Thomas Tam:
We are very lucky
today to
have Prof.
Kwi Park Kim
to come here
to talk to
us about her
work with
high tech
and
long-distance
learning.
Prof. Kim is
a nationally
known expert
in terms of
say faculty
development
through high
technology
and an
expert in
teaching
using
Blackboard
and many
other things
and it’s
really a
pleasure for
me to
introduce
you and I
sincerely
hope that we
can work
together and
collaborate
in the
future
because our
Institute is
a very young
one and we
need a lot
of
assistance
especially
in the high
tech area of
this
Institute
out to the
world and
try to get
the
expertise
within CUNY
to link that
up to deal
with the
problems
within the
community.
And so I’m
very happy
that you are
here and we
welcome you.
Please give
her a big
hand.
Kwi Park Kim:
Thank you so
much. What I’m going to speak about today is the faculty
development initiative program, we call it "FDIP" in
technology, which I have been designing, developing and
implementing for the past 7 years at Bronx Community
College. Then I will also talk about how I got involved in
teaching online. I know that a few people from here are from
computer science area, but mine is more focused on
integration of technology into teaching. I have a power
point slide here and I will actually use both power point
slides.
I’m a faculty
member actually at the Business Center at the Information
System Department. I have been working there since 1993.
When I was teaching there way back in 1996, the Dean of
academic affairs was asking me if I can get involved in
Faculty Development Training in Technology with 3 hrs
re-assign time. So, what I did in the first year was that I
designed a survey questionnaire to find out where every
faculty member was, the skill levels and their hard-will
knowledge and self-will knowledge. I tried to do some kind
of need assessment in 1996. Then what I did in the first
semester in 1996 is that I went to individual departments to
do some kind of department-based training on e-mail and
SIMS. Some of you might know that it’s a popular base on
student information system. So that’s the first kind of
training I have done for faculty members. Then starting the
second semester, I sent out all the flyers for the list of
our workshop hours. Usually, like 15 to 18 workshops are
offered every semester from beginning levels to advanced
levels. They have to attend one of the labs, all hands on
for 2 hours. I try to focus on how they can integrate this
new technology into their own curriculum. I have been
coordinating Notebook Lotus Program for faculty for the past
4 years and I have been coordinating manual instructional
day, which is going to be held on second Friday in November
at our campus. So you are invited, you can come to our
campus to join and spend one day and be updated about new
technology. Basically, this one (the slide), I summarized
it. I usually alphabet the workshops as many as 35 annually
and when I count the number of faculty and staff that
participated as of last semester was about 350 people, but
they took more than one workshop, mostly like 5, 6 or seven
workshops. Topics are not just how to use excel. It’s how to
download the class roaster from SIMS and create a grade book
in excel. More focus on how the faculty can set benefits out
of all this technology. And another example here is how to
use power point presentations in the classroom and on the
Internet. How they can put power point slides on the website
and creating post-web pages, work media, image on web pages,
creating news letters or flyers using pace maker, using
e-mail in teaching, incorporation of internet material into
courses. All these are really focused on.
James Lap:
You do this in
Blackboard or do it simpler:
Kwi Park Kim:
No.
Blackboard is separate. I’m going to cover online issues.
Now about CUNY Online using Blackboard, in the past, I was
involved in CUNY Online. This is CUNY-wide initiative in
developing a synchronous learning in-class structure for
CUNY colleges. In 1999, Dean O’Wagner asked me to join this
CUNY Online faculty to evaluate the best course development
and management software for our faculty members and we are
kind of late actually in terms of developing
distance-learning courses. We evaluated "Lotus Learning
Notes," now Lotus was purchased by IBM. We evaluated Web
City Product and then Blackboard. I personally liked
Blackboard based on my personal use of the program and from
training perspective it was very easy to use and very
flexible. And faculty members can use this program to
develop their online course if they have some background in
using e-mail. MS Word or any word processing program or just
Internet search. That’s it. No more than that.
So, from my
perspective, I strongly recommend this Blackboard. And
anyway we decide to use Blackboard for CUNY Online System.
One thing nice about Blackboard is that last year it had
partnership with Microsoft, so when I was at Blackboard
Conference a month ago, I saw the integration of Microsoft
technology into Blackboard when they released a new version
in December. I think they are talking about Version 6. We
are currently using Version 5.
Rex Wong:
So Blackboard is
a company name, not just software.
Kwi Park Kim:
It’s a
company name. At the beginning, they said "Course Info."
Software name they called it "Blackboard Course Info." Now
they deleted that name and call it Blackboard.
Rex Wong:
So it’s a
software with no content, right?
Kwi Park Kim:
Good
question. There is no content. You build you own content. If
you don’t feel comfortable doing that, there are many
publishers/vendors providing course contents, tests,
assignments, etc.
Rex Wong:
Are they only in
English?
Kwi Park Kim:
As far as I
know, no foreign language yet. I’ll come back to FDIP later.
I’ll talk more about CUNY Online now. From Blackboard
perspective, I offer a series of workshops, but if I mention
them now, you might be wondering what these features are
about, so let me go into Blackboard first. (Pointing at the
monitor) This is the first screen you will see when you log
into Blackboard website. Login screen here, so this is the
same screen my students will see. I’m teaching one business
course, which is called "Introduction to the Internet & Web
page Development" completely online. I’ve been teaching this
class way back in 1993, but it was in a traditional
classroom. Then, when we decided to adopt Blackboard in
1999, I was one of the first staff members to migrate my
traditional course into Blackboard platform. Since then, I
have been using the system for online course. What I’m doing
is meeting my students 3 times per semester in a traditional
classroom. For the Orientation on the first week of class to
give them some hand-on experience. I’m giving them some
accounts, their login user ID and password. And I’ll let
them use all these features so they feel comfortable using
them. Then midterm exam and final exam, basically for
assessment. I’m giving them online testing. Actually in the
fourth week, first online testing and then about tenth week,
another online testing, but that’s not good enough for my
classroom for midterm exam and final exam. So, I’m basically
seeing them face-to-face. The rest of them are done in using
online platform. They don’t like tests in paper version
anymore because when they take online testing, they see
their grades right away so they know where they are. For
online testing, students can take the time they want and as
many time they want. It’s up to the instructor. The
Blackboard provides all these options when you create your
own testing. So it’s very flexible and what I’m doing is
that I let them take only once. Sometimes, they lose
connection while taking the test or click the wrong button.
So what I do is that I set up a time limit. They can take
the test from 9am to 3pm, but I’m going to be seating in
front of my machine in case if students have any problem.
James Lap:
So, you spend
more time on this than in a traditional class, right?
Kwi Park Kim:
Yes. I’m
spending more time than in a traditional classroom because
I’m responding to their e-mail questions, tracking what they
are doing, checking their weekly assignments. They can
submit their assignments by e-mail or discussion forum. I do
have virtual office hours, every Friday from 9-10, where
they can bring up all their problems, discuss about notes,
assignments, etc. Students really speak up here. When I used
to teach in a traditional classroom, the students used to be
quiet. They don’t ask many questions, but online, if they
have a problem, they send an e-mail.
Annie
Ponsirirojana:
Actually, I
had to call my professor once. I took an online course last
semester and I was having problems. I couldn’t wait for
e-mail, so I called the professor at home.
Kwi Park Kim:
It depends on
the instructor. I respond the e-mail very quick.
James Lap:
Let me ask you
something. In traditional courses, faculty can teach about 5
classes, bout how many online can you handle?
Kwi Park Kim:
Two years
ago, I used to teach 2 online courses per semester. I
offered 2 sections of the same course limit to 20 students
per section. But it was still a lot of work and paper
because I kept saving their e-mail, discussion forums, etc.
So I decided to talk to the department Chair that I’m not
going to teach more than one online course of one section.
Students love this online course and it’s the first one that
fills up very quick. The department Chair asked me to teach
another session, but I personally can’t because it’s too
time consuming.
Rex Wong:
So, basically the
workload is responding the e-mail?
Kwi Park Kim:
No. There are
discussion forums and virtual classrooms. I also have to
check their assignments. Actually, it’s hard in real-time
virtual classrooms because there are 20 students asking
questions and I’m only one person. So, during Orientation
day, I explain to my students about the virtual classroom
feature. They have to give me some time when they raise a
question.
Ruru Rusmin:
When you use
the virtual classroom, do you use the chat or the
whiteboard?
Kwi Park Kim:
I use the
whiteboard. It’s basically the summary of what I’m going to
do in today’s virtual class and I also put up a few slides,
which are very helpful. For Version 5, you can’t incorporate
power point slides yet, but for Version 6, you can. So,
that’ a big improvement in this new version. In whiteboard,
you can display any website, which is very good feature. Now
let me explain to you this screen. On the left frame, the
first button is called "Announcement." This is the first
screen you are looking at when you first log into the
screen. Basically, we are posting like update or any change
on this page. This is like when you go into the classroom
and make and announcement. What I usually do when I post
something new in announcement, I sent them an e-mail at the
same time. The second button on the left frame is "Course
Info." When you click on course info, you will see course
description, course objectives, requirements, course
evaluations, etc. You can put as many course-related
materials in this feature. What I usually do is that every
semester, students ask questions of how to use Blackboard. I
summarize all those questions and post them as "tips" in
course info. So, during orientation (face-to-face meeting),
I explain to them and let them know that all these how-to
questions are posted, which are really helpful to them.
Rex Wong:
Are these
features done by you or by Blackboard?
Kwi Park Kim:
These are
done by me. There are some done by Blackboard, but you don’t
have to use them all. You can activate or disable them. You
can hide these buttons. So, when I have the faculty-training
workshops at Bronx Community College, I demonstrate all
these features, but emphasize to my faculty members, "you do
not start all these features at the beginning," because they
feel frustrated with the amount of work that they have to
get involved. I usually encourage them to use "Announcement"
and "Course Info." Then, increase the features like
discussion forum, virtual classroom, etc every semester.
This is my recommendation. When you go to the third button,
"Staff Information," you are allowed to put up your e-mail
address, phone number, office hours, your picture, etc. Then
"Course Documents," is where you can put up your lecture
notes. I usually post one at a time. In each lecture note, I
include reading assignments. I do have textbooks, but when I
went to a Blackboard Conference, I saw e-books. So, next
semester, I’m considering adopting one of the e-books.
Technology is really moving forward. Students and faculty
can log into Blackboard web page by using wireless devices
such as palm pilot, pocket pc, etc. In the next Technology
Day in November, I’m considering that I’ll have that kind of
special event for wireless devices. I will probably post it
in September. I will let you know about it in case if you
are interested.
Rex Wong:
Dr. Kim, all
these pages are in html format. Did you build it directly
into Blackboard of did you build it separately and then
incorporate it into Blackboard?
Kwi Park Kim:
There are 3
ways in terms of incorporating your own contents. There is
"Smart-Text Format," "Plain-Text Format," and "Html Format."
Smart-text format is the best way for faculty members that
don’t have any technical skills in html. This means that
everything will be shown on screen as you typed. My contents
are in html, but most faculty members at BCC use smart-text.
Plain text, I do not recommend because you lose all the line
spacing. Now, in "Assignments," you can see how to submit
assignments. I have weekly assignments for my students and I
specify how they can submit them. Sometimes by e-mail,
sometimes in discussion forum, sometimes they have to bring
them to me, especially for web page design because they want
me to see. Then, I post a general feedback and individual
feedback through e-mail about their assignments. There is a
"digital-drop box" feature, where they can drop off their
assignments, and I can download the files in my computer and
read them. It’s basically uploading and downloading.
Rex Wong:
If a student
submits a 30MB assignment through digital-drop box, can you
accommodate it?
Kwi Park Kim:
I haven’t
seen size limitation, so I guess you can accommodate big
files. "Communication" is a key of interaction between
students and the instructor to make the course successful.
This e-mail system allows you to send e-mail to all your
students. However, students can’t use this feature, but as
instructor, you are allowed to use it. Students need an
account. If they don’t have one, they can set up one of
hotmail really quick. This communication feature is very
good for students. At the beginning, I tell my students to
introduce themselves here. They can also answer each other
questions. Sometimes I ask them to summarize articles and
post them here, so students can read each other’s summaries
and comment on them. "Virtual Classroom" can be used for
chatting. If the students missed the virtual classroom, the
can click on "browse archives" and see what was discussed in
the real-time virtual classroom.
Rex Wong:
Can you put small
video clips in whiteboard?
Kwi Park Kim:
I don’t think
you can in this version. I haven’t seen any yet.
Thomas Tam:
If you have power
point slides in your file, can you just copy and paste into
the whiteboard?
Kwi Park Kim:
In version 6,
yes, but not in version 5.
Rex Wong:
Are the "browse
archives" automatic recording?
Kwi Park Kim:
Yes, it is
automatic recording. Now, in "Course Grade," you can create
a grade book in excel, then export it and incorporate into
this feature. Here, students can see their individual
scores. Nobody else can see it, but themselves. In, "Course
Statistics," you can see how often each student log into
Blackboard. You can generate some kind of "special report."
You can see a bar chart for each individual student. It
shows the time each student log in and how many hours a week
the student logs in. It shows all the statistics. Although
it doesn’t show how serious the students are, but the
instructor can have an idea how often they log in. The
instructor can see what the students do while they are
logged on. Does anyone have any more questions about
Blackboard?
Thomas Tam:
So, when students
log on, you can actually see how long they stay and what
they access while they are logged on, right?
Kwi Park Kim:
Yes. The system takes care of all that. I personally like it.
James Lap:
What do students
do for the course evaluation?
Kwi Park Kim:
Good question. Three years ago, I brought this issue up to the
Vice President of Academic Affairs, and we decided to give
students a course evaluation form at the end of the
semester, then they return it to me. This way, they can
report any problem while they used Blackboard and I can
build my own survey questionnaire. So far, I haven’t seen
any problem about Blackboard.
Thomas Tam:
When you say
"CUNY Online Faculty," do you mean that there is a group of
instructors who teach online courses or something?
Kwi Park Kim:
CUNY Online is a "Pilot Project." We started in 1999. A few
campuses got together, only a few faculty mainly from 4-year
college, and evaluated Blackboard.
Rex Wong:
Can we join?
Kwi Park Kim:
Yes. Each semester, Central Office sends a letter of
invitation to department of colleges to join CUNY Online.
The department Chair then chooses an instructor.
Thomas Tam:
How many courses
are being taught online?
Kwi Park Kim:
There are hundreds. Baruch has many. Since BCC expects to have
its own server in September, I expect to have more online
courses.
Thomas Tam:
How long does it
take to train the instructor?
Kwi Park Kim:
That’s a good question. Let me go back. I usually offer 5
online workshops with different topics:
