'07-'08 DE Annual Report / Faculty Development
"The instructors encourage communication between the students in a variety of ways and provide quality education just as a face-to-face class. Because of online classes, I have been able to further my education, while still maintaining a healthy relationship with my family." - Cindy Howell, Family Studies
Online Course Development
Third Annual eLearning Lecture
Distance Education Innovation Institute
Adjunct and Graduate Assistant Training
Distance Education Mini-Courses
Online Educator Symposium
Quality Matters Pilot Project Update
This program helped faculty members new to distance education to design their first TWU distance education course. Participants completed the online course to get started in the design of their course. Participants worked in conjunction with the instructional designer assigned to their college to complete the overview elements for their course during the summer and worked with the designer to upload content and activities into their course during the academic year. More information
Third Annual eLearning Lecture
The Third Annual eLearning Lecture was held on Friday, April 4, 2008 live on the Denton campus and videoconferenced to Dallas and Houston. Approximately 28 distance education faculty and staff came to hear Dr. José Bowen, Dean of the Meadows School of the Arts and Professor of Music at Southern Methodist University. His lecture, entitled "Teaching Naked" challenged attendees to use technology outside of the classroom and use class time for vital discussion and interaction.
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Distance Education Innovation Institute
This opportunity was an open competition for tenure or tenure-track faculty scheduled to teach a DE course during all 2008 and/or spring 2009. Successful applicants will design and test the impact of Web 2.0 technologies in one or more distance education courses during the 2008-2009 academic year. Participants attended the Innovation Institute at TWU Denton campus for one week (July 28-August 1, 2008) for 20 contact hours. More Information
Adjunct and Graduate Assistant Training
A series of hands-on workshops were provided for adjuncts and graduate assistants who teach or assist with a distance education course. Five separate workshops were offered to adjuncts and GAs in Denton, Dallas and Houston. Topics included "Developing good communication with students and faculty," " Managing discussion boards," " Addressing concerns and questions of online students" and " Essential Blackboard tools and why you should use them." Approximately 70 adjuncts and graduate assistants participated.
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Distance Education Mini-Courses
The Office of Lifelong Learning created five mini-courses about distance education topics.
(Mini-1) Managing & Maintaining the Discussion Board for Distance Courses
(Mini-2) Managing your Distance Course
(Mini-3) Establishing Tone in your Distance Course
(Mini-4) Video in the Distance Course
(Mini-5) Visual Design for Distance Education Content
All distance educators can access these courses by going to Organizations and browsing the Organization Catalog. You can locate these courses by name or by ID (in parentheses above). After you locate the course of interest, you can self-enroll in the course. There are no assignments and you can come and go in the course at will (once enrolled).
To Enroll: Go to Blackboard/ Login/ Click the Organizations tab/ Browse the Organization Catalog (use “Name” “Contains” “Mini” as your search term)/ Click on GO/Pick your course and Enroll.
Click here to log-in to Blackboard to view the DE Mini-Courses.
Distance Education held its second annual Online Educator Symposium on August 21, 2008 during Faculty Development Week for all new and returning online educators and administrators. Approximately 60 attendees came to the symposium and enjoyed four hours of insightful presentations by fellow distance educators as well as members of the Distance Education Team. Some of the sessions included, Online: The Journey from Resistance (kicking and screaming) to Surrender (experimenting, learning and liking it) by Dr. Karen Dunlap (Teacher Education), Persistent Linking from Library Databases by Ms. Stephany Compton (Library), Systems Thinking as a Model for Educating Students to benefit from Distance Education Methodology: Are students prepared to learn online? by Dr. Gerald Goodman (HCA - Houston) and the TWU Focus on Plagiarism Panel. Panelist included Ms. Connie Maxwell (Library), Dr. Russ Greer (English, Speech & Foreign Languages), Dr. Monica Mendez-Grant (Student Life), Ms. Teresa McDaniel (Information Technology Committee) and Dr. Jeff Robb (Academic Integrity Committee). Thank you to everyone who participated in the 2008 OES as a guest or presenter. We look forward to next year's event!
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Quality Matters Pilot Project Update
The past year was very successful for TWU with its involvement in Quality MattersTM (QM). Last September, Dr. Nancy Hadsell (Music) submitted MU 2713 (Understanding the Arts - Music) for QM review. The review was successful, and her course was given the distinction of QM Recognized. In February of this year, Dr. Katie Rose (Family Studies) submitted FS 5533 (Parent Education) for QM review, and this course also received the QM Recognized distinction. This September Dr. Sharon Van Sell (Nursing) submitted NURS 3612 (Introduction to Nursing Research), which also received the QM Recognized distinction.
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 thirty five states and Canada.
Lifelong Learning recently campaigned for participants in Year III of the QM Pilot Project. Participants will spend the next year redesigning a course to line up to the QM rubric. For more information on the current phase, please click here.
This year Lifelong Learning was pleased to have three staff members learn more about the review process and go through trainings and courses to be able to conduct course reviews through QM. Robin Bartoletti, Instructional Design Specialist for the College of Nursing, became a Master Reviewer this summer. To read more about her accomplishment please click here. Valerie Shapko, Sr. Instructional Design Specialist for the Houston Center, recently completed the "Applying the QM Rubric" training which helped her become more familiar with the QM rubric so that she can help DE faculty apply it to their online courses. Finally, Alli Peterson, Sr. Instructional Designer for Denton and Dallas is completing the "Train-the-Trainer" training which will enable her to train potential course reviewers in the QM rubric. She is anticipated to complete the training in October, at which time she will be a Qualified Independent Trainer.
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page last updated 12/15/2008 13:53