August 2015 Resources
from Creating Engaging Online Learning Activities JAM – Resources
SCoPE open seminar – August 1 to 15, 2015 – facilitated by me!
Framing Our Exploration
Daniel Pink's book DRIVE and his TED TAlk from 2009 "The puzzle of motivation" – http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation?language=en are often cited when talking about motivation and online learning. You can find his book in bookstores or at the local library; you might also enjoy the RSA Animate video based on his book: https://youtu.be/u6XAPnuFjJc
I was inspired by Elaine Khoo and Curtis Bonk's approach in their book "TEC-Variety", which begins from a brief review of learning theory, philosophical perspectives about how people learn and then focuses on what the research says about motivation and engagement in online learning. I'm starting off from his Chapter 3 and adding some alternative viewpoints about motivation and engagement.
Bonk, C.J. & Khoo, E. (2014).Online Motivation From Four Perspectives. In Adding Some TEC-VARIETY: 100+ Activities for Motivating and Retaining Learners Online. (pp.31-43) Retrieved from http://tec-variety.com/TEC-Variety_ch3.pdf.
Chapter 3 presents the philosophical perspectives on learning and research on motivation that were used to develop the 10 principles that they suggest should be used to guide online learning activity design.
An illustrated interpretation of Chapter 3 by me 😉
You can access a free digital copy of the TEC-Variety book (and if you like it, I encourage you to order a copy – I have) he authors have made an online version of this work available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
In Chapter 3 you'll find Table 3.1 Theoretical Underpinnings of the TEC-Variety Framework. This shows how they (the authors) derived the 10 Principles.
To see how the principles relate to online learning activities – find Table 1.1: 100+ Activities for TEC-Variety
I've looked around to find other perspectives that link motivation and engagement to the design of learning activities. Most of the journal articles or videos I've found focus on teacher behaviours or student environments or personal circumstances. So, I still go back to Bonk & Khoo's 10 principles; despite the fact that they aren't all separate principles, they provide a way of organizing types of learning activities to inspire you to create something new and engaging of your own.
I also came across the five factors of student motivation that are presented (and have been tested) by Dr. Brett Jones. I include the 2012 article about his five factors as an easy introduction to this model.
- Kelly, R. (2012, August 10). Five Factors that Affect Online Student Motivation. Retrieved from http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/five-factors-that-affect-online-student-motivation/
Dr. Jones provides some examples in this 2012 journal article:
- Jones, Brett D. et al. (2012, June) Factors that impact students motivation in an online course: Using the MUSIC model of academic motivation, in Journal of Teaching and Learning with Technology, Retrieved from http://jotlt.indiana.edu/article/view/2040/1993
You can also visit his new web site which contains supporting materials and an explanatory video.
- The MUSIC Model of Motivation – http://www.themusicmodel.com/
Approaches to Planning Online Learning Activities
A Visual Guide – Questions to Ask Yourself
- A post-it bulletin board with an amalgamation of questions to help you plan your OLA – http://linoit.com/users/Sylvia18/canvases/Plan%20Your%20OLA
Technology-based Bloom's – Ideas for Developing Innovative Online Learning Activities
- A bulletin board assembly of ideas and examples of digital learning activities (and different enabling tools and apps) viewed through a cognitive lens – Bloom's Revised Taxonomy (with a dash of Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development) – New Ways to Learn – http://padlet.com/sylviar/olas
Additional Ideas to Explore
- Developing Online Learning Activities – University of Waterloo, Centre for Teaching Excellence – https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/developing-assignments/blended-learning/developing-online-learning-activities
- Think about accessibility – Review the Ten Steps Towards Universal Design of Online Courses – http://ualr.edu/pace/tenstepsud/
- Explore options for different levels of learning in a digital age with the help of Andrew Church's Educational Origami wiki – start with his page on Bloom's Digital Taxonomy – http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom%27s+Digital+Taxonomy
- Appendix 2 "SECTION" guide to media selection, from Tony Bates new book, Teaching in a Digital Age – Questions to guide media selection and use (but useful for planning an OLA as well) http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/part/appendix-2-questions-to-guide-media-selection-and-use/
- UNSW, Selecting Technologies page, "Learning Outcomes x Technology Tools matrix" – https://teaching.unsw.edu.au/selecting-technologies
Ideas for Online Learning Activities
Ideas by Topic or Subject
Teaching Geoscience Online – this resource developed by the Science Education Resource Centre at Carleton College (U.S.A.) with funding from National Science Foundation – see terms of use http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/index.html
- see Activities for Teaching Online – 14 activities
- see also – Student Motivation and Engagement in Online Courses – Pedagogic Design for Engagement – various activities and links to examples
- explore New World for Geoscience Teaching: References, Examples and Ideas for Online Games – some are outdated but others may provide useful ideas.
The National Science Digital Library – 132 000 images, video, audio, software, data sets and text documents which include lesson plans and journal articles – you have to sign up for a free OER Commons account. These resources are intended for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) educators, are fully searchable, and include:
- activities, lesson plans, syllabi
- labs, case studies, simulations
- games
Ideas by Type of Activity or Approach
Note: you can search OER collections, listed below, by type of resource or activity
From Digital Bloom's Taxonomy section of Andrew Churches' educational origami wiki – rubrics and resources organized by the 6 levels of learning – http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom%27s+Digital+Taxonomy
Collaborative Learning – a collection of references, resources, journal articles, and examples and case studies by the University of Sydney, Australia – http://sydney.edu.au/education_social_work/learning_teaching/ict/theory/collaborative_learning.shtml
Constructivism – a colleciton of definitions, explanations, design ideas and examples and case studies by the University of Sydney, Australia – http://sydney.edu.au/education_social_work/learning_teaching/ict/theory/constructivism.shtml
Scavenger Hunt (to orient student to course) – 4 examples plus description and scholarly references
- Ref: Jillian Wojcik (2014). Use Scavenger Hunts to orient students. In K. Thompson and B. Chen (Eds.), Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository. Orlando, FL: University of Central Florida Center for Distributed Learning. Retrieved July 28, 2015 from https://topr.online.ucf.edu/index.php?title=Use_Scavenger_Hunts_to_orient_students&oldid=3597
Case Studies, University of New South Wales, Learning to Teach Online – Mixture of videos. Award-winning video repository from UNSW
- Examples: Hippocrates: Online Medical Tutorials, Online Discussions in Maths Teacher Education, Using eportfolios as a reflective teaching tool.
Ideas by Technology / Tools / Apps
Case Studies, University of New South Wales, Learning to Teach Online – Mixed in with videos about types of activities, these case studies also include stories about the use of different social media or technological tools.
- Examples: Using Flickr as an Online Classroom, Using Blogs for Peer Feedback and Discussion, Teaching Using Scenario-based Simulations in Second Life
The Padagogy Wheel V4.0 by Alan Carrington – based on Bloom's Revised Taxonomy – begins from motivation within a frame of Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition (SAMR Model) and provides action verbs to frame guiding questions for your activities, ideas for different activities, and suggestions for different Web2.0 tools or apps to use – http://tinyurl.com/padwheelV4
Resources You Could Use to Create an Activity
Open Educational Resources
AMSER (Applied Math and Science Education Repository) – a portal of educational resources and services built specifically for use by those in Community and Technical Colleges but free for anyone to use.
JORUM Higher Education Open Educational Resources (OERs) – searchable, organized by subjects, United Kingdom but many resources are general enough to be used in Canadian contexts (or can be used to inspire a Canadian version – remember to share back!) (http://www.jorum.ac.uk/?_ga=1.54504171.2124086276.1408283399#jorum-higher-education)
MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) – a free and open resources designed for faculty and students of higher education – U.S.A. – reviewed for quality
OER Commons – a collection of teaching and learning materials from around the world
OERs by Material Type – an information site by Kwantlen Polytechnic University Library
- Open Data
- Open Textbooks
- Open Books
- Open Databases
- Open Multimedia – most likely to provide resources to build learning activities from?
- Open Courses/MOOCs
PhET – Interactive Simulations for Science and Math – University of Colorado Boulder – http://phet.colorado.edu/
Videos of actual research or exciting, dangerous, catastrophic events
- Youtube video of the La Conchita Landslide
- Youtube video of aftermath of Frank Slide – Frank Slide is the 2nd largest landslide disaster in Canadian history
- International research investigating microbialites at Pavilion Lake, B.C. – Pavilion Lake Research Project
Streaming webcam video
- BC and Yukon Highway and some Location WebCams – http://www3.telus.net/ruping/webcams/pyrwebcams.html
Some of the above links were drawn from sites listed on the University of Toronto's Online Teaching: Example Activities page – http://www.teaching.utoronto.ca/topics/teachingcontexts/online-learning/engaging-students/activities.htm