JALN 14_3 - Online Learning Consortium

Transcription

The purpose of the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) is to help learning organizations continually improve
the quality, scale, and breadth of their online programs according to their own distinctive missions, so
that education will become a part of everyday life, accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at
any time, in a wide variety of disciplines.
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Cover design by Leighton Ige
Copyright ©2010 by Sloan-C™
All rights reserved. Published 2010
Printed in the United States of America
0987654321
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Contents
Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks
Volume 14 Issue 3 November 2010
A Special Issue on Workforce Development and Open Educational Resources
Editors
Heidi J. C. Ellis
Gregory W. Hislop
Associate Professor and Chair
Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science
College of Information Science and
and Information Technology
Technology and Department of
Western New England College
Computer Science
Drexel University
David Sachs
Associate Dean and Professor of Technology Systems
School of Computer Science and Information Systems
Pace University
1.
Designing Corporate Training in Developing Economies Using Open Educational Resources
Chris Geith, Karen Vignare, Chris Geith, Leslie D. Bourquin, and Deepa Thiagarajan….....3
2. Promoting Hybrid Learning through an Open Source EBook Approach
Xin Bai and Michael B. Smith…………………………………………………..……………………13
3. A Synthesis of Sloan-C Effective Practices, November 2010
Janet C. Moore…………………………………………………………………………………………24
4. Introduction to the Section on Workforce Development
David Sachs…………………………………………………………………………………..46
5. Leaner Support Requirements for Online Workplace Training in the South African Furniture
Industry
Iain S. Macdonald, Mark Bullen, and Robert A. Kozak………………………….…………..48
6. Skepticism to Success: Meeting Critical Workforce Needs Through Innovation and
Collaboration
Margaret Anderson, Linda Maier, and Michael Shepard……………………………………59
7. Incorporating the e-HIM Virtual Lab into the Health Information Administration Professional
Practice Experience
Amanda C Barefield………………………………………………………………………….67
8. The CUNY Young Adult Program - Utilizing Social Networking to Foster Interdisciplinary
and Cross-Cohort Student Communication during Workforce Training
Alissa Levine, Christoph Winkler, and Saul Petersen………………………………………..73
Submission Guidelines for Authors……………………………………………..Inside Back Cover
This book was made possible by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Editorial and Advisory Boards
This book was made possible by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Editor
John R. Bourne
Executive Director
The Sloan Consortium
[email protected]
Associate Editors
Gregory W. Hislop
Drexel University [email protected]
Katrina A. Meyer
University of Memphis [email protected]
Janet C. Moore
Chief Knowledge Officer The Sloan Consortium [email protected]
Anthony G. Picciano
Hunter College [email protected]
Advisory Board
J. Olin Campbell
Polley Ann McClure
Brigham Young University
Cornell University
William H. Graves
Burks Oakley, II
Janet Poley
American Distance Education
Consortium
SunGard Higher Education
University of Illinois
A. Frank Mayadas
Diana Oblinger
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
IBM Corporation
Donald Z. Spicer
University System of Maryland
Carol A. Twigg
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Editorial Board
Tana Monaco
Westminster College
David Jaffee
John Sener
University of North Florida
Sener Learning Services
Linda Collins
Joan D. McMahon
Alan D. Stuart
Rio Salado College
Towson University
Penn State University
Jonathan Darby
Deanna M. Raineri
Karen Swan
University of Oxford
Marie J. Fetzer
Mark H. Rossman
Melody Thompson
Capella University
Penn State University
Monroe Community College
Starr Roxanne Hiltz
David Sachs
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Pace University
Murray Turoff
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Shimon Schocken
Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya Israel
The Sloan Consortium, Inc. is a consortium of higher-education providers sharing the common bonds of
understanding, supporting and delivering education online via asynchronous learning networks (ALNs).
With the mission of providing learning to anyone anywhere, the Sloan Consortium seeks to provide new
levels of learning capability to people seeking higher and continuing education.
For more information about Sloan-C, visit www.sloanconsortium.org.
DESIGNING CORPORATE TRAINING IN
DEVELOPING ECONOMIES USING OPEN
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
Dr. Christine Geith
Assistant Provost and Executive Director
Michigan State University
MSUglobal
Karen Vignare
Director
MSUglobal
Deepa Thiagarajan
Director – Global Food Standards and Value Chains
International Institute of Agriculture
Leslie D. Bourquin
Professor and Food Safety Specialist
Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition
ABSTRACT
The Food Safety Knowledge Network (FSKN) is a collaboration between Michigan State University, the
Global Food Safety Initiative of the Consumer Goods Forum, and other food industry and public sector
partners. FSKN’s goal is to help strengthen the food industry’s response to the complex food safety knowledge and training challenges that affect emerging markets by providing free access to high-quality, standardized learning resources. The resources were designed to be available on demand and as a structured
learning experience which can support face-to-face training and fully online training. The pilots thus far
have shown that participants in FSKN training demonstrate a significant increase in knowledge. The paper
will share the processes used to set up an efficient open educational resources initiative including understanding licensing, using open software, establishing competencies and working with corporate and other
international partners.
KEYWORDS
Online Learning, Open Educational Resources, OER, creating partnerships, sustainable business models,
innovation, international development, competencies
Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 14: Issue 3
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I. INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this ongoing initiative generously funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and
the United States Agency for International Development (USAID; funding from both the Washington DC
office and the USAID India Mission) was to create an international network of people and resources within
the food industry to enable and support the development of industry-led Open Educational Resources
(OER) to improve basic food safety practices in developing countries. Led by a collaboration between
Michigan State University (MSU) and the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) of the Consumer Goods
Forum (CGF), an international association of global consumer product (particularly food and beverage)
manufacturers and retailers. The resulting Food Safety Knowledge Network (FSKN) is the basis for the
creation and provision of high-quality, low-cost training and education around food safety competencies
associated for developing countries.
The collaboration between university and industry, development of OER materials, development of a competency-based OER delivery platform, and the piloting of the OER in trainings with pre-and post-training
assessment were the major tasks of the ongoing project. Developing materials to support FSKN is similar
to other curriculum efforts, but making OER policies, procedures, and licensing understandable to corporate partners required new approaches. The OER technology platform uses open source software including
work from Creative Commons in the form of their DiscoverEd search tool to provide content resources
organized by topic and competency. The findings and the resulting software code and documentation from
this project can serve as a model for other endeavors focused on creating and searching topic-specific OER.
II. BACKGROUND
The history of the term “Open Educational Resources” (OER) is brief, but its foundations reach farther back
in innovations including open access journals, learning objects, open source software and open licenses [1].
The term itself was adopted by UNESCO in 2002 [2]. OER refers to the “open provision of educational
resources enabled by information and communication technologies, for consultation, use and adaptation by
a community of users for non-commercial purposes. It includes open content, as well as software tools and
standards” [3]. The term includes free (no charge) and open (for modification) resources such as digital
content, open source software, and intellectual property licenses. OER takes many forms, including formal
courses; course-related materials such as syllabi, lectures, lesson plans, and assignments; textbooks; or collections of digital media such as libraries of images and videos. The principles of OER are founded on the
academic traditions of freely and openly sharing and extending knowledge [4]. In this way, OER extends
the concept of the public commons, as well as the principles of open source software, into education [5].
Ahrash Bissell, former director of the ccLearn initiative of Creative Commons describes the effort this way:
“Open Educational Resources (OER) represents the efforts of a worldwide community, empowered by the
Internet, to help equalize the access to knowledge and educational opportunities throughout the world. They
are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under
an intellectual-property license that permits their free use or customization by others. It is the granting of
freedoms to share, reprint, translate, combine, or adapt that makes them educationally different from those
that can merely be read online for free” [6]. The OER leaders at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
sum it up by stating, “At the heart of the open educational resources movement is the simple and powerful
idea that the world’s knowledge is a public good” [7].
On a separate front, the global food system has changed dramatically as European and North American
supermarkets and their procurement channels have rapidly expanded into emerging markets. Food procurement is now global with over 2/3 of suppliers in developing countries [8]. Due to food scares, consumers
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are demanding safe, high-quality food [9]. In response, governments and industry are collaborating to assure quality and food safety consistently around the world [10; 11]. The FSKN came about as a solution to
support the GFSI technical working group that is developing systematic protocols for use by potential suppliers in emerging markets to meet the more stringent buyer requirements of CGF member companies. The
GFSI working group desired not only to provide the protocols to define and improve supplier competence,
but also wished to facilitate training of persons responsible for food safety compliance in support of these
supplier protocols.
The Food Safety Knowledge Network was created to meet this need. It needed to support online, face-toface, and blended training formats in a multitude of languages and contexts. It needed to support group
training as well as individual self-paced instruction. It needed to enable new and existing trainers and training organizations to align their training with the supplier protocols as defined by the GFSI working group
while enabling localization and maximum flexibility in delivery. At the same time, the solution needed to
be as low-cost as possible to enable rapid deployment in developing countries.
The Food Safety Knowledge Network is a private-public partnership initiative to meet these needs. It is
focused on enabling local training aligned with the GFSI protocols for suppliers in emerging markets using
OER as an enabler. In its current pilot phase it is funded by foundation and federal government grants, inkind corporate support and in-kind support from an international government organization.
III. PROJECT DESCRIPTION
A. Development of Corporate Requirements and Competencies of Individuals
Prior to the start of Phase I, MSU met with the GFSI Global Markets Working Group and created a subgroup called the FSKN Working Group. The purpose of the FSKN Working Group was to further the goals
of the GFSI Global Markets Working Group by guiding the development of training processes, curriculum,
and assessment directed at the food safety managers of suppliers in countries whose food safety systems are
less developed than those typically in place in North American, Western European, and other developed
markets. The GFSI Global Markets Working Group and FSKN effort focused initially on Basic Level Requirements for the Food Manufacturing sector. Ongoing work will focus on Intermediate Level requirements for the food manufacturing sector, as well as Basic and Intermediate Level requirements for primary
production of fruit and vegetable products. This manuscript deals with the initial work conducted on Basic
Level for food manufacture. To enable a robust and flexible solution for enabling training in developing
countries, the components of the FSKN were determined to be competencies (statements of skills, knowledge and behavior), assessments of those competencies and training materials designed to be OER.
Members of the FSKN Working Group were identified by MSU and GFSI and drawn from the corporate
members of GFSI as well as international food safety consultants, and representatives from public sector
organizations (e.g. universities, UN agencies). The GFSI Global Markets Working Group developed the
“Basic Level Requirements for Food Manufacture” document that defines the protocols required of companies preparing to supply CGF member companies who require more stringent food safety compliance in
emerging markets. The ultimate goal of the GFSI Global Markets protocols and FSKN is continuous improvement of food suppliers in emerging markets so they can ultimately achieve formal certification against
internationally-recognized food safety schemes. Building from the GFSI Global Markets protocols, the
FSKN Working Group created competency statements, training modules and assessment instruments for
individual employees. Working with its stakeholders at meetings held from December 2008 to March 2009,
these two separate working groups co-developed the corporate and individual competencies. Subsequently,
the FSKN group also met separately to refine and finalize the initial list of competencies.
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The Basic Level for Food Manufacturing protocol finalized by the GFSI Global Markets Working Group
encompasses fourteen key areas of company requirements (Figure 1). The Basic Level Requirements represent the first 30 percent of the total company requirements that the GFSI Global Markets Working Group
is defining. The remaining requirements are being addressed in the Intermediate Level Requirements (currently under development) and the GFSI Guidance Document. Working from the Basic Level requirements
for companies, the FSKN Working Group defined 89 competencies that articulate the knowledge and skill
sets an individual food safety manager should have upon completion of training at the Basic Level.
Figure 1. GFSI Basic Level Requirements (Food Manufacturing Scope) for Less Developed Businesses and Small Suppliers
B. Creating Processes for OER Development: The benefits of resources, not
course packages
While the FSKN Working Group began creating competencies, MSU began creating instructional documentation and materials to support the development of OER aligned with the competencies. To accomplish
the goals of publishing OER, the MSU team designed OER processes and procedures for collecting and
creating content. For creating content, it was integral to think strategically about instructional use of materials. This meant moving beyond the concept of a whole course and into the level of individual learning resources. The goal was to enable learning resources to be combined to create a full course for Basic Level
for Food Manufacture, or to be used separately if a learner, or trainer, desired to work on only a certain
sub-set of competencies.
To create the individual resources at low cost, the MSU team determined that capturing existing trainings
would provide the basis for the individual OER. Proprietary capture software Camtasia and Relay were
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used to record presenters during training programs. The capture process allowed for four immediate file
output types—PowerPoint, Flash video, mp4 and audio mp3. The audio files were immediately transcribed
to produce text transcripts. In addition, the PowerPoint slide presentations were made available as PDFs and
Open Office documents. Providing a wide variety of file formats, particularly those that are editable using
common as well as open non-proprietary software, is an important enabler of OER remixing [12].
The learning resources were first produced in English. Training manuals were also produced. All formats of
these resources (except, so far, for the transcripts and training manuals) were translated into Chinese and
Arabic by pilot partners. These translated resources were also openly licensed and shared back to the FSKN
as OER. In addition, ten stand-alone online learning modules are in review and seven modules have been
created from their storyboards in the Connexions OER Repository (http://cnx.org).
C. Identifying existing resources
While capturing presentations was important for providing a base of OER aligned with the competencies,
the MSU team also identified existing resources from training providers, universities, and non-governmental organizations. The FSKN pilot team reviewed the potential resources for alignment with the competency
framework and agreed on content that could be added to the website. The MSU team prepared a policy
document to explain OER and also an FSKN Toolkit document to explain how to contribute content.
D. Platform Development
At MSU, MSUglobal and its internal partner, Virtual University Design and Technology (vuDAT), used
open source technology for all aspects of the initiative. This included creating the FSKN web site (http://
foodsafetyknowledgenetwork.org), creating an open source tool to map the OER to the competency frameworks, and integrating the open source Creative Commons DiscoverEd search tool to improve the discoverability of FSKN resources. Open source platforms were immediately investigated because we anticipated
that solutions we would develop for FSKN would be useful to a much broader audience and we wanted to
encourage its use in developing countries.
For content management, many potential options existed. Drupal was chosen because of its large community of developers and extensive list of modules developed for various website features and functionalities. Drupal served as the base to build from for accomplishing the tasks described in the planning phase.
Drupal, however, did not provide a competencies database module nor did it provide a method for searching
and pulling content to the website.
vuDAT programmers created an open source module that provides a way of creating a competency database
and correlating resources to individual competencies. The current website demonstrates only the top level
of competencies, but the module was built so that it could go five layers into a hierarchy (Figure 2). This
allows for much deeper detail within competencies and eventually a learner could choose only a sub category of a competency to learn. While this level of sophistication is not necessary at this early phase of
FSKN development, this will be a useful tool as FSKN grows in volume and complexity.
To improve the discoverability of the resources in the FSKN as it grows, we decided to integrate the Creative Commons’ DiscoverEd open source search tool into the competency database. DiscoverEd provides
an enhanced search experience for users looking for educational resources by looking for materials from
selected curators and displaying valuable metadata on the resources. The competency database only includes competencies while learning resources are culled to match a competency. This required writing code
to customize DiscoverEd so it would work with Drupal. It also required that both an RSS feed and Open
Architecture Index (OAI) be incorporated. These tools pull with an RSS or OAI standard from our own and
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other websites materials to support learning of the competencies. In addition, by adding OAI especially for
MSU materials, we have begun an education process which demonstrates the use of OAI for content repositories. If a provider does not want to or cannot implement the OAI standard, they have the option of
uploading to a website that does use OAI.
Figure 2. FSKN Home Page and Competency Correlation Page
IV. FINDINGS
From September 2009 to January 2010, the Food Safety Knowledge Network initiative conducted four pilot
training programs for the purposes of testing the competency assessment instruments, creating initial OER
teaching and learning resources aligned with the competencies, and testing the initial OER platform. Three
pilots using face-to-face education were offered in India, Egypt and China in conjunction with industry
partners, and a fourth pilot program using eLearning exclusively was conducted with industry partners in
India. The pilot programs were the means for creating and capturing resources as OER, using them in different contexts and translating the materials into multiple languages by local partners and contributing them
back into the FSKN as OER.
The first pilot was held in September 2009 in Chennai, India as part of a USAID capacity-building effort
for food safety managers in food manufacturing facilities and educators and trainers working with this target audience sector. The three day face-to-face workshop had 74 participants from 25 Indian companies
and six public sector organizations. Participants completed pre- and post-tests to assess their knowledge of
key food safety concepts associated with the competency framework. All workshop presentation materials
were published as OER and the workshop itself was captured on video to create additional OER resources.
The second pilot was an online self-paced course using the FSKN platform, offered in India from August
2009 to January 2010. The online training program was conducted in partnership with METRO Cash and
Carry for their suppliers to their new stores around the country. The online curriculum used the taped presentations, classroom materials and pre-and post-assessments from the Chennai training which were made
available online in a linear format progressing from one competency to the next using a variety of resource
formats (i.e., flash video, audio, video for iPod, PDF, etc.). There were 63 participants from 30 METRO
Cash and Carry suppliers.
Pilot Three was a “train the trainer” face-to-face training program held in Cairo, Egypt in November 2009.
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The training program was conducted in partnership with Macro (the Egyptian subsidiary of METRO Cash
and Carry) and the United National Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) for 36 participants.
Macro conducted this pilot as part of its planning to identify suppliers as it opens several large retail operations in Egypt. Eight trainers completed a train-the-trainer session with one subject matter expert. These
trainers then taught potential suppliers for Macro. Training materials and pre- and post-assessment instruments were the same as those used for the Chennai training, but were translated into Arabic by UNIDO
personnel.
Pilot Four was held in Shanghai, China in December 2009. It was a face-to-face 4-day training program and
conference conducted in partnership with the Coca-Cola Company. FSKN training modules and pre- and
post-assessments were slightly adapted from those used in Chennai. All materials were translated into Mandarin. In addition to FSKN training materials, the program included topics dealing with pre-harvest food
safety for fruits and vegetables, other prerequisite food safety programs, and the ISO 22000 food safety
management system. The training program had 142 participants drawn from the Coca-Cola Company (both
Chinese and global operations), suppliers to Coca-Cola in China, and sub-suppliers (suppliers of suppliers
in China).
The findings of the Pilot phase included results of training, use and re-use of OER, refinement of the assessments, and testing the FSKN platform. The FSKN pilot activities in India, Egypt and China all demonstrated the effectiveness of the training programs to significantly improve participant knowledge regardless
of previous educational attainment, previous training, or organization type. Assessment scores improved
between the pre-and post-assessments by 6-16% across all pilots. Groups with lower performance on the
pre-test tended to show the greatest improvement. Analysis of the results from the testing is continuing in
order to learn more about how to improve the training, refine the learning materials and identify key determinants of participant performance. Participants also completed satisfaction surveys at the end of the online
pilot experience. There was strong overall support for the value and effectiveness of the online training.
Participants rated the PowerPoint and PDF files as most effective followed by an Mpeg4 file for iPods
which included audio and video. The majority of participants ranked the quality of learning resources as
excellent or good.
As part of the pilots, the original pre- and post-assessment instruments continued to be used in online environments. A total of 264 assessment questions were developed to evaluate knowledge against the 89 competencies in Basic Level for Food Manufacture. These 264 items were randomly allotted to two assessment
forms, which then were randomly administered to participants in a manner such that each participant was
exposed to all 264 items during the course of a single workshop. The online tools mimicked a similar assessment approach for the eLearning pilot participants. For face-to-face workshops, the questions were
assigned by subject matter experts. Only in China, due to restrictions of time, the question set was refined
to 140 items (70 per instrument) aligned with all of the competencies. In all cases, statistical analyses demonstrated that the two assessment forms were equivalent with regard to participant performance.
Nearly 90 resources were created as part of the pilots. The multiple file formats in which the OER were
created played a significant role in the efficient reuse and remixing of the materials. The editable file formats allowed the resources to be translated and adapted for various audiences. Presentation slides were efficiently localized and translated for specific groups, and videos were bundled with audio to provide Flash
videos in both English and Chinese.
V. DISCUSSION
This paper outlines the approach and key lessons learned from the initial development of an international
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knowledge network, the Food Safety Knowledge Network. Early on in the project, the FSKN pilot team
identified significant differences in the ways international food companies and academic institutions approach training and education, especially with regard to OER. OER is a nascent educational concept within
academia as well as in US and international business and government agencies. The FSKN was uniquely
placed to introduce the concept to the international community committed to food safety and to educate that
community about its benefits and potential to inform and reform training practices and opportunities.
The collaboration between MSU, GFSI and other FSKN partners brought to light the differences in priorities, approach, and challenges such as communication that are unique to an international collaboration
among academic institutions, retailers, manufacturers, food service companies, and service providers.
While there was a common understanding around the company requirements and the competencies for food
safety professionals, there was less agreement around how best to translate these expectations into curriculum resources. The creation of training and instruction is not a primary function of GFSI. Thus, partnership
with MSU and other organizations in the FSKN project was beneficial as GFSI launched its Global Markets
protocols for less developed businesses. Similarly, although several food industry and public sector organizations routinely conduct training of food professionals, few have the expertise in pedagogy, adult learning, instructional design and assessment that MSU and other academic partners could contribute to the effort. Overall, the FSKN effort represents an ideal collaboration between the private and public sectors to
address a key problem – capacity development of food professionals in developing countries.
The corporations involved in the pilot projects (and CGF itself) are bound by certain legal restrictions that
academic institutions do not experience and which call into question the nature of OER in this context. For
example, the law in several European Union countries holds food companies strictly liable for any illness
or injury caused by their products. They are also liable for the work performance of the food professionals
they employ. These liability issues, once brought to light, have called into question whether these organizations can fully participate as partners in FSKN to make the curriculum they use ‘open’ in OER terms, the
terms commonly understood by most institutions of higher education in the US that are protected from liability claims associated with the information they provide. The members of the collaboration have continued to work together to find a solution to this issue, since all agree on the need for high quality, effective
training and training resources in this field. Currently, the curriculum resources are being made available on
the MSU-maintained FSKN website. However, to alleviate concerns about potential legal liability, FSKN
partners are able to self-select the extent to which they wish to co-brand FSKN training modules and other
materials.
Regarding the OER, many content partners, including corporations, are willing to contribute resources.
However, it is very time-consuming to explain OER, secure and create learning materials, and have them
reviewed. The process is indeed quite doable but until the project has developed a viral pull, considerable
effort is needed to proactively recruit partners and content and implement solutions using the OER.
VI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The FSKN initiative demonstrates the use of OERs within an industry-university-public sector partnership.
It demonstrates the flexibility of creating and publishing OER as individual resources, instead of courses,
to provide flexibility in learning configurations and re-use. The FSKN also provides a replicable platform
using open source tools for content management, mapping to competencies and improved discoverability.
This promising approach to OER provides a model for other contexts where collections of resources can be
aggregated through content management systems, and search tools, in ways that enable rapid and flexible
deployment in multiple contexts [13].
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It is noteworthy that the FSKN project has generated a very high level of interest among donor agencies and
others working in emerging markets. The immediate next steps for the FSKN project include 1) formal
launch of the FSKN website, 2) expansion of FSKN training and localization activities to other regions, 3)
in conjunction with the GFSI Global Markets Working Group, expansion of the program to Intermediate
Level for Food Manufacturing, and Basic and Intermediate Levels for Primary Production, and 4) implementation of a long-term financial sustainability plan for the FSKN. Work on several of these steps is currently ongoing.
VII. ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr. Christine Geith is an Assistant Provost and Executive Director of Michigan State University’s MSUglobal, the university’s entrepreneurial business unit that works with academic partners across the campus
and worldwide to develop online institutes, programs and services. She is responsible for developing strategic frameworks and business models and leading all activities that impact revenue growth. Dr. Geith’s
publications and research include costs, benchmarks and business models for online and blended learning.
Dr. Geith has nearly 20 years of experience in online learning. Prior to joining MSU, Dr. Geith was Executive Director of e-learning and co-director of the Educational Technology Center at Rochester Institute of
Technology. Dr. Geith holds an M.B.A. from Rochester Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Karen Vignare currently serves as the Director of the Customer Experience for MSUglobal at Michigan
State University. In that role, Karen is responsible for creating online entrepreneurial approaches for extending both non-credit and credit programs at MSU. Besides supervising content creation, she oversees all
customer services. She has published research on online learning retention, models, business practices and
blended learning. She is an adjunct professor teaching Customer Relationship Management and Marketing
on Internet courses. Karen has served as a full-time faculty member at SUNY-Alfred State in the marketing,
retail, and computer technology departments. She also served as a vice president and political economist for
a Wall Street financial firm. She has an MBA from the University of Rochester’s William Simon School of
Business and a BS from Frostburg State University in political science and economics. She is doctoral candidate at Nova Southeastern University.
Dr. Deepa Thiagarajan is an Assistant Professor and Director of Global Food Standards and Value Chains
in the Institute of International Agriculture and is Director of the USAID-MSU-Indian Horticulture Development Alliance (IHDA) project, which is based at MSU with in-country project staff based in New Delhi
and Hyderabad. Currently, Dr. Thiagarajan’s global agrifood systems development work focuses on applied research, education and capacity building on food safety issues and market development for agricultural commodities in developing countries. Dr. Thiagarajan also provides leadership to additional international development programs under the general oversight of the Institute of International Agriculture at
Michigan State University. Dr. Thiagarajan has BS and MS degrees in Nutrition from the University of
Madras and a PhD in Human Nutrition from Michigan State University.
Dr. Leslie Bourquin is a Professor and Food Safety Specialist in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Michigan State University. He also is a core faculty member in the Center for Advanced
Studies in International Development and the Center for Integrative Toxicology at Michigan State University. Dr. Bourquin’s research program focuses on the impacts of public and private food safety standards,
barriers to their acceptance and effective implementation by the food industry, and the potential impacts of
these standards on public health. Dr. Bourquin’s outreach and development work focuses on applied research, education and capacity building, and risk communication on food safety issues. Dr. Bourquin com-
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pleted a BS in Agriculture at Oklahoma State University and MS (Animal Sciences) and PhD (Nutritional
Sciences) degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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7. Smith, M.S. & Casserly, C.M. The Promise of Open Educational Resources. Change 38(5):8-17,
2006.
8. Reardon, T. The Supermarket Revolution in Emerging Markets: Implications for the Produce Industry, Produce Marketing Association, December 2007.
9. Golan, E. & Roberts, T. & Ollinger, M. Savvy Buyers Spur Food Safety Innovations in Meat Processing, AmberWaves, USDA, 2 (2) (April 2004).
10.Buzby, J. C. International Trade and Food Safety: Economic Theory and Case Studies, Agricultural
Economic Report No. AER828, 2003, p. 145.
11.Porter, S.A. & Lister, D. V. Food Safety: Federal and State Response to the Spinach E. coli Outbreak,
CRS Report for Congress (Nov. 2006).
12.OER stories/Open Learn,The Open University
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:bh_Lvt33zoUJ:oerwiki.iiep-unesco.org/in
dex.php%3Ftitle%3DOER_stories:OpenLearn%252C_The_Open_University+OpenLearn+units+ca
n+be+downloaded+or+taken+away+in+several+formats&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=fire
fox-a.
13.Geith, C. & Vignare, K. Access to education with online learning and open educational resources:
can they close the GAP? Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 12 (1) (February 2008). http://
www.distanceandaccesstoeducation.org/contents/JALN_v12n1_Geith.pdf.
12
Promoting Hybrid Learning Through a Sharable eLearning Approach
PROMOTING HYBRID LEARNING THROUGH A
SHARABLE ELEARNING APPROACH
Xin Bai
Assistant Professor
Teacher Education
York College of The City University of New York
Michael B. Smith
Assistant Professor
Director, Academic Computing and Educational Technology
Communications Technology
York College of The City University of New York
ABSTRACT
Educational technology is developing rapidly, making education more accessible, affordable, adaptable,
and equitable. Students now have the option to choose a campus that can provide an excellent blended
learning curriculum with minimal geographical restraints. We explored ways to maximize the power of
educational technologies to improve teaching efficiency and cut costs without sacrificing high quality or
placing an extra burden on faculty. This mission was accomplished through adaptable e-learning content
design and development.
We developed scalable, shareable, and sustainable e-learning modules as textbook chapters that can be
distributed platform independently. The resulting e-learning building blocks can automate the assessment
processes, provide just-in-time feedback, and adjust the teaching material dynamically based upon each
student’s strengths and weaknesses. Once built, these self-contained learning modules can be easily maintained, shared, and re-purposed, thus cutting costs in the long run. This encouraged faculty to share their
best teaching practices online. The end result of the project is a sustainable knowledge base that can grow
over time, benefiting all the disciplines through knowledge reuse and sharing.
KEY WORDS
Elearning, Instructional Design, Hybrid learning, SCORM, Computer-Assisted Instruction, Just-in-time
Feedback
I. INTRODUCTION
The cost of textbooks has been increasing over the years. Advances of emerging technologies, such as Web
2.0, expedite the growth of collective intelligence and the process of offering knowledge in digital formats.
Domain experts can now contribute to the ever-growing knowledge base over the Internet without help
from programmers. Further research is needed to enable students to access digital textbooks based upon
open access materials through emerging technologies.
EBooks are gaining popularity as an alternative to traditional books. EBooks are electronic versions of
13
printed books readable on a personal computer or hand-held device. Adopting eBooks not only saves trees,
it also allows learners to search contents, share notes, and collaborate with others. The International Digital
Publishing Forum (IDPF) reported (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-coker/ebook-market-explodingco_b_507107.html) that U.S. wholesale eBook sales for the month of January 2010 rose 261 percent to
$31.9 million from the same period a year ago (Figure 1). Also in July of 2010, Amazon announced that
their eBooks sales outnumbered their hardcover books (i.e., 143/110) for the first time in the past three
months (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/technology/20kindle.html?_r=1). Based upon the 2010 Horizon Report (http://wp.nmc.org/horizon2010/), eBooks are gaining a competitive edge over traditional textbooks on campus – the time-to-adopt horizon is expected to be two to three years.
Figure 1. The trend of eBook sales
However, there are currently no standard eBook formats and no standard eBook Readers that allow any
student to access to any eBook on any subject domain through any digital device. For instance, some eBooks are in PDF or image formats (i.e., JPEG, GIF, PNG, or BMP); while others (e.g., Kindle (AZW), MP3,
MOBI, EPUB, eReader, BBeB, PRC, AAC, etc.) are supported by independent and open-source programmers. As a result, the practice of multiple eBooks following multiple formats fragments the eBook market.
A standard for packaging and selling eBooks is lacking, thus it keeps authors from distributing their books
to all eBook devices.
In our study, we developed web-based scalable, shareable, and sustainable e-learning modules that could be
assembled as chapters and distributed through any web-enabled device. The e-learning modules combine
both content and assessment and are presented in an ordered fashion that allows a student to practice and
drill as they gain knowledge. The result is an electronic textbook alternative unlike the current trend for etextbooks, which are simply digital copies of traditional textbooks.
The study was lead by faculty from the Department of Academic Computing and Educational Technology
at York College of The City University of New York. Three instructors participated in the study, offering six
computer literacy courses in Spring, 2010. One instructor, also the author of this paper, collaborated with
the other two instructors who had never taught hybrid courses. The use of the proposed elearning modules
14
and Web 2.0 technologies was exploited to enhance hybrid learning.
Once built, our self-contained learning modules can be easily maintained, shared, and re-purposed, thus
cutting costs in the long run. This encourages faculty to share their best teaching practices online. The end
result of the project is a sustainable elearning module knowledge base that could grow over time, benefiting
all the disciplines at our college. We hope our work will also help nontechnical teachers build confidence
and competency to leverage the emerging technologies in the classroom and to better prepare students for
their future professions.
We asked the following research questions to progress towards an effective elearning solution.
• Is such a system easy to scale up?
• What tools do teachers need to develop reusable eLearning modules?
• How to encourage informal learning through a sharable and reusable framework?
Our goals were to make the best use of emerging technologies and existing collective intelligence from the
Internet to build elearning modules that could improve teaching efficiency and cut costs. The objectives
listed below illustrate what we wanted to achieve through the development of elearning modules.
• Promote collaboration: 1) The sharing of elearning modules or their collections as chapters would
invite active and meaningful discussions and collaboration among faculty regarding domain content and pedagogical strategies. 2) We would establish and maintain collaborative working relationships with other campuses interested in management and development of sharable elearning
module knowledge base.
• Design effective assessments tools: adaptive instruction could only be achieved through a better
understanding of the students through effective assessments. We would develop effective tools to
automate the assessment processes that were not possible with traditional textbooks. The assessment result would also reflect the needs and strengths of a student in terms of learning objectives
instead of final scores.
• Promote standardization of elearning modules for compatibility, scalability, reusability, and portability.
• Adapt to future efforts: explore, develop, and evaluate an effective and generic electronic textbook alternative model that could be easily adapted to fit other learning enhancement efforts.
• Inform future research: innovative pedagogical strategies and instructional design practices could
be derived from this project.
II. REUSABLE AND SHARABLE ELEARNING MODULE DESIGN
A. Instructional Design Goals and Model
Our design of elearning modules was informed by the extensive research on Computer-Aided Instruction
(CAI) for individualized learning. Learning with a personalized tutor has proved to be one of the most effective ways of learning. There is overwhelming research to support the benefits of one-on-one tutoring in
improving students’ grades, problem solving skills, and motivations [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,10] Using computers to provide personalized instruction as an alternative to human tutors has drawn the attention of researchers in the fields of computer science, education, psychology and cognitive science. Our elearning
modules are remotely accessible, allowing students to: (1) gain essential knowledge in the subject domain,
15
(2) practice and drill, (3) receive just-in-time feedback, and (4) track performance assessment results for
reflection and learning transfer. In addition, elearning modules, in the role of “computer–as-tutor,” were
able to: (1) observe students’ performances, (2) identify misconceptions and missed concepts, (3) provide
immediate feedback, and 4) inform instructors of potential problems with the class’s understanding of the
material.
Rapid prototyping based upon the ADDIE [11] instructional design model was applied, which include the
following system design phases: Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate. This instructional
device helped us analyze our students’ learning needs, review existing resources, design and develop elearning module materials, implement modules into chapters, and evaluate usability. It was a re-iterative
process during which we met with instructors for suggestions or questions, checked with students informally for feedback, and redesigned/reassembled some elearning components to improve learning experiences. We conducted post-instructional summative evaluation. Through anonymous surveys, we asked
questions related to the usability of the modules and users’ learning experiences.
B. SCORM-based Elearning Module Design
The basic unit of a page in an elearning module is a Shareable Content Object (SCO) (Figure 2). Each SCO
represents a very specific piece of course content. An SCO can be a single web page or a collection of web
pages. As each SCO is self-contained, altering one SCO will not affect the functionality and performance
of the entire elearning module. Each SCO can communicate with a Learning Management System (LMS)
through an adapter written in Javascript. This adapter is platform and web-browser independent. It functions as a messenger (i.e., sharing information, such as interactions and user preferences) between SCOs
and LMSs.
Figure 2: Each SCO acts as a building block that can be delivered to students based upon their performance.
SCO is part of the Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) elearning standard sponsored by
the US Department of Defense [12], which mandates that all its e-learning purchases should be SCORMcompliant. Among SCORM goals are the ability to enable interoperability, accessibility and reusability of
web-based learning content for industry, government, and academia. It aims to achieve the ideal of learning
anytime anywhere through enabling any SCORM-conformant elearning content, developed with any au16
thoring tool, to be distributed to any learner, from any platform, by any SCORM-conformant LMS. Today,
most major LMSs and educational software vendors comply with this standard for creating and deploying
elearning.
The SCORM-compliant elearning module can track, among other things, the time each student spends in
the module, where he or she is having trouble and, with that information, dictate what comes next. This
individualized approach allows for optimal self-paced learning. Also, elearning modules will have the potential to be utilized across a variety of curricula. For example, the college’s research librarian could create
a chapter built from elearning modules that teaches and evaluates students’ abilities to critically examine
web resources. This information literacy chapter could be used in a variety of courses ensuring students are
prepared for online research.
The SCORM standardization allows each piece of course content or SCO to be developed once and then
reused with any other SCO in any other course or courses. Figure 3 is a mock-up map showing what a sharable knowledge base will be like when faculty across disciplines are involved in the development of elearning SCOs. An SCO can be transported to any other LMS that complies with the SCORM standard. It also
separates the content development from the instructional strategy design. Such process of resource aggregation is done through content packaging. For example, an instructor can group a set of SCOs developed by
others and define his or her own sequencing rules. Or an instructor can apply the same set of instructional
rules to different groups of SCOs in different subject domains. Most major elearning tool vendors (Adobe,
Microsoft, SoftChalk) provide user-friendly authoring tools that allow users to specify SCOs they want to
include, a description of those SCOs, and what data they’d like to be saved to LMS (Figure 4). The resulting
specification is an XML file with a structure like a table of contents (Figure 5). The XML files, called
manifest files, are saved in the root folder of the learning package. The package is usually wrapped in a zip
file. The zip file as a single unit can be uploaded to any SCORM-LMS. When a learning package is requested by a user, a SCORM player will parse the manifest file first to understand how the SCOs are structured and where to find them before displaying them.
Figure 3: The knowledge-sharing repository
17
Figure 4: The Interface of an Authoring Tool from Lessonbuilder (Http://Softchalk.Com)
Figure 5: Left: a sample XML file with metadata describing a learning content that can be interpreted
by SCORM-compliant LMSs; Right: a sample manifest file describing a learning package with three SCOs
and the corresponding files for each SCO
18
C. Elearning Module Development and Implementation
Two college assistants helped design and develop elearning modules with a total workload of about 15
hours a week. They were both from the Teacher Education department with limited technical background.
They used Dreamweaver and LessonBuilder as authoring tools to assemble modules into chapters – one for
each week. Instructional strategies were considered throughout the design process. SCORM does not regulate which instructional strategies should be used and how. We implemented instructional strategies through
designing interactive components (e.g., flash card games, cross-word puzzles), providing just-in-time feedback (e.g., quizzes), promoting collaboration (e.g., online discussion through LMS), or encouraging social
networking (e.g., peer support through blogging).
We did an initial training with the two instructors who taught the course in hybrid format for the first time.
They had taught the same course in face-to-face format in earlier semesters. They felt the flow of the course
structure was clear and the design of each elearning module was well thought-out and reasonable. They
were trained on how to manage the content in our LMS (Blackboard). For instance, they learned how to
view user test, interactivities, number of learning attempts, and duration of learning. They were solicited for
feedback on how to improve the navigation of the learning structure so that students could experience a less
steep learning curve.
III. STUDY METHOD
We conducted our pilot study in spring 2010 in six of our computer literacy courses taught by three instructors at a 4-year college. Two instructors had never taught online/hybrid courses before; the third instructor,
also one of the authors of this paper, developed the elearning modules. It saved each student about $100
over buying a textbook that was required from the previous semester. The elearning modules were split to
chapters posted to BlackBoard each week. We embedded lecture notes, readings, activities (e.g., games,
puzzles, etc), assessment, and assignments in each chapter. We found it encouraged collaboration among
faculty and was easy to use by students. We have been able to easily reassemble some chapters from the
elearning modules to fit our instructional needs throughout the semester (Figure 6).
Figure 6: A SCORM-based prototype for CPE workshop and a computer literacy course.
The basic components (SCOs) were packaged together to make an elearning chapter.
19
IV. RESULTS OF THE STUDY
We conducted student surveys and interviews, soliciting their feedback regarding the usability of the elearning modules (Figure 7). Lessons learned from the process will be the basis for the next round of elearning
module design and development. Table 1 below depicts students’ answers for each question (N=51).
Questions
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
I was able to
control the pace of
my own learning.
49%
41%
8%
2%
0%
The online course
materials were
difficult to follow.
10%
14%
16%
25%
35%
Online assignments were helpful
in understanding
the course content.
33%
47%
18%
2%
0%
The time I spent
11%
online would better
have been spent in
class.
6%
18%
18%
47%
The connection
between what I did
online and in class
was clear.
37%
37%
20%
6%
0%
Participating in the
online discussion
board could be
useless for my
learning.
12%
20%
20%
12%
37%
I wouldn’t have
any difficulty
managing my time
for the online part
of the course.
43%
28%
18%
4%
8%
I was unable to
share ideas with
other students on a
regular basis.
12%
14%
31%
24%
20%
I would recommend taking
hybrid courses to a
friend.
55%
35%
8%
2%
0%
Table 1: Questions answers from the anonymous survey
After the end of the semester, both instructors, although teaching the hybrid course for the first time, initiated feedback through emails below:
Email feedback from one instructor:
“… this hybrid course, offered for the first time in Spring 2010, was a success. The syllabus of this newly
revised hybrid course was well thought out and well designed covering the basic computer concepts, terminologies, and hands-on skills normally associated with a computer literacy course. You are to be complimented for the success of the course. I benefited from your work of re-designing the course and was indebted to you. I wanted to acknowledge your contributions.”
Email feedback from another instructor:
20
“Thanks so much for your help and knowledge during this semester. I appreciate it very much. All is going
well with the end of semester classes. Looking forward to the fall semester and working with you.”
V. POSSIBLE ISSUES AND THE SOLUTIONS
Currently, we are building the elearning modules on top of an existing LMS, BlackBoard, which may be
down for system upgrades or maintenance. As our SCORM-compliant elearning modules are self-contained, each learning module can be burned to CD or downloaded from the web and run from a user’s
computer as an application. The only feature not available is the recording of the student performances as
well as the dynamic assembling of the adaptive learning content. But as a temporary solution, it will provide
an uninterrupted learning experience for students if issues like this do occur. For the future delivery of the
learning modules, we plan to have elearning modules hosted in the cloud, on remote servers, just as webbased email is maintained by host servers. Therefore, instructors do not need to maintain a server, database,
or hardware, which is offered and maintained by commercial companies as utility services (e.g., we plan to
adopt Rustici’s SCORM Engine service and Winhost’s web server and database facility in our study). This
eliminates another system administration layer, making the constructing of learning content a simple and
straightforward process.
We would like to have our future participating faculty members to have an opportunity to share their learning modules beyond their specific knowledge domain. For instance, an instructor building Geology elearning modules could adopt SCOs on Chemistry foundations. Students will benefit the most by receiving instruction from experts across disciplines using the shared and reassembled elearning modules. The authoring
tool, LessonBuilder, allows us to load lessons from the local computer to make a new learning package. We
can achieve learning module sharing through hosting packaged lessons from a network drive.
Ownership and intellectual property issues could prove to be an impediment to adoption broadly by professors. The creator of each SCO would be its owner and would have the option of not including it in the
knowledge base. Also, instructors could decide to create SCOs and make them available only in limited
circumstances. We hope to encourage an OpenCourseWare model that will be under some form of a Creative Commons License. We believe instructors will see advantages to having their SCOs adopted in a variety of elearning modules as they receive recognition. This recognition can lead to publication in discipline
specific publications or Scholarship of Teaching and Learning publication.
VI. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Although the SCORM standard has been required in government and industry for elearning content interoperability, academia has been slow to follow their lead. This is partially due to the lack of resources, expertise, and technical support to promote the elearning standardization effort. For instance, Blackboard is a big
LMS player in K-16, but its current support of SCORM is still limited. One of the biggest promises of the
latest version of SCORM standard, SCORM 2004, is its sequencing feature that tailors instructions to individual needs. But our institution’s current Blackboard license, Version 8, which we used, did not support
SCORM 2004 as they claimed. There are occasional system glitches running the older version of SCORM
1.2 as well.
We have been in direct contact with the Blackboard’s developers of their SCORM plug-in. They communicated that there is a lack of motivation to make Blackboard fully SCORM-conformant, as few universities
have allocated resources to develop SCORM-based elearning contents. Blackboard’s stance seems emblematic of academia’s current level of interest in SCORM.
But this may change over time given SCORM’s penetration in other markets. Fletcher [13] estimated that
21
more than 6 million SCORM learning objects were available globally. It’s important to help educators secure the benefits being realized in business by enabling them to locate and access ADL objects already
available in industry and government repositories [14]. This is the area that needs much research in the near
future. As Collier said, “[elearning standard] support adds considerable cost and time to the testing of product releases. Even though most of these content providers may support a version of SCORM, the technology has not proven to be plug-and-play due to different implementation assumptions made by each content
provider” [15].
Based upon the results of this study, we next propose to answer the following questions:
• Is such a system readily scalable?
New technologies emerge on daily basis. We should try to avoid developing a prototype that may soon become obsolete. Web 2.0 provides web-based applications and services through cloud computing. These
applications can interface with each other. A SCORM-based elearning approach allows non-programmer to
assemble re-usable elearning modules and embed them in Web2.0 environments for collaboration and
knowledge sharing. For instance, a chapter on the Internet for Education can also be adopted in a Teacher
Education course, providing opportunities for students to read the materials, practice, and communicate
with others. Such systems can expand as the scope of the knowledge repository increases. As contents and
instructional strategies are separated, such a system can scale up to fit to different instructional and learning
needs.
• What tools do teachers need to develop open access elearning modules?
The elearning content developed should be interoperable across platforms through flexible delivery options.
We created a generic elearning development process based upon widely adopted web authoring tools such
as Dreamweaver, MS. Word, FrontPage, MS Visio Studio, and SoftChalk. For starters, we developed some
elearning module templates for faculty. These include the basic components in a chapter – quizzes, readings, lecture notes, interactive games. It’s the first step to help teachers rapidly develop contents that could
generate more thoughtful insights on such issues as human-computer interaction and adaptive elearning.
• How can informal learning be encouraged through an open access framework?
As students spend more time online socializing, exploring web pages, educators need to find a more effective way to interact online as a learning facilitator. Through the affordance of Web 2.0 technologies, teachers can promote informal learning by authoring SCORM-based elearning contents, designing activities, and
facilitating social interactions in a pervasive way. Based upon the positive summative survey from students
and informal feedback from instructors, we are encouraged to continue our effort towards promoting learning anytime anywhere through such an open access framework.
Currently the authors have been funded to invite participants and extend the study to other disciplines. We
are presently inviting content specialists to develop elearning modules for their respective domains. Participants will then pilot modules in their respective courses. Also, as modules are created and with the
agreement of the creator, modules can be added to a repository which will be locally hosted and available
to the college community. There is concern that in order to create a true textbook alternative a large number
of collaborators will be needed and an editorial review process for elearning modules will need to be defined. If the study in other disciplines proves successful, we will seek resources to develop a broad-based
adoption strategy.
We believe our project helped build a practical electronic textbook alternative using SCORM compliant
elearning modules. The approach encourages collaboration among instructors in an effort to promote
22
knowledge sharing. The effect additionally has the potential to reduce textbook costs. This is especially
important for students from under-resourced communities who are first generation college students and
who, pedagogically speaking, come to the table with a disadvantage academically and financially. Finally,
these elearning modules provide adaptive instruction possibilities that are sensitive to our students’ needs
and strengths.
Xin Bai is Assistant Professor of Educational Technology in Department of Teacher Education at York College, City University of New York. She earned her doctorate in Instructional Technology & Media from
Teachers College at Columbia University. Xin taught several graduate core courses at Teachers College at
Columbia, including Cognition and Computers and Intelligent Computer-Assisted Instruction. She was a
Project Director of the REAL (REflective Agent Learning environment) Project at the Institute for Learning
Technologies at Columbia University. She also worked as Chief Learning Architect at a company in charge
of facilitating adult e-learning and designing Learning Management Systems. Xin’s research focuses on
educational games, simulations, intelligent tutoring systems, e-learning, and ubiquitous learning. Her work
is built on the research done on cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and educational technologies.
Michael B. Smith is Assistant Professor of Communications Technology and the Director of Academic
Computing and Educational Technology at York College of The City University of New York. More information about him is available at his website, http://www.york.cuny.edu/~mbsmith.
VIII. REFERENCES
1.
Bloom, B. S. The 2 Sigma Problem: The Search for Methods of Group Instruction as Effective as
One-to-One Tutoring. Educational Researcher 13(6):4–16 (June-July 1984).
2.
Slavin, R.E., Madden, N.A., Karweit, N.L., Dolan, L., Wasik, B.A., Shaw, A., Mainzer, K.L., &
Haxby, B. Neverstreaming: Prevention and early intervention as an alternative to special education.
Journal of Learning Disabilities, 24 (6): 373-378 (June-July 1991).
3.
Slavin, R.E., Karweit, N.L., & Madden, N.A. (Eds.). Effective programs for students at risk. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1989.
4.
Wasik, B.A., & Slavin, R.E. Preventing reading failure with one-to-one tutoring: A best evidence
synthesis. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association,
Boston, 1990.
5.
McArthur, D., Stasz, S., & Zmuidzinas, M. Tutoring techniques in algebra. Cognition and Instruction, 7 (3): 197-244 (September 1990).
6.
Hock, M.F., Schumaker, J.B., & Deshler, D.D. Training strategic tutors to enhance learner independence. Journal of Developmental Education, 19 (1): 18-26 (Fall 1995).
7.
Lepper, M.R., Drake, M.F., & O’Donnell-Johnson, T. Scaffolding techniques of expert human tutors, In K. Hogan & M. Pressley (Eds.), Scaffolding student learning: Instructional approaches and
issues (pp. 108-144). Cambridge, MA: Brookline Books, 1997.
8.
Merrill, D. C., Reiser, B.J., Merrill, S.K., & Landes, S. Tutoring: Guided learning by doing. Cognition and Instruction, 13 (3): 315-372 (October 1995).
9. Simmons, D.C., Fuchs, L.S., Fuchs, D., Mathes, Pl, & Hodge, J. P. Effects of explicit teaching and
peer tutoring on the reading achievement of learner-disabled and low-performing students in regular
classrooms. The Elementary School Journal, 95 (5): 387-40 (May 1995).
10.Vadasy, P.F., Jenkins, J.R., Antil, L.R., Wayne, S.K., & O’Connor, R.E. The effectiveness of oneto-one tutoring by community tutors for at-risk beginning readers. Learning Disability Quarterly, 20
23
A Synthesis of Sloan-C Effective Practices, November 2010
A SYNTHESIS OF SLOAN-C EFFECTIVE
PRACTICES
November 2010
Janet C. Moore
Chief Knowledge Officer
The Sloan Consortium
ABSTRACT
Encouraging continuous improvement in the quality, scale and breadth of online education, the Sloan Consortium invites practitioners to share effective practices. This report synthesizes effective practices submitted by Sloan-C members to the online collection at http://www.sloanconsortium.org/effective as of November 2010. The synthesis includes links to the provider institutions and to detailed postings about practices.
KEYWORDS
Learning Effectiveness, Scale, Institutional Commitment, Cost Effectiveness, Access, Faculty Satisfaction,
Student Satisfaction, Quality Framework, Innovation, Impact, Replicability
CONTENTS
I. Introduction27
II. STUDENT SATISFACTION28
1. How can schools help learners get started with online learning?
28
2. How can schools help learners make good choices?
29
3. How can schools build community among learners?
29
4. How can schools and faculty assess student satisfaction?
31
5. How can schools increase student satisfaction with learning?
31
6. How can schools use technology to enhance student satisfaction?
32
III. LEARNING EFFECTIVENESS32
7. How can learning design enhance interaction?
32
8. How can learning design enhance collaboration?
33
9. How can learning design inculcate academic honesty?
34
10. How can schools assess learning effectiveness?
34
11. How can technology support learning?35
IV. SCALE36
12. How can schools share resources to improve learning and avoid costs?
24
36
13. How can redesign improve access, affordability, and learning, and save effort?
36
14. How can schools use technology to improve strategic planning?
37
15. How can schools use technology to provide cost effective services for faculty,
students and administrators?
38
V. ACCESS38
16. How can specialized online student services and resources make access easier?
38
17. How can schools help students access support and adapt to academic culture?
39
18. How can schools provide access to special populations?
40
19. How can schools use technology to improve access?
42
VI. FACULTY SATISFACTION42
20. How can schools foster greater community among faculty?
43
21. How can schools prepare faculty to teach online more effectively?
43
22. How can schools encourage and support research opportunities for faculty?
45
23. How can schools recognize and reward faculty who teach online?
45
24. How can technology help organize and enhance faculty activities?
45
I. INTRODUCTION
The Sloan-C Effective Practices collection enables educators to share practices that help make quality
online education more affordable, accessible and effective. Sloan-C’s quality framework calls for metrics
to measure progress towards these goals via the five key principles that are known as pillars for achieving
quality. Effective Practice postings demonstrate evidence of effectiveness in each of these pillars.
Learning Effectiveness: Online learning outcomes
meet or exceed institutional, industry, and/or
community standards.
Scale: Institutions continuously improve services
while reducing cost to achieve capacity enrollment.
Access: All learners who wish to learn online have
the opportunity and can achieve success.
Faculty Satisfaction: Faculty achieve success with
teaching online, citing appreciation and happiness.
Student Satisfaction: Students are successful in
learning online and are pleased with their experience.
As technology introduces new possibilities, the effective practices collection is a collaborative work
in progress. Educators share emerging knowledge
and advance it, and Sloan-C recognizes excellence,
awarding practices that meet these criteria:
• Innovation: The practice is inventive or original.
• Replicability: The practice can be implemented in a variety of learning environments.
25
• Potential impact: The practice would advance the field if many adopted it.
• Supporting documentation: The practice is supported with evidence of effectiveness.
• Scope: The practice explains its relationship with other quality elements.
Practices in one area affect quality in others, thus the pillars are related and interdependent. When members
post practices, they help influence the future of education. Practices are automatically eligible for annual
Sloan-C awards. Appendix A lists effective practice awards, and Appendix B is the rubric for evaluating
effective practices.
This synthesis groups effective practices according to solutions that contributors have provided to some frequently encountered questions. Hyperlinks are provided so that readers can examine details about practices
and the organizations and people who have generously shared them.
II. STUDENT SATISFACTION
Sloan-C’s goal for student satisfaction is that students are successful in learning online and are typically
pleased with their experiences. Measurement of student attitudes finds that:
• Discussion and interaction with instructors and peers is satisfactory;
• Actual learning experiences match expectations;
• Satisfaction with services (advising, registration, access to materials) is at least as good as on
the traditional campus;
• Orientation for how to learn online is satisfactory; and
• Outcomes are useful for career, professional and academic development [1].
Student satisfaction with the entire learning experience begins with preparing learners for the online environment, continues throughout the curriculum, and continues past graduation with career services and
lifelong learning. As emphasized by the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications 2002
report “Beyond the Administrative Core: Creating Web-Based Student Services for Online Learners,” “students expect more than static web pages—they are looking for personalized and integrated information and
services that will support their higher education experience [2].”
1. How can schools help learners get started with online learning?
A full range of online services comparable to services provided on campus helps ensure that the quality
of learning is at least equivalent to learning in face-to-face settings. The Illinois Virtual College Online
Student Resource Center (IVC) helps students succeed in online learning with online resources for: Getting Started, Student Resources (Assessment & Testing; Diverse Populations; Financial Assistance; Health
& Wellness; New Students; Purchasing Books Online; Returning Adult Students; Transfer Information),
Academic Success Skills (Study Skills/Online Tutoring Sites; Library Skills/Online Research Sites; Writing/Communication Skills; Survival Skills; GPA Calculator), Career & Life Planning (including tutorials
that walk students through planning process), and Technology Tools (including tutorials). Students interested in taking an online course can walk through the resources at their own pace, or they can go directly
to a category of information. Students at all 66 Illinois campuses can also visit in person any of 40 IVC
Student Support Centers, one located in every community college district in the state. Stark State College
requires students to complete an agreement that tells them what to expect and how to succeed. Fernuniversitat Hagen provides online tools for enhancing learning effectiveness for easy access to personal data and
calendars, assignment results, courses, and contact information for tutors and classmates. At the University
of North Texas ecampus, a student guide meets all five pillars of quality by providing access to course information for online students, student satisfaction in knowing that they are prepared for the academic and
technical requirements of the online course, learning effectiveness in permitting students to get a head start
on course requirements, faculty satisfaction in knowing that their students know about course expectations,
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and cost effectiveness and institutional commitment in making course and program information available
to prospective and current students before they decide to enter. University of North Texas also requires
beginning students to enroll in Web Institutes so that student cohorts support one another. At Saint Leo
University, a required online orientation introduces learners to resources and expectations, with an overview of support services and resources, through an online, instructor-led orientation course that assures
connection and connectivity to entry level students. At GoArmyEd (formerly eArmyU), ViCTORY (Operation Virtual Counselor Transforms Online Resources for You) is a model for Soldier academic support and
success; this fully integrated proactive student-support reaches out to soldiers in more than 50 countries.
GoArmyEd counselors regularly contact soldiers at critical points in their progress, helping to ensure a high
rate of completion. Similarly, mentors at Western Governors University know that learners’ approaches in
its competency-based program may range through a continuum of transforming, performing, conforming or
resisting, and so mentors establish regular contact with learners to reduce feelings of frustration and isolation. Long Beach City College (LBCC) provides its orientation on learning skills, Internet skills, and communication skills to all LBCC faculty and students and to others who wish to use the resources at S.I.D.E.
Road: Success in Distance Education. Washington State University helps students learn to communicate
online with the help of virtual facilitators.
Quinnipiac University facilitates student achievement with self-regulated learning segments that can be
linked from the course syllabus, embedded as modules in a course, emailed to students, or accessed from
a website.
2. How can schools help learners make good choices?
To help students project and manage their time and also to help decide which courses they can succeed in,
Troy State Montgomery provides a syllabus display and time on task as part of the registration process. At
Athabasca University, the detailed syllabus helps students preview expectations before taking the course
and reduce anxiety, pace themselves and even work ahead of schedule to accommodate business and personal commitments. At the University of Phoenix (UOP), personalized, student-centered life-long learning
for adult learners includes consideration for the schedules of working adults; thus, courses are taken one at a
time during a six-week-long intensive semester. UOP’s small class size, academically qualified practitioner
faculty, and outcomes oriented curricula focus on providing students with workplace competence, teamwork practice, and improved communication skills. At Washington State University, flexible enrollment
options offer students control of learning, so that they can choose to enroll in a regular semester or extend
for a couple of semesters. To help establish social presence and preview subject matter for prospective
students, Washington State University provides brief RealPlayer videos in which the professor welcomes
students with an introduction to the course. Empire State College requires a course that becomes an educational planning environment in which students and their mentors assess their preparation for college;
consider personal, professional and educational goals; identify prior learning; analyze what students need
to learn; select courses; choose a concentration, make a curricular plan, and develop and articulate a degree
program. At Northern Virginia Community College, a tutorial instructional model builds learner-instructor
interaction into course, assignment, submission and feedback processes.
3. How can schools build community among learners?
Because student satisfaction is rooted in a learning community, The Pennsylvania State University World
Campus’s community website connects online students to the university and builds a learning community;
and its student/faculty helpdesk, an online customer service, makes online experiences more satisfying
for faculty and online students. At the State University of New York Learning Network (SLN), courses
emphasize the importance of required interactions between student and faculty, and SLN continuously
assesses student satisfaction and reported learning, interaction, learning community formation, and more.
To encourage its graduates to stay identified with its community, University of California Berkeley offers
tuition discounts for alums for online courses.
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To prepare its students for their online course experience, Berkeley College has a comprehensive plan for
preparing online students including an orientation site for its online degree students, a required online preparatory course that prepares online students to understand the particulars of online learning and navigate
the course management system, an online library orientation, a special one-stop shopping center online degree site with messages from advisors and students services, an online tutoring site that is always available
to help students with course material and writing assistance, and ongoing faculty and technical support. At
Rochester Institute of Technology each online course has a customized course page with course information, school policies, access and equipment information, and resources. Frederick Community College
(FCC) provides a comprehensive array of online library materials and services. Library resources available
by remote access include the library catalog, reference data bases, online journals and full-text resources,
government documents, news services, and other sources. The library also creates custom web pages with
resources that are relevant to individual courses. Services provided online include reference and research
assistance, document delivery, interlibrary loan, partnering programs with local libraries, and library user
training, including research techniques.
To welcome students to the course community, a professor at Charter Oak State College telephones students
on the first day of class to establish communication. At Mercy College, students feel more comfortable
about asking for assistance when they can ask their peers, students who are tutors, facilitators, and role
models. At the University of Massachusetts Lowell, a course community and resource website builds community building through sharing of student pictures, current and past student work and extensive resources.
The University of Arizona College of Nursing Online PhD Program rotates student photos on its portal as
an easy way for learners to match names with faces. “Well begun is half done” at Old Dominion University
where the online student orientation website an interactive gateway that helps prospective students to become acquainted with distance learning. Students can assess their computer proficiency, learn about course
registration and choose from a variety of helpful tutorials. Faculty may refer students and advisees to the
site and it can easily be embedded into a preexisting website or course site. The Orientation site not only
serves as an efficient segue to distance learning, but also proves to be an encompassing resource that can
be referenced throughout distance learners’ academic careers. Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium
provides a collaboratively designed eportfolio platform to support learning, reflections, advising, career
services, and assessment. Students use the platform to track and annotate their education, experience and
goals. They can collect samples of their work to create portfolios and showcase specific experiences, photos, career documents, and portfolios to invited faculty, peers, employers, or others. A “counselor” view
allows students to work virtually with advisors and career counselors.
At Saint Joseph’s College of Maine, proactive academic advising for distance students meet the institutional goal of providing distance students with access to the same or better resources as their campus-based
counterparts. Academic advisors maintain regular contact with prospective students via phone, mail, and
email, and help students evaluate their academic and technical readiness for distance learning. Along the
way, they encourage students to consider how their pursuit of distance education will fit into their family
and work lives and to solicit support from family and friends. Students help students learn at Mercy College where students who have excelled in online courses become “wizards,” online teaching assistants. In
Mercy College ‘s Master of Organizational Behavior program cohorts build online learning community as
learners engage with permanent 12-month cohort of learners, with a permanently assigned mentor, and a
permanent team of instructors; learners report a transformation in their academic, personal and professional
development; and the program boasts a 90% success rate.
GradeGuru brings peer-support and collaboration to online learning with web 2.0 by enabling students to
share notes, build reputations and earn rewards. The University of Leeds uses online multimedia resources
to support students working in teams. The collaborative VoiceThread: Enhances Community, Increases
Social Presence and Improves Visual Learning.
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4. How can schools and faculty assess student satisfaction?
To make sure it provides a satisfying learning experience for graduate students, the Stevens Institute of
Technology’s WebCampus monitors student satisfaction and other responses every semester by surveying
its online graduate students to find out how eager students are to learn and to be involved with their learning environment, how ready they are to collaborate with other students, and how at ease they are with their
instructors. Students perceive that their learning is on a par with traditional modes and that the programs
provide what they desire in graduate education.
Professor Denise Marchionda at the University of Massachusetts Lowell realized students would appreciate guidelines for managing the online week, so she provided a template for structured activities; students
appreciate the guidelines and the distributed pacing of activities, and the template eliminates questions and
reminders about the schedule.
5. How can schools increase student satisfaction with learning?
Learning designed for student satisfaction is convenient, flexible, relevant, personalized, and engaging; it
offers learners options for learning activities and for controlling the pace of learning.
The University of Massachusetts uses the real-time case method to enhance the learning experience, providing extended, in-depth coverage to students at many schools, with real-time interactivity with the case
company. Students report high satisfaction with the authenticity of the real case study work that sustains
their interest and enthusiasm. Also at UML, a pause and post method improves the frequency and quality of
discussion board posts in an education course.
Capella University students visit its online writing support center frequently and appreciate the writing tips
featured regularly on its learning portal.
The Pennsylvania State University finds that learners enjoy ePortfolios as a way to evaluate their learning
experiences and to share their reflections with peers and potential employers.
For designing and conducting large classes that are intellectually engaging and satisfying for students, Professor Murray Turoff of the New Jersey Institute of Technology provides tips for managing large groups
effectively: synchronizing, organizing, socializing, collaborating, sharing and feedback.
At the University of Toledo, an online writing center increases satisfaction among students and faculty by
helping students improve writing skills and avoid plagiarism.
6. How can schools use technology to enhance student satisfaction?
To create a website that intuits and satisfies expectations, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University surveyed
its constituents and also invited visitors to give feedback on its website design and incorporated results to
create a thoughtful web design that welcome current and perspective users. Another platform designed with
users in mind, Moodle is an open-source learning management system designed by faculty with continuous
feedback from users as a user-friendly interface for constructive interaction with content and classmates.
Designed with a social constructivist framework, Moodle includes many features to enhance social, cognitive and teaching presence: user friendly overall design; easy course, user, and site management; assignment, chat, survey, forum, quiz, and resource modules; and wiki (collaborative writing), encyclopedia,
and glossary functions. University of Nebraska in Lincoln (UNL) uses video conferencing so that doctoral
students can present their work without having to travel. Faculty at three universities—West Virginia University, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Virginia Tech—found that audio feedback enhances
student satisfaction and saves faculty time. At American Public University (APUS), students use online collaborative document editors which streamline project workflows and improve cognitive outcomes because
of easy collaboration, easy multimedia inclusion and manipulation, and the relationship between online
document collaboration tools and wikis.
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III. LEARNING EFFECTIVENESS
Sloan-C’s goal for learning effectiveness is evidence that the quality of learning online is comparable to the
quality of traditional programs, meeting or exceeding industry standards for learning outcomes. Metrics for
learning effectiveness may demonstrate that:
• Interaction is key: with content, with instructors, classmates, the interface, and via vicarious interaction
• Online and traditional courses achieve comparable learning outcomes
• Online course design takes advantage of capabilities of the medium to improve learning (testing,
discussion, materials)
• Communications and community building are emphasized
• Swift trust characterizes the online learning community
• Distinctive characteristics of programs are highlighted to demonstrate improved learning
Learning effectiveness online benefits from community efforts that help learners adjust their roles to become more aware of learning, more motivated and self-directed, and more confident in online environments. As Swan explains, learning effectiveness benefits from purposeful interaction; see Relationships
between Interactions and Learning In Online Environments [3], a concise summary of the principles of
interaction, many of which are exemplified in the effective practices listed in this synthesis. A continuing
large-scale collaboration among educators who understand the significance of interaction in learning is The
Community of Inquiry Framework –it is demonstrably effective for Multi-Level Institutional Evaluation
and Continuous Quality Improvement.
7. How can learning design enhance interaction?
Perceptions of learning effectiveness correlate with perceptions of social presence. At Florida State University, social presence begins with introductions in which students complete a personal profile complete
with photo; profiles are accessible to the members of the course. Courses at the State University of New
York University at Albany are designed for effective discussion management via modules for readings with
critiques, lesson planning, and reflective journals that lead to abundant professor-student interaction.
For effective interaction, students and faculty benefit from clear expectations about communicating; clear
expectations help manage the volume and quality of interaction. Thus, Prince George’s Community College
finds that improving navigation helps students find what they need and cuts down on questions to faculty.
Clark College advocates front-loading content in course design so that students have already engaged with
course work before they attend their first class meeting.
Across its curriculum, Mercy College finds that defining effective participation helps learners contribute
postings that are: substantial (relate to the course material), concise (one screen may be the ideal message
length), provocative (encourage others to respond), hermeneutical (expand concepts or connects ideas in
new ways), timely (occur in a reasonable time frame—when the topic is under discussion), logical (support
point of view with reasons and evidence), and grammatical (are well written). At Herkimer Community
College, Professor Bill Pelz encourages student-led discussion to build complex understandings of psychology concepts; discussions require postings that are relevant, important, thought-provoking, original and
timely. Moreover applying research on presence to guide online discussions, Pelz helps students develop
social, cognitive and teaching presence by grading for postings that document, explain and apply information that contributes to the understanding of some issue under discussion so that classmates gain insight into
the subject, and learners become teachers.
Miami University finds that using the Quality Matters rubric to guide online course development, including emphasis on interaction, builds quality assurance into the final product; likewise Seton Hall University
relies on the Quality Matters rubric to provide faculty with a consistent foundation for developing online
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courses. Emphasizing interaction (with content, peers, teachers, and interface [2]) aids collaboration, one
of the most important aspects of online education; thus, a professor of education at Kent State University
designs courses that include opportunities for both individual and group work via personalized instruction
and problem based learning.
Second Life is a highly interactive virtual world that is proving engaging for faculty and students alike.
Sloan-C hands out note-card directions in Second Life and identifies avatars by students’ real names.
8. How can learning design enhance collaboration?
Asynchronous learning networks (ALN) optimize opportunities for collaborative learning and demonstration of learning. The University of Florida’s Internet MBA uses online peer evaluation of writing assignments so that students give reciprocal feedback on each others’ projects. For teachers in training, the University of Cincinnati’s early childhood learning community uses multimedia for virtual assessment of and
reflection on student teaching to enable students to do student-teaching in their own communities, and
use online channels to self-evaluate, to obtain mentoring, and to create online journals and portfolios. At
the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML), professors in various disciplines use online resources to
enhance learning. A UML education course uses electronic portfolios for organizing and assessing; each
student builds an individual repository of materials, demonstrating industry and growth across a semester’s
worth of work. Portfolios help students and faculty demonstrate and track learning. At UML psychology
professor provides a publication in personality psychology that integrates original writings of theorists, case
studies and personality assessment inventories, so that students can apply, personalize and critique theoretical knowledge. UML accounting professors enable the practical application of accounting concepts using
EDGAR, the Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) electronic data gathering, analysis, and retrieval
system so that students have meaningful illustrations and practical applications of financial reporting using
actual SEC data. At Stevens Insitute of Technology professors use virtual teams for teaching marketing in
an online course so that students learn experientially, doing actual marketing projects in collaboration.
A special collection of effective practices focuses on student-generated content as a special affordance of
online learning that encourages active learning and demonstrable outcomes. At North Carolina State University, students enjoy electronic peer review for giving each other feedback, improving skills, and building
on each other’s work. At the University of Reading’s School of System Engineering, students produce
assessment learning objects to help each other learn programming. Minneapolis College of Art and Design
showcases an online gallery of student and alumni work so peers and prospects can share inspiration. At
Northern Virginia Community College students publish their own practical applications of math problems.
Podcasting performances helps students develop skills in speaking English. At the University of North
Carolina at Pembroke, students have created an Online Encyclopedia of Criminal Justice and gain experience “editing, revising, and organizing the content.”
9. How can learning design inculcate academic honesty?
Adjustment to online learning includes understanding institutional policies for academic honesty and integrity. Florida State University applies the same honor code online and face to face. The Virtual Academic
Integrity Laboratory (VAIL), visitors to the online University of Maryland University College Center for
Intellectual property find resources for faculty and administrators and for students. To verify identity, Pace
University provides secure testing for online learners through a proctoring network.
10. How can schools assess learning effectiveness?
In the University at Albany’s computer and media education courses, students participate in and learn to
create lesson plans incorporating rubrics—not only do rubrics help assess student performance, by helping
students focus on what matters in the course, they help refine the course and reduce questions about grades,
easing faculty workload. Massachusetts Institute of Technology recognizes that a common objective scale
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for quality can benefit higher education efforts in joint development and shared resources, ultimately reducing the overall costs of online learning. Thus, MIT proposes a new methodology for evaluation: the pedagogical rating of online courses. This tool for overall evaluation of online courses or modules demonstrates
that pedagogical effectiveness increases as cognitive opportunity increases, via attention to learning styles,
media elements, and interaction. Michigan State University uses LON-CAPA, open source freeware for assessment and content management, to obtain immediate, detailed feedback about online homework, which
can be used to quickly adjust lectures, recitation sessions, and individual help to address learner needs. The
University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Master of Engineering in Professional Practice has an integrated assessment system for courses, overall program and post-program career impacts that includes an evaluation
of each course by students and faculty; an evaluation of the overall program at graduation; and a follow-up
survey of alumni, their co-workers, and their family members to measure the impact of the program upon
professional and personal development of alumni. The practice provides evidence of continuous improvement through regular team review and implementation of assessment results. At the College of Southern
Maryland, professors incorporate assessment in three ways: 1) creation of a learning guide (explicit roadmap), 2) reorganized presentation and design, and 3) addition of classroom assessment techniques (CATs)
in each course module. Students “welcomed the opportunity to participate in activities to assess their learning more frequently throughout the course.” Ashford University uses Dynamic Rubrics to improve the
efficiency and effectiveness of grading, feedback provision, and assessment. The rubrics allow for assessment of assignments, competencies, program outcomes, and institutional outcomes simultaneously using
real-time data, assessment of student performance, and tailored feedback on writing assignments.
A widely acclaimed rubric is the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model. The University of Minnesota-Twin
Cities and the University of Wisconsin-Stout integrate the Social Presence Model to Maximize Blended and
Online Learning Experiences by creating awareness of creating critical connections and cultivating relationships in learning communities to result in increased student motivation and elevated learning outcomes.
11. How can technology support learning?
Learning benefits when relevant, active, interaction with content enables learners to apply skills and concepts. Technology offers options for simulations, online labs, and collaborations that support active learning. At Rio Salado, an online class helps students actively learn human anatomy using online resources such
as interactive tutorials, tests, puzzles, practice labs, games, and written assignments. A course at Riverside
Community College shows that outcomes improve when students have online access to elementary algebra
with interactions, tutorials and workshops.
Sheffield College boasts 100% success rates in its preparatory English certificate that helps students qualify
for university entry. At William Rainey Harper College, a chemistry course includes a lab environment
that demonstrates applications of theoretical concepts, including lab applications via blended learning,
combining online and face-to-face learning. A course in ethics at the University of Massachusetts Lowell
uses a mock trial to engage students in critical thinking about technology. Stanford designs custom tutorials
using courselets, self-contained, integrated sets of learning materials for unlimited practice and review to
enhance the learning experience for students and reduce the demand for faculty time. At Indiana University,
the TALON Learning Object System provides repurposeable learning objects that faculty can easily adapt
to create interactive content for writing, visual learning, math and more so that students can master skills
and content. The University of Vermont College of Medicine transformed traditional education with an
integrated curriculum that includes a wide variety of multimedia educational technology tools and applications for hybrid learning environments, including reusable learning objects, virtual reality models, streaming audio and video, and online exams. Because students interact with the self-directed, online educational
tools at their own speed on their own time, prior to attending face-to-face lectures, faculty have been more
efficiently focusing their face-to-face time with students in class. Saddleback College provides An Online
Supplemental Instruction Tool Array designed with student feedback to help developmental math students
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gain confidence by overcoming common barriers.
At Carnegie Mellon, speakers of English as a second language use an automated reading tutor that listens
(Project LISTEN) and “intervenes when the reader makes mistakes, gets stuck, clicks for help, or is likely
to encounter difficulty.” Kansai University receives positive evaluations from students who receive lectures
at home via 3D virtual space. Western Technical College enables nursing students to Bring the Demo Home
so that students can preview, practice, or review skills from the convenience of home or anywhere there is a
broadband connection. Excelsior College provides online, interactive tutorials for an Anytime, Anywhere
Learning Experience for AD Nursing Students that prepares them for the Focused Clinical Competencies
Assessment (FCCAsm). WGBH PBS models rich multimedia content that is both educational and entertaining in its Nova program The Elegant Universe — each segment provides online transcripts, assignments,
animations, interactivities, links to related sites and references, technical support, cinematography, narrative, video clips, and audio including music.
American Public University (APUS) created a way to assess learning programmatically via Semantic Mapping of Learning Assets, an open source repository and semantic engine for analysis and alignment of content, materials, and learning activities across all courses within the School of Business. The result is a highly
detailed, accurate mapping of the programs’ knowledge base to established goals and objectives, available
for cross-curricular design, program review and accreditors.
IV. SCALE
Scale enables institutions to offer their best educational value to learners and to achieve capacity enrollment. Scale in online education is often a reflection of institutional commitment to providing quality online,
so that online education achieves outcomes that are at least equivalent to outcomes achieved in other delivery modes in ways that are affordable for providers and for learners. In many cases, as the practices listed
here demonstrate, online programs create efficiencies for “avoiding, reducing, and conserving costs” [4]
that exceed those in traditional modes. An overview of issues institutions face in scaling online programs is
provided by Oakley and Moloney [5].
• Institutions continuously improve services while reducing cost to achieve capacity enrollment
• Cost effectiveness models are tuned to institutional goals
• Tuition and fees reflect cost of services delivery
• Scalability, if an institutional objective, can be accommodated
• Partnering and resource sharing are institutional strategies for reducing costs
• Mission-based strategies for cost reduction are continuously formulated and tested
• Intellectual property policies encourage cost effective strategies
A Quality Scorecard for the Administration of Online Education Programs is a large scale initiative developed with senior administrators to assure scale develops with a focus on quality. It is useful for identifying
strengths and weaknesses of an online education program and as a benchmarking tool for evaluation against
other like programs in the industry. The results of the scorecard may also provide valuable information for
strategic planning and budgeting.
12. How can schools share resources to improve learning and avoid costs?
Consortia and other partnerships offer institutions opportunities to improve quality by sharing knowledge,
resources and costs. In the Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA), 39 state-supported colleges and universities
in the Commonwealth of Virginia use technology to improve learning and productivity, and at the same
time avoid costs (estimated $74.5M) by sharing library resources online. WISE Web-based Information
Science Education) is a collaborative for sharing library and information science resources. The Colorado
Community Colleges Online share the costs of online services including student admissions, records, adJournal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 14: Issue 3
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vising, and bookstore. Business schools at four different universities from Canada to Florida collaborate
in using the real-time case method (RCTM) to enhance learning and reduce costs —RCTM is scalable to
more universities.
13. How can redesign improve access, affordability, and learning, and save effort?
Re-designing courses can improve learning and access, free up faculty time, reduce physical plant costs,
reduce dropout, failure, withdrawal (DFW) rates, and maintain or increase enrollment. The National Center for Academic Transformation demonstrates how substitutions of technology for labor increase access,
achieve cost savings, and utilize technology to facilitate learning. In courses in multiple settings, universities are able to reduce classroom space and contain costs or achieve some cost savings by substituting a
primarily asynchronous learning model for the traditional classroom model.
A redesigned computer literacy course at the University of Buffalo produced 54–60% reductions in cost
per student. An introductory psychology course at University of Southern Maine reduced lecture time, increased interaction and completion rates, and reduced cost per student by more than 50%. At the University
of Dayton, redesign reduced course sections of introductory psychology by 50% by combining sections
with more collaborative and interactive learning models. At Brigham Young University, redesigning Freshman Composition resulted in less time in class, greater interaction, and maintained learning outcomes and
satisfaction; Vanderbilt University’s distributed learning electronics labs increase access and decrease the
number of trips to a physical lab at a reduced cost. At Virginia Tech, an online math course eliminates class
meetings, maintains learning outcomes, and improves completions. At the University of Iowa, a redesigned
chemistry course enables students to report homework and laboratory results online, with a cost savings of
about $10 per student. Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis lowered the cost of introductory
sociology by about 20% while improving learning outcomes and completion rates. An introductory Spanish course at the University of Tennessee Knoxville reduced faculty workload by automating grading; the
redesigned course increased enrollment and achievement. The Pennsylvania State University redesigned
an introductory statistics course with a 30% reduction in cost per student, reducing lecture and preparation
time, adding computerized testing, and increasing interaction. Faculty at West Chester University improved
instruction and reduced workload by introducing a virtual biology laboratory. Western Kentucky University’s self-paced, web-based computer literacy course reduced cost per student by two-thirds while increasing enrollment more than threefold. The University of Central Florida redesigned a course in American
National Government, and anticipates annual cost avoidance of $70K in physical space while increasing
collaboration and interaction. With the addition of a teaching assistant, Rio Salado redesigned math courses
to reduce faculty staffing and increase enrollments with a decrease in per student costs of 37%. The University of Maryland University College introduced interactive faculty training via CD-ROM to provide a
standardized, high-quality, flexible, and reusable delivery mechanism to worldwide faculty in its more than
3000 sections of faculty training; its online faculty development workshops emphasize direct application so
faculty can immediately implement what they learn.
14. How can schools use technology to improve strategic planning?
At The Pennsylvania State University, cost effectiveness means balancing educational outcomes and costs,
thus The Pennsylvania State World Campus adopted a budgeting system that includes the costs of faculty
compensation, instructional design, faculty development activities, marketing, and student services administration. The University of California, Davis compares face to face and online courses for cost-effectiveness and student pass rates, linking student learning outcomes with development and delivery costs.
Central Virginia Community College has a comprehensive plan to enhance the quality of online education
via assessment and five-year goals. Michigan State University’s Office of MSU Global created an effective
5-phase business planning and costing model that streamlines the development and implementation process
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for online degree and certificate programs; its program costing model aims to ensure return on investment;
and its global academic business planning model helps plan and implement hybrid degree and certificate
programs in partnership with international higher education institutions. Florida State University’s Office
for Distributed and Distance Learning created an About Online Learning @ FSU website that features
snapshots of online learning data under six categories that reveal a variety of information about FSU’s
courses, students and instructors related to FSU’s online degree programs. This website has become a tool
for reflective and demonstrative purposes that can ultimately lead to teaching and learning improvements
and for strategic planning. At the University of North Texas, the Quality Enhancement Program is an ongoing process for accreditation that “meets all five pillars of quality by providing access to information about
the QEP through presentations to thousands of faculty and students, student satisfaction in knowing that the
university is focusing much effort into improving the undergraduate experience, learning effectiveness in
engaging students in active problems-based learning, faculty satisfaction in being empowered to unleash
their creativity and do what they do best - share their passion for their subject matter, and cost effectiveness
and institutional commitment in providing an institution-wide focus on making big classes better.”
15. How can schools use technology to provide cost effective services for faculty,
students and administrators?
Kentucky Virtual University planned for effectiveness and efficiency by creating a one-stop shopping portal that collocates admissions, registration, resources, the virtual library (KVL), the virtual high school
(KVHS), and adult education (KVAE). Duquesne University provides important financial information to
students by listing the various funding options on its tuition web page. The Pennsylvania State University’s comprehensive academic advising and information system saves approximately $1M and considerable
transaction time while giving students more responsibility for learning. Florida State University created an
efficient and user-friendly test proctoring process that reduces duplications and eliminates the need to mail
exam materials to proctors. At Pace University, secure testing and asynchronous faculty and curriculum
development tools provide support to faculty, and curriculum development projects improve student and
faculty satisfaction with little or no additional cost. An online faculty staffing tool is a more efficient means
of scheduling faculty course assignments at the University of Maryland University College. The Rochester
Institute of Technology’s History Department cost effectively built an online course with free materials and,
in the process, created an online inventory of resources that are freely available online for other educators
to create web-enhanced, blended or fully online humanities and social science courses.
V. ACCESS
Access for anyone who is qualified and motivated to pursue studies calls for administrative and support services and for more choices for more learners and more kinds of learners. Thus effective practices in access
show how organizations facilitate learning opportunities in large and small ways.
• Diverse learning abilities are provided for (at-risk, disabilities, expert learners)
• The reliability and functionality of delivery mechanisms are continuously evaluated
• Learner-centered courseware is provided
• Feedback from learners is taken seriously and used for continuous improvement
• Courses that students want are available when they want them
• Connectivity to multiple opportunities for learning and service is provided
16. How can specialized online student services and resources make access easier?
At SUNY Delhi, students have access to services because of the underlying philosophy that Online Support
+ Web 2.0 = Access + Availability. Using mostly open source methods, SUNY Delhi Online Education
35
provides a one-stop shop for online instructors and learners to get important information about learning
management systems, search for their own answers, drop-in to live walk-in support, make contact to live
help via instant messaging or a free phone call, or submit a help ticket. The portal brings together RSS,
Twitter, a documentation wiki, DimDim (for screensharing), GoogleVoice and GoogleCalendar to provide
users an easy way to efficiently get help and up-to-date information about systems and available technicians. The help portal is distributed to other institutions in a Creative Commons-licensed package to use as
a template to build their own portals.
Pace University supports students with online support services, including math tutoring, and measures the
effectiveness of these services.
The University of Phoenix provides one-click access to student services and resources directly from online
courses.
Saint Leo University provides online access to community-building activities and opportunities.
Community College of Baltimore County, Essex offers a “walk through the web” course in several formats
to introduce students, faculty and staff to all of the services that are provided on CCBC-Essex’s web site.
Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium provides eTutoring.org, a collaborative program and platform
that shares tutoring expertise among member institutions, thus giving students access to more support.
Kentucky Virtual University (KYVU) enables students from participating institutions to register for KYVU
courses using common application and registration forms.
The Pennsylvania State University responds rapidly to users, emphasizes service, and projects a distinctive
identity through its website that provides a smooth connection to information, programs, and services.
For a highly mobile learner population, GoArmyEd (formerly eArmyU) provides U.S. Army Soldiers unprecedented access to all the resources needed to pursue higher education while simultaneously serving in
demanding work environments.
So students can get information any time, Maryland AskUsNow is a 24/7 live online interactive library service that uses the expertise of librarians to provide Maryland residents with answers to questions, research
guidance, and help navigating the Internet. The University of Maryland University College ‘s electronic
document delivery service allows UMUC students and faculty to access journal articles and book chapters.
At Davidson College, open access to scientific journals online means more equitable access, and using primary published research results can enhance student learning by developing critical and other higher-order
thinking skills.
To ease and speed admission processes, Saint Leo University reports transfer credit rapidly from its data
base of thousands of sources of equivalencies and provides degree completion program outlines quickly.
For students who want customized learning help, SMARTHINKING provides anywhere, anytime tutoring
in real time one-on-one online tutoring services to students. Pace University provides a tip for enhancing
access— use mid-week start/end frames for assignments; at Pace, working adults prefer mid-week rather
than weekend due dates.
At New Jersey Institute of Technology, Professor Murray Turoff designed a one room schoolhouse so that
students can choose to attend blended or face to face sections of the course.
17. How can schools help students access support and adapt to academic culture?
When students decide to enroll, Boise State (BSU) helps them visualize the enrollment procedure via an
online flowchart; BSU’s “boot camp” is an asynchronous online training program that prepares students
for succeeding online. Northern Virginia Community College provides many ways for prospective students to find out about courses; before enrolling; its continuous enrollment and expandable course sections
help meet growing learner demand for more access. The State University of New York Learning Network
36
(SLN) provides learners and faculty access to online learning communities as critically important learning
resources.
Access also means that students are aware of choices and resources, thus Fairleigh Dickinson seeks to meet
its objective to create skilled lifelong global learners by requiring all of its undergraduates to take online
courses. Pace University’s university/industry partnership with CAEL, the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning and the telecommunications industry provides access for telecommunications employees and
their employers. Maryland Digital Library (MDL) provides online electronic library resources to Maryland
higher education institutions. Two pilot projects at the University of Helsinki demonstrate the potential of
mobile learning to increase access to learning opportunities and resources. Once students are enrolled, access includes helping students make education more affordable, thus Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University makes buying and selling used textbooks online easy.
18. How can schools provide access to special populations?
The University of Washington’s DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology)
Center makes distance courses accessible to students with disabilities, provides resources about accessibility online, and promotes the accessible design of online courses nationwide. As part of faculty development,
the University of Pittsburgh and Carlow University provide their faculty with Ten Practices for Developing
Accessible Material. The Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications provides students,
researchers and administrators with guidance for time- and location-independent support and information
services, including academic advising, career planning, financial aid, library services, orientation, personal
counseling, tutoring, disability services, call centers, and for re-engineering student services. An exemplar of such services is Rio Salado, which uses a systems approach to online learning: its integration of
the activities of course development and support, student services, faculty services, information services,
admissions and records and marketing departments makes Rio able to offer students hundreds of unique
courses, with 90% of the courses available for students to enroll in every two weeks (twenty-six start times
per year), with the remainder of the courses usually available for enrollment six to eight times per year. Rio
never cancels a class, even if only one student enrolls. James Madison University provides summer online
courses so that students can meet their graduation requirements when courses are inaccessible during the
Fall and Spring terms on campus.
Access to learning for specialized populations of learners occurs in various discipline-based courses with
practices that might be adapted or use across disciplines, like these in:
Business:
FCIB, an association of executives in finance, credit, and international business, and Michigan State University Global (MSU Global) formed an innovative partnership that applies an instructor-led, cohort-based
model for corporate online learning and leads to certificates in international credit and risk management.
University of Central Florida provides a 3-D Interactive Accounting Model that motivates students to understand and manipulate inputs and outputs. At Ohio State University, a Statistical Buffet gives students
choices for their own mix of activities for learning the same set of course objectives. Using automated
course administration and individualized web content optimizes each student’s experience and improves
success rates. At Morrisville State College an IT internship provides field-work in a selected business,
industry, government or educational setting. This real-world work experience gives students “increased
confidence in their own technical abilities. To date, more than 90 percent of interns have received offers of
full-time employment by their internship sponsor.”
Education and Computer Science:
At Harvard University, modeling experiential learning and exemplary standards helps learners use various pedagogies, media and technology to improve learning. Rice University connects teachers in training
with virtual guests who are expert teachers through asynchronous discussions; virtual guests can host
asynchronous interactive discussions and students can interact with them expressing individual concerns
37
without time and place constraints.
At the University of Massachusetts Lowell, a course in theory and research in curriculum keeps students
current with virtual textbooks, web hot spots, and weekly newsflashes. The University of Virginia provides
virtual electronics laboratories using visual representations of microelectronics devices to help students
internalize concepts.
To foster students’ critical thinking and interpersonal skills, and enable students to make connections between service and their academic work, Bemidji State University’s Distributed Learning in Teacher Education (DLiTE) program uses e-service for experiential service learning opportunities in online courses.
At the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, the Library and Information Science program creates a
significant difference in the way students participate in a rapidly changing profession, including helping
learners is to create a community of practice in the new online environment.
San Francisco State University conducts a learn-by-doing course in Training Needs Assessment in which
teams of students perform needs assessments for real clients in corporate, non-profit, higher education, and
K-12 education settings.
Engineering: The University of Toledo’s (UT) collaborative partnering approach enables UT to offer engineering technology online degree programs statewide.
Stevens Institute of Technology, in partnership with several scholarly global organizations, provides graduate engineering certificate programs online
Environment: The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) Extension offers environmental studies online and in hybrid formats.
NOAA’s interactive course: Collaborative Processes, is a self-paced series of interactive modules explores roles and processes, stakeholders, meeting and conflict management, and assessment of task/process
behaviors can help identify individual and collective styles.
Health: Creighton University provides a Doctor of Pharmacy degree, expanding access to underserved
populations in rural areas that are not within driving distance of a place-bound pharmacy school. Rochester
Institute of Technology, in conjunction with the Monroe County (NY) Health Alert Network (HAN) and the
New York State Association of County Health Officials (NYASCHO), funded by a grant from the Centers
for Disease Control (CDC), offers instructor-led online learning for adult voluntary learners who need jobrelated training.
Humanities: Integrated Medical Curriculum (IMC) provides The Doctor’s Dilemma, an interactive medical ethics role-playing program that uses text- and photo-based material to explore “complex or controversial issues found in contemporary medical practice” through role-playing.
Minneapolis College of Art and Design’s Distance Learning Initiative re-creates the studio-based model
online for art and design education.
Goucher College’s MA in historic preservation is a hybrid program that requires one in-person introductory
meeting.
Boston Architectural Center offers online professional design education, a field which relies on expressive
representation, subjective interpretation, and critique in a wide range of graphic, verbal and quantitative
media.
Science: Western Washington University’s integrated laboratory network (ILN) provides better access to
scientific instrumentation and expertise anytime, and from anywhere by allowing students and researchers
to operate instruments located at different campus locations via the internet. The ILN also enables direct exchange of information, data, and classroom material, modeling the virtual laboratory of the future, enabling
learners and teachers to apply the philosophy that science is a dynamic, iterative, ongoing, and collaborative
process. Northern Virginia Community College provides chemistry laboratories for science majors using
home laboratories, computer exercises, field trips, and college laboratories to improve access and learning
38
experience. The University of Colorado at Denver (UCD) offers lab-based science courses in online and
hybrid formats for anytime anywhere chemistry experiences.
19. How can schools use technology to improve access?
Training users and employing technologies that simplify operations eases access for various constituents
in organizations. The University of Illinois - Springfield facilitates technical support with screen capture
software, GifgIfgiF, that animates software demonstrations; and it uses Impatica to reduce the need for
plug-ins, converting PowerPoint lectures into streaming Java presentations. Duquesne University enables
learning-on-the-go for access to course and study materials so that busy adult students can listen to audio
recordings any time via MP3. Washington State University ‘s Distance Degree Programs uses streaming
technologies to publish course descriptions, faculty bios and student testimonials in close-captioned streaming audio with revolving photos, allowing students an opportunity to quickly and easily see and hear the fine
details of WSU-DDP online courses. At Atlantic Cape Community College, faculty-staff-student partnerships produce reusable and shareable learning objects. Distance learning faculty specialists bridge the gap
between faculty and administration through the Distance Learning Faculty Specialist (DLFS) model, developed by Eastern Oregon University to help involve faculty in distance education. The University of South
Queensland (USQ) is building strategically planned, systematically integrated, institutionally comprehensive implementation of information and communication technologies including automated responses, intelligent object databases, and other information and communication technologies, including automated
response systems and intelligent object databases to automate certain aspects of interaction with students,
increasing access to higher education on a global scale. At San Francisco State University, some courses
use the “HyFlex” course and design process so that students may choose to attend face-to-face synchronous
class sessions or complete course learning activities online without attending class in person.
VI. FACULTY SATISFACTION
Faculty satisfaction with online teaching reflects institutional commitment to building and sustaining environments that are personally rewarding and professionally beneficial. The practices listed here include
resources and strategies for ensuring faculty success.
• Faculty satisfaction metrics show improvement over time
• Faculty contribute to, and benefit from online teaching
• Faculty are rewarded for teaching online and for conducting research about improving
teaching online
• Faculty experiences, practices and knowledge about online learning is part of
the institutional knowledge sharing structure
• There is a parity in workload between classroom and online teaching
• Significant technical support and training are provided by the institution
20. How can schools foster greater community among faculty?
One of the great benefits for faculty who teach online is the opportunity to connect with new communities.
Within these communities, quality is a frequent topic for discussion, activities and resource sharing. Maryland Faculty Online provides affordable faculty technology training via the Faculty Online Technology
Training Consortium (FOTTC); its Project Synergy is a collaborative effort to train Maryland faculty in the
23 higher education institutions. FOTTC gathers, reviews, enhances, and disseminates interactive, technology-based, Web-accessible learning objects for use in key discipline areas. The project has enabled faculty
to develop a repository of over 100 Web-accessible learning objects in six key discipline areas; the learning
objects are enhanced with assignments, assessments, and instructions for using these learning objects effecJournal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 14: Issue 3
39
tively. The project has also developed models for enhancing learning objects in the disciplines. The project
helps to establish the Maryland Faculty Online web site as the statewide web-based training center for
the ongoing professional development of faculty. The University of Calgary’s best practices in e-learning
online showcase enables practitioners in e-learning to meet, share and showcase their best practices with
each other. University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and Great Cities Institute integrate adjunct faculty into
the community of practitioners through activities and incentives. The University of Massachusetts Lowell
promotes faculty collaboration through an online faculty book club; the book club enables faculty to discuss
issues and share effective practices. Florida Community College at Jacksonville Distance Learning uses a
virtual mentoring program to support online adjunct faculty with instructional and technical support and to
liaise between faculty and Virtual College staff. At the University of Massachusetts Lowell, veteran online
faculty mentors become cyber-celebrities and guest speakers who interact and share their experiences with
faculty new to online teaching and course development. George Mason University created a faculty fellows
program to increase faculty skills and interest in online education and to provide social and technical support. Florida State University recognizes faculty as WebStars and publishes their effective teaching tips on
special web pages for sharing knowledge about using technology to improve quality of instruction. California State University, Chico provides an online rubric for online instruction to demonstrate and encourage
exemplary faculty work in online education.
Members of online communities can stay abreast of the rapidly changing environment and apply information to the development of their online offerings by subscribing to University of Illinois Springfield daily
blogs on new and developing initiatives, methodologies, and technologies in ALN.
21. How can schools prepare faculty to teach online more effectively?
Faculty preparation for teaching online measurably improves learning effectiveness and satisfaction. Thus,
because learning effectiveness also focuses on faculty, The Pennsylvania State University provides a selfpaced faculty development program that helps faculty understand distance education students; recognize
how distance education differs from traditional resident instruction; determine course goals, learning model, and content; determine course assignments, interactions and assessments; choose delivery technology;
and understand legal issues in course design. The program includes guidelines for clear communication and
netiquette. Another useful self-paced teaching aid is the Learning to Teach with Technology Studio (LTTS)
at the Indiana University (IU) School of Education. This program offers K–12 teachers forty five online
courses that include email facilitation and a standard course structure. The structure of courses is described
in an online IU tour:
• Problem: Introducing the problem
• Process: How to go about solving the problem
• Solution: Completing the course project
• Assessment: How your work will be assessed
• Resources: What resources are available to help you
To enable faculty to design courses and control the quality of content, schools and organizations provide
training and resources. At Berkeley College, faculty training and support are available totally online via
asynchronous faculty training and support. A four-stage faculty development process, created by State
University of New York Learning Network, leads to high faculty satisfaction with teaching online. The
Monroe Model, created by Monroe Community College, is a site-based and online support framework that
addresses any issues or questions faculty might face. Empire State College uses Web Conferencing for
Adjunct Development. CoreOnline at Boise State University is a graduated faculty development model, in
which teams of faculty learn online instruction skills and practice them as they collaborate on the development of a targeted general education core course. At University of Nebraska Lincoln’s Extended Education
and Outreach, a five-week online summer faculty development program of training for online teaching
40
takes both novice and experienced online instructors through the steps of course development and management, online teaching, and online assessment. The Berkeley College Online Faculty Resource Center is a
media-rich interactive site that provides faculty with comprehensive resources. Catalyst is the University
of Washington ‘s online faculty guide to distance teaching ; Catalyst uses multiple feedback mechanisms
(e.g., focus groups, online evaluations, surveys, usability studies, e-mail and face-to-face comments) to assess its effectiveness and overall impact. The learning to teach online program (LeTTOL) program, created
by South Yorkshire Further Education Consortium, helps participants gain the skills they need to develop
and deliver online courses. At Dallas Baptist University, an online teaching tips website is open to public
use and commentary. Faculty teaching online find that knowing behavior patterns improves teaching and
learning, thus researchers at the University of Central Florida design learning activities and interaction to
correspond to learners’ energy levels, need for approval, and styles of dependence and independence. Eastern Kentucky University trains faculty to use Community Clips & Power Point to Create an Effective Video
Demonstration for Math, Statistics or Other Disciplines. For teachers in training, a professor at the University of Central Florida shows students how to create digital stories that help teachers learn to use multimedia
and their students to learn vocabulary. The University of Leeds and LearnHigher CETL (a partnership of 16
UK Universities, collaborated to create resources to assist educators with the delivery of student workshops
in twenty areas of academic skills development, from academic writing to visual practices. The resources
are open access and available online at www.learnhigher.ac.uk/videoresources. PBS TeacherLine offers
Professional development for and evaluation of online course instructors with research-based best practices. Penn State University conducts Peer Review of Online Teaching. For more experienced faculty, the
SUNY Learning Network uses an interactive online teaching self-assessment survey.
North Carolina State University Distance Education and Learning Technology Applications (DELTA) RFP
Program, created by North Carolina State University, funds faculty in the planning, design, and development of distance education programs.
22. How can schools encourage and support research opportunities for faculty?
In the relatively young field of online education, faculty and others enjoy opportunities for research and
publication. The Indiana Partnership for Statewide Education has assembled guiding principles for faculty
in distance learning online to help faculty members teach courses online. The Greater Detroit Area Partnership for Training improves faulty satisfaction with its analysis of faculty experience and standards of excellence that addresses concerns identified by faculty feedback.
23. How can schools recognize and reward faculty who teach online?
Studies like the above can lead to initiatives that improve faculty satisfaction by rewarding faculty for
their achievements in development, research and teaching online. In its ongoing study and enhancement
of faculty satisfaction, The Pennsylvania State University World Campus implements three principles to
study and enhance faculty satisfaction: proactively and continuously managing expectations, distinguishing
between “real” and “perceived” problems, and identifying and targeting the locus of control and change; its
multidimensional recognizes and rewards faculty for online activities. The Northeastern University Center
for Innovative Course Design rewards faculty through student-nominated faculty awards for effective and
innovative technology use —faculty receive recognition for effective or innovative use of technology to
support good teaching and learning; students feel empowered by nominating examples of effective practice.
Auburn University has fundamentally transformed its tenure and promotion process giving faculty more
freedom of choice for spending time and resources. And Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis
includes technology scholarship in its faculty reward structure for the use of technology for teaching and
learning.
41
24. How can technology help organize and enhance faculty activities?
Technology enables rapid distribution, integration, and feedback of information that can lighten faculty
workload. Uni Open Platform for instructor support and workload management, created by FernUniversitat
Hagen, automates administrative processes, allowing faculty members to spend more time supporting and
advising students, and it also allows students to update their information, contact other students in their
region, and download course materials for offline use. Metropolitan State University created “Automatic”
gradesheets: A Holy Grail for simultaneously improving faculty and student satisfaction. LATIST: Learning Asset Technology Integration Support Tool is an open source facility for faculty that provides pedagogically driven decision support with a repository of research on technology use in government, business, and
education, and access to information on how to integrate technology within learning assets.
A professor at the University of Maine at Fort Kent continuously improves his syllabus, incorporating
and publishing results by annotating the syllabus during course delivery; using feedback for reflecting,
evaluating, and planning ahead; and by documenting and sharing the improvements made to his course.
At Athabasca University, faculty members can update their materials themselves via their browsers
with the use of blogging software with an estimated 90% reduction in the time usually taken to update
online course materials from two weeks per semester to one day; to keep the community current with
tools, Athabasca graduate students compare the growing array of LMS software at http://cde.athabascau
.ca/softeval/. Berkeley College uses Intranets Conferencing, a commercial service that enables faculty to
confer online and develop or modify an online course, incorporate media, and have their questions, problems, and concerns attended to quickly and easily anywhere and any time. At the University of Houston
(C.T. Bauer College of Business), faculty share ethics learning objects to save faculty development time.
The Learning Online Network-Computer-Assisted Personalized Approach (LON-CAPA), developed at
Michigan State University, is open source software that enables instructors to create computer-assisted
personalized assignments, quizzes, and examinations. The Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning
and Online Teaching (MERLOT) peer reviews online teaching-learning materials and publishes materials
online, making them freely available to faculty everywhere.
At Berkshire Community College, a blog supports faculty development; the blog includes summaries of
events, links to articles of interest, video clips of workshops, calls for proposals, and professional development opportunities. Kansas State University shares its ELATEwiki with faculty and students and also with
the public. The wiki is useful in many ways:
First, it allows expert teachers to share their knowledge in a fast and effective way. It allows these experts to correct and improve on ideas contributed by others. Second, novice teachers can use ELATEwiki to learn new techniques and explore ideas for improving their teaching. They can also contribute
cutting-edge ideas and ensure new knowledge is made available to more established teachers. Third,
ELATEwiki supports classroom access to material. Not only is the material on ELATEwiki available
as a student resource, it can be used as a site for developing and posting student projects that are visible to the entire world. This sense of moving a project beyond the classroom and making it a valuable
artifact tends to motivate performance and encourage collaboration between student team members,
peers, experts outside the classroom, and teachers. And finally, ELATEwiki’s access feature ensures that
meaningful and effective access will follow the student as they move from academic to professional life.
V. CONCLUSION
The practices in this synthesis may be refined for local contexts and adapted across a wide range of institutions. Thanks to the generosity of effective practices contributors, the questions in this synthesis identify
some ways asynchronous learning networks are transforming higher education. Yet, the questions are by no
means comprehensive, and the practices suggest a multitude of innovations still to be developed and shared.
Readers are welcome to add questions and comments, to build on these ideas, and to contribute more
42
practices to Sloan-C Effective Practices so that the goal of quality, breadth and scale in anytime, anywhere
education becomes a reality for more learners than ever before possible.
VI. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Janet C. Moore, Ph.D., is the Chief Knowledge Officer for the Sloan Consortium. She is an editor for the
Sloan-C View, the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, effective practices, and annual volumes in
the Sloan-C quality series. She participates in various initiatives, including helping design and conduct
Sloan-C workshops and seminars, and Sloan-C Catalog reviews. She is the author of Elements of Quality:
The Sloan-C™ Framework, Pillar Reference Manual.
VII. REFERENCES
1.The
Pillar Reference Guide, http://www.sloanconsortium.org/sites/default/files/pages/Sloan-C%20
Pillar%20Reference%20Manual.pdf.
2.“Beyond the Administrative Core: Creating Web-Based Student Services for Online Learners,” Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET), 2002. Online: http://www.wcet.info/
projects/laap/.
3. Swan, K. Relationships Between Interactions and Learning In Online Environments (PDF 486KB).
http://www.sloanconsortium.org/publications/books/pdf/interactions.pdf.
4. Bishop, T. Research Highlights: Cost Effectiveness of Online Education. (PDF 484KB). http://www.
sloanconsortium.org/publications/books/pdf/ce_summary.pdf.
5. Oakley, B. & J. Moloney. Scaling Online Education: Increasing Access to Higher Education. Journal
of Asynchronous Learning Networks 10(3): July 2006.
VIII. APPENDIX A: AWARD WINNING EFFECTIVE PRACTICES
“Automatic” gradesheets: A Holy Grail for simultaneously improving faculty and student satisfaction
A Quality Scorecard for the Administration of Online Education Programs
A Systems Approach to Online Learning
Multidimensional Model for Review of Scholarly Activity
Online Support Services -- Focus on Student Satisfaction
An Online Supplemental Instruction Tool Array
Anytime Anywhere Chemistry Experience
Cost-Effective Distributed Learning with Electronics Labs
Asynchronous Audio Feedback to Enhance Teaching Presence and Students’ Sense of Community
Bringing the Demo Home
Combining Effective Individualized and Group Instruction
Content Area Vocabulary Digital Stories
Discipline-Specific Online Writing Lab with 24/7 Access and Asynchronous Peer Tutoring
Effective Feedback to the Instructor from Online Homework
ELATEwiki: E-Learning and Teaching Exchange Wiki to Support Faculty Development
Engaging Students Through Electronic Peer Review
Facilitating Student Achievement in Online Courses with Self-Regulated Learning Segments
Faculty Self-Study Research Project
43
GradeGuru: Bringing peer-support and collaboration to online learning with web 2.0
Integrated Laboratory Network: Better Access to Scientific Instrumentation
LATIST: Learning Asset Technology Integration Support Tool
Online Support + Web 2.0 = Access + Availability
Providing anytime, anywhere online access to higher education for a highly mobile learner population
Repurposeable Learning Objects: the TALON Learning Object System
Resources to assist educators with the delivery of student workshops Semantic Mapping of Learning
Assets
Supporting Online Adjunct Faculty: A Virtual Mentoring Program
The Real-Time Case Method: Access to Real-Time, Real-World Cases
The Statistical Buffet
The SUNY Learning Network (SLN) online teaching self-assessment survey for experienced online
faculty
Using Cohorts to Build an Online Learning Community
Using online multimedia resources to support students working in teams
Using Quality Matters to Guide Online Course Development
Using the “HyFlex” Course and Design Process
Using the Community of Inquiry Framework Survey for Multi-Level Institutional Evaluation and
Continuous Quality Improvement
VoiceThread: Enhanced Community, Increased Social Presence and Improved Visual Learning
WISE, A Collaborative Distance Education Model for Library and Information Science
Wizards: Student Tutors Help Peers Learn
Mixed Delivery Model Proves Cost-Effective
IX. APPENDIX B: RUBRIC FOR EVALUATING EFFECTIVE PRACTICES
1. Innovation: The practice is inventive or original in realizing the potential of online learning and related
information/communication technologies. N A
P o o r
Average
G o o d
No evidence
provided
Little or inadequate
evidence provided
Nice practice, but early
mainstream at best.
Early adopter, or
E x c e l l e n t
Clearly a pioneer and/or recognized leader
in realizing the potential of this practice
a nice variation on a
previous innovation
2. Replicability: The practice can be implemented or its resources shared in a variety of learning environments.
NA
Poor
No
evidence provided
Little or inadequate evidence
provided
A v e r a g e
G
o
o
d
E x c e l l e n t
The practice could be replicated or its resources shared
in other learning environ-
Evidence that practice has been replicated or its resources shared in one
or more other institutions or learning
Evidence that practice has been
replicated or its resources shared in
many other institutions or learning
ments
environments
environments
3. Potential impact: Wide adoption of the practice will improve learning, affordability, access and/or satisfaction among providers and/or users.
44
N A
P o o r
A v e r a g e
G
o
o
d
E x c e l l e n t
No evidence
Little or inadequate
evidence provided
Other institutions should
think about adopting this
practice.
Other institutions should seriously consider adopting this
practice.
Every institution should be doing this!
Wide adoption would improve practice in one pillar
area
Wide adoption would improve
practice in one or more pillar
areas
provided
Wide adoption would improve
practice in several pillar areas
4. Supporting documentation: The practice supports claims of effectiveness with research and/or other empirical data.
NA
Poor
No
evidence provided
provided
Average
Effectiveness claims are
supported with anecdotal
or another single data
source
G o o d
Effectiveness claims are supported with research and/or
other empirical data from multiple sources E x c e l l e n t
Effectiveness claims are supported with
research and/or other empirical data from
multiple sources; demonstrates effectiveness over a significant time period (1-2 yrs.
or more)
5. Scope: The practice demonstrates relationships among learning, affordability, access, and faculty and student satisfaction.
NA
P o o r
Av e r a g e
G o o d
E x c e l l e n t
No evidence
provided
provided
States how the practice
relates to one or more
other pillars
Demonstrates a strong relationship with one other
pillar
Demonstrates exceptionally strong relationship
with another pillar, or demonstrates strong interrelationship with several other pillars
6. Additional Comments:
45
Introduction to the Section on Workforce Development
INTRODUCTION TO THE SECTION ON
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
David Sachs
Associate Dean
Professor of Technology Systems
Pace University
When unemployment is high and education budgets are shrinking, people flock to community colleges and
other providers to learn new job skills. Asynchronous and blended education provide solutions for meeting
large scale demand, thus this issue features four cases about innovative workforce development programs.
Each one of them advances the possibilities and provides replicable practices for expanding access.
Provide full access and support services for learners
“Learner Support Requirements for Online Workplace” describes a research project that followed learners
through a three-month online training course with a variety of pedagogical approaches and learning activities. Although the original focus of this research was on understanding the effectiveness of various pedagogical techniques for online workplace training, during the course of the research, “it became apparent that
learner support – one of the secondary topics of investigation– was also critical to learners’ success.” In this
case, external learner support, or the lack thereof, became critical to the success and/or failure of this online
experience. Too often we forget such things. In this case, learner support was an essential component for
success.
Emphasize the mission of access to overcome resistance
“Skepticism to Success: Meeting Critical Workforce Needs through Innovation and Collaboration” describes how Whatcom Community College was able to take a traditional physical therapist program and
convert it into an online one. Despite initial skepticism from its own faculty and professional community,
the program is successful – both for the individuals enrolled in it, as well as for the organizations that wish
to hire the graduates. The retention rate is high, and the success rate on the professional exams is impressive. The program has grown in size each year, and applications far exceed the number of available seats.
Whatcom Community College used asynchronous learning to expand opportunities for those who live too
far from a given location. Along the way, Whatcom learned a great deal about addressing faculty and community skepticism.
Reach across institutions to provide experiential learning
The Medical College of Georgia and Macon State College cooperated to implement the AHIMA (American
Health Information Management Association) e-HIM® Virtual Laboratory into the Professional Practice
Experience (PPE). In the 2009-10 academic year, AHIMA reported the Virtual Lab was used by over 80
community colleges in the United States. Overall use of the lab grew to 251 health information programs
and was anticipated to reach over 9,000 students. This article explains the work that was required to implement this Virtual Laboratory and the implications for scheduling and designing academic experiences. The
authors found that by using AHIMA’s e-HIM® Virtual Lab, both colleges incorporated the student’s experiential learning back into the traditional and virtual classrooms, so that students experience the relevance
46
Introduction to the Section on Workforce Development
of e-HIM applications in both the education and workplace settings.
Use social networking to personalize and professionalize learning in community
“The CUNY Young Adult Program - Utilizing Social Networking to Foster Interdisciplinary and CrossCohort Student Communication during Workforce Training” provides a good look into how social media
are enhancing higher education initiatives. Using NING (currently available for free), this program was
able to provide an easy point and click communication environment in which students were able to share
and communicate information, beyond just the course period. The authors believe that in courses like those
dedicated to workforce development objectives it is important to keep lines of communication open to all
students and professionals. Whereas other pedagogical platforms often limit these groups, the new courses
encourage students to feel like vital and contributing members of an ever-growing and self-determined
community of learners. Social media offer creative, engaging ways to expand online education beyond the
classroom, for free!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Sachs is Associate Dean and Professor of Technology Systems in Pace University’s School of Computer Science and Information Systems. As Associate Dean, he has been actively involved in the development and implementation of computer science and telecommunications courses for the corporate community since 1984. As supervisor of the Pace Computer Learning Center, Dr. Sachs is responsible for the many
hundreds of days of personal computer, computer science, and telecommunications education that are provided each year to corporations throughout the United States and around the world such as AT&T, IBM,
MCI, PepsiCo, The Reader’s Digest, and others. Dr. Sachs has worked closely with teachers, administrators
and others to think about the most effective ways to introduce technology into public and private schools.
47
Learner Support Requirements for Online Workplace Training in the South African Furniture Industry
LEARNER SUPPORT REQUIREMENTS FOR
ONLINE WORKPLACE TRAINING IN THE
SOUTH AFRICAN FURNITURE INDUSTRY
Iain S. Macdonald
Mark Bullen
Robert A. Kozak
University of British Columbia
ABSTRACT
A qualitative research project was conducted to evaluate the suitability of e-learning as a means of delivering training to workplace learners in the South African furniture manufacturing sector. Twenty learners
participated in a three-month pilot e-learning course and were monitored throughout. While the study was
designed primarily to investigate the effectiveness of various pedagogical techniques in a South African
context, the importance of providing adequate support to learners emerged as a critical theme during the
research project, and this is the subject of this article. Issues included: poor awareness among learners’ superiors, IT staff, and financial managers about the e-learning activities that their employees were involved
in; sensitivity about costs incurred by employees in connecting to the Internet; a ‘hands-off’ attitude to
online training by human resources staff; and a failure in many cases to set aside adequate study hours
for employees. Recommendations for companies undertaking training via e-learning include: performing
a cost-benefit analysis of face-to-face versus online training; facilitating clear and timely communication
within the organization regarding e-learning activities; and establishing a study plan for each learner with
the active involvement of learners’ supervisors, IT support specialists, human resources staff, and financial
managers.
KEYWORDS
E-learning, learner support, workplace learners, corporate training, online training
I.
INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
The forest products industry in South Africa offers an opportunity to address poverty and high unemployment by increasing the domestic production of value-added wood products such as furniture and joinery. A
major barrier to achieving such growth, however, is a lack of appropriate skills; South Africa’s Forest Industry Education and Training Authority states that “78% of the forest industry workforce is either semi- or
unskilled, and there are critical shortages of craft or skilled workers, technicians, and professional managers” [1]. Post-secondary and tertiary education programs on wood products manufacturing are being developed in response to this problem, and e-learning is being considered as a delivery mode for industry training
programs because it allows for flexible study schedules and eliminates the need for employees to leave the
workplace and incur costly travel expenses. South Africa’s Internet infrastructure-–although poor compared
to that of western industrialized nations-–is well-established in African terms [2].
E-learning courses on forestry for undergraduate learners have been run by the University of Stellenbosch
and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa, and students have responded favorably to the
e-learning format [3]. The results suggest that e-learning may also be an appropriate format for corporate
workplace training, which has prompted the present study.
48
Using a qualitative approach, this research project followed learners through a three-month online training
course offered by the University of British Columbia that utilized a variety of pedagogical approaches and
learning activities. Learners were interviewed in detail before and after the course, and WebCT server logs,
discussion fora and email communications were monitored throughout the course.
It should be noted that the original focus of this research was on understanding the effectiveness of various
pedagogical techniques for online workplace training. During the course of the research, however, it became apparent that learner support – one of the secondary topics of investigation– was also critical to learners’ success. This view is widely held in the literature on workplace training. For instance, research has
found positive correlations between the support of superiors and successful transfer of learning in the
workplace [4, 5]. Several writers have noted the importance of senior management support for e-learning
initiatives [6, 7], and the need for e-learning to be seen as more than simply a human resources-related activity [8]. The literature has also highlighted the need to carefully plan IT infrastructure and thoroughly test
the technical aspects of e-learning training courses prior to launch [7, 9, 10]. Finally, researchers have found
that learners may face difficulties due to the need for high levels of self-motivation and self-organization
[11, 12, 3, 14]. Examples illustrating all of these issues emerged during the study, and will be discussed in
more detail below, with some recommendations on ways that companies can address them.
II.
RESEARCH METHODS
The qualitative case study approach utilized in this study allowed for detailed information to be collected
via a flexible, semi-structured interview format, and also enabled complex interactional variables that typically take place in learning environments to be taken into account [13]. A quantitative study of learners
enrolled in several courses was deemed inappropriate because the teaching and learning methods employed
in the various courses would not be uniform and it would be impossible, in practical terms, to ensure that
consistent approaches were being used across all courses. Consequently, a specific e-learning course was
adapted as the focus of the study, so that the researcher was able to control and manipulate all of the key
variables related to course design, including the content, types of learning activities, presentation, assessment criteria, student workload, and timing.
The course chosen was a web-based, first-year undergraduate course, developed at the Faculty of Forestry,
University of British Columbia, that was intended to introduce students to what is known as the forest products value chain, beginning with the planting and management of forests, and encompassing all of the key
manufacturing stages and the various issues and interrelationships along the supply chain through to the
global trade in forest products. It is presented within the WebCT course management system. To prepare for
the research study, the course content was substantially adapted and augmented so that it was relevant to
South African participants, and a pedagogical redesign was undertaken to ensure that a wide variety of
teaching and learning activities were included. (For a more detailed explanation of the pedagogical redesign
of the course, the reader is directed to]).
The course was designed so as to avoid media or applications that required high bandwidth (video, animated simulations, audio) as it was anticipated that this could cause accessibility problems for some learners due to slow modem connections and poor bandwidth. Content was presented chiefly through text-based
HTML pages supported by photographs, diagrams, and charts, and supplementary readings were made
available in Adobe PDF document format and optimized such that the file size was as small as possible.
III. SELECTION OF STUDY PARTICIPANTS
Twenty workplace learners were selected to participate in the course. This sample size was small enough
49
to allow for detailed, one-on-one interviews to be conducted with each participant, yet still yielded a varied
range of opinions and perspectives. It was deemed important to minimize variation with respect to access
to technology and corporate policies towards training and, for this reason, all of the learners were selected
from one large, diversified company. The company chosen was Steinhoff Africa Group Services Ltd., the
largest employer in South Africa’s furniture sector, with over 30 manufacturing facilities dispersed throughout South Africa and many more located elsewhere in Southern Africa, Europe, and Australia. The company’s International Human Resources Manager, Johan Geldenhuys, stated that Steinhoff was interested in
evaluating the potential use of e-learning as a training tool because of the challenge of providing standardized training across multiple sites and in many different countries.
Candidates were recruited on a voluntary basis with the assistance of human resources managers, but were
required to be working in roles in which the course subject matter would be relevant and beneficial, and to
have access to and some experience in using a computer. The participants were employed in eight manufacturing facilities located close to the three major urban centres of South Africa (Johannesburg, Cape Town
and Durban). Table 1 shows age, gender, educational history and occupation information for the learners
who participated in the study.
50
Learner
Age
1
35
2
45
3
29
4
Gender
Highest Level of
Education
Occupation
Male
B.Sc.
Production Director
Female
3-year Technical
Diploma
Nesting Manager
Female
Part-time technical
college courses
Covers Controller
42
Male
Part-time technical
college courses
Factory Production
Manager
5
38
Male
3-year Technical
Diploma
Logistics Manager
6
23
Male
3-year Technical
Diploma
Training Manager
7
25
Male
3-year Technical
Diploma
Management Trainee
8
25
Male
Part-time technical
college courses
Production Planning
Supervisor
9
24
Male
3-year Technical
Diploma
Logistic Planner
10
29
Male
B.Sc.
Production Trainee
11
35
Female
B.Sc.
Product Development
Manager
12
39
Male
Part-time technical
college courses
Production Manager
13
32
Male
Part-time technical
college courses
National Quality Assurance Manager
14
26
Male
Part-time technical
college courses
Production Planner
15
26
Male
Part-time technical
college courses
Line Manager
16
37
Male
Part-time technical
college courses
Line Manager
17
30
Male
3-year Technical
Diploma
Production Planning
Manager
18
25
Male
3-year Technical
Diploma
Production Planner
19
23
Male
3-year Technical
Diploma
Management Trainee
20
25
Male
3-year Technical
Diploma
Management Trainee
Table 1: Learner Profiles
IV.
DATA COLLECTION
Interviews were conducted with each of the learners at their workplaces in June 2005, approximately three
weeks before the start of the course. These interviews were designed to obtain a detailed profile of the
learner group in terms of educational and career histories, personalities, experiences with computers and the
Internet, and attitudes and beliefs about teaching and learning. A second set of interviews were held in October 2005, immediately following the conclusion of the e-learning course. The aim of the exit interviews
was to obtain detailed qualitative data on the appropriateness of the various learning activities, and to probe
issues related to learner support that had arisen during the course. Eight human resources and training managers from the various factory locations were also interviewed at this time. It is primarily this secondary set
of interviews which forms the basis of this paper. WebCT server logs, quiz scores, emails to tutors, and
grades for other assessed activities were monitored by the researcher throughout the course, but are not
explicitly reported on here. Grading of participants’ assessed work was done by other faculty members at
the University of British Columbia and the University of Stellenbosch to ensure impartiality.
V. RESEARCH FINDINGS
As noted above, the original focus of this study was on the identification of appropriate pedagogical techniques for workplace training via e-learning in South Africa’s furniture industry. During the study, it became apparent that support in various forms from within the organization was a critical factor affecting the
success or failure of each participant’s learning experience. Similarly, some corporate policies were seen to
have had strong, but unforeseen, impacts on learners’ performance in the course. This article focuses on
these aspects of the research findings, which are presented in this section. A series of recommendations are
subsequently proposed in the following section as a means of creating optimal conditions for the success of
e-learning within South African manufacturing organizations.
A. Motivation, self-directed learning, and corporate training culture
Learners identified a number of factors that influenced their motivation during the course, some of which
were personal and others externally-influenced. At a fundamental level, the relevance of the course content
to one’s own job was an important aspect and, as may be expected, those working more directly with wood
products and materials generally appeared to be more motivated by the course content itself than others.
Technical and infrastructure support also had a strong influence on learner motivation. Ten of the 20 learners experienced problems at the beginning of the course because they did not have timely access to a computer, did not have adequate email or Internet access, or had technical problems with their computer user
account that resulted in a communication breakdown. In most cases, this resulted in delays in starting the
course, which negatively affected learners’ motivation since they then had to work even harder to catch up.
In three such cases, learners repeatedly asked colleagues or superiors for assistance in solving these issues
51
and, when their requests were not addressed, they ultimately lost interest and dropped out of the course. One
such learner, describing a problem he had in gaining access to his own company Internet network, stated,
“a big problem was that I was out of the loop – I asked the IT people to have a look at it, and to please delete
and recreate my profile. HR were aware of it too. Nothing happened, and I gave up trying to get the problem solved after a while.”
Five respondents stated that the existence or absence of visible buy-in from managers and direct superiors
directly affected their motivation to successfully complete the course. Similar findings have been reported
by [6], who stress the importance of securing senior management support for e-learning initiatives, and by
[8], who suggests that e-learning is seen as a human resources issue only, but has not yet become part of the
mainstream HR lexicon. A study on learning transfer in workplace training by [4] found that “ensuring a
supportive work climate may be the single most important requirement for the successful transfer of learning.” A similar study of motivation to transfer knowledge gained in computer-based training by [5] showed
that organizational commitment and supervisor support had positive effects on the perceived transfer of
training, and were correlated with both a motivation to transfer knowledge acquired and to use it in the
workplace.
In the majority of cases during the Steinhoff study, buy-in from superiors was not present, because most of
the learners’ managers were either not informed about the study or received minimal information. Eight of
the learners took the initiative to periodically update their superiors on their progress, or requested intervention to solve problems such as delays in getting Internet access. It would appear that better communication
of training goals and learner requirements (access to computers and Internet, release time to study) to the
learners’ managers may increase the likelihood that the managers would support learners’ efforts. Generally speaking, inter-organizational communication during the e-learning pilot program appeared to be inadequate. One learner suggested that, “checks should have been done with us as to our progress in the course.
If we were falling behind we could have negotiated for study time during the day.”
Three of the five human resource managers who were interviewed expressed the view that e-learning requires high levels of self-motivation and commitment, and this is supported in the literature [11,12]. Interviews and course results revealed that individuals who appeared to be highly self-motivated in other aspects
of their careers and personal lives tended to be more successful at completing course requirements on time.
Accordingly, the learners who performed best in the course in terms of timely submission of quizzes and
assignments described themselves as “strongly self-motivated.”
In a study of undergraduate e-learners in South Africa, [3] found that “students are often not used to selforganized learning.” This is likely to be the case also for workplace learners who are more accustomed to
expository styles of teaching (such as classroom-based lectures) than learner-centered approaches. Two of
the human resources managers interviewed suggested that most of their employees were not sufficiently
self-directed to take part successfully in training via e-learning, and one went further, stating that the company “does not possess a learning culture.” Although it was beyond the scope of this study to evaluate such
opinions, careful instructional design coupled with the provision of adequate support for learners from
within the organization may help to maximize learners’ motivation and encourage their full and active participation in e-learning programs.
B. Communication within the organization
Awareness of the e-learning program and its potential benefits among relevant individuals throughout the
organization seemed be key to the success of the course. Participants suggested that many people within the
organization should have been well-informed about the e-learning course, including: human resources man52
agers at the corporate, regional, and factory levels; the direct superiors of learners; and information technology (IT) personnel and those responsible for reviewing and authorizing Internet access privileges and assigning computers. In order for these personnel to be of assistance to learners, they must first be provided
with detailed information about: the rationale for such training; the requirements in terms of study time,
computer, and Internet access; the duration of the course; and the benefits to the company and individual
departments of the employees’ participation in the e-learning program. It was evident during the study that
this information was not communicated adequately to these stakeholders, resulting in a variety of outcomes
that negatively affected participants’ learning experiences and motivation. One participant stated that “if
HR could have brought across the importance of this course to our factory managers it would have helped
a lot - they didn’t see it as important. I was told to “leave it” by my managers when I was studying if any
problems came up that needed my attention.”
C. Cost considerations
The costs of Internet connectivity appeared to be a sensitive issue within the various company units involved in the study. It is standard practice within the participating companies for Internet usage by each
employee to be tracked and recorded. Twelve of the 20 participants in the e-learning study stated that they
were very conscious of the need to minimize connection times to the Internet because financial administrators would view such activity as wasteful and excessive. A factory Human Resources Manager illustrated
this point with the comment “Internet access in the company is assessed by financial controllers and monitored on a per-megabyte-downloaded basis. That makes us rush, knowing learners will be quizzed afterwards by bosses on why they spent time online.”
Learners also stated that, from their perspective, applying for Internet access was a slow and bureaucratic
process that involved obtaining authorization from senior financial staff and from corporate headquarters.
Learners and human resources managers alike expressed the view that Internet access was a privilege that
only senior managers were afforded, due to concerns about misuse. This resulted in learners visiting the
course web site less frequently than they might otherwise have done, which negatively affected the level of
interactivity between participants and tutors involved in the course.
D. Study schedules
Formal recognition of the time needed to participate successfully in e-learning courses appears to be critical. Prior to the course, 15 of the 20 participants stated that they expected to fit most of their e-learning
studies into their work day, as few had adequate computing facilities at home. In reality, however, they
found that setting aside sufficient time at work to fulfill the requirements of the course was very difficult,
and that this was compounded by the fact that their superiors expected them to be available for normal duties as usual throughout the day. E-learning had become “invisible training,” with a requirement on the part
of learners to devote time to the course, but no acknowledgement of that need by others within the organization.
VI. RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the findings presented above, four recommendations for ensuring the success of workplace elearning are made. Each is discussed in turn in this section.
A. Recommendation 1: Cost analyses
Prior to running e-learning courses, it is recommended that human resources/training managers should
conduct a comparative cost analysis of face-to-face versus online training. The analysis should consider
53
tuition costs, travel costs to the facility where face-to-face instruction is to occur, the cost of course texts
and other materials, and lost productivity due to time that employees spend away from the workplace. It is
anticipated that, through such an objective analysis, the costs of Internet connectivity will be shown to be
relatively small compared to the potential savings. The training manager or human resources manager will
then be able to make a convincing, financially-based case to relevant financial and IT staff for learners to be
granted adequate access time to the Internet.
B. Recommendation 2: Improved communication
The importance of adequately informing and involving relevant personnel at all levels of the company
about e-learning initiatives cannot be understated, and this is reflected in best-practices literature such as
[14], which suggests practitioners should “sell e-learning to everyone in the organization. E-learning must
be perceived by senior management as a key function within the company in order that sufficient financial
and IT resources can be dedicated to it [15] and “effective corporate leadership is needed to promote the
delivery of relevant knowledge and skills” [16]. Recommendations regarding ways to create the necessary
internal communication are presented below.
Human resource/training managers: Human resources (HR) managers must be fully informed about elearning courses and provide the necessary support and logistical coordination to maintain learner motivation and ensure that the required technical infrastructure is in place. Human resources managers at the
factory locations are the primary contacts for the learners, and they facilitate the learners’ participation in
e-learning courses. Before the e-learning course begins, it is very important for HR managers to liaise with
information technology personnel to ensure that the learner will have a computer available, an email account and Internet account set up, and the necessary software installed on his/her computer. This should be
done in advance of the course so that the learner is afforded time to test the system and have any problems
addressed. The IT specialist should be informed of the duration of the course, and asked to perform a supporting role, so that the learners receive any necessary technical assistance during the course as problems
arise.
The HR manager should also discuss the e-learning course with the financial administrator in charge of
securing Internet access privileges for members of staff. Financial managers should be made aware of the
goals of the e-learning course and the recommended amount of time that learners are expected to spend
online. The cost analysis described above should be presented and discussed to illustrate the cost savings
that will offset the increased expenditure on Internet access. These actions should help to ensure that learners do not minimize the time spent online at the expense of their studies.
The HR manager can also act as a training advocate for learners, to ensure that supervisors and superiors
understand the importance of the e-learning program and allow learners sufficient time in their work day to
complete course requirements. It is recommended that, prior to the start of the course, the learner, his/her
HR manager, and immediate supervisor should meet and set up a study schedule for the course (see below).
It is anticipated that this will create buy-in among the three parties, and reduce the risk that training time
will be subsumed by other workplace commitments.
The study outcomes suggest that much closer supervision of the learner is required for e-learning to be successful. If the e-learning course provider is located remotely from the learners (as was the case in this
study), the company’s human resources managers should act as a point of contact and source of support for
learners. Study results suggest that monitoring mechanisms should be set up which allow HR managers to
inquire about learners’ progress and suggest corrective action should they fall behind with their studies or
perform below expectations. This corrective action may include liaising with learners’ supervisors/superiors to negotiate more time for their studies.
54
Immediate superiors: Most learners’ superiors knew very little about the e-learning course that their
employees were involved in. As a result, most learners had the impressions that their superiors did not
place very much importance on the e-learning program. Learners stated that this negatively affected their
performance in the course in two ways. Firstly, it was difficult for most learners to take time away from
workplace duties to log onto the course website. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, many learners
felt that, had their superiors actively encouraged and supported them in their studies, they would have been
more motivated to complete the course requirements despite busy work schedules. It is recommended that
learners and their superiors create a study plan prior to the course that takes into consideration the learners’
workloads and responsibilities (see below). The need to convince senior management of the importance of
e-learning initiatives has also been highlighted by [7], who reported that e-learning implementation requires
significant planning, and attention must be paid in particular to IT infrastructure and change management.
Similarly, [17] suggests that a prerequisite for a healthy workplace learning environment is that management must be aware of the need for learning at all levels and middle managers should be trained to foster
and develop learning.
Financial administrators: As discussed above, financial administrators should be made aware of the rationale for the e-learning program and any cost savings that will offset the increased Internet usage. They
should also sign off on the study plan created by the learner and his/her superiors so that the learner is aware
that adequate Internet connectivity time has been officially authorized.
IT staff: Research by [9,10] found that if technology does not work properly then learners will quickly
become frustrated and may quit, a scenario that was witnessed in this case study. A key role of IT specialists
is to set up technical infrastructure for the course in a timely manner and to quickly resolve technical issues
that may confront learners. To do this, IT personnel must be made aware of the detailed technical requirements of the e-learning course. These include: minimum acceptable hardware specifications; the types of
software that must be installed on learners’ computers; the URLs of course web sites; any minimum bandwidth requirements; the kinds of media that will be used; and how any security arrangements or firewalls
that have been put in place within the company might affect access to the course website or other external
websites.
Human resource managers should meet with IT staff well in advance of the course start date to pass on this
information. IT staff should be made aware of the importance of the course so that if problems do arise,
they are given sufficient priority and are dealt with quickly.
Learners: It is important to note that adequate and timely communication is not merely the responsibility
of management. For e-learning efforts to be successful, learners should immediately advise course tutors
and human resources staff of any circumstances that are preventing them from completing course requirements on time. These circumstances may include: technical difficulties with email, Internet, or network
access; sudden fluctuations or unforeseen changes in workload; family and personal commitments; difficulties with navigating the course website and using the various tools; or uncertainties about course requirements or assignments. Course tutors and human resource managers must stress to learners the importance
of communicating these kinds of problems as soon as they occur, to avoid learners falling behind and experiencing more serious problems.
C. Recommendation 3: Study plans
Learners should be required to create a formal study plan prior to commencing any e-learning course. The
plan should be drafted in consultation with human resources staff and the learners’ direct superiors, and
should be reviewed and approved by financial managers and IT staff. The plan should set aside specific
times in which learners can carry out their studies during normal working hours, and should identify techniJournal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 14: Issue 3
55
cal requirements in terms of computer and network infrastructure and Internet connectivity. This approach
has several advantages. Direct superiors will know in advance that learners will be unavailable for normal
duties at certain times due to training commitments. This will create a similar situation to one in which the
employee is physically absent from the workplace while taking part in a face-to-face training workshop.
The supervisor/manager should also be made aware of the additional workload that the employee has taken
on due to training commitments so that he/she can take this into account when assigning tasks. This should
result in a more manageable workload for the learner during the e-learning training period, which will assist
him/her to complete course requirements on time. A study plan of this kind will also allow supervisors to
plan production activities and assign tasks in such a way that negative impacts on employee productivity
due to the e-learning course are minimized. Managers should also inform co-workers of the training schedule so that learners can be left uninterrupted during e-learning sessions.
From the employee’s point of view, the study plan commits the learner to studying at specific times of the
day and instills in the learner the knowledge that his/her superior is aware of this commitment. It is likely
that, having conceded a number of production hours to training, the manager will play a more active role in
monitoring the employee’s progress in the course. This may encourage the learner to pay attention to course
deadlines, and alleviate the tendency to procrastinate.
Although the adoption of a study plan is likely to yield many of the aforementioned benefits, it is acknowledged that the day-to-day responsibilities of many employees involved in production activities can be extremely unpredictable. As such, the study plan cannot be expected to completely mitigate fluctuations in
study time due to changing work pressures.
D. Recommendation 4: Scheduling
When planning training programs of any kind in a workplace setting, seasonal fluctuations in working hours
should be taken into account. For instance, all of the learners stated that within the South African furniture
industry, the July to December period is much busier than the January to June period. Consequently, it is
recommended that e-learning courses of a similar length or greater than the one employed in this study
should be scheduled during the first half of the calendar year.
VII. CONCLUSIONS
Support for e-learning activities from within the employing organization was found to be a critical factor
affecting the success of such training activities and, without such support, web-based e-learning cannot be
recommended as a training tool. In the Steinhoff Africa case, participants were expected to learn independently without the active involvement of managers or colleagues. As a result, many learners experienced IT
problems that remained unaddressed, felt isolated, and/or generally became less motivated. Human resource and training managers must play a coordinating role in e-learning initiatives, bringing together learners’ superiors, IT support, and financial staff to ensure that learners have the highest possible chance of
success.
The Internet infrastructure in place at the factory locations was found to be adequate to allow learners to
participate fully in the e-learning course, although some participants found download speeds to be slow at
times. The e-learning course used in the study did not include media or applications that required high
bandwidth, however, and care should be taken to ensure that courses designed for South African workplace
learners adopt a similar approach. The falling costs of Internet service in South Africa can be expected to
improve average bandwidth and connection speeds in the near future, enabling e-learning to be utilized
56
even more widely and for courses to be enriched through greater use of multimedia.
The results of this study suggest that South African furniture industry employees who are regular users of
computers are appropriate candidates for participation in well-designed web-based training programs, if
adequate levels of support are provided from within the organization and candidates have a strong interest
and motivation to complete such programs.
VIII. STUDY LIMITATIONS
This study is limited by a number of factors. The qualitative approach used is an appropriate means of collecting detailed information on learner attitudes and experiences, but the small sample size means that the
results cannot be considered to be statistically significant. For this reason, judgments about the usefulness
and credibility of the results must be left to individual interpretation [18].
A limitation of the pilot e-learning course itself is that it was not feasible within the research project timeframe to apply for and obtain official accreditation from the South African Ministry of Education. This
factor may have resulted in lower levels of learner motivation than if the course had been accredited. A
further limitation was the absence of financial incentives for learners to complete the course. The Steinhoff
Group typically bears the costs of employees’ training through a variety of arrangements, but all of these
are contingent upon successful course completion. Some of the human resources managers interviewed
suggested that learners would have had greater motivation to complete the course had such financial risk
existed.
IX. SUGGESTED FURTHER RESEARCH
This study has identified the importance of intra-organizational support for employees in the South African
furniture industry who are involved in training via e-learning. Support is a critical success factor common
to any industry sector. It is recommended that the relevance of organizational support for e-learning be investigated using large-scale quantitative research methods to survey a variety of organizations in various
industry sectors involved in corporate e-learning.
X.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank all those who participated in the study, Mr. Craig Stewart at Steinhoff Africa Group Services, and Professor David Cohen, author of the course used in the study. We would also like
to acknowledge the funding support of Canadian International Development Agency.
XI. ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Iain MacDonald is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Advanced Wood Processing
at the University of British Columbia.
Mark Bullen is the Associate Director of the Distance Education & Technology Unit of Continuing Studies
at the University of British Columbia. He assists in the planning and management of the department and
participates in the strategic planning for the development of distance education and distributed learning programs and courses. He also provides leadership in the application of educational technology to the design
and development of distance education and distributed learning courses and other educational materials.
For more information, visit http://www2.cstudies.ubc.ca/~bullen/.
Robert A. Kozak is a Professor and the Director of Forests and Communities in Transition [FACT] at the
57
University of British Columbia.
XII. REFERENCES
1.
Forest Industries Education & Training Authority. “General information on South Africa’s Forest
Industries,” [Online document]. Web site of Forest Industries Education & Training Authority, 2006.
Available: http://www.fieta.org.za/about/default.asp.
2. World Bank. The Digital Divide and the World Bank Group, Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2000.
3. Längin, D., Lewark, S. & Ackerman, P. Internet based learning in higher forestry education. UNASYLVA - Forestry Journal of the FAO 216: 39-44 (2004).
4. Lim, D. H. and Johnson, S. D. Trainee Perceptions of Factors that Influence Learning Transfer. International Journal of Training and Development 6: 36-48 (2002).
5. Seyler, D.L., Holton III, E.F., Bates, R.A., Burnett, M.F., & Carvalho, M.A. Factors affecting
motivation to transfer training. International Journal of Training and Development 2(1): 2-16 (1998).
6. Dagada, R. & Jakovljevic, M. “The Integration of Online Learning in the Corporate Training Environment: Lessons from South Africa,” in Proceedings of the 5th Annual Conference on World Wide
Web Applications, Durban, South Africa. [Online document] 2003. Available:http://www.general.rau.
ac.za/infosci/www2003/WWW-Abstracts/5TH_ANNUAL_CONFERENCE_ON10.htm.
7.
Welsh, E., Wanberg, C., Brown, K. & Simmering, M. E-learning: emerging uses, empirical results
and future directions. International Journal of Training and Development 7(4): 245-258 (2003).
8.
Chesire, K. “Implementing eLearning in Kenya Corporate: Challenges and Issues,” in Proceedings
of E-Learning Africa, 2nd Annual Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training, Nairobi, Kenya, 2007.
9. North, R., Strain, D., Abbott, L. Training teachers in computer-based management information systems. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 16(1): 27–40 (2000).
10.Rossett A. “Walking in the night and thinking about e-Learning.” In: Rossett, A. (Ed.), ASTD elearning handbook – best practices, strategies, and case studies for an emerging field. MCG, 2002.
11.Malone, T. Towards a theory of intrinsically motivating instruction. Cognitive Science 5: 333-369
(1981).
12.Keller, J. & Suzuki, K. Use of the ARCS motivation model in courseware design. In: D.H. Jonassen
(Ed.), Instructional design for microcomputer courseware (pp. 401-434). Hillsdale, NJ: LawrenceErlbaum, 1988.
13.Cronbach, L. J. Beyond the two disciplines of scientific psychology. American Psychologist 30(2):
116-127 (1975).
14.Hall, B. Six Steps to Developing a Successful E-Learning Initiative: Excerpts from the E-Learning
Guidebook, p. 242. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002.
15.Butler Group. Cultural and financial implications of an E-learning approach. Butler Group Intelligence Journal (April 2002).
16.Schweizer, H. E-Learning in Business. Journal of Management Education, 28: 686 (2004).
17.Stephenson, J. “A review of research and practice in e-learning in the work-place and proposals for
its effective use,” pre-conference paper prepared for American Educational Research Association
Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, April 21-25, 2003. Available: http://www.johnstephenson.net/
jsaera03.pdf.
18.Eisner, E. W. The enlightened eye: Qualitative inquiry and the enhancement of educational practice,
New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1991.
58
Skepticism to Success: Meeting Critical Workforce Needs Through Innovation and Collaboration
SKEPTICISM TO SUCCESS: MEETING CRITICAL
WORKFORCE NEEDS THROUGH INNOVATION
AND COLLABORATION
Margaret Anderson, Linda Maier, and Michael Shepard
Whatcom Community College
ABSTRACT
To meet workforce demand and the needs of working or place-bound students, Whatcom Community College developed an online version of its existing face-to-face Physical Therapist Assistant program which
became a model for other lab-based health science degrees. This article describes research studies that
support the program’s practices and includes the story of how the program successfully developed despite
faculty and professional community skepticism.
KEYWORDS
Workforce development, health science, lab-based, resistance, skepticism
I.
INTRODUCTION
Health science degrees are in increasing demand at community and technical colleges and have traditionally been challenging to integrate into an asynchronous model. In an effort to meet workforce demand and
the needs of working or place-bound students, Whatcom Community College developed an online version
of its existing face-to-face Physical Therapist Assistant program in 2006. This program has been successful
in meeting a diverse range of needs and interests through innovation, partnerships and use of technology.
The program has been recognized nationally by the National Council of Instructional Administrators for
Community College Exemplary Initiatives in 2009 and was also recognized statewide with the Washington
State 2008 Governor’s Award for Workforce Best Practices. The online Physical Therapist Assistant program has served as a model for the development of other lab-based health science degrees at Whatcom
Community College (WCC). Faculty provide leadership to both the WCC campus and community colleges statewide. This article describes research studies that support the program’s practices and will include
the story of how the program successfully developed despite faculty and professional community skepticism.
II.
CHANGING MODALITIES OF WORKFORCE EDUCATION
New technologies and teaching modalities are shaping the lives of students and instructors in higher education. Nationwide there has been a 12% increase in online enrollments compared to 1.2% growth in traditional face-to-face enrollments [1]. Currently over 20% of all higher education students are taking at least
one online course. In Washington State’s community colleges, online enrollments continue to grow. In fall
quarter 2009 Washington State community colleges had 25,025 online and hybrid state-supported full-time
equivalent students (FTES), compared to 19,167 in fall quarter 2008 [2]. At WCC, online student enrollments have increased from 1,953 students in 2007-08 to 2,255 students in 2008-09. The trend continues
this year with 2009-2010 enrollment numbers surpassing those of the previous year even before summer
quarter 2010 numbers are counted.
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According to Allen and Seaman [1], online learning is a major focus of community colleges and is considered a critical element of their mission. Enrollment trends from both Washington State community and
technical colleges and WCC exemplify this statement. Generally, it appears that community colleges have
embraced online learning to a greater degree and regard online learning with a higher value than four-year
institutions. The Sloan 2008 study found that 66.5% of associate’s institutions agreed that “online education is critical to the long-term strategy of my school” compared to 35.4% from a baccalaureate institution
[1, p.11]. Community colleges are well positioned to fulfill the rapidly changing needs of students and industry through innovation and opportunity. The rationale for and the process of implementing the online
Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA) program at WCC aligned with many of the issues described in the following research.
The decision to move forward and increase online course offerings often rests with the willingness of faculty. Mitchell and Geva-May [3], describe barriers that may prohibit implementation of online learning at
a higher education institution. These barriers include faculty attitudes in relationship to “intellectual reluctance, support, change, and cost-benefit” [3, p. 72]. Intellectual reluctance describes the attitude of some
faculty who feel online learning is less rigorous and valuable than a face-to-face class and does not align
with the values of higher education. Online learning also brings a change in the instructor’s role from the
“sage on the stage” to the “guide on the side” which some faculty are not comfortable embracing. Lack of
support both from colleagues and administrators, including lack of technical support, can be a barrier for
faculty moving forward with online teaching and learning. Changes in the structure, governance, and participation due to changing modes of instruction can make some faculty reluctant to embrace online learning.
A redistribution of funds to support online education can be a threat to current resource allocation structures.
Osika, Johnson, and Buteau [4] conducted a survey to determine faculty attitudes and perceptions towards
online instruction. The authors asked, “How can an institution encourage their faculty members to move
forward with online instruction?” The results of the survey indicated that, while the majority of the faculty
believed online learning is critical to the university’s survival and offered an increase in access for students,
only 47% believed that online courses had the same rigor and quality of traditional courses. This perception
could inhibit faculty’s desire to offer courses in an online format.
Zhen, Garthwait, and Pratt [5] describe a study conducted at the University of Maine to determine what
factors influenced a faculty member’s decision to teach online. The survey was distributed to 400 randomly selected faculty members. The results suggest that faculty who strongly believe that online learning
will enhance student learning and have a strong belief in their ability to effectively use the technology will
likely invest the needed time and effort to integrate online course management applications into their teaching. Faculty played an important role in transitioning the WCC PTA program into an online format. However, for some PTA faculty, the first reaction to the idea was shock and disbelief. Some stated, “That can’t
be done in a hands-on field of health care.” Similar sentiments were echoed by industry professionals and
other campus colleagues. Conversely, faculty who were early adopters saw the potential in the program and
how it would increase the access for place-bound and working students. These faculty were excited, enthusiastic, and ready to begin!
Skeptical colleagues voiced concern regarding a perceived lack of direct faculty-to-student contact online.
The level student-to-faculty and student-to-student interaction has been shown to impact students’ success
and academic achievement [6, 7]. Encouragement of social presence in online courses allows students
perceive each other as ‘real people.’ Social presence can be facilitated and encouraged by the instructor
through active involvement of the online students. The authors conclude that to increase students’ per60
ceived learning online, online instructors should develop effective strategies that foster social participation
and identification of class members. Active engagement by students contributes to their sense of belonging
and group inclusion and also avoids a sense of isolation. Students who engage in discussions and interchanges tend to perceive themselves as learning more. Whether this perception is actual cognitive learning
or only perceived learning has not been determined by the research. Accordingly, WCC faculty focus on
creating opportunities for community building and social presence in online learning.
Online instructors can lay the foundation for community in their virtual classrooms through the choice of
assignments and postings. Indicators that students have a sense of community include “active interaction,
collaborative learning, socially constructed meaning, sharing of resources, and expressions of support and
encouragement” [6, p.31]. PTA faculty teaching online for WCC recognize the importance of building
community among their students. Over the years, they have added resources such as wiki sites, group projects, the VOIP Elluminate Live! for interactive meetings, and a student club. The required face-to-face lab
time also helps to build sense of community and social presence for students. Throughout the year faculty
participate in a high degree of contact with students by phone and email.
Students taking online courses need to recognize the different behaviors and strategies required to be successful in online learning. The roles of face-to-face learners and online learners vary. Garrison, ClevelandInnes, and Fung [8] discuss the changes learners experience in transitioning from a face-to-face environment to an online venue. Students need to take on new roles and expectations and develop new ways to
operate and communicate in an online setting. Online learning environments are generally less instructor
directed; therefore, the authors suggest that online students need to take greater responsibility for their
learning. The role of the online student is defined, developed, and acquired within the online community;
thus, building a sense of community is important in the development of the role of the students. Faculty
have been successful in communicating the unique demands of online learning and fostering positive learning environments. Faculty provide a mandatory, in-person student orientation to prepare students for success and clarify the unique responsibilities of online education. Students admitted into WCC’s online PTA
program are also highly motivated by the unique opportunity and by the program’s consistent 100% workforce placement as working PTAs after graduation.
III. WORKFORCE DEMANDS
There is a high demand for PTAs both locally and nationally as employers are unable to fill job openings
because of the lack of trained PTAs. There is a projected growth rate of 30.2% in Washington State through
2016 [9]. On a national level, PTA is listed as one of the 30 fastest growing occupations in the Occupational Outlook Handbook 2008-09 with a 32.4% projected growth nationally through 2016 [10]. Wages
have risen in recent years, increasing to an entry wage of $20 - $25 per hour in 2009, up from $14 - $16 per
hour in 2005. The demand for health-care workers continues to outpace the number of available employees
and many colleges are responding by transitioning their allied healthcare programs to an online or hybrid
delivery venue in order to increase access and graduates [11, 12].
For a college, offering a PTA program is expensive; requiring costly equipment, a low faculty-to-student
ratio for labs, clinical externship experiences for students, contracts and contacts with clinical sites and instructors, travel to clinical sites, a lab for students to learn and practice skills, and staffing for the open lab
times and clinical coordination. Because of the program’s high cost and the college’s physical limits on
classroom campus space, it has been prudent and far-sighted to increase enrollments through an online
program. The online program is able to utilize existing resource investments without the need to build additional physical instructional space.
61
Only five state colleges in Washington State are accredited to offer a PTA program. While these programs
graduate approximately 130 students per year, this does not meet the high demand for PTAs. Additionally,
the programs are full-time, with face-to-face commitments often requiring students to relocate and quit their
jobs. WCC’s online PTA program is one of only five online PTA programs in the nation.
IV.
INNOVATIVE DESIGN AND PURPOSE
The concept of an online PTA program at WCC began as a result of requests from owners and managers of
physical therapy clinics in underserved areas of the state. In the fall of 2003, clinic business owners asked
WCC to transition its face-to-face PTA program into a hybrid/online format to meet industry and employment needs. After thorough research, WCC moved forward with this project. The curriculum was developed and adapted for hybrid/online use, approval was obtained from the Commission for Accreditation of
Physical Therapist Education (CAPTE), instructors were trained, additional equipment and supplies were
purchased, and the first hybrid/online PTA cohort began in spring 2006.
WCC’s online PTA program is a part-time program targeted towards working adults and place-bound residents. New students can complete prerequisites for the PTA program in an online format through WCC’s
online general education courses, their local community college, or Washington Online, a Washington State
consortium for online education. After completing their prerequisites, students apply to WCC for admission into the online PTA program. Once accepted, students start the program in the spring. The program
enables students to complete all didactic coursework online, using the Angel course management system.
The students are required to come to WCC’s campus once per month for an intensive weekend to complete
lab skills, but clinical externships are arranged as near as possible to the students’ residence. As a part-time
program, the coursework is plotted over nine quarters, and it takes approximately two years for completion.
WCC’s first online PTA class began in the spring of 2006 with seventeen students. Thirteen students from
the initial cohort graduated in 2008 with a 76% retention rate. The graduating students had several employment offers to choose from and 100% gained initial employment as PTA’s. The pass rate on the National
Physical Therapist Assistant (NPTAE) licensure exam was 100%. A recent study from the first cohort indicated that students were highly satisfied with the program and would recommend it to others. All the clinical evaluations from the clinical instructors of the online students indicated the students were very well
prepared. Out of this first cohort of graduates from the program, 92% continue to be employed as PTAs.
The second cohort began in the spring of 2007 with twenty-one students. This cohort graduated in spring
2009 and had an 88% retention rate. Licensure exam pass rate for the students in this cohort was 94%. To
date 88% of these graduates are employed as PTAs with one graduate choosing to delay employment. In
the spring of 2008, the third cohort of twenty-eight students entered the program. This cohort currently has
a 96% retention rate. All students are currently on track for program completion and graduation in June
2010. Approximately 60% of the students in this cohort have already received employment offers as a PTA
from their current employers. The remaining students have received offers from the clinical externship sites
they have attended as a student and others have received multiple offers after attending job fairs.
Twenty-four students enrolled in the spring 2009 cohort. There are currently twenty-one students with a
retention rate of 87%. The newest cohort, spring 2010, includes twenty-one students with some attending
from as far away as Texas. The online PTA program continues to receive more applications than capacity
in the program. In spring of 2006, there were thirty-three applicants to the PTA program. This number has
steadily climbed as high as forty-five applicants for the 24-student capacity of a program cohort. Online
PTA student success is seen in evaluation feedback statements from clinical instructors who oversee clinicbased externships. One clinical instructor states, “Things are going great. He [the student] is very knowl62
edgeable and has more experience than the physical therapy students that I have had here….I am having
difficulty finding any areas that he needs to improve. Thanks for sending him here. We will hate to see him
go”. This statement is representative of the feedback from the clinics where the online PTA students complete their externships.
One key to the success of this program is the application of eLearning tools and practices which facilitate
faculty pedagogical goals and promote student learning. These efforts have consistently benefited the faceto-face cohort as well, though that was not the initial intent. PTA program faculty continually improve their
program through responding to student requests and suggestions. In the first year of the online PTA program, students articulated the need for interactive multimedia resources. The PTA department researched
online anatomy software and selected Primal Online 3D Anatomy Software. This comprehensive online
database has images of human anatomy that can be viewed multi-directionally and in motion. Students are
able to view and manipulate layers of muscle and tissue, view muscle movements, read information on
anatomical features and self quiz. The Primal site is all web based and can be used at home or school. It is
used in online instruction, during monthly labs and for the face-to-face program’s classes as well.
Student requests also prompted PTA faculty to provide video documentation of technical skills learned in
the laboratory. To utilize resources most effectively, PTA faculty researched open source skills videos
available from iTunes U and YouTube. When otherwise unavailable, skills videos have been professionally filmed, edited and narrated by PTA faculty for student use. These videos are available to students online from home and are used by both online and face-to-face cohorts of PTA students. The skills videos are
another example of services implemented to benefit the online students that have positive overlapping impact for all PTA students. Skill videos cover some of the most important patient procedures that require
extensive practice to master with proficiency, such as use of crutches, walkers, bed transfers and bed mobility, range of motion and goniometry. The videos also allow faculty to use class time more effectively by
spending less time repeating demonstrations. Student response to the lab skills videos has been very positive, with faculty reporting they save time during lab session by not repeating skill demonstrations as often.
To increase collaboration and community building, faculty created several wiki pages that connect faculty,
students, clinical sites and program graduates to share experiences and mentor each other. Building community and collaboration among the students is critical to faculty who make extra effort to create opportunities for online and face-to-face students to build relationships. Student surveys have repeatedly praised
faculty members regarding their quick responses to questions or inquiries. Online students claim they have
greater access to instructors than in face-to-face courses. This past academic year, an online PTA student
took the initiative to set up a WCC sanctioned PTA club for students to connect socially and academically
accessible to both online and face-to-face students. In addition, an online student from a different cohort
established a WCC Facebook page for the PTA program to enhance interaction among current students and
graduates.
To address the discourse surrounding rigor and quality in online instruction, WCC uses the Quality Matters
rubric for course evaluations and has two PTA Faculty trained as Quality Matters Master Reviewers. In
2008 online PTA instructors participated in a Washington State pilot project to train faculty in the Quality
Matters (QM) online course certification rubric. These faculty are participating in course review work nationally, and over the next year WCC will work to certify the curriculum design and implementation of all
online PTA courses and expand the number of certified QM Peer and Master Reviewers in the department.
Individualized support is available to PTA faculty from the e-Learning Coordinator, along with 24/7 online
technical support for both students and faculty. The availability of individualized support has empowered
faculty to meet their student needs and continually incorporate new uses of technology and current pedaJournal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 14: Issue 3
63
gogical strategies into their courses. Through the use of instructional technology, faculty have strengthened
their courses and have increased accessibility to multiple learning styles. Faculty development is accomplished in workshops and trainings, through screen capture video recordings available on the campus eLearning Wiki site and through showcasing faculty best practices in teaching. Projects to support online
teaching and learning continue to grow and have been initiated from both students and faculty.
V. REACHING NEW POPULATIONS
One of the major initiatives of the project has been its collaboration and partnership with Yakima Valley
Community College (YVCC). YVCC is located in a rural region of Eastern Washington, 230 miles east of
Bellingham and across a major mountain pass. While there was a great need in the region for PTAs, there
was not sufficient demand to justify starting an entire new accredited PTA program. The online program
offered an ideal solution for both interested students and clinical owners in need of trained employees. The
connection between the colleges and the potential students is supported by an YVCC instructor who serves
as a liaison. The YVCC instructor works with all potential students, advising them on prerequisite courses.
This position is critical to the partnership and the success of students from the Yakima Valley region. This
position also works closely with employers securing clinical sites for students. A total of twenty-eight students from Eastern Washington have been admitted into the online PTA program.
The online PTA program has also been accessed by students and appreciated by industry partners in Alaska,
which currently does not have a PTA program. The WCC online program is the closest option and is within
a reasonable traveling distance for students to attend the on-campus weekend lab classes. The first online
cohort in 2006 included one student from Southern Alaska. Upon graduation, this student was able to
choose from three different employment opportunities which included flexible working hours and bonuses.
Two additional students from Alaska have participated in the program since that time. In addition to Alaska,
the online PTA program has had five students from Oregon and one from Central Texas, which are underserved for access to this workforce profession. In the past two years there has been a small but growing
interest in WCC’s online PTA program from students residing in California, Florida, Nevada, and West
Virginia.
The online PTA program has become a model for innovation and collaboration in meeting workplace demands. WCC is continually asked to partner and collaborate in order to meet industry needs in remote,
rural, and non-program areas. The development of further partnerships continues to expand. WCC will
explore securing approval from CAPTE to offer additional lab classes in other venues nearer to where students live. These alternative lab sites would reduce the currently required once per month travel to Bellingham. Employers have been extremely supportive of their employees in the program, with some contributing over $7,000 a year toward a student’s expenses. Employer support has included paying for tuition,
books, travel, and per diem expenses of employees. In return the employee will stay with the clinic for an
agreed upon number of years.
The success of the PTA program has encouraged WCC to implement additional online lab-based health sciences and their prerequisites. WCC’s Registered Nursing and Medical Assistant programs will both add
online/hybrid cohorts in fall 2010 modeling the PTA program. These health science degrees have strong
workforce demands, are not often available to working and place-bound students, and have enrollment requests in excess of the capacity of WCC face-to-face classes. Online Anatomy and Physiology and labbased Introductory Chemistry are also available to students, enabling a fluid online based pathway to completing crucial prerequisites to the PTA program and other health science degrees. The PTA program
continues to have positive ancillary impacts that benefit the entire WCC campus through an increased inte64
gration of online courses, pedagogical models, technology acquisitions, and support and training services.
Accordingly, online and hybrid enrollments are up 44% at WCC in the past year, with the addition of over
30 new online and hybrid courses campus wide. The online PTA program implementation helped identify
the eLearning training and support needs of both faculty and students. WCC has responded by adding personnel, investments in hardware and software, and services to facilitate teaching and learning. As a result
of the success of this program, WCC is a leader in innovative workforce education and eLearning.
VI. SUMMARY
The journey to online was not without its bumps and challenges. But the vision of what the PTA program
could deliver and offer to students who had no access to a program, the tenacity of the faculty, and the support of key administrators kept the initiative alive and moving forward. The procurement of workforce
high-demand grants helped support the critical work in transitioning the program to an online setting. Each
year the program is refined based on student input and learning outcomes. It is a strong program with outstanding results and positive feedback from both students and clinic employers. Students are overwhelmingly grateful for the online program. Many students have stated that without the online option, they would
never have been able to access a PTA program, graduate, and secure a well-paid position in a rewarding
career. Faculty find teaching online appealing for the flexibility and the opportunity to engage in dialogue
with all their students in an online setting. The monthly labs offer the face-to-face element that enhances
student engagement and retention. This online PTA program model is strong and successful and one that
can be emulated. It is an effective and efficient method to maximize limited resources in support of student
and workforce needs. As the demand for healthcare workers continues to rise, the need for colleges to be
innovative in offering education and training is crucial.
Community colleges with their responsive and flexible instructional delivery systems are the solution to
meeting critical education and training needs.
Margaret Anderson is the Program Coordinator for the Whatcom Community College Physical Therapist
Assistant Program. She has been a Physical Therapist for more than 25 years and holds a Master’s degree
in Education from Western Washington University with a focus on Adult Education and Community College Teaching.
Linda Maier is the Dean for Workforce Education at Whatcom Community College overseeing professional and technical programs, e-learning, and community education. She is currently a doctoral candidate
at the University of Washington in the Higher Education Leadership and Policy Studies. Her dissertation
research is focused on building community among online teaching faculty.
Michael Shepard is Whatcom Community College’s eLearning Coordinator, providing faculty training
and support for technology integrated teaching and learning, along with instructional design assistance. He
is currently pursuing a PhD in Anthropology at the University of British Columbia studying interactive
web-based technology application to Indigenous language revitalization efforts.
VIII. REFERENCES
1. Allen, I. Elaine and Jeff Seaman. Staying the course: Online education in the United States, 2008.
MA: Sloan Consortium, 2008.
http://www.sloanconsortium.org/sites/default/files/staying_the_course-2.pdf
65
2. State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC). Fall Quarter Report, 2009. http://
www.sbctc.edu/college/d_fallqtr.aspx.
3. Mitchell, B. and Geva-May, I. Attitudes affecting online learning implementation in higher education institutions. Journal of Distance Education 23, 2009: 71-88.
4. Osika, E. R., Johnson, R.Y. and Buteau, R. Factors influencing faculty use of technology in online
instruction: A case study. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 12 (1) 2009.
5. Zhen, Y., Garthwait, A. and Pratt, P. Factors affecting faculty members’ decision to teach or not to
teach online in higher education. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 12(3) 2008.
http://www.westga.edu.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall113/zhen113.html.
6. Palloff, R., and Pratt, K. Building Online Learning Communities. CA: Jossey Bass, 2007.
7. Caspi, A. and Blau, I. Social presence in online discussion groups: Testing three conceptions and
their relations to perceived learning. Social Psychology of Education, 11. No. 3:323-346, 2008.
8. Garrison, D.R., Cleveland-Innes, M. and Fung, T. Student roles adjustment in online communities
of inquiry: Model and instrument validation. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks. 8 (2)
(April 2004) ): 61-74.
9. Washington Workforce Explorer. Washington State Employment Situation Report for March 2010.
http://www.workforceexplorer.com/cgi/dataanalysis/?PAGEID=1480.
10. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Outlook Handbook 2008-09 [Electronic version]. http://
permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps4235/2008-09/2008-09.htm.
11. Russell, B. L. A comparison in academic performance between distance learning and traditional
on-campus students in allied healthcare education at the Medical College of Georgia. Doctoral diss.,
Georgia Southern University, 2006.
http://www.georgiasouthern.edu.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/etd/archive/fall2006/barbara_l_russell/russell_barbara_l_200608_edd.pdf .
12. Williams, S. L. The effectiveness of distance education in allied health science programs: A metaanalysis of outcomes. The American Journal of Distance Education, 20 (3), 2006: 127-141. http://
www.informaworld.com.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/smpp/content~content=a783721388&db=a
ll.
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Incorporating the e-HIM® Virtual Lab
into the Health Information Administration Professional Practice Experience
INCORPORATING THE E-HIM® VIRTUAL LAB
INTO THE HEALTH INFORMATION
ADMINISTRATION PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
EXPERIENCE
Amanda C. Barefield
Medical College of Georgia
ABSTRACT
This article will highlight the experiences of two baccalaureate Health Information Administration (HIA)
programs in the adoption of the American Health Information Management Association’s (AHIMA) e-HIM
Virtual Laboratory (Virtual Lab) into the Professional Practice Experience (PPE). Information is provided
describing the implementation of the Virtual Lab, issues that were encountered, and subsequent feedback
from students and faculty regarding this new technology.
KEYWORDS
online laboratory, professional practice, health information management
I.
INTRODUCTION
In 2007, two baccalaureate Health Information Administration (HIA) programs adopted the American
Health Information Management Association’s (AHIMA) e-HIM® Virtual Laboratory (Virtual Lab) into the
Professional Practice Experience (PPE). Rapid changes in the healthcare environment and expectations of
educational accrediting bodies influenced this transition [1].
Academic programs in health information administration are faced with many challenges in providing the
necessary technologies to their students. While the use of electronic health information systems is expanding in the healthcare workplace the current economic environment has caused academic program budgets
to shrink. At the same time, enrollment in both classroom and online programs is growing; programs are in
need of technologies that can be provided in the traditional and virtual environments at an affordable cost
[2].
In 2006, AHIMA addressed this need by implementing the e-HIM® Virtual Laboratory. This software integrates several core HIA technologies into one cyberspace lab [2]. It provides a platform from which
students can get hands-on training in a variety of HIA applications, anytime, anywhere. The lab consists
of multiple health information applications, including an integrated electronic health record. A lesson repository and instructional materials supporting the e-HIM curriculum are available for faculty use with all
of the Virtual Lab applications. This repository is managed through a Web-based learning management
system (LMS). All of the administrative and technical support functions of the Virtual Lab, for both student
and faculty end-users, are managed by the AHIMA staff [2]. Since its inception in 2006, the Virtual Lab
community continues to grow. In the 2009/2010 academic year, AHIMA reported the Virtual Lab was used
by over 80 community colleges in the United States. Overall use of the lab grew to 251 health information
programs and it was anticipated to reach over 9,000 students.
The educational literature describes considerable research efforts comparing distance and on-campus learning. However, the Virtual Lab concept, which brings together the “worlds of academic study and practicebased learning,” is the result of a different paradigm for technology and learning [3]. The blending of
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academic study and practice-based, or practical learning, is better addressed in studies on constructivist
learning or experiential learning. Jonassen, Peck and Wilson [4] noted computer-supported constructivist
learning environments should engage learners in active, constructive, intentional, authentic and cooperative
learning. Other studies focusing on the integration of theory and practice also validate the need for supporting structures in order to allow students to gain deeper levels of insight and richer perceptions. In other
words, the student’s experiential learning must be incorporated back in to the classroom setting (whether
the classroom is virtual or physical) in order to help the student see its relevance for learning and the workplace [3].
II.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Medical College of Georgia (MCG) and Macon State College, two University Sytem of Georgia (USG)
institutions with HIA programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Health Informatics and
Information Management (CAHIIM), adapted their Professional Practice Experience (PPE) curricula to
include the incorporation of the Virtual Lab. This method was used to enhance the PPE and to address the
issue of too few PPE sites and too many HIA students. A multitude of factors, such as the locations of the
colleges, inability of the healthcare facility to accept students, lack of e-HIM technologies at the PPE sites,
an increasing number of employees telecommuting, expanded outsourcing and centralization of HIA services, have limited student access to PPE sites. These two institutions traveled two very different roads,
however, on their journeys to Virtual Lab implementation.
The Medical College of Georgia (MCG) is Georgia’s health-sciences research university. The Health Information Administration program is a 2+2 baccalaureate program that is offered in traditional face-to-face
and online delivery formats. The PPE courses are delivered during the fall and spring terms of the junior
year. Because of increased student enrollment in the online option, a limited number of practice sites, and
geographical diversity of practice sites (many are in rural areas), MCG chose the Virtual Lab as the solution
to address these issues.
Macon State College is the largest undergraduate college in Central Georgia, providing professional-oriented programs to address the workforce needs of the State. Macon State offers associate and baccalaureate
degree programs in both traditional and hybrid formats. Courses are offered during the day and evenings to
both part-time and full-time students. Macon State caters to the non-traditional student whose average age
is in the early thirties. Macon State opted to implement the Virtual Lab because of the increased enrollment,
the practice site limitations within its geographical area, and the need for alternatives to the traditional faceto-face practice experience.
III.
METHODS
A. The Medical College of Georgia
Implementation of the Virtual Lab at MCG required a system overhaul. Because of program accreditation
requirements, it has become necessary to implement the e-HIM curriculum; the Virtual Lab was the tool
that permitted the transition. Incorporation of the Virtual Lab into the curriculum engenders an equivalent
experience for all students, both on-campus and online. It also assists with accommodating the scheduling
needs of both students and practice site directors. The ability to schedule frequent on-site experiences had
become challenging for both the students and site directors.
Prior to implementing the Virtual Lab, it was essential to obtain buy-in from practice site directors. This
was achieved through coordination with the program’s Advisory Committee. The proposed restructuring
of the PPE curriculum was presented to the committee and feedback from the committee was built in to
the revised curriculum. The buy-in and feedback ensured the smooth transition to and acceptance by the
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stakeholders.
The original PPE curriculum was, at the time, very traditional in nature. Students participated in a campusbased orientation; subsequently, each student was assigned to a practice site for weekly face-to-face contact
time over a 6-week period. Students were required to complete a number of tasks and to participate in several activities at the site. Throughout the course, students were assigned to complete three written reports.
The tasks and activities list included the following:
• Filing and retrieving records,
• Charging records in and out,
• Exploring the Master Patient Index and Number Index,
• Assembling and analyzing records,
• Observing the transcription process,
• Maintaining Birth/Death Registers,
• Conducting a one-on-one meeting with the facility director, and
• Examining the Disease/Operative Index.
The revised Virtual Lab-enhanced PPE is considered hybrid in nature, with some traditional and some
online components. Students participate in an online orientation that mirrors the previous campus-based
orientation. They then spend several weeks completing assignments using the Virtual Lab in preparation for
their upcoming on-site experiences. A sample of the Virtual Lab tasks include:
• Registering patients using the online registration system,
• Creating duplicate records in the master patient index,
• Merging duplicate records in the master patient index, and
• Taking part in an Electronic Health Record Scavenger Hunt. This activity familiarizes the students with the Electronic Health Record.
During the final weeks of the semester, students participate in guided tours of at least two health care facilities. The tours are led by the site directors who are often assisted by other HIA managers and technicians.
Touring two facilities provides a comparative HIA experience for each student. At the conclusion of the
course, students are assigned to write a report, comparing and contrasting the facilities, explaining the differences in the HIA practices and processes.
A. Macon State College
Implementation of the Virtual Lab at Macon State was focused on creating a hybrid experience for each
student, spending time in the health care facility, the Virtual Lab, and the traditional classroom. The entire
original PPE required weekly visits for 15 weeks in the healthcare facility; time spent in the revised PPE
was split between three environments.
In the Virtual Lab-enhanced PPE, students spend 50% of their time at the practice site, 30% of their time in
the Virtual Lab, and 20% of their time in the traditional classroom setting with the PPE course instructor.
During the traditional campus portion of the experience, students complete an orientation under the guidance of the course instructor. This time is used to complete the following tasks:
• Registering students for the Virtual Lab,
• Completing student training for Virtual Lab,
• Executing requirements such as PPE director consents,
• Completing HIPAA training, and
• Providing hands on activities so that students are prepared to attend the PPE
After the campus-based orientation, the students complete the Virtual Lab assignments in an online format
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and participate in an on-site practice experience at an area health care facility. The students return to campus
on the last day of the course for a debriefing and to complete additional hands-on exercises. Assignments
in the Virtual Lab include:
• Completing Master Patient Index tasks, and
o Creating duplicate records in the master patient index,
o Merging duplicate records in the master patient index
• Participating in an Electronic Health Record Scavenger Hunt.
The PPE at Macon State has continued to evolve. For example, students now self-register for the Virtual
Lab by following written instructions and become familiar with the Virtual Lab by completing a tutorial
prior to any on-campus orientation. This saves class time for engaging in hands-on activities, for discussing
case studies, and for participating in a scheduled practice site tour prior to the actual PPE.
Additional new health information applications have been added to the Virtual Lab since 2006. As a result,
the programs at MCG and Macon State continue to add new assignments using the latest HIA applications.
IV.
RESULTS
Upon completion of the first use of the new PPE curricula, students and site directors were asked to provide
feedback regarding their experiences. By incorporating the Virtual Lab into the PPE curricula, MCG and
Macon State experienced positive outcomes and obtained supportive feedback from both students and site
directors.
A. Medical College of Georgia
Prior to implementation of the Virtual Lab-enhanced PPE, MCG struggled with issue of too many students
for too few practice sites. Time and effort-related issues existed for the practice sites, such as decreases in
production while site employees worked with students. This created an environment where site directors
were less inclined to accept students. In some instances, students felt as if they were an inconvenience for
the practice site; in addition, some sites were inconsistent in their level of preparation for the students’
practice experience.
After the new PPE curriculum was implemented, many of the issues previously discussed were quickly resolved. Both students and site directors provided positive feedback regarding the new practice experience;
students were impressed with their Virtual Lab experience. Feedback from students included:
• “I learned a great deal from the assignments and from visiting the various facilities.”
• “I liked being able to get some realistic application of knowledge from home by working on the
Virtual Lab exercises.”
• “Ease of use and availability (Virtual Lab).”
• “I enjoyed touring the various hospital HIM departments.”
As with the implementation of any new system, there was feedback from the students regarding technical
difficulties with the use of the Virtual Lab. These issues were addressed on an individual basis and generally
were the result of end-user inexperience or software compatibility issues.
Feedback provided by the site directors was supportive as well. One site director commented, “I liked the
revised format better.” On a Likert scale of 1 to 5, with 5 representing “strongly agree” and 1 representing
“strongly disagree,” site director feedback was averaged resulting in the following scores:
• “The new PPE was more efficient for the practicum site.” = 4.5
• “The new PPE was more effective for the students.” = 4.0
• “The students seemed more interested in the new PPE format.” = 3.75
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• “The students seemed better prepared.” = 3.25
• “We were pleased with the revised PPE format.” = 4.0
The scores and comments indicated that the Virtual Lab-enhanced PPE format improved the PPE for both
students and site directors. However, open-ended comments provided by site directors suggested implementing a process for measuring curriculum effectiveness as a future priority.
B. Macon State College
In general, the results of using the Virtual Lab in the PPE curriculum at Macon State were positive. Students
were asked to compare and contrast Virtual Lab exercises with traditional on-site exercises. They were also
asked to comment on the ease of using the new technology:
• “Do you feel the V-Lab Assignments were similar to actual tasks performed in a hospital HIM
Department?”
90% responded “Yes.”
• “Do you feel the V-Lab prepared you for technology functions or activities in the real world?”
80% responded “Yes.”
• “Do you feel the V-Lab was user friendly in the student registration process?”
30 % responded “Very;” 60% responded “Somewhat.”
Qualitative feedback from students included the following comments:
• “The screenshots in the lessons were very helpful, especially for a more visual learner.”
• “[The] Virtual Lab was helpful.”
As with feedback received from MCG students, Macon State students also commented about technical
difficulties with the use of the Virtual Lab. These issues generally were the result of end-user inexperience
or software compatibility issues. These issues were resolved with assistance from the college’s technical
support staff and the Virtual Lab support staff at AHIMA.
V. RECOMMENDATIONS
For both institutions participating in this process, implementation of the Virtual Lab into the PPE was successful. Based on feedback from students and experiences of the course instructors, it is essential in an
online teaching environment to consider the technical compatibility issues of implementing the Virtual Lab
component into the curriculum. In the traditional classroom, one can more easily manage software and
compatibility issues and quickly access technical support when needed. However, in the cases of both MCG
and Macon State, the online environment is more complicated to control. A recommendation for future use
of the Virtual Lab is to increase the amount of time that students would have to familiarize themselves with
the technology; in addition, more effort devoted to addressing technology and compatibility issues could
decrease frustration with unfamiliar technology. Addressing these issues at the beginning of the course will
allow for fewer road blocks during the Virtual Lab implementation process.
As a result of this process, both MCG and Macon State plan to increase use of the Virtual Lab by adding
additional lab components and by increasing the number of exercises into the PPE curricula as well as other
courses within the HIA curriculum. As the Virtual Lab continues to add more applications, additional accreditation requirements for the e-HIM curriculum can be satisfied and students can obtain more hands-on
experience of practical HIA applications.
VI.
CONCLUSION
In summary, MCG and Macon State successfully implemented the Virtual Lab into the PPE curriculum.
Feedback was positive from students and site directors. Use of the Virtual Lab enables the HIA programs to:
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1. incorporate e-HIM applications/technologies throughout the HIA curriculum;
2. offer an equivalent PPE to both campus and online students; and
3. accommodate both the student and site director’s need for a high-quality PPE.
By using AHIMA’s e-HIM® Virtual Lab, both MCG and Macon State have incorporated the student’s
experiential learning back into the classroom setting, both traditionally and virtually. This has provided
students with the opportunity to experience the relevance of e-HIM applications in both the education and
workplace settings.
VII.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Amanda C. Barefield, EdD, RHIA, LNHA, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Informatics and holds appointments in the School of Allied Health Sciences and School of Graduate Studies at
the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia. She provides instruction in the undergraduate and post
baccalaureate programs in Health Information Administration and the graduate program in Public Health
Informatics. Dr. Barefield earned her Doctor of Education degree in Instructional Technology and Distance
Education from Nova Southeastern University, North Miami Beach, Florida.
Jim Condon, MSA, RHIA, CTR, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Informatics. He is
the Program Director for the Health Information Administration Program. He is a Registered Health Information Administrator and Certified Tumor Registrar. He holds a Master of Science in Administration with
an emphasis in Information Resource Management and is pursuing his doctoral degree in Education Administration and Leadership. Mr. Condon’s areas of expertise include record processing practices, health
care finance, disparities in health care delivery, and fundamentals of database design.
Charlotte McCuen, MS, RHIA holds a Masters Degree from Mercer University Health Care Policy and
Administration and a Baccalaureate Degree from the Medical College of Georgia in Health Information
Management. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing and Health Sciences and Clinical
Coordinator for the A.S. and B.S. Health Information Management programs at Macon State College.
Nanette B. Sayles, EdD, RHIA, CCS, CHPS, is presently the Program Director of the Health Information
Management and Technology program at Macon State College where she is responsible for the management of the program, student advising, course development as well as teaching classes. She holds a doctorate in adult education from the University of Georgia. She also holds a masters of science in health information management, masters in public administration, and a bachelor degree in medical record
administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In 2005, Dr. Sayles received the AHIMA
Educator Triumph Award and the GHIMA Professional Achievement Award. She was a member of the
AHIMA Educational Strategies Committee for 2007-2008 and is an accreditation surveyor for the Commission on Accreditation of Health Informatics and Information Management Education.
VIII.
REFERENCES
1. Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education
(CAHIIM). Curriculum Model – Baccalaureate Degree Education in Health Information Management – Framework for HIM Education. http://www.cahiim.org/policiesprocedures.html.
2. Kersten, S., Saigal, M., Owens, K. HIM Laboratory: Delivering e-HIM Technology to Colleges and
Universities – Virtually. Journal of AHIMA 77(8): 26-30 (2006).
3. Challis, D., Holt, D., Rice, M. Staff Perceptions of the Role of Technology in Experiential Learning:
A Case Study from an Australian University. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 21(1):
19-39 (2005).
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The CUNY Young Adult Program - Utilizing Social Networking
to Foster Interdisciplinary and Cross-Cohort Student Communication during Workforce Training
THE CUNY YOUNG ADULT PROGRAM - UTILIZING SOCIAL NETWORKING TO FOSTER INTERDISCIPLINARY AND CROSS-COHORT STUDENT
COMMUNICATION DURING WORKFORCE
TRAINING
Alissa Levine
CUNY Kingsborough Community College
Christoph Winkler
The City University of New York
Saul Petersen
Connecticut Campus Compact
ABSTRACT
The Center for Economic and Workforce Development (CEWD) at Kingsborough Community College is
currently working on a workforce development project that contains innovative teaching tools that proved
successful in overcoming issues of academic isolation
KEYWORDS
Workforce development, community college, innovation, social networking, pedagogy, retention
I.
INTRODUCTION
Kingsborough Community College (KCC), located on a 70-acre campus in Manhattan Beach, is the only
open admissions comprehensive community college in Brooklyn, and enrolls more than 15,500 students in
credit programs and serves another 15,000 students in its non-credit courses annually. With 60% minority
students, Kingsborough ranks in the top 3% of all community colleges in the number of degrees awarded to
minority students, with students born in over 140 countries and 50% foreign-born.
KCC is one of 23 institutions in The City University of New York’s (CUNY) system. As the largest urban
university in the US, 46% or 480,000 of New York’s young adults attend a CUNY school. As a University,
CUNY has two defining characteristics, namely that it is located throughout New York’s five boroughs and,
secondly, that its massive student population is representative of New York City’s population. It would
seem strange then to be discussing methods of overcoming KCC’s challenge of academic and social isolation perceived by CUNY’s student body. CUNY’s weakness is its commuter nature which greatly hampers
the building of social connections, a growing challenge faced by two and four-year colleges across the
United States, as students take greater advantage of distance/online learning opportunities in preparation for
career placement.
The Center for Economic and Workforce Development (CEWD) at KCC is currently working on a workJournal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 14: Issue 3
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force development project that contains innovative teaching tools that proved successful in overcoming
issues of academic isolation facing the student body. The CUNY Young Adult Program (CYAP) is a partnership of three CUNY colleges - LaGuardia Community College (lead organization), Kingsborough Community College’s (KCC) Center for Economic and Workforce Development (CEWD) and New York City
College of Technology (City Tech) – that have worked together on several workforce development projects.
LaGuardia, City Tech and KCC were awarded a $500, 000 grant by New York State Department of Labor
as a Consortium. LaGuardia offers GED, Professional Pharmacy Technician training and EMT training.
City Tech offers Construction Trades and Direct Care Professional Training. KCC offers Food Service Operations with an emphasis on Green/Sustainable practices. Each college offers all the advantages of an existing program: a proven model with vocational curricula, fiscal controls, wrap-around services, experienced personnel, and an effective pattern of management and communication. Moreover, the existing
partnership already serves the priority target population of out-of-school youth, provides vocational training in the program’s two priority sectors (construction trades and health), combines all the desired program
elements (i.e., career planning, work readiness, GED preparation, and post-secondary occupational training), and already encompasses other priorities of importance to the Department of Labor (i.e., green components, collaboration, leveraged resources, support from a broad range of business and community-based
organizations, and service within environmental justice zones). All three colleges provide common services
(bridge/vestibule training, occupational training, National Work Readiness Credential, a Green Component), after which program completers must go on to post secondary education or apprenticeship, or employment.
Among the Center for Economic and Workforce Development (CEWD) recruits are some of the estimated
12, 000 disconnected young adults residing in New York City. Applicants must be18-24 year olds who score
a 9th grade reading level or above on the Test for Adult Basic Education (TABE) test. CEWD has employment specialists/job developers on staff to develop an individual employability plan with each participant.
The job developer/employment specialist also works with a case manager to identify and remove any barriers to successful completion and placement. The current cohort is comprised of 25 students who are completing the 12 week Food Service Operations program. The current training cohort (as of May 1, 2010) at
CEWD saw a comprehensive infusion of social networking in the program. Social network can be defined
as “web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a
bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and
traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system” [ 1 ]. Upon review of the first
round of CYAP (2009-2010), a need to include a professional social networking component to bridge the
gaps was posited. While it was not a milestone of the program, it was hoped that social networking would
keep students connected with instructors and program staff and keep them in touch with each other as a
support system outside of class. The site served as a place students could learn about employment opportunities, homework assignments, reference syllabi and training curricula [ 2 ]. Other unanticipated outcomes
- nurturing a community of learners who come together to achieve likeminded goals, who invest in each
others’ success, and who come to understand how to create their own professional and academic profile represent initial findings associated with social networking and are consequently the focus of this case
study.
II.
WHAT DIFFERENTIATES SOCIAL NETWORKING IN ACADEMIA
While technologies are adapting to enhance the educational experience, these changes are failing to move
in synchrony with the behavior and demands of higher education’s learning community [ 3 ]. The amount
of time spent by students and faculty on their PDAs, iPods, the Internet, email, or social networking sites is
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increasing rapidly [4]. Social networks are widely used by students for personal purposes but have seldom
been used widely to support instruction, mentorship programs, or learning communities. The emergence of
these applications into students’ daily classroom experience is lagging far behind their presence in students’
extracurricular lives. Perhaps educators are uncomfortable with online social networking and don’t believe
that in its present form it has a place in education and student/educator interaction. Additionally, the online
educator seems as uncomfortable giving up control and facilitating communication as the traditional classroom educator. It seems that making social networking “respectable” in an educational setting can provide
one way of enhancing student inclusion in academic life, particularly considering research suggesting that
students regularly discuss schoolwork on their social networking site [ 5 ]. These networks (for example www.cunyive.ning.com) are closed insofar as they are not open to the public. Instead, administrators invite people into the group. CEWD is building institutional respect for social networking in an educational
setting by connecting students, faculty and external mentors. As laid out in the next section, social networking sites such as NING can provide the right blend of familiarity and professional appearance to put students at ease with its content yet make them professionally accountable for their online persona. First we
provide a glance at the NING site as it is currently used by CEWD.
In its current state, NING is a free social networking service that has been customized and utilized by
CEWD to enhance the Food Service Operations training provided to their training cohort. As can be seen
from the heading in Figure 1, content is organized to help students gain access to group-focused content,
but also information regarding events, resources, and internships/jobs. The design and initial setup of NING
was provided by CEWD’s Edgar Troudt, Technology Director, and Amalia Torrentes, Assistant to the Director, while content management is performed by Dina LiMandri, Instructor and Case Manager, and Alissa Levine, Associate Project Director.
Figure 1. CUNY Young Adult Program Homepage
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All students undergo Bridge Training – a ten day “comprehensive course to enhance professional, academic, and personal development skills” [ 6 ]. Within this link, group members’ image and link to their
personal page can be found, as can a closed discussion forum and comment wall to be utilized as a communication tool among group members. Subgroups based on student preference, for example Food and
Energy, links off the homepage [ 7 ]. This group’s project goal is to “Establish an on campus juice bar to
help refresh students and offer a healthy source of nutrition at an affordable cost”. Other headings such as
Student Resources lead students to helpful links such as Foodservice Employment [ 8 ]. This link offers a
“gateway to new and exciting careers in the world of restaurants and hospitality”, and allows students to
search for jobs or add their resumes.
Next we explain how social networks can provide the right blend of familiarity and professional appearance
to enhance institutional respect for social networking.
III. BUILDING INSTITUTIONAL RESPECT FOR SOCIAL NETWORKING IN AN EDUCATIONAL SETTING
In the case of social networking, CEWD Case Manager LiMandri described how students seemed comfortable enough to communicate regularly [ 9 ]. Their prior knowledge and comfort with the social networking
platform facilitated increased involvement in dialogue via tools such as posts [ 10 ]. Once signed in, membership-wide posts appear on the left in the ‘latest activity’ section. In addition, groups are created by
CEWD Administrators based on the course curriculum and student career focus so that additional communication under the group heading can be seen only by that group. As previously mentioned, all students are
invited to join Bridge Training – a comprehensive course to enhance professional, academic, and personal
development skills . Students then choose from 3 career-focused groups – Food and Waste, Food and Energy, and Food and Water. With groups being reflective of student self-determined interest, communication
can occur more regularly and with greater investment of interest.
While offering a comfort level with the social networking platform, there is a perceptible sense of permanence regarding the contributions made to these sites by students. This in turn encourages the development
of a professional persona by creating a sense of accountability and responsibility that is in itself a pedagogical tool. To elaborate, it is helpful to compare aspects of the traditional classroom, traditional Course
Management Systems(CMS) such as Blackboard, and the emerging teaching platform of social networking
used by CEWD.
The traditional learning environment of a classroom is dominated by verbal interactions between teacher
and student, which mostly reside within the confines of the class. While, of course, significant reference is
made to material presented in written form by the teacher and to written products of students, there is nonetheless a distinct lack of permanence or trace to verbal commentary. The aim here is not to suggest this is
an invalid means of teaching and learning, but simply to propose that, for the purposes of overcoming academic isolation and encouraging an investment in the professional persona of students, the traditional classroom may not be optimal.
Traditional CMS’s, such as Blackboard, are widely used in higher education, demonstrating its utility as a
course delivery and support tool for online and hybrid instruction. While these learning environments are
relatively simple to use for content organization, assignment creation and administration, they do not intrinsically foster levels of communication that go beyond the course requirement. In addition, traditional CMS’s
seems not to be conducive to cross-disciplinary communication and is limited to the duration of the course
by preventing students beyond the course period from remaining in contact with their community of learners taking the same course. In this way, students are locked into a closed and temporary community with
76
little incentive to actively network beyond the scope and timeframe of the course. Social networking sites
(such as the previously mentioned NING), on the other hand, do allow students to communicate at multiple
levels by giving them the ability to create their own – personal and group – spaces, which may often span
not only across different course sections but also across different disciplines. CEWD managers (LiMandri,
2010, personal communication) are finding that, by using social networking, there is greater accountability
experienced by students for their online persona. Students are guided to carefully select a professional photograph to upload. They are taught that the format and language of their postings or comments reflects on
how they may behave in the workplace or other professional environments. In addition, the student become
alert that their “online persona” is permanent and that there is a trace to everything they write.
The greater degree of aesthetic flexibility offered by social networking platforms means that designers can
alter the appearance and tone to reflect both the objectives of the course and the audience it is intended for.
Unlike traditional CMS, this provides a means for improving the delivery of the course objectives and creates greater ‘buy in’ from students. In fact, due to the comparability of social networking within academia
and outside of the virtual classroom, students seem more comfortable to broadcast their accomplishments,
motivate each other, and share a sense of community.
IV.
A COMMUNITY OF ONLINE-LITERATE LEARNERS
Because a major goal in the case of CEWD was to facilitate the creation of a community of learners, the
geographic dispersion of its student body made an overreliance on a traditional classroom setting suboptimal, while the temporary and rigid nature of traditional CMS did not seem suitably reflective of the needs
of the student body or the goals of the course. By choosing social networking, students who enroll in the
course instantly become part of a larger body of students, neither restricted by the short semester of the
course or the limited number of students in a given semester. Instead, students are immediately linked with
past and future attendees and, as such, can benefit from the shared knowledge, resources, and stories of successfully gained employment.
By virtue of the fact that social networking is now ubiquitous in student leisure time (10), a greater presumption by educators of student prior knowledge actually shortcuts much of the prep work involved in
getting students ready to use new software, thereby creating an agency of learning by maximizing time
spent on curriculum and professional development. As a case in point, other sources of electronic media
such as digital storytelling and e-portfolios were used during the previous semester with moderate success
but with some drawbacks. In meeting the objectives of the course, these tools were found to be cumbersome
and labor intensive regarding learning technological procedures. In comparison, the current social networking platform being used (www.cunyive.ning.com) has proven simple and efficient in delivering information
and achieving course objectives. The online-literate student, therefore, helps determine this choice of medium to the benefit of all collaborators.
Social networking provides an easily created point and click communication environment to share and
communicate information, not just for a course period - but beyond. In a course such as this dedicated to
workforce development objectives, it is important not to restrict the lines of communication to a limited
student or professional body as can happen with other pedagogical platforms. Instead, students can feel that
they are a vital and contributing member of an ever-growing, self-determined community of learners dedicated to similar goals and willing to share both resources and informative sound-bites. The larger workforce
community that is comprised of CEWD alumni, consultants and fellows, partner program attendees, and
incoming students all regularly receive and contribute to upcoming workshops and job openings, among
other things, thereby expanding the support network available to students (see Figure 2 for illustration).
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Figure 2. Job-Seeker Information Housed on NING
In the case of the CEWD run CUNY Young Adult Program (CYAP), there are several faculty, administrators and case managers all communicating through the same social networking site. This delivery platform
has the benefit of breaking down the academic silos traditionally associated with higher education departments, fostering a holistic learning landscape. Student can sense a unified message delivered in one online
space, lending itself to interdisciplinarity and transparency of communication. All parties can see how
course objectives are progressing among subjects or groups. Faculty regularly collaborates on problemsolving student issues that transfer across subjects. Due to the open plan style of a social networking platform, students also reach out across disciplines. Faculty have described how, due to this virtual constant
contact, students have begun to look out for each other if the number or tone of posts changed.
V. CONCLUSION
Academic social networks allow for the creation of a digital online space that can be utilized by multiple
instructors to foster cross-disciplinary learning environment. The more traditional academic silos can be
broken down by the open environment of social networks. In comparison to other CMS, social networks
create a type of openness that allows no predetermined endpoint to the provision and sharing of information
among members.
As communication between course managers and students can be targeted specifically to subgroups or subspecialties, the utility and uptake of such information can be maximized. Job postings on NING just following course completion (May 1, 2010) has led to 50% of students being fully employed. This represents an
increase from 25% employed from the prior training cohort.
The ‘buy in’ to this pedagogical platform from students results, in part, from the ubiquitous use of social
networking. Their prior knowledge of the content delivery platform allows for the transfer focus from ‘casual’ to ‘professional’ seamlessly. Further, because students have a chance to create their personal space on
78
the social networking site, they are assisted in developing a sense of agency and ownership for learning. The
community of peers demonstrates this by constructing around shared interests within these learning spaces.
In 2009, the CYAP dropout rate as measured by students who did not complete the course was 36%. Data
for the current 2010 semester shows a marked improvement in attrition rates with only a 12% rate of attrition. This data is valid as of the date of course completion (5/1/2010). Causal inference is, of course, not
possible to discuss in this case however, the only difference in the course delivery has been the programwide use of social networking as the primary communication platform.
It is likely and even justified that an opinion exists that the true ability to be a community of learners is
undermined by the physical separation of people synonymous with online social networking. It is worth
highlighting an aspect of the CYAP curriculum at this point. At the beginning of the semester, and again
several weeks prior to its completion, students detail their circles of support – concentric circles in which
the closest and most trusted people are placed at the circle’s core and more removed or less well known
people are placed further away. The case manager detailed the illuminating pre (beginning) –post (May 1)
differences this semester in students’ circles of support [ 11 ]. Fellow students, professors, and even the
social networking site are moving inward to circles representing greater support or trust. It can be argued
that, due to social networking, colleagues are becoming more relevant and effective support agents as displayed by the students’ circles of support.
Other wrap-around services extended to CYAP participants rely on the open, continuously expanding communication platform of social networking. These include post-placement support services like peer support
groups and job clubs, seminars on workplace issues, advice on the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child
Health Plus, and advisement on college admissions and financial aid. Through this continuity of support,
students can openly share concerns with colleagues, but, importantly, this emerging workforce can feel
confident and capable of giving back to those who are entering this growing support network.
VI. ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Alissa Levine is the Assistant Director of Project Welcome/CUNY Young Adult Program at CUNY Kingsborough
Community College.
Christoph Winker is the Associate Director of the Institute for Virtual Enterprise at The City University of New York.
A Saul Petersen, PhD, is the Executive Director of Connecticut Campus Compact and a Fellow of the Institute for
Virtual Enterprise at The City University of New York.
VII. REFERENCES
1. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html.
2. LiMandri, D. (2010) Personal communication.
3. http://kcctwt.pbworks.com/Social+Networking.
4. http://wwwinsidehighered.com/news/2010/05/04/socialmedia.
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking#Educational_applications.
6. http://kingsboroughcyap.ning.com/group/bridgetraining.
7. http://kingsboroughcyap.ning.com/group/foodandenergyalpha.
8. http://www.foodservice.com/employment/.
9. LiMandri, D. (2010) Personal communication.
10. http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics.
11. LiMandri, D. (2010). Personal communication.
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