Growing Successful Online Programs at a Small School

On the Internet, no one knows how big (or small) you are. This means that, in the arena of online education, small schools can compete effectively with far larger ones … especially when they take the proper steps to maximize their available resources.

Smaller institutions are often overlooked in discussions of online educational programming. Typical seminars on distance learning focus on large institutions with existing continuing education structures on which to build an online program.

This seminar is different. It is aimed specifically at smaller schools that are developing an online program for the first time.

In Growing Successful Online Programs at a Small School, Dr. Carol Williams explains how to establish thriving online education programs at institutions with fewer than 5,000 students.

You will learn proven steps for launching new online programs, including how to gain faculty support, identify lead administrators, develop solid instructional designs, and provide technological help during the transition to the new delivery system.

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This 90-minute audio online seminar covers:

• Five key areas every small college must evaluate before launching online programs
• Identifying and leveraging existing resources
• Start-up marketing efforts
• Initial admissions plans
• Compensation
• Instructional design
• Delivering pedagogical support
• Administrative structures
• Faculty incentives
• And much more!

You will also identify the key questions and crucial online course development personnel for your own campus.

Who will benefit:
This seminar is designed for college officials involved in developing and implementing strategy at a small (under 5,000 students) college, including:

• Chief academic officers
• College deans
• Professional development leaders
• Department chairs of interested programs
• Chief information technology officers

Get ready to compete online with the larger schools. Move forward today with a copy of this seminar for this informative audio online seminar.

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Free Web 2.0 Tools to Use Inside Your LMS

It seems every day someone is touting the latest Web 2.0 tool as “the next big thing” in collaboration and social networking. Making sense of these tools … and finding those that truly can be used effectively in the higher education environment is a constant challenge. This seminar will show you which technologies are worth your time and which ones you’re better off ignoring.

Your Learning Management System (LMS) has more potential than you may realize.

Thanks to the emergence of Web 2.0 applications such as Wikis, Etherpad, and Google Wave, innovative educators are creating limitless new learning opportunities and discovering ways to embed them within existing Virtual Learning Environments.

The best news is: these interactive web-based tools are available to colleges and universities absolutely FREE and they’re relatively easy to learn.

Web 2.0 collaborative learning is all about interaction and sharing. Teaching at the 2.0 level can transform and reinvigorate your classes while unleashing student and faculty potential.

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In Free Web 2.0 Tools to Use Inside Your LMS, presenter Barry Dahl, Vice President of Technology and Lake Superior Connect e-Campus at Lake Superior College, discusses the best online tools to enhance and upgrade course delivery. An experienced online educator, Dahl demonstrates where to find the most powerful complimentary online applications and explain how to put them to work in your classes.

This is one of Dahl’s most popular workshops, due to the growing interest in adapting online platforms to higher education.

This audio online seminar covers:

• Which online systems to investigate and which to skip
• Level 2.0 ways to collaborate and share inside your LMS
• How to add web content in just two clicks
• Tools for creating and submitting multimedia homework assignments
• Integrating web tools with your Learning Management System
• Using student authoring tools for simultaneous writing
• Creating collaborative group research projects for online sharing
• “Poking holes” in your LMS to allow communication with the outside world
• Outcome examples for faculty tasks and student assignments

This demonstration is conducted using Desire2Learn, but the same principles apply to any other LMS, including Blackboard, Angel, Moodle, etc.

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We’ve committed to teaching online, either totally or simply using Web materials to enhance a traditional classroom setting. Yet with all the features and potential efficiency of teaching software, we still know that too many students simply aren’t “getting” what we have to teach, let alone enjoying it. Why? We bought the best software available; we learned every bell and whistle it had to offer, and we’re confident of our own credentials.

So what’s missing? Maybe it’s as simple as a little up-front housekeeping. Before day one, we can take a few simple but effective steps that will help students launch through that first day, and then use their energy on the course rather than on frustration.

Here are some easy-to-implement best practices for kicking off your online courses:

• Don’t assume students understand the workings of an online course. Offer them tips for online learners that include knowledge of traditional versus online learning, Web etiquette, helpful links, and where to go for help. Also include suggested study tips for online learners. Remind students that even though they are at home when they log on to complete their class work, they still need to find an environment free from distractions where they can turn off the cell phone and the iPod, have someone else watch the kids, and really focus on their class work.
• Don’t assume students have the minimum equipment and/or skill requirements needed to be successful in an online course. Be sure to make the minimum equipment requirements readily available to students prior to the official start date. In addition to whatever postings your institution might offer, a personal email to all students enrolled is a great idea. If your institution doesn’t test students for minimum computer skills, be sure those enrolled understand the basic computer skills needed. All too many students who sign up for Web courses can’t save a file to CD or change a font to boldface.
• Don’t assume students know how to behave in a Web course. Require them to sign a behavior and ethics contract. Said contract should outline the acceptable code of conduct for the course. With the immediacy of email, students often fire off messages without thinking about the ramifications of tone or word choice. Students routinely use email and texting for their daily communication with each other and they may not realize that what works with peers may not be appropriate in an academic setting. Explain such concepts as flaming, using all caps, and interpersonal communication (inappropriate tone) via the Web.
• Don’t assume students know the more important rules and regulations in the syllabus. How many times do students receive a detailed syllabus only to come back and ask an obvious question? Again, give them a short syllabus quiz and require that they score 100 percent before they continue in the course. Four or five questions are plenty.

We’re by no means claiming that this list is exhaustive, or that it will guarantee success. What we can claim is that best practices will net fewer and less troublesome episodes; maybe you’ll avoid that mid-semester insomnia generator that brings you out of a sound sleep with these words: Why didn’t I take care of that when I had the chance?

Lori Norin is an assistant professor of speech communication at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, and Tim Wall is an English instructor at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith.

Excerpted from Up-Front Housekeeping for Web Courses: Facilitating Consistent Performance with First-of-Semester Strategies, Online Classroom, Oct. 2008.

Michael Offerman, president of Capella University, who led the working group that shaped the initiative, said that “To meet the education needs of adult students, we must provide them with trustworthy and transparent ways to choose among many available options and to gauge the potential of each one to further their careers.” The goal of the program is “to lead universities and colleges toward greater accountability and transparency.”

Transparency by Design institutions began issuing annual reports that include comprehensive data for each course of study, including student demographics, completion rates, costs, student engagement, and knowledge and skills learned. Most important, Transparency by Design reports include outcomes at the program specialization level, allowing prospective students to assess how well a program will prepare them for their professional pursuits.

One of the requirements for implementing Transparency by Design is the development of a new set of best practices for participating institutions. “You want to make sure things are in place at the institutional level,” says Merle Harris, president of Charter Oaks State College, who has been instrumental in developing just such standards. “Collectively we went back and we looked at best practices that have been put out by other organizations for online learning and then we developed our set based on those,” she says.

Harris and her associates concluded that there were a few basic principles for institutions that really want to be transparent.

#1 Make distance education a central element of your mission: Distance learning really has to be central to what the institution is doing. If it is viewed as an add-on and not part of the central mission then very often it doesn’t get the resources that are needed to carry out a quality program.

#2 Accountability to stakeholders: Who are the primary stakeholders in a transparent institution? The prospective student and the enrolled student. “One of the reasons we feel it’s important to have accountability measures and to report on those regularly is because prospective students who are making a decision about where they want to go to school, where they want to take courses should have information,” Harris says.

Accountability to prospective students includes providing adequate information about the program, what it contains, and who’s teaching it. But it also includes measuring what happens to students who go through the program. Harris’ group looks at things like graduation rates, retention rates, what alumni say about the program, and measures of student engagement, with the aim of making this information readily available to prospective students.

#3 Responsiveness: In practice this means nothing more or less than good customer service, so that when there are issues and questions students can get quick answers. Responsiveness in the academic process means that faculty respond quickly to a student, so that a student who’s learning online can get an answer to a question or feedback on an assignment within 24 to 48 hours, depending on the institution’s policy. Administratively, responsiveness means that if there are questions about grades going out, about registration, about fees being paid the student will get very quick response either by email or by telephone.

Click here for Part II of this article.

Excerpted from Transparency is Good Practice for Online Administration, Distance Education Report, April 1, 2008.

One factor that tends to increase the amount of time an instructor spends teaching online is the need for interaction. Students crave online interaction with their instructors. More interaction may not mean more learning but it does mean a greater time commitment for both instructor and student. Paradoxically, the learner who seeks interaction can also create pedagogical problems for the instructor who may find responding time-consuming and labor-intensive.

The key is to increase the amount of time spent on instructional interaction while reducing the amount of time spent on dealing with logistical issues by altering course attributes, features, and policies.

I recommend reducing or removing extraneous cognitive load and embedding support features to encourage students to engage in self-regulating activities such as organizing learning materials and monitoring progress—two activities strongly associated with higher achievement.

One tool I use to reduce the amount of time commitment on the part of the instructor caused by extraneous cognitive load and students’ lack of self regulation is the assignment table, an online course feature that displays every assignment in chronological order by due date, with the assignment name, where it is submitted in the online course, and the number of points it is worth. This puts the most critical information that the instructor and the students need to constantly monitor in one location.

The assignment table helps poorly self-regulating students find essential course information and reduces the number of logistical questions they ask the instructor. The assignment table also means that any updates to assignment information need be made in only one location.

Kathryn Ley is an associate professor in the Instructional Technology Program at the University of Houston—Clear Lake.

Excerpted from Saving Time Online Through Effective Communication, Online Classroom, July 2009.

11 Strategies for Managing Your Online Courses

Much has been written about the challenges of teaching an online course. While not discounting the unique (and sometimes frustrating) aspects of the online learning environment, it could be said that, despite the numerous differences, many of the same course management strategies that are essential to success in a traditional classroom also apply in the online classroom.

A strong syllabus, clear directions, well-organized materials, and timely feedback are the building blocks of any course management plan … whether you teach online or face to face.

Of course, the big challenge for online instructors is that the very nature of online education amplifies the importance of properly addressing these management issues, while throwing a few more additional obstacles into the mix. So if you think the flexibility of online teaching also means that it’s OK to “wing it” now and then, you’d be wrong. If anything, you have to be more organized, more consistent and more prepared for anything than ever before.

11 Strategies for Managing Your Online Courses

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Choosing the right communication tools and protocols, addressing technology problems, managing student expectations, and building community are just some of issues that can stretch online instructors to the breaking point.

11 Strategies for Managing Your Online Courses was created to help online instructors tackle many of the course management issues that can erode the efficiency and effectiveness of an online course. It features 11 articles pulled from the pages of Online Classroom, including:

• Syllabus Template Development for Online Course Success
• The Online Instructor’s Challenge: Helping ‘Newbies’
• Virtual Sections: A Creative Strategy for Managing Large Online Classes
• Internal or External Email for Online Courses?
• Trial by Fire: Online Teaching Tips That Work
• The Challenge of Teaching Across Generations

Remember, you’re not the only one who may be a little anxious about going online. Students often have anxiety when taking their first online course as well. It’s up to you to help them feel more confident and secure, all the while keeping your workload at a manageable level. The course management tips in this report will help.

11 Strategies for Managing Your Online Courses

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Faculty Focus contains a wealth of valuable material – not just about online course management, but all of the key issues that matter to today’s top faculty and administrators. It’s packed with best practices, tips, and other information you can use on the topics that impact your students, your school and your work, including:

• Instructional Design
• Faculty Development
• Teaching Strategies
• Distance Learning
• Classroom Management
• Educational Assessment
• Faculty Evaluation
• Learning Styles
• Curriculum Development
• Community College Issues
• Trends in Higher Education
• And much, much more.

11 Strategies for Managing Your Online Courses

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