Purdue University Builds Young Professionals with the Help of Course Networking
Purdue University has a few things to brag about.
Vorvoreanu
needed a tool that could do more than just connect. “I needed a platform that
would enable this sharing and lightweight interaction among course
participants,” Vorvoreanu commented. Certain tools on the network gave her
advantages for the course that she couldn’t find in other traditional teaching
methods. “While we used the CN for assignments, day-by-day tasks, and
gradebook, the primary motivation was this ability to share links.” CN was a
way for Dr. Vorvoreanu and her students to engage in an inviting, academic
setting. “I found the private social networking* aspect of the site to be quite
enjoyable.”
Course Networking for Dr.
Vorvoreanu gave her unlimited access to sharing information and resources, and
as a result, student feedback was generally positive. Despite some intimidation
of the Anar seed requirement, they found their participation in the course to
be more fun and interactive. “As the course progressed, they began to
appreciate the interaction among class members and the broken down, day-by-day
plan that spelled out specific tasks they had
to accomplish before each class
meeting,” Vorvoreanu stated. For her course, it was not just the encouragement
to join the site and the reward students saw accumulate as a result, it was
activity for the sake of learning, a goal that CN continues to strive for.
Tied
with the University of Michigan Ann-Arbor for the 8th best graduate
program and 10th best undergraduate program of engineering in the
nation, as well as being the first university in the United States to establish
a computer science department, it’s obvious Purdue has built an empire within
the study of the sciences. This reputation has attracted some of the most skilled
professors in such fields. One of them, Dr. Mihaela Vorvoreanu of Computer
Graphics Technology and Technology Leadership and Innovation, has found success
in teaching the students of her Introduction to User Experience Design course
through Course Networking.
 |
| Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN (Google Images) |
 |
| UX Diagram (Google Images) |
The future for social learning
environments like CN isn’t just an outlet for socially engaging online. While
this is important, Dr. Vorvoreanu commented that it’s more than just a
relationship you build with someone online or part of a grade in a course. A
professional platform for a global audience is a real-world concept that is
being introduced through CN for reasons that go far beyond its social
capabilities. “I think it is important for students to learn how to use social
networking for professional growth,” she claimed. “The CN gives them a glimpse
of how they can interact professionally, not just socially, online.”
Two of her students, Osmar Lopez and Wade Roth, would agree, commenting
on specific tools and functions they found extremely useful. “By getting points for my comments, links, and
polls through the Anar Seed point system, it motivated me more,” Lopez stated.
“I felt like I was getting rewarded for my contributions to the class.”
 |
| Founder/Creator of CN Ali Jafari interacting with Purdue students on user feedback using CN |
Roth found the posting tool and interaction with his classmates to be
reasons he appreciated CN. “One of my
favorite features is the variety of posting capabilities that the CN offers,” Roth
claimed. “It is very useful for student/teamwork interaction. It's also useful
that instructor posts stay towards the top of the feed.”
Vorvoreanu’s students
strongly valued the connections they’ve made with other learners that weren’t
necessarily in their User Experience Design course, breaking down the barriers
that coincide with international learning. “I’ve made professional relationships with people Dr. V has Skyped with
during class,” Roth commented. “This opportunity has allowed students to ask
questions to professionals in our field, which also was just a great learning
experience.”
Lopez discovered learning opportunities as a student that he didn’t
think were possible without being introduced to the CN Network more enjoyable.
“The CN really pushes student interactivity,”
Lopez began. “It was really easy to ask my fellow students questions, and I
felt like I could talk to anyone if I wanted to. Had there been no CN for my
class, I probably would have never interacted with some of the students in my
own classroom, and especially not those global students that I met on the CN. It
was easy to communicate with my instructor and because of that, I feel that I
have a much closer relation to my instructor than I do with other instructors.”
As for her future, Dr. Vorvoreanu
seemed pleased with the functions of CN and concluded she would use the site
later on in courses specific to her area of expertise. “I will use it in
courses where this type of lightweight interaction and information sharing is
important and directly related to the course’s learning objectives,” she said
in her closing remarks.
Building a professional world, one
university, professor, and student at a time: Those are just some of the goals
of CN…
What are you doing to go pro?
The Story of
the CN at Purdue:
Professor Ali Jafari, inventor of CourseNetworking, visited
Dr. Vorvoreanu’s Introduction to User Experience Design class on April 8th,
2014 in West Lafayette. He shared his experience of designing and developing a
series of successful learning systems. Students also received the opportunity
to provide improvement interface design suggestions to CN as both end-users as
well as future experts in Human Computer Interaction. CN took some of these
constructive suggestions and made the changes in the next week’s release. Now,
the suggested changes are benefiting thousands of CN users across the world.
*CN
provides different course access settings that allow courses to be open to the
public or restricted to a selected group of members. Dr. Vorvoreanu made her
course available only to her students and expert guests in the course field.
Posts
No comments: