course evaluation rubrics, blended learning, in Open SUNY, in the library, with a lead pipe

The last webinar in BlendKit2014 was ably co-facilitated by my FLCC colleague Dr. Trista Merrill. During the webinar, Trista referred to her campus' decision to adopt a forthcoming course evaluation rubric as a "mandate" from SUNY System Administration as part of Open SUNY.  What follows is my opinion (and mine only; not yours, nor anyone else's) on this particular topic, in an attempt to clarify some details for those not deeply familiar with the deus ex machina that is SUNY.

First, a few words to clarify what SUNY is all about. Founded in 1948 (and leveraging many institutions of higher learning in existence way before that date), SUNY can best be thought of as a confederation. Now, what little you and I remember about US History I told us that "the Articles of Confederation" ultimately failed due to (among other things) the lack of a strong centralized governance structure. Coincidentally, it also makes for a fun trick question in pub trivia games ("name the 'first president' of the newly formed United States).

Using the word "confederation" is a deliberate choice on my part, to describe the level of local campus autonomy that exists within the system . "Mandates"; ie; "thou shalt" decrees from the Chancellor are fairly few and far between. To paraphrase from Captain Jack Sparrow, there are no online learning codes, more like a list of suggestions. Over half of SUNY's 64 campuses belong to (the artist formerly known as) the SUNY Learning Network (or SLN, or sometimes SNL if someone's typing in a hurry). Campuses may opt to work collaboratively with a team of instructional designers housed in SLN (from here on out, we're supposed to refer to this collection of support services as Open SUNY, but that'll likely muddle this posting even more, so hang in there, pilgrim). Or conversely, many campuses such as mine are fully staffed and capable of providing faculty development support.

So....now to the rubric in question. I will (im)modestly state that many years ago I did my best to drive our collective attention to the Quality Matters Project (still in it's FIPSE funded stage at that time). Eventually, System saw the wisdom in trying to bring QM to all of SUNY as a universal means of ensuring online course quality.

Any discussion you have with any ID anywhere, when asked about using QM, usually starts with  "well...we have a modified version...". Because, 51 (or 53? I forget) points of quality is just a wee bit overwhelming to chuck at noob online faculty. So, we end up with several localized versions in use; and we still get a very hefty annual invoice from QM to access and use their materials.

Now...pause, draw a breath, and consider Open SUNY. I'm not going attempt to explain what "open" means in this particular context, so we'll skip ahead to the concept of what we're calling "plus" online programs. The "plus" programs in our first wave are drawn from campuses long established in fully online learning in SUNY (Empire State College; Delhi, SUNY Broome; FLCC, Stony Brook, and SUNY Oswego). Part of our charge is to review and potentially partially or fully redesign courses within these campuses' online degree portfolios (8 online programs from the six campuses named).

To that end, we're piloting what we're calling the "course refresh rubric", which draws on sources such as Chickering and Gamson, The CSU Chico rubric, and Judith Boetscher's research, among others.  I want to be clear that in this pilot phase, this rubric is going to be deployed against fully online courses. It's certainly possible it can be beneficial to evaluate blended courses as well, but the initial focus is measuring specific attributes of fully online courses.

And now you know...and knowing is half the battle.

Sin City Synopsis: Doubling Down, or BbWorld 13 epilogue

BbWorld '13 Epilogue

I've been back in the saddle (ok, the desk chair) for over a week, which is probably enough time to gestate, percolate, or otherwise regurgitate some overarching themes and miscellaneous asides from the Blackboard World client conference. So, here goes, in no particular order:

Being a VIP Blogger
My chief concern about being picked as a blogger was "did anyone at Bb actually read my entry"? I still suspect the answer is "no", but Bb middle and upper management are by now well aware that my sarcasm-tipped darts are delivered in order to address a particular end-user concern. In session with Bb reps from support, development and product management, when I took the floor to pose a particularly vexing question about a lingering bug, one Bb staffer acknowledged "Greg always asks the hard questions". Yes; yes, I do-because they need to addressed. And to be fair, Bb listens and typically finds a resolution to our needs.

The odd bits of this self-selected tour of duty? I have no issues reacting to presentations or sessions on the fly via Twitter. The amusing thing is when your snark gets picked up and redistributed by the masses. It moved from somewhat surreal to downright Dada-esque when an Inside Higher Ed reporter hit me with "your tweets are funny; can I interview you about OpenSUNY"? Uhm, sure...I guess.

The only regret is that I didn't spend a great deal of time getting to know my fellow bloggers. A very interesting bunch, with at least one Google Glass tester among them. As much as I love to make new contacts and form relationships, there's always the warm snuggly blanket of my existing network (who at this point I'll see once a year if I'm lucky). So, again, sorry to my paparazzi circle that I didn't get to know you better as individuals.

(Bloggers chatting with keynote Clay Shirkey)

The More Things Change..
This particular user conference marked the change in leadership from Michael Chasen to Jay Bhatt as CEO. Aside from personality differences that drive one's podium style, the biggest change was somewhat unspoken. Although Mr. Bhatt emphasized a renewed focus on innovation, driving needed functionality changes within the core products, and closing (some very evident) gaps across product lines to move towards tighter integration, there are some interesting things that underscore this strategy that were not immediately evident. Let's take a closer look:

Mobile matures
We saw needed changes forecast for Mobile- namely, grading access for faculty, and polling functionality for students. But another change was apparently in place- namely, the absence of Mobile General Manager Kayvon Beykpour from the keynote podium. Phil Hill reports that Beykpour is on a "leave of absence"; in the past, he seemed to equally share the spotlight with Chasen and Ray Henderson. This may signify that the rather independent and Wild West direction of the Mobile line may indeed be pulled in to support Learn better than it has to date.

Hello, my name is...
I really couldn't tell you exactly how many VPs or AVPs still under warranty I was introduced to, but it would appear that a pretty good sized shakeup of upper/middle management is underway.Not surprisingly, some of the talent comes from Autodesk, one of Mr. Bhatt's former leadership posts. At least one of these new hires had been on payroll only a handfull of days prior to BbWorld. I'd also say that Mr. Bhatt is still in the midst of his own learning curve, as some of his comments in the Chronicle interview demonstrate (hint: don't refer to higher ed as an "industry"; we even find "business" to be a dirty word).

Who's afraid of Canvas?
Previous years saw the co-opting of open source platforms Moodle (via the acquisition of MoodleRooms) and Sakai (via leveraging the credibility of "Dr. Chuck" Severence, otherwise known as the godfather of Sakai). While MR had booth space on the tradeshow floor, I don't believe I heard one reference to the hosted Moodle offering from the keynote stage the whole week. Even more interesting, the Sakai booth from past years had completely disappeared. Wherefore art thou, open source alliance? A particularly well positioned source (who I'm not going to identify b/c I wasn't wearing my "Press" card in my fedora) posited this answer to me:  previously, Canvas was perceived as the Disruptor Who Will Eat Our Lunch. Canvas pretty much played to it's own self-defined smart-ass new kid approach, staging a guerilla event under the Bb Overlords' noses at the '12 confab in Vegas. If you can connect the dots, you'll see how alignment and acquisition of highly visible open source alternatives was a move to keep Bb's on the fence legacy customers (ANGEL and WebCT) in the fold by offering "in house" alternatives. My informant told me that while Canvas still continues to demo well to prospects, the actual conversion rate from potential dance partner to paying customer hasn't exactly been stellar.

Couple this with a refocused effort on fixing wonky issues in Bb while actually adding needed functionality, and you can see the scales begin to rebalance themselves. One barrier to progress may have been the former CEO himself; another source related to me that unless new product development could demonstrably drive adding new customers, then requests for enhancements or fixes were often vetoed by Mr. Chasen. Mr. Bhatt is clearly rebooting the system, clearing the clogged pipes, whatever metaphor you wish to deploy -with the goal of retaining customers and demonstrating competency

Taking these two things in tandem - Canvas revealing it's own flaws over time, and rejiggering the organization to increase the speed of innovation - and you can see that the need to offer alternative LMS platforms has actually lessened. It remains to seen what the long-term strategy for MoodleRooms is in terms of growing it's own market share. It also remains to be seen whether Josh Coates, Instructure's CEO, can move from his bratty teenager phase to a more mature adult role.

Is this really a sea change?
From my perspective, putting Mr. Bhatt in the driver's seat, and retracting the need to focus on revenue by pulling back from being publicly traded, Blackboard has the opportunity to really charm it's existing customer base by enhancing the core products, making an actually integrated suite that supports different use cases (asynchronous, synchronous, and "on the go" mobile touch points), and shoring up some antiquated underpinnings of Learn. Moreover, some development under the umbrella of "personalization" should align Learn well with evolving needs for flexible or alternative delivery models in the higher ed space (full disclosure: I have been a constant nag with product about these concepts, and I couldn't be more delighted in terms of where it's headed). Maybe there's a little tail wagging the dog in terms of "bolt on" ideas from the marketplace such as MOOCs and badging (again, disclosure: SUNY's OER-101 MOOC helped drive the investigation on integrating badging), but overall the ship seems to be sailing in the right direction.

(ps. yes, I did enjoy "the Streets of San Francisco" as a kid, for those who can spot the reference)

from a hole in a wall to Granny Clouds

From a hole in a wall to Granny Clouds

notes from Sugrata Mitra's keynote at BlackBoard World, 2013:

And now we find ourselves at journey's end...

Sugatra Mitra ("the hole in the wall") opened with a metaphor -why his project was "minimally invasive" vs using helicopters, underscoring that the operation of said helicopters (by children) is dangerous ( I wonder if he's heard about the proliferation of drone pilot schools in the .edu space).

Findings of the project: children could achieve the average skill levels of a secretary in a mere nine months. The bullies may dominate initial monopolization of the computer, but then ironically are unable to understand its actual use. The secondary effects of game playing are language acquisition skills and developing search strategies (to find new games!).

Again and again Dr. Mitra provided examples of utterly startling learning gains by students who were offered next to no scaffolding or prompts, instead communally developing their own pedagogical approach to I treating with and mastering g the subject matter.

Even more interesting, when using a method of encouragement (but not prompts) labelled the "grandmother method" Learning gains jumped to an amazing 50%.

It appears that these self-organizing learning environments can be effective; but to push past the 30% mark, the emotional support and reward system of the "granny cloud" (actual grandmothers providing a surrogate service of positive affirmation and praise). 

painting by the numbers...or not.

painting by the numbers...or not.

Notes from the CEO Keynote, BlackBoard World, 2013:

OK, maybe an odd metaphor to open my coverage of CEO Jay Bhatt's keynote, but stick with me..

Much of what's typically delivered in a corporate keynote has all the sexiness of an SEC filing. Props to Mr. Bhatt for trotting out the family snapshots to underscore the fact that in his house, as in most of ours, we're increasingly wired all the time.  Thinking about the future potential of the intersection of  mobile tech and learning, Bb crafted a white paper on six trends:

global education

• by 2020, 4 in 10 learner s will come from china and India
• non trad learners
• 85 percent non trad enrollment by 2020
• consumer preference for alternative models
• learner centric models
• competencies
• big data in the mainstream
• importance of analytics
• online and mobile everywhere
• online is 10X the growth of traditional enrollments

findings

• Bb believes they have phenomenal products. well, ok, they could be better (that's Jay talking, not me)
• great customer relationships
• focus on the continuum of learners

issues

• lack of product line integration
• not working with customers in a coordinated manner
• be a better citizen in the Ed Tech industry
• constraints on Bb employee creativity and innovation

What is core? A product company (hmm, deemphasizing services)

and here's the mantra

• accelerate
• integrate
• innovate

How?

• accelerate investment in products
• address product integration
• drive innovation

Next up, the always erudite Ray Henderson...

In tradition, Ray walked through the report card. Interestingly, the need for innovation was echoed by Ray-adding "innovation" to the report card this year.

statements regarding something like a course creator wizard made me think of the semi-mythical LAMS. I think we heard a hint about the efforts currently underway to think about personalization. I do get a kick when what seem like no-brainer revamps to adress issues get a round of applause. "yay! you fixed something we all knew was problematic".

Bb meeting room (baby Collaborate?) will be bundled in Learn-nice touch!

Major improvements in Learn/Collaboration integration:

• every course will have a permanent room
• every instructor will have a permanent room

polls via Mobile-lots of buzz from the Twitterati on this Tuesday. Maybe the clicker killer? Only if it also takes attendance...

Usability issues in the grade book are being addressed; scrolling a d look ahead search should aid in super sized lecture sections.

(now, I'll take a minor bow on this next one)
OpenBadging integration is coming- mainly because SUNY drove this need in our OER101 MOOC. (damn it, I said "MOOC". sorry.)

Student behavioral pattern recognition in development, building on the new Retention Center. I'm still fuzzy on how this plays against their own analytics platform or third party systems like Starfish (or D2L's predictive analytics, for that matter.

next up, Katie Blot of Ed Services...

disclaimer: I always get a little squirmy when a corporate type starts painting a shiny future in education. After all, BillGatus of Borg got booed at SXSWedu by the crowd. And no offense, but these talking poi st are what I think about every day. And I know what the non-trad enrollments look like, so unicorns and rainbows don't play well  with me.

Ok, so MOOC MOOC MOOC... ah wait...10 or so minutes in we're talking about a platform for MOOCs that will support 40 million users. And it will support split credit/non-credit delivery. And it's free to Bb customers. Holy sh...

Paging Arthur Fonzarelli

When is a shark officially jumped? Another take on the Coursera announcement

Ah, I love the smell of punditry in the morning; it smells like...uninformed bs.

(Disclaimer: what follows are my own opinions and speculation and are not representative of my institution nor my overlords and masters in Albany. Professional driver on a closed course; do not attempt. Your mileage may vary. The Secretary will disavow all knowledge of your actions. Good luck, Mr. Phelps)

Ok, now that we've cleared that particular tank...

Higher Ed punditry is focusing on what the "second tier strategy" announced last week by Coursera really means. A sign of the coming Higher Ed Apocalypse? The inevitable MOOC Meltdown? Or , more simply, has Coursera jumped the shark?  None of the above, methinks...

It's been fairly well circulated that Coursera was interesting in expanding their portfolio, specifically in terms of attracting large state systems. Are they trying to nudge Blackboard out of existing u-wide contracts?  Not in the sense that you might immediately think. After all, have we had even one little peek inside their kimono to suggest that large scale student analytics are in place to support persistence? If so, then why do MOOC persistence rates continue to...how shall I put this-suck?

Instead, let's imagine a different scenario that isn't based on displacement of entrenched commodity services. Picture instead a programmatic need by a large scale system that's seeking to achieve it's own economies of scale. Let's further suppose that Big State U inventories it's catalog and discovers it has about 30 or so localized delivery instances of a fairly generic Gen Ed course. Let's say Big State isn't keen on redundancy, likes the idea of sharing common resources, and heck, I don't know, maybe is interested in large scale data collection and analysis of learning outcomes. Hmm, now, does a centralized scalable platform make sense? Could it even be integrated into a blended delivery mode?

Crazy talk, I know. Remind me not to bring it up in tomorrow's cross-institutional meeting to explore development and delivery of shared curriculum.

Oh, Canada…

Much hay has been made of late of the “American-ization” of MOOCs, as Yank-led xMOOCs have largely displayed  (Canadian originated) cMOOCs in the media spotlight, or at least in the  (almost) daily op ed pieces published by the NewYork Times.

I would argue that this particular spin on the origination of the MOOC movement  is really nothing new when it comes to the dynamic tension of Canadian-American relations. Just this week we’re treated to breaking news involving applying a “visitor surcharge” to border crossings and the latest toe-stomping event by our esteemed Governor over the Peace Bridge.

But the sad, little know truth is that known of this is really new. Attempts to throttle our northern neighbor into submission are in fact key moments in the development of the United States, to wit:

1745 Conquest of Louisbourg

Although arguably not the first attempt to wrest Canada and the lucrative fur trade away from France (a rather pathetic attempt from Albany in 1689 went off the rails quickly), this first shot at conquest is notable largely due to its purely mercantile intent. Justified under the now all but forgotten King  George’s War/War of the Austrian Succession, this was a land grab pure and simple, launched by men of wealth and power in New England.  The victory gave New England control over access to the St. Lawrence, and thus the Great Lakes and access to the fur trade. The treaty that ended the war reverted Louisbourg to French control

French and Indian War

By the time of the Seven Years’ War, the fur trade initiated by the Dutch in New Netherland had largely trapped the beaver out of existence in much of its native habitat, particularly in New York. The balance of power favored the French due to their military control of the Great Lakes.  Again, the English launched mixed expeditions of colonial troops and Redcoats, first taking Kingston, then Quebec and Montreal.  English dominion over Lower Canada was established in the ensuing peace treaty.

American Revolution and the “second invasion” of Canada

As the American Revolution roiled into being in 1775, Upper Canada and it’s French speaking populace were regarded as prime targets of acquisition due to their alleged unsatisfaction with English rule. (Never mind that the Quebec Act guaranteed their religious freedom and perpetuated the seignier  system of near-fiefdom-which actually wasn’t a horrible thing). A rather complicated two pronged invasion approach –Gen. Richard Montgomery moving his force up the Champlain watershed with Gen. Benedict Arnold hacked and portaged his way through the wilds of Maine- ended in disaster and defeat at the walled gates of Quebec. Montgomery was shot down (a valiant bantam-sized aide de camp named Aaron Burr attempted to recover his body) while Arnold  suffered a debilitating leg wound (that in it’s own odd way led to eventual infamy).

War of 1812

Despite the relative permeability of Upper Canada to American Loyalist (and “late loyalist”) expatriates, Americans once again turned their avaricious eyes toward Canada with yet another poorly planned attempt at annexation during 1812.  Ironically, as before in previous wars, illicit trade between the two countries continued to flow across their shared waterways. The last grand scheme to annex “the 14^th colony” went down in flames under the laudanum hazed command of Gen. James Wilkinson (and now we’re back to Aaron Burr again) against a relatively small number of Wellington’s seasoned regulars at Crysler’s Farm.

Rush-Bagot Treaty and demilitarization of the Great Lakes

The treaty that ended the War of 1812 largely demobilized and mothballed the naval fleets both sides had ramped up. Military posturing was displaced by economic development on both sides of the border.

Modern warfare: patents and lawsuits

Well, you knew I couldn’t get away without talking about patents and subsequent infringements, right? But let’s start with a different patent:  Henry Woodward, a Canadian, was the first co-patentee for the electric lightbulb. Interestingly, Woodward sold his patent to Edison (sure, we all thought Edison came up with that one on his own, eh?).

 So, what do we know, eh?

Intriguingly, there are far more Canadian-American Studies programs out there than I’d imagined: at

Western Washington University, University of Buffalo, SUNY Plattsburgh, University of Maine, Franklin College, and quite further afield UC Berkeley, Duke and Vanderbilt

And the flip side, American Studies Programs offered by Canadian universities. (Interestingly, “American Studies” is inclusive enough to include Latin American Studies progams. And perhaps that’s really the root question: who or what is “American”? ).

Blackboard will want me to be a BbWorld VIP blogger because

…

Despite my well-known FaceBook profile pic that parodies NASCAR's endorsement strategies as applied to Higher Ed, I'm not one to lend my name, face, and social cred to just any ol' .edu startup. I will, however, probably poke under the hood of any HE app you want me to test drive, and then give you my unadulterated feedback on what works and what doesn't.  I'm at the point of feeling slightly nauseated by any blind email that starts with "Dear Greg - are you satisfied with your LMS strategy"? 

Well, yes, I am satisfied. I'm satisfied that SUNY has selected a partner (Blackboard) who has been wise enough to realize their organizational culture needed to shift, and tough enough to make those changes happen. I'm content that the customer-centric values of ANGEL have been brought to the fore.  I'm wise enough to know that I can dig my heels in on issues that matter, and that Bb will listen. 

So, honestly, would Bb want me as a blogger? And if so, why? Well, if we assume someone at the mothership reads this, and passes it up the chain, the following points will likely be well known inside the beltway:

1. I need to add more conference pins to my obsessive/compulsive collection
2. I need to validate my theory that Vegas is simply a plastic imitation of NOLA. This can only be done via an extensive field observation
3. The last time I flew to Vegas was heading into SuperBowl weekend. Do you have any idea what's it like to spend 6 hours on a plane with drunken fans of both teams on both sides of you?
4. I never collected on that "ANGEL users can come for free" comp - just sayin'. 
5. Ray follows me on Facebook - God help him
6. They already have my FB and Twitter feeds up on the Customer Support heads up displays in the NOC
7. Product Management visibly winces when they see me coming
8. I missed out on the beads, damn it
9. I enjoy snickering at Bb Learn "updates" that announce incorporating  existing ANGEL functionality
10. My loyalty can't be bought, but I have published rates for hourly rental
11. I often wonder why when talking open source, people say "free like free beer" or "free like a puppy", but they never say "free like a lasting communicable disease"
12. BbWorld is sort of like ComicCon, with the nerds, minus the cool  fanboy costumes
13. I secretly adore 70's disco
14. I really enjoy hearing Ray say "we're getting the band back together, man"
15. I will seriously debate you on the needed functionality of LTI 2.x after a few rounds
16. Some midwestern Bb users mistook me for their account rep while I was wandering down Bourbon St. No, I don't understand it either, but it got me free drinks, so it was all good
17. Someone in Bb senior leadership needs to appear in an Elvis jumpsuit, and I seriously need to see that
18. I can listen to Dave Mills and understand at least 50% of what he's talking about
19. As an ambassador for my institution, I get the chance to exclaim in my best "He-Man" voice "by the Power of SUNY!"
20. Lastly, and most importantly, Mike Buchanon will be very sad if I'm not there

LMS Bake off - who has the best tasting cookies?

Recently I am embarked on a suicide mission - er, research project - under the DOODLE aegis on behalf of SLN. In brief, as ANGEL heads towards end of life (EOL) in 2014 and SUNY will presumably contractually migrate to the Blackboard NG platform, we in the SUNY community need to perform due diligence and examine all feasible LMS alternatives.

To that end, a working group within DOODLE has been assembled from our membership. Our first task (nearly complete) is to document current functionality in ANGEL, and then begin the same level of analysis for Blackboard, Moodle, and Sakai. Other LMS systems will be kept on our "watch list" for future scrutiny and evaluation.

Some preliminary research by team member and colleague Clark Shah-Nelson can be viewed here:

https://confluence.delhi.edu/display/CIS/SUNY-Wide+LMS+Response

The EduTools site offers side by side feature/functionality comparisons, but is still somewhat out of sync with the market space (ANGEL 7.3 vs. 7.4 and apparently no evaluation of the Bb 9 series platform). That being said, however ,this is an admirable effort and is what our project team is shooting for.

The Socially Networked LMS

The Socially Networked LMS

Much virtual ink has been spilled of late regarding BlackWeb's FaceBook integration -but I'm not going to prat on about the "creepy treehouse" -others have done a far better job, and faster. Instead, let's talk about what an LMS can and can't currently do in terms of mimicking or integrating with web2.0 social networking tools.

We just hosted the remarkable Gardner Campbell on campus for a faculty workshop in web2.0. Gardner's keynote speech posited the concept of "cognitive fingerprints" or "cognition prints" -visible ways in which we can seek evidence of cognition, or cognitive presence if you prefer.

When we say "critical thinking" and "LMS" in the same sentence, the next phrase that inevitably follows is "discussion board". Why? In the context of the repurposed groupware that is a commercial LMS (Michael Feldstein's definition), we have a somewhat limited toolset of instructional Legos that we cobble together in the form of a course.

Gardner offered a fabulous "well, duh" compare/contrast moment between a board in Bb and an open-source bulletin board he uses. The most glaringly obvious differences:

• the ability to associate an avatar of choice with your identity
• the ability to have the poster's profile only one click away, every time they post

More importantly, Campbell argues, is the evidence of authentic engagement with the subject matter at hand - most notably lacking in his hacked classroom are the Re:Re:Re subject lines that suggest that students are going through basic higher order primate conditioned reflexes - ie; hit the "Post" button X number of times to earn an "A".

It made me think: what if, besides this standard literary centric toolbar for students:

we had the near ubiquitous Web2.0 content sharing toolbar as well?

it's Twitterific!

Well, Twitter has bit me, and bit me hard. I had a cresting wave of skepticism when I first created the account, which wasn't assuaged much by picking my less than dozen online friends and colleagues to follow. I've heard that your first few weeks really are nothing more than talking to yourself, which I found to be pretty much true.

But now...besides exchanging non-sequitors with my conference drinking buddies, I actually pick up on interesting articles, blogs etc to read. I have strange voyeuristic moments into semi-friends' personal lives. I have people I've never met following me (why?). Best of all, I can see how Twitter really works as a virtual megaphone. The media contacted us about a tiny bit of legislation embedded in a bill in Congress that calls for identity confirmation of online learners. Shades of George Orwell, Batman! As I twittered about this, you could just see folks' heads snapping around and saying "what the...". And that's cool...

Finally a good hair day in Second Life

I continue to feel ambiguous about Second Life - there's a high cognitive load in mastering the interface (which I will unabashedly admit I have not), working through your sense of dislocation, overcoming shyness...and bad hair.

My more experienced colleagues tell me that many SL residents will shun noobs, based on their appearance. Very sad...so of course I've been on a quest for "perfect hair" for quite some time. Now, I think, I am satisfied; here's the results...

Beyond hours of superficial preening and playing "what should I wear", we've been searching out resources that could complement our online theater courses. Here's today's langiappe for you:
Theatron - which exists both on the web in VRML format and in Second Life (search for Theatron1 and Theatron2). This are amazing efforts that integrate today's 3D modeling techniques with the scientific inquiry of archaelogy.

Future: Shocked

My colleague Nancy Wozniak at Dutchess CC asked some thought provoking questions of the instructional design community lately (check DEOS-L if you want to respond). I thought I'd share my lunatic ravings here; although it might sound somewhat jaundiced, my thoughts were recently shaped by presentations from respectable authorities like Dee Fink and Tara Gray. Read on...

-What do you think is the big challenge distance learning faces in the future?
Only one challenge? There will be several:
-DL will be a commodity experience for users, driven by price point and the perceived value of national and regional accreditation attached to degree programs.
-the younger end of the DL consumer spectrum will be bored by the relatively static nature of current distance learning content, and will challenge developers to truly provide a "user created" learning experience.
-market forces in the economy will drive US business and industry to make specific demands on colleges/universities in terms of graduating students' marketable skill sets. We will see a two tiered approach to higher ed - highly specialized, skills based technology curricula provided by "trade schools", community colleges and 2 year ATC type institutions; and more in-depth, but still highly focused "professional" labelled graduate and undergraduate programs that focus on management and R&D aspects of engineering and science, particularly biotech.


-What do you think the face of education will look like in 2015?
Increasing levels of formal/informal partnerships with business will create niche degree programs and certificates, particularly at the graduate level. Accrediting bodies will place greater emphasis on demonstrating and measuring learning outcomes, forcing higher ed to develop a complex and refined assessment outcomes process (the mother of all e-portfolios). In turn, either highly customized LMS/SIS couplings or "turn key" customizations that integrate data from diverse repositories (within the campus) and provide in-depth data mining capabilities for reporting.

-What technologies in distance learning will be used?
Existing commercial systems and open source systems will provide enriched m-learning (mobile) content, once the industry determines what the "killer app" for mobile users really is. In turn, the platform will drive chunking of instructional content into "micro-lessons" that can be easily processed during commute times, etc. GIS overlays will help you locate "study buddies", small group team members, and off-campus lending libraries. Social networking will define study groups that exist across institutions, confounding administration who continue to combat plagiarism. Greater emphasis on less structured, user controlled experiences will bring us the "loosely coupled LMS", possibiy mixing components from commercial providers with open source apps. The "Google LMS" will allow mash ups of various technologies into a fluid LMS structure, realizing the LAMS vision.

-Do you think the current faculty attitudes towards distance learning will change?
Entering new faculty accept the ubiquity of the LMS, just as they do IM, wikis, and Google. Aging faculty recognize that a continuing secondary income stream will be derived from teaching online, at a distance, and will embrace teaching online as an "exit strategy" into retirement.

-Will we still have the conventional LMS?
Absolutely. Except there will be only one commercial system, owned by Microsoft...or maybe Oracle :-) As ASPs gear up to provide hosted solutions and back end integation to campus SIS systems (watch for SunGuard/SCT as an early entrant, followed closely by ominvores EDS, Accenture, and the like.


-What technologies will we be using for distance learning in 2015?
Perhaps a greater integration with virtual worlds into and out of the LMS, along with the "social operating system" as sketched out by NMC. Otherwise, TCP/IP, HTTP, SMTP/POP3 and RSS continue to be the order of the day. Oh, and don't rule out the return of ITV (instructional television), as broadcast and cable increasingly have access to cost-effective, digitally delivered TV signals to your door. Increased interactivity on the digital set top box could open up a two way channel and return us to an enhanced, digitally crystal clear version of the telecourses of the not too distant past.

Now THAT'S a Vitae...

Well, I guess the big news is that I finally broke down and bought an iPod of my very own. Reconditioned, second gen model direct from the Apple web site. Beyond great NPR programming like "To the best of our knowledge" and "Sound Opinions", I'm searching out iTunes U material..and I came across "Dr. Gwen". The icon alone within the iTunes store was enough to make me pause.

Looking a bit further I found that Gwen Morse, Ph.D, MSN, has had a long professional and academic calendar. I'm rather intrigued as to how she veered off from traditional academia into the for profit world of Kaplan, Regis and Walden. But more to the point, this web site rocks -her courses could be dry as the Sahara, but based solely on the bling of her web site, I'd sign up. I'd be curious to see if faculty who move into the "pay for play" world of U of Phoenix et al. also sex up themselves on the Web, either for prospective employers or students. Maybe my Second Life avatar should replace my mugshot...?

A Bad Case of Happy Feet

Though I am suffering from post-conference burnout, I have a lot of things (good and bad) to share from both the SLOAN-C ALN conference in Orlando and SUNY's TLT conference in Poughkeepsie. But first, let's start with an anecdote from the bar...aren't bars where we really learn everything we need to know in life, anyway? Why else was Coach such a paragon of wisdom on Cheers? Anywho...

Everyone has a newbie experience in Second Life; most simply report the confusion of dropping naked into Orientation Island, or walking into walls, & c. But my colleague Clark Sakai...ah, Clark has the best tale of all. He recounted it to us at the bar, of course, and my new found friend David/John from the Open University of the UK and I tried to retell the tale to others, but there was a distinct kinethestic element involved in the telling of the tale...so Clark, uber nerd that he is, has retold the story in video. Watch and learn, my children:

Click To Play

Of course, what seems to be missing from this machinima retelling is the lap dance. Where is the lap dance, Clark?

Podcasting and Driving don't mix

Perhaps it's because I've become very bored with my one hour commute to campus, but I've started to find new ways to entertain myself while driving. Now, I already have XM Satellite radio, and I can fritter away time flitting from one channel to another...most days. But I have the podcasting bug; no time to listen to 'em in office, what to do, what to do?

Well, if I could simply hijack my daughter's iPod, my problem would be solved. But since she doesn't want me cluttering up her precious disk space with podcasts ("Dad, I don't want to listen to French lessons.."), that was out. So is buying one for myself, at least until I squirrel away some more hard earned cash. So...enter the "laptop as mp3 player".

On the surface this seems like an ok idea. Until you realize that the cheap, onboard speaker doesn't really produce a huge, Who-like amount of db. I guess I could plug in headphones, but I don't really like to completely isolate myself from the world outside while driving. Not a big deal, we can just listen closely. But...boy, that iTunes interface was not meant to be operated with only one hand!

Despite these UI issues, I was able to listen to at least one 'cast on the way here. Truthfully, I had more issues with the quality of the academic podcasts I was sampling. I think it's time to reiterate some basic principles to all you would be broadcasters out there, from an old time, old school, old media guy like myself. To wit:

1. set a freakin' recording level. Do this NOW; before your students show up and you spend the next hour mumbling incoherently into your microphone. You want to get that meter (or slider bar) up to about "zero", perhaps a counterintuitive label, but you want to see that meter working towards hitting the "red zone". Record, playback, listen. Can you hear it? Is it faint? Distorted? Adjust volume up or down; repeat test/listen, lather, rinse, repeat.

2. use an external mic. If you plan to wander aimlessly while you lecture, then buy something like Belkin's mic that plugs directly into the iPod for recording. Very clever...place the microphone at about your 2nd or 3rd shirt button if you're a man. Remember, the capsule points up, not down!

3. Don't talk about visuals we can't see. "As you see, on this slide..". Please...post the slides online if you must do this.

4. Repeat questions from the audience. Typical snippet I listened to this morning: "Question?"...long silent pause for an inaudible student question... "No, absolutely not; that's not how I would define this situation". Uhm, thanks, Prof, very helpful, but what was the question?

5. Edit, Edit, Edit for scripted Q&A. Listening to the Colonial Williamsburg series of podcasts, I'm struck by how often interviewer Lloyd Dobbins says things like "ah, well...no, I'm not going to ask you that question" as he obviously scans his written list and then moves on. A little post-production goes a long ways towards listenability, folks. Audacity is free, iLife (with Garage Band) is relatively cheap. Both are fairly easy even for novices to use.

ALN conference: from Innovation to Application

X came to the not-so-sunny Sunshine State Tuesday to attend the ALN conference, organized by the SLOAN-C foundation for distance learning. Right now, I'm in the early phase of a workshop on innovative tools for DL led by Larry Ragan, Larry Cooperman and Ray Schroeder. Take a log at the guy's blog for tools you might use...I've already found one useful tool for myself - RSS-to-javascript.com, a freeware web-based tool that easily allows you to aggregate blog content into your personal blog. I'll put this on my "round to it" list to implement here in the future :-)

X

memory and multitasking study

A recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences contained a study that measured the effects of competing simultaneous tasks on memory and learning. Russell Poldrack, co-author of the study, provided the following commentary in an interview:

"Multitasking adversely affects how you learn," said Russell Poldrack, UCLA associate professor of psychology and co-author of the study.

"Even if you learn while multitasking, that learning is less flexible and more specialized, so you cannot retrieve the information as easily. Our study shows that to the degree you can learn while multitasking, you will use different brain systems.

"The best thing you can do to improve your memory is to pay attention to the things you want to remember. Our data support that. When distractions force you to pay less attention to what you are doing, you don't learn as well as if you had paid full attention."

Tasks that require more attention, such as learning calculus or reading Shakespeare, will be particularly adversely affected by multitasking, he said.

Poldrack notes that multi-tasking while engaged in learning new material will likely have an adverse affect on learning. Hopefully, some empirical evidence regarding multi-tasking will cut through the myths regarding the "gaming generation".

Oh Brother X, Where Art Thou?

Well, now that they discharged X from the Home for the Temporarily Disgruntled, it's time to catch up a bit. Here's some breaking news and random thoughts:

• Carey Hatch has been named Interim Director of SLN. Carey brings years of coalition building experience, particularly regarding the creation of SUNYConnect. Welcome aboard, Carey!
• Ken Udas has announced his departure to assume a leadership role with Penn State's World Campus Online distance learning initiative. X has no doubt that SLN's loss will be the Nittany Lions' gain. You know, as an SU alumn I can't stand losing ANYTHING to Penn State...
• X's mild mannered alter ego will be presenting at the SLOAN-C International Conference on Asynchronous Learnining Networks this fall with his esteemed colleagues on the blended learning pilot program in process at our institution.
• SUNY Cortland joins the iTunes bandwagon - see e-literati Alex Reid's thoughts on integrating podcasting into his course. Note Alex's thoughts on coursecasting and the dialog that ensues in the comments section.
  
  

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I've found that the particular theme of a given post derives from the title. So, you might guess that selecting the title FIRST is a somewhat arduous process. I initially had "Another Brick in the Wall" in my head, but frankly, the overarching themes of paranoia and bleak finality are a bit...much...for a thematic convention here. So, that brought me to the Thin White Duke, Ziggy Stardust, aka David Jones and the classic line "turn and face the strain" in "Changes". Which is exactly what we've done as a community these past few days...

I don't wish to comment on any personnel issues, or reporting structure issues that were discussed, as (a) official announcements should be forthcoming and (b)my journalistic heart knows that writing anything that could be considered libel is just not a good thing :-)Suffice it to say that the key personnel who are the heart and soul of SLN will continue to do Good Works. What seems to be worth talking about is just where we're at now ("standin' at the crossroads.." crooned Robert Johnson), and just where the Hell we're going next.

In order to set a course, pick a direction, and find out who we want to be when we're all growed up requires a decision by a committee. Before we veer off into committees, horses, and camels, I'll note that there is an apparently honest attempt at broad representation across the SUNY landscape. Since it is nearly overwhelmingly executive representation, there was an obvious concern voiced about listening to not only us- the resident Geek Squad- but also the faculty and our students. Whether we'll actually get this level of democratic involvement is an unknown at this stage.

Then there's the matter of the timeline. It seems maddeningly, dangerously short- but you have to stop and consider the alignment of the stars, Cassandra. ESC is on amazingly short timeline to evaluate their RFP responses and come to some decision of their own. Would it surprise any of us, then, if the Administration's need to get off the pot coincided with ESC's timing?

Speaking of ESC- we should all tip our hats to our colleagues for the incredible piece of work that they've accomplished- generating a well thought out, detailed map of all our requirements - and for the work that lies ahead, in evaluating vendor responses (are you guys going to sleep at all during this period?).

And what's my take on where we should go? Ah...all two of you who read this blog have already heard my thoughts. No, I'm not being coy; I've already expressed my thoughts publicly that an open source LMOS could indeed be a viable solution - once it reaches maturity. And I really do think that we should stop trying to teach this pig called Notes to sing/ It's time to find the tool that was intended for our purposes; rather than continuing to try to drive nails with a 2x4, we should be looking for a hammer. Yes, we could try to continue to develop the missing critical functionality, and we probably could keep the current system on life support beyond the projected three years, but would that truly serve our faculty users? Don't they deserve an interface that doesn't force them to learn arcane procedures just to publish their content? Shouldn't we be focusing on helping them *design* effective courses, rather than camouflaging holes in the LMS and writing that off as pedagogical issues (I'm talking about the criminal lack of a test engine here, folks)?

Well, here's my crackpot idea: We all would agree that our revenue stream of asynchronous learning needs a stable platform. We would probably agree that we're still groping the elephant when it comes to developing a systematized approach to blended learning. So, why not take a bi-directional approach? Phase in the new LMS, whatever it may be, for the fully online component. Continue to use Notes in the non-mission critical function of blended and web-enhanced learning. Develop an open source approach that will replace the Notes platform over time. As the open source LMS matures (and one would hopefully agree that noodling around with it in blending is non-destructive testing) we could offer asynch courses on eitherplatform. And everybody wins :-)

Of course, thinking aloud like this obviously demonstrates why X should not be in charge of technical thought leadership for this project:-)

Changing gears here at the end - these times when we can all come together in one place, to compare plans, tactics, annoyances, hopes, dreams, fears- this is the true essence of our community. If for no other reason than this, we should turn around and lock eyes with our Albanian delegation and say "thank you". United we stand, divided we fall. To our brethren late of The Tower, I say - you guys have extreme intestinal fortitude. I've rode the dot com roller coaster through boom and bust, and I've honestly lost count of how many leaders I've seen consigned off to "special assignment" gulags, waiting for their parachutes to deploy. I know what it feels like to walk around under a cloud, not knowing whatmight transpire the next time you set foot in the office. But hang in there, brothers and sisters, people get ready, there's a train a'comin...

of cabbages and kings

Well, ol' X has ruminated some, and perhaps its time to speak of the SLN dilemna. Now, don't go expecting any "Albany Insider" expose, here, people. I simply want to frame some of the issues that are on the table, causing much gut wrenching angst amongst my colleagues.

SLN, for those of you that don't know, has existed since its inception on a Lotus Notes platform. Yes, you heard me correctly; stop laughing. You have to recall that at this particular point in time Web-based learning systems were in their infancy. In fact, some of the prime contenders from that day and age have since disappeared (go dig up my sparkling review of TopClass from that era if you want a chuckle). So, given the systems at hand, and apparently at least a smidgeon of Notes development know-how, SLN was born.

Now, generally speaking, we all grow and mature over time. Software does this too, though often in ways that are described as "software bloat" (cf. any Microsloth app you can think of). SLN, because of it's unique neither fish nor fowl deployment of Notes as an LMS, has existed in a bit of a Bizzaro World parallel universe ("Bizzaro World Learning System am painful and non-intuitive for faculty users. Bizzaro LMS am complicated, thus good"). Possibly recognizing this, but more importantly realizing that IBM is finally letting the sands of time run out on Notes, SLN launched and RFCPR2D2 (ok, I can't really think of what to label it, got it?) that outlined the proposed structure of SLN 2.0. In what some might deem a clear case of hubris, the Albanian Faction came up with an amalgam of best of breed components to comprise an open source learning management system. Other than the fact that I keep hearing the Johnny Cash song "one piece at a time" in my head (Cash's character builds his own "dream car" by brining home components from the assembly line where he works), the plan as described needed a lot of stars to align in a big hurry. While I think there is great promise in the LAMS interoperability framework and other open source LMOS intiatives that has been proposed, a standard doth not a product make. Anyone ever measure the life cycle of an Internet standard?

One key item of interest to the campuses should have factored into this recommendation: our track record on the existing SLN 1.0 as a revenue stream. My impression is that the SUNY community at large recognizes the alternative/additional/supplimental revenue that is generated by online courses. Thus, CIO's and other responsible parties are loath to place a key financial operation on an untried platform that has no second tier commerical support.

Thus, (don't you love paragraphs that start with "thus.."?), the largest system user of SLN, Empire State College, has opted to go out to bid with it's own RFP for an LMS. ESC provides the lion's share of online courses within the SUNY system, which isn't suprising considering that it always has been a "virtual university" since it's inception. The key question here is whether so goeth ESC, thus goeth the rest of the pack. (OK, too many "thuses" in one paragraph-it's starting to sound too Old Testament).

X can't offer any further insights, because X, like Mongo "is pawn in game of life". It would appear that other fellow MIDs feel much the same way; thanks to one comrade's bold charge, the Provost will be present at the AC/MID summit to provide a system update.

Will this provide earth-shattering news? Will our heros survive? Tune in again-
same bat time-
same bat channel