Several students and one faculty member from the IS program attended the 2010 World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education in Orlando, FL.Visit http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/ for more information.
Dr. Vanessa Dennen was an invited speaker and presented on lessons learned from a community of bloggers. The presentation title was Online Communities and Professional Development Narratives: What Can We Learn from Bloggers? Dr. Dennen's presentation was recorded and can be viewed here.
This presentation addresses what seemingly casual bloggers who write in a diaristic format – often dismissed as not serious or wasting time – can teach the rest of us about building an online community and engaging in professional development. Data and anecdotes from three ethnographic studies of diaristic blogging communities will be shared with a focus on explaining how these communities benefit their participants and what role narratives play in these benefits. Topics covered include community purpose and norms, informal learning, online-offline knowledge brokering, knowledge management, cognitive apprenticeship, and mentoring. Practical implications will be shared for those looking to create online professional development and/or knowledge sharing communities.
Dr. Dennen also had two other presentations with students:
Podcast Pedagogy: Message Design, Motivation, and Learning by Vanessa Dennen and Jennifer Myers
Abstract:
In this study, we contrast two different message designs for equivalent content podcasts. Specifically, we test whether the message design has an effect on student perceptions of the narrator’s expertise, the student’s motivation, and learning outcomes. The first message design is based on the cognitive information processing model of learning and presents the content in an organized, outlined manner. The second message design is based on the cognitive apprenticeship model and makes use of a personal narrative. Findings show that students considered the omniscient narrator more expert than the one sharing a personal narrative, but felt more confident when listening to the personal narrative. There were no significant differences in learning outcomes.
Raise Your Hand If You Wanna Speak: Navigating Turn-taking in a Webex Course by Christie Suggs, Jennifer Myers, and Vanessa Dennen
Abstract:
With the increase in synchronous distance courses being offered and new rules for participation being developed in response to the new learning environments, we examined how turn-taking in the online, multi-modal, technology-mediated classroom took place. Understanding how effective turn-taking takes place in this environment can assist online instructors with course facilitation and reduce extraneous cognitive load. We found that the turn-taking rules discussed by Sacks et al (1974) were still relevant within the audio portion of the synchronous class. However, these rules were not apparent in the chat portion of the class.
Tatyana Pashnyak also presented at the conference.
The Effects of Online Course Orientation Quiz on Student-Instructor Communication Practices by Tatyana Pashnyak
Abstract:
One of the main components of an effective online teaching is communicating course expectations to students (Graham et al., 2001; Ludwig-Hartman & Dunlap, 2003; Mupinga, Nora, & Yaw, 2006; Brinkerhoff & Koroghlanian, 2007; Haley & Heise, 2008). However, simply providing information does not guarantee that students will review course expectations. As a result, students often ask questions that are already provided in the course syllabus, thus overwhelming their instructors with unnecessary emails and phone calls. One promising method to ensure that students review the course syllabus is a required successful completion of orientation quiz, based on the course syllabus, prior to being allowed to access any course assignments. Five online community college courses, for a total of 120 students, were chosen for this pilot study. Based on preliminary findings, the number of unnecessary contacts has been reduced by approximately 80% while the number of other contacts remained the same.
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