
    • IST 230
      • Sec 001 (Larry)
        • No time to grade or call Larry this week b/c of iTech Academy
    • IST 301
      • Sec 001 (Ocker)
  • 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
    • 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 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
      • Sec 002 (Wilson)
        • Sent out note on 6/26 about populating section next Monday
    • 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
    • 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

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

LDSC ’13 Day 2

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I really liked how they laid out the summer camp this year because I still felt fresh by this morning.

We started out with a panel about the beauty of design. The panel was intentionally comprised of non-ID’s to provide perspective. One member of the panel was Anna Divinsky who taught the Art MOOC. She started by talking about how important ID’s are in creating courses. Although she like this, she sees many other faculty not like to be challenged by ID’s. Definitely a good point and one to consider. She shared about the MOOC that just finished that they planned for students to do around 40 hours of work but students did way more than that. Later in a session that I attended she talked more in depth about the experience. One student’s feedback was that, “…it’s bizarre, but I feel a bit empowered…” in reference to taking her course. As soon as the course opened students began creating natural teams both within Coursera and outside (facebook). Luckily, she had another helper in facebook to monitor the discussion. She found that the discussion boards within Coursera often spiraled into negativity while the fb group was much more positive. She encouraged others to take a MOOC to prepare for teaching one although she hadn’t. It’s important to set realistic expectations for students concerning participation and deadlines and not set unrealistic precedents by participating too much. Peer reviews help to make assessment more manageable, but they need to be very specific for students to use them properly.

Another member of the panel was Nick Rossi, he talked about an app called Fitocracy that he thought would be a great way for us to move for education. The principles that he highlighted included the need to motivate students by providing feedback, allowing for students to easily and clearly see their progress, and build community. All of these elements are present in the Fitocracy app. Nick also hit on the idea of user testing. It needs to become a natural part of design instead of an after thought. There are too many instances when designers are designing for other designers instead of for students.

Stuart Selber was another panelist. He had an interesting idea about how good design being transparent to the point of being invisible. The design team should be a bit amorphous and faculty will sometimes find themselves in the role of the ID. It’s a good point to ponder. How much are we empowering those we work with to think about good instructional design.

This was a great session that really stretched our thinking. I hope to see these ideas being implemented to improve what we do here at PSU.

LDSC ’13 Day 1

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It’s that time of year again to get together with some of my favorite ppl around the university. Learning Design Summer Camp is a unique opportunity to listen to and learn from colleagues around Penn State. It’s also a great time to reconnect with others who share a passion for teaching & learning. After a welcome by Kate Miffit, Cole Camplese got to share a heartfelt plea to keep the momentum going here. He’s been extremely influential in shaping the Learning Design environment & culture at Penn State & will be greatly missed.

Following the inspired speech by Cole, we moved to a panel about empathy and design. The panel focused on several issues such as accessibility and diversity. It’s important to consider the learner before we can truly design any type of learning. It’s great to see the Penn State community come together over the past several years to make progress in this area. Here are a couple of points from the panel’s talk that stuck with me:

  • Always keep user experience in mind by considering doing user testing as a part of the design process
  • Issues surrounding culturally diverse populations include prof-student relationship, plagiarism
  • Be clear with expectations; don’t assume that every student comes in with complete understanding
  • Don’t assume that as a designer that you know exactly what is needed to cover accessibility. Ask!
  • Mobile apps tend to be more accessible because they are simpler
  • Avoid trying to find a perfect solution to accessibility; the learner also needs to participate in the process
  • Consider how exhausting learning can b 4 some students, especially culturally diverse or differently abled students
  • Don’t over generalize populations
  • Implementing principles of universal design & the use of standards is a way to design for others, instead of yourself
  • Design process becomes not only collaborative but also democratic
  • How do we accommodate more diverse populations? Hire diverse staff

After the panel, we had choices of places to go. I decided to do the discovery trail which focused on issues of accessibility. I had a chance to hear from Keith Jervis, Interim Director at the Office for Disability Services (ODS). Here are a few stats about ODS:

ODS_stats_ldsc13.JPG

Keith went on to talk about changes since 2009 in the role of ODS. Most of the changes were because of the NFB’s complaint.

He also talked about the shift from ODS from defining disabilities to finding solutions. This has to be empowering for those in that group. This has happened because disability has gone from being scientifically defined.

Keith shared a few tools that were being used by ODS.

Keith also presented considerations when selecting textbook for student accessibility.
ODS_tb_ldsc13.JPG

Keith finished up by talking about the future considerations of ODS. The point that stuck the most with me was focusing on STEM materials. Hope to see this in the near future.

Next, we moved to Susan Hayya in 113 Pattee West. We got a chance to see the room dedicated to students with disabilities in the library.

Following lunch, Pam Fuller, Senior Financial Adviser for ITS Financial Services talked about mindful teamwork. She started with a definition of teamwork & asked us to do a few activities to help us think about what we all have in common:

  • Personal Values
  • IT Principles
  • IT Strategic Plan

She also reminded us to sprint to understanding instead of speeding to a solution. Additionally, she told us to be mindful of our fears and learn to trust.

Following this session I attended a game put on by Chris Stubbs about teamwork and elements to good teaming. It was a fun way to reflect on issues that we deal with in teams.

Day 1 was fun and a great chance to interact and reflect on what we do every day.

Reflection 07/16/12-07/20/12

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Accomplishments:

  • Summer ’12 courses running
    • IST 210
      • Bit of discussion regarding labs among instructors and students clamoring for lab 8
      • Received and posted Lab 8 on 7/19
      • Also made an adjustment to Assessment for Chapter 14
    • IST 240
      • Unpublished Java Assessment 7/16
    • Summer ’12 revisions/developments
      • IST 420 (Ocker)
        • Met with Rosalie on Monday 7/9 at 11 AM
          • Rosalie has most of the course built out on paper
          • I will be putting together pdf’s of reading and embedding youtube vids
        • IST 402 (Saab)
          • Next meeting is 8/13
          • Here is progress update: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DahJFuTal3noBrsQJXeBnfwgtWDIZ3v1Cm0E8VnhxUM/edit
          • Having a quick meeting on 7/20 from 1:30-2:00 to get some feedback before moving forward
            • Decided from this meeting that we’ll build the course in wikispaces and tie to ANGEL for grading
            • Although this is the case, we will build out the lesson folders in ANGEL as a way to provide David with some feedback as he builds the wikispace for the course
      • Madison presentations
        • Meeting with Gary and Amy on August 3 for photo shoot and practice
        • Need to script out what I will be saying for lightning session for practice and provide a timed ppt
      • Learning Design Summer Camp this week – Got a chance to reconnect and refresh
      • Fall ’12 Course Prep – mapped out on my outlook calendar courses to work on so that I’m done before we head out to Madison
        • IST 110
          • Sec 001
            • Copied Jan’s Spring ’12 section into the Fall ’12 space
            • Notified Jan, but didn’t receive word about how to proceed
            • Followed up and received request for deadline
              • Provided my thinking and overall schedule
              • We’ll reconvene on 8/15 to see if the 1st section is ready to populate section 002
          • Sec 002
            • Plan is to fix section 001, then copy into section 002
          • Sec 003
            • Copied master course section into the space
            • Met and oriented Marcela to online 110
          • Sec 004 Pearson Pilot
            • No longer a Pearson Pilot
            • Probably will not be used based upon info from Amy S

        • IST 111S
          • Sec 001
            • Still awaiting feedback, but it is set from what I can see
            • Populated and set up the space on 6/11
        • IST 210
          • Sec 001
            • Contacted Gary about waiting until after the semester to populate 210 for Fall ’12
            • He thought that after the last assessment would work best (August 5)
            • I placed a task on my calendar to take care of this on August 6
            • I updated the course schedule in the development space so that it will be ready to populate the Fall ’12 space
            • Also make assessment adjustments described above
            • Made rubric adjustments and received feedback from Mike
            • Updated the section with unit assessments
          • Sec 002
            • Contacted Mike about which section to copy into his Fall ’12 space
            • Mike replied to say that he’ll look into it since he may want to add something.
        • IST 220 Backed up populating this until Mid July so that Lisa can make necessary adjustments. Received plan from Lisa B about making adjustments to the course. Replied with a plan that cuts down on the activity level. Updated the dev space and sent Lisa a note to finalize this course. Need to create a short screenr for 1st week of the course.
          • Sec 001
          • Sec 002
        • IST 230
          • Sec 001
            • We decided that it would be best to let Larry export and import for Fall ’12
        • IST 240
          • Sec 001
            • Contacted Hal about copying Summer ’12 into the current course space
            • He asked for an adjustment to Lesson 05
              • I completed this
            • He would also like to make an adjustment to Assignment 6
              • I replied that I’d like to have it done by Thursday before I leave
              • He let me know this was possible
              • Received several notes on 6/20
              • Confirmed with Hal that all was set
              • He agreed, so I completed populating the space on 6/20 and contacted Hal
        • IST 250 Amy S set up a meeting with Brett and Don for July 12. Made adjustments to the dev space. Received more feedback from Brett that I used to make more updates. Won’t populate space until after the meeting this week. Received more feedback, so awaiting still one more reply before moving forward. Got word from WC that we have a deaf student.
          • Sec 001
          • Sec 002
        • IST 260W
          • Sec 001
            • Contacted Jason about exporting Spring ’12 and importing to make adjustments for Fall ’12
            • He said it was a go, so I completed this course on 6/20
        • IST 302
          • Sec 001
            • Have access to the Fall ’12 space, so plan to populate with Jan’s materials from this summer
              • Sent Jan a note on 7/9
              • She requested that I wait until the end of the semester before populating the space since she is still making adjustments and will be until the end of the semester.
            • Will meet on August 15 to discuss items to change
        • IST 331 – Amy set up a meeting with Martin and Alan on July 12
          • Sec 001 – Completed 7/12
            • He responded and we had a meeting on 6/20 about items to complete
              • Replaced poor quality usability test video
                • Martin watched the current video and prepared a script of items to ask Ravi for the screen cast
                • Martin asked questions to Ravi while screenr is running
                • Since screenr can only record 5 minutes at a time, we gave each section a name describing briefly what is in the video
                • When the screenr’s were completed, Ravi uploaded to youtube and embed the videos into the course
              • We eliminated the team component to Individual Web and Library Information Resource Seeking Paper in Lesson 04
                • Instead this will be more of a peer review activity
              • Moved the course schedule to the Lessons tab
              • Replaced links on the syllabus to point to WC pages for greater stability
              • Eliminatrf the Assignment and Reading Assignment pages from the content to avoid having to edit several places
          • Sec 002 – Completed 7/12
            • Same as section 001 except for instructor info
        • IST 402 SMO
          • Sec 001
            • Copied Spring ’12 space into Rosalie section on 7/16
              • Sent Rosalie a note to do anything else to help with preparations
        • IST 420 –
          • Met with John H on 6/19 to see if everything is okay to proceed
            • We found that we had more to do with the assessments
              • Redo midterm (fix question set names)
                • Need a pool of questions so that we can grab 10 questions from each question pool
                  • Chapter 1
                  • Chapter 3
                  • Chapter 4
                  • Chapter 5
                  • Chapter 6
              • Redo final exam (fix question set names)
                • Need a pool of questions so that we can pull 50 questions (probably 7 from each chapter plus 1 of 8)
                  • Chapter 7
                  • Chapter 8
                  • Chapter 9
                  • Chapter 10
                  • Chapter 11
                  • Chapter 12
                  • Chapter 13
          • John got back to me so I…
            • exported section 1, merged sections 1-3, import materials into merged section
          • Sec 001 (merged)
          • Sec 002 (merged)
          • Sec 003 (merged)
          • Merged section is completed
        • IST 440W Jim would like to have these sections merged
          • Sec 001
          • Sec 002
        • IST 495 Still haven’t heard back from Madhavi and Zoe about items to adjust. Uploaded the course into the Fall space and completed with a note to Madhavi if they wanted to make adjustments.
          • Sec 001 completed

      Ongoing Projects:

      • Updating google spreadsheet for Fall ’12 
      • Still working on the process of replacing links in Fall ’12 spaces for the syllabus
      • Working on Fall ’12 Courses listed above
      • Received feedback about google docs not as nice as other peer eval options (catme)

      Immediate Decisions / Issues:

      • None

      Back Burner:

      • Gaming, Simulations, and Virtual World Research Committee

      Days off / Conferences:

      • July 10 AM Sick time for Dental Appt
      • July 19, 20 LDSC
      • August 8-10 Madison Conference
      • Nov 1 AM Sick time for Dental Appt