Putting the Learning in Distance Learning

Mary Beth Orrange

AMATYC Math on the Web Themed Session

Thursday, November 20, Washington D.C.

orrange@ecc.edu

http://south.ecc.edu/orrange

Who’s online?

Last year 3.5 million college students were enrolled in online college courses.

That’s 20% of the students in higher education in the US.

Each category of students are represented in that number.

Why are they online?

Top reasons cited in ECC’s survey data:

Course flexibility 69%

Family responsibilities 39%

Changing work schedule 32%

Had a good experience with online courses before 28%

Who’s Teaching Online

In the beginning a few hardy souls.

Now it’s expanded to how many of us teach.

We have better tools and more tech savvy students.

Have we lost something?

Personal Connections

Balance the email - frequent but not too much or they delete it like spam.

Use announcements – give the students a reason to login to the course site.

Let your personality through.

“Say …weren’t you my online math teacher?

Let them get to know you

Teacher as a role model• Respond to their emails quickly.

• Return their phone calls, even if via email.

• Give them a reason to “come to class.”

• Fix typos and errors as students point them out.

• Be available during your office hours.

Do it right!

Create a learning community

• Use the resources of the internet, but create your own materials and techniques.

• Include tools that encourage the richness of a face-to-face math class; such as a question/answer discussion forum or encouraging them to work together on projects.

Confessions from an experienced online math

teacher

Attend AMATYC each year and return to my online class with fabulous techniques that I learned.

Stuff more “things” into an already bloated course.

Some good things I learned about here …

• online products such as MathXL, MyMathLab, and ALEX from AMATYC

• the use of projects to replace the rigidness of these products

• techniques to make my students comfortable with me and learning math online

Projects

http://www.makeitreallearning.com

Frank Wilson’s site

http://www.mathguide.com/projects/

A guide to developing math projects

http://amser.org

Applied Math and Science repository

Math Anxiety

Weekly Participation Activity:

1. Give one difference between the high school learning and college learning.  (2 points)

2.  What quality do you consider most important in learning math?  (1 point)

3.  Give one example of something you plan on doing while studying for this test that helps you learn math. (2 points)

Web 2.0 Tools

Another weekly participation activity:

Go to http://youtube.com and search for Math.  Post the link of your favorite math video by Monday, May 12 for 5 Participation points. No points will be given for an example already posted.

Web 2.0 Tools - Wiki• In order to help everyone learn how to use their

graphing calculator I have set up this discussion forum for us to share what we know about our calculators.   I have included several threads in an attempt to organize the postings.  Feel free to ask questions about your calculator. 

• To earn 2 points (up to a maximum of 10 points for five individual postings) describe how to use one feature of your calculator.  These postings must be substantive, just describing how to do something simple such as adding two numbers is not enough!  The posting might be a response to someone else's question or an original idea.

Calculator help

Links to help students learn how to use their calculators: http://mathbits.com/MathBits/TISection/Openpage.htm

http://www.prenhall.com/divisions/esm/app/calc_v2/

http://web.fccj.org/~mbasse/ti84/index.html

Resources

Free online graph paper:

http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/

Free graphing calculator online:

http://www.padowan.dk/graph/

General resources:

http://www.mathbits.com/

“There aren’t any icons to click. It’s a chalk board.”

Common Sense

• Always proof-read anything you post

• Re-write materials that students find confusing

• Check links on a regular basis

• Limit the number of sites you use for communications – too many will frustrate students

Common Sense• Respond quickly to students – tell

them your expected response time up front

• Let students know if you will be gone or need to change your response time temporarily

• Make students aware of computer requirements and any plug-ins they will need ahead of time

"The number you have dialed is imaginary. Please, rotate your phone by 90 degrees and try

again..."

Want more information?Find this PowerPoint show in (2003 version)

http://south.ecc.edu/orrange

Or on the AMATYC conference website

Contact Mary Beth at orrange@ecc.edu

Thank you!