E-learning Study Skills: Caffeine for tired college survival courses

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E-learning Study Skills Caffeine for tired
college survival courses

• Ryan Watkins
• George Washington University
• Author E-learning Companion A students guide
  to online success

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Welcome and House Keeping
Welcome to the Webinar and thank you for taking
the time to join us!

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For Most Students
e-Learning Success
Classroom Success
?
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For many students
the transition can lead to frustration and
disappointment.
D-
A
Drop Out
Incomplete
PASS
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Learning to e-Learn
Most learners will develop valuable study habits
for success in the college classroom.
But will they work online?
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The answer is YES and NO

• e-Learning requires
• the adaptation of old study habits,
• the adoption of new study skills,
• the development of technical skills, and
• the integration of all three into effective
  e-learning strategies.

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Without these skills
opportunities to learn will be lost!
Drop Outs
Incompletes
Low performance
Stress
Anxiety
Isolation
Disappointment
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And opportunities for future e-learning will be
lost!
Irritation
Bad press for e-learning
Lower enrollments
Frustration
Lost time
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What is Learning to e-Learn?
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Technical Skills

• Learners today are generally skilled at
• Sending emails
• Shopping online
• Downloading music
• Playing online video games
• Socializing

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E-Learning Study Skills

• However, learners are NOT very skilled at
• Communicating effectively online
• Staying organized
• Comprehending online readings and discussions
• Applying critical thinking skills online
• Transferring study skills to online courses
• Taking notes while reading online
• Synthesizing information from multiple websites
• Evaluating online resources
• Learning from e-learning course components!

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Where are we?
You
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Technology Skills
Such as Facebook, text messaging, online file
sharing, etc.
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Your students
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Where are we?
You
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e-LearningStudy Skills
Such as note taking, critical thinking, building
relationships, communicating, etc.
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Your students
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Never the Less

• E-learning is becoming a part of the college
  experience
• 56 of colleges (over 2,320 institutions) offer
  e-learning courses
• 127,400 different e-learning courses are offered
  each year and
• Over 3 million course enrollments.
• E-learning includes
• Online colleges (for example, Strayer, Capella,
  Phoenix)
• Completely online courses and degree programs at
  traditional colleges
• Single online courses (for example, Psychology
  101)
• Online summer school programs
• Hybrid-courses (some campus sessions, some online
  sessions) and
• E-learning activities (campus courses that use
  some online components such as submitting
  assignments online, posting a syllabus in
  BlackBoard, or online discussion boards).

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Path to Online Success

• Readiness for e-learning.
• Updated study skills.
• Active learning strategies.
• Online communication skills.
• Time management techniques.
• Virtual teamwork skills.
• Proper e-learning environment.
• Evaluation of online resources.

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Readiness is Essential to Success

• Take Aways
• Knowing their strengths and weaknesses is
  important.
• Not all e-learning courses will be a good match
  for their skills and habits.
• Activity Ideas
• Have students take notes while watching a short
  video on www.fora.tv. Afterwards discuss what
  strategies worked and did not work.
• Give out a sample syllabus for an e-learning
  course. After students analyze the syllabus,
  discuss what are the technical and study skills
  necessary to be successful in the class.
• Have students complete the E-learning Readiness
  Self-Assessment in the E-learning Companion (or
  online at the Cengage website)

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Time to Update Their Study Skills

• Take Aways
• Study skills from high school wont likely be
  enough.
• For example, the note taking techniques used for
  high school lectures or readings will have to
  updated for new online articles, podcasts, or
  streaming video presentations.
• The new classroom requires some new study skills.
• Activity Ideas
• Have student submit a group paper with MS Words
  Track Changes and Comments features being used.
• Have the class read and take notes on an article
  for 5 minutes, half reading online and half
  reading paper copies discuss the differences in
  note taking strategies.

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Try Something New!

• Have you tried Google Calendar yet?
• Calendar.google.com
• Supports multiple color-coded calendars.
• Calendars can be shared with either viewing-only
  or editing privileges.
• Reminders can be sent to you via text message.
• Integrates with Gmail and other Google tools
  (such as Google Sites).

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Try Something New!
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Learning is not a passive activity and neither
is e-learning

• Take Aways
• All learning requires active participation.
• E-learners can be active learners by
• taking notes while reading online.
• participating in all chat or discussion board
  conversations.
• managing their study habits.
• creating online study groups.
• Activity Ideas
• Use an online discussion board to discuss time
  management strategies. Later, in class discuss
  the benefits and risks of discussion boards, and
  how to gain more from the experience.
• Use an online ice breaker at the start of the
  semester to get students talking online (for
  example, 3 websites about myself).

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Try Something New!

• Have you tried Google Docs yet?
• docs.google.com
• Online file sharing of documents, spreadsheets,
  and presentations.
• Files can be shared and edited online by multiple
  people.
• Files can be saves in numerous formats (including
  Word, PDF, Excel, etc.).
• Files can also be published as websites -- which
  is a great way that students can submit team
  projects.
• Microsoft offers Office Live, which is a file
  sharing alternative.
• Check-out, check-out system rather than real-time
  editing.
• Requires MS Office on your computer.

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Try Something New!
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Online Communications!

• Take Aways
• Email, text message, chat, video conference, and
  other technologies all change how we communicate.
  
• Learn and practice successful strategies for
  communicating with all of these technologies.
• Activity Ideas
• Hand out a sample email that violates rules of
  professional communications (e.g., slang, jokes,
  text message abbreviations, misspelled words) and
  ask students to highlight the problems.
• Email communication skills handout and activity
  is available at http//sites.google.com/site/elea
  rningstudyskills/

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Try Something New!

• Have you tried Zotero yet?
• www.zotero.org
• Similar to EndNotes, but free.
• Captures and records reference information from
  books, articles, websites, and other online
  resources.
• Works seamlessly with most online library
  catalogs.
• Requires students to use the Mozilla Firefox
  browser.

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Try Something New!
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Time Management

• Take Aways
• Successful e-learners are generally more
  independent learners, although new technologies
  are making this less of a necessity.
• Balance your commitments (work, e-learning,
  personal, etc.).
• Activity Ideas
• For one week have students use Google Calendar
  track when when they study. After the week, have
  them publish the calendar as a website that
  they can share it with you.
• Have students create a personal iGoogle page, and
  then add the Listy To Do gadget to the page. For
  each course they are taking, they should then
  create a To Do tab in iGoogle with their upcoming
  assignments and activities.

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Try Something New!

• Have you tried iGoogle yet?
• www.google.com/ig
• Customize and organize information on your
  Homepage
• Gives you many tools to add to your Homepage
• Calendar
• Gmail
• Yahoo mail
• To-do list
• News feeds
• Hundreds of other options

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Try Something New!
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Try Something New!

• Have you tried del.icio.us yet?
• del.icio.us or delicious.com
• Social bookmarking site.
• Groups of students can save and share bookmarks
  of interesting websites together.
• You can create one for the class, and then
  everyone can share their favorites together in
  one list.
• Uses tags rather than folders to organize
  bookmarks (much more effective and flexible).

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Try Something New!
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Virtual Teams

• Take Aways
• Frequent participation and carrying their weight
  is essential to team success.
• Virtual (online) teams are used in many
  e-learning courses and require a new set of
  skills for most students.
• Activity Ideas
• Have student teams identify 5 roles for online
  team members (e.g., note taker, question asker,
  nay sayer, idea generator, organizer).
• Have student teams of 3 to 5 members create a
  short presentation on effective team strategies
  using the slideshow creator in Google Docs.

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Try Something New!

• Have you tried Doodle yet?
• www.doodle.com
• Quick and easy surveys.
• Great for scheduling study groups or team
  meetings.
• Also check out www.ClickBooks.com.

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Try Something New!
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Evaluating Online Resources

• Take Aways
• All websites and online resources should not
  equal.
• Have standard criteria for evaluating online
  resources (e.g., source reliability, information
  quality, information usefulness).

• Activity Ideas
• Identify a wikipedia topic and page, then ask
  students to track down at least one original
  source study that verifies the information on in
  wikipedia.
• Web resource evaluation handout is available at
  http//sites.google.com/site/elearningstudyskills/

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Try Something New!

• Have you tried Face Book yet?
• www.facebook.com
• Social networking.
• Your students are already there, so take the
  information to them rather than having them come
  to you looking for information.
• Create a group in Facebook to push information
  to your students.
• Group for those interested in E-learning Study
  Skills
• http//www.facebook.com/group.php?gid73295761809

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Try Something New!
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Online Study Environment

• Take Away
• Task interruptions impact on both time and
  memory.
• Both your physical (e.g., chair, lighting, noise)
  study environment and your online (e.g., font
  size, text messaging turned off, file
  organization) study environment are critical.
  Make sure that you are ready to learn when you
  e-learn!
• Activity Ideas
• Have students develop a file naming strategy for
  their course notes, assignments, and files.
• For example, 2009-4-3_HIS100_Assign_1_Notes.doc.
• For one day, ask students to track how many times
  they are interrupted from their reading or
  studying by emails, text messages, or phone
  calls. Have students report back the number of
  times they were interrupted during the next class
  session.

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Try Something New!

• Have you tried CMAP yet?
• cmap.ihmc.us
• Mind-mapping or concept mapping software.
• Maps can be shared with other contributors.
• It is free and easy to use.
• Files can also be attached to nodes.

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Try Something New!
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Ten Tips for Your e-Learners

• Know your short-cut keys.
• CRTL X
• ALT Tab
• Exploit the right-click.
• Download plug-ins and add-ons.
• Know which search engines to use.
• Use acronyms and emoticons only when appropriate.

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Ten Tips for Your e-Learners

• Set a schedule for your e-learning.
• Use technology to help manage your time.
• Organize your files and keep a clean computer.
• Watch out for distractions from your studies
  (e.g., emails, text messages, phone calls,
  facebook)
• Have fun and stay involved!

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Try Something New!

• Have you tried You Send It yet?
• www.yousendit.com
• Free service for emailing large files.
• Great for large presentations or reports.
• Great for files with lots of images or sounds.
• Free for files up to 100mb.

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Try Something New!
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Ten Tips for e-Instructors

• Focus on learner performance by clearly defining
  what e-learners will know and be able to do at
  the end of the course.
• Dont be afraid to learn from your students.
• Use online ice breakers to engage your students
  (even if your class meets on-campus).
• Model the online behaviors you want from learners
  (e.g., etiquette, response time on emails,
  professional writing).
• Use the resources of your college (tech support,
  librarians, colleagues, etc.).

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Ten Tips for e-Instructors

• Intersperse online activities throughout any
  course (on-campus, online, or hybrid).
• Provide clear and specific guidelines for
  participation.
• Do not try to do everything (e.g., Second Life,
  blogs, wikis, twitter, facebook).
• Make time for individual feedback.
• Get involved in class discussions.
• Bonus Dont assume that your students know how
  to e-learn.

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Additional information
Additional copies of slideshow and handouts are
available for download at http//sites.google.com
/site/elearningstudyskills/

• Ryan Watkins is a professor of educational
  technology at George Washington University. In
  addition to the E-learning Companion, he is the
  author of seven books, including
• 75 E-learning Activities.
• Please visit www.ryanrwatkins.com