This week in class we became familiar with the Quality Matters Rubric, which is a set of standards for creating online courses (Hamlin, Adair, Boyd, Collmer, Dominique, Gao, Gearhart, Giger, Knowles, Pascarella, Shattuck, and Subocz 2011). While the formal rubric is new to me, some of the concepts are not. As I have learned how learning works this semester, most of the standards are common sense and in many ways relate back to how I operate at my office job. For example, most of our online trainings (if not all) go through some form of a peer review process in which we receive feedback on things such as measurable learning objectives, quality of technology, and the design of the instructional materials (Hamlin et al 2011). This workshop has definitely helped me hone those skills and put them into practice, so I will be a better peer reviewer at work and a better designer for knowing these standards. What are your thoughts on the rubric? Are you already using something similar in some capacity, or was the material new for you?
References: Hamlin, Adair, Boyd, Collmer, Dominique, Gao, Gearhart, Giger, Knowles, Pascarella, Shattuck, and Subocz (2011) Quality Matters Rubric Workbook for Higer Education Maryland Online
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Over the last few weeks I created the video posted in the Tying it all Together section of my Web site. This project was so much fun!! I started off in familiar territory - PowerPoint. The part that was not quite so familiar was using the Beyond Bullet Points method of creating the slides. Still, that part was somewhat familiar as I have heard of this concept in the training world. The next step was to convert and import the slides into Microsoft Movie Maker. This is where I was in brand new waters. Recording and adding the audio was easy enough, until I wanted to add some scripting after the fact. I found that editing an already recorded movie is challenging, because it is very difficult to match up the sound. Lesson learned. While I am very proud of the finished product, I am also my toughest critic and can think of ways in which I could make it better. Have you ever used Movie Maker, and what did you think of the software? Do you have any tips to share for future projects?
For our most recent assignment, we utilized the plagiarism detection program Turnitin. This technology is built right into the learning management system and, once you upload your assignment, Turnitin analyzes your work and brings back an originality report showing what percentage of your paper matches the book.
Even though I re-wrote everything in my own words and cited appropriately, I was still a little nervous uploading my paper to the system. However, it came back as a 3% match, which is pretty low. It is very, very uncommon to have a 0% match since we use many common phrases and words in everyday language. My similarity index block was blue, which is the lowest match you can get, so I was happy with that result. Part of this is most likely because we are not permitted to have any direct quotes in our work, even if we cite them, because students do not learn by copying and pasting. I personally thought Turnitin was easy to use and it didn’t take long to get my results back. About 15 minutes. While it was easy to use, I found it a little glitchy in that I did not receive an error when my file was too large to upload. However, I went through and deleted all of the images and it loaded easily after that. I also got a few error messages when trying to view the portion of my paper that was a match. Did anyone else from class experience those issues? In my current role, I can’t think of many scenarios in which I could utilize plagiarism detection but would use it if it were applicable to my teaching setting. Can anyone else think of a situation in which a corporate trainer might use this technology at work? I chose to create a word search for the Google technology assignment, although the flash cards would be fun to use too. I have to admit that I just now realized that I am under utilizing Google. This assignment opened up a whole new world to me and I definitely plan to use it in the future. On the first day of this class, we were told that we will mostly figure out technology as we go, rather than be formally instructed on how to use, for example, Google Gadgets. This was music to my ears because, as anyone that uses technology on a daily basis can tell you, most of their projects are challenging and they never stop learning new things. This assignment was just challenging enough, without being frustrating. And I had fun not only creating the word search but testing it to make sure it works, too. What else am I missing with Google Gadgets? Have you used this technology before and, if so, what did you do?
When I was reading chapter three I kept thinking of the children's book...haha! I think part of that is because a learner has to have confidence that they can attain a goal or they will not be motivated to even try. All of the different factors that come into play are important to remember. One of the main reasons I like training and teaching is that it is a way to help others learn how to do new things and then see their sense of accomplishment when they succeed. What are some ways to help students gain confidence? Also, what do you like best about teaching others? I thought chapter two was really eye-opening and it was interesting to delve into the learning principle that the way students organize knowledge affects how they learn. The way history was taught at my high school was very much like an information dump, with really no context or connections being made within the material. I am fascinated by how much my husband knows about history and that he can tell a story about a specific time period or war. It would be interesting to see how history was taught at his high school. Is he so much more knowledgeable because he is an expert learner, or because of the way it was taught? It is amazing how the human brain works and the fact that everyone processes information differently truly makes teaching an art. Do you agree with that statement? How have you dealt with helping learners organize information in your teachings? As I read chapter one I kept thinking of a saying we have at work...which is to use the building blocks method when training our sales professionals. This boils down to making sure they have a solid foundation of the basics before moving to the more complex concepts. Using my prior knowledge of building blocks, I was able to easily retain what I read and wrote about in my chapter summary. Some of the methods surrounding prior knowledge are new to me, and others I have been using without knowing the formal terms. One of the training classes I conducted really stands out in my mind because I used some of the methods described in the book and incorporated technology into the session. Two weeks before the session, I sent out some pre-work which entailed completing an eModule. Rather than assuming that everyone completed the eModule AND that they all retained the information, I opened the class with a game that tested the participants on the pre-work. We used Poll Everywhere which, if you aren't familiar with that Web site, allows you to create multiple choice polls and participants then respond by texting their answer. By placing these polls on the PowerPoint slides, the class could see real time updates of their votes. How often do educators allow cell phone use in class? Part of the fun was it felt like we were breaking the rules while reinforcing the content! It also allowed me, as the instructor, to spend more time on gaps that were uncovered during the game. That was a class that went well. But that is not always the case. I recall an instance in which I prepared a training that was not appropriate for the level of knowledge that the intended audience had. I wrongfully assumed that since they had the foundational training that they were ready for the next level. They had to stop me after about 10 minutes and let me know that their prior knowledge was not where it needed to be and that we needed to go back to the basics. While I recovered and was able to quickly switch gears, it was definitely a learning experience for me. Speaking of training...not all of my training is done in a classroom and it's interesting to conduct virtual training not knowing everyone's prior knowledge of Web Ex, which is the system that we use. I will usually ask the group if they know how to use polls, or the whiteboard, and tailor my instructions to how much they know about the technology. Prior knowledge isn't just about the material at hand, but also about using the technology to access those materials. |
AuthorKristin is a Training Consultant at LexisNexis. She lives in Dayton, Ohio with her husband, stepson, and their dog. Archives
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