Thoughts About Learning
and Working in Online Class
Settings
SBA Faculty Brown Bag
October 2009
Jeanne Enders
My Experience and Current
Practice
My Experience
• CAE and STRT
• Hybrid Challenge
• Conference Presentations
Current Practice
• Use of Hybrid Undergrad Course (BA 385:
Business Environments) • MGMT 560 (Ethics) fully online with one
residency for eMBA program
Why Online?
• Presidential directive
• Faculty flexibility
• Exercises pedagogical muscle
One of PSU’s Five Priorities
Improve Student Success: Ensure a
student experience that results in higher
satisfaction, retention, and graduation
rates…38% six-year graduation rate is not
satisfactory.
Wim Wievel, President of PSU,
Convocation Speech (2008)
Some Expectations of Faculty
Learning and pedagogical research contributions influence the teachinglearning activities of the school. Preparation of new materials for use in
courses, creation of teaching aids, and research on pedagogy all qualify as
learning and pedagogical research contributions.
Contributions to practice (often referred to as applied research) influence
professional practice in the faculty member’s field. Articles in practice-oriented
journals, creation and delivery of executive education courses, development of
discipline-based practice tools, and published reports on consulting all qualify
as contributions to practice.
Discipline-based scholarship (often referred to as basic research) contributions
add to the theory or knowledge base of the faculty member’s field. Published
research results and theoretical innovation qualify as discipline-based
scholarship contributions.
From “Eligibility Procedures and Accreditation Standards for Business
Accreditation AACSB International The Association to Advance
Collegiate Schools of Business, updated July, 2009, p. 22.
…and H1N1, bad weather, etc.
Pedagogical Refreshment
The function of a University is to
enable you to shed details in favor of
principles…Mental cultivation is
nothing else than the satisfactory
way in which the mind will function
when it is poked up into activity.
Alfred North Whitehead, The
Aims of Education (1929)
Challenges to Online
Learning Settings
• Student and professor accountability
• Class size and workload
• Quality
Accountability
Professor and Students
•Set up your course is clear weekly modules. You can
even make them appear and disappear as the term rolls
on.
•Create brief, online exercises linked to any lecture or
other content you deliver online. Students respond to
point-based activities and if they need to hear the
lecture, watch the video or read the material to get there,
they’ll do it.
•Determine one day a week for each of your feedback
tasks.
Modular Organization: The Holy Grail
for Student
•Class organized by weeks.
•All information, links to assignments, assessments, videos,
websites, etc. are in the weekly folder. Students can feel
confident they know what to complete for that week.
Sample Week Folder:
Week One Has Few Components
•Personal info sheet as online survey with request to use
roster.
•Larger concepts for week listed on header.
•Lecture notes organized in folder by week.
Class Size and Workload
•Investigate peer review methods.
•Assign “weekly posts (or weekly letters)” on the same topic
for student reflection and respond in one general
summary response to all the posts you receive.
•Use groups for discussions, not the entire class. Grade on
responsiveness to others (among other things).
•If you don’t get a kick out of creating your shell, get help or
it will seem like too much work.
•Plan ahead and plan realistically - get feedback from
others.
Peer Review Settings in Blackboard
The Value of “High-Touch”
in Learning Environments
•Learn from Talya Bauer
•Take the time required to give customized
feedback.
•Offer your own self-disclosure but, of course, be
sensitive to personal boundaries and
professionalism.
•Get in often and promote positive behavior by
modeling it.
Roster Entry
My goal is to be professional (show areas of professional
interests) but also somewhat personal (hobbies and photo
with dog). I don’t fill in all sections of roster.
Quality Concerns
An institution that uses a variety of
educational delivery systems at various
locations must demonstrate comparable
quality of its educational programs for all
students.
From “Eligibility Procedures and Accreditation Standards for Business
Accreditation AACSB International The Association to Advance Collegiate
Schools of Business, updated July, 2009, p. 10.
Handy Tools and Tips
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Free web content
Use of assignment goals in BB
On campus resources
Keep it simple
Anonymous mid-term surveys
Online role plays
Promoting student satisfaction
Free Content Resources
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TedTalks
Government Websites
YouTube
Corporate Websites
Newspapers
Public Television
Some Books and Articles
Guest Speaker Excerpts
Linking Goals to Activities
Campus Assistance
We can help each other!
Simplicity Rules
•Use Occam’s Razor again and again. Multi-layer/forgotten or hidden components =
bad.
•Link “Ask Course Questions” to discussion tool to avoid massive emails about the
same query.
Anonymous Midterm Survey
Mid-term survey is easy to do, increases student satisfaction
by offering the “just in time” opportunity to improve the class.
Online Role Play: Sample Excerpt
I can
provide
more info
on this
technique
upon
request.
Promoting Student Satisfaction:
How can the online setting enhance student life?
Simple example:
Summary
• There exists an imperative for some faculty to
move some or all of their course delivery online.
• There are advantages and disadvantages to
teaching online - challenges we can overcome.
• We can be great resources to one another.
• We can become better all-around teachers by
“living in the novel” and consistently challenging
our thinking about learning as discovery.