With online student attrition rates about 20% higher than traditional student programs, it is imperative to be cognizant of retention strategies for online students. Online education is not going anywhere, and with the introduction of MOOCs it is apparent that it is here to stay and will continue to grow. As the online learning environments continue to expand globally, there will be more considerations for retention. To learn more, check out this brief video, where Dr. Kaulbach and myself, share proven effective strategies for retaining online students.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Teaching Without Walls: Life Beyond the Lecture: Michelle Pacansky-Brock's New eBook! How to Humanize Your Online Class with VoiceThread
How to Humanize Your Online Class
with VoiceThread
an eBook
by Michelle Pacansky-Brock
Available for download from Smashwords
in html, ePub, Kindle, PDF, RTF, LRF, PDB.
in html, ePub, Kindle, PDF, RTF, LRF, PDB.
Online Student Retention
As online programs continue to grow, one of the most considerable challenges among educational leaders is student retention. Typically, student retention in online programs is lower then traditional face-to-face programs. So, how do you overcome online student retention issues? You can begin by incorporating effective research-based strategies in your online courses. Online students deserve the same level of support and consideration as traditional students.
Please fee free to share what your institution is doing to support online student retention.
Please fee free to share what your institution is doing to support online student retention.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Teaching for TODAY!
School is out for summer, but we all know educators are already thinking about next year. Each term, we are presented with a new group of students. Each group has a unique skill set and come with their own set of challenges.
After we take our summer vacations, we quickly get back into the "zone". We start anticipating what to expect and begin attending various professional development workshops. We have our school's initiatives, our state's initiatives, our nation's initiatives...but what about reality?
We can attempt to follow and understand the trends of the different generations. I belong to the Generation X, but now there's the Millennials. What do these students look like, act like, how do they learn? It seems that education as we know it is shifting. No longer is it "knowing" the content, but a shift towards becoming more digitally"literate". In other words, when and if we do not "know" something, are we able to locate a reliable source of information with the correct answer or solution? This is a shift that will not widely be accepted at first, but with the Internet readily available to Google any question, it is important that students are digitally literate. So, as educators, we have become charged with this responsibility.
More and more students are learning online. This format of education has to have the same quality and rigor as their traditional face-to-face counterpart. The emerging technologies and trends that are more and more amazing keep shifting how we learn. They definitely are shifting how we teach. Being aware of these innovations and how they influence education is a critical function for educators.
More and more students are learning online. This format of education has to have the same quality and rigor as their traditional face-to-face counterpart. The emerging technologies and trends that are more and more amazing keep shifting how we learn. They definitely are shifting how we teach. Being aware of these innovations and how they influence education is a critical function for educators.
What has been your experience with teaching TODAY's students?
Monday, July 1, 2013
My eLearning Journey
Welcome to my eLearning Blog!
I am very excited to have this platform to post about various eLearning topics.
For my first eLearning post, I want to share my story of how I became involved with eLearning.
My eLearning journey begins in my first year of K-12 teaching in 2001. I was working as a second grade teacher in an inner city school in Florida. It was not long before I realized that I wanted to contribute so much more to education (Not that second grade teachers don't contribute because they are amazing!). There was a faculty meeting held on our campus, and a local school, Lynn University, wanted to make a strategic partnership with us. They offered incentives to join their Masters in Educational Leadership program. I was very intrigued by the possibilities for my educational career. I applied to the school and was accepted into the graduate program. Keep in mind that I had just finished my Bachelor of Arts degree and was already re-enrolling in another education program. Nonetheless, I was very excited for this opportunity.
The graduate program had some traditional face-to-face courses, coupled with fully online courses. This was my very first online course experience. Considering the times, this was when universities were just beginning to explore this method of teaching and learning. My first online course was definitely a learning experience. I think that the course had its good points and it had areas that needed further development. I remember the discussion board being the most interactive component to the course. We had to post our response the question and we had to reply to 2 others. Then, we had to respond to whoever replied to us. Well, some weeks we had over 750 discussion posts. We also had collaborative activities that we had to complete. As a working adult, we all (online students) had to make time for this to happen. In the end, I really did enjoy our cohort. The online courses differed in style and format from professor to professor, but they did eventually become consistent.
I graduate did 2004 with my Masters in Educational Leadership. Of course, I decided to continue on and get my PhD in Global Leadership being offered at Lynn University. This is when I had the opportunity to really delve into eLearning. The previous experience as an online student really sparked an interest. I decided to use the topic of eLearning for every possible assignment throughout my doctoral program, which also had online courses by the way. I really learned so much about this developing industry. I decided to conduct my research dissertation on online learning. My topic was cognitive learning styles and online course satisfaction. As you can imagine, I gained great insight on this topic and knew I was destined to work in this industry.
By the time I began my doctoral program, I had transitioned from a classroom teacher to a district level administrator. I had started to work in the division of professional development. This was perfectly aligned to my studies as far as how to effectively train adults. Soon after I graduated with my PhD, I had the opportunity to switch divisions to the educational technology division. Here is where I became established as the online learning guru. I was able to assist district administrators in converting their face-to-face workshops into online learning programs with the district's learning management system. Many of them were apprehensive or overwhelmed initially, but quickly began to say the benefits. The benefits were more participation in their programs because substitutes did not need to be called in for teachers missing the day to attend a workshop. Additionally, they were able to track progress of their program and participation. More and more district administrators began knocking on my door. In the end, I ended up converting hundreds of courses to thousands of participants. I even had a high percentage of completion. Bonus! I have applied these skills to courses I teach online as well. I teach technology leadership online courses as Lynn University.
All of these experiences have led me to where I am today. Recently, I ended up taking a position in private industry, where I am learning so much from a different perspective. I embrace each day as an opportunity for learning something new in the eLearning field.
This blog will share some interesting topics and hopefully ignite some great discussions. I look forward to you sharing your experiences with me.
What was your path to eLearning?
I am very excited to have this platform to post about various eLearning topics.
For my first eLearning post, I want to share my story of how I became involved with eLearning.
My eLearning journey begins in my first year of K-12 teaching in 2001. I was working as a second grade teacher in an inner city school in Florida. It was not long before I realized that I wanted to contribute so much more to education (Not that second grade teachers don't contribute because they are amazing!). There was a faculty meeting held on our campus, and a local school, Lynn University, wanted to make a strategic partnership with us. They offered incentives to join their Masters in Educational Leadership program. I was very intrigued by the possibilities for my educational career. I applied to the school and was accepted into the graduate program. Keep in mind that I had just finished my Bachelor of Arts degree and was already re-enrolling in another education program. Nonetheless, I was very excited for this opportunity.
The graduate program had some traditional face-to-face courses, coupled with fully online courses. This was my very first online course experience. Considering the times, this was when universities were just beginning to explore this method of teaching and learning. My first online course was definitely a learning experience. I think that the course had its good points and it had areas that needed further development. I remember the discussion board being the most interactive component to the course. We had to post our response the question and we had to reply to 2 others. Then, we had to respond to whoever replied to us. Well, some weeks we had over 750 discussion posts. We also had collaborative activities that we had to complete. As a working adult, we all (online students) had to make time for this to happen. In the end, I really did enjoy our cohort. The online courses differed in style and format from professor to professor, but they did eventually become consistent.
I graduate did 2004 with my Masters in Educational Leadership. Of course, I decided to continue on and get my PhD in Global Leadership being offered at Lynn University. This is when I had the opportunity to really delve into eLearning. The previous experience as an online student really sparked an interest. I decided to use the topic of eLearning for every possible assignment throughout my doctoral program, which also had online courses by the way. I really learned so much about this developing industry. I decided to conduct my research dissertation on online learning. My topic was cognitive learning styles and online course satisfaction. As you can imagine, I gained great insight on this topic and knew I was destined to work in this industry.
By the time I began my doctoral program, I had transitioned from a classroom teacher to a district level administrator. I had started to work in the division of professional development. This was perfectly aligned to my studies as far as how to effectively train adults. Soon after I graduated with my PhD, I had the opportunity to switch divisions to the educational technology division. Here is where I became established as the online learning guru. I was able to assist district administrators in converting their face-to-face workshops into online learning programs with the district's learning management system. Many of them were apprehensive or overwhelmed initially, but quickly began to say the benefits. The benefits were more participation in their programs because substitutes did not need to be called in for teachers missing the day to attend a workshop. Additionally, they were able to track progress of their program and participation. More and more district administrators began knocking on my door. In the end, I ended up converting hundreds of courses to thousands of participants. I even had a high percentage of completion. Bonus! I have applied these skills to courses I teach online as well. I teach technology leadership online courses as Lynn University.
All of these experiences have led me to where I am today. Recently, I ended up taking a position in private industry, where I am learning so much from a different perspective. I embrace each day as an opportunity for learning something new in the eLearning field.
This blog will share some interesting topics and hopefully ignite some great discussions. I look forward to you sharing your experiences with me.
What was your path to eLearning?
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