Rose Tirotta, Ed.D., Associate Director of Teaching Excellence
Video has been a constant part of our lives for over a year now, and being on camera for many hours throughout the day can be stressful! Here are some tips for synchronous sessions or recorded mini-lectures to improve video quality without purchasing expensive equipment.
Computer Tips:
Raise your webcam/laptop to eye level when recording. You can use books, an empty box, or anything else that gives it a little extra height.
Keep your webcam/laptop about an arm’s length away from you when you record so you are not too close or too far from your camera.
In Zoom, go to Preferences > Video and check off: HD (to improve video quality) and Touch up my appearance (to soften your video).
Your Surroundings:
Try to place yourself in front of a neat background that is not distracting. While you want to keep it neat, try not to use a blank white wall.
If you prefer to use the Zoom background option, try to choose one that is static and not distracting. Zoom now has a blur option (try updating Zoom if you do not see it on your list of virtual backgrounds).
Sit (or stand) with the light in front of you (not behind!)
Try to use a room without (too much) ambient noise.
Before the Session or Recording:
Test out everything! Record a segment so you can hear the audio as well.
During the Session or Recording:
Look into the camera
Use a headphone (with a microphone if you have one!)
Speak clearly and naturally
Don’t worry about small mistakes!
A few other questions to keep in mind if you are recording mini-lectures:
Where do you want to segment your videos? Keep them short so students can easily find the topic they would like to rewatch.
Do you need to be on camera? If you are sharing your screen, think about whether or not you need to be on camera the whole time.
Do you need a script? Scripts are helpful not only to plan what you need to say, but can also be used as transcripts afterwards.
Sigh…I’m tired! Don’t record too much at one time! You want to have a good energy level for all videos so…take a break!
Being on Zoom synchronously all day can be exhausting as well! Be sure to schedule breaks! Also, watching yourself can be emotionally draining! If you can’t turn your camera off, you can turn off your video on your own screen while still being visible to the other participants.
Join the library for an Introduction to Copyright for Online Teaching! This is a two-week-long series of asynchronous activities provided by library faculty. The goal is to introduce instructors to the basics of copyright law and how it affects the selection of material for online courses. We also discuss alternative routes for finding content for your courses, specifically Open Educational Resources (OER), library-licensed databases, and Reserves (whether that be items from the libraries’ physical collections or the instructor’s personal copies).
This course will run from Monday, April 12th – Sunday, April 25th
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers. The content and resources provided in this course are meant for informational purposes and should not be considered legal advice.
2/17- How Selected Learning Theories Inform Pedagogy (rescheduled from 2/3)
In this session we will discuss a selection of current learning theories and strategies/considerations for your teaching. Learning Theory elements discussed include Constructivism, Metacognition, and Growth Mindset and how to implement them in your classes.
2/24- Effective Teaching Online (rescheduled from 2/17)
Effective teaching online has become critical with the ongoing pandemic, and will continue to be a valued skill. In this seminar, we will discuss strategies and tools for student engagement in both asynchronous, synchronous, and blended classes.
3/3- Panel Discussion with CIE/IRACDA Postdocs
In this panel discussion you will hear from IRACDA Postdocs who have taught in local institutions – Suffolk County Community College, SUNY Old Westbury, and Brooklyn College.
3/17- Different Student Populations and Institution Types
We will discuss the ins and outs of applying the teaching strategies you have developed. This will focus on the different types of institutions you may teach at and their varied student populations.
Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part blog series on choosing the right technology for your teaching needs. In this blog post, Associate Professor of Mathematics, Moira Chas, discusses her experience with finding a way to engage her students during synchronous online lectures. Look for the second blog post by CELT Instructional Designer and Technologist, Jennifer Jaiswal, who will describe how to select the appropriate technology. Email CELT@stonybroook.edu to get a consultation with an instructional designer who can work with you to choose the right tools for your teaching goals.
Moira Chas, Associate Professor, Mathematics
Image courtesy of Moira Chas, who is seen in her office with some of the crocheted models she has created to illustrate ideas in topology.
Before the terrible pandemic that turned our worlds upside-down and inside-out, (or better said, outside-in), I used to teach by walking incessantly around the classroom, asking many questions and trying to read in the faces of the students whether they had arrived at the answers. I peeked at the pages they were writing, and if I found cell phones on desks I would point out how unproductive these gadgets can make us. I often brought to the classroom as many “math toys” as possible to make mathematical ideas tangible.
I remember the last class I taught in person in March 2020: It was about Mathematics in Ancient China. (I was teaching a course in History of Mathematics.) I distributed a few abaci and advised the students not to share them. (It felt terrible to have to recommend such a thing. Normally, I would have them working in groups with all hands on the abacus). The week after, we entered the Zoom-universe. It was hard to lecture there, but at least I was talking to students with whom I had established a connection before becoming a face on their screens.
The next semester, for reasons that I will spare you, I decided to be a virtual instructor. A significant challenge I experienced was in replicating the immediate interaction of physically being in the same room with my students as they solved problems. I needed a tool that would allow me to conduct polls and to pose open-ended questions in real time while I conducted synchronous online lectures for my courses, which typically have an enrollment of 35 students.
I investigated several platforms, including Slido, Mentimeter, TurningPoint, and Poll Everywhere. In all these platforms, students can type written answers to questions through a web browser. Instructors can see the answers and share them, if they so desire, with the whole class during a synchronous online meeting.
Stony Brook University supports the use of TurningPoint, where each student pays a fee for a license. Currently, the cost is about $10 for a five-month term. One benefit of using TurningPoint is that the student responses can be connected to the Grade Center in Blackboard. For options that result in no extra cost to students, Stony Brook instructors can use Google Forms, but I found this a bit “less interactive.” Google Docs and Google Slides are platforms where students write in a “live” document (In Slides, the instructor can prepare a set of identical slides and assign a group of students to each slide for a problem-solving activity in real time). Zoom also has a polling tool that instructors can use for real time interaction during a meeting. Lastly, Zoom has the chat tool, which also allows for immediate interactivity during a synchronous meeting.
After exploring all the options, I decided to pay for my own subscription to Poll Everywhere. This tool helped me simulate the real time human interaction of being in the same physical space with students. In fact, this tool proved so valuable that I am planning to keep using it after the pandemic is behind us.
This is how I used it. When teaching during a synchronous meeting, I started a typical lesson with a greeting and a word cloud that was generated by the students’ answers to a question like, “write down a word that describes how you feel”, or “tell us something you gained and something you lost because of COVID” I tried to acknowledge the hardship of the moment and, to remind us of hope.
During the rest of the lecture I would never talk for more than 10 minutes without having the students participate in some way. For instance, when we studied how Ancient Egyptians measured geometric figures, I asked students to answer one of the following questions: “What does measuring a segment mean?” or “How do you measure a segment?” At that point in the course, Egyptians were discovering mathematical concepts and I wanted my student to put themselves in the experience of discovery. After reading some answers, I gave my own, or shared some of the students’ responses. I explained why certain answers were inappropriate. Then I asked, “What does it mean to find the area of a plane shape?” Finally, I gave concrete examples of Ancient Egyptian problems where shapes are measured.
Another frequent activity was having the students read a paragraph and explain what it means. For instance, it is said that when the ruler Ptolemy asked Euclid whether there was a way of learning geometry faster than reading The Elements, a 13-book mathematical treatise, Euclid answered: “There is no royal road to geometry.” Then I asked students to write what they thought Euclid meant.
Sometimes I asked for educated guesses on topics where students were unlikely to know the answer. After a discussion, I would pose the same question again. I tried to use Zoom breakout rooms for group activities, but I did not manage to do it in a productive way. I would often visit a breakout room and find the students in complete silence. Some students expressed frustration at the lack of participation by their classmates.
Every time a beautiful math idea appeared in front of us (and there are so many!) I would point it out and emphasize how lucky we were to be studying such wonders.
At the end of each lecture, students wrote up a short summary of the lecture and submitted it through the Poll Everywhere tool. However, this could be done with another tool or through Blackboard, which is the learning management system supported by Stony Brook University.
Overall, I think all of us learned about math history and about each other. Reading the students’ answers to my open-ended questions was like visiting their minds, in a way sometimes more effective than my “face reading” during the in-person lectures. Mostly because I could read the answers one by one, (and when reading a whole bunch of faces it is easy to miss a few), and also because all students answered (and words are often more explicit than faces).
Two books have helped, taught, and inspired me during this time of teaching during the pandemic: James M. Lang’s Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning and Dan Levy’s Teaching Effectively with Zoom: A Practical Guide to Engage Your Students and Help Them Learn. Lang has also many useful essays in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
While I write these last words, the students of last semester come to my mind, and I find it hard to believe that I miss them even though I never met most of them in person. This was my first all-virtual teaching semester, and despite all the turmoil of the time we are living in, to my surprise, I enjoyed almost every minute of the experience.
Dr. Chas and Dr. Alan Kim are facilitating the SBU Faculty Writing Group, which meets on Fridays from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. starting on Feb. 5 through April 30, 2021. Register at this link. The Faculty Writing Group is sponsored and supported by the CELT’s Faculty Commons.
Online engagement may look different from what you are used to in your face-to-face classes, and perhaps even different from your previous online courses. If you are teaching on Zoom to a sea of black boxes with names on them, it is impossible to see facial expressions or body language – those cues we may be used to looking for in a physical classroom. The same is true for asynchronous courses, where you may not have video interaction with students. To determine if students are engaged in your online courses, you might ask: Are they submitting their work on time? Are they posting thoughtful replies in the discussion forums? Do they ask questions? Do they reply to quick polls in Zoom? How are their weekly quiz and exam grades?
→ Asynchronous Engagement
If you make your presence known in your asynchronous online course up front, it will be off to an engaging start. A welcome video shows your students who you are and lets you speak to them more directly about course expectations. Post announcements frequently in Blackboard, and give students timely feedback. You can record videos to the cloud in Zoom for quick and accessible summaries or feedback. A clear and detailed syllabus, a variety of activities, frequent formative assessments, open-ended questions for discussion, opportunities for group work, and a careful choice of tools all make for an engaging asynchronous course.
→ Synchronous Engagement
Use synchronous sessions for interactive lectures, office hours, recitations to follow up on asynchronous lecture material, review sessions (try a trivia game!), group projects, and other active learning activities. Make eye contact with the camera, allow time for your students to become familiar with engagement features, wait after you pose a question, plan structured breakout activities, and check in often making sure your students are engaging in your synchronous sessions. If time allows, you can start your Zoom sessions 10 minutes early and stay around 10 minutes after, so students can chat with each other and ask you questions, as they would before and after an in-person class.
*The pandemic is an ongoing challenge*
I mentioned teaching to a “sea of black boxes” above. Does that sound familiar? Teaching remotely can be challenging, but there are many engagement options in both the synchronous and asynchronous space. It may be tempting to convince yourself that none of your students are paying attention in Zoom and that you need to require a webcam. Or it may be easy to give up if students become disengaged in asynchronous discussion forums a few weeks into the semester. At this time, when it remains hard for many of us to stay engaged, remain flexible and understanding. Reach out to struggling students. We are all doing our best!
Tools and Tips for Engaging Students in Online Courses
VoiceThread
VoiceThread is an asynchronous discussion tool designed to enhance student engagement and foster presence in online courses. You can upload media in various formats and both you and your students can add comments (video, audio, text). Read our previous blog post about VoiceThread. Try using VoiceThread in the following ways:
Assign a lecture to watch and allow students to comment using guiding questions
Have students create their own VoiceThread presentations and comment on each other’s for peer feedback
Assign a group presentation – students can add individual comments and/or slides
Upload a case study or other document for students to comment on and ask questions about
Have students critique or discuss creative works (audio, video, or text!)
Use in small asynchronous classes for introductions/ice breakers
Blackboard Discussion Board
Discussion forums are commonly used in online courses. Questions that encourage critical thinking, forums for purposes other than homework, and clear expectations help to ensure your students stay engaged in the conversation. Try out the following forum ideas:
General Question or “Water Cooler” forum: students can ask questions about course administration and help each other (fewer emails!)
Introduction forum: you and your students can get to know each other (fostering student connections is a key to success!)
Study Hall forum: to use prior to exams for specific questions (a TA can moderate!)
“Muddiest Point” (what is still unclear) forum: students can post questions after synchronous or asynchronous lectures
Student Generated forum questions: to use for class discussions
“Key Terms/Vocabulary” forum: generated by students
Zoom Breakout Rooms
Breakout rooms in Zooms can help you incorporate small group engagement in your courses. You can assign them randomly, manually, or let students choose (Zoom may need to be updated). You can assign TAs or student leaders co-host status to help manage your breakout rooms.
Assign random pairs to breakout rooms for a quick think-pair-share. In large classes, combine with Google Docs or have only a few pairs share
Pre-assign small groups for a structured, 20-minute in class activity
Utilize synchronous class time for groups to work together on a long-tern project
Polling & Quizzing
In both synchronous and asynchronous learning environments, frequent quizzing and polling can help keep students engaged. Zoom polling is already built in!
Add multiple choice polls to your Zoom meetings Use other polling tools such as Kahoot or PollEverywhere (limited free usage)
Create weekly quizzes in Blackboard for asynchronous classes
Google Docs are a great way to foster collaboration in your courses. Think of creative ways to incorporate docs, sheets, slides, and other Google apps.
Have students produce work together such as an infographic or concept map
Ask your students to share their “muddiest point” at the end of class
Echo360
Echo360 is a lecture streaming/capture/recording/active learning tool you can use to record lectures and foster student engagement.
Add a variety of quiz questions to your lecture
Students can indicate which parts are unclear with “flags”
What has worked well in your courses?
Contact CELTand request a consultation if you would like to discuss with us how you can best incorporate engagement tools and strategies.
Preparing your online course for winter term? Worried about how to maintain the academic rigor without overwhelming yourself and your students?
Here are some strategies for shortened terms that might help.
Course Design Tips:
Organize your content into topical modules, rather than “weeks.” For example, in the fall semester each week might consist of 1 topic, but you can easily double or triple up on topics to teach in winter or summer.
For modules with more than one topic, you can provide students with a choice in topics and have them present to the whole group so students are learning from each other and covering more than one facet of the course.
If you use Blackboard’s Date Restrictions to reveal new content in stages, consider overlapping dates so students can work slightly ahead. For example, if module 2 normally ends on Sunday night, you can open module 3 on Saturday instead of Monday.
Consider using frequent quizzes, short one-paragraph “checks for understanding,” or discussion boards to help students gauge their own progress.
Grade assignments quickly so that students have the benefit of your feedback before it’s too late to improve their performance.
Workload:
Use an online workload calculator to get a handle on how realistic your expectations are, especially for a winter or summer term. Then think about whether you can trim anything while keeping the essentials of the course.
Does everything in a regular 14-week term need to be identical in a 6- week or 3-week? Might it be counterproductive in an accelerated term? Can anything be omitted? Try this filtering process for examining the course content*:
One to two weeks before the course starts:
Prepare and send out your syllabus as a Word/PDF attachment. This gives students a chance to buy books and get a jump start on the readings. It also sets the tone for an accelerated term.
Send out a link to a welcome video where you briefly introduce yourself and your course. Here’s an example.
Allow students to post an introduction in the discussion board or VoiceThread so they can get to know their classmates.
Open the Blackboard site early** so students can access your lectures and other materials. Make the assignment dues dates explicit. You’d be surprised to know that experienced online students will take advantage of this.
Cheerlead! Use the Announcements tool in Blackboard to encourage your students to log in early and often. Post an announcement and send it to students’ email addresses. Tell them how much you want them to succeed in the course.
**Note: Blackboard will be down for critical system maintenance from December 27, 2020 – January 4, 2021. Consider emailing some readings, etc. to the students with your syllabus so they can get started prior to Blackboard’s availability. While Blackboard is unavailable, you can download a list of your student’s emails from SOLAR.
Over the past few months as courses have moved from face-to-face to remote online, both faculty and students have had to – for better or for worse – adapt to the new format. Whether moving to remote, synchronous classes or to fully online, asynchronous courses, the transition has many faculty rethinking their course design. Many are reevaluating how they teach their courses and what they need to do to engage students when they may no longer meet at a scheduled time or in a physical space.
Shifting your course from face-to-face to online requires more than just using technologies to move your content online. It requires reflection and careful consideration on how you might adapt and redesign elements of your course to engage students as a community of learners.
One useful model for informing our course (re)design is the Community of Inquiry Framework (CoI) (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000; Garrison & Arbaugh, 2007). A Community of Inquiry is a group of learners who through collaboration and discussion construct meaning and understanding. The CoI framework lays out a collaborative-constructivist approach to the learning experience which consists of three essential and interdependent elements – teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence (Community of Inquiry Framework, n.d.).
Matbury, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Teaching Presence
Within the CoI framework, teaching presence can be established by thoughtful and evidence-based instructional design principles. Careful course design, active facilitation, and direct instruction work together to promote social and cognitive processes to achieve meaningful learning. This requires us to rethink our assumptions about how our courses should be designed and delivered in the online space to engage students. We have to ask ourselves, will what I do in the face-to-face course work well in my online course?
Some factors to consider in the design and implementation of the online course are:
Facilitating student learning through discussion boards/VoiceThreads – giving consideration to the ways you want students to participate and how you will moderate those discussions
Providing students with frequent, timely, and formative feedback
Determining the layout of the course in Blackboard or Learning Management System (LMS) – thinking about how will students engage in the content, where they will find pertinent information, and being explicit about what students need to do to succeed
Social Presence
Garrison (2009, p. 352) describes social presence as “the ability of participants to identify with the community (e.g., course of study), communicate purposefully in a trusting environment, and develop interpersonal relationships by way of projecting their individual personalities.“ With careful consideration and intentional instructional design, we can create and facilitate social presence in an online learning environment.
Some ways we can create social presence are by:
Projecting our teaching persona via regular Blackboard announcements, welcome video and/or course or module overview videos (using Zoom, VoiceThread, or Echo 360) thus modeling behavior for our students
Developing course activities that allow the class to establish trust and rapport facilitated through the use of icebreakers, discussion boards, and group and collaborative assignments and projects
Offering virtual office hours via Zoom
Cognitive Presence
Cognitive presence relates to the extent that learners are able to construct meaning through discourse and reflection. By conveying the big ideas we want students to know and carefully designing activities and assessments around those activities.
Ways to develop cognitive presence are by:
Providing frequent formative assessment and meaningful feedback
Articulating clear and measurable learning objectives for the course and modules
Using a variety of teaching methods, media, and modalities with multiple opportunities for practice and reflection to achieve the learning outcomes
Encourage critical and creative thinking where students question their own assumptions, consider diverse perspectives, and respond to open-ended questions through online discussions and reflections
The CoI can be a useful framework when thinking about (re)designing your online course. If you would like more information about the CoI or you would like to consult with one of our instructional designers to talk about your courses, please contact us at CELT@stonybrook.edu
Garrison, D. R. (2009). Communities of inquiry in online learning. In Encyclopedia of Distance Learning, Second Edition (pp. 352-355). IGI Global.
Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (1999). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The internet and higher education, 2(2-3), 87-105.
Garrison, D. R., & Arbaugh, J. B. (2007). Researching the community of inquiry framework: Review, issues, and future directions. The Internet and higher education, 10(3), 157-172.
Jennifer Jaiswal, Instructional Designer & Sr Instructional Technologist
“follow the yellow brick road” by kinseikun is marked with CC0 1.0
With COVID-19 shaking up education, we struggle with the means to express what learning experiences we are creating for our students and identifying the type of learning
experience we are looking to create. Some of the terms have multiple meanings and may leave you feeling like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz lost in the Forest of Wild Beasts. Let’s start to identify some of these terms and find our way towards the Emerald City.
Distance learning/education is when learning takes place and the instructor and the students are not physically together. This can take place in many forms and the style of learning dates back to the 18th century where students would be sent packets of readings and send back completed tasks to be graded (Holmberg, 2005). These university correspondence courses were in extension programs as a way to engage students that were not near the campus. In modern times, distance learning and education is an overarching term that encompasses many different styles of learning and is a way of addressing the field as a whole.
Online Learning is when students interact with instructors and students through the use of online technologies including, but not limited to Blackboard, Echo360, VoiceThread and Zoom. Online learning is not a specific style of learning but describes that the students are not together and that the learning is taking place using online modalities. One of the key features of traditional online learning is that all content needs to be more planned, designed, and more fully developed prior to the start of term, especially in asynchronous courses. Having the course as a whole completed prior allows time to focus on delivery, creating engagement in the course, and addressing student concerns. The courses are built to follow a consistent format and layout so that students have an easier time finding where all the content is and navigating the course sites. Online learning breaks into two main styles, synchronous, where learning is focused around a set of scheduled meetings, and asynchronous, where learning takes place at the learner’s pace.
Synchronous courses are online courses where students and faculty meet at set times using a technology like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet to communicate with each other. Many synchronous classes provide students with the opportunity to ask questions of faculty and teaching assistants. They can also interact with their peers live in the chat or in breakout rooms. Synchronous gives the closest experience to a face-to-face class since it has scheduled dates and times, the instructor can present content from their computers, and there can be live discussions with the students during the session. Synchronous courses can also have asynchronous components where students are engaging with content outside of the active course time or participating in activities that take place over a period of time.
Asynchronous courses do not have required scheduled live meetings. All content is posted online through a technology like Blackboard and the students interact with content at their own pace with a weekly style schedule to encourage them to stay on pace together as a community. Typically, these courses are completely built prior to the course start to allow the instructor to focus on the delivery and student engagement while the course is running. In planning these courses faculty may use: readings, videos, and discussions to introduce topics and foster student engagement. Asynchronous courses can include synchronous components like optional live sessions where students can interact with students and the instructor and are recorded for students who are not able to attend.
Blended learning is a combination of face-to-face and online learning techniques. Blended courses have a specific set of days where the instructor and students are meeting in person to discuss topics related to the course. These in-person sessions may be less frequent then a traditional face-to-face course and may use online asynchronous activities during the weeks that course does not meet face-to-face. Blended learning can also be referred to as Hybrid.
Hybrid learning can also be used to define learning where some students are in the classroom and some are connecting virtually. Since the start of the pandemic, many in person courses have turned into hybrid so that students can still attend class even if they are quarantined or remote.
Flipped learning is an approach that can take place in face-to-face classes or online synchronous sessions. Traditional classes are framed so that the in-person class time is when students gain content and knowledge and the out of class time is when you work developing your proficiencies and applying the knowledge learned in class. Flipped uses the opposite model where students are provided with readings, videos, and content to help frame the learning activities that will take place during the in-person sessions. This gives the faculty the opportunity to engage with the students synchronously, either virtually or in-person, and students can learn problem solving and application skills. It allows the students to get immediate feedback from peers and faculty on their process and make changes early to how they are engaging with the content and applying it.
Remote Emergency Instruction or Emergency Remote Teaching is a term that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. While Remote Emergency Instruction can take advantage of synchronous and asynchronous components, the main difference is the planning. Many courses are only partially complete, and the instructor is building the course while they are delivering it. This is not a recommended method for teaching as it can be difficult to build and deliver the course at the same time. Pre-pandemic, some faculty used the same strategies when campuses closed due to snow.
Do you feel as though you have made it through the forest and see Oz in the distance? If you have questions please reach out to CELT and let us know how we can help with the delivery of your courses.
References
Holmberg B. (2005). The Evolution, Principles and Practices of Distance Education. Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Universität Oldenburg.
Sener, J. (2015, August 17). E-Learning Definitions. Retrieved November 06, 2020, from https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/updated-e-learning-definitions-2/
“During NDLW, students, faculty and champions of online education celebrate its tremendous growth and accomplishments, while working towards the possibilities of the future” (National Distance Learning Week, n.d.).
“Sir Isaac Pitman” by JamesGardinerCollection is marked with CC0 1.0
If we take a step back in time, we can look at the first “distance learning” courses which began with Isaac Pitman in England in 1844. Not surprisingly, Pittman taught these courses by sending “content” to his students and getting their “assessments” back via the new postal system. Pitman then corrected the documents and sent them back to the student with feedback – a critical component (Tait, 2003). We have come a long way since 1844 with technology pushing us forward in recent years. While the postal service gave distance learning its first breath back in 1844, online learning became possible with the birth of the Internet in the 1980s (“History of the Internet,” 2020). Then, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, things started to get interesting with the advent of some truly transformational technologies..
Blackboard was founded in 1997 (“Blackboard Inc.,” 2020); YouTube was founded in 2005 (“YouTube,” 2020); and the iPhone was first unveiled in 2007 (“IPhone,” 2020).
Despite the arrival of these technologies, engagement, assessment, and feedback are still critical. However, the tools allow us to achieve our goals more seamlessly as we focus on our teaching.
A second big push towards online learning of course happened this past spring with the pandemic moving many more students and faculty online.
Since we unfortunately can’t meet in person for a NDLW event, we decided to launch our blog which, over the next week and beyond , will publish posts that highlight the kinds of support that CELT offers, including online and distance learning. .
For our inaugural week, we will post a different topic each day related to distance or online education. After that, we will post every two weeks on various topics related to teaching and learning. There are a myriad of different terms and definitions related to distance and online learning and tomorrow’s post will attempt to provide some clarity.
If you would like to participate in NDLW, , there are virtual NDLW events being offered throughout the country. To get more information and to register for them, take a look at our NDLW web page.
We appreciate all the time you spend with us. If you have any suggestions for upcoming posts or if you would like to write a guest post, please reach out to us at CELT@stonybrook.edu
References
Blackboard Inc. (2020). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
History of the Internet. (2020). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
iPhone. (2020). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
National Distance Learning Week. (n.d.). Drexel University Online. Retrieved October 28, 2020, from https://www.online.drexel.edu/news/ndlw.aspx
YouTube. (2020). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=YouTube&oldid=986831989
Rose Tirotta, Ed.D., Associate Director of Teaching Excellence
