Workshop delivered to Athabasca University's Faculty of Health Disciplines (Edmonton, Feb 2014). Focuses on online learning strategies, emerging technologies, the current status of higher education and online online education, open scholarship, social media, and what the future of higher education may hold. Part 1: Active, Social, and Engaging Online Learning Strategies
Ecological Succession. ( ECOSYSTEM, B. Pharmacy, 1st Year, Sem-II, Environmen...
Active, Social, and Engaging Online Learning Strategies
1. Active, Social, and Engaging Online
Learning Strategies
George Veletsianos, PhD
Canada Research Chair
Associate Professor
School of Education and Technology
Athabasca University, Faculty of Health Disciplines, Edmonton, Feb 2014
5. Using a diverse array of
activities…
– Discussions
– Videos
– Debates
– Digital stories
– Concept mapping
– Professional communities
– Case studies
– Solving problems
6. Active, Social, and Engaging Online
Learning Strategies
“We are all designers”
7. Create a list of adjectives describing ideal
learning experiences
www.tinyurl.com/audoc1
8. Our challenge/imperative
To design [online] learning experiences
and opportunities that are effective,
fulfilling, inspiring, meaningful, caring,
empowering, and democratic.
9. What are some activities/strategies that have
worked well for you and your students?
10. What are some of the challenges that you
faced? How did you solve them?
11. Active, Social, and Engaging Online
Learning Strategies
A list of suggestions
13. Commencing…
• One of my favorite activities: Superhero Students
“In this activity you are to create a drawing of yourself
to share with the rest of the class. Your drawing should
portray you as a superhero and include your superhero
name. You don't need any artistic abilities for this task,
as I won't be evaluating you on your drawing abilities.
The goal is to use your creativity to create a
representation of yourself so that we learn more about
each other. You can use pen/pencils/crayons and
paper, or a graphics program to do this.”
– Adapted from Dunlap & Lowenthal:
http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/CUOnline/
FacultyResources/additionalResources/Handbook/
cuonlinehandbook2011/Documents/chapter10.pdf
15. Commencing…
• Introductions: Adjective Circle (Amazing
Anna)
A
E
B
D
C
• It’s easy to do this in a f2f class. How does it look like it in an
online course?
16. Commencing…
• Variations
• Tell us about yourself using 7 adjectives
• Tell us about yourself using 7 nouns
• As above, but also use photos
• As above, but use the 7 adjectives to
write a story.
17. Stories & digital storytelling
• Instructors telling stories
• Students creating stories
– Single images, videos,
screencasts, comics
28. Think-Pair-Share:
Describe the use of an activity with your own content.
How would you improve this strategy?
Stories & digital storytelling
Video updates
Empowering students
Discussions driven by real-world data
35. Video-related activities
• Additional ideas
– Record an elevator speech
– Find, share, and comment
– Identify misconceptions in existing videos
– Film and share roleplays
37. Introduce learners to professional
communities - Others
– Professional listservs e.g., Tomorrow’s
Professor
– Blogging communities
– Social Networking Sites (e.g., LinkedIn
discussion groups, Facebook groups)
– Ask students to attend a virtual
conference and do X (reflect/summarize/
etc)
38. E-books, Open Books, Open
Textbooks
• Create worthwhile digital artifacts as a
class (and make available to others)
– E.g., E-books and online textbooks
39. E-books, Open Books, Open
Textbooks
• Work with your instructional designer to figure out the
best platform for creating the e-book (Wiki? A
dedicated website? A collection of Google
documents?)
40. Audio
• Using music, sharing music, creating class
playlists…
http://www.rdio.com/
http://www.jango.com/
41. Think-Pair-Share:
Describe how you would use one of these in your own course.
How would you improve this strategy?
Concept Mapping
Vide-related & audio-related activities
Professional communities
E-books, open books, open textbooks
42. Image attribution
• Teacher writing on blackboard
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Teacher-writing-onblackboard564.jpg
Unless otherwise noted by the original images, content is provided under a CC Attribution
Non-Commercial Share Alike license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/
3.0/).