Online Teaching at Arkansas State University Jonesboro Arkansas

Transcription

1 Online Teaching at Arkansas State University Jonesboro Arkansas June 1, 2012

2 Online Teaching at Arkansas State University Jonesboro, Over the last several years my team and I here at ASU s Interactive Teaching & Technology Center (ITTC) have put a lot of effort in developing programs, seminars and checklists to assist faculty in their professional development. The things we do always focus on building-in quality teaching and learning practices by including Blooms Taxonomy principles, teaching and learning best practices, and a standardized process for instructional design that we call the CDLC (the Course Development Life Cycle). The CDLC can be applied to traditional, web-assisted and online course building. Most of the time, faculty come to our center for web-assisted and online support, therefore frequently our time is spent in these areas. Here at the ITTC we believe that rigor and quality for online course building should be built into faculty teaching principles, student learning outcomes, and it should be done while courses are being planned, designed, developed and delivered. We reach across campus and across all programs by offering over 150 (two to three hour) faculty professional development seminars each calendar school year that focus on including quality teaching principles, pedagogy and best practices that will impact solid student learning. In addition, we offer summer institutes where faculty can receive a stipend to come to our center to learn new teaching techniques while being paid to learn. (Funding for this is provided via the student IT technology fee. This summer we are offering three types of institutes and 2 focused seminars. We have 79 faculty registered for a total of 124 sessions that will be conducted during June and July). As you know, faculty primacy and shared governance are very important on our campus. I have been involved in various committees across campus that discuss and/or that address the quality of teaching (both online and traditional) but at this time there are no formal policies that have been adopted across the entire campus or across entire teaching programs, but there are two individual programs that have done so. Those are the Online MBA program in the College of Business and the Large Scale Distance Education (LSDE) program. Len Frey, Dean of the College of Business, hired the ITTC last year to re-develop and rebuild the online MBA program. With the hard work of his faculty and the staff at the ITTC applying our structured course building approach the program received top honors in U.S. News & World Report for We are really proud of being a part of this. See the attached report for details. For the LSDE program Lynita Cooksey invited us to apply this same approach and in May we launched our first 18 courses for various masters programs in the College of Education thus replacing the HEH/AP relationship that was previously run out of Dallas. We have now expanded our reach to include working on the online BSIS, the MPA and the RN to BSN all within the LSDE program. This is another effort that we are proud to include in our partnering across campus. In addition, to meet accreditation standards and assure that students taking online exams are truly who they say they are, both the College of Business Online MBA program and the College of Nursing and Health Professions RN to BSN in the LSDE program have adopted the use of a device called Remote Proctor developed by the Software Secure company. Remote Proctor is an integrated softwarehardware solution that brings academic integrity to distance learning exams. Remote Proctor s fingerprint scanner authenticates the identity of a test-taker, while the camera and microphone monitors the exam environment and records changes in sounds and a 360 view of any motion during an exam. See the attached document for more details.

3 To assist you in better understanding more about how we emphasize rigor and quality for online courses I have included the following for your review. 1. Online MBA Design Receives Honor Roll U.S. News & World Report 2. equip Educational Quality Improvement Process Description 3. The Course Development Life Cycle (CDLC) 4. The Course Building Process: Putting the CDLC into Action! 5. Learning Centers for Quality Course Building 6. Quality Assurance Requirements for LSDE Courses 7. Software Secure Remote Proctor Device Description As a separate attachment I have included the description of the type of professional faculty development offerings we have scheduled for this summer. I hope this information provides an all-inclusive view regarding online teaching here at ASU. If you have any questions, or if I can provide more information, please feel free to contact me. Sincerely, Henry Torres Director, Interactive Teaching & Technology Center Arkansas State University

4 ASU College of Business Honor Roll Recognition for Online MBA January 10, 2012

5 The Educational Quality Improvement Process equip equip The Educational Quality Improvement Process equip is designed to help instructors make incremental improvements on course design and delivery. equip was developed by staff at the Interactive Teaching & Technology Center (ITTC) on the ASU campus in Jonesboro, AR. It is the result of research and real application of best practices in the areas of instructional design and course development. Background: equip is centered on the ITTC developed Course Development Life Cycle identifying eight phases that reflect sound quality course design principles. Course Development Life Cycle: The Course Development Life Cycle (CDLC ) that helps instructors plan, design, construct, and deliver quality courses. Emphasis is placed on the process to build the course and not the course itself. Online Institutes: The Quality Teaching and Learning Online Institute is designed to take instructors through a detailed view of developing using the CDLC. It combines best practices of teaching and learning with effective integration of technology throughout the entire course development and delivery process. This is available as an online self-directed course and as a face to face course. Learning Centers: The Learning Centers are a set of activity-based online modules designed to provide you with essentials skills to develop quality courses. The equip Course Improvement Tool: This software (developed and designed by ASU ITTC) allows you to login to do a self-check of the quality of any of the eight phases of the course development life cycle or you can let it lead you through each phase in an orderly step by step fashion. You can do a quality check on one of your individual courses or your overall approach. It also stores your activity and results so that you can use it as a reference point to track your improvement over time. Knowledgebase: The Knowledge Base provides another layer of support to instructors as they strive to find new and improved ways to use technology in their courses. Supplemental Diagrams: (1) Course Development Life Cycle (CDLC) (2) The Course Building Process: Putting the CDLC into Action!

6 The Course Development Life Cycle (CDLC) The eight phases are: 1. Explore and Understand the Possibilities explore your subject matter, your students, and seek to better understand the most current and relevant teaching and learning techniques available. 2. Course Planning determine the big ideas and learning outcomes for students. 3. Unit and Lesson Design incorporate learning activities into lessons and units that promote higher order thinking skills. 4. Quality Review seek to find ways to continually improve your course, i.e. self-review or peer review. 5. Unit, Lesson, and Material Preparation prepare materials to fully engage and to connect with students. 6. Course Delivery facilitate the learning process through lectures, video, audio, and student interaction. 7. Assessment of Student Learning assess how well students are learning the course content. 8. Evaluation evaluate how well you are delivering the course content. ** Note that continuous learning and the integrating of technology is an iterative process, thus this is implied via the cyclical arrows shown in the diagram above and the gray backdrop represents the Quality Learning Experience signifying that high quality should be considered and built-in during all phases of the CDLC. High quality courses don t just happen!

7 The Course Building Process: Putting the CDLC into Action! Pre-Build Course Building Action Step 1 Course Building Action Step 2 Course Building Action Step 3 Course Building Action Step 4 Post Build Evaluation Instructor meets with Course Building (CB) Team CB Team establishes Build Course shell and imports template Instructor completes Course Sketch and collects course materials CB Team customizes Build Course shell Instructor writes Unit and Lesson Descriptions CB Team establishes course framework for Units and Lessons Instructor completes a Quality Review of Course Sketch CB Team completes a Quality Review of Build Course shell Instructor writes content, activities, assignments, assessments, syllabus and schedule. CB Team imports instructor s content Instructor and CB completes final Quality Review of Build Course shell CB Team imports course into live course for Instructor to use Instructor completes recommended post-course comparison of course grades and evaluations CDLC Phase 1 Explore and Understand Possibilities CDLC Phase 2 Course Planning CDLC Phase 3 Unit & Lesson Design CDLC Phase 4 Quality Review CDLC Phase 5 Unit, Lesson & Materials Preparation CDLC Phases 6 & 7 Course Delivery & Assessment CDLC Phase 8 Evaluation Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Weeks 5-7 Weeks 8-9 Post Course The goal of the Course Building Process is to build a quality course by using best practices through the methodology of the Course Development Life Cycle (CDLC). Best practices suggest partnering the Content Expert (Instructor) with a Course Building Team (ITTC) certified in Blackboard Learn course design, development, and evaluation. Using this methodology allows the Instructor to focus on developing quality course content instead of having to focus their time on the arrangement of materials, course layout and design within Blackboard Learn. Course Building Process

8 Quality Assurance Requirements for LSDE Courses To ensure the quality of each course offered within the Large Scale Distance Education (LSDE) program is consistent in providing best practices in teaching pedagogy for online instruction and learning, the following requirements have been established as directed by the Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Services, Lynita Cooksey: The Content Expert (Instructor) will be partnered with a Course Building Team (ITTC) certified in Blackboard Learn course design, development, and evaluation. All new and preexisting courses will be built using the ITTC in- house developed Course Building Process. Each course will use a consistent course design that includes best practices in teaching pedagogy for online instruction and learning. All new or preexisting courses offered through the LSDE program will be required to go through this Quality Assurance process. The goal of the Course Building Process is to build a quality course by using best practices through the methodology of the ITTC in- house developed Course Development Life Cycle (CDLC). Using this methodology allows the Instructor to focus on developing quality course content instead of having to focus their time on the course design and the technical aspects of course development in Blackboard Learn. The following is a summary of the Instructor and Course Building Team requirements from the Course Building Process (see attached Course Building Process - LSDE). Instructor 1. Instructor completes (or have completed) the Blackboard Learn Boot Camp face2face or online. 2. Instructor completes and submits a Course Sketch for all courses. If the course is a preexisting course, an AP Blueprint will suffice. 3. Instructor provides either a textbook and CD Rom or online access to publisher materials for the course. 4. Instructor provides all course materials that will be placed in the course. 5. Instructor provides all activities, assignments and assessments using the required templates. 6. Instructor completes a Quality Review of the course. Course Building Team 1. CB Team establishes Build Course Shell and Imports Template. 2. CB Team customizes the Template with Instructor/Course information. 3. CB Team establishes the course framework for Learning Units/Modules and Lessons. 4. CB Team imports course content, creates activities, assignments, assessments based on Instructor materials using best practices in teaching pedagogy for online instruction and learning. 5. CB Team exports and imports course, sets up Groups for Academic Assistants, and sets up Grade Center. 6. CB Team completes a Quality Review and a Section 508 Compliance Review of the course.

9 ITTC Learning Centers for Quality Course Building The ITTC Learning Centers are a set of activity-based modules designed to provide faculty with essential skills to develop quality courses. They are designed to be short in duration (1-2 hours) and to present the material in an interesting and engaging way. They are meant to provide an overview of the subject, but they also include resources that can be used to gain a deeper understanding or to serve as a reference on how to build Quality into course building. Additional Learning Centers will be added as they become available: Course Evaluation Tool Engaging Students with Technology Connecting with Students of this Generation Working with Images Enhance Courses Using Tegrity Making the Best Use of the Blackboard Grade Center Learn to use Collaborate! The new Bb Webinar Style Synchronous Teaching Tool How to include Measurable Student Learning Outcomes in your Course Design

10 Remote Proctor Device by Software Secure Inc. Adopted for use in all courses within the Online MBA at the ASU College of Business and for all courses within the RN-to-BSN LSDE program at the College of Nursing and Health Professions. What is the Securexam Remote Proctor? Securexam Remote Proctor is an integrated software-hardware solution that brings academic integrity to distance learning exams. Remote Proctor s fingerprint scanner authenticates the identity of a test-taker, while the camera and microphone monitors the exam environment and records changes in sounds and a 360 view of any motion during an exam. Remote Proctor is connected to the test-takers computer loaded with Software Secure s Securexam software, which locks the computer into the testing program while simultaneously prohibiting access to all applications or pre-existing information which could be used to cheat during an exam. With Securexam Remote Proctor, distance learning students can take exams, just as they learn, anytime, anywhere, and now, with integrity. How does Securexam Remote Proctor work? In order for students to enter Securexam using Remote Proctor, they must first successfully pass through the ID authentication process which entails placing their finger on a scanner which will match their biometrics with the scan gathered during initial registration of the unit, taking a picture, and depending on the school, capturing a picture of an ID card. Once student identification is authenticated, Securexam launches the testing program while locking down their computer until the test is completed. During the test, Remote Proctor will record changes in sound or motion. Those movements are recorded by Remote Proctor and audio and video clips are organized on a website for later review by the institution.