Blended Assessments of Learning

In an effort to develop a blended course involving online and face-to-face interactions, formal and informal assessments will be implemented within my upcoming course, introduction to cybercrime. For formal assessments, three student quizzes are planned for my introductory course covering topics on cybercrime. Each quiz will assess students' understandings of the concepts within the first three modules on the first quiz, modules four through six on the second quiz, and the final three modules, seven through nine, on the final examination. A time limit will be set for each formal assessment along with the opportunity to retake the assessment a second time, if the student so chooses. Online essays in the form of discussion postings will also be utilized each week for allowing student-to-student interactions. In addition, I will also provide feedback to students' to build upon their critical thinking by posing alternative questions according to their posted reasonings. A quantitative assessment will be used for assessing discussion points as follows: one point for minimal effort, two points for below average effort, three points for an average effort, four points for an above average effort, and finally, five points for a superior effort and response.

For informal assessments two methods will be utilized during the cybercrime course, one-sentence summary and student-generated test questions. However, these two assessments will be implemented during face-to-face interactions rather than online which is in contrast to the suggested method from this week's reading assignment. During classroom sessions, time will be allotted for students to think about the current topic and synthesize a one-sentence summary. I will then randomly read these out loud in class for the students' to comment on the statements for drawing on alternative perspectives regarding the current topic in class. The other method of informal assessment will challenge students to develop three to five ideal test question for the final exam. From this method, students will not only benefit from the direct interaction of the subject matter, but will also gain valuable insight into the final exam which should remove an effort to memorize content for the sake of regurgitating it later on the final exam.

In sum, from this week's assigned reading I identified assessment strategies, formal and informal, for implementing withing my upcoming blended course on cybercrime. First, formal assessments involving quizzes and essays posting in online discussion forums will be assigned to students for evaluating using a quantitative grading rubric. Second, informal assessments, one-sentence summary and student-generated test questions, will be implemented within the classroom for building face-to-face interactions and higher levels of engagements with students. By implementing these two types of blended assessments, the hope for new opportunities of interactions between instructor and students should be a positive reinforcement during course delivery while enhancing the potential for students to build their knowledge of cybercrime topics and issues.

--Corey

Blended Interactions

After reading this week's Blendkit2014 reading assignment, several thoughts came to mind regarding methods of interactions between an instructor and students during a blended course, specifically for a course I am currently developing, CYC2001 Introduction to Cybercrime. From my past instructional experiences, adult learners in real estate education generally require additional guidance with concepts and principles since most are new to the industry. Furthermore, the majority, if not all, real estate learners are merely present to receive their licensure for moving onto residential or commercial brokerage work. Because real estate educational requirements are minimally set by state commissions, learners' knowledge of real estate concept may vary greatly, in addition to their technical competence. With this in mind, identifying learners' experiences within a specific knowledge domain may play an important role in the decision making process for selecting a blended interaction model as discussed in this week's reading assignment.

Three specific interactions models were found most relevant from the reading for implementation purposes. First, the atelier learning model was presented as a method for instructors to observe and interact with learners similar to how art instructors observe and interact within their art studio classrooms. This interaction method could potentially work for observing posted discussion question and answers within an online forum discussing issues and topics on cybercrime. Second, fisher's interaction method for continuously establishing connections between concepts draws similar patterns to network administrators who connect new devices within an organization's network. Fisher's model of forming connections was received as an ideal method for integrating with my upcoming course, especially for connecting issues in cyberattacks to methods in preventing future attacks. The third method that may offer beneficial learning experiences was the concierge learning, a method for directing learners to resources previously unknown. This interaction method would seem the most ideal since real estate learners may not have been exposed to prevention measures in cyberattacks, but also unaware of other cybercrime topics such as phishing, viruses, and physical asset attacks.

In sum, all three interaction models will at some point be implemented within my upcoming cybercrime course. For online instruction, the atelier and fisher models seem most likely to be implemented online since discussions can be easily monitored online while offering URL links to additional resources for learners so that they are able to create new learning associations. In contrast, the concierge interaction would best play a role within the classroom during presentations for creating new in class discussions, covering case studies, and possibly for integrating within role playing situations for enhancing learning experiences. After implementing, evaluating how successful these three interaction methods is also a key element for revising or eliminating altogether from future blended courses.

--Corey

Understanding Blended Learning

This summer I am enrolled in my second Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) offered by UCF and EDUCAUSE. Blendkit 2014 is the name of the course and my goal for enrolling is to apply blended instructional concepts and principles to the ongoing development of real estate courses I am currently designing. From my past learning and instructional experiences, there seems to be a gap in the effort to develop a hybrid instructional approach in the real estate sector, especially in residential. Salesperson courses tend to be either face-to-face or entirely online. However, applying a blended approach to the delivery of residential salespersons and broker salespersons courses not only seem to be likely ideal course candidates, but ultimately improve learning experiences of pre-licensed students.

After reading the initial chapter assignment, my understanding of what a blended course was confirmed by the definition given that a blended course is comprised of the traditional face-to-face instruction and online instruction. From the stated benefits of blended learning, the most important benefit that registered with me, as a current student myself, was the additional benefit of flexibility. Traditional instruction has been and still is the prime instructional mode for delivering real estate salesperson courses, even though e-Learning instruction is well established in other industries. My theory for this resistance is that the real estate industry is quite often constrained and restricted by older and traditional practitioners as well as instructors which in effect causes not only the adoption of technology to be slower, but also new approaches to implement within the industry. Annual reports routinely state that the average age of the practicing residential salesperson is 55 or older which reaffirms my theory each year.

For better understanding development approaches for blended courses, several interesting points were made within the designing section. In particular, the concept of geographically distributed came up which is an important aspect for my development since future learners will be dispersed through out the state of Florida and eventually nationally. Again, flexible learning was brought up during the planning process of delivery. This is another interesting point for relating to real estate since the delivery of salesperson courses tend to be very deliberate in their linear, systematic approach of instructing towards the exam which is fully endorsed by state real estate commissions. Near the end of the design section, the topic of models or frameworks for developing learning courses was discussed. From my most recent research on interoperability and reusability of learning management systems, ontology development applied to e-Learning is a new research interest of mine and may extend well to the development of a blended real estate course. An ontological approach applied to blended course development may become an effective method for developing dynamic courseware along with a graphical solution for eventually establishing a knowledge base system for future courseware development. In sum, I plan to apply early concepts of blended learning for developing a blended real estate course while using an ontology tool called Protege for testing in Moodle, an open source learning management system.

--Corey

Spring 2014 Graduate Courses

This spring semester I am currently taking two courses at UCF. To begin the new year, I was admitted into the Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) Master Program within the Education and Human Performance College. With a concentration in e-learning, my goal is to complete the program within three years while appling concepts, principles, and theories directly to course development for the Global Real Estate And Technology University (GR8U) where I will instruct continuing education and eventually, licensing courses. This will be my second master's degree from UCF with my sights set on additional advanced degrees in the near future.

Currently, I am enrolled in the following courses:

• EME 6062 Research in Instructional Technology
• EME 6614 Instructional Game Design in Training and Education

--Corey

Reflecting on 2013

Once again, it is that time of the year when father time forces a brand new year upon us all. However, reflecting back upon the past year is an important action for looking forward to the future.

The past year for me involved mainly one specific purpose, academics. Earlier in the year, I was enrolled in two graduate courses, Human Resources Management and Strategic Planning Management, at the University of Central Florida. These two courses were core courses within the Master of Nonprofit Management (MNM) program in which I was working towards since the Spring of 2011.

After finishing Human Resources and Strategic Planning courses, I enrolled in an elective course Organizational Behavior. The reason for taking this course was to develop a concentration in public administration to add to my specialization in nonprofit management. I found Organizational Behavior rigorous, but enlightening at the same time, during my work within the course. For the course paper, I focused on the theory behind the communication process and applied this same theory to a later course taken this past fall.

Following the summer session, I finished the MNM program by taking Public Administrators in Governance and Public Policy in the fall semester. With these two courses, I successfully balanced my graduate courses with 18 hours in nonprofit management and 18 hours in public administration. The other course taken was an elective, Cybercrime and Criminal Justice. Even though I had no prior knowledge or experience with either two, Governance and Public Policy were wonderfully rigorous and thought provoking for me. In developing papers for these courses, I researched and covered topics covering Internet Governance and a theoretical perspective on Texting and Driving for a group paper.

The culmination of this past year's courses taken lead to graduating from the MNM program approximately two weeks ago. Walking across the stage and accepting a congratulatory handshake from a UCF provost regarding my academic achievement was an important step in my academic career, but more importantly achieving a life goal I had set twenty years ago after I finished my bachelor's degree. I had promised myself to eventually attend graduate school and receive a master's degree. Check and check for 2013.

Looking forward, I begin the next chapter in my academic career by taking e-Learning courses, Adult Learning and Research in Instructional Technology. My new goal for 2014 is to work towards a second master's degree in Instructional Design and Technology. Delivering future instructional courses online and in the classroom are reasons for working towards a Master in Arts degree. In addition, I intend to apply e-Learning theories and principles gained towards areas in human rights and citizen engagement within the domain of International Relations.

In summary, 2013 was a enlightening year academically speaking. 2014 will definitely be more of the same.

--Corey

A Felina Thank You to Breaking Bad

Tonight marks the end of the cable show, Breaking Bad (BrBa). Since season three, I have been a hardcore fan of the show thanks to a colleague's recommendation and applied peer pressure to watch it. Excluding season 5b, I have probably watched every episode of BrBa at least eight to nine times each via Netflix and Amazon Instant Video. (Note: I detest regular tv due to the commercials so I refuse to subscribe to cable.)

Watching the show has been a wonderful journey for me, to say the least, but unfortunately every beginning has an end or in this case, felina. In a way, BrBa has been that invisible friend who has always been there for me for the last three years. Whenever I needed something to watch in the background and second screen or because the selection on Netflix's instant stream was lacking, BrBa was always there. Factoring in the ability to binge an entire season without viewing a single commercial, BrBa was again, always there for me providing a compelling and cerebral-like story.

Before BrBa, I was fascinated with the show Lost, especially because of my origination from Hawaii, the state where the show was filmed. However, BrBa has surpassed Lost for me for many reasons. First and foremost, the acting on BrBa has been outstanding which lead to strong believability in the characters, situations of the characters, and transitions from situation to situation. Second, one of the notable downfalls of the Star Wars prequals was the overuse of technology which complicated the overall stories. In contrast, BrBa implemented very little technology, but when they did, simplified the use with non-smartphones, minimal internet use, and user-friendly technology tools such as the gps tracker Hank used to track Gus and Walt. Simply speaking, BrBa did not let the technology overtake the story unlike other shows or films. Third, the story was masterfully woven with symbolism, foreshadowing, and misdirection. A perfect example was the way the writers would hide details of plot in plain site of the viewers, for instance, Hanks' cataloging of minerals, not rocks Marie.

In a couple of hours, the final BrBA act will be aired, but before this occurs I will, for the last time, attempt, the key word being attempt, to predict what will take place in the final act tonight. Here is my prediction.

I predict Jesse kills Todd because of overdue karma. Since Lydia lives in Houston, Walt could make a pit stop traveling from NH to ABQ and eliminate her. I think Skylar will be found guilty and goes to prison for a long time. Walt Jr. dies in a car accident which has been foreshadowed in previous episodes. After eliminating the Nazis with his AK47 and a bit of help from the Vamanos Pest boys, a final showdown or shootout between Jesse and Walt occurs with Jesse winning this time over Walt. After disposing of Walt's body, Jesse collects the $70 million and gives it all away to a charity, possibly a cancer research organization. He then locates Brock and relocates him for being his parental guardian, for showing his undying love for Andrea. Distraught by all of the events, Maria joins the police force for continuing the fight against the war on drugs and a tribute to Hank.

For a wishful, ending twist, Jesse's little brother from I believe season three, becomes a chemistry teacher at a school. One of his students is Holly, a slacker type girl, who introduces Jesse's younger brother to the world of drugs, specifically Methamphetamine aka meth. The BrBA cycle repeats, again, with a reverse in roles this time, Pinkham is the manipulating mentor and White is the lost soul. The equation is once again balanced: pink + white = blue.

A solid thanks goes out to Vince Gilligan and his writers, the actors, and behind the scenes folks for creating one of the greatest shows in the history of television, in my simplistic opinion.

--Corey

Traditional Real Estate Commission Model

Above is a depiction of the traditional real estate commission model. The purpose is to visually represent the actors, events, processes, resources and services which take place within this model. In addition, a goal is to analyze all integral components for defining and creating patterns. The actors' names used are merely placeholders for abstraction purposes. This diagram, descriptions, and patterns will be included in my upcoming book Breaking Commissions: The Dark Side of Real Estate.

--Corey