Creating Online Courses and Orientations: A Survival Guide

Creating Online Coursesand Orientations:A Survival Guide

Pamela S. BaconDavid Bagwell Jr.

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Creating On line Courses and Orientations

Cre at ing On line Courses

and Ori en ta tions

A Sur vival Guide

Pamela S. Ba con and Da vid Bagwell Jr.

Westport, Con nect i cut • Lon don

Li brary of Con gress Cat a log ing-in-Pub li ca tion Data

Bacon, Pamela S., 1964- Creating on line courses and ori entations : a sur vival guide / by Pamela S. Ba con and Da vid Bagwell Jr. p. cm. In cludes bib liographical ref erences and index. ISBN 1-59158-289-X (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Ed ucation, Secondary—Computer net work re sources. 2. Media pro grams (Ed ucation) 3. Teaching—Aids and devices. I. Bagwell, Da vid. II. Ti tle. LB1044.87.B33 2005 373.133’4—dc22 2005020656

Brit ish Li brary Cat a logu ing in Pub li ca tion Data is avail able.

Copyright © 2005 by Libraries Un limited

All rights re served. No por tion of this book may be

reproduced, by any pro cess or technique, without the

express written consent of the pub lisher. An exception

is made for reproducibles, which may be cop ied for

class room and ed u ca tional pro grams only.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Num ber: 2005020656

ISBN: 1-59158-289-X

First pub lished in 2005

Libraries Un limited, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881

A Member of the Greenwood Pub lishing Group, Inc.

www.lu.com

Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this book complies with the

Permanent Paper Standard issued by the Na tional

In for ma tion Stan dards Or ga ni za tion (Z39.48–1984).

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my sur vival tools: My hus band, Scott, my son, James,and es pecially my twin sis ter, Tammy.

P. Ba con

As this is my first book, I want to ded icate it to my wife, Marti,and my four children: Jessica, Valarie, Dan iel, and Mat thew.

D. Bagwell

CONTENTS

Ac knowl edg ments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ixCon tri bu tors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiIn tro duc tion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Survival Guide to Online Courses

Chapter 1: Set Objectives and Goals—Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Chapter 2: Un derstand the Bar riers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Chapter 3: Read, Re search, and Re sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Chapter 4: View Other Courses to De termine For mat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Chapter 5: In struction—Plan Ac tivities, De velop Les sons, De cide on Course Con tent. . . . . . . . . . 33

Chapter 6: Visit Classrooms and Pi lot Program (Promotion). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Chapter 7: Adapt Unit to Meet In dividual Needs—Dif ferentiate! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Chap ter 8: Lis ten to Feed back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Chap ter 9: Grad ing—Get a Plan!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Chap ter 10: Un wrap the Stan dards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Chapter 11: Im plement On line Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Chapter 12: Data, Data, Data! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Chap ter 13: Eval u ate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

vii

“Capture the Gi ant:”

Online Research Skills Unit

Me dia Cen ter On line Ori en ta tion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Ap pen dixes

Ap pen dix 1:Dewey Webquests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Ap pen dix 2:In for ma tion Lit er acy PowerPoint Pre sen ta tion: Your “Stan dard” PowerPoint . . . . 149

Ap pen dix 3:Bagwell’s Best: On line Re sources for Teach ers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Ap pen dix 4:“I Will Survive” (Alien Video Clip) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Ap pen dix 5:Course Out line: Get a Lit tle “In spiration!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Ap pen dix 6:Rich’s Re mind ers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Ap pen dix 7:Helbling’s Helps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Ap pen dix 8:Soph o more Scav en ger Hunt: An On line Ac tiv ity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Ap pen dix 9:High Five: Five DI Re sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Ap pen dix 10:Twelve Survival Slides. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Ap pen dix 11:Dave’s Top Ten Sur vival Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Ref er ences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177Per mis sions Sum mary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179In dex. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

viii Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

While Dave wanted to thank me for in cluding him in this book pro ject, I’d like to also thank himfor his valu able coauthoring skills—es pecially for matting! He was truly a sur vival tool for me!

We would like to ac knowledge the fol lowing peo ple for their assistance in this pro ject:

Kaaren Baumgartner, whose off hand com ment sparked a “Gi ant” pro ject!

Valarie Bagwell, whose lit erary skills and ex pertise are truly ap preciated.

Mrs. Fulford and her busi ness tech nology stu dents for as sistance with word pro cessing.

Kelly Rich, Ra chel Helbling, and Libby Lawrie—three un sinkable lifesavers!

Krista Hensley, Gary Moorman, and Jenny Aykroyd—and their awesome stu dents fortheir “gi ant” par tic i pa tion in the pi lot pro ject.

BDHS stu dents Ja son Hardin and Montana Milnes for their as sistance when ever andwher ever needed.

ix

CONTRIBUTORS

Katie Gallagher5225 East 56th StreetIn di a nap o lis, IN 46226

Ra chel Helbling3350 W. Bal timore Wood lands N.Monrovia, IN 46157

Stu dent Con tri bu tors

Jeremy M. BarkerBen Da vis High School Stu dent

Kelsey E. BreeceBen Da vis High School Stu dent

Matt CarterBen Da vis High School Stu dent

Joshua A. CoeBen Da vis High School Stu dent

Ja cob DeWittBen Da vis High School Stu dent

Marlowe C. HaddixBen Da vis High School Stu dent

Benjamin M. JarvisBen Da vis High School Stu dent

Mary C. JenkinsBen Da vis High School Stu dent

Kristin LuceroBen Da vis High School Stu dent

Benjamin E. StevensBen Da vis High School Stu dent

James Da vid Thomas IIBen Da vis High School Stu dent

Allison M. Ty lerBen Da vis High School Stu dent

Blake VanderbushBen Da vis High School Stu dent

xi

Elizabeth J. Oyer (Ph.D.)Eval u a tion So lu tionsCarmel, IN 46032

Kelly Rich1830 Sonesta LaneIn di a nap o lis, IN 46217

INTRODUCTION

When my for mer col league, Kaaren Baumgartner, made an off hand com ment about go ingonline with our ori entation pro gram, a seed was planted in my mind. That seed has now de vel-oped into a full-grown bean stalk—in the form of an on line re search skills unit, known as “Cap-ture the Gi ant!” In this on line unit, stu dents set off to pre vent the gi ant (our school mas cot) fromcapturing valu able in formation skills and do ing away with them for ever.

I must ad mit that the thought of cre ating an on line course was some what daunt ing at first.That’s where Dave, my co author, came in. As tech nology su pervisor and head master of the In di-ana On line Acad emy (our on line school), I knew Dave could be a “gi ant” help to me. Not onlydoes Dave have the “techie” background (whereas I’m the “bookie”), he also teaches an on lineclass at a lo cal col lege. In the creation of my course, I sat down with Dave to dis cuss some ad -vantages of go ing on line. At that time, the time needed to cre ate such a pro ject seemed in sur-mountable, but af ter talk ing with Dave, I de cided to start climb ing!

You may be ask ing, “Why go on line?”

• In creased Ac cess—“The pri mary rea son for cre ating an on line course is to pro vide ac -cess” (Klemm 2001, 1). Be cause on line learning can take place any where and any time,this rea son alone of ten ac counts for the ever-in creasing pop ularity of dis tance learning.Space and time bar riers are in stantly re moved, al lowing greater ac cess for stu dents withjobs, ex tra cur ric u lar ac tiv i ties, and busy sched ules. Stu dents have vir tual ac cess toup-to-date con tent and learning 24 hours a day!

• Lim ited Staff ing—Thanks to bud get cuts, when Kaaren re tired, our ad ministration wasnot able to fill her position. Even with lim ited staffing, the online unit al lows me to reachall stu dents and teach valu able re search and li brary-related lessons—something I nevercould have done us ing the tra ditional “face to face” ap proach.

• In creased Stu dent En roll ment—Our school, the larg est three-year high school in thestate of In diana, has al most 3,000 stu dents—and is still grow ing! The on line course allowsme to have some type of in teraction, al beit not per sonal, with each and ev ery stu dent.

• In creased Staff—As you would ex pect, a larger stu dent pop ulation leads to a largerteacher pop ulation. With al most 30 full-time Eng lish teach ers, there is no way that Icould phys ically meet the ori entation needs of ev ery class. Even if ev ery Eng lish teacher

xiii

brought his or her stu dents to the media cen ter for a week-long ori entation and re searchunit, I’d never sur vive—and we’d have to increase the school year to do it!

• In creased Stu dent Achieve ment—If your school is like ours, the bottom line is stu dentachievement. Since I’ve started the on line ori entation, I have seen a definite rise in stu-dent achievement. With our data-driven ed ucational state, I now have data to prove thatthe pro gram works—and works well.

• In creased Num ber of Col lab o ra tive Units—By tak ing ad vantage of the on line con -tent, I’m no lon ger spend ing all of my time teaching in troductory li brary skills; my timeis now freed up to work col laboratively with teach ers. I can now co-plan, co-teach, andeven co-grade spe cial units.

• In creased Avail abil ity—Once an on line unit has been cre ated, other schools can useand even mod ify the con tent or ma terial. Col laboration can take place, allowing morethan one school to take ad vantage of al ready-created on line in structional units and teachstudents as they move through the school sys tem. Teachers in our Fresh man Cen ter willbe able to coordinate les sons by know ing in ad vance what con tent and skills stu dents will learn when they be come soph omores. In ad dition, eight of our el ementary schools cancollaborate to cre ate on line con tent that they can all use, as op posed to cre ating eight sep -a rate les sons and du pli cat ing ef forts.

• In creased Aware ness—Since I’ve started this unit, I now have ad ministrators, teach ers,par ents, and stu dents who un der stand that li brary stan dards and crit i cal in for ma tionskills ex ist and really mat ter. In ad dition, all parties in volved now see me in a teach ingrole, and there is more sup port as a re sult.

• In creased Mo ti va tion—Like it or not, stu dents love to use computers! Stu dents whowould nor mally have be havior prob lems now are more actively involved in their learn -ing. Even though some of the same in formation is taught, learn ing on line is moreuser-friendly and in teresting to stu dents.

Now that you know the many ad vantages to de veloping an on line course, you’re prob ablyready to get started right away. To help you, part I of the book is the SURVIVAL GUIDE, bro -ken down into man ageable steps for you to fol low to cre ate your own on line course. Through outpart I you’ll see

• Survival Strategies (ad vice from teachers—or stu dents—in the trenches!),

• Sur vival Tips (prac ti cal ad vice),

• Survival Sources (Internet re sources),

• Survival Tools (ready-to-use reproducibles), and

• Sur vival Ad vice/Bagwell’s Blogs

Part II con tains my on line re search skills unit, “Capture the Gi ant.” You can mod ify the unitto suit your own needs. Fi nally, part III con tains ap pendixes for your con venience and re view.

xiv In tro duc tion

Although not man datory, the ap pendixes in clude nuts and bolts to as sist you in the implementa-tion of your own on line course.

Although all Web site URLs were ac curate and ac tive at the time of pub lication, URLschange fre quently and may no lon ger be cur rent.

Don’t hes itate to contact us if you need help keep ing afloat once you get started!

In tro duc tion xv

Part I

SURVIVAL GUIDE TO ONLINE COURSES

S Chapter 1: Set Ob jectives and Goals—Get ting Started

U Chap ter 2: Un der stand the Bar ri ers

R Chapter 3: Read, Re search, and Re sources

V Chapter 4: View Other Courses and De termine Format (Virtual Visits)

I Chap ter 5: In struc tion—Plan Ac tiv i ties, De velop Les sons, De cide on Course Con tent

V Chapter 6: Visit Classrooms and Pi lot Program (Promotion)

A Chapter 7: Adapt Unit to Meet In dividual Needs—Dif fer en ti ate!

L Chapter 8: Lis ten to Feed back

G Chapter 9: Grad ing: Get a Plan!

U Chapter 10: Un wrap the Stan dards

I Chap ter 11: Im ple ment On line Course

D Chapter 12: Data, Data, Data

E Chap ter 13: Eval u ate

Survival Tools Guide

Survival Tool 1a: The Goals Grid—The Goals Grid is a use ful tool to help you achieve goal clar ityby look ing at a goal from four dif ferent per spectives. “Goal” for it!

Survival Tool 1b: Ob jectives Ru bric—For this tool, “X” marks the spot and gives you an “ob jec -tive” way to eval uate your course ob jectives.

Survival Tool 2: Teaching On line: Prob lems and Solutions T-Chart—Dave un der stands yourproblems to a “T” and of fers so lutions.

Survival Tool 3: Just the FAQs!—You’ve got ques tions? We’ve got an swers!

Survival Tool 4: Notesheet for Eval uating On line Courses—This handy tool, in check list for mat,is a cheat sheet for eval uating on line courses.

Survival Tool 5: Les son Plan ning Sheet—Got a plan? Now you do! This sim ple form walks youthrough your les son plan—whether tra ditional or on line.

Survival Tool 6a: Giant PowerPoint Pre sentation—A “gi ant” help to in troduce stu dents to the on -line unit.

Survival Tool 6b: Ticket for the Test—This tool is “just the ticket” you need to give to your stu -dents when they mas ter the ten Gi ant steps.

Sur vival Tool 7a: Dif fer en ti a tion Check list—Get the num ber on your DI needs!

Sur vival Tool 7b: Dif fer en ti a tion Ques tions—You’ll have all the an swers you need to dif ferentiateinstruction when you go through these five ques tions.

Sur vival Tool 7c: Dif fer en ti at ing In struc tion Strat e gies—This step-by-step (lit erally!) strategytool helps you eas ily meet the needs of your low-, av erage-, and high-level stu dents.

Survival Tool 8: Feedback Form—Students will “eat up” the chance to give you feed back on theunit—and you’ll be “full” of in for ma tion!

Survival Tool 9a: Grading Sheet—This ru bric makes the grade—by giv ing you a handy way toscore those units.

Survival Tool 9b: Grad ing Check list—“Check” out this tool when you get ready to grade the on lineunits.

Survival Tool 10: Stan dards Chart—You’ll be above board stan dards (school board, that is) whenyou use this tool to show how each of the ten Gi ant steps meet Big6 Skills, In formation LiteracyStandards, and the lan guage arts cur riculum.

Survival Tool 11a: Re search Unit Re minders—Print out this tool and post it in classrooms to re -mind stu dents (and you!) when the fi nal pro ject is due.

Survival Tool 11b: Dis cussion Boards—This tool is a “don’t!” Don’t do what I did—make sure you put guide lines in place for stu dent use of dis cussion boards. Do mon i tor!

Survival Tool 12: Data De cisions—“Count” on suc cess when you tally up the num ber of classesthat have completed the on line unit.

Survival Tool 13a: On line Course Eval uation—Of “course” you’ll want to evaluate at the end ofthe ori en ta tion!

Sur vival Tool 13b: On line In struc tor Eval u a tion—Did YOU make the grade? Get an “A” foradaptive when you use rel evant feed back to im prove in struction.

2 Part I: Survival Guide to On line Courses

Survival Sources: A Sneak Peek

Chapter 1: Set Objectives and Goals—Get ting Startedhttp://www.per sonal.psu.edu/staff/b/x/bxb11/Ob jec tives/

This site gives spe cific di rections and pro vides color-coded ex amples for writ inggoals and ob jectives.

Chap ter 2: Un der stand the Bar ri ershttp://mnscsc.org/Soc ra tes/elearning/down loads/probs_opps_ollchecklst.pdf

This site pro vides a sur vey list ing the ad vantages and challenges to on line learn-ing. It would be a handy sur vey for as sessing the teachers in your build ing to de terminetheir readiness level re garding uti lizing on line courses with stu dents.

Chapter 3: Read, Re search, and Re sourceshttp://www.black board.com

Black board’s start ing point for on line sup port.

http://stylusinc.com/on line_course/tu to rial/pro cess.htm

A step-by-step guide to de veloping on line courses.

http://ts.mivu.org/de fault.asp?show=ar ti cle&id=861

Another use ful tool for cre ating on line courses.

http://www.pitt.edu/~poole/onlinelearning.html#designingOLactivities

The re search and re sources on this site are endless. Cau tion: Don’t jump in if youare in a hurry!

Chapter 4: View Other Courses to Determine For mat (Virtual Visits)http://www.nwrel.org/mentoring/elearning.html

The Na tional Mentoring Cen ter is in the pro cess of study ing on line learning for -mats and is ded icated to helping to im prove the qual ity of on line courses. Check outthis site of ten for the latest re search and find ings.

Chap ter 5: In struc tion—Plan Ac tivities, De velop Les sons, De cide on Course Contenthttp://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/les sons.cgi/Lan guage_Arts

The Ed u ca tor’s Re source Guide in cludes a wealth of les son plans and ac tivities to view for course con tent ideas.

Chapter 6: Visit Class rooms and Pi lot Pro gram (Pro motion)http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/aa/landt/links/POTguidelines.htm

This site in cludes some im portant points for peer ob servations—im por tant guide-lines when vis iting other teachers’ class rooms and/or re viewing a peer’s pro gram.

Chapter 7: Adapt Unit to Meet In dividual Needs—Dif fer en ti ate!http://www.support4learning.org.uk/ed u ca tion/lstyles.htm

This site pro vides count less re sources and in for ma tion on dif fer en ti a tion strat e -gies, learning styles, and mul tiple intelligences.

Survival Sources: A Sneak Peek 3

Chapter 8: Lis ten to Feedbackhttp://www.yale.edu/ynhti/pubs/A14/po lio.html

This site con curs that stu dent feed back is all too of ten left out of eval uation. It alsoclarifies the roles of var ious stake holders in the on line learning game.

Chapter 9: Grading—Get a Plan!http://www.teachervision.fen.com/page/26773.html

“Is this for a grade?” If this sounds fa miliar, check out this source, which pro videsspecific ru bric ex amples for a va riety of li brary and lit eracy les sons for K–12 stu dentas sess ments—a per fect tool to as sist teach ers with grad ing ev erything from pro jects towrit ing sam ples.

Chapter 10: Un wrap the Standardshttp://www.awesomelibrary.org/Of fice/Teacher/Stan dards/Stan dards.html

The Awe some Li brary site in cludes valu able in formation from the U.S. De partment ofEd u ca tion out lin ing the pro cess for de vel op ing and im ple ment ing stan dards-based units.

Chap ter 11: Im ple ment On line Coursehttp://ncsdweb.ncsd.k12.wy.us/dherman/Lesley/week2/les son/les son_ru bric.html

This site pro vides an ex ample of a ru bric that could be uti lized for teacher self-re -flec tion af ter les son im plementation. It could also eas ily be used be fore the les son to en -sure that critical com ponents, like library stan dards and course con tent, are covered.

Chapter 12: Data, Data, Data!http://depts.wash ing ton.edu/oeaias/

The IAS (Instructional Assessment System) On line site in cludes a sam ple datacollection form and a sample re port, which could be modified and used for your owndata col lection. View a demo and, if funds are avail able, find out rates for IAS to cre atea cus tom da tabase for your data col lection needs. This is a data col lection site you cancount on to make data decisions a lit tle eas ier.

Chap ter 13: Eval u atehttp://www.remc11.k12.mi.us/bcisd/classres/restch.htm

This site is in valuable af ter you have evaluated your course and are ready to re fineor re search ar eas for im provement or ex tension.


Chap ter 1

SET OBJECTIVES ANDGOALS—GETTING

STARTED

Sur vival Strat egy

This ex periment of li brary knowl edge has been quite help ful to me. Pre vi-

ously, I had lit tle or no knowl edge of how a library worked. Now, I have the

confidence that will help me un derstand how to find books and other ma te-

ri als.—J. D. Thomas II, BDHS Soph omore (Goal Met! pb)

This first step is one of the hard est, but most important, steps you will take. Quite simply,what do you want the stu dents to know? You must de cide at this point what you ul timately wantthe stu dents to know or ac complish when they have completed the course or unit. A ba sic goalfor this pro ject might be: “Students will learn valuable re search skills.”

Often, how ever, the goal is based on a need—some thing stu dents don’t pres ently know thatyou would like them to know. In my case, for ex ample, I rec ognized the need for stu dents to beable to evaluate Web sites. Our stu dents were gain ing com petency and skill in Internet search-ing, but they were not eval uating what they were find ing. In stead, they were taking all sites atface value, be lieving all Web sites were cre ated equal! To rec tify this, I set the fol lowing goal:“All sophomores at Ben Da vis High School will learn specific cri teria with which to evaluate aWeb site.” (See how the goal is getting more specific?)

Finally, based on need, teach ers can de velop more spe cific in structional goals. Learn inggoals are mas tered through ac complishing cer tain ob jectives. An ex ample of an in structionalgoal and ob jectives for this pro ject might be: “Each student will complete a ten-step on line ori -entation and reach 80 per cent mas tery on the fi nal as sessment.”

Just hav ing a ba sic un derstanding of your goals and ob jectives can help you plan yourcourse by start ing with the end (what you want stu dents to ul timately accomplish) in mind.Keep in mind that goals and ob jectives should be measurable and should an swer the fol lowingques tions.

5

Sur vival Tips

• What are the ed ucational goals and objectives?

• How will these goals be ac complished?

• Which goals might not be ac complished, and what accommodations can be made forthem?

• When stu dents meet goals, are they also meet ing stan dards?

• What in formation or skills do stu dents need to be able to suc cessfully meet these goalsand ob jec tives?

• How much time is needed for goals and ob jectives to be met?

• How much will this course cost to cre ate? Where will the money come from?

Another tool to help you as you set goals for your on line unit is “The Goals Grid,” de vel-oped by Fred Nickols (Sur vival Tool 1a). Nickols (with a little help from his col leagues) de vel-oped the tool to help us ers achieve goal clar ity. By prompt ing us to think about goals andobjectives in an or ganized, struc tured fash ion, goals and ob jectives be come better. The GoalsGrid helps an swer some basic questions:

1. What are we re ally up to here?

2. Do we have all the bases covered?

3. What are we over looking?

4. Have we ad equately thought this thing through?

5. How do our var ious goals and ob jectives re late to one an other?

6. What do the patterns tell us about our will ingness to risk and to change?

7. Are we in con flict with oth ers?

The Goals Grid is sim ply a frame work for think ing about and ask ing tough ques tions aboutgoals and ob jectives. Do all of your goals fall into Quad rant II (Avoid) or Quad rant IV (Elim i-nate)? If so, per haps you’re fo cusing too much on the neg ative. On the other hand, if no goals in -volve these quad rants, per haps you’re not be ing open-minded or realistic. Find ing a bal ance is key.

Let’s use a re alistic ex ample from above and work through The Goals Grid to gether. Forex am ple, let’s say our goal is: “Each student will complete a ten-step on line ori entation andreach 80 per cent mas tery on the fi nal as sessment.”


IAchieve

Ex: 80% Mastery

IIAvoid

Ex: Stu dent Negativity

IIIPre serve

Ex: High Li brary Usage

IVElim i nate

Ex: Spe cial Ed Fail ures

The Goals Grid. Cre ated by Fred Nickols

Notes: As you can see, work ing through “The Goals Grid” can be ex tremely help ful in mak ing your goals and ob -jectives clear and fo cused. If pos sible, work through your goals with a col league to en sure you’re stay ing ob jective—andseeing things from all dif ferent per spectives. Grid-locked? Take a break and come back to it when you’re fresh!

Depending on what you find in your grid exercise, you may want to write other goals basedon your find ings. For ex ample, I ad mitted that maintaining high li brary us age was a pri ority, yetthis unit is on line and in dependent, re quiring pos sibly fewer me dia cen ter vis its. How might Iaddress this goal, yet still meet my objectives?

• Quadrant I: Achieve

Write in what you want to achieve (from goal above). Example: 80% Mas tery

Next, ask your self:

Do we have it? Not yet!

Do we want it? Yes!

• Quadrant II: Avoid

Write in what you want to avoid. Ex ample: Stu dent Negativity


Do we have it? No!

Do we want it? No!

• Quadrant III: Pre serve

Write in what you have now that you want to pre serve. Ex ample: Library Us age


Do we have it? Yes!

Do we want it? Yes!

Chapter 1: Set Objectives and Goals—Getting Started 7

Do WeHaveIt?

Do We Want It?

• Quad rant IV: Elim i nate

Write in what you want to elim inate. Ex ample: Spe cial Ed Fail ures

Do we have it? Yes!

Do we want it? No!

Au thor Note: This was a real eye opener for me. When I wrote the goal, I felt con fident about it.After us ing The Goals Grid, I started won dering if my orig inal goal shouldn’t be re vised to in -clude ad aptations for spe cial needs stu dents. Thus, I changed my original goal from ten “Gi antSteps” to seven to ten “Gi ant Steps” (based on in dividual needs).

Finally, once you’ve used the Goals Grid to de termine your ob jectives, “see” if your ob jec-tive floats by us ing the Ob jectives Rubic (Sur vival Tool 1b).

Set Ob jectives and Goals

Katie Gallagher has taught an economics course for the In diana On line Acad -emy (IOA) since 2001. She also teaches on line psy chology for Ca thedral HighSchool in In di a nap o lis. Dur ing a re cent pre sen ta tion, she fo cused on the crit i calneed to set spe cific goals and ob jectives be fore cre ating on line con tent. Per haps be -cause of her in tentional goal set ting, Katie’s courses are ex cellent ex amples ofinteractivity and re flect the im portance of using in teractive tools such as e-mail,chat, and message boards for stu dents to com municate with each other—and her!

“Or ga ni za tion and ease of nav i ga tion is crit i cal. Courses or les sonsshould be cre ated with the end in mind and fo cus on standards” (KatieGallagher—An gel Us ers Con fer ence—May 14, 2004, Cre ating Ef fective On -line Classes).

Survival Source 1

http://www.per sonal.psu.edu/staff/b/x/bxb11/Ob jec tives/

This site gives spe cific di rections and pro vides color-coded ex amples for writ ing goals and ob jec tives.


IAchieve

Goal:

IIAvoid

Goal:

IIIPre serve

Goal:

IVElim i nate

Goal:

YES NO

Survival Tool 1a. The Goals Grid

This Sur vival Tool was adapted with per mission from the au thor, Fred Nickols. To read “The Goals Grid: A Tool forClar i fy ing Goals and Ob jec tives” ar ticle in its en tirety, go to http://home.att.net/~nickols/goals_grid.htm.

Chapter 1: Set Objectives and Goals—Getting Started 9

Do WeHaveIt?

Do We Want It?

The Goals GridCreated by Fred Nickols

NO

YES

May be re produced for classroom use. From Pamela S. Bacon and David Bagwell Jr., Cre at ing On line Courses and

Ori en ta tions: A Sur vival Guide. Westport, CT: Libraries Un limited. Copyright © 2005.

10

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Chap ter 2

UNDERSTAND THEBARRIERS

Sur vival Strat egy

It is dif ficult to com plete the Gi ant Steps, be ing in the me dia cen ter only

once a week!—Marlowe Haddix, BDHS Se nior (Obviously, time is al -

ways a bar rier! pb)

Of all the things I’ve never done, this was the most pro ductive! —Ja cobDeWitt, BDHS Senior (Gifted students can sometimes be a bar rier! Ja -

cob found cre ative ways around the sys tem NOT to par ticipate—and

made the book any way! Go fig ure! pb)

Even given all of the ad vantages to on line learning, there are, admittedly, some bar riers andhurdles to over come. By tak ing a proactive stance, how ever, the “Three T” bar riers (time, tech -nology, and teach ing) can eas ily be over come. See Sur vival Tool 2 for other bar riers.

Time

One of the big gest bar riers to face is the amount of time needed to create an on line course.Creating an on line course is one of the big gest chal lenges that I have taken on—but also one ofthe most worth while. Keep in mind that, once the course is cre ated, you will be able to save timein the fu ture. You only have to create the course once. While you may (and should) make con tin-ual re visions to the course, the biggest chunk of time is in the cre ation, not the re vision. If youtake the time now to cre ate a quality, stan dards-based course, you’ll be able to use it for years tocome.

11

Tech nol ogy

Other than course con tent, an other huge time-taker in volves tech nology. Learn ing new tech -nology, de ciding on course de livery op tions, and work ing with your school’s tech nology team toget the course up and run ning can be ex tremely time-consuming. “De spite these challenges, thebenefits of an on line course out weigh the time con sumed cre ating it” (Klemm 2001, 2).

Another tech nology is sue is the course up keep. To be ef fective, it is crit ical to keep thecourse con tent and site up dated. Fail ing to up date the course re sults in out dated, old (and bor ing)in for ma tion—just the op posite of what you in tended when you started the pro cess! Find ing acompetent Web designer will be in valuable to you as you go through this pro cess. Re member,you don’t have to have the “techie” skills to cre ate and up date the site, but you do have to be ableto find the help you need!

The last barrier to online suc cess lies ironically in the me dium it self. In to day’s world, thereare sev eral is sues to con sider when us ing tech nology as a teach ing tool.

Teach ing with Tech nol ogy Is sues

In an on line course, stu dents are more ex posed to

• Internet safety (pro tecting stu dents from shar ing per sonal in formation with strang ers),

• copy right vi o la tions (prop erly cit ing Internet sources), and

• class room man age ment is sues (keep ing stu dents “on task” de spite the lure of the Internet)(Kasowitz 2000, 19).

Although it may seem easy to look at on line learning as a class by it self (pun in tended!), ac -tually on line in structional ex perts say there re ally should be no difference at all. “A vir tual class-room should not be much dif ferent from a real class room—at least, not in the ways that count”(Porter 1997, 24). Whether on line or “face to face,” an ef fective classroom, Por ter says, does thefollowing:

• It pro vides the tools that learn ers need when they need them. If it’s not pos sible to have allthe tools in the classroom, an ef fective ed ucator/trainer ex plains where the tools can eas -ily be located.

• It cre ates an ex pectation for and an en vironment con ducive to learning.

• It brings to gether ed ucators/trainers and learn ers to share in formation and ex changeideas.

• It al lows learn ers the free dom to ex periment, test their knowledge, practice com pletingtasks, and ap ply what they’ve dis cussed or read about.

• It pro vides mech a nisms for eval u at ing per for mance.

• It pro vides a safe ha ven in which learning can take place (Por ter 2002, 24).


Un der stand and Over come the Bar ri ers

I be lieve that hu man fac tors pro vide the most dif ficult bar riers to suc cess-ful on line in struction. Many would like to fo cus on the tech nology. Re member,although tech nology glitches can oc cur, tech nology is only the tool that is be ingused! Stu dents must be proactive to com plete work and take ad vantage of theconvenience of on line in struction. On the other hand, teach ers should makesure les sons are well or ganized and that in structions are clear. Con fusion canresult from a lack of ef fort in ei ther area!

As you can see, there is vir tually no dif ference be tween the ex pectations for an on linecourse and those for a face-to-face course. It is sim ply up to the instructor to de velop the coursecontent that sets high ex pectations for learn ers and makes tools for learning eas ily and readilyavailable.

Another teaching with tech nology is sue that was a huge bar rier for our school was the factthat stu dents were not per mitted to use e-mail at school! Be cause e-mail is the quickest and eas i-est way to com municate with on line stu dents, this was a huge prob lem for us! Luck ily, ANGEL(our course de velopment soft ware) in cluded a built-in e-mail sys tem, so it all worked out. If your school does not al low e-mail, there are safe and mon itored e-mail sys tems, like ePals(www.epals.com), that are affordable and safe.

To make sure you un derstand the bar riers be fore “div ing in” to on line learning, ask your selfthe fol low ing ques tions.

Sur vival Tips

• Do I have the tech nical sup port nec essary to con duct an on line course?

• Have I sched uled nec essary blocks of time for course cre ation and planning?

• Have I thought of ways to avoid copy right vi olations and pla giarism is sues?

• Have I con sidered Internet safety for stu dents and pro vided am ple se curity?

• Do I have a col league to assist me in this en deavor?

• Does my school al low stu dents to use e-mail for ed ucational pur poses? If not, have Ithought of an al ternative plan?

Survival Source 2

http://mnscsc.org/Soc ra tes/elearning/down loads/probs_opps_ollchecklst.pdf

This site pro vides a sur vey list ing the ad vantages of and chal lenges to on line learning.It would be a handy sur vey to as sess the teach ers in your build ing to de termine their readi -ness level re garding uti lizing on line courses with stu dents.

Chap ter 2: Un der stand the Bar ri ers 13

Barriers Solutions

Student Motivation and

Progress—Successful online learning requiresmore independent learning and higher levels ofself-motivation than a typical classroom. Thereis no teacher telling you what to do each day!

This number 1 barrier is best addressed with theright balance of reward and external motivation.Most students want the credit for completingthe work. Set appropriate deadlines and targetswith a balance of rewards and consequences inplace.

Access (Internet and Computer)—This is anabsolute. If you do not own a computer, youmust access a computer in a library or a friend’shouse. You must also pay for Internet accessunless you use a computer at school or thepublic library.

This, of course, is an absolute. The technologydoes not need to be new or fancy, justdependable. . . . Wayne Township recentlystarted a program called BTG (Bridging theGap) to place “replaced” district computers inhomes of students who do not have computers.

Application Knowledge—Students must havebasic knowledge of how to use a computer anduse word processing software. Someassignments require moderate to advancedknowledge.

Basic knowledge is beneficial but not required.Students who are not comfortable withtechnology will have an uphill climb. Thisbarrier is best addressed by providing links toonline tutorials. I also suggest starting withsmall projects that build on early success. Forexample, start with a one-slide PowerPoint™project before requiring multiple slides.

Setup (Logins, Access)—What is the Website? How do students log in and access thematerial?

Clear and concise directions/orientation.Student logins should be easy to remember (i.e.,match their school computer login). Createlogin cards with printed/posted directions onhow to get started.

Instructional Design/Navigation—This iswhere the rubber meets the road! Whatstandards should be covered? In what order?

Many students comment about whether acourse was organized well. Their success seems to be tied to the ease with which they cannavigate and understand the layout of thecourse content. Much time should be spent notonly establishing an organized and easy tofollow layout but also listening to studentquestions and complaints to continuallyimprove the online material.

Fast-Paced Changes—Software, viruses,online access, and tools. The content createdtoday will or should look different within ayear!

Wow! Keeping up with the Joneses! Thissimply requires time and money to stay updatedwith all the new software and updated Websites with new and improved technologies.Online courses and lessons should lookdifferent each year and really be overhauledevery few years.


Survival Tool 2. Teach ing On line: Problems and So lutions T-Chart



Barriers Solutions

Formatting Web Pages—Web page creationin its basic form is completed by typing straightHTML code into a text document.Macromedia’s Dreamweaver™ takes Web page design to new heights. Java and Flash also addto the interactivity of Web-based content.

Select a format with which you are comfortableand stay with it until a change becomenecessary. Beginners should stick with basicword processing applications that convert toHTML. Some Online Course ManagementSystems have HTML editors embedded withinthem (also a good choice). More advancedusers can choose specific Web page editingapplications like Dreamweaver or MSFrontPage™.

Updating Links—Links that do not work arecalled “broken” links. Avoid this at all costssince it makes your site look “broken!”Addresses to various Web sites change on aregular basis. Some Web sites are taken downafter a certain amount of time.

Use one resource page, not scattered ones. Web page links change often. A list of twenty linksmay have five bad links after one year. Checkand update these links on a regular basis. I keep an active Bookmark/Favorite List as I findlinks. I keep them organized by categoriesbased on the courses I teach as well as for myroles at work.

Authenticity—If Johnny or Suzy is getting agrade, how do you know he or she is the onethat completed the work? (Not that you don’ttrust those wonderful students that you teacheach day!)

Another big one. Best addressed by requiringstudent presence at an exit assessment. Nocredit should be awarded unless the studentshows proficiency.

How many more barriers should we list? The num ber one bar rier for on line students seems to bethe possible lack of initiation and motivation to complete their work. An on line course or set oflessons can be provided to any group of students in a school setting with the appropriatetechnology. But much like any typ ical classroom, five students will take off and complete the workwith gusto, five will not get much done—no matter what you try—and the rest will plod along toget the work done be cause they have to. The most successful results oc cur when students areprovided a time and place to work. Some students will have to be guided and prodded.

Survival Tool 2. Teach ing On line: Problems and So lutions T-Chart

Chap ter 2: Un der stand the Bar ri ers 15

Chap ter 3

READ, RESEARCH, AND RESOURCES

Sur vival Strat egy

The course is great! It helps me to re member li brary pro cedures and pro to-

col. I en joy do ing this be cause it is pre paring me for col lege. Re search on the

Internet has made stu dents un familiar with the library set ting. It helps to get

back to the roots of re search.—Joshua Coe, BDHS Se nior (Yip pee! pb)

This is the time when you will re ally be gin to pre pare your self by re searching and read ingarticles about Web-based train ing and on line learning. This is a key time to be gin gath eringbooks on teach ing with tech nology and surf ing the Internet for re lated sites. Some of the best re -sources, which I found in my own by “surf ing” and search ing, are listed at the end of thischapter.

As you con sider the available op tions, don’t for get about the valu able re sources in yourown build ing—staff mem bers who may have cre ated, or who may be in the pro cess of cre ating,their own on line courses. Ask around—you might be able to learn from their mistakes andexpertise!

Another great re source can be found by ei ther phys ically vis iting or vir tually vis iting anearby col lege. Col leges have been us ing and tak ing ad vantage of dis tance learning op portuni-ties for a num ber of years now. E-mail ing a pro fessor or de partment chair could prove ad vanta-geous as you’re dig ging around for re sources. In some cases, you can even vir tually “visit”online classrooms by go ing in as a guest (this is dis cussed in greater de tail in the next chapter).By ob serving how the course is set up, wit nessing how the in structor gets stu dents in volved, anddiscovering what types of ac tivities are in cluded in the course, you’ll have a better idea of howyou want to structure your own course.

17

Sur vival Tips

1. Black board’s Sup port Site. This site (http://www.blackboard.com) is an ex cellentstarting point for your re search. Help ful tip sheets and on line sup port are available atthe touch of a button. On line tu torials are also available to help you “get the feel” foronline courses (http://www.blackboard.com/viewlets/). Black board’s “10 Easy Stepsto Put Your Course On line” is also an ex cellent div ing-in spot (http://www.creighton.edu/Black board/10steps.html).

2. Using the Big6 to Teach and Learn with the Internet. This re source by Abby S.Kasowitz (Linworth, 2000) is in valuable. If time is short (and whose isn’t!), fo cus onChapter 4, “Designing and Pro viding Con tent on the Internet for K–12 Stu dents.”

3. Creating the Vir tual Classroom: Dis tance Learning with the Internet. This help fulbook, by Lynnette R. Porter (John Wiley & Sons, 1997), in cludes in formation on allaspects of on line courses, such as su pervising stu dents, de veloping courses, and pro -moting your site.

4. How to De velop an On line Course. Al though this site (http://stylusinc.com/online_course/tutorial/process.htm), which in cludes a step-by-step guide to de veloping anonline course, can be a bit over whelming be cause of its technical na ture, I still foundsome good tid bits of in formation, es pecially in the In structional Design section.

5. Creating On line Courses: A Step-by-Step Guide. Klemm’s site (http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=861) was one of the best I found in terms ofuser-friendliness and practical tips. If time is lim ited, just read ing the conclusion’s tenlessons is ex tremely worthwhile.

6. The Online Ed ucator: A Guide to Cre ating the Vir tual Classroom. MargueritaMcVay Lynch’s book (Falmer Press, 2002) pro vides straight forward, nov ice-friendlyadvice on how to de velop an on line course. Al though quite costly ($124.95), this valu -able re source is a must-have to get started.

Although many other Web sites, books, and ar ticles are sur facing ev ery day, these sourcesare enough to get you started in the right di rection.

In the sources listed above you will most likely dis cover some dif fering view points re gard-ing on line in struc tion. Just as teach ers don’t al ways agree about how best to teach in the “reg u -lar” class room, there are many dif fering opin ions when it co mes to teaching on line. In my ownresearch, I dis covered five com mon mis conceptions that occurred over and over in the read ings.Following are five pop ular myths about online education.

Myth 1: On line Learn ing Is Easy to Eval uate

Online schools have been in ex istence for many years now. Al though it is dif ficult to com-pare on line learning di rectly to a reg ular school set ting, the comparison usu ally shows min imaldifference in the out comes. Of course, the con venience of on line learning is well doc umentedand can pro vide suc cess to those who may have been un able to attend regular school.

Evaluation of on line con tent and courses also pres ents some cu rious bar riers. Mainly, howcan you ob serve teach ing and learn ing tak ing place? One so lution for the In diana On line Acad -


emy, an In diana-based on line high school pro gram, is to gather stu dent in put. Stu dents com pletean on line sur vey ques tionnaire anon ymously. Ul timately, the com ments viewed by teachers andadministrators im prove the con tent and instruction. This pro cess is sim ilar to what al readyoccurs on college campuses on a regular basis.

Read, Re search, and Re sources

Where is the best in formation on on line in struction? On line, of course!(You’re prob a bly think ing, “Duh!” right now, and won dering, if I’m such anonline fan, why I’m even writ ing a book, but bear with me!) I whole heartedlybelieve that books have their place and that all in formation can not sim ply be -come “dig i tal.” That is why we will also have an on line com ponent to this book. Printed books can be up dated and re published, but that takes time and may onlyhappen af ter a few years. Like print, on line re sources can also be come stag nantand dated, but the time needed to up date them is sig nificantly less—some of the more sim pler up dates can take place in min utes! Online tu torials may also haveto be pro vided for those stu dents who need in structions on the use ofPowerPoint™, for ex ample. Make sure to use the links that I’ve listed in ap pen-dix 3 to get very use ful in formation on on line in struction, on line!

Myth 2: On line Ed ucation Saves Teachers Time

“Learning to work with on line technology is time-con suming, dif ficult, and ul timately in-con ve nient. Some teach ers clearly view pre par ing tech no log i cally sup ported les sons as a muchgreater de mand on their time and en ergy than pre paring a class room ac tivity with out tech nol-ogy” (DiPetta et al. 2002, 25).

Certainly time will be saved in the future—once the course is up and run ning. The grad ingtime alone, for ex ample, will be considerably short ened if au tomated grad ing sys tems are used.But, as stated be fore, the start-up time is considerable.

Myth 3: On line Teach ing Equals Better Learn ing

In for ma tion and com mu ni ca tion tech nol ogy can, and of ten does, pro vide a greater num berof stu dents with ac cess to in formation that they may have been un able to access, but this is not tosay that stu dents are grasp ing and un derstanding the con cepts in volved. That’s why it’s crit i calto put qual ity evaluative tools in place through out the unit. What—and how much—stu dentslearn is ul timately up to you. That’s why an en tire chap ter here is de voted to course de sign andanother to planning quality instruction.

Myth 4: On line Teach ing Is Eas ier Than Traditional Teach ing

Wrong! Just be cause you don’t see your stu dents face-to-face ev ery day doesn’t mean thisinstructional method is any eas ier than traditional teaching strat egies. In fact, on line teachingcan be harder be cause build ing rap port and re lationships on line takes con siderably more ef fort.Some on line teachers have re ported that, although on line teaching is “ten times harder” thanclassroom teach ing, they wouldn’t have it any other way.

Chapter 3: Read, Research, and Resources 19

Myth 5: On line Teach ing Is Best for Advanced Students

Wrong again! One of the best things about de signing on line courses is the ability to dif fer-entiate and plan les sons and ac tivities for learn ers of all ability lev els. In my on line course, forexample, the ad vanced stu dents com pleted all ten “Gi ant Steps,” while a ba sic Eng lish coursecompleted seven of the ten steps. As in tra ditional in struction, sometimes mod ifications andadaptations are needed.

At a re cent technology con ference, sur vey re sults showed that on line stu dent suc cess de -pends both on read ing level and grade point av erage (GPA). In fact, stu dents who read on gradelevel (or above) and have at least a 2.5 GPA (C av erage) tend to be suc cessful. Stu dents do nothave to be on the honor roll or have technical su premacy to suc ceed in an online environment.

Survival Source 3

http://www.pitt.edu~poole/onlinelearning.htmldesigningOLactivities

The re search and re sources on this site are endless. Cau tion: Don’t jump in if you are in a hurry!

Three to “Sea”: Ad ditional Resources to Keep You Afloat

Elbaum, Bonnie, Cynthia McIntyre, and Alese Smith. Es sen tial El e ments: Pre pare, De-

sign, and Teach Your On line Course. Mad ison, WI: Atwood Pub lishers, 2002.

Gilbert, Sara Dulaney. How to Be a Suc cessful On line Stu dent. New York: McGraw-Hill,2000.

Hofmann, Jennifer. The Syn chro nous Trainer’s Sur vival Guide: Fa cil i tat ing Suc cess ful

Live and On line Courses, Meet ings, and Events. New York: Wiley, 2003.


Chapter 3: Read, Research, and Resources 21

As you be gin to read about Pam’s ex ploits re garding the use of “courseware” to cre -ate an on line unit per taining to li brary skills, you may have a few ques tions. In fact, youmay have the same ques tions as many oth ers. The an swers to these fre quently asked ques -tions can be found be low.

Q. How in the world do you get started?

A. It’s sim ple! Just ac cess on line courseware like Black board or ANGEL (ac tu-ally, you re ally could just post Web pages on the Internet). Of course you,should also know the con tent that you plan to teach!

Q. What is courseware?

A. ANGEL, Black board, and other tools are spe cifically de signed for teach ers ofany con tent to con trol an on line en vironment or “course.” These on line en vironmentsprovide many tools for on line learning (chat rooms, lesson pages, on line calendarevents, e-mail, and much more). The most amazing com ponent is the ability to trackor re cord stu dent and teacher in put and ac tivity. In other words, a teacher knowswhen, what, and even how long a stu dent has been work ing on the on line course.

Q. How do you post con tent on line?

A. You first need an Internet con nection. In most cases, the courseware will have alocation for you to click a but ton to cre ate a page. The best tools al low you tosimply copy and paste content from a Word doc ument on your com puter (ontothe open space pro vided by the courseware). You may also choose sim ply totype your con tent into the forms pro vided.

Q. Do stu dents need to log in?

A. It de pends on how the pages are loaded. If your Web pages are up loaded to a se -cure site within courseware, the an swer is yes. If the pages are sim ply loaded onthe Internet for all to view, then the an swer is no.

Q. Why should you use courseware?

A. Quite sim ply, courseware should be used for data and con trol. Courseware al -lows an on line teacher to con trol what con tent can be ac cessed and even when.Most tools also al low pass words to be as signed for tests.

Q. Where do you find re sources?

A. Pam and I pre fer to use Google and Ya hoo. It is im portant to en ter se lectedwords to find the right con tent. For K–12 con tent, make sure to list K12 in thesearch box! I find that many re sources lead to other re sources, so I start with aninitial search and browse away, bookmarking as I go . . . .

Q. How does online in struction meet the needs of ALL stu dents?

A. On line con tent is ex cep tion ally use ful for teach ing al ter na tive stu dents.Courseware al lows teach ers to mod ify and store con tent in a variety of ways.There re ally is no limit!

Survival Tool 3. Just the FAQs!

Frequently Asked Questions—and An swers



Chap ter 4

VIEW OTHER COURSES TO DETERMINE

FORMAT

Sur vival Strat egy

In other on line courses I’ve taken, I found it hard to nav igate. This course

was very user-friendly!—Jeremy Barker, BDHS Se nior (Easy nav i gat ing

is your roadmap to suc cess! pb)

In my case, de ciding on a for mat was easy. Our school cor poration had al ready pur chasedthe ANGEL on line course soft ware. If on line courses are new (or, in some cases, non existent),your school may not have a sys tem in place. If that’s the case, it’s time to dive in and be come fa -miliar with what’s out there.

To get ac quainted with what’s avail able, take a vir tual field trip! Take a look around at otherWeb courses to get some gen eral ideas at this preliminary stage. Some Web courses have re -stricted ac cess (although most will al low you “in” if you re quest per mission and ad vise them ofyour pur pose); oth ers have open ac cess, al lowing any one en trance. As you’re look ing around,don’t for get to peek around in your own build ing—or district—to see what might be go ing onright next door.

With the increasing pop ularity of on line courses, soft ware pro grams known as coursewareare pop ping up. Courseware sys tems pro vide an Internet-based pro gram to man age all aspects of online ed ucation, namely teach ing and learn ing. Some tasks that courseware rou tinely per formsare eval u at ing and grad ing, de vel op ing course ros ters, and track ing course in for ma tion.Courseware uti lizes tools to fa cil i tate learn ing by dis trib ut ing course in for ma tion, de liv er ing in-struc tion, and fa cil i tat ing teacher–stu dent interaction.

If your school cor poration has al ready adopted courseware, it’s best to use what’s al ready in place. Stu dents be come fa miliar with a certain for mat, and the tran sition from course to coursebecomes eas ier. If you find, on the other hand, that the courseware sim ply will not work for you(or can’t do what you want it to do), you have no other op tion than to go with one that will workfor you—and your students.

As you’re div ing in to on line courseware, here are some of the best starting points!

23

Sur vival Tips

1. Black board

One of the most pop ular courseware tools, Blackboard, can be found atwww.blackboard.com. The site hosts a va riety of tools and of fers a wealth of sup portfor us ers. This site is prob ably the “Ca dil lac” of on line course sites.

Au thor’s Note: Because of its wealth of re sources, Black board’s site can betricky to nav igate. Hang in there and be pa tient—the trip is worth it!

Cost: Free 60-day trial

$295 per year

2. Quia

Another pop ular choice, Quia, is lo cated at www.quia.com. Al though it doesn’thave all the bells and whis tles that Black board has, this pro gram is still a good bet andex tremely af ford able.

Cost: $49 per year (per in structor)

3. ANGEL

ANGEL (de veloped in 1996) is ac tually the second ver sion of courseware de vel-oped for In di ana Uni ver sity-Purdue Uni ver sity In di a nap o lis (IUPUI). Our on lineschool (IOA) uses this courseware. Many reg ular class room teach ers are now us ing itto sup port in struction and as sessment in our classrooms.

Cost: Free 30-day trial

Price de termined by needs


4. Other

If you can’t find or af ford a courseware pro gram to meet your spe cific needs, it’spossible to cre ate your own Web page us ing a pro gram like FrontPage™(www.Microsoft.com), Dreamweaver™ (www.macromedia.com), or Composer™(www.netscape.com). If you’re new to Web design, there are tem plates avail able toassist you. Tem plates sim ply al low you to fill in the blanks with your own con tent.“Quick and Dirty Web Pages” (http://www.elmhurst.edu/library/workshoppages/quickdirty00.html) is a lifesaver for be ginners (like me!).

Microsoft Of fice™ also has tools that au tomatically con vert Word doc uments,spreadsheets and even PowerPoint™ into Web pages. Just make sure you have a lo ca-tion to post your pages on line (your technology de partment can help with this). Mostschools have this abil ity, but there are also com mercial en tities that charge a fee to“host” your page. An other free op tion is to partner with a lo cal col lege.

If you’re like me, and Web de signing is way over your head, con sider ask ingaround. Web de sign stu dents or com puter-savvy kids can be a great sur vival strat egy!

Cost: FREE! (with soft ware and tech-savvy stu dent help ers).Still can’t make a decision on what courseware to use? You may want to go to the

Edutools Web site (http://www.edutools.info) to ex plore other op tions. This site wascre ated by WCET (West ern Co op er a tive for Ed u ca tional Tele com mu ni ca tions) spe-cifically for those looking to ac quire courseware. It is over loaded with ref erence ma te-ri als, and the com par i son chart is truly a sur vival tool!

No mat ter which for mat you ul timately choose, Sur vival Tool 4 is a handy check list to use inyour vir tual vis its.

View Other Courses to De termine For mat (Vir tual Vis its)

IOA teach ers meet an nually to discuss and share ex periences. One pro duc-tive ex ercise has been to pair up and view the courses of a peer. Teach ers learn a great deal from each other dur ing this short dis cussion. We also con nect newon line teach ers with ex pe ri enced on line teach ers. On line in struc tion is uniqueand re quires teach ers to view their approach dif ferently than they would whenteaching in a walled classroom!

Chapter 4: View Other Courses to De termine Format 25

Survival Source 4

http://www.nwrel.org/mentoring/elearning.html

The Na tional Mentoring Cen ter is in the pro cess of study ing on line learning for matsand is ded icated to helping to im prove the qual ity of on line courses. Check out this site of -ten for the latest re search and find ings.


When you check out a course site, note these items:

1. Hard ware

__ Spe cial equip ment is re quired to ac cess the site.

__ Learn ers can en ter the site us ing dif ferent types of com puters, with dif ferent op erating sys tems.

__ A dial-up con nection is fast enough to work well with the site.

__ A di rect or ded icated line is re quired to work well with the site.

__ A wire less con nection is sta ble enough to work well with the site.

__ The com puter re quires ad ditional de vices, such as sound or graphics cards, a CD player, or more mem ory, to ac cess all ma terials.

__ The computer does not re quire any spe cial de vices to ac cess and play all materials.

__ An older PC can be used by learn ers to com plete this course.

__ A brand-new PC can be used by learn ers to com plete this course.

Ad ditional comments about hard ware:

2. Soft ware

__ Spe cific brows ers are rec ommended or re quired.

__ Spe cific ver sions of one or more brows ers are rec ommended or re quired.

__ Any browser can be used to ac cess course in formation.

__ Re quired soft ware is pro vided to learners on line, on a floppy disk, or on a CD.

__ Learn ers must pro vide their own soft ware.

__ Common ver sions of pop ular soft ware are re quired for com pleting assignments or using ma terials.

Ad di tional com ments about soft ware:


Survival Tool 4. Notesheet for Evaluating Online Courses



3. Net works and pol i cies re gard ing their op er a tion

__ Course or in stitutional networks seem se cure.

__ Course or in stitutional networks are easy to ac cess and work well.

__ Course sites in clude pri vacy and se curity state ments.

__ The in sti tu tion’s pri vacy and se cu rity pol i cies are doc u mented on line.

Ad di tional com ments about net works and pol i cies:

4. Ed u ca tional tools

__ Tools are easy to use, be cause they are intuitive or allow trans fer of skills from learners using sim ilar Web sites.

__ New tools are ex plained and demonstrated at the site.

__ Sev eral tools are avail able for use with asyn chronous learn ing or com munication.

__ Sev eral tools are avail able for use with syn chronous learn ing or com munication.

__ All tools work.

Ad di tional com ments about ed u ca tional tools:

5. Types of ma terials and me dia

__ Dif ferent learn ing styles or pref erences are in corporated into the course de sign.

__ Mul timedia are used fre quently.

__ Course ma terials are text or print based.

__ Stream ing in formation (au dio and/or video) is avail able.

__ Au dio, video, graphic, and text files are avail able.

__ Ma terials can be down loaded quickly.

__If text files are printed, the av erage print out is a man ageable size.

__ The amount of linked ma terial seems ap propriate fro the length of the course and the subject mat ter.



__ The qual ity of the materials is high.

__ (It seems that) most ma terials have been cre ated by the teacher or the course de signer.

__ (It seems that) most ma terials have been taken from other sources.

__ Sources of in formation are doc umented or attributed prop erly.

__ The sources seem current and ac curate and rep resent a va riety of view points.

__ The in formation seems timely.

__ The ma terials can be re used.

__ The ma terials can be used only in this course or only one time.

__ The on line ma terials stand alone, without the need for a textbook, CD, or other sup plementary ma terials.

__ Sup plementary in formation is found in a textbook, CD, or other for mat.

Additional comments about types of ma terials and me dia:

6. Number and types of as signments

__ As signments are listed in a course syl labus or sched ule.

__ Point val ues, due dates, and de scriptions are listed for each as signment.

__ The num ber of as signments seems rea sonable for the length and depth of the course.

__ The num ber and type of as signments per week or learning mod ule seems prac tical and rea sonable.

__ The types of as signments re flect dif ferent learn ing styles or pref erences.

__ As signments are ap propriate for study ing the sub ject matter.

__ As sign ments are ap pro pri ate for this ed u ca tional level (e.g., an un der grad u ate university class, a post graduate class, a noncredit pro fessional de velopment class).

__ Real-time and asyn chronous as signments are re quired.

__ In structions are pro vided so that learners know in what for mat the assignments should be com pleted.

__ Instructions are pro vided so that the learn ers know how to use pla giarism checking soft ware or tools.



__ From the course site, learners know when they will re ceive feed back about the as signments and what type of re sponses they will re ceive (e.g., an e-mail mes sage, a posted grade).

__ Pol i cies about ac a demic hon esty, grade scales, and ex pec ta tions for per formance are listed on the course site.

Additional comments about number and types of as signments:

7. Amount of re quired interaction with the material

__ Learn ers are re quired to com plete jour nals, work books, es says, re search pa pers, or ques tionnaires.

__ Learn ers are re quired to par ticipate in chat ses sions, con ference calls, or videoconferences.

__ Learn ers are re quired to send a cer tain num ber of e-mail mes sages or post so many com ments on a bul letin board.

__ Learn ers are re quired to par ticipate in lab ses sions.

__ Learn ers dem onstrate their mas tery of the subject mat ter or a skill in several ways throughout the course. (These ways, not pre viously listed on the notesheet, include

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________.)

Ad di tional com ments about re quired in ter ac tion with the ma te rial:

8. Amount of re quired or encouraged in teraction with oth ers in the class

__ Learners are re quired or en couraged to par ticipate in group activities or projects.

__ Learn ers are re quired or en couraged to work alone on some or all as signments.

__ Out side as sistance from mentors, col leagues, teachers, or other stu dents is al lowed or en couraged.

__ Learn ers are re quired to in terview peo ple out side the class.



__ In terpersonal con tact is sug gested or re quired be tween a learner and oth ers in side and out side the class.

__ A spec ified amount of communication is re quired be tween the teacher and learn ers, and between the learner and oth ers in the class.

__ The teacher’s re sponse time is rea sonable and con sistent.

__ Com mu ni ca tion seems to be pri mar ily asyn chron ous.

__ Com mu ni ca tion seems to be pri mar ily syn chro nous.

__ More than one com munication method is used in the course. (Com munication meth ods in clude _________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________.)

Ad di tional com ments about re quired in ter ac tion with oth ers:

9. Eval u a tions

__ Learn ers eval uate the course and teach ing ef fectiveness at the end of the class.

__ Eval u a tions are con fi den tial (ac cord ing to pri vacy or se cu rity pol i cies).

__ Eval u a tions are com pleted and sub mit ted on line.

__ Eval uations are com pleted and sub mitted other than on line.

__ Eval uations require learners to select from multiple choice or other listed se lections.

__ Eval u a tions al low learn ers to sub mit writ ten com ments.

__ Teach ers see the eval uations. (You may not be able to learn this from the Web site, un less it is doc umented in a pri vacy or se curity state ment.)

__ Others (e.g., ad ministrators) see the evaluations. (You may not be able to learn this from the Web site, un less it is doc umented in a pri vacy or se curity state ment.)

__ Eval uations are used to improve the course or cur riculum. (You may not be able to learn this from the Web site, un less it is doc umented in a pri vacy or se curity statement.)

Ad di tional com ments about eval u a tions:



10. Length of course and number of learn ers

__ The length of the course seems ap propriate for the amount and depth of in formation cov ered.

__ The class size seems ap propriate for ef fective com munication among learn ers and the teacher.

__ The class size seems man ageable for the teacher, who has to read as signments, grade pro jects, etc.

__ The class size seems man ageable for learn ers, who need to de velop one or more learning com munities as they study the subject mat ter.

__ The length of the course seems ap propriate for the amount of credit given for the work.

__ The time frame seems ap propriate for an on line course.

Additional comments about length of course and num ber of learn ers:


Copyright 2004, Idea Group Inc. Copy ing or dis tributing in print or elec tronic forms with out writ ten per mission ofIdea Group Inc. is pro hibited.


Chap ter 5

INSTRUCTION—PLANACTIVITIES, DEVELOPLESSONS, DECIDE ON

COURSE CONTENT

Sur vival Strat egy

I think that an on line course is a good way to get ac quainted with the me dia

center, but there are still a few prob lems that I had. For ex ample, when

planning the unit, the di rections should have been a little more de tailed

and clear.—Kristin Lucero, BDHS Soph omore (Pi lot ing the pro gram

will help you get the right balance between not being spe cific enough in

your in structions and directions be ing too specific! pb)

Planning for on line in struction is no dif ferent than planning for tra ditional classroom in -struction. You want stu dents to be ac tively en gaged in their learn ing. To meet this goal, youshould plan high-quality, in teractive les sons that re quire stu dents to par ticipate and make con -nections with what they’re learn ing. Be fore I re vised my unit, one of the most fre quently usedwords in the eval u a tion was (un for tu nately!) “bor ing.” While I didn’t think the les sons were bor -ing, stu dents wanted a lot less “talk” and a lot more “ac tion!” One of the best sources I found tofill this missing link was E-Learn ing Games by Kathleen M. Iverson (Pearson, 2005).

Sur vival Tips

Iverson be lieves that, for on line ed ucation to be suc cessful, learn ing must be

• engaging and ac tive (get stu dents ac tively involved),

• pos i tive and sup port ive (a car ing, pos i tive at mo sphere),

• col lab o ra tive (co op er a tive and group learn ing), and

• contextual (rel evant with real-life ap plications) (adapted from Iverson 2005, 1).

33

Further, when plan ning in struction, there are other things to consider:

1. Meaningful con tent (al lows for a higher level of thinking).

2. Being the matic (making con nections helps learn ers re tain what they’ve learned).

3. Being ex citing (use au dio, mu sic, move ment, and graphics).

Taking the time to plan quality, in teractive les sons is crit ical to a suc cessful on line course. For starters, plan an ac tivity that helps stu dents get to know each other—and you! One pos sibility ishaving stu dents make an ID badge for themselves that they post on line for oth ers to view. The IDbadge would con tain the student’s pic ture, e-mail ad dress, and hob bies (add ing the hob bies fea tureal lows op por tu ni ties for stu dent con nec tions). An other open ing ac tiv ity is to get stu dents used toonline dis cussion boards by play ing “Did I Lie?” To par ticipate, stu dents make up a crazy state -ment about themselves. Other stu dents have to de cide whether or not the state ment is true.

Now that the stu dents have got ten to know each other, it’s time to plan your con tent-relatedles sons. You’ve de cided on the what—now it’s time for the how. How are you go ing to get stu -dents to learn (or master) the con tent? Whatever you do, don’t make the same mis take I madeand give too much dis cussion in the form of text. Text without graphics, move ment, and activityis just like a teacher lecturing with out stop ping. And, what’s worse, stu dents don’t even have theinstructor to zone out on! It’s a lot like the Char lie Brown teacher. You hear the words (or see thewords in this case), but don’t un derstand a thing. This can be true for on line les sons—if you’renot care ful. For Gi ant Step 3, for ex ample, I asked stu dents to find three on line da tabase ar ticles.To my dis may, stu dents found this ac tivity to be ex tremely bor ing. When I turned the ac tivityinto an on line scav enger hunt to be completed with a part ner, how ever, things sud denlychanged! The stu dents were learn ing the same content, but learning it in a team competition wasmuch “funner.”

In struc tion—Plan Ac tiv i ties, De velop Les sons,

Decide on Course Con tent

The im portance of this topic re lated to on line in struction can not be over -emphasized. Ef fective on line courses and lessons must take ad vantage of theinteractivity pro vided by available technology. Les son for mat can be as sim pleas the HTML links, the varied nav igation pos sibilities of PowerPoint™, or ad -vanced fea tures on on line courseware. Whatever type of on line tool is used, les -sons should not be lim ited to post ing sim ple les sons or an on line syl labus thatinstructs stu dents to “Read the chapter and an swer the ques tions!”

Become an ex pert in the on line tool that you use. Im merse your self in theprogram by us ing all of the avail able com ponents. Don’t be shy, ask ques tions!Call the Help Desk! Al though it takes time now, investments made will pay offin fu ture stu dent suc cess. Your course will be come sought af ter and rec om-mended. I use two very dif ferent courseware prod ucts and try to take ad vantageof what both of fer. I find that although they are different, they also have manysimilarities. As I tell others when they seem im pressed that I know so manythings about cer tain tech nol o gies, “I too ex perienced a time when I knew lit tleabout this pro gram.” How did I learn about it? I dug in, started us ing it, andasked a lot of ques tions!


Including fun and ex citement in your course or orientation is not to say that ev ery les sonmust be a fun-filled learn ing ad venture. Rather, the point I’m try ing to make is that a variety ofin struc tional strat e gies should be used—both asyn chron ous and syn chro nous les sons, co op er a -tive and in dividual ac tivities, and short-term and long-term pro jects. You may also wish tochoose a “hy brid” op tion that has proven to be very suc cessful. The hy brid op tion in cludes a mixof on line in struction and reg ular face-to-face meetings. The reg ular meetings are a help fulcheckup at which the teacher can an swer questions and clar ify spe cific de tails and re quirements.

An other rea son it’s im por tant to in clude in ter ac tive as sign ments while you’re plan ningyour on line unit is to avoid the iso lation that can some times oc cur with Web-based in struction.By plan ning in teractive as signments, you force stu dents to com municate with each other on aregular ba sis. Sur vival Tool 5 is a les son plan form to jot down ideas and ac tivities.

No mat ter what learn ing ac tiv i ties you’ve planned, it’s im portant to pro vide a course syl la-bus or out line for stu dents to fol low. When plan ning your course, it is important that your course“RISE” to the occasion:

R = RELEVANCE

Show how in struction re lates to the learner.

Be an in structor who mod els life long learn ing.

Build a strong re lationship be tween course ob jectives and out comes.

Teach in a prob lem-based manner that ap plies knowl edge to real-world ap plications.

I = INTEREST

Vary con tent or ga ni za tion and pre sen ta tion to avoid bore dom.

Use ac tive voice and ac tion words.

Provide op portunities for stu dents to in teract with each other and you, the in structor.

Use de bate to get stu dents ac tively involved.

Uti lize dif fer ent learn ing styles.

En cour age healthy com pe ti tion be tween stu dents.

S = SATISFACTION

Provide op portunities for stu dents to use new skills.

Provide con tinual and timely feed back and re inforcement to learners.

Pro vide am ple pos i tive feed back.

Share ex emplary work with stu dents.

E = EXPECTANCY

Make the course easy to nav igate.

Organize the text for easy read ability.

Follow good graphic and de sign prin ciples (keep it simple, easy to nav igate,user-friendly with color and lots of white space).

Be ex plicit and up front re gard ing ex pec ta tions of stu dent par tic i pa tion and as sign -ment qual ity (adapted from Lynch 2001, 21).

Chap ter 5: In struc tion—Plan Ac tiv i ties, De velop Les sons, De cide on Course Con tent 35

Survival Source 5

http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/les sons.cgi/Lan guage_Arts

The Ed u ca tor’s Re source Guide in cludes a wealth of les son plans and ac tivities toview for course con tent ideas.


LESSON PLANNING DESIGN

Teacher: __________________________________

Class/Pe riod: _______________________________

Unit: ______________________________________

Date(s): ____________________________________

MATERIALS:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

An tic i pa tory Set—

Ob jec tives and Pur pose Stan dards-based—

Best-Shot In struc tion—

Guided Practice—

In de pend ent Prac tice—

Clo sure—

As sess ment—

Cor rec tives/En rich ment—

Survival Tool 5. Lesson Planning Sheet

Chap ter 5: In struc tion—Plan Ac tiv i ties, De velop Les sons, De cide on Course Con tent 37



Chap ter 6

VISIT CLASSROOMSAND PILOT PROGRAM

(PROMOTION)

Sur vival Strat egy

I was glad to be in the first class to try the on line ori entation. We got to get

out of class!—Jeremy Barker, BDHS Se nior (At least he’s hon est! pb)

39

You’ve re searched, you’ve planned, and you’ve planned, and you’ve planned—now it’s fi -nally time to get started (the fun part!). Chances are, you’ve got some pi lot teachers in mind—anEnglish buddy down the hall with whom you reg ularly team or maybe a newbie teacher whomyou’d like to get to know. Ei ther way, it’s now time to get some teach ers on board and test outthis thing you’ve cre ated. Here are my survival tips to get started.

Visit Classrooms and Pi lot Program (Promotion)

I be lieve Pam was right to im plement her pro gram slowly and with cau-tion. The eventual suc cess of her pro gram was the re sult of com bined early andsmall suc cesses. Teach ers were able to be come part of the “buy-in” pro cess. An online course or unit is a com plicated sys tem of in structions, in formation, andhuman in teraction. I am sure that teach ers now guid ing their stu dents throughthe in formation skills unit would breathe a sigh of re lief that they did not gothrough the early edi tions of the pro gram along with nu merous other classes.Pam pre vented chaos by mov ing with a cau tious and steady re solve, mak ingimprovements along the way un til she felt com fortable that the unit was ready(not nec es sar ily per fect) for large-scale im ple men ta tion.

Sur vival Tips

• Send an e-mail to one, two, or three teachers ask ing them to par ticipate in this pi lot pro ject.

• Don’t bite off more than you can chew—if you can only work with one teacher right now,that’s fine. It would be better to have one quality pi lot pro ject than three cha otic ones. Re -mem ber, you’re still trying to pro mote the pro gram. You want it to be an or ganized, suc -cessful unit so that you can get more teach ers on board for the next go-round!

• For the pi lot pro ject, of fer to do all the grad ing. (No, I’m not crazy!) Ob viously, youwon’t be able to of fer this ser vice dur ing full-blown implementation, but for now just usethe bait and switch strategy.

• During the pi lot pro ject, sched ule the pi lot class or classes weekly. You won’t have to domore than touch base with the stu dents (re member, it’s an in dependent pro ject), but un tilthe teachers better un derstand the pro cess, touch ing base weekly and do ing a little cheer-leading is very helpful.

• Have the teacher de cide NOW how much the unit will count. Will it count as a testgrade—or a quiz grade? I do not rec ommend just of fering the pro ject as ex tra credit be -cause you won’t get a lot of stu dent participation that way.

• Many stu dents want to know WHY you’re do ing this—be ready to be pos itive, yet direct,and most will come around.


Survivor Tool 6a is an in troductory PowerPoint™ les son for you for the pi lot kick off. Be foreshowing the PowerPoint lesson, fol low these steps:

• Give each stu dent a folder. Put login in structions, hand outs, and im portant notes in thefolder. Stu dents keep these folders through out the unit to or ganize in formation they’recollecting along the journey.

• Make sure stu dents put their names on the fold ers right away! While it sounds sim plistic,I’ve spent a lot of time try ing to get folders back into the right hands—es pe cially when alot of com pleted work is in side. It’s not as hard when you’re only work ing with one class,but when you’ve got three or four go ing, it’s tough!

• Be ready to mon itor and ad just. For ex ample, one lower-level class sim ply could not han -dle get ting three database ar ticles (ac tually, get ting one was like pulling teeth!). For thisclass, I was forced to make some im mediate mod ifications. Another class, an ad vancedcourse, sim ply found many of the lessons too easy. As a re sult, I had to make somein-flight ad justments to make the unit more in teresting and chal lenging. (Ja cob was one of these stu dents—refer back to the Survival Strategy in chapter 5.)

• Solicit feed back through out the course. Listen to what the kids (and teach ers) are say ing.

• Have a dead line from the first day. In fact, have mul tiple dead lines and tar get dates alongthe way so stu dents can measure their prog ress as they work. If stu dents don’t have adead line, they’ll pro crastinate (just like us!). Give re alistic dead lines and try to stick withthem as much as possible.

• Give your self am ple time to grade fold ers. If you wait un til too close to the end of thegrad ing pe riod, you’ll make it harder on the classroom teacher who needs the grade re -port. I would sug gest reg ular grad ing (even daily) so that it does not be come bur densome.Also, you’ll want to give ex tra time for stu dents to redo fold ers that don’t meet yourexpectations.

• Remember, a com pleted folder is the stu dent’s “ticket for the test.” No folder, no ticket(Survival Tool 6b is “just the ticket!”) .

• Because I be lieve in mastery learning, I al low students to take the test un til they pass it.You’ll have to decide whether or not you will al low stu dents to retest.

Survival Source 6

http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/aa/landt/links/POTguidelines.htm

This site in cludes some im portant points for peer ob servations—im por tant guide lineswhen vis iting other teachers’ class rooms and/or re viewing a peer’s pro gram.

Chapter 6: Visit Classrooms and Pi lot Pro gram (Promotion) 41

Survival Tool 6a. Gi ant PowerPoint Presentation




Survival Tool 6b. Ticket for the Test


Media Center Online Orientation

TEST TICKET

Your GIANT Key to the Information Age!

Name: ________________________________

Password: _____________________________


TEST TICKET


Name: ________________________________

Password: _____________________________


TEST TICKET


Name: ________________________________

Password: _____________________________


TEST TICKET


Name: ________________________________

Password: _____________________________



Chap ter 7

ADAPT UNIT TO MEETINDIVIDUAL NEEDS—

DIFFERENTIATE!

Sur vival Strat egy

I think I would do better if I worked with a part ner!—Allison Ty ler, BDHSSoph o more (Re mem ber to dif fer en ti ate and ac count for dif fer ent

learning styles! pb)

When I first de signed the “Capture the Gi ant” unit, I pretty much thought of it as a “one sizefits all” pro gram. I had de signed ten qual ity les sons and thought that the plan ning was ba sicallydone. Boy, was I wrong! Just like with my other instructional units, I found it nec essary not onlyto adapt the cur ric u lum to meet in di vid ual needs but to spe cif i cally dif fer en ti ate and mod ifypieces of the unit to meet the var ied in dividual needs of the stu dents. For ex ample, I found thatsome stu dents needed to work through the units in part ners in or der to have the in terpersonaltime to com municate and share ideas, while oth ers needed a more intrapersonal ap proach andpreferred to work in dependently through out the unit, re quiring very little in teraction with theirfellow stu dents, the in structor, or me. I dis covered that of ten the dif ferent make-ups and climatesof the class helped me to de termine the best teach ing strat egy and dif ferentiation methods to use.In some cases, re medial classes re quired me to demonstrate, model, and even pro vide a sam plefinished prod uct on the pre sentation screen while they worked on the task. How ever, en richmentstu dents re ally didn’t even need me in the room! They were able to tackle the pro ject with lit tleor no di rection, pre ferring to work at their own pace, and they pro vided me with excellent feed -back on how the unit could be re vised to be even better. Sound im possible? Not re ally. Thischap ter’s survival tool will show you how you can easily ADAPT to meet the needs of yourlearners.

51

Adapt Unit to Meet Individual Needs—Dif fer en ti ate!

Computer-based and on line in struction is a fer tile en vironment for dif fer-entiated in struction. Not only can various op tions be ex plored, but on lineassessment tools can be customized to re act to stu dent needs and even direct in -struc tion to ap pro pri ate av e nues. IOA teach ers use the feed back com po nent ofthe on line quiz tool in ANGEL to steer stu dents to ap propriate re sources, de pend-ing on stu dent re sponses. An other strength of on line courseware is the abil ity topro vide per son al ized and au to mated in struc tion—a pow er ful com bi na tion!

Although you may not see students face-to-face, it is very important to de velop a pos itiverelationship with them. Just as in the reg ular class room, there are always stu dents who are in trin-sically mo tivated and turn in qual ity work reg ularly—and on time. And, just as in the reg ularclassroom, there are those re luctant learn ers who won’t turn in work reg ularly and—when theydo turn it in (usu ally late)—the work is of poor qual ity. Get ting to know your stu dents on aone-to-one ba sis can help those stu dents who may oth erwise “fall through the cracks.” Here aresome helpful tips:

• Get to know the stu dents. Ar range a face-to-face meeting for the class kick off.

• Ask for a short au tobiographical para graph for the first as signment.

• Com mu ni cate, com mu ni cate, com mu ni cate! Call home and e-mail to in tro duce your selfand es tab lish per sonal contact.

• If a stu dent has not been participating, call immediately! He or she may be strug gling with the class—or it could be a sim ple com puter glitch. Find out be fore the stu dent gets too be -hind—and frustrated.

• Ask stu dents to post their pho tographs and a few hob bies on line.

• Be ac tively involved and a cheerleader for your stu dents—and your course!

• Es tab lish reg u lar “of fice hours” for stu dents who have ques tions or would rather meetwith you face-to-face in stead of via e-mail con ferences.

• Share rel e vant per sonal in for ma tion with your stu dents—let them get to know you!

• If you know a stu dent is at-risk, make sure he or she has the tools to be suc cessful. At-riskstudents can have ad ditional learning hur dles to over come (no home computer, low mo ti-va tion, low frus tra tion thresh old, poor writ ten and ver bal com mu ni ca tion skills, poorstudy hab its . . . ). Any prep aration you can do be forehand to help an at-risk stu dent besuccessful is critical.

Sur vival Tips: Ten Dif fer en ti a tion Strat e gies

1. Know your stu dents! Sur vival Tools 7a, 7b, and 7c are dif ferentiation tools to help you iden tify needs of in di vid ual groups.

2. Find avail able re sources to mod ify in struction.


3. Build a “toolkit” con tain ing a va ri ety of les sons at dif fer ent lev els so that dif fer en ti a-tion re quires very little time.

4. Use avail able tech nol ogy to as sist with dif fer en ti a tion needs.

5. Model in struction, (At BDHS we use the class room PresenStation. For more informa-tion, go to http://www.wayne.k12.in.us/ois/presenstation.htm.)

6. If stu dents fin ish early, pro vide en richment op portunities in the form of links. For ex -ample, CyberDewey is an ex cellent re source to help stu dents un derstand and “sur-vive” the Dewey Dec imal System (http://www.anthus.com/CyberDewey/CyberDewey.html). For a list of other re sources to help you dif ferentiate your on lineinstruction, see appendix 11.

7. Provide a dis cussion board at which stu dents can pro vide in formation re garding theirindividual needs and get help from their peers.

8. Collaborate with colleagues on sug gestions for stu dents who might be strug gling withthe unit, finding out their strengths and weak nesses in other sub ject areas.

9. Find a new “ex pert.” Have stu dents share in the pre sentation of unit examples and askstu dents to pre pare ad di tional “Gi ant Steps” they would like to see in corporated intothe unit.

To make it easy to ADAPT, re member . . .

A Adapt cur riculum to needs of stu dents.

D Dif fer en ti ate and mod ify.

A Ac cess avail able re sources and tech nol ogy.

P Plan ahead so you won’t be be hind!

T Talk to the teacher to get crit ical class in formation.

Survival Source 7

http://www.support4learning.org.uk/ed u ca tion/lstyles.htm

This site pro vides count less re sources and in for ma tion on dif fer en ti a tion strat e gies,learning styles, and mul tiple intelligences.

Chap ter 7: Adapt Unit to Meet In di vid ual Needs—Dif fer en ti ate! 53

TEACHER: __________________________________________________________________________

PERIOD: ______________ SE MESTER: ___________________ YEAR: ________________________

DIF FER EN TI A TION STRAT E GIES FOR GI ANT STEP NUMBER _____

TOTAL NUMBER OF STUDENTS: _______________

NUMBER OF ADVANCED STU DENTS: _______________

NUMBER OF SPE CIAL NEEDS STU DENTS: _______________

NUMBER OF ENL STU DENTS: _______________

*************************************************************************************

NOTES:

Sur vival Tool 7a. Dif fer en ti a tion Check list




SUR VIVAL STRAT EGY QUESTIONS

1. In what ways could the unit be short ened? Is it pos sible for spe cial needs stu dents to skipcertain steps? If so, which ones?

2. Is it pos sible for ac celerated stu dents to pre test and test out of the unit?

3. What en richment ac tivities could stu dents do who test out of the unit?

4. How might stu dents be grouped for cer tain “Gi ant Steps?”

5. What will the teacher’s role be in fa cilitating the unit and helping with dif fer en ti a tion activities?

*********************************************************************

NOTES:

Sur vival Tool 7b. Dif fer en ti a tion Ques tions




“Cap ture the Gi ant” On line Ori en ta tionDif fer en ti a tion Strat e gies for Each Gi ant Step

Giant Step 1:

• Higher abil ity stu dents can lo cate their own books—and then as sist lower abilitystudents with find ing books.

• For lower abil ity stu dents, high light the spe cific sec tion on the map where the stu -dents can lo cate their books.

Giant Step 2:

• Lower abil ity stu dents could be allowed to find only one article, which can besaved as a favorite for eas ier search ing.

• Higher abil ity stu dents could find an additional ar ticle—or again as sist other stu -dents in lo cat ing da ta base ar ti cles.

Giant Step 3:

• Lower abil ity stu dents will need to have the citation page bookmarked for them.Choose an easy book for stu dents to cite that in cludes all the nec essary in forma-tion, to avoid con fusion.

• For higher abil ity stu dents, print off a citation and ask stu dents to la bel the dif ferentparts of the printed ci tation.

Giant Step 4:

• Lower abil ity stu dents may need additional as sistance upon vis iting the pub lic li-brary for the first time. Call ahead and make ar rangements with a li brary staffmem ber.

• Higher abil ity stu dents can search the pub lic library site ahead of time, re serve ma -terials, and even complete a li brary card application in ad vance.

Giant Step 5:

• Lower abil ity stu dents can com pare two search en gines (with as sistance).

• Higher abil ity stu dents can com pare four or more search en gines.

Giant Step 6:

• Assign Web sites for lower ability stu dents. Stu dents should be able to lo cate threefactual key facts rather than eval uate sources.

• Higher abil ity stu dents should find an ex ample of each of the “JUFTED” cri te ria.


Survival Tool 7c. Dif fer en ti at ing In struc tion Strat e gies



Giant Step 7:

• Lower abil ity stu dents might use the Word “Auto Sum ma rize” fea ture to lo cate key en cy clo pe dia ar ti cle in for ma tion.

• Higher abil ity stu dents can com pare two print and on line en cyclopedia sources andcreate a Venn Di agram.

Giant Step 8:

• Lower abil ity stu dents could be allowed to write five bulleted facts about pla giarism.

• Higher abil ity stu dents could cre ate a PowerPoint™ pre sentation on the dan gers ofpla gia rism.

Giant Step 9:

• Lower abil ity stu dents can read a highlighted AUP for the ba sics.

• Higher abil ity stu dents could form co operative groups and write their ownmini-AUP to share with the class.

Giant Step 10:

• Lower abil ity stu dents can an swer ques tions about the Web site.

• Higher abil ity stu dents could sug gest ad ditions and/or re visions to the me dia cen terWeb site.

Survival Tool 7c. Dif fer en ti at ing In struc tion Strat e gies


Chap ter 8

LISTEN TO FEEDBACK

Sur vival Strat egy

The di rections for the online steps were a lit tle un clear.—Allison Ty ler,BDHS Soph o more (Re mem ber, what’s crys tal clear to you might not

be to students! Are we clear on this? pb)

No Com ment!—Blake Vanderbush, BDHS Soph omore (Hmmm . . . pb)

Even though we don’t al ways want to hear con structive crit icism, in most cases this type ofinput can be in valuable in making im provements. And, if we’re not hear ing any thing back, that’sfeedback in it self. The mes sage is clear—you have to find out what stu dents are say ing—orthinking in this case!

Feedback lets you gain valu able in sight into making a great lesson even better. There aremany ways to gain feed back. Feed back can range from in formal con versations in the hallwaywith a teacher to formal writ ten eval uation. Feed back strat egies, such as the “three plusses and awish” chart (where the re sponder lists three good “things” and one thing he or she would like tochange) or even a sticky note with feedback listed, are ex cellent ways to so licit in put on yourprogram. Stu dents are of ten sur prised when a teacher asks them for feed back and opin ions on alesson. They are even more sur prised when that feed back is ac tually in corporated into sub se-quent les sons. Stu dent re flections can be in valuable when de ciding on the strengths and weak-nesses of a unit and re fining les son strat egies. An ad ministrator (like Dave!) can also be animportant per son to give feed back and make sug gestions for les son im provements while not be -ing in an evaluative role. No mat ter who gives you feed back, it’s important to LISTEN. (Sur -vival Tool 8 is a tool to gather feed back.)

59

Listen to Feed back

Listening re ally is a skill that should be de veloped. Too of ten, we are con -cerned sim ply with our next move or com ment. The second part of this chap teralso needs a healthy dose of con sideration and feedback. The importance offeedback is re lated di rectly to the suc cess of the pro gram. Per haps most im por-tant, listening to feed back should lead to a re sponse or ac tion. Neg ative feed -back can give rise to pos itive changes—and pos itive feed back can lead tocel e bra tion!

Sur vival Tips

L Lis ten to feed back from teach ers and ad ministrators.

I Initiate con versation with stu dents to get feedback (See Sur vival Tool 8).

S Stop and an a lyze re sponses with out get ting de fen sive.

T Talk to others (who might be more ob jective) to see if feed back is valid.

E Evaluate feed back and use it to plan new ideas and instructional strategies.

N Note positive feed back and cel ebrate your successes.

Survival Source 8

http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/pubs/A14/po lio.html

This site con curs that stu dent feed back is all too of ten left out of eval uation. It alsoclarifies the roles of var ious stake holders in the on line learning game.


Capture the Giant: On line Research Skills UnitPi lot Pro ject—Feed back Form

Name ___________________________________________ Period _______________

Teacher __________________________________________ Date ________________

Please check all that ap ply!

_____ I do have a pro ject folder.

_____ I do NOT have a pro ject folder.

_____ I DID have a pro ject folder—I need an other one!

_____ I have taken the reading test to de termine my reading level. Score: _____

_____ I have taken a book quiz over a novel. Score: _____

_____ I am cur rently on Gi ant Step _____.

Comments and Feed back:

(Please list 3 “Giant” sug gestions for improving the unit and 1 positive note be low!)

Gi ant Sug ges tion 1:



Pos i tive Note:

Survival Tool 8. Feedback Form

Chapter 8: Listen to Feedback 61



Chap ter 9

GRADING—GET APLAN!

Sur vival Strat egy

I don’t know what my score is!—Ben Stevens, BDHS Se nior (Give grades

reg u larly! pb)

I’ve cer tainly learned some important les sons when it co mes to grad ing! No doubt about it,grading takes time. In the best-case sce nario, all grading is au tomated. In the worst-case sce -nario, all lessons must be hand graded. Even au tomated grad ing sys tems re quire time to or ga-nize, re cord, and dis tribute re sults to stu dents. With a little pre planning, though, even manualgrading systems can be made a little less labor-intensive.

Sur vival Tips

• Set dead lines and stick to them when ever pos sible.

• Be flex ible with stu dents who have le gitimate, valid rea sons (like com puter glitches) forturning in late as signments.

• Don’t pro crastinate! Keep up with the grad ing be fore it piles up and gets out of con trol.

• Whenever pos sible, have the com puter auto-grade assignments. The big gest prob lem isthat, to be computer graded (and thus pro vide im mediate feed back to stu dents), many as -signments must be ob jective. It’s sometimes hard to make a quality eval uation fit the ge-neric true-false or mul tiple choice for mat. If you can get your eval uation to fit this for mat,however, valuable time will be saved.

• Stagger due dates for classes to en sure you have time to fin ish grad ing as signments forone class be fore get ting bogged down with an other.

63

• If au tomated grad ing is not an op tion, use the old standby—Scantrons!

• Use checkmarks or pass/fail grad ing for “little as signments. (These nongraded assign-ments can be pre requisites for other graded as signments.)

• Use ru brics (like Sur vival Tools 9a and 9b) to sim plify the grad ing pro cess. (Pro vide ru -brics to stu dents prior to the due date so they know ex actly what’s ex pected.) For a ru bricsurvival tool to help you eas ily de velop ru brics on line, go to http://www.rubistar.com.

• When pos sible, use stu dent as sistants to grade ob jective les sons.

• Give con tinual grad ing feed back to stu dents to avoid “sur prises” later.

• Rather than get over whelmed with checking e-mail and grad ing posted as signments on acontinual ba sis, set specific times that you will grade work—and eval uate only dur ingthose times. Oth erwise, the tech nology can over whelm you and you’ll find valuable timebeing eaten up. Scheduling a block of time and maintaining the sched ule will help makethis step a lit tle more man ageable. I’ve al ways graded stu dent work at the end of the day.You may choose to grade in the morn ing. What ever time you choose, a daily plan is bestso that you do not have a mountain of work to grade!

Grading: Get a Plan!

When I am teaching my on line class, I try to log in daily to pace my self and not get be hind. The importance of timely grad ing lies in the fact that grad ing isactually teacher feed back to the stu dents! Frequent teacher in teraction throughgrading of ten can lead to im proved stu dent prog ress. Many stu dents turn inwork and “wait” for a re sponse. From my ex perience, I have learned that stu -dents not only want, but need, con firmation that they are work ing cor rectly. I tiechecking e-mail and grad ing as signments to gether as far as hav ing a plan. Infact, I of ten in corporate e-mail as part of the course and “grade” e-mails thatstu dents send.

Want your stu dents to make the “grade?” Kelly Rich, on line in structor, has some “A+”strat e gies to help!

G Grad ing Scale

Will the on line course fol low the same grad ing scale as the “reg u lar” school, oris there a sep arate grad ing system for this course? Will grades be based on abil-ity? How will spe cial ed ucation stu dents be graded? These are all things to con -sider be fore you get out the red pen!


R Re vis ing As sign ments

Do teach ers have the dis cretion to de cide whether or not they want to have teach-ers re vise as signments for an im proved grade? If stu dents can re vise as sign-ments, grad ing must be pro tected within the on line en vironment. This ises pe cially im por tant when au to mated grad ing sys tems are used. For ex am ple,you don’t want stu dents re ceiving all of the cor rect an swers prior to re vising!

A As sess ments

When de signing as sessments, use ru brics and give stu dents very clear guidelinesabout what will be ex pected of them. Fol lowing this pro cedure will make grad ingeasier and much less con troversial.

D Dead lines

Deadlines keep stu dents on task. On line or not, stu dents of ten de lay work ing onassignments when no clear dead line is given. Be cause you don’t see on line stu -dents ev ery day, pro crastination is an even bigger chal lenge.

E Eval u a tion by Peers

Be fore stu dents turn in graded assignments, al low them to “swap” as sign mentswith a peer via e-mail. Students value opin ions of other stu dents.

Survival Source 9

http://www.findarticles.com/p/ar ti cles/mi_mOJSD/is_9_58/ai_79006750/pg 2

Will your on line course make the “grade” when your ad ministrator dives into your on -line course? Check out this site to find out!

Chap ter 9: Grading—Get a Plan! 65

Online Unit Grad ing Sheet“Capture the Giant!”

Name: __________________________________________________________________

Teacher: _______________________________________________ Pe riod: ___________

************************************************************************

Folder Turned In (On Time!) __________

Points on Folder __________

Computer Quiz (Bo nus) __________

Online Fi nal ___________ (100)

Online Unit Fi nal Grade ___________

To tal Points Pos si ble ___________

Survival Tool 9a. Grading Sheet




GIANT STEP 1 Record information on book checked out:

Title, Author, Call Number, Barcode, Due Date Document

How many different titles by your favorite author does the Media

Center have?

Document

GIANT STEP 1B Book quiz Folder

GIANT STEP 2 Three articles printed out from library research databases Folder

Citation information for all three articles Document

GIANT STEP 3 Citation Maker printout Folder

Works cited page Document

GIANT STEP 4 Copy of public library card Folder

GIANT STEP 5 Go Ask Alice article Folder

Chart of Internet search results Document

GIANT STEP 6 Copy of Internet page used for “JUFTED” activity Folder

“JUFTED” answers Document

GIANT STEP 7 World Book Online article about “Giants” Folder

Page where “Giant” article appears in print version of World

Book Encyclopedia.

Document

GIANT STEP 8 Plagiarism paragraph Document

GIANT STEP 9 AUP—printed and signed Folder

GIANT STEP 10 Media Center hours Document

20 T/F questions about Media Center procedures Document

Cross out the word Doc u ment or Folder when the task has been com pleted.

Survival Tool 9b. Grading Checklist

Chap ter 9: Grading—Get a Plan! 67



Chap ter 10

UNWRAP THESTANDARDS

Sur vival Strat egy

The pro ject, from my per spective, is ben eficial and use ful to those who

need to learn the proper way to re search. The steps are sim ple to follow,

yet still ef fective. It also cre ates an at mosphere of in triguing learning while

still en sur ing we’re meet ing stan dards.—J. E., BDHS Se nior (Wow! A

student who “gets it!” pb)

Like it or not, stan dards are here to stay. Schools are be ing held more accountable than everbefore to align with stan dards, pro vide data, and dem onstrate mas tery. If your pro gram isn’tstandards-based and data-driven, then it’s time to get with the program! The “Capture the Gi ant”unit is tied to the In formation Literacy Stan dards, Big6 Skills, and language arts stan dards. Sur -vival Tool 10 is a check list to help make sure all stan dards are met—and help you track which

les sons in clude which stan dards, help ing you be in tentional, aligned, and fo cused. Like mine,your pro gram needs to have HIGH stan dards!

Sur vival Tips

H Have cop ies of all stan dards ac cessible as you plan your lessons.

I Incorporate the Big6 skills through out your unit.

G Gather in formation from teachers to make sure the most im portant lan guagearts stan dards are in tegrated into your orientation unit.

H Hold stu dents ac countable in meeting the stan dards—make sure they master eachstep and spiral the stan dards to make sure all are equally cov ered.

69

As do tra ditional classrooms, on line courses also teach to the standards and many, if not all,follow a cur riculum. For ex ample, when I de veloped an on line Eng lish course for our highschool, spe cifically a novel unit, I had to ad here to the same stan dards and cur riculum as thoseteach ers who de vel oped “reg u lar” courses. In de veloping an on line re search unit, it is crit icalthat you have the stan dards at hand and ready. Your en tire course should be de veloped aroundthe nine In formation Literacy Stan dards, the Big6 skills, and your school’s lan guage arts stan-dards. As you will see in part II of this book, each of my les sons matches one or more ofthese—they were my “road map” to the final destination.

Unwrap the Stan dards

As Pam states, it’s im portant to build any on line course or lesson aroundthe stan dards for the topic to be learned. The stan dards should ac tually be comethe foun dation upon which one “builds” the units of in struction. The first in-struction given to IOA teach ers when they are cre ating an on line course is tostart with the state stan dards. Fi nally, it is im portant to note that this chapter and chapter 1 should be closely con nected. The stan dards should def initely be in-cluded as part of the ob jectives and goals for the on line in struction be ing de vel-oped. Do ing so guar antees that standards be come the foun dation of the course,and suc cess should soon fol low!

Survival Source 10

http://www.awesomelibrary.org/Of fice/Teacher/Stan dards/Stan dards.html

The Awe some Li brary site in cludes valu able in formation from the U.S. De partment of Ed u ca tion out lin ing the pro cess for de vel op ing and im ple ment ing stan dards-based units.


Ch

ap

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Chap ter 11

IMPLEMENT ONLINECOURSE

Sur vival Strat egy

When read ing the nine-page ar ticle in Gi ant Step 9 (the school’s AUP or

Acceptable Use Pol icy), make sure to high light the main parts and SKIM!

Do not read word-for-word. Oth erwise, you will get bored and be gin to

lose fo cus on what you’re read ing.—Allison Ty ler, BDHS Soph omore (A

great im plementation strat egy! Get feedback from stu dents in the pi -

lot and post it in the fi nal pro ject for oth ers to ben efit from! pb)

Sur vival Strat egy

When rat ing search en gines, be sure to look at a Web site the en gine turned

up. This will help you to rate the use fulness of the sites re trieved. Also,

don’t base your rat ing on the num ber of hits re trieved, but rather on the va -

lidity of those hits.—Ben Jarvis, BDHS Soph omore (Another great im -

ple men ta tion strat egy—by a stu dent for a stu dent! pb)

When it co mes to im plementation of an on line unit, my best ad vice to you is to startSMALL! Af ter cre ating the unit, I started by col laborating with one teacher in or der to try it outon a small scale. The “launch ing” of this first at tempt was in valuable, how ever, and made thenext step of the pro cess much smoother sailing! The next step to con sider for im plementation ismoving the unit to an en tire grade level. This will give you the op portunity to work with a va rietyof teach ers with dif ferent styles, opin ions, and in sights, as well as a va riety of classes with var iedneeds. Af ter re flection and re fining of the unit with one grade level, you will be ready to tackle a“whole school” im plementation pro ject. At this time, you will have had a chance to work the

81

bugs out and the unit should have clear rou tines and pro cedures that will assist you with theimplementation steps.

Another piece of ad vice: be flexible! On line in struction is unique in that you can not re act tostudents as eas ily or nor mally as you would in a reg ular class room. Ques tions per taining to on -line as signments and in formation are de layed with e-mail. As stu dents work through the ma te-rial in dependently, they may come to a point where teacher in tervention is re quired. Teacherresponses may not come as quickly as stu dents—or their par ents—would like (a bar rier men -tioned in chapter 2 ). All bar riers should be ad dressed to smooth out the rough edges dur ing im -plementation. Not to worry, though, smooth sailing will soon take place!

We have also found that it is im portant to work with your ad ministrators, de partment chairs,and lead teachers to en sure that all stake holders buy in to the pro cess. That way, it’s not just themedia spe cialist’s im plementation of the plan, but the en tire team’s goal. At our school, this on lineunit is critical in helping to meet the School Im provement Team goal of in creased read ing com pre-hension skills and en sures a clear con nection be tween the me dia cen ter and the classrooms.

Im ple ment On line Course

I see a valu able con nec tion be tween im ple men ta tion and eval u a tion, spe-cif i cally for ma tive eval u a tion. It is im por tant to re al ize that course de vel op-ment is never done. On line teachers can never say that they have “fin ished”creating a course. Not only does technology con tinually change and im provemethods of on line in struction, but stu dents and even the in formation that weteach change on a regular ba sis. Online learn ing is a fluid system that re acts andflows ac cording to pres ent and even fu ture trends. As an on line teacher, makesure to move with the flow and re member that the on line en vironment is verydif fer ent from a reg u lar class room.

Survival Tips: Start SMALL!

S Seek help and “buy-in” from ad ministrators, de partment chairs, and lead teachers for es tab lish ing an im ple men ta tion plan.

M Make im provements to the unit along the way. Start small dur ing the first pilot andslowly build up to the full im plementation.

A Assess stu dent prog ress of ten and pro vide the re sults to the var ious stake holders foron go ing re flec tion to make any needed im ple men ta tion changes.

L Listen to sug gestions! (Re fer to chap ter 8.) and look carefully at feedback (Sur vival Tool 11b). Are you get ting the right feed back?

L Leave it alone for a few days. Rather than make constant changes, give the unit a rest.After your break, you’ll be more ob jective and have an easier time see ing whatchanges need to be made.

Post in for ma tion of ten dur ing im ple men ta tion


Survival Source 11

http://ncsdWeb.ncsd.k12.wy.us/dherman/Lesley/week2/les son/les son_ru bric.html

This site pro vides an ex ample of a ru bric that could be used for teacher self-re flectionaf ter lesson im plementation. It could also be eas ily used be fore the les son to en sure crit icalcomponents, like library stan dards and course con tent, are covered.

Survival Tool 11a. Re search Unit Re minders

Chap ter 11: Im ple ment On line Course 83

Survival Tool #11a

Online Research

Skills UnitReminder!

Independent Study Project(You decide when you want to do it – all at once, or a little each week – it’s up to you!)

* The first five students to turn in completed projects receive prizes!

Due date:



“Cap ture the Gi ant” On line Ori en ta tionDis cus sion Board Example

Survival Tool 11b. Discussion Boards




Survival Tool 11b. Discussion Boards

Chap ter 11: Im ple ment On line Course 85



Chap ter 12

DATA, DATA, DATA!

Sur vival Strat egy

The SRI test is ex tremely easy. I have taken this ex act same test ev ery year

since first grade and my re sults have re mained con sistent for the last six

years. I be lieve taking this in ventory is a waste of time that could be put to

better use learn ing some thing of ed ucational value!—Mary Jenkins,BDHS Se nior (Use data to determine who can “test out!” pb)

Is be ing data-driven “driv ing” you crazy? I un derstand how over whelming it can be de cid-ing what data to col lect, how to best collect them, and once you have the in formation, what to dowith it. I have found that we of ten tend to collect too much in formation and need to be gin withthe end in mind. What do we want stu dents to know and be able to do at the end of our on lineunit? What specifically will that look like in the me dia cen ter? With that vision in mind, what has to be mea sured? What data do we need to col lect to be sure that we are work ing to ward that vi -sion? “Who?” is also a ques tion to ask (all, spe cific classes, spe cific types of stu dents). The pro -cess that I have found most help ful is to first collect data on which class rooms are ac cessing theonline unit and com pleting the tasks. Those data can be col lected on a sim ple dated checklist ei -ther on your com puter spread sheet or on a hard copy in cluded with your plans and schedules inyour binder.

Once you know which class rooms have com pleted the unit, you can take the next step tocollect data on whether—or not—students are now able to independently use the media cen ter to access re sources and com plete re search. While this may be hard to document, it is ex tremelyvaluable. Us ing a ru bric to measure class room suc cess is an other sur vival tip. (See Sur vivalTool 12.) The tool to as sist you in de veloping your own in dividual ru brics is Rubistar(http://www.rubistar.com).

87

In our me dia cen ter, we keep a checklist of which classrooms sign up for the li brary andhave a way to quickly log whether the stu dents and teacher re quire sup port—or if they only re -quire fa cilitation from us to complete their tasks. In ad dition, these data can be com pared toclasses that have not com pleted the on line unit in or der to show the value of the skills gainedfrom the les sons. We then can tally the re sults to de termine whether the unit has been effective(see ex ample be low). An other ex ample of data use that is ex tremely helpful is in cluding this in -formation along with li brary us age in the annual re port. There is ev idence that there is a di rectlink be tween stu dents and teachers us ing the library re sources more fre quently af ter they havecompleted the unit and are fa miliar with how to ac cess the materials they need in a quick andefficient manner.

Data: What to Col lect? What Does It Mean?

Another place where a plan is nec essary! As ed ucators, we are all about the business of stu dent achievement. Even though the col lection of data istime-consuming, it is critical. Data should be posted for teach ers, ad ministra-tors, stu dents, and even par ents to see. One ques tion also should be asked,“Which co mes first, the data or the evaluation?” The two ac tually go to gether in that data are part of the evaluation and can be used to show suc cess and thevalue of a well-developed pro gram.

Survival Tips: Data De cisions

D Decide on the nec essary data to be collected to make fu ture de cisions andimprovements to the con tent.

A Analyze your data to make pro gram im provements.

T Tell others about the re sults of your data col lection in or der to val idate the importanceof your pro ject.

A Ask for help! Don’t be afraid to ask oth ers with more ex perience on data col lectionfor sug gestions on for matting your data and ideas for time-management strat egies.

Survival Source 12

http://depts.wash ing ton.edu/oeaias/

The IAS (Instructional Assessment System) on line site in cludes sam ple data col lec-tion forms and sam ple re ports that could be mod ified for your own data col lection needs.View a demo and, if funds are available, find out rates for IAS to cre ate a cus tom da tabasefor your num ber-crunching needs. You can “count” on this site to make data de cisionseas ier!


“Cap ture the Gi ant” On line Ori en ta tion

Class room Eval u a tion Form

Teacher: _______________________________________________________________

Pe riod(s): ______________________________________________________________

Se mes ter: ______________________________________________________________

Year: _____________________

Date on line unit com pleted: ____________________________

Library Sign-Up Log

Date Requests/Project Worked Independently Tally of Help needed

Com ments:

Survival Tool 12. Data De cisions

Chapter 12: Data, Data, Data! 89



Chap ter 13

EVALUATE

Sur vival Strat egy

I feel this ac tivity re ally ori ents you with the dif ferent as pects of the li brary.

I didn’t think I was a great library-oriented per son, but af ter eval uating my

performance, I think this pro gram has been very use ful to me.—MattCarter, BDHS Soph omore (Self-eval u a tion! Yip pee! pb)

An on going theme throughout this book has been the im portance of re flective evaluation,utilizing both for mal and in formal means to de termine the effectiveness of your pro ject. The im -portance of as sessment sim ply can not be over looked. At this time, our fo cus is more global,evaluating not only this on line unit but also the ef fectiveness of on line courses as a whole. Withthe im portant role that tech nology plays in our so ciety, it is vi tal that teach ers find ways to in te-grate technology into the instructional pro cess in a way that fa cilitates learning and saves timefor both the student and the instructor.

Evaluation pro vides the an swers that we need to make im portant in structional de cisionssuch as: Was this les son or unit ef fective in meet ing the ob jectives? Were the stan dards mas-tered? Do data show that this unit was ef fective in meeting stu dent learn ing and be havioralgoals? If the an swers are yes, then the on line unit was ef fective! If not, it is time to re think theprocess af ter re flecting on the evaluation data.

One of the changes we are evaluating right now is whether it is time to go paperless. Ba si-cally, we’re eval uating whether or not stu dents should re ally need to print out pro jects. Whilesome stu dents (like me!) find se curity in printing out their work, be ing paperless and folderlesswould streamline the pro cess. But are we ready to take that GIANT step yet? We’ll see!

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Eval u ate

Dr. Eliz abeth Oyer of Eval uation So lutions has been in volved with IOAas an out side eval uator. Her phi losophy points to the fact that “the most ap -propriate, valid ap proach to evaluation emerges from the goals and ob jectivesof the pro ject, in tervention or cur riculum.” She also mentioned in a recentconversation that mea suring the value of on line ed ucation in terms of cost,satisfaction, and stu dent achievement is the pri mary func tion of an evalua-tion. Is on line in struction pay ing ben efits? How does the qual ity of an on linecourse com pare to reg ular class in struction? These are all points to con sider in the eval u a tion stage.

Keep in mind, it’s im portant not only to mea sure the learn ing out comes of stu dents (seeSurvival Tools 13a and 13b), but also, as stated ear lier, to collect their in put on both their learn -ing and in struction. IOA uses a stu dent sur vey at the end of each se mester to col lect these data.Students re spond to ques tions fo cused on the or ganization of the con tent, teaching ap proaches,and timely feed back, as well as the in teraction with and ability to contact teachers.

The best stu dent feed back is ac tually col lected when stu dents are asked the following in for-mal ques tions:

1. Would you rec ommend an on line course to your friends? (The an swer to this ques tionsays a lot about the stu dent’s ex pe ri ence.)

2. What is/was the sin gle best as pect of this course? (An other av enue to great feedback!)

3. What would you like to see changed in this on line course?

The re sponses to these ques tions can be utilized by teachers not only to con tinually improvethe con tent but also to re fine in structions. On line teachers can also take advantage of the ques-tions that stu dents ask as they prog ress through the on line con tent. These questions usu ally arisefrom weak ar eas that may need more ex planation, clarity, or detail.

Furthermore, it is im portant to re member that evaluation is on going and you are never fin-ished eval u at ing—even af ter sev eral pos itive eval uations! I once read that if you aren’t chang -ing, then you aren’t grow ing. In es sence, eval uation is a cy clical pro cess, forc ing you to eval uatechanges that have been made from pre vious eval uations. Eval uation tools as sist us by en suringthat the changes we are mak ing are based on solid reflection data, rather than just “chang ing withthe tide!”

We hope that this SURVIVAL GUIDE will help you to have a suc cessful on line unit with“smooth sail ing!”


Survival Tips: AHOY!

A Ac tively pur sue eval u a tion at ev ery op por tu nity (eval u a tion should be on go ing).

H Have a va ri ety of eval u a tion pro ce dures, both for mal and in for mal.

O Optimize your time! Uti lize the sur vey tools in available on line courseware when everpos si ble to make eval u a tion eas ier.

Y YAHOO! Make sure to cel ebrate the small steps! On going courses take time to im plementsuc cess fully!

Ahoy, mates! You’ve com pleted the SURVIVAL GUIDE and are now ready to set sail intothe on line ori entation. With the electronic ver sion, you can mod ify the unit for your in dividualneeds—and dive right into the pi lot project!

Survival Source 13

http://www.remc.11.k12.mi.us/bcisd/classres/restch.htm

This site is in valuable af ter you have evaluated your course and are ready to re fine orre search ar eas for im prove ment or ex ten sion.

Chap ter 13: Eval u ate 93

Survival Tool 13a. On line Course Evaluation


ON LINE COURSE EVAL U A TION

1. I was able to nav igate through the on line unit eas ily. Y S N

Com ments:

2. The on line unit was in teresting and help ful. Y S N

Com ments:

3. I could get help from my in structor when needed. Y S N

Com ments:

4. I was able to in teract with my class mates as needed. Y S N

Com ments:

5. The on line unit was rel evant to me and my needs. Y S N

Com ments:

6. I would rec ommend con tinuing with this on line unit. Y S N

Com ments:

*************************************************************************Over all Com ments:

Key:

Y—Yes

S—Some times

N—No



Sur vival Tool 13b. On line In struc tor Eval u a tion

Chap ter 13: Eval u ate 95

ON LINE IN STRUC TOR EVAL U A TION

1. The in structor was well pre pared. Y S N

Com ments:

2. The in struc tor pro vided in di vid ual help as needed. Y S N

Com ments:

3. The in structor in cluded real-world learn ing in this unit. Y S N

Com ments:

4. The in structor an swered my ques tions effectively. Y S N

Com ments:

5. The in structor was ac cessible to me and the class. Y S N

Com ments:

6. I re ceived prompt feed back on my grades/scores. Y S N

Com ments:

*************************************************************************Over all Com ments:

Key:

Y—Yes

S—Some times

N—No



Part II

“CAPTURE THE GIANT:”ONLINE RESEARCH SKILLS UNIT

MEDIA CENTER ONLINE ORIENTATION

Soph o more Scav en ger Hunt:Capture the Gi ant!

In tro duc tion

YOUR HELP IS DESPERATELY NEEDED! An evil Gi ant is lurking somewhere in the shad-owy, crowded halls of [INSERT YOUR SCHOOL NAME HERE!], threat ening to de stroyany and all information he can find. You won’t see this Gi ant (al though you may feel his pres -ence at times), but he can see you! Tired of be ing called names for be ing ac ademically chal -lenged, he wants ev ery stu dent to be in the dark as well. He thinks that if he keeps the keys ofknowledge to him self, he will, at last, be the smartest Gi ant in the building and, maybe soon, theen tire world!

The Gi ant’s mis sion: to cheat you out of im portant lifelong learn ing skills. We would n’t wantthat, now would we? The only way to pre vent the Gi ant from ac complishing his goal is to takeGiant steps to beat him at his own game. You’ll race the Gi ant to the finish and, if you suc ceed,will win in formation lit er acy skills, not only for you, but for the en tire stu dent body here at[INSERT YOUR SCHOOL HERE] and (who knows) maybe even the uni verse! Oh, no!

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[INSERT YOUR NAME HERE!]

Your li brarian is count ing on you to save the media cen ter from this same hor rible fate! As partof his se cret plan, the Gi ant hopes to de stroy each and ev ery book in our Me dia Cen ter. A schoolwithout books? Oh no! To as sist you on your jour ney to beat the Gi ant, your me dia spe cialist and teacher will be pro viding help for you as you stum ble along the dark ened path to ward the light of knowledge. Any time you see text that is un derscored, they are pro viding ex amples and/or helpto you.

For your jour ney, you will need to gather some sup plies. Your GIANT SURVIVAL KIT shouldin clude:

• Library Re search Pocket Folder

• Pencil or Pen

• Computer with Internet Ac cess

• Printer

The Rules

• You must take each Gi ant step in or der.

• You must mas ter each step before tak ing the next step.

• Remember: Put your best foot for ward at all times!

• After you take all ten steps, you must still com plete one last Gi ant step successfully to endyour jour ney.

The Task

Your fel low stu dents, who are not nearly as ex perienced and com petent, are counting on you.Some have taken Gi ant steps and are near the end of the mission; oth ers have not yet be gun theirjourney. In some of the Gi ant steps, you will work with your fellow stu dents to ac complish thetasks. Most of the steps, how ever, re quire you to work alone—so that you can con centrate fullyon the im portant job of sav ing the In formation Age for all of us.

Me dia Cen ter On line Orientation 101



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Luckily for you, the Gi ant is a hor rible typ ist and won’t be able to keep up with your amazingword pro cessing skills. Be fore tak ing your first step, create a new Microsoft Word doc ument. On the head ing of the doc ument, type your name, date, English teacher’s name, and pe riod in the topleft-hand cor ner of your doc ument. Be cause you will be us ing this doc ument through out yourjourney, be sure to SAVE the doc ument in the fol lowing for mat: LAST NAME-li brary-05. (Forex am ple, SMITH-li brary-05). Through out your jour ney, you will be asked to re cord sev eral ofyour an swers in this doc ument—so you may just want to min imize Word while you’re work ingso that you can go back. If you run out of time, just save your pro ject as di rected above and youcan ac cess it when you re turn to the pro ject.

Me dia Cen ter On line Ori en ta tion 103

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GIANT STEP 1A: Locating Books in the On line Card Cat alog

(Big6 Skills: 1. Task Def inition; 2. In formation Seek ing Strat egies; and 3. Lo cation and Ac cess).

Think About It!

When was the last time you checked out a li brary book? For some of you, I bet it’s been sincegrade school. We’re glad you’re back!

Di rec tions:

1. Go to a me dia cen ter on line card catalog. [PROVIDE DIRECTIONS FOR

STUDENTS HERE. WHERE IS YOUR BOOK SEARCH COMPUTER

LOCATED?]

2. Perform a key word search un der a sub ject you are in terested in. (for ex ample, “foot-ball” or “ro mance”).

3. Write down the call num ber. If the call num ber con tains an “F” or “FIC,” the book isfiction. If the call num ber con tains a num ber, the book is non fiction. (Non fictionbooks are or ganized by the Dewey Dec imal Classification Sys tem. No mat ter what li -brary you go into, all non fiction books are or ganized the same way.)

SPINE LABEL WITH CALL NUMBER

4. Locate this book (or an other one you have found) and check it out. Open your Worddocument and type a note to your librarian about what book you checked out and whyyou chose this par ticular book. In clude the author, ti tle, and call num ber. Be sure to in -clude the date you checked out this book—and the date the book is due.

(Example: To day (Au gust 1, 2003) I checked out the book Holes by Louis Sachar (FSAC). I wanted to read this book be cause I saw the movie this sum mer and it was re -ally good. The book is due in two weeks—on Au gust 14, 2000).

5. Next, per form a ti tle search for the book The Call of the Wild by Jack Lon don. Writedown the call number.

6. Find the book on the shelf and type the barcode of this book in your Word doc ument.(Ex am ple: Barcode 300086127).

Giant Step 1A: Locating Books in the On line Card Catalog 105



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BARCODE NUMBER

7. Finally, per form a key word search un der your fa vorite au thor. How many books doesthe li brary have by the au thor? En ter the in formation in your Word doc ument. (Ex am -ple: I re ally like books by Caro line Cooney. I searched un der her name and found thatour me dia cen ter has 22 Cooney books.)

Note: If the me dia cen ter com puters are full, you can perform a book search from any schoolcomputer by go ing to: [INSERT HTTP ADDRESS HERE].

Giant Step 1A: Locating Books in the On line Card Catalog 107

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GIANT STEP 1B: Book Quiz

Read a book of your choice (or one as signed by your Eng lish teacher!) and take a quiz about your book. See your li brarian for in structions when you are ready.

Congratulations! You have suc cessfully com pleted the Gi ant Step 1 challenge and are ready tomove for ward. If you think you’re ready for an other chal lenge, go on to Gi ant Step 2 now. You’d better hurry, though, because the Gi ant is one step ahead of you!

Giant Step 1B: Book Quiz 109



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GIANT STEP 2: Searching the Library Da tabase

(Big6 Skills: 1. Task Def inition; 2. In formation Seek ing Strat egies; 3. Lo cation and Ac cess; and4. Use of In formation).

Think About It!

What is a da tabase? Why might it be better than the “ge neric” Internet for re search?

Di rec tions:

1. Log on to any me dia cen ter com puter.

2. From the desk top, click on the li brary re search da tabase.

3. When the da tabase loads, en ter the name of a per son you are re searching for Eng lishclass. If you aren’t cur rently re searching a per son (au thor, in ventor, etc.), then type inthe name of someone fa mous you would like to learn more about.

4. Open your Microsoft Word doc ument and list three bulleted facts about the per son.Ex am ple:

Mi chael Jor dan

• Jordan was born on Feb ruary 17, 1963 in New York.

• Jordan was cut from the base ball team in high school.

• Jordan earns more money for endorsements than playing bas ketball.

5. Now that you’ve re searched the da tabase for a per son, choose a topic you are research-ing for your Eng lish teacher (or a topic of in terest).

6. Scan through the ar ticles un til you see a spe cific title that sounds like it would fit thetype of ar ticle you need (Example: If you are looking for in formation about StephenKing, then you prob ably want a bio graphical ar ticle—not a book review for The

Green Mile).

7. Click on the cho sen ar ticle and read it.

8. Open your Word doc ument and type a 3–5 sen tence sum mary of the ar ticle. Please in -

clude the ar ticle’s ti tle, au thor, sec tion, and page num ber on which it ap peared.

9. Next, open your Word doc ument and type the ci tation in formation for each ar ticle.You can then sim ply cut and paste the ci tations into your Works Cited page later. (Ex -am ple: “The Dust Bowl, 1934–1938.” DIS Cov er ing U.S. His tory. Gale Re search,1997. Re produced in His tory Re source Cen ter. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group.http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/HistRC/).

Great job! You have mas tered Gi ant Step 2. The good news is that this step was the hard est andlongest part of your mis sion. The bad news is that the jour ney is n’t over yet! You are cur rentlytied with the Gi ant—he’s look ing over your shoul der right now, try ing to steal your an swers.Watch out! To go on to the next step, click on Gi ant Step 3.

Giant Step 2: Searching the Library Database 111



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GIANT STEP 3: Out of “Cite!”

Think About It!

When was the last time you had to do a Works Cited page? Was it like pull ing teeth? Well, not toworry! There’s a new tech nology tool that makes cit ing sources “out of cite!”

This Gi ant step shows you how to use a Web tool to help you make your next Works Cited page!No need to worry about what’s un derlined, where the comma goes, if the au thor’s last name isfirst . . . it’s all done for you! With this amaz ing tool, you’ll be way ahead of the Gi ant!

Di rec tions:

1. Log on to any Internet-accessible com puter.

2. Go to the Internet.

3. Open the fol low ing link: http://www.landmarkproject.com/ci ta tion_ma chine/in dex.php

4. Click on “Book” (found in the left-hand yel low col umn un der “Print Re sources”).

5. Enter the citation in formation for the book you checked out in Gi ant Step 1. (Fill in allthe blanks! If you can’t find some thing, leave it blank!)

6. Click on “Make Citation.” Voila! Like magic, your source is put in per fect WorksCited format! How great is that?

7. All you need to do now is copy and paste the MLA ci tation into your Word doc ument.It’s that easy!

Giant Step 4 is a task that you will com plete out side the school building. No, you don’t get toleave school dur ing the day—darn it! You do, how ever, get a magical card that will allow you tohave mil lions and millions of books, vid eos, and even CDs! To get your magic card, go on to Gi -ant Step 4.

Giant Step 3: Out of “Cite!” 113



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GIANT STEP 4: Get Carded—At Your Public Library!

Think About It!

Is your pub lic library card gath ering dust? Don’t have one? Now’s your chance to get carded—atyour nearby Pub lic Library!

1. If you don’t al ready have a Pub lic Library card, this step re quires you to get a card.

2. You will need to go to the near est branch of your Pub lic Library (or any branch that isconvenient for you) and complete an application.

3. When you go to get your card, make sure to take an ID (driver’s li cense or other pic -ture ID that in cludes your ad dress).

4. The Pub lic Library’s ad dress is: _____________________________________.

5. To find all about how many ma terials you can check out at a time and all the dif ferenttypes of ma terials avail able, go to: [INSERT HTTP ADDRESS HERE].

6. The Pub lic Library is open the fol lowing hours:

Mon day–Thurs day _____________ Fri day _____________

Sat ur day _____________ Sunday _____________

7. After you have got ten your pub lic library card, place a copy of the card in your Li braryRe search Folder.

Giant Step 4: Get Carded—At Your Public Li brary! 115



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GIANT STEP 5: On line Searching

Think About It!

Which search en gine do you reg ularly use? Why do you use it in stead of an other one?

Di rec tions:

1. Fill in the fol lowing chart to practice your search skills on the Web.

2. After you com plete the chart, copy and paste the chart into your Word doc ument.

3. List other search en gines you could have used and paste the list into your Worddoc u ment.

Search EngineUsed

Google

www.google.com

Yahoo

www.yahoo.com

Dogpile

www.dogpile.com

Search TermsUsed

Number ofHits

Congratulations! The good news is that you suc cessfully com pleted Gi ant Step 5! The bad newsis that the Gi ant no ticed you were a bit dis tracted dur ing the last step and took ad vantage of thesituation to move ahead. In fact, you’ve been feel ing dis tracted quite a bit lately, but don’t wantto give up the challenge—or let the Gi ant over hear you. You de cide to search the Web for a trust -worthy Ques tion & An swer site that might be able to tell you why your con centration is off.Luckily, the per son (or Gi ant) on the computer for you was at a per fect site to pro vide an swers.You sit down and see the health site named “Go Ask Al ice.” You know you can’t de pend on justany Internet site to get an swers, so you have to check it out first.

Go Ask Al ice home page: http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu

Giant Step 5: On line Searching 117



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GIANT STEP 6: Web Site Evaluation

Think About It!

Do you think you’re a pretty good Internet surfer? Well, we’re “juft” gonna have to find out!

Get JUFTED!

Get what? Get JUFTED! You mean you’ve never heard of it be fore? Well, to those who “juft”got here, JUFTED is the way to de cide whether or not an Internet site is a good source. As youknow, any one (even a dumb Gi ant!) can put information on the Internet—after all, it’s not rocket science. You want to know that the in formation you find is good! Here’s how to use JUFTED:

J Judg men tal Is the site judg mental (passes judg ment) or ob jective (open-minded)about the in for ma tion pre sented?

U Up to Date Is the in formation cur rent and up-to-date or old, out dated? (Check thecopy right date!)

F Fac tual Is the in for ma tion fac tual and ac cu rate?

T Trust wor thy Can the in formation be trusted? Is the per son who wrote it an au thority(knowledgeable) on the sub ject? (Is the site spon sored by a col lege,hos pi tal, or other rep u ta ble or ga ni za tion? Are the ex perts li censed in themed i cal or le gal fields?)

E Ed u ca tional Is the site ed u ca tional and ap pro pri ate?

D De tailed Is enough de tailed information pro vided? Does it cover all neededin for ma tion—or is some thing im por tant left out?

Note: Some of the JUFTED ma terial only ap plies to ed ucational re search. For ex ample, if youwere an awe some skate boarder and in terested in find ing out about the lat est stunts, you wouldwant an other skate boarder to share tips—prob ably not a doc tor! Ap ply the JUFTED ma terial towhatever kind of in formation you need for your topic.

You did it! Your out standing eval uation of Internet sites put you ahead of the Gi ant—he’s stilltrying to turn on the com puter! There’s still a chance for him to catch up with you, though, sokeep on go ing!

Giant Step 6: Web Site Evaluation 119



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GIANT STEP 7: Using On line En cyclopedias: World Book On line

Think About It!

When did you first start us ing World Book En cy clo pe dias? El e men tary school? Ju nior high?Well, they’re still an awesome re source and a great start ing point for research!

In or der to beat the Gi ant at his own game, you’re go ing to need to find out some thing about hisbackground. Fol low these steps for BIG suc cess!

Di rec tions:

1. Go to the World Book On line En cyclopedia at http://www.worldbookonline.com.

2. Enter the search term “Giant.”

3. Read the ar ticle by El len J. Steckert.

4. Print out the ar ticle.

5. Next, find the World Book En cy clo pe dia (in print!) in the Me dia Cen ter Ref erencesec tion.

6. Write down the page on which the same ar ticle can be found in the offline (book)encyclopedia. (Write the page num ber on the top of your Gi ant ar ticle you justprinted out.)

7. Place the printout in your Li brary Re search Folder.

Giant Step 7: Using Online En cyclopedias: World Book On line 121



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GIANT STEP 8: Don’t Copy—Right?!?

Think About It!

“No, it is n’t mur der. And as lar ceny goes, it’s usu ally more distasteful than grand. But it is a badthing, is n’t it? Somehow we’re never quite sure about plagiarism.” This in troductory para graphto Thomas Mallon’s book Sto len Words gives us some thing to think about.

You will now take your next Gi ant step—and dis cover how you feel about the “P” word!

Begin this ac tivity by open ing your Word doc ument. An swer the fol lowing ques tions in awell-writ ten, dou ble-spaced para graph. (ALWAYS SAVE YOUR WORK FREQUENTLY!)

What is pla giarism? Why is it wrong to pla giarize? Do you think some stu dents pla giarize eventhough they don’t mean to? What con sequence should be given for stu dents who are caught pla-giarizing? Is there ever a time when it’s okay to pla giarize?

Put your para graph in your Li brary Re search Folder.

Have you ever heard of TURNITIN.COM?

This is an awesome site (for teach ers, any way!). Any time a teacher sus pects a stu dent of pla gia-rism (or that a paper might not be in a stu dent’s own words), he or she can turn in the pa per toTURNITIN.COM. Even though li brarians know a lot, turnitin is a lot quicker and more ef ficientthan check ing pa pers the old way!

The site then checks the stu dent’s pa per against the Internet to see if there are any “di rectmatches.” (In other words, has the pa per been pla giarized?)

Now that you’re done writ ing, spend some time re searching pla giarism. Go to your fa voritesearch en gine and type in “Pla giarism in High School.” Is it a prob lem—or not? What do youthink? Dis cuss your an swers with those sit ting close to you.

Don’t be one of these stu dents. Al ways put your writ ing in your own words—not some oneelse’s! That’s plain, old cheating! Even “ac cidental” pla giarism has “GIANT” consequences atour school!

Giant Step 8: Don’t Copy—Right?!? 123



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GIANT STEP 9: AUPs

Think About It!

Why should schools have AUPs? Should your home have an AUP? What might be on it?

AUP stands for Ac ceptable Use Pol icy. When you “sign” an AUP, you are agree ing to abide bycertain com puter rules. Ac tually, you don’t phys ically sign it—but it is an im plied, un derstoodpolicy for all stu dents. The bot tom line:

• EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY

• NO GAMES

• NO E-MAIL

• NO SURFING FOR NON-EDUCATIONAL USE!

Read the en tire AUP here:

[POST YOUR AUP HERE OR PROVIDE THE HTTP ADDRESS.]

Giant Step 9: AUPs 125



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GIANT STEP 10A: Ex ploring Your Me dia Center Web Site

Think About It!

Would you take an en tire course (like Eng lish or so cial stud ies) on line? Why or why not?

Did You Know?

Thanks to the Internet, you can get to our awe some Web site from any where by click ing on[ENTER YOUR LIBRARY HOME PAGE ADDRESS HERE]. You’re now go ing to get achance to ex plore our Web site to find the an swers be low. Who knows? You might even meet afamiliar Gi ant along the way!

1. What are the hours your me dia cen ter is open?

2. For easy ref erence, copy and paste (or type) the hours into your Word doc ument.

3. Type the an swers to the fol lowing true-false ques tions into your Word doc ument.

1. You can keep a li brary book for [INSERT NUMBER HERE] weeks.

2. Students can bor row vid eos.

3. Your li brary charges over due fines.

4. The me dia cen ter is open for ex tended hours.

5. Students can have food in the me dia cen ter dur ing lunch.

6. Students can have soft drinks in the me dia cen ter.

7. Students can have water in the me dia cen ter.

8. Students must pay to use the copier.

9. Stu dents can bor row Ref er ence books.

10. Students can check out the most re cent is sues of mag azines.

11. Students can not check out books if they have a book over due.

12. Students need a cur rent ID to en ter the media cen ter.

13. Students from study hall can visit the me dia cen ter daily.

14. Students can come to the me dia cen ter dur ing lunch with out a pass.

15. Students can al ways join the book club.

[NOTE: ANSWERS WILL VARY BASED ON YOUR OWN POLICIES AND

PROCEDURES.]

4. Study and re view the ba sic me dia cen ter or ga ni za tion (fic tion, non fic tion, ref er ence,where these sec tions are lo cated . . . ). “Dewey” know the Dewey Decimal Num bers?You may want to re view Gi ant Step 1 (the cyber Dewey site) be fore tak ing the Fi nalGiant Step—your true test!

Giant Step 10A: Ex ploring Your Media Center Web Site 127



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GIANT STEP 10B: Putting It All To gether!

First of all, a GIANT CONGRATULATIONS for com pleting the tasks and mak ing it this far! Inorder to re ceive your “ticket for the test,” and thus complete this tir ing jour ney, you must nowprepare your Li brary Re search Folder:

1. Put all pa pers in cor rect or der and LABEL all (Gi ant Step 1, Gi ant Step 2, Gi ant Step3, and so on . . . ).

2. Place all pa pers on the LEFT SIDE of your re search folder.

3. Print out your com pleted Word document (LAST NAME-li brary-05).

4. Place the document on the RIGHT SIDE of your re search folder.

5. Write your NAME, ENGLISH TEACHER, and ENGLISH PERIOD on the out side of your folder.

6. When your folder and all con tents are in or der, turn in your folder to your Eng lishteacher.

7. The fold ers will be graded and, if you “pass,” you will re ceive your ticket to take the test.

NOTE: PLEASE FOLLOW ALL DIRECTIONS ABOVE. THE GIANT WILL REFUSE TOGRADE AND RETURN ALL FOLDERS THAT DO NOT MEET THE ABOVE CRITERIA!

Congratulations! You’ve now com pleted all ten steps and were suc cessful in beat ing the Gi ant!The In formation Age is safe for all stu dents. All you have to do now is prove to your Eng lishteacher that you have suc cessfully mas tered the steps. When you are ready to test your knowl -edge, click here! Good luck!

FINAL STEP IN JOURNEY TO SAVE THE INFORMATION AGE!

GET YOUR TICKET TO TAKE THE ONLINE FINAL EXAM!

Giant Step 10B: Putt ing It All To gether! 129



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Me dia Cen ter On line Ori en ta tion Exam

1. What is your name?

2. Where can you access the library online card catalog?

� A. In the media center

� B. In the classroom

� C. At home

� D. In the lab

� E. All of the above

3. What information is critical to locating a book in the media center?

� A. Author’s last name

� B. Title of book

� C. Call number

� D. Barcode number


4. What does the call number represent?

� A. Section and where in the section it can be found

� B. Section and author’s first name

� C. Section and copyright date

� D. Section and the reserve status


5. Which of the following statements is false?

� A. Fiction books have numbers.

� B. Nonfiction books have numbers'

� C. Reference books are marked with an “R”.

� D. Both a and b are false.

Me dia Cen ter On line Ori en ta tion Exam 131



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6. If you’re trying to find a book about bowling, you would search by:

� A. Author

� B. Title

� C. Subject or keyword

� D. Series

7. If your best friend says you absolutely must read The Chocolate War, you would search by:

� A. Author

� B. Title


� D. Series

8. If you’re trying to find information about Tupac Shakur, you would search by:

� A. Call numbers

� B. Title


� D. Series

9. You can access ilibrary from:

� A. The media center

� B. Home with a public library card

� C. A school’s computer lab

� D. The Giant’s cave (who has Internet access and a library card—Good Giant!)


10. Which database category would you look in to find the best information on teen pregnancy?

� A. Opposing Viewpoints/SIRS

� B. Literature Resource Center

� C. Oxford English Dictionary

� D. History Resource Center

� E. Biography Resource Center


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11. Which database will supply historical timelines?

� A. Biography Resource Center

� B. Business Resource Center

� C. History Resource Center

� D. Literature Resource Center

� E. Famous People Resource Center

12. Which database area would be best to research Dell Computer Company?

� A. Research

� B. People

� C. Business

� D. Literature

� E. Net Library

13. What is the correct way to access the periodical database?

� A. Go directly to the database from the desktop.

� B. Go to a search engine and type in database.

� C. Click on the link from the media center Web site.

� D. All of the above.

� E. None of the above

14. You can e-mail database articles to your home to read or review later.

� A. True

� B. False

� C. All of the above

� D. None of the above

15. Why should you have (and use) a public library card?

� A. The public library is open on nights and weekends.

� B. The databases are always open to card members.

� C. The public library has tons of materials that the school library does not have.

� D. The public library has a variety of interesting programs.

� E. All of the above.


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16. Where can you get a broad overview of a research topic before you begin?

� A. World Book Online

� B. Google

� C. Go Ask Jeeves

� D. Go Ask Alice

� E. Yahoo

17. Which is the best place to search online?

� A. Google

� B. Yahoo

� C. Inspire or ilibrary (or your specific magazine/periodical database)

� D. Alta Vista

� E. It depends on what you’re looking for or what you find.

18. If you’re looking for a trustworthy, valid, authoritative site, look mainly for those that end in:

� A. .org

� B. .edu

� C. .gov

� D. .com

� E. a, b, and c

19. Online encyclopedias have the following advantages over print encyclopedias:

� A. Video and audio/music streaming

� B. More current, up-to-date information

� C. Links to other sites

� D. Volumes

� E. A, B, and C

20. What might be the best way for a teacher to check a paper for plagiarism?

� A. Submit paper to turnitin.com.

� B. Ask the librarian.

� C. Have the principal read the paper

� D. Make an appointment with the Giant, who knows all.


NOTES

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21. It is acceptable to use school computers to:

� A. Check personal e-mail if you don’t stay on too long.

� B. Send a quick, instant message to the Giant.

� C. Shop for a prom dress.

� D. Check the ball scores.

� E. Research song lyrics for a poetry assignment.

22. Where is the nonfiction section?

� A. Front of the library

� B. Back of the library

� C. Library balcony

� D. Library reference room


23. Which of the following statements is false?

� A. Plagiarism is using someone else’s work without permission.

� B. When you directly cite a source, you should use quotation marks.

� C. It’s not plagiarism if you don’t intend to cheat.

� D. Plagiarism occurs at our school.

24. An example of a person using a computer ethically is:

� A. A person who uses computer software to tutor a student.

� B. A person who prints song lyrics for a writing contest.

� C. A person who searches the Internet for family tree information.

� D. A person who reads the news each morning on CNN.com.

� E. All of the above.


NOTES

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25. You would probably not want to use a Web site if it contained:

� A. Judgmental information

� B. Current information

� C. Valid, truthful information

� D. Information from a government or educational site

26. A book might be better than an Internet site for research if:

� A. The Internet sites on a subject were blocked off.

� B. The only Internet sites found were .com sites.

� C. The book was outdated and directly related to your topic.

� D. A and B only.

� E. None of the above—the Internet is always the best choice.


NOTES

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Me dia Cen ter On line Ori en ta tion Exam An swer Key

1. Var ies

2. E

3. C

4. A

5. A

6. C

7. B

8. C

9. E

10. A

11. C

12. C

13. D (var ies de pend ing on setup)

14. A

15. E

16. A

17. E

18. E

19. E

20. A

21. E

22. B

23. C

24. E

25. A

26. D

Part III

APPENDIXES

Ap pen dix 1

DEWEY WEBQUESTS

147

Ap pen dix 2

INFORMATIONLITERACY POWERPOINTPRESENTATION: YOUR

“STANDARD”POWERPOINT

This PowerPoint pre sentation is great to have scroll ing on your LCD—or sim ply se lectwhichever slides (e.g., stan dards-based skills) you’re work ing on that day.

Excerpted from Chap ter 2, “The In for ma tion Lit er acy Stan dards for Stu dent Learn ing,” of In for ma tion Power:

Build ing Part ner ships for Learn ing, by Amer i can As so ci a tion of School Li brar i ans and As so ci a tion for Ed u ca tionalCom mu ni ca tions and Tech nol ogy. Copy right ©1998 Amer i can Li brary As so ci a tion and As so ci a tion for Ed u ca -tional Com mu ni ca tions and Tech nol ogy. Re printed by per mis sion of the Amer i can Li brary As so ci a tion.

149

150 Part III: Appendixes

Ap pen dix 2: In for ma tion Lit er acy PowerPoint Pre sen ta tion 151

Ap pen dix 2: In for ma tion Lit er acy PowerPoint Pre sen ta tion 153

Ap pen dix 3

BAGWELL’S BEST:ONLINE RESOURCES

FOR TEACHERS

Pam’s re search on the topic of on line in struction led to many ex ceptional Sur vival Sources.I also spent some time look ing and found a few more Web sites that pro vide a wealth of re -sources and ex periences for the K–12 on line learn ing au di ence.

http://vote.learn.unc.edu/bb/ar chives/cat_fully_on line_courses.html

Black board K–12 Us ers’ Group (Four Myths About On line Courses)

http://www.sham bles.net/elearning

A com prehensive Web site with many on line re sources

http://www.sreb.org/pro grams/EdTech/toolkit/re sources.asp

The SREB Ed u ca tional Tech nol ogy Co op er a tive—This site leads to many oth ers!

http://ts.mivu.org/de fault.asp?show=ar ti cle&id=1059&ac tion

Ten Ways On line Ed ucation Matches, or Sur passes, Face-to-Face Learn ing (MIVU)

http://www.masie.com/701tips/

701 Tips for e-Learn ing is a free dig ital book pro duced by The MASIE Cen ter

http://www.ncrel.org/pol icy/pubs/html/pivol11/apr2002c.htm

Virtual Schools and E-Learn ing in K–12 En vi ron ments—NCREL

http://www.nclbtechsummits.org/summit2/pre sen ta tions/2.5.deFord_et_al.pdf

Developing e-Learn ing Con tent to Meet Learner Needs: Build ing ver sus Buy ing (US DOE)

http://otel.uis.edu/

Of fice of Tech nol ogy—En hanced Learn ing

155

RubiStar: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php

Create cus tomized ru brics in Eng lish and Span ish.

http://www.e-learningguru.com/in dex.htm

Prac ti cal in for ma tion on e-learn ing in a plain-lan guage for mat.

http://www.nacol.org/re sources/

North Amer ican Coun cil for On line Learning

http://www.ncrel.org/tech/elearn/in dex.html

E-Learn ing Knowl edge Base—NCREL

http://www.fno.org/fnoindex.html

Ed u ca tional Tech nol ogy for En gaged Learn ing and Lit er acy


Ap pen dix 4

“I WILL SURVIVE”(ALIEN VIDEO CLIP)

This ap pendix con tains a link to the most hilarious video clip ever! An alien, while sing ingGlo ria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” gets crushed by a disco ball (you have to see it to get theidea!). I’ve shown the clip to students as a re minder to keep up with their on line course be forethey are “crushed” by the dead line. I’ve also used the clip as an in troduction to pro fessional de -velopment work shops. As me dia spe cialists, we can sur vive any thing! Note: Vic tor Navone pro -duc tion © 1999.

157

“I WILL SURVIVE”ALIEN VIDEO CLIP

http://www.gloriagaynor.com/download/alien.shtml

Appendix 4

Ap pen dix 5

COURSE OUTLINE:GET A LITTLE

“INSPIRATION!”

This ap pendix is a course out line of the “Capture the Gi ant” On line Ori en ta tion in In spi ra -tion for mat. If you ha ven’t used In spiration with your kids, maybe an ex ample will “in spire” you to do so!

159

“Capture the Gi ant”: On line Course Out lineCreated By Kelly Rich, Online In structor


Main

Menu

Introduction Rules Mission

Giant Step

#1

Giant Step

#2

Giant Step

#3

Giant Step

#4

Giant Step

#5

Giant Step

#6

Giant Step

#7

Giant Step

#8

Giant Step

#9

Giant Step

#1B

E-Mail

FAQ Page

Discussion

Boards

Giant Step

#10A

Giant Step

#10B

Folder

Completed?

Ticket to

Test

Final Test

Pass?

Done!

Failed?

Retest

Ability to

Test Out

Ap pen dix 6

RICH’S REMINDERS

I asked Kelly Rich, one of our awe some on line in structors, to pre pare ten “sur vival” tips forusing on line ac tivities. Kelly is also “rich” in ideas!

“Rich’s Re mind ers”: Top Ten On line Ac tivity Re minders

1. Arrive early! Make sure the com puters are work ing.

2. Survey your stu dents! As sess their knowl edge with the computer pro grams priorto les son im ple men ta tion.

3. Create Web links in ad vance! This makes the les son user-friendly for stu dents toaccess key sites and saves time.

161

4. Search your Web sites ahead of time! Be sure to use the same com puter the stu -dents will be us ing.

5. Ac cess stu dent login in for ma tion and tem po rary login in for ma tion! This willhelp you to as sist stu dents who do not know their net work iden tification or whohave dif fi cul ties.

6. De sign the as sign ment to al low for co op er a tive, as well as in di vid ual, work.

7. Plan for the worst! Cre ate a back-up plan in case the server/Internet goes down.

8. Check the timing! Make sure the as signment can be fin ished within the al lottedtime, taking login and logoff time into con sideration.

9. Plan ahead for ex pectations of stu dents who may be ab sent.

10. Sign up early for lab time! Sched ule your class or an ad ditional day just incase—it is al ways eas ier to drop a day than to add a day.

By Kelly Rich, Online Instructor


Ap pen dix 7

HELBLING’S HELPS

Online in structor Ra chel Helbling shares ten help ful hints for teaching on line. Need a littlehelp? Here it is!

Helbling’s Helps

By Ra chel Helbling, Online Instructor

1. Com mu ni ca tion!! Some stu dents can work in dependently with out the help ofa teacher, but many can not. Pro vide sev eral dif ferent ways for your on line stu -dents to con tact you—e-mail, a phone num ber, or on line of fice hours. If youha ven’t heard from your stu dents in the past week or so, contact them!

2. Check your links!! If you use links to var ious Web sites in your on line course,check them of ten. Web sites move, dis appear, and change of ten. Stay on top ofit so your stu dents are not frus trated with bro ken links.

163

3. Dead lines!! One of the ben efits of an on line course is that stu dents can work attheir own pace—dif fer en ti a tion! How ever, this free dom can be dif fi cult formany stu dents as well. Posted, spe cific deadlines for as signments can help stu -dents pace themselves, and will allow you to mon itor which stu dents need a lit-tle bit of a push.

4. Vary your as signments!! It’s easy to create an on line course that consists en -tirely of “read-and-then-an swer-the-ques tions” as signments. Stu dents tend toget bored with this. By us ing the wide va riety of re sources avail able on theInternet, it is pos sible to pro vide your stu dents with a num ber of dif ferent types of as signments. They can gather data to con struct a graph or a table, make orsolve a cross word puz zle, lis ten to a ra dio broad cast, or take a guided vir tualfield trip. The pos si bil i ties are vir tu ally end less!

5. Peer-to-Peer Com mu ni ca tion!! Some stu dents are per fectly happy and pro -duc tive op er at ing com pletely in de pend ently. Cre at ing op por tu ni ties for somepeer-to-peer communication, how ever, is an im portant as pect for other stu -dents. On line dis cussions through mon itored chat rooms or mes sage boards are a good way to make stu dents feel like they are part of a class. Stu dents may also be en couraged to e-mail each other.

6. Questions and Help!! Make sure you are available for both! Al though this isan on line course, some stu dents will have an eas ier time ask ing ques tions overthe phone. Give stu dents as many ways to con tact you as pos sible—tele phoneoffice hours, on line hours, posted hours in a chat room, or a “Help-me” mes -sage board that you check on a reg ular ba sis are some ideas that have workedwell for me. If it is pos sible, some stu dents will also benefit from a face-to-facemeeting at some point near the beginning of the course. This will help them tofeel more con nected to you as a per son in stead of just a phan tom voice on theother end of a phone line or a mys terious, face less per son on a com puter.

7. Or ga ni za tion!! Text books are or ganized into Units, Chap ters, and Sec tions.Students are fa miliar with this. Organizing your course on line in a similar man -ner will help them to un derstand where they are in the course, what they haveto com plete, and what or der they are sup posed to com plete it in. Post ing a syl -labus at the be ginning of your course is a great way to give stu dents a feel forhow your course is or ganized. Since they are of ten be ing faced with the en tirecourse at the be ginning of a se mester—it can be quite over whelming. Hav ing away to break it down into smaller chucks can help with this feel ing. As men -tioned above, having dead lines for each small chunk of as signments can alsohelp pre vent stu dents from feel ing bur ied in course material.

8. Vi sual!! Put time into mak ing the course en vironment and the as signments vi -sually pleasing. Use graphics, pho tos, and vid eos of your self teach ing if pos si-ble. Make sure your di rections are given in a for mat that is to the point and easy to read.


9. Grades and Grad ing!! Just like in a reg ular class room-based class, stu dentsneed to be aware of how they are pro gressing in the course . . . and be cause it’sNOT a reg ular class room-based course; stu dents have an even more dif ficulttime getting a feeling about how they are do ing. Grade as signments in a timelyfashion and make stu dents’ grades avail able to them as of ten as pos sible. Also,since stu dents are work ing at their own pace in many on line courses, as sign-ments to be graded can pile up quickly—some times over night. Fre quent grad-ing will help pre vent the teacher from be coming over whelmed withassignments as well.

10. E-mail!! This is some thing to be con sidered care fully. E-mail can be a won -derful way for stu dents to feel a sense of ca maraderie with other stu dents in acourse . . . but there are also is sues that go along with it. Some stu dents don’thave ac cess to e-mail, which can make them feel quite left out. Choos ing anonline learn ing en vironment that has a built-in e-mail system can elim inate this issue. Then there is the is sue of cheat ing. There will al ways be those stu dentswho will try to e-mail an swers and test ques tions to each other. Make sure tokeep this pos sibility in mind when de signing and monitoring your course.

Appendix 7: Helbling’s Helps 165

Ap pen dix 8

SOPHOMORESCAVENGER HUNT:

AN ONLINE ACTIVITY

This scav enger-hunt ac tivity was de signed by stu dents—for stu dents—to use in an on linesetting. Search ing for a great activity? No need for you to hunt any fur ther—here it is!

167

Ap pen dix 8: Soph o more Scaven ger Hunt: An On line Ac tiv ity 169

Ap pen dix 9

HIGH FIVE:FIVE DI RESOURCES

Here are five out standing links to dif ferentiated in struction (DI) re sources. Set sail for in di-vid u al ized instruction.

http://www.carelpress.co.uk/libraryskills.htm

“Check out” these great re sources for dif fer en ti at ing li brary me dia cen ter skills!

http://www.ascd.org/ed_top ics/el200009_tomlinson.html

This ar ticle was writ ten by one of the leading re searchers in dif ferentiation and is keyto help ing teach ers un der stand the im por tance of dif fer en ti a tion.

http://home.nea.org/books/InspInd/chapter4.html

One of the keys to dif ferentiation is for stu dents to be able to work in dependently. Thisarticle gives spe cific strategies to teach stu dents the skills needed to be able to work on theirown. Yip pee!

http://www.big6.com/showarticle.php?id=238

This ar ticle gives ex amples us ing a KWL chart, which can ben efit stu dents at all lev els.The spe cific strat egy of us ing dif fer ent col ors to cat e go rize in for ma tion (def i nitely a crit i cal media cen ter skill) is es pecially help ful for vi sual learners and lower level stu dents. Weknow you’ll want to learn about this strategy!

http://www.studygs.net/

This re source pro vides study guides and dif ferentiation tools to meet the individualneeds of stu dents. You may even want to M.U.R.D.E.R. your stu dents af ter check ing outthis site (not to worry . . . it’s a strat egy!).

171

Ap pen dix 10

TWELVE SURVIVALSLIDES

Dave and Libby “point” you in the right di rection in this PowerPoint pre sentation fo cusingon on line in struc tion.

173

Ap pen dix 11

DAVE’S TOP TENSURVIVAL TIPS

No, he isn’t Da vid Let terman, but his top ten are great nevertheless!

1. Up date con tent con tin u ously: No on line con tent should ever be con sidered fin ished.Improvements should be made on a reg ular ba sis in or der for the course, les son, or unit to be successful.

2. Com mu ni cate fre quently: E-mail, phone, and speak with stu dents di rectly if youcan. This is nec essary since the reg ular face-to-face in struction is usu ally not part of an on line class.

3. Grade reg u larly: Students need fre quent feed back to keep them mo tivated. Teacherscan also get behind if they pro crastinate!

4. Use online re sources: Wow! There are literally thou sands of re sources out there forall to use on any topic.

5. Be an ex pert: Or at least know enough to answer stu dent ques tions. Im merse your selfin the con tent and don’t tackle subjects that you are not com fortable with.

6. Broad band: Good news, bad news. The bad news is that broad band costs more thanbasic dialup. The good news is that it is well worth the money. High speed Internet isalso nec essary for any hope of stream ing ed ucational videos that may be part of an on -line course.

7. Who needs books!: This is a lit tle stab at Pam! I re ally be lieve that online con tent willbecome more and more prev alent as the years go by. . . . Look at what is hap pening tophotography. Not that books will be ob solete, but on line ma terial will be come moreand more prev alent as time goes on.

8. Schedule time (early or late): Online of fice hours are an other im portant need that re -places the reg ular class room. This ad vice should also be given to stu dents so that theywork on their coursework regularly.

175

9. Get oth ers in volved (chats): Interactivity is the key to on line in struction. Chattingand mes sage boards (fo rums) should be used to en hance learn ing and get stu dents toconverse. Learn ing takes place when stu dents share ideas and re act to the ideas of oth -ers. Stu dents who wouldn’t dare speak in front of oth ers in a typ ical class will some -times share a great deal in the safety of an online environment.

10. Last but not least, plan ahead (fol low a sched ule): Stu dents will typ i cally pro cras ti -nate and not com plete their work on time, if at all. Set times and tar get dates for workto be com pleted. You can be flexible with dead lines, but re quire stu dents to be re spon-sible if they miss any tar get. Make sure to use re wards and consequences!


REFERENCES

“CyberDewey.” 1989. CyberDewey. Available at http://www.anthus.com/CyberDewey/CyberDewey.html(ac cessed Jan uary 16, 2005).

DiPetta, Tony, John M. Novak, and Zopito Marini. 2002. In vit ing On line Ed u ca tion. 1st ed.Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Ed ucational.

Hor ton, Sa rah. 2000. Web Teach ing Guide. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Iverson, Kathleen M. 2005. E-Learn ing Games. 1st ed. Up per Sad dle River, NJ: Pearson Ed ucation.

Kasowitz, Abby S. 2000. Using the Big6 to Teach and Learn with the Internet. 1st ed. Worthington,OH: Linworth Pub lishing.

Klemm, Wil liam R. 2001. “Creating On line Courses: A Step-by-Step Guide.” Com men tary.

May/June. Avail able at http://ts.mivu.org/de fault.asp?show=ar ti cle&id=861 (ac cessed Jan u ary16, 2005).

Landau, Valerie. 2001. De vel op ing an Ef fec tive On line Course. Sea side, CA: Round World Media.

Lynch, Marguerita M. 2001. The On line Ed u ca tor. 1st ed. New York: Routledge Falmer.

Nickols, Fred. 2000. The Goals Grid: A Tool for Clar ifying Goals and Ob jectives. Avail able athttp://home.att.net/~nickols/goals_grid.htm (accessed Jan uary 13, 2005).

Porter, Lynnette R. 1997. Cre at ing the Vir tual Class room. 1st ed. New York: Wiley Com puter Pub -lish ing.

Porter, Lynnette R. 2002. De vel op ing an On line Cur ric u lum: Tech nol o gies and Tech niques. 1st ed.Her shey, PA: In for ma tion Sci ence Publishing.

Williams, Priya. 2003. “How to De velop an On line Course.” On line Course De vel op ment Tu to rial

and Pro cess Check list. Avail able at http://stylusinc.com/on line_course/tu to rial/pro cess.htm(ac cessed Jan u ary 16, 2005).

Wolfe, Chris topher R. 2004. Learning and Teach ing on the World Wide Web. 1st ed. Her shey, PA:In for ma tion Sci ence Pub lish ing.

177

PERMISSIONS SUMMARY

The Nine In for ma tion Lit er acy Stan dards for Stu dent Learn ing, ex cerpted from Chap ter 2,“In for ma tion Lit er acy Stan dards for Stu dent Learn ing,” of In for ma tion Power: Build ing

Part ner ships for Learn ing by Amer i can As so ci a tion of School Li brar i ans and As so ci a tion

for Ed u ca tional Com mu ni ca tions and Tech nol ogy. Copy right © 1998 Amer ican Li braryAs so ci a tion and As so ci a tion for Ed u ca tional Com mu ni ca tions and Tech nol ogy. Re printedby per mis sion of the Amer i can Li brary As so ci a tion.

Notesheet for Checking Out a Course Site, from De vel op ing an On line Cur ric u lum byLeanette R. Por ter (pp. 279-284), Copy right 2004 Idea Group Inc., www.idea-group.com.Re printed by per mis sion.

The Big6™ Skills re printed with per mis sion. Big6™ copy right © 1987 by Mi chael B.Eisenberg and Rob ert E. Berkowitz.

Ex cerpts from The Goals Grid: A Tool for Clarifying Goals and Ob jectives by Fred Nickols,re printed with per mis sion. Copy right © 2000 by Fred Nickols.

Ru bric for Eval u at ing Be hav ioral Ob jec tives, from De vel op ing an Ef fec tive On line Course

by Valerie Lan dau (Round World Me dia, 2001), re printed with per mission. Copy right ©2001 by Valerie Lan dau.

179

INDEX

Access, in creased, as ben efit of on line courses,xiii

Ad ap ta tion of on line courses, 51–53Advanced stu dents, and on line teaching, 20ANGEL, 13, 21, 23, 24Availability of courses to other schools, xivAwareness of staff about li brary stan dards and

in for ma tion skills, xiv

Bar ri ers to on line learn ingac cess, 14au then tic ity, 15and eval u a tion of on line con tent, 18–19in struc tional de sign/nav i ga tion, 14knowl edge of ap pli ca tions, 14link cur rency, 15over com ing, 14–15 (fig.)pace of change, 14setup, 14stu dent mo ti va tion, 14tech nol ogy

choos ing, 12course up keep, 12is sues, 12

time re quire ments, 11

Big6 Skills, 69, 71–80 (fig.)Black board, 24Black board’s Sup port Site, 18

“Capture the Gi ant”data col lection form, 89 (fig.)

dis cus sion board, 84–85 (figs.)feedback form, 61 (fig.)grading check list, 67 (fig.) grading sheet, 66 (fig.)on line ori en ta tion, 56–57, 84–85 (figs.)PowerPoint pre sen ta tions, 42–48, 149–54,

171“Capture the Gi ant” on line re search skills unit,

97–130exam, 131–42

answer key, 143rules for, 101steps

ac cept able use pol i cies, 125book quiz, 109copy right ex er cise, 123li brary card, ob tain ing, 115li brary da ta base, search ing, 111media cen ter Web site, us ing, 127on line card cat a log, lo cat ing books in,

105, 107on line en cy clo pe dias, us ing, 121on line search ing, 117Web site eval u a tion, 119works cited page, cre ating, 113

task de scribed, 101, 103Col lab o ra tion, on line courses and, xiv, 81Col lab o ra tive units and on line courses, xivColleges and dis tance learning, 17Com poser, 25Course de vel op ment soft ware. See Courseware

181

CoursewareANGEL, 13, 21, 23, 24Black board, 24FAQs about, 21functions of, 23Quia, 24sub sti tutes for, 25

Creating On line Courses: A Step-by-StepGuide, 18

Cre at ing the Vir tual Class room: Dis tance

Learning with the Internet, 18

Datacol lec tion, 87–88, 89 (fig.)use, 88

Dewey Webquests, 147Dif fer en ti a tion of on line courses, 51–57

checklist for, 54 (fig.)questions for, 55 (fig.)resources for, 171strat e gies for, 52–53, 56–57 (fig.)

Dreamweaver, 25

E-Learn ing Games, 33Elbaum, Bonnie, 20Es sen tial El e ments: Pre pare, De sign, and

Teach Your On line Course, 20Eval u a tion

barriers to, in on line learning, 18–19and in struc tional de ci sions, 91on go ing, 92of on line courses, 27–32 (fig.)

form, 94 (fig.)of on line in structor, form, 95 (fig.)re flec tive, im por tance of, 91and stu dent in put, 92tips for, 93

Expectancy in on line course, 35

Feed back, 59–60form, 61 (fig.)

Flex i bil ity, 63, 82FrontPage, 25

Gallagher, Katie, 8Gilbert, Sara Dulaney, 20Goals, set ting

ba sic, 5

Goals Grid, us ing to set goals/objectives,6–9

ques tions re lated to set ting/plan ning toac com plish, 6

spe cific in struc tional, 5Goals Grid, 6–9

quad rant I an a lyzed, 7quad rant II an a lyzed, 7quad rant III an a lyzed, 7quad rant IV an a lyzed, 8

Grad ing, 63–67as sess ments, 65checklist, 67 (fig.)dead lines, 65peer eval u a tion, 65re vis ing as sign ments, 65scale, 64sheet, 66 (fig.)

Hofmann, Jennifer, 20How to Be a Suc cessful On line Stu dent, 20How to De velop an On line Course, 18

Indiana On line Acad emy (IOA), 1, 8, 18–19,24, 25, 52, 70, 92

In for ma tion Lit er acy PowerPoint Pre sen ta tion,149–54

In for ma tion Lit er acy Stan dards, 69, 71–80(fig.)

In struc tion. See also On line courses; On linelearn ing/teach ing

ad ap ta tion, need for, 51–53choosing course con tent for, 33-35de vel op ing les sons for, 33-35dif fer en ti a tion, need for, 51–57lesson plan ning sheet (fig.), 37need for pos i tive re la tion ship with stu dents,

52need for va riety of strat egies in, 35plan ning con sid er ations for, 33-35resources for, 171

In struc tional strat e gies in on linelearn ing/teach ing

asyn chron ous/syn chro nous les sons, 35co op er a tive/in di vid ual ac tiv i ties, 35short-term/long-term projects, 35

Interest of on line course, 35Iverson, Kathleen M., 33

182 In dex

Kasowitz, Abby S., 12 Klemm, Wil liam R., 12

Language arts stan dards, 69, 71–80 (fig.)Learning qual ity, and on line teaching, 19Lesson plan ning form, 37 (fig.)Lynch, Marguerita McVay, 18, 35

Mas tery learn ing, 41McIntyre, Cynthia, 20Microsoft Of fice, 25Mo ti va tion, on line courses and, xiv

Ob jec tives. See Goals and ob jectivesOb jec tives ru bric, 10On line courses. See also In struc tion; On line

learn ing/teach ingadapt ing, 51–53dif fer en ti at ing in, 51–57eval u at ing, 27–32 (fig.)and ex pec tancy, 35im ple ment ing, 81–85and in ter est, 35out line, 159–60rea sons for cre at ing, xiii–xivand rel e vance, 35sam ple ac tiv ity, 167–70and sat is fac tion, 35and stan dards, 69–80

Online Ed ucator, The: A Guide to Cre ating the

Vir tual Class room, 18On line learn ing/teach ing. See also On line

coursescol lab o ra tion and, 81myths about

is best for ad vanced stu dents, 20is eas ier than traditional teach ing, 19is easy to eval uate, 18–19produces better learning, 19saves teacher time, 19

need for flex ibility in, 63, 82obtaining stake holder buy-in, 82 forre search ing, 17–22

resources for, 17–18

Pi lot pro gram, 39–41tips for im ple ment ing, 40–41

Pi lot teach ers, 40

Porter, Lynette R., 12, 18PowerPoint, 25

“Capture the Gi ant” pre sen ta tion, 42–48sam ple pre sen ta tions in, 42–48 (fig.),

173–74

Quia, 24“Quick and Dirty Web Pages,” 25

Relevance of on line course, 35Re sources for re search ing on line learn ing and

Web-based in struc tion, 17–18, 155–56Rich, Kelly, 64Rubistar, 87

Sat is fac tion from on line course, 35Smith, Alese, 20Staff ing

increased, and on line courses, xiiilimited, and on line courses, xiii

Stake holders, in clud ing, 82Stan dards

Big6 Skills, 69, 71–80 (fig.)In for ma tion Lit er acy Stan dards, 69, 71–80

(fig.)language arts stan dards, 69, 71–80 (fig.)

Student achievement, on line courses and, xivStu dent en roll ment, in creased, and on line

courses, xiiiSurvival Guide to On line Courses, 1–95

summary of, 1Survival sources, 3–4, 8, 13, 20, 25–25, 36, 41,

53, 60, 65, 70, 83, 8893Survival strat egies, 5, 11, 17, 23, 33, 39, 51,

59, 69, 81, 87, 91Sur vival tips

for data col lection and use, 88for dif fer en ti at ing in struc tion, 52–53for eval u a tion, 93for grad ing, 63–65for im plementing the course, 82for im ple ment ing stan dards, 69–70for in struc tion, 33–35for ob taining and us ing feed back, 60for on line ac tiv i ties/teach ing, 161–62,

163–65for over com ing bar ri ers to on line learn ing, 13for pi lot pro gram, 40–41

In dex 183

Survival tips (Cont.)for re search ing on line learn ing, 18for set ting goals/ob jec tives, 6–7“top ten,”175–76for us ing courseware, 24–25

Sur vival tools“Capture the Gi ant” PowerPoint

pre sen ta tion, 42–48dis cus sion boards, 84–85eval u at ing on line courses, 27–32Goals Grid, 9just the FAQs, 21lesson plan ning sheet, 37ob jec tives ru bric, 10problems and so lutions T-chart, 14re search unit re mind ers, 83standards chart, 71–80ticket for the test, 49twelve sur vival slides, 173–74

Syn chro nous Trainer’s Sur vival Guide, The:

Fa cil i tat ing Suc cess ful Live and On line

Courses, Meet ings, and Events, 20

Teacher time, on line learning and, 19Technology, as bar rier to on line learning

choos ing, 12course up keep, 12is sues

access to e-mail, 13class room man age ment, 12copy right, 12Internet safety, 12

Time, as a barrier to on line learning, 11Tra di tional ver sus on line teach ing, 19

Using the Big6 to Teach and Learn with the

Internet, 18

Vir tual class room, nec es sary char ac ter is tics of,12

Vir tual vis its, 23–25

Web-based in struc tion, re search ing, 17–18West ern Co op er a tive for Ed u ca tional

Tele com mu ni ca tions (WCET)Edutools, 25

184 In dex

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

PAMELA S. BACON is a full-time li brarian and part-time au thor. For five years she hasworked as the me dia cen ter di rector at Ben Da vis High School. Dur ing that time, she de signedand im plemented the “Cap ture the Gi ant” on line ori entation. She is also the au thor of 100 Li -

brary Life sav ers and 100 More Li brary Life sav ers, pub lished by Li brar ies Un lim ited.

DAVID BAGWELL JR. is the for mer tech nology su pervisor at Ben Da vis High Schooland the head master of the In diana On line Acad emy. He cur rently teaches an on line course atIUPUI fo cus ing on re search in ed u ca tional tech nol ogy.

Creating Online Courses and Orientations: A Survival Guide

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