Following our own lead: Building an online doctoral program through equal parts strategy and serendipity

Final Presentation:

OLC-strategy and serendipity.pdf

Audience Level:

All

Session Time Slot(s):

Institutional Level:

Higher Ed

Streamed:

Streamed

Special Session:

Blended

Leadership

Abstract:

Building an online doctoral program through the implementation of our own best theories and practices (and a bit of luck) is both a challenging and rewarding endeavor. This interactive presentation provides insights to the Baylor University online Ed.D. program’s design and development process that incorporated equal parts strategy (theories and practices) and serendipity (risk-taking and innovation).

Extended Abstract:

Session Title:

The title of the presentation is limited to 120 characters.

Try to create something that accurately describes your intended session, which is also catchy or interesting. Consider reviewing previous Best in Track proposals.

Title: Following our own lead: Building an online doctoral program through equal parts strategy and serendipity

Presenters and Authors:

All individuals listed on a conference proposal must have a current OLC account and their profile must be up to date. When submitting the proposal, you will select your co-presenters by using their email addresses. The system will only allow you to select individuals who have an OLC account. To make the submission process quick and easy, obtain the names and email addresses used by your collaborators prior to logging in to the system. Note: OLC uses “Additional Authors” to indicate non-presenting contributors.

Speakers: Julia Earl, Cece Lively, and Tony L. Talbert

julia_earl@baylor.edu

tony_talbert@baylor.edu

cece_lively@baylor.edu

Additional Authors:

sandi_cooper@baylor.edu

brooke_blevins@baylor.edu

nick_werse@baylor.edu

sandra_talbert@baylor.edu

leanne_howell@baylor.edu

Laila_Sanguras@baylor.edu

Jessica_Meehan@baylor.edu

Session Type, Conference Track, Institutional Level, and Audience Level

In the system, these items are dropdown menus. You will be asked to select the option that most accurately aligns with your proposal. Please access the appropriate conference site for detailed descriptions of each.

Session Type: (The format of your proposed session.)

Education session via panel discussion

Conference Track: (The track or category of your intended session.)

Blended, Engaged and Effective Teaching and Learning; Leadership and Institutional Strategies

Institutional Level: (The academic level, rigor, or emphasis aligned with your intended session. Choose from these options: K-12, Higher Ed, Industry, Government, Other)

Higher Ed

Audience Level: (The level of expertise of people who will gain the most out of attending your intended session. Choose from these options: All, Expert, Intermediate, Novice)

All attendees

Special Session Designation and Intended Audience

In the system, these items are check-boxes that need to be selected. You will be asked to choose the option that most accurately aligns with your proposal. Please access the appropriate conference site for detailed descriptions of each.

Special Session Designation: (Does your intended session directly address the unique perspectives of the any of the following: Blended, Community College, HBCU, Research, Leadership, or Equity & Inclusion?)

Leadership, Design, Blended

Intended Audience: (The roles of people who will gain the most out of attending your intended session. Choose from these options: Administrators, Design Thinkers, Faculty, Instructional Support, Students, Training Professionals, Technologists, Researchers, All Attendees, Other)

Administrators, leadership, program design, faculty, student support, researchers, All Attendees

Keywords:

Include relevant keywords. You may add as many unique keywords as apply. Please use commas to separate your keywords.

Student success, Program development, Program design, Program innovations, student support, online, asynchronous, synchronous. Community,

Short Abstract:

This section has a limit of 50 words. In a few short sentences describe the main idea of your intended presentation. Use active language and craft an abstract that would make you excited to attend that session (if it were accepted).

Extended Abstract

You will have up to 1500 words to describe your intended presentation. The extended abstract will be listed on the conference website and mobile app for attendees to review (provided your proposal is accepted.) Your extended abstract should include the following points:

The topic of the session and why it is relevant or important to the community.
Your plan for interactivity (this is often overlooked - including a strong engagement strategy is one way you can significantly raise your scores during the evaluation process.
What the attendees are going to learn from the presentation (the takeaways)
No identifiable information (Proposals should be void of information that would indicate institution, organization, or personal affiliations. Anonymity is key to ensure fairness.)

Session information:

Building an online learning and organizational change doctoral program through the implementation of our own best theories and practices…and a bit of luck...is both a challenging and rewarding endeavor. This interactive presentation would focus on the Ed.D. in Learning and Organizational Change (Ed.D.-LOC) program’s design and development process that incorporated equal parts strategy (theories and practices in learning and organizational change) and serendipity (risk taking, innovation, cause and effect, trial and error). The facilitators of this presentation represent the multiple constituencies and perspectives that comprise both the individual roles of program contributors (e.g., leadership, faculty, staff, etc.) that also represent the collective integrated design team.

The EdD-LOC is a unique program design that includes asynchronous and synchronous delivery for coursework and learning sessions. This program design is complex and offers blended academic and professional development with significant community building. Included in the discussion we may consider:

Student support through asynchronous and synchronous models of course delivery.
Relationship building with students
Building the community among students.

In researching our program design, we knew we needed more interaction with our students. Bettinger and Loeb (2017) found that students in asynchronous online programs performed substantially worse than students in traditional face-to-face courses. We know that regular and genuine student-to-faculty interaction produces quality online education, which leads to increased student outcomes. Because of the level of interaction we desired for our students, The EdD program hosts weekly live sessions using Zoom in addition to asynchronous coursework activities. During live class sessions, students are able to collaborate with their instructor and classmates to dive deeper into course topics by collaborating. Students from all across the country are grouped purposefully in small breakout rooms during class to share personal stories and perspectives, as well as learn from others, both within and across professional fields of work.

Plan for interactivity:

During this session, you will hear from students, staff and faculty involved in the program. We will share how we began the program and where we are now. Participants will also have time to ask questions during the session

Participants will view videos from students speaking to the format of asynchronous and synchronous learning modules
Participants will view Qualitative research data from student surveys

Attendees will learn about:

Unique program design that includes an asynchronous and synchronous delivery. This program design is complex and offers blended academic and professional development with significant community building. Included in the discussion we may consider: