Education Commons^™

Leveraging The Affordances Of Virtual Reality Systems Within K-12 Education: Responding To Future Innovations, Rohan Jowallah, Luke Bennett, Kathleen Bastedo

FDLA Journal

It is estimated that by 2021, revenue from virtual reality systems could reach two hundred and fifteen billion dollars (Reyes, 2017). The leading investors in virtual reality systems include some of the largest technology companies: Facebook, Google, and Microsoft. This increased revenue spending has influenced and continues to influence improvements in virtual reality systems. As these new advances emerge, it is imperative that policymakers, educators and instructional designers consider the fusion of pedagogy and technology when using virtual reality systems.

Developing And Implementing An Online Course Framework, Jennifer L. Reeves, Jason Karp, Gabriela Mendez, Elda Veloso, Maureen Mcdermot, Jia Borror, Berta Hayes Capo

FDLA Journal

Integration of technology tools and resources is imperative when working with today’s students as many are expecting to encounter various apps and media-based software in the curriculum. It is important, however, to have a clear purpose for integrating technology into the classroom; technology should not be integrated into the curriculum simply for the sake of doing so! To assist with purposeful integration, faculty members from Nova Southeastern University and St. Thomas University created a Technology Integration Learning Community (TILC); an online professional learning community where members teach each other about the latest and greatest technological tools and share ideas for …

All Roads Lead To Online Teaching Excellence: An Alternative Route To Faculty Certification For Online Teaching, Nancy Swenson, Shelly Wyatt Phd

FDLA Journal

New faculty who arrive at the University of Central Florida are very likely to be asked to teach at least one online (“W”) or mixed-mode (“M”) course. Realizing that effective teaching in these digital formats requires additional skills and knowledge that go beyond the traditional face-to-face classroom, UCF requires faculty to be certified in online teaching. Faculty at UCF have two avenues to obtain certification to develop and teach online or mixed-mode courses: our online teaching certification course IDL6543 or our alternative track for experienced faculty new to UCF called Online Faculty Readiness Assessment (OFRA). This assessment recognizes a faculty …

Beyond Chunking: Micro-Learning Secrets For Effective Online Design, Amanda Major, Tina Calandrino

FDLA Journal

This article focuses on micro-learning for its effectiveness in online learning design. Faculty members in many universities incorporate micro-learning in their classes as it engages students with the subject matter and results in deeper learning, by encouraging them to connect to the subject matter with their everyday lives as well as the world around them. By improving knowledge retention, micro-learning supports learning in a more easily accessible bites of information productively designed in an online environment.

A Critical Divide In Higher Education: Bridging The Gap Between Student Success And Organizational Leadership, Kathyleen G. Wyatt

FDLA Journal

The emergence of the use of technology in the classroom and the demand for on-line classes has created a challenge for organizational leaders in higher education to retain students and foster an atmosphere conducive to student success. The purpose of this article is to assist those leaders in determining if a leadership growth plan could be a valuable component of a comprehensive professional development plan to increase student success. The discussion in this article is based on the triangulated findings of a qualitative case study designed to generate unbiased, rich, and in-depth information from those involved in degree programs at …

Digital Footprints: Creation, Implication, And Higher Education, Maureen Mcdermot

FDLA Journal

Twenty-first century higher education instructors are continually tasked to review, align, pilot, adopt, infuse, and evaluate new technology tools and resources into curricula rich with standards regardless of course format (online/distance, hybrid, and face-to-face courses). Demands often overwhelm instructors who cannot assume that all students approach technology with the same levels of expertise increases constantly with new multimedia developments. Before courses begin, instructors should pilot these tools and applications to determine accessibility, types of support students may need, as well as determine what types of digital footprints students will leave behind. Digital footprints are unique data trails Internet users leave …

Accelerating Students Forward To Excellence With Ucf Online, Bren Bedford, Beth Nettles, Karen Tinsley-Kim

FDLA Journal

The Center for Distributed Learning, in the Division of Digital Learning at the University of Central Florida (UCF), has been instrumental in driving the use of educational technology to expand online teaching and learning opportunities. The advances have occurred while retaining the level of excellence for which its online learning has been nationally recognized and awarded over the last 20 years. As online educational trends have evolved due to a demand for more expansive offerings, the fully-online UCF Online initiative was born. UCF is accelerating students forward to excellence by expanding the reach of an affordable higher education with UCF …

Do Udoit For Webcourses@Ucf: Who Is Using It And Where?, Karen Tinsley-Kim

FDLA Journal

This paper is an expansion on the presentation of the same name given on Tuesday, January 16th, 2018 at the 2017 FLDA/FAMTE Conference in Orlando, FL (originally scheduled for September 2017, rescheduled due to impact from Hurricane Irma). The presentation, “Do UDOIT for Webcourses@UCF: Who Is Using It and Where?” given by Karen Tinsley-Kim was part of the 10:30-11:45am Concurrent Session, “Online Course Design: Privacy, Inclusion, and Accountability.” Graphics and images originate from slides shown in the presentation and other relevant sources.

Topkit: An Online Faculty Development Resource, Shelly Wyatt Phd, Wendy S. Howard, Ashley Salter, Jessica Tojo

FDLA Journal

Faculty preparation is a critical success factor for any program that involves online teaching and learning (Kane, Shaw, & Pang, 2016; Merillat & Scheibmeir, 2016; Parker, Maor, & Herrington, 2013). Although experts in their respective fields, faculty may not have studied online pedagogy or instructional design before stepping into the onsite or online classroom. While few educators would argue against offering faculty development, institutions grapple with limited funding and campus resources (e.g., limited space, scheduling constraints) for faculty training. To pool resources for this purpose, the State University System of Florida Board of Governors committed to sponsoring a program to …

Increasing Social Presence Online: Five Strategies For Instructors, Charlotte A. Jones-Roberts

FDLA Journal

As one component of the Community of Inquiry Model, social presence comprises how learners effectively project themselves in a learning environment. Effective cultivation of social presence can lead to more motivated students, success in the class, and, of course, effective online instruction. However, increasing social presence in an online course can be easier said than done. Through a review of literature, this paper briefly overviews the benefits of increased social presence and highlights five research-based strategies for improving social presence in online environments.

University Partnership: A Grant-Funded Program For Minority And Underserved Populations, Jerry Holt

FDLA Journal

Provision of services for minority and underserved populations is often problematic. Often, these students attend schools in districts in which funding is lacking for the delivery of services (Ballantine, 2017; Brint, 2017). Classic texts such as Kozol’s Savage Inequalities (1991) highlighted the disparate nature of the schools that serve these populations, and concomitantly the diminished opportunity for these students in terms of academic progress and workforce possibilities. This disparity of opportunity, often characterized by ethnicity and socioeconomics, persists into the 21^st century (Rothstein, 2014; Weir, 2016).[1]

[1] Kozol also continues to describe the ongoing disparity in American education …

Faculty Development – The Critical Element, Deborah J. Seepersaud

FDLA Journal

Faculty development is a complex idea, often misunderstood, but not at the University of Mississippi where the key to faculty development is clear – instructional design is the critical element of faculty development. Instructional design and instructional designers are considered necessary to quality online education. Instructional designers are involved in all aspects of faculty development from first efforts of professors to ongoing strategies for course enrichment.

An organization’s commitment to quality online education can probably be determined by asking one question – what is the institution’s level of commitment to appropriate and research-based instructional design strategies?

Expediting And Sustaining Change: Diffusing Innovation In Dynamic Educational Settings, Jeff Dungan

FDLA Journal

Change is critical in most organizations. International schools attempting to redefine 21st century education for their students are constantly innovating pedagogies and school structures. International schools tend to be dynamic, fast paced, nimble learning environments constantly innovating to meet the demands of evolving student populations. Hayden, Rancic, and Thompson (2000) found common characteristics of international schools included open-mindedness, flexibility of thinking, and action with the pragmatic skills of students. International schools in the East Asia region are well resourced and often looking for ways to differentiate themselves in the highly competitive global educational marketplace. The International School Consultancy (2016) reported …

Teaching Qualitative Research Online: Using Technology To Leverage Student Engagement, Elda Veloso, Anymir Orellana, Jennifer L. Reeves

FDLA Journal

Three faculty colleagues collaborated to effectively pilot the concept of an online community to integrate innovative technologies for learning qualitative research concepts and skills in an online research course. The strategies implemented resulted in engaged students with improved research skills. Students also expressed how much they enjoyed learning and implementing concepts of qualitative research. Technologies that were integrated included cutting-edge apps, social media, and Blackboard collaboration tools. The team followed the ASSURE model (Smaldino, Lowther, Russell, & Mims, 2015) to plan and implement for effective integration of technology and media.

Users Not Watchers: Motivation And The Use Of Discussion Boards In Online Learning, Sarah Ransdell, Jia Borror, Angie Su

FDLA Journal

College students will participate in any learning activity when they feel it helps. Students have an uncanny sense of a tipping point of use. Is it worth my time? Will it help me get a better grade? Discussion boards only work if they help and not hinder online learning. Discussing course content online can be as useful as discussing it among physical classmates. In fact, actively using discussion boards can encourage students to be active users not passive watchers. Users are motivated to engage. Watchers disengage. The present paper provides six examples of how DB motivated online learning. These …

Give To Teachers What Belongs To Teachers, Senta A. Sellers, Joana Fernandez

FDLA Journal

The Nova Southeastern University Alvin Sherman Library, Research, and Information Technology Center opened in December 2001 to accommodate both academic and public users (Nova Southeastern University, 2001). The facility, built as part of a 1999 agreement between Nova Southeastern University (NSU) and Broward County Board of County Commissioners, serves the public as well as students, staff, and faculty of Nova Southeastern University. Joint-use facilities such as the Sherman Library have existed since the 1970s (Matthews & Calvert, 2007).

As of the end of 2017, the Sherman Library houses 1,176,148 volumes and has access to over 500 databases. Because the Sherman …