I’ve spent the last two years at Rhodes State College in Ohio working primarily with the Allied Health field to improve their online and blended courses. I’ll miss many people here and remain grateful for and proud of the chance to do good work here.

My wife Shelby and I are gearing up for the next step in our lives and we couldn’t be more thrilled.

• Live videoconferencing for a synchronous class session (e.g. Adobe Connect of DimDim)
• Pre-recorded/scripted videos edited to be engaging and informative (Sonic MediaSite or posted on YouTube)
• Student generated videos with role-play or expression of their opinions (Shared via YouTube or other sites)
• Finding relevant videos online and sharing them (from YouTube, etc.)
  • NOTE: Just because something is posted online does NOT mean it’s free of copyright concerns. If you find a video on YouTube, you cannot assume the person who posted it is the copyright owner. While educational of content are covered by Fair Use, you must be careful in what you use and how you use it.

Successful use of video content requires considering some questions:

Is the video well produced?

A static shot of the teacher’s head reading a lecture is NOT taking advantage of the format of video. Successful videos SHOW more than they TELL. (This principle actually holds for good storytelling in movies, too. Movies that sit there and EXPLAIN aren’t as satisfying as ones that DEMONSTRATE and SHOW).

Whether you adapt existing videos or create your own, try to find a way to make your point in a memorable way. Try using humor and visual examples to make a better impact. If you aren’t creating videos yourself, then look for those qualities in the ones you choose.

How long is too long?

Choose or create video content that is short and sweet. A series of short and sweet 2-5 minute videos covering a specific topic each are better than one comprehensive 60 minute video. The process of chunking from course design applies here.

If you think it’s hard for your students to sit through a 90 minute lecture in a classroom, then consider what it’s like trying to do the same in a web browser when they will be tempted to multitask, check email/facebook, grab a coffee, and more.

An exception to this rule is when your recorded lectures are simply backup/review tools for your students to come back to. In that case it’s a welcome way for students to revisit classroom content at their own pace. Many students appreciate being able to “rewind.” However, be careful to pack activities into your course to ensure your students aren’t procrastinating on the content, thinking they can “catch up” the last day by watching 500 hours of lecture videos. In this case, there really is too much of a good thing, and some students don’t have the discipline not to procrastinate thinking they’re safe because the lectures are online.

Combine use of video with course activities

It’s a fact that online learning puts more power in the hands of students (and thus more responsibility). Your best bet in using passive content like video is to make sure the quality is top notch, the length is as short as possible, and that you pair it with activities.

Description goes here.

Radiography is the use of the property of X-rays to cross materials to view inside objects. The impact on society of this technique has been immense with application fields including medical, non-destructive testing, food inspection, security and archeology.

A heterogeneous beam of X-rays is produced by an X-ray generator and is projected toward an object. According to the density and composition of the different areas of the object a proportion of X-rays are absorbed by the object. The X-rays that pass through are then captured behind the object by a detector (film sensitive to X-rays or a digital detector) which gives a 2D representation of all the structures superimposed on each other. In tomography, the x-ray source and detector move to blur out structures not in the focal plane.Computed tomography (CT scanning) is different to plain film tomography in that computer assisted reconstruction is used to generate a 3D representation of the scanned object/patient.

Radiography is the use of the property of X-rays to cross materials to view inside objects. The impact on society of this technique has been immense with application fields including medical, non-destructive testing, food inspection, security and archeology.

A heterogeneous beam of X-rays is produced by an X-ray generator and is projected toward an object. According to the density and composition of the different areas of the object a proportion of X-rays are absorbed by the object. The X-rays that pass through are then captured behind the object by a detector (film sensitive to X-rays or a digital detector) which gives a 2D representation of all the structures superimposed on each other. In tomography, the x-ray source and detector move to blur out structures not in the focal plane.Computed tomography (CT scanning) is different to plain film tomography in that computer assisted reconstruction is used to generate a 3D representation of the scanned object/patient.

(I’ll update this with a link to his presentation slides as soon as it’s posted)

Joel began by reminding us that chalk, paper, books were all technology. Plato warned us we might lose our memories to technology. Joel then reminded us of the promises of the 80s and how education would be revolutionized, but those predictions didn’t pan out.

If the technology from the 80s didn’t change everything, then why do we think blended learning will?

Joel’s answer is that it’s not just the technology itself, but the way in which we practice blended learning that could be revolutionary. The way institutions are collaborating, the way faculty development is more center-stage, the way assessment is being taken more seriously: all of these things point towards revolutionary potential.

How do we define Blended Learning?

BL courses combine online and classroom learning activities and resources in an optimal way to improve student learning outcomes and to address important institutional issues. In many institutions, online learning is a continuum. Blended lives in the area between traditional and online classes.

Institutional promise of blended learning:

• Improve teaching and learning (e.g. implement learner-centered pedagogies)
• Move form an ad-hoc, “bottom up” approach to an institutional scale initiative
• Increase efficiency of classroom utilization (e.g. manage growth)

Other ways of blending

Joel summarized a number of different ways to blend courses. Dividing a large class into multiple online sections, aggregating several classes into one larger group, mixing F2F and online sections of the course.

Faculty promise of blended learning:

• First step into online learning
• An opportunity for meaningful faculty development
• A way to meet Net Gen student expectations
• Build information literacy skills
• Possibly “the best of both worlds” (though this is not a guarantee)

Pedagogical promise of blended learning:

• An environment of pedagogical diversity and experimentation
• A platform for integrating other technologies
• More assessment options
• A constructivist environment (more authentic, more contextual assessments)
• Impacts teaching practice in and out of the classroom

Student promise of blended learning

• Student expectations do not align well with traditional F2F classes
• Blended learning is a good match for Net Gen’s visual, exploratory, participative, technology-rich learning preferences
• Student success rates are high and withdrawal rates low

Ten Keys to Success with Blended Learning

1. Institutional strategy for blended learning
2. Systemic approach
3. Faculty development
4. Course design and development support
5. Online student support
6. Online academic services
7. Robust and reliable infrastucture
8. Effective organizational model
9. Pro-active policy development
10. Data collection and assessment

Joel noted that the skills required to support blended learning is a set that doesn’t typically exist in any particular department on a campus. Organizations need to change, he says.

Sloan-C Pillars (the holy grail; the goals)

• Access
• Learning effectiveness
• Student satisfaction
• Faculty satisfaction
• Cost-effectiveness

Joel noted that blended learning improves access to learning by removing barriers of time and location (fully online learning obviously completely removes these barriers).

Surveys about why students enroll in BL courses reveal its overwhelmingly because of schedules and flexibility. Students also reported enthusiasm about the quality and benefits.

Predictions for Blended Success and Withdrawal

The significant predictor for success in blended learning is GPA — not ethnicity or placement testing. It resembles the predictors for F2F success.

In other words…

• Blended learning is NOT a treatment
• Modality, per se, does not produce increased student success
• What does is rich, engaging learning experiences facilitated by well-trained and motivated teachers.

Students in blended courses benefit from reduced ambivalence, reduced ambiguity, improved interaction, responsive environment, increased value, latitude (freedom), increased engagement and sustained conversation.

Faculty benefit from convenience, personal satisfaction, learn technology, increased student engagement. Faculty satisfaction is less about teaching format than it is about a variety of other, such as: things-recognition, culture, risk.

Money

Joel mentioned that “making money” is not a good reason to engage in blended learning. However, he says good implementations are generally sustainable and may even be profitable. Of those that failed, he noted that often they underestimated costs and overestimated enrollment.

At his institution:

• Support costs are centrally funded
• Tuition and state support ($29.1M) distributed to the colleges ($69.7M for fully online + blended)
• Increased capacity = $27M in construction
• 16.6:1 ROI

Living in the “New Normal”:

• Declining state support
• No funds for new construction
• Increasing student demand
• Increasing tuition and fees
• Online and blended learning may be “our only hope.”

This is to say, online and blended learning may be our only fiscal hope in an environment of declining support.

Google, on the new real-time document editor:

“We’ve brought the responsive, real-time editing experience you’ve come to expect from our spreadsheets over to documents, which means you can now see character-by-character changes as other collaborators make edits. We also added another popular feature from spreadsheets: sidebar chat, so you can discuss documents as you work on them with colleagues.”

Included in the update:

• Docs updates in real time while collaborating and includes sidebar chat.
• Faster spreadsheet editor and more formula bar and autofill options
• Collaborative drawing editor

Read more: http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/04/new-google-docs.html

Adobe might continue to crow about Flash and its importance on both the desktop and mobile devices, but there’s no lying to investors, and the company is pretty blunt about the threat of the iPhone and iPad in the end-of-quarter Form 10-Q it just filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission: it flatly says that ‘to the extent new releases of operating systems or other third-party products, platforms or devices, such as the Apple iPhone or iPad, make it more difficult for our products to perform, and our customers are persuaded to use alternative technologies, our business could be harmed.’

I wonder how Adobe will try to adapt to the potential for Flash to be a real sinking ship.

• Multitasking / Fast App Switching – exposed system APIs that apps can use to keep running in the background. Apps can freeze state to be resumed later
• Folders – Users can gather apps into folders and have as many as 2160 apps on a given device.
• Enhanced Mail – Unified inbox, threaded view, and more.
• iBooks – (now for iPhone and iPod Touch) A shrunken version of Apple’s ebook reader/store. Syncs across iPhone OS devices.
• GameCenter – sort of like an Xbox Live for iPhone OS devices. Leaderboards, matchmaking, etc.
• Enterprise – Apple stressed improved security, over-the-air app installations, and more.
• iAds – unified advertising platform built into the OS. Apple takes an “industry standard” 40% of the revenue; rest goes to app developer.

According to Apple, iPhone OS 4.0 will have over 100 new user features

iPhone OS 4.0 is set to release this summer, which is when Apple will almost certainly launch their as-of-yet unannounced 4th generation iPhone. Not all iPhone OS devices will get all the features. The original iPhone is completely left out. The iPhone 3G won’t get multitasking. The latest iPod Touch and the iPhone 3GS going forward will enjoy the full feature list. The iPad won’t get the update until the fall.

Thoughts and Reactions

For iPhone users, this seems like a really great update. Android users will rightly laugh a bit as they have enjoyed multitasking for awhile now. However, Apple’s implementation might be a nice compromise between functionality and performance/battery life. The real-world impact of their approach remains to be seen.

Multitasking / Fast App Switching

Not a whole lot to say about these features. This is one of the biggest complaints users have had about iPhone OS in the past. What remains to be seen is how beneficial Apple’s approach is. If they are able to ensure great performance, stability, and battery life in a multitasking environment, then their patience will have paid off. Jobs compared this to the outcry for copy & paste. Jobs: “Like with cut & paste, we aren’t the first ones to get there, but we’ll be the best.”

To demonstrate the multitasking, Jobs had demos from Pandora and Skype to show the apps working in the background. Pandora music continued to stream and even if Skype isn’t running you can receive calls (even if your screen is locked). It seems like they’re making the functionality we’ve been asking for possible, but in due time we will see if the APIs have any serious restrictions or shortcomings.

Apple specifically mentioned support for streaming audio, VoIP, GPS, push & local notifications, and task finishing (e.g. Flickr uploading photos in the background).

In a Q&A session following the event, someone asked how to quit apps while multitasking. Jobs quipped: “In multitasking, if you see a task manager… they blew it. Users shouldn’t ever have to think about it.”

In other words, there is no quit button! I could see that rattling users who like finely detailed control over how their device is running. At the same time, I can see the reasoning behind it of simplicity. Many people just want to use their device, they don’t want to manage it. The device is there to help them accomplish things – rather than the user being there to maintain and service the device. I appreciate this design philosophy, even if it can lead to compromises in flexibility. Let’s just say it’s not for everyone.

Folders

I wonder why this wasn’t called “Stacks” – that makes more sense to me. Basically you can combine app icons into a folder. The OS is smart and generates a name based on the category (e.g. Games), which you can rename to your liking. The icon for the folder is made up of mini-squares that show the apps contained inside of it.

It’ll be nice to have more organization options. It was getting old having to swipe 10 times to find the app you wanted. I never use Spotlight on my iPhone now (however, if I somehow had 2160 apps on my phone, then I guess I’d have to start using it!).

Enhanced Mail

I wonder what took them so long! But at least it’s here at last! Unified inbox, multiple exchange accounts, threaded message view. The iPhone has always been “just ok” when it comes to the built-in mail program. It wasn’t bad and it got the job done, but we’ve been waiting awhile for some improvements.

One of the biggest annoyances in Mail previously was backing out of one account’s inbox to switch to another account. Sounds like Apple have nailed that not only by allowing the unified inbox (which I am glad exists, but probably won’t use), but also by enabling a method to switch quickly between accounts.

These days I often use Gmail’s mobile web app instead of the built-in inbox. Google has done a good job on that. (If you haven’t seen the iPad version of gmail, it’s pretty awesome!).

iBooks

Engadget’s liveblog reported that not even Jobs seemed all that excited about this. I am intrigued at the prospect of reading books on the iPad with the Kindle app or iBooks (though I am wary of DRMed content in both cases). However, ebook reading on a device the size of the iPhone or iPod Touch is a non-starter for me. I’m glad to have the option, but I doubt I’ll ever use it. It’s just not that comfortable to do serious, sustained reading on a 3.5″ device.

iPhone OS already has several excellent ebook reading programs, such as Stanza and Eucalyptus (which has had the eye-candy page-turning effect that iBooks uses for awhile now).

Game Center

With Game Center, Apple is attempting to create an “Xbox Live” for iPhone OS in Game Center. Developers can take advantage of APIs to implement matchmaking, achievements, leader boards, and more. Apple didn’t show much about this so I’m looking forward to see where they take this.

A few other things coming in 4.0

I just noticed on Apple’s developer preview page some more features that weren’t highlighted in the media event.

• In-app SMS texting – At long last, I don’t have to stop what I’m doing to respond to a friend who texted me.
• Calendar/Photo access for all apps – any app can create and edit calendar events.
• Video playback and capture – 3rd party apps have access to more APIs for video. Previously, this was confined to Apple’s video editing abilities in the 3GS.
• There were a few more, so go ahead and check it out.

Conclusions

There are a lot of exciting new features. On paper it will sound like a lot of “well, it’s about time!” but more than the raw list, I’m excited about Apple’s implementation of these features.

We’ll see how well implemented all of this is later this summer, but I’m definitely excited to at least catch up to some of the competition in terms of features. Apple usually differentiates itself from competitors not in raw features placed into comparison charts, but in user experience and UI design.

If you made it through all of this writing to this point, then tell me: What do you think?