COMPARATIVE CULTURE the Journal of Miyazaki International College Volume 14 2008
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ISSN 1343-8476 COMPARATIVE CULTURE The Journal of Miyazaki International College Volume 14 2008 Jeffrey Mok 1 Before Putting Your Course Online... Brendan Rodda 5 Connections to Existing Knowledge: The Effectiveness of Methods of Vocabulary Acquisition Scott Rode 13 Of Mac and Mud: Disciplining the Unruly Victorian Street in Charles Dickens's Bleak House Debra J. Occhi 39 Translation of Jugaku Akiko (1983): “Nihonjin no kiiwaado 'rashisa'” from Kokugogaku 133:45- 54 Futoshi Kobayashi 51 Looking at Lee's Love Theory Through Abraham Maslow's Eyes: Factor Analyzing Four Different Models Anne McLellan 61 New Directions in Academic Discourse: A Howard Literature Review Míchéal Thompson 71 Choosing Among the Long Spoons: The MEP, the Catholic Church and Manchuria: 1900-1940 Creative Writing Stephen J. Davies 93 The Adventures of Magenta M: “Read, Read, Read.” ISSN 1343-8476 比 較 文 化 宮崎国際大学 第 14 巻 2008 論文 ジェフリー ・ モク 1 オンライン学習教材を取り入れる前に ブレンダン ・ロダ 5 既知の知識と結び付ける:効果的な語彙 力強化法 スコット・ロディ 13 マックとマッド: 狼藉たるビクトリア時代の 街路管理-デッケンズ「荒涼館」の記述 から デボラ・J・オチ 39 翻訳:寿岳章子「日本人のキーワード 《ら しさ》」(国語学 第 133 巻:45 頁-54 頁) 小林 太 51 Lee の愛情理論を Maslow の愛情概念 によって再解釈する試み: 四つのモデル の因子分析 アンヌ ・マクレラン・ハワード 61 資料分析:大学教育における談話の向か うべき方向 マイケル・トンプソン 71 いずれが大の虫、小の虫: MEP:カトリッ ク教会と満州 1900-1940 独創的文筆 スティーブン・J・デイビス 93 読め、ひたすら読め:マジェンタ M の冒険 Comparative Culture 14: 1-3, 2008 Before putting your course online… Jeffrey Mok 今日教育に関わる者はオンライン学習に高い関心を持っているが、オンラインを効果的に 利用できなかった教え手もいたようである。オンライン教育には使用前に考えておくべきこ とがいくつかある。本稿はオンライン教育の成否に関わるコースデザインの三要件、すなわ ち臨機応変に対応すること、現実感をもたせること、最新の情報を取り入れることの三点 について考察する。 Online learning has been and still is the buzz in educational circles today. However, some teachers may have had unsavoury experiences using it for teaching. Before jumping in to put your courses online, there re several things to look out for. This short paper looks at three important factors that determine the success of online teaching: flexibility, authenticity, and being up-to-date in your design. he ubiquitous e-learning knocks on our doors every now and then. Whether it is the glorious promise made in an article you read, or whether your school Thas mandated your courses go online, the notion of putting a course online has invariably crossed many a teacher’s mind. I was enticed nine years ago when I read about the glittering promises of e-learning. Like a mouse to the piper, I followed the masses into cyberspace. I started using Topclass in 1999 and moved to Blackboard, WebCT, and now MOODLE. I went from putting my teaching material and video clips of my lectures online, to practice questions, and eventually having entire courses online without having to see my students face to face. So, what are the essential things one must one know before putting a course online? The foremost question that one should ask is ‘Why should I go online, when I’m fine with the ‘talk and chalk’ method?’ This is because your students will be asking the same question: ‘Why should we go online for this learning activity or course when we can do it face to face? What are the benefits? Why must we go beyond the 90 minute classes and do extra work online? I did not sign up for this online thing; I paid my fees for the face to face classes.’ These are the questions to consider during the design and delivery of your teaching online. What is your purpose? Why are you doing this online? Once you have adequately answered these questions, you are not far from having a successful online teaching experience. As a teacher, putting your course online offers many advantages. The main one is flexibility: flexibility in updating your notes, materials, and resources anytime and anywhere in the world where there is an internet connection. I had the pleasure (or pressure sometimes) of grading my students’ assignments overseas on a holiday. Without bringing my laptop or papers along, I used the hotel’s business centre where there was an internet service. Online teaching also makes grading easy as the system tabulates the percentages and grades without me having to punch in figures on a calculator. Any course management system also provides a great monitoring system on students’ attendance and participation in the cyber class. Essentially, for the teacher, it provides a one stop place for excellent teaching and administrative features. Teaching functions include quizzes, tests, video teaching clips and visual demonstrations via asynchronous and synchronous platforms. Administrative Jeffrey Mok teaches at Miyazaki International College. Correspondence may be sent to: MIC, 1405 Kano, Kiyotake-cho, Miyazaki-gun, Japan 889-1605, Tel: 0985-85-5931, Fax: 0985-84-3396, E-mail: [email protected] 2 Jeffrey Mok functions include giving announcements, giving reminders, housekeeping matters, and most importantly, grading. However useful and flexible it is for the teacher, the students are not fooled in an online course. If flexibility for the student is compromised, they will sense it immediately and will voice their displeasure. I had students coming up to me and telling me point blank that they hate going online because it was too cumbersome. Once, my students handed in their assignments in hard copies asking why they should submit online when they can do so right in front of me? I have also seen teachers instructing students to type messages online to each other whilst sitting in the same class (!). Students will see the illogical and irrelevant manner of communication and learning when put through a longer path to get to their destination. So, while it makes good sense for you to go online for several of the teaching and administrative purposes, it is important to think about things from your students’ perspective. The keyword then is flexibility, especially for students’ learning. Often times, in the teacher’s eagerness to incorporate online learning into their courses, they forget this fundamental reason why courses are offered online. Turning your course online for the sake of having technology or just following the crowd would be a huge mistake. Flexibility for the students means they should be able to learn at their own pace, retrieve notes, lecture video and other information at anytime and from anywhere. They should both be able to get feedback on their work via the program you have and receive more comments from you than if it was face to face. After all, this is the differentiating benefit of online learning. It should also be a one stop place where students need not log into another system, such as an email or program to access information. You can sell these benefits to your students if you are starting to go online. Students need to be convinced of the benefits, otherwise they will not even visit your website! The second important question to ask when you go online is whether you provide an authentic learning experience. This, like any teaching method, provides the relevance and context of learning for the students. I have seen teachers who required the class to discuss a topic online using English in an EFL class. It turned out to be highly unnatural for the students who could write to each other in their own native language, but who were forced to use English. The test of authenticity is this: which is the more natural way for your students? If for example, to source for a definition of an unknown word the students find it natural to flip open their e- dictionary rather than to wait for the booting up of the computer and logging onto the website, then the requirement for the students to check for the meaning of a word by going online is inauthentic. The students will find it unnatural and a waste of their time and effort. Authenticity goes a long way in ensuring your online teaching experience is both enjoyable as well as relevant. Authenticity means an access that is either complementary or supplementary. If you were to take a cursory look at the manner most people go online either for work or for leisure, it is inevitably done as a complement or a supplement. A modern company’s intranet has become almost a necessity for the company to function. Emails, file sharing and even administrative matters such as applying for leave and receiving personal income statements have gone online and employees are required to use the intranet for organisational effectiveness and performance. So, face to face communication and conducting of business have been complemented with the online intranet. The online system complements because it is more efficient (and flexible!) in processing business and communication. It has cost-effective benefits for both the employee as well as for the employer. Likewise, in e-learning, Comparative Culture Before putting your course online… 3 when a conventionally contented face to face class decides to go online, the complementary benefits of effectiveness and flexibility must be evident for both the learner and the teacher. A supplementary function may exist too for online access since it offers records of past meetings’ minutes or the option of checking up on another employee’s phone number instead of rummaging through cabinets for the hardcopy version. Likewise, face to face teaching classroom can be supplemented with notes, instructions, announcements and video clips of lectures uploaded online for students to refer to after class if needed. So, we have to be clear in our minds whether we design our online classes as supplementary or complementary to regular classes in order to reap the fruits of e-learning. A cautionary note must be made about using online teaching as a substitute for regular classes which is the third mode of use. In most educational settings, students are able to attend classes physically.