case study

X204 Business Communication

Submitted by mmorrone on 13 March 2010 - 9:55pm

Tagged with:

Course Number/ID:

X204

Course Length (number of weeks):

Course Delivery Mode:

In-Class

Average Number of Enrolled Students:

Between 10 and 30 students

Course Level:

College/University

Course Contributors:

Thirteen instructors teach Business Communication. The
course objectives and consistency standards were set by these faculty
members. Course delivery, however, is determined by each
instructor. The uses of Sakai discussed in this application were planned
and executed by me.

Course Development:

Taylor (2008) suggests that interactive learning coupled with mechanisms
to create accountability is necessary to facilitate learning for millennial
students. This led me to social media channels to discuss cases or
class-built resources embedded in blog posts or the course wiki.

Cases include multi-media resources by embedding them in the wiki or blog
or byreferring to course modules developed with Melete or multi-media html
pages. I also decided that my students should learn about a variety of
social media channels given that businesses now use wikis, blogging, twitter,
and other channels.

BusinessCommunication objectives involve listening and interpersonal communication
including inter-cultural communication skills. I, therefore, created a
blog post that asks the students to consider inter-cultural-non-verbal
communication. The post describes non-verbal communication then leads to an
embedded video scene from a documentary called Well-Founded Fear, screen
shot below. In the scene, a woman from Romania is being interviewed about
her application to stay in the United States because she fears returning to
Romania. In the US asylum process, these interviews are, by law, to be
conducted in a non-adversarial manner. However, the woman and the
interviewing officer both have aggressive communication styles, resulting in a
power grab by the asylum officer.

My students respond to the blog post using the blog's comment feature. Typically,
when I've facilitated in class discussion of this case as opposed to online, a
majority of the students begin discussion by thinking the woman is lying.
But as the discussion develops their eyes tend to open and see the richness of
non-verbal communication...which, of course, is a substantial part of the
expected learning outcome. When I switched the process to a pre-class
discussion on the course blog, I noticed that students who saw the problematic
non-verbal cues of the asylum officer spoke up more forcefully and quickly.
This was unexpected; however, it was extremely beneficial to student learning,
as the students discovered the complexities of non-verbal communication without
my influence. In the past, in class, I often had to make the points about
how the asylum officer's behavior impacted the interview; in other words, I
lead the students to a key learning outcome. I was thrilled that the
students made this leap without me.

The example above demonstrates how this process works before class. The activities
create accountability in a few ways. First, the information posted by the
students creates accountability during a "readiness assurance" process.
The readiness assurance process ("RAP"), discussed in detail below, is
part of the Larry Michaelsen's team-based learning approach which I adapted for my
class. The point of the RAP is actually to confirm that students have
learned course concepts at the lowest level of Bloom's taxonomy, so that they
are ready for in-class activities that emphasize application and higher levels
of the taxonomy. The second form of accountability emerges; because, the student
comments are generated before class and are available for consideration by all my
students. Third, the social media discussions become the source of follow up assignments.

Course Delivery:

I teach three sections of Business Communication every semester. I use a practice
course site as a resource area for my active course sites. Resources that
are consistent across all three sections are developed and maintained in this
site. Typically, I create these resources as publicly viewable html pages
and connect them to my active course sites. Html pages are also written to
augment the textbooks' delivery of course concepts. For example, my
students learn how to use indirect persuasion. I have added to the
textbook's treatment of this issue by creating a custom html page in the
resource site. The page describes key concepts, such as the Attention
Interest Desire Action ("AIDA") persuasion model, as well as logos,
ethos, and pathos elements of persuasion. I also embedded a flash animation
(createdwith Jing) of a document exemplar. I link to this custom html page in
the course site Resources. Below is an example wiki post that relates to the
students' reading of a module on team work. I wrote the case using the
"create html page" in Resources, so that I and my students could easily
link to it from multiple locations. (see wiki screenshot)

My class uses team-based learning, much as described by Larry Michaelsen. Thus,
students are placed in teams on the second day of class and work in these teams
every day for the rest of the semester. In order to move beyond in-class
lecturing on basic concepts and to active learning with a focus on application
of content, the course has three readiness assurance days, one focusing on
characteristics of professional writing, writing style, and message
organization, one on communication theory and audience analysis, and one on
teamwork and leadership. Before each readiness assurance day, the
students respond to a case posted either in the course blog, Communication
Skills for Success, which is an external blog accessible through the web
content tool, or the course wiki. (I'm hoping to use the Sakai blog tool
when it moves from beta.) Blog posts and wiki posts prompt students to:

1. Identify concepts they consider most important,

2. Apply them to business communication scenarios, such as the Well-Founded
Fear post described above,

3. And to compare or contrast another student's work with their own.

The students bring copies of their responses to class for review by their team.
The team determines the response that is "most helpful for learning course
concepts." I collect the "most helpful" comments and redistribute
them, so that each team receives a copy of every teams' "most helpful"
responses. Each team then ranks the other teams' responses from
most to least helpful. Readiness assurance grades are based on these rankings.
This mechanism creates incentive to write and select strong comments.
Team discussions lead to debate among the teams as they work toward consensus
about application of course concepts. As discussed above after readiness
is assured, subsequent class activities rely on either the case presented in
the readiness assurance process or cases in additional blog or wiki
postings.

Communication & Collaboration Self-Assessment:

Excellent

Communication & Collaboration Evidence:

One purpose of asking students to comment in the course blog or to create
wiki content was to facilitate team-based learning. The external blog also
brings all three of my course sections into the same discussion. The pre-class
collaboration sets the stage for my students to interact with their team every
class session. In-class application activities require discussion in the teams
to come to consensus to answer application questions. Across teams the students
debate their answers. I facilitate the process and discussion. In the
future I would like to collect and share the teams' answers in real time.
Collecting the data in polling software would also allow me to track student
progress more easily.

Learning Material Self-Assessment:

Excellent

Learning Material Evidence:

The learning materials hyperlink between each other as much as possible, so that
I could simplify the interface. For instance, the syllabus appears in the
worksite information space on the course homepage, and students can link to
html pages for the course policies, course schedule, a description of the
Target Case Competition which is the major course project, grading criteria,
and so forth. The course blog is accessible through the web content
tool. The wiki includes, not only the IU help resources, but also a
screen capture flash animation on how to get started with the wiki tool
specifically for my course.

In order to reach students with various learning styles exemplars of excellent
business communication are shared in multiple ways: as stand-alone documents, as
documents with annotated comments, and as screen capture flash animations with
voice overlay. To engage students, aural and visual media are embedded in
course modules, resources, and the blog and wiki posts.

Learning Outcomes & Assessment Self-Assessment:

Excellent

Learning Outcomes & Assessment Evidence:

Course objectives are defined by the department as follows:

At the end of Business Communication, students will be able to:

* Apply the complex communication process model to specific communication
contexts in the classroom and in business

* Write clear, concise, and audience-centered business documents in a variety
of formats (memos, letters, emails, and reports)

* Speak effectively interpersonally and in groups

* Listen to instructions and critically analyze arguments

* Collaborate effectively within team environments

My course is designed to maximize realization of each objective. Students interact
in the blog, wiki, and in-class application activities regarding complex
communication scenarios. Their work results in writing of a variety of
business documents. Their group work requires consensus building and
debate. One student last semester stated that commenting on the blog was
valuable to him because he had to learn how to disagree with other students in
a constructive and respectful way.

Feedback occurs every day in class. I also post grades in the Oncourse CL gradebook,
so that the students have convenient access to them. As my students work on
in-class application activities, I circulate and ask probing questions, review
their work, and observe their progress on the case application activities as
well as in their team work. I provide feedback in an ongoing fashion
often sitting down to facilitate a team that seems to be lost in debate.
I also have my students bring their blog comments and drafts of their written
work to class for peer feedback. They are so used to ongoing feedback by
mid-semester that, for example, after completing presentations in class
recently, they asked if they could get their feedback on the spot. I
hadn't planned on giving on-the-spot feedback, but gave verbal feedback in
class. The ensuing discussion was concrete and demonstrated the students'
engagement in their learning. After class, I wrote the feedback and distributed
it in the Oncourse CL gradebook comments.

Oncourse tools are helping me uphold my teaching philosophy of facilitating learning
by giving me the data and opportunity to have a clear picture of my students'
progress. I spend a great deal of time between classes creating application
activities and other learning activities that meet my students where they are
in their learning.

One vivid example of their learning is demonstrated by how much more adept they have
become at integrating course concepts into their blog comments. In the readiness
assurance process, the students have to select the "most helpful comment for
learning course concepts." The first time, the process is difficult
because they feel unsure about what is helpful for learning the concepts and
the comments typically were either too narrow or too superficial.
However, by the third blog post, they had a hard time deciding which student
comment to select as "most helpful" because they were all so much better at
applying the course concepts to the complex cases.

Course Look & Feel, Web Usability Self-Assessment:

Excellent

Course Look & Feel, Web Usability Evidence:

The course site was designed to be easy to navigate. I strategized how to simplify
the look of the home page. And I planned the course to use the minimum number of tools necessary to facilitaterealization of the learning objectives. Embedding of html
pages allowed me to link the course overview, which appears on the course site
homepage, to the most important information students need to know to prepare for
class,complete their work, and understand the criteria for success in the
course. The external blog and the course wiki are accessible through the
homepage. Student feedback on course design and Resources is constantly
sought and responded to. Most resources, as well as blog and wiki activities,
include text and multi-media in an effort to respond to various learning styles.
For instance, the Blood Diamonds blog post includes videos, an NPR interview, and
flash animation with text introductions and transitions between media.

Learner Support Self-Assessment:

Excellent

Learner Support Evidence:

The syllabus and resources are available online. Throughout the semester they are
updated, including responding to reasonable and appropriate student requests for
information. I use Oncourse CL Announcements regularly to update my students about
class preparation. On occasion I create podcasts that summarize milestones achieved
in class or to clarify content issues that may arise in class. I use email throughout
the day; however, I set ground rules about turn-around times, so students do not become
frustrated at not receiving responses at 1 am. IU also provides accessible 24 hour
support for technical issues. My contact information is available in multiple locations
on the course site. The course policies also provide links and contact information for
writing and presentation help located at various places on the IU Bloomington campus.

Teaching Innovation:

Blogging and the wiki facilitate student collaboration
outside class. Multi-media resources and hyperlinks embedded in my blog
posts or the wiki drive student engagement with these activities.
As this collaboration takes place, I monitor progress and intervene
as necessary to assure expected outcomes. The collaboration then becomes
the launching point for in-class, team-based application activities through a
readiness assurance process. And to tie the course design together,
the course's writing assignments address the cases embedded in the blog posts
and addressed in the in-class, team-based activities.

Design Reflective and Interactive eLearning: Online Professional Development in Sakai

Submitted by Cherry on 2 March 2009 - 7:12am

Tagged with:

Course Number/ID:

PD111

Course Length (number of weeks):

Course Delivery Mode:

Distance

Describe Other Delivery Mode:

The course is conducted entirely online to both on- and off-campus staff. Contact between course participants (educational, administrative and technical staff) is completely online. Participants are asked to discuss this program only in the online environment.

Average Number of Enrolled Students:

More than 60 students

Course Level:

Vocational/Professional

Course Contributors:

Steve Swinsberg — UNE, Sakai administrator and programmer who initially established the Sakai environment in the pilot project, and who chose and made available the tools linking to other university systems.

Brylan Stewart — UNE, Icon creator (graphics) designed and created the ‘study’ icons used to orient users to various tasks. The koala is a resident of the UNE campus and a favorite mascot of university staff and students.

Gerad Todd — UNE, Programmer (template creation) created the learning design templates being trialed in this VLE.

Course Development:

UNE is a regional Australian university with about 80% of its students engaged in distance learning. Increasingly, distance education students have become connected using digital technologies, yet many of our administrative and academic staff have not reflected on the significance of changing from the instructional strategies of print-based provision to more interactive and collaborative online formats. In 2007, I was employed to work with project teams in the redesign of degree programs for online provision of distance education.

After a relatively short time, I realised that the concepts that most of the staff had were securely locked in the print-based distance education mode. It is relatively easy to introduce new technology to an organization. In 1998, WebCT was adopted by UNE as a distance education platform. Blackboard CE6 is the current approved LMS. Yet, enthusiastic adoption of these tools into socio-constructivist learning design has been a much more complex and difficult process. Sakai V2.4 is being piloted in the Faculty of the Professions—School of Education and School of Health—as an alternative LMS system. We are using Sakai V2.4. An executive decision has been made not to upgrade the system until a full review of all potential LMS has been completed (end 2009).

Version 1 of Design Reflective and Interactive eLearning was designed in 2007 primarily for Education Faculty. It has been extended to staff in the Nursing Faculty in 2008 and Early Childhood staff in 2009. Each focused delivery has been adjusted according to feedback received from participants, and the particular needs of participants. The initial format was heavily influenced by my participation in the Ikarus Project in 2003-4, where I gained a deep understanding of virtual environments as a student and then as a moderator.

The challenge in providing professional development (PD) opportunities as part of each of these redesign projects has been ensuring the PD needs are delivered in a timely and appropriate way. AND in a way that builds team interaction, sharing and deepens the understanding of the collaborative nature of learning design in a virtual environment. It has been an ongoing challenge to support each academic with the particular level of technological and pedagogical expertise required to provide for personal and group growth. Face-to-face workshops were impractical unless very focused and short. Finding a convenient time to share ideas of pedagogy and technical skill were fraught with staff inability to be in the same place at the same time due to teaching, conference, research, and committee schedules. Thus it became obvious that a more asynchronous environment and one that supported participation on a ‘come and go’ basis, was needed. The task was to create a process for staff to become aware of the differences between print and digital technologies. Thus, to change their perspectives (create deep conceptual change), I emphasised situated learning through guided exploration, scaffolding of tasks, contributing to shared activities, and collaborative small group work.

This program is structured so that participants can use the online system as best suits their work and personal learning habits; and also requires commitment to team-mates for the completion of a group project.

Course Delivery:

The Design Reflective and Interactive eLearning PD supports a ‘student’ experience. The use of new technologies affords movement beyond traditional models of teaching to more engaging and facilitative learning. This is true in the professional development arena as well as in provision to distance students. The focus of this PD program is not on what is known (product) but on how one comes to know (process) (Laurillard, 2002; Salmon, 2002; Siemens, 2004; Downes, 2005; Sims and Hedberg, 2006; Burge, 2007). This PD program has been created to bridge the gap between distance education course designers’ perceptions of how students learn, and how this learning might be enhanced using technologies. Ideas from cognitive and neuroscience (Jensen 2008, Zull 2002) are linked to those reflecting the need to be 'mind-full' rather than 'mind-less' (Langer 1997, &1989) in not only our own learning, but in how we use online technologies to support the development of our students' learning. This program uses the Gilly Salmon (2002) five-stage e-moderating framework, and her model for teaching and learning online through online networking.

While this PD program is structured within a weekly framework (using the Schedule tool), the e-tivities (Salmon,2002) and timing are flexible and vary with the growth and participation of the ‘students’. Announcements vary the work schedule or support learners with encouragement, feedback and additional materials as the participation suggests a need.

The first three weeks focus on building social presence (Gunawardena & Zittle, 1996) through introductions between fellow participants and exploration of elearning concepts. Participants explore the Sakai tools, access online tool-tutorials, and are directed to general background readings, available on the Internet and on the UNE eReserve system. All activities are linked to current lecturer practices and seek to extend those practices into the virtual environment. Participants are asked to establish a personal blog to use for both private (hidden) and public sharing of information. They are asked to build a course library with links to references they have found particularly helpful in their own learning. They are also asked to compare and contrast the tools being used in the Sakai environment.

The second three weeks are dedicated to collaborative work. Participants are asked to join a ‘common interest group’ in the wiki according to the teaching strategy they would like to investigate. All groups interact with a case-study: "Dan Tries Problem-Based Learning: A Case Study" (White 1996). Each group interacts with the case in a different manner. The case material has been re-written to focus students on the use of the learning strategy chosen by their common interest group. Participation in these exploratory groups is designed as a supportive forum of joint problem-solving and shared learning, where they discuss the roles and responsibilities required in this particular learning strategy.

As they engage with their case-study, participants focus on the design, development and implementation process. They consider the roles and responsibilities of various online participants. They are asked to consider and share how they feel about the online teaching and learning situation and how they can address these issues in their own teaching and learning online. Their group summaries are shared in the Forums.

Communication & Collaboration Self-Assessment:

Excellent

Communication & Collaboration Evidence:

Many of the Sakai learning tools: Announcements, Schedule, Syllabus, Web content, Modules, Forums, Chat, Blogwow, Wiki, Mailtool are explored and used to build social presence, and network students leading to collaborative discussion and evaluative role clarification in the wiki. The overall focus is on digital communication leading to collaborative evaluation of a case-study. After gaining an understanding of each of the communication tools, students sign-up for wiki groups based on their ‘common interest’ around one learning strategy chosen from: direct instruction, case-method, cooperative, small-group, and problem-solving. The blogwow tool is used for reflections related to their case analysis as well as the collaborative dynamic. Blog entries may be public or private.

Learning Material Self-Assessment:

Excellent

Learning Material Evidence:

All of the goals and expectations of the course are clearly delineated in the course syllabus. Due to feedback received from staff, an Assessment tab has been created which gives upfront access to assignment information. This replaces the Sakai Assignment tool, due to the need to integrate into the university standard eSubmission system.

The Modules tool (Study Guide) provides essential resources and guide to the tasks for participants. The Schedule and Announcements tool are also used to guide and pace participants and scaffold their exploration of tools and interaction with colleagues. Participants have access to recommended reading and current information (links/urls) on learning pedagogies.

Learning Outcomes & Assessment Self-Assessment:

Excellent

Learning Outcomes & Assessment Evidence:

Gaining an awareness of how students feel in an online environment is at the core of this PD program. The stated learning outcomes are for participants to: (1) Investigate tools and strategies for teaching, learning and assessment in Sakai; (2) Collaborate in a ‘common interest group’ to evaluate a pedagogical strategy and in the process, share online teaching and learning possibilities; (3) Design and develop a range of ‘fit for purpose’ assessment and feedback strategies for use in online courses; (4) Discuss (sharing the summaries of those discussions) the various roles that make up the design, preparation, and learning support for online students; and (5) Enhance their own confidence in using Sakai tools, gaining a student view of online learning.

The course assessment activities are reflective in nature and in most situations ask the participant to self-assess their own learning. Moderator feedback is focused on encouraging participation, directing attention, and where needed, correcting misunderstandings. The online test tools are used to support further reflection. They have been set up to model online testing strategies, but are not judgmental. The aim is to gain points, rather than get a 'mark'. Users have the opportunity to stop/continue, or redo an assessment at anytime. They also experience a timed interaction test.

Course Look & Feel, Web Usability Self-Assessment:

Excellent

Course Look & Feel, Web Usability Evidence:

Graphic icons and templates are used to enhance the visibility, ease of use and structure of e-tivities. A common look and feel is promoted in all Sakai environments across the three projects and these are reflected in the PD program implementation. All courses locate the lecturer/tutor photo in upper left corner of the course website to ‘base’ the student when navigating from course to course. The School of Education has designed ‘action’ icons (based on the local koala mascot) to direct attention, and to add humour to the learning environment. We also use tool icons in the online context and learning materials with links to the tools. This supports the users to not loose their ‘place’ in the progression of e-tivities.

On initial entry to the website participants are given directions on how to begin their exploration. The message changes (is built upon) during the focused project team usage to reflect what users need to be doing to keep pace. Additional audio/video tutorials (screen captures) have been added to the website to support tool navigation and usage. Accessibility has been addressed throughout.

Learner Support Self-Assessment:

Excellent

Learner Support Evidence:

This PD site is also used to send messages to participants about face to face workshops which may be held for participants (guest lecturers who visit campus). A template tool has been created and loaded into the text editor as well as style templates and action icons.

Information about how to interact with the facilitator and how I will answer questions is available in the Start Here Tab (Syllabus), as well as information on how feedback is provided.

Podcast tool tutorials, inline links to interactive tools when used as part of the learning task are created to support and guide individual usage and learning. The Start Here, Study Guide, and Assessment Tab are universal and structured to create models which academics may then transfer to their own learning units.

Teaching Innovation:

Gaining an awareness of how students feel in an online environment is at the core of this PD program. Without some empathy to the student perspective in a VLE, university staff can become insensitive to the needs of the clients. Situated learning for academics has been successful as many users have commented on the ‘Aha’ experience as a result of participating as a student in an online environment.

It has been rewarding to note the increase in interest from university staff outside the project teams who have expressed interest in the collaborative learning environment. We have also noted an increase in the number of staff requesting ‘project sites’ where colleagues may store and share information, set up project schedules, and keep reflective journals on the progress of their various collaborative research projects.

This PD website has also been useful as a model of good online practice and identifying how differing individuals approach the use of the Sakai tools. The School of Health, Bachelor of Nursing Team have used the wiki to share each course redesign strategy and resources for the degree program, seeking online feedback from colleagues before implementation. The Early Childhood project team has extended their redesign project site to become the source data repository of their Participatory Action Research Project. That is, research team members are using the blog, wiki, and forum to update their reflections and discussions following each project activity.

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X204 Business Communication

Design Reflective and Interactive eLearning: Online Professional Development in Sakai

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