Thoughts About Learning and Working in Online Class Settings

1. Thoughts About Learning and Working in Online Class Settings SBA Faculty Brown Bag October 2009 Jeanne Enders

2. My Experience and Current Practice My Experience • CAE and STRT • Hybrid Challenge • Conference Presentations Current Practice • Use of Hybrid Undergrad Course (BA 385: Business Environments) - • MGMT 560 (Ethics) fully online with one residency for eMBA program

3. Why Online? • Presidential directive • Faculty flexibility • Exercises pedagogical muscle

4. One of PSU’s Five PrioritiesImprove Student Success: Ensure a student experience that results in higher satisfaction, retention, and graduation rates…38% six-year graduation rate is not satisfactory. Wim Wievel, President of PSU, Convocation Speech (2008)

5. Some Expectations of Faculty Learning and pedagogical research contributions influence the teaching-learning activities of the school. Preparation of new materials for use in courses, creation of teaching aids, and research on pedagogy all qualify as learning and pedagogical research contributions. Contributions to practice (often referred to as applied research) influence professional practice in the faculty member’s field. Articles in practice-oriented journals, creation and delivery of executive education courses, development of discipline-based practice tools, and published reports on consulting all qualify as contributions to practice. Discipline-based scholarship (often referred to as basic research) contributions add to the theory or knowledge base of the faculty member’s field. Published research results and theoretical innovation qualify as discipline-based scholarship contributions. • From “Eligibility Proceduresand Accreditation Standardsfor Business AccreditationAACSB International The Associationto Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, updated July, 2009, p. 22. …and H1N1, bad weather, etc.

6. Pedagogical Refreshment The function of a University is to enable you to shed details in favor of principles…Mental cultivation is nothing else than the satisfactory way in which the mind will function when it is poked up into activity. Alfred North Whitehead, The Aims of Education (1929)

7. Challenges to Online Learning Settings • Student and professor accountability • Class size and workload • Quality

8. Accountability • Set up your course is clear weekly modules. You can even make them appear and disappear as the term rolls on. • Create brief, online exercises linked to any lecture or other content you deliver online. Students respond to point-based activities and if they need to hear the lecture, watch the video or read the material to get there, they’ll do it. • Determine one day a week for each of your feedback tasks. Professor and Students

9. Modular Organization: The Holy Grail for Student • Class organized by weeks. • All information, links to assignments, assessments, videos, websites, etc. are in the weekly folder. Students can feel confident they know what to complete for that week.

10. Sample Week Folder: Week One Has Few Components • Personal info sheet as online survey with request to use roster. • Larger concepts for week listed on header. • Lecture notes organized in folder by week.

11. Class Size and Workload • Investigate peer review methods. • Assign “weekly posts (or weekly letters)” on the same topic for student reflection and respond in one general summary response to all the posts you receive. • Use groups for discussions, not the entire class. Grade on responsiveness to others (among other things). • If you don’t get a kick out of creating your shell, get help or it will seem like too much work. • Plan ahead and plan realistically - get feedback from others.

12. Peer Review Settings in Blackboard

13. The Value of “High-Touch” in Learning Environments • Learn from Talya Bauer • Take the time required to give customized feedback. • Offer your own self-disclosure but, of course, be sensitive to personal boundaries and professionalism. • Get in often and promote positive behavior by modeling it.

14. Roster Entry My goal is to be professional (show areas of professional interests) but also somewhat personal (hobbies and photo with dog). I don’t fill in all sections of roster.

15. Quality Concerns An institution that uses a variety of educational delivery systems at various locations must demonstrate comparable quality of its educational programs for all students. From “Eligibility Proceduresand Accreditation Standardsfor Business AccreditationAACSB International The Associationto Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, updated July, 2009, p. 10.

16. Handy Tools and Tips • Free web content • Use of assignment goals in BB • On campus resources • Keep it simple • Anonymous mid-term surveys • Online role plays • Promoting student satisfaction

17. Free Content Resources • TedTalks • Government Websites • YouTube • Corporate Websites • Newspapers • Public Television • Some Books and Articles • Guest Speaker Excerpts

18. Linking Goals to Activities

19. Campus Assistance We can help each other!

20. Simplicity Rules • Use Occam’s Razor again and again. Multi-layer/forgotten or hidden components = bad. • Link “Ask Course Questions” to discussion tool to avoid massive emails about the same query.

21. Anonymous Midterm Survey Mid-term survey is easy to do, increases student satisfaction by offering the “just in time” opportunity to improve the class.

22. Online Role Play: Sample Excerpt I can provide more info on this technique upon request.

23. Promoting Student Satisfaction:How can the online setting enhance student life? Simple example:

24. Summary • There exists an imperative for some faculty to move some or all of their course delivery online. • There are advantages and disadvantages to teaching online - challenges we can overcome. • We can be great resources to one another. • We can become better all-around teachers by “living in the novel” and consistently challenging our thinking about learning as discovery.