How can educators leverage blogs and other social media spaces to encourage a reflective, critica... more How can educators leverage blogs and other social media spaces to encourage a reflective, critical discourse about civic engagement that fosters a true learning exchange over promoting one's own ideas? This article reports upon a single case study of the " Community Engagement Learning Exchange, " a multi-author blog on civic engagement. Through qualitative content analysis and expert interviews with the blogger community we explored the interaction of digital citizenship and civic online discourse, in order to map out civic engagement pedagogies that make use of blogs or other shared writing / media tools. The content analysis of blog posts indicates that high verbosity scores for factual orientation, personalization and interactivity correlate with broader reach. The interview material was condensed into concept maps that identified specific themes for digital citizenship (inevitable, easy, transparent, technologically diverse and changing, unequal, divisive, difficult, superficial) and civic engagement pedagogies (content, format, authenticity, tone, listening, exemplary conduct, accountability, hope). Overall, in the community analyzed, ground rules and a shared writing style lead to discussions and learning processes that transcend differences in views, backgrounds and opinions. Further efforts to support and measure the right amount of friction that exemplifies diverse and even clashing opinions while keeping an online community together emerged from the case study as a future area of practice development for digital citizenship.
In the last decade, the concept of Open Educational Resources (OER) has gained an undeniable mome... more In the last decade, the concept of Open Educational Resources (OER) has gained an undeniable momentum. However, it is an easy trap to confuse download and registration rates with actual learning and interest in the adoption and reuse of OER. If we focus solely on access, we cannot differentiate between processes of mere information foraging and deep sense-making activities. The article provides an overview of the OER movement, stressing emerging concerns surrounding the educational efficacy of OER and highlighting learning theories which aid our understanding of this growing domain. The authors discuss building-blocks for a theoretical framework that allows us to conceptualize the learner's part in open educational practices, also characterizing challenges of open learning and traits of successful open learners.
Assessment plays a vital role in delivering, evaluating, monitoring, improving and shaping learni... more 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. For an instructional designer, the focus of assessment can be on individual learning, organizational improvement or the evaluation of educational technologies. A common question across these domains is how to translate pedagogical concepts such as authenticity and creativity into concrete practical applications and metrics. Educational technologies can support creative processes and offer connections to authentic contexts, just as well as they can curtail creativity and foster standardized testing routines. The chapter discusses theoretical frameworks and provides examples of the conceptual development and implementation of assessment approaches in three different areas: Needs assessment, impact assessment and classroom assessment.
Social tagging ranges among the ''killer applications'' of Web 2.0. An evergrowing international ... more Social tagging ranges among the ''killer applications'' of Web 2.0. An evergrowing international community uses Web sites such as the photo database Flickr and the bookmarking service Delicious. In addition, a number of other portals use tagging to compile user-specific metadata on information on any subject-whether it be travel destinations, personal contacts, films, or museum exhibits. Retrieving and storing information via tagging seems to meet users' needs for a number of purposes and in many contexts. Starting with a synopsis of the current literature on social tagging and then focusing on the results of two surveys-qualitative interviews and an online questionnaire-this article explores the potential and limitations of tagging as a tool for organizing shared and personal knowledge.
Have you ever stacked LEGO blocks to develop a sitemap for your organization's website, thrown a ... more Have you ever stacked LEGO blocks to develop a sitemap for your organization's website, thrown a ball of yarn to discover professional connections or used glue sticks and paper to refine your content management system? The workshop introduces several creative strategies for stewarding educational technology projects and organizational innovation. It is ideal for teachers, instructional designers, application developers and administrators who are conducting educational technology projects with multiple stakeholders and various interests. The workshop offers hands-on examples for using design thinking and serious play to collaboratively find solutions for wicked problems. It provides participants with participatory development techniques and tools for orchestrating conflicting ideas, identifying singular needs and common goals, making productive use of diverse backgrounds and developing a shared vision.
This paper uses a case study approach to investigate the phenomenon of 'edublogging', the use of ... more This paper uses a case study approach to investigate the phenomenon of 'edublogging', the use of weblogs for education purposes, focusing on how faculty members initiated informal learning opportunities in the tertiary sector by starting a group blog. Current research typically focuses on personal or journalistic niche blogs on the one hand, and blogging in the classroom on the other hand. How can we conceptualize 'learning by blogging' when blogs transcend the academic and public space? How do both individual blog activity and blogging within a group contribute to learning outcomes? Using the framework of communities of practice (CoP) the case study examines the experience of a group blog on civic engagement that was initiated in December 2014. It discusses the blog's goals, related expectations, preliminary outcomes as well as educational gains from the faculty perspective.
Handheld electronic response systems (ERS) offer alternative response methods for in class questi... more Handheld electronic response systems (ERS) offer alternative response methods for in class questioning. This paper presents the results of a pilot study in twelve university classroom settings, covering eight different subject areas and a wide range of class sizes (25-130). The study tackles the implementation of electronic response systems in the teaching and learning sphere of the university as a multi perspective phenomenon. Thus, it analyzes the technology from the point of view of students, faculty, instructional design staff and IT-Management. Apart from presenting case study experiences and survey results, the paper also provides an outlook on the university's consolidation strategy after completing the pilot study.
At the outset of an educational technology project, instructional designers work with stakeholder... more At the outset of an educational technology project, instructional designers work with stakeholders to gather data that helps us to reach the audience effectively, design user-friendly interfaces or formulate an organizational strategy. Typically, needs assessment is conducted to identify the gap between an actual product or situation and the perceived optimal solution. However, what is the 'problem' and what is the 'optimal solution', are questions that different stakeholder will answer in different ways. Needs assessment is thus first and foremost a communicative task that benefits greatly from creative techniques that address wicked problems. The paper offers hands-on examples for using design thinking and serious play to collaboratively find solutions for wicked problems. It provides readers with participatory development techniques and tools for orchestrating conflicting ideas, identifying singular needs and common goals, making productive use of diverse backgrounds and developing a shared vision.
The paper describes the conceptual design, instructional development and organizational implement... more The paper describes the conceptual design, instructional development and organizational implementation involved with the transition from a traditional end of program capstone project to a competence-oriented portfolio and oral exam assessment in a public administration graduate program. This process included establishing program standards, choosing a portfolio infrastructure, creating scaffolds for navigation and content display, developing assessment rubrics, conducting training sessions for students and faculty, guiding the students through a portfolio course, and fostering peer feedback among students. The case study reflects upon the perspectives of students, faculty, instructors and program leadership. Based on an overview of e-portfolios in higher education, we discuss the challenges and potential of their adoption as graduation requirements to foster competency-based assessment.
The current state of research on blended learning can be summarized as "blended is better than vi... more The current state of research on blended learning can be summarized as "blended is better than virtual and not worse than face-to-face teaching." There are few attempts to define the conditions under which a blended learning setting will enhance or hinder the students' learning process. This paper presents a comparative evaluation of a blended learning course design and a traditional classroom design in a campus-based university setting. Results indicate that contrary to what is typically expected, both pedagogical methods yield very similar results. Findings from this investigation can better inform academe and lead to recommendations for a state of the art "blend 2.0."
Social tagging ranges amongst the "killer applications" of Web 2.0. Websites such as the photo da... more Social tagging ranges amongst the "killer applications" of Web 2.0. Websites such as the photo database Flickr and the bookmarking service Del.icio.us are being used by an ever-growing international community. In addition, a number of other portals use tagging to compile user-specific metadata on information of all types -whether it be travel destinations, personal contacts, films or museum exhibits. Retrieving and storing information via tagging seem to meet the user's needs for a number of purposes and in many contexts. This article explores the potential and limitations of tagging as a tool for shared and personal knowledge organization. Starting with a synopsis of the current literature on social tagging, it then focuses on the results of an online questionnaire, to explore motives and usage patterns for social tagging services.
Open Educational Resources (OER) play a growing role in formal and informal learning settings -in... more Open Educational Resources (OER) play a growing role in formal and informal learning settings -in the form of software, open courseware, open access publications and e-journals or information resources of the Internet. This paper focuses on the design of particular information resources: online portals which compile information on a specific topic and, thereby, offer a focal point for incidental, informal learning activities. These websites have implicit or explicit educational goals: They aim to give comprehensive information on their topic and they usually support knowledge exchange in a community. This paper provides an overview of typical components constituting educational portals. Basic elements are identified in an explorative website analysis survey.
The paper reflects on the conception of communication and personalization features of the portal ... more The paper reflects on the conception of communication and personalization features of the portal E-TEACHING.ORG using the personas approach as a user-centered design method. We describe its application and assess its contribution to the design process. The paper tackles the problem of user modeling twofold: we show how personas serve as a foil for cognitive user models in the design process and present the implementation and first evaluation results of technological user models derived from the personas.
How can educators leverage blogs and other social media spaces to encourage a reflective, critica... more How can educators leverage blogs and other social media spaces to encourage a reflective, critical discourse about civic engagement that fosters a true learning exchange over promoting one's own ideas? This article reports upon a single case study of the " Community Engagement Learning Exchange, " a multi-author blog on civic engagement. Through qualitative content analysis and expert interviews with the blogger community we explored the interaction of digital citizenship and civic online discourse, in order to map out civic engagement pedagogies that make use of blogs or other shared writing / media tools. The content analysis of blog posts indicates that high verbosity scores for factual orientation, personalization and interactivity correlate with broader reach. The interview material was condensed into concept maps that identified specific themes for digital citizenship (inevitable, easy, transparent, technologically diverse and changing, unequal, divisive, difficult, superficial) and civic engagement pedagogies (content, format, authenticity, tone, listening, exemplary conduct, accountability, hope). Overall, in the community analyzed, ground rules and a shared writing style lead to discussions and learning processes that transcend differences in views, backgrounds and opinions. Further efforts to support and measure the right amount of friction that exemplifies diverse and even clashing opinions while keeping an online community together emerged from the case study as a future area of practice development for digital citizenship.
In the last decade, the concept of Open Educational Resources (OER) has gained an undeniable mome... more In the last decade, the concept of Open Educational Resources (OER) has gained an undeniable momentum. However, it is an easy trap to confuse download and registration rates with actual learning and interest in the adoption and reuse of OER. If we focus solely on access, we cannot differentiate between processes of mere information foraging and deep sense-making activities. The article provides an overview of the OER movement, stressing emerging concerns surrounding the educational efficacy of OER and highlighting learning theories which aid our understanding of this growing domain. The authors discuss building-blocks for a theoretical framework that allows us to conceptualize the learner's part in open educational practices, also characterizing challenges of open learning and traits of successful open learners.
Assessment plays a vital role in delivering, evaluating, monitoring, improving and shaping learni... more 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. For an instructional designer, the focus of assessment can be on individual learning, organizational improvement or the evaluation of educational technologies. A common question across these domains is how to translate pedagogical concepts such as authenticity and creativity into concrete practical applications and metrics. Educational technologies can support creative processes and offer connections to authentic contexts, just as well as they can curtail creativity and foster standardized testing routines. The chapter discusses theoretical frameworks and provides examples of the conceptual development and implementation of assessment approaches in three different areas: Needs assessment, impact assessment and classroom assessment.
Social tagging ranges among the ''killer applications'' of Web 2.0. An evergrowing international ... more Social tagging ranges among the ''killer applications'' of Web 2.0. An evergrowing international community uses Web sites such as the photo database Flickr and the bookmarking service Delicious. In addition, a number of other portals use tagging to compile user-specific metadata on information on any subject-whether it be travel destinations, personal contacts, films, or museum exhibits. Retrieving and storing information via tagging seems to meet users' needs for a number of purposes and in many contexts. Starting with a synopsis of the current literature on social tagging and then focusing on the results of two surveys-qualitative interviews and an online questionnaire-this article explores the potential and limitations of tagging as a tool for organizing shared and personal knowledge.
Have you ever stacked LEGO blocks to develop a sitemap for your organization's website, thrown a ... more Have you ever stacked LEGO blocks to develop a sitemap for your organization's website, thrown a ball of yarn to discover professional connections or used glue sticks and paper to refine your content management system? The workshop introduces several creative strategies for stewarding educational technology projects and organizational innovation. It is ideal for teachers, instructional designers, application developers and administrators who are conducting educational technology projects with multiple stakeholders and various interests. The workshop offers hands-on examples for using design thinking and serious play to collaboratively find solutions for wicked problems. It provides participants with participatory development techniques and tools for orchestrating conflicting ideas, identifying singular needs and common goals, making productive use of diverse backgrounds and developing a shared vision.
This paper uses a case study approach to investigate the phenomenon of 'edublogging', the use of ... more This paper uses a case study approach to investigate the phenomenon of 'edublogging', the use of weblogs for education purposes, focusing on how faculty members initiated informal learning opportunities in the tertiary sector by starting a group blog. Current research typically focuses on personal or journalistic niche blogs on the one hand, and blogging in the classroom on the other hand. How can we conceptualize 'learning by blogging' when blogs transcend the academic and public space? How do both individual blog activity and blogging within a group contribute to learning outcomes? Using the framework of communities of practice (CoP) the case study examines the experience of a group blog on civic engagement that was initiated in December 2014. It discusses the blog's goals, related expectations, preliminary outcomes as well as educational gains from the faculty perspective.
Handheld electronic response systems (ERS) offer alternative response methods for in class questi... more Handheld electronic response systems (ERS) offer alternative response methods for in class questioning. This paper presents the results of a pilot study in twelve university classroom settings, covering eight different subject areas and a wide range of class sizes (25-130). The study tackles the implementation of electronic response systems in the teaching and learning sphere of the university as a multi perspective phenomenon. Thus, it analyzes the technology from the point of view of students, faculty, instructional design staff and IT-Management. Apart from presenting case study experiences and survey results, the paper also provides an outlook on the university's consolidation strategy after completing the pilot study.
At the outset of an educational technology project, instructional designers work with stakeholder... more At the outset of an educational technology project, instructional designers work with stakeholders to gather data that helps us to reach the audience effectively, design user-friendly interfaces or formulate an organizational strategy. Typically, needs assessment is conducted to identify the gap between an actual product or situation and the perceived optimal solution. However, what is the 'problem' and what is the 'optimal solution', are questions that different stakeholder will answer in different ways. Needs assessment is thus first and foremost a communicative task that benefits greatly from creative techniques that address wicked problems. The paper offers hands-on examples for using design thinking and serious play to collaboratively find solutions for wicked problems. It provides readers with participatory development techniques and tools for orchestrating conflicting ideas, identifying singular needs and common goals, making productive use of diverse backgrounds and developing a shared vision.
The paper describes the conceptual design, instructional development and organizational implement... more The paper describes the conceptual design, instructional development and organizational implementation involved with the transition from a traditional end of program capstone project to a competence-oriented portfolio and oral exam assessment in a public administration graduate program. This process included establishing program standards, choosing a portfolio infrastructure, creating scaffolds for navigation and content display, developing assessment rubrics, conducting training sessions for students and faculty, guiding the students through a portfolio course, and fostering peer feedback among students. The case study reflects upon the perspectives of students, faculty, instructors and program leadership. Based on an overview of e-portfolios in higher education, we discuss the challenges and potential of their adoption as graduation requirements to foster competency-based assessment.
The current state of research on blended learning can be summarized as "blended is better than vi... more The current state of research on blended learning can be summarized as "blended is better than virtual and not worse than face-to-face teaching." There are few attempts to define the conditions under which a blended learning setting will enhance or hinder the students' learning process. This paper presents a comparative evaluation of a blended learning course design and a traditional classroom design in a campus-based university setting. Results indicate that contrary to what is typically expected, both pedagogical methods yield very similar results. Findings from this investigation can better inform academe and lead to recommendations for a state of the art "blend 2.0."
Social tagging ranges amongst the "killer applications" of Web 2.0. Websites such as the photo da... more Social tagging ranges amongst the "killer applications" of Web 2.0. Websites such as the photo database Flickr and the bookmarking service Del.icio.us are being used by an ever-growing international community. In addition, a number of other portals use tagging to compile user-specific metadata on information of all types -whether it be travel destinations, personal contacts, films or museum exhibits. Retrieving and storing information via tagging seem to meet the user's needs for a number of purposes and in many contexts. This article explores the potential and limitations of tagging as a tool for shared and personal knowledge organization. Starting with a synopsis of the current literature on social tagging, it then focuses on the results of an online questionnaire, to explore motives and usage patterns for social tagging services.
Open Educational Resources (OER) play a growing role in formal and informal learning settings -in... more Open Educational Resources (OER) play a growing role in formal and informal learning settings -in the form of software, open courseware, open access publications and e-journals or information resources of the Internet. This paper focuses on the design of particular information resources: online portals which compile information on a specific topic and, thereby, offer a focal point for incidental, informal learning activities. These websites have implicit or explicit educational goals: They aim to give comprehensive information on their topic and they usually support knowledge exchange in a community. This paper provides an overview of typical components constituting educational portals. Basic elements are identified in an explorative website analysis survey.
The paper reflects on the conception of communication and personalization features of the portal ... more The paper reflects on the conception of communication and personalization features of the portal E-TEACHING.ORG using the personas approach as a user-centered design method. We describe its application and assess its contribution to the design process. The paper tackles the problem of user modeling twofold: we show how personas serve as a foil for cognitive user models in the design process and present the implementation and first evaluation results of technological user models derived from the personas.
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Papers by Stefanie Panke