so I finally started to put my VLE together and I found word press very easy. It was logical, easy to navigate and so straight forward to add links, embed codes, upload word documents & Power Points.
I started making a list of the resources I wanted to work with (as shown below), and set out creating the tailored packaged VLE. 1. Class marker 2.Pinterest 3. Quizlet 4. Todays meet 5. Facebook 6. Youtube 7. PowerPoint 8. polldaddy 9.Wikihow 10. Ted talks.11. thinklink 12.audioboom
For the sake of the blog I will go through a few of the application in a little details so in future if anyone is interested they can see the benefits and maybe challenges of said applications I will also include the links to the applications within the title. The first I came across was poll daddy, mainly because it is already available within the word Press site, however I don't feel it adds any value to the overall experience of the VLE, I can see the benefit of having the application for maybe different subject areas, but I don't feel it suited my area very well. All the same I did add some of the surveys and polls mainly for the sake of it, as they do break up the page well and provide a good way on completing a section. Poll daddy was easy to use and embed due to the fact it is an application within word press so was fit for purpose so to say.
The next application I started to work with was Todays Meet, the main reason why I have added this to my VLE is it is so easy and simple not only to set up but for the users to log on and start engaging straight away. I have used it within my teaching practise and found the students engaged very well. It lends it's self well to engaging the students and making the site interactive, which was an important issue for me. I also used Facebook as an application within my VLE, this was again for ease of use and interactivity for the students. Dewey (2014) stated that "Facebook is not a physical country,” MacKinnon wrote at the time, “but with 900 million users, its ‘population’ comes third after China and India" how then can I as an educator ignore the power that Facebook has? I don't think I can, So Facebook was added. It was a debate on to have a class account or a class page? I decided on page, this is still very interactive and they are able to post and reply as and when they want. It will be a great tool so use week on week to provide a way of feedback not only to me but also to other users. Plus Facebook is user friendly and easy to access from any type of mobile technology.
Power Point has become one of the most valuable tools I have in my teaching practise box and has such has become a key element with my VLE. I have made audio PowerPoint's so the users are able to gain a lecture or chalk and talk style experience regarding the concepts under investigation. I find PowerPoint easy to use and embed and simple for users to open and engage with. Along side the audio PowerPoints I applied the use of Ted Talks, I personally love Ted Talks and find then very useful to provide key ideas to students, a powerful talk and change anyone's outlook and most Ted Talks are very professional, they are easy to embed and again very easy to access for the users or students. Along the same thread was the application Audio Boom it enables you to share audio content online or on other applications for example twitter or word press, this has I have found was not easy, the embed code was difficult to locate and then use, I finally gave up on embedding a sound clip as it used up to much valuable time, but I will be revisiting this in future as I feel (as a dyslexic) it is a valuable tool for both educator and student.
Pinterest is a good application and I feel better suited to some subjects than others, I don't connect with it fully, I can the uses for it and I have added it to the VLE for the user to access and add pins if they wish, thus making the VLE interactive, Pinterest is a virtual inspiration board and while I do use in my personal life I have found it rather lacking for educational purposes. It is easy to use and very simple to create a board so users should have no difficulties with it. The use of YouTube upon the VLE was also considered and I felt it added something valuable to the learners who are visual, I was able to source some very good video clips and provide resources for the concepts under investigation from a different perspective. All in all the resources I have chosen for the VLE I felt were of great value and use to the users, they enabled me to provide greater application of knowledge but through a means that most would not associate with learning and I think making learning fun and interesting is vital.
About Me
- Sarah
- I am plain spoken and say what I see, this gets me into a lot of trouble, I am kind and generous beyond normal sometimes and care deeply about my environment and world, my two sons keep me busy and focused most of the time and I have a very busy social network filled with some of the most amazing people possible. I am a student who wishes to teach other adults one day and hope to be successful in transforming individuals one at a time. I am a bahai and a very spiritual being.
Tuesday 24 February 2015
Thursday 19 February 2015
The choice of resources for a VLE
So I compared the sessions I have planned on the VLE to the ones I taught face to face and most of the resources could be adapted. The use of Power Points to frame the sessions could easily cross over to the VLE, I simple added audio and spoke to the audience as I would have in any session. I could also provide reflective exercises which had been developed for the use in seminars (face to face), again by adding audio and speaking to the students on a chalk and talk teaching method. But this is not Blended learning, I needed to think outside of the box so I could provide that collaborative environment which is key to learning. Another issue I am faced with, is how to I has the educator asses the IT skills of those using the VLE, do I assume they all have good, current skills or do I assume they are all novices? The answer to this question directly affects the types of resources I display for the students.
I view the VLE as a online classroom and has such a community (of sort), any community holds shared goals and in regards to the VLE I am creating the shared goal would be learning. so I felt it was important to place some shared goals and objectives upon the VLE and leave a space for the students to add their own, thus empowering the students to become responsible for their own learning. Giving the students the sense of "we are all in this together" provides a starting point for the collaboration which is required for their learning success (Paloff &Pratt, 2007). I don't want my VLE to be a static place where I dump stuff and hope people see it. I must think long and hard about how to get the students to interact and collaborate.
So back to the reflexive exercises, I wanted a way to get the students to complete each session and exercise and then have the opportunity to connect with each other and myself in regards to the material covered. I felt using platforms such as Facebook and twitter and Google plus would be successful ways to open the channels of communication and so linked these to the VLE. I did however also add some ground or housekeeping rules for the use of these Social media sites within the VLE.
The students have therefore been given even more opportunity to interact and improve the learning outcomes. I feel knowledge is activated was the student engages with the class and not just an interaction between the materials and self.
references
Conrad, R. &. D. L., 2004. Engaging
the Online Learner: Activities and Resources for Creative Instruction. San
Francisco: Wiley.
Paloff, R. &.
P. K., 2007. Building Online Learning. 2nd ed. San Francisco: John
Wiley & Sons,.
My own VLE
How using a VLE has been so far?
Now having been an undergraduate using a VLE for the last three years I have been able to see the system from both sides, It was a valuable tool for me to access lecture slides, resources, and even grades, but I never witnessed the system being interactive. Thus I am now from the flip side of the coin scratching my head for ways to make it interactive as the educator. I have been lucky enough to been given an opportunity to work upon a blended learning program or two, and this has given me greater insight into how not to use the system from my own experiences.
It seemed like a dumping ground for sure when I was accessing it, but I must admit I am unsure if I would have engaged with it in any other way.
It seemed like a dumping ground for sure when I was accessing it, but I must admit I am unsure if I would have engaged with it in any other way.
This is the kind of pages upon the VLE (Moodle) which the university of Wales Trinity st David (UWTSD) had when I was an undergraduate. It was useful for resources but not much interactivity and now I am working on a module on Moodle myself I too struggle to make it interactive.
You can see here the use of audio PowerPoint so the students get a similar lecture experience, I have also created reflective exercises for the students to engage in and resources for them to access, Apart from checking who has signed in and emailing those who haven't, I have very little control over the students and who engages with the resources or not. The more independent learners all engage and this is evident in the assessments they are producing. I have offered online tutorial support on many occasions but they have been declined or no shows, however interestingly when I offered face to face support they all attended and it was a success. One of the benefits of the VLE is that the sources are available long after the sessions have been completed and the students are able to re access as and when they please. I do so wish I had this facility when I was doing my degree.
The difference with the VLE is it is not supporting the face to face session but is a tool which is used to replace it. Newland (2014) make reference to the fact that students feel the use of a VLE is successful as a repository for materials and resources, but it is clear that's students do not feel the VLE could replace contact with tutors. This supports my experience so far using the Moodle system for the blended learning program.
Personalised learning using a VLE
So how can a VLE impact upon each and every student who engages with it? Surely every student while accessing the same resources will take different things away from the experience. The whole idea of higher education is that the student experience while similar to that of others should be very subjective.
So while the VLE is a one size fits all platform, it is possible to for the student to tailor the resources for their own needs.
VLEs first developed from a need by users to bring together a range of tools in one product to support learning. At first, this idea of a ‘one stop shop’ was fine but as technology developed, the new approach to a VLE has seen some changes such as a "personalised learning environment (PLE)".
Chalk (2010) discussed in their recent paper how the 'one size' of approach to the use of the VLE will not fit the needs of all the students. This then become another consideration for me during my designing stage. It became evident that I needed to provide a good range of varied curriculum choices and varied tasks so each student was able to tailor the program in a way which suited their own learning styles. This was achieved using presentations, ted talks, links to online journals, reflexives exercises, quizzes and crosswords, and as previously mentioned the social networking tools such as face book and twitter.
Britain & Liber (2004) argued that there is a strong link between the way a VLE is designed and the way it is typically used. Therefore it is important to make sure the VLE I create is fit for purpose. This is when I feel it is important to have strong objectives for the course and the resources that will be placed within the VLE. In the case of the stress management course I feel the resources (while creative) fit the students who maybe more academic rather than those who are practical. Even though practical exercises are provided, I have no real evidence that the students are engaging with them. The implementation of social media should help with this issue, and using resources such as todays meet and Google hangouts will enable the students to be reactive to the exercise provided.
It then could be said that the VLE provides an opportunity for students to have a personalised learning experience from using the VLE and be empowered throughout their own learning experiences. I feel while it is important for the educator to be reflective in their practise in using such technology I also feel it would be wise to encourage the learners to also be reflective regarding their own learning, and having tools such as comments boxes enables the student to think and reflect upon anything they wish to add.
References
So while the VLE is a one size fits all platform, it is possible to for the student to tailor the resources for their own needs.
VLEs first developed from a need by users to bring together a range of tools in one product to support learning. At first, this idea of a ‘one stop shop’ was fine but as technology developed, the new approach to a VLE has seen some changes such as a "personalised learning environment (PLE)".
Chalk (2010) discussed in their recent paper how the 'one size' of approach to the use of the VLE will not fit the needs of all the students. This then become another consideration for me during my designing stage. It became evident that I needed to provide a good range of varied curriculum choices and varied tasks so each student was able to tailor the program in a way which suited their own learning styles. This was achieved using presentations, ted talks, links to online journals, reflexives exercises, quizzes and crosswords, and as previously mentioned the social networking tools such as face book and twitter.
Britain & Liber (2004) argued that there is a strong link between the way a VLE is designed and the way it is typically used. Therefore it is important to make sure the VLE I create is fit for purpose. This is when I feel it is important to have strong objectives for the course and the resources that will be placed within the VLE. In the case of the stress management course I feel the resources (while creative) fit the students who maybe more academic rather than those who are practical. Even though practical exercises are provided, I have no real evidence that the students are engaging with them. The implementation of social media should help with this issue, and using resources such as todays meet and Google hangouts will enable the students to be reactive to the exercise provided.
It then could be said that the VLE provides an opportunity for students to have a personalised learning experience from using the VLE and be empowered throughout their own learning experiences. I feel while it is important for the educator to be reflective in their practise in using such technology I also feel it would be wise to encourage the learners to also be reflective regarding their own learning, and having tools such as comments boxes enables the student to think and reflect upon anything they wish to add.
References
Chalke, J., 2010.
Consideration of the uses of e-learning: Does one size fit all?. Int. J. of
Information and Operations Management Education, 3(4), pp. 368-381.
Britain, S. &. l. O., 2004. A Framework for the Pedagogical Evaluation of Elearning, london: Bolton University. Accessed 23/02/2015, Available from http://www.pgce.soton.ac.uk/IT/Schools&Comp/VLEusage/VLEpedagogy.pdf
WHY do we need a VLE?
Many years ago when I was a student the thought of a virtual learning environment (VLE) was the dream of sci-fi fans, but now I find myself as a trainee educator trying to devise and create an environment for students to utilise so to enhance their educational experience. I have seen many different versions of VLE and many ways in which I think it doesn't work. Certain educational establishments see it as simply a dumping ground for information for the students to access as and when, but for me this kind of environment would not translate well into a class room so should not be acceptable as an online version either.
It would be unheard of to throw lots of information at students and not give them time to respond or reflect upon what they had just learnt. Not giving the students the opportunity to actively engage in the topics or concepts under investigation could be detrimental to their learning outcomes, but when it comes to online courses this is general thought of as good practise (O'learly,2015). This may be due to the fact training is an issue and the previous generation are nervous to use new technology or software, but with a new generation using the net for everything it seems only reasonable to expect this will be the same for education.
Every educational establishment should now be considering the use of an interactive VLE in the lesson planning, the setting of homework, for use within assignments or assessments, and for peer feedback at the very least. There are many advantages for the use of a VLE such as ease of access for both the educator and student, but as I have mentioned it can also become a dumping ground which has no or very little interaction between the student and the teacher. In the case of the former is it the best way to provide education for the less confident student?
Another advantage it could be said is that if offers a way for educator to provide flexible support without a set time or place in which the students are able to communicate. Communication can open up an infinite number of channels in the format of forums, discussion threads, polls, surveys and instant feedback either as a group or individually, the teacher is also able to link to outside sources such as journals, you tube, or any other electronic sources, (bbc, 2015). The VLE can in fact become a dynamic resource hub for the students (dynamic not dumping is the key here), the internet has a infinite storage space and this make any VLE a huge resource for students, examples of resources could be Power Points, word documents, worksheets, revision notes, study skills, homework, all of which can be shared and accessed by the students. The tools can be very powerful to engage even the most disengaged students. I have added a small video on what a VLE looks like just in case anyone has been living in a cave for the last ten years.
.
It would be unheard of to throw lots of information at students and not give them time to respond or reflect upon what they had just learnt. Not giving the students the opportunity to actively engage in the topics or concepts under investigation could be detrimental to their learning outcomes, but when it comes to online courses this is general thought of as good practise (O'learly,2015). This may be due to the fact training is an issue and the previous generation are nervous to use new technology or software, but with a new generation using the net for everything it seems only reasonable to expect this will be the same for education.
Every educational establishment should now be considering the use of an interactive VLE in the lesson planning, the setting of homework, for use within assignments or assessments, and for peer feedback at the very least. There are many advantages for the use of a VLE such as ease of access for both the educator and student, but as I have mentioned it can also become a dumping ground which has no or very little interaction between the student and the teacher. In the case of the former is it the best way to provide education for the less confident student?
Another advantage it could be said is that if offers a way for educator to provide flexible support without a set time or place in which the students are able to communicate. Communication can open up an infinite number of channels in the format of forums, discussion threads, polls, surveys and instant feedback either as a group or individually, the teacher is also able to link to outside sources such as journals, you tube, or any other electronic sources, (bbc, 2015). The VLE can in fact become a dynamic resource hub for the students (dynamic not dumping is the key here), the internet has a infinite storage space and this make any VLE a huge resource for students, examples of resources could be Power Points, word documents, worksheets, revision notes, study skills, homework, all of which can be shared and accessed by the students. The tools can be very powerful to engage even the most disengaged students. I have added a small video on what a VLE looks like just in case anyone has been living in a cave for the last ten years.
Monday 9 February 2015
Confused.com
Create a Visual Learning Environment (VLE) sounds easy right? Whats a V L E
Wrong, I am actually laying in bed and night thinking over ways to do it in my head, I have books on the subject and the more I read, the more confused I feel. How to make it interactive? I have no clue, I feel very much out of my depth with it all, and I am working on a blended learning program as we speak. So ok I need to think of some ways to devise what needs to be on my VLE so I came up with some questions.
Resources :
Now these ideas were generated through a session within the program I am studying on, but none the less they are important questions that needed to be asked. I added a few of my own for example shall I provide a online common room for the students to socialise in? should I allocate some marks for the contributions made upon the forums and online tutorials to make sure the students are actually attending week after week (and not cramming all at the last minute). How do I plan on assessing the online activity that occurs? and should I provide an abundance of work or stagger it work after week? All of which I am not sure what the answer is.... the main one I think I need to come from though is what type of Blend am I going for? It is all very good mixing things up but if you don't get the blend right then what would be the point... How many bad tasting coffee blends have you come across? I have sampled a few, so the essence of my biggest worry is how do I know I have the right blend for the students?
Wrong, I am actually laying in bed and night thinking over ways to do it in my head, I have books on the subject and the more I read, the more confused I feel. How to make it interactive? I have no clue, I feel very much out of my depth with it all, and I am working on a blended learning program as we speak. So ok I need to think of some ways to devise what needs to be on my VLE so I came up with some questions.
- What is the name of your course? How long does it run for?
The course is an introduction to stress management and runs for 10 weeks. It will cover a all aspects of stress and ways to combat it.
How many students? The course is aimed at roughly 10-15 students, who are taking part in a blending learning program for credits for their undergraduate degree.
- Length of course : one hour online per week with teaching resources and two hours self directed study and one hour working through the reflective exercises provided.
- What age range? All adult learners so above 18 to 90
- Skill level : No previous skill required.
- Submission dates? Final assessment at end of course, however the weekly sessions will require that the students have completed the session previously, so each week a small to assessment on what they learnt so far.
- How will you asses the work? The course will be assessed using a final piece of work which will be submitted electronically, but will also be assessed week after week.
- How interactive would the course be? The course would be very interactive, with video, audio, image sharing with each other and the course tutor. Each session would start with students discussing how they have progressed since the week before and sharing their experiences of the course so far. This can be done via Skype, or using discussion forums such as TodaysMeet. The course content will need to be engaging and interesting to keep students motivated and focused. Student led learning will be an integral part of the course, so interactivity is a crucial element. Students will want to develop the skills they feel need working on, so they will need to be able to direct their own learning to some extent.
Resources :
Skype
Pinterest
TodaysMeet
Podcast - Overcast is rated highly
Online forums via the VLE
Video casts : You tube uploads
Pinterest is great.
Audio PP
Quizlet
Google plus as a sharing platform.
Onedrive for sharing of ideas and work completed.
the actual VLE
Now these ideas were generated through a session within the program I am studying on, but none the less they are important questions that needed to be asked. I added a few of my own for example shall I provide a online common room for the students to socialise in? should I allocate some marks for the contributions made upon the forums and online tutorials to make sure the students are actually attending week after week (and not cramming all at the last minute). How do I plan on assessing the online activity that occurs? and should I provide an abundance of work or stagger it work after week? All of which I am not sure what the answer is.... the main one I think I need to come from though is what type of Blend am I going for? It is all very good mixing things up but if you don't get the blend right then what would be the point... How many bad tasting coffee blends have you come across? I have sampled a few, so the essence of my biggest worry is how do I know I have the right blend for the students?
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