developing and enhancing online capability in rural community colleges

DEVELOPING AND ENHANCING ONLINE CAPABILITY IN RURAL COMMUNITY COLLEGES

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Frank Incalcaterra, M.Ed

Park Distance Learning

PDL Online Instructor Trainer/Lead

Mentor

franki@park.edu

ABOUT FRANK

• Retired Air Force Master Sergeant

• Began working in adult training and higher education in 1978

• Authored or co-authored a number of courses for the Air Force to include a "Train the Trainer" and an "On-the-Job Training Supervisors" course which were taught at 90 locations all over the world.

• Started teaching F2F for Park College (at that time) in 1995 while assigned to Luke AFB in Phoenix, Arizona.

• Has been teaching online for the past fifteen years.  

• Has taught over 6,000 of Park's Online students, and has taught/qualified approximately 85% of their current online instructors.

DEVELOPING AND ENHANCING ONLINE CAPABILITY IN RURAL COMMUNITY COLLEGES

• Learn online strategies and tactics that have worked to deepen the achievement of learning outcomes by students.

• Experience different learning design choices and how they impact the online experience for students. 

• Develop a plan to improve the delivery of online courses at your institution which includes pragmatic policies for students and faculty that will generate the desired results.

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PROFILE OF SUCCESS: PARK UNIVERSITIES’ ONLINE PROGRAM

A LITTLE BIT ABOUTPARK UNIVERSITY

• History• Demographics• Campus Centers

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PARK UNIVERSITYTRADITIONAL PROGRAMS

• Established in 1875

• Administrative center located in Parkville MO population 5,800

• 1500 students at Parkville campus (approx)

• Serving the Kansas City metropolitan area – Parkville, Downtown, Independence – 3,500 students (approx)

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PARK UNIVERSITYDISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAM

• School for Extended Learning (SEL) established in 1972• Currently serves 25,000 (approx)

students at 41campuses in 23 states• Most campuses located at military

installations within the U.S.• Focus on non-traditional students –

accelerated programs

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PARK UNIVERSITY CAMPUS CENTERS

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PARK’S ONLINE PROGRAM

• Started with one online class in 1996• Currently 50,000 plus enrollments annually

in 2,500 sections of more than 500 courses• Reported as 2nd largest Online program in

the US by US News and World Report – January 2006• Fully accredited by the Higher Learning

Commission of the North Central Association

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PARK’S ONLINE PROGRAM

• 497 online course sections ran in Fall 1 2013

• 398 online course sections ran in Spring 1 2014 • 505 courses in our online master course

inventory

• 5 accelerated 8 week terms, 25 students is the typical enrollment cap per course, # of sections depends on enrollment.

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PDL ONLINE PERSONNEL

• 1 Director of Online Operations • 1 Asst. Dir. of Instructional Design • 7 FT Instructional Designers• 5 Operations members who manage online faculty

scheduling and duplication from the online course masters as well as troubleshooting issues for PDL, Faculty and Students as needed.

• 1 Educational Technology Specialist also concentrating on course contract administration and F2F shells and duplication of instructor content from previous F2F terms,

• 1 Applications Programmer

ARE WE SUCCESSFUL?

600 700 800 900 1000 1100 120080%

82%

84%

86%

88%

90%

92%

94%

96%

98%

100%

1.168

1.139

1.103

1.069

0.992

0.957000000000001

0.941

0.927

0.897

0.845000000000001

0.833000000000001

0.793

0.773000000000002

0.732000000000001

0.703000000000001

Average Completion Rate

= 90.2%

OUR APPROACH

• Curricular Continuity • A Principles of Management course (for example)

will be the same course, same objectives, same syllabus whether it is taught in the 8-week or 16-week F2F format in Parkville, or online, or blended, or at any of our 41 campus centers.• Use of locked content• Use of a Standardized Syllabus Template• Use of a Core Assessment which must measure

no less than 75% of the course objectives.• Use of grading rubrics

FOCUS ON ONLINE INSTRUCTOR TRAINING AND EVALUATION

• The PDL 750 Course is a six-week, instructor –lead, online seminar.• Participants must commit to 5-6 hours per week

for the entire six-week seminar.• Participants are not charged nor compensated.• Must successfully complete PDL750 in order to be

considered as ‘qualified’ to teach in the online or blended formats.• Focus is on transferring F2F teaching skills to

either of those venues.

ONLINE INSTRUCTOR PARTICIPATION POLICY

• Post substantively on all graded threaded discussion topics at least 4 days of the online learning week, from Monday-Sunday (in effect, every other day). Online learners are often working adults. Posting throughout the week, including Saturday and/or Sunday is strongly encouraged.

• Answer all student postings to the Instructor Office within 48 hours. Answer all postings to "Question and Answer" discussions (if used) within 48 hours. Answer all student emails within 48 hours.

ONLINE INSTRUCTOR PARTICIPATION POLICY (2)

• Instructors must provide students with timely guidance as feedback on all assignments (via the grade book, dropbox, or assignment artifact.)

• Grades on regular weekly assignments (discussions, quizzes, journals, assignments with objective questions) must be posted within 48 hours of the assignment submission deadline.

• Grades on critical thinking assignments (essays, term papers, projects, assignments with subjective questions) must be posted within 6 days of the assignment submission deadline.

• Gradebook feedback must include individualized written comments for all students and all assignments.

ONLINE INSTRUCTOR MENTORING

• Experienced Adjunct Instructors• May or may not be same discipline• Focus on compliance with PDL Online Instructor

Participation Policy and Best Practices• Two weeks prior to the term through term completion• Weekly checklists• Interim Reports• Final Report

• Compensated

ONLINE INSTRUCTOR OBSERVATION

• Annual• OIES – Mentoring• Covered 8 weeks of instruction• Too time consuming

• FOO – QC • Looks only at a two-week period• Instructors are given advanced notice along with an

observation rubric• Dancing to the music while the music is playing

• During the years from 2009-2014, we averaged conducting 367 FOOs Annually and have found that on average 73% of those we have observed have received an overall rating of either meeting or exceeding expectations while 27% of those we have observed have received an overall rating of needs improvement.

OBSERVATION USES

• Report to Department• Results affect Online Instructor Rating• Online Instructor Rating is used in large

part for scheduling assignments • Being offered a class is a competitive

process• Best foot forward

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FACULTY ONLINE OBSERVATIONAWARDS

• 2011 Creative Use of Technology Award by the Association of Continuing Higher Education – National Award.

• Exceptional Program Award (Non-Credit). Exceptional Program Award (Non-Credit) for the Online Instructor Training and Mentoring program by the Great Plains Region of The Association for Continuing Higher Education (ACHE) for 2012.

ONLINE INSTRUCTOR SUPPORT

• PDL Operations• Course Developer• Instructional Designers• eCollege HelpDesk• PDL751

RESULTS

• Instructors are vetted• Student attainment of objectives• Standardized assessments

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YOUR TURN!