DLA Conference - UWG summaries

Institutions represented: Northeastern Illinois University, Westwood College, Kaplan University, Ozarks Technical Community College, American Military University, Walden, Northcentral University, Naval War College, Florida Institute of Technology and Carson-Newman College

Walden has a position called Course Lead, which is a part time instructor who is paid a stipend to be a primary communicator to the faculty who teach a specific course to which the course lead is assigned. This person is an expert on the course, has phone conferences with the faculty who teach that course and is the “go to” person for the course.
This course lead bridges the gap between the institution and individual instructors for a large institution
It was suggested that virtual workshops be offered on topics such as grading effectively, organization, stress, etc.
Faculty should be surveyed to get topics they are interested in or have faculty develop their own workshop. One institution offers 500.00 to a faculty member or group to develop a workshop and deliver it
Adjunct faculty (part time faculty, as one institution calls them) should be treated the same as full time faculty
Adjuncts should feel as if their contributions are valued
All faculty should be treated with a high level of respect
One institution has a face to face conference for 3 to 4 days to get information about changes at the institution, course changes, lesson plans, other things
Allow instructors some form of academic freedom, but ensure that they are teaching the same subject aligned with the same outcomes
Course visitations help to offer feedback; students can be interviewed about instructor performance
When the institution is small, one on one meetings/calls should be done, but when it gets larger, consider coordinators/course leads, etc. to lighten that load
All faculty should be known personally by their superiors/administrators
Give faculty a venue to open up and share—a discussion forum that is informal
Share email addresses/contact information/interests between faculty
Allow them opportunities to collaborate with each other
Create a website/portal with helpful information/links/websites/collaboration opportunities
Ask faculty what they want in such a website
Maintain a database on faculty to keep track of who they are, what they’ve done
If possible, reach out by creating inexpensive outreach programs such as birthday recognition, certificates for performance, etc.
Allow faculty to take part in course development/modification to help keep them involved
Let the ones who are working very hard know that you notice their hard work.

Georgia Perimeter College Online as of Summer 2009 had approximately 6500+ students. Making it the largest online program in the University System of Georgia.

The First Generation… 1.0

Minimal staff with minimal maintenance
Establishing web presence
PDF Forms available online
Online resources:

Web presence- having the online program information at the front of the college’s webpage lends credence to how the institution both values & supports online. Visitors to the college website need to be able to navigate & access information about online course & program offerings in a manner that is “easy enough” to encourage them to explore more & move them to take action to enroll.

Having common (frequently used by students) Student Services forms available online in PDF formats allows for some level of student self-service. Moving the processing of those forms into a fully online environment, versus requiring students to submit paper versions for processing, is the next phase of development that would benefit the entire college community vs. just serving the “online only” populations.

Development of Online resources serves the entire college community. Students need access to resources that support their overall success- personally, academically & professionally- on “their time.” The Student Success Backpack, Tech Support Backpack, FAQs, Online Advisement Request Form & the Online Student Satisfaction Survey were developed to anticipate & address the needs of our student populations. The online advisement form has allowed for a more consistent approach to student advising that addresses a holistic approach to the student development process. As an extension of our Student Success philosophy, we incorporate students’ life issues in our advising process: work hours & responsibilities, family & community obligations, GPA standing, degree & professional goals, etc.

E-mail blasts have been used to send specific information to targeted populations. In coordination with OIT, messages are sent to students who register for online courses to give them information on “The next steps.” E-mail blasts address issues such as: how to access online orientation, how to order textbooks online, how to contact online faculty, how to log into online courses & when the term starts. Students are given scheduled reminders of this information. The use of e-mail blasts have decreased the tremendous volume of calls received from students who needed some guidance on how to start & allowed for more appropriate allocation of staff resources & time.

The Next Generation… 2.0

Growing resources

iCollege presence
WIMBA Live Advising Classroom
Alumni Relations collaborations (upcoming)
Service Desk system (upcoming)
Acquisition of Admissions, Veterans’ Affairs, Financial Aid and Registrar solely dedicated to GPC Online (upcoming) along with other Online Student Services expansions

Since Fall 2008, we have used the course management system to host Student Services in the online environment. All students taking an online course at GPC are automatically enrolled into our OSSC 1001- Online Student Success Course each semester term. OSSC 1001, in Fall 2009, will include the use of WIMBA Live Classroom to host live, synchronous sessions, blogs & discussion boards and online office hours. In future, we look to host & post events: Student Success Workshops, Alumni Relations collaborations, career fairs, etc. to further extend online access to Student Life & the college experience for the entire college community. The Student Government Board of the college has approved budgetary support for the establishment of an online student group- “Friends of the Armed Forces” in Fall 2009. This group will primarily use iCollege & WIMBA Live Classroom features to host their meetings & collaborate on their events throughout the year.

As online enrollment continues to expand, we are focusing on the evaluation & implementation of a Service-Desk-type operating system to track inquiries & problem resolution issues addressed by GPC Online Student Success staff. A collaboration with OIT will help to more efficiently receive, research & process incidents.

GPC Online expansion plans include the addition of Student Services personnel in order to more fully serve the growing population needs. Plans are in the works to acquire Student Services staff who will be primarily designated to assisting the online student population. These positions will include Admissions, Veteran’s Affairs, Financial Aid and a Registrar (Note: we currently share a registrar with another of our college center locations).

The Proverbial “In the Box” Thinking

“In the box” thinking influenced by:

System-wide & institutional procedures
External & internal institutional political environment
“Character” & personality of institution
E.g. Course Withdrawal process

The Proverbial “Out of the Box” Thinking

“Out of the Box” thinking influenced by:

Sufficiency of technology access & systems
Sufficiency of funding
Sufficiency of appropriate staffing

Facilitator:
Jason Caudill, Carson-Newman College

Tuesday, June 23, 11:00 AM – 11:45 AM

One of the main themes is that tech support and IT groups don't really understand what distance education does, or the unique needs of instructional technology. Participants from one institution had institutional e-mail access to their Blackberry devices eliminated,
which for distance educators with students in multiple timezones is a big problem. The workaround they discovered was to forward their institutional e-mail to a personal e-mail account and then access the personal e-mail account through their Blackberry. They were unable to get an answer about why Blackberry access was disabled by their IT group.

The lack of an ideal learning management system (LMS) was also discussed. Moodle was mentioned as a good open source solution that had features and flexibility that many people liked. The ideal solution that seemed to find agreement was an option to pick and choose features from multiple LMS options to create a single solution that best fit an individual professor's needs. This obviously isn't a possibility right now, but many had found workarounds where they linked to external resources from within the LMS to provide the functionality a particular course required.

The final topic was one of the lack of understanding between faculty and IT. From both sides there seems to be a disconnect of understanding and an inability to work together to reach ideal solutions. The integration of some basic troubleshooting training for faculty members was seen as a possible solution to this problem. The integration of customer service training for IT workers was also seen as a possible help for the situation.

-SS personnel may not be comfortable with technology
-SS personnel may not know how to deliver services remotely rather than F2F
-Putting SS online is time consuming, requires updating and SS personnel are busy with the students standing in front of them
-It is difficult to present the information in any format other than written, which is not appealing to students.
-Difficult to accept that these pages are the administrative interface between the college and any student not interacting face-to-face.
-Will have to work with Distance Learning which is a very different world
-SS personnel tend to have technology define rather than enable possibilities
-Variety of students studying remotely (prisoners, military, international, home bound, dual-enrolled)
-Concern about FERPA and other privacy issues.

-Even greater interactivity with student involved, in control, empowered
-Personalized visually and aurally with photos, names, biographies, contact info, job descriptions “What can I do for you?”, videos, audio. Make it about people, not buildings or departments
-Consistent, accurate information (thus must be monitored and easily updatable)
-Synchronous and asynchronous 24/7 options
-Use of emerging technology
-Graphic-rich (photos of online students, not just on campus. Have fun with the photos)
-Integrated. Make the silos disappear
-Students are shopping around, so let them peek into a demo course
-Have one point of contact for students having technical trouble or can’t find what they need
-Green
-Attractive and fun
-Social networking site especially for students at your institution
-Streamlined (bullets rather than sentences)
-Intuitive navigability
-Self service
-Timely and relevant NOW
-Customizable, personalizable
-Active, not static (students doing, not just reading). Use games, e.g. treasure hunt to the information
-Integrated with related services
-Simulations
-Financial aid and personal budgeting online calculators
-Transfer course equivalencies
-What can I do with a degree in Psychology, Biology… videos of interviews with professionals in the field
-The understanding and motivation to go online to find hte services
-Concern about signatures

-Make it relevant: 3 paths: Prospective students, current students, new students
-Online environments do not permit 2 of the 3 components of face to face communication. (Online only permits words, not non-verbal or tone of voice)
-Screen sharing/remote control software (CITRIX/Go To Assist) for advising
-Testing software (CITRIX and Linktivity)
-Tutoring software (SmarThinking) and writing center
-Partnerships in student services delivery (Embanet “Ask…..” FAQs)
-Know your students (digital natives or novices, traditional or non-traditional students, English is first or second language, when are they online)
-Live Chat (1:1 and 1:group, instant messaging,VoIP (Voice internet protocol), discussion boards, interactive calendars, portals
-Self-assessment tools
-Professional development tools
-Online orientation
-Links
-Consistent navigation from site to site
-Not too “busy”. Use bullets. White space
-Examples
-“Show me…”
-Customizable e.g. to set up with My Favorites

-Readiness to study online quizzes
-Engaging, with various options for student interface with college
-Student friendly hours of operation
-e-Appointments (financial aid, advising, counseling)
-e-notifications (financial aid missing documents)
-ADA compliant
-Universal design
-Technical support
-Defined FAQs
-Smart FAQs (type in question. If question not answered, someone live contacts you immediately 24/7, Ask CNM)
-Toll-free phone number
-Tables and charts
-Animation
-Tutorials (registration, LMS, portal, financial aid)
-Virtual tours (e.g. library, art galleries)
-Webcasts
-Webpages from portal or website rather than relying solely on institution website
-Web phones, live video chat, audio chat
-Define the experience with the details
-Offer live assistance when your students are online. (Statistics show peak days are 1st: Sundays, 2nd: Sundays. Peak times are late at night/early morning. Must make services online and outsource live support if necessary (e.g. retired professionals).
-An increase in online services for students with special needs
-Active: Live Chat, RSS feeds

-Survey your students
-Students serve on design committee
-Evaluation tools such as:
        >Rubrics (Can the student…?) created by student services staff, students and DL personnel
        >Audits covering 31 service areas and critical components of each (WICHE Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, WCET Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications, CENTTS Center for Transforming Student Services (WCET, Minnesota State Colleges & Universities and Seward, Inc.)
-Online resources
-Workshops
-Qualitative assessments: number of hits, number of bookstore items sold, number of students tutored
-Benchmark usage with face to face
-Benchmark information offered with face to face
-Include satisfaction with student services in online course evaluations
-Other institutions’ best practices
-Explore websites of fully online institutions (University of Phoenix, Capella)
      -Explore quality sites such as Rio Salado (www.riosalado.edu)

The first question addressed was how do we know what we communicate to others? This is generally by feedback, and particularly in the online environment this is by e-mail. We tell students how to communicate with us from the start, such as from how we present our introduction, how we respond to students (tone and frequency / turnaround time)and the frequency of our availability.

It was noted that communication can differ based on cultural, temperment, and gender issues. We need to be careful of bias based on how students speak / contribute to class. We as faculty need to create good relationships with our students, we find out that students are generally more self-revealing in an online environment than face-to-face, even in a f2f class the students open up more in a non-f2f setting. We need to get to know our students, and avoid putting them on the spot in order to encourage their communication and avoid communication blunders.

Another question raised was what do your students call you? In the online environment, the particpants stated they use their first names which they feel makes it more open, one uses Dr. First name. Another suggestion was using initials. A general consensus was to give one option to the students but accept other naming conventions. However, insist that if a student uses a level with you that you do not get called a lower level.

Another issue raised was students from cultures that do not question the professor. Ideas raised that private emails should be sent – priase in public, correct in private. One participant posts that part of critical thinking is the ability to disagree respectfully while supporting one’s argument.

Learning teams are used, both face-to-face and online, with a code of conduct agreed upon by the participants. This code of conduct inclues that even when one disagrees they still have to support each other. The code of conduct can be used to get students to fix each other’s lapses – peer direction rather than faculty correction.
Slang and colloquisms were next addressed as a way that communication can cause major problems without realizing it. Industry specific terms and acronyms can cause major problems – read it before you post if you are in an asyhcnronous environment or handing out a paper. If a student does something wrong, give a warning the first time. Specificity is also an area that needs to be addressed – ensure that all details are written out, such as time zones. Students should be encouraged to ask for clarification.

In summary, we need to get from students the name they want to use, and ensure they have a name they are comfortable calling you, give context of our communication, and ask students to contact us personally if they are offended in any setting format.
A sense of humor is important, but be careful because this can backfire. An online video welcome encourages seeing, hearing, and meeting each other.

A final question was if we do something special for a student, is it favoritism or wililngess to help? It was determined that if done with approachability and an air of helpfulness it won’t have any negative connotation.

Facilitators:
Larry Flegle, American Military University
Brian Freeland, American Military University
Jan Flegle, Kaplan University

Facilitators:
Larry Flegle, American Military University
Jan Flegle, Kaplan University