EFCOT – November 2006
RFP – Projects for Institutional Change: English Faculty Course in Online Training (EFCOT)
Submitted by Helene Krauthamer, Dorothy Phaire, and Gerald Irvin
Department of English
11/17/2006
Contact Person: Helene Krauthamer, 202-274-5626, (Member of General Education Committee)
Executive Summary
A significant portion of General Education at UDC includes four English courses – English Composition I (111), English Composition II (112), Literature and Advanced Writing I (211), and Literature and Advanced Writing II (212). These courses are required by all students at UDC and often are problematic for students who have jobs, families, and other time conflicts. To satisfy the needs of students who desire and require online courses, the English Department offered one online section of each of these courses for the Summer 2006 and the Fall 2006 semesters, using the Blackboard course delivery system, for a total of eight online courses. All the sections were filled beyond the recommended enrollment (15), indicating a strong student interest in online courses, and the summer courses progressed without any problems. Although the instructors for these courses were experienced English teachers and also experienced Blackboard users, only one had received specific training in online teaching, and thus far, none of the courses have been reviewed and assessed. The intent of this project is to provide ongoing training for English faculty to develop and refine their pedagogical techniques in the online environment so that the department can expand the number of online courses and the number of teachers qualified to teach these courses and to develop review and assessment procedures for online courses, to assure high quality in teaching and learning. The outcome of this project is the design and implementation of the English Faculty Course in Online Training (EFCOT), a one semester online course to provide training for English faculty to develop and teach courses online, as well as a manual for assessing online courses. Though designed for the English Faculty, the resulting model may be used by other programs. The course will model best practices in teaching, learning, and assessing online pedagogy.
1.0. Statement of Specific Problem Related to Change Effort
1.1. Statement of the Problem: Although students are requesting online courses from the English Department, we do not have enough qualified instructors to meet the demand. Two of our faculty, Prof. Dorothy Phaire and Dr. Helene Krauthamer, were trained in the Summer 2006 Blackboard Course in Online Teaching and received Blackboard certification (Prof. Phaire also has WebCt certification), but we anticipate the need for at least eight more English instructors to receive similar training. The online courses that have been offered have been filled beyond the recommended maximum number of students, and we project that the demand will only get larger as more students become more proficient in the use of Blackboard. Although our faculty are currently receiving informal training in Blackboard through a series of workshops coordinated by Gerald Irvin, an experienced Blackboard user, we need a more structured and formal training course, modeled on the summer training but at a much lower cost, that would be available immediately to our English faculty and be a model for other programs.
1.2. Forces driving change: Faculty need training in the new technologies as they emerge. Also, students desire online courses to help them deal with the challenges of attending courses, given their time conflicts with jobs, family, and other issues. According to Spring 2006 statistics, today’s typical UDC student is a female (64%), with young children. Only 38% of the total student body is able to attend school full-time. Thus, many students juggle schoolwork with their responsibilities as parents, and 62% can only attend school part-time while holding down a full-time job to be able to pay their tuition and provide for their families. This is the growing population of students that need and want the flexibility of a quality education online.
1.3. Measuring what changes: We would like to increase the number of faculty trained to use Blackboard, increase the number of online courses, and assess these courses to determine statistics for student retention, students passing final exam, and students passing the course and to compare these to the traditional courses. We would also like to develop a rubric for evaluating the quality of these courses to see if they meet the standards for effective online teaching and to provide suggestions for improvement.
1.4. Benefits to be realized: Faculty will be better trained and students will have more access to English courses, allowing them to stay in school and graduate earlier.
1.5. Issues that must be addressed: There should be policies and procedures for online courses developed to ensure consistency and adherence to university policies and procedures.
1.6. Alignment to strategic plan: The Strategic Plan calls for increased faculty development and increased technological proficiency for both students and faculty.
1.7. Literature search: The following are representative of resources that we have used in our Blackboard training course and that will be used for training:
1. Virtual Resource Site for Teaching with Technology. http://www.umuc.edu/virtualteaching/
2. Tips and Tricks for Teaching Online http://www.uwstout.edu/lts/webid/tutorials/tips.htm
3. If You Build It, They Will Come: Building Learning Communities Through Threaded Discussions http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=tutorials&article=3-1
4. Learning from Reflections - Issues in Building Quality Online Courses http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall63/deubel63.htm
5. How Interactive are Your Distance Courses? A Rubric for Assessing Interaction in Distance Learning http://www.westga.edu/~distance/roblyer32.html
6. Generating and Facilitating Engaging and Effective Online Discussions http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/blackboard/docs/discussionboard.pdf
7. Blackboard Quick Tutorials http://www.blackboard.com/products/quicktutorials.htm
8. Getting Started with Blackboard http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/blackboard/docs/getstarted.pdf
9. Adding Content to your Courses http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/blackboard/docs/addcontent.pdf
10. Managing Groups http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/blackboard/docs/discussionboard.pdf
11. Gradebook Basics http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/blackboard/docs/gradebook.pdf
12. Assignments http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/blackboard/docs/assignment.pdf
13. Collaboration http://tep.uoregon.edu/technology/blackboard/docs/collaborationtool.pdf
2.0. Vision for change
2.1. Statement of the vision: We envision that in five years we will have 100% of our faculty using Blackboard, that 50% of the Writing Program courses can be offered in a wholly online environment, and that our retention, passing rates, and satisfaction ratings will be above 85%.
2.2. Gap analysis of the differences: Currently, we have only 7 of our 25 Full-Time faculty (28%) using Blackboard, and only one of our 13 Part-Time faculty (8%) for a total of 8 (21%) active Blackboard users.
We have the following distribution of sections for the Writing Program Courses:
Fall 2006 / 111 / 112 / 211 / 212 / TOTAL# sections / 16 / 15 / 14 / 11 / 56
# online / 1 (6%) / 1 (7%) / 1 (7%) / 1 (9%) / 7%
Each of these classes has about 20-25 students enrolled, and we have recommended that online sections should contain no more than 15 students, although that number was exceeded for the Fall 2006 semester.
We have not consistently performed classroom assessments to determine course satisfaction, and we would like to conduct regular assessments to provide baseline figures for (1) retention, (2) final exam pass rates, (3) course pass rates, and (4) course satisfaction.
2.3. What values will be changed or improved: We are trying to improve teaching and learning and make our courses more accessible to more students to improve their retention and passing rates, as well as overall satisfaction with English courses. We are also trying to provide more in-house opportunities for faculty professional development and develop a cadre of effective online teachers in our discipline.
3.0. Project Plan for Implementation of Change
3.1. Goals and objectives: We will create and implement an online training course for English faculty to teach them how to use Blackboard for online course delivery.
Major activities (i.e., brief description, sequence, schedule and timeline for each):
1. Course Developer designs English Faculty Course in Online Training (EFCOT) Blackboard training course for English faculty. (December 2006)
2. Course Team reviews EFCOT (January 2007)
3. Course Team develops application and screening process (January 2007)
4. Course Coordinator recruits participants and screens applications for participation in Blackboard training course (January 2007)
5. Blackboard training course begins with FTF meeting in January 2007
6. Participants take course online, developing their own online courses (January – April, 2007) and meet at midterm to discuss and showcase courses.
7. Course Team assesses training process. (March 2007)
8. Participants showcase final products and receive certificates of completion (May 2007)
9. Course Team assesses online courses (June 2007)
10. Participants refine online courses (Summer 2007)
11. Course Team assesses online course (Summer 2007)
12. Process is repeated for Fall 2007 semester
3.2. Personnel related to major activities (i.e., roles and responsibilities, project performed, estimate time spent); include compliance with UDC personnel policy
Course Developer: Designs and conducts online training course in consultation with other members of the Course Team. (one) {Estimated time: 20 hours / week}
Course Coordinator: Recruits and screens applications (one) {Estimated time: 10 hours / week}
Program Director: Oversees program, assuring that the timeline is followed, reports are written, assessments are performed, and all is consistent with university policies and procedures. {Estimated time: 5 hours / week}
Course Team: Meets regularly to discuss progress of program and make recommendations (committee of interested parties) {Estimated time: 2 hours / week}
Participants: Five faculty who have passed the screening process {Estimated time: 10 hours / week}
3.3. Staffing Plan
Course Developer: Dorothy Phaire has extensive experience developing online courses and training courses. She has developed several course manuals for the English faculty and conducted several workshops. She has already designed a template for online courses that will be used in this project.
Course Coordinator: Gerald Irvin has been one of the early adopters of Blackboard and has successfully coordinated a workshop series for the English faculty, as well as developed his own hybrid courses for most of the courses taught in the Writing Program.
Program Director: Helene Krauthamer will be acting chair of the English Department in the Spring 2007 semester and as such will serve as the director of this program.
Course Team: Dorothy Phaire, Gerald Irvin, and Helene Krauthamer will constitute the Course Team, meeting regularly to oversee the project and develop assessment tools.
Participants: Eight faculty from the English Department will be selected from among the full and part-time faculty, based on an application and screening process that will select participants who meet the following criteria:
1. Desire to teach an online course in the English Department
2. Experience teaching one of the Writing Program courses
3. Experience using Blackboard in traditional courses.
4. Desire to teach other faculty to use Blackboard.
3.4. Risk analysis and readiness for change
Policies and procedures for online teaching that are consistent with the 6th Master Agreement and other legal documents need to be established by the university before this project can be implemented. The Faculty Association and the University Senate need to be informed about this program, and it must also have the approval of the Chair of the English Department, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. It also requires the support of the Blackboard Help Desk in the Learning Resources Division.
3.5. Project Budget: -- short term and long term
Short Term: Spring 2007 Semester
Personnel:
Course Designer: 2 course release @ $1900 = [$3800.] (Provided by CAS?)
Course Coordinator: 1 course release @ $1900 = [$1900.] (Provided by CAS?)
Course Materials $1000.
Participants: $500 stipends x 8 participants = $4000.
Stipends for Course Team: $1000 x 2 = $2000.
Subtotal: $7000.
Long Term: Fall 2007 Semester
Personnel:
Course Designer: 2 course release @ $1900 = [$3800.] (Provided by CAS?)
Course Coordinator: 1 course release @ $1900 = [$1900.] (Provided by CAS?)
Course Materials $1000.
Participants: $500 stipends x 8 participants = $4000.
Stipends for Course Team: $1000 x 2 = $2000.
Subtotal: $7000.
3.6. Benefit/ Cost Analysis : The summer training course provided by Blackboard cost about $12000 per participant. This proposal is far more cost-effective and provides more oversight and sustainability.
4.0. Transition Plan
4.1. Groups and individuals impacted: At first, this program will impact only the faculty in the English Department, although others from other departments will be invited to observe. If successful, the program could become a model for other departments. The training program will include part-time faculty who often do not have opportunities for faculty development but have major teaching responsibilities.
4.2. Strategies to support these people: The participants will maintain contact with each other both online and FTF. The participants will require ongoing technical support that will be arranged with the Learning Resources Division.
4.3. Professional development efforts:
Delivery Method:
This training program will involve both face-2-face [FTF] instructor-led workshops and online learning, which will consist of textbook readings to understand the pedagogy of teaching online and online assignments to be completed outside of the classroom setting.
It will consist of a 3-day instructor-led workshop from 9 AM to 4 PM. Between each FTF class there will be a 14 day online lesson beginning on Mondays and ending on Sundays. In total this is a 6-week program with all but 3 days online. For training programs conducted during the regular Spring or Fall semester, it is recommended that ‘approved’ candidates for training be granted one course release in order to successfully meet the demands of the training and maintain their teaching obligations.
Equipment, Resources and Supplies Needed:
FTF sessions must be conducted in a lab equipped with PCs and instructor workstation.
A Blackboard Training Course site will be needed.
Textbooks are to be provided for each approved candidate: Teaching Online: A Practical Guide by Susan Ko and Steve Rossen. Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company. To order online contact publisher at: http://college.hmco.com/flash.html. ISBN: 0-618-00042-9 or call Faculty Services Center at 800.733.1717.
Candidates for training must have access to a computer and printer at home and access to email.
Outline of Topics
Note: topics below may be delivered online or FTF unless otherwise indicated