We are the Program for Online Teaching, a group of volunteer faculty helping other faculty teach better online.

Our focus is on pedagogy as the guiding force for using technologies for teaching.

Many of us are from MiraCosta College in Oceanside, California. MiraCostans may access the Teaching/Technology Innovations Center for technical help, resources, news and more.

The POT Network

  • POT Diigo group
    (see tutorial on how to save bookmarks)
  • POT Facebook group
  • POT Vimeo Channel (workshops)
  • POT YouTube Channel
  • Twittter (please use hashtag #potcomm)

Lisa’s first day student exercise

First Day Exercise from Program for Online Teaching on Vimeo.

A description of the lengthy first day survey I give to online students.

POT Newsletter #41 (April 2012)


Program for Online Teaching Newsletter #41

April 2012

May 4 – Last of the year: First Friday at Oceanside

Discussion/Experiment Workshops: Successes!
2:00-2:50 pm, OC 4804

Come discuss the successes we’ve experienced this year using technology in our classes.

POT Book Discussion Group: Connections: Virtual Learning Communities
3:00-3:50 pm, OC 4804

Ongoing discussion based on the  free e-book by Richard Schwier, titled Connections: Virtual Learning Communities. For more information about the book, visit:http://rickscafe.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/connections-virtual-learning-communities-ebook-launch/.  To get your free copy of the ebook (epub file):http://edmac.usask.ca/rick/ebookflyer/

Sign up at the flex website.


Free open online class for new college instructors

First Steps into Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, is a free, open, online class targeted at new lecturers, people entering higher education teaching from other sectors and postgraduate students who teach. They also welcome experienced lecturers to update and share their knowledge and expertise. The First Steps course is an element of the Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development’s (OCSLD) HEA accredited Post Graduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education (PCTHE).

Building on OCSLD’s experience of running courses for a national and international audience, First Steps into Learning and Teaching in Higher Education will be an open online course, free to the global academic community, with peer and general tutor support. The class runs May 21- June 22.


Free open online class with Curtis Bonk starts today

Free, 5-week, massively open online course (MOOC) about online teaching entitled Instructional Ideas & Technology Tools for Online Success.

 Curt Bonk is Professor of Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University and President of CourseShare.
Full participation in the course requires that each week from April 30 – June 4, you:
  • listen to a live (or archived) hour-long online session
  • read an article
  • respond via contributing to a discussion board, blog, or wiki
You can learn more about and register for the course here: http://events.blackboard.com/open

Live webinar April 30: Moodle Quizzes

A free online webinar on using quizzes in Moodle


Summer classes from @ONE

·  Introduction to Online Teaching and Learning
·  Creating Accessible Online Courses
·  Introduction to Teaching with Moodle 2 
·  Introduction to Teaching with Blackboard 9.1
·  Building Online Community with Social Media
·  Designing Effective Online Assessments 


Cool video on Flipping the Classroom

“Flipping” is not a new idea – we give students lecture material via the internet, then use class time for greater discussion and interactivity.


POT presenting at Ed-Media

For the first time, POT will be presenting at the World Conference on Educational Media and Technology in two sessions, one on the Simul-learn setup created by Laura Paciorek for out simultaneous online/on-site workshops, and one on the POT Certificate Class (see below). Laura Paciorek and Lisa M. Lane will be presenting live in Denver, with other POT leaders and certificate class members participating virtually.


Planning ahead: Fall Flex

POT All-Day Workshop: Strategies and Tools for Online Teaching
Tuesday, August 14 (tentative – not yet approved)
9:30 am – 3:50 pm, lunch included
Flex time: 6.5 hours
Limit enrollment: 35 participants
Cost: $20/person includes lunch

Instructors of all levels and styles are welcome to join us for an all-day exploration of the strategies and

tools that can be effectively used for online, hybrid or on-site classes that use web technologies. Beginning
with developing good course design through individual pedagogy, participants will work hands-on with a
selection of proven teaching tools and explore how they can be used to realize instructional goals.  If you
have attended an all-day POT workshop in the past, there will be some new additions this year.
Please bring your laptop computer or smart phone if you have one.
Participants will receive 6.5 flex hours for participating (attendance of less than 6.5 hours may be recorded
on the sign-in sheet).

Planning ahead: POT Online Teaching Certificate Class


Over a dozen of this year’s participants will be receiving POT’s online certificate, with a badge they can display on their class websites. Certificate are being awarded to participants from MiraCosta, but also from schools in Spain, Pakistan, New Zealand, and across the U.S. You can see this year’s activity at our aggregated blog: Pedagogy First!

Our next class begins on September 1. There is a textbook, and activities for 12 weeks in fall and 12 weeks in spring. Participants learn about teaching online by putting their pedagogical goals first, and learning to use various technologies to fulfill their objectives, whether teaching online, hybrid, or in a classroom. The class is free and open and led by POT participants, moderators from around the globe, and graduates of the certificate program.

More details forthcoming.

Designing Effective Online Assessments

John Turbeville’s work from the @ONE class “”Designing Effective Online Assessments” in March 2012. Takes you through the development process, including integrating with SLOs.

POT Newsletter #40 (March 2012)

Program for Online Teaching Newsletter #40: March 2012

Self-paced mini-course is available

The Where the Hell Do I Start? mini-course tutorial is now available at the POT website.

This mini-course takes novice online instructors through the process of determining ones own pedagogical goals, and implementing them in an online class. This model has been successfully used at several of POT’s all-day workshops, and is now available to go through at your own pace.

Upcoming workshops and sessions in April

  • Thurs, April 5, 2 pm  – Todd Conaway presents on Creating Your Personal Learning Network
    Collaborate session meets here
  • Fri Apr 6:  First Friday:  2:00-2:50 pm, Room OC4804 –Rejuvenating Your Classes
  • Fri Apr 6:  First Friday: 3:00-3:50 pm, Room OC4804 – Discussion Group for Connections: Virtual Learning Communities
  • Thurs, April 19, 2 or 3 pm PT
    On campus and online combined session with faculty from Yavapai Community College, MiraCosta Community College, Shelton State Community College, and Folsom Lake College. More information coming!

New videos at the POT website:

Louisa Moon’s Ten Time-saving Tips for Online Teachers is one of our most viewed items, but as an Elluminate recording it is a large file and difficult for some to view. A slideshow version with audio is now available.

Three for Moodlers — these tutorials work together to help make your Moodle discussions more interactive and effective:

New recordings from Pedagogy First!

Pedagogy First! is the location of POT’s Certificate Class in online teaching, and most of our synchronous sessions are recorded:

The Google Plus Hangout from March 15 on Differences between online and on-site pedagogy video is here! —->

Kelly Trainor’s presentation on teaching hybrid classes is available as a Collaborate archive session.

Lisa’s presentation on Control and Freedom in Online Classes is available as a Collaborate archive session.

Ted Major’s presentation on Audio and Video is available as a Collaborate recording here.

Lisa, Eric, Todd, Ted and Zack presented in Collaborate on Personal Learning Networks on Feb 2.  Slides and audio are posted here.

Some cool trends and technologies

As you can see from the above sessions, Google Plus Hangout works well as a way to get up to 10 people together in a videoconference. Here’s a tutorial on activating Google +.  Robert Erichsen introduced Robert Kelley to a YouTube feature called Interactive Transcript which makes searching a video easier.

 

“Flipped” classes (where “homework” is done in class and “lecture” is done online outside of class) are hardly a new idea, but here’s a good video we looked at this month: 

 

Happy online, hybrid, and web-enhanced teaching!

 

Lisa

Moodle: a brief introduction on changing student permissions for a forum

A brief introduction on how to change student permissions for any particular forum so they can do things like rate posts, erase posts, etc.