Avonlea Hanson: e-Learning Consultant

Kaltura, Padlet, OneDrive.  Although these things may sound like words from a different world, they are actually three of several helpful technological tools to use in your courses.  New technologies like these are becoming available all the time, making it all the more overwhelming to begin considering how you can use them in your own curriculum.  Luckily, there’s an app, er, I mean, a person for that!  Recently, I had the privilege to sit down with Avonlea Hanson, one of UWEC’s talented e-Learning Consultants, to ask her some questions about her work here on campus and how she is able to help others wade through new technologies to find the right one for them.

What does an e-Learning Consultant do?

The first topic of our conversation centered on the basics.  I wanted to know what exactly an e-Learning Consultant does on campus.  Avonlea explained that consultants spend most of their time helping instructors develop their online courses, working with them to decide what kinds of technology fit best within their curriculum, and assisting them with incorporating new technologies into their courses.

What are some of the technologies that e-Learning Consultants can help with?

Whether you have questions about D2L, or you’re interested in putting the power back in PowerPoint, your campus e-Learning Consultants can help you further develop these skills so that you can run your course like a technology master.  Tools like Kaltura work well for streaming videos, Padlet operates as a live discussion board, OneDrive is an easy way to share and collaborate on information, and all of these can work as seamless ways for students to fully interact with the material and each other in your courses.  Did you stumble upon an online resource but aren’t quite sure whether or not it could work for you?  Ask a consultant!

What’s something unexpected that e-Learning Consultants can help with?

Flipped classrooms and hybrid courses are becoming more and more prevalent within the world of education.  This means transitioning between face-to-face content to screen-based content.  E-Learning Consultants can help you translate all of the materials that you have prepared for face-to-face presentations into digitally-accessible formats.

What are the best and most challenging things about being an e-Learning Consultant?

Exploring new technologies and helping instructors match up assessments to learning goals are just two of the things that Avonlea is most passionate about when it comes to her work as an e-Learning Consultant.  She works hard to stay up-to-date on the new tech tools that can be used in classrooms to promote better learning and more involved education.  This also works as a double-edged sword as keeping up with those changes is also the most challenging part of an e-Learning Consultant’s job.

What tips do e-Learning Consultants have for instructors?

“Come talk to us!” Avonlea says with a smile.  There are so many good things about utilizing e-Learning Consultants to make your courses better.  Some things to keep in mind: consultants are flexible—they work with you to provide as much or as little assistance as you’d like; meetings with them are individualized—they use a one-on-one technique to target your needs exactly; they work directly with your goals—consultants consider all aspects of your course in order to help determine which tools will work best for you.

There you have it!  Working with e-Learning Consultants is a great way to up your technology game in the education world.  Whether you’re considering a hybrid version of your class, teaching full-fledge online courses, or just looking for better ways to utilize technology in your face-to-face courses, UWEC’s team of technology experts are amazing resources to have.

For more information including how to contact members of the technology team, check out the CETL staff page. 

Written By: Jessica Moser

Textbooks and Active Note-Taking Strategies

I remember taking my first textbook centered class in college.  We read chapters at a time and then listened to lectures on the content.  It seemed pretty standard at the beginning, but after the introduction and beginning chapters were over, and we began with more in-depth material, I quickly became overwhelmed.  There I was, sitting on the floor of my freshman dorm room, an arrayed collection of highlighters within easy reach, a notebook perched precariously on my lap, and I had no idea where to start.

That semester, I think I spent more time in my professor's office than in my dorm room, asking questions, and trying to better understand the content.  I got a tutor for the subject.  I asked friends for help.  Nothing seemed to work.  That was, until a friend of mine, two years my senior, suggested I look up tips on reading a textbook.  I had scoffed.  I was an English major.  I didn't need tips on how to read.  Reading was my life!  But to humor her, or maybe just to try and prove her wrong, I spent some time googling, and realized: I didn't know how to read a textbook.

I would put money on the fact that this is a hugely widespread issue that many college students have to work through.  Luckily, some of them are able to figure it out on their own with enough time and practice, but some students aren't as fortunate--spending semester after semester struggling with understanding content simply because they don't know how to effectively read or organize it once they understand it.

As it turns out, the key to reading a textbook has nothing to do with the actual act of reading, but instead, the ways in which students process, take notes on, and study the information they read about.  Therefore, the real problem has to do with how students work with the information they are given, and most of them are doing it wrong.

What most students perceive as good note-taking etiquette, is actually the opposite.  Students highlight full pages of text, they write down vocabulary words and only focus on the definitions, not the use of the words themselves.  They make flash cards and focus on route memorization to get them through tests.  They write things word-for-word from their texts, expecting that to be enough of a tool to remember what it means.  In reality, none of these things are effective learning techniques, and instead, have been proven across the board to promote a less engaged system of memory retention.

Instead, students should be using active note-taking procedures: putting things into their own words, making real-world or personal connections to the things they read, jotting things down in the margins instead of highlighting, or summarizing each page with one or two main thoughts written on sticky notes.  They should be considering titles, subtitles, and reviewing the questions that are at the end of the chapter before they even begin reading.

My proposal is this: for professors that choose to utilize textbooks, the first class of the semester can be used to show examples of how to effectively read and take notes on chapters within their texts.  Explain that there are several different techniques they can use (like the ones listed in the previous paragraph), but using an entire highlighter per chapter is not the way to go about it--mostly because it won't help them remember any of it, but also because they're college students and highlighters are expensive.

Look for resources (like this video) that might be helpful in illustrating how to put active note-taking skills to good use, and share them with your students before you begin the semester to make sure they're getting the most from your class, and you're getting the most from them.

Tip Provided By:  Jessica Moser 

Active Learning Activities - Richard Spindler, Math

What do pancakes, classrooms, and The Bird have in common? They can all be flipped! Professor Richard Spindler from the Department of Mathematics speaks to his success in flipping the classroom in this active learning activity post:

Setting: Problem-solving activities utilizing pod groups (6 pods with 3-4 students per pod) and Q&A, as needed

Setup for the activity: Students were required to watch a video and read an assignment on the topic before coming to class. I then provided questions and problems they would work on together in class, and I circulated in the classroom to answer questions.

How the activity unfolded in the classroom: The students began their work together in their pod groups, discussing each problem. As they worked, they called me over with questions, and I discussed the issues either with the entire group or with the one or two students who had the question. Occasionally, if a common issue arose, I discussed it with the entire class, using the projector.

After the activity: I summarized any important points or issues that arose. After class, the students took a D2L Quiz on the topic.

Additional comments from instructor: "The students are more engaged, relaxed, and they are more likely to ask questions. In addition, the flipped nature of this activity allows me to work with them on problems as opposed to a lecture format where I would have much less time for that. From past experience, many of them typically could not do the problems independently outside of class."

Faculty Projects – The Ever Ubiquitous Deadline

Professor: Patti See

Department:  Student Success Center: Developmental Education Courses

Name of Group: Successful Teaching Practices: Group Work

For those in the world who shudder, cringe, or tip over the nearest office printer upon hearing the word “deadline,” the rather morbid etymology of this everyday phrase may come as little surprise: originating from the American Civil War, a “dead line” was a literal line that prisoners of war were not allowed to cross, under penalty of death. This bleak association with the phrase carries well into the academic world, where every semester students (and faculty alike) struggle, sweat, and figuratively (or literally) bleed in order to meet the mountains of deadlines piled up on their respective desks.

But the contemporary deadline is not a form of purposeless torture: deadlines can be used to one’s advantage as a constructive form of organization, a way to stay on task. They can also become less intimidating if they are coupled with deadlines along the way: in this manner, an enormous project ceases to become one huge undertaking and instead a series of smaller, more manageable steps. An idea gathered from CETL’s group entitled “Successful Teaching Practices: Group Work,” Patti See, from the Student Success Center, anticipates this addition in her semester long documentary project:

"If I Knew Then What I Know Now: Advice for Next Semester’s GEN 201 Students” is a group final project to create a documentary of students’ experiences as they regain good standing.  They are to work in groups of three to five and include pictures, video, voice narration, music, etc. to create a video.  They also are to write a one page reflection on this project, explaining the group dynamics, members’ roles, what they’d do differently, and what they learned.

This past semester I realized that simply because students wrote down their plans they didn’t necessarily follow through. A number of students said that they didn’t actually START filming until the beginning of finals week (our final was on a Friday). This spring I intend to have two deadlines: one at midterm in which I ask students to turn in a short version of their advice documentary, and one during the final exam in which they turn in the completed one.  This also allows students to map their progress throughout the term, since the main goal of the course is to keep the students on track to regaining good standing. Students in GEN 201 really struggle with deadlines, and, as one of my Fall 2014 students pointed out, if I require them to get something done half way through the term, the final project is not as stressful."

She ends by briefly advocating the CETL group process:

"Though I had done group projects in my classes for years, I was able to tweak this semester-long project with much of the information learned in the CETL group.  At the end of the fall term, I also asked my students after they completed their projects what would have made this process work more smoothly.  They had excellent advice, which also supported what I’d learned in the CETL group."

Write up by Jon Pumper