Christina Nelson-Brozycki Portfolio

Course: Using Online Participation Tools to Foster Active Learning

Intent Of Project: The intent of this course is to show educators how to use online participation tools to foster more active student learning through participation in their classrooms.

Learning Outcomes: After completing this mini-workshop:

1. Participants will be able to identify the drawbacks of traditional "face to face" classroom participation techniques.
2. Participants will be able to identify the advantages of online participation tools as a supplement to "face to face" class participation.
3. Participants will be able to identify the disadvantages of online discussion tools.
4. Participants will be able to identify strategies to mitigate the disadvantages of online participation tools.
5. Participants will be able to identify online participation tools that suit specific educational goals.
6. Participants will be able to adopt online participation tools by writing an assessment template for an online participation activity.
7. Participants will be able to implement an online participation tool by creating a mini-online participation activity.

NEEDS ANALYSIS:

The Reality or the Instructional Problem:

Teachers have long recognized class participation by a student as an indicator of student engagement and learning. Yet despite the value teachers place on student participation, many traditional participation techniques often fail to involve all students in active learning because not all students are willing to participate by talking in front of others, because a few students often dominate class discussions, and because students often “talk” but don’t reflect, criticize, or ask meaningful questions.

The Ideal:

In the ideal classroom, teachers would use participation techniques that overcome the disadvantages of traditional student participation. Online tools, as a supplement to traditional class participation, offer teachers new ways to foster active learning through student participation. Participants who complete this workshop will will understand why online tools can increase active learning through class participation and will know how to choose online tools that encourage more students to actively learn through participation.

The Learners:

The learners for this workshop will be middle school to college level teachers interested in fostering active learning inside and outside of class through the use of online participation tools. Teachers will have met these pre-requisites: they use discussion in class, they are open to active learning techniques, and they and their students have access to free online tools.

The Context: Online workshop

Performance Objective: For a middle school to college level classroom, participants will be able to identify the advantages and disadvantages of online participation tools by designing a short online participation activity.

TASK ANALYSIS:

Course Purpose:

The purpose of this course is help teachers foster active learning by their students through the use of online participation tools as part of their class activities.

Learning Outcomes:

At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:

Identify the drawbacks of "face to face" participation techniques.

Identify the advantages of online participation tools.

Identify the drawbacks of online participation tools.

Identify different types of online participation tools.

Design a mini online participation activity to meet a specific educational goal.

Prerequisite Skills

Essential Prerequisites

In order to reach outcomes, students must know/learn to:

Understand what active learning is

Determine the learning problem and purpose for supplementary online participation

Identify different kinds of online participation tools.

Supportive Prerequisites

For easier access to reaching outcomes, students should:

Be open to learning about and using online participation tools as a supplement to traditional classroom participation techniques

Understand the purposes of participation as an active learning technique

Understand what a holistic rubric is

Be open to student directed discussions

Be able to the search the internet, use wikis, use discussion boards

Be open to conducting part of their class discussion online

Be open to self-reflection

Curriculum Map:

Reflection on my course: For this fully online teacher development workshop, I tried to incorporate a problem solving approach by asking participants to identify their problems with student participation both as students and as teachers. I tried to make the class interactive by asking participants to watch and analyze a video demonstrating student-centered discussion. I also encouraged participants to learn by doing by creating a space for them to participate in the online platform, collaborizeclassroom.com. Throughout the class, students are asked to reflect on their learning and to interact with other students’ ideas, so they can experience active student participation in an online platform. Students also learn by doing when they create a template to assess online participation and when they design a mini-online participation activity.

REFERENCES:

Frazee, Rebeca. Using Relevance to Facilitate Online Participation in a Hybrid Course: Linking online discussions to graded course assignments theoretically increases student participation and learning. Educause Quarterly. Number 4 2003.

O'Connor. Kevin, J. Class Participation: Promoting In Class Student Engagement. Education. Spring 2013, Vol. 133 Issue 3, 340-344.

Ruday, S. (2011). Expanding the possibilities of discussion: A strategic approach to using online discussion boards in the middle and high school English classroom. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 11(4), 350-361.

Tutty, Jeremy, I. and Klein, James, D. Computer-mediated instruction: a comparison of online and face-to-face collaboration Published online: 21 June 2007. Ó Association for Educational Communications and Technology 2007.

Wang, Q., & Woo, H. L. (2007). Comparing asynchronous online discussions and face-to- face discussions in a classroom. British Journal of Educational Technology, 38(2), 272- 286.