In Search of Interactive Online Learning: Using Learning Objects & Authoring Tools

Online learning is not easy to define.

Well, it IS learning/instruction that takes place online....

But online learning can have many different faces.

"Details, details..." by Andrew Butitta is licensed under

CC BY-SA 2.0

My husband, for example, is taking an online course in motorcycle repair.

My first thought was - you can learn how to repair a motorcycle by reading about it? Without physically working on one?????

hmmmm....   This type of program would be a great chance to use videos, interactive "stuff"....  I can learn a lot about teaching online while he learns how to repair his motorcycle.

Nope...on both counts.  While he has learned a lot, it is not through the course.  The course is set up as a glorified correspondence course - with the reading delivered online.   He logs in, prints out a 60+ page lesson, prints it, reads it and marks his "text," takes an online test, then starts the process again...

No videos..nothing to show an engine doing whatever an engine does... nothing spiffy...no bells...no whistles...

Nothing engaging or persuading one to learn... His interest in the course has definitely waned .... something I do NOT want to happen to students in my own courses...

For several years, now I have experimented with different ways of making my online courses more interactive. Almost 10 years ago (Adcock, et al., 2006; Duggan & Adcock, 2007; Duggan, et al.,

CATHIE

2006), a colleague and I created CATHIE (Computer Agent Teaching Helping Interactions Effectively). CATHE was an animated agent used to teach and assess human service students' level of empathy as they interacted with her in a variety of online scenarios.  CATHIE would present an issue, the student would select a response, triggering a response from CATHIE and so forth. Each student response received feedback, and responses were scored based on their level of empathy on the Carkuff Empathy Scale. Responses did improve as students participated in this simulation, and they reported enjoying the opportunity to interact online. We were constantly tweaking how to provide such training quickly and easily, and at an even more interactive level.  We even added eye tracking to see what the students were actually watching on screen and whether or not they were reading the feedback for each of their responses. We hosted CATHIE within Blackboard, which, again, requited a great deal of assistance from IT to assist the two programs in "talking" to one another. Eventually, funding drifted (this was a very expensive endeavor), but I have kept that program alive in my mind, looking for ways to replicate  and enhance this work in a cost effective manner, hoping to expand the concept to teach leadership and crisis management skills. We spent hours designing the flow of the  framework, and I spent evenings recording my own audio, crafting scripts, and recording  friends and family members reading the various scripts.

This leads me back to my experimenting with a variety of ways of adding interactivity to my classes.....

My History

Jeopardy (2009)

     When teaching a master's level course in research design I searched for a way to review material with students in a face-to-face setting, wanting something different from a lecture or spelling bee type of approach. Searching online, I found a Jeopardy game template using PowerPoint and decided we would play it in class as review for a midterm. The students loved it! They asked for more.... Unfortunately I spent 20+ hours creating that 20 minute activity, and I just didn't - and still don't  - have that much time to create something novel. (Click HERE for a link to Jeopardy templates.)

Hyperlinks and Action Buttons in PowerPoint (2010)

     The above activity taught me how to use hyperlinks within PowerPoint, so I started creating online modules to hang in Blackboard for my doctoral students in their online Qualitative Research course. I learned to create a Table of Contents, quizzes, links to videos...all sorts of ways of presenting material to supplement what they were learning in their text. I could set up responses to questions and when students selected a response, a hyperlink took them to the feedback...no scoring, but at least it was interactive. The following video shows how to create interactive quizzes in PowerPoint:

 eXe (2010)

      A good friend of mine suggested I look into eXe as a way to deliver content in a more interactive manner...and I fell in love!  Here was a way to provide a very neat and clean  module filled with supplemental content, videos, audio, and quizzes. When I posted modules designed in PowerPoint and those designed in eXe, asking students to tell me their preference, responses were evenly split. While I could create quizzes, the quizzes could not be scored, so this provided more of a chance to read, learn, and reflect upon one's learning.... but no way to  assess and no way to individualize the content. eXe offered an improvement, however, in delivering content in some way other than pages of text...now, if there was a way to add that to PowerPoint's hyperlinks....  (Click HERE to learn more about and to download eXe.)

Camtasia (2010)

          While I was experimenting with using PowerPoint to create interactive modules, I discovered Camtasia and started using this to narrate my PowerPoints (turning them into videos) and creating online modules to supplement course reading...not too interactive. Students could, however, control how they progressed through the videos as Camtasia allowed me to publish them with tabs/table of contents allowing students to move through the videos at their own speed. (Click HERE to learn how to create a table of contents for video navigation.)

Learning Objects

     How the terms have changed...  I was crafting "learning objects" before they were given that name.

     PowerPoint  - yes, again - has an option to create a vertical slide, and I used to create those as a type of poster with images and interactive links. I realize that the education (and business) world is tired of PowerPoint, but it is an extremely versatile tool...and one that doesn't require an additional purchase! (Click HERE to learn how to make a poster with PowerPoint.)

     Microsoft Word has the same ability and makes a great poster with graphics and hyperlinks to webpages and videos. The following video explains how to make a poster using Microsoft Word:

Thinglink
 

Capture of an actual Thinglink.

     This free program allows me to create an interactive image (i.e., a learning object) quickly, including text and links to videos and to websites. (See examples of  Thinglinks:  Fundraising in the Community College,  Setting a Constructive Climate, The Style Approach to Leadership,  Situational Approach to Leadership, and  Handling Conflict.)  Thinglink  (thinglink.com) provides a great way to organize content for students and is somewhat interactive. While I like to use this as an organizational tool for my modules, I can envision an assignment for my community colleges students to create an interactive map of their campuses, perhaps for posting on their community colleges' website as an introduction to their college campus.  Another assigment might be to have them create an interactive map of their community colleges for faculty and staff, explaining the location and the various units on their campus.  This would be a great assessment tool for the end of EDU 604: The Community College and American Education.

VoiceThread

     One of my favorite discussion tools, VoiceThread (voicethread.com) is easy for students - and faculty - to learn how to use...and a paid account allows for private postings, very important for my students who are watching their digital footprints. As I ask students to reflect upon their own experiences and their workplaces, privacy is paramount. VoiceThread allows students to explore the topic with one another, requiring they listen and respond, thereby honing their oral and listening skills, necessary skills for administrators Students have also used VoiceThread as a private reflective journal and for their own presentations when asked to lead a class discussion.

Prezi

     Prezi (prezi.com) is an alternative to PowerPoint, allowing students to review material at their speed. I have embedded videos, audio files, images, and a variety of links, and students have remarked that they enjoy prezi due to its individual approach. One of my students,, however, complained of motion sickness when viewing a prezi, so when I do use a prezi, I now provide a pdf of the prezi file and a list of separate links... just in case. Students like prezi for their own presentations. Along with using it for content delivery, I have used it to create an online program orientation, in presentations off campus when I talk about the Community College Administration program, and when leading a discussion on Climbing the Ladders of Success: Necessary Skills and Competencies for Effective Community College Administrators.

Piktochart

     Piktochart (piktochart.com) allows the user to create infographics, reports, banners, or presentations - all of which can be interactive. I have, so far. used it to create an infographic on the Community College Administration program which I then posted on  the program Facebook page and tweeted (@CCA_AVL). I have a variety of assignments in mind to introduce students to Piktochart.

Future Assignments Using Learning Objects

For icebreakers, I often have students describe where they work and what they do, introducing both the student and his or her job to the other students in the class.Taking this a step further to include some learning objects might be quite interesting:


EDU 604: Community College and American Education - Students could create a marketing piece to depict/explain their individual units.  They could use Thinglink, Piktochart, Visual.ly (http://visual.ly/), or Venngage (venngage.com).  The piece should be designed to be shared on their community college's website, Facebook page, and twitter feed.  This assignment could have several components: (1) creating the piece for a student audience, (2) creating the piece for a faculty/staff audience, and (3) creating the piece for a business & industry audience....or they could choose 2 of the 3 audiences.

Another possible assignment for this course could be to have the students create a cover for their unit's Facebook page using canva.com.

EDU 610: Organization and Culture in the Community College - Students could use Thinglink, Piktochart, Visual.ly, or Venngage to create a poster/infographic depicting Schein's Three levels of Culture.

They could also create a motivational poster for their office, using Piktochart, Visual.ly, or Venngage.

EDU 621: Design and Development of Curricular Programs focuses on curriculum design, so students could design an infographic using Piktochart, Visual.ly, or Venngage to market their proposed program to the target population or to make a presentation to their community college's curriculum committee.

EDU 631: Design & Development for Student Support and Development Programs - so many possibilities here.... Students could set up a Facebook page for an orientation/student success course and use Canva to create a FB cover.

or....They could also craft an infographic using Piktochart, Visual.ly, or Venngage to present information on their institution's student services while targeting a specific student population.

or... They could use Piktochart, Visual.ly, or Venngage to create an infographic regarding student services to give to faculty and staff.....

Interactive Learning Objects

I have lots of ideas here.

First, I want to use Camtasia to gradually rework all of my current videos to integrate quizzes and  tables of content, giving the students the opportunity to proceed more at their own space, skip what they already know, and quiz themselves on what was presented.  I have the original files of the videos so revamping them to add these items (and Creative Commons copyright information) as I move each course into our new LMS should work - I just have to allow the time for it.

Interactive Scenario-Based Learning Objects

I teach leadership, and leadership is a component in every class the Community College Administration students take. I want them, however, to have some practice in leading and particularly in handling conflict in the workplace. This means I need to create a new version of CATHIE or find a program that will help me create something similar. I want a series of interactive scenarios where students respond to a leadership issue/crisis/problem by interacting with a video/program. EDU 620 Higher Education Leadership and EDU 610 Organization and Administration of a Community College are perfect for such activities. I would give students the opportunity to deal with a problem employee...but in a safe online environment. These problem-solving and interpersonal skills need to be practiced, but handling an employee incorrectly can become a legal issue or cause a variety of emotional issues, so honing these skills in the safety of an online setting can be very useful. The student would be given a scenario with an employee in conflict (i.e., unhappy at work, bullying others, poor workforce performance), and the student would be led through a series of events and steps to deal with the "problem"employee. The student would choose from a list of opening conversations, and that opening would determine how the employee responds (audio, of course!).  Then the student would have more responses (with responses receiving feedback on the screen), with student responses again determining the employee response. This could continue until a peaceful resolution, a lawsuit, or not much at all happens :-) Students would then reflect upon the experience and their choices, possibly opting to try it again.

(click HERE to see  a video that is similar to what I want to create.)


I will need a program with branching capability, along with audio, and possibly video. I need the capability of complex student interactions where students have  the opportunity to make mistakes and to learn from them. Ideally, this would need to be visible on iPads, tablets, mobile devices, and in our LMS. Based on my review of various products, I believe I could do this using Articulate Storyline, but the $1400 price tag is a bit much. Adobe Captivate also would meet my needs, and the $300 student/teacher pricing is tempting. I already have Camtasia, but I am not sure that it meets my needs.

For the moment, I will proceed with gradually updating/revising my videos to increase their interactivity...and perhaps ask for Adobe Captivate for Christmas...

References

Adcock, A.B., Duggan, M., Nelson, E. & Nickel, C. (2006). Teaching Effective Helping Skills at a Distance: The Development of Project CATHIE. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 7(4), 349-360.

Duggan, M. & Adcock, A.B. (2007). Pedagogical Agents Teaching Helping Skills in an Online Environment: A Pilot Study.Journal of Interactive Online Learning 6(1) 56-71.

Duggan, M. H., Adcock, A. B., Nelson, E., &Nickel, C. (2006). Creating a web-based environment to enhance helping skills. Human Service Education, 26(1), 82-98. 

Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is the art of using computer-based tools such as text, graphics, audio narration, video, and music to tell a story. The following video provides a brief introduction to digital storytelling:

Storytelling is not new to the education realm and has been used in entertainment, cultural preservation, and in instilling moral values. In fact, most of us can remember at some point

listening to a teacher or a parent read a story while showing us the pages....and we may have done the same activity with our own children.

Digital storytelling combines the use of the narrative with modern technology to deliver a story, and its use has extended far beyond that of a teacher or parent reading a book to a child or group of children.

Now, children can create their own digital stories, helping them to make sense of the world around around them as they portray the story in their own words - and pictures.

Children are not the only ones who can learn and use the art of digital storytelling.

from a recent meeting

I am the director of the MA in Community College Administration program at Lenoir-Rhyne University, and located on the Asheville campus.  Despite my being physically located in Asheville, the MA CCA was the first fully online program offered by Lenoir-Rhyne.  Program students  tend to work full-rime in a community or technical college while trying to balance work, home, family, and community - thus the need for this being a fully online program. Although we do video-conference  as a group twice each year for programmatic meetings and to bring in community college speakers from across the nation, all coursework is completed asynchronously, so these courses must be interactive and engaging with social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence.

This degree leads to administrative positions as mid-level managers, and sometimes students do not wait until graduation to move into these positions. while a certain amount of very basic technology experience - and a great deal of willingness to experiment - is necessary to complete this program, we do try to give students technology skills that will prove useful for them as administrators, giving them that competitive edge. Program assignments are designed to help students "give back" to their institutions (and add to their resumes). Digital storytelling is a skill they can use on their job, but they need some experience with making their own "stories" in their online courses to prepare them for applying this skill to an administrative position.

An online program can easily allow students to become disconnected from one another and the stories each of us have to tell. Digital storytelling can help students become more connected with one another....and with their institutions.

Digital storytelling assignments can be used to enhance written communication skills, oral communication skills, technology skills, collaboration skills, and critical thinking skills - all skills required for successful administrators...so.....how might we craft such an assignment to help these adults foster these skills? Let's explore the application of digital storytelling in several courses...and its use on the job.

EDU 630: The Adult Learner

For an initial discussion forum or icebreaker in this course students could create a digital story of their own pathway through learning that brings them from their earliest memory of learning to the current day. They would then view each others videos and comment. This assignment could help them begin to build their learning network with their classmates, while helping them begin to think about how the impact of their past learning on their current learning, setting the stage to enter an exploration of adult learning theories.


Workplace application: Students could eventually build on this assignment by creating something such as this video, College Can be Scary,  created by Tina Maestas, Director of the Resource Center of the Community College of Denver. Using family photos  and newspaper clippings, Tina gives us a glimpse into her own education and her past, along with her struggles and successes. She then skillfully shows how her very past enables her to work with and understand the issues of those coming to the Resource Center for assistance.

 EDU 604: Community Colleges and American Education

This course provides an overview of the various units within the community college with the purpose of introducing students to all aspects of the institution in which they work.  Because we sometimes acquire tunnel vision and only "see" our work sites from the perspectives of our job, this course is vital is helping students stretch beyond their cubicle and see how the college operates as a whole. Digital storytelling lends itself beautifully to another icebreaker (and later to an assignment - but I get ahead of myself).

To be effective administrators, students need to understand all aspects of the community college, and what better way than to learn from one another than to hear their classmates tell the stories of their jobs! An icebreaker in this course could be to create A Day in My Life as a . . . . a digital story sharing with the class just what each student does on his or her job every day. Such an assignment would immediately help to create social presence and allow them to begin networking...while they hone those communication, technology, and critical thinking skills. Combining graphics, text, photos, music, and voice-overs would really help them tell the story of a typical day.  College staff may not - and probably do not - already know what a faculty member does every day...and faculty tend to have little idea as to what staff does during the day...and staff in the business office by have no idea as to what staff in workforce development do every day. This assignment could handle that educational piece quickly!

Workplace applications: Students could build on this assignment in a later project in the course by crafting a digital story of the Day in the Life of a Student at ABC Community College for their institution's to use on a website, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.  The One Day at Duke  video featured below is a TV spot incorporating more than a thousand photos, videos and messages that were submitted online by Duke University community members worldwide on a single day -- April 19, 2013. This  commercial comprises 136 video clips, photos and Twitter messages from 42 people in five countries. More than 150 Duke students, faculty, alumni and partners appear on screen.  Obviously students would have neither the time nor the resources to create a project of this magnitude, but they could do something on a much smaller scale, perhaps depicting a day n the life of several different students (traditional first year full-time student, part time student who is working full time, a returning student, a first generation college student, an international student, etc.).....the possibilities are endless!

While One Day at Duke uses a lot of video footage, the same could be accomplished - far less grand but still useful - with photographs, text, and voice-overs.

or...

Students could tell the story of their institution - the history of their community or technical college. NC community colleges, for example, have recently celebrated their 50th birthday - what better way to celebrate than to tell their story? Such a project would be a great way to archive photos and leaders' voices...and could be used  as a marketing piece or posted in the institution's youtube channel. In Illinois where the first community college began in 1901, community colleges are over 100 years..imagine the history!

still another possibility...

Digital storytelling could be used to tell (show) the story of someone applying to the college - detailing how it is done... and all of the accompanying feelings and anxieties associated with taking this first step.......or follow a student applying for financial aid.... These videos would be very helpful in making new community college students feel more at ease with the whole process of entering college while introducing them ahead of time to those college staff with whom they will be working.   Research suggests that staff become front-line educators  as they work with students and are, therefore, extremely influential in student persistence (Schmitt & Duggan, 2011; Schmitt, Duggan, Williams, & McMillan, 2014) . Students often develop a relationship with staff before they meet faculty, and these digital stories will help community college students feel more comfortable with the college before they arrive...a way to "break the ice. . ."

and another . . .

Some program students are faculty moving into Department Chair or Dean positions.  Faculty can use digital storytelling a variety of ways, both within the classroom and without.   Want to know what a nuclear medicine technologist does? Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) of Cleveland, OH created this video, with some digital storytelling components.


Imagine how much stronger this video might have been had it used even more stories...and stories of graduates working in the field. Although is more video than digital story, using images and voice-overs from program participants and graduates would still be a strong tool.

EDU 631: Design and Development for Student Support and Development Programs

This course is a program elective that delves into student development theory as it relates to the design and development of community college student support programs. In addition to having students share their own educational journey, they could, in small groups, review the research on a specific community college population and then craft a digital story of that population.....or they could  take it one step further and return to their individual institutions to talk to students in those populations and have them tell their stories.

A sideways move to Digital Storytelling and Marketing

With less and less money to go around, institutions of higher education need to find creative ways to market and "sell" their institutions - the values, culture, and personality of the institution, even the services the institution offers. According to Hill+Knowlton Strategies,  digital storytelling is one way to do this, to help companies - and institutions, set and deliver their brand:

If an institution prides itself on being student-entered, then a digital story in which students relate examples of a college's student-centeredness would be an ideal way to show this trait...and digital stories as those noted above would also do this.

Community College administrators are in a prime place to begin using this form of media to showcase their students, their staff, and their institutions...all without the aid of a video camera...but with incorporating digital images, music, text, and music.

Ah, the stories we could tell . . . with only text, digital images, music, and voice......

 References

Cuyahoga Community College. (2013, September 10).  Nuclear medicine 
               program at Tri-C [video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/
              eQkBSIYTKeQ

Duke University. (2013, August 31). One day at Duke  [video file]. Retrieved from 

              http://youtu.be/AZHkvw6UaZs

Hill+Knowlton Strategies. (2013, October 18). Demystifying digital storytelling:
             Why is storytelling   so important in digital marketing? [video file].
             Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ibDu7olQ6E

Maestas, T. (2014, August 6). College can be scary [video file]. Retrieved from 

             http://youtu.be/nsGqzPIpccY

Schmitt, M. A., & Duggan, M. H. (2011). Exploring the impact of classified staff interactions on student retention: A case study approach. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 35(3), 179-190.

Schmitt, M. A., Duggan, M. H., Williams, M., & McMillan, J. (2014). Front-line educators: Impact of classified staff interactions on the student experience. Community College Journal of Research & Practice. 38(12), 1-20.