Online Course Report for Texas A&M Distance Education ...



This course report profiles the Distance Education Certification Program at Texas A&M University. Melissa Magnussen, Assistant Director at the Center for Distance Learning Research (CDLR), graciously agreed to answer profile questions via email. Her email address is mmagnussen@cdlr.tamu.edu.

As Assistant Director, Ms. Magnussen manages the logistics for the distance education training and certification programs offered by the CDLR and for professional development offered through the Intel Teach to the Future Project. In addition, Ms. Magnussen serves as a trainer in both face-to-face and online environments.

Designation and Sponsor

The Distance Education Certification Program (DECP) is classified as a training event. It is sponsored by the Center for Distance Learning Research (CDLR) and the Office of Continuing Education at Texas A&M University. Texas A&M is located in College Station. The university opened on October 4, 1876 and has the distinction of being Texas’ first public institution of higher learning. Participants who complete the DECP receive continuing education credits from Texas A&M University.

Goal

The DECP goal is to teach instructors to effectively develop and deliver courses in the two most prevalent forms of distance education, online learning and videoconferencing.

Audience

The DECP target audience is instructors who want to learn to develop and deliver online courses or courses to be delivered over interactive videoconferencing. The majority of the participants come from K-12 or higher education environments, and DECP participants also come from private businesses, military, and government agencies.

Student Needs

According to Ms. Magnussen, the majority of DECP participants take the course to cope with the changes in their jobs brought about by distance education. Some participants seek training to advance in their current positions or because they want to supplement their incomes by teaching for an online university, while continuing to teach in a traditional university or school.

Modes of Instruction

Moodle is the learning management system used to deliver the course. As the entire course is self-paced, the DECP does not have a set schedule for activities. Because the target audience is primarily working professionals, they tend to prefer working at a time that is most convenient for them. The course opens on an advertised start date and then closes five weeks later. Participants have the flexibility to complete required activities anytime during the five-week window. Ms. Magnussen provides a course calendar with suggested due dates to assist participants with planning their time. The majority of participants adhere to suggested due dates and are motivated to keep up with course activities. She reports that participants typically spend 8-10 hours a week working in the course.

Overall Ms. Magnussen estimates that 90% of the assignments are completed individually. Although the majority of the course work is individual, there are a couple of collaborative assignments. For example, in the Introduction module, participants are required to interview each other via the Moodle chat room. Peer review activities also are included. In all assignments submitted through the Moodle discussion board, participants are required to respond to at least two other classmates.

For every discussion, participants are required to submit one original post, then at least two replies to classmates. As part of that requirement, participants must provide substantive responses outlining what they agree with in the post and to provide any additional insight gained through further research about the topic. In addition, participants are encouraged to engage one another with appropriate questions when responding to their peers.

Ms. Magnussen uses synchronous discussions for office hours which are held three times a week, as well as for the introductory activity. Because the audience is primarily working professionals, synchronous activities tend to not be well attended. Ms. Magnussen has found that participants tend to prefer the asynchronous interactions on the discussion boards, so they can work through them on their own time.

Ms. Magnussen contributes posts to all class discussions. While she does not dominate discussions, she does like to provide insight whenever possible or to direct students to other posts that have something in common with their own. Also, she summarizes discussions by pulling out major ideas or themes that appear. When she sees discussions to which she can add insight based upon personal experience, she contributes to those as well. DECP participants do not moderate group discussions, and this is primarily due to the self-paced format.

Evaluation Procedures

Participants do not receive grades. Regarding evaluation guidelines, Ms. Magnussen provides participants with the specific number of posts required and participation guidelines they must adhere to when posting on the discussion boards and replying to others. Again, the target audience is adult learners who are paying for the course themselves or via their employers, so they tend to be motivated to keep up with course activities.

Feedback is not provided for every discussion. Ms. Magnussen is present for and contributes to all discussions but does not send grades based upon performance. Rather than evaluating or grading discussions, she provides feedback based upon personal experience, alternative ideas, or other resources for students to consider.

There are assignments that are not submitted through the discussion boards, but rather are submitted directly to Ms. Magnussen. Typically, these assignments demonstrate a skill or process addressed in the course. She provides individual feedback to all such assignments, addressing what the participants have done well, what they may want to reconsider, and other ideas/resources to think about that may enhance submissions.

Success and Student Perceptions

Each participant completes an online evaluation form at the end of every course. Degree of interaction, frequency and quality of feedback, resource availability, and personal contact with instructor and participants – all of those areas are measured by CDLR course evaluations, and typically students evaluate these areas very high. The average of all course evaluations tends to fall between 4 and 5, on a 5-point Likert scale.

In addition, the CDLR has received numerous awards over the years. The two most recent awards include a 21st Century Best Practices Award for the CDLR and a personal award for Ms. Magnussen for Excellence in Online Teaching. Both awards were given by the United States Distance Learning Association.

Challenges

Primarily, the change in structure has been dictated by the change in course management systems for the DECP. In the past, Ms. Magnussen has used WebCT, a product called Siteforum, and proprietary web pages. As mentioned, currently she is using Moodle. With each course management software switch, the structure of the course has evolved depending upon system capabilities.

According to Ms. Magnussen, the biggest challenge in online learning is always time. The time it takes to develop an online course is much greater than a face-to-face course and, with each version of the course, there is new content to integrate. In addition, as new technologies are introduced to make online course development and delivery easier or more dynamic, then there is time devoted to learning the new technology and employing it appropriately.

Future Plans

There are always plans to expand. As new technologies arrive, Ms. Magnussen learns the new technologies and determines if there is an appropriate place to employ them in the course. In addition, as the field of online education changes and new research emerges, she stays abreast of research in order to integrate new best practices and strategies.

|  |Percent |Points |  |  |  |  |

|Points |Earned |Earned |Requirements |  |  |

|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

|10 |100.0% |10.00 |Goal: What is the purpose/goals of the distance course/program? |

|10 |100.0% |10.00 |Designation & Sponsor: Describe its official designation (course, curriculum, resource, |

| | | |training event) and sponsoring institution/body. |

|10 |100.0% |10.00 |Audience: Describe the target audience; who are the students? |

|10 |100.0% |10.00 |Student Needs: What motivates individuals to participate? (advancement, compulsory attendance, |

| | | |convenience, etc.) |

|10 |100.0% |10.00 |Modes of Instruction: How are the course(s) structured (self paced, course duration, |

| | | |asynchronous/synchronous, technologies)? |

|10 |100.0% |10.00 |Success: What is the evidence (enrollment statistics, testimonials, awards, number of |

| | | |graduates) of success thus far? |

|10 |100.0% |10.00 |Challenges: What are the major frustrations/problems faced? |

|10 |100.0% |10.00 |Evaluation Procedures: What are the means of evaluating student learning and program/course |

| | | |effectiveness? |

|10 |100.0% |10.00 |Student Perceptions: How is the program perceived by students (e.g., degree of interaction, |

| | | |frequency and quality of feedback, resources availability, personal contact with instructor or |

| | | |participants, etc.)? |

|10 |100.0% |10.00 |Future Plans: What are their future plans for improving the program? |

|20 |100.0% |20.00 |Organization of Article: (see rubric below) |

|20 |100.0% |20.00 |Clarity in Writing: (see rubric below) |

|140 | |140.00 |Total points earned | | |

| | |100.0% |Percent Score (A = 93+, A = 90-92, B+ = 87-89, B = 93=87, B- = 80=83, etc.) |

| | |20.00 |Points toward course grade = (20 possible pts X Percent Score) |

|Writing Style: | | | | | |

|  |- 30% |- 20% |- 10% |- 0% | | |

|Clarity |Incorrect |Simplistic |Acceptable, |Precise and | | |

| |and/or |and/or |effective |rich | | |

| |ineffective |imprecise |language |language; | | |

| |wording |language | |variety of | | |

| |and/or | | |sentence | | |

| |sentence | | |structure and| | |

| |structure | | |length. | | |

Excellent work! Hope you find my comments to be helpful and food for more thought! (

--Allan

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