Category Archives: Online Learning

What To Pack When Teaching in China

Gadgets, Online Learning, Travel, , ,
Great Wall of China

Great Wall of China

I was in China recently (first time!) showing Chinese teachers how online learning is conducted in the U.S. Before leaving for China, I diligently checked on what to pack. I made some good decisions. I made some bad decisions. This post hopefully helps others about to make that long journey to a fascinating country.

My style of presenting and teaching is to use a MacBook Air, recording myself with a BT-1 Bluetooth camera (positioned towards the back of the room) and ScreenFlow.

Clothes

I was in Beijing in June. Hot and humid. Definitely worth checking the weather before visiting. Chinese culture is not particularly bothered about formal attire, so no need to pack a business suite or dress shoes. For teaching in June, lightweight hot-weather clothing is the way to go:

  • Plenty of short-sleeve shirts
  • Semi-formal trousers (TravelSmith has a range designed for heat and humidity, or you can go Outlier)
  • Performance trousers (for visits to all the tourist sites)
  • One pair comfortable walking shoes. Go for something lightweight and breathable.
  • Underwear
  • Hat
  • Umbrella (keeps off both the rain and sun)
  • Packable rain-jacket

Technology

Chinese airport security is more restrictive than in the U.S., you may be able to bring something into China, but taking it back on the airplane may be more difficult. One of the most useful gadgets I had on the trip (HooToo TripMate Wireless N Portable Travel Router with 6000mAh Battery Charger) was confiscated as I was leaving Beijing Capital International Airport. The reason was that it had a battery that lacked “proper wording” (officially declared capacity). My understanding is you want to have less than 100 watt-hours, and for this to be clearly stated on the device.

Typical Chinese Electrical Outlet

Typical Chinese Electrical Outlet

Whilst teaching, I was in typical Chinese classroom. Projectors worked with either VGA or HDMI connections; so having adapters for both was a must (which is where the Cable Matters® Mini DisplayPort to HDMI/DVI/VGA Male to Female 3-in-1 Adapter comes in very useful). Internet speeds could be slower than what I was used to, and WiFi could be slower than a wired connection – this is where bringing my own router and Ethernet cable brought dividends.

Essential iPhone Apps

Explore Beijing Subway Map

Explore Beijing Subway Map

Explore Beijing Subway Map

Beijing’s Metro is fantastic (and rapidly expanding). New lines and stations are coming to service. This app helps you navigate, and has maps for each station

Express VPN

Express VPN

Express VPN

A VPN is required in China to access sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google.

Learn Chinese – Mandarin Phrasebook for Travel in China

Learn Chinese

Learn Chinese

English is not commonly spoken in China. A phrasebook is essential.

Miscellaneous

MOOCs In China

Internet, MOOC, Online Learning, ,

I was in China recently, and towards the end of the trip a Chinese a teacher shared these example of Chinese MOOCs with me. I cannot speak for the quality of the courses, but here they are:

http://class.hujiang.com/course?cate=121834

mooc-example-01

http://www.icourse163.org

mooc-example-02

http://www.icourse163.org/university/pku#/c

mooc-example-03

http://www.icourse163.org/course/pku-21016#/info

mooc-example-04

http://www.ouchn.cn

mooc-example-05

http://www.ouchn.edu.cn

mooc-example-06

Open-Sankoré Alternative: OpenBoard

Gadgets, Online Learning, , , ,

Open-Sankoré does not work with OS X Yosemite. If you run the program in OS X 10.10, Open-Sankoré closes immediately. The only workaround I have discovered is rolling back to OS X 10.9 (Mavericks). The Open-Sankoré website does not provide much insight on when this issue might be fixed. However, it looks like there may be an alternative…

OpenBoard

OpenBoard

Using Google Translate, I can see that SEM-Logistics and Christian Oihenart have released a version of OpenBoard that works on OS X Yosemite (although there is apparently a small bug in the display of the dock). I have not installed or tested OpenBoard, and have no idea how well this might work, but it is now on my radar.

Update: 30th July, 2015

The old link to OpenBoard is dead. This new one seems to work.

Distance & Learning Conference: Call for Proposals Now Open

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Call for Proposals

The Call for Proposals is now open for the Distance Teaching & Learning Conference that takes place Madison, Wisconsin from August 11-13, 2015.

The deadline to submit your Call for Proposal is: Monday, January 26, 2015 at 4pm CST

The Distance Teaching & Learning Conference welcomes hundreds of distance education and online learning professionals every year to share effective practices, research, strategies, and new tools/techniques.

  • Share your data on established practices
  • Present a hot new topic in distance learning
  • Have your results published in the proceedings publication
  • Network with experts from around the world

Some suggested topics include: New course design models, mobile & social learning, learning analytics,

competency-based learning, gamification & badges, open educational resources

More information can be found at:

https://dtlconference.wisc.edu/call-for-proposals/

Open-Sankoré Error – Don’t Update to OS X Yosemite

Gadgets, Internet, Online Learning, , , ,

 

Open-Sankoré Error MessageIf using Open-Sankoré, don’t make the mistake I made and update to OS X 10.10 Yosemite.  I learnt this the hard way. The Open-Sankoré website does not post this prominently, but Open-Sankoré will not run on Yosemite (there are some discussions hidden away on the support boards). According to their Open-Sankoré Facebook page, Open-Sankoré will be updated in late November and should work again. The Facebook message reads as follows:Open-Sankoré Facebook Message

 

Unfortunately we know this problem for a few weeks with the beta version. Apple changed several important elements that prevents QT to work correctly in Yosemite. We will work to correct this problem as soon as possible (probably late November). Thank you for your patience.

Only workaround at the moment is to rollback to OS X Mavericks. This can be done, but might be a tad painful.

Update (24th November, 2014)

Looks like January of 2015 is when Open-Sankoré is most likely to be updated (according to this post) to work with OS X 10.10 Yosemite.

Meta-analysis Of Research on Online Learning

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meta-analysis of online-learning

A colleague at work shared a link to some meta-analysis of research on online learning. The study is from several years ago, and was conducted for the U.S. Department of Education.

Some interesting findings, and generally supportive of online learning:

The overall finding of the meta-analysis is that classes with online learning (whether taught completely online or blended) on average produce stronger student learning outcomes than do classes with solely face-to-face instruction. The mean effect size for all 50 contrasts was +0.20, p < .001.

However, the student featured on the front page of the report needs to find a more ergonomic way to study…

Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning 2014: My Notes

Online Learning

I was lucky enough to participate in the 30th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning this year.

A Brief History In Tweets

Mike Kern and Kimary Peterson used Storify to assemble a short overview of the conference. Collating the various tweets and pictures in this fashion demonstrated the powerful community that the conference brings together, and the value of back-channel communication.

Celebration Forum & Dessert Reception

Celebration Forum & Dessert Reception

Captioning (Subtitles) and Transcription On The Cheap

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Dictate

One idea that has been bouncing about my head, but I have yet to fully investigate, is creating captions/subtitles on the cheap. Paying a third party to provide this  transcription service can get expensive – you can expect to pay $1 a minute, although there are places where you can go for a cheaper  deal.

However, there are automated services like Siri, OS X Dictation, or Dragon Dictate. YouTube will automatically create a transcript when you upload a video (although the accuracy might not be there), and this text file can be downloaded and edited.

My thoughts are to take a regular video recording, and then parse it into one of these services. I just have not got round to this yet, but may give it a go soon.

Dragon Dictate looks like it has part of this capability, but costs about $200 and works with one voice only (no good for interviews).

The two approaches that look like they will work best for me (for free) are:

  1. Uploading an audio or video file to YouTube, and then editing the transcribed text file.
  2. Using Soundflower to send an audio file into the OS X Dictation service. This post from Level Up Lunch describes the process.

Option 1 is the way to go with video. The process here is going to synch the transcription with the video. Option 2 will be realtime, but could be useful for situations where I do not have Internet connectivity, or just want a text file.

Shindig

Internet, MOOC, Online Learning, , , ,
Shindig

Shindig

I (and two of my work colleagues) got a chance to see Shindig in practice last Friday. Shindig is a video collaboration service that is currently in beta. The user interface is particularly impressive – at work we use tools like this on a regular basis, and typically students and faculty need significant assistance to collaborate. Shindig was something that “just worked.”

However, Shindig is still in beta. I get the impression that the company is still trying to find its way, and work out the best way to make money. Thus, the company is now reaching out to education. This could be a tough sell – education does not have money to spare. There a some important features that Shindig does not have just yet, such as:

  • Native recording of video events.
  • Native recording of text-chat.
  • Polling / quizzing functionality.
  • Mobile client (service only works on desktop browsers).
  • LTI (Learning Tool Interoperability) API (Application Programming Interface)- i.e. works with all the major LMS ( Learning Management System) platforms.

Additionally, some of the ways that the company markets itself via the website and YouTube sends the wrong message. I get the impression that the company is in a somewhat precarious position.

I hope they make it. I really liked the user interface and basic functionality. Shindig felt like a product where I did not need to crack open the manual.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JwZoQYnnKc&list=PLRhWiq5YAdTtyuCgLxq0-08jxrm1To-NM

http://youtu.be/ICsNKttfsOE