In 2019, Fort Hays State University started developing two new online Social Work programs. In this interview-style session, the Lead Instructional Designer will share how their team collaborated with faculty, how they created the right types of consistency, and what tools helped them nudge toward better instructional design (without pressure).
In 2019 the Kansas Board of Regents approved two new online Social Work programs for Fort Hays State University. The goal was to provide increased opportunities for students, particularly those in western Kansas, to be able to earn degrees in the high-demand field of social work. The vision for these programs, as related by Dr. Tim Davis, department chair, was “to create a high quality online clinical social work curriculum that was hands-on and interactive. Teaching skills online can be difficult, so we needed to design the courses with technologies and supports in place.”
The social work department engaged with the FHSU Teaching Innovation and Learning Technologies (TILT) instructional design team to begin work on the program. The team used a visual curricular mapping and alignment application called Coursetune, which positively impacted their working process and outcomes. The Coursetune workflow provides instructional designers with the perfect platform for helping faculty understand the alignment between all aspects of their courses; from program learning outcomes to learning objectives and from content delivery to assessment. Coursetune makes instructional design visible, so it assists with curricular conversations and decisions, like ‘what does course alignment look like.’
Course alignment involves articulating every element in the course development process from aligning program learning outcomes with course objectives and finally with modular learning objectives. The course alignment piece usually takes the longest time because faculty don't necessarily have experience with writing measurable learning objectives or associating activities and assessments with those learning objectives. Coursetune creates a visual representation of that abstract process that allows instructional designers and course developers to see whether all elements of the course are fully integrated.
Although course development and program development follow a similar process, program development is more extensive and complex. For example, when TILT develops a single course with a faculty member, they focus on consistency in course delivery and determine possible learning gaps through a course alignment. These learning objectives, in turn, need to be associated with learning activities and resources that align with the assessment of that learning. Then they extend the alignment process to align all courses within the program to identify learning gaps and use this information to develop new courses or add material to existing ones. A key part of the program development is identifying learning gaps in both program-level and in individual courses.
For the sake of efficiency and continuity, the TILT team found it is best for one instructional designer to build an ongoing relationship with faculty and with programs. Once an instructional designer and a course developer have a working relationship through the creation of one course, it makes subsequent development go much more smoothly. Also, having one instructional designer take the lead for developing an entire program, saved a lot of time because they begin to understand the big picture as well as the working styles and expectations of the faculty in that program. They also discovered that it is much more efficient to develop five courses in one program than to develop five unrelated courses in different programs.
When TILT develops any program they start with the PLOs, the program learning outcomes. And then use Coursetune to help everyone involved in the development of that program to visualize the interrelatedness of all the courses with the program learning outcomes. As the program takes shape, anyone can refer to the Coursetune mapping, click on each individual program learning outcome, and see where and how that outcome has been integrated into each course in that program. Any number of productive conversations have emerged through this process. Being able to see a visual representation of how a collection of courses make up a program has improved their ability to make improvements to the instructional design of the program.
This feature of Coursetune was particularly valuable for programs like the MSW in Social Work because this was more than just developing a program. This program had to be ready for accreditation review right out of the box, so all the program level mapping to outcomes had to be completed as well. Programmatic gaps and inconsistencies would have been problematic. The program level reports from Coursetune helped the Social Work Department in preparing the necessary evaluation documentation.
The social work department began the curriculum development process by having the instructional designers meet with many community members to hear their thoughts about what kinds of things the curriculum needed to include. They also consulted with the behavioral sciences regulatory board which licenses clinical social workers in the state of Kansas, and they brainstormed with the full group of faculty members in the social work department to get their input. The administrative team, who predominantly worked together to finalize the curriculum, was comprised of the MSW Program Director, the Director of Field Education, and the Chair. Seung Gutsch was the Lead Instructional Designer on the project. Her role was to design the two Social Work Master programs so that they could be delivered effectively online. “I was the project manager. I provided technical support and training, and consulted on best practices on course design and delivery, including assessment and activities, content delivery, alignment, accessibility, etc.” Through the collaboration, it was evident that the course designers, under Seung’s guidance provided valuable resource support in identifying technologies to meet the needs of the course.
During program-level development, they extend the alignment process to align all courses within the program to identify learning gaps and use this information to develop new courses or add material to existing ones. In addition to identifying learning gaps in both program-level and individual courses during program-level development, they also focused on consistency in course delivery within the program. By making more consistent courses, they reduce confusion and help the learner easily navigate within a course and between the courses.
One of the great things about the process, when the TILT team starts to work with a team of faculty to develop a new program, is the level of collaboration and communication that takes place. Coursetune is a great medium through which everyone can actually ‘see’ the program taking shape. This is highlighted at the conclusion of the development of each course. Once a course developer finishes work on one of the courses they present that course to their chair and other course developers in that program. Presenting the Coursetune mapping is an important part of that process where everyone gets to see how that course is structured and how all elements of the course fit together. More importantly, as each subsequent course is designed the focus turns from the course structure to the design of the entire program.
The TILT team had some unexpected things happen when faculty in a program got to see how their courses dovetail with one another. There has been more than one instance where a course developer was frustrated because they thought they needed to include extraneous content in their course that prevented them from including everything they thought was relevant. It is an ‘aha’ moment for them when they discover that material, they thought was extraneous had been happily included in another course in the sequence. By seeing the courses together in the same space, the instructors can see the relationship and impact their course has on the student’s journey across a program.
By clicking on a specific program learning outcome, department chairs can ‘see’ all the courses that have mapped learning to that outcome. If there was an expectation that it would be incorporated a specific course, and it's not there, they know immediately. They are able to address the deficit without having to wait a few semesters before they determine, for instance, that the assessments aren't quite working the way they'd hoped.
The TILT team is seeing the buy-in from instructors. The faculty are seeing how powerful it was in helping build programs like the social work program. Now they are asking themselves, ‘what if everyone who was working on that program felt comfortable enough to go into Coursetune and initiate changes without the instructional designer?’ That shift could be powerful. They are taking what is already a collaborative process and looking for ways to give course developers and program coordinators more agency in the creation process. Long-term, if the instructors are more familiar and more comfortable working in Coursetune, they can start to work on this and start to create even more and use this as the type of tool that the instructional designers are using now.