Taking It Online: A Bootstraps Approach
Ms. Ginger Sabine, Department Chair, Computer Information Systems, Northwestern Technical Institute
Dr. Daryl Gilley, Vice President for Instruction, Northwestern Technical Institute
Abstract
Introduction
Planning Phase
Design Phase
The Production/Trial Phase
The Evaluation Phase
The Implementation Phase
Appendix A
Bibliography
Contacts
Abstract: Describes the process of creating an online
course using locally produced lessons, supplemental text, threaded discussion
groups, online examinations, and student access to a transparent third party
URL. The Microsoft Office User Specialist Certificate takes advantage of
transparent access to a third party software vendor to provide software
demonstrations for online students. The presentation will present an overview
of the development process form conception to delivery and will include an
online demonstration of the course.
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Taking It Online: A Bootstraps Approach
In 1454 Johann Gutenberg printed what is widely considered to be the first book using movable type. The Gutenberg Bible, printed at Mainz, Germany, had 42 lines per page. This event precipitated an enormous publishing explosion allowing information to be distributed to the masses. A similar information explosion is happening today via the World Wide Web and Internet. Oddly enough we are suffering some of the same problems that the publishing industry experienced during its formative years. It took a number of years for example for things we take for granted today to become standardized. Practices such as page numbering, including a table of contents in the document, creating an index, and including title pages were all left to the publisher’s discretion. Today those involved in publishing on the web find themselves in a similar situation. There is precious little in the way of standardization regarding material prepared for delivery on the web. Materials prepared for instructional purposes are not exempt from this lack of standardization either. However, this problem is being resolved much more quickly today than it was in Gutenberg’s time. There is already much more standardization with regard to online publishing than there was just two years ago. It still seems to be the publisher’s decision, however. In academic circles this responsibility falls by default to the college or university or maybe even a department in the university.
In November 1997, with the support of the administration in the form of resources and time, several members of the faculty of Northwestern Technical Institute made a conscious decision and commitment to develop courses of study for delivery over the World Wide Web. However, even with significant preplanning, to paraphrase another group of early explorers, "we were blindly going where no one had gone before." Choosing to create an online course with little or no previous experience posed a daunting challenge for the team investigating what we then called, alternative instructional delivery. At the outset the Northwestern team consisted of 10 members. Today three of the original team members have persisted and have courses currently on the web. During that same period of time, the college also became a founding member of the Georgia Virtual Technical Institute, a consortium of institutions offering web based courses, but that is another story.
This paper provides an overview of one instructor’s journey to the WEB. Taking a course online requires a significant expenditure of effort from several sources: the faculty member designing the course, the technical support staff who create and manage the network, and the administration who support the project with the allowance of time and resources.
Faculty training was an important issue early on. Even though the developer, Ms. Ginger Sabine, was a computer information science instructor, creating a course for the web was a new and often frustrating experience. The learning curve included developing a mastery of new software, working through instructional strategy issues, many of which were discovered as a part of the instructional design process; and discovering new ways to demonstrate skills to a remote audience. In hindsight and in the best of all possible worlds, additional time and training in the use of software products would have been very beneficial to all involved. In fact, to ensure success and minimize attrition early education and training is essential.
What we will describe in this paper is the route taken by Ms. Sabine at Northwestern from concept to product. We will make every effort to point out failures or what we would do differently and likewise will describe the "good" decisions that were made.
The first attempt at going online consisted of the following stages:
In the planning phase, Ms. Sabine as a member of a design team of faculty and staff, set about the task of creating a framework around which web-based courses could be developed. Team members involved in the design process identified the following considerations to help guide the project:
In addition to the considerations listed above, the design team agreed upon the following design decisions. This was based upon a review of the available literature on the design of web based classes.
The course developed by Sabine was an introductory course to the Windows operating system, the first course developed for the Microsoft Office User Specialist program, one of two programs Northwestern offers in partnership with Microsoft. As is typical of most introductory computer courses taught in the traditional manner, this course consisted of four major components: lecture, practice labs, assignments, and exams.
Web-based courses, it was learned, are very much a sum of many parts. Of these parts there are at least two organizational decisions that a developer must make when creating a course for the web. One decision deals with the treatment of educational outcomes or the organization of competencies that the student will be required to learn or master. The second decision revolves around the creation of the various course components such as units of study, learning resources, simulations, production labs, assessment, etc. (See figure A.)
Figure A
Sabine chose to deal with the course competency areas in the form of instructional modules. The competencies were the same as those taught in the traditional class. Modules were arranged to match the academic calendar-that is, 10 weeks. Each module consisted of a self-contained instructional package including goals of the module, specific learning objectives, various types of learning resources, and assessment. By design, students were forced to satisfactorily complete a module before moving on to the next. Course components included in the Sabine design framework are listed below.
The components of this course differed from those of other developers but each developer did adhere to a mutually agreed upon course template, course design format, and page format. Typically, however, all initial web courses developed consisted of units of study or modules, both on-line and off-line resources, learning activities, and examinations. The specific components of this course are described below.
Home - This button brings you back to this page.
Syllabus - This page contains a copy of the course syllabus.
Tutorial - This page explains how to log-on to the tutorial software.
After the project design was agreed upon, the instructor began the process of recreating a course of study that could be delivered, with assessment of competencies mastered over the WEB. Faculty were provided orientation and instruction in the use of web publishing software and course management software. Their task then was to repackage the content typically presented in a traditional format so that it would fit into this new delivery vehicle. A number of problems surfaced, which were quickly followed by unique and innovative solutions.
The problem of how to demonstrate a procedure, skill, or technique over the web was an issue that had to be contended with early on. In the process of developing a course in the Windows operating system, an arrangement was made with a third party vendor so that NTI students could have transparent access to that vendor’s URL. This particular vendor sold demonstrations of popular software applications such as Windows, Word, Visual Basic, etc. By linking to the vendor’s URL, the demonstrations could be streamed into the student’s computer on demand. The use of third party vendor software was important in getting this particular course online in record time. If the faculty member had been required to develop the demonstrations, the course would have been at least six months longer in development.
The problem of simulating classroom interaction was addressed with the use of threaded discussion groups, where one question or answer to an e-mail inquiry may prompt other questions and answers from both students and instructor. Threaded discussion groups compare favorably to in-class discussions and may even be superior in that student questions are well thought out before being submitted.
Communication with students should have been simple. E-mail is immediate and reliable. However, complicated messages are sometimes difficult to articulate and to understand using e-mail. It requires someone who is an accomplished writer and technically competent in the subject area. The absence of the human element in communication was a very real detriment to effective instruction, especially when responding to student questions. E-mail communication then was incomplete at best and impossibly frustrating at worst. There were many times when the instructor and the student resorted to using the telephone.
Testing and administrative issues were some of the more difficult problems to resolve. In this course the instructor chose to manage the assessment portion of the course personally rather than depend upon available course management software. Tests and examinations were created and graded by the instructor. Students were notified by email when tests would be available and the constraints under which they would be administered-i.e. time, allowable resources, type of test, etc. All tests were timed. Students could take the test at any time during a given calendar period, but once started the test had to be completed in a set amount of time. The completed test also had to be submitted within a set period of time from when it was begun. This part of the course, therefore, is not asynchronous, but rather governed by scheduled testing events.
Other faculty at Northwestern are dealing with the testing issue in several ways. Some require the test be taken and submitted in a specific time frame. Others design their tests so that the student may have access to materials with relaxed time constraints. Still others require the student to take the test in the presence of a proctor such as at a library, school, or college. Some of the faculty rely on course management software that regulates access to the tests which are always online. This software also grades and records test grades automatically. Initially in Sabine’s course all test questions were multiple choice and short answer. After evaluating the testing component, it was determined that test questions that required the student to think through a problem related to the learning experiences of the course and respond in an open ended format might be a better assessment technique. The feeling is that a time constrained test using thought questions that consist of content or learning experience dependent questions or issues is a better measure of knowledge and skill attainment than the multiple choice test, which is at a greater risk of being compromised by the less than honest student.
One quarter prior to going online, the course was evaluated with a group of students in a traditional classroom situation. Students were required to move through the course as if they were at a distant location. As they encountered problems, difficulties, or even minor inconveniences, they alerted the instructional designer, who noted the problem. Many times the students could suggest remedies for the problem, while at other times it was "back to the drawing board." In addition, the instructor met with the class as a whole on a weekly basis for debriefing sessions.
The evaluation phase occurred at the conclusion of the pilot class when a decision was made as to whether the course was ready for immediate publication to the web or needed significant revision. This decision rested with the course designer and the academic dean. All courses were subject to a review team with editorial responsibility.
After one quarter online we have learned some lessons. What follows is a brief list of lessons learned.
Syllabus Format for WEB Based Courses
Northwestern Technical Institute
Course Name and Number
|
Credit Hours: |
Instructor Name |
|
| Lecture Hours:
Lab Hours: |
Office Location
Office Hours |
|
| Telephone:
|
Email:
|
Catalog course description:
Various disclaimer’s if required:
Entry level requirements if needed:
System Requirements to take full advantage of learning materials:
Prerequisites:
Required text and other reference material including non-text based materials, including url of online bookstore.
Recommended supplemental materials including non text-based materials
Content by week, by topic, by unit, etc. (called modules)
Course competencies (called goals)
Instructional Objectives ( including knowledge skills) (called objectives)
Learning Activities including on-line activities, text based activities, and CD-based activities
Course requirements – assignments, term papers, projects, etc. with due dates
Practice examinations – (called self-assessment)
Evaluation procedure (called assessment)
Work ethic requirement
Grading scale
Policies and procedures for course operation
Policy on academic dishonesty
Communication with instructor and bulletin board policies and procedures
Module Format
Web-Based Class
Course Name and Number
|
Credit Hours: |
Instructor Name |
|
| Lecture Hours:
Lab Hours: |
Office Location
Office Hours |
|
| Email
|
Telephone:
|
Module Name and or Number
Goal:
Objectives:
Learning Activities:
Readings, Text
Readings, Links
Pronunciation Activities
Written Assignments
Self Assessment:
Assessment:
Communication With Instructor:
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Ms. Ginger Sabine, Department Chair, Computer Information Systems, Northwestern Technical Institute, Rock Spring, GA 30739, email: gsabine@northwestern.tec.ga.us
Dr. Daryl Gilley, Vice President for Instruction, Northwestern Technical Institute, Rock Spring, GA 30739, email: dgilley@northwestern.tec.ga.us