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Monday, July 12, 2010

Study: Science Students More Likely to Use Wikipedia


A majority of college students use Wikipedia.org for course-related research, and students majoring in architecture, engineering and science are more likely to do so, according to a study published by Alison Head and Michael Eisenberg in the journal First Monday on March 1.



More than 2,000 students from six colleges and universities in the United States, including both public and private universities and four- and two-year colleges, were surveyed for the study. Students at Princeton did not participate in the study.


The study found that 82 percent of respondents reported using Wikipedia to obtain background information on a topic. While 52 percent reported that they were frequent users, only 22 percent said that they rarely, if ever, used the website. Students in four-year colleges were also more likely than those in two-year colleges to use Wikipedia for research.


Princeton students, librarians and faculty alike agreed that Wikipedia serves as a good starting point for research but should not be used as a cited source.


Nancy Pressman-Levy, head of Stokes Library, said that non-students also make frequent use of Wikipedia. “Even faculty use it to get started on a topic when you don’t know anything about it and you need a quick source to consult,” she explained.


“You just have to be very careful about the information, as you need to with all websites,” she added, because “there’s no authority behind it.”


History professor Philip Nord expressed a similar sentiment. “I look at Wikipedia all the time, but I wouldn’t ever rely on it, nor would I advise students to do it,” he said


The study’s findings that more science than humanities majors and more students at four-year colleges than two-year colleges use Wikipedia, along with the existance of an inverse correlation between Wikipedia usage and library usage, surprised some members of the University community.


Pressman-Levy noted that she did not expect “to see a stronger emphasis on science majors” using Wikipedia, adding that “students use Wikipedia on campus across the board. I work with social science students and faculty, and all seem to be heavy users of Wikipedia.”


Source: The Daily Princetonian
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Faculty Focus: Pros and Cons of Teaching Standardized Courses

Teaching Standardized Courses: Advantages and Disadvantages



By Mary Bart
Online courses are increasingly being developed by a team of instructional designers, curriculum specialists, and instructional technologists. In the majority of cases, these courses feature standardized content such as a common syllabus and assignments, and reusable course modules and learning objects.


These team-developed courses are often meant to be taught in multiple sections for successive course terms, facilitated by different instructors, including those who weren’t even part of the initial course design process. Institutions rationalize this standardized approach because it’s an efficient way to ensure consistent learning outcomes, it allows them to serve more students without expensive and time-consuming individualized course development, and it helps meet student expectations for consistent, high-quality online courses.


Yet there are those who feel “standardized” means “canned” — with no input from the teacher, and no opportunities for instructors to fully leverage their expertise, much less infuse their teaching style into the course.


In a recent online seminar Teaching an Online Course Developed by Others, Dr. Susan Ko, executive director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Maryland University College, offered strategies on “how to make a course your own” even if you weren’t involved in the initial creation.


In a perfect world, the team approach to online course development is going to create a richer, more consistent, more effective, and stronger course, but it’s the faculty who have to actually teach the course. What impact does the team approach have on the way individual faculty members teach and students learn? This seminar provides the answer to this and other questions about teaching standardized content. Learn More »


“A lot of people don’t even like to use the term ‘standardized content’ because it has some negative connotations, but when you think about what it means to have standardized content, it’s not a negative thing at all,” Ko says.


In fact, she says, teaching an online course with some standardized content can carry with it certain instructor benefits, including:
• Allows you to spend less time preparing your online course
• Lets you focus your energies on teaching the course
• Enables you to teach a wider range of courses
• Gives your course a professional look and feel, with multimedia components that appeal to today’s students


Despite the many benefits of standardized courses, however there are some pitfalls that need to be addressed, including the potential for:
• A poor fit between course design and the instructor’s teaching style, in some cases there may be irreconcilable differences
• Lack of ownership and engagement
• Loss of interest after repeating the same content semester after semester
• Disagreement with aspects of course content


“You’ll want to thoroughly familiarize yourself with the course you are going to teach, because if you don’t understand the content, approach, and principles of that course, you will find it hard to be an effective instructor,” Ko says. “Also find out what you can add or change in the course, whether that is your own commentary, additional resources, assignments, or discussion questions. Or it may be that your unique contribution will be in providing feedback and facilitating interaction in the class.”
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Books Are Here To Stay: Kindle And IPad Not Ready For College Classrooms!


Professors and students were excited when electronic readers, such as the Amazon Kindle and Apple iPad, were released. With many students complaining about expensive textbooks, universities are trying to find ways to lower costs. So when the opportunity to participate in a year-long pilot program for the Kindle arose, universities across the nation did not hesitate.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, seven universities were asked to test the Kindle in a classroom setting. After a few months, most students stopped using the e-reader, saying it was not user-friendly and difficult to use in the classroom.



"It's an amazing device for recreational reading, but it's not quite ready for prime time in higher education," says Daniel Turner, associate dean of the masters and executive education programs at the University of Washington's Foster School of Business.


AZcentral.com reports that university professors wanted to see how e-readers would compare with traditional textbooks and whether or not they would help lower book costs and improve student learning.



Overall, the Kindle did lower book costs and students liked its portability, but found that it was somewhat challenging to use when studying. Students found it difficult and awkward to highlight lines and take notes, saying the tiny buttons were hard to use and the keyboard was not ergonomic. A faculty member at Reed College in Portland, Oregon says the Kindle's inability to efficiently take notes may cause students to read passively and, therefore, reduce their ability to retain complex information.


At Princeton University, students found that the Kindle was difficult to use during group discussions. With traditional textbooks, students are used to flipping through pages, but when using an e-reader the class had problems getting to the same location in a text.


Bloomberg Businessweek reports that MBA students at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business disliked the Kindle's inability to organize cases. When asked if they would recommend the Kindle to fellow students, 86 percent said they would not. 96 percent, however, would recommend the device for personal reading.


Students at Foster School of Business also disapproved of the Kindle. The school began the pilot in January with 61 students participating; by the Spring quarter, only 17 students continued to use it.


Furthermore, Jakob Nielsen of Neilsen Norman Group adds that it takes longer to read books on a Kindle and iPad. According to Mashable, Nielson conducted a study with 24 participants who read short stories by Ernest Hemingway in traditional print and on the iPad, Kindle and desktop PC. After reading, everyone was asked to complete a questionnaire to make sure participants did not just skim through the material. The results show that when compared to print, reading speeds on the iPad declined by 6.2 percent and 10.7 percent on the Kindle. Nielson argues that universities will most likely avoid e-readers if further studies prove that they negatively affect reading speeds.


From these studies, it appears most students will continue to prefer textbooks over e-readers until significant improvements are made. "[The Kindle] just [doesn't] have the features or the sort of user friendliness to make it practical, let alone helpful," said Joe Chard, a first-year MBA student at Darden, in Bloomberg Businessweek.

Compiled by www.CityTownInfo.com Staff


Sources:
"E-book Readers Bomb on College Campuses," businessweek.com, June 10, 2010, Alison Damast
"iPad and Kindle Reading Speeds," useit.com July 2, 2010, Jakob Nielsen
"Kindle and iPad Books Take Longer to Read than Print [Study]," mashable.com, July 3, 2010, Lauren Indvik
"Profs: Kindle no threat to college textbooks," azcentral.com, July 6, 2010, Anne Ryman
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TLTG Online Summer Symposium 2010: Frugal Innovations for Student Engagement [FISE] - Faculty Sharing - Small Steps in the Right Direction

Prep Session - Friday July 23, 2pm EDT
Mondays, August 2, 9, 16, and Friday, Sept 10, 2:00pm EDT
Frugal Innovations for Student Engagement [FISE]
Faculty Sharing - Small Steps in the Right Direction
Small steps faculty members can take to improve student engagement in undergraduate courses - without adding unrealistic workloads for their students or themselves. And ways to encourage and support collegial sharing of these steps. A few references... see this page for more http://bit.ly/TLTGstudentengagement 
This symposium is free to members and subscribers and $450 to others.

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"Find a Book" with Lexile Measures and WorldCat.org

Help users find books at their reading level!

WorldCat has teamed up with MetaMetrics to offer "Find a Book" to help connect readers with books appropriate for their reading level, using the popular Lexile Framework® for Reading. Readers can either enter their Lexile measure or their grade and if they find reading materials difficult or easy. Once they find the books they're interested in, they connect to your library through WorldCat.org and check availability.

"Find a Book" offers the option to "Find in a library" which connects to WorldCat.org.

Once users are at WorldCat.org, they can create a list, add ratings, get automatic citations for an item or do other social networking-type activities connected to your summer reading program.
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Microsoft at Work: 12 tips for creating better presentations


You have a presentation to create. It's important. But, formatting diagrams can take forever and the text on your slides seems to have a mind of its own. Then, there's the sad fact that everybody's Microsoft PowerPoint presentations look the same.


Sound about right? If so, I've got good news for you! Creating professional, unique presentations can be much easier than you think.


This article will help you find the right tools to get exactly the presentation you want. We'll look at three components of creating effective presentations, and provide time-saving tips to help send your presentation off in style:
•Grab the viewer's attention
•Clearly communicate your information
•Stay in control of your presentations
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Hampton University Launches New Online Degrees Virtual Campus


HU Launches New Online Degrees, Virtual Campus
July 1, 2010
Hampton, Va. –Hampton University has launched its web-based, virtual campus HamptonU Online, offering an ever-expanding range of degree programs entirely online. HamptonU Online offers students located anywhere in the world the freedom to study online anytime to earn certificate, undergraduate and graduate degrees from HU. Courses begin August 2.


HamptonU Online offers three doctoral degrees, two master’s degrees, eight bachelor’s degrees, two associate degrees and two certificate programs. Through HamptonU Online, the university introduces two new online doctoral programs, the Doctor of Philosophy in Business Leadership and the Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Leadership and Management, to add to the existing Doctor of Philosophy in nursing.


Targeted towards furthering the education of working adults, HamptonU Online will offer a variety of flexible, comprehensive student support services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. HamptonU Online is led by Dr. Cristi Ford and housed within HU’s College of Education and Continuing Studies.


“In every part of the College of Education and Continuing Studies, we are trying to take the expertise and strong programs found on campus and make them available to populations of people which Hampton University hasn’t touched yet,” said Dr. Cassandra Herring, dean of the College of Education and Continuing Studies.


HU is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award degrees at the associate, baccalaureate, master’s, education specialist and doctorate levels.


For the 2010-2011 academic year, HamptonU Online undergraduate courses are $425 per credit hour and graduate courses are $600 per credit hour.


For more information, a list of degrees offered or to register for courses, please call (877) 633-9150 or visit http://huonline.hamptonu.edu/
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Online Classroom Online Seminar: Teaching an Online Course Developed by Others

Featured Higher Education Presenter: Susan Ko, Ph.D.
Phone: 800-433-0499 / 608-246-3590
Email: support@magnapubs.com
Originally Broadcast: 06/15/10
Program Length: 60 minutes
CD Price: $239


A key seminar for...

• Instructors
• Faculty
• Department heads
• Instructional designers
• Online administrators
• And anyone involved in the online course experience.
Promo Code: MA0AW5


Online courses are increasingly being developed by a team of instructional designers, curriculum specialists, and instructional technologists. In the majority of cases, these courses feature standardized content such as a common syllabus and assignments, and reusable course modules and learning objects.


These team-developed courses are often meant to be taught in multiple sections for successive course terms, facilitated by different instructors, including those who weren’t even part of the initial course design process. Institutions rationalize this standardized approach because it’s an efficient way to ensure consistent learning outcomes, it allows them to serve more students without expensive and time-consuming individualized course development, and it helps meet student expectations for consistent, high-quality online courses.


Yet there are those who feel “standardized” means “canned”–with no input from the teacher, and no opportunities for instructors to fully leverage their expertise, much less infuse their teaching style into the course.


In the recent online seminar Teaching an Online Course Developed by Others, Dr. Susan Ko, executive director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Maryland University College, offered strategies on “how to make a course your own” even if you weren’t involved in the initial creation.


“A lot of people don’t even like to use the term ‘standardized content’ because it has some negative connotations, but when you think about what it means to have standardized content, it’s not a negative thing at all,” Ko says.


In fact, she says, teaching an online course with some standardized content can carry with it certain instructor benefits, including:
• Allows you to spend less time preparing your online course
• Lets you focus your energies on teaching the course
• Enables you to teach a wider range of courses
• Gives your course a professional look and feel, with multimedia components that appeal to today’s students


Despite the many benefits of standardized courses, however, there are some pitfalls that need to be addressed, including the potential for:
• A poor fit between course design and the instructor’s teaching style; in some cases there may be irreconcilable differences
• Lack of ownership and engagement
• Loss of interest after repeating the same content semester after semester
• Disagreement with aspects of course content


“You’ll want to thoroughly familiarize yourself with the course you are going to teach, because if you don’t understand the content, approach, and principles of that course, you will find it hard to be an effective instructor,” Ko says. “Also find out what you can add or change in the course, whether that is your own commentary, additional resources, assignments, or discussion questions. Or it may be that your unique contribution will be in providing feedback and facilitating interaction in the class.”
Share/Bookmark