Online Course Design—Presentation & Panel Discussion:

Courses That Worked and Some That didn’t

Brad Paleg, University of Maryland

Beth Raney, Penn. State University

Bob Rost, Oregon State University

Allan Schmidt, Iowa State University

Randy Spears, Purdue University

Ron Thomas, University of Florida

Give Me A Little CreditOr Not!

Strategies for Successful Non-credit Distance

Learning

Barriers to Distance Education

Lack of: Technical support Technical infrastructure Technical expertise/ staff training Marketing and sustaining the program Organizational support

Cho and Berge, 2002

Lack of: Planning and delivering courses Evaluation of courses Learner interaction and communication Student support Incentives for instructors

Cho and Berge, 2002

Barriers to Distance Education

Adapted from:

Kim Cho and Zane L. Berge, 2002

“Overcoming Barriers to Distance Training and Education.” USDLA Journal (16)1

http://www.usdla.org/html/journal/JAN02_Issue/article01.html

Barriers to Distance Education

Professional Development ExamplesUniversity of Maryland’s

Videoconference-based Professional Development

Food Safety Risk Analysis E-learning Program

UMD’s Videoconference-based Professional DevelopmentAnnual month-long professional

development series available to the statewide College of Agriculture faculty and staff

Learners go to one of five statewide H.323 videoconferencing facilities

Courses – 17 different half-day sessions with emphasis on distance learning, information technology, and communications

StrategiesDevelop a learning community

Ensure time for interaction Know thy learner Share the responsibility of active learning

Design for active and effective learning Learner-centered approach Relevant content Measurable performance objectives Motivated learners

StrategiesAvoid the lone ranger syndrome

Instructors Instructional designers Technology support Web developers Marketing Specialists Others?

Prepare for worst case scenarioPlan for robust evaluation

Formative and summative

Food Safety Risk Analysis (FSRA) E-learning ProgramConsists of five professional

development short courses targeting food safety risk analysis, risk

assessment, risk management, and risk communication

Funded with a $320,000 CSREES grant

Resides on the University of Maryland's WEBCT server

Learners - National and international food safety professionals from within educational, business, industrial, agricultural, legal , government, and non-profit organizations

Interdisciplinary team of subject matter experts

Food Safety Risk Analysis (FSRA) E-learning Program

How to Succeed in Distance EducationSelling Convenience

Learners can take a combination of e-learning and face-to-face courses

Learners can access the courses when they want to from where they want to

Selling to Industries Develop agreements with industry, nonprofit,

and government agencies for learner enrollments

Carnevale and Olsen, 2003

How to Succeed in Distance Education ‘Keep it Simple’

Priority in developing a consistent interface that learners can easily master

Separate orientation to the learning management system

Strong learner support Infrastructure of technology that learners can

rely on at all hours

Carnevale and Olsen, 2003

How to Succeed in Distance Education Interactive Technology

Technologies, instructional design, and instructor emphasis on learner-instructor and learner-learner communication

Carnevale and Olsen, 2003

Adapted from:

Dan Carnevale and Florence Olsen, 2003

“How to Succeed in Distance Education.” Chronicle of Higher Education, June 13,2003

http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i40/40a03101.htm

How to Succeed in Distance Education

Senior Producer/Director

for Information & Communication Technologies,

College of Ag Sciences

at Penn State

Steve Williams

Class is planned Faculty Member (FM) agrees to content needs FM agrees to timeline Class is announced Students enroll

Time to begin, and content for only 6 of 15 lessons is done

And then…

Steve’s “Favorite” Design Scenario

FM announces that he’s going to South America for a while, but will get content done!

FM doesn’t get content done, but leaves anyway…

Says he’ll be back before students need it!

What do you do when…

FM comes back 2 days before scheduled need

FM delivers content one day before students look for it!

Steve’s motto: Learn by Doing!

And then…

Fair Use Guidelines Secure Directory Shared login & password for class Security design locked the database after 5

unsuccessful attempts Logistical nightmare for IT to keep unlocking

database for add’l logins

Good idea,but… Journal articles

Ideas that Didn’t Work - Allan Schmidt, ISU

Students cannot be arbitrarily or randomly assigned online

study groups

Wait a week or two until the students get to know each

other and let them choose their own groups or opt out of

groups

In disciplines like math and engineering some student’s

learning styles require them to actually see problems

worked out by hand step-by-step

Record simple streaming lectures with a document camera

or professor using marker and paper working out problems

with voice over

The Course that Almost Disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle of ID” - Allan Schmidt, ISU

ISU received $200,000 PEW Grant for Course Redesign for Discrete(Business)Math

Innovative grant written as cooperative effort among two colleges, three faculty, one VP, one AD and two university IT support units

We got the grant (YEA!) but everyone on the 1st grant writing/design team except myself and one professor either were promoted or left ISU!

Math faculty reassigned to redesign course team did not really want the job nor had ever used the innovative teaching techniques written into the grant

Members Lost at Sea from SECOND Design Team

The Boat Heads into Dangerous Waters New math faculty in charge ignored all

collaborative and case study innovative ID and

basically advocated for an automated independent

correspondence course

Math faculty member was hardcore techie

All business faculty (except one) failed to provide

case studies even though dean made the request

Course had 45 % drop out rate and student

complaints to administration so ……..

Did pilot course with mid-term formative

evaluation by anonymous survey and focus

groups

Added optional study teams

Recorded streaming lectures

Moved recitation to computer lab from

classroom with only chalkboard

ID Staff Works to Gradually Turn the Boat Around

Recording Instructor Actually Working out Problems by Hand!

TA no Longer had to Draw WebCT and Excel on the Chalkboard!

TA Could Now Help Students Work Online Homework in Recitation!

Cruising Safer Waters Instructor came around to new teaching ideas Handed over some of the techie stuff to ID staff On second pilot student satisfaction and drop

out rate improved Voluntary study teams reached (45%) Instructor made his virtual presence felt Online course students did 1/4 grade point

higher than lecture course But not enough math computer labs to scale up

model from 150 to 2,000 students per year

Both Credit and Non-Credit Courses/Modules

Working in WebCT and traditional HTML development tools (Dreamweaver, Microsoft Producer, etc.)

DE Unit Staff: 1 Manager/Instructional Designer1 Web Developer/Instructional Designer1 E-magazine Writer/Web Developer2 Student developers2 Student programmers

Unit also responsible for all video-delivered DE , too

Online Engineering Courses30 – 1 credit courses Learners: Professional Engineers in the hydraulics industryMethod: WebCT and CD delivered materials

Master’s Level Distance Education Courses

Pesticide Applicator Recertification1 (of 4) non-credit modulesLearners: Private applicatorsMethod: WebCT

Online Non-credit Modules

Needs Assessment Audience Analysis Demographics Learner characteristics Goals/Message Performance Objectives Instructional Strategy Budget Schedule Evaluation

What WorksStudent production modelCharge back for out of pocket

expenses CD duplications Student wages

Lessons Learned It’s the economy stupid or the secret

of comedy is timing… MAHA – the economy done did us in Failure to do thorough market analysis

Standardize as much as possible Don’t test on the learners

Ideas That Worked!Ideas That Worked!

Stand-alone Lab Kits for DE coursesStand-alone Lab Kits for DE courses

•PLP 3002 Fundamentals of PLP 3002 Fundamentals of Plant PathologyPlant Pathology

• Six Lab KitsSix Lab Kits

• Kits include CD, Fact Sheet, Kits include CD, Fact Sheet, Specific Items, InstructionsSpecific Items, Instructions

• Kits include list of Materials Kits include list of Materials Needed; items commonly Needed; items commonly available to studentsavailable to students

Ideas That Worked!Ideas That Worked!

Stand-alone Lab Kits for DE coursesStand-alone Lab Kits for DE courses

• Well received by students - Well received by students - “The labs were fun and very “The labs were fun and very informative. Well done CD and informative. Well done CD and lab packets.”lab packets.”

• Does not require students to Does not require students to go to RECsgo to RECs

• Works as one element of well-Works as one element of well-planned courseplanned course

Nice Try, No CigarNice Try, No Cigar

Team Teaching From Remote CampusesTeam Teaching From Remote Campuses

• Division of workDivision of work

• Different teaching and testing Different teaching and testing stylesstyles

• Multiple guest lecturesMultiple guest lectures

• Too much time spent on Too much time spent on media, not enough on IDmedia, not enough on ID

Nice Try, No CigarNice Try, No Cigar

Team Teaching From Remote CampusesTeam Teaching From Remote Campuses

• Online interaction toolsOnline interaction tools

• Web-based lectures Web-based lectures

• Interaction w/ instructor/ Interaction w/ instructor/ instructional techniquesinstructional techniques

• Clarity of assignmentsClarity of assignments

• Communication skills / Communication skills / reliability of technologiesreliability of technologies