9.30.2014

Success program for online students #edu14

Online DFW rates are still struggling when compared to F2F. Hybrid classes seem better than both (and in less time).

QM review useless without follow up with faculty to make sure changes are implemented. Why would faculty choose to not update their courses?

Q: how compliant is our syllabus template?

Success efforts
-self assessment for students
-template for course work and timeline
-syllabus quiz
-study tips for this course
-struggling student emails (we could create these as macros)
-scaffolding assignments (let students know where more efforts will be needed)

8.05.2014

Notes and Thoughts on Joy, Inc. by Richard Sheridan

Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love by Richard Sheridan.

There are some BIG take-aways that I am admittedly already primed to appreciate in this story: The premise of questioning the usual corporate/institutional mentality and methodology; the freedom to experiment; the failing fast and learning from those mistakes; the visual representations of work done and to be completed; and the learning learning learning more approach to employee development are all highly aligned with my own thoughts. It is inspiring to learn about a company that has found ways to make these the norm, but none of these conflict with any of my mental models of what can/should work in business and in education.

  • Let's question seat time, lectures, grades, multiple choice assessments as the only models for learning. (many are and you inspire me!)
  • Let's encourage error making and allow students to fail without damaging repercussions on their future goals.
  • Let's provide an easy to understand visual indicator of a students achievements, skills and competencies.
  • Let's continue to provide inspiring challenges for learners to accomplish something meaningful.


And there were other elements of the story that DID challenge my concepts of a truly joyful workplace (for me): Paired work is a huge one (Sharing one computer! Yikes! I'm a total mouse hog); open floor plans -- won't the noise bother me?; Funny hat-wearing public team-share round robin reporting -- I appreciate the need for a relaxed environment, but the description here seems awkward/embarrassing, no?

Sheridan is careful to tell us that not all of these specific habits are necessary components of a joyful workplace. But the sharing of the joy is important...
A joyful culture produces stories the world is yearning to hear. Capturing those stories and retelling them often reinforces your culture, as the outside world will want to come peek inside, ask probing questions, and walk away inspired to pursue their own joyful journey.
A joyful culture draws in people from outside the company, including clients, the local community, and the press.

Sharing naturally happens more (more easily) in open environment where people work together. My concerns with paired work were somewhat tempered here...
...when asked, the majority of our team self-identify as introverts. This makes sense to me for several reasons: Introversion supports the deep thinking needed to solve complex problems. Introverts prefer fewer, deeper relationships. Introverts are often better, active listeners.
If everyone is tired and stressed, and also allowed to close his or her door or block out the world with earbuds, the chances of overhearing others' ideas just won't occur. 

This doesn't address the noise issue, but it does cause me to reflect on the paired activities and paired practice classes I designed for my Chinese class last year. Each pair would decide on what they needed to practice most and then work on it together -- they could read passages, practice vocab, challenge each other with questions they would be asked to respond to later during interviews -- the idea was to keep producing verbally, so it shouldn't have been a quiet environment. It worked some days, but other days, when lack of preparedness, stress, fatigue got them down, they reverted back to their old comfortable isolated quiet individual ways.
If change is to stick, you must quickly replace the old rewards with new rewards of equal or greater value (and remember, most treasured rewards are not monetary). Failure to establish new rewards will cause the team to revert to old forms and old rewards the first chance they get.
Not sure I adequately provided new rewards.

Other positive elements of paired working include faster and easier hiring of new employees, scalability, and simply sharing the load. I know from the MOOC we offer to new online instructors, the team (pair) teaching that happens there, improves the course greatly (thanks Emily) (and quite frankly, I couldn't do it by myself, nor would I want to). I had a few team taught courses in college, and they were always really interesting as the instructors would invariably get into a discussion that would extend beyond the course and often demonstrated how intelligent, knowledgable people could engage in intellectual disagreement. At the very least/most, different points of view were presented, and we all need to witness different viewpoints more often.

Lots more to think about. However, in the interest of getting this post done (another part of a joyful workplace), I'll stop here. Read it, and talk about it.

(Thanks Nicole for recommending this title!)

5.21.2014

Notes and Reflections on "A New Culture of Learning"

A New Culture of Learning by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown

Thanks Library (and Kate in IC) for acquiring this book. It is packed with intriguing ideas.

Culture as growth because of environment

We are, our systems are still operating in a Mechanistic model of teaching. It's a model based in efficiencies. I like efficiency and the easy measurable nature of outcomes. Yet I am often disappointed with predictable results - some pass, some fail, some get Cs. In the Learning Environment model, the space opens up to more potential for wow from everyone.
Mechanistic - "Learning is treated as a series of steps to be mastered..."
Learning Environments - "...where the context in which learning happens, the boundaries that define it, and the students, teachers, and information within it all coexist and shape each other in a mutually reinforcing way."
Reminds me of the distinction between training and learning, but it goes deeper than just this simple dichotomy. Cultures equipped with the digital networked infrastructure are more susceptible to influence and change. They welcome newness and wish well those who move along to other cultures. I wonder if we are increasingly defining ourselves by ever smaller culture groups? Is it meaningful to know I am a white American who lived in China? Is it more meaningful to know that I am a gardener and Wordpress enthusiast (I know I am posting on Blogger - I like Blogger too)?

Community and Collective.
"In communities, people learn in order to belong. In a collective, people belong in order to learn. Communities derive their strength from creating a sense of belonging, while collectives derive theirs from participation."
For a while now, the community building practices of online courses (aka the discussion forum) have fallen short of expectations. I find this collective-community distinction inspiring and worthy of thought. And it will take thought to discover just how such a distinction could play out in any given learning environment.

In many ways I have experienced the shortfall of community building in my courses. I've held aloft the community itself as the end goal, the product, the promise of learning well designed (Great discussions everyone!). But then what? The class ends. The community dissolves, and the participation in thought and exercise is laid bare to have only existed for the purposes of the system.

Tacit Knowledge
"They experiment with what they already know how to do and modify it to meet new challenges and contexts. In a world where things are constantly changing, focusing exclusively on the explicit dimension is no longer a viable model of education"
Software training can't just be about step 1, 2, 3 -- a mindset must be established within the user that encourages their own trial and error. What would the designer/programmer want me to do at this point? At the same time drill and practice is a necessary part of learning, the fundamentals must be accessible -- a desktop computer will not function if not plugged in. "Exclusively" is an important word in the above quote and also begs the question of appropriate proportions.

Another personal struggle I have and have witnessed is a tension between knowing why something has produced an error (specific cause) and how to fix or work-around the error. It's often a generational conflict.
"Here is the fix for your issue," I might say.
"What caused that issue?" they ask.
"Well, some incompatibility in your browser... but specifically, I'm not sure."
"Oh, that's not reassuring to hear from technical support."
I do feel an internal struggle to know ALL the reasons, but also understand that knowing in that sense, at that level of explicit knowledge of zeros and ones, is not going to help this person. They really just need the fix.

Play

There are elements of practice and learning that are tedious. Small wins carry us through these moments. Or the communities we play alongside pull us through. Playing with others means working toward a common goal. It means communicating. It means collaboration. It means trust. It means making mistakes and suggesting solutions. It means challenging ourselves to do better, to be better.

I know some who feel like play is synonymous with games, and some do not like games. That's ok. Think of this as playful then. Be playful with what you will learn. Manipulate/transform your learning into a goal you and others care about. Take pride in your accomplishments. Learn to enjoy learning.