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| Description: | Spice up your professional development online courses for K-12 educators with interactivity and multimedia that engages learners while deepening understanding and helping them retain content information. Learn three levels of interactivity that should be built into courses to ensure optimal learning. See demonstrations of lessons from the TeachStar Online Academy courses featuring a variety of multimedia that promote interactivity. See how Online Portfolios and the discussion board can add to the interactivity of your courses. |
| Presentation Format: | Oral |
| Topic: | Enabling learning: Effective instructional practices and flexible design models |
| Target Audience: | Course Designers, Faculty and Other Instructors, K-12 Educational Staff |
| Appropriate Audience Level: | Beginning or new users of WebCT, Experienced WebCT users |
| WebCT Version: | |
| Abstract Text: | This presentation is based on the research findings that show there are three types of interactivity that promote optimal learning in web-based courses: learner-to-content, learner-to-learner, and learner-to-instructor. The Center for Distance and Online Learning’s TeachStar Online Academy professional development courses in reading/language arts and mathematics for K-12 teachers will be demonstrated in the presentation. The courses are instructor-led and enrollment is limited to 20 participants. WebCT is the courseware and provides the learning management system for the academy. All courses are designed to provide the three types of interaction in a fun, engaging, and non-threatening manner. A variety of multimedia applications used in both the mathematics and language arts/reading courses to promote student-to-content interaction will be demonstrated. These interactive activities are built in Macromedia Flash, Java Applets, Geometer’s Sketchpad, video clips, and self-assessment quizzes. Also demonstrated will be the student-to-student interactions and instructor-to-student interactions promoted in the asynchronous discussion board and online journals, which are tied to content questions that build dialogue and collaboration. From this interaction, a learning community forms so that everyone becomes an instructor and everyone becomes a learner. In this process, multiple perspectives are fostered and understanding of the content is deepened. The learning is tied back to the participants’ classroom practice through portfolio assignments that require professional reflection and application. Feedback from the instructors (instructor-to-student) is a crucial part of the interactivity, and this is promoted through the online journals, portfolio assignments, the chat room, and email. In the proposed presentation, all of these interactive tools, applications, and strategies will be demonstrated and discussed. Lessons learned and tips for building interactive activities will be shared, along with the PowerPoint slides handout. The co-presenters are course designers and will be able to answer technical questions for interested participants. |
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