IT 830 - Contemporary Issues in Distance Education - 3 Cr.

Dr. Armand Seguin
Professor, Instructional Design & Technology
620.341.5829
Fax 620.341.5785

Personal email: armand.seguin@emporia.edu
Class Email: IT830distanceed@emporia.edu
ASeguin Website: http://idt.emporia.edu/aseguin/
Class Location: http://elearning.emporia.edu

Course Description:

This course is a web based course to teach and inform teachers and other professionals about distance education* and the special needs/concerns of delivering instruction at a distance. This course is less about the mechanics of the technology; rather it is about the research and ideology behind current, effective distance education. Issues such as addressing learning needs, fostering an interactive learning environment, creatin gdialogue between near and far site students, and dealing with technological difficulties will be researched, discussed and debated.

*IDT also offers IT 820 - Designing/Developing Web-Based Instruction, which is focused on direct instruction. This course aims for a broader look at distance delivery.

Faculty Information:

Additional information on the instructor can be found at http://idt.emporia.edu/aseguin

Course Competencies:


Students will be able to examine current best practices in utilizing technology in education through performance-based activities and improve instructional technology skills within the context of classroom uses.

Performance objectives include:

Critical evaluation and expertise in instructional technology
-Articulate definitions of related terminology (Knowledge 2)*
-Address ethical and cultural issues of technology in education, as well as its role and impact on societal change (Skills 2)
-Critically review the chapters in the book (Knowledge 2)
-Critically review educational Internet sites (Knowledge 2, 7)
-Ability to effectively utilize a variety of technologies (Knowledge 6, 7, Skills 7)
-Be able to communicate effectively (email, paper) (Skills 4, Disposition 6)
-Use the Internet to obtain a variety of learning related resources (Skills 8)
-Evaluate media literacy & the Internet's role in education--today and tomorrow (Knowledge 8)
*Items in (brackets) are correlated to the outcomes in Emporia State's Conceptual Framework for the Teachers College

Additional Objectives:

Each class at Emporia State University strives to impart the Teachers College conceptual framework - "The Professional: Critical Thinker, Creative Planner, and Effective Practitioner."

The graphic model is:

The full conceptual model for the Teachers College is found @ (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

http://www.emporia.edu/teach/framework/ConceptFrwk4Page.pdf


Text & Materials:

Text: Johnson, Judith L. (2003). Distance education. New York: Teachers College Press.

ISBN: 0-8077-4379-9 (paper-$32.95 list)
ISBN: 0-8077-4374-7 (cloth)

Software: MS Word, MS PowerPoint.

Additional Resources (not required):

References:

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Ed. (2001). American Psychological Association, New York.*

*This example does NOT meet precise APA format as the second line must be indented 4 spaces. Easy in a word processor, not as easy in html :=) Also, unless "frozen," (like in an Adobe Acrobat file) webpages are "interpreted" by the browser, and "line breaks" will occur at different spots, really distorting a correct presentation.



APA has online resources at: http://www.apastyle.org

Purdue University has an Online Writing Lab (OWL) that contains considerable assistance on APA at: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_apa.html

An online thesaurus is found at: http://www.thesaurus.com

Additionally, the following online sources may be useful for "automatically" creating a bibliographic entry:

Writing Center:

Emporia State University maintains a Writing Center that offers support for online learners. Note at the website that there is a different username to use for graduate students.

http://www.emporia.edu/writinglab/

Internet Capitalized?

Brief references to this often used word!

Additional Resources:

Clark, R., & Mayer, R. (2003). E-learning and the science of instruction. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.

Duffy, T., & Kirkley, J. (2004). Learner-centered theory and practice in distance education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.* (note: APA formatting indents 2nd line; easy in Word, messy via web:=)

Lee, W., & Owens, D. (2000). Multimedia-based instructional design. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.

Rossett, A. (2002). The astd e-learning handbook. New York: McGraw Hill.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2003). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education. Columbus: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Student Academic Dishonesty Policy

Academic dishonesty, a basis for disciplinary action, includes but is not limited to activities such as cheating and plagiarism (presenting as one's own the intellectual or creative accomplishments of another without giving credit to the source or sources). The faculty member in whose course or under whose tutelage an act of academic dishonesty occurs has the option of failing the student for the academic hours in question. The department chair should be advised of any action taken by the faculty member regarding academic dishonesty. The faculty member may consent to refer the case to other academic personnel for further action. Departments, schools, and colleges may have provisions for more severe penalties than are set forth above. Emporia State University may impose penalties for academic dishonesty up to and including expulsion from the university. The student has the right to appeal the charge of academic dishonesty in accordance with the university's Academic Appeals policy and procedure as set forth in section 9A-04 of the Faculty Handbook.
http://www.emporia.edu/stuaff/conduct.htm


 Americans With Disabilities Act:

Anyone requiring special adaptations or accommodations should inform the instructor. The ESU disability policy with full contact information is available @ http://www.emporia.edu/disability/

Attendance Policy:

"Attendance" is important to all classes and it is not difficult to evaluate in an Internet class. Accesses to the Blackboard portion of the class give the precise number of accesses and the initial and last dates. "Participation" in class discussion will be graded.

Assignments:

 

 

Introduction

10

Discussion (8 @ 10 pts)

80

RSS in Distance Education

20

Collaboration (3 @ 20)

60

Mid-Term Quiz

30

Article Critique (2 @ 40)

80

TBA Assignment

10

Final Paper

75

PPT based on Paper

25

Final Quiz

50

 

 

Total Points Possible

440

Grading Policy:

This class will be graded by A through F. Plus or minus grades are not used in this class.

A

90% and above

B

80%

C

70%

D

60%

F

Really!

 

Reference Sources

The Emporia State University Library serves both on-campus and off-campus students. They have several support staff whose primary mission is support of distance students. They are open many hours, including sundays, and the hours are listed on the webpage. As with most organizations, they prefer you to first contact their generic help desk @ Outside Emporia Call : 877.613.READ which is, 877.613.7323

They also state:

Send us your questions via e-mail and we will get back to you in 24 hours or less. Reference E-mail: libref01@emporia.edu

However, unless you have a "simple" question, it is far less time consuming to call. Follow-up questions via email may be appropriate.

They further state that they have: Live Reference Service Through Instant Messaging!

You may also contact the Library's reference desk through Yahoo! Messenger by installing Messenger and adding wawhitelib as a friend. Information on Yahoo! Messenger can be found at:
http://messenger.yahoo.com

Their main webpage is @ http://library.emporia.edu/

The library has extensive access to online journals and other materials. Note that many of their resources require a "subscription," (i.e, payment in $) and these "genuine" resources are NOT available on any traditional websites. Your tuition dollars helps pay for these services, you are encouraged to use them!

The specific page for distance students is @

http://library.emporia.edu/menu1/distance.html

 

Writing Standards and Academic Dishonesty

Effective communications skills are demanded in today's world. Thus, high written standards are expected on formal assignments. However, non-formal responses via email will be judged on the message rather than the format.

The final paper must be done as a formal document and transferred as a MS Word file. Sources must be cited in American Psychological Association (APA) bibliographical format and plagiarism is not allowed. Plagiarism* will result in an automatic grade of "0" on the paper. The instructor may submit papers for a plagiarism check to www.turnitin.com.

*Turning in the same or a very similar paper in multiple classes is considered "cheating."

IDT Project Paper Guidelines

There are several guidelines available for writing in the APA style. The "IDT Guide" linked below should prove useful. It was compiled from both the ESU Graduate Studies & Research and the Department of Psychology and Special Education. It includes minor modifications from the official APA Manual, mainly to accommodate an academic "paper" versus a thesis or dissertation. While many standards would not apply in a shorter, less formal paper, it is

Google Scholar

A brand new resource from Google is "scholar." It is current in beta testing and is reported to be the most complete resource so far, although apparently few "peer reviewed*" publications are in their database. Like the "open," net, it may not be possible to easily discern if a resource is peer reviewed or not.

It is highly recommended that if you use this Google resource, you make use of both "help" and "advanced scholar" help. Just punching in a word or two, and expecting Google to find worthwhile items is unlikely.

*"Peer review" briefly means that the "article/information/paper" has been "checked" by other experts in the field. All recognized periodicals have some peer review process, and generally, to access these periodicals somebody has to buy them.

I found an excellent explanation of "peer review" at the free encyclopedia, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_review

(It is also quite ironic that seemingly good resources, like Wikipedia, dictionary.com, etc. ARE free on the "open" web)

Doctoral Research in Educational Technology

Most dissertations are required to be placed into their college library. More programs of all types are requiring an electronic copy (often Adobe PDF). However, since very few of these would be placed in an open website, the "worms" from Google and other seach bots cannot find and place them into their "search engines" (a misnomer term, really, a database of URL's).

Dr. Edward Cafarella, experienced professor in educational technology at State University of New York (SUNY)-Cortland (and formerly with the University of Northern Colorado), has compiled a major collection from sixty-five different schools that offer degrees in this general area.

http://cortland.edu/education/dissdir/

ADDITIONAL ITEMS:

Since this is a web-based class, regular participation in course discussion is essential. If for some reason you are unable to participate in a discussion, let me know.

Print out whatever you really think you need!

WARNING: It is REALLY easy to get behind in a distance education class . My advice is to treat this class as though it were a regular class that meets Monday-Friday. In other words, keep up on your work.
Make "back-ups" of your projects. We have computers crash all the time in our labs and those who backup cry the least.

Additional readings will be supplied.