Technology & Instruction for UNEX

123MSCC30 Teaching Online with Moodle: online, 4 weeks, starts January 8, 2013 – this class covers the basics of teaching online and using Moodle. Participants learn about the online environment as they participate in the class and complete assignments. Development of a detailed course syllabus is the final project. Emphasis is on the unique features of online teaching and learning, and the transition from face-to-face to online. Open to anyone who might be interested in teaching online, not just UCR Extension instructors; no previous experience required. Optional project is to produce a proposal for an online course at UCR Extension. 123MSCC31 Teaching Online with Moodle: hybrid, 2 face-to-face meetings on January 9, 2013 and January 23, 2013 , 6-8 PM, Wednesdays at UCR Extension – covers same topics as online version listed above. 123MSCC32 Producing Media for Your Online Course: online, 3 weeks, starts February 6th. Instructors learn to produce multimedia for their onl...

Mark Zuckerberg says that betting on HTML 5 as part of Facebook's mobile strategy was a "big mistake. " The promise of HTML 5 seems to be the same story that was supposed to happen with Java -- develop once and you end up with a near-native experience on multiple platforms. Except it didn't seem to work that way with Java and apparently has not worked with HTML 5. I'm not much of a Facebook user, so if the HTML 5 Facebook app for each mobile phone platform is a little bit slower than a native application, it doesn't matter to me. However, I use Moodle every day and since Moodle's mobile strategy is also based on HTML 5, I wonder if that is going to produce a good enough experience for mobile users. It seems to be easier for developers, but given the change of direction by Facebook, maybe Moodle's mobile strategy isn't looking so good right now.

This presentation by Joe Smith on how to use a paper towel is very simple, but effective and powerful. Good principles to remember when you are trying to teach something - make it memorable, get the audience involved, repeat your message, and emphasize the benefits.

In our online instructor preparation classes, one of the three keys I emphasize for teaching online is preparation. Of course, preparation is important for just about anything -- if I could only get my sons to remember to get their clothes out the night before and not five minutes before they need to leave for school! A great discussion of the importance of both preparation and ongoing professional development is part of the most recent episode of The Candid Frame , a photography/creativity podcast. Ibarionex Perello interviews Sports Illustrated photographer Bill Frakes, and I think he does a great job explaining why preparation is what makes the difference in photography and in anything else you want to do and do well. It's episode 139 .

This past Friday, March 23rd, UCR Extension hosted an exhibition of student work from "All the World's a Stage: Introduction to Street Photography," a class taught by Eric Kim . Some of Eric's photos were also on display. Eric Kim and students from his class, "All the World's a Stage: Introduction to Street Photography" Student work on display Eric Kim and  Ibarionex Perello , host of The Candid Frame podcast *photos by Jacqueline Rodriguez Eric is teaching the class again during the Spring quarter . It is taught using a hybrid format, with some face-to-face meetings and some online work. Back in August, I was listening to The Candid Frame episode where Ibarionex Perello interviewed Eric Kim. Eric mentioned that he had recently been laid off from his job and was going to devote his time to street photography. I emailed Eric and told him about our free class for potential online instructors and asked if he might be interested in tea...

Most of our online instructors use Powerpoint to create presentations, but it doesn't have a great solution for adding narration. You can record your voice on each slide, but there is no built-in way to export that as something that plays back by itself  online. You can upload the PPT file with audio to authorstream.com and it will produce an online presentation where students can click on each slide to hear the audio. That is an acceptable solution, although I think the ability to create a self-running video of the presentation with narration is nicer. SonicPics is a $2.99 iPhone/iPad app that allows you to add narration to images and export them as a slideshow. If you can export your Powerpoint or Keynote slides as .jpg files and get them onto your iPhone, this looks like an easy way to create a narrated presentation.  I haven't tried it, but it appears to be easier to use than some of the other options and much less expensive.

Nicely done video about Kristen Kipp, National Online Teacher of the year for 2011. Produced by Pearson.

Interesting blog post by Maryellen Weimer today on the Faculty Focus website about grading and how to determine what assessments have the most value in a course. She doesn't discuss technology or online classes, but I think the role of technology in teaching and learning is changing how people learn and how they should be assessed. I like the point she makes about what should be valued: Exams also test the ability to recall knowledge or to demonstrate thinking within time constraints and without access to resources. Is that one of the most important skills students should take from the course and their college learning experiences? As she points out, we often do things because that's the way we've always done them, whether or not they remain relevant. How learning is assessed influences what students spend their time on in a course. This is easy to test in an online course -- when forums are graded, usually all students will participate in order to get a good grade. When ...

We are offering our free course for instructors and potential instructors one more time this quarter. The class starts tomorrow and details about how to register are below. 113MSCC13 Teaching Online with Moodle : online, 4 weeks, starts February 15 – this class covers the basics of teaching online and using Moodle. Participants learn about the online environment as they participate in the class and complete assignments. Development of a detailed course syllabus is the final project. Emphasis is on the unique features of online teaching and learning, and the transition from face-to-face to online. Register by contacting Student Services: Tel: (951) 827-4105 or (800) 442-4990 toll-free Email: register@ucx.ucr.edu (include your name, address, phone number and the course ID). Questions: contact Brian Reilly - breilly at ucx.ucr.edu

Eric Kim is teaching a new course at UCR Extension starting this month,  All the World's a Stage: Introduction to Street Photography . The course starts January 16th, 2012 and is being offered online, with two photography-related field trips. If you can't make it to the Riverside area for the field trips, I think Eric can accommodate you with alternative assignments. It should be an exciting class. Eric's videos and writings will give you an idea of how passionate he is about street photography, but he's also thought quite a bit about the sociological implications of taking pictures of strangers in the street, so you'll learn more than just photographic techniques. Check out Eric's website for more information about him and his photography.

One of the biggest challenges in moving a class online from a face-to-face format is figuring out what to do with the portion of the class that was spent in a classroom/lecture hall. Since our workload formula is 2 hours of work outside of class for each hour in class, the classroom portion, in theory, accounts for 1/3 of the learning time. The remaining 2/3 could conceivably remain the same -- readings, assignments, group projects, etc. with some changes needed to make things work online. My experience working with a wide range of instructors has been that those with previous pedagogical training handle the transition from physical to virtual classroom better than those who base their teaching approach primarily or solely on  the lecture model. If classroom time was mainly devoted to someone standing in front of students talking and working their way through presentation slides, things may not go smoothly if we try to replicate that experience online. (Whether that experience is...

We have three courses for instructors which are still available for registration. 113MSCC11 Teaching Online with Moodle : online, 4 weeks, starts January 10 – this class covers the basics of teaching online and using Moodle. Participants learn about the online environment as they participate in the class and complete assignments. Development of a detailed course syllabus is the final project. Emphasis is on the unique features of online teaching and learning, and the transition from face-to-face to online. Open to anyone who might be interested in teaching online, not just UCR Extension instructors; no previous experience required. Optional project is to produce a proposal for an online course at UCR Extension. 113MSCC10 Teaching Online with Moodle : face-to-face, 3 meetings, starts January 11th; 6-8 PM, Wednesdays at UCR Extension – same as online version listed above. 113MSCC12 Producing Media for Your Online Course: online, 3 weeks, starts February 7th . Instructors learn ...