Distance Education Projects
Welcome to the TWU Distance Education Project Page. Below you will find a list of current projects that our office is working on to contribute to the ongoing advancement and success of Distance Education at TWU. Please browse through the list, and if you have any questions or would like to be involved in any of our projects, please contact our office at (940) 898-3409.
Projects
3rd Annual eLearning Lecture
New Faculty Resource Page
Research Topic: DE Faculty Workload
Online Course Development
Taskstream
Paired Course Redesign: Developmental Mathematics and Computer Literacy
Zip Files for Menu Items
Gender and Online Learning
Plagiarism Detection
GA Trainings- Students supporting faculty in online courses
Product Trials
Quality Matters Pilot Project
Learning Objects in Blackboard
Smarthinking
Wimba and Illuminate Trials
Involvement
Conferences
Groups
3rd Annual eLearning Lecture
The Office of Lifelong Learning will host the 3rd annual eLearning lecture March 7, 2008 featuring Dr. José Bowen, Dean of the Meadows School of the Arts and Professor of Music at Southern Methodist University. Dr. Bowen will discuss his views on the use of technology in and out of the classroom. More Information
New Faculty Resource Page
The Online Teaching and Learning site is a collection of resources for distance education faculty grounded in pedagogical and andragogical theory. The majority of the resources are carefully structured to provide a rationale for using certain Blackboard tools or instructional strategies to intentionally impact distance teaching and learning practices. This project’s goals are: 1) create a single location for DE resources that emphasizes pedagogical and andragogical foundations, 2) create a resource set that is easy to maintain and update and 3) allow search functionality to DE resources. More Information
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Demonstrating DE Faculty Workload
The Office of Lifelong Learning is researching issues related to where DE faculty spend the most of their workload - before classes begin or ongoing, throughout the semester. The goal of this project is to understand where the load falls. It will give us a better understanding of when and how DE courses can best be planned and developed.
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Online Course Development
The Online Course Development program targets faculty new to distance education. Participants are required to participate in a course developed and facilitated by the TWU instructional design team. Participants, with support from the instructional designers, develop a substantial portion of their first distance course according to the QM standards and pedagogical techniques introduced through the faculty development course. This project seeks to introduce faculty to instructional and design techniques while providing individualized support for initial course development activities.
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Taskstream
TaskStream is a customizable electronic toolset which is useful for developing and managing e-portfolios. One of the primary strengths of the program is the ability it gives TWU faculty to provide formative and summative assessments of student work without having to get together in one place or time to do so. Tracey Mac Gowan, Instructional Design Specialist in Lifelong Learning, has been building the structure of e-portfolios to fit the needs and desired outcomes for program, department, or individual faculty needs. More Information
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Paired Course Redesign: Developmental Mathematics and Computer Literacy
The Paired Course Redesign project is funded by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to investigate different ways to restructure courses to improve retention and student learning. The TWU project will restructure one developmental mathematics course and the computer literacy course with the goal of improving student learning in these courses to allow students to exit to more advanced courses.
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Zip Files for Menu Items
This project is to prepackage Blackboard course content for DE faculty. The pre-packaged content would be for a syllabus file, help file and resource file. The goal of this project is to consolidate information for faculty and provide an easily modified template of content DE believes will be beneficial to online students.
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Gender and Online Learning
Lifelong Learning hopes to lead the effort to build TWU’s national reputation and activity related to the topic of Gender and Online Learning. Research areas range from how women learn and interact online, to how courses are designed and delivered. Possible outcomes include the creation of an institute to conduct research activities, create publications and host events. The results could have profound effects in the areas of online course design, online teaching and learning, learning outcomes for women and best practices for online pedagogy.
An updated literature review will be published this spring, and presentation on the topic will be given at TxDLA and USDLA. Will issue a call for scholarship and research to TWU faculty and staff prior to summer '08.
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Plagiarism Detection
With the support of Lifelong Learning, the TWU Libraries have put together a plagiarism presentation that educates its viewers on what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. To view the presentation, click here.
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GA Trainings - Students supporting faculty in online courses
A series of sessions have been created and offered to GA’s at the beginning of each semester. They are offered face-to-face as well as via teleconference in order to accommodate all GA schedules. The sessions are designed to guide the GA’s in their duties while supporting the faculty member for whom they are working. Sessions include ‘Behind the Scenes in Blackboard’, ‘Creating PowerPoint Presentations’, ‘TaskStream’, and several others. This spring, Lifelong Learning is looking more extensively into the need of Graduate Assistants for online courses and the duties that they perform.
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Quality Matters Pilot Project
The QM Pilot Project is designed to investigate the viability of using the QM rubric and process as a quality improvement strategy for distance courses. This project provides funds for faculty to take the QM Peer Reviewer training and support through the instructional design team to redesign a course according to the QM standards. The goal of this project is to create a trained group of faculty with experience in the course review process. More Information
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Learning Objects in Blackboard
This is a one year pilot project. It is a trial of implementing blogs, wikis and podcasts within the Blackboard Learning Management System. During the pilot the product is limited to distance education courses only.The purpose of the project is to verify that such tools are easy to use and meet faculty’s needs.
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Smarthinking
A partnership between the College of Nursing and Lifelong Learning is providing nursing students the opportunity to receive online tutoring. The tutoring is provided through a trial of Smarthinking - a virtual tutoring service that is available 24 hours a day, 365 days out of the year. The tutoring is conducted online by knowledgeable, experienced professionals in different content areas such as English, science and math. The initial trail project was concluded in December, 2007. The formal proposal and product review is currently underway.
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Wimba and Illuminate Trials
Instructional Support Services and Lifelong Learning are teaming up to find a product that will provide synchronous communication technology for distance education courses. This spring, ISS and Lifelong Learning are conducting a six-month trial of two products: Wimba and Illuminate. To see previously recorded presentations using these products, please click here.
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Conferences
Many prestigious conferences and trainings are attended throughout the year by nine of our staff members dedicated to distance education in the Office of Lifelong Learning. The staff use the knowledge gained at the conferences to better support TWU’s online faculty. Several major conferences that are attended by our office each year are Blackboard, Educause, Sloan-C, Texas Blackboard Users Group (TBug) and Texas Distance Learning Association (TxDLA).
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Groups
Lifelong Learning is involved either directly or as a point of contact for many different committees on campus and for the State. These groups represent many different facets of distance education and overall, academic affairs. They include:
- Blackboard Executive Group
- Mike Simmons, Dr. Patricia Edwards, Dr. Lynda Murphy and Jean Mankoff
- Distance Learning Advisory Group
- Dr. Wes Adams, Dr. Pam Baker, Raedean Bolton, Scott Bynum, Stephany Compton, Dr. Kim Grover-Haskin, Dr. Gay James, Dr. Ruth Johnson, Brandy Klug, Dr. Barbara Lerner, Teresa Mauk, Glen Ray, Dr. Lynda Murphy
- TWU Information Technology Committee
- Faculty Center
- Distance Learning Quality Enhancement Planning Committee
- Dr. Mary Bold, Dr. Linda Caldwell, Stephany Compton, Dr. Kim Grover-Haskin, Dr. Pat Holden-Huchton, Dr. Ling Hwey Jeng, Dr. Carol Kominski, Teresa Mauk, Dr. Monica Mendez-Grant, Dr. Lynda Murphy, Dr. Jody Early, Kathy Woods, Dr. Pam Baker.
- THECB Distance Education Advisory Committee
- AA/IT Working Group
- Dr. Patricia Edwards, Rob Placido, Mike Simmons, Teresa Mauk, Sherilyn Bird, Dr. Judith Bean, Dr. Carol Kominski, Governor Jackson, Dr. Victoria McGillin, Mary Ann McDuff
- Distance Education Coordinators
- Dr. Stoerm Anderson, Dr. Johnnie Aven, Dr. Gloria Byrd, Dr. Catherine Candler, Stephany Compton, Dr. Douglas Coyle, Dr. Don Edwards, Desiree Elliott, Dr. Cindy Gill, Dr. Nerissa Gillum, Brandi Golleher, Betty Henderson, Dr. Ling Hwey Jeng, Dr. Rae Langford, Dr. Lynda Murphy, Dr. Jody Early, Allison Peterson, Dr. Barney Sanborn, Sharyn Opbroek, Dr. Anne Stiles, Dr. Kerry Webb, Dr. Al White, Dr. Jerry Whitworth
- Graduate Advising Task Force
- Dr. Anne Stiles, Dr. Chris Hawkins, Dr. Gay James, Dr. Jennifer Martin, Dr. Jerry Whitworth, Dr. Joann Barbour, Dr. Johnnie Aven, Dr. Lettie Albright, Dr. Lisa Zottarelli, Dr. Lynda Murphy, Samuel Wheeler, Susan Eitel, Teresa Mauk
- Undergraduate Advising Task Force
- Dr. Allen Waldo, Allison Mabry, Dr. Barney Sanborn, Bonnie Lowther, Dr. Carolyn Bednar, Diedre Leslie, Erma Nieto-Brecht, Heather Speed, Dr. James Chenevert, Dr. Judith Bean, Dr. Kathryn Tart, Kendyll Castles, Nancy Anderson, Ronda Barnett, Teresa Mauk, Teresa McDaniel, Traci Stiles
- Faculty Senate
- Graduate Council
- Academic Directors/Administrative Council joint meetings
- Undergraduate Council
- Dr. Stoerm Anderson, Ronda Barnett, Dr. Judith Bean, Dr. Marie-Anne Demuynck, Patricia Devereaux, Dr. Karen Dunlap, Dr. Don Edwards, Dr. Ronald Fannin, Dr. Kenneth Foster, Dr. Russ Greer, Dr. Penelope Hanstein, Dr. Lydia Hodges, Dr. Joni Jensen, Dr. AnaLouise Keating, Dr. Carol Kominski, Sally Lambert, Dr. Guy Litton, Dr. Kay Marsh, Teresa Mauk, Dr. Lynda Murphy, Dr. Lynda Peebles, Laura Rocchio, Dr. David Rylander, Dr. Barney Sanborn, Mary Schultz, Dr. Terry Senne, Dr. Roger Shipley, Heather Speed, Dr. Ann Staton, Dr. Sharon Van Sell, Dr. Allen Waldo
- Curriculum Committee
- Dr. Johnnie Aven, Brandon Bays, Dr. Judith Bean, Dr. Kyle Biggerstaff, Dr. Rhonda Buckley, Dr. Gloria Byrd, Dr. Linda Caldwell, Dr. Peggy Gleeson, Dr. Vicky Imrhan, Rosemarie Jaekel, Dr. Linda Ladd, Glenda Lehrmann, Dr. Jennifer Martin, Dr. Tony Medlin, Dr. Phyllis Mercer, Dr. Lynda Murphy, Jeff Robb, Kathy Roberts, Laura Rocchio, Anne Simpson, Linda Stuckenbruck
- Assessment Advisory Committee
- Ronda Barnett, Dr. Chris Beatty, Dr. Brenda Binder, Sherilyn Bird, Dr. Mary Bold, John Cissik, Patricia Devereaux, Juanita Duenez-Lazo, Dr. Don Edwards, Sarah Gamblin, Lisa Haynes, Dr. Paula Hughes, Dr. Carol Kominski, Dr. Kelley Moseley, Dr. Lynda Murphy, Dr. Jane Pemberton, Dr. John Radcliffe, Dr. Deborah Tapler
- P-16 Council
- Dr. Ann Staton, Dr. Carolyn Gunning, Dr. Don Edwards, Erma Nieto-Brecht, Dr. Jerry Whitworth, Dr. Jimmy Ishee, Dr. Judith Bean, Mike Simmons, Dr. Monica Mendez-Grant, Dr. Nan Restine, Dr. Richard Nicholas, Teresa Mauk
- TWU Leadership Institute Advisory Board
- Dr. Nancy Anderson, Dr. Don Edwards, Ms. Amanda Simpson, Mr. Dennis Hoebee, Ms. Carolyn Ishee, Ms. Christianne Kellet, Ms. Deidre Leslie, Dr. Guy Litton, Mr. Jimmy Renfro, Dr. Barney Sanborn, Dr. Kathryn Tart, Dr. Kerry Webb, Mike Simmons
- Academic Integrity Committee
- Jeff Robb, Dr. James Espinosa, Dr. Roger Shipley, Dr. Kathryn Tart, Dr. Bruce Krajewski, Dr. Rhonda Buckley, Claudia Garcia, Dr. Katt Blackwell, Mike Simmons, Heather Speed
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