Designing a Tracking System to Ensure Quality, High-Volume Course Development

Sloan-C/ALN ConferenceNovember, 2005

Nicola MartinezSusan Oaks

Presentation Overview

Objectives:

Identify & discuss issues related to high-volume course development

Offer ideas on retaining quality while dealing with volume

Evoke questions related to what constitutes “quality” in online courses

Inspire discussion of an inclusive process (instructional designers, faculty, staff) of resource development

Demonstrate CourseTrak database designed to deal with quality and volume issues

Empire State College

Multiple locations around New York State

The Center for Distance Learning (CDL) serves adult students around the world

Center for Distance Learning

Offers online courses in five, 15-week semesters per year

Leading enroller in SUNY Learning Network Partners with eArmyU, Navy, labor unions, public &

private organizations Offers degree programs in eleven areas of study:

The Arts, Business, Human Services, Humanities & Cultural Studies, Educational Studies, History, Human Development, Labor Studies, Science-Math-Technology, Social Theory-Structure-Change

Context: Rapid Online Growth

Increase in f/t faculty from 8 to 20 (and growing) within the past three years; parallel increase in numbers of courses offered

New Director of Curriculum and Instructional Design responsible for managing a team of designers to shepherd faculty through the course development process and coordinate instructional support

Development of new courses coupled with implementation of a revision cycle for existing online courses

Center for Distance Learning Course Statistics

350 distinct online courses, many with multiple sections46 courses developed/revised for Sept 0350+ courses developed or revised for Jan 0468 courses developed or revised for Sept 0470 courses developed or revised for Jan 0555+ courses in development or revision for Sept 0565 courses in development or revision for Jan 06Over 6,000 enrollments per termall courses on a two year revision cyclemanaged using the CourseTrak system

Coursetrak

An interactive database designed to:

Integrate information for all participants

Create a public record from course proposal through course development, review, offering, and revision

Foster collaboration through its public nature

Facilitate course review and evaluation

Coursetrak: A Community of Practice

Information becomes readily available

All users can follow the track of the discussion

Substantive discussions can occur re: course content and approach

Faculty and instructional designers contribute ideas

The community can expand, with access provided to course developers and reviewers

CourseTrak Community Members

Curriculum Committee

All CDL Faculty

Curriculum & Instructional Design Groups

Staff

All have access to CourseTrak database at appropriate times

Curriculum Committee

Representative committee of faculty from 4 main groups of study (business, human services, humanities, science-math-technology)

Oversees policies & procedures for course development

Reviews/approves specific course proposals

Identifies curricular issues on the course and overall curricular levels

All CDL Faculty

Coursetrak: Reminds course developer/Area Coordinator of

required information, objectives, content, and learning activities in course proposals

Requires rationale for new courses in terms of academic skills, student population, etc.

Invites other faculty collaboration, including adjunct faculty involved in the course development process

Facilitates quality review

Curriculum & Instructional Design Group

Advises faculty on curriculum development Shepherds developers through the development cycle Provides pedagogical, assessment, and instructional

development training as needed Designs course development processes Facilitates team development sessions Aligns support for course developers Assures academic excellence and design quality of

courses Oversees program evaluation and improvements

Course Development Teams

Made up of different configurations of faculty, instructional designers, librarians, including:

An Area Coordinator (f/t faculty responsible for curriculum in a particular area of study)

A Coordinator of Instructional Design & Curriculum Development

One or more Course Developers (content expert/s who develops course content & assessment activities)

One or more Instructional Designers A Multimedia Instructional Designer A Librarian

Staff

Staff access CourseTrak at appropriate places in the term preparation cycle to access information for:

Books & materials ordering for the course

Course descriptions for listing in the course catalog

Course availability for each term’s listing & scheduling

Generic course evaluation information for the student’s narrative transcript evlauation

Wergin argues that:

“the desire to belong, to feel part of a nurturing community, one in which the faculty member has an

important role to play never goes away.”

“themes of engagement, critical reflection, and honest collegiality” (p.121) are very relevant to the problem

of engaging adjunct faculty.

CourseTrak: A Staged Process

1. Course Concept Discussion/feedback from Area Coordinators(f/t

faculty)

2. Course Proposal Discussion/feedback from Area Coordinators, Course

Development Teams

3. Course Review/Approval by Curriculum Committee Feedback listed publically

4. Course Review/Rating by Instructional Design Team

Throughout the Process:

Asynchronous, threaded discussion of entries

Curriculum Committee uses the data

Instructional Designers assess course and developer needs

Creates a visible history of a course

CourseTrak

Course Concept

Course Concept cont’d

Course Concept Feedback

Feedback cont’d

Course Proposal Information

Course content summary Catalog description Prerequisites Needs assessment/rationale/audience Course topics/learning objectives Texts and materials Assignment description Academic skills development Development plan SUNY General Education Requirements

Additional Access Granted

Instructional Design Perspective

For large-scale development of pedagogically and academically sound courses, instructional designers need to work with course developers to ensure:

Active learning Media-rich content Student interaction Opportunities for teaching, social and cognitive

presence

Instructional Design Approach

Develop a new standard for course information documents and implement them in the courses

Create a new design for courses to increase navigability and overall consistencies in look, feel, format

Encourage experimentation with design to further link course structure with content

Enrich courses with multimedia components and other graphic enhancements

Include library referenced materials in all courses, with at least one library-based learning activity per course

Identify and implement best practices in the pursuit of academic and pedagogical excellence in online course development for adult learners

Course Development Resources and Support

Examples of Resources and Support Provided to Developers

Instructional design assistance Pedagogical advice Library review of course & research assignments Assistance designing learning activities, assessments of

learning Media-rich content identification Multimedia learning objects Website identification, evaluation, & compilation Digital image identification Best practice examples provided

The Course Resource Needs Analysis

Information captured in the Course Resource Needs Analysis Form is used to generate work requests for

technical assistance library assistance multimedia learning object creation digital media research and implementation and instructional design/pedagogical support, among other things.

 

The Course Resource Needs Analysis

The Course Resource Needs Analysis

Best Practices Promote Deep, Collaborative, & Visual

Learning

Knowles (1998) & Wlodkowski (1993) Students know why learning is required Students direct their learning Students learn to apply theory to reality Students realize successful learning

Lave & Wenger (1991) Students learn through collaboration

Zull (2002) Students learn through images—much work has focused

on incorporating images into text-based courses

Visual Pedagogy

What Images Give Us We can visualize the world with our eyes closed. Neuroscience doesn’t have a complete explanation of these images yet, but there is little doubt that they begin with physical maps consisting of connected neurons in the brain. Our brains are full of such networks, and it seems certain that what we call thinking and remembering is based on them. (Zull, 144)

Images and Academics Given the centrality of images, it seems that teachers could make extensive use of images to help people learn. If we can convert an idea into an image, we should do so. And whenever possible, we should require our students to show us their images. It should go both ways.

Zull, James E. The Art of Changing the Brain: Enriching the Practice of Teaching by Exploring the Biology of Learning. Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Publishing, 2002

visual pedagogy:

Sample Visual Pedagogy

Best Practices

Course Review Process

We established a three-tiered categorization of courses based on the inclusion of the above recommendations and the application of a new course design.

All new and revised courses are reviewed an assigned the following ratings:

Course Rating System

Tier Rating

Tier 3 Exemplary Course

Tier 2 AcceptableSome criteria met, revisions needed

Tier 1 Not Acceptable (recommend cancel)

NR Not Rated

Course Rating System

Tier information and classification is generated as a result of the information captured in The Empire State College Online Course Evaluation Checklist.

All courses are considered unrated until they have been reviewed with this instrument.

The evaluation piece associated with The Empire State College Online Course Evaluation Checklist happens at several levels.

Online Course Evaluation Checklist

Administered during and after a new course has been developed, before delivery

Before an old course is revised to identify specific areas targeted for improvement

After an old course has been revised to ensure that it is complete and meets all baseline criteria for a Tier 3 course

http://www.esc.edu/coursetrak

Online Course Evaluation Checklist 1

Online Course Evaluation Checklist 2

Focus on Quality Assurance

Establish baseline criteria for courses Evaluate and review courses Track performance Capture data Make necessary adjustments to courses Create a data driven analysis Develop a report Make recommendations Improve process & performance using results

Applicability to Other Institutions

Level of instructional support Number of faculty developing new courses Number of new faculty needing intense support How to integrate the system with other relevant

systems Access control and security issues Analyze your assumptions

Questions ?

Nicola.Martinez@esc.eduDirector of Curriculum and Instructional

Design

Susan.Oaks@esc.eduAssociate Professor, Writing & Literature