Lori Norin of Fort Smith will make two presentations involving her teaching practices at the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith for those attending the Hawaii International Conference on Education, slated for Honolulu in January.
Norin, an assistant professor of speech, submitted two papers for possible inclusion in the conference presentations, one titled “Streamline Your Teaching: Improve Student Learning Using Electronic Assessment” and another titled “Lessons Learned: Effective Tips for Online Teaching.” Both were accepted.
Norin said her presentation on electronic assessment shows how UA fort Smith Speech Department faculty use electronic assessment to improve student performance, target learning styles, and allow immediate re-teaching and feedback.
The speech faculty had already been using online testing, which provided statistical information, but Norin also wanted a method to assess speeches that would provide immediate data.
“I found a software I liked and piloted it for a semester with good success,” she said. “The students liked both the software and the immediate assessment data the software provided. Our department adopted the software for the next semester. In fact, it was so successful that my dean asked that I demonstrate the software to the entire arts and sciences faculty.”
The software allows Norin to evaluate the student’s public speaking performance as it is being delivered, using a variety of pull-down menus that can be customized. The speeches can also be timed, with any time penalties assessed with a click of the mouse.
“Perhaps one of the greatest benefits, however, is in the increase in the amount and speed of this feedback,” she said. “I am able to provide much more detailed feedback to the students and get them that feedback immediately. Evaluations can be printed immediately and returned to the students at the end of the class, the next class, or I can even email it to them.”
The software also allows the professor to track and chart strengths and weaknesses of an individual student’s performance and the class’s performance.
Norin is sold on electronic assessment software because it streamlines and enhances the faculty member’s teaching.
“It provides faculty with a wealth of valuable data at the click of the mouse,” she said.
Her online teaching topic at the conference will show the struggles of the UA Fort Smith Speech Department as it developed its online speech course from a Web-enhanced course to a hybrid course that offers what she said is “the best of both worlds.”
Norin called her first Web-enhanced course “a disaster.”
“More time was spent learning the software than learning the content,” she said. “ … Students were frustrated. Faculty were frustrated.”
She said — as a last resort — she restructured the course to teach it as a hybrid, teaching approximately half the content online.
“Instead of working entirely on the Web,” Norin said, “students were required to meet on-campus with the professor once a week. The results were amazing.”
In addition to more positive student feedback, Norin said student retention improved as did student assessment scores.
“Student retention improved eight percent the first semester I switched to the hybrid course, while post-test scores jumped an average of 20-plus percent. There was also a clear decrease in student and professor frustration.”
As a part of improving the process, Norin searched for strategies, tips and techniques that would simplify and enhance her teaching experience. She also worked with English instructor Tim Wall to develop a list of effective online teaching techniques. She will share some of those at the conference as well.
“The trick, I found, was to use the software without becoming slaves to it,” she said.
Norin, who has taught speech full time since 2004, came here in 1991 to teach journalism and sponsor the student yearbook and newspaper. Among multiple awards she has received are the Whirlpool Master Teacher Award in 2000 and a Lucille Speakman Excellence Award in 2004. She has been active on campus, including serving as chair of the Faculty Senate, and in the community with various organizations. She has an associate degree from Westark Community College before it became UA Fort Smith and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northeastern State University, Tahlequah.
Norin has also been active with presenting other papers and having articles published through various organizations. She authored “Perception Teasers: The Role Perception Organization Plays in Assigning Meaning to Cultural Perspectives.” It was published in the August issue of “Spectra,” which is the magazine of the National Communication Association.
In November, she will present “Name that Blooper, Avoid that Blunder,” great ideas for teaching speech, at the National Communication Association. Her paper titled “Techniques, Tools and Toys: Effective (and fun) Strategies for the Basic Course” will be presented at the January meeting of the Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities. She will also present a paper co-authored with Tim Wall titled “Hybrid Courses Offer the Best of Both Worlds” for the February meeting of the Western Communication Association.
Co-sponsors of the Hawaii conference are the University of Louisville’s Center for Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods, New Horizons in Education — The Journal of Education, Hong Kong Teachers’ Association; and Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology.
| Article by: Sondra LaMar, Director of Public Relations | |
| Photo(s) by: Alexis Norin |
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