Criterion 1: Helping
Students Learn
MINUTES
FEBRUARY 4, 2003
MEMBERS
PRESENT: Matha Schleinitz, Truman Bashore, Ann Miller, Ruth Barney,
Becky Telford, and Iden Smith
PROGRESS IN
ACCOMPLISHING THIS YEAR’S GOALS
The meeting began with a review of the College’s progress in accomplishing
the goals established by the AQIP Criterion 1 Team. In 2001-2002 there
were 106 courses that used Blackboard. In fall 2002 there were 100 courses
and in spring 2003 there are 133 courses using Blackboard. This year’s
total number of courses far exceeds this year’ goal of having a 30 %
increase in the number of courses using Blackboard. A 30% increase would
have been 138 courses for the year.
A second goal for
the year was to train 200 students to use Blackboard. In the fall alone
405 students were trained through orientation sessions and class
visitations.
Another goal was
to create two training modules. One of these was to be a short,
approximately 25 minute, module for orientation and class presentations.
The other was to be a two-hour long training module to provide more depth
of knowledge. Both of these are completed and have been used. In addition,
the goal for year three was to have an online version of these modules.
The short module is already available on line.
The Team applauded
Ann Miller and the Application Services personnel for their work in
accomplishing the three goals described above.
The Team’s plan
requires a comparison between success rates in traditional, online, and
Web Flex courses. The chair will work with Becky Telford to obtain the
required data.
The team’s goals
include the communication of best practices and using information obtained
from surveys to identify areas for improvement in advising or other areas.
This is still to be done.
Finally, the
team’s goals included the development and use of a survey of unsuccessful
students to identify the reasons why they were not successful. This survey
was developed during fall term and was administered to unsuccessful online
and Web Flex students at the end of fall term.
RESULTS OF
SURVEY OF STUDENTS WHO WERE UNSUCCCESSFUL IN FALL TERM
Ann Miller reported on the results of the survey of unsuccessful students
in online and Web Flex courses from fall term. These may not be the final
results since students are still being allowed to respond to the survey.
Becky Telford identifies 124 unsuccessful students from fall term. E-mail
addresses could only be obtained for 92 of these students so only 92
students received the survey. This includes 76 from on-line courses and 16
from Web Flex courses. Twenty-four (31.5%) of the online students
completed the survey and three (18.75%) of the Web Flex students completed
the survey. The overall response rate was 29 %. The difficulties
identified by the greatest number of those responding were:
- Personal Issues
(32% on-line, 50% Web Flex)
- Work
responsibilities interfered (21% Online, 38% Web Flex)
- Technical
problems in accessing and using the course materials (Online 47%, Web
Flex 13%)
- Difficulty in
understanding the course material (21% on-line, 38% Web Flex)
- Problems in
making initial contact with instructor and starting course (16% on-line,
13% Web Flex)
- Course required
more work than anticipated (32% on-line, 13% Web Flex)
- Instructor did
not communicate adequately or provide sufficient support (32% on-line,
25% Web Flex)
Ann Miller also
provided the results of the course evaluations that were done by online
students.
The Team discussed
the results of the surveys and course evaluations as well as issues that
Ann had identified as she coordinated Blackboard.
Proper training of
faculty to teach online and Web Flex classes was a recurring theme. Many
of the faculty who teach online courses have had no Blackboard training or
training in what is needed to create a successful online course. Some
faculty set up the course, but do not visit the site regularly to monitor
the activity.
The procedure
developed by Brad Reed’s CQI committee requires that faculty meet with
Applications Services staff 4 months before the course starts to get
training and begin creating the course. This procedure is not being
followed.
Suggestions for
dealing with the issues identified include:
- Requiring
Blackboard training, completion of NET 100S, or training through
Franklin University or SOCHE before faculty teach online courses.
- Having some
sort of quality control where the Dean or others review courses before
they are offered.
- Having the
Deans visit course sites periodically to make certain that the
instructors are actively using the sites.
- Provide mentors
to help faculty members who are teaching online for the first time.
- Do sessions
prior to fall and spring terms where successful online instructors can
discuss what they do and give examples of best practices. The
Professional Development Committee could also be asked to do brown bag
lunches where these topics are discussed.
OTHER ISSUES
DISCUSSED
Only six students participated in the two-hour Blackboard training
sessions at the beginning of spring term.
While the response
rate to the Team’s survey of unsuccessful students is considered good
compared to typical response rates, the team discussed doing the survey in
Zoomerang at the end of spring term. This would eliminate the need for
students go into a Blackboard site. The students to be surveyed would get
an e-mail with a direct link to the survey in Zoomerang.
Team members were
asked to look at the results provided by Ann Miller. The team will
continue to discuss these results at the next meeting.
