A brief review of the design and success of the NASA INSPIRE online learning community.

1. INSPIRE Designing an online community for students interested in STEM and NASA

2. Traditional vs. Online

3. Keys to Online Learning Successthe Environment Activities Relevant content Applicable knowledge construction Clear expectations and rules of conduct Thoughtfully designed and delivered with goals and outcomes

4. Keys to Online Learning Successthe Participant Flexible to different ways of learning Build understanding and meaning Self-directed and self-actualized Learner motivated Time management Comfortableness with technology

5. Facilitation Cont. Online learning needs to: “Be facilitated or guided by fully accessible teachers or instructors skilled in both science content and pedagogy in an e-learning environment” “Promote frequent interaction between teacher and learner to allow continuous monitoring and adjustment of the dynamic learning environment” NSTA 2008

9. NASA content interesting to HS students

10. Students use knowledge for activities

11. Initial Agreement, points for activities

12. To inspire, engage and educate studentsActivities Relevant content Applicable knowledge construction Clear expectations and rules of conduct Thoughtfully designed and delivered with goals and outcomes

16. Activities, competitions, questioning

17. Students encouraged to ask questions

18. Student advisory board

19. 24/7 access

22. Live and asynchronous events

23. Collaborative work spaces, competitions for teams

25. The FutureWhat role will these play? Second Life/TSL Social Networking, Twitter, Blogs HCI – Computers that predict – Just in time, just in time learning Cloud computing Wikis The Google

28. Students are online an average of twice a week

29. Chats attended by10to100 students

30. 1892 Different discussion threads

33. Do students stick with their rate of participation and choices of activities? If not, what causes change?

34. Why do students participate in chats? Why don’t others participate? What do participants gain?

35. Do students participate throughout high school?

37. References Brown, J.S., Collins, A. & Duguid, S. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32-42. žCognition & Technology Group at Vanderbilt (March 1993). Anchored instruction and situated cognition revisited. Educational Technology, 33(3), 52-70. žKim, A. (2000). Community Building on the Web: Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities. Peachpit Press, NY žLave, J. (1988). Cognition in Practice: Mind, mathematics, and culture in everyday life. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. žLave, J., & Wenger, E. (1990). Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

38. References Cont. Lesser, E. L. and Storck, J. (2001) 'Communities of practice and organizational performance', IBM Systems Journal 40(4), http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj/404/lesser.html. Accessed October 22, 2006. žLuppicini, R. (2007). Online Learning Communities: Perspectives in Industrial Technology and Distance Learning. Information Age Publishing, NY žMerrill, H., DiSilvestro, F. and Young, R. (2003). Assessing & Improving Online Learning Using Data from Practice. Presented at the Midwest Research-to-practice Conference in Adult, Continuing and Community Education, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, Oct. 8-10. žPalloff, R. and Pratt, K. (2007). Building Online Learning Communities: Effective Strategies for the Virtual Classroom (2nd Ed). Jossey-Bass, NY. žPreece, J. (2000). Online Communities: Designing Usability and Supporting Socialability. Wiley, NY.

39. References Cont. Smith, M. K. (2003) 'Communities of practice', the encyclopedia of informal education, www.infed.org/biblio/communities_of_practice.htm. žSong, L., Singleton, E., Hill, J. and Koh, M. (2004). Improving online learning: Students perceptions of useful and challenging characteristics . The Internet and Higher Education. Vol. 7, Issue 1, pgs 59-70. žTu, C. (2004). Online Collaborative Learning Communities: Twenty-One Designs to Build an Online Collaborative Learning Community. Libraries Unlimited, NY. žWenger, E. (1998) 'Communities of Practice. Learning as a social system', Systems Thinker, http://www.co-i-l.com/coil/knowledge-garden/cop/lss.shtml. Accessed October 23, 2006.