Three courses from the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education have been recognized among the university’s best when it comes to incorporating technology in ways that enhance teaching and learning.
The annual Awards Competition in Instructional Technology is generously funded by AT&T and organized by Michigan State University’s office of Libraries, Computing and Technology.
This year, the award reception took place on April 17, 2012 at the Kellogg Center. Three faculty members in the College of Education were honored along with other team members who helped design and deliver the courses.
Cary Roseth – CEP 910, “Best Blended Course”
Cary Roseth, assistant professor of educational psychology, doesn’t have the traditional class. His students in CEP 910: “Motivation and Learning” aren’t traditional, either; they’re both on-campus students and online (hybrid) students, brought together via technology into one classroom at one time.
To make this possible, technology is a must. Roseth has his students use Google Hangout, an application that allows for not only video calls, but also screen sharing so students can work together through small-group discussion, participate in seminar-like discussion and make online students an active part of class for lecture.
Roseth says he also employs Google Forms and Etherpad on-screen writing technology, further reducing any barriers of being an online student. WordPress was used to generate the class website and Piazza gave students the ability to ask each other questions, with the capabilities of tagging students directly and linking to email.
Throughout the course, students conducted their own research rather than just reading about it, and used a Java-based survey tool to help measure their motivation during class once per hour, contributing data to supplement their research findings.
Learn more about the course (and watch a video about it).
Leigh Graves Wolf – CEP 820, Honorable Mention
Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets are some of the main tools used in CEP 820: ‘Teaching K-12 Online Students.’ These tools are similar to their desktop counterparts, but offer the perk of being able to be viewed and edited simultaneously online by multiple members of a group. Among other things, Wolf also used “Video Voicemails,” podcasts and screencasts as feedback mechanisms and even created a Pinterest board showcasing her students exemplary work.
Wolf is an instructor and coordinator of the Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) programs.
Evelyn Oka – CEP 260, Honorable Mention
CEP 260: “Dynamics of Personal Adjustment” is a course that values a diversity of learning for its students. Each week, coursework consists of three sections: (1) Exploring the Big Ideas – each individual’s own assigned work and readings, (2) Digging Deeper – the small group discussion built around it and (3) Testing Your Knowledge – the assessment portion, complete with timely feedback.
Students are always informed of how what they are learning fits into the course objectives via use of a visually-friendly concept map and course presentations are given by seven instructors throughout the course to provide a variety of perspectives and teaching styles.
http://attawards.msu.edu/home/cep-820