Hi Randall,
I think the cabability of providing a couple of live chats along with screen sharing should assist students much better than static exercises and one-way communication forums. I believe it's true that the more feedback and interaction with the course facilitator a student receives, their instructional time will be extremely more valuable. Ultimately the proof of all the efforts is to measure "did the student learn" and to what degree.
Barry Westling
Randall Aungst
ED105: How do you select media for content delivery?
Forum 2
Barry Westling, Facilitator
I teach in an online environment but luckily the school has a very interactive virtual campus. With regard to instructional medium I am not as limited as one might expect with online schooling. Every week there are two required live chats. In this live chat I can choose to use PowerPoint, white board or screen sharing. Along with this I can open various chat pods to discuss specific issues raised in the chat, conduct surveys and show charts of the results of those surveys. The students can hear my voice in real time and see what others are saying in a chat pod. If I feel the need I can change the status of anyone to allow their voice to be heard as well. This allows for the potential of a variety of interactive opportunities for students to engage. Historically over the last few years of teaching I have stuck with just a PowerPoint presentation; offering engagement opportunities verbally for the students that then respond in the main chat pod directly. This last session I began using other pods to highlight areas of directed conversation as well as the surveys and I seem to be getting a higher level of interaction from a wider range of attendees. In addition to this I frequently share my screen allowing me to work through example tasks with them to illustrate what is expected. This seems to offer the students a deeper understanding of some of the more complex issues raised in the chat so that they are better prepared to tackle the assignment. I have noticed, mainly from my own experiences with instructors that I have had in the past, that interacting with the students in an online environment in such a way as to give them a connection to you, as the instructor, is a skill that not all instructors share. According to the feedback I receive from my students, in anonymous surveys given by the college, as well as the number of students I usually have in attendance I seem to do a good job giving them a sense of connection to myself and their classmates. It is very important to be able to achieve this as many students who feel disconnected end up leaving school. I have found that while online schooling does limit the media for presenting course content by maximizing the functionality of the media an instructor can increase the level of engagement they receive from the students.
Hi Laura,
Variety rules! More senses, more activities, more engagement, more learning ...better student outcomes.
Barry Westling
As discussed in the Harvard Business School video, "to eliminate the tedium, vary the medium." As sight contributes to 83% of information processing, use various mediums that appeal to this sense. Utilize media sources that are appropriate for the course content; take goals and objectives into consideration. Also, make certain you (the instructor) are comfortable with the selected media.
Hi Sunshine,
Sounds like you're trying your best to be creative, make learning interesting, and keep abreast of technolgy. Actually, many online students can benefit from real-time online chats conducted at a predetermined time. This can visual via webcam technology, or simply live, chat time via something like Go-To-Meeting (C). Depending on the length of you course, these "chats" could vary from once to once a week. If you LMS is up to date, these strategies should be available. I encourage you to inquire about it.
Barry Westling
Hi Emily,
Great! I think one of the better and more appropriate uses of PPT slides is for this purpose: art, drawings, charts and tables, designs, schematics, photos, algorithms, flowcharts, etc. Of course text, if used briefly to highlight main points (such as bulleted lists) are best. Long reading is best left to handouts or direct reading from the source (textbook, workbook, printout, or hyperlinks, for instance).
Barry Westling
As an online instructor, I have been limited in the past in the media I can choose for content delivery. However, with the advances made in Learning Management Systems, I am able to draw on more media options. I can now show video clips in class, which I often use to highlight some of the psychological research done that is relevant to the course. When I want to share specific forms with students, I can email them ahead of time so they have them available for class discussion. And PowerPoint is a significant tool for online courses. Because my students can't see me during class, the slides give them a visual frame of reference, helps hold their attention, and clarifies or highlights major points of our discussion.
I use PowerPoint presentations that a textbook may provide, and often I create my own presentations based on the learning material for a particular class or assignment. For example, when I was teaching Artistic Analysis for an essay assignment, I used a presentation with several different types of art media. My students were eager to guess or name the art on each slide, and it was a useful tool to help them establish criteria for evaluating art for their own essays.
Hi Mitessa,
Good planning. As a facilitator, I try to remember where my students are at and look at things from their perspective. Choosing media I might think is appropriate may not be the best for some students. So, just being aware makes teachers just a bit more conscientious.
Barry Westling
I make sure the material is clear, has all aspects the lesson, and very detail oriented
Hi Laura,
Yes ma'am! More variety in every aspect, from delivery, discussion, lab, demonstration, project, all media resources keep the interest, attention, and student focus on the subject when we get creative. And as you say, I believe students will feel overloaded, rather more interested when our learning resources are more varied.
Barry Westling
Very important to use not only text and written instructional, but to use 3-D hands on if you can. Also, color is very important..not to overload but to make interesting.
Hi Rochelle,
Good deal! Brief use of PPT slides is better than long, whole class periods with little engagement.
Barry Westling
Hi David,
How awful! That sounds like punishment (except the "criminal" was the professor!). PPT can effective as a guide or outline to the lecture or discussion. I think it is most beneficial for specific art, graphs, charts, drawings, schematics, photos, or illustrations of equipment, instrumentation, or procedures. For text, 3-4 bullet points that are general allow the teacher to amplify or expand upon the information. Anything more and it starts to become more like Professor Criminal!
Barry Westling
Personally, for my field there is a lot of hands on. like to do ppt and examples. I will show 2-3 slides and then have my students experiment what I just showed them.
Only select media that you know will be effective for the given environment. I had a professor in college that used PowerPoint for his presentations. In the span of a 50 minute class, he would go through about 116 slides.... 116 slides! That's insane. Not only did he do about 3 slides a minutes, but each slide was littered with 8-10 bullets. Most of the learning I did in that class was my own private reading. Through discussions with other classmates, I found that a lot of the students were struggling badly with comprehending the course content.
Hi Timothy,
Selecting media should be interesting, enjoyable and if possible, fun. It should relate closely to the course and student learning objectives (SLO's). Straying too far from these makes it difficult to make measuring assessments and tests (students can view this as subjective). That doesn't mean we can't share related stories and anectdotes, but the daily content should centered around the objectives.
Barry Westling
It would depend on the subject matter. As an instructor I would use a variety of media methods. Powerpoint presentations and movies are just two examples. Along with the above I would also give the students questions that had to answered. These questions would be used to get their thought process going so that they could imagine what was happening in a particular time frame and/or situations. Again, this is depending on the subject matter. If I was teaching a class on psychological behavior two movies I would probably show would be One Flew over the Chookoo's nest and another movie which the title escapes me at this time (group from psych ward allowed to go to a baseball game in Philedelphia). Both movies show different behaviors in people.
Hi Donald,
Great! Your sensitivity to how best and when to include essential information sounds terrific. Of course our students all have differing backgrounds, yet I think approaching a topic from what we think will reach the most students really makes sense and comes with trial and error along with experience.
Barry Westling
Different students learn in different ways. Because of this, I use multiple media whenever possible. The order however changes depending on the topic. For example, if the topic is something the students should be relativley familiar with, I may elect to start with a hands-on demonstration that leads the student to discovery. If however the topic is completely new, I may open with stating and issue, and how we deal with it - so they see how the history of something came about. This usually has more buy-in than just stating the facts.
