Interaction in Hybrid Courses

Rosemary Capps, UC Davis

February 29, 2012

Agenda Housekeeping Building collaboration and presence:

What’s working now? What tools are available?

Breakout rooms: Analyze working examples Group presentations Application and extension:

Either “workshop” a hybrid activity Or discuss handling distractions and distracted students

Homework: Read Dyrud; create a netiquette guide, a hybrid activity, and a Carnegie justification for ICMS

Housekeeping Technology tour Where are we in the workshop series? Where do we want to be in April? Follow-up insights or questions:

Universal Design Case studies West, “A Student’s Guide to Strengthening an

Online Community”

Why build community?

Collaboration, community,

presence

Student engagement

Learning mastery,

persistence to degree

achievement

What does building community require?

Face to face Blended Fully online

Dependence on t echnology to sustain community

Instructor effort re-quired to

build commu-

nity

Discuss in groups. What do you currently use to build community in

your face-to-face courses? How do you currently set ground rules for these

interactions? What kinds of interactions do you expect to move

online or keep face-to-face?

Take notes in the breakout room notepad. Discuss for 10 minutes, then nominate a presenter

to report to the whole group in 60 seconds or less. If you need help, use the chat box that says “send

message to hosts.”

What is presence? The degree to which an individual is perceived

and perceives himself or herself as “real” in a space Social and intellectual connection Student to student, to instructor, to content A sense that the instructor is walking me through

the experience Can happen in a good lecture, lab, seminar, or

online activity Examples:

www.PhinisheD.org ECS 30 Facebook page

Which settings allow which interactions?Setting/Tool

Synch/Asynch

Editable Archived Other

Discussion board

Usually asynchronou

s

Can be Yes Threaded discussions

Blog Chronological

asynchronous

Can be Yes Text, images,

multimedia,

Chat Usually synchronous

Usually not Can be IM, texting, chatrooms

Collaboration tools

Either Yes Yes Wikis, Google docs, TitanPad

Voice or visual communication

Synchronous Usually not Can be Webinars, Skype,

SecondLife

Social media Either Yes Yes Twitter, FB, RSS,

Google+

Face-to-face settings

Synchronous No Usually not We’ve used it for

centuries!

Explore some examples. What kinds of interaction could occur online?

Student/student Student/instructor Student/content

What kinds of interaction could occur face-to-face?

How and to what degree does presence exist? Would this work or help in my own hybrid

class? Which other tools might fit better with my

personality or discipline?

Discuss in groups. In your breakout rooms, nominate a

timekeeper. You have 40 minutes to discuss four examples, answering four questions about each example.

Follow the links on your respective computers, and use Adobe Connect for to discuss using voice and chat.

Take notes in the breakout room notepad. Nominate a presenter to report to the whole

group in a 3-5 minute summary. If you need help, use the chat box that says

“send message to hosts.”

In small groups,

“workshop” a hybrid

activity for one of the courses in

your group.

As a whole group, discuss

logistical challenges to student engageme

nt (distracted students,

scaling up, etc.).

Choose the next activity:

Create a hybrid activity. In your breakout rooms, choose one of the

courses under design in your group. As a group, create a hybrid activity for that

course. Align the activity with course-level and

module-level learning objectives. Use the matrix of tool-types to take

advantage of possible interactions…but don’t overload. Only add tools that are necessary.

Plan for set-up and transition.

Consider challenges to engagement. “In the last year I have made the decision to ban open laptops in

my classes. I teach two undergrad classes of approx 20 students and one larger of about 100 where I’ve instituted this policy. (I teach design for theatre and film classes and I assume many are taking these classes for fun – I have a cross section of students from all areas.) I did this because I was seeing a distinct drop in student performance directly related to surfing the web and I found it to be a big distraction when students weren’t engaged with what was going on in class. I admit my own addiction to electronic devices and know it’s difficult to tear myself away–I now call the break a “text break” and this seems to relieve some tension with this policy. I believe if a student has another priority he/she needs to make the choice about coming to my class or working on something else. I also think in some cases it’s just habit and and an electronic addiction. BTW-I have not had one complaint about this policy–(that I’ve heard anyway).” [continued]

How to address engagement challenges? [Continued] “Here is what I put in my syllabus:

“Classroom decorum and etiquette: A new rule — No open laptops or electronic devices in class. Activity not related to classroom instruction such as phone calls, texting, emailing, surfing the web, talking unnecessarily during lectures, etc. is distracting to other students and the instructor and takes time and attention away from your educational experience. (Anecdotally, I have found that students who surf the web during class time have been getting lower grades. I will try to have “text breaks.”) You will be allowed to use computers when needed for project research and presentations. Generally, I will ask students to leave class if they create disruptions. Additional policies posted on our class Smartsite.”

How to address engagement challenges? The connection-distraction challenge:

How might connection-distraction manifest in a hybrid course?

How might it vary depending on the learner population—lower division, upper division, grad students, others?

How might you balance the “no laptops” policy with the goal of integrating the online and face-to-face portions of your course?

How might you explain this to students in your syllabus?

Homework Read Dyrud (2001), “Group Projects and Peer

Review” Create for your syllabus:

A netiquette guide, as in the West article: How will you let students know what’s expected of them in

course interactions? A hybrid activity:

Align the activity with course-level and module-level learning objectives.

Use the matrix of tool-types to take advantage of possible interactions, but don’t overload. Only add necessary tools.

Plan for set-up and transition. A Carnegie justification for ICMS:

How much time do you expect students to spend each week on each of your learning activities?