MAGNA ONLINE SEMINARS
How to Orient New Instructors
to an Online Course FAST!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Presented by:
Jennifer Berghage
Jen Berghage has worked with Penn State's World Campus for the past 11 years as a distance education specialist. From 2008-present, Jen worked in an instructional design
capacity with Penn State SMEs to develop the Masters of Professional Studies in Human
Resources and Employment Relations Program, listed with the Society for Human
Resource Management as a highly recommended HR program. Jen Berghage's background includes certification as a professional editor from the USDA Graduate School in
2004, and as a distance education specialist from UWISC in 2008.
©2011 Magna Publications Inc.
All rights reserved. It is unlawful to duplicate, transfer, or transmit this program in any manner without written consent from Magna Publications.
The information contained in this online seminar is for professional development purposes but does
not substitute for legal advice. Specific legal advice should be discussed with a professional attorney.
Jennifer Berghage
The Pennsylvania State University
jaw33@psu.edu
814-865-5727
SAMPLE Tip Sheet Sections from Presentation Slides
For HRER ABC Instructors
Course Administration
Access Your Course Web site here: http://cms.psu.edu and click on HRER ABC
1. Access the Syllabus by
2. Review the course
3. Review these instructions and
clicking on the Syllabus tab assignments by clicking on
contact the HelpDesk or the course
and print out a copy.
Lessons/Course Content on your designer listed below if you have
course Web site and then
questions.
clicking on each assignment
page.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Instructional Designer: For questions on course content
Jen Berghage
jaw33@psu.edu (preferred)
Office: 814-865-5727
Mobile: 814-753-0738
Skype: jenberghage
AIM: jenberghage
Outreach HelpDesk: For questions on computer functionality
E-mail: wdtechsupport@outreach.psu.edu
Phone: 1-800-252-3592, option 4 or 1-814-865-0047
They are available by phone on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. until Midnight (EST) and on weekends
from 10:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. (EST).
Advising and Learner Success: For administrative questions regarding students
U.S. Toll Free: 800-252-3592
Local/Int'l: 814-865-5403
email: wc_als_only@outreach.psu.edu
Using the ANGEL Announcements Area:
Go to Communicate/Course News and Events/Announcements/Add Announcement/Type your
message/Set the start date/Save
Jennifer Berghage
The Pennsylvania State University
jaw33@psu.edu
814-865-5727
Setting Up Teams - Do this the first week of the semester
You will need to assign teams for the BNA Discussion Forum activities. Students should be put into
teams of about 5 members (Beige Team, Gray Team, Maroon Team, Turquoise Team). To set up
teams, go to Manage/Teams/Add users to each team. Assignments are structured such that students
will automatically be funneled into their team spaces once you've assigned them to their team.
To review a team space, go to Lessons/BNA Discussion Forums/Lesson 04 BNA Discussion
Forum - click into the forum and switch the All Teams button in the top left corner to Beige
Team. You'll then be able to see only the posts of the Beige Team. Switch this button to Gray Team
when you're ready to review that team's posts. Repeat until you've reviewed each team discussion
space.
To grade the team forum, go to Lessons/BNA Discussion Forums/instead of clicking into the
Lesson 04 BNA Discussion Forum, click on Submissions (which appears just below the forum
link)/Grade Forum.
Lessons 4 & 8 BNA Discussion Forums
Students will use the discussion forum spaces to discuss BNA publications. Monitor these spaces at
your discretion to encourage learning and critical thinking as well as application of course concepts to
articles to read. Note that this is the only "group work" students will be doing for this course.
IMPORTANT for Lesson 08 BNA Discussion Forum Assignment (first thing Monday morning
during the Lesson 08 time frame) the instructor is required to go to the BNA publications site and
select an article to post to the Announcements Area. Follow the Workplace Law Report Instructions
for Signing Up (file is located under the Lessons tab) to access the BNA Web site. Then, in ANGEL,
go to Communicate/Course News and Events/Announcements/Add Announcement - and type
your message including the Web address of the article you selected from the BNA Web site/Set
the start date/Save.
It’s a good idea to include the article title and author in your post, along with the link. After you’ve
posted the Web address of the article you selected, go to Lessons/BNA Discussion Forums/Lesson
08 BNA Discussion Forum and post a question related to the article that you’d like students to
discuss.
Jennifer Berghage
The Pennsylvania State University
jaw33@psu.edu
814-865-5727
Lessons 5 - 13 Announcements
Remember to use the announcements area each week to remind students to work on their Seminar
Paper (due at the end of Lesson 13). This paper is worth 145 points and needs citations done in APA
style and a reference page. Resources for APA style are located on the course Web site under the
Lessons tab.
Lesson 6 E-mails to Students
Students will be turning in their Seminar Paper Topic. This is an ungraded assignment, but you can
use e-mail to provide feedback on their topic of choice.
Lesson 15 Final Exam
Check the Course Syllabus to see when students can access their final exam (which is open book).
They will not be able to see the final exam file until the date listed on the Course Schedule - ANGEL
is coded not to release it until then.
Have a great semester!
Jennifer Berghage
jaw33@psu.edu
814-865-5727
SAMPLE Tip Sheet
Please note: This Tip Sheet is a composite of several different types of instruction provided for instructors in a
selection of courses I help to manage. Because the information is taken from many different courses, some
sections may contradict each other or seem to repeat.
For HRER XXX Instructors - Course Administration Details
Access your course here - http://cms.psu.edu, then click on HRER XXX
1. Access the Syllabus
2. Review the course
3. Review these instructions and
by clicking on the
assignments by
contact the HelpDesk or the course
Syllabus link on the left clicking on Course
designer listed below if you have
side menu and print out Content link on the left questions.
a copy.
side menu and then
clicking on each
assignment page.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Instructional Designer: For questions on course content
Jen Berghage
jaw33@psu.edu
814-865-5727
Outreach HelpDesk: For questions on computer functionality (faculty and students)
They are available by phone on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. until Midnight (ET) and on
weekends from 10:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. (ET).
wdtechsupport@outreach.psu.edu
Phone: 1-800-252-3592, option 4 or 1-814-865-0047
Administrative Questions Regarding Students:
Contact Advising and Learner Success Team at
U.S. Toll Free: 800-252-3592
Local/Int'l: 814-865-5403
email: wc_als_only@outreach.psu.edu
Customize Your Welcome Announcement - Do this before the course opens
A standard greeting has been set up to welcome your students to the course. If you'd like
to customize or edit it, click on Announcements on the left side menu and select EDIT.
Setting Up Teams - Do this the first week of the semester
Students will participate in team discussions for Lessons 03 and 09, and group work for
Lessons 04 and 07. Students should be put into teams of about 5 members (Aqua Team,
Azure Team, Champagne Team, Navy Team, Peach Team, Tangerine Team). To assign
Jennifer Berghage
jaw33@psu.edu
814-865-5727
students to teams, go to the left side menu and click on Course
Management/Teams/Add users to each team. (It's okay if you don't need to use all of
the teams.) Assignments are structured such that students will automatically be funneled
into their team spaces once you've assigned them to their team.
1. Note that some people have access to your course who are not students, and they
should not be assigned to a team. To find out who is a student and who is not, go
to Course Management/Roster/look at the Title column – students will have the
title “Student” and others will display different titles.
2. Use the announcements area and/or e-mail to let students know who is on which
team. To copy and paste a list of who's on which team, go to Course
Management/Teams/Click on Add Users, which will display the whole class highlight the list and copy it/then paste it into an Announcement or e-mail to the
whole class. You may want to remove from this list anyone who is not a student.
1. Also use the Announcements area to remind students to begin group work early in
the week so they have time to participate adequately in group assignments. Click
on the Syllabus link to see which assignments involve group work.
Lesson 01 (Orientation Lesson)
Students will complete several ungraded activities for this lesson’s assignments. If you’d
like to review the ungraded Student Questionnaires, go to Linked Items/Student
Questionnaire/Submissions/View, Grade, or Delete Submissions.
Students will also be practicing with the ANGEL tools. They’ll send you an e-mail, and
this is a great opportunity to reply to each student, greeting them and introducing
yourself. To reply to student messages, go to the side menu and click on Communication
Tools/Course Mail/View Inbox/click on a student message and click on Reply/Type
your message in the text box provided/Send.
Lessons 03 and 09 – Team Debates
Students will engage in a debate with their teammates within the Lesson 03 and Lesson
09 Discussion Forums.
To view each team space, go to Discussion Forums/Lesson 03 Discussion Forum/at
the top left corner, click on the drop down list that says "All Teams" and switch it to
a color team. This will allow you to see only the posts of that particular team. To view
another team space, click on that drop down list again and switch to another color team
space. (Team names for this assignment are Aqua, Azure, Champagne, Navy, and Peach.)
Enter grades by going to Instructor Tools (linked on the left menu)/Course
Management/Gradebook/Enter or Edit Grade - By Assignment/select Lesson 03
Discussion Forum/Go/enter grades and Save Changes. These instructions also apply
when viewing and grading the Lesson 09 Discussion Forum.
Jennifer Berghage
jaw33@psu.edu
814-865-5727
Lessons 04 and 07 - Group Work
Students will work together in their teams to complete these assignments. Each team will
use Google Docs to collaboratively write the paper, and will submit the finished paper to
the Discussion Forum. Information on how to use Google Docs is located on the course
Web site under Course Resources/How to Use Google Docs. Instructors do not need a
Google Docs account, or to access Google Docs, but if you'd like to explore the use of
this tool, you may wish to open a free account.
To view each team space, go to Discussion Forums/Lesson 04 Discussion Forum/at
the top left corner, click on the drop down list that says "All Teams" and switch it to
a color team. This will allow you to see only the posts of that particular team. To view
another team space, click on that drop down list again and switch to another color team
space. (Team names for this assignment are Aqua, Azure, Champagne, Navy, and Peach.)
Enter grades by going to Instructor Tools/Course Management/Gradebook/Enter or
Edit Grade - By Assignment/select Lesson 04 Discussion Forum/Go/enter grades
and Save Changes. These instructions also apply when viewing and grading the Lesson
07 Discussion Forum.
Lesson 04 and 07 Peer Evaluation:
Students can access a link to the Lesson 04 and 07 Peer Evaluation Form from the
Lesson’s Discussion Forum. They'll complete a separate form for each of their teammates
and one for themselves.
To view these submissions, go to Instructor Tools/Linked Items/Lesson 04 (or Lesson
07) Peer Evaluation Form/Submissions/View, Grade, or Delete Submissions. These
items are not graded, but viewing them will help you to grade individuals on group
projects. Members of a team won't necessarily get the same grade as the group depending
on whether they've performed poorly or exceptionally well.
Lesson 06 - HRER XXX Mid-Course Survey
If you wish to view the survey, go to Linked Items/HRER XXX Mid-Course
Survey/Submissions/View, Grade, or Delete Submissions.
Lesson 11 Final Paper Proposal
Instructors: Please note that if you're teaching the standard version of HRER XXX,
students are asked to focus on TWO countries for this assignment. If you're teaching the
Hybrid version of the course, which is a more intensive, condensed version of the course
and includes a week on-site at the PSU University Park campus, this assignment asks
Jennifer Berghage
jaw33@psu.edu
814-865-5727
students to focus on only ONE country.
Lesson 14 Final Paper
Instructors: Please note that if you're teaching the standard version of HRER XXX,
students are asked to focus on TWO countries for this assignment. If you're teaching the
Hybrid version of the course, which is a more intensive, condensed version of the course
and includes a week on-site at the PSU University Park campus, this assignment asks
students to focus on only ONE country.
Lesson 15 - Final Paper Feedback
This assignment is based on the completion of the Lesson 14 Assignment. Students
cannot participate until they've all finished and submitted their papers to the instructor.
Grading feedback from instructors on the final paper should NOT be sent out to students
until after each student has submitted the Lesson 15 Assignment. This gives the
instructors a full week to grade the papers, but students need to know that they will not
receive feedback until after they have completed this final assignment.
For this assignment, students are asked to provide feedback on a classmates' paper.
Because they do this anonymously, the instructor is required to provide each student
with a copy of a classmate's paper with all identifying information REMOVED. To
do this, save each submission, rename it, remove any identifying information, and save
again using a new name for the file, such as AnonymousPaper_1.doc.
Go to Discussion Forums/Lesson 15 Discussion Forum - after you've removed all
identifying information from each student's submission, send a New Post to each
student, using the attachments button to upload a classmate's paper
Remember to record whose paper has been sent to whom, as you will need to
distribute the feedback to the relevant students at the end of the exercise so that
they also benefit from peer feedback. You may want to use the paper titles to
identify them after student data is removed. Be sure to check the syllabus due date
for this assignment so that you distribute the peer feedback back to students in a
timely manner.
The student will then click on your post to them, download the classmate's paper,
and add their feedback directly on that document.
Each student will then upload the paper using the reply button, and only the
instructor will be able to see their upload.
After reviewing all of the student feedback documents, click on the small plus
sign next to each of your original posts and use the reply button at the bottom of
the post to return each original author's peer feedback.
ANSWER KEYS are available for all assignments in this course
To view them go to http://cms.psu.edu - instead of clicking into the course Web site,
Jennifer Berghage
jaw33@psu.edu
814-865-5727
scroll down to Angel Groups and log into the HRER 800 Instructors space. If you don't
see the Angel Group available, contact your instructional designer.
Using Google Docs:
Students are instructed to use Google Docs for some of their group assignments. There is
an instruction page under Course Resources/How to Use Google Docs. Students are
instructed to upload their final Google Doc to either the discussion forum team space or a
drop box for grading. If students encounter difficulty using Google Docs refer them to the
HelpDesk. Contact information appears at the beginning of this document. Instructors do
not need an account with Google Docs.
Using the ANGEL Announcements Area
Go to Announcements/Add New Announcement/Type your message/Set the start
date/Submit. Students will be able to see your Announcement when they first log in to
the course each time, as it appears on the Course Home Page and the course is set to open
on that page. Announcements will appear at the top of the page each time you create a
new one and older ones will bump down the page.
Monitoring Discussion Forums
For discussion forum assignments (see the Grading chart on the Syllabus for an outline of
assignment types) use your judgment as to how closely you’d like to monitor them.
Live Chat in ANGEL
Students may want to have an ungraded, unstructured space in which to get to know each
other. This space is optional, but if you’d like to put one in, follow the directions below.
Click on the Communication Tools left menu link, then go to Live Chat/click on the
small pencil icon to the right/Add a Live Chat/fill in the title, add a sentence
describing what the chat is for; if you keep tracking “on” ANGEL will retain the chat
and students can review it asynchronously, if you leave tracking “off” ANGEL will not
retain the chat log. You can set these up for each team or the whole class. You can set
just the start date to leave the Chat space open, or you can limit it by adding an end
date/Save.
You may want to put as many as three different Live Chat spaces in your course:
1. for office hours (you can set up several chats, as needed)
2. for team introductions (assign each chat space to a team and use the team color in
the title space)
3. a general “whole class” chat space for them to get to know each other
The differences between chat spaces and discussion forums are
Jennifer Berghage
jaw33@psu.edu
814-865-5727
chat space is live (real time, synchronous) where discussion forums are
asynchronous (students can post and review at any time and a log of posts is
available)
chat space cannot be hooked into the gradebook but discussion forums can
(though they are not automatically graded by ANGEL and must be graded
manually)
chat space is loosely structured with simple guidelines such as “introduce
yourselves to your team members and let them know your general schedule and
availability" vs. a discussion forum where an assignment is tightly structured,
written instructions are provided, and an end result is expected
students are often expected to complete an assignment in a discussion forum but
should not do this in a chat space
the instructor generally does review (and grade) discussion forums, but does not
review chat spaces unless they’re for office hours.
Have a great semester!
Jennifer Berghage
The Pennsylvania State University
jaw33@psu.edu 814-865-5727
Answer Keys
may be done in a word processing program, an Excel spreadsheet, or whatever
means is best suited to the content.
should never be created in a Web-based app - risk of hacking is too high.
may include graphics, tables, bulleted lists, etc.
should include the assignment instructions so instructors don't have to go looking
for them.
should include a chart showing points (if this is designed as a separate page it's
easier to update than if points are embedded within each assignment).
should include the date in the file name each time keys are updated - version
control is CRITICAL.
Don't delete previous versions too soon, sometimes authors remove content and
then want to put it back later, but make it very clear which set should be used.
"At a glance" info is much easier to use when grading than long paragraphs.
Note: Some Latin fill-in text is used for sensitive areas below
[Course Name] Grading Rubrics/Answer Keys
*Note: if any assignments are submitted after the scheduled deadline, these should be
marked down by half a letter grade for each day that they are late (unless otherwise
agreed in advance with the instructor).
Lesson 01 Part 1 - ungraded
Lesson 01 Part 2 - Drop Box Assignment
Cultural Intelligence Assessment
As an introduction to the next lesson, this is an opportunity for you to assess your cultural
intelligence (CQ). Here is how to take the test:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
Go to http://assessment.cq-portal.com/
Click on Step 1: Establish account
Register your details and create a password (your ID will be the email address you
enter – make sure you have access to this email address now to continue)
You might be asked for an Assessment Reference Number - if so, this is XX.
You will be sent an email confirming access to the test
Go back to http://assessment.cq-portal.com/
Click on Step 2: Activate CQ assessment and choose T1 Assessment (T1 just
refers to Time 1 – you have the option to go back yourself at the end of the course
and do the test again by clicking on the T2 Assessment (Time 2) to see whether
there has been any change in your score)
Jennifer Berghage
The Pennsylvania State University
jaw33@psu.edu 814-865-5727
8) Log in with the details you have just set up
9) Take the test (approx. 10 minutes) following the instructions on screen
10) At the end, you can view your feedback report – SAVE this pdf report for yourself
11) Complete the assignment by submitting a short essay of around 100 words on your
answer to the following question: How accurate do you think your results of the CQ test
were in assessing your cultural intelligence, and why?
DO NOT MAIL YOUR ACTUAL TEST RESULTS – these are for your own use and
you are not being graded on how culturally competent you are, but on how well you
understand the issues around cultural intelligence.
The data you enter will be used to expand the worldwide norms for the CQ Assessment
database. Confidentiality of your identity will be protected.
Answer: Students should identify the following aspects to show their awareness of
cultural intelligence issues:
• Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse feugiat feugiat
enim vitae tincidunt. Maecenas in eleifend est. Morbi mi neque, mattis blandit fermentum
et, sodales in arcu.
• Mauris vel ipsum orci. Morbi vitae sapien tellus, vel ultrices ligula. Curabitur porta
odio eu ipsum sodales iaculis. Quisque condimentum risus in magna convallis non
pharetra est dictum. Maecenas mattis augue at erat semper ut rutrum augue elementum.
Maecenas molestie mollis scelerisque. Nulla vel orci turpis. Fusce tincidunt ultricies
augue, in auctor diam consectetur egestas.
Note: This first assignment is a light one, so as long as the student has reflected on their
assessment and talks in some way about how this is a result of their previous experiences
and background, and that there are multiple dimensions of CQ, all of which can be
developed, etc., a normal score might be 90%, otherwise 95 or 100% if most/all points
have been covered, or 85% if there is more limited reflection.
Lesson 01 Part 2 ALTERNATE Assignment - Use if the Web site in the previous
assignment becomes unavailable.
Complete the following assignment in your Word processing program, then copy
your answer into a new post. If you attempt to complete the assignment directly in
ANGEL, you may lose your work if ANGEL experiences an outage.
Cultural Intelligence Assessment
As an introduction to the next lesson, this is an opportunity for you to consider your own
level of cultural intelligence (CQ).
You are not being graded on how culturally intelligent you are, but on how well you
understand the issues around cultural intelligence.
Jennifer Berghage
The Pennsylvania State University
jaw33@psu.edu 814-865-5727
First of all, consider the thinking skills you use to understand other people in culturally
diverse situations. To what extent do you believe that you think before acting, do you
learn from a new situation, and how do you solve problems when you are in situations
characterized by cultural diversity?
Secondly, think about how energized you feel in culturally diverse situations. How selfconfident are you of your abilities in these situations, and what is your sense of reward
from functioning effectively in situations characterized by cultural diversity?
Finally, consider the extent to which you think you can act appropriately in a culturally
diverse situation. How flexible are you with regard to your ability to speak other
languages, and to adapt your non-verbal behaviors when interacting with people from
different countries?
Having considered each of these aspects for yourself, please answer the following
questions. Your answers should be brief (1 or 2 sentences per question):
1. What are the three dimensions to cultural intelligence?
2. Do you consider yourself to be equally competent in all three areas?
3. How have you achieved your current level of CQ?
4. What might be the value of being culturally intelligent?
Answer: Maecenas molestie mollis scelerisque. Nulla vel orci turpis. Fusce tincidunt
ultricies augue, in auctor diam consectetur egestas. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse feugiat feugiat enim vitae tincidunt. Maecenas in
eleifend est. Morbi mi neque, mattis blandit fermentum et, sodales in arcu. Mauris vel
ipsum orci. Morbi vitae sapien tellus, vel ultrices ligula. Curabitur porta odio eu ipsum
sodales iaculis.
Note: This first assignment is a light one, so as long as the student has reflected on their
assessment and talks in some way about how this is a result of their previous experiences
and background, and that there are multiple dimensions of CQ, all of which can be
developed, etc., a normal score might be 90%, otherwise 95 or 100% if most/all points
have been covered, or 85% if there is more limited reflection.
Lesson 02 - Drop Box Assignment Video Case Study (Janet Ang – Lenovo)
This video case study is designed to give you an example of some of the real crosscultural challenges that face leaders in international organizations today.
The video is divided into three segments:
(1) Discussion of Challenge,
(2) Discussion of Decision, and
(3) Discussion of Results.
Answer the following questions for each segment. The total length of your submission
should be 500-1000 words.
Jennifer Berghage
The Pennsylvania State University
jaw33@psu.edu 814-865-5727
1. Discussion of Challenge:
a. What is the challenge that Janet Ang faced?
b. What options does Lenovo have for setting up the new management structure?
2. Discussion of Decision:
a. What actions did Janet Ang take?
b. What are the benefits and drawbacks of these actions?
3. Discussion of Results:
a. What were the outcomes of Janet Ang’s actions for the people involved?
b. What skills did Janet have which enabled the success?
c. What broad lessons can be learned from this case?
Answers:
1. Discussion of challenge:
a. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse feugiat feugiat
enim vitae tincidunt. Maecenas in eleifend est. Morbi mi neque, mattis blandit fermentum
et, sodales in arcu.
b. Mauris vel ipsum orci. Morbi vitae sapien tellus, vel ultrices ligula. Curabitur porta
odio eu ipsum sodales iaculis. Quisque condimentum risus in magna convallis non
pharetra est dictum.
2. Discussion of decision:
a. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse feugiat feugiat
enim vitae tincidunt. Maecenas in eleifend est. Morbi mi neque, mattis blandit fermentum
et, sodales in arcu.
b. Mauris vel ipsum orci. Morbi vitae sapien tellus, vel ultrices ligula. Curabitur porta
odio eu ipsum sodales iaculis. Quisque condimentum risus in magna convallis non
pharetra est dictum.
3. Discussion of results:
a. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse feugiat feugiat
enim vitae tincidunt. Maecenas in eleifend est. Morbi mi neque, mattis blandit fermentum
et, sodales in arcu.
b. Mauris vel ipsum orci. Morbi vitae sapien tellus, vel ultrices ligula. Curabitur porta
odio eu ipsum sodales iaculis.
c. a. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse feugiat feugiat
enim vitae tincidunt. Maecenas in eleifend est. Morbi mi neque, mattis blandit fermentum
et, sodales in arcu.
Grading note: deduct 2 points for every major issue missed.
Lorem Ipsum retrieved from http://lipsum.com/feed/html 3/30/11
Lessons 03 - 15 Removed from presentational content
Jennifer Berghage
The Pennsylvania State University
jaw33@psu.edu
LER XXX Answer Keys
Tips on Answer Keys:
Change answers to a different font color so there's no chance they'll end up where
they shouldn't
Include the assignment itself
Answer copy can be brief, highlighting major points the instructor would like
students to cover
Instead of embedding points within keys, make a separate chart showing all
assignments and associated points for easy updating
Leave some white space for easy reading
Lesson 01 Part 2
Choose ONE of the following topics, and complete and submit an essay of
approximately 250 words to the Lesson 1 part 2 Drop Box.
Topic 1. Social benefits as we know them today were created as a response to the
experiences of the Great Depression in the 1930s. The Social Security Act of 1935
established benefits that are still key to the economic security of many American citizens.
Define the Social Security Act, name two major programs and how they have protected
participants in those programs.
Answer key:
Vivamus accumsan ante et leo interdum dapibus a id urna. Etiam orci enim, tempor non
lobortis at, suscipit non ante. Aenean eu dolor arcu, nec commodo felis. Maecenas
dignissim, purus non mollis luctus, tortor velit facilisis sem, elementum lacinia tellus felis
et metus. Aliquam rutrum turpis vitae turpis facilisis ullamcorper. Vivamus eget eros nisl,
eu tristique justo. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada
fames ac turpis egestas. Integer a laoreet purus. Etiam vitae vestibulum felis. Donec
elementum augue quis nulla ornare rhoncus. Nunc in diam lacus, eu pharetra enim.
Integer sit amet eleifend tortor. In lacinia quam massa, sed laoreet felis. Aliquam
pulvinar, neque in pellentesque eleifend, arcu purus pharetra lectus, sed mollis arcu
diam vitae ante. Suspendisse potenti. Integer sed interdum nulla.
Topic 2. Many organizations are outsourcing benefit administration.
For this activity:
1.
Define outsourcing.
2.
Suggest two reasons why a company might outsource benefits administration.
3.
Give one reason or situation where a company should not outsource benefits
administration.
Answer key:
Vivamus accumsan ante et leo interdum dapibus a id urna. Etiam orci enim, tempor non
Jennifer Berghage
The Pennsylvania State University
jaw33@psu.edu
lobortis at, suscipit non ante. Aenean eu dolor arcu, nec commodo felis. Maecenas
dignissim, purus non mollis luctus, tortor velit facilisis sem, elementum lacinia tellus felis
et metus. Aliquam rutrum turpis vitae turpis facilisis ullamcorper. Vivamus eget eros nisl,
eu tristique justo. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada
fames ac turpis egestas. Integer a laoreet purus. Etiam vitae vestibulum felis. Donec
elementum augue quis nulla ornare rhoncus. Nunc in diam lacus, eu pharetra enim.
Integer sit amet eleifend tortor. In lacinia quam massa, sed laoreet felis. Aliquam
pulvinar, neque in pellentesque eleifend, arcu purus pharetra lectus, sed mollis arcu
diam vitae ante. Suspendisse potenti. Integer sed interdum nulla.
1. Cras diam enim, laoreet in faucibus id, pulvinar in metus. Nunc a dolor eget metus
blandit malesuada sit amet in nisi. Ut aliquam semper mauris et varius. Phasellus eu
fringilla purus. In molestie dolor a diam ullamcorper pharetra. Praesent neque arcu,
pretium sit amet gravida at, eleifend eget ligula. Maecenas mi ipsum, pellentesque ut
auctor sit amet, placerat vitae nulla. Cras metus risus, egestas sit amet tristique sed,
varius ac erat. (p. xx in the text).
2. Cras diam enim, laoreet in faucibus id, pulvinar in metus. Nunc a dolor eget metus
blandit malesuada sit amet in nisi. Ut aliquam semper mauris et varius. Phasellus eu
fringilla purus. In molestie dolor a diam ullamcorper pharetra. Praesent neque arcu,
pretium sit amet gravida at, eleifend eget ligula. Maecenas mi ipsum, pellentesque ut
auctor sit amet, placerat vitae nulla. Cras metus risus, egestas sit amet tristique sed,
varius ac erat.
3. Cras diam enim, laoreet in faucibus id, pulvinar in metus. Nunc a dolor eget metus
blandit malesuada sit amet in nisi. Ut aliquam semper mauris et varius. Phasellus eu
fringilla purus. In molestie dolor a diam ullamcorper pharetra. Praesent neque arcu,
pretium sit amet gravida at, eleifend eget ligula. Maecenas mi ipsum, pellentesque ut
auctor sit amet, placerat vitae nulla. Cras metus risus, egestas sit amet tristique sed,
varius ac erat.
Lesson 02
Choose ONE of the following topics, and complete and submit an essay of
approximately 250 words to the Lesson 1 part 2 Drop Box. You may need to use
online searches to answer the posed questions:
Topic 1. According to the text, the age at which a worker reaches “Full Retirement Age”
for purposes of receiving non-reduced retirement benefits is increasing depending on the
year of birth (e.g., those born before 1937 can receive “full” social security retirement
benefits at age 65, while someone born in 1960 must wait until age 67 to enjoy nonreduced retirement benefits). In your essay, discuss why the full retirement age is
increasing and the implications of the increase either for the participant or for the Social
Security plan itself.
Answer key:
Cras diam enim, laoreet in faucibus id, pulvinar in metus. Nunc a dolor eget metus
Jennifer Berghage
The Pennsylvania State University
jaw33@psu.edu
blandit malesuada sit amet in nisi. Ut aliquam semper mauris et varius. Phasellus eu
fringilla purus. In molestie dolor a diam ullamcorper pharetra. Praesent neque arcu,
pretium sit amet gravida at, eleifend eget ligula. Maecenas mi ipsum, pellentesque ut
auctor sit amet, placerat vitae nulla. Cras metus risus, egestas sit amet tristique sed,
varius ac erat.
Topic 2. Medicare does not cover every aspect of a covered person’s healthcare needs,
and participants are encouraged to explore Medigap plans. What is a Medigap plan?
Discuss its value to the participant, how it is funded, and its drawbacks as well.
Answer key:
Donec lacinia vestibulum lacinia. Cras cursus mollis ligula. Duis ac arcu et massa
placerat sollicitudin. Nullam vitae velit ac enim cursus gravida a vitae metus. Quisque
tincidunt pharetra cursus. Sed consequat ante vitae nibh sodales quis euismod neque
volutpat. Integer egestas, diam eu tristique dictum, nunc libero venenatis orci, sit amet
luctus turpis nisl non massa. Curabitur sit amet neque lorem, quis placerat odio. Donec
porta lacus nec lorem condimentum elementum. Maecenas in nisl urna. Nulla sodales
libero eu tellus tincidunt quis dapibus elit consequat. Praesent sit amet magna at mauris
adipiscing adipiscing.
Topic 3. What is the difference between Medicare and Medicaid? Define each, and
compare and contrast general eligibility for each type of plan.
Answer key:
Donec lacinia vestibulum lacinia. Cras cursus mollis ligula. Duis ac arcu et massa
placerat sollicitudin. Nullam vitae velit ac enim cursus gravida a vitae metus. Quisque
tincidunt pharetra cursus. Sed consequat ante vitae nibh sodales quis euismod neque
volutpat. Integer egestas, diam eu tristique dictum, nunc libero venenatis orci, sit amet
luctus turpis nisl non massa. Curabitur sit amet neque lorem, quis placerat odio. Donec
porta lacus nec lorem condimentum elementum. Maecenas in nisl urna. Nulla sodales
libero eu tellus tincidunt quis dapibus elit consequat. Praesent sit amet magna at mauris
adipiscing adipiscing.
Vivamus eget libero ligula, nec porttitor massa. Etiam ut odio quam. Morbi eu sodales
mauris. Aenean risus leo, porta at laoreet nec, molestie vitae est. Fusce dolor ipsum,
ultricies et tincidunt fermentum, fermentum nec enim. Morbi pulvinar nulla eu felis
pretium fringilla. Etiam scelerisque auctor sapien. Nam suscipit molestie lobortis.
Integer sem leo, placerat id feugiat eu, gravida in neque. Vivamus id augue sapien, non
posuere purus. Morbi porta aliquam velit, non convallis justo imperdiet egestas. Nunc
sapien nisi, gravida sit amet adipiscing convallis, ullamcorper quis mi. Curabitur viverra
tincidunt diam, ac mollis orci laoreet at. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis
parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.
Lorem Ipsum retrieved from http://lipsum.com/feed/html 3/30/11
Answers to Lessons 03 - 15 removed for presentation.
Jennifer Berghage
The Pennsylvania State University
jaw33@psu.edu
HRER 897a: Advanced Labor and Employment Law
Answer Keys
There's no single correct way to format answer keys - depending on the type of course and its
content, one way might be better than another for conveying what to look for when grading. For
a law course, there may be some latitude in the answers, and the key may take the form of
questioning rather than hard and fast "content" answers.
Lesson 03 Nonunion Company Complex Essays
(page references to Twomey 14th Edition)
Question 1
Students should have latitude in their answers, but they generally should have a series of
important questions, driven mostly by legal considerations, but leavened with some practical HR
sense as well. Things to look for in answers:
As HR Director, the student needs to get facts to make an other-than-knee-jerk reaction.
The most basic of those facts revolve around a set of questions:
Who lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit? Suspendisse feugiat feugiat
enim vitae tincidunt. Maecenas in eleifend est. Morbi mi neque, mattis blandit
fermentum et, sodales in arcu. Mauris vel ipsum orci. Morbi vitae sapien tellus, vel
ultrices ligula.
What curabitur porta odio eu ipsum sodales iaculis? Quisque condimentum risus in
magna convallis non pharetra est dictum. Maecenas mattis augue at erat semper ut
rutrum augue elementum. Maecenas molestie mollis scelerisque. Nulla vel orci turpis.
Fusce tincidunt ultricies augue, in auctor diam consectetur egestas.
Do vivamus accumsan ante et leo interdum dapibus a id urna? Etiam orci enim, tempor
non lobortis at, suscipit non ante. Aenean eu dolor arcu, nec commodo felis. Maecenas
dignissim, purus non mollis luctus, tortor velit facilisis sem, elementum lacinia tellus felis
et metus. Aliquam rutrum turpis vitae turpis facilisis ullamcorper. Vivamus eget eros nisl,
eu tristique justo. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada
fames ac turpis egestas. Integer a laoreet purus. Etiam vitae vestibulum felis. Donec
elementum augue quis nulla ornare rhoncus.
Assuming that cras diam enim, laoreet in faucibus id, pulvinar in metus. Nunc a dolor
eget metus blandit malesuada sit amet in nisi. Ut aliquam semper mauris et varius.
Phasellus eu fringilla purus. In molestie dolor a diam ullamcorper pharetra. Praesent
neque arcu, pretium sit amet gravida at, eleifend eget ligula. Maecenas mi ipsum,
pellentesque ut auctor sit amet, placerat vitae nulla.
Should cras metus risus, egestas sit amet tristique sed, varius ac erat? Curabitur odio
neque, fringilla sed posuere posuere, aliquam vestibulum lacus. Duis ut justo a est
dignissim interdum. Phasellus eu mauris eu sem vestibulum congue. Duis ultricies
consequat sapien ac congue. Morbi nec arcu nisi. Mauris sagittis pellentesque tellus non
interdum. Nullam elementum consectetur fermentum.
If donec lacinia vestibulum lacinia. Cras cursus mollis ligula, then duis ac arcu et massa
placerat sollicitudin. Nullam vitae velit ac enim cursus gravida a vitae metus.
LER 425 Grading
Lesson
Quiz
1 Part 1
1 Part 2
1 Part 2
2
2
3
3
4
4
5
5
6
6
6
7
8
8
9
9
10
10
11
11
12
12
13
13
14 Part 1 &
14 Part 2
15
Course
Total
Discussion Forum Assignment
Drop Box Assignment
Other
Orientation to ANGEL tools, Student
Questionnaire, Academic Integrity
Quiz
Essay
Quiz
Essay
Quiz
Article Review
Quiz
Group Work
Quiz
Essay
Quiz
Article Review
Mid-Course Survey
Open Book Exam
Quiz
Group Work
Quiz
Essay
Quiz
Article Review
Quiz
Essay
Quiz
Group Work
Quiz
Essay
Quiz
Final Exam
Points
Ungraded
10
20
10
20
10
50
10
100
10
20
10
50
Ungraded
150
10
100
10
20
10
50
10
20
10
100
10
20
10
150
1000
Volume 15, Number 5
March 1, 2011
How to Orient New Instructors to an Online Course FAST!
By Jennifer Anne Berghage
his article describes a model of
instructor orientation that helps to
quickly orient new instructors, streamlines
their participation in the online course
throughout the semester, and enhances the
student learning experience by setting
instructors up for success.
T
1. Instructor tip sheets
Comprised of 16 courses, the Penn
State online Master of Professional
Studies in Human Resources and
Employment Relations (HRER)
Program runs several sections of
virtually each course three times per
year. Student enrollment per section is
capped at 20, hence several instructors
are often needed to teach just one
course. To help orient new instructors
on short notice, the course designer
builds an Instructor Tip Sheet into
each course.
Standard information
The Instructor Tip Sheet is customized for each course in the
program, but also includes standard
information that is helpful, such as
contact information for the instructional designer, the HelpDesk, and
Student Services. With the growth in
Online Seminar
Jennifer Berghage of Penn State’s World Campus will present a live online
seminar “How to Orient New Instructors to an Online Course FAST!” on
Thursday, April 14, 2011, at 1:00 PM, CST.
Go to www.magnapubs.com for details.
student enrollments, it becomes
increasingly important to streamline
communication pathways so that
questions are answered and instructors
can carry on without delay.
Additional information on
Instructor Tip Sheets includes the first
three steps each instructor should take:
(1) Print out a copy of the syllabus, (2)
click through the Web site paying
special attention to the assignments,
and (3) read through the Tip Sheet.
Customization
Customized information for each
Tip Sheet highlights action items for
the instructor, such as how to assign
students to teams, provide an online
article, summarize data, set up course
announcements, etc. For each lesson
that requires participation on the part
of the instructor, there are detailed
step-through instructions on how to
successfully follow through, especially
with the course management system
in this issue
How to orient new instructors fast! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cover
Monthly Metric: Is radio the right media to market your program? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Course Design: Using data to improve your courses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
itself. Screen shots can also be added
where appropriate. If an instructor
encounters difficulty at a time when
the HelpDesk or instructional designer
isn't available, the Tip Sheet allows
them to complete lesson participation
without delay.
2. Web site walkthroughs
An additional measure that helps to
orient an instructor to their online
course is to conduct an Elluminate
Live!, Skype, or telephone training
session a few days before the start of
the semester. During this session, the
instructional designer and the new
instructor(s) walk through the course
web site together, first going over the
Instructor Tip Sheet, then going
through each of the major links (file
folders holding content such as commentary, discussion forums, quizzes,
open book exams, etc., as opposed to
Internet links) on the web site to help
the instructor learn where to find
various course elements and how to use
the CMS technology (Angel). The
web site walkthrough alleviates the
anxiety a new instructor often feels if
the designer encourages them to ask
uestions and take notes during the
training session.
Accessibility: Our expert gives you straight answers to your questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
In the News: New Instructure LMS goes open source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
A MAGNA
PUBLICATION
continued on page 2
cover
President: William Haight
(billh@magnapubs.com)
Publisher: David Burns
(dburns@magnapubs.com)
Managing Editor: Christopher Hill
(chill@magnapubs.com)
Advisory Board
Fred Lokken, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Teaching
Technologies
Truckee Meadows Community College
Chair, Instructional Technology Council,
2008-2010
flokken@tmcc.edu
Lawrence C. Ragan, Ph.D.
Director of Faculty Development
World Campus
Penn State University
lcr1@psu.edu
Bruce Chaloux , Ph.D.
President , Sloan Consortium
Director, Electronic Campus Initiative of
the Southern Regional Education Board
bruce.chaloux@sreb.org
Distance Education Report (ISSN 1094320X) is published semi-monthly by
Magna Publications Inc., 2718 Dryden
Drive, Madison, WI 53704.
Phone 800-433-0499 or 608-246-3590.
Email: support@magnapubs.com.
Fax: 608-246-3597. Website:
www.magnapubs.com. One-year subscription: $419 (Multiple print subscriptions
and Group Online Subscriptions are
available, call Customer Service at 800433-0499.) Photocopying or other
reproduction in whole or in part without
written permission is prohibited.
POSTMASTER: Send change of address
to Distance Education Report, 2718 Dryden
Drive, Madison, WI 53704. Copyright
©2011, Magna Publications Inc.
Submissions to Distance Education Report
are welcome. Please review article
submission guidelines located at
www.magnapubs.com/catalog/
distance-education-report/
Authorization to photocopy items for
internal or personal use of specific clients
is granted by Distance Education Report
for users registered with the Copyright
Clearance Center (CCC) Transactional
Reporting Service, provided that $1.00 per
page is paid directly to CCC, 222
Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923;
Phone 978-750-8400; ww.copyright.com.
For those organizations that have been
granted a photocopy license by CCC, a
separate system of payment has been
arranged.
2
Cover...from page 1
3. Rubrics
From Merriam-Webster's online
dictionary, the definition for rubric is
"a guide listing specific criteria for
grading or scoring academic papers,
projects, or tests" (retrieved from
http://www.merriam-webster.com/ on
10/8/10). Rubrics that we design at
Penn State's World Campus may take
a number of different forms, depending
on what is most suitable as a guideline
for grading the assessments in a particular course. Some rubrics are designed
as spreadsheets, using several columns
across the top of a table to specify particular criteria, with a column on the
left-hand side where the instructor can
fill in the name of a student in each
row. The explanation of the criteria
appears at the top of each column
along with a range of points allotted
for how well the student meets the
criteria. By the time the instructor is
finished reviewing a particular student's
assignment and assigning points on the
spreadsheet for each element of the
criteria, the assignment has practically
graded itself.
Rubrics may or may not be suitable
for student access. When the information in rubrics is sensitive, we set up a
password protected Angel Group space
where instructors can access this
material. Students are not given access
to this Angel Group space, which is
unrelated to the actual course web site.
4. Answer keys
Answer Keys may take a question
and answer format, duplicating the
questions put forth on an assessment
and providing a bullet-point list of
responses the instructor will look for in
each student's answer, or simply
providing the correct answer,
depending on what the questions
require. Instructors are encouraged to
use their discretion when grading, and
if they'd like to award points for information a student has provided that
does not appear on the rubric or
answer key, they are encouraged to
support their preferences for awarding
credit.
Instructor Tip Sheets, rubrics, and
answer keys are not "static" documents.
As each course gets updated or revised,
these references are also updated, to
make sure the details correspond with
any changes made each semester. Also,
though the Instructor Tip Sheet "lives"
within the course web site, it is coded
to be hidden from students.
Conclusion
The result of taking these actions-providing an Instructor Tip Sheet,
conducting a walkthrough of the web
site, and providing rubrics and/or
answer keys-- is that new online
instructors start the semester with a
solid foundation from which to spring,
knowing who to contact for which
types of questions, how to navigate the
Web site, what actions are required to
make each week run smoothly for
students, and how to grade the assignments. Help desk calls and e-mails
from instructors for assistance are also
greatly decreased.
For sample Tip Sheets, rubrics, and
answer keys, please contact Jennifer
Berghage at jaw33@psu.edu.
Jennifer Anne Berghage is a distance
education specialist who has worked with
the World Campus at the Pennsylvania
State University since 1999. She is
currently the lead designer for the Penn
State online Master of Professional
Studies in Human Resources and
Employment Relations Program. ●
We’d like to know what you think!
Please share your thoughts on this issue in a four-question online
survey located at www.surveymonkey.com/s/DERN.
March 1, 2011
Distance Education Report
monthly metric
Has your distance learning program used radio advertising for marketing
within the past year?
Entire sample
Yes
No
23.21%
76.79%
Broken out by the enrollment level of the college
Number of students enrolled
Yes
No
<4000
27.78%
72.22%
4000-7999
11.76%
88.24%
8000-15,000
9.09%
90.91%
>15,000
50.00%
50.00%
Broken out by Carnegie Class of the institution
Institution
Yes
No
Junior or community college
23.53%
76.47%
Four year degree-granting college
20.00%
80.00%
Masters/PhD level granting school
21.74%
78.26%
Level 1 or 2 Carnegie Class research university
100.00%
00.00%
Broken out by public or private status of institution
Type of institution
Yes
No
Public school
16.67%
83.33%
Private school
35.00%
65.00%
Type of institution
Yes
No
For-profit
28.57%
71.43%
Non-profit
22.45%
77.55%
Broken out by for-profit or non-profit status
Broken out by total number of students enrolled in the distance education program
Number of students enrolled in distance learning program
Yes
No
<250
20.00%
80.00%
250-1500
8.33%
91.67%
1501-3000
30.77%
69.23%
>3000
36.36%
63.64%
Source: The Survey of Distance Learning Programs in Higher Education, 2010 Edition, Primary Research Group (2010) www.PrimaryResearch.com
Distance Education Report
March 1, 2011
3
course design
Using Data to Improve Online Courses
By Rob Kelly
here are several sources of data
that instructional designers can
use to improve online courses. These
include student feedback, course
tracking information, and instructor
feedback. Each data set provides a
piece of the picture, but they are much
more insightful when used in combination.
In an interview with Online
Classroom, Phil Ice, director of course
design, research, and development at
the American Public University
System, talked about an explanatory
mixed-methods research design
applied to instructional technology and
instructional design.
“The mixed methods paradigm
basically says that neither qualitative
nor quantitative data on their own are
sufficient. You have to balance what
you’re seeing coming in from multiple
sources and make sense of the whole
picture. You do not always need a
formal research question. It’s an openended research question. When you
get down to it, data mining is what
we’re talking about,” Ice says.
This approach to course design and
improvement changes the role of the
instructional designer, Ice says. “The
instructional designer’s job becomes
interpretation of what the data sets
mean in real time or near time and
then combining it with end-of-course
survey data. The ID’s job is a lot more
complex than it was 10 years ago when
we thought about building a series of
activities, documents, and resources,
letting students progress though the
course, and our job was done. The job
has become one of actively monitoring
what is going on and being able to
take that end-of-course data, merge it
with what’s going on during the
course, and seeing how we can modify
T
4
Online Seminar
Phil Ice will lead the Magna Online Seminar “Data Driven Decision Making
for Online Instructional Design. on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 For information
see www.magnapubs.com/catalog/decision-making-for-online-instructionaldesign/.Go to www.magnapubs.com for details.
the course,” Ice says.
Student feedback
Students are an essential source of
information about the learning experience. Ice recommends using the
Community of Inquiry framework,
An instructor wiki is a place
for instructors to add to a
common body of knowledge
about what works and what
does not work in a course.
which analyzes the following elements:
• Instructional design and organization
• Ability of the instructors to facilitate
discourse
• Direct instruction
• Development of social presence
• Development of cognition.
“Those are the big overarching categories. While other surveys may not
have the same elements to them, there
are other ways to ascertain whether a
course is well designed—whether the
goals, objectives, and due dates are
clear to the students; whether the
activities you ask students to engage in
March 1, 2011
are interesting to them; whether the
exploration cycle is well designed; if
students can easily engage with the
course material; and if they can achieve
the cognitive outcomes desired. If you
can hit upon those elements, that’s
really a survey of how well an instructional designer did in putting a course
together,” Ice says.
One of the limitations of getting
this kind of input from students is that
it often comes at the end of the course.
While this can be helpful for future
sections of the course, it does not
provide actionable information while
the course is in session.
Web analytics
To get at information about the
current section of the course, Ice recommends using Web analytics to track
the students’ use of the course. For
example, if the course content is segregated by page, it’s fairly simple to use
free or fee-based analytic tools to track
the number of visits to each page. In
addition some learning management
systems can indicate the path students
take to get to certain content.
“We know from a lot of the existing
research that the average student will
view an asset approximately two times.
If an asset in a class of 20 students gets
somewhere between 20 and 40 hits,
then that probably means that it’s a
well-designed piece of material. If
there are 60 to 100 or more hits to that
asset, it probably means that the
continued on page 7
Distance Education Report
accessibility
Essential Answers about Accessibility
arbara Frey, D.Ed., is the Senior
Instructional Designer at the
University of Pittsburgh’s Center for
Instructional Development and Distance
Education. She has been working on issues
of online accessibility in distance education
for ten years. She recently agreed to
answer a list of questions assembled by
Distance Education Report on critical
topics in accessibility for online courses.
B
DER: What are the three most
important accessibility issues/principles/mandates for distance educators to
be aware of today, and why?
FREY: Yikes! Where to start!
Most institutions are beyond the
awareness stage – they recognize their
ethical and legal obligation to offer
accessible online courses. The
challenge is where to start. The first
issue for distance educators to consider
is an accessibility policy designed
specifically for online courses. In
December 2010, I was part of an
accessibility benchmarking survey that
Quality Matters (qualitymatters.org)
administered to their institutional subscribers. The majority of responding
institutions (75%) reported that they
do not have an accessibility policy for
online courses. It is also important for
distance education programs to have
defined practices so it is clear who is
responsible for what. For example,
who is responsible for adding captioning to videos and alt tags to images?
Accessibility processes and practices
are more likely to be implemented if
there is accountability.
Second, distance educators should
consider the need for faculty and staff
training. Accessibility is not just an
issue for programmers. There are
many common practices that can be
adopted to develop materials with
accessibility in mind. For example,
creating Microsoft Word documents
using the Styles and formatting
Distance Education Report
features will help a screen reader to
identify the titles, headings, and subheadings within the text. Training can
begin with some of the excellent free
“Watching a blind student
navigate one of my
Blackboard courses using the
JAWS screen reader was more
valuable than hours and
hours of training and reading
about Web accessibility.”
online tutorials such as:
• WebAIM offers many excellent
resources including an “Introduction
to web accessibility” and fee-based
training: http://webaim.org/
• Access E-Learning from Georgia
Tech: http://www.accesselearning.net/
• Webucator tutorial: http://www.
web-accessibility-tutorial.com/
Third, we should demand accessible
products from our vendors and the
producers of our course management
systems. Our platforms, software
programs, e-books, websites, and other
supplementary materials have to be
accessible to all students.
The demand for accessibility is
growing; is the instructor’s competence
and familiarity with accessibility
practices, techniques and tools keeping
pace? What can be done to improve
the situation?
FREY: No! But I do not consider
accessibility to be just the instructor’s
responsibility. It is the responsibility
of all distance education faculty, staff,
and administrators. I conduct accessibility training for faculty and staff, and
most of my workshop participants
March 1, 2011
report that their institutions do not
offer internal training for faculty or
staff. I think it is especially helpful for
faculty to understand the assistive technologies used by students. For me,
watching a blind student navigate one
of my Blackboard courses using the
JAWS (Job Access with Speech) screen
reader was more valuable than hours
and hours of training and reading
about Web accessibility. It motivated
me to remove barriers such as chat,
complex data tables, and matching. If
it is not possible to work with a
student, there is a good video demonstration of a screen reader from the
University of Wisconsin - Madison at
http://www.doit.wisc.edu/accessibility/
video/intro.asp.
DER: Tell us about some model accessibility policy statements that are appropriate and comprehensive, and can give
distance educators focus and guidance for
their efforts.
FREY: Ideally, a student with a disability should not have to disclose
his/her limitation because the course is
designed with accessibility in mind,
and the student could complete all the
assignments and tasks without accommodations. If the student has to ask
for a special accommodation (e.g.,
extra time to complete an exam), documentation is generally required. Some
colleges ask students with special needs
to register for online courses 4 – 6
weeks prior to the start of the term so
their materials can be revised with the
appropriate modifications.
While most institutions have disability policies stated in the syllabus for
traditional on-campus courses, they do
not have a specific policy for online
courses. Here are several examples of
disability policies developed specifically
continued on page 8
5
in the news
New Canvas LMS from Instructure Goes Open Source
February 8th, 2011
By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus
Technology
A Utah-based company has fired a
warning shot across the bow of learning
management system (LMS) companies,
including market leader Blackboard,
with the announcement that it’s turning
its new LMS into open source.
Instructure has publicly released the
source code to its Canvas learning management system, which was launched in
2010. Currently, 26 institutions have
signed contracts with Instructure,
including 17 within the Utah
Education Network. The company said
that more than 100 other schools are
currently evaluating its application.
“We’re excited to offer an alternative to
the current LMS options,” said Josh
Coates, Instructure’s CEO. “We want
to open up the market to allow for
innovation so teachers and students can
be at the forefront of technology.”
Read the rest at:
http://campustechnology.com/articles/2011
/02/01/new-lms-from-instructure-goesopen-source.aspx
Going Online to Make Learning
Count
February 7th, 2011
by Cathy Brigham, Rebecca Klein-Collins;
IRRODL
Adult students often come to higher
education with college-level learning
that they have acquired outside of the
classroom – from the workplace,
military service, self-study, or hobbies.
For decades, many forward-thinking
colleges and universities have been
offering services to evaluate that
learning and award it college credit that
counts towards a degree. However, for
a range of reasons, not every institution
can offer prior learning assessment
(PLA) in every discipline or for every
student. With funding from several
U.S. philanthropic organizations, the
6
Council for Adult and Experiential
Learning (CAEL) is launching
Learning Counts, a national online
service that will offer students a range
of opportunities to have their learning
evaluated for college credit. This online
service will expand the capacity of institutions offering PLA to students and
provide an efficient and scalable
delivery mechanism for the awarding of
credit through PLA.
Read the rest at:
http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/
article/view/940
Biology Professors Use Cloud
Computing to Reach Students
February 6th, 2011
By Tushar Rae, Chronicle of Higher Ed
To help reduce the number of
dropouts in freshman biology courses,
professors at the University at Buffalo
have turned to the power of collaboration and cloud computing to build an
online teaching tool designed to explain
concepts better than a textbook can.
The tool, called Pop!World, provides a
visual way to map evolution. It’s the
work of Bina Ramaurthy, a research
associate professor in the department of
computer science and engineering;
Jessica Poulin, a research assistant
professor in the department of biological sciences; and Katharina Dittmar, an
assistant professor of biological
sciences.
Read the rest at:
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/
biology-professors-use-cloud-computingto-reach-students/29330?sid=wc&utm_
source=wc&utm_medium=en
Mobile Online Learning: McGrawHill to Provide English Instruction
and Test Prep Through Cellphones in
India
February 6th, 2011
By Josh Keller, Chronicle of Higher Ed
McGraw-Hill is building a mobileMarch 1, 2011
phone platform to teach English and
college test preparation to people in
India, which the publisher hopes will
help it tap into rapidly expanding
cellphone use in emerging markets. The
platform, mConnect, comes as textbook
publishers are jockeying to supply
learning materials on digital devices. If
the software is successful in India,
McGraw-Hill plans to offer it in other
developing countries in Asia and
Africa.
Read the rest at:
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/
mcgraw-hill-to-teach-english-and-testprep-through-cellphones-in-india/
29343?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_
medium=en
Britain Considers Expansion in
Online Learning
February 4th, 2011
by Rebecca Attwood, Inside Higher Ed
British universities should seize the
rapidly growing international market in
online learning, but doing so will
require investment, a panel of experts
has said. The final report from the
British government’s Online Learning
Task Force, which includes experts
from Microsoft, Apple and Pearson,
calls for an injection of £100 million
($159 million) over five years to
¬expand the UK’s online provision and
boost its brand. It warns that private
providers are moving into the international online market “quickly and
aggressively.”
Read the rest at:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/
2011/01/27/britain_considers_expansion_
of_online_education
(Selected from Ray Schroeder’s
Online Learning Update
http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/
onlinelearning/blogger.html) ●
Distance Education Report
Accessibility..from page 4
instructional designer did not do a
great job of developing it because the
students are viewing it again and again,
trying to divine meaning,” Ice says.
When an asset is accessed fewer
times than expected—say five times in
a class of 20—that could mean that the
students are skipping it because they
don’t feel that it would be worthwhile
or they can’t find it.
Text analytics
Analyzing qualitative data is also
important in understanding the
learning experience. One way to do
this is to analyze the discussion forums,
looking for references to assets
developed for the course. If students
reference assets in their discussions,
“you can have a fairly high degree of
confidence that the students are
actually accessing them and making
meaning out of them,” Ice says.
However, if students do not make
references to the course materials and
instead bring in assets from other
sources, it could indicate that the
course content was not useful, relevant,
or clear.
Another explanation that can be
cross checked with Web analytics is
that the students did not access that
course content, which could indicate a
navigation issue.
Instructor feedback
Instructor feedback is another
important source of data about an
online course. Ice has found that
debriefs in the form of weekly,
biweekly, or end-of-course faculty
questionnaires can provide actionable
insights.
A less formal technique would be to
Distance Education Report
create an instructor wiki—a place for
instructors to add to a common body
of knowledge about what works and
what does not work in a course.
Another way to get instructor feedback
is to simply ask them to provide
regular feedback on the course.
Gathering instructor feedback in
the online learning environment is
quite different than in the face-to-face
environment, Ice says. This is due to
the traditional silos that are prevalent
in higher education as well as instructional design theory.
“Professors in the face-to-face
classroom run everything. They believe
that they are the foremost authority on
what to teach. That’s a very different
model than in the online classroom,
where the instructors are dependent on
the development of assets from the
instructional design team.
“Instructional design theory has
long said that the instructional
designers work with a subject-matter
expert up front. They look at the needs
assessment, build the content, and turn
it over to the instructor. And the only
evaluation comes at the end of the
course. What both these of frameworks
are missing is the idea that learning is
much more dynamic and organic than
what can be accounted for using these
models. To be really effective we have
to have a situation in which feedback
goes in both directions.” ●
Using Course Data to Improve Instruction
Historical quantitative and qualitative online course data, such as end-ofcourse surveys, grades, performance on individual units and student demographics, can be used to inform course design and remediation and enrichment strategies, which can provide students with a more individualized learning experience.
Phil Ice, director of course design, research, and development at the American
Public University System, recommends that institutions also consider using this
information to help create individual enrichment plans for online instructors.
However, when the subject of using this information to gain insights about
faculty performance is broached, it raises the issue how the information will be
used. Will it be used in tenure and promotion decisions? “That potential does
exist, and we do have to think about that,” Ice says.
Ice compares using course data to inform faculty development to the
customer recommendations on popular websites such as Amazon and iTunes.
“[These companies] are using these types of profiling techniques to find what
interests you the most. If we can leverage that to enhance the learning experience and make it more individualized and provide specific suggestions, is that
really so bad?” Ice asks. “That’s the question that instructional designers and universities have to seriously confront because the technology to do that is there.
Deep data mining and profiling on a current and historical basis is possible. Are
we prepared to do it?”
Ice recommends discussing this issue because instructors are often unsure
about best practices in the online instruction and sometimes revert to “novice
status when interacting with technology.” ●
March 1, 2011
7
In the News..from page 5
for online programs:
• University of Pittsburgh:
http://www.drs.pitt.edu/
online_services.html
• Kansas State University:
http://www.k-state.edu/dss/
k-access/policy.html
• University of North Carolina:
http://www.unc.edu/webaccess/
rapde.html
DER: Tell us about two or three of the
most commonly used (most useful) technologies that are available today for
increasing accessibility.
FREY: There are so many good, free
tools available for course developers.
The World Wide Web Consortium’s
(W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative
provides a comprehensive list of web
accessibility tools at
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/
tools/complete. For example, there are
applications that evaluate webpages for
color-contrast, color blindness, PDF
accessibility, or overall accessibility.
MAGpie is a popular tool for adding
captions to video, but users must have
the text transcript. If you enter a URL,
WAVE from WebAIM creates a free
accessibility report.
For educators who would like to test
their course webpages with a screen
reader, JAWS from Freedom Scientific
and Windows Eyes from GW-Micro
both offer free trial downloads.
DER: Would you comment on how practitioners can get the best use out of the
following basic practices?
a. Applying the Styles feature in Word
Documents
FREY: Screen readers don’t just read
the text – they also “read” the coding
behind the text. Using the Styles and
built-in bullet or numbering features
helps vision-impaired students use
8
screen reader shortcuts that scan a page
for key information such as headings or
links.
b. Using templates for PP presentations
FREY: The formatting built into
the PowerPoint templates is also used
by screen readers. Switching to the
outline mode (on the left panel of the
screen) will show the text read by a
screen reader. Visual components
should have alt tags or text descriptions.
When posting PowerPoint slides in an
online course, faculty should provide
alternate file formats such as html and
.pptx formats.
c. Adding alt tags to images
FREY: The alternative tags are alternative text descriptions for charts,
graphs, photographs, or images read by
screen readers. Alt tags should be more
than just descriptions of the text – they
should also communicate the purpose of
the image in a concise manner. For
example, a chart titled “United States
Oil Consumption 2000-2010” that
shows the amount of oil consumed
during each year from 2000 to 2010
should have an alt tag that communicates the exact information in a short
text description. Simply stating the title
of the chart is not helpful to the learner.
If the image is decorative and does not
add meaning to the webpage, use “”
opening and closing quotes with no
text. The screen reader will skip the
image.
d. Designing data tables with
row/column headers
FREY: Data tables need to be
designed with clarity and simplicity,
including column and row headers or
labels. Limit each cell to one piece of
data. Generally, screen readers read
rows from left to right across columns
and complex tables become overwhelming very quickly.
March 1, 2011
e. Use appropriate fonts, colors and
backgrounds
FREY: Course developers should
select fonts that are clear and specifically
designed to be read on a computer
screen, such as Verdana, Tahoma, and
Georgia. Students with vision impairments generally prefer the san serif fonts
and high contrast colors between the
font and background. Word art and
flashing text should be avoided. Since
many people are color blind, do not use
color alone to communicate meaning.
For example, a list of states might use
red and blue to indicate states that are
primarily Republican or Democratic.
Color blind students may not grasp this
information.
f. Creating transcripts of captions for
audio and video files
FREY: For about the past year,
YouTube has been beta testing closed
captioning, which is probably the fastest
and easiest way for distance educators to
add text captions to their videos. The
video producer who creates and uploads
the video to YouTube has to be the one
to activate the captions. They are not
perfect, but the text can be downloaded
and corrected for accuracy. Currently,
only English captions are available, but
I understand that there are plans to
offer additional languages. For
educators who are interested in outsourcing captioning and transcripts,
Automatic Sync Technologies
(www.automaticsync.com/) has a good
reputation.
As an instructional designer, I
encourage faculty who are creating
narrated PowerPoint slides to make
detailed notes of what they want to say
with each slide before recording their
audio narration. These notes can easily
be made into a text transcript to
accompany the narrated slides. In
addition to students with disabilities,
international students, older students,
and students using mobile devices
appreciate the detailed transcripts. ●
Distance Education Report