Poster Outside Our Session
Collaborative Creation: Challenges & Logistics of Launching a Fully Online Graduate Writing Program:
After a quick breakfast, Leanna and I got to the Americas Seminar room around 8:15 a.m. to prepare our Keynote. Our presentation clicked into place thanks to the help of our fabulous Educational Technologist, Chris Gaudreau. I want to give a HUGE shout out to Chris for all his assistance creating our presentation. Embedded videos and audios seamlessly played without a glitch. During the final practice run we made a few minor tweaks to our script and deemed ourselves ready.
As participants came in, we each worked the room introducing ourselves and asking where our guests were from. By 9:25 a.m. we had nine dedicated souls –coming from Utah, Tennessee, Kentucky, Connecticut, Georgia and Washington and elsewhere, all were truly interested in learning what we were presenting. By that point it felt like we were sharing stories with good friends.
During the presentation, I watched the audience take notes and the 30 minutes flew by. Before we knew it, we were into the Q&A session and then packing up our show. We are hoping to repackage the show and present it to a gathering of our Program Directors at Bay Path.
One audience member met up with us in the hallway to chat. He was interested in becoming a MFA faculty member. Peter was able to snap some pictures and also shot a video of our presentation. I hope to upload that in the near future-so stay tuned. After texting the office our gratitude for the flawless Keynote and grabbing a quick lunch we were onto the next session.
Secrets to Teaching Online:
In the afternoon, I choose to support Bill Hettinger, another adjunct faculty member, with whom I have been supporting online and had never met face-to-face. Besides teaching for the MBA, BUS, NMP and CIM programs at Bay Path, Bill also runs his own consulting company called Effective E-Learning and he has written a book on his experience supporting and guiding online faculty.
What I learned from Bill is that we are doing many things right at Bay Path and that we need to continue to re-fresh our online courses to keep them up to par. Nothing we didn’t already know-all this just takes time. One tidbit I did pick up from Bill, which is a good reminder: online courses need to have some consistency. Bill was referring to courses across a program and/or institution. Bill’s nugget to remember is that just as with an Amazon [or any other online] experience, the user wants to arrive feeling welcomed, easily find their way around the course and enjoy the whole learning experience.
Competency-Based Learning [CBL]:
I moved onto a session called, Competency-Based Education and Lessons: Our First Year Swimming in the Deep End, presented by Natalie & Robert Lupton and Laura Portolese Dias from Central Washington University. Their colleague Laura Portolese joined the session via a Google Hangout [with BTW very good results].
They vacillated between explaining their experience implementing competency-based courses revolving primarily around a retail management program of studies with content provided by Cingage.
This team told it like it was and did not spare any details of the pain they went through. However, it did seam like they had plenty of support & budget to bring this to fruition.
When approaching this new learning delivery model there are many aspects to consider as many institutional systems are impacted with the implementation of this approach such as: financial aid, curricular, registration, etc. across campus. This is not something that can be done in a bubble.
Modalities are turned upside down, as Competency-Based Learning:
- requires educating the faculty as CBL measures learning rather than time spent on the assessment.
- becomes a challenging shift for traditional teachers and professors who think in terms of schedules & seat time.
- introduces the concept of fluid movement utilizing technology similar to online programs.
- utilizes technology in seamless fashion to meet course outcomes in delivery competency-based education.
- appears seamless -yet meets outcomes.
- implements one-on-one personal advising for both mentors and evaluators.
- requires measurable competencies.
Challenges which Central Washington University encountered, implementing a competency based program in retail management and technology
- Content -Central got their content from Cingage.
- Faculty understanding
- Program marketing
- they recommend to start marketing early
- Small starts = time to make operational systems changes
Questions:
- Accreditation agency
- Impacts on financial aid
- How and when grades are submitted?
- No competency based transcripts- grades are created on transcripts, just as they always have been done
- Measure success- how?
- How to manage faculty load? No seat hours/seat time ‘other services’
- How many students per advisor /mentor/evaluator 1 to 30
- Copyright issues?
Developing an Effective Program for Training & Supporting the Needs of Online Adjunct Faculty:
Victoria Walker Purdue UniversityAssistant professor in the learning design & technology program
In this session Victoria spoke of the challenges we all face when creating training & support for our online faculty-in particular our adjunct faculty.
Issues:
- Few instructors in the pool
- Locating instructors to teach additional sections
- Instructor interest/excitement in teaching assigned courses
- Instructor performance
- Disappearance during course
- Responsiveness – discussions & grades
- Low interaction
- Grading and feedback timing
- Instructor loss
- Family crisis
- Instructor confusion
- General program policies
- Program & lead instructor expectations for teaching course
- Student issues
- Technology
- Instructor Exhaustion – workload issues
- Program Administrators
- High level of support for instructors
- Student complaints
- Lead Instructors
- High level of support for instructors
- Student complaints
- Instructors operating individually rather than as a team
Anticipated that the vast majority of the new growth will be for part-time-adjunct instructors.
- Declines in funding and greater financial demands-adjuncts are inexpensive
Adjunct Instructors
- Hold advanced degrees – teaching & practicing in their fields
- Often develop some portion of their courses-or augment
- Many adjunct faculty teaching for online programs have never
- Visited the institutions
- No health care or benefits
- Locating Hiring adjunct instructors
- Important for online programs
Benefits in hiring adjuncts
- Remains with the institution
- Bring expertise
- Low cost method to increase course sections
GAP
- Lack of studies dealing with the support of adjuncts
- Responsibility of the admin to provide ample professional support
History of Learning Design & Training [LDT] Program Adjunct Instructor Training & Support
- 30 minutes of PPT orientation
- LMS & Tech support
- Course content support – lead instructors
- Pedagogical support- administrators and lead instructors
- Program policy support – administrators and lead instructors
- Student issues related support -administrators and lead instructors
Design – Based Research
Systematic but flexible methodology aimed to improve educational practiced through iterative analysis design development & implementation, base don collaboration among researchers and practitioners in real-world settings and learning to contextually sensitive design principles and theories. [Wang and Hannafin, 2005, pp. 6-7]
- Researchers & practitioners working together over extended period
- Provide solutions to a practical problem in a specific educational context
- Intervention – process or activity designed as a possible solution
Design Research Model
- Generic model for design research used to outline the training & support project phases
- 2 phases of analysis/exploration, design/construction and evaluation/reflection
Program & Instructor Needs Defined
Support and training were needed PRIOR to teaching [they had no formal training program]
- Administrative support
- Preparing to teach for LDT
Support and training would continue throughout the instructors teaching experience
- Administrative support
- Preparing to teach courses
- Pedagogical and course content and course design support
- Technical questions & student concerns
- Monitoring
Intervention 360 training & support PRIOR to teaching
- Program coordinator hires adjunct instructors
- Curriculum coordinator to provide administration support for adjunct faculty
- Creating university account
- Contracts
- General questions
- Training sessions – scheduling, attending, and documenting attendance, recommendations.
They have an Instructional Designer who assists them in creating their online course.
Orientation training revised & significantly improved
- 4 weeks prior to teaching
- [retake once every 2 years or if the adjunct has not taught in 2 semesters]
- Course housed in LMS [Blackboard]
- Available after training concludes
Support personnel
- Lead instructors
- Curriculum coordinator
- LDT administrators [program concerns]
- Student services coordinator
- ID – technical and pedagogical questions
Check in session
- 1 hour length
- Technical, pedagogical questions, policy questions concerns
- 30 minutes questions/30 minutes learn new
each course as assigned lead instructor
lead instructor provides:
- intro to course
- course specific instructor – JOB Aid for that instructor
- access to previous course
- peer interaction during course
- peer feedback during or after the course
- crisis interventionist
Mentoring piece- new, new instructors
- Paid position assistantship
- Work with core faculty in two courses
- Evaluated by core faculty and students
- Scheduled to assist again
- Scheduled to teach their own sections or
- Dismissed
Evaluation of LDT Training & Support
- Informal feedback
- Adjunct instructor training & support survey
- Distributed every 6 months
Data Collection
- Evaluates training
- Evaluates support received
- Collaboration, scaffolding & mentoring
Future areas for improvement
Community of practice
- Engaging adjunct instructors teaching online courses and provide w/community
- Engaging discussion
- Creating community
- Recognize adjunct faculty
- Benefits beyond pay
