Examples from faculty teaching online science laboratory courses.
Universities using lab kits and other methods to offer lab sciences at a distance, University of Arkansas Distance Education Task Force Blog
Free online physics, chemistry, biology, earth science and math simulations, PhET project at the University of Colorado.
Home Dissection Kits and More, Inside Higher Ed
Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger Web Based Virtual Experiment, Department Process & Chemical Engineering, University College Cork
Physics simulations with Java, MyPhysicsLab You’ll see them animating in real time, and be able to interact with them by dragging objects or changing parameters like gravity.
No Test Tubes? Questions Arise On Virtual High School Science, New York Times
Interactive, online simulations for the life science laboratory or for earth science field studies, Sciencecourseware
Science Labs: Virtual Versus Simulated, THE Journal
Virtual Lab — Vivid Animations Help Students With Science Experiments, Science Daily
Science Labs of the Future, Converge
Biology Online Labs, McGraw-Hill Higher Education
In 2002, SDCCD Miramar College faculty developed and pilot tested an online biology laboratory course for non-science major students, Innovation Express
Posted in Online Learning | Tagged distance education, distance learning, online biology, online chemistry, online laboratory, online physics, online science, online science lab, online teaching, science lab | 1 Comment »
It seems to be safe to make an argument that there are at least two important factors that influence adult learners to get motivated or de-motivated to learn via distance education options. The two factors are:
1. Adult learners are goal-oriented; therefore, distance education programs should provide learning environments where they can accomplish their goals.
2. Adult learners are learning-oriented; therefore, distance education programs should provide learning environments where they can acquire interesting and relevant knowledge and skills.
The author has carried out a long-term evaluation study to make a judgment of the effectiveness of the interventions designed based on the above assumptions. The interventions were designed in order to reduce the high dropout rate in an adult online education program and evaluated was the effectiveness of the interventions in terms of the changed dropout rate.
Read more: coen.boisestate.edu
This article identifies characteristics of the adult learner and briefly reviews literature on the attrition and retention of adult learners in higher education programs. A summary of that research shows that adult learners focus on their roles as learners, their ability to balance school with outside responsibilities, and their flexibility in attaining personal goals within the context of educational and institutional goals. Programs aimed at improving the retention of adult learners and lessening attrition rates must take into account these factors.
Read more: Academic Exchange Quarterly | Find Articles at BNET
This review of the literature focuses on three primary dimensions of adult learners in postsecondary education: access, persistence, and success. Within each of these dimensions, there are four broad units of analysis: individual/family/community, institutions, state policies/collaborations, and federal policies/collaborations.
Source: Lumina Foundation
The best way to motivate adult learners is simply to enhance their reasons for enrolling and decrease the barriers. Instructors must learn why their students are enrolled (the motivators); they have to discover what is keeping them from learning. Then the instructors must plan their motivating strategies. A successful strategy includes showing adult learners the relationship between training and an expected promotion.
Read more: honolulu.hawaii.edu
Most of us remember sitting in a lecture listening to an instructor telling us about some subject for an hour or so, taking a short break, and then continuing the lecture for another hour or so. How well did we learn the material covered during this lecture? How much of this material do we remember today? The most likely answer to both questions is “little”.
The situation just described did not take into consideration “how adults learn”. The purpose of this paper is to describe adult learning concepts, relate these concepts to practical adult training, and discuss how lessons can be structured to make good use of adult learning concepts.
Source: NTC Adult Learners
Posted in Adult Learning | Tagged distamce learning, distance education, online teaching | 1 Comment »
This article provides decision makers with 32 trends that affect distance learning and thus enable them to plan accordingly. The trends are organized into categories as they pertain to students and enrollment, faculty members, academics, technology, the economy, and distance learning. All the trends were identified during an extensive review of current literature in the field.
Source: Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration
Posted in Online Learning | Leave a Comment »
Great post from Pat Hensley
I always set up the first couple of weeks with lots of small assignments that I know the students can complete successfully. At first, even they are surprised at these small successes. In fact, I know they are scared to believe in them and expect that this was just a fluke. I spend a lot of time praising them and encouraging them during this step.
As I increase the difficulty of their assignments, I make sure that I am always available to help them. Giving them cues and encouragement will help them succeed during this time. As they succeed more and more, they become more confident and this is so wonderful to see.
I really learned and enjoyed maths at high school only when a teacher gave me support and so many tests to resolve, starting from the easier ones to the more difficult. At the end I had a lot of training in maths and was confident I could be successful in any maths test.
Read More:
Related Posts: Student Motivation to Learn « Onlinesapiens Blog
Posted in Learning | Tagged student engagement, Student Learning, student motivation | 2 Comments »
Lisa M. Lane posted:
Then I got fancier with my History of England and Western Civ classes. I linked out to websites. I thought, what was the point of a class being web-based if there weren’t any hyperlinks? So I linked to informative, sometimes fascinating, websites from every lecture page. Then, when I recorded the audio lecture, I was sure to note where the links were, for the visually impaired.
Now I’m trapped. Many of the links have disappeared, so I’ve asked my wonderful secretary to start Furling them for me. She’s given me pages of links that are nowhere to be found. In one lecture alone (the World War II lecture for England) fully ten sites have disappeared.
Kristina D.C. Hoeppner. posted:
This debacle led me to think about the question “What is the plan B for online sessions?” When we teach or present at conferences, we usually have a “Plan B”, an alternative, in case the technology we want to use is not available or does not work. I still make screenshots of web pages in case the internet does not work and I want to point out something on a live site. Backup copies of the material I need are always stored on a USB stick, sent to my email account and / or uploaded somewhere online. I could even do without the visual support if needed as long as I do not loose my voice.
However, as I have never presented online, I had not thought about what to do when problems occur in the virtual space.
On the Internet Archive I was able to find copies of pages I needed for teaching and blogging and have been removed from the internet:
Educational Conferencing Fundamentals and Matriz de Impacto Ambiental
and also I found some pages I needed for my Linkedin Profile:
Member of Florida Virtual College Faculty and Online Courses I authored for Florida Virtual College: Ciencias del Ambiente y Evaluación Ambiental
If you are teaching online don’t forget to save a copy of any important web pages from other sites you are using on your course. Sometimes web pages and web sites are REMOVED from the web. It happened to me also, at least twice. I was lucky to have a copy of those pages!!
Posted in Online Learning | Tagged conferencing, elearning, online teaching | Leave a Comment »
