How To Offer A Fully Online Graduate Degree At Grand River Valley University

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1 Midwest Association of Graduate Schools/ETS Award for Excellence & Innovation in Graduate Education GVSU College of Education Andrew Topper GVSU College of Education

2 1 Using technology to serve distant graduate students at Grand Valley State University Background Grand Valley State University (GVSU) is a masters comprehensive university offering masters and doctoral degrees in 32 programs. Graduate students who reside at a distance from GVSU s two main campuses must often travel considerable distance when enrolled in traditional, on-campus programs. While some graduate courses are offered online, or in hybrid format, these programs still require travel to campus for course or degree completion. An existing graduate program in educational technology is offered in hybrid format, with some on-campus activities, but with the majority of work done online. Within the College of Education (COE), the majority of students enrolled in our graduate degree programs are full-time educators with limited time to travel back and forth to campus. One way for the COE to expand and extend its graduate programs to educators outside the local area would be to use technology in the form of web-based learning environments to offer fully online degrees which require no on-campus visits. In this case, technology provides a means for serving students who are interested in graduate programs but are unwilling or unable to attend on-campus programs due to distance. The GVSU COE received approval for the university s first fully online graduate degree in educational technology from the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association (HLC/NCA) in early We consider use of this innovation - offering our program entirely online via technology - as a vehicle for extending our reach to students who otherwise would not enroll in our graduate program in educational technology COE faculty members have been teaching online graduate and undergraduate courses for several years and have shared their research in scholarly journals (Topper, 2007). We also believe that an online graduate program in educational technology, available to students who reside outside the tri-county area, could serve as a model for others at GVSU who are interested in implementing quality online degrees. Rationale The online graduate program in educational technology was designed to serve professionals who do not live in the local area while maintaining high levels of instructional quality allowing the university to compete for graduate enrollments in a competitive market. For students who currently do not have access to graduate education, including GVSU alumni, an online degree program provides opportunities for continued professional education in areas not served by existing graduate offerings.

3 2 In order to determine whether there was sufficient interest in an online graduate program, GVSU contracted the Morrow Group to survey, by telephone, recent GVSU graduates living outside the local area and inquire about their interest in such programs. A combined total of 84% of the respondents indicated that they would be much more likely (31%) or somewhat more likely (51%) to enroll in the educational technology program if it were offered online. Given that these respondents reside outside the Grand Rapids area, and were not being served by GVSU at the time, this represented a new population of students who could enroll in the proposed degree if it was offered entirely online. Another factor that predicated offering an online graduate program in educational technology was adoption of an online experience as a graduation requirement for all high school students in Michigan. National educational technology standards call for K- 12 teachers to experience online education themselves so they can better serve their students. With our graduate program focused on helping teachers integrate technology into the K-12 curriculum, we felt offering it online would provide opportunities for them to directly experience technology in support of instruction and assessment. Steps The approval process for the first online graduate degree at GVSU was extensive, taking 3-years, and involved all aspects of shared faculty governance. Because it would be a new degree offering, considered distant by our accrediting agency, it required both internal and external approval. We followed the Best practices for electronically offered degree and certificate programs (2000) and Principles of good practice for electronically offered academic degree and certificate programs (1999) in designing the program. After a review of the research on online education, a proposal was developed and approved by faculty governance in December of 2009, after the Provost appointed a task force on online education to explore criteria for evaluating the program proposal. A final plan for the program was developed, reviewed by faculty governance, and approved in April of Working with the Office of the Provost, COE faculty developed a request for HLC approval to offer this program online to distant students. We received approval for the program and began enrolling students in the summer of Students in our online program represent 36% of the total currently enrolled, all new to GVSU, and we hope to expand this percentage in the future while maintaining our hybrid program for students who reside in or near Grand Rapids. Assessments & metrics We chose to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of our online graduate program in order to ensure students experiences are comparable with those in our existing, hybrid degree program.

4 3 A convenience sample was drawn from students enrolled in courses within the two M.Ed. degrees in educational technology during the spring/summer 2011 through winter 2013 terms 6-terms total. Courses were offered in various formats, including fully online (0% required on-campus class sessions or activities), hybrid (1-49% oncampus class sessions required), and other traditional weekly class sessions on campus with 3-4 online sessions, 3 weekend-format class sessions, or condensed format offered during two weeks in June. The hybrid and online courses used both synchronous and asynchronous computer-mediated communication tools in BlackBoard and other webbased learning environments. Since student course evaluation (SCE) response rates varied across courses and sections, multiplying the mean student evaluation item scores by the response rate (n/n), which is a number between 0 and 1, acted as a weighting scale for the data in our analysis. We applied Kruskal Wallis, a nonparametric alternative to one-way ANOVA, to compare the course formats based on the adjusted mean responses for this data set. Average response rates for each course format are reflected in Table 1. Online Hybrid Other Sections Avg. Response Rate 70.11% 61.82% 69.61% Table 1 After comparing seven (7) SCE items reflecting instructional quality, individually and in groups, there were no statistically significant differences based on course format. In addition to SCE data, researchers gathered and analyzed survey data from graduates and current students in both programs. 30 responses have been collected through mid- October, 2013, with 17 students from our hybrid degree and 13 students from our online degree. Survey data revealed that 62% of students in the online program rated online campus support systems extremely useful or very useful, compared with 88% of students in the hybrid program. Students in both degrees rated course offerings as "sufficiently flexibility to meet their needs, with online students reflecting a higher % who responded with a "neutral" rating 23% vs. 12% for hybrid students. Online degree students prefer online course (offerings with 0 face-to-face class sessions) while students in the hybrid degree rated hybrid highest, followed by fully online courses Student outcomes The COE uses an online assessment collection and analysis tool as part of our ongoing accreditation through NCATE. Each graduate-level course has common assignments across all sections. We are working on a comparison of assessment data across the two

5 4 degrees and expect to have additional data for analysis to compare specific student outcomes in the future. Grade point averages for students in our online and hybrid degrees are comparable as demonstrated in Table 2 below. Online Hybrid Academic Year N Avg. GPA N Avg. GPA 2010/ / / Table 2 Even though our sample size is small, significant differences have been observed in average time to graduation since the online program started (2011): Hybrid N= terms Online N= terms Sustainability As part of the strategic plan, GVSU is committed to exploring online degree programs that embody a focus on quality instruction upon which the university prides itself. Specifically, objective 1.7 ensures that GVSU will determine feasibility and costs associated with online programs, and seek HLC/NCA approval for such degrees. The COE online educational technology graduate degree is a first step in extending GVSU offerings in the online domain and fits with our current mission. Additional online graduate degree proposals are currently under review at GVSU. Institutional changes Taking the recommendations of faculty governance groups into account, the University Academic Senate (UAS) unanimously approved the establishment of a new faculty governance committee - the Online Education Committee (OEC) that provides oversight and policy regarding the university s online and hybrid program offerings. The OEC was established to address pedagogical, technical, and resource issues specific to online/hybrid programs. In tandem with new faculty governance oversight, the UAS approved a mandate that all instructors who have no experience with online/hybrid pedagogy must attend a university workshop in online pedagogy. The Faculty Teaching and Learning Center, in collaboration with instructional designers from information technology (IT), developed multiple levels of training to accommodate varying degrees of pedagogical understanding and aid all faculty in their development, not only those new to online pedagogy. In fall of 2010, the curriculum process was amended to account for all future online and hybrid course offerings. If the content of a course is unchanged, and the request is to change only the delivery of an existing course to an online or hybrid format, the faculty

6 5 member and involved unit head will seek recommendation only from the OEC, appropriate Dean, and the Provost s Office. If a course/program is new in content and proposes an online or hybrid format, or if an existing program seeks to change to a fully online program, the current curriculum procedures must be followed, with the addition of seeking the recommendation of the OEC. GVSU recently selected the Quality Matters (Parscal & Riemer, 2010) model as a formal process for evaluating and improving online courses. The university is committed to providing infrastructure support through IT in both staffing and technology, and implementing quality evaluation for all future online degrees. Budget (2-year) Recruitment, marketing and advertising Advertising and marketing for our online graduate degree have been supported by our Dean, primarily in the form of a ¼-page advertisement in a state teacher technology association (MACUL) journal. Using funds provided by MAGS/ETS we plan to continue and expand our current recruitment efforts to enroll more students in our online graduate degree. Retention Serious problems in online education are student retention and graduation rates (Boles, 2010). Our efforts to increase retention include learning more about students in our online graduate degree who are inactive i.e., have not enrolled in graduate courses in months and identifying ways to improve retention and graduation rates. Funds provided by MAGS/ETS will support expanding these ongoing efforts. Year Budget item Amount Recruitment, marketing and advertising $700 Retention $ Recruitment, marketing and advertising $700 Retention $550 Total $2500 Table 3 References Best Practices for Electronically offered Degree and Certificate Programs (2000). Commission on Institutions of Higher Education. Available on the NCA/HLC website: Boles, E. (2010). Sustaining Students: Retention Strategies in an Online Program. The EDUCAUSE Quarterly, 33 (4). Available online at:

7 6 Grand Valley State University Strategic Plan. Available on the GVSU website: C277AFB5E6D3E506/gvsu_strategic_plan_ _web.pdf Parscal, D., & Riemer, D. (2010). Assuring quality in large-scale online course development. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 13(2), Retrieved from Principles of good practice for electronically offered academic degree and certificate programs (1999). Commission on Institutions of Higher Education. Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications. Available on the NCA/HLC website: Topper, A. (2007). Are they the same? Comparing the instructional quality of online and face-to-face graduate education courses. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 32(6),