I haven’t posted in some time. Teaching a course takes a lot of time and effort.

As I indicated in a previous post, I experimented with some additional technology this year (I only teach one quarter each year). While the course is scheduled as a face-to-face course, it is technologically mediated and the f2f contact is limited, focusing on instructions and tutorial interaction.

The course uses an action learning approach and all learning is driven by a set of challenges designed to both engage and create a need to know to drive students into the content. They access content through a serious of video podcasts (downloadable from iTunes or accessible through the blog), through content provided in the blog, and through a best practices library consisting primarily of links to external resources and original content. The course blog provides a continuing integration for the course. Along with the podcasts, it replaces any “lecture.” Directions for activities are also in the blog. Finally, by incorporating student posting, it replaces the traditional classroom discussion. All this, and we built parallel access to the course in our Second Life Campus.

Student response has been generally positive. There was some adjustment, of course, when I indicated that I was not going to be their source for wisdom. The students are sophomore non-business majors, but they have already been trained to be passive receptacles. As they became involved in interacting with the challenges, many became more enthusiastic. Some, of course, still find the approach to be too much work and require too much time on their part.

The quality of the deliverables on the challenges has generally been reasonable for their level of development, with some being outstanding and reflecting both a considerable amount of research effort and creativity in presentation. I will have a better picture of performance quality by the end of the quarter.

One somewhat surprising discovery. When I asked at the beginning of the quarter how many of them were in Second Life, out of 90 students the answer was zero. Five of the 90 had heard of Second Life. I did not expect a large number to be second lifers, but had expected some. Why none? I don’t know the answer. Perhaps we who are involved, get excited and assume that everyone knows and is involved. Perhaps we over estimate the present usability of Second Life as a learning delivery vehicle. Perhaps OU students are just behind the times. I don’t really have an answer at this time. BTW, since the beginning of the quarter, several have come into Second Life.

More Later

John Stinson