Davida Smith & Lisa Curran - College of Business, RMIT

The First Year ExperienceEnhancing the first year experience of students, across transnational delivery locations, through the application of Quality MattersTM standards, redesigning Blackboard and enhancing the digital tools.

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Introduction

• Research in “The First Year Experience” revealed that students consider leaving for many complex reasons which are often inter-related.

• The responsibility for student engagement and retention does not reside, solely, with first year students.

• There are many factors that influence a positive and successful first year experience, the effects of online technologies, whilst being ubiquitous, still remain unclear. There is a risk of students becoming disengaged from their university communities due to the growth in online learning.

Source: Kift, S., Nelson, K., & Clarke, J. (2010). Transition pedagogy: A third generation approach to FYE - A case study of policy and practice for the higher education sector. The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 1(1), 1-n/a. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.5204/intjfyhe.v1i1.13

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Background

• Quality assurance is a critical issue for the delivery of all courses delivered by the College of Business.

• The common core of the Bachelor of Business is studied by approximately 22,000 students, onshore and offshore, on-campus and off-campus, across 5 distinctly different locations to RMIT and RMIT partnered institutions.

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Blackboard Quality Standards (BQS) Project

• Primary outcome:“To have robust blended core courses that meet student expectations, and offer consistency, ease of use and aid in quality teaching”

• Key performance measures:– Student Satisfaction and Experience (student survey);– Course Quality and Alignment (peer review);– Teaching Quality (aligned to RMIT’s Strategic Plan) (student

survey).

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Blackboard Quality Standards - Project Phases

Phase 1: S2 2015 Melbourne: Common core courses, Bachelor

of Business

Phase 2: S1 2016Melbourne,

Singapore, Indonesia & China: Common

core courses Bachelor of Business

Phase 3: S2 2016Melbourne &

Singapore: Undergraduate courses (major

sequences)

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Quality MattersTM Program

• Quality Matters as an organisation represents “broad inter-institutional collaboration and a shared understanding of online course quality” (Quality Matters, 2016).

• Quality Matters program:– Established from an impressive research supported approach to assuring quality and continuous

improvement in the online environment.– Ongoing independent research, since 2003, has been the key to informing the developmental process of

the QM standards.

• The QM program tools appealed to the BQS team and included; – a set of standards for designing online and blended learning components of a course;– a peer review process for applying these standards;– related professional development for teaching staff.

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Quality Matters Rubric

• 8 General Standards and 43 Specific Review Standards:– Course overview and introduction– Learning objectives– Assessment and measurement– Instructional materials– Course activities and learner interaction– Course technology– Learner support– Accessibility and usability

• Unique to the rubric is the concept of alignment, which occurs when the critical course components work together to ensure students achieve desired course learning outcomes.

Source: Quality Matters, (2016). Quality Matters. Retrieved 24 August, 2016, from https://www.qualitymatters.org/

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BQS Customisation of QM tools

• 8 standards merged into 4 and contextualised for CoB

• BQS template to ensure consistency across all Blackboard course sites.

• BQS checklists, complete with criteria that explain the application of the standards and the relationship among them in regards to the concept of alignment.

• Professional development tailored to staff needs and the implementation of the checklists.

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BQS Template

• BQS template is based on best practice in course structure and organisation.

• Designed with student success in mind with the aim of creating a consistent learning experience.

• Template addresses a number of the criteria in the BQS checklists, which means teaching staff do not need to worry about providing this information.

Note: The BQS project does not expect all courses to look like a packaged course, it is expected that no two courses will be exactly the same.

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Blackboard navigation structure – 8 x common core courses

Before implementation of BQS template

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BQS Template

Start here module & welcome

announcement set the scene from week 0

Support services and resources provided in template to provide

consistency

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BQS benefits to students & staff

• The assurance that the course has been designed to provide a positive learning experience; – A more user friendly interface; – A College of Business consistent student experience; – A greater opportunity for student success.

• The free-text feedback from students participated in the BQS student survey strongly supports this claim:– “Compared to my home school (applied sciences) this blackboard

is extremely well utilised and easy to use. Breaking the side bar links into logical sections makes navigation that little bit easier.”

– “Overall my experience with the blackboard system was great, compared to the other layout for my other subjects.”

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Breadth of impact

• Students in Singapore and Melbourne have provided positive feedback which has informed the design and redesign of the BQS template, checklists and staff professional development.

• BQS project has grown from supporting 8 staff and 8 courses to 37 staff and 60+ courses on- and off- shore.

• Phase 3 will see all undergraduate courses take part in the BQS project by the end of 2017.

• BQS template and tools encourage staff to focus on course content and devise innovative and creative ways to present that content to their students.

• Positive word of mouth has seen a number of post-graduate course coordinators requesting support from the BQS project.

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Staff feedback

“There is definitely an increased awareness of online Teaching and Learning tools and there is an enthusiasm among teaching staff to increasingly use these tools to provide the best learning environment for our students.”

"Coordinators and lecturers commented that the new layout helped them to plan and deliver course content and coordinate student learning activities much better than they had done so previously.”

“Overall, the BQS appears to have minimised many queries which led to most of the remaining queries related to the less than ideal design of Blackboard itself such as inadequate group management tools to handle large core classes”.

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Professional Development

• Building staff capacity and the adoption of the standards by academic staff was a key factor in the success of the BQS project.

• Academic staff worked collaboratively with academic development staff during the implementation of BQS.

• Support provided aided in ensuring the impact on the student experience and outcomes, along with enhanced knowledge and skills in the application and use of educational technologies; Blackboard and digital tools.

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BQS process

• Academic staff provided with a review of their previous semester’s Blackboard site, with recommendations on how to meet the standards.

• BQS template applied to upcoming semester’s Blackboard site.

• Existing content, activities and assessment tasks were uploaded into the new structure.

• Course coordinators identified enhancements and worked with an educational developer to implement changes.

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Course enhancements

• Integration of online publisher content and formative assessment tasks;

• Setup of online groups and individual e-assessment tasks;

• Marking undertaken online, including online feedback;

• Online rubrics used;

• Video – including a course welcome; introduction to staff; tutorial workings; Open Educational Resources (OER); weekly updates/summaries; interactive (video & quiz);

• Live Twitter feed – linked to weekly topics;

• Google form to collate weekly feedback on what students are finding difficult, which is then addressed in the weekly video announcement;

• The integration of student response system during lectures;

• Weekly online formative assessment tasks, providing immediate feedback and links to resources for further development;

• Captioning videos.

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BQS website

• Due to demand and limited physical resources a project website was developed to support the implementation of the BQS template, checklists and professional development.– http://bqs-rmit.weebly.com/

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Conclusion

• Online technologies can ensure a positive first year experience for students. However, the focus needs to concentrate on:– the task or problem– how students will engage with resources outside of class time– how interaction between students and staff will occur.

• Technology is the enabler for solving the problem, rather than the means to an end.

• The BQS tools have been designed to aid staff in the design of online course content and student engagement whilst assisting them in devising engaging, innovative and creative ways to present that content.

• The BQS project has fostered important dialogue within the College as to:– what constitutes quality in the delivery of online and blended education– how best to support teaching staff in the design of quality online and blended education– Importance of consistency across course design

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QUESTIONS?