Game Plan!

 I love the idea of integrating games into my courses and have dedicated several blog posts to this topic over the last few years. For example, I have gamified two classes (See Gamifying a Course, Phase 1)  with one as a simulated community college and another where I have practicum students who are "hired" as Instructional designers and tasked with completing  5 components to be hired for their new job with my design firm (hiring means they earned an A in their practicum class). In addition to gamifying a few courses, I have experimented with badges and frame games, contemplated virtual worlds, and dreamed of simulations.....

from canva.com

There is so more I want to do!  So...here's my game plan.... my "dream team" of gaming with adult learners, including designing frame games, gamifying trainings, using  - or designing - a virtual world, and creating a simulation where my leadership students can safely practice their leadership skills..

Frame Games 

Frame games are not just for K-12. In fact, in 2015 I blogged about using frame games with adult learners, exploring the issue of their usefulness with this audience.  

Basically, games foster interactivity with the content and, depending upon the game is used, interactivity with classmates. According to Kapp, Blair, and Mesch (2014), games primarily are used to change attitudes and behaviors although they can be used to deliver and/or test content knowledge. Frame games, sometimes known as puzzle games, can be be used to test recall of material, but need to include repetition where the learner who gives an incorrect response learns the correct response through feedback and has the opportunity to try again. Some frame games such as Jeopardy can also be used as teaching games, offering a framework to guide class discussion.

This all sounds fine IF a class meets face-to-face in some, possibly remote or having some type of synchronous experience. I have actually created a Harry Potter Jeopardy game in the past using Powerpoint as a synchronous meeting class opener to demonstrate he use of frame games...but, again, this was a synchronous application.

Can  frame games be used in an asynchronous setting?

I believe they can IF the facilitator designs them as an intentional supplemental activity.... reinforcing cognitive presence. A frame game would have to be designed for asynchronous use, perhaps to reinforce technical vocabulary.

My Game Plan: Frame Games

I am a tetris fan. I am so much of a tetris fan that all four of my daughters are as well. We have been known to turn tetris into a verb by "tetrising" all of the furniture into a van..... 

My thought is to offer/design a falling word tetris-type of frame game as a review  of  budget terms or research design....perhaps even 508 compliance for aspiring instructional designers.

A current example of this would be the Metal/Nonmetal Bucket Drop, a sorting game requiring learners to use their knowledge of metals and nonmetals to guide the falling elements into the correct buckets. 

In 2016 I originally created a powerpoint review of budget-related terms that was very low-tech. so low-tech that I am not sure it even works now:

Screenshot of 2016 activity instructions

Students watched a voice-over ppt (oh, how dated!) then completed a flashcard activity where they downloaded a second powerpoint and viewed it in Presenter Mode to activate the "game" component. This original version lives in my Google Drive. Once it appears on your screen, do NOT try to view it in the drive or through google slides (remember, this is outdated technology). Save it to your laptop, open it, watch in Presenter mode, and quiz yourself. 

I'll be honest.   I am still quite proud that I created this years ago...and in powerpoint! But....students were not reading the instructions to download so they were giving up and skipping the activity. Now I would use a bucket drop template  that would be SO much easier for me and for the learners. The buckets would be labeled Qualitative Component and Quantitative Component, I would use the same terms as in the ppt file (and add more!), and have something more powerful and more professional.

The video below demos the original frame game designed in powerpoint:

 

Gamifying a class

Ah....this is a topic with which I have experience, having gamified two courses so far and adding badges to two additionnal courses, and I have spent a great deal of time researching and pondering this topic (see this blog post from 2016). 

Just to clarify, gamification is the application of game-playing elements (e.g. point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to non game-playing arenas, normally education, training, or as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service.

When determining whether or not to gamify, I return to the concept of just because I CAN gamify does not mean I should.... and the gamified course must still engage the learner and add to their learning.  While I hope a course will be fun if gamified, the goal is not to have fun.  The goal is to engage the learner in learning more about the topics while engaging them cognitively.... the purview of the instructional designer. Hopefully gamifiying a course makes it more fun and more likely to engage the learner.

The MDA framework (allows designers to consider the game from two perspectives at the same time – they can see the game from the viewpoint of the user as well as from that of the designer - making this a very useful design, particularly if a designer also plays games (Elverdam & Aarseth, 2007; Kim, 2015; Robson, et al., 2015). This framework, however, can also assist instructors who are considering adding gamification to an online course.

Also of interest - and continued exploration on my part - is Allen Interactions' Taxonomy Alignment for Gaming:

Gamification, applying game elements to a non-game setting, requires a great deal of time when done correctly.  I have already entirely gamified two courses  over the last five years, and one of those courses took over 400 hours to create.

 

My Game Plan: Gamification for Business and Education.

I would love to design and teach a course entitled Gamification for Business and Education.  Actually, I have already designed the syllabus but have not yet had the opportunity to bring the course to fruition.

My thought is the course itself would be gamified with students  being greeted at the beginning of the class by a cloaked being who would welcome them to their journey through Gameland.  The overarching goal would be for students to  reach the Base of the Peaks of Gameland where they receive their final quest to develop a plan for their own gamified course or training. After they receive that quest they will have to climb those peaks, eventually reaching the top where they have to demo their actual plan to be reviewed by their fellow travelers. Along the way to the base of the Peaks, however, students have to accept and pass a variety of challenges where they earn rewards based on knowledge and skill aquisition (perhaps through Easter Eggs)  that will help them meet later challenges - all designed to help them reach their final goal.

I envision a map of the country of Gameland showing their journey....with points, badges, and levels earned along the way, all needed for passage into various parts of the country. They will be able to choose to work together or alone, with a pair of students being able to pool resources to gain additional knowledge necessary for future challenges and for the final quest. 

I actually started the narrative for this game, keeping in mind the MDA theory of instructional design for gamification, but ran into roadblock with Canvas integration.  I want it housed solely in Canvas, so I will need to become more familiar with html to have this look the way I envision.

Key will be the integration of the Community of Inquiry  with the MDA theory of instructional design:

Moving to a simulation

A simulation allows participants to practice a skill in a safe environment, in a virtual real world setting.  Aerospace has been doing simulations for decades allowing astronauts to practice working in a space capsule before going up into space. So has the military.

I used to play Flight Simulator in which I chose a plane (anything from a Sopwith Camel to a 747) and flew it over a topography of choice and landed it.  That was lots of fun!

Simulations can be used in educational settings, too.

Screenshot from Virtual U

I have dreamed of this application since 2005 when I first discovered a piece of software named Virtual U. Virtual U is a simulation game about running a university or college. This software models the attitudes and behaviors of an academic community. Players act as president of a university or college and struggle to manage the institution's affairs while dealing with the various stakeholders and fielding problems the software throws at them as they play.  My students loved this! Unfortunately, it is now very dated, but they did learn the importance of budget and making decisions that were data-driven, while trying to balance the needs of all stakeholders....and the impact one decision can have on all stakeholders. 

Although Virtual U would qualify as retro in today's gaming standards, it might be worth giving it a try.  I had students using it as recently as 2017.

Playing this got me thinking....

 

Game Plan: Evergreen Opportunities

 I coordinate four separate programs, but I have found a way to link all four in a simulation that could start during a student's first semester and culminate in their practicum courses.

In my dream plan, I present  Evergreen Opportunities, a business simulation  with several distinct settings. Evergreen Opportunities produces business apps...lean application design for small businesses. Because one of its goals is to give back to the community, EO also has a nonprofit arm that works with one of the local homeless shelters to provide job skills training and other assistance. Proceeds from the business are also used to fund a small residential college. Instructional designers may be called upon to design online training for the business or nonprofit arms, even possibly for the college.

Basically, students would enter this simulation choosing a specific role in a business, nonprofit, HIED, or instructional design setting. The role they choose should reflect their career goal and, if possible, stay the same as they move throughout the program to the practicum course where this simulation ends.

Students will be presented with scenarios based on their career goal, and the scenarios will shift with each semester, reflecting what they are leaning in their classes.

For example, Leadership and NonProfit students may encounter a recalcitrant employee who gives them the opportunity to apply various leadership theories along with conflict mediation skills.  HIED students might encounter a problem student, a hiring crisis, or an athletic issue, all depending upon their chosen role.  Instructional Design students might encounter a faculty member who needs to be trained in using a new piece of software or even be asked to identify a technology approach to handle a Human Resource crisis. 

All students would receive scenarios focusing on legal issues, budget, organization culture - every topic covered in their core courses....but as they play the game, these issues/problems would appear and require their immediate attention to solve...while they are juggling other problems at the the same time. Just how life does not give us one problem at a time, neither would this simulation.  Players would learn or start to learn how to balance multiple requests and issues, and the problems and problem-solving skills required over the course of the program would become increasing more complex. Some issues might impact all players at once, such as a response to an infectious disease requiring all of EO to deal with a sudden shift to remote work due to a pandemic and all of the issues that could create....and to work together as an organization to address these issues.

Evergreen Opportunities would be played each semester in every class and would live in the cloud where students could log in and start where they left off as needed. My thought is as the courses change, so would the scenarios and prompts.  Students could log in individually and solve their problems individually although all could be online at the same time, cycling through problems  randomly.

 What do I need to create the simulation?

I need a modeling simulation developer who can craft the intensive graphics  needed for this cloud-based program. I can storyboard every single scenario/response and identify the prompts that would cause a problem to appear.  I also have friends who could assist with this....but the simulation developer is necessary to do the graphic and software design,,,and their salaries run from $65,000 to 1$138,000/year, so...   I need to develop a partnership with someone who wants to or needs to to do some testing of system designs. This simulation may have some possibility for interest form other entities, perhaps becoming quite lucrative.

Virtual Worlds in Education

A scene in Second Life

I will admit that I have not been as interested in using Virtual Worlds, mainly because of the privacy concerns.  I have experimented with Second Life, an online Virtual world for those ages 13 and up and around 2005 asked a few of my doc students to interact with each other in Second Life and give me their impressions. At that time - keep in mind that is 16 years ago - it was slow, awkward, and, well, full of people trying to find a date.

However...... you CAN buy an island..... and an island can be closed to all who lack  the password AND students could go there directly upon logging in allowing them to bypass the date-seekers....

So...why SHOULD I consider using a virtual world?

A virtual world is a three‐dimensional (3D) space reproduced on a computer screen, where avatars, can move, interact, and communicate with others (Jones, 2013). Virtual worlds provide realistic face‐to‐face communication between avatars (Potkonjak et al., 2016) and facilitate productive forms of collaborative learning (Olteanu et al., 2014). Virtual worlds also provide interesting platforms for gamification because the immersion of the user's avatar into the 3D environment is a sort of game in and of itself. 

Basically, then, a virtual world can add provide some real-tie interaction berween students.

Although research regarding the use of Second Life started when the program first did, universities are still using this platform: Stanford, University of Texas, and even NC State!

Perhaps I could give it a try...

 

Game Plan: Leadership Hall Island

Second Life combines learning experiences with a game‐like feel that may be attractive for many students today (Richardson‐Hatcher et al., 2014a). It has been demonstrated to be an effective tool with huge potential for developing game‐based learning experiences (Toro‐Troconis & Mellström, 2010). 

First..... I would need to buy an island. Up-front costs average $1,675 per island  with  monthly cost of $295  to maintain each island.

Yikes! Unless such a purchase was funded through research grants, I doubt I get the University to add this to their budget.

Leadership Hall Island would provide a framework for a game‐like competition that allows players to learn the material regarding leadership theories through self‐guided presentations.

I would select 5 leadership theories (servant leadership, relational leadership,  situational ledership, leader-member exchange theory, transformational theory) and create learning panels  displaying videos, activities, and webpages about each. Students would commplete a variety of leadership assessments to help them identify their personal leadership style. After all is created.....

Then....  the competition would begin.

During Phase 1, information about one leadership theory would be available during four days, allowing learners to view the educational content whenever they wanted.  During days 5 and 6, the learning panels would be removed and assessment activities would be placed on Leadership Hall Island. Each student would then have find the assessment case study activity assigned to them. After completing the activity, they would send a notecard response to my avatar. The score of the correct responses at each phase would help me classify participants, and the successive cumulative scores would determine their position in the general classification. 

Now...to clarify,  I am not sure how I feel about competion in a college classroom.  This approach could allow some students to feel left out or discouraged and might possibly disengage from the course itself. I want to avoid anyone feeling demoralized, so the game part might need to shift into a more cooperative activity.

 I could still see having them review materials on learning panels, then perhaps interact with one another during a scheduled visit time when they could perhaps work on a case study with a partner or make their own presentations about a leadership theory.  Students could also lead virtual trainings in Second Life for one another. Unlike in an asnchronous setting, students could meet in real time, with their avatarrs sitting in charis looking at each other and chatting, decreasing some of the "distance" and possibly fostering some social presence.

Along with deciding whether or not to compete, there is still an issue of accessibility that may prove problematic with regards to internet connectivity and strength, Also, Second Life needs to be downloaded, and older laptops may not work as well.

So.....after reviewing my possible game plans...what's yours?

 

 References

Elverdam, C., & Aarseth, E. (2007). Game classification and game design construction through critical analysis. Games and Culture, 2(1), 3-22.

Jones, D. (2013). An alternative (to) reality. In: Childs M, Peachey A (Editors). Understanding Learning in Virtual World. 1st Ed. London, UK: Springer‐Verlag. p 1–20.

Kapp, K. M., Blair, L., & Mesch R. (2014). The gamification of learning and instruction fieldbook: Ideas into practice. San Francisco: Wiley. 

Kim, B. (2015). Designing gamification in the right way. Library Technology Reports 51(2), 29-35.

Oltean, R. L., Bîzoi, M, Gorghiu G., Suduc, A. M. (2014). Working in the Second Life environment – A way for enhancing students' collaboration. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 141:1089–1094.

Potkonjak, V., Gardner, M, Callaghan, V., Mattila P, Guetl, C, Petrović, VM, & Jovanović K. 2016. Virtual laboratories for education in science, technology, and engineering: A review. Computer Education, 95, 309–327.

Richardson, A., Hazzard, M., Challman, S., Morgenstein, A., & Brueckner, J. (2011). A “Second Life” for gross anatomy: Applications for multiuser virtual environments in teaching the anatomical sciences. Anatomical Sciences Education, 4, 39–43.   

Robson, K., Plangger, K., Kietzmann, J. H., McCarthy, I., & Pitt, P. (2015). Is it all a game? Understanding the principles of gamification. Business Horizons, 58, 411-420.

Toro‐Troconis, M.,& Mellström, U. (2010). Game‐based learning in Second Life. Do gender and age make a difference? Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, 2, 53–76.

Being Present in an Online Environment

Presence is an important component of any course or training, whether it be face-to-face or online.  Purposefully integrating presence, however, is often overlooked in online settings. What comes so easily in a traditional in-person setting needs to be purposefully integrated into an online environment.

Instructional designers  are likely familiar with the Community of Inquiry (Noland-Grant, 2019), but artfully integrating it into online training and courses takes planning and preparation.

Basically, all training or courses (whether face-to-face or fully online) need social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence to engage the learners. 

I view this as learners need to 

• interact with the facilitator (which may or may not be the instructional designer for the course or training), 
• interact with one another, and 
• interact with the content. 

This is particularly true with the current "remote" learning which can be often be a mishmash of approaches as teachers are trying to cope without ever having been trained in good remote instruction.

It is up to instructional designers to make spaces for this to happen.

I've been teaching at a distance for quite some time - since the mid 1990s actually - and remember the frustration we faced trying to engage and retain our learners - and other faculty to persuade them to try distance learning. This means we were teaching at a distance before we really knew what that meant and what was necessary to engage learners! In 2006, online courses often had a 10% to 20% higher failed retention rate than traditional classroom environments (Herbert). Couple this with 40% to 80% of online students dropping out of online classes (Smith, 2010), and we see some definite issues!  Review of existing literature indicates that online courses have several social, technological, and motivational issues existing from both the learners’ and the faculty’s perspectives.

(Keep in mind, these were college students and adult learners, and the current issue of remote learning retention in K-12 has not really been examined.)

Enter the Community of Inquiry and the research indicating the need for teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence....all leading to enhanced interaction, enhanced learning, and more engaged students!

Interacting with the Facilitator

Why?   Why do learners need to interact with the course or training facilitator? and what IS a "facilitator"?

 

I'll start with the term "facilitator." In good fully online learning there IS no teacher as the students are presented with a variety of ways to teach themselves, resulting in course facilitators, rather than teachers. Sometimes, the person designing the course is the course facilitator, but not necessarily, so both facilitators and instructional designers need to understand and incorporate all best practices of online instruction. 

 

Student-instructor (i.e., facilitator) interaction has long been linked to retention in both face-to-face (Tinto, 1975, 1982, 1987, 1988, 1997) and online learning (Li, et.al, 2021; O'Leary & Quinlan, 2007; Yuan & Kim, 2014). In the case of online learning, such interaction is not limited to instructional communication (i.e., email, video) but may also include off-line communication and personal dialogue through the telephone.

Learners often report feel isolated and disconnected in their online courses (Collins, et al, 2019) which frequently results in poor grades and an increased likelihood of dropout. Distance learners want to see the instructor, to hear the instructor, to feel connected with that instructor in some way. This very connection increases retention AND engagement.

video-conferencing with a student

I use a variety of methods to interact with students, such as individual video-conferencing and  feedback,  but I also try to integrate videos throughout the course or training, allowing students to hear me talk about a topic. The individual videoconferencing for onboarding has been invaluable in creating a sense of community, and the narrated grading videos allow me to talk to students as I grade, suggesting a conversation of types.

I tend to combine feedback techniques: written with video ... using several layers of feedback.

Huh?

Perhaps I should provide a wee bit of my feedback/grading history.

Originally I taught English courses and writing, and even though my curricular assignments have changed over the years, I often find myself still teaching writing...or some component of writing.  One of the constant concerns - and I do not believe this one has been solved yet - is that students seldom carry over learning from one course to another - with regards to writing. I would start with college freshmen who could not form cohesive paragraphs and by the end of a course they not only wrote well-developed paragraphs, but they could write the vestigial 5-paragraph essay, well-developed and with few punctuation errors. Second semester the same students signed up for part 2 of the course, and we were back at the beginning!

I knew they knew better!

THEY knew they knew better!

hmmmmm... obviously what I thought was working wasn't....  so... time for a change.... All English courses at that institution were organized the same way, using a multiple draft approach with multiple revisions and per feedback as well as instructor feedback.  Students left those classes well prepared to write well.

Yet, they didn't.

It was as though they had never ever written a paper, had never taken an English course.... everything was forgotten.

The issue was one of transfer of knowledge.  Students had a difficult time transferring what they learned in one course to another. A history faculty member and I hit upon a plan: we would co-teach an American history course that required formal papers. He taught the history, and together we reviewed the paper requirements, and we applied the revision/multiple draft approach that all English faculty used....   Students would receive two grades on their paper - one in history on the content, and one from me on the writing. Each paper was graded twice, and many earned A/D or A/C...great history content, not-so-great on the writing skills.  So I asked them why. Their response: "It was a history class.  Writing doesn't matter in a history class."

I have yet to solve this issue because students still do not often take the learning with them, not the writing learning..... so .... I still play with feedback methods, hoping to eventually hit upon the right combination. keeping in mind the need to continue to connect with students

Time to return to where I was: I have begun combining feedback techniques: written with video ... using several layers of feedback, breaking the feedback down into chunks. Snagit and Camtasia help me create this feedback, referred to as screencasting (Seror, 2012).


Let's suppose I have a paper/written assignment to grade.

          Step 1:  I read the paper from beginning to end, making no marks, just  to gain a sense of the submission...and to decide where to go from there.

          Step 2: Then I begin making comments on the paper.  Currently, I pull the paper up directly in the gradebook in CANVAS and insert comments there..but there is more to it than this..I note patterns of errors. Writing errors tend to fall into groups, creating a pattern of errors. A person may have trouble, for example, with commas, and an instructor looking carefully at those comma errors will notice a pattern of the same type of mistake being made repeatedly. When looked at individually, one error could be made  a dozen times, looking overwhelming to the student. Once a student understands he or she  really only made ONE error, not 20, the student is in a better place to learn how to correct that one error. So the first time that error is made, I highlight it in a specific color,  and insert a comment giving the name of the error and a url reference. The next time I see that error, I highlight it again in the same color. (More to come!) I use other tools provided through CANVAS - comments, text, and strikeout.  As I reach other errors - perhaps a sentence structure or clarity issue - I circle or highlight them, making a brief notation in the comment box.

         Step 3: Once I have done this with the entire paper, I pull up the video capture function in SnagIt. Jing would also work although videos are limited to 5 minutes. Screencast-o-matic is another good tool for screencapture and narrated grading videos....as is Zoom.  I wanted a feature that allows me to do a video capture of the screen as I talk through the feedback process, making comments and explaining comments in more detail - holding a conversation of sorts (albeit one-sided) ....much like having students look over my shoulder as I grade. Students receive a pdf of their annotated paper and a copy of their video file.

Following is an excerpt from one of my feedback videos:

Students have told me how much they appreciate these videos and feel as though I really took time to "talk" to them, and that they matter. AS to whether this type of feedback improves learning, I am not sure....but it does help to create instructor-to-student interaction.

Interacting with one another...and  a little content...perhaps the facilitator?

Best practices of engagement also suggest that students need to interact with one another to decrease that feeling of social isolation...aka social presence (Noland-Grant, 2019).

Although synchronous group work would increase social presence, it is often not very practical for my students who tend to work 40 hours a week while balancing a variety of other roles: parent/grandparent/child/spouse/partner, student, community member, and possibly more. Instead of increasing engagement, it may increase stress as adult learners now have to balance one more item in their daily juggling act. So, the few times I do offer this opportunity, I make it optional, allowing learners to choose whether or not to team up.

Although I enjoy the safety of forums (i.e., they can be kept private within our LMS), I grow tired of using them and often wonder if students do as well. The following activity is from The Adult Learner and incorporates a padlet, a video, and a forum:

introduction within the forum

Next... students watched the following video about adult learners:

 And now, on to the next component of the task:

The conclusion of the activity

This activity followed an icebreaker forum where they introduced themselves  to one another by creating videos. Now that they know each other a little better, it was time to introduce them to some thinking about course content (Wait!  isn't that Cognitive presence, too?)

YES! Sometimes one activity can foster several types of presence.

In this instance, students 

1. ponder a topic (cognitive presence/interacting with content) and 
2. post their thoughts on a padlet where they could also 
3. interact with one another (social presence/interacting with each other)
4. watch a video about the content
5. complete remaining activities in the Welcome Module (cognitive presence/interacting with content)
   
6. consider any changes to their perceptions with regards to adult learners (cognitive presence/interacting with content), then
   
7. post to the forum
8. reply to at least two classmates (cognitive presence/interacting with content AND social presence/interacting with one another), 
9. I then interact with each original post, drawing  ideas together and posing questions (cognitive presence/interacting with content AND teaching presence/interacting with the facilitator)

Yes, technically that one set of tasks covered all three type of presences, but I do not really think of my comments as adding much, other than they know I read each one and responded.

Interacting with content

I realize I have already covered this above, but I wanted to share one of my favorite ways to encourage interacting with content (along with each other).

I love VoiceThread for this!

Here is a Voice Thread from EDU 654 2019:

 

VoiceThread allows learners to present content and to interact through text, audio, or videos.

Now, let's break this task down into its individual components:

1.  I crafted a list of tools that designers could use to share content, but I wanted them to explore these tools on their own to consider their usability, then share with one another. Key to this activity is the need for learners to look for these tools, play with them a little and consider how they might prove useful....all on their own...first. the purpose was not for me to suggest how they might use, but for them to come around to that on their own (cognitive presence):

Learner preparation for the activity

Learners review those topics and tools online AND review how VoiceThread works so they know how to post for the next part of this activity:

 

So....students interact with the content, reflect, and make decisions (cognitive presence); they interact with one another (social presence), and I then add my comments to theirs on the VoiceThread (teaching presence)....all in one activity.

Designers do not need to provide three activities for every piece of content....as long as they plan ahead, and plan well, keeping in mind the importance of integrating these three types of presence through each lesson or unit.

 Happy design!

 

References

Collins, K., Groff, S., Mathena, C., & Kupczynski, L. (2019). Asynchronous video and the development of instructor social presence and student engagement. The Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 20(1), 53-70.

Herbert, M. (2006). Staying the course: A study in online student satisfaction and retention. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 9(4). Retrieved from http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/winter94/herbert94.htm

Li, Y., Nishimura, N., Yagami, H., & Park, H. (2021). An empirical study on online learners’ continuance intentions in China.  Sustainability, 13(889), 889-1007.

Noland-Grant, C. R. (2019). The community of inquiry framework as learning design model: A case study in online postgraduate education. Research in Learning Technology, 27, 1-15.

O'Leary, P., & Quinlan, T. (2007).  Learner-instructor telephone interaction: Effects on satisfaction and achievement of online students. American Journal of Distance Education, 21(3), 133-143.

Seror, J. (2012). In the classroom: Show me! Enhanced feedback through screencasting technology.  TESL Canada Journal, 30(1), 104-111.

Smith, B. (2010). E-learning technologies: A comparative study of adult learners enrolled on blended and online campuses engaging in a virtual classroom (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database.

Tinto, V. (1975). Dropout from higher education: A theoretical synthesis of recent research. Review of Educational Research, 45(1), 89-125.

Tinto, V. (1982). Defining dropout: A matter of perspective. In E. T. Pascarella (Ed.), Studying student attrition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Tinto, V. (1987). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

Tinto, V. (1988). Stages of student departure: Reflections on the longitudinal character of student leaving. Journal of Higher Education, 59(4), 438-455.

Tinto, V. (1993). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition, (2nd ed.). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Tinto, V. (1997). Classrooms as communities: Exploring the educational character of student persistence. The Journal of Higher Education, 68(6), 599-623.

Yuan, J.,  & Kim, C. (2014). Guidelines for facilitating the development of learning communities  in online courses. Journal of Computer-Assisted Learning, 30(3), 220-232.

Any Time, Any Place/All Together Now

Quality teaching online requires knowledge of synchronous facilitation and asynchronous facilitation techniques and the wisdom to know when to use each....to meet the needs of your learners.

Both approaches have their place in fully online learning...but it all returns to audience.

 Asynchronous facilitation: Anytime, any place

Asynchronous facilitation is the "any time, any where" approach, allowing for full learner flexibility. I have had learners whose workplace transferred them to Japan in the middle of the semester.  I have had learners in the military who were stationed on a submarine and could only access the internet when in port. Others  worked a night shift, leaving them to sleep during the day. Some have had rotating shifts where one week they worked days, then the next week afternoon/evenings, then the third week nights - then the rotation begins again. There were prisoners whose access varied per day according to lockdowns. Then, of course, I have had a more "traditional" student who worked  during the day, leaving evenings  and weekends for family time and community events. 

This describes my learners, and asynchronous facilitation meets the majority of their needs.

 Asynchronous in action

I teach asynchronously 95% of the time and have learned this type of facilitation requires a great deal of organization and communication skills, as well as the ability to chunk and scaffold material. Good asynchronous components must be able to stand on their own without needing any further illumination from the instructor (Vai & Sosulski, 2016).

After all, asynchronous implies any time, anywhere, so learners need a course or training that communicates so clearly and directly that they do not need clarification whether they access the materials at 3 am or 3 pm (Davis, 2015; Kinshuk, 2016; Vai & Sosulski, 2016).

To me, this means I write out conversations as I try to think ahead as to what a learner might need to know when I am away from my computer. When I include a google doc, I always share with "anyone with this link can view." This way when Iearners access a document when I am not online, they can be assured of being able to actually access it.  There is nothing more frustrating than to click on link to something you need to read only to find out you are denied access because the poster did not carefully review the setting first! For most adult learners, time is scarce, and they access a course or training when it is convenient for them...and waiting to be approved to review a link simply is disrespectful and time-wasting.

The following video demonstrates asynchronous facilitation for the Unit Game On:

Using tabs in Canvas to  foster asynchronous presentation of content

sample module from EDU 654 in 2019

Instructors new to online design often struggle with balancing the length of content pages and the length of the Modules page. When pages are too long, learners often feel overwhelmed when pondering how long it will take to read and complete all of that material.Rather than have a s, magazines, and newspapers!). One response is to break up long pages into several smaller pages, but then the Modules page can become very long and generate a different kind of overwhelming feeling (so many choices!). The graphic to the right depicts the learner view of a module from EDU 654in 2019.

Using TABS helps the instructor present all information while managing it better  - for both the learner and the instructor! Check oout the screencapture blow to see how this same information looks when using tabs:

 

Same Module, with Tabs, in 2021

Where to start?  You will likely notice that there is no Tabs command in Canvas....because we use html to create them. I created my own template and copy this page into every Canvas course. 

Want to create your own tabbed page that looks like this?

1. Access this google doc   for the html.

2. Highlight the html on this page and use CTRL C to copy.

3. Open a blank page in your Canvas and title it Sample Page with Tabs. This will become your personal template  that you can copy and use as needed later.

Step 4

4. In the Edit mode, click on View, then </> HTML editor (see graphic at right).  Now, paste the html you copied in step 2 (CTRL V) directly into this window. This creates the actual template that you will be able to use repeatedly.

5. When you hit SAVE, you should see the sample page depicted in the graphic above.

6. Simply carefully type in your content. Until you feel comfortable working in html, you will want to make careful changes to your page in the Rich Content Editor.

My university paid for a Canvas plug in that makes tabs just a click away, but this template works well.  Once you become comfortable in html, you can create templates with more tabs.

Synchronous learning: All together now

Think of synchronous learning as same time-same place learning, i.e., learners and instructor are in the same place at the same time.  This includes in-person classes as well as live online meetings using Zoom, WebEx, or Adobe Connect when the whole class or smaller groups get together. COVID19 has forced all instructors into synchronous facilitation whether or not they have been trained for it.

Most of them have not.

Effective synchronous learning is NOT the instructor talking non-stop while learners sit passively. Instead, good synchronous learning requires the instructor to plan ahead, reconceptualizing their courses.  Instead of a typical lecture providing content, the synchronous session should facilitate conversation, and discussions, with learners taking the responsibility to complete some prep work themselves prior to the synchronous session.

I teach asynchronously 95% of the time.  I have tried to incorporate synchronous meetings, but they just were not convenient for the students who had to rearrange an evening with childcare or weekend activities to attend.  If they are going to rearrange their lives to attend this session, then I better make it worth their while to do so....and not use it to lecture but to enrich their learning.

Forty-five years of teaching have given me the perspective of seeing patterns. Teaching fully online for the last 11 of those years has afforded me a glimpse into adult learner fears and concerns.  It's all about the tech!

Even though my students tend to range in age from 22 up into their 60s, not all are comfortable with the technology.  They know they need a master's degree and that online provides the flexibility they need, but they sometimes fear the tech.  TI am not just referring to older learners, however.  Some of the younger ones are also not as tech-savvy as one would assume, and sometimes that are unaware that they don't know what we expect them to know.

In one of my University positions we offered a group Onboarding where all new doctoral students were invited to learn more about their courses and how to navigate online. One facilitator led students through logging in to Blackboard and accessing the various modules in their courses, along with how to send messages and submit work. 

This sounds great, doesn't it?  Learners met  each other informally online, see each other and all course instructors and learn about navigating Blackboard. What I realized the first week of classes was that learners who attended those sessions were not asking questions...and as I developed a rapport with them, I realized they were afraid to ask questions, thinking that everyone else already knew the answer, and they didn't want to feel "stupid." 

Hmmmmm...  To me, this means a more individualized approach is needed.

EDU 658 Onboarding Module

This brings me to my Onboarding modules created for every single class I design. I have found that making sure students can navigate an online course as early as possible increases their livelihood of success in the course. 

I individualize Onboarding for every single student in every single class, guiding them through their Canvas course site to make sure they can access everything....in the safety of meeting one-on-one rather risking feeling embarrassed in front of a group. 

Yes, this takes a lot of time.  Instead of one one-hour Onboarding per class, I may have anywhere from 10-25 individual meetings....for one course. It seems to be what works best for my learners, though, allowing them to interact with the site and me in a more comfortable manner.  They select the day and time that best fits within their schedules...AND I get to meet them face-to-face and begin to develop the rapport so necessary to developing social presence (Akyol, 2019; Shackelford & Maxwell, 2012).  Seeing what each other looks like helps to engage learners and makes them feel connected (Lehman & Conceicao, 2010).

To reinforce the idea of student responsibility, I require all students to complete a series of steps, to review a variety of items, and to meet with me virtually during the first week of class. They must review the syllabus and assignments, click around the course, and come prepared with questions. Notice this Onboarding Module from EDU 653:

EDU 653 Onboarding Module

Meanwhile, I have my own agenda: Let the students do the driving. Letting them drive tells me what they need to know to be successful in this course. These meetings last anywhere from 15 minutes to a full hour...depending upon learner needs.

I can certainly ask them if they have questions, answer those questions, and wave good-bye.....but I need to make sure they know how to navigate the course first.  They may not know what they don't know!  

Zoom allows us to share screens, so after finding out a little about the learner, I ask them to share their screen. Then I direct them around the site...as they click and access information. We pause to discuss how the major assignments fit within the class....and even explore tasks such as how to access each module, how to use the Calendar function within Canvas, sometimes even how to respond to their first forum!

Using Zoom

My university uses ZOOM, but that is a relatively new event. I was using Zoom for these meetings before the university adopted it.  Anyone can have a free Zoom account that allows them to  meet with one per5son for an extended amount of time and with more than one person for 40 minutes.  Since I meet individually, free  meets my needs.

1. All one needs is an email account to sign up for Zoom (https://zoom.us/). 

2. Once in, clicking on host a meeting allows you to schedule. This generates an email invitation that allows recipients to login in through a variety of devices, but I require students to use a laptop so they can then share their screens.

3. During the session you will need to give an attendee permission to share their screen. This is a new  twist thanks to the "Zoom Bombing" that occurred during the early days of COVID necessitating in the mass move to use ZOOM to video conference.  Once in Zoom, the instructor will need to hover their cursor over the bottom of the Zoom window until the green Share Screen button appear.  Then hover on the caret to the right and click on "Multiple participants can share simultaneously."

4. Once you have granted permission to share, the attendee will then see the green Share Screen button and can click it.

5. The attendee will then see several choices, so I ask them to select a specific window, then open the course in Canvas.

Once they are in in Canvas, the Onboarding begins as we talk through to course splash page and start clicking around.

 

Any time, any place or All Together now - your choice depends on your audience, your content,  and your goal!

Have fun  designing!

 References

Akyol, Z. (2019). The development of a community of inquiry over time in an online course: Understanding the progression and integration of social, cognitive and teaching presence.  Online Learning, 12(3/4), 3-22.

Davis, T. (2015). Visual design for online learning. New York: Jossey-Bass.

Kinshuk. (2016). Designing adaptive and personalized environments. NY: Routledge. 

Lehman, R., & Conceicao, S. (2010). Creating a sense of presence in online teaching. NY: Routledge.

Shackelford, J., & Maxwell, M. (2012). Contribution of learner-instructor interaction to sense of community in graduate online education. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 8(4), 248-260.

Vai, M., & Sosulski, K. (2016). Essentials of online course design. NY: Routledge.