Sandra and I have come up with a plan for the online meeting - that ties the photos in!  We plan to have a document with each person’s photos and space beside it for their stregths and weaknesses regarding the course topic (ESOL instruciton or Support ing students with LD).  We’ll share the doc via the meeting tool, and Sandra will facilitate discussion while I type up folks responses on it.  We’ll ask folks to share their strentgths and concerns/issues and then ask others to join in - are these their strengths as well? Do they have these issues/concerns?  Hopefully this will start a conversation and help them get to know one another!

Surprisingly MANY folks do not have headsets with microphones. I thought the ESOL folks especially would have access as it is a common need in order to use most ESOL instructional software.  With Sandra’s course being so big - it looks like we’ll have 2 meetings - hopefully roughly dividing the class in half.  For my LD folks, MAN I can’t seem to get them together on a time AT ALL. Worse, I’ve had over five withdraw - mostly becasue they are no longer employed in Adult Education.  We’ll start with over the minimum, but I’m not sure how well the LD group will work as a research population…

About half of the folks have gotten us photos, and all have been digital.  I mis-estimated the time it would take to collect phots and meeting time info and headset info and to mail out headsets, etc.  I’m also running short on time to Check everyone on the Saba/Centra [UT LiveOnline] tool.  Some folks are getting the online course ‘Tech check” mixed up with the LiveOnline  Technical check as well.  Wow - ZOO-y!

We chose to use Doodle for scheduling. I really liked the time zone feature - it is usually a real confusing factor in setting up meetings accross TN. it is also pretty simple for novices to use.  We combined the request for phots with a “confirm your intent to participate in the course” e-mail. This is when we find out folks overcommitted, or their e-mail address is wrong, etc. here’s the text of our early contact e-mails below:

Email #1:

Thank you for registering for the online course ESOL Basics. PLEASE READ the TWO Items requested below and respond by January 20, 2009. You may contact us by replying to this e-mail or calling Sandra toll free via 877-340-0546.

1)      Please confirm your intent to complete the course by replying to this e-mail. This course will be held from Jan 26 – March 09, 2009; with a Tech check week from Jan 20 – 23^rd, 2009.   PLEASE if you are no longer interested in taking this course let us know asap – there is a waiting list of course ready to take any openings.

2)    Please send us a photo of yourself.  In an effort to “bridge” the facelessness of online learning, we would like to create a “photo-page” of all course participants. This page would be shared ONLY with course participants, and would contain your name, program and e-mail address, along with whatever photo you send.  *You* choose what photo *you* like and send it either:

a.       By e-mail – if you have a digital photo, or a scanned photo, you can attach it to an e-mail and send it to sfugate1@utk.edu or duren.thompson@utk.edu .  If you have a photo in digital format, but aren’t sure how to attach it, contact Duren – she will be happy to assist.

b.      By US mail – if you have a hard copy photograph, and aren’t easily able to scan it, just pop it in an envelope and send it to Sandra Fugate, Center for Literacy Studies, 600 Henley St, Suite 312, Knoxville TN, 37996-4135. We will scan it here and mail it back to you – be sure to include a return address.

We would like to have received your photo by the course start date – January 26th – 2009.  Read below if you want to know more specifics about how this photo will be used within the course and/or if you wish to put your authorization in writing.  Replying to this e-mail with a photo will also confirm your intent to complete the course.

 If you have ANY questions – contact….blah blah blah

Email #2:

Course participants – you are invited to an online “get together!”

In addition to asking everyone for a photo, we also invite everyone to a “meet and chat” via an introductory online “meeting.” We’d like to schedule a meeting with as many course participants as possible – the more folks we have, the stronger a class “community” we can build!

In order to participate in the chat, you will need to tell us 2 things:

1)     Do you have access to a set of computer headphones with microphone?  Please reply to this e-mail with your answer – and if you are not sure, or the answer is no, please include a good time to call you (and the best #) so we can problem-solve this issue. If necessary, we will mail you a set.

2)   When might you be available for a 30 minute meeting on January 27^th, 28^th or 29^th?  We know everyone’s schedules are different, so we’ve set up a way for everyone to tell us when they can meet.  Please read the directions below (you may want to print them out before you start) and participate in the “Doodle” scheduling page to tall us when you CAN meet.  If you have any trouble – call or e-mail us and we will follow up with  you!  877-340-0546 toll free or reply to this e-mail.

Directions for telling us your schedule via Doodle: (etc.)

But if I wait that long, I am SURE we will have trouble getting the necessary information  from the participants by course start.  So I want to start contacting them earlier.  Problem is - the courses aren’t full yet.  We have not yet even met our minimum of 10 per course!  This is common in January, however, as folks are not yet back from C’mas break, and generally don’t register before the holidays for a course ending in late January.  So this week was one of planning and marketing.  Both Sandra (the ESOL facilitator) and I send out e-mails advertising the courses, and checked in with our registration database regularly.  [Folks can only register online - it is one way we try to make sure they have the Tech savvy to be successful in the course.]

Sandra FILLED her ESOL course over the course of the week and had to send out a waiting list e-mail (yea!)  My LD online course is now over minimum, and next week we can start sending out messages!  Sandra and I worked together this week to plan what needed to be done when, and by whom in order to be ready for the course.  We determined which Discussion Boards would be modified (with some idea of how), and began planning a “get to know each other” activity for the online meeting.

Because our participants are NOT UT students, but instructors accross the state, their internet access is often spotty and they often don’t have simple tools like headsets with microphones.  Sandra and I order several headsets in anticipation (we will use the grant $ to provide these to those who need them - as a loan, hopefully we will get them back).  I also draft the Photo requirements and permissions letter to be sent out to participants.  I’m hoping that they can all get us a digital versioin of their phots - sending a pic USmail WILL slow things down!

“Wait, WAIT!” I said - “…a Blog?!  I need to write a blog?!”  Luckily for me, 2008 was a “learn about blogs” year, so the idea of doing a blog wasn’t scary or upsetting, I simply hadn’t factored in the time to WRITE on a blog.  Plus I wasn’t sure what was expected - what would the Project RITE folks LIKE to see on a blog from grant participants?

So an e-mail to Mary and a quick look at blogs from a previous year, and I feel a bit better. I already have an idea of what I want for Categories, and how often I’d like to post an update…but I am still not sure when I’m going to cram “write in my Project RITE blog,” into my work schedule - we’ll see!

[Note: The answer to "when" was evidently February, as I am now playing catch up on 4 months worth of blog posts! I'm hoping to be caught up to date on our project by the end of the week, as both online courses are now over half over and I have a moment to breath!]

• ESOL Basics: Fundamentals of Instruction for ESOL Instructors
• Introduction to Learning Disabilities in Adults (also for instructors)

Both of these courses are offered free to instructors of low literacy adults and/or adults with low English language skills in Tennessee. Instructors self-register online and participate entirely voluntarily in these 6 week, 12 hour, online courses. There are no grades, only a complete/non complete designation, and instructors can use the hours towards maintaining certification. Almost all course assignments involve a discussion board post and replies are encouraged, but not required.

During December I met with the online course facilitator (and designer) for the ESOL Basics course, Sandra Fugate, and together we planned out which discussion board assignments/prompts would be modified to promote increased discussion (roughly one per week) .  The “theme” of these changes was to increase teacher sharing of resources/ideas/experiences for instruction via the discussion boards.  I’ve worked with Sandra before, so the collaboration was nothing new, but we were excited to be enhancing the course. Both of us found that shifting the wording of online course assignments to increase discussion renewed our interest and excitement in the course itself (which has been offered 4 times previously).

Using my conversations with Sandra as a template, I reviewed the Intro to LD online course (I am the facilitator and designer) and targeted at least one discussion board per week for changes - again with the idea of increasing the sharing of experiences, ideas, and teaching resources.

Also in December, we advertised these online courses via e-mail discussion lists.  The Center’s minimum registration to hold an online course is 10 - and neither course yet had that number of registrants. Without students, we can’t do the research!

Lots of work to do in January, but first we need registrants!

Now other folks may tell you differently, but I found the IRB process to be fairly straightforward, IRB folks very helpful, and that completing the process itself assisted us in getting some of our research project tasks completed!  After reading through the materials, consulting with our research contact at the Center, and talking with the IRB Compliance Officer (scary title, nice lady), we were determined to be exempt from full IRB review.  All our online course modifications and research tools were either normal curriculum-type modifications, or study of existing data.

The process did make us design and submit the following in December:

• Changes in our online course Evaluation
• Photo permissions form
• Drop out follow-up survey
• Participants of previous online courses follow-up survey 

We  received IRB approval by December 19th - just in time to go home for the holidays! Whoot!

To this end, we submitted a proposal for a Project RITE Grant at the beginning of October, 2008. We heard back from the committee at the end of October, interested in the proposal, but requesting revisions.  We then submitted a revised proposal by November 10th, and receive notice of funding on December 1, 2009.  As our original proposal included a timeline beginning in November, we feel a bit like we started out a month behind on research tasks!  But writing the grant (my first ever) and then revising it, was a very educational exercise in and of itself. 

I did a lot of  research in online coummunity building techniques as part of the grant writing process itself.  We also had to clarify/make a research-based connection between  increased “conversation” in our online courses and increased learning in our online courses.  The process also did a lot to assist us in narrowing our reseracha nd analysis plan.  We have a LOT of online course data and needed to keep ourselves focused on analyzing onlya very small portion of it!

In November we did start the collaboration process, sketch out timelines, begin the ’survey of the research’ process, and problem-solve some technical details.  We are very excited and happy to be participating in Project RITE! View our Proposal Abstract!