2004/05 ONLINE PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT FUND
APPLICATION FORM
APPLICATION FOR (check one):
LOG # 151
Programs & Courses checked
Open Source Technologies
Learner Online Community
Learning Objects
NAME OF THE INSTITUTION(S):
Lead Institution:
University College of the Fraser Valley
33844 King Rd
Abbotsford, BC Canada
V2S 7M8
PROJECT LEAD/CONTACT PERSON(S):
Dr. Zoe Dennison
Partners:
1. Camosun College
Lansdowne Campus
3100 Foul Bay Rd
Victoria BC, V8P 5J2
2. Kwantlen University College
12666 - 72nd Ave.
Surrey, B.C.
V3W 2M8
Title:
Project Coordinator
Telphone:
604-7920025 ext
2424
Email:
zoe.dennison@ucfv.ca
1. PROJECT TITLE
Horton Hears a Beep Part Two: Continued Development of a Comprehensive Set of Psychology Courses
2. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT (include background, history, context of demand or market need)
Currently, we are working on the first phase of this project which was funded last year by BCCampus.
Our team includes faculty from the department of psychology at UCFV (Zoe Dennison (project coordinator), Rhonda
Snow, Patricia Ackland, Kim Streibel), faculty from Camosun College (John Conklin, Randy Tonks) and from Kwantlen
University College (Gira Bhatt). We are also willing to extend the partnership to include other institutions to increase the
number of psychology courses available online.
Our aim is to develop a comprehensive set of online psychology courses to be offered through BCcampus.
In order to identify which psychology courses are best developed at this point, we first looked at the courses already
available through the BCCampus portal.
There were 5 courses available online:
-child development (Camosun Psyc 150 Child Development)
-social (Langara Psyc 2322 Social Psychology)
-biological (Camosun Psyc 215 Intro to Human Neuropsychology)
-abnormal (Camosun Psyc 250 Psychopathology))
-assessment (Langara Psyc 2312 Test and Measurements)
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2004/05 ONLINE PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT FUND
APPLICATION FORM
We were funded in the last round to develop five more courses, including 3 key second year courses and 2 courses in
the upper levels.
Psyc 250: Intro to Developmental Psychology - UCFV (Rhonda Snow)
Psyc 2400: Experimental Psychology: Research Methods - Kwantlen (Gira Bhatt)
Psyc 210 History of Psychology - Camosun (Randy Tonks)
Psyc 245 Drugs and Behaviour - Camosun (John Conklin)
Psyc 367 Psychology of Language – UCFV (Zoe Dennison)
These courses are currently being developed, and are at about the halfway point. They have all been approved for funds
to offer them in the coming academic year through the operational ‘arm’ of BCCampus, Four will be offered in September
and Methods will be offered in January.
The current proposal is to substantially consolidate this phase of the project by completing 9 more courses.
Psyc 110 Statistical Analysis in Psychology - UCFV
Psyc 200 Introduction to Personality - Camosun
Psyc 3307 History and Philosophical Foundations - Kwantlen
Psyc 4700 Cultural Psyc - Kwantlen
Psyc 351 Child Psychology - UCFV
Psyc 355 Adolescent Psychology - UCFV
Psyc 357 Adulthood and Aging - UCFV
Psyc 380 Human Neuropsychology - UCFV
Psyc 305 Gender – UCFV
Courses were selected using a variety of criteria. First, we had to have developers willing to work on the courses (there
are areas we would like to add but as yet have not identified faculty with expertise in those areas that are willing to join
us in this project). Second, specific courses from the developers’ areas of expertise were selected. Some courses were
core components in many psychology programs (e.g. research methods, statistics, history, second year breadth
courses), and some were selected because they contained interdisciplinary elements that make them good upper level
courses for both psychology majors and others seeking an upper level elective (language, neuropsychology, gender,
cultural psyc). While strong demand was a factor in all the courses, the upper level developmental courses are usually in
very high demand. The set of upper level courses will include the one course required by most undergraduate
psychology programs, History of Psychology. Not all courses will be offered by their respective institutions every term, so
by developing a set of courses, it should ensure that students can take a number of upper level psychology courses
each term.
We have met and discussed issues around the design of online courses. We have agreed upon common aspects such
as the value of adding components such as short introductory videos to allow students to ‘meet’ their instructors, and
audio components to give students another way of learning difficult material, but we are also agreed that we want to
avoid overuse of such devices in any one course, as they can become overwhelming for students (and bandwidth), and
place obstacles for access (e.g. audio samples must be transcribed for hearing impaired students). Properly placed,
multimedia additions can be an effective tool for building online community in a course, and for modeling the learning of
difficult material.
Sharing our skills and ideas is also vital to the success of our project (and increases the enjoyment of working in the
online environment). For the current set of courses, we have shared a common guest account so that we can easily log
into one another’s courses and share material and ideas. We would continue this practice in the next set of courses. We
also meet for face to face for discussions, and communicate regularly by email, all of which allows us to work on our
courses within a small but supportive development community. The support services at UCFV have been very helpful,
meeting with us to talk about issues such as the video segments, third party copyright, and WebCt.
Transfer issues: A key component of this phase of the project is to improve transfer of upper level psychology courses.
For the current set of courses, transfer arrangements already existed for 3 of the second year courses. The fourth, Psyc
245 at Camosun, needed a unique approach as it is a second year course at Camosun but is similar in content and
pedagogy to the third year course on this topic taught at other institutions. The developer, John Conklin, has recently
been successful at obtaining transfer credit for this course as a third year course (Psyc 383) at SFU. We hope this recent
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2004/05 ONLINE PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT FUND
APPLICATION FORM
decision will increase the likelihood other institutions will similarly accept it for third year course transfer credit.
The case of Psyc 367 is more difficult. Currently, transfer of upper level psychology courses is done on a case by case
basis and trying to change that model has proven very difficult. Psyc 367 has been successfully accepted for transfer
credit in response to student requests at a number of institutions (including SFU). The same situation exists for the next
set of predominantly upper level courses (the 2 lower levels already have transfer arrangements in place). This is a
problem we have been working on solving, but it will require system wide change to implement institutional transfer in
place of case-by-case transfer. Nonetheless, we do continue to work on this issue and make institutional transfer
requests. I do not think we should hold back on developing upper level courses until institutional transfer of them already
exists, as it is the presence of the actual courses and students wanting to transfer them that gives impetus to the system
change. Our development of Psyc 245 has led to SFU giving it transfer at the third year level. We do of course agree that
it is necessary to make sure that students have good opportunities for transfer if they take these courses. I have started
to investigate the case by case transfer, and found that many of the upper levels have a history of transferring well on a
case by case basis. For example, Psyc 355 and 357 have transferred to a number of institutions including SFU and other
university colleges. All of the courses we are proposing to develop are courses that have a history of successful case by
case transfer to some, but not all, institutions in BC. Part of the work of the coordinator for this project will be to continue
investigating transfer opportunities and work on increasing those opportunities. It seems that a change to the transfer of
upper level courses is being talked about on many levels, and we will continue to make the argument for institutional
transfer of these upper level courses.
Ultimate Goals:
Initially, this significant increase in the number and type of psychology courses offered online through BCcampus will
increase the flexibility of students taking traditional psychology degrees. As the program builds, enough courses would
exist that a student could possibly complete the course requirements for a major in psychology online (for example, the
student could fulfill all the psychology requirements for a UCFV degree). At that point, the mechanism for completion of
such a degree would have to be put in place. This might require the further development of several specialized upper
level courses. This type of program will become more possible as BCcampus moves into its planned structure, with
central registration and advising.
3. OBJECTIVES (SPECIFY HOW THE PROJECT MEETS THE CRITERIA FOR THE ONLINE PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT FUND)
1. Develop a comprehensive set of well designed psychology courses.
2. Lay the foundation for the development of an online psychology major.
3. Develop online course expertise in participating faculty.
This proposal meets many of the BCcampus preferred criteria, as it is the continuation of the development of an existing
program, it involves three partner institutions, and the courses will run off the BCcampus server when complete (and
offering is funded).
The population of students taking BCcampus courses mainly comprises students taking face-to-face programs at the
collaborative institutions. The courses we propose to develop all have ‘homes’ at these host institutions, and are courses
that fulfil program requirements, so we anticipate that demand will be high. The program that we are laying a foundation
for, the psychology major, is in high demand at most institutions, and serves as preparation for a number of career
streams.
Two of the course developers, John Conklin and Zoe Dennison, have experience in developing online courses with
demonstrated high standards. Our years of teaching online have allowed us to develop strategies for effective online
instruction. John Conklin has given workshops to other faculty on using WebCt. The first phase of this proposal includes
two face-to-face meetings (workshops) where we will work together on creating a framework for our courses that will set
out standards for excellence. Having the program coordinated at UCFV also gives us access to the UCFV Online staff,
with their many years of experience in developing excellent online courses and programs. Two of the partners in this
proposal, Camosun and UCFV, are current BCcampus partners. The third, Kwantlen, is not yet a BCcampus partner,
and this proposal will support their entry into offering BCcampus courses. As mentioned above, John Conklin
(Camosun) and Zoe Dennison (UCFV) are experienced course developers who currently teach courses within the
BCcampus framework. Gira Bhatt (Kwantlen) has taught online courses previously, as has Randy Tonks (Camosun). At
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2004/05 ONLINE PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT FUND
APPLICATION FORM
UCFV, both Kim Streibel and Patricia Ackland have previously developed distance psychology courses for SFU, and
Rhonda Snow has been conducting research on the influence of personality variables in online student experiences and
performance. All course developers have PhD’s in psychology and teach at a university college or college.
4. PROJECT TIMELINE (define expected milestones, deliverable dates, start & end dates)
Sept – Dec 2004
Meetings with partners to work on pedagogical and technical details, workshops with technical support to develop and
expand WebCt skills and to share experience in online environment to aid developing excellent courses. Some course
development will begin.
Jan –Apr 2005
Halfway mark at Jan, not all courses will be at 50% as schedules and release times will vary among faculty. Some
courses will near completion, and some will be just starting for an overall average project completion rate of 50%. All
courses will be set up on the BCCcmpus server with test accounts to let developers view each other’s work and share
ideas and innovations.
May-June 2005
All 9 courses will be completed.
5. FUNDING SOURCE(S) (show funding breakdown by activities – such as instructional design, release time, media development …)
a) Online Program Development Fund
$
121,800
b) Other Funding Source(s) (In-Kind)
$
32,000
$
153,800
TOTAL FUNDING:
Please specify:
Technical support staff from UCFV Online
c) Funding Breakdown by Activity
1. Course development
Courses: 9 @ 10,000
2. Project Coordinator: Zoe Dennison: 1 replacement section
90, 000
7,000
3. Technical support (including software licenses,
pictures, video, audio, development of short animations)
9 @ 2000
18000
4. Travel for two workshops in phase one
5. Travel for coordinator to meet with
partners approx four times
6. Accounting Services costs for contracts, invoicing,
processing expenses and financial reports, etc.
1800
7. Miscellaneous costs for photocopying, supplies,
1000
1000
3000
Total 121,800
Note: WebCt and course design technical support costs of approximately 32,000 provided by UCFV (by providing the
services of the UCFV Online staff)
OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Date Received
Final Contract Amount
Log Number Assigned
Date Contract Signed
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2004/05 ONLINE PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT FUND
APPLICATION FORM
Date Contract Completed
SUBMIT COMPLETED FORMS ELECTRONICALLY TO:
Paul Stacey
Director of Development
BCcampus
604.505.1200
pstacey@bccampus.ca
The deadline for the submission of proposal is May 21, 2004.
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