It’s Free, So What?
April 22, 2:00 PM, Hawaii Standard Time Zone
Dr. Paul McKimmy
Director, Technology and Distance Programs
, College of Education
University of Hawai’i at Manoa
, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Description: You found some online stuff to incorporate into a class – so what? Proponents of open educational resources (OER) often focus on cost reduction as the key benefit and rationale for adoption of open content. While OER has been demonstrated as an effective savings strategy, the potential of open content goes further. This presentation presents an analysis of what “open” really means, and a discussion of OER’s potential to make a real difference at many organizational and policy levels. Using current policy examples and parallels with free and open-source software (F/OSS) development, it examines leverage available to OER adopters and suggests practices for educators at all levels of decision-making authority.
About The Presenter: Paul McKimmy, Ed.D., is a faculty member in the University of Hawai`i-Manoa department of Educational Technology. He serves as Director of Technology and Distance Programs for the College of Education where he herds the cats in instructional support, technical services, and distance learning design teams. Professionally, he gets excited about learning technical skills; leveraging open-source software; creating student success and maintaining a mild caffeine buzz. Personally, he dabbles in DIY, stand-up paddling, gaming, and occasional attempts at fitness. He is passionate about his 5-year old daughter and hopes that his professional endeavors will positively impact her educational experiences as she grows up.
Designing Assessment, Assessing Instructional Design: From Pedagogical Concepts to Practical Applications
April 24, 8:00 AM, Hawaii Standard Time Zone
Stefanie Panke Instructional Analyst, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Description: Assessment plays a vital role in delivering, evaluating, monitoring, improving and shaping learning experiences on the Web, at the desk and in the classroom. In the process of orchestrating educational technologies instructional designers are often confronted with the challenge of designing or deploying creative and authentic assessment techniques. The talk provides examples of the conceptual development and implementation of assessment approaches in three different areas:
- Needs Assessment: At the outset of an instructional design project, we work with stakeholders to gather data that helps us to reach the audience effectively and design user-friendly interfaces. Typical techniques are focus groups, surveys, qualitative interviews, personas and scenarios.
- Impact Assessment: Once the program or project is launched, we seek to understand how learners access online material or move through the curriculum, which helps us improve their experience. Data sources comprise Web analytics, social media metrics, learning analytics, surveys and interviews.
- Classroom Assessment: In the classroom, we aim to implement assessment techniques that support students’ critical thinking abilities and transfer learning skills. This includes peer-to-peer assessment, rubrics, portfolios and problem-based learning.
About The Presenter: Stefanie Panke, Ph.D., is an Instructional Analyst at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In her current position she conducts instructional design projects that center on assessment and emerging technologies, in particular online publishing, e-books, conceptual web development, portfolios and rubrics. Prior to her current position she worked as Director of E-Learning at Ulm University, Germany. Stefanie holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Bielefeld. In 2009, she completed her thesis on the information design of educational websites. During her PhD, Stefanie was a researcher at the Knowledge Media Research Center in Tübingen, Germany, where her team developed an award-winning portal on e-learning in higher education. Stefanie is passionate about applied research in the field of educational technology. Her interests comprise online learning in higher education, knowledge management in networked environments and informal learning with open educational resources. She serves as a member of several program committees (ED-MEDIA, E-LEARN, SITE), as a reviewer for e-journals (i.e. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning), and as editor for social software at the Educational Technology and Change Journal.