We have been working here, at the college I am at to create a virtual experience for future purposes. I work at a men's college and many of the men work (not as many women work here in the gulf - but the number is increasing).
Virtual opportunities would offer lots of advantages. To start - and connected to the into, working men (and women) could take classes. This is interesting, very interesting because due to the virtual environment we could now have men and women in the same course. This is forbidden now at the college level do to cultural reasons.
Additionally we have areas, curricular areas, that may benefit from virtual options:
1) We are attempting to introduce the liberal arts and do not have qualified instructors at all campus locations. We have 16 ish campus locations and 17 000 students.
2) Credit recovery could be done via online for students whom fail to meet course requirements.
3) Foundations English courses could be done online and once the acceptable level has been met the student could move into the regular program.
Currently I have been able to work with 4 colleagues that will make a one week trial successful for data collection and student feedback to gain an insight from their perspective on the values and or benefits of virtual learning.
I will include some of the details of the development in a comment, following:
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#1
ReplyDeleteHi Steve,
I am sure we can use either the faculty meeting room or the boardroom if that is not free.
Just had an e-mail through about Wimba training – maybe that could be useful too?
Kind Regards
Richard
From: Stephen Pellerine
Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 12:02 PM
To: Richard Summerfield; Andrew Bown; Richard Pearson
Cc: Lowes, Susan
Subject: RE: HCT Virtual Learning Initiative
Thanks Richard,
Think it would work well. It is close – they have a great cafeteria and probably a room we could meet in. It would act, as you point out – not just the socialization point, but also a place where we could do a tour of “engineering” oriented themes – in their backyard.
I wonder if there is a meeting room that we could use for a couple of hours and students could present their weeks work there. Remember this “virtual trial” could demonstrate that although students need not attend a class at a specified time, they can still do deep work. I am admittedly new to the concepts of “virtual” schooling as used in the cases I am looking at, but feel they offer more than simple website, blog, pdf, options previously created via VistaBB. It could solve some HCT Wide issues in the future should we determine these pathways effective and engaging.
Let’s look at the schedule and see what the folks out in Digdaga say.
Steve
From: Richard Summerfield
Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 7:03 PM
To: Stephen Pellerine; Andrew Bown; Richard Pearson
Cc: Lowes, Susan; Saeed Abualreesh
Subject: RE: HCT Virtual Learning Initiative
#2
ReplyDeleteHi Steve and Richard,
Excellent initiative.
Regarding item 5 on your list (Location of a place for social/ educational day). Sheikh *&&% is an engineer who is heavily involved with RAK airport. He has been to the College a few times and has expressed an interest in supporting engineering student projects.
I am sure Saeed Abualreesh will be happy to liaise with the Sheikh and set up a visit to the airport. Maybe we could think of an engineering aspect related to the airport (Aircraft maintenance, Mechanical handling systems?) that the students would be interested in which could be followed by a tour of the airport building (social side). Please invite me along!
What do you think?
Kind Regards
Richard
From: Stephen Pellerine
Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 4:53 PM
To: Andrew Bown; Richard Pearson; Richard Summerfield
Cc: Lowes, Susan
Subject: RE: HCT Virtual Learning Initiative
Hi folks,
So it looks like we will aim for week 12 of semester 2 (April 11-15). We have about 6 weeks to get details and ideas together, but have agreed on some common grounds/ideas:
1. Students will have to work on a unit: “People that Matter” in relation to their research topics
2. Andy, Richard, and Steve will prep 3 short instructional videos and 3 blogs will correspond
3. Richard P, and Steve will be required to contact students 2 times via phone
4. Students will be required to develop their paper and presentation based on the unit
5. We will locate a place for a social/educational day based on engineering
6. Richard P. will create a blog to log our ideas (Steve & Richard)
7. Student services will make sure they understand it is not a holiday
8. We will attempt to collect reflections (teacher/student) before and after
I have attached the PPT for Richard P. and Richard S. for your review. Exciting! If any ideas come to mind feel free to call another meeting.
Steve
From: Andrew Bown
Sent: Sunday, February 21, 2010 2:54 PM
To: Stephen Pellerine
Cc: Lowes, Susan
Subject: RE: HCT Virtual Learning Initiative
Hi Steve
As discussed, I am happy to support you with this.
Good luck with the pilot.
Cheers
Andy
From: Stephen Pellerine
Sent: 18 February 2010 16:33
To: Andrew Bown
Cc: Lowes, Susan
Subject: HCT Virtual Learning Initiative
Dear Andy Bown,
ReplyDeleteI would like to thank you for the time today and our discussions on the trial of a virtual initiative here at the College. As we had discussed, the potential for future development is great at the HCT and future initiatives could include 1) foundations English, 2) liberal arts, and 3) credit recovery were three areas that virtual learning could work well at the college. I have attached a copy of the PPT that we went over in the chance you need to forward it onwards, but I will revise it as we discussed.
The pilot, I will develop over the next couple of weeks to make it more solid, is based on current studies on virtual schools. To recap, we decided that I need to develop: three short videos, five blog reflections, handouts for individuals connected to individual research projects (to be handed out before), and possibly the college bus for a trip to Dubai for a social outing and book shopping. I also need to coordinate with a member from student services to come to the class prior to the pilot and explain the goals for a “virtual unit”, not a week off studies. Students would be required to attend normal sessions within their program. Students will be marked absent if tasks are not submitted or if they do not make their minimum of (2 emails/2 calls) in the week.
I will rework this and develop the initiative. I will collect student perceptions and feelings prior to and after the learning experience in order to determine the effectiveness and overall support for such educational ventures. If there are other at the administrative level I understand that the development of the unit, People that Matter, may need to be postpone until official clearance/permissions are given. Nonetheless as an academic exercise – I will develop the unit to integrate graduate studies into possible application.
I have also included Dr. Susan Lowes in this e-mail, the director of research and evaluation at Columbia University’s Institute for Learning Technologies as she is following this as my professor/academic guide for the course (virtual schools) and may need to see such exchanges in the event of any ethical concerns regarding data collection.
Best regards and have a great weekend
Steve R. Pellerine