Online Education: How To Collect Data To Assess Needs and Student Outcomes

Tuesday, June 3, 3:00-4:30 (Eastern)
Type: Online Webinar

As the cost of education continues to increase and the availability of new and innovative technology tools expands online teaching and learning opportunities, keeping up with and increasing faculty skill sets proves challenging. Moreover, institutions are experiencing tighter budgets, making opportunities for professional development more difficult to fund.

This webinar will focus on how to collect, correlate, and use data to expand faculty capacity and assess outcomes. During this webinar, participants will learn how the University of the District of Columbia initiated an effort to provide professional development opportunities to faculty across three levels: track participation and outcomes, target specific training to faculty based upon skills, and move faculty along a continuum toward being certified to teach online. The presentation will also disclose how a simple correlation was used to map trained faculty and their online offerings to student outcomes and increased success.

Objectives
- Attain skills in designing, collecting data, and assessing professional development initiatives
- Learn how to correlate and map data to determine the needs of faculty
- Learn how to design and explore LMS use via a content analysis
- Learn how to use data to expand faculty capacity on an individual basis
- Discover how to begin to use these tools immediately and not need statistical expertise

Additional Information: http://www.innovativeeducators.org/product_p/2067.htm

Webinar: Persistence Vs. Retention: Legislation And The Changing Paradigm Of Student Success

Wednesday, May 7, 2014  1:00-2:30 EDT
Venue: online webinar

Overview:  
Improving the retention and success rates of undergraduate students continues to be a major topic of discussion for higher education administrators and other stakeholders. Retention refers to an institution's ability to retain students from one performance period to the next. Persistence is the student's ability to continue enrollment from one term to subsequent terms. While postsecondary institutions have emphasized retention, the push for greater accountability by tying student completion outcomes to eligibility for federal student aid programs (Partnerships for Affordability and Student Success Act, S. 1874), requires postsecondary institutions to focus on strategies to increase student persistence to degree completion.

This interactive webinar will discuss the higher prioritization of persistence as a driver of student success to bolster retention. Participants will learn the importance of shifting priorities from a retention-based approach to a persistence-driven student success model.

Objectives:
*Examine the impact of proposed legislative changes on how student success is measured
*Explore student perspectives on the correlation between persistence, retention, graduation, and ultimately, successful student outcomes
*Infuse persistence into student success programming as part of the strategic plan
*Review cost-benefit analysis (return on investment or ROI) for persistence

Web address: http://www.innovativeeducators.org/product_p/2159.htm

Constructing Knowledge Through Experience-A Teaching Method

Constructivism is a concept that entails all learning as a building process that creates knowledge through mental processes derived from the social and communicative process. When students are reflective they are able to learn from their experience and apply new information to these concepts. A paper by Abdulla Al Mahmud moves into the concept of learning through a constructivist perspective by fostering knowledge building through experience to create better student learning (2013). 

In a constructionists perspective all learning comes from experiencing the world and reflecting on those experiences.  The concept was mention by John Dewey in his 1910 book How We Think, “Only by wrestling with the conditions of the problem at hand, seeking and finding his own solution [not in isolation but in correspondence with the teacher and other pupils] does one learn.” People live within a social environment and use their experiences and the knowledge of others to learn.

To understand a person you must understand what they know and how they know it. Jean Piaget (1985) believed that knowledge is the result of accurate internalization of information and reconstructing that information into cognitive meaning. People must take in information, reflect on it, and build better models of the world to engage in the process of learning. Teachers must find ways of relaying information to fit within existing student models.

Social constructivism occurs when people learn from each other to create sociably acceptable models of understanding. They use language and their social networks to construct the meaning of their environment. Most individuals experience and negotiate that experience with others to create an understanding that is shared among a group of individuals. That does not mean that the experience or its socially constructed definition is accurate but only that it is shared.

The best learning occurs when reflection is part of the process. Critical thinking requires reflection of past and current situations to develop stronger ways of viewing the world. This can take the effective of reflection-in-action or reflection-on-action. Both methods offer some advantages to the development of knowledge.

Reflection-in-action occurs during a situation when an individual adjusts and moves to events as they occur.  “The competent practitioner learns to think on his/her feet and is able to improvise as

s/he takes in new information and/or encounters the unexpected .”(Pickett, 1996,p. 1). They use past knowledge and current information to build stronger models as the events unfold.

Reflection-on-action occurs when a person looks back at past performance or situations and learns new knowledge. Students may take case scenarios and match then to their models to expand those understandings. They may review and reflect on their actions to determine if these actions were successful or unsuccessful. Reflection creates opportunities to do things better in the future.

Eight factors can be derived from constructionist pedagogy (Brooks & Brooks, 1993):

1. Learning should take place in real-world situations.

2. Learning should involve social negotiation.

3. Content and skills should be relevant to the student

4. Content and skills should fit within the student’s previous knowledge

5. Assessments should be formative

6. Students should be self-regulatory, self-mediated, and self-aware

7. Teachers are guides

8. Teachers should encourage multiple perspectives and representations of issues.

The author leaves the reader with three concepts learned in his analysis. Each of these concepts can be applied within the constructionist learning method. Students should come with Open-mindedness, Sincerity, and Responsibility. Open-mindedness analyzes multiple perspectives and possibilities. Sincerity allows for self-reflection on themselves, their work, and structures. Responsibility will lead to greater concerns of seeking out the truth in order to solve problems and extract information to create new learning for others.

Al Mahmud, A. (2013). Constructivism and reflectivism as the logical counterparts in TESOL: learning theory versus teaching methodology. TEFLIN Journal: A Publication on the Teaching & Learning of English, 24 (2).

Brooks, J. & Brooks, M. (1993). In search of understanding: The case for constructivist classrooms. Alexandria: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Piaget, J. (1985). The equilibration of cognitive structures: The central problem of intellectual development. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Pickett, A. (1996). Reflective teaching practices and academic skills instruction. Retrieved from http://www.indiana.edu/1506/mod02/pickett.html

Webinar: Supplemental Instruction: Improving Student Engagement, Performance And Course Completion

Tuesday, April 8, 3:00-4:30 (EST)
online webinar

Overview
Engaging students in active learning programs outside of the classroom is a proven strategy for increasing learning. Supplemental Instruction (SI) is an academic assistance program that utilizes peer-led team learning in study sessions. This method provides students with the opportunity to review course concepts and develop effective learning strategies. Data from institutions around the country, and in several other countries, show that SI is effective in improving student grades in historically difficult courses. Data also shows its success in increasing the number of students who complete the course with a grade of C or higher.

This webinar will present the salient features of Supplemental Instruction (SI), the cognitive science principles upon which the program is built, the steps necessary for setting up an SI program, and the materials available from the International SI Office.

Key Concepts
- Describe Supplemental Instruction (SI) and explain why it is effective
- Compare and contrast tutoring with SI sessions
- Implement a successful SI program
- Recruit faculty and SI leaders to participate in the program
- Discuss ways to sell the program to administrators
- Anticipate and address challenges associated with implementing SI (such as maintaining good attendance and acquiring sustained funding for the program)
- Recommend appropriate courses to include in an SI program

Web address: http://www.innovativeeducators.org/product_p/2131.htm

Call for Papers: EDULEARN14 (6th annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies)

July 7th-9th, 2014, Barcelona, Spain
Deadline  April 3rd, 2014 
Abstract submission: http://edulearn14.org/online_submission
http://edulearn14.org

OVERVIEW
You are invited to participate in EDULEARN14 (the 6th annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies) that will be held in Barcelona (Spain), on the 7th, 8th and 9th of July, 2014.

This conference will provide the ideal opportunity to present your projects and experiences to an international audience. Also, it will offer participants an overview of the current situation of education and new learning technologies. You will be able to listen to experts from different countries, representing all continents.

If you wish to learn more about how technology is influencing the learning/teaching experience and how education is changing in the world, then do not miss the opportunity to come to EDULEARN14.

A TRULY INTERNATIONAL EVENT
After 6 years, EDULEARN has become an annual meeting point for lecturers, researchers, professors, educational scientists and technologists. Every year, EDULEARN brings together more than 700 delegates from 75 different countries.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION:
There will be 3 presentation formats: Oral, Poster or Virtual.
You can submit your abstracts proposals until April 3rd, 2014 (included)
Abstracts should be submitted online at:
http://edulearn14.org/online_submission

OBJECTIVES
- Present and disseminate projects about education and new teaching and learning technologies
- Share best practices and promote international partnership and cooperation among lecturers and professionals from all over the world.
- Create an international forum to discuss and exchange ideas about the latest innovations in education and research, applied to all fields and disciplines

IMPORTANT DEADLINES
- Abstract Submission Deadline: April 3rd, 2014 (included)
- Notification of Acceptance/Rejection: April 29th, 2014 (included)
- Final Paper Submission Deadline: May 22nd, 2014 (included)
- Registration deadline for authors: May 22nd, 2014 (included)

More information is available at http://edulearn14.org/tourism