Project DELTA: Improving Student Learning Through Interactive Course Design

Project DELTA: Improving Student Learning Through Interactive Course Design Peter J. Shapiro Director, Creative Learning Services Patti Levine-Brown Professor of Communications; Director, Project DELTA Jill M. Hagenberger Senior Instructional Designer Introduction More than 20 years ago, research emphasized that significant changes in instructional delivery included use of computers to improve learning, teaching, and instructional management (O Banion, 1989). For the last 6 years, has championed a teaching and learning strategy, known by postsecondary institutions as SIRIUS Academics. This strategy takes a unique approach to offer creative, interactive instruction typically delivered in either online or hybrid modes as well as inexpensive alternatives to traditional, high-cost course materials. The SIRIUS Academics project began when Florida Community College at Jacksonville decided to address student persistence, the high cost of course materials, and student motivation and preparedness. Changing these factors, along with the teaching/learning dynamic, was key to the project s success. Basic skills and high-enrollment general education courses were targeted and developed. In 2009 the college received a FIPSE (Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education) grant for $728, 112, to be administered over a three-year period by, in partnership with George Mason and Iowa State Universities. The initiative, named Project DELTA (Disseminating Effective Learning Through Automation), focuses on innovative strategies to educate working adults and displaced workers. Project DELTA addresses a need for change at the postsecondary level in the approach to retention and success of nontraditional students. Other project partners include Pearson Education, Inc. and The Follett Higher Education Group. Pearson Education provides digital images for SIRIUS Academics course materials along with MathXL and other MyLab software where appropriate. The Follett Higher Education group serves a distributor of SIRIUS Academics materials and provides CafeScribe as a digital ebook platform. Project DELTA enabled Florida State College at Jacksonville to create a nationwide research pool for the continuous improvement of SIRIUS Academics courses and to further explore how these courses and the faculty that teach them impact student success and retention. Iowa State University serves as the project evaluator, and with the cooperation of the Project DELTA college consortium members, SIRIUS Academics, and the growing list of participating institutions, all will benefit from the results of research conducted during the grant period. The Nontraditional Learner Historically, these nontraditional learners have been defined as persons over age 25 (Whisnant, Sullivan, & Slayton, 1992). However, Knowles (1992) defined adulthood as the point at which individuals perceive themselves to be essentially self-directing (p. 46) a point that does not necessarily correlate with age. These nontraditional learners require an alternative framework for learning. Knowles (1992) suggested that nontraditional learners must know why they need to learn something before Copyright 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 1

deciding to learn it (Merriam & Brockett, 1997). This need suggests that the responsibility for learning be transferred from facilitator to learner. Learning Theory and Course Design SIRIUS Academics courses do not use commercial textbooks; all course materials designs extend from the learning outcomes of the course curriculum. SIRIUS Academics reflects a paradigm shift in teaching and learning, and the application of technology. Capitalizing on a rich research base of pedagogical approaches to instructional design, SIRIUS Academics course design is grounded in multiple theoretical principles and models, including motivation; mastery learning; thematic, anchored instruction; constructivism; and cooperative learning. These research-based principles holistically weave through the course design, resulting in a robust instructional scaffold for student success. Keller (1979) proposed that student motivation is a multiplicative representation of value and expectancy. According to Keller (1983), for learners to be motivated and persistent, certain conditions must exist. Keller developed the ARCS (attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction) model, which describes the conditions necessary for sustaining learner motivation. One of the most influential research-supported instructional strategies central to SIRIUS Academics is Bloom s (1971) mastery learning model. Developing questions, activities, and quizzes for learning, rather than of learning, is central for students of different abilities to achieve higher levels of learning. Mastery learning allows students unlimited opportunities to self-assess learning progress in mastering learning objectives. This formative evaluation strategy is most effective when questions and activities are compartmentalized in the lessons and chapters. Mastery learning research indicates a positive effect on learner motivation, confidence, satisfaction, and persistence. Thematic instruction is a strategy of organizing instruction around themes or anchors, which provide a way for learners to link prior experiences to new experiences. SIRIUS Academics uses themes or stories to capture learners attention and to address relevance, by clarifying abstractions with concrete examples in both the faculty-authored text and supplementary online learning objects. Learning is a social process, the continuous interaction among cognition, behavior, and the environment (Schunk, 2000). This principle correlates with constructivism, an underlying philosophy of SIRIUS Academics courses. Learning environments need to be realistic, relevant, and meaningful. Research indicates that learner participation in structured online discussion, collaborative online activities, online assessment, and interactive course material are ways of promoting constructivism (Mason, as cited in Gulati, 2008, p. 184). Utilizing this approach in discussion forums helps students build their knowledge bases, interact with their colleagues, and connect their worlds to the course content. All of the previously mentioned theoretical approaches create a scaffold that enables students to learn through their mistakes and apply what they have learned. According to Gibbons and Wentworth (2001), instructors generally underutilize nontraditional students experiences as a learning resource, considering these experiences preexisting knowledge that merely provide a foundation for new knowledge. Faculty Professional Development While course design is critical for student success, faculty professional development is also important. Faculty play a critical role in scaffolding student instruction in both online and hybrid modes. One requirement of working with Project DELTA and SIRIUS Academics courses is that faculty complete a prescribed professional development curriculum, delivered online. The first course, Learning Through Interactivity, is required of all faculty. Only those who design courses for SIRIUS Academics must complete an entire online professor certificate program. Learning Through Interactivity introduces Copyright 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 2

faculty to the research-based approaches in SIRIUS Academics courses, increasing the odds that these methods will not be discounted when faculty teach their own SIRIUS Academics courses. Just as students experience instruction scaffolding, faculty participation in online learning places them in a similar situation. It is critical that faculty be submitted to the same stressors as their students before teaching an online or hybrid course. One of the most important training elements is the focus on positive motivation and effective modeling. Students need to be motivated to succeed, and positive reinforcement encourages students to engage with their instructor, their colleagues, and the material. Faculty Role in the Course Production Process SIRIUS Academics course production transpires over four semesters, with a team composed of faculty, instructional designers, multimedia specialists, quality assurance professionals, and external subject matter expert consultants. As previously described, the team s pedagogical approach is grounded in learning and motivation theories, instructional design principles, and current technology. The outcome of the four-semester process is a second edition course, which can be released to the consortium of colleges. Each faculty team consists of three faculty members. Any faculty member with a master s degree who is certified to teach the course being developed may be chosen to contribute as a faculty coauthor and team member. While the course is developed, the faculty team participates in the professional development process. This ensures that, as faculty design courses, they understand the theoretical approach and the time frame in which the course needs to be completed. Halfway through the process, the course is designed and completed as a first edition, and beta tested at Florida State College of Jacksonville, both online and, when possible, in the classroom. The course is also sent to an external evaluator, a consulting faculty member typically from outside Florida, who is certified to teach the course, with preference given to those faculty who have taught the course online. SIRIUS Academics has designed 23 courses that will be in their second edition or later by fall 2011. By fall 2013, 40 high-enrollment general education courses will be available in their second edition or later. When a consortium college adopts the course, a third party converts the course for use in that college s learning management system. Project DELTA: Consortium Commitment and Evaluation The commitment to students exceeds the design and physical delivery of SIRIUS Academics courses. George Mason University, acting as an academic partner on the grant, provides online resources and career counseling to workers who are displaced or changing careers; these individuals must be enrolled in a SIRIUS Academics course. Iowa State University, serving as grant evaluator, has started gathering data from enrolled students and faculty. Even though this evaluative research is in progress, initial reactions to the courses and the design approach have been positive; the first reports are due in summer 2011. The heart of the project is the consortium of colleges, which serves the purpose of improving the learning process through technology-enhanced applications of learning and motivation research. The consortium offers opportunities for college and university faculty to participate in professional development training at no cost and to share in the development and use of SIRIUS Academics courses. Project DELTA membership provides reduced materials costs to students enrolled in the SIRIUS Academics courses, much lower than traditional textbook costs, plus any tutorial software costs in reading, mathematics, and English classes that are customized to use them. To be a member of the consortium as part of Project DELTA, each institution commits to five faculty members each teaching at least five sections of a SIRIUS Academics course(s) within each calendar year of the grant. The faculty members must successfully complete the Learning Through Interactivity online course prior to teaching. In exchange for meeting this commitment and supplying data to Iowa State for Copyright 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 3

the grant evaluation, faculty are awarded a small annual honorarium. Currently, the consortium has 24 member colleges, but not all schools have implemented the courses. Due to signing an institutional commitment, selecting courses for adoption, identifying faculty to participate, and completing professional development requirements, the implementation process takes time. By the end of 2011, the consortium anticipates having 30 members, with over 20 colleges offering the courses. Conclusion Research from NCAT (Twigg, 2005) suggested that course redesign can increase student success, while reducing instructional costs in college-credit and basic skills courses. High dropout and failure rates in general education and basic skills courses have resulted in many colleges making a concerted effort to redesign curriculum and delivery methods in these courses. has approached student preparation, success, and persistence through building specialized online and hybrid courses that incorporate several learning theories proven to be effective in the scaffolding of learning. These design approaches, combined with trained faculty who understand the integration of technology and their role as facilitators and motivators, can lead to increased student success and retention at Florida State College at Jacksonville and the Project DELTA consortium colleges. In the process, faculty, staff, and students involved in this project will be part of a cycle of continuous improvement, as data from this research will assist SIRIUS Academics with further improving the courses being delivered and the professional development that is changing college teaching and learning. References Bloom, B. S. (1971). Mastery learning. In J. H. Block (Ed.), Mastery learning: Theory and practice (pp. 47 63). New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Gibbons, H. S., & Wentworth G. P. (2001). Andrological and pedagogical training differences for online instructors. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 4(3). Retrieved from http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall43/gibbons_wentworth43.html Gulati, S. (2008). Compulsory participation in online discussions: Is this constructivism or normalisation of learning? Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 45(2), 183 192. doi: 10.1080/14703290801950427 Keller, J. M. (1979). Motivation and instructional design: A theoretical perspective. Journal of Instructional Development, 2(4), 26 34. Keller, J. M. (1983). Motivational design of instruction. In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional-design theories and models: An overview of their current status (pp. 386 434). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Knowles, M. (1992). Applying principles of adult learning in conference presentations. Adult Learning, 4(1), 11-14. Merriam, S. B., & Brockett, R. G. (1997). The profession and practice of adult education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. O Banion, T. (1989). The renaissance of innovation. In T. O Banion (Ed.), Innovation in the community college (pp. 1 22). New York, NY: ACE/MacMillian. Schunk, D. H. (2000). Learning theories: An educational perspective (3 rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall. Twigg, C. A. (2005, June). Course redesign improves learning and reduces cost. Policy alert. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.highereducation.org/reports/pa_core/index.shtml Whisnant, W. T., Sullivan, J. C., & Slayton, S. L. (1992). The old new resource for education: Student age. Community Service Catalyst, 22(3), 7 11. Copyright 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 4

About the Presenters Peter J. Shapiro is Director of Creative Learning Services for. He earned his PhD in Education, with a specialization in Instructional Design for Online Learning, from Capella University and an MS in Communication from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Peter is a Quality Matters Master Reviewer, and he has authored journal articles and delivered presentations at conferences regarding faculty development for online teaching, distance learning administration, and the SIRIUS Academics project. He has over 25 years of higher education experience, including 13 years in the management, design, and delivery of online courses. Address: 501 West State Street Jacksonville FL 32202 Email: pshapiro@fscj.edu URL: http://www.siriusacademics.org Phone: 904-633-5479 Fax: 904-632-3364 Patti Levine-Brown is a Professor of Communications at. She received her bachelor s and master s degrees from the University of North Florida and her EdS in Developmental Education from Appalachian State University (ASU) in Boone, NC. Additionally, Patti has completed beginning and advanced programs in developmental education through the Kellogg Institute at Appalachian State University, and she is currently completing her doctorate in the Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas at Austin. Patti has published three books with Prentice Hall and is a contributing author on two other publications. Address: 3939 Roosevelt Boulevard Jacksonville FL 32205 Email: plevine@fscj.edu Phone: 904-381-3484 Jill M. Hagenberger is a Senior Instructional Designer at. She earned her MEd and PhD in Instructional Systems at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. Jill has 26 years combined experience in higher education and the private sector. Her expertise includes theoretical foundations of learning, systems theory, and human performance technology. Address: 501 West State Street Jacksonville FL 32202 Email: jhagenbe@fscj.edu Phone: 904-357-8915 Fax: 904-632-3364 Copyright 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 5