Students today need to be able to use technology mindfully and with a purpose. ePortfolios provide one way for students to engage with the online environment and social networking tools in an integrative way that promotes the development of their intellectual and social identities. With technological advances, students can document their learning using not only text reflections but also video blogs, audio recordings, and other media that demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and abilities to the world. ePortfolios provide a way for students to make a variety of connections as they develop both their social and intellectual capacities and skills.

Documenting learning for faculty is important in many respects. First, the ability to explore student ePortfolios provides instructors with easy access to formal and informal means of assessing the learning that is happening in their classrooms. Student reflections and other ePortfolio-related assignments offer instructors and students alike the opportunity to track learning over the course of the term. For instructors, this allows the timing and pace of course materials to be adjusted in the event that clarification is required of certain concepts or content, ensuring that student learning and engagement are maximized. Faculty members can observe the learning that happens over the course of the term and ensure that learners have understood both the content and the process thinking specific to that discipline. Tools like rubrics are one way that faculty can assess student ePortfolios. Beyond the classroom, ePortfolios can also provide a window for others (chairs, deans, alumni, employers, and so on) to view what is happening within the classroom and on the campus.

• Are there “champions” with power and influence in the institution who recognize the importance of technology for conducting the business of the institution?
• Does the institution have an advanced, comprehensive technology infrastructure that enables all staff, students, and faculty to access computers, networks, software, and services as required?
• Has the institution digitalized its administrative systems, and can staff, students, and faculty access administrative information and services easily over the Web?
• Has the institution identified a clear, strategic rationale for the use of technology within the institution?
• Has the institution identified additional financial resources or reallocated resources to support the integration of technology within the institution?
• What proportion of staff, students, and faculty are using technology and for which activities?
• How innovative is the use of technology, particularly for teaching?
• What level of support and training is given to instructors to ensure good – quality teaching when using technology?
• Are students learning better and getting better services as a result of technology integration?

Higher education does need to pay attention to the opportunities others are seizing and the societal changes that are occurring. Mobile devices are out there, and consequently they can be ignored to the instructor’s peril or capitalized on for the learner’s benefit. Students may be tweeting about the class, for instance, or in response to questions or issues in the class. They could be using their phones to send text messages or to answer questions posed by the instructor.

A number of years ago, I visited a higher learning institution that had installed high-tech classrooms. They had cameras, projectors, and wireless Internet. At the time, the faculty were asking that the Internet be disabled because they were afraid that the learners might be surfing or, of all horrors, day-trading. At the time, my thought was, ‘‘You can lead a learner to learning, but you can’t make them think’’ (paraphrasing Dorothy Parker); if you cut off the Internet, students could still play solitaire. If you took away the laptops, they could still doodle. In short, you cannot force learners to pay attention; they will vote with their eyeballs and ears, and you better have a compelling value proposition. Today, things are even worse from this perspective. You can’t control learners’ mobile devices, which increasingly have internet access. There are two sides to the issue of internet access, as suggested already, but the increasing power of connectivity exacerbates the situation. On the negative side, learners not only can distract themselves but also can interact with others. With social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook, they can be having a side conversation, even about the subject matter and the instructor. This has already happened at a conference, where a speaker was pilloried by tweets from audience members and the awareness was shared broadly. The upside, however, is worth considering. In Jane Bozarth’s (2010) prescient book Social Media for Trainers, she touts a wide variety of ways to use social media in the training room, and this extends to the classroom. Beyond social, further opportunities also exist to extend the university experience to enhance learning, student satisfaction, and of course those derivative outcomes: recruitment, retention, and completion. The opportunities include tools, content, interactions, and more.

1. Investigate the platforms currently in use on your campus: Which have mobile options already available? Are any enabled at your site?

2. What can you find out about your institution’s population and their device profiles? Does this information already exist? How could it be collected?

An Excerpt from Empowering Online Learning by Curtis J. Bonk and Ke Zhang

Design Reviews and Expert Commentary
Description and Purpose of Activity.
To further apprentice or support learners in a course, a local or international group of individuals with expertise in designs related to your area or topic might provide feedback on student design efforts. Such experts might judge student designs, ask questions, or provide stories related to their own design efforts. The ability to quickly and cost – effectively bring high levels of expertise and alternative perspectives to a class is a distinct advantage of fully online and blended learning environments across different age groups and populations. In fact, as is probably evident, accessing online expertise ranks among our top reasons for promoting online learning environments. We believe that online learning offers educational opportunities for perspective taking and mentoring that the world vastly needs today.

Skills and Objectives.
Includes skill discrimination, appreciation of multiple perspectives, feedback, coaching, and expert insights.

Advice and Ideas.
Keep a list of potential mentors or tutors with expertise related to your online class. Contact international experts in your field and ask for their help in mentoring your students. Assign mentors to student teams, groups, or individuals. Supply mentors with sample statements, tips, or other advice that they might provide to students. Consider allowing mentors to rotate to other individuals or groups as key tasks are accomplished or the semester unfolds. If connecting with such individuals is exciting, consider developing a community of such experts. For incentives that can be offered to experts, you might check whether there are internal or external funds that can be used to reward the mentors for their online course assistance. We have found that informing others of our online collaborative activities and international mentoring efforts often results in free marketing of our projects as well as small amounts of funding for continuing them (including paying our mentors small stipends). Be sure to thank all experts and mentors for their support and keep them posted on the progress of your students.

Variations and Extensions.
If collaborative teams are used, assign experts to monitor different groups for at least a portion of their group activity. Templates or scaffolds for the types of advice and coaching expected should be made available, especially for experts new to such an activity.

Key Instructional Considerations
Risk index: Medium
Time index: Medium
Cost index: Low to High (depending on honoraria paid to your mentors)
Learner – centered index: Medium
Duration of the learning activity: As needed

Keith Pratt and Rena Palloff

An Excerpt from Assessing the Online Learner by Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt

Yet another effective means by which online faculty evaluation can be accomplished is the use of a peer review and peer mentoring program. Mandernach, Donnelli, Dailey, and Schulte (2005) share the very extensive model used by Park University in Missouri. In this model, all instructors who teach online first go through faculty training for online teaching and then are assigned a peer faculty mentor who monitors their performance in an online course. The courses offered at Park University are eight – week intensive online courses. The mentor conducts five formative reviews of instructor performance:

• A preterm review looks at the way in which the course has been set up.
• A review at the end of week two evaluates the degree to which community building and interactivity have developed.
• A review of the discussion, feedback, and grading occurs at week four.
• At the end of week six, a review of assessment and preparation for final exams occurs.
• During the final weeks of the term, a retrospective review is conducted, looking at overall course climate and organization.

This very intensive mentoring process may not be feasible for many institutions. Consequently, we offer this modified approach to and process for peer review and mentoring:

• Phase 1 — Online Faculty Training. All new online faculty participate in online training involving not only training on the course management system in use but also best practices in online teaching; community building; effective use of discussions; effective assessments; and university policies governing online courses, grading, and so on. Experienced online faculty participate in a modified version of the training, focusing on university policies and a review of best practices.
   
• Phase 2 — Shadowing. Faculty who will be teaching online are assigned to shadow another experienced instructor for a unit or two to see the course in action.
   
• Phase 3 — Online Teaching with Mentor Shadowing. Once the instructor has completed shadowing a course and is ready to set up and teach his or her own course, the instructor whose course was shadowed acts as a mentor and shadows the new instructor ’ s course, offering suggestions as needed. To increase the effectiveness of the mentoring process, the new instructor should designate particular areas in which he or she desires feedback or support. The goal of the evaluation should be continuous quality improvement through identification of strengths and areas that could use additional training and support.
   

Once a cadre of experienced online faculty have been developed in this way, an ongoing peer review process can be established. DePaul University (2007) has devised such a program of ongoing peer review and provides specific guidelines to reviewers to assist them in preparing a narrative report about what has been observed. The following guidelines, with particular areas of focus, are adapted from the DePaul model:

Teaching and learning. Are the teaching methods used effective in promoting student engagement? Are the materials and the course well organized and presented clearly? Are the reading assignments effective? Is there sufficient rigor?

Knowledge of the subject matter. Does the way the instructor addresses and presents material indicate knowledge of the subject matter? Is presentation coherent, clear, and consistent?

Communication. What types of interactions take place (student – student, student – instructor)? Has the instructor established social presence? Is a learning community present? Is the instructor accessible, respectful, and engaged? Is feedback that is substantive and actionable regularly provided? Is assessment of student work fair? Does the instructor elicit feedback and reflections throughout the course?

Enthusiasm. Does the instructor demonstrate enthusiasm for the topic, for teaching, and for learning?

Development of competence. Does the instructor make implicit and explicit reference to course outcomes and program competencies? Are there clear criteria for assessing how well students have demonstrated competence?

One additional technique for faculty evaluation is the use of portfolios. Just as portfolios work well for assessment of competence for students, they work equally well in the review of faculty performance. Faculty who work at tenure – granting institutions are quite familiar with the preparation of a portfolio of their work and accomplishments. The preparation of a portfolio for online faculty evaluation is not dissimilar, but may contain some differing emphases. In Part Two, the online faculty portfolio review process used by the Organization Management and Development program at Fielding Graduate University is presented as a sample of how portfolio review for online faculty may be conducted.

Rosemary Lehman and Simone Conceição

Excerpt from Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching by Rosemary M. Lehman and Simone C.O. Conceição

Mentoring to create a sense of presence

Mentoring involves a trusted developmental relationship between you and your learners to foster personal professional growth throughout the online course. Mentoring learners online can create a sense of presence, especially to support novice and marginalized learners (Burgess, 2007). First-time online learners are likely to feel insecure both technologically and academically due to course design and delivery methods that involve autonomy and self-directedness. One-on-one mentoring meetings will help these learners feel more comfortable. These meetings can give you the time to listen to their concerns and offer feedback on how to be disciplined and become confident in this new environment. Marginalized learners tend to place themselves at the margin of the course when they are in a face-to-face situation, and these kinds of feelings may transfer to the online environment. You need to be aware of them. Personal interaction with you and mentoring will help such learners feel more comfortable about their online experience over time.

The assignment is called “Expert of the Week.” At the beginning of the course, I publish a list of several destinations in North America (cities and/or geographical areas) from which to choose. Up to 4 destinations may be covered in any given week. Students choose their destination, making sure they are available the week they present.

The week prior to their “expert” week, students will submit a 3-5 page report on their destination to be posted in the online classroom. They will also submit 3-5 well thought out, open-ended discussion questions about their destination. These questions will be posted as threads to the discussion board that week. During their week, the student “experts” will facilitate their discussion questions. They are expected to “show up” on at least 4 different days during the week to read responses to their discussion threads, ask additional questions, post additional information pertaining to their threads, etc.

Students indicate that this is one of the favorite parts of this course, and they also indicate that it’s a great way to learn about a destination.

Keith Pratt and Rena Palloff

An Excerpt
from The Excellent Online Instructor by Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt

When faculty are provided with good training and support for online teaching and learning, the likely outcome is excitement about the new ways technology can impact teaching and learning. There is enthusiasm about the meeting of learning objectives in deep and meaningful ways. When courses are designed and delivered with interactivity in mind, a shift occurs as learners become more empowered and discover that the learning in an online course comes from other students and not solely from interaction with the instructor. Ways in which students can collaborate with one another are built into courses, and more authentic means of assessing student performance accompany those activities. Self-reflection and critical thinking become important components of assessment. In fact, when courses progress well, the instructor often learns as much from his or her students about online teaching as students learn from the instructor about the content. The reflection of one of our students at the end of an online course demonstrates this shift: I wanted to take another opportunity to thank each of you for your participation in this course. I remember when I first joined the program . . . [other students] talked about the importance [that] their colleagues played in their success in the program. I had no idea of the significance of those statements, or the degree to which they were true, until I experienced it for myself. Thank you all for this tremendous contribution to my development. This reflection is the type we hope to see at the end of a course. It gives us an indication that the planning and delivery of the course was effective not only in achieving learning objectives but also in moving students toward what we consider to be real learning—the cocreation of meaning and knowledge. It is a systems approach to online faculty development that moves faculty toward excellence and results in positive student feedback on their online course experiences. According to Hagner (2001), the best systems for online faculty development are ‘‘comprehensive and integrated package[s] of support services and engagement practices’’ (p. 31). When best practices in the areas of faculty development, self-development, and institutional support are integrated into one comprehensive system, the overlap between the three results in the outcomes we hope to see from these efforts—community, continuous quality improvement, faculty leadership, support, and overall online program excellence. When instructors and students are able to reap the benefits of a well-designed online course or program, the end result is excitement about what is possible in the online realm and about the new relationships that are developed between instructor and student, among students, among faculty, and across institutions. The resultant excitement about learning helps stimulate new creative approaches to online teaching and demonstrates that there can be and is, in fact, an excellent online instructor.

1. Develop a schedule of due dates, and stick to it
2. Keep scheduling convenience a priority for your students
3. Have due dates the same each week
4. Be consistent about navigation
5. Be consistent about where to turn in assignments
6. Be consistent in your availability
7. Create a “Coffee shop” forum for social interactions among students
8. Communicate an appropriate pace for working through the course
9. Discussion assignments must give students a specific item on which to comment
10. Design using someone else’s mind – peer review of your course material

1. Be present at the course site.
2. Create a supportive online course community.
3. Develop a set of explicit expectations for your learners and yourself as to how you will communicate and how much time students should be working on the course each week.
4. Use a variety of large group, small group, and individual work experiences.
5. Use synchronous and asynchronous activities.
6. Ask for informal feedback early in the term.
7. Prepare discussion posts that invite responses, questions, discussions, and reflections.
8. Search out and use content resources that are available in digital format if possible.
9. Combine core concept learning with customized and personalized learning.
10. Plan a good closing and wrap activity for the course.

Learning Interactions

In learning, there are two types of social interactions: learner–instructor and learner–learner. In the former case, there is little new added by mobile except the convenience of communicating when and where desired. More generally, instructors can pass on information about upcoming assignments, provide unique feedback about assignments, and answer questions. The augmented classroom, real or virtual, has now come to pass. Much of the virtual classroom software has mobile interfaces for participation, so Adobe’s Connect, Citrix’s GoToMeeting, and Cisco’s WebEx all have smartphone clients, allowing more flexibility in learners interacting with instructors. And the capabilities of virtual classrooms, such as chats and polls, are accessible via mobile tools in the real classroom; the same principles apply to both, such as checking understanding on an anonymous basis and supporting learner questions, which increases engagement. One alternative to the regular learner–instructor interaction that can be unique to mobile is when connection can happen in context. In addition to learner initiated connection for, say, an after-action review, a possibility would be a proactive connection made upon an external trigger such as task completion or at some other signal event. So, for instance, after a task in an internship such as a site inspection, an instructor could be connected to the learner to inquire about the event and ascertain the learner’s progress. This would require custom programming, however. Real power in social learning comes from learner–learner interaction. As mentioned in Chapter Three, social constructivism tells us that when learners are given assignments to collaborate, they express their various understandings, review the differences, reprocess the requirements, and continually engage with the concept to achieve a shared understanding. The valuable processing that happens when reflecting personally or extending or applying a concept is magnified in social interactions. When learners reflect publicly and read other reflections, more processing is happening. When groups debate a response to an association extension, the processing cycles are tighter; when they work together to solve problems, the dialogue is richer. Some requirements optimize the outcomes. The right size groups help, as does the right degree of ambiguity in the assignment to foster productive discussion. Dyads have proved useful in performance tasks: one person interacts while another makes more strategic decisions. Teams of more than five can become unmanageable. Variety in teams supports a richer interaction. Nothing yet is unique to mobile, but it is worth repeating the principles. Also, do not assume that learners know how to work well together. Learners benefit from explicit guidance on how you expect them to work together and your expectations for their contributions. Guidelines such as individually offering thoughts before evaluating group contributions help ensure that all group members are engaging their intellect. Mobile participation can have unique issues, such as appropriate times to communicate and appropriate forms of communication. Texts or calls in the wee hours of the nightmay be problematic for both instructors and learners. Existing mechanisms, such as discussion forums via e-mail, can now be interacted with when desired or convenient and are great tools for extending concepts. You can ask everyone to put out their thoughts and to contribute constructively on another post. New tools such as wikis and collaborative webhosted documents can also be accessed when convenient when mobile-web accessible. Assignments to make joint responses to requests for proposals (RFP), for example, allow the RFP to constrain the task and mimic real-world jobs and require teams to collaborate to interpret the task and create a shared response. The important point is to find a way to have learners interact productively. These are not unique to mobile, but mobile supports new access and the potential for context-specific components. We can also hold office hours with synchronous communication tools, and mobile versions increase the likelihood of participation and may make it easier for faculty as well as learners. Some may prefer conference calls, others may prefer chats, and video conferencing may also be feasible. Mobile increases the potential for inclusion. Parallel conversations, too, can be seen. Learners can be allowed to use a channel such as a tweet stream or other mechanism to have a simultaneous conversation during a presentation. While it might seem risky to allow ongoing dialogue, the fact is that it can happen anyway, so making it public and exploiting it makes much sense. For example, an instructor could provide a hash tag for a class, and the students could tweet during the lecture. The instructor can monitor the tweetstream while presenting, and this allows the learners to ask questions and interact without disturbing the presentation. This is very much like the chat window in a virtual classroom, but it is brought back to the real classroom. Learners can participate by responding to the instructor’s questions, and vice versa, as well as each other’s comments. This may prove difficult for an instructor to manage or feel comfortable with, but folks are using such tools successfully. With practice, you can check and see what learners are thinking and when their thinking is going awry. Communication is not just language; images, audio, and video can also be shared and commented on. This can be as assigned or as individual contributions to a group project. Learners can discuss shared content, can dialogue around individual assignments, or can work together to create collaborative artifacts. Learners can capture pictures that illustrate (or contradict) concepts, can shoot videos of themselves performing tasks, or can even cocreate a video that represents their understanding of a particular situation and share it with others. Other organizations are creating their own solutions, whether programming, using commercial software, or finding the capability in their existing systems. It’s about deeper learning, though nonlearning socialization is not to be dismissed. Communication can also be about coordinating, making arrangements, as well as establishing oneself as an individual with other interests as well.

Leaner-Led Activities

Providing the opportunities for learners to take the lead in preparing and delivering successful instructional activity is the pinnacle of learner engagement. Learner-led activities provide a sense of empowerment that “is both a critical element and a desired outcome of participation in an online learning community” (Pallof & Pratt, 1999). This type of activity shifts the learner’s mindset from viewing the instructor as the ultimate authority in the course to one of seeing himself or herself as a valued contributor to the learning environment. It is at this point that learners recognize that they are knowledge generators, not only for themselves but also for the community as a whole.

Checklist for an Effective Learner-Led Activity

• Are the objectives for the activity clearly stated in the syllabus?
• Is there a rubric for the grading of the activity?
• Is the concept of the learner-led activity introduced at least two weeks before learners begin planning it?
• Are the learners provided several weeks to plan the activity?
• Does the topic allow a person or team to be creative in their choice and implementation of the activity?
• Does the participation grade include participation in the learner-led activity?

A critical component of discussion is the interaction among learners. As previously discussed, learners need to be able to express their thoughts and ideas and be able to support them or be willing to change them if other compelling evidence is presented to make learners think or feel differently. However, there needs to be a discipline to discussions to ensure that the outcome of the discussion results in learners’ changing their thinking or adding to their knowledge. Without a disciplined discussion, interactions among learners can be shallow and include statements such as ‘‘good job,’’ ‘‘I like that idea,’’ and ‘‘interesting comment,’’ which do not add to the collaborative creation of knowledge.To begin with, to develop an engaging discussion environment you will need to consider ways to make learners feel comfortable in sharing their thoughts and ideas. Brookfield and Preskill (2005) describe a set of dispositions that learners should consider to be more collaborative and respectful participants in discussions. These dispositions include hospitality, participation, mindfulness, humility, mutuality, deliberation, appreciation, hope, and autonomy (p. 8). Hospitality makes learners feel welcome to participate and safe to express their ideas and opinions. Participation encourages contributions from all learners to add depth and subtlety to the discussion. Mindfulness encourages learners to spend time to understand the opinions of other learners and be respectful of their diversity of thought. Humility allows learners to admit the limitations of their knowledge and opinions. Mutuality encourages learners to be concerned not only about their own learning but the learning of their peers. Deliberation encourages learners to offer arguments and counterarguments supported by evidence, data, and logic in a thoughtful discussion of an issue. It includes the understanding that their views may be changed as a result of the arguments presented by peers. Learners express their appreciation to peers for their thoughtful comments and insights. Hope encourages learners to stay the course regardless of the time, effort, and roadblocks they may encounter knowing that the results will be a transforming learning experience. Autonomy allows learners to stay committed to their opinions and beliefs and argue assertively for them. Posting these dispositions at the beginning of a course can set the stage for mindful discussions and encourage respectful dialogue (Brookfield & Preskill, 2005). In addition, as you monitor discussions, consider to what extent these dispositions are being achieved, and remind learners of these dispositions throughout the course to ensure learners are collaborative and respectful in discussions.

Prioritize and Honor the Order in Which You Will Answer
Messages from Students

Another communication management issue I learned is to prioritize the order in which I will answer messages from students. The priority worked best for me when I was reaching the greatest number of students. I was also aware of trying to minimize communications with individual students unless it was for personal reasons, for two reasons. First, I did not want to become a personal tutor to twenty-five individual students, a highly inefficient use of time. Second, I wanted to be sure that all the students were getting the same information. I was concerned that I would teach one student something that the other students didn’t receive the benefit of. I had some students who were too far away to meet with me, and I didn’t want someone to have an unfair advantage just because he or she dropped by my office or called.

There were four means of communications coming from students:

• A discussion area or bulletin board where all the students could see the same information. This is the most efficient since everyone in the class sees it.
• E-mail within the course. This is the next most efficient because I choose when I get to read it.
• E-mail to my university account. This inserts itself into hundreds of other emails and has a tendency to get lost in the shuffle. I can’t keep all course documents in one place.
• Telephone calls. These are fine in an emergency situation.

This is the priority sequence I announced to the students and trained myself to be diligent in following it:

Discussion area. I explained that this is the quickest way to get in touch with me and that I always answer these questions first. So when I logged in at 9:00 A.M. and 4:00 P.M., I ignored the e-mail and went straight to the discussion area or bulletin board and answered those questions. I selected this discussion area first because this is the quickest way to the greatest number of students. Everyone in the class has the opportunity to get the information in this area.

E-mail within the course. After answering all the questions in the discussion area, checked the course e-mail. If any of the questions in the e-mail pertained to content, I replied to the sender saying I’d received the e-mail and thought the question was of interest to the entire class. Therefore, the answer to the question would be in the discussion area/bulletin board, and I gave the message number. In this way, I redirected the students to the discussion area, pointing out that that is the place to get information about the course. I answer only personal or grade questions in e-mail.

E-mail to my work account. I told students that the only e-mail they should send to my office account is something of a technical nature (something is wrong with the server or the course) or there is a personal problem. If they are asking for course information, I reply to the e-mail asking them to log into the course and send this message as a discussion area message or an e-mail message, whichever is appropriate; I also refer them to the course syllabus, which gives those directions. I do not give them the information they are seeking. In addition, I will not reply to that e-mail until after I have answered all the messages in the discussion area of the course and the e-mails in the course.

Telephone calls to my office. These are almost always of a personal nature. If a call is not, I ask the student to first post the message on the bulletin board. If the student has already done this and is still having difficulty with the concept, then certainly a telephone call is in order. I even call the student later if this person indicates he or she is still having difficulty. I also inquire about the materials in the course and find out what wasn’t clear and what might be helpful to make it clear to them. These rules of prioritization on communication are more for me than the students. Nevertheless, the students adhere to them much better than I do. I want to jump every time one of them whimpers, but I have to remember that sometimes they figure it out on their own and sometimes they help each other figure it out, and these ways of learning are much better than my telling them. I remember at the end of my master’s program thanking my major professor for not being there every time I went down the hall to find him to answer a question. I was stuck and needed help, but when he wasn’t there, I went back and struggled more and eventually worked many things out on my own. For others who are similarly overprotective, I think there are times when our students might benefit from a few chances to struggle with the content for a little while.

Rosemary Lehman and Simone Conceição

To avoid letting work take over their personal life, instructors must learn to set boundaries. Setting aside time for personal obligations is an important aspect of maintaining quality of life. Using the following strategies can help instructors maintain a healthy work-life balance:

• Working from home, in a family environment, to gain freedom to spend more time with their children and save on day care and travel-related costs.
• Avoiding working on the online course on weekends to free up time for personal matters.
• Maintaining a separate physical location for teaching online when teaching exclusively from home to allow for mental separation between work and personal life. This can enable instructors to better focus on their online courses.
• Avoiding responding to e-mails on weekends. If instructors need to write a response, they should do so, but wait to send it during regular work hours to prevent learners from expecting them to be constantly available.
• Setting boundaries by managing learner expectations through explicit communication about policies for e-mail responses and assignment feedback. Some instructors choose to respond within a specific time frame (24 to 48 hours) so that learners know exactly what to expect. Others, such as those who work in multiple positions and for different institutions, try to complete coursework when most alert and make an effort to distinguish between work and personal life.

An Online Training Tip
Excerpt from The Technology Toolbelt for Teaching by Susan Manning and Kevin E. Johnson

Computer-based tests, quizzes, and surveys are great tools for instructors to assess students’ basic knowledge. They are also great devices for students to review course content and test their own knowledge before having to demonstrate that knowledge for a grade. Even if you do not use tests, quizzes, and surveys within your courses, the same tools can be used when you need to collect quick information from your students. For example, if you are teaching an online class and wish to know when your students are available to attend a synchronous session with a guest lecture, you can send out a Web-based survey with specific dates and times asking them to indicate all the times they would be available to meet. Web-based testing, quizzing, and surveying tools provide a variety of question types. Most include the basic short answer, true-false, fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, and essay question types, whereas others expand to matching problems, jumbled words, and other more complex question types. Other than with the essay questions, testing tools can check answers for correct responses and assign points accordingly. For essay questions, the instructor is required to log in to the system hosting the tool and manually grade each student’s essay. It’s also important to note that some course management systems such as Moodle and Desire2Learn come with these tools built in and will automatically transfer scores to an electronic grade book. However, when using other tools, such as a quiz made using Quia, the results are often shared in a downloadable file and then must be manually entered into the course grade book by the instructor.

• Moodle at www.moodle.org/
• ProProfs Quiz School at www.proprofs.com/
• Quia at www.quia.com/
• SurveyMonkey at www.surveymonkey.com/
• Zoomerang at www.zoomerang.com/

Keith Pratt and Rena Palloff

An Online Teaching Tip
Excerpt from Assessing the Online Learner by Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt

The following are features of authentic assessments:
• Generally take the form of application activities, such as simulations, role playing, or use of case studies
• Effectively demonstrate not only acquisition of knowledge but ability to apply that knowledge in professional or other settings
• Are effectively assessed through the use of rubrics

The following are guidelines in the use of authentic assessments:

• Learner performance is to be evaluated under the same conditions and using the same materials as a real – world performance would present.
• Students are equal partners in the learning and assessment processes; that is, the activity is collaborative and assessed collaboratively.
• Students perceive the value of the assessment, as it demands real – world performance of learning.
• Students are motivated to participate, as the activity closely aligns with learning objectives and outcomes.

Research and experience tell us that prompt feedback is important in online learning settings, where students lack many of the traditional nonverbal cues to which they are accustomed in face-to-face venues. Without immediate feedback, students report feeling isolated and unsatisfied (McIsaac, Blocher,Mahes, and Vrasidas, 1999). Joel Haefner, in suggesting that asynchronous communication alone cannot offer the kind of immediacy that is sometimes required for successful learning experiences to unfold, says: “If it takes days, or even hours, for students to get a response to a question, many students will lose the intellectual thread—and the urge to follow it” (2000). Synchronous tools offer a wide range of opportunities for students to receive instantaneous feedback, both in scheduled events and in just-in-time interactions with their instructors. For example:

• An instructor visually and orally “walks through” the editing of a paper in real time, providing a window into the thought process by which student work is assessed and offering learners the immediate opportunity to elaborate on their own thinking and to ask follow-up questions to the critiques in order to improve their work.
   
• A student working on a research paper sees that her instructor is connected on instant messenger and asks a quick question to confirm whether she is on the right path. The instructor affirms her direction or steers her accordingly, and the student returns to her project.
   
• While using a virtual whiteboard to solve a math problem, a student is interrupted by a live online instructor who suggests stepping back for a moment to see whether something does not look right. The student pauses and realizes he made an erroneous assumption, corrects it, and is back on track.
   

One of the goals sometimes claimed for e-learning is that it accommodates better to the learning styles or needs of Millennial students, or put another way, these students will learn better through e – learning because it fits their experience and ways of behaving. Who are the “Millennials” ? This is a term used for those born between the mid-1970s to early 1990s inclusive. Other terms for people born in these years are Generation Y, the Net Generation, or Digital Natives. The term describes learners who have grown up with technology such as computers and the Internet all through their life. They are assumed to be technology – savvy, are able to multitask, have developed specific skills such as video game playing, and are sometimes described as having a sense of entitlement (“it’s all about me”) — after all, they are the children of the Baby Boomers (Alsop, 2008). More specifically, with regard to higher education, Oblinger and Oblinger (2005a) identify the following characteristics as being typical for Millennials:

• Digitally literate in the sense of being comfortable and familiar with digital technology
• Connected to friends and the world through technology • Immediacy: rapid multitasking, fast response to communications
• Experiential: they prefer to learn by doing rather than being told
• Highly social: “they gravitate toward activities that promote and reinforce social interaction”
• Group work: they prefer to work and play in groups or teams
• A preference for structure rather than ambiguity
• Engagement and interaction: an orientation toward action and inductive reasoning rather than reflection
• A preference for visual (that is, graphics, video) and kinesthetic learning rather than learning through text
• Active engagement in issues that matter to Millennials

Reflective Activities

Reflection can provide insight for instructors on their teaching and for students on their learning. Reflective feedback allows instructors to evaluate the effectiveness of the student’s experiences in the course. This information can be used to continually modify the course to better meet not only the stated learning objectives but also the needs of learners. In addition, reflection allows students to gain insight into their individual activity outcomes and apply that knowledge to their learning experience.

Aha!
Task: Reflective exercise to be done on an ongoing basis during a course or unit
Objective: To provide an innovative way for students to share their thoughts and experiences
Method: Asynchronous

Instructions:

During your time in this course you may experience what is termed an “Aha moment – a moment when something you have been reading or contemplating makes sense with an unexpected clarity. You are asked to keep a journal of these moments while a member of the class. Periodically during the course you will be asked to share you “Ahas’s” with the other class participants. A compilation of all such moments will be cue at the end of the course.

Activity Author’s Note
Making meaning of course content is sometimes a series of mini-epiphanies. Asking students to document these moments and share them with the class can encourage discussion and enrich the learning community that has been established.