building bridges to better online education

Building Bridges to Better Online Education

Terry PattersonFounding President, ARBUG

University of Missouri - Columbia

Developing a Program to Achieve and Recognize Excellence in Online Education

Mark BurrisSTaR

University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Sue BurrisDirector of Distance Learning

National Park Community College

Nita CopelandHealth Sciences Faculty

University of Arkansas at Little Rock

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Session at a Glance

• Idea and Goals

• Planning and Implementation

• Feedback

• Outcomes

Ideals and Goals

The How and Why

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Idea & Goals

• Create a way to improve online course design

• Implement a “best practices” mentoring program

• Help improve institutions’ chances to be recognized for excellent course design / development

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Idea & Goals• Miss America Pageant for Course Development

• Make sure courses measured up to Exemplary Courses Program (ECP)

• Give instructors and developers a place to go before making it to the big leagues!

• Create a Diamond Award for Excellence in Online Course Development

Daniel Hulshizer/Associated Press

Planning and Implementation

Establishing the Review Process

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•A Blackboard course from an Arkansas college or university that meets “Exemplary” status as detailed in Blackboard’s Exemplary Course Rubric

•Courses submitted for review must have ended by January 1, 2012 to comply with privacy standards (FERPA).

•Submit the completed Submission form at arbug.org no later than February 15, 2012.

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Submission window: January 15, 2012 – March 1, 2012

Diamond Award Submission Timeline

Reviews Conducted:

March 5 – 16

Review Deadline: March 19

Reviews Finalized: March 20-

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Winners Notified: March 30

Anonymous Reviews

Sent: Late April

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• Courses must be delivered in one of Blackboard’s Learning Management Systems (e.g., Learn, Academic Suite, CE/Vista, ANGEL).

• Candidates must provide access to a copy of the course with designer, builder, or editor access for the Review Team.

• Courses in which students are currently enrolled will not be reviewed in order to comply with privacy standards.

Submission Guidelines

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• Only courses with a completed Submission Form will be reviewed.

• All supplementary materials must be converted to electronic format, (PDF, Flash, PowerPoint, Camtasia, Captivate, etc.) and uploaded to the course to be reviewed.

Submission Guidelines

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• Print a copy of the Rubric• Review each section of the rubric:

• Course Design• Interaction and collaboration• Assessment• Learner support

• Evaluate your course as:• Exemplary • Accomplished • Promising • Incomplete

Self-evaluation Instructions

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• Identify volunteer reviewers• Group by experience and role• Ensure institutional distribution• Email training guidelines and submission

resources• Provide access to BB Collaborate for reviewer

collaboration

Team Development

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• Gather results of team review• Notify ARBUG officers and candidates with

results• Collect the reviewer comments• Edit for review anonymity • Provide the candidate with review feedback

Submission Conclusion

Planning and Implementation

Participating in the Review Process

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What Makes a Review Successful?Completeness:

• Thoroughly complete Parts 1 and 2 of the Reviewer Form.

Validation:• Carefully review the comments and examples of exemplary

practices presented in the narrative. • Base your review on the detailed criteria of the ECP Rubric.

Constructive Feedback:• The ECP program is based on a premise that participation in

the program as a reviewer or a submitter will enable individuals in both groups to become better at creating and delivering effective online instruction.

• This positive theme should be foremost in the minds of reviewers and should be evident in the feedback you prepare for course submitters.

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Examples of Feedback

Feedback that isn’t very constructive:

Too much text on the page. I didn’t like to scroll.

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Examples of Feedback

Positive, constructive feedback:

It is great that you provide supplementary reading materials within the course itself! This is a real time-saver for students.

The materials may be easier for students to read and recall if the items were organized by theme or in chronological order and placed into dedicated folders or subfolders rather than listed on one page. While having all of the information on one page makes it easy for people to print out, it makes for an awfully long page to scroll through. In addition, because of some of the large images, the page takes a long time to load. This might be a problem for students with slow internet/dial-up connections.

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Examples of Feedback

Feedback that isn’t very constructive:

Learning objectives are not placed in appropriate places.

Your learning objectives are not good.

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Examples of Feedback

Although your learning objectives (LO’s) are included in the course syllabus, it would be helpful to students to relate specific LO’s to course activities and assignments.

The learning objectives (LO’s) could be improved if written in measureable terms. For example, in the LO’s below, the word “know” is vague and isn’t measureable. However, the action verb “write” is measureable.

Not measureable: The student will know the Spanish alphabet.Measureable: The student will be able to write the Spanish alphabet.

Positive, constructive feedback:

Feedback

Instructor & Student Benefits

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• Provides incentive to go through the rubric • Verifies best practice usage• Validates teaching online to colleagues who do not teach online

• Confirms scholarship for annual evaluations• Prioritizes and focuses on the components of course design

Benefits to Instructors and Students

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• Recognizes helpfulness of reviewer comments (Welcome video, learning styles emphasis)

• Provides opportunities for course design assistance with colleagues

• Focuses on specific learning strategies to create a student learning centered course

• Influences overall teaching

Benefits to Instructors and Students

OUTCOMES

2011 & 2012 Review Outcomes

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• 2011 – Reviewed 2 courses• 1 Exemplary, 1 Accomplished

• Exemplary course recognized by QM and Blackboard as Exemplary.

• 2012 – Reviewed 11 courses• 3 Exemplary, 3 Accomplished

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Review Outcomes

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Questions?

www.arbug.org

We Value Your Feedback!

Terry Pattersonpattersontl@missouri.edu

Please fill out the session evaluation.

Mark Burrismfburris@ualr.edu

Sue Burrissburris@npcc.edu

Nita Copelandnjcopeland@ualr.edu