FIPSE Authorizes Funding for JSRCC's Third and Final Grant Year

Just as JSRCC launched its QEP, the College was fortunate to receive a Funds for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) grant of over $400,000 to support the implementation and assessment plans for The Ripple Effect. The FIPSE grant helped to fund the first two years of the project, with the third and final year of funding contingent upon satisfactory progress in the College's efforts to implement the various areas of the plan.

Last week, this federal grants office issued its Grant Award Notification, informing JSRCC that its third and final year of FIPSE funding has been approved. This award of $164,553.00 will help the College to continue in its important implementation and assessment of the three critical areas of the QEP:  student readiness, student orientation, and faculty development in online teaching and learning. The grant assists JSRCC in many important ways during this upcoming third FIPSE budget year, which extends from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2012.

Over 6500 Students Complete SmarterMeasure Assessment

Since its full implementation in Summer 2010, over 6500 JSRCC students have completed SmarterMeasure, the assessment tool that measures learners' readiness for online education. This assessment evaluates a student's skills and personal and external resources in seven critical areas:  Life Factors, Personal Attributes, Technical Knowledge, Technical Competency, Learning Styles, Reading Rate and Recall, and Typing Speed and Accuracy.

Results from SmarterMeasure are being evaluated in order to determine the areas of strength and weakness that our students bring with them to the distance classroom. In Spring 2011, Reynolds students demonstrated greatest strength in the SmarterMeasure assessment in Technical Competency and in Reading Rate and Recall. The two areas of greatest weakness were in Life Factors and in Personal Attributes. These two areas of the assessment are generally deemed to be the most critical for student success in learning -- whether that learning occurs online or on-campus.

Life Factors measurements focus upon the resources and the support that a student has for his or her academic pursuits. Such resources include not only financial and personal support but also issues of space and time available for academic effort. Similarly, Personal Attributes focus upon issues of a student's ability to manage time, ask for assistance, demonstrate responsibility for academic work, and so forth.

The new CDL001: Orientation to Learning Online focuses upon helping students develop the skills and identify the resources that they need to be successful. Building upon the evidence gleaned from SmarterMeasure results, the orientation module focuses primarily upon these areas of evident weakness in our student population.

--Ghazala Hashmi

QEP Coordinator

Students React to the New CDL 001: Orientation to Learning Online

Meg Foster, QEP Assistant Coordinator, recently shared details about the new CDL 001: Orientation to Learning Online.  In the past few weeks, over twenty students have successfully completed pilot sessions of the Orientation, a two-week module that is delivered through Blackboard.

Developed by a team composed of instructors and administrators from the Center for Distance Learning, the Office of Student Affairs, student development, information resources, and the Quality Enhancement Plan, CDL 001 introduces students to two primary and critical areas:  Preparing to Be an Online Learner and Engaging with Resources. Each of these areas is subdivided into smaller learning units which provide information and instruction on topics such as Time Management, Barriers to Learning Online, and Academic Honesty. Participants are also asked to complete a variety of assignments that engage them directly with Blackboard tools and resources. This direct application of learning prepares students prior to their entrance into an online course, with the hope that discipline instructors can then focus on their subject matter rather than on the development of online learning skills.

As a part of the assessment of the new orientation, students in the pilot sessions have been asked to complete a brief satisfaction survey. Their responses and comments have been overwhelmingly positive. Of the twenty respondents, 100% indicate that they will encourage other students to complete CDL001 prior to enrolling in an online course. Additionally, 85% "strongly agreed" or "agreed" with the statement, "Now that I have completed CDL001, I feel confident about taking a distance learning class at JSRCC."

In their narrative comments, students expressed strong and positive feedback on the amount of learning and the introduction to support resources provided by the Orientation:

• "I would recommend that all first time starters of distance learning take the CDL001 orintation before starting their first online course."

• "I thouroughly [sic] enjoyed the course and I am excited to begin my journey as an online learner!"

• "The nature of the assignments are not just 'how to' instructions like I originally thought. There are some real life lessons to learn and good habits to build. This class is a hidden gem because I had no idea that it existed before 3 weeks ago."

The final sample comment is a delightful and important confirmation of the value of the new Orientation which did, in fact, roll out only a few weeks ago. When students themselves recognize the worth of an exercise and the impact that any new learning will have upon their own education, then the effort they expend is offset by the value of their achievement.

A few comments pointed to areas of possible improvement for CDL001:  two students requested more assignments that involve the use of library resources; one student requested that the Orientation be a credit course; another urged that students be required to complete the orientation prior to the start of any online course so that the two do not run concurrently. These comments will be reviewed further by the QEP Team and the developers of CDL001. 

As more students complete the Orientation, their feedback will continue to be assessed. Further, other assessments will be brought to bear on CDL001:  instructors' feedback on the learning units; the evaluation of students' success rates in distance classes following their successful completion of the Orientation; and telephone surveys of students who enroll but do not complete the session.

--Ghazala Hashmi

QEP Coordinator

Welcome Back!

Over the summer months, The Reynolds Ripple took a brief break, but we now look forward to another active and exciting academic year.

This upcoming year marks the second year of the implementation of the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), and in January, we begin our third and final year of the FIPSE grant which supports the QEP. Our primary focus this year will be upon implementation of the new CDL 001:  Orientation to Learning Online, described in an earlier post, and on the development of Tier Two faculty training modules.

Over the next few days, we will continue to identify more data findings from our implementation of SmarterMeasure (the readiness assessment tool for distance learning) and provide details about the QEP  recommendations for supporting and preparing those faculty who plan to teach online. Further, we will continue to participate in and learn from the conversations taking place on the national and state-wide level about student success and achievement in higher education, in both online and on-campus settings.

Our focus in the QEP remains purposefully in front of us:  within our five-year project, we plan to build and provide resources, learning, and tools to help students succeed online, knowing that these same elements will also impact students in on-campus classrooms. Similarly, our goal is to provide our online instructors with the skills, training, and support that they need to be as successful and as capable as they can be in the virtual classroom.

Over the summer months, many of you have had the opportunity to reflect and research areas of discipline and teaching interests. We hope that you will share those reflections by becoming a contributing writer to The Reynolds Ripple.  We also encourage you to continue to send in your comments and inquiries to rippleeffect@reynolds.edu.

CDL 001: Orientation to Learning Online

As much of the research regarding student success suggests, orientation is a critical piece of student preparation and student success.   The College’s QEP recognizes the importance of student orientation and preparation, and one of the “legs” of the College’s QEP involves student orientation to distance learning.  Beginning with the fall registration period, the QEP Team and the Center for Distance Learning have made major alterations to CDL 001: Orientation to Learning Online. 

As a component of the QEP, the new CDL 001 is designed to give students the experience of online learning and the opportunity to practice all of the skills necessary to be successful in an online class. Students will enroll in a two-week Blackboard module facilitated by trained distance learning instructors. Students will sign up to participate on the Center for Distance Learning’s website.   The module will take between four and six hours to complete.  Students will gain familiarity with how to take quizzes, submit assignments, post to discussion boards and create responses, utilize the gradebook, and use the journal component of Blackboard.  In addition, they will be exposed to important information about what distance learning entails, time management, netiquette, academic honesty, and success resources available at the college. 

The pilot phase of CDL 001 will involve eight sessions of CDL 001 which will take place between July 25 and August 22. Please encourage the students you work with to take advantage of this free program. CDL 001 is especially designed for a student curious about online learning, any student enrolling in distance learning classes for the first time, and any student who has not been previously successful in learning online.   In order to have access to Blackboard, students must have registered for a fall class or have been previously enrolled at a VCCS institution within the last 12 months.

At the conclusion of the pilot phase, additional sections of CDL 001 will be available throughout the academic year to prepare students for successful completion of distance learning classes. 

Questions about CDL 001 should be addressed to the Center for Distance Learning at distance-ed@reynolds.edu or the QEP Team at rippleeffect@reynolds.edu

Encourage Your Students To Use A PAL (Peer Academic Leader)

We are excited to announce a new resource for your students!  Peer Academic Leaders (PALs) are student leaders available to assist new and current JSRCC students using Skype in the evenings when many campus offices have closed.   PALs are available Monday-Thursday from 5:00-10:00 pm during registration periods.  PALs can answer questions about student resources, applying to the college, how to register, general information about holds, and how to navigate through the Student Information System (SIS), JSRCC email account and Blackboard.  PALs are not academic advisers, and so are not able to answer specific questions about the kinds of courses students should be taking.  In addition to Skype, our PALs are blogging.  Check out their blog to learn tips for student success at JSRCC!  We encourage students to pose questions on the blog and search for answers to frequently asked questions.  

Please encourage your students to utilize the PALs by including language about the PALs program in your summer classes, prior to or just as the semester begins, in emails to students, in your Blackboard announcement sections, or in any college resources you might provide students.  Below you will find some sample language.  If you should have any questions about the PALs program, please contact Meg Buchanan Foster (mbfoster@reynolds.edu).

Sample Language:

Do you have questions about registration or general questions about being a student at JSRCC? If so, a helpful resource is available. Chat with a College PAL (Peer Academic Leader) via Skype Monday through Thursday each week from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Visit the JSRCC Center for Distance Learning webpage for a link and easy-to-use instructions for Skype. This service will be available through May 26 and again July 11-August 25.

Teaching Our Future Heroes

In honor of National Community College Month, we are publishing the personal reflections of our faculty.  These reflections focus upon the general topic “This I believe about the mission and value of community colleges today,” and offer thoughts about teaching and learning.

This reflection comes from Dr. Cynthia De Riemer, Professor of Communication Studies.

I teach communication courses, which are either required courses for many of our majors or an elective.  Over my years at JSRCC, I have listened to many student speeches and presentations.  These speeches reveal much about  the goals and aspirations of the student speakers.  As I listen, I have been especially struck by the critical roles our JSRCC students will fulfill in our community.   The following is a representative but not comprehensive list of what I mean:

·         I have taught future firefighters and EMTs who may one day rescue one of us from a burning building or rush us to hospitals for emergency care;

·         I have taught many students seeking careers as nurses, pharmacists, medical technicians and aides who will be on the frontline of administering medical care and treatment.  We will literally trust them with our lives and well being.

·         I have taught future teachers and child care providers who will come to know that a teacher’s influence only stops at eternity.  We will entrust our children’s welfare to these professionals.

·         I have taught police officers and security personnel working in local, state and federal positions.  We will depend on their courage, sound judgment and competency in times of crisis.

·         I have taught those seeking careers as social workers and counselors.  These students will offer assistance to those facing possibly the darkest days of their lives.

My list could go on and on—to the future entrepreneurs who will dream up new businesses and services for our community to the automotive technicians who make our cars run safely and efficiently.  I am reminded daily what a privilege, honor and special responsibility I have in nurturing, guiding and educating our students.  They will give our community so much more than we could ever estimate or predict.

--Cynthia De Riemer

Professor of Communication Studies

Rigor in the Distance Learning Classroom (An Ode to America’s Sport)

In honor of National Community College Month, we are publishing the personal reflections of our faculty.  These reflections focus upon the general topic “This I believe about the mission and value of community colleges today,” and offer thoughts about teaching and learning.

Our first reflection comes from David Barrish.

In honor of the start of baseball season, I immerse myself in everything hardball.  I love the smell of fresh-cut turf, the grind of cleats on packed earth, and the unrequited hope that the Cleveland Indians might make it to the World Series.

A movie to help get you in the spirit is “A League of Their Own,” a fine effort by Penny Marshall. While it will never be mistaken for cinéma vérité, it is a fun story with subtle messages throughout. The following is an excerpt from a heated discussion between catcher Dottie Hinson and manager Jimmy Dugan:

Jimmy Dugan: “Baseball is what gets inside you. It's what lights you up, you can't deny that.”

Dottie Hinson: “It just got too hard.”

Jimmy Dugan: “It's supposed to be hard! If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great!”

The JSRCC QEP and April Activities

April is an active month for the JSRCC QEP. The College's focus upon distance learning, and on the engagement of faculty, administrators, staff, and students with the broad issues of teaching and learning, coincides well with this year's development of a collaborative theme for the various conferences and symposia that typically highlight April at Reynolds. This unifying theme is Screen Time: Teaching, Learning, and Working in a Mediated World.

Presentations and sessions focused upon Screen Time began with Staff Professional Development Day on March 14. They continue this week at the VCCS New Horizons Conference in Roanoke, Virginia. Four different presentations will be made at New Horizons that are directly connected to the JSRCC QEP:

1) One panel of presenters will discuss the transformative impact a QEP has upon an institution.
2) Another panel will discuss the ways in which JSRCC has used institutional data to develop its faculty training program for online instructors.
3) The development of remediation and orientation modules for online students will be presented in a third session.
4) Finally, a fourth session will focus on the new Peer Academic Leaders (PALs) program that has emerged from the College's efforts to provide greater support for online learners.

"Life Factors" Emerges Consistently as a Key Determinant of Student Online Success

As discussed in a previous post, Life Factors is one of the attributes measured by SmarterMeasure, the assessment tool that evaluates students' levels of readiness for online learning. Life Factors evaluates situations in a student's life that may or may not be within his or her control. Such conditions include a student's ability to devote sufficient time to academic work; a student's access to a dedicated site that is conducive for study and learning; the reason or rationale for which a student is pursuing higher education; a student's access to sufficient resources that include stable finances, sound personal health, and support for educational pursuits among family members and from an employer; and demonstration of past ability to maintain academic commitments.  

(Re-)Framing Student Success

Last month, three of the major professional organizations in my field, the Council of Writing Program Administrators (WPA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the National Writing Project (NWP), released a landmark document that was years in the making:  the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing.

The Framework is getting a great deal of attention right now among teachers of composition and rhetoric because it combines a set of demonstrable, cognitive skills and outcomes in five areas we have traditionally used as metrics for student performance (rhetorical knowledge, critical thinking, writing processes, knowledge of conventions, and abilities to compose in multiple environments) with less measurable, affective dispositions the framers call “habits of mind”:

o  Curiosity – the desire to know more about the world.

o  Openness – the willingness to consider new ways of being and thinking in the world.

o  Engagement – a sense of investment and involvement in learning.

o  Creativity – the ability to use novel approaches for generating, investigating, and representing ideas.

o  Persistence – the ability to sustain interest in and attention to short- and long-term projects.

o  Responsibility – the ability to take ownership of one’s actions and understand the consequences of those actions for oneself and others.

o  Flexibility – the ability to adapt to situations, expectations, or demands.

o  Metacognition – the ability to reflect on one’s own thinking as well as on the individual and cultural processes used to structure knowledge.

The complete version of the Framework does an admirable job beginning the conversation about how these habits might be measured and assessed (see pp. 4-5). Here’s one example of how the third habit, engagement (a sense of investment and involvement in learning), is fleshed out:
   
Engagement is fostered when writers are encouraged to

• make connections between their own ideas and those of others;

• find meanings new to them or build on existing meanings as a result of new connections; and

• act upon the new knowledge that they have discovered.

Can we come up with ways to measure an individual student’s level of “engagement” (or persistence, or flexibility, or metacognition, or any of the other habits of mind) through a comprehensive examination of that student’s body of work over the course of a semester?  Or, perhaps more important to our shared goal of instilling transferable, postsecondary skills and dispositions in our students, can we come up with ways to give our students the capacity to measure their own progress in these areas and to chronicle that progress with artifacts from their own body of work? 

This conversation will need to be continued by all of us in more detail. It is a conversation worth having, both inside the discipline of composition and rhetoric and across all academic disciplines. I encourage all of us to think about how we could each create individual, course-based, and programmatic assessments that honor the education of the whole student, if for no other reason than to start our students on the road to recovery from the unconscionably reductive assessments they have come to expect from their K-12 instruction during the era of SOLs. 

--Miles McCrimmon

Professor of English

Should you teach online?

Rob Jenkins, a frequent commentator in The Chronicle of Higher Education, and an Associate Professor of English at Georgia Perimeter College offers this somewhat tongue-in-cheek advice for instructors who are considering teaching online courses.

What are your thoughts? Post your comments here.

The Question of Multimodal Composing: What’s That (Visual) Argument? (Part 2 of 2)

This post continues the discussion begun in Part One of the article, published on March 14, 2011.

Cynthia Haller (2010) conducted a study on three student research papers in an upper division research—junior level—writing course. She questioned the manner in which students learn to recognize academic arguments in source materials and how they integrate and use them in their own writing. She asks, “What does it mean to construct an academic argument using disciplinary discourse?” (p. 34). Haller found that “[o]nly students who had had extensive experience with reading and writing within their disciplines and across a range of disciplinary contexts were able to successfully identify, explain, and engage discipline-based criteria for writing” (p. 36). Her focus on an upper-division course is relevant to a study that focuses on FYC because it is in FYC where students begin to learn their way around the academic discourse community to then compose for their specific disciplines. If they continue to present with problems understanding academic arguments beyond FYC, then it is possible that educators are not approaching the subject in a way that encourages students to retain knowledge to carry forward into their disciplinary studies. Haller addresses to some degree the Toulmin method of argumentation when identifying the logos of academic arguments (p. 35). This is perhaps a good place to start addressing the validity of asking FYC students to conduct a rhetorical analysis of visual argument in the form of print ads, televised ads, magazine covers, movie posters, etc. to then compose and produce their own.

The Question of Multimodal Composing: What’s That (Visual) Argument? (Part 1 of 2)

Currently, multimodal composing is ongoing and is becoming more accepted in the academy. However, there is still some suggestion that the primary goal in first year composition (FYC) is to produce alphabetic [written] texts that look and feel much like the texts today’s educators produced in their undergraduate years. Pamela Takayoshi and Cynthia Selfe (2007) argue the point that conventional print texts “do not resemble many of the documents we now see in digital environments that use multiple modalities to convey meaning [. . .] and that are distributed primarily, albeit not exclusively, via digital media” (p. 1).  Scholars such as Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen offer a social semiotic approach to multimodality through the lens of visual rhetoric and visual literacy.  More recently, Anne Wysocki offers a definition of new media that also encourages a social element to composing in new media. If writing instructors are to welcome and encourage the use of technologies in the classroom, it is imperative they assume a critical stance themselves, encouraging students to develop technological literacy skills while composing multimodal texts.

Preliminary Results of the College’s Application of SmarterMeasure

As part of its Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College adopted SmarterMeasure, an assessment tool that assesses student readiness for learning within the online classroom.  SmarterMeasure evaluates students’ skills and attributes in seven distinct areas: Life Factors, Personal Attributes, Technical Competency, Technical Knowledge, Reading Rate and Recall, Learning Styles, and Typing Speed and Accuracy. After piloting SmarterMeasure in Spring 2010 through volunteer faculty in online courses, the College fully implemented the assessment in Summer 2010. At present SmarterMeasure is delivered to incoming students as a part of placement evaluations, and distance learning faculty are also asked to integrate the tool within their first-week assignments in order to reach returning students. Since its incorporation at the College, close to 4000 students have completed the SmarterMeasure assessment.

The QEP Team has begun its principal analyses of SmarterMeasure and what it reveals about JSRCC students. Information gleaned from these analyses will guide the team in its development of a comprehensive student orientation to learning online and in its development of remediation modules that will help students to bolster their areas of weakness. The first round of data focuses upon all of the distance learning students who both completed the SmarterMeasure assessment and enrolled in at least one online course.  In the next few weeks, the data will be investigated further as the team evaluates first-time distance learners, various demographic factors, and displaced workers (the specific focus of the College’s FIPSE grant).

Open Educational Resources: The Real Democratization of Education

In a recent post, English Professor Miles McCrimmon discussed the ways in which Open Educational Resources (OERs) are impacting the traditional approaches to and soaring costs of textbooks in education. Along those same lines, I've been thinking about how the technologies of the Internet and mobile global access are breaking down barriers to information, education, and learning.  I recently heard someone declare that in virtual reality, "everyone is free."  In the context of politics, sociology, and education, this statement is powerful indeed.

The digitization of knowledge, information, speech, communication, and social and cultural tools has eroded the political, geographical, and economic structures that once defined the concrete landscapes of our world. As our world(s) become increasingly multi-dimensional and as we move further into virtual landscapes limited only, it sometimes seems, by our own capacity to imagine them into being, new freedoms come into definition. We have witnessed such freedom most graphically in the recent weeks in the context of the dramatic political changes that have brought long-standing dictatorships to an end. These revolutions began within the virtual worlds created by the Internet and spilled over into the real spaces of city squares, neighborhoods, and entire nations.

The Impact of Digital Literacy in Education (Part 2)

One way that educational institutions are seeking to accommodate the needs of the Millennial learner is through the use of media literacy tools such as multimedia textbooks.   Media literacy means that educators look at the Millennials not just as consumers of knowledge, media, and technology but as creators.  According to Considine et al. (2009) “this is crucial when working with the Millennials who are accustomed to living in a multimedia landscape” (p. 475).  Allowing learners the ability to interact with multimedia texts and express themselves through activities that promote engagement and creation are options that some educational institutions are currently undertaking as there seems to be “a gap between what college teachers expect and what college students expect”  (Pratt & Pratt, 2009, p. 1). One such educational association is the National School Board Association.

           

The Impact of Digital Literacy in Education (Part 1)

With an understanding of who the Millennials are and the characteristics that differentiate them from previous generations of learners, it is important to also consider how these difference will impact education and the way teaching and learning is conducted.  Millennials are entering an educational environment that is not prepared for the way they learn and the way they communicate.  This places heavy demands on educators as they are in a constant struggle to combine the content of the old curriculum in a way that the Millennial learners can relate to and learn from (Prensky, 2001).  This is one of the main issues as the Millennial generation does not respond well to the traditional teaching methods, such as the lecture, that is so prevalent in today’s classroom (Pratt & Pratt, 2009).  According to Price (2010), most Millennials prefer to learn from a variety of teaching methods including multimedia tools such as podcasting, videos, and other online tools.  Price (2010) also noted that one of her learners even successfully navigated the first three weeks of her course and passed the first exam without even purchasing the required text. This demonstrates that faculty must seek other means to communicate lessons to the Millennials rather than relying heavily on texts, as they have done in the past.  Faculty can use activities such as wikis, blogs, games, and social networking tools as optional means to disseminate the lessons to these learners.

And I Did Not Even Know that "Gamify" was a Word

As the saying goes, "It's not the change that bothers us; it is the rate of the change." As technologies develop exponentially, many of us often feel overwhelmed and unable to keep apace with all of the expectations that evolving capabilities place in front of us.

I felt this way as I read a recent article, in The Chronicle of Higher Education, about integrating "gaming" into the online classroom.  And yet, as I read, I also thought of the series of articles that CJ Bracken has been writing about the Millennial generation and their expectations of heightened and more interactive relationships within their online classes.

I am curious:  are any instructors at JSRCC using gaming technologies or gaming psychologies in classes? If you are, why not share your expertise and knowledge at one of our Spring Synergy events.

--Ghazala Hashmi

QEP Coordinator

The Six Levels of Change: Why the Distinctions Are Important

Last week's article, "Cyberized Education," described six levels of change where the cyberization of education is happening.  What is the basis for these distinctions, and why are they important?

Life resource vs. learning resource - The main distinction between these two is one of intent. We are learning creatures; we learn through communicating, socializing, entertainining and being entertained, informing and being informed.  We learn many things informally without thinking much about it, or at times without even meaning to.   But sometimes we learn with more intent in mind.    We use learning resources intentionally; we learn from life resources incidentally.

Learning resource vs. education resource - Although learning and education are sometimes equated, the distinction between the two is important.  Education is society’s means of transmitting, preserving, and renewing its core knowledge to its members. There is an individual dimension, but society created education to benefit the greater social good as well as its individual members.  Learning is the means by which an individual makes sense of one’s life, experience, society, and the universe. The individual dimension is more prominent, although all learning has a social dimension since we are also social creatures.  In practice, the distinction between these two is quite clear in most cases.

Engaging and Retaining Online Learners

I was struck this week by Ghazala’s February 8 post about the importance of communication between faculty and students. She goes on to state that “student engagement is a reciprocal product of faculty engagement.” As so many of us know whether through research or by observation, students who are more engaged (more involved academically or socially) are more likely to be retained or to persist. Thus, successful students are engaged students.

I keep coming back to this question about engaging students outside of the formal learning environment of a classroom. On a physical campus students engage with one another in the classroom but also outside of the classroom. They may hang out intentionally (or unintentionally) in a commons are or the library; they may enroll in multiple classes with the same students creating informal learning communities; they may chat in the parking lot. All of those experiences create community. So, how do we create community in the world of online learning? In my current Distance Learning class, I am excited to see the connections my students are making with one another. They are finding common ground in academic interests, career goals, as parents (a new mom is being cheered on by the more-experienced moms), and as workers. But, when a student ends a Blackboard class, that gathering “space” is eventually removed. Where do students hang out and connect informally, as they might on campus, in our online learning environment? How can we develop opportunities for student engagement that are not confined by bricks and mortar?

I for one am ready to learn more about how I can best engage our online learners. I hope you’ll join me on February 23 and 25 from 1:00-2:30 for a two-part webinar on Engaging and Retaining Online Students. The program is facilitated by Karen Betts, a nationally recognized expert on online student learning and engagement, who is an administrator and faculty member at Drexel. We’ll meet in the LTC Auditorium. I hope we’ll learn and discuss together and begin to shape additional opportunities for our students to become engaged learners. You can register to attend the webinar in the Knowledge Center. The title of the session is JSRCC, Engaging and Retaining Online Students-Part 1 and Part 2. Check out the webinar’s website to learn more about the specific topics covered. If these dates do not work for you, the college has purchased the DVDs of the webinar and will re-broadcast at a later date this semester.

-- Meg Buchanan Foster

QEP Assistant Coordinator

Digitally Literate: Another Look at the Millennials

Since Millennials have been immersed in a technology-driven society from birth, they possess the ability to intuitively use technology and navigate the internet (Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005).  In fact, “20 percent began using computers between the ages of 5 and 8.  Virtually all [Millennial] students were using computers by the time they were 16 to 18 years of age” (Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005, p. 2.2).  Due to this immersion into technology from such a young age, many Millennials prefer graphics over text and can transition from the virtual world to the real world almost instantaneously.  This reliance on graphical images is such a predominant characteristic that many Millenials refuse to read large amounts of text “whether it is in the form of a reading assignment or lengthy instructions”  (Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005, p, 2.7). In fact, the average Millennial college learner has spent less than 5,000 hours reading but well over twice that amount playing video games and over 20,000 hours watching television  (Woempner, 2007).  This reliance on images and the virtual world leads some Millennials to be less literate when it comes to text-based information than previous generations of learners. 

The Millennial generation is also more likely to use the internet for research as opposed to a brick and mortar library.  In fact, many of these learners have never used a card catalog, encyclopedia, or dictionary that does not reside in a virtual environment  (Rosen, 2010).  This brings up the issue of being able to discern the credibility of information found on the internet. With the explosion of web resources such as Wikipedia and Yahoo Answers, the Millennials must be taught the proper research and evaluation techniques for an educational environment.  Next week, I will discuss the impact this has on education.

--CJ Bracken

Instructional Designer, JSRCC

Oblinger, D. G., & Oblinger, J. (2005). Is it age or IT: First steps toward understanding the net generation. In D. G. Oblinger, & J. L. Oblinger (Eds.), Educating the net generation (pp. 2.1-2.20). Educause.

Rosen, L. (2010). Welcome to the igeneration. The Education Digest, 75 (8), 8-12.

Woempner, C. (2007). Teaching the next generation. Denver: Mid-continent for Education and Learning.