Faculty Focus Article “Guidelines for Online Teaching Success”

Check out this article in Faculty Focus “Guidelines for Online Teaching Success”

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/distance-learning/guidelines-for-online-teaching-success/

NCSSM Spotlights their VC technology.

On May, 24, 2011, Tracy, Distance Education’s Technical Specialist sat in on an informal video conference held by the NCSSM (NC School of Science and Math).  The purpose of this video conference was for NCSSM to share and highlight how they hold their VC classes and technology.

Caryn Louie teaches Mandarin Chinese via video conference.  She uses smart board technology to write the correct spelling of the language for all the students to see.  She also uses a green screen technology where she is able to walk into a visual image like a map or picture.  Any student who takes a class with Karen is required to have computer access with software that allows the students to produce Chinese characters with the keyboard.

Tamar Avineri teaches pre-calculus via video conference.  In her classes she uses the document camera to display her written problems to the students.  She can also connect her calculator to the video conference equipment allowing the students to see her calculator screen displayed on the big screen.  When the students need to see exactly which buttons she is pressing, she simply puts the calculator under the document camera and toggles back and forth between the two displays.

Jim Litle teaches US History.  He talked about how the students enjoyed the green screen technology that allowed him to be “In” the map and point out specific routes and places.  Mr. Litle uses a LMS that the students have access to, in order to house some of his bigger PPT files for later review and study.

All of the classes that are offered through NCSSM video conference are recorded, archived and available for students to view throughout the semester.

If you would like more information on NCSSM and the courses that they offer, please visit http://www.dlt.ncssm.edu

Work Smarter Not Harder with Kelly Kirk

If you didn’t get to come to yesterday’s workshop, you missed a lot!!  Kelly Kirk presented “Work Smarter, Not Harder.”   Kelly talked about how online teaching doesn’t have to be so time consuming, giving us tips on how to cut down on your online teaching time. He showed us how to plan for portability so you  can use some material in all your online classes.  He also showed us how to make assignments more manageable by thinking about your workload, preplanning and putting the students to work.  Assessment Do’s and Don’t’s, how to easily grade your papers, email etiquette, and how to reduce your email where just some of the topic he touched on.  Kelly shared with us some of the web 2.0 tools that can make your life easier.  The best part of the workshop…How to build your Moodle course in just 5 minutes!   Check out the link to the archived session if you would like to see all that you missed!!  Hope to see you next time!!

Here is a link to the workshop yesterday for anyone who may still be interested: http://randolph.adobeconnect.com/p19rgdxc7zl/

Proctoring Services

On 5/23/11 the Distance Education team viewed demos for two proctoring services,  Remote Proctor and ProctorU.

Remote Proctor is a 360 webcam with finger print access and a web browser lockdown.  Students would program the device with their finger print and photo. In order to take a proctored test, the student would need to authenticate her/himself with their fingerprint before beginning the online test.  The Remote Proctor device records the student taking the test, everything in the room, and all sounds in the room for later review by either the institution or by remote proctor staff.

ProctorU is a live virtual proctoring service where the student logs into a website outside of Moodle at a scheduled time.  The student will then be connected with a proctor via webcam.  The proctor will verify the student via ID shown to the camera and also by a series of questions from information that is gathered from public records through acxiom, an additional authentication service that ProctorU uses.  After the student is authenticated, the proctor will then ask the student to log into Moodle and access their exam.  The proctor will ask the student to show them around their workspace via the webcam.  The proctor will take control of the student’s computer in order to input the exams password.  Once the exam has started the proctor can watch the student’s movement on the computer, their location and their eyes for any type of questionable movement or actions.

At this time, DE is evaluating the cost and effectiveness of each service in an attempt to meet the requirements set forth by the Department of Education and SACS.  Additional services are available and will be reviewed as well.  Our goal is to obtain the most cost effective and accurate method for student authentication and academic integrity available.  Once we have identified a few solutions, we will bring them to the Distance Education Committee for discussion and further input.