Enrollments in the online environment are up by 3.9% from the previous year according to the 2015 Survey of Online Learning conducted by the Babson Survey Research Group (2016). With the increase in student enrollments, the scope and sequence in which programs and courses have been originally designed will be greatly impacted. The way in which faculty and instructional design teams plan, design, and implement course content will be highly influenced by the size of the course in order to create an interactive and engaging learning environment. What was originally designed for small online courses will no longer be suitable for large enrollment courses. GET CREATIVE: Course design teams will need to seek alternative means of instruction to meet the growing demand for online learning while also creating superior quality.
Hook, line & Sinker: Catching substancial Growth with superior Quality
Proposal for OLC Accelerate 2016
OverviewEnrollments in the online environment are up by 3.9% from the previous year according to the 2015 Survey of Online Learning conducted by the Babson Survey Research Group (2016). With the increase in student enrollments, the scope and sequence in which programs and courses have been originally designed will be greatly impacted. The way in which faculty and instructional design teams plan, design, and implement course content will be highly influenced by the size of the course in order to create an interactive and engaging learning environment. What was originally designed for small online courses will no longer be suitable for large enrollment courses. GET CREATIVE: Course design teams will need to seek alternative means of instruction to meet the growing demand for online learning while also creating superior quality.
The ObjectiveUpon successful completion of this session, the participants will be able to:
- Define what “large enrollment” looks like in online courses/programs;
- Recognize symptoms of students who are unsupported in large enrollment courses;
- Diagnose course design issues in large enrollment courses that prevent student engagement and interaction;
- Plan and select appropriate instructional tools to make online courses conducive to large enrollments;
- Design an evaluation plan to be used after implementation of revisions.
The intended audience for this group is faculty who utilize online learning management systems, instructional designers, instructional technologists, and/or staff who provide faculty training and development.
Planned Interaction with ParticipantsParticipants will be shown actual test cases that have been used in higher education’s face-to-face, blended and online courses. The participants will be introduced to Kaltura Media, WebEx, and the Blackboard Learning Management Tools (Blogs, Wikis, Journals, Discussion Boards, & Groups). A question and answer session will follow the presentation.
ProposalCreating teacher-to-student and student-to-student interaction and engagement in an online course can often be a difficult task, especially if course enrollments are unusually large. Students expect their individual needs to be addressed and met in a timely manner. When courses have been originally designed and developed for smaller online delivery before the course begins, instructors are often faced with making last minute changes to meet the demands of increased enrollments. If an instructor is untrained in the area of instructional design or best practices for online course delivery, this process can be very unsatisfying for both the student and the instructor.
This presentation is designed to assist individuals who are experiencing unprecedented growth in online courses to create a more sustainable, interactive and engaging online environment for their students. The knowledge and skills obtained from this session will allow participants to analyze their current course offerings, plan and select future strategies and tools to accommodate for larger course enrollments, and devise a plan for ongoing evaluation and improvement.
Technical NeedsAccess to a computer (or connection to a projector), projector, and internet are required for this presentation.
Session OutlineThe following is a complete list of all session deliverables:
Deliverable
Description
Introduction
How do we accommodate online program growth without sacrificing quality? (5 minutes)
Overview
Recognize symptoms of students who are unsupported in large enrollment courses (7 minutes)
Diagnose course design issues in large enrollment courses that prevent student engagement and interaction (7 minutes)
Application
Plan and select appropriate instructional tools to make online courses conducive to large enrollments (Kaltura, WebEx, Blogs, Wikis, Journals, Discussion Boards, Word Clouds, Polling) (15 minutes)
Conclusion
Design an evaluation plan to be used after implementation of revisions (6 minutes)
Q&A (5 minutes)
ConclusionThe sudden increase in student enrollments has drastically changed the way we design and deliver our courses and has directly impacted how we interact and communicate with our students. Since the implementation of a variety of online interactive eLearning tools into the course room, the student to teacher relationship has been stronger than ever. We hope that you accept this proposal as we would be honored to share our practices with the Online Learning Consortium.