I just made a discovery and it is HUGE!

My discovery was the library of all things. I made a joke of it in my last post. Please don't tell me that I am the only one that did not know that I could access it. I can get any paper I want. If UF does not subscribe, it can be done through Inter library lending. NEVER pay money. Jstore is there with full text. ERIC is there with full text. Educause is there with full text.

I chatted with a librarian and got the full directions on how to access whatever I want to access. I suspect that I am the only one of you that did not know about this. But in case I am not, she e-mailed me the complete conversation and if anyone is interested in directions, I have them.

I remember going there once in the past but I did not check it out thoroughly enough to appreciate it. The library has anything you want. Why fumble about on the Internet when you can just nip into the library and get what you want?

I am finishing up my teaching duties to date and can concentrate on my paper and the foreign thing. You can bet if I see an interesting abstract on the Internet, I am going to have the library page open too so I can really check it out. I just hope I don't get waylaid by interesting tidbits of information while I am writing my paper. I get lost easily; I just have to go chasing the varmit.

One more question. Is this the last post? If so, are any of you going to be checking back into the blog this coming week? Hey! The library thing threw me a curve ball. I don't know when I have felt so stupid. I need some keepers. I'm having separation anxiety.

Putting it all together..

I feel as if I am packing for a trip. I have all of these Word documents full of semi-pertinent URLs headed with queries. I am going through them and deciding which I shall use and which I shall not use. Some of them are good for background but are not pin point citations and others make one tiny point. Also, they are quite disparate in the samples they use. I feel queasy drawing conclusions about young adult USA southerners from a paper that deals with rural Indians (from India).

Also, I still don't have definitive research. I can't use editlib.org where all of the on topic papers seem to be (see my comment it Josh's blog). Those papers have titles like "Synchronous and Asynchronous Online Delivery: How Much Interaction in E-learning is Enough in Higher Education?","Opportunities and Challenges of Synchronous and Asynchronous E Learning", and, most of all, "Synchronous Versus Asynchronous: Delivery of Online Instruction and the Factors that Lead to Success or Failure." . And, that is just for this year. Ahr-r-rgh!

All I have is a great number of kinda sorta on topic papers lined up. Sometimes it is a stretch. It seems that every time I write a sentence, I better have a reference at the end of it, or I am toast. Most of the time these references are not a perfect fit or there is one tiny phrase in 384 pages of text that makes my point. I am like the lady who takes way too much on a trip. I have way too many "things" and some of those "things" may be inappropriate - I have to do a little twist here and little stretch there.

If I had a student card, I could go to the library. That would be novel now, wouldn't it?

All I gotta do is...

I am taking a good hard look at the Research Proposal submitted to Dr. Jones. It was hastily done and not complete enough. However, if I expand it in scope, language and referencing, I may have most of my expert paper done. I want to limit it to online learning and not include teleconferencing and other distance technologies. I would also like reference perceptions about communications in online learning.

I found an article that addressed some of my concerns as an online Instructor. It is called The Effectiveness and Development of Online Discussion by Olla Najah Al-Shalchi from William and Mary Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. I am pleased to say that my conclusions on how to generate interest in, at least, asynchronous discussion mirrored theirs. Motivation was of particular interest to me. I provide rubrics and I think this is essential. Why keep your expectations a secret?

I am still quite concerned about asynchronous communications. I think in the future that I shall take a vote on when they want me to offer office hours. If it is a late hour, then I guess I'll just have to take a nap prior to their preferred time. I am of the opinion that this is one of the reasons that the synchronous office hours are poorly attended - the student does not have a choice in what time they are offered.

What do you guys think of my plan for finishing this thing up?

No!

The Institutional Research Department thinks that my students would be concerned about their grades being affected by their responses to a survey. Therefore a survey may not be given until the grades for the semester in question have been submitted. I looked around out there and there is some evidence that students don't believe that survey results are anonymous even though I could not find papers on that subject exclusively (http://oea.uchc.edu/tips_creating/index.html;http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ748405&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ748405). The surveys may, after all, include unique identifiers. This belief would taint my results. Also, there is the Media Equation to consider.

Though disappointed, I have learned about writing a research proposal and about writing surveys. I am definitely going to include both in the final paper submission to Dr. Ferdig.

The Institutional Research Department did say it would be OK if I sent an e-mail to the students after the class was over and asked them for the following:

"Hello 'name of student',

Would you help me out? I would like to know, as an Instructor, what I could do to make online courses that I teach more engaging. In particular, I would like to stimulate participation in live office hours and in the discussion. Would you please take a few minutes to offer any suggestions that would help me do this? Say anything you want that might help me. You won't hurt my feelings or offend me (after all, thousands have tried and failed). I just want to help my present and future students get as much as they can out of any course I teach.

Thank you in advance,

Suzon"

This won't help my paper but maybe it will help me.

Suzon

The Media Equation and how it impacts my work.

I was not surprised by anything I read in the Media Equation paper. I enjoyed it very much and read the whole thing - not just what was assigned. I depend on the Media Equation while teaching my online class. I try to make the language I use friendly and engaging. I want my students to participate and that is more likely the more approachable I am.

To illustrate this, I have assigned a JavaScript Digital Storytelling slide show. To help pace them and model for them, I am posting a partially completed JavaScript slide show of my own. Every so often I update it to reflect an effort to comply with the posted rubrics. I check off the requirements as I meet them with my latest submission. The students are following me with tweaks to their own slide shows. We all suggest improvements to each slide show submission. The Media Equation is balanced and all is right with the world. I am being polite; they are being polite.

I wonder what the critiques would be like if there was a "moderator Instructor" to which we sent our critiques of the submissions? I don't think they would be nearly so polite but they would be much more informative. Hm-m-m, team teaching, anyone? That sounds like a very interesting idea. I would like to try that if I could get permission to do so and the cooperation of another Instructor.

This assignment has been a bridge between the face-to-face and the online, however. I have gotten to know what my students look like and have met their families or become familiar with their businesses and their hobbies through the slide shows. We have formed a real community through this slide show and we are nice to one another even though we are actually only digital constructs. We are real to each other through pictures and polite helpfulness in the nature of shared code and design suggestions. I think all of us are just loving this.

Also, my work for this class is communications in distance education. This paper was really right on point. I think I can set the tone in any online class I teach just by the formality or informality of my language, the amount of slang I use and how warm or remote my language makes me seem. With the appropriate language, the transactional distance can be reduced. What ever I do, it may as well be the real me - because that is how it is going to be perceived by my students. So, be careful, Suzon. To them, you are as you seem.

In addition, I can understand why something like Elluminate Live! provides the same capabilities on both sides of the equation. The part about Modality Matching was made so meaningful by my limited experience with Elluminate Live!.

Josh's post a couple of weeks ago talked about a teacher in Washington and a video connection with his students. They both could participate. This is so much more polite than a video lesson with no student participation.

I really enjoyed this reading.

Well, I'm going to send it to my Chair and cc the administrative assistant

I've got my proposal done. I thinks it's good but that is not for me to say. I took kind advice from Josh, Liz, Nancy, Mike and Debbie. I really appreciate the input. I just hope that Dr. Jones will at least take a look.
The URL is:

ExploratoryResearchProposal

Second Tweak of Survey

I have tweaked my survey. It is getting getting way too large and will probably take to long to get complete response. I shall have to pare it down and clean it up. This is the URL. Tomorrow I finish my proposal for Dr. Jones and get this show on the road.

http://home.ite.sfcollege.edu/~peterss/SurveySecondTweak.pdf

The papers I used to tweak this survey are located at:

http://www.flvs.net/educators/documents/pdf/archived_evals/FLVS%20Annual%20Evaluations/2002-03/Student%20Survey%20Results%202002-03.pdf

http://www.flvs.net/educators/documents/pdf/archived_evals/FLVS%20Annual%20Evaluations/2002-03/Student%20Survey%20Results%202002-03.pdf