PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT REPORT
TO BE SUMITTED TO YOUR DEAN/CHAIR/DIRECTOR
WITH A COPY TO THE OFFICE OF FACULTY AFFAIRS
Faculty or staff member
Jack Frizzell
College/Dept
College of Arts and Sciences, English Language Center
Title of conference
Stop Surfing – Start Teaching
Location/date of conference February 16-19
From: Jack Frizzell
College of Arts and Sciences
English Language Center
To: Bryan Gilroy, Dell Felder, Don Cameron, Jeff Belnap, Larry Wilson
Conference Report
Return date: February 22
Conference: Stop Surfing – Start Teaching
Dates:
February 16-19, 2003
Location:
Las Vegas, Nevada
USA
Outline
I Summary
II Confirmation of past technological successes at Zayed University
III Areas and Issues for Discussion
IV Confirmation of present technology initiatives at Zayed University
V Conclusion
Summary
Stop Surfing – Start Teaching is a conference on using the Internet for teaching and
learning. Many of the participants this year were provosts, directors, or professors from
universities with fully developed online and distance learning programs. As a result, most of
the 65 presentations focused on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of 100%
online courses and distance learning programs.
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Zayed University has the luxury of having a robust network infrastructure, hardware,
software packages and support centers that these other universities possess, even though the
relationship of students to Zayed University does not require professors or teachers to
conduct courses completely online. However, the systematic adoption, support and evaluation
of the online and distance learning technology available at the University for the purpose of
learning and teaching should continue and grow. Many of the presenters stated that they
would move back to hybrid courses, a combination of face-to-face and online, if they had the
choice. No one mentioned going with a 100% traditional model. With this in mind, I have
detailed some of the past technological successes, technological issues for discussion and
present technological initiatives at Zayed University in light of information gathered at Stop
Surfing – Start Teaching.
Confirmation of past technological successes at Zayed University
Information Literacy Skills
Zayed University has an exceptionally well-designed information literacy skills
program. Two presentations were dedicated solely to this topic. The most notable was from
Northwest Missouri State University. Most of this session was identical to what the library
staff, English Language Center faculty members and others have already implemented. One
area the presenters are focusing their energies on is the integration of information literacy
skills into General Education courses such as Freshman Seminar, Fundamentals of
Communication and English Composition. The presenters stated that success in this area was
due to strong support from unit and department heads. They emphasized that all information
literacy projects were most effective when tied to specific projects and content in the
students’ program of choice.
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Blackboard
Only one university represented at the conference stated that they were not yet using a
course management solution such as Blackboard. They were in attendance to decide which
solution to use. Many of the universities use Blackboard 5.5. The University of Redlands uses
Blackboard as a Knowledge Base for faculty. The Knowledge Base is equivalent to ZU’s
“My Institution”. It provides policies, an event calendar and announcements for the
university. Blackboard seems to be the mode for formal university communications. Email is
viewed as a private or small group tool.
Blackboard is also used as a Program and Course management tool. Their Programs
seem to be equivalent to ZU’s English Language Center organization and Natural and
Quantitative Sciences Dept. organization, for example. It is worth noting that many of their
faculty members felt a loss of control as they transitioned from traditional classroom methods
to online course delivery methods. The university is in the process of providing more help in
online course construction, online course delivery methods and initial online training and
learning style analysis.
International Computer Driving License (ICDL)
ICDL was the topic of one presentation at this conference. In their efforts to provide
support and professional development opportunities to faculty without relying on additional
internal training or business solutions, a handful of universities are exploring ICDL. ZU was
applauded for its development of an ICDL testing, training and certification center.
Areas and Issues for Discussion
Equipping
Universities are exploring alternative ways of equipping faculty and students with
technology skills they can apply in the classroom and in course preparation and delivery.
First, universities are actively recruiting faculty specifically for their skill in teaching with
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technology and their skill in mentoring colleagues. Second, universities are looking for
creative ways to engage faculty in the training process. The University of Minnesota, Morris
has equipped over 2000 local educators through training in a computer lab with 20 desktop
computers, 3 trainers and step-by-step scripts. Training takes place in the form of 2 sessions
at the beginning of each semester lasting 3 hours each. Trainers design the modules based on
expressed faculty need and pilot their step-by-step scripts with people not involved in the
design process. Faculty then show up for their session(s) and choose the pace and order of
modules. Faculty members determine individually or in small groups, when they need to ask
for help or clarification in the learning process. Trainers are available to answer questions and
do not intervene unless a major hardware or software issue arises. The number of training
sessions has increased to 10 per year.
First generation and second-generation online courses
Universities are learning from first generation online courses. Purdue University
North Central emphasizes two keys to online course success:
1. Online interaction/communication between faculty members and students
2. Interactive exercises that require student participation and provide immediate
feedback
They have identified differences between first-generation and second-generation online
courses. All of the items have their place, however, it is important for universities making the
transition to online course delivery to consider both. First generation courses are generally
characterized as “boring” and generally have low retention rates. Both of these issues were
frequently mentioned. The following table outlines characteristics of first and secondgeneration online courses.
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Items common in First generation
Syllabus
Instructions for assignments
Readings
Audio or video lectures
Calendar
Projects
Additional items from Second generation
Required online orientation course and skills
survey for faculty and students
Discussion boards
Chat (virtual office hours)
Interactive quizzes (seen as preparation for
tests, not necessarily graded)
Help or FAQ websites
Web based and interactive exercises
The Metropolitan State College of Denver presented on the science of successful
online course delivery and communication that increases retention rates based on a decade of
online course delivery.
Cybernagging
What is it? Establishing
expectations for students
i.e. “online” is not equal
to “easy”
Post due dates or timeline
on opening page
Post a calendar
Post assignments
Cyberschmoozing
What is it?
Encouraging students
Keeping Sanity
What is it?
Every professor’s goal
Students must introduce
themselves online
Faculty include non-university
related picture(s) and/or video
on faculty page
Email is private, discussion
board is public
Keeping sanity
Post course FAQ and
Discussion board for new
questions
Timely, encouraging,
constructive announcements
and feedback
Post Assessment,
Rubrics, Criteria
Emoticons and a little small
talk in email
Be available 24/5 not 24/7
3 before me
1) Announcement
page
2) FAQ
3) Other students
Consistent grading routine i.e.
One week maximum turn
around time, answer academic
email from students first etc.
Email student if deadline is
missed, or if there is a change
in schedule
Post faculty and student
samples
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Fair use and copyright issues
Copyright is an extremely important and hot topic in the United States. There are
websites and handouts dealing with these issues. Laws and guidelines tend to be less strict for
educators.
Confirmation of present technology initiatives at Zayed University
Technology Learning Center or Learning Technology Resources Center
The University of Delaware has a Faculty Development/Support Services program
(DSP) that seems on paper to be a branch of their IT department. In some respects this seems
to mirror ZU’s LTRC and IT Department. The DSP provides a faculty support web site and
student support web site which it views as equally important to online courses and activities,
not as an “add on”.
It is worth noting that Wake Forest has divided and coordinated responsibilities
between their Instructional Technology Center and Instructional Technology Group in an
interesting way. The center is roughly equivalent to ZU’s IT Department and Help Desk and
is known for it’s strength in technology and provides support and training to faculty and
students in generic technology use. The latter is drawn from the academic faculty in the
colleges, actively researches hardware and software solutions and provides support for their
college.
The trend at many of these universities is to provide colleges with more control over
course delivery in the form direct access to network storage space i.e. the college manages a
dedicated server or a virtual directory. There is also a move to provide additional training
tailored to meet colleges’ needs.
Course delivery and management
Several universities offered creative suggestions for Course Management Software
packages like Blackboard. McKendree College finds that discussion board prompts or
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questions generated and forums administered by students are generally more profitable than
those generated and administered by faculty. Faculty generated and administered discussion
boards provide opportunities for class management, while student generated discussion
boards with clear guidelines encourage more and more cognitively engaging discussion. This
holds true when compared to traditional discussions.
Many mature programs use creative solutions to encourage collaboration through
Blackboard courses between sections and departments. Professors or teachers add other
faculty members, sometimes from other colleges, as a partner in their online courses. This
often develops into a guest lecture opportunity as well. Faculty members can work together to
provide virtual personas. One example was a psychology class with one instructor posting to
a student discussion board as Maslow and another as Freud, in effect bringing the figures to
life for the students.
Personal interaction from students is seen as one key to the success of online course
delivery. Students are required to post in Blackboard Student Pages, a small “page” of
information specifically designed to show reflection on learning, learning styles, project
completion, test taking etc.
Finally, all online materials need to be designed to be read and used online. Readings
have numbered paragraphs, require little or no scrolling and have intuitive navigation built in.
Conclusion
This technology conference has provided the University of South Carolina with the
opportunity to shape online and distance education in the United States. In a similar way, I
believe that the Laptop Sharing Forum, which is held bi-annually in the UAE, is encouraging
and might have the potential to provide Zayed University with the means to continue to lead
the region in the development of best practices for technology in education. Most important
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to me, though is the opportunity to continue learning to effectively and efficiently use
technology in education and apply and share what I learned.
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