Need to do a front-end analysis

I realized, a bit too late, that I have been making a number of assumptions about the technical skills of the audience as I designed the assignments. I think most of the assignments have reasonable technical requirements (e.g., Word, PowerPoint), so it should be fine. But, for the three Culminating Projects in particular, I was planning on requiring the integration of Web 2.0, podcasting, digital storytelling, and the like. Since this is not a learn-how-to-use-tools course, I need to make sure my expectations of tool proficiency are realistic. So, my plan is to add a technical skill survey (just a couple of questions) to the individual "welcome" emails I will send out to everyone during the first week of the course. This will help me determine how to modify the assignments so that everyone can achieve the learning objectives. I suspect I will be able to modify the projects, if need be, for flexible tool use...allowing each learner to choose from a selection.

Doing a tools double-take

I was plugging in Web 2.0 tools everywhere, into every assignment. I am still committed to making a go with Twitter, and to asking folks to use Web 2.0 tools creatively in support of the instructional messages they are designing. But, I have just gone through the course, and pulled out the instances of tools-because-they-are-cool. For example, for the In My Life activity, I originally asked folks to post their photos to a group Flickr account I had set up for the course. And in doing so I violated an instructional message design principle related to proximity. The photos need to be where the text is that describes the photo. Duh.

The added realization is that I was creating unnecessary complexity for each assignment by involving external tools...when the same result could be achieved by using the structure and tools provided within eCollege. Crazy.

It keeps crashing!

Because I am a "veteran" of online teaching, I was asked to be one of a handful of faculty piloting the new version of eCollege this fall in preparation for a big roll-out in the spring. Although there are some clear improvements (e.g., how discussion forums are displayed instead of using a pull-down menu, and the cleaner general look-and-feel of the interface), there are some challenges:

* The WYSIWYG interface is unstable. I'll set up a page, think it looks good, come back later and it is a mess.

* There is still no search functionality. This seems so basic that to have yet another major roll-out and not include the ability to search the content of a course is...well, crazy.

* It is constantly crashing on me! Or, it won't be able to load a page, and sends me an error message about trying back again later, or that for my own safety I need to log on again. This is quite maddening because I have to keep logging in, and I'm never sure about the status of my work.

I'm glad to have the new version, but "new" never seems to live up to what I hope for.

Other ways of connecting...what about Twitter?

With the elimination of required weekly discussions, and some collaborative team work, I have concerns about social connection. To try to address this, I have added in a few collaborative activities (for "Hands-on/Minds-on" assignments) and no-penalty peer reviews for Culminating Projects. But, I have been thinking about something more organic, more natural. So, I would like to invited everyone in the class to join me in a Twitter community. I also think it would be fun to include other faculty, and other eLearning students.

Here's my thinking about how it might play out...

One of the IT 5130 students is reading something in the Mayer book and has a question about a term or phrase. She immediately tweets the group, and gets a couple of responses. This allows for a little back-and-forth communication about Mayer, message design, and so on. Another student is working on an assignment and is wondering about embedding music. He tweets the group and gets a response. Another student can't believe what she has just read in Tufte and needs to share. So, she tweets the group and finds someone else who can't believe it either. And so on.

This seems much more natural than logging into eCollege, getting into the course shell, then getting into a discussion forum...and then waiting for someone to respond later (after she or he has already moved on to other work, thoughts, issues).

Also, I have three conferences this fall...and so will be away for about 2 weeks total. I thought it would be fun to tweet everyone from the conferences, let them know what folks are sharing and talking about. A sort of "reporting from the field" experience. I think this could be a good way for us to stay connected.

So, this is my plan. Fingers crossed.