Expectations of Blended e-Learning, Final Post

Expectations of Blended e-Learning Course
My expectations for this course were to gain a better understanding of the course topic, Blended e-Learning, which I know has happened, and add to my course requirements for my MSIT degree, and get the best grade I could get, which I believe I came close to achieving. As I mentioned in my initial blog, I had no clue what exactly Blended e-Learning was when I began this class. It has almost felt like a window into the office of Dr. Byers. Coupled with my experience in Instructional Design, I am beginning to make sense of the method behind what I initially thought was Dr. Byers’ madness, if you will excuse the expression. All of the pieces are beginning to fit together.

The blended part is the combination of what I now know is synchronous and asynchronous coursework, and the “e” part is the fact that it is all virtual, well, except for the work – and once again, quite a bit of work it was! I have decided that while summer courses may seem better because you get the same credit in half as much time, it is evened out by having twice as much work in that amount of time.

I still do not enjoy some aspects of these e-courses, the blended part, having so much to do, while I could almost sit back and be served with a traditional class setting. These blended classes cause me to be more involved and participative, resulting in an increase in my retention and understanding of new material. It reminds me of my first Physics class in college, with Dr. Medina, who was very mature and very traditional. The quote I recall was, “I teach you the theory, you work the problems.” Well, he did just that. Sometimes this blended e-learning mode appears to be just that, except the only real teaching that goes on is slight guidance from Dr. Byers and researching on my own, within my group, and then listening to presentations by fellow groups on the instructional material. I don’t like it, I sort of resent it, but darn if it doesn’t work. I do wish it could be a little more fun and less dry, but this is still pretty new stuff to me, so I will have to wait for that I guess.

Sixth Reflection, Blended e-Learning

My learning experience about synchronous tools for e-learning delivery consisted of reading the required reading article, reviewing the required reading website, and the link concerning the comparison of Blackboard and Moogle, and reflecting on my personal experience with Blackboard. The only CMS I have experience with is Blackboard 6.0, so this was the one I chose to discuss. At first glance, I thought this would be an easy assignment, (thankfully, since it is the last!), however I had to put quite a bit of thought into the characteristics of the software and the advantages/disadvantages because having had now two courses using it, it has become second nature for me. I noticed that I take it for granted. I grumble about it sometimes, but it has become part of my routine for the online classes I have taken.
I had to recall my initial impression of the system from last spring's ID course and the things I was impressed by. I hadn’t taken any college class at all in 25+ years, much less an online class, and as I have said before, I was intimidated to say the least. Recalling my confidence with my computer skills when I began the MSIT program, I was a bit overconfident with my ability to use the software, but once I had a few pointers and had my questions answered, I felt much relief, and my confidence increased. I realized that this tool was amazing.
Learning that there was another CMS (actually, it seems, dozens), Moogle, which was compared with Blackboard in one of the reading for the assignment was interesting. I had heard folks complain a little about Blackboard, but had never experienced anything else and had nothing to compare it to, but the surveys done by the researchers of the article clearly showed a slight preference for the freeware, Moogle. I found that interesting. I would like to give Moogle a try after reading those survey results.
I also learned from reading my group-mates’ responses that there are many features which Blackboard offers that I was unfamiliar with – the Whiteboard capability, the details on the assessment capabilities, and while I noticed a difference in the appearance between the course materials for this class vs. Instructional Design, the ability to revise the appearance of the tool itself. I do know that on the Navigation bar of Blackboard, there are tools which we have not used for either class, and I noted in one of the articles that many instructors use Blackboard as a PART of their instruction, while for our online classes (at least the asynchronous part) it comprises the entirety of our asynchronous part, whereas Centra is only really used for the weekly class meeting of 3 or so hours.
Learning some of the potential of Blackboard and the realization that there are many other CMS tools available had piqued my curiosity. I hope to have the opportunity experience other systems as my progress in the MSIT program continues.

Fifth Blog Reflection, Blended e-Learning

My learning experience with web-based assessment was more positive than I thought it might be following the tedious work of preparing a web safari. Beginning these tasks always appears more daunting at the onset. Evaluating the experience after completing the task is the true test of its difficulty. I need to remember that when I procrastinate!
I believe I made the thought of this exercise more difficult than necessary, because I imagined having to look up additional information on asking the right questions, prepping proper multiple choices, etc., but luckily I was able to recall some of that information we were given in my Instructional Design class. When I combined that material with my experience, by far the biggest job was to determine which questions to use in the assessment and then to find the answers!
That part of the exercise reinforced my admiration for teachers. Making a test is harder than taking a test.
I was also a bit worried about the difficulty of learning yet another piece of software. I have often felt overwhelmed when using software such as Powerpoint and Centra and making the Blog, and even Word sometimes. Seems like by now I would be a pro at all that but I still have a bit of that anxiety. Combining that with the realization that I would be required to link the assessments to my webpage, which had not gone down too easily, I was once again a little stressed. To add even more stress, I had missed the entire week beforehand doing absolutely NO computer work at all, and I was out of my routine that I had just newly created. Oh, yes, and while I am lamenting, I should mention that creating the safari had been extremely frustrating, finding the proper links, preparing the html code, and getting things all linked together was maddening, so the thought of linking this creation from a new piece of software was less than appetizing.
I had no choice but to dive in. I began by deciding which two types of assessment I wanted to do. I chose the jcross and the jmatch just for the heck of it. Then I began gathering my assessment information from the notes I had taken with my Pastor on the confirmation class. I had categorized these into four groups: Church History, People, Missions, and Church Growth. There were more references in the Church History and Missions categories, and the fewest in the Church Growth, so I decided to do ten questions: four on History, three on Missions, two on People and one on church growth, using the same breakdown for both jmatch and jcross. I needed twenty questions and answers. That took some time, but once I had that I was ready to begin with Hot Potatoes. It actually turned out much easier than I thought it would. Except one problem. The jcross was very small (8 letters by 8 letters), and the jmatch only allowed five questions. So I realized that I had prepared twice as much material as I had needed. I really got frustrated with the jcross, because it was maddening trying to assemble the answers in such a way as they would fit. I ended up eliminating questions based on how they fit into the puzzle so my breakdown was moot. When I did the jmatch, I realized that if I was going to have a year as an answer, I would have to have two questions referring to a year, and that limited my ability to follow my breakdown as well. For the five questions, two pairs of questions had either numbers or names for answers and the fifth had the extra word (the list provides six answer possibilities) which would be similar to the answer to maintain the challenge.
That was the biggest part of the exercise, or so I thought. Then it came time to link it all together. I think that sometimes the biggest frustration with getting this degree comes from my lack of strong skills with any given software. Maybe it is because of my age, these young kids seem to pick things up so much faster and remember it so much better. (the old dog/new tricks syndrome I suppose). I tell myself that they don't have the responsibilities I have, my mind is crowded with too many other things, that's why couldn't keep my sanity when I linked my assessments to my lesson home page.
Luckily Dr. Byers helped me to realize that the template I had used in Dreamweaver had been the culprit. Live and learn. The downside is that I might not remember next class!!!
It felt good to get it all done, and get it all assembled. When Dr. Byers showed my Daniel Urbina's assessment page, where he had done more than the required two, it made me want to go back and add more to the assessment, because it really did not feel complete. I hope to do that, and I will add it to my to do list, however just today I realized that my project is due in ONE WEEK!!!

Fourth Blog Reflection, Blended E-Learning

My learning experience of exploring the use of Scavenger Hunts, AKA Web Safaris, in blended e-learning was interesting. As with previous exercises, the first thing I had to do is figure out just exactly what a Web Safari was. It was a little confusing, because there was some similarity with the Web Safari and the WebQuest. The links to the Web Safaris provided by Dr. Byers helped me to discern that the Web Safari was almost akin to a section of a WebQuest. The Web Safari links, which were all of nearly identical format and created by one person, showed what appeared to be simplistic ‘worksheets’ requiring the learner to answer questions or extract information using links embedded in the questions. Links to additional information are usually provided at the bottom of the page, as well as a means of contacting the creator of the Web Safari. Web Safaris were not specifically mentioned, but the components of the Safaris were discussed as tools to enhance learning in the article Emerging Technologies: Language in Action: From Webquests to Virtual Realities., by Robert Goodwin-Jones.
I visited all of the Web Safari links provided in the additional resources suggested by Dr. Byers and used them as my foundation. Our group met and because I was to miss class, I wanted to put forth additional effort in hopes that my grade would not be affected so I volunteered to prepare the Web Safari for our group presentation. So, I will be discussing that experience, which was mirrored by my experience designing my personal project Web Safari.(I figured it wouldn’t be THAT big of a deal to make them both…) Little did I know.
Since two of my fellow group members were both doing a blended e-learning project on Mathematics, it seemed natural to do the Safari on that subject. I have just finished the Intro. to Website Development class, and felt somewhat comfortable using the WYSIWYG editor provided by Dr. Byers. I felt that the most challenging part of the preparation would be using that editor and developing the HTML code for the Safari. Little did I know.
The two math geeks, Rich and Corey, (I told them I was qualified to call them that, since I have a minor in Mathematics) came up with the most obscure questions possible for me to design the safari by. I know this because it took me FOREVER to find the answers to the questions in the context that they were originally asked, and in one case I had to change the question so the point was made but a link could realistically be used to get the answer. Additionally, my personal Web Safari related to John Calvin, who is very well known in religious circles, but the unbiased information on him was not available in massive quantities.
As a result of my effort for the group, the design portion of the Safari development was NOT the most challenging part of the exercise. In fact, it became the more enjoyable part. I have reinforced my respect for those who teach for a living by performing this exercise. Coming up with suitable questions is one challenge, which with my experience in both the group Web Safari creation and my own personal project Web Safari, pales in comparison to finding appropriate links, especially when it seems important for student interest and experience to ensure that different links for each question is a key component.
Luckily, since I had created the Safari for the group, I was able to take the format, which did take quite a bit of time as well, and make the revisions in the text and links to create my personal Safari. Again, getting the links for the questions was VERY time consuming, when choosing those which were most stimulating and varied from question to question.