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Adding up the numbers for "Adding Some TEC-VARIETY" |
| Sunday, September 02, 2018 |
Download Updates for "Adding Some TEC-VARIETY":
People ask me if making my book, Adding Some TEC-VARIETY: 100+ Activities for Motivating and Retaining Learners Online, free and open was a good decision. Well, due to the openness, it is available for free in Chinese as well. Since it came out in May 2014, there have been over 100,000 downloads of the book from the book homepage, including 90,000 in English and 10,000 in Chinese.
The countries which have downloaded it the most are:
1. USA
2. China
3. Canada
4. Australia
5. Germany
6. Great Britain
7. Russian Federation
8. New Zealand
9. India
10. Poland
11. Finland
12. France
In addition, my book co-author, Dr. Elaine Khoo, at the University of Waikato, just informed me that their library in New Zealand has made the book available at a special book website. It has been downloaded 18,536 times from there. Countries that have the most downloads from that site (in order) include the USA, France, China, the UK, Finland, Romania, Germany, South Korea, the EU, Poland, Russia, Indonesia, Sweden. the Ukraine, Canada, Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Japan, India, Serbia, Spain, Italy, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brazil, Luxembourg, the Philippines, and Pakistan. In terms of specific cities, it is most popular in Beijing, Malvern (PA or UK?...I am not sure), Kerava (southern Finland), Seoul, Newhaven (CT), Davis (California), Dallas, Seattle, Georgetown (DC), Henderson (Nevada), Chicago, and Kansas City. Such geographic data is always interesting to me.
In addition, individual chapters have been downloaded over 65,000 from the book homepage. The chapters on engagement (Chapter 11 has had 7,825 downloads) while Chapter 6 on Curiosity (is now at 6,422 downloads), Chapter 4 on Tone and Climate (5,767 downloads), and Chapter 13 on Goal Setting (5,120 downloads). These are the most downloaded chapters. But these statistics do not include the downloads for the preface (4,312 downloads), references (7,446 downloads), and Web resources (9,450 downloads) sections. So the references are the most downloaded. Why am I not surprised. When you add in these numbers, the total chapter or section downloads is over 86,000.
People ask me if I would do it again? Keep in mind that this data is just from website in which I am aware of. There are likely more places which have posted this book since it is free to share and download. Additionally, there are likely countless numbers of sharing of the book between friends, students, colleagues, and work teams. So, given nearly 120,000 downloads of the entire book from just these two websites that I know about and another 86,000 chapter downloads from just one website or over 200,000 downloads for some part of the book, I should say yes, I would.
But I am not sure if want to do a second book as free and open at the present time. Time will tell.
Labels: book downloads, Elaine Khoo, free and open books, online motivation, TEC-VARIETY, University of Waikato |
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Just a lot of Bonk? Yes, CurtBonk.com is my new homepage. |
| Thursday, July 27, 2017 |
Vanity? Security? Simplicity? Change? Timing? Or just because I can?
Perhaps it is just time for a change. But after more than two decades with the same homepage, I thought we should try it and see if it worked. And so, Curtbonk.com (and CurtisBonk.com)
now exist: Due to security changes at IU (blame the North Koreans and
the Russians), I finally asked my assistant Seth to port it all my stuff to “CurtBonk.com” and “CurtisBonk.com.” There are new security rules and systems in place at IU called Duo. The Duo system requires a two-step login and hence limited who could update my homepage. In effect, it forced me to create a new homepage
I bought these URLs two or so years ago for my homepage http://curtbonk.com/. Now you can tell people to find my stuff there. You can find all my open access papers in PublicationShare, PowerPoints of all my talks in TrainingShare, my free videos in YouTube on how to teach online, my free book, Adding Some TEC-VARIETY, all my other book projects, my course syllabi, and so much more. As part of these changes, my 8 pack learning
theory video lectures are now in my SuperTravelinEdMan YouTube channel (long and boring and 9 years
old).
My old homepage at IU will still work and point to CurtBonk.com (at least until the day I leave). Please check out my new homepage and let me know what you think. It is not flashy. In fact, it will look exactly the same. But now the URL will be easier to remember. It does the job for now. Labels: Curt Bonk, Curtis Bonk, homepage, Indiana University, PublicationShare, TEC-VARIETY, TrainingShare |
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Introducing the "PEERS Framework": Quality control for book self-publishing |
| Sunday, November 27, 2016 |
Part 1: Updated “PEERS” Framework
Quality Control for Self-Published TEC-VARIETY book
November 2016
Back in May 2014, I self-published a book related to online motivation and retention (see blog post from two years ago). This particular blog post concerns the peer review process (PEERS) that we put the book through. It only took me 2.5 years to finally finding some time to make this post.
It is important to point out that I originally dreamed of this book back in 2000 with my colleague Vanessa Dennen of Florida State University ( Vanessa's blog). It only took 14 years to come to fruition. And my co-author was Dr. Elaine Khoo from the University of Waikato in New Zealand, while Vanessa became one of the book editors.
The book title: is “Adding Some TEC-VARIETY: 100+ Activities for Motivating and
Retaining Learners Online.” This book offered a new framework for
online motivation called TEC-VARIETY. Each letter of TEC-VARIETY stands for a set of overlapping motivational
principles. There are 100 activities in the book (10 for each principle of
motivation). Online instructors can learn how to foster curiosity, design a
safe climate for learning, give feedback, foster interaction and collaboration,
nurture student autonomy and creation of products, and much more. The intent is
for higher online learning retention and the development of more self-directed
online learners.
With the 100+ activities, it follows the same format as my Empowering Online Learning book
published by Jossey-Bass back in 2008 with a model called Read, Reflect,
Display, and Do ( R2D2) ( Amazon). This new TEC-VARIETY book has a brand new set of 100+
activities and a focus on learner motivation and retention.
Elaine Khoo and I made this book free as an e-book. We used Amazon CreateSpace as our publisher along with OpenWorldBooks (which I own). AmazonCreateSpace were some of the most wonderful people in the world to work with. They were highly polite and customer service oriented.
To date, over 80,000 people have downloaded
the entire book in English and tens of thousands more have downloaded individual chapters.
Scholars at Beijing Normal University in China have recently translated it to
Chinese (also free as an e-book) and the Open University of China has published
it in print. Anyone can now download, share, and, with permission, translate it
in English or Chinese. By the way, my son Alex produced the book cover.
A common question of self-published books relates to quality. See below for the "Peers framework which I designed and used for this book so as to address quality. Others might find it a handy guide when self-publishing their own books.
Reference: Bonk, C. J., & Khoo, E. (2014). Adding Some
TEC-VARIETY: 100+ Activities for Motivating and Retaining Learners Online. OpenWorldBooks.com and
Amazon CreateSpace. Note: Free eBook available
at: http://tec-variety.com/
PEERS Framework (for review of a
self-published book):
1.
Peer Review: Three e-learning and educational technology
experts were hired to review the entire book during the summer of 2013 (admittedly,
however, this was not a blind review). The authors made their changes and sent
the revised manuscript to the copyeditor. In addition, the copyeditor also took
on a role of editor throughout the process and made some solid suggestions on
deletions, modifications, combinations, additions, etc.
2.
Extensive Planning and Pilot
Testing: The book 14
years to plan, 7 years to collect articles, and 3 years to write. In addition,
the framework in the book was discussed to large as well as a small audiences at
conferences, workshops, institutes, summits, webinars, university classes,
etc., for more than a decade. Tens of thousands of people attended those talks.
Feedback was received from hundreds, if not thousands, of such people during
that time.
3.
Expert Team Approach: As with all book publishers, we contracted
with many experts to produce a book of the highest quality. We hired editors,
copyeditors, research assistants, website developers, proofreaders, graphic
artists, illustrators, indexers, formatters, converters to other formats (e.g.,
Kindle, hardcover, etc.), computer programmers, book publishers, consultants,
etc. Each were paid a fee (not cheap). We also talked about the process with
several others who had self-published a book in the past.
4.
Relied on Format of Proven Book: Most importantly, the “Adding Some
TEC-VARIETY” book followed the exact same format as the “Empowering Online Learning: 100+ Activities for Reading, Reflecting,
Displaying, and Doing” book which was published in 2008 by Jossey-Bass. In
effect, the format works and was deemed to be high quality by a major
publisher. And unlike many activities book, this is a theory to practice with
not just 100+ activities but with extensive references and theoretical backing.
In addition, this book had the exact same first author as that book who went
through the same process in writing this book. As with the earlier book, he
partnered with an expert to co-author it.
5.
Sharing Samples: Sample chapters were sent to other experts in
the field and other interested scholars, educators, and researchers for the
past three years as were the chapter resources, tools references, and
citations. Everything was shared as much as possible. The feedback that was
received helped us fine tune each chapter.
Part 2: The Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing
November 2016
Here is a
list 10 advantages and 10 disadvantages of a free self-published book. See what you think of these items. Please enjoy some TEC-VARIETY.
Advantages of
Self-Publishing:
- Impact: Life impact. The ideas in the book related to teaching and learning can impact others around the world. And perhaps there will be some life impact or personal change from a few of them. There is also the potential for curriculum impact, resource impact, innovation impact, etc.
- Longevity: Longevity of ideas. Someone could find or use or modify this book long after the authors are gone. Digital archivists and educators might stumble upon this book centuries from now.
- Rural and Disadvantaged: A free book helps people in the developing world learn new content. In addition, teachers and course designers can ramp up online and blended course development.
- Control: This IS the big one. The authors can design and change things how they want. Use the book titles and subtitles that they want and the examples that they want. And, yes, 2-3 experts peer reviewed the book just like another publisher (e.g., Jossey-Bass/Wiley) would have done.
- Experiment: It is an experiment. The authors can learn what works. We can practice marketing skills. We can share with others about self-publishing. We can start OpenWorldBooks.com. And we can continue the experiment with the next book.
- Less to Pack: Less guilt when someone has a request or when you visit a country with no gifts. I can always give people this book (or at least the link to download it).
- Fun and Novel Invitations: The authors can trade book royalties for interviews, discussions, invited panels, consultations, and speaking invites.
- Parting or Meeting Gift: It is something the authors can give to students, guests, and visiting scholars. I can send to anyone who visits or calls to interview me on the phone.
- Growing Network: The network of contacts around the world expands.
- Reputation: It brings attention to author reputation or brand and everything else that one does.
Disadvantages of Self-Publishing:
- Personal Time and Effort: This project has been my baby for a long time. And I made it free? This was not just 3 years in the making. I had an IST master’s student collect articles 7 years before completion. And Vanessa Dennen and I discussed a possible book on online motivation 14 years prior.
- Cost: The authors spent much out of pocket money designing and developing this book. Proofreaders, researcher assistant, Web designer and programmer, copy editor, editors, indexer, formatter, graphic designer, publisher, and website costs. It was not insignificant (I’m happy to share the costs via email).
- Potential for Failure and Looking Foolish: It could backfire and no one could find out about the book. If that happens, one could look foolish.
- Perceptions of Self-Published Book: People might think that it is low quality since it is being given away for free. The author reputation could take a hit. Some scholars/academics might look down on someone who self-publishes.
- Piracy and Plagiarism Battles and Legal Fees: People could more easily plagiarize this book. They could copy it, sell it, and post it online. There could be many moles to whack via attorney letters.
- Fairness to Self (i.e., potential for psychological and physical problems): My body could tell me that I am an idiot after expanding so much energy to get this far and not get much in return.
- Fairness to Co-Author: My book writing colleague, Dr. Elaine Khoo, deserves some remuneration.
- Translation Negotiations: The authors have to negotiate book translations rights and contracts, instead of the publisher. Tough decisions have to be made about selling the book in another language or offering only free versions. It takes time to produce a new version of the book.
- Marketing and Dissemination Requirements: The authors have many ways to market the book with organizations that have hundreds of thousands of connections; however, they will lack the connections and networks of a major publisher (e.g., conference exhibits, newsletters, Website promotions, etc.).
- Future Expectations: In the future, how can the authors justify charging a fee for any book that takes less than 14 years to produce?
Labels: Amazon CreateSpace, Elaine Khoo, motivation, PEERS framework, R2D2, retention, self-publishing, TEC-VARIETY, University of Waikato, Vanessa Dennen |
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Introducing Chapter 4 on Tone and Climate in my New (Free) "Adding Some TEC-VARIETY" book |
| Tuesday, September 23, 2014 |
Introducing Chapters from the TEC-VARIETY Book One Day at a Time:
This is Day Four of Blogging (Chapter Four Principle #1 Tone/Climate (includes Psychological Safety, Comfort, and Sense of Belonging). Note: This is the most downloaded chapter of the book.
As I announced back on July 24, 2014 (2 months ago), my new book, written with Dr. Elaine Khoo
from the University of Waikato, was published in May 2014. It is
titled: "Adding Some TEC-VARIETY: 100+ Activities for Motivating and Retaining Learners Online." It is free as an e-book. Just visit the book homepage and so are each of the 15 chapters.
This
is the fifth day of blogging on the book, one snippet per day
for several week. It is the first of 10 application chapters that spell "TEC-VARIETY." This one is on creating a safe learning tone or climate. It is the most downloaded chapter in the book. It is longer than my last three posts. Why is that? Perhaps the creation of a safe learning environment is the most important element of an effective online or blended course.
Below is a listing of what the TEC-VARIETY Framework stands for. We are on the first principle today.
1.
Tone/Climate:
Psychological Safety, Comfort, Sense of Belonging
2.
Encouragement:
Feedback, Responsiveness, Praise, Supports
3.
Curiosity:
Surprise, Intrigue, Unknowns
4.
Variety:
Novelty, Fun, Fantasy
5.
Autonomy:
Choice, Control, Flexibility, Opportunities
6.
Relevance:
Meaningful, Authentic, Interesting
7.
Interactivity:
Collaborative, Team-Based, Community
8.
Engagement:
Effort, Involvement, Investment
9.
Tension:
Challenge, Dissonance, Controversy
10.
Yielding
Products: Goal Driven, Purposeful Vision, Ownership
If you like ideas for social ice breakers, you will like this chapter. You will learn about the eight nouns activity, personal commitments, online cafes, accomplishment hunts, video introductions, goals and expectations and much more. They are all detailed in this chapter. Each activity has a variation, so there are not 10, but more than 20 activities detailed in Chapter 4. Take a look.
I will blog on Principle #2 related to Encouragement and Feedback next. Chapters 4 through 13 are the application
chapters. There are 10 activities or ideas related to online learner
motivation and retention in each of those 10 chapters or 100 total
ideas. I hope that you can use them.
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Chapter
Four Principle #1 Tone/Climate (includes Psychological Safety, Comfort, and Sense of Belonging (below is the first section of that chapter. There is much more including 10 detailed activities related to creating a safe and effective Tone and Climate).
I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide
the conditions in which they can learn.
—Albert Einstein
Perhaps the most obvious place to begin a
framework related to online motivation and retention as well as to start a
course is to introduce ideas related to the tone or atmosphere of the class.
How an instructor welcomes learners into a course is perhaps tantamount to
success. As noted in Chapter Three, those adhering to principles from Abraham
Maslow, Carl Rogers, and other humanistic psychologists start with a focus on
establishing a psychologically safe climate for learning. From this humanistic
perspective, learners must be comfortable with the course, the instructor, and
themselves as online learners. In addition, such learners must feel that their
ideas are respected and encouraged. Establishing a welcoming environment allows
the student to settle in and adjust to this relatively new form of instructional
delivery.
Ideas from Carl Rogers have been
influential in education for decades. His Freedom
to Learn (1969) and Freedom to Learn
for the 1980s (1983) are considered classic texts by many espousing
learner-centered instructional approaches and opportunities for students to
construct and share personal ideas and innovations. For Rogers, at the core of
education, learning should be open and active, involve genuine tasks, respect
students’ backgrounds and ideas, and embed student-driven activities where and
when possible. These principles should hold no matter what the age group or
discipline.
What becomes apparent from reading
Rogers’ Freedom to Learn books is
that there should be invitations for learners to make decisions and take responsibility
for their own learning. In collaborative settings, there is a unique sharing of
ideas and perspectives among the students. In effect, for Rogers, the more that
learners are free and open to experiences, the more likely that they will be
creative and participate in productive ways in the world at large.
When people feel valued and understood,
there is a sense of safety to explore and a freedom to continue to grow. Such a
perspective would resonate with those who incorporate aspects of Web 2.0
technology in their instruction. For instance, an instructor could be
considered a Rogerian if he relied on student reflection blogs, Twitter feeds,
and podcast shows. Such a humanistic and learner-centered approach is also
apparent in collaborative document building using Wikispaces or Google Docs, as
well as in social networking activities using systems like Facebook or
LinkedIn. From a pedagogical perspective, an instructor could be a Rogerian if
she relies on product- and problem-based learning and emphasizes the
construction of knowledge and learning participation in the classroom. With
such technologies and activities, students take ownership over the learning
process. There is a freedom to express ideas, create new products, share
inventions, and, in general, make significant learning contributions in the
classroom, be they physical or virtual.
Instructors, no matter the situation, can
create climates that are learner-centered and invitational in nature. Such
environments are filled with a sense of meaning, individualization,
belongingness, and encouragement. There are challenges but also supports to
meet those challenges. Challenges do not mean roadblocks.
The initial sense of understanding or
empathy expressed by an instructor can create strong bonds with students. These
interpersonal connections can nurture student support early on in the course
when some of them may feel lost or confused by the structure of the course and
assigned tasks (Salmon, 2011). Opening activities can foster mutual knowledge
among those enrolled as well as a set of expectations that the course will be
highly engaging and interactive. Students will realize that an active learning
approach will be utilized and that their productive participation is required.
While that is the optimistic side of
education, opening moments in the course can also isolate students as well as
disrespect them in some way. When that happens, there is scant motivation to
participate in the course. Think about some new organization or conference in
the physical world. When you arrive and no one is there to greet you, or you
feel uncomfortable with the surroundings, you are unlikely to be an active
participant, at least not immediately. The same is true if you do not know the
mission or purpose of the institution, organization, or event. However, if
social icebreakers or meet-and-greet activities took place before the start of
the event or at the very beginning, you would likely feel greater dedication,
commitment, and willingness to pursue difficult tasks later on.
Activities that set a positive tone such
as social icebreakers help learners and instructors become acquainted with each
other. This mutual knowledge can facilitate later small-group activities and
hasten the effective functioning of online teams. Opening social activities
like scavenger hunts of online course resources can also help to familiarize
learners with the content that they will encounter in the course, as well as
with the very tools that they will need to effectively access that content. There is far less stress in experimenting with passwords, access issues, and
tool features at the start of a course than later on in the semester or term
when one or more assignments are coming due.
When used effectively in an online or
blended course, these early class activities help overcome emotional, social,
or cultural discomfort and establish “swift trust” (Meyerson,
Weick, & Kramer, 1996), a social glue that binds the online class participants
together during the duration of the course to successfully complete the
course’s learning activities and goals. Feelings of trust, rapport building,
and a sense of camaraderie are typically assumed to be quite difficult to
establish in online courses compared to F2F courses due to the separation of
distance, space, and time. A study by Meyerson et al. (1996) indicated that
online instructors can shortcut this process by putting in place building
blocks for establishing swift trust.
The first week of an online course is
especially crucial for developing trust via instructor actions such as
initiating early communication with students and developing a positive tone and
social climate through activities, such as those exemplified in this chapter.
Online courses where swift trust had been achieved early in the semester were
deemed to be more successful than those that had not (Coppola, Hiltz, &
Rotter, 2004). Online lecturers who downgrade the importance of setting a psychologically
safe class tone and swift trust do so at their own peril, leaving their
students vulnerable to a higher likelihood of feeling isolated and uncared for
(Jarvenpaa & Leidner, 1998).
Once established, that sense of trust is
sustained through frequent and predictable communication with the instructor as
well as regular feedback from him. There are also opportunities to provide
feedback back to the instructor. Such a course is designed for high levels of
interactivity and trust building. Many of the activities in this chapter as well
as the nine that follow are meant to help in that regard.
(see free book for more from this chapter.. Note also the references and the many Web links associated with this chapter.)
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Note: for the rest of Chapter One and the entire Adding Some TEC-VARIETY book, you can find it FREELY available (and the entire book as well at the book homepage or you can purchase it via Amazon in softcover or the Kindle via Amazon. Comments
and questions are always welcome as are stories and examples of how you
use the ideas in the book (just write to: curt at worldisopen.com).
This is an experiment in self-publishing using Amazon CreateSpace and my website OpenWorldBooks.com. My highly talented son Alex did the book cover. This book and other free resources such as 27 videos for how to teach online can be found on my personal homepage.
Bonk book blogging so far:
1. Announcing the Adding Some TEC-VARIETY book, Posted: July 24, 2014.
2. Introducing the Preface, Posted September 18, 2014.
3. Introducing Chapter One: TEC-VARIETY, Posted: September 19, 2014
4. Introducing Chapter Two: Online Learning Attrition and Retention, Posted: September 20, 2014
5. Introducing Chapter Three: Online Motivation from Four Perspectives, Posted: September 21, 2014
6. Introducing Chapter Four: Principle #1 on Tone/Climate, Posted September 23, 2014.
So, what tone do you ring? In what tone do you sing? And in what tone do you start or begin?Labels: Carl Rogers, climate, e-learning pedagogy, ice breakers, Maslow, online motivation, online retention, psychological safety, TEC-VARIETY, tone |
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