24th Annual TCC | Online Conference | April 16-18, 2019

Sustainable Learning, Accessible Technologies, & Diverse Contexts

communication

Stop Spamming, Start Texting!

Session Description
Do you text with your family? Your friends? Your students? Educators and administrators are always seeking ways to improve their communication with students. Although email is a dominate form of communication and as such, supported as the main communication channel for many universities, it often remains less effective than desired (Straumsheim, 2016). Researchers are now suggesting an alternative avenue for communication, one that is more personal and more meaningful for our contemporary students, that of texting or messaging (Straumsheim, 2015). As educators, it is our charge to adapt, explore and innovate with new methods for engaging and reaching our students, especially for those students that are hard to reach. Including texting as an option for student communication gives new energy to the student/teacher relationship. This mini workshop will share the step by step process for setting up, and professionally using, your Google Voice number to engage and reach your students via texting.
Presenter(s)
Kirsten Meymaris
Kirsten Meymaris, Purdue University Global, School of General Education, virtual (Boulder, CO), USA
Kirsten K. Meymaris is a faculty member at Purdue University Global’s Mathematics Department with over 19 years of experience in online education. Kirsten has experience in a diversity of roles in online education including developing course content; managing and maintaining online course software; and direct facilitation of online courses. Kirsten has degrees in both mathematics and computer science with an emphasis in educational technology.
Session Type
20-Minute Session
Audience
Novice, Intermediate

A recording of this presentation is available.
Click the button to the right to access the session archive.

Access/download any related materials/handouts
from this session by clicking the button on the right.

Your A+tention Please: A Mass Lecture App to Increase Instructor and Student Engagement

Session Description
In a mass lecture, university setting with over one hundred students, it is not possible for instructors to know how each student feels or if students understand the information or have any questions. The environment created by the size of the class could negatively affect student learning if proper communication or support is not established. We wanted to create a communication app that would help to provide support for students in these learning environments.

Using a generative research approach, we collected data through observations and interviews to understand what students need. We then used this data to inform the features of prototypes that we created, tested, and modified. This led to our mass lecture app, the A+tention app, with five main features: quick notifications to the instructor, the ability to view and take notes on lecture slides, flash card game, seating map, and the ability to leave comments and questions for others in the course anonymously.

We would like to share our research process, features of the A+tention app, and the future of this app, in hopes of bringing more attention to the mass lecture learning environment, creating a conversation around our app, and inspiring more technologies that can help improve learning for all.

Presenter(s)
Jaymian Urashima
Jaymian Urashima, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Jaymian (Jaymi) Urashima is currently a PhD student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in the Learning Design and Technology (LTEC) department. She completed her BA and MA at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in the Communicology department. Jaymi currently works as an Instructor/Course Director in the Communicology department, where she teaches public speaking, instructional communication, professional presentations, and human communication and technology courses.
James Balicao
James Balicao, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
James Balicao is currently a M.Ed. student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in the Learning Design and Technology (LTEC) department. He completed his BA in Journalism at the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s School of Communications. James currently works as an Institutional Support Officer for the Technology & Distance Programs and LTEC department. He also teaches Cultural Workshop courses to Kapiolani Community College’s short-term international programs.
Karen Fujii
Karen Fujii, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Karen Fujii is currently a PhD student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in the Learning Design and Technology (LTEC) department at the College of Education. She completed her MA in LTEC and BA in Communications and Media at the University of North Florida. She also has a graduate certificate in Online Teaching and Learning (COLT). Karen currently works as the Director of Marketing and Communications at Seattle University. She is also on the BOLT (Blended Online Learning & Teaching) team and works with faculty to change their face-to-face curriculum into a collaborative online learning environment.
Session Type
20-Minute Session
Audience
All Audiences

A recording of this presentation is available.
Click the button to the right to access the session archive.

Access/download any related materials/handouts
from this session by clicking the button on the right.