DISTANCE LEARNING TERMINOLOGY: A WORKING LIST (Part 4 of 5)

Source: Continuing Legal Education Regulators Association DISTANCE LEARNING TERMINOLOGY: A WORKING LIST. Originally Prepared by Kristen Hamilton, DE CLE / Source: ASTD E-Learning Glossary www.learningcircuits.org/glossary.html Updated January, 2007.

The information that follows comes directly from the resource cited above. It is being reprinted as a means to provide common-ground as we use terminology on campuses and in conversation speaking about online or hybrid learning. This terminology working list will be printed in five posts this week whereby each post will include seven terms.

Online: The state in which a computer is connected to another computer or server

via a network. A computer communicating with another computer.

Origination site: The location from which a teleconference originates.

Podcast: A method of publishing audio files or digital recordings to the internet for

download and/or playback on mobile devices and personal computers. The generally

accepted definition has expanded to include video as well (Vidcast or Vodcast.)

Real-time communication: Communication in which information is received at (or

nearly at) the instant it's sent. Real-time communication is a characteristic of

synchronous learning.

Receive site: A location that can receive transmissions from another site for

distance learning.

Self-paced learning: An offering in which the learner determines the pace and

timing of content delivery.

Synchronous learning: A real-time, instructor-led online learning event in which all

participants are logged on at the same time and communicate directly with each

other. In this virtual classroom setting, the instructor maintains control of the class,

with the ability to "call on" participants. In most platforms, students and teachers

can use a whiteboard to see work in progress and share knowledge. Interaction may

also occur via audio- or videoconferencing, Internet telephony, or two-way live

broadcasts.

DISTANCE LEARNING TERMINOLOGY: A WORKING LIST (Part 3 of 5)

Source: Continuing Legal Education Regulators Association DISTANCE LEARNING TERMINOLOGY: A WORKING LIST. Originally Prepared by Kristen Hamilton, DE CLE / Source: ASTD E-Learning Glossary www.learningcircuits.org/glossary.html Updated January, 2007.

The information that follows comes directly from the resource cited above. It is being reprinted as a means to provide common-ground as we use terminology on campuses and in conversation speaking about online or hybrid learning. This terminology working list will be printed in five posts this week whereby each post will include seven terms.

Fully interactive video (two-way interactive video): Two sites interacting with

audio and video.

ILT (instructor-led training): Usually refers to traditional classroom training, in

which an instructor teaches a course to a room of learners. The term is used

synonymously with on-site training and classroom training.

Internet-based training: Training delivered primarily by TCP/IP network

technologies such as email, newsgroups, proprietary applications, and so forth.

Although the term is often used synonymously with Web-based training, Internetbased

training is not necessarily delivered over the World Wide Web, and may not

use the HTTP and HTML technologies that make Web-based training possible.

Microwave: Electromagnetic waves that travel in a straight line and are used to and

from satellites and for short distances up to 30 miles.

Modular: E-learning that's made up of standardized units that can be separated

from each other and rearranged or reused.

Multicasting: The transmission of information to more than one recipient. For

example, sending an email message to a list of people. Teleconferencing and

videoconferencing can also use multicasting.

Multimedia: Encompasses interactive text, images, sound, and color. Multimedia

can be anything from a simple PowerPoint slide slow to a complex interactive

simulation.

DISTANCE LEARNING TERMINOLOGY: A WORKING LIST (Part 2 of 5)

Source: Continuing Legal Education Regulators Association DISTANCE LEARNING TERMINOLOGY: A WORKING LIST. Originally Prepared by Kristen Hamilton, DE CLE / Source: ASTD E-Learning Glossary www.learningcircuits.org/glossary.html Updated January, 2007.

The information that follows comes directly from the resource cited above. It is being reprinted as a means to provide common-ground as we use terminology on campuses and in conversation speaking about online or hybrid learning. This terminology working list will be printed in five posts this week whereby each post will include seven terms.

CoD (Content on demand): Delivery of an offering, packaged in a media format,

anywhere, anytime via a network. Variants include audio on demand and video on

demand.

Connect time: The amount of time that a terminal or computer has been logged on

to a computer or server for a particular session.

Cookie: Information stored on a user's computer after he or she visits a Website.

The cookie tracks data about that user but can be disabled in the browser.

Delivery: Any method of transferring content to learners, including instructor-led

training, Web-based training, CD-ROM, books, and more.

Discussion boards: Forums on the Internet or an intranet where users can post

messages for others to read.

Distance Learning: Educational situation in which the instructor and students are

separated by time, location, or both. Education or training courses are delivered to

remote locations via synchronous or asynchronous means of instruction, including

written correspondence, text, graphics, audio- and videotape, CD-ROM, online

learning, audio- and videoconferencing, interactive TV, and FAX.

End user: The person for whom a particular technology is designed; the individual

who uses the technology for its designated purpose. In distance learning, the end

user is usually the student.

DISTANCE LEARNING TERMINOLOGY: A WORKING LIST (Part 1 of 5)

Source: Continuing Legal Education Regulators Association DISTANCE LEARNING TERMINOLOGY: A WORKING LIST. Originally Prepared by Kristen Hamilton, DE CLE / Source: ASTD E-Learning Glossary www.learningcircuits.org/glossary.html Updated January, 2007.

The information that follows comes directly from the resource cited above. It is being reprinted as a means to provide common-ground as we use terminology on campuses and in conversation speaking about online or hybrid learning. This terminology working list will be printed in five posts this week whereby each post will include seven terms.

Asynchronous learning: Learning in which interaction between instructors and

students occurs intermittently with a time delay. Examples are self-paced courses

taken via the Internet or CD-ROM, Q&A mentoring, online discussion groups, and

email.

Audioconferencing: Voice-only connection of more than two sites using standard

telephone lines.

BBS (bulletin board system): An online community run on a host computer that

users can dial or log into in order to post messages on public discussion boards, send

and receive email, chat with other users, and upload and download files.

Blended Learning: Learning, training or educational activities where distance

learning, in its various forms, is combined with more traditional forms of training

such as “classroom” or in person training.

CBL (computer-based learning): An umbrella term for the use of computers in

both instruction and management of the teaching and learning process.

CD-ROM (compact disc read-only memory or compact disc read-only media):

A computer storage medium similar to the audio CD that can hold more than 600

megabytes of read-only digital information.

Chat room: A virtual meeting space on the Internet, an intranet, or other network,

used for real-time text discussions. Unlike one-to-one instant messenger applications,

chat rooms enable conversations among multiple people at once.

Faculty Fair Use & Copyright Tools for On-Line Learning

When Faculty wish to use material that may be protected under copyright law for an online course, here are some steps to help assure that the use will not violate copyright law.

Two basic questions are (1) do I need permission to use this material? and (2) if so, how do I get it?

Do I need permission? One does not need permission for a work for use in an online course if it is in the “public domain” or if it’s a legally permitted “fair use.” Let’s explore these one at a time:

Public domain includes works created before copyright laws (e.g., the works of Shakespeare), works for which copyright has expired (Huckleberry Finn) and many other works defined by law as being in the public domain and usable without any permission. For a public domain checklist, go to the UDC OGC website and click on “Copyright.”

Fair use is not easily defined, and there are no precise legal rules. Whether a use is permitted as a fair use depends on all the circumstances. Faculty are strongly encouraged to fully exercise their fair use rights but should do so in consultation with the Office of General Counsel in order to assure UDC representation should a copyright infringement claim arise from an attempted fair use.

The factors considered in fair use are the purpose and character of the use; the nature of the copyrighted work; the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work (measured both quantitatively and qualitatively); and the effect of the use upon the potential market or for value of the copyrighted work.

Each time an original work is copied, the copier should perform a reasoned analysis of the action using the four factors enumerated above from the fair use doctrine expressed in the 1976 Copyright Act. If a claim of copyright infringement is made, it is that reasoned analysis which must be articulated as your defense against the charge of infringement.

A helpful chart in determining fair use is available online.

How do I get permission? If a proposed use is determined not to be in the public domain and not to be a fair use, then permission from the copyright holder must be obtained. More information about how to obtain such permission is available from UDC OGC’s website.

Note that there are other more specialized rules that may apply to photocopied sets of materials for students in the classroom (“coursepacks”) or for other classroom use.

Specialized rules apply to use of movies or other audiovisual works in the classroom or elsewhere on campus. Exceptions that may permit a movie to be shown in a face-to-face teaching activity in the classroom do not apply to using the same movie in an online course. Few movies are in the public domain.

Per one recognized expert,[i] when you buy, rent, or borrow a DVD or videotape of a movie (or any other audiovisual work) made by someone else, you normally obtain only the copy, and not the underlying copyright rights to the movie. You certainly are free to watch the movie yourself, but, beyond that, your rights are quite limited by law. In particular, you do not have the right to show the movie to “the public.” In most cases, doing that requires a separate “public performance” license from the copyright owner.

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[i] Steve McDonald, General Counsel, Rhode Island School of Design.

FERPA Guidelines for Online, Hybrid and Web-Facilitated Courses

Below, please find some tips to guide instruction while being mindful of FERPA as it pertains to online instruction. Online learning at the University of the District of Columbia is to be presented using the Blackboard learning management portal. Use of any other commercial online vendors and internet repositories by UDC faculty (full-time or adjunct) to capture UDC student information and course records are a violation of university guidelines and may infringe on student FERPA rights.

Students enrolled in courses with online components and distance education courses are covered by FERPA and protected from release of educational material and private student information. Only the registered student may have access to their educational materials such as grades and course work.

Students must be permitted to opt out of having data shared with other students, and complete agreements or waivers of privacy rights granted by FERPA regarding electronic submissions.

It is a FERPA violation to notify students of grades via e-mail, or publically post grades by student's name, student number, or social security number. Use of the Blackboard grade center will eliminate FERPA grade posting violations.

Hidden Treasures: Electronic Books at UDC, part 2

Part one of this feature mentioned that over 120,000 electronic books are available to UDC faculty and students. These are found in various collections (all the separate providers are listed in our A to Z Resource List but how can library users discover electronic books as part of their normal research process and once they have discovered a book, how is it accessed?

Discovery: Whatever the collection, records for these books sit in our online catalog, side by side with records for print books. You can also use the Journals & Electronic Books search on our LRD website or you can search directly at each provider’s website.

Remember, however, that each time you choose to search at the provider’s website, you are only seeing a fraction of the titles available at UDC. There are benefits, though – such as being able to search full-text – that are only available at providers’ websites. So take advantage of these powerful features, but do step back to get the big picture by visiting our online catalog and seeing all that is available to you.

The EBSCO ebooks will soon be moving to the EBSCOhost platform, exactly the same as is currently used for popular databases such as Academic Search Premier, Business Source Elite, and Education Research Complete. Patrons will be able to search the full text of multiple resources simultaneously – for example, journal articles in Education Research Complete plus EBSCO electronic books.

Access: Most providers have an intermediary page with catalog information (author and publication information and summary). A link to “view book” will then go directly to the full text. In most cases, each provider has its own reader software. To take full advantage of some features, some providers (such as Ebrary) require the installation of a browser plug-in. If you have questions about accessing electronic books, please contact a UDC librarian. The linked table of contents allows you to move quickly to the sections you need and a search box lets you find specific words or phrases. Previous/next buttons turn pages for you and you can jump immediately to any page by typing in the number. Taking notes and highlighting generally requires the creation of a free personalized user account, but other features such as looking up words in a dictionary do not.

Electronic books are just one part of our growing digital library. Remember that our collection at LRD is really much, much larger than what can be seen on the shelves. We will continue to add more and more in this area not only because electronic publications can be made available quicker, but also because some publishers have discontinued their print editions. In every subject area, electronic books may well be more up-to-date than what we have in our print collection, so be sure to check here first – and come back often because we are constantly adding more!

Hidden Treasures: Electronic Books at UDC, part 1

The UDC Learning Resources Division has over 120,000 electronic book titles available. This figure represents the equivalent of about 25% of our print collection – and yet not a single one of these will be seen on our shelves! What kinds of books does this include? What are the benefits compared to a print book? How can you find and use them? These questions will be answered here in a two-part feature.

First, some definitions: these electronic books are viewable on your computer screen via a web browser. In many cases, they are not downloadable and must be read online through a live Internet connection. Like other LRD electronic resources, they are accessible for UDC users from anywhere with the Internet. In the future, we may see the option of checking out books from these collections onto personal e-readers (Nook, Kindle, iPad, etc.). If this is something that interests you, please contact me.

Benefits: Why are we collecting more and more electronic books? We do this so that faculty and students have improved access to important resources. Traditional print books can only be checked out during library hours and some titles (such as reference books) cannot leave the library at all. With an Internet connection and your activated UDC library card, our electronic books are available anywhere, anytime.

Finding information inside books is also easier. Print books might contain a table of contents and a single index of selected terms. With electronic books, you can search the complete full-text – and at the provider’s website you can search full-text across that collection, meaning in all the e-books we hold from that provider. In some ways it’s like having one single index that covers thousands of books. When you search, you won’t have to go to the page and hunt for where your term appears. Your search term will be highlighted and you can easily go to the previous and next occurrence of it in the book.

Electronic books have other advantages, too. Visually impaired patrons may benefit from the text-to-speech capability that e-books provide.

Collections: UDC has electronic books from many providers: Ebrary, EBSCO (formerly NetLibrary), Gale, Project Gutenberg, and more. Virtually every subject area is represented. We also have multi-volume reference works such as The Oxford English Dictionary  and Encyclopedia Britannica and reference suites from CQ Press and Salem Press. The powerful Credo Reference is a digital library of over 500 reference works, all cross-searchable.

Electronic books are added frequently, and sometimes unexpectedly. Just a few days ago, the National Academies Press  (a previous blog) made all of their publications – over 4,000 titles – freely available as downloadable PDF documents. With just a flick of a switch, these materials were all added to the UDC library. We also add the home page of the collections to our A to Z Resource List.

Now that you are aware of the size and scope of our electronic book holdings, you will want to check in next week when we cover how to discover and access these materials.

Extreme Makeover Essay Edition

Writing papers and doing research can be one of the hardest tasks for students to master.  Because it is difficult many students balk at the task. 
This is unfortunate because writing and research are two skills that are mastered more easily when learned through repetition.

The Academic Support Center and the Learning Resources Division has worked jointly since last semester to offer workshops for students that focus on the
individual skills necessary for completing research papers.

During the first summer session, ASC-LRD is offering workshops that target five core areas: Effective Note Taking; Research Basics; Editing Drafts;
Citations.

Encourage your students to attend!!

Workshop Descriptions

Creating a Blueprint: Academic Advisor Mark Rivera will go over strategies for effective note taking.

Laying the Foundation: Librarian Rachel Jorgensen will review research basics, including identifying sources and performing database searches.

Landscaping: ASC Coordinator Juana Hernandez will give tips on editing drafts.

Contracting Out: Rachel Jorgensen will review citation rules and formatting works cited and reference pages.

Schedule of Workshops
June 8, 12:30 PM: Creating a Blueprint, E-lab 105, bldg 41 and Laying the Foundation, Suite B-103, bldg 32.

June 8, 3:00 PM: Landscaping, Suite B-103, bldg 32.

June 14, 12:30 PM: Landscaping, Suite B-103, bldg 32.

June 14, 3:00 PM: Contracting Out, E-lab 105, bldg 41.

June 15, 12:30 PM: Contracting Out, Suite B-103, bldg 32.

June 15, 3:00 PM: Landscaping, Suite B-103, bldg 32.

Questions?  Contact Prof. Rachel Jorgensen, 202-274-6116

National Academies Press Puts All 4,000 Books Online at No Charge

On June 2, the National Academies Press announced that it would make available its entire PDF catalog of books for free. These files are accessible for download by anyone. In case you do not know, the National Academies Press is the publishing arm of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council. It primarily publishes books and reports of interest and use by scientists, educators, and policy makers.

The executive Director, Ms. Barbara Kline Pope explained in an interview that many of the titles were previously available, but now everything is free for download. Technology has lowered the costs associated with such efforts whereby helping the press advance its mission of getting information, research and data into the hands of those who may benefit.

Source: http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/free-for-all-national-academies-press-puts-all-4000-books-online-at-no-charge/31582?sid=pm&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en

Eight Ways to Increase Social Presence in Your Online Classes

By: Hong Wang, PhD., previously published in Online Education. February 23, 2010., Volume 2; No. 8.

Having a social presence in online and distance education is very important. Dr. Hong Wang offers the following eight ideas to faculty as a means to increase social presence in online teaching.

A welcome letter. It is helpful to send a welcome letter to your students or post it on the online course site at the beginning of the semester. This will make online learners feel welcome and sense the instructor’s virtual presence from the very beginning of the course.

A personalized introduction. As instructors, we all know that it is important to hold students’ attention in the first class, and this can be accomplished through many techniques such as an interesting teaser, an overview of a well-planned course, a display of a fun and humorous personality, and more.

Together with a paragraph introducing yourself, it would be nice to add a still image, a hyperlink to a home page if you have one, an audio clip, or a video clip to add a human touch to the online classroom.

Make good use of email. Email can be used in three ways in online teaching: class email, group email, and individual email. Class email is “email broadcast” according to Horton (2000). It is used for important announcements such as schedule changes or correcting misunderstandings or misconceptions. Group email can be used to provide students ideas, guidance, or feedback on group projects. Individual email can be used for many situations such as answering individual questions, providing feedback on assignments, motivating students to learn, and following up with students for special situations.

Use course announcements frequently. Making announcements in a Web-based course is another way to connect with the students. I have been trying to post one to four messages each week, depending on what and whom I teach.

Take advantage of the discussion board. Most online instructors use the discussion board, but not all of us are active in participation. It is important to get involved in the discussion and engaged in the conversation, commenting on students’ posts and guiding their learning. We continue to explore how to use discussions effectively. The ways I have tried include both group and class discussions; having a group leader facilitate the group discussion; summarizing the group discussion; and sharing with the rest of the class, using a rubric to grade discussions.

Use synchronous communication to enhance social presence. Immediacy is a critical element in social presence, and communication in real time often enhances social presence when handled well.

Try Web 2.0 tools for fun and collaboration. I tried blogs for a couple of classes, and I’ve found students enjoyed it. They had fun and a sense of achievement in creating their own blogs. Through the blog creation and communication, there was more interaction between students as well as between the students and me. Some of them maintain the blog and keep communicating with me and other students even after the completion of my course.

A concluding remark and best-wishes statement. After the final exam, final project, or other type of final learning assessment at the end of the semester, always remember to send all students an email or a class announcement. This message functions as a conclusion of the class. From a welcome letter to a wrapping-up best-wishes statement, you as an instructor show your social presence at both the beginning and the end of the class.

References

Horton, W. (2000). Designing web-based training. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Hong Wang is the director of the Center for Teaching Excellence and Learning Technologies at Fort Hays State University.