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The Road to Online Learning

Dr. Roger Von HolzenDirector

Ms Darla RunyonAssistant Director/Curriculum Design Specialist

Center for Information Technology in Education

Northwest Missouri State University

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The LeaderThe leader is the one who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells, “Wrong jungle!”

But how do the busy, efficient faculty, administrators, and staff often respond?

“Shut up! We’re making progress!” Dr. Dale W. Lick

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Online Courses

The New Gold Standard

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Old Dogs New Tricks

• The Fear Factor– Colleges and universities are fearful of losing

student enrollment– Rushing to place curriculum materials out on the

web– Announce to the world that they offer web-based

courses

• Old dogs--correspondence courses• New tricks--delivered on the web*

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Shifting the Paradigm

• Center for Information Technology in Education– Strong support for faculty

• Stipends• Hardware and software

– Strong push to change the way of looking at teaching and learning*

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Historical Background

• 1987 Northwest established its Electronic Campus– VAX network of terminals– Terminals located in every office and dorm room on

campus

• Faculty and student support provided through Computing Services

• 1997 switched to desktop and notebook computers*

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CITE Faculty Support

• Established in 1997• Funded by the state• Initial focus on funding faculty efforts to

modularize course materials– 10% of faculty per year

• Funding in the form of summer stipends– Target faculty in specific content areas*

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CITE Faculty Support

• Conduct faculty training

• Assist in the development of:– course web sites – web-based courses– CD-ROM-based learning materials*

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Software Standards

• Designated software packages center would support – purchases– technical and training assistance

• Financially can't support all software desires of faculty

• Staff needs to have extensive knowledge of limited number of software packages in order to fully assist faculty*

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Hardware Support

• CITE provides each Northwest faculty member with a notebook computer– two to three year rotation cycle– pecking order for receipt of new notebooks

• Center retains "ownership" of hardware purchased for faculty– minimizes duplication of seldom-used hardware– maximizes array of hardware available for faculty

use*

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• Director• Assistant director/curriculum design specialist• Computer specialist• Student Help

– Some funding designated for faculty stipends switched to student support for individual faculty members

– Encourage department internships and independent study projects*

CITE Staff

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Ownership Policy

• Ownership. If a faculty member receives University support (for example, CITE Fellowships, Culture of Quality grants, reassigned time) then the materials developed (for example, modular courses, musical scores, computer programs, course-related materials, books, curricular materials, photographs) will be considered to be jointly owned by Northwest and the faculty member.

• Jointly owned means:• Both parties are entitled to utilize the materials and their derivatives.• Both parties retain copyright and physical ownership in the event the faculty member

is no longer employed by the University.• Royalties from commercial sale and/or use of the materials and their derivatives will

be split with the University receiving 50% and the faculty member(s) receiving 50%.

• A faculty member has the option to negotiate an alternate agreement with the Provost’s office.*

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Course Management Software

• Software that enables faculty to disseminate course materials online– No need to create course web pages

• Communication resources– E-mail– Threaded discussions– Chat sessions

• Online assessment– Quizzes and surveys– Gradebook*

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Course Management Software

• Comprehensive student tracking options• Digital dropbox• Tracking of access and usage • Major web-based course management

software– WebCT– Blackboard’s CourseInfo– eCollege.com*

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Northwest Online

• The “virtual campus” for Northwest

• Address: http://www.NorthwestOnline.org

• Hosted by eCollege.com– BS in Business Management degree completion

program– High enrollment in summer courses– Have 17 courses online this fall– Adding Accounting 2001*

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CourseInfo

• Supplemental course management software• Hosted by Northwest• Over 400 academic courses currently utilizing

supplemental web resources• Approximately 1/2 of Northwest faculty involved• Over 17% of Spring 2000 courses on campus utilized

CourseInfo*• Means to introduce faculty to online learning

environment*

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One Step Back

• First step toward the new gold standard– EXPECT STUDENTS TO READ THE COURSE

TEXTBOOK!– All too often instructors simply rehash textbook

materials in the lecture notes• Instructor no longer deliverer of course content

(done by the textbook)– Online “lectures” should be used to:

• Summarize course content• Explain in greater depth important, difficult course

content*

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Getting Started

• Provide students with detailed instructions on how to get started in the course

• Provide clear, intuitive site navigation• Provide detailed syllabus

– Comprehensive schedule• Readings• Assignments• Discussion forum

– Clear descriptions• Point distributions• Grading criteria--assignments and forum postings*

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Getting Started

• Timely feedback– Exams– Forum postings– E-mail

• Logical organization of course content– By week– By module

• Most flexible for courses offered over varying lengths of time: spring semester and summer*

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Let Addison-Wesley Do the Work

• Early in the process of establishing an online course, explore what supplemental materials the textbook publishers provide

• Lower division courses: an array of materials• Often available for free or included with purchase of

the textbook• Upper division courses may not have much available

– Ask publisher if you can place materials on the web• Will need to develop materials with assistance from

faculty technology center*

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Two Steps Forward

• Need to redesign course from the ground up– Can’t simply translate course from classroom to online

environment– Need to employ the features of this new medium

• Emphasis on active learning– Students work with the subject matter

• Analyzing scenarios• Making choices• Creating answers• Evaluating each other’s work

• Can easily incorporate existing digital materials such as PowerPoint presentations, Word handouts, maps, and pictures*

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Two Steps Forward

• Instructor assumes the role of mentor to the students

• Allows replacement of the traditional one-to-many classroom communication mode with one-to-one exchanges

• Fear of e-mail overload?– Sign of poorly designed course– Attempt to anticipate questions during course design

phase– Preempt with class-wide e-mail messages*

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Two Steps Forward

• Chat Rooms– May be used for synchronous online office hours

• Found to be ineffective

• Threaded Discussions– Vary with the nature of the course materials– Typically one discussion topic per module/chapter/unit– Assign points to encourage participation

• 10%-20% of overall grade– Provide opportunity for non-academic discussion

forum to promote community building*

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Course Development Efforts

• Redirect effort from generating course lecture materials

• Focus on the creation of tutorial modules

• Modules– Short, very focused tutorials incorporating audio, video, text,

animation– Concentrate on areas within the course content which students

historically have had trouble– Use instructor's expertise, experience and talent in order to

generate true "teaching" opportunities*

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Tutorial Modules

• Produced using PowerPoint, Macromedia Director, or Toolbook II software

• Should incorporate extensive amount of interactivity– Self-paced– Allow interaction with examples and linked materials

• Highlight critical content areas beyond the textbook or that reflect instructor's unique approach to the problem*

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Tutorial Examples

• PowerPoint• Director

– Cell Division– Seasons– Music Appreciation

• Tegrity• Toolbook II• Journalism*

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Beyond the Rhetoric

• Need to move beyond the use of quizzes and tests as evaluation mechanisms

• Use quizzes and tests as interactive mentoring opportunities– Enable students to evaluate their own progress

through the course materials– Provide feedback on course content areas that

need further enhancement and/or development*

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Beyond the Rhetoric

• Quizzes and tests should be viewed as means of promoting learning– Open book and extensive testing time

• Should be only a small component of the overall assessment strategy for the online course

• Evolution from seat-time/credit hours to outcomes-based education– Acknowledging present reality*

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Key to Success

• Strong support from the administration– Budget– Status of online faculty

• Strong support from faculty– Interest in participating in projects

• Rapid integration into university-wide initiatives*

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Marketing

• Key component that is often forgotten– Need for both internal and external marketing

• Targeted marketing plan needed– Coordinate plans with other campus units

• Devise a marketing budget

• Generate advertising materials– Example*

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Making the Transition

• These steps should help assist in obtaining the paradigm shift– Not all courses, though, can or should be

moved to the web

• The steps should work with most instructors– Not every instructor, though, can comfortably

leave behind the ornaments of traditional teaching methodology*

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Making the Transition

• The steps should help create highly interactive web courses– Not likely to be successful unless both the

instructor and students become involved in the whole learning process*

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Why the New Gold Standard?

• Redesign of course curriculum• Emphasis on active learning and problem solving• Development of innovative course materials• Reliance on interactive communications• Focus on individualized instruction and independent

learning skills• Use of technology to provide multiple ways of

presenting instruction• Performance of internal and external quality reviews*

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Dr. Roger Von Holzenrvh@mail.nwmissouri.edu

Ms Darla Runyondrunyon@mail.nwmissouri.edu

http://www.nwmissouri.edu

http://www.nwmissouri.edu/~cite

http://www.NorthwestOnline.org