Need to get your students prepared for online courses and get them advised at the same time? Valencia College’s new model incorporates an online preparedness module facilitated by advisors who can help students make informed decisions about their readiness and whether online is right for them.
Goals:
By the end of the presentation, participants will:
- Identify specific challenges that online student preparation contains
- Visualize how Valencia College created a model of online student preparation that combines information and advising
- View the assessment plan for the pilot program
Many students are underprepared when they enter college. In addition to challenges in specific academic areas, students may also lack preparedness for online and technical environments. This additional barrier can decrease student success, motivation, and persistence. At Valencia College, data indicated that our online students were overall 5% less successful in their online course when compared to face-to-face courses. This success percentage gap increased when specific courses were examined. As part of a larger quality improvement initiative, a solution to this gap was needed. Many colleges have been working on solutions in order to prepare their online students. Some have used questionnaires while others have used stand-alone training or other methods. Valencia College decided to take a different approach by creating an online module that students must complete while also having a required advising component. While the module can help students become aware of the technical and informational challenges they may experience in online courses, the advisors can provide a connection and reference point for the students—allowing them to make a real-time connection with someone who is dedicated to their success, who is willing to listen to their concerns, and who can impart correct information about their courses. This program was recently piloted at Valencia using online advisors and faculty members from across the entire college.
Valencia College began working on the online student preparedness issue three years ago. The initial work team created a video that students could access to help them think about whether they were prepared for online courses. While the video was of excellent quality, it did not go far enough in helping students become prepared. The initial work team then did research of best practices across the country to find another model to help prepare students. Their ultimate recommendation was to create an online module which could (a) expose students to the learning management system and have them perform basic tasks within it, (b) emphasize academic integrity and netiquette so as to help students avoid future conflicts or mistakes in online courses, (c) use a readiness assessment to help students gauge their preparedness level, and (d) have students make an informed decision about whether online learning was right for them and whether they should take an online course.
The initial work team was then transformed into a development phase in order to create a pilot program. As part of this program, the work team was reconstructed so that it contained members from multiple areas across the college such as Student Services, Information Technology, Faculty and Instructional Development, Enrollment Services, the Testing Center, and the administration. Each team member joined the work team in order to perform a variety of tasks: module development and construction, linking of the module outcomes to student information systems, integration of the module with existing technical systems, and creating an advising model. The work team worked on developing and creating the model over six months, and had input from deans, chairs, students, faculty, and staff.
The module that was created contained several sections: start here, levels 1 through 5, resource areas, and links to advising and technical help. A main theme was used in order to unify the module and it was called “Quest for Success.” Students were expected to earn a badge that was associated with different aspects of skills and information needed in order to be successful in online courses. Gamification was used to make each level more fun to progress through, and students had to complete each level before they could move to a higher one. The levels were titled “Armor of Online Learning,” “Shield of Academic Integrity,” “Horn of Netiquette, “Helm of Self-Reflection,” and the “Owl of Council.” An outside video production team help the work team create student and faculty videos highlighting common myths, expectations for online courses, ways to avoid problems, and positive aspects of online learning. These videos were integrated in to the first level so that students could have a peer connection early on as well as hear from faculty members per what was expected of them. Each level had a series of tasks for students to complete that were related to the overall goals of the module: online course success information, academic integrity, netiquette, online readiness, and informed decision-making about online learning.
While students were engaged with the module, they were being monitored by student advisors who had been specially trained on the module. These were online advisors who were facilitating the course while also being available for online student advising appointments. The advisors were referred to as the “Wise Owls of Council” for this module so that students could see them as a source of expert information when it came to online courses. Students, after they finished the informational levels and the online readiness assessment, were required to make an appointment with one of the advisors before they could complete the module. During this appointment, students were asked to reflect on their performance in the module and whether they were ready for an online course. If students indicated they needed to move out of the online section, the advisors helped them plan a new schedule and could get them enrolled in other courses (where possible).
As part of the pilot program, faculty were asked to volunteer if they had two sections of the same online course that would run during a specific semester. Faculty were kept blind as to which of these sections would receive the preparedness module and which would not. Faculty were trained to monitor each section of their courses per technical issues, student questions, academic integrity and netiquette violations, and overall student performance. These indicators would be reported weekly as the semester progressed. Weekly reports were used so that faculty would not lose any data in trying to recall student issues or problems as the semester progressed. Faculty were compensated $500 for their time and effort for the pilot program.
Overall, initial results have indicated a positive experience for students in the module and with the advisors. Faculty reports have shown some differences, but additional pilot semesters will be run in order to aggregate the data over time to see any effects. The full assessment plan will be shared during the presentation. Future pilots will also factor in changes to the design including an advising-only program and a program with no advising (to see if the module alone will be sufficient). Once all pilot semesters have been completed, the college administration will meet in order to decide whether the online preparedness module will be required of all students before taking an online course. The impact this could have on Valencia College students and advisors will be discussed as well as long-term cost and implementation issues.