Discovering and Describing Best Practice: Using Faculty-Student Dialogue to Guide Improvement. Pat Lawton Visiting Lecturer, University of Illinois

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1 1 20th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning click here -> Discovering and Describing Best Practice: Using Faculty-Student Dialogue to Guide Improvement Pat Lawton Visiting Lecturer, University of Illinois Rae-Anne Montague LEEP Coordinator, University of Illinois Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1995) suggests that our biology and our ontology are inextricably linked. A move to a new job or a new house, for example, renders our everyday world as different. Old habits may drop off and new ones form. New educational environments too bring with them a novel sense of time and space, and online education in particular offers unique opportunities for transformation. Technology has and will continue to change forms of teaching and learning (Laurillard 1993; Bates 1995; Harasim 1995). How might the teaching and learning in these new spaces differ? What effective practices for teaching and learning have evolved in the online environment? This paper reviews and synthesizes what has been learned about teaching and learning online in LEEP, an award-winning online degree program offered through the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The LEEP Program The LEEP program is a scheduling option for students seeking an accredited master s degree in library and information science (LIS) online. In the nine years since its inception, LEEP has evolved into a dynamic community of learners with 282 students currently enrolled, and a total of 376 graduates. LEEP technologies and strategies reflect a hybrid model. Classes include synchronous, asynchronous and independent components as well as brief periods of face-to-face contact. Synchronous sessions with chat, audio, and graphics are typically scheduled once per week, and activities include discussions, group tasks, lecture and oral presentations. Asynchronous activities involve electronic bulletin board discussion, small group work, and . Independent learning activities provide opportunities for expanding on concepts outside class and include independent study, practica, community-based tasks and theses. A key component of the LEEP program's success is its blend of on-campus and online engagement. LEEP students have face-to-face contact for one week at the beginning of their studies and mid-semester thereafter. Face-to-face sessions include advising, mentoring, videos, tours, small group work, seminars, demonstrations, oral presentations, hands-on workshops, community meals and opportunities for socializing. This aspect of the program is integral to developing connections and to fostering the strong sense of community in LEEP and within the UIUC community. Measures of Online Success Throughout academe, a number of formal models and accrediting bodies are used to both develop and evaluate educational programs, and several models are designed specifically to guide online programs. Modes for online learning include the Sloan-C Quality Framework ( The American Distance Education Consortium Guiding Principles for Distance Learning ( and The Institute for Higher Education Policy s Quality on the Line Benchmarks ( These three models emphasize objectives and strategies to promote a quality educational experience situated in an online environment and may be used as measures of success. An

2 2 20th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning click here -> alternative approach to considering quality may focus on what the participants themselves consider practices, or, 'best practices', which contribute to a quality educational experience. Model of Research and Practice Faculty have played and continue to play a key role in the design and development of the LEEP program. Interdisciplinary approaches to research are often employed in LIS and in the case of LEEP, faculty and doctoral student research interests in computer-mediated communication, interface design, collaborative learning and online pedagogy have led to a variety of investigations. The LEEP Bibliography ( includes citations of over eighty such documents, which contribute to new knowledge and inform improvements in LEEP course and program design. In addition to formal research initiatives, LEEP has undergone a series of evaluations. These include review by an independent consultant, semi-annual faculty conference call discussions on teaching in LEEP, a comprehensive five-year program review and standard university course evaluations (used in all classes). These evaluations provide insights into specific aspects of the program and have also been used to demonstrate quality (to prospective students, employers, university administrators, etc.). In August 2002, a retreat was organized to explore best practices in LEEP and to determine firsthand from LEEP s participants what effective teaching and learning online looks like. Data from this retreat, plus data from aforementioned studies form the basis for this review of the LEEP community's discoveries about teaching and learning online. Retreat Objectives and Methodology The LEEP Retreat While investigations contribute to enhanced understanding of online education and serve as catalysts for program improvement, these studies have not sought to understand the overall success of the LEEP model by promoting self-directed dialogue across groups. As Freire observed, Only dialogue, which requires critical thinking, is also capable of generating critical thinking. Without dialogue there is no communication, and without communication there can be no true education. (Freire, 1993, pp ). The aim of the LEEP retreat was to provide an opportunity for faculty, staff and students to identify teaching strategies, methods and supporting technologies that have been the most advantageous to teaching and learning. In short, retreat organizers (the authors) aimed to identify and describe a model of best practices" by considering the experiences of all those involved in LEEP since its inception. While three primary questions motivated the research: 1) what are LEEP best practices 2) has our participation in this community changed us as students, teachers, as people and 3) how might we improve the quality of the LEEP experience, the first is the focus of discussion in this paper. To articulate a model of best practices for LEEP based on faculty-student dialogue, it is necessary to first elicit participants tacit knowledge of their own online teaching and learning experiences. According to Crowley (1999), tacit knowledge has the potential to inform practice by becoming explicit through intergroup dialogue. With this in mind, retreat organizers employed two methods to promote intergroup dialogue: asynchronous electronic bulletin boards and focus groups. Best Practice Themes The asynchronous electronic bulletin boards discussion enabled the retreat coordinators to identify themes that were important to the LEEP community, and these discussions determined the formation of focus

3 3 20th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning click here -> group categories. During a three-month period, there were 157 posts by 62 individuals. Based on these posts and notes from faculty conference calls, fourteen focus group topics emerged for the retreat. The focus group topics naturally fell into three broad categories: Research: Learning Styles Online, Research in LIS, Theory and Practice, Diversity Services: Administrative Support, Alumni Services, Technology Support, Library Services Teaching and Learning: Orientation/On-Campus Sessions, Group Work, Faculty/Staff Perspectives, MS Curriculum, Students'/Graduates' Perspectives What Are "Best Practices" in LEEP? Best Practices for Online Teaching and Learning Five categories dominate faculty and student response to the first research question, What are "best practices" in LEEP? These are: (1) orientation, also known as "boot camp", (2) on-campus sessions (face-to-face), (3) group work, (4) synchronous sessions (live sessions), and (5) order and organization. The first four categories emerged during bulletin board discussions. The last, order and organization, comes from the final analysis of the retreat data, conference calls, and research papers. This concept appeared frequently enough in the data to warrant its own place as a category of best practice. Boot camp. Boot camp is the term that has emerged from the LEEP community to describe the initial face-to-face session that is required of all LEEP students. The boot camp name reflects not only the intensity and the sense of preparation for the future in a new role as student but also the arduous and at times disheartening shared experience that serves (in the long term) to form deep and lasting bonds among LEEP participants. While somewhat controversial, boot camp is still considered one of the features of LEEP that results in an approximately 95% retention rate. As one retreat participant relayed, I never went to real boot camp, but from what my hubby, dad and brothers tell me, it's not so much about torture as it is about a shared experience." Boot camp is important as shared experience. It immerses students in LIS and provides opportunities for forming lifelong friendships and a deep sense of community. On-campus sessions. The LEEP on-campus sessions are required mid-semester face-to-face class meetings. Sessions are generally held for five days over an extended weekend. On-campus class meetings can, and in the eyes of students, should be a highlight of the semester. They provide faculty and students with the opportunity to meet and explore aspects of the class that do not easily transfer through computer mediated communication. The on-campus sessions also allow students to improve their technical skills via workshops, develop their resumes with resume-writing workshops, and engage in many social opportunities (from small group meetings to all-community gatherings). Group work. Group work is the practice that everyone loves to hate. Faculty and students alike endorse this as a best practice, even though it requires a great deal of hard work for all involved, and can bring frustration. Clear and comprehensive instructions, provided in advance by instructors, are reported as most critical to the success of groups. Students want guidance on how to function within the groups, what to do and what is expected of them, and when and how they will be evaluated. Students are strongly opposed to evaluating one another and adamantly in favor of regular and thoughtful feedback from faculty. In the words of a student at the retreat, Expectations must be defined in advance - guidelines, contracts, plans. [The instructor needs to] make clear from the beginning how much of your grade is the group project, how much is group process and how much is content. Synchronous sessions. Synchronous sessions are real-time, online sessions between instructor and students, using a combination of RealAudio delivery, class slides, and chat room discussion. The

4 4 20th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning click here -> structure and frequency of these sessions varies from class to class and instructor to instructor, but most involve a two-hour session once per week. According to notes from a LEEP conference call, In live sessions the faculty member must find ways to: 1) make effective use of the ability to interweave navigation of slides and other Web sites with audio narration; 2) monitor text-chat to respond to student questions; 3) use small group discussions; 4) involve guest speakers; and 5) integrate student presentations. One faculty member explains, live sessions are engaging to the students when a variety of activities are planned. [Instructors must] be sure to allow time to respond to students' questions and explain how you want to integrate that activity into the overall structure of the live session time slot. Classes do need to be scripted to take best advantage of the time available. Veteran online faculty have noted that less is more in terms of content during live sessions. As the level of student participation is so great, instructors must be flexible in allowing new areas of discussion to emerge, based on student input. There is little pressure to stop discussions in an online class since electronic bulletin boards keep discussions alive. As one student at the retreat noted, I love being in class, everything can get asked and be answered afterwards, better than on-campus. Faculty noted they find a need to reduce the number of points addressed and are concerned that lectures may become overly simplistic. However, they also find that more content emerges asynchronously as a result of the intense synchronous sessions. As one retreat participant put it, there is a need to plan and organize, provide a focus for the class, but [subsequently] there is a need to let it go and be a part of it as it unfolds. Order and organization. This is a recurring theme from the retreat, conference calls, and the literature (Smith, Lastra, & Robbins, 2001). Since content and tasks for online learning are interpreted remotely, it is imperative for course materials to be clear and organized. One wrong date or incorrect URL can throw off a busy student s day and, for adult learners, wasting time is a major offense. In the words of a retreat participant, Instructors are rated by organization, students don t have time to waste. Conclusions and Future Research What has been achieved and what is known about teaching and learning in LEEP vis-à-vis personal and communal reflection and transformation is noteworthy and has been corroborated by a number of studies and researchers. Observation, interviews with students, faculty, and staff, focus groups, and surveys have been used as methods to approach the question of best practices for teaching and learning. Particularly important is that instructors and students alike have been consulted for their perceptions of what works and what doesn t. A teacher may think that a particular technique or delivery is working very well, but students may interpret it very differently. In the words of Michel de Certeau, The presence and circulation of a representation [teaching] tells us nothing about what it is for its users. We must first analyze its manipulation by users who are not its makers. Only then can we gauge the difference or similarity between the production of the image and the secondary production hidden in the process of utilization (de Certeau, pp. xiii-xiv). Opportunities for reflection and dialogue during the LEEP retreat increased participants' understanding of effective practice in online teaching. This, in turn, has served as a catalyst, prompting new ideas, projects, investigations and communities of inquiry to emerge. References Bates, A.W. (1995). Technology, open learning and distance education. London: Routledge. Crowley, B. (1999). Building useful theory: Tacit knowledge, practitioner reports, and culture of LIS inquiry. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 40 (4), De Certeau, M. (1984). The practice of everyday life. Berkeley: University of California Press.

5 5 20th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning click here -> Freire, P. (1993). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum. Harasim, L. (1995). Learning networks: A field guide to teaching and learning online. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Laurillard, D. (1993). Rethinking university teaching. London: Routledge. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1981). Phenomenology of perception. London: Routledge. Smith, L. C., Lastra, S., & Robins, J. (2001). Teaching online: Changing models of teaching and learning in LEEP. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 42(4), Biographical Sketches Pat Lawton is Visiting Lecturer at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) where she has been a member of the faculty since She teaches regularly in LEEP, GSLIS' Internet-based Master's program. Her research interests include education for LIS, online pedagogy, and the impact of new technologies on cataloging and classification theory and practice. She holds the MLS degree from Indiana University, and is a doctoral candidate in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Address: Graduate School of Library and Information Science University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL plawton@uiuc.edu Phone: Rae-Anne Montague is LEEP Coordinator and Doctoral Candidate at the UIUC GSLIS. Her research interests include online education, information literacy, learning technologies, and diversity. She has recently completed several articles and presentations focused on effective practices in online education. Rae-Anne received her MS in Library and Information Science online from UIUC (2000) and a MEd in Curriculum and Instruction at St. Mary's University in Halifax, Canada (1994). Address: Graduate School of Library and Information Science University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL rmontagu@uiuc.edu Phone: