Running head: SOLVING TECHNOLOGY PROBLEMS WITHIN HYBRID CLASSES 1

Solving Technology Problems within Hybrid Classes

Joy Greco Welch

CCHE 590 Final Project

Northern Arizona University

SOLVING TECHNOLOGY PROBLEMS WITHIN HYBRID CLASSES 2

Solving Technology Problems within Hybrid Classes

The design of a hybrid class structure has caused many sleepless nights. However, I am

sleeping much better with the ability to identify the problem, some of which were my own fears.

Once I had a starting place, everything then started to fall into place. I needed technology that I

was unfamiliar with and out of my comfort zone, however what applications should be used and

how much technology is enough. With research, trial and error I feel I have reached a happy

medium for both my students and myself.

Teaching Problem

My teaching, training problem consists of developing a new blended/flipped class for the

spring semester. I have taught on ground classes as well as a full online class. The blended class

will meet 1.25 hours each week. The class structure contains two weeks of Microsoft PowerPoint

instruction, and four weeks each of Word, Excel, and Access.

My problem or concern with the class development consists in making sure I incorporate

the correct technology and the correct amount to accommodate the pedagogical theory. With the

course, class schedule the allotted class time is insufficient time to explain the content

knowledge required for each section. I will therefore need technology in the online portion of the

class.

The major problem situation, I have experienced in class is students not understanding

some the basic Microsoft application usage. Just like in our reading last week, students feel they

are tech savvy because they are on Facebook, Tweeting, or playing League of Legends online

game. However, they have no idea how to format a paper in APA/MLA format in Word, how to

create a formula with Excel. Most do not even know what the word query means let alone how to
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create one in Access and the last aspect is they want to make a PowerPoint presentation into a

movie not realizing it is just a tool for an oral presentation.

My main objective is to add relevant technology that will enhance my student learning

experience not cause more problems. Since I will not physically be with the students to help and

instruct them with problems along the way, I need some other source of technological

instruction. This will enable myself as the instructor and the students to benefit from the TPACK

framework.

Research and Solution Comparison

My problem is designing a blended class for the spring semester, when discussing my

problem with Dean of Instruction; the college does not have any training for blended class

structure just flipped classes.

In discussing the available options with other faculty members, they have found that

Camtasia, and Smart Notebook seemed to work the best for their flipped class structure, however

no one could give me reliable information regarding a blended class. I need to make the

structure easy enough for students with limited computer knowledge to understand Microsoft

Office products.

The technologies I considered and researched consisted of Camtasia, Adobe Captivate,

VoiceThread, Khan Academy, Smart Notebook, and PowerPoint Presentation, as well as the

Discussion Board within Schoology, and Big Blue Button collaboration.

Camtasia and Adobe Captivate are both facilitate computer based learning. Captivate is a

more robust software; however, Camtasia videos can be created quicker (Johnson, 2015). The

college has a license key for Camtasia and I would have to purchase Adobe Captivate. I ruled out

VoiceThread when other faculty members said they had problems with our LMS and
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VoiceThread freezing. The VoiceThread program can be slow or quirky and might act differently

across browsers (Staff, 2009). Khan Academy did not offer information regarding Microsoft

Office products the main interaction videos for Khan Academy consist of math and science

(Pittinsky, 2011). Several the faculty members use Smart Notebook in flipped classes, but I

cannot see how it would help the pedagogy of the class. The Smart Notebook would be more for

the in-class activity with access to Smart Board interactive hardware. Whereas with the limited

number of Smart Boards available in the classroom, the use of Smart Board application would

need to be determined by classroom placement. A PowerPoint presentations designed and

containing specific information for each weekly tutorial. The Big Blue Button is being a

collaborative tool within our LMS program, I found that it could take up to one hour for a

session to become available to students within the discussion board students will be able to post

and interact with mobile application (Rodgers, 2015).

The technology I feel that would produce the best pedagogical design for the class would

be a combination of Camtasia, PowerPoint Presentations and Schoology (LMS) discussion

board. With Camtasia, I can capture the PowerPoint presentations, insert graded quizzes as well

as demonstrate portions of each Microsoft Office application for each tutorial. Within the

discussion board, the students will be required to answer posted questions and reply to fellow

classmates. Within each Module, I will insert information from GCF LearnFree.org that will

complement each week learning tutorial. The information from GCF Learn Free covers material

I would have given the students if they were in a classroom setting.

Implementation Challenges

Because of the end of the semester, I had a difficult time trying to round up students to

demonstrate my class design. I then figured it would be better if professional educators were to
SOLVING TECHNOLOGY PROBLEMS WITHIN HYBRID CLASSES 5

view and evaluate the course design. I therefore could enlist the assistances of Dr. Jennifer

Woolston, Associate Dean of Instruction, Matthew Butcher, Computer Information System, Lead

Faculty, Dr. Erik Jones, Business Resident Faculty, Joshua Walters, campus IT, Buddy Taras,

campus IT, and Jane McCormack, Assistance to Campus Dean. With their background and

knowledge, their feedback would be valuable in the design concept.

Construction: I constructed on course module for the first session I would be teaching,

which would be Microsoft PowerPoint. Within the first course module I there would be:

1. Two GCF LearnFree.org instructional sites will be added for student viewing,

Getting to Know PowerPoint and Basic Slides, they can be read or has an

accompanying video presentation to watch.

2. Camtasia presentation with embedded PowerPoint presentation from Cengage the

book publisher, it will be split into four sections at the end of each sections a five-

question quiz will be given. When the quiz completes the result will be emailed

nightly to my email to be entered in the Schoology course gradebook.

3. Instructors PowerPoint Work Along will be the next entry in the module, this will

also be done with Camtasia, and I will be doing a weekly tutorial on the screen for

the students to view. While Camtasia is recorded from the screen, I will be going

over detailed information regarding the Backstage, Ribbon, Save As, Animations,

Transitions, and Slide Show Presentations.

4. Discussion Board Question used for student to use critical thinking to answer a

discussion question and interact with fellow students.

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Testing: I needed to make sure the technology was going to work within all browsers the

college supports; this would be one of the major failures during implementation with new course

technology.

1. I produced and shared my initial Camtasia presentation with Google Drive; I

found the presentation to be unstable when used with Mozilla Firefox.

2. Changed the produce and share aspect to screencast.com and the default setting, it

did take about five minutes to format and save. However, it was now able to be

viewed in both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

3. I then installed all the files into an active class within Schoology, this gave me the

opportunity to examine the information in a student view of the course. I was able

to check both of the colleges main web browser for stability with Camtasia as

well as verifying quizzes.

4. My back up would be to share with Google Drive, or YouTube, which will enable

students to view if they have compatibility problems.

5. Student at Mohave Community College do have access to the colleges virtual

machine to access the Microsoft Office Products if they are unable to purchase

them.

Implementation: During my presentation to my colleagues, I described the problems I

discovered with designing the class for Microsoft Office Suites. The need for students to

understand the layout and parts of what each Microsoft application has to offer.

1. I opened module designed for the hybrid class opening and going over each

concept of the course module.

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2. Demonstrating how each link in the module will look and how the students will

participate in the activity.

3. Discuss how students will participate in the quizzes within Camtasia and how the

grades will be posted in Schoology.

4. Explain my concept of the face-to-face classroom time. Which will consist of

group work, one on one teaching while doing their homework. The way I

explained it was to be considered a one-hour tutoring section.

There will always be some sort of problems when working with technology, I have found

the main solution is to stay calm it is not the end of the world. In some cases, it can help to go

back to the basics of teaching if the technology does fail.

Conclusion

I found that from my presentation some concerns, were the ability of students having the

correct application to open Camtasia on any computer, Matthew was questioning if Java would

need to be on all computers prior for Camtasia to work properly. I will need to make sure that

students are using their college email when submitting quizzes from Camtasia, Jennifer had this

concern, because student tends to use their own personal email. Erik wanted the website for the

Open Educational Resource used in the module. Joshua and Buddy were thrilled with the idea of

starting Excel and Access earlier in the semester instead of waiting when there are only six

weeks left in the semester until Access starts.

I feel my presentation went well and my colleagues were pleased with the results. Of

course, just like technology, class enrollment is also unpredictable, I just found out today my

Microsoft Office Suite class has been cancelled, but I will be teaching an Introduction to
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Computers class with a hybrid format. So back to the drawing board, I will still be using

Camtasia quite a bit in all my classes.

SOLVING TECHNOLOGY PROBLEMS WITHIN HYBRID CLASSES 9

References
Johnson, R. (2015). Adobe Captivate Vs. Camtasia. Retrieved November 26, 2015, from eHow:

http://www.ehow.com/info_8683702_adobe-captivate-vs-camtasia.html

Pittinsky, T. (2011, April 9). The Pros and Cons of Khan Academy. Retrieved November 29,

2015, from Tech Rav: http://techrav.blogspot.com/2011/04/pros-and-cons-of-khan-

academy.html

Rodgers, D. (2015, September 21). Schoology Blog. Retrieved November 30, 2015, from

Schoology:

https://app.schoology.com/group/25228991/blog/post/378629663?from=resources

Schaffer, A. (2015, march 22). Camtasia and VoiceThread. Retrieved November 24, 2015, from

Amberschaffer wordpress: https://amberschaffer.wordpress.com/2015/03/22/web-tool-3-

camtasia/

Staff. (2009, June). 7 things you should know about...VoiceThread. Retrieved November 29,

2015, from Educause Learning Initiative:

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7050.pdf

Staff. (2015). 10 Benefits of Blended Learning for Teachers. Retrieved November 25, 2015, from

teachthought We Grow Teachers: http://www.teachthought.com/uncategorized/10-

benefits-of-blended-learning-for-teachers/

Walsh, K. (2013, December 8). 7 Excellent Free Blended Learning Resources. Retrieved

November 24, 2015, from EergingEdTech: http://www.emergingedtech.com/2013/12/7-

excellent-free-blended-learning-resources-understanding-the-whys-and-hows-of-mixed-

mode-instruction/