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Comment by Sandy Fritz on June 11, 2010 at 8:55pm

Really well said Susan. We have been using the evolve sites that come with the textbooks (mine of course) at my school for three years now. The class management system has all the whistles and bells. I have also implimented the online course for Essential Science in a hybrid format with a dedicated teach. The instructor posts a discussion board question every week based on content and the students respond., the evolve site is able to track how long a student is on the site, what there activity is on the discussion board, and how they are performing against milestones and exams. The discussion board is also where questions are posted for the instructor who then responds back on the board so all students can follow- just like a classroom. There is a chat room, a place for team activities and so much more. I will admit that there is a learning curve and we are still in it but the design of the site and the course is that you can get started right away and learn as you go.

Comment by Susan G. Salvo on June 11, 2010 at 7:19pm

Hey Whitney, the online courses that Elsevier designed possess those interactive opportunities between students and their instructors. The learning opportunities are limitless.

For example, you can use the discussion questions 1) Sandy and I created, 2) instructors can create and post there own, or 3) you can require students to design the "question of the wk" and rotate who facilitates the discussions (giving them more of a leadership role).

The course comes with an implementation guide for instructors and a sample syllabus. There is even a discussion board rubric to help instructors with grading discussion questions, case studies, and exams. The discussion board rubric includes points for regular postings and the quality of the responses.

The platform I use (which is free from Elsevier) is very similar to Blackboard. This was a bonus for me as I was quite familiar with Blackboard (this is what is used at the university I attend).

And when students open their page, they can view their progress with the course.

Instructors can make course documents and exams viewable during certain times to coincide with classroom lectures and hide them once the course is complete (you don’t have to do it that way, but the course administrator has this and many more options).

As you can see, I am quite excited. I get even more excited when I hear from students how much they like it and how much more confident they feel with the materials.

I hope to post a youtube video for students and another for instructors.

And thanks again, Vlad, for participating in my research study last semester. I got an "A."

Comment by Whitney Lowe on June 11, 2010 at 6:48pm

Another thing to consider...The resources you have mentioned do a great job of providing support materials for classroom activities if they are self-paced. Another facet that is very important to consider is instructor-led online training. In many cases this is where the hybrid education model excels. Discussion groups, online interaction, and use of social media for greater communication are all benefits of an instructor-facilitated course. Those elements create outstanding learning opportunities, but do require more knowledge about online education on the part of the instructors.

Comment by Sandy Fritz on June 11, 2010 at 11:14am

Thanks Kelly. I think that when people get a chance to see what a really good online course is like they will love it.

Comment by Kellie White on June 11, 2010 at 8:42am

It's been so itneresting to read all of the discussions about online learning. I thought you all might like to view a portion of our two courses. You can find a module of Susan Salvo's Pathology course at:

https://evolve.elsevier.com/productPages/i_1809_5490.html

and you can view a module from Sandy Fritz's Essential Sciences course at:

https://evolve.elsevier.com/productPages/i_1529_5271.html

When the page pulls up, just click on "Preview sample content" and you'll be given access to a complete module. If anyone has questions, just ask Sandy, Susan, or me.

Comment by Keith Eric Grant on June 10, 2010 at 8:46pm

Noting the topic, I thought I'd chip in on an upcoming conference -- one that has a couple of upcoming online previews (as well as a past one captured) and that will also have parts of it virtually available. This is the Emerging Technologies for Online Learning Symposium, jointly put on by the Sloan Consortium, Merlot, and Moodle. Sloan-C also has a LinkedIn Group.

I follow a lot on Twitter about technology that's disruptive to past thoughts about how education is done. This is one of the articles, I'd retweeted in the past week or so. As the article, on telepresence, discusses, remote education can no longer be considered to be less interactive than being physically present -- it may actually be more interactive. On the other hand, as Sandy notes, it's still best to teach physical/kinesthetic skills in the physical world. The article on the diminishing economic benefit of a college degree from the Chronicles of Higher Education is also good for provoking a though or two.

The disruptive effect that technology is likely to have in the next decade isn't just limited to education. I just finished up a blog post on technology and shopping for clothes.

Comment by Vlad on June 10, 2010 at 7:49pm

Susan asked me to pop on here and tell people about the online learning experience for her Pathology course (I was one of the trial participants for her research). It was incredibly well done.

The best aspects of it were:
- The variety in the presentation of the material. Written material, cool graphics. links to little snippets in interesting info, videos and different formats of quizzes. It even had crossword puzzles on there. It had an entertainment value to the learning experience. It was cool and pretty dang impressive.
- The way in which the material was presented made it so that you covered a lot of material, at your own pace, without realizing you'd covered it until the end of the module, while at the same time never feeling like you were overwhelmed with information.
- Real world application - actual cases were brought in which would represent a real world situation. This was missing in my basic education and I know I would have benefitted from it. It involved using analytical skills for a real world application.
- The volume of information on the course was amazing, but the way it was divided up into different areas/modules/pages on the site was cool.
- Research was referred to for specific items.
- As with any online class, I could do it at my own pace, but I've only ever done courses online for computer apps and tools, which was along the old lines of read stuff, do stuff then do a quiz. Her course brought variety and fun into it. It made an incredible difference to the online learning experience.
It's the way of the future, for sure.

Comment by Sandy Fritz on June 10, 2010 at 11:40am

Both Susan and I have been authors on online courses for our textbooks. In fact Susan did a couple of modules for the Essential Science for Therapeutic Massage as well as the course for the pathology textbook. I know that the online course for Essential Sciences can present a stronger platform for this content than individuals in traditional classrooms that are uncertain of the content. Quality is what counts. There are boring online courses. It is a real challenge to create online content that is engaging, though provoking, teaches critical thinking, follows concepts of adult learning and learning systems such as Blooms Taxonomy. The publisher, Elsievier provided expert support, almost unlimited resources such as high quality animations and much more. I would not recommend attempting to create a course on your own, It is a real project. Besides the way Elsivier is doing it the cost is so affordable. These courses will run on blackboard systems if you have them but you do not need to use them. .

Comment by Lisa Mertz on June 10, 2010 at 11:18am

Thanks, Susan! I appreciate the offer. I teach in a City University of New York community college in one of boroughs of NYC. We have resources up the ying/yang. I am currently involved in a 2-semester instructional technology seminar with colleagues, who, like myself, have been involved with distance/internet learning since the 1980s. It's fascinating how this has evolved over the years and how the current "millennial" generation has grown up with computers and cell phones the way we grew up with TV (while some us had parents who only grew up with radio). In a massage lab class, all I really need is a table, sheets, and a bottle of oil, but for lecture, research, homework, students want online resources; they don't want books any more they want vids and podcasts. It's a lot of fun...

Comment by Susan G. Salvo on June 10, 2010 at 11:06am

There is lots of data and research studies out there in support of blended learning. Let us know if you need any help in the future.

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