Top Off Your Perfect Blend with TOPR:

The Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository

Dr. Kelvin ThompsonDr. Linda FutchDr. Baiyun Chen

University of Central Florida

Agenda

Big PictureDetailsYour InvolvementClosing

http://bit.ly/blend12_topr

What Is It?

a peer-reviewed resource to support the curation of effective pedagogical practices in online and blended courses

individual entries include:• strategy description drawn from the pedagogical

practice of online/blended teaching faculty • artifacts depicting the strategy from actual courses• alignment with cited findings from research or

professional practice literature

All released for reuse/remix under Creative Commons

Editorial Board• Alec Couros, Associate Professor, University of Regina

• Charles D. Dziuban, Director, Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness (RITE), University of Central Florida

• David Wicks, Director of Instructional Technology, Assistant Professor, Seattle Pacific University

• Fred Stielow, Vice President, Dean of Libraries & Course Materials, American Public University System

• Karen Swan, Stukel Professor of Educational Leadership, University of Illinois Springfield

• Mark A. Laumakis, Lecturer, Department of Psychology Faculty in Residence, Instructional Technology Services, San Diego State University

• Melody A. Bowdon, Director, Karen L. Smith Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric, University of Central Florida

• Norman Vaughan, Professor, Education & Schooling Faculty of Teaching & Learning, Mount Royal University

• Susan Wegmann, Associate Professor, Director of Programs and Research, Morgridge International Reading Center (MIRC), University of Central Florida

• Tana Monaco, Consultant

• Veronica Diaz, Associate Director, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, EDUCAUSE

Demo: Finding Strategies

"Bigger than a Breadbox"

Getting the granularity right

Pedagogical practice is • Not a theory• Not an instructional model• Not a tool• Not a broad, sweeping concept• Not "here's what i did"

IS an impactful, replicable teaching practice/strategydescribed, anchored to literature, illustrated in examples, and connected to other practices via keyword tags

Demo: Contribution Form

Isn't This Like MERLOT?

MERLOT is primarily a collection of materials.• "learning exercises" are lessons associated with materials• eLIXR is a set of holistic faculty case studies on big

themes

TOPR is a collection of teaching strategies• artifacts are illustrative• faculty testimonials are highly contextualized

Conceptual Framework

Strategy Description•  1-2 paragraphs• "blogs are not a practice but implementing public blogs for

reflective writing in a community of practice might be"

Artifacts• Preferably image/files uploaded into the repository• External links/images acceptable

Scholarly References• Research articles are great• "Professional practice literature" (journals, blogs,

podcasts)

Theoretical Underpinning

Source of possible tags• Theory• Instructional Model• Concept• Sub-Concept• Tool

Loosely suggested tags (existing "categories")

Development Process

Entries• Anyone can contribute an idea• Any registered user can create a new entry• Many "stubs" (Wikipedia) in backstage Draft area

Editing• Any registered user can edit or add additional material• Managing editors responsible for "keeping on the rails"

o Edit with eye for consistency, conceptual frameworko Possibly move an entry backstage if "just not ready"o May coach contributor(s)

Peer Review

New Scholarship Issues

"Perpetual beta" + peer review = strange bedfellows/mutation• Scholarly rigor in entries• Peer review process for improvement/validation• Wiki for on-going improvements/updates

Intellectual property complications• Creative Commons licensing for "remixing" • Some faculty (and administrators) not sure about CC• Many individuals uncertain how to operationalize CC

Making It Work

Few, simple non-negotiables (conceptual framework)

Editorial Board• Promoting TOPR• Feedback on processes• Recruit peer reviewers

Peer review process to followIssue: entry is peer-reviewed but on an ever-changing wikiPossible answer: "oldid" function (used currently in citation)

Perhaps a "peer reviewed" graphic and a statement like: "a version of this entry was peer reviewed previously. see that version."Allows reader to compare versions for herself

Current Status

Emerging from betaNew entries being made/editedCasual submissions and regular contributors welcomedInitial editorial board meeting being scheduledPeer review process in the works

Your Involvement

Your Thoughts?

• What value (if any) do you seen in TOPR as a whole for your institution?

• Can you envision yourself or colleagues contributing to TOPR?

• How might you adapt ideas from TOPR for your own teaching?

• Do you see yourself contributing ideas?

Get Involved

Have the germ of an idea or a fully fleshed out entry you wish to share?• Contribution Form: http://bit.ly/topr_contributionform

Do you wish to get more involved in contributing and editing ideas on a fairly frequent basis?  • Send email to topr@ucf.edu to request a login to TOPR

Want to become a peer reviewer for TOPR?• Send email to topr@ucf.edu for follow-up

Questions and Answers

Contact Us

http://topr.online.ucf.edu 

Dr. Kelvin Thompson    kelvin@ucf.eduDr. Linda Futch            linda.futch@ucf.eduDr. Baiyun Chen           baiyun.chen@ucf.edu

http://bit.ly/blend12_topr