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Teaching with Technology |
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Teaching Online
Hello
and welcome to the Teaching Online web page. My name is
Haydn Davis. I recently replaced Dr. Bonnie Dowd
as the Academic Technology Coordinator at Palomar
College. This web page will be devoted to issues related
to distance education, principally online teaching.
I
have been interested in the educational uses of
technology for many years. In this position a primary
responsibility of mine is to research how technology can
be used to promote teaching and learning. Currently I
have focused my attention on distance learning with an
emphasis on the Blackboard course management system.
For
the past couple of months I have participated in a
podcast series titled "Teaching
with Technology,” part of the
Academic Technology podcast
series conceived and produced by Terry Gray. My
contribution to these podcasts has been to report on
good examples of online teaching and learning. My
objective has been to review as much of the literature
and as many web sites as possible and then select the
best ideas, examples, and practices for your
consideration.
This
web site has grown out of those podcast episodes, and
will continue, I hope, to be a useful resource to those
interested in online teaching and learning. Actually, I
believe that the types of resources I’ll be discussing
can be valuable whether the class you’re teaching is
conducted face-to-face, with the hybrid model, or
completely online
Exemplary Online Teaching. A
question that I continue to try to answer more fully is:
“What would a really good online course look like?”
After consulting many sources I have developed an
"Online Course Development Checklist" which is actually
a compilation of several instruments that have been
validated at other institutions. I believe this
checklist captures the “best practices” suggestions made
by others. It is meant to answer the question: "What
makes for an exemplary online course?" Please click the
following link to read the PDF checklist. (Right-click
and choose "Save Target As”... to save a copy locally,
if you wish).
Online Course Development Checklist [PDF -
51K]
Use this checklist in developing a
new course, or in evaluating an existing course.
The checklist is based on the following resources which
you might find useful:
Student Engagement. One of
the great challenges in the online arena is engaging
every online student. In the literature I’ve looked at
there is a strong consensus that increased student
engagement leads to increased student retention,
success, and positive student evaluations. I have found
the following resources useful.
For
some specific recommendations for increasing student
engagement please click the following link to read the
PDF document. (Right-click and choose "Save Target
As”... to save a copy locally, if you wish).
Engaging The Online Learner
[PDF - 22K]
Thanks
to those of you who have read this far. In future posts
to this web site I will be taking up other issues
related to technology-mediated pedagogy. And I’d love to
hear from you (see form below). Please let me know what
issues you would like to raise with our colleagues.
Technical Competencies and
Training. Early on I found a useful resource
titled "224
Technology Competencies" [PDF - 237K]. In
looking at this list, the competencies listed here all
seem to be pretty basic, but spread out over a great
many areas. This led to us rethinking the way our
Academic Technology training workshops are presented, so
beginning this semester, we will be offering them based
on competencies, with a Blackboard component as part of
each workshop, common content areas in each, and an
overall goal of improving teaching and learning at the
college.
Click here to see the new approach.
Here for the Fall 2006 training schedule.
Feedback. I would like
to hear from you. Please use the form below to
express concerns or raise issues having to do with the
use of technology at Palomar, or simply click here to
send me an email.
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