News & Notes on Teaching and Learning with Technology
Crystal Nielsen, Editor
November 2010

Contents

Forum: Student Thoughts on Online Course Design
Is Your Online Course Award-Worthy?
ANGEL Server Hardware Improved
TurnItIn Unveils New Website

ANGEL Tips and Tricks
- Avoiding Anonymous Test Submissions
- Working with the Gradebook
- Successfully Transferring Content

Online Learning Opportunities
- Online Course Design & Development
- ANGEL Training for Instructors

Onsite Learning Opportunities
- ANGEL Open Lab
- Consultations

Offsite Learning Opportunities
- Heartland eLearning Conference
- 8th Annual Sloan Consortium Blended Learning Conference & Workshop

Resources
- Article: Ghostwriter-for-Hire Tells His Story
- Report: Meta-analysis of Online Learning

E-Learning Services Personnel

Scriptural Food for Thought:
"Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
   let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before Him with thanksgiving
   and extol Him with music and song."

 Psalm 95:1-2 (NIV)

Whether you are fairly new to eLearning or have been teaching online for a while, it's always a good idea to see how well your course reflects best practices. 

Courses taught on ANGEL, which is part of the Blackboard Learn suite of academic systems, are eligible to be entered for review by the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program. Since its launch in 2000, the ECP has aimed to help instructors use eLearning technology more effectively by identifying and disseminating best practices for designing engaging online courses.  Using a rubric, instructors and course designers are able to evaluate how well their own course conforms to best practices in these main areas:

• Course Design
• Interaction & Collaboration
• Assessment, and
• Learner Support

Visit the Exemplary Course Program site to find information on how to:

• Volunteer to be a reviewer
• Submit a course for consideration, or simply
• Explore best practices and past winning courses 

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Members of NNU's Information Technology team recently upgraded the hardware for the ANGEL servers. Users should be seeing improvements with the ANGEL service.

If unexpected behavior does occur, please inform Technology and Media Resources (help(at)nnu.edu or 208-467-8111). Even the smallest concern may be something that others are experiencing as well, and the more help tickets received, the better chance for successful troubleshooting. Thank you!

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Online Course Design and Development
Mid-Winter 2011

This fully online course taught by Dr. Christine Bauer is a definitive guide for instructors building new online courses or converting traditional courses. Available at no charge or for 1 credit, the course lasts seven weeks. The start date will be in late January or early February.

ANGEL Training for Instructors
Self-paced, 24/7

Upon logging in to ANGEL, faculty and adjuncts should see the ANGEL Training for Instructors in the All category of their course list. Click the Content tab to access an overview video and several units of self-paced tutorials. Each unit includes the following:

• Fully illustrated step-by-step guides
• Quick videos
• Practice exercises 
• Assessments to solidify what you have learned

Send an e-mail to help(at)nnu.edu if you have trouble logging in to ANGEL with your regular NNU login.

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ANGEL Open Lab
Tuesdays: Drop in between 4 and 5:30 p.m. in Helstrom 205
Wednesdays: Drop in between 8:30 and 10 a.m. in Helstrom 205

Come and work on your course with help immediately available. No RSVP needed.

Consultations
Several eLearning TAs are available to meet with you, either to answer a 5-minute question or to coach you through a detailed process. To request free assistance, please contact us at elearning(at)nnu.edu or 208-467-8034.

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Heartland eLearning Conference
March 7-8, 2011
Edmond, Oklahoma

The keynote speaker for this event will be Dr. Michael Wesch, a cultural anthropologist whose work describing the effects of new media is rather compelling. Conference tracks will include:

• Effective eLearning Instruction
• Future Directions in eLearning
• Instructional Media
• Social Networking

Visit the conference website for details.

8th Annual Sloan Consortium Blended Learning Conference & Workshop
March 28-29, 2011
Oak Brook, Illinois

This event focuses chiefly on hybrid courses - those that combine face-to-face instruction with online elements that replace "seat time" in the classroom. The call for proposals is open through midnight December 22 (updated). See the conference website for additional details.

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Article: Ghostwriter-for-Hire Tells His Story

Unfortunately, cheating happens. Even at a Christian university, students sometimes lift certain sections of an older sibling's paper, or they find a paragraph on the Internet that says precisely what they want to say.

This article from the Chronicle of Higher Education addresses the unthinkable kind of cheating; highly provocative, it was allegedly written by one who makes a living by writing in the name of other people.

One hopes that our students would never pay someone to write for them, or to participate in an online class for them. But is it enough to hope? Or might proactive pedagogy help prevent such egregious behavior? Perhaps this article can serve to stimulate discussion.

Dante, E. (2010, November 12). The shadow scholar: The man who writes your students' papers tells his story. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/The-Shadow-Scholar/125329/

Also, the Chronicle conducted a live chat with the ghostwriter, which was recorded for replay.

Report: Meta-analysis of Online Learning

Analysts combed through 12 years of research exploring online vs. face-to-face learning to discover a common trend: on average, students engaged in online education modestly outperformed those receiving traditional instruction. The meta-analysis also provides a comprehensive look at blended learning and the practices and conditions associated with effective e-learning.

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development. (2010, September). Evaluation of evidence-based practices in online learning: A meta-analysis and review of online learning studies. Washington, D.C. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf

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Our office is located on the lower level of the Emerson Administration building. Learn about the E-Learning Services employees on our main page.

Our E-Learning TAs help faculty, adjuncts and program support personnel with consultations or course development using ANGEL and other online technologies, such as:

• making ANGEL pages look great
• creating online tests
• creating teams
• associating content with the Gradebook
• placing items on the Calendar
• creating rubrics
• preparing streamed media
• making course banners, and
• other projects both basic and complex that either you do not do very often or that are time-consuming

To request free help from an E-Learning TA, please e-mail specifics to elearning(at)nnu.edu and include as many details as possible, or call Crystal Nielsen, Instructional Technologist for E-Learning (208-467-8782). She will assign and supervise the task.

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