Cathy Cavanaugh, Ph.D. Curriculum and
Instruction, University of North Florida, USA. ccavanau@unf.edu
Terry Cavanaugh, Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction, University of North Florida,
USA. tcavanau@unf.edu
Abstract:
Interest in distance learning is rising among students and professionals. The University of North Florida is preparing for students who expect technologically enhanced and delivered courses. While faculty and administrators at UNF recognize the need to offer online courses, they also recognize that the reputation of the university rests on its ability to continue to provide high quality student-centered courses. Using data that forecasts the growth in interest in online learning, and research on distance learning pedagogy, UNF has begun a program to guide faculty in effective online teaching. A series of workshops was offered to educate instructors university-wide on effective methods used in distance learning environments. The workshop series was called “Effective Teaching in Distance Education Classes.” Topics were Team Building, Methods of Assessment, The Online Discussion Forum, and Distance Learning for Clinical/Internship Experiences. Workshops were structured as panel discussions with examples from various content areas and delivery platforms.
This paper focuses on an ongoing process of improvement of distance learning at the University of North Florida. UNF is a public, urban comprehensive university. The university has an enrollment of about 12000 graduate and undergraduate students in five colleges. Currently the university has hundreds of courses with on-line enhancement, and about 10 courses each semester are offered fully online. The university supports three web-based distance learning spaces beyond basic web pages: WebCT, BlackBoard, and Lotus Learning Space.
Interest in distance learning is on the rise among high school students, college students and professionals. A recent survey found that the majority of parents polled obtained Internet access for their children’s education (Grunwald Associates 2000), and as of the year 2000 a full 15% of U.S. high schools offered access to online classes (Market Data Retrieval 2000). By the year 2002, over 2 million distance learning students are expected in higher education (Web-Based Education Commission 2000). The majority of working adults stated in a survey that they believe college courses offered via the Internet are the future of higher education, with 32% expressing a preference for online courses over classroom learning, given equal quality of education (CyberAtlas 2000). A survey of business managers who have used Internet-based training found that nearly 100% of respondents would recommend it, mainly because of anytime, anywhere access (CyberAtlas 2000).
Colleges and universities have begun to respond to the rapid increase in interest in distance education. In a recent survey by Framingham, MA based International Data Corporation (IDC 2000), the number of students expected to enroll in distance learning will increase by 33.1 percent annually, from 710,000 in 1998 to 2.23 million by 2002. IDC attributes this growth primarily to the use of the Internet. They see two-year colleges increasing their online offerings 85 percent by 2002, up from 58 percent in 1998; and four-year colleges are expected to increase online offerings 84 percent by 2002, up from 62 percent in 1998 (Boston Globe October 29, 2000). According to a recent EDUCAUSE e-mail survey of 464 high-ranking college information technology administrators, the greatest concern is distance education. Distance education enrollments will rise from 750,000 in 1998 to 2 million by 2002 with 6.6 million adults (age 25+) enrolling in education by 2007 (Katz 1999). More than half (55.5 percent) of the participants in the 2000 Campus Computing Survey report that their institution currently offers one or more full college courses online via the web, up from 46.5 percent last year (The 2000 National Survey of Information Technology in US Higher Education, http://www.campuscomputing.net/ ).
Public, private, and charter high schools offering online courses have also experienced recent popularity. During the 2000-2001 academic year Class.com offered 50 online courses to over 250 high school students (http://www.class.com). Over 3000 students attended Virtual High School (http://vhs.concord.org), and Florida Online High School (http://www.fhs.net) enrolled 1000 students. Many other private and charter online high schools are attended by students who expect online courses in higher education. The net generation is completing high school and applying to college, and some of the nation’s top high school students seek an institute of higher education that places priority on high quality web-based learning. Established colleges and universities compete for adult lifelong learners with the online schools offering a wide selection of courses in a convenient flexible timeframe.
Not only are more students entering college with distance learning experience and interest, they are also entering college with vast technology experience which alters their learning styles. Instructors face challenges when they work with classrooms of information age students who need to learn in ways that are new to many universities and instructors. Faculty need skills and tools for working with students on meaningful, authentic tasks, and in taking on the role of mentor, model, and guide. Information age students who have years of experience learning to use technology can assume more responsibility for their education. A college cannot address these challenges by applying computers to traditional education systems. To better serve students, classrooms need to adopt attributes of information-age workplaces: knowledge-orientation, flexibility, advanced skills, problem-solving, long-term projects, and communication of results. Distance learning features can be used in courses to empower students by encouraging students to pose and pursue questions while learning challenging and interesting skills, to expend long-term sustained effort for complex tasks, to learn in self-directed and exploratory ways, and to share results.
The University of North Florida is preparing for new and returning students who expect technologically enhanced and delivered courses as part of degree programs, certificate programs, or for career enhancement. At UNF, our mission is to educate students in a broad array of undergraduate and select graduate programs. Our dedication is to excellent teaching and scholarly activity and engagement of students in a personal, supportive and challenging learning environment. We seek to contribute to the betterment of society. Currently, new distance learning planning initiatives, predicated upon available technologies, commit the University to participate with local, regional and state organizations in serving as a clearinghouse for information concerning available instructional delivery options for students, employers, and residents of the community. In July, 2001, the city council of Jacksonville, home to UNF, declared that technology is the city's future,” and that “technology is going to get us where we need to be” (Florida Times Union 2001). The council’s report stresses the importance of education and area universities in helping the region achieve its goals.
While faculty and administrators at UNF recognize the need to offer online courses and course components, they also recognize that the reputation of the university rests on its ability to continue to provide high quality student-centered courses. Using data that forecasts the growth in interest in online learning, and research on distance learning pedagogy, UNF has begun a program to guide faculty in developing their practices in effective online teaching.
The university’s Distance Learning Action Team was originally created as a temporary committee to advise the university on distance education, and to recommend policy. The action team is now a permanent subcommittee of the university’s technology committee. Part of the role of the Distance Learning Action Team is to identify and support the needs of faculty as distance educators. During the 1999-2000 academic year, most faculty training in distance learning was skills-based and focused on using computers and specific course delivery technology. Workshops included setting up classes, putting tests online, managing online discussions, uploading documents in Blackboard, WebCT and Lotus Learning Space. During 2000-2001, such training continued, with an additional series focusing on the pedagogy and design for distance learning. A goal for the new workshops was to improve the quality of distance education throughout the five colleges, without using intimidating or specialized educational or distance learning vocabulary or jargon.
A series of workshops was offered to assist in educating instructors university-wide on effective methods used in distance learning situations. The workshop series was called “Effective Teaching in Distance Education Classes.” The Distance Learning Action Team, working with the university's Office of Faculty Enhancement, sponsored the workshops, set up schedules and sent invitations. The Office of Faculty Enhancement is charged with providing the resources and the environment for the continuing professional development of UNF faculty. A group of experienced instructors of distance learning from several colleges worked with campus instructional technologists to determine workshop topics. A series of five workshops was developed and they were offered throughout the semester in a digital conference room. A schedule of the workshops was disseminated throughout the university via web and e-mail. In addition to the published schedule, specific colleges were targeted with invitations, because of previous requests for assistance and instruction from those faculty. Each workshop lasted 90 minutes, with an hour for presentation and demonstration of skills, and 30 minutes of discussion with participants. Demonstrations included course syllabi, examples from current online courses, and samples of student work or student feedback about course experiences. Workshops were structured as panel discussions with demonstration of examples from various content areas and delivery platforms. Practices shared during the workshops were platform-independent, equally effective regardless of delivery system. An intended benefit of the workshop series was to provide participants with contacts who would be available for ongoing assistance. The target skills were appropriate for instructors teaching courses fully online, partially online, and enhanced with online components.
Workshop topics were Team Building, Methods of Assessment, The Online Discussion Forum, and Distance Learning for Clinical/Internship Experiences. An additional topic in development is the relationship between distance teaching and the university promotion and tenure process. A common theme throughout the series was planning for distance learning. Workshop facilitators stressed that expectations for student performance and participation must be determined beforehand, and must be communicated clearly to students at the outset of the class. All activities in the distance learning environment should be integrated into a cohesive learning process, interdependent instead of isolated. The workshop series also stressed variety of learning activities within an authentic context, as opposed to converting lectures and reading for the web. The skills and knowledge included in the most effective courses are relevant to students, either in their current lives or in their future roles. The skills and knowledge also represent the most desirable learning in the current state of the field of study (Cavanaugh 2001).
A faculty member from the College of Business Administration, where teaming is an important aspect of all courses, facilitated the Team Building session. The emphasis on team-building stems from educational research indicating that cooperative learning promotes high individual achievement. Distance education literature shows that course activities have the greatest value for students when they authentically approach the kinds of work students will experience beyond the course (Cavanaugh 2001). Students should work in cooperative groups or teams, to solve realistic problems. The instructor’s role is to set up situations that approximate the professional world and require high levels of interdependence for success. Instructors must also model and require respect for student diversity and various learning styles. In the College of Business’ online courses, class teams work together on projects and cases, simulating an authentic work situation. The distance learning environment includes virtual workspace where teams collaborate on drafts of assignments. Online personality inventories and learning style tests were used for student self-assessment, and the results were used to construct heterogeneous teams. Online discussions allowed team members to exchange personal stories, and to develop a collaborative team story including their goals and vision for the team. Teams developed their plan for communication and a code of conduct for team activities. Teams evaluated their performance as a group using rubrics using rubrics prepared by the instructor. The session facilitator demonstrated online examples from his classes to illustrate team-building methods, activities and goals. He also provided workshop participants access to his online teaching space and materials.
A faculty member from the College of Education led the session on Methods of Assessment. The underlying philosophy of this session was that the student-centered, project-based nature of distance education lends itself to assessment of student learning using a variety of methods. The session included demonstrations of a range of assessment techniques from the presenter's online courses. Tests and quizzes are available in most distance education environments, and offer advantages of automatic instant grading, providing students with immediate detailed feedback on short answer items. Open-ended questions may be administered in the online discussion forum, which can serve as a virtual blue book. Student participation in class discussions may be documented and used in assessment, and such assessment is streamlined using the tracking and archiving features of most distance learning delivery systems. Students may be interviewed about their progress via email. Electronic papers and projects may be submitted using email or course digital drop boxes. Instructors can use the word processor feature that tracks changes in documents to return comments to students. Student projects and presentations are most valuable when they can be shared class-wide within the distance learning course environment. An example is a student web page posted or linked in the student's or group's course web space. To give students a sense of control, instructors were encouraged to offer choices of activities and topics or they allow students to negotiate options. Control in distance learning often involves flexibility in scheduling activities and deadlines. Because students are more confident in the importance of their work when course criteria are stated clearly and are viewed as realistic, the session presenter recommended that all evaluation criteria for student performance be communicated at the outset of the course, and suggested that posting rubrics for assignments is an effective method. Knowing the expectations up front places responsibility for learning on the student. The display of student abilities is the most important result of distance education. In the course of developing their abilities, successful students manage their learning by engaging in frequent self-assessment. Because self-assessment does not come naturally to all students, it is helpful when instructors guide and encourage students to assess themselves. Instruments such as rubrics, checklists, and journals are effective tools for helping students become independent and responsible learners. Such assessments provide information to students about their strengths and about the gaps in their knowledge. Students receive the greatest long-term benefit when they have extensive opportunities during a course to develop their skills in a realistic context, and assessment of skills should occur within that context (Cavanaugh 2001). The presenter provided participants with access to evaluation examples and rubrics.Another faculty member from the College of Education led the session on the Online Discussion Forum. The session included discussion of the benefits and challenges of online discussions in courses, and examples of ways to include online discussions in courses. Because learning is an interactive activity and constructed socially, a key to success lies in communication between students and others. A quality benchmark is to involve students in communication during 50% of the time they spend on the course (Cavanaugh 2001). Frequent and active communication with the instructor, fellow students, or experts in the subject is essential in making students feel that they are part of the community of learners. Connection among students is vastly more motivating than isolation because students need to know that others care about them and that they are contributing to an educational endeavor larger than themselves. Valuable discussions may occur among students, instructors, subject matter experts, authors and professionals in the field. The presenter included tips for maximizing the effectiveness of online discussions, with numerous samples from current courses. This session emphasized careful planning to fully integrate online discussions with other course activities. Discussions open to all class members are appropriate for broad discussions, and other discussions may be limited to specific group members for team project work. Sample syllabi were presented to demonstrate ways to build online discussions into courses, and to help students to be accountable for the quality of their online contributions. Participants received lists of web resources, sample discussion topics, and sample student responses, along with student mention of online discussions in final course evaluations.
A faculty member from the College of Health presented the session on Distance Learning for Clinical/Internship Experiences. The presenter has used distance learning tools to connect students in the field with each other, with instructors and mentors, and with professionals. Students involved in field placements tend to feel isolated, and participation in a distance learning experience allows frequent sharing, feedback and questioning regarding the experience. The distance education course environment offers many tools for the clinical instructor: online discussions, digital drop box for field notes, email, shared workspace for projects, and automated testing. A valuable tool in the distance learning environment for clinical students is the adaptation of the discussion forum to serve as a personal journal. To use the discussion area in this way, a discussion topic or forum is created for each student, accessible by only the instructor and the individual student. Because students in clinical experiences are often located far from campus, contact between instructor and student is limited. The online journal allows frequent interaction. In a sense, this session brought together concepts from the previous sessions in a demonstration of a unique application of distance learning.
The session regarding the relationship between distance learning teaching and the promotion and tenure process was structured as an open forum between faculty and university administrators who understand and support distance education. In the traditional university system, promotion and tenure are based contributions in teaching, scholarship and service. Instructors have concerns about the ways online teaching will be evaluated, especially when an instructor’s department chair may be unfamiliar with distance learning or opposed to distance learning. Instructors recognize that quality distance learning takes time, and they seek support from administrators ads they reach balance between time spent in distance teaching and time spent on research and publishing. At this workshop, university policies will be interpreted for distance faculty, and concerns raised about needs for new or adapted policy. The session will be moderated by the director of faculty enhancement, who also teaches in the College of Arts and Sciences.
The sessions were well attended and well received by participants, who represented colleges across campus. Participants included faculty who had already taught distance learning courses, those who had integrated distance learning enhancements into classroom courses, and those who were exploring distance education approaches for future courses. Most participants stated that they learned a great deal of information and strategies that they could immediately put to use in their courses. The sponsoring groups are working on the schedule of sessions for the coming year. Previous sessions will likely be repeated, and will be augmented by sessions on new topics and continuations of previous topics. The series is seen as an ongoing faculty development initiative, organized in response to faculty needs.
An outgrowth of the faculty development series was a faculty distance learning handbook. The UNF Distance Learning Handbook was designed to provide UNF faculty and administration with information about the current state of the distance learning infrastructure at the University of North Florida. For faculty and administrators interested in developing distance learning courses and programs --particularly web-based -- this handbook can serve as a guide in directing interested parties to the existing support services and resources [see Appendix 1 for the Table of Contents]. The handbook will be updated on a regular basis as new campus resources are developed and as more is learned about the potential for distance learning to advance the institutional priorities of the University of North Florida. The handbook was developed by working groups of the Distance Learning Action Team as a way to collect information presented at the faculty development series sessions, along with details about distance learning at the university. The handbook is printed on paper for faculty most comfortable with traditional media, and it is posted on the Office of Faculty Enhancement web site.UNF Distance Learning Handbook Table of Contents:
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Class.com. Online at http://www.class.com
CyberAtlas. (2000). Demographics. Online at http://cyberatlas.internet.com/big_picture/demographics/
Distance Learning Action Team. (2001). UNF Distance Learning Handbook. Jacksonville, FL: University of North Florida.
Florida Online High School. Online at http://www.fhs.net
Grunwald Associates. (2000). Children, families and the internet. Burlingame, CA: Author.
International Data Corporation (IDC): Boston Globe, October 29, 2000. Globe Newspaper Company.
Katz, R .(1999). Dancing with the devil: information technology and the new competition in higher education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Market Data Retrieval. (2000). Technology in education 2000. Shelton, CT: Author.
The 2000 national survey of information technology in US higher education, online at http://www.campuscomputing.net/
Virtual High School. Online at http://vhs.concord.org
Web-Based Education Commission. (2000). The power of the internet for learning. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.