EL7003+Course+Related+Activities


 * ** EL7003-8 ** ||  ||
 * ** Instructional Design and Engaging E-Learning Activities ** || ** 6 Course Related Activities ** ||
 * Another fantastic job...still need to work on the objectives, but they are coming along. In ID it is vital that objectives guide us and show us the way to evaluate students as well. In general a course should have at least 8 or so learning objectives and all the activities then meet those objectives one way or another. Impeccable use of outside sources and academic English. Substantially achieved learning outcomes and integrated key concepts from course materials and outside sources. **
 * Another fantastic job...still need to work on the objectives, but they are coming along. In ID it is vital that objectives guide us and show us the way to evaluate students as well. In general a course should have at least 8 or so learning objectives and all the activities then meet those objectives one way or another. Impeccable use of outside sources and academic English. Substantially achieved learning outcomes and integrated key concepts from course materials and outside sources. **

=Course Related Activities= Course related activities help to transition students to an effective online model where the instructor has the role of facilitator and mentor; assisting learners in acquiring and constructing useable knowledge for themselves. The online XML Publisher course in a synchronous environment with access to audio (telephone conference call), video (webcam), two-way chat, question and answer pages, and the ability to demonstrate, collaborate, and present information from participant’s computer screens. The following activities have been designed to challenge learners to participate and be active in the learning of the course content and in achieving the course objectives. As learners read, search, discuss, and interact with other learners and the instructor, their learning will be enhanced, and their motivation to learn will increase.

Course Related Activity One: 50 Words or Less
**Task:** A collaborative activity to promote learner’s learning goals, and develop useful study habits in an online environment. **Objectives:** Learners will demonstrate their understanding of course material by interpreting, reflecting, summarizing, and sharing their learning through short statements regarding course topics and themes.* **Method:** Synchronous **Time required:** Ten to fifteen minutes **Materials:** This activity will utilize the The first time that we do this activity I will demonstrate to the students how to create a question using the question and answer feature of the WebEx environment. In addition, I will demonstrate how each student can respond to questions using the same facility. I will introduce this activity using the audio conference call, and state: Throughout this class I want to encourage each of you to reflect and fully understand the topics and objectives that we will be covering. Research has shown that you will remember and be able to utilize the material better if you spend time interpreting and reflecting on what you have read, and what we have discussed in the class. Therefore, after each lesson I will ask each of you to use the question and answer feature.* For the question I want you to consider what you have read, and what we have discussed, and summarize what you have learned in 50 words or less (approximately three to four sentences). Once you have provided your own summary, I would like you to read the summaries of the other students. If you feel that a summary is not complete, or inaccurate, please respond using the answer feature. If you have an example of how the feature or concept has been or is used in your organization, please add that example. The idea is to not only summarize what we have discussed, but to also add to our understanding of how these topics are, or can be used in the real world. You will have 15 minutes to write your summaries, and respond to the other students .* At the end of the 15 minutes I will summarize the discussions, and facilitate a discussion regarding the summaries that received the most comments, and clarify any misunderstandings or inaccuracies in the summaries.*
 * XML Publisher student guide
 * Audio conference call, and
 * Question and answer feature
 * Preparation: **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Process: **

Course Related Activity Two: XMLP Scavenger Hunt
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Task:** Collaborative competitive activity to promote learner’s learning goals and identify essential course resources. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Objectives:** Learners will locate specific information from the available online resources .<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">* <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Method:** Synchronous <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Time required:** Thirty to 40 minutes. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Materials:** This activity will utilize the <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">This activity will change depending on where in the course it is inserted. There will be a pool of 40 to 50 questions that request a specific fact from one of the resources listed under //Materials//.* Examples of appropriate questions follow: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">I will introduce the activity using the audio conference call to state: <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">We will now be participating in a scavenger hunt activity. The activity will consist of 10 questions. Each of these questions has a specific answer that can be found in your student guide, the user guide, and the Oracle education web site that we have worked with earlier. Each question will be presented to you one at a time using the chat. When you have found the answer to the question you will type in chat where you found the answer. On the white board I will show you what a correct answer will look like. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">I will then type on the white board an example of what an answer will look like. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">I will then continue the instructions, stating: <span style="color: #800000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">When the first answer is received in chat, I will say “stop” over the audio, and you are to stop looking for the answer. The student who found the answer will then give the answer over the conference call. If the answer is correct I will ascertain how the student found the answer. If the answer is correct we will go to the next question. If it is not, I will say “start” and we will continue searching for a correct answer. Are there any questions? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">After clarifying I will send the first question using chat, and facilitate the ensuing discussion.*
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Audio conference call
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Two-way chat feature
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">White board feature
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">XML Publisher student guide
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher user guide, and
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Oracle education web site
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Preparation: **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Associated with output record data fields you can work with two different types of templates; FIXED_POSITION_BASED and DELIMTER_BASED. Where would you find which columns must be associated with the FIXED_POSITION_BASED template, and what are they?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">When using an XSL template with XML Publisher, there are certain syntax elements that can be used in place of XSL elements. Where would you find these XSL equivalents, and what is the equivalent for <?sort:name?>?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">There is a certification associated with this course; the PeopleTools 8 Developer Application Certified Expert. Where would I find the specific criteria and examination information for attaining this certification, and what are they?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">When you want to repeat the generation of a template report layout many times for multiple similar sets of data, what technology would you use, and where is this described?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">How do you register sub-templates with PeopleSoft so that they can be used in multiple reports, and where are the specific steps for doing this described?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Process: **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Education site, under support, lab times
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">User guide, chapter four, page 62
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Student guide, lesson six, page 117

Course Related Activity Three: XMLP Hands-on
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Task:** Collaborative team activity to promote learner’s learning goals and provide real-world hands-on experience using the technologies and concepts taught in the course. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Objectives:** Learners will collaborate with their group members to develop a case study to identify the various elements in creating a report that will print student confirmation letters from the training database. Once the solution is designed learners will individually create the report in their lab environments, and then demonstrate them. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Method:** Synchronous <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Time required:** One hour to 90 minutes. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">**Materials:** This activity will utilize the <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">I will create groups of between three and six students per group. On the white board I will include a description of the project, and a picture of a possible solution. The description is as follows: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Using the audio conference call I will introduce the activity as follows: In a moment I will divide you into teams, and assign your break-out session numbers. Using the knowledge that you have gained in this course, you will determine how you will retrieve the data from the database, and then identify each of the definitions you will have to create in order to print an individual confirmation letter for each student in a specific course that will look something like what is on your screen. You will formulate a complete design of the definitions that are necessary to accomplish this task. Once you have a complete design, you will individually create the report that you have designed. You may continue to collaborate with your teammates, and with me, until each of you has a tested report. You have 75 minutes to complete both the design and the working report. Your team will present your finished report along with all of the definitions that were created to the rest of the class. You may identify a single spokesperson, or you may take turns in this presentation. Are there any questions? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Once I have clarified any questions the activity begins. I will then facilitate the discussion of solutions at the end of the activity.*
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Audio conference call
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">White board feature
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Break-out features of the audio conference call
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Break-out features of the two-way chat
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">XML Publisher student guide
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Remote lab environment for each student, and
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Collaboration features of the WebEx environment.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Preparation: **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">In this activity you will be divided into groups, and in your group you are to plan a report that will print student confirmation letters for students registered in a specific course. The students for each course are listed in the PSU_CRS_SESSN table, and are contained in the PSU_STUDENT_TBL table. The final report should look similar to this:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"><a picture of possible solution>
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Process: **

Reflective Paper
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">“ <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">A lecture is the best way to get information from the professor’s notebook into the student’s notebook without passing through either brain <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">” ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Pelz, 2010, p. 103 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">). Rather than distributing knowledge in a lecture format “ <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">most online courses can benefit from the addition of e-learning activities that expand or enhance the learners’ understanding of course-related content <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">” ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Watkins, 2005, p. 145 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">). The activities in this paper are designed to engender active participation of learners in discussions regarding the course material.* To enhance learning, the concepts and objectives of the course need to be clearly presented in a lively form so that the learner spends more time-on-task and engaged with the content ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Ali & Ahmad, 2011; Alshare, Freeze, Lane, & Wen, 2011; Lam & Bordia, 2008 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">). The activities are “ <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">relevant and useful to students,. . . [and] focus on the importance and utility of content <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> ” ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Albrami, Bernard, Bures, Borokhovski, & Tamim, 2010, p. 20 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">), which optimizes learner motivation to inculcate the material. By focusing on social interaction and relevant content that is usable in the working environment, these activities enhance learning, and the learning environment ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Boling, Hough, Krinsky, Saleem, & Stevens, 2011 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">). The literature suggests that student satisfaction and accomplishments increase in online classes as the instructor takes on the role of mentor and facilitator, while students “ <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">become active participants in learning <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">” ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Yang & Cornelious, 2005, Ensuring Effective Online Instruction, para. 3; see also, Donovant, 2009; Ferguson & DeFelice, 2010; Gunawardena, Linder-VanBerschot, LaPointe, & Rao, 2010 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">). =<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Conclusion = <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Each of the activities augment student learning by engendering activity, participation, and a more concentrated use of the course materials and resources. This augmentation will result in greater student buy-in for the process of learning,* satisfaction in the process and result, and learning. In the first activity learners summarized the learning of each module, and then contributed in clarifying and reflecting on the summaries of their classmates. In the second activity a scavenger hunt allowed students to utilize the course resources in innovative ways to gain answers to relevant questions, but to also increase their facility with those resources. In the last activity learners collaborated in groups to determine how to create a real world report from inception to completion; demonstrating their understanding of the course objectives and ability to apply them in a working environment. Activity and interaction breeds interest and motivation. Interest and motivation facilitates the construction of knowledge and learning.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> [PP1] Should just be one objective - The learner will interpret their learning through… etc. because interpret, reflect, summarize, etc are all synonyms. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> [PP2] Is this in the learning management system? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> [PP3] This isn’t enough time to write, read and respond…May want to schedule 30-40 minutes. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> [PP4] How will you evaluate the work? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> [PP5] There is no way to measure what is an effective consumer. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> [PP6] <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Improper use of single quotes. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> [PP7] This sounds like a fun and challenging effort! However, what will you do to evaluate the objective? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> [PP8] Evaluation? I suggest preparing a rubric and providing to students so they will understand how they will be graded! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> [PP9] And you are doing a great job at it! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> [PP10] Good point!


 * = References ||
 * * Abrami, P. C., Bernard, R. M., Bures, E. M., Borokhovski, E., & Tamim, R. (2010, July). Interaction in distance education and online learning: Using evidence and theory to improve practice. //The Evolution from Distance Education to Distributed Learning//. Symposium conducted at Memorial Union Biddle Hotel, Bloomington, IN.
 * Ali, A., & Ahmad, I. (2011). Key factors for determining students’ satisfaction in distance learning courses: A study of Allama Iqbal Open University. //Contemporary Educational Technology, 2(2)//, 118-134. Retrieved from http://cedtech.net/
 * Alshare, K. A., Freeze, R. D., Lane, P. L., & Wen, H. J. (2011). The impacts of system and human factors on online learning systems use and learner satisfaction. //Decision Sciences: Journal of Innovative Education, 9//(3), 437-461. Retrieved from http://www.dsjie.org/dnn/default.aspx
 * Boling, E. C., Hough, M., Krinsky, H., Saleem, H., & Stevens, M. (2011). Cutting the distance in distance education: Perspectives on what promotes positive, online learning experiences. //Internet and Higher Education// (Advance online publication). doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2011.11.006
 * Donavant, B. W. (2009) The new, modern practice of adult education: Online instruction in a continuing professional education setting. //Adult Education Quarterly, 59//(3), 227<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">‐ 245. doi:10.1177/0741713609331546
 * Ferguson, J. M., & DeFelice, A. E. (2010). Length of online course and student satisfaction, perceived learning, and academic performance. //International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 11(2)//, 73-84. Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl
 * Gunawardena, C. N., Linder-VanBerschot, J. A., LaPointe, D. K., & Rao, L. (2010). Predictors of learner satisfaction and transfer of learning in a corporate online education program. //The American Journal of Distance Education, 24//(1), 207-226. doi:10.1080/08923647.2010.522919
 * Lam, P., & Bordia, S. (2008). Factors affecting student choice of e-learning over traditional learning: Student and teacher perspectives. //The International Journal of Learning, 14//(12), 131-139. Retrieved from http://ijl.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.30/prod.1585
 * Pelz, B. (2010). (My) three principles of effective online pedagogy. //Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 14//(1), 103-116. Retrieved from http://sloanconsortium.org/publications/jaln_main
 * Watkins, R. (2005). //75 e-learning activities: Making online learning interactive//. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer/John Wiley & Sons.
 * Yang, Y., & Cornelious, L. F. (2005). Preparing instructors for quality online instruction. //Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 8//(1). Retrieved from http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring81/yang81.htm ||