2008-2009 Distance Education Annual Report / Projects
"Tracey MacGowan is a highly insightful member of the Instructional Design Team. She listens carefully to the instructional needs of faculty members and helps them integrate appropriate online pedagogy. Her knowledge, patience, and enthusiasm has been integral to our professional development. My online/blended course is considerably more effective and engaging as a result of Tracey and the Instructional Design Team. I value her as an advocate and colleague!" ~ Gina Anderson, Ed.D., Department of Teacher Education
Wimba Trial
QM Project Updates
Library Tutorials
Online Demos
Partnership with Commuter Services
Getting Started Guide
Innovation Projects
ePortfolio Exploration
Wimba Trial
This summer, the Office of Lifelong Learning purchased a trial of Wimba, an online, synchronous meeting tool. Wimba allows users to meet virtually from any location and share information through audio, video, chat, websites and data. Aside from Lifelong Learning, two academic groups are experimenting with the tool as well. The TETN Speech Language Pathology program is using it, as well as the Reading Department for their blended master's program. After the trial period, the success of Wimba will be evaluated for possible, University-wide use.
QM Project Updates
Last year, four more TWU distance education classes were Quality Matters™ recognized. Dr. Sharon Van Sell's NURS 3612, Nursing Research was recognized in September; Dr. Linda Caldwell's DNCE 4383, Performing Arts in Pop Culture was recognized in October; Ms. Leslie Koberna's class, DH 4113, Comprehensive Care of Medically Compromised, was recognized in November, and Dr. Gretchen Hoffman's class LS 5103, Cataloging & Classification was recognized in December.
The Quality Matters™ program is a faculty-centered peer course review Quality Assurance process. Review criteria are linked to external standards; criteria and process are supported through instructional design principles; and the process is vetted by faculty experts. The goals of the program are to increase student retention, learning and satisfaction in online courses by implementing better course design. Quality Matters is sponsored by MarylandOnline and has been adopted by hundreds of higher education institutions across forty states and Canada, (Quality Matters, 2009).
TWU now has eight QM recognized online courses. For more information about Quality Matters, please visit http://www.qualitymatters.org/.
Library Tutorials
This year, the TWU Libraries completed their tutorial series called Doing Research. These online, video tutorials focus on different aspects of conducting academic research. The first two tutorials, "Avoid Plagiarism" and "Understanding Information Sources" were completed last year. The two newest additions to complete the series are “Finding and Accessing Information Sources” and “Finding Scholarly Information on the Internet.” “Finding and Accessing Information Sources”covers how to use the library catalogs, databases and subject guides, as well as how to create a search strategy and determine search terms. “Finding Scholarly Information on the Internet,” gives information on how to search for, evaluate and understand quality sources that are taken from the Internet.
The Office of Lifelong Learning has provided funding for these tutorials so that they can be put online for all students, including distance learners. These tutorials were created by the Texas Center for Educational Technology at the University of North Texas. To view these tutorials, please visit http://www.twu.edu/library/ where you will see them listed on the right side of the page.
Online Demos
New distance learners often call Lifelong Learning to find out what to do first once they have been admitted, or they want to know what an online class looks like. In an effort to proactively and effectively provide answers for these students, Lifelong Learning has created a series of video demonstrations and put them on their website to show step-by-step what new students need to do. Currently, the series includes "What to do now that you are admitted," "How to create and log-in to your Pioneer Portal Account" and "How to log-in to Blackboard and access your online courses." Another video of how to find online classes in the schedule of classes will be added this academic year. To view the demos, please visit http://www.twu.edu/de/getting-started.asp.
Partnership with Commuter Services
The Offices of Commuter Services and Lifelong Learning have created a partnership to collaborate about ways TWU can offer equal student services to distance learners. The goal of this partnership has been to help distance learners feel that they are part of the TWU community and ultimately, that this community will attribute to their retention. To accomplish this, Commuter Services and Lifelong Learning meet at least once a month to discuss what are some current needs of distance learners. As a result of these meetings, Commuter Services has been very successful in establishing new methods to communicate with online students and offer services to them. Commuter Services staff have been active in social media such as Facebook and twitter. They have worked with Athletics to bring the Total Health Challenge to our distance learners, and they have been very proactive about giving local distance learners opportunities to meet them and other support staff.
Getting Started Guide
This summer, the Office of Lifelong Learning redesigned it's orientation for students taking their first online class. The new orientation is called Getting Started Guide and can be found at http://www.twu.edu/de/getting-started-guide.asp. It includes basic information that students need to know to get started such as how to set-up a Pioneer Portal account, how to get an advisor and how to find out if a class is offered online. The Getting Started Guide also has in-depth information about Blackboard (including demos), online library services, tips for how to be successful in distance education, a directory of student services as well as a glossary and list of contacts.
Innovation Projects
This spring, Lifelong Learning awarded grants for three Distance Education Innovation Projects. The first innovation project was "TWU Pioneer School: Case-Based Development for Future Educators." Lifelong Learning awarded equipment to Drs. Karen Dunlap and Tammy Stephens of Teacher Education to develop scenarios of school administrators and students that education students can use as case studies to research classroom management strategies.
The second innovation project was for the new, online all-area coaching program. Dr. Sally Ford in Kinesiology was awarded equipment and technical support to film softball players running so that their running form could be analyzed by the coaching students.
The third innovation project, "an Examination of the Online Delivery and Interactivity of the Sport Management Curriculum" was similar. It was awarded to Dr. Kimberly Miloch of Kinesiology. She was given equipment and funding for a full-time graduate assistant for the 2009-2010 academic year. She was awarded these things to also develop a repository of video clips to use as case studies.
ePortfolio Exploration
In an ongoing effort to help our programs find tools that will work for their instructors and students, Lifelong Learning has worked with the project coordinators for the Master of Art in Teaching and the distance education Kinesiology programs to create ePortfolios using wikis and blogs. This new method will be implemented in the 2009-2010 academic year. Students can use ePortfolios to demonstrate competency in their academic program and to show their work to a potential employer. The University can also benefit from these portfolios as they can be used for program evaluations.
page last updated 1/30/2012 4:09 PM