Filling the Pail and Lighting the Fire: Lessons Learned in Encouraging and Sustaining Faculty Innovation in Distance Education

T I ETechnology Instructional

Enhancements

Outreach Credit ProgramsOutreach School

University of WyomingReed Scull Christi Boggs

Larry Jansen Jeff Miller

Purpose

Identify, explore and evaluate new technologies and

their application to teaching and learning.

Process

• Encourage faculty innovation• Support faculty in this

innovation • Develop “Best Practice”

models• Evaluate innovations

Supporting University Planning Themes

• Access• Excellence• Leadership

Projects

• Web Conferencing • Streaming Video• Podcasting• Advanced technologies

Outreach faculty were invited by instructional designers to participate in one of the development program projects

Incentives

Monetary, material, and support incentives• Varying monetary stipends, depending on level of

participation• “Tech toy” of voice recorder or mini-videocam

Commitments

from faculty• Participate in training• Assess outcomes• Present on experience• Revise class design• Use it !

from UW Outreach• Monetary stipend• “Tech toy”• Software & hardware• Training• Instructional design• Technical support

Student Connectivity

3%

97%

Connection Speed

Dial-up

High speed

Students in fully online classes

Mediated Student Connectivity*

* Survey data from TIE Streaming

Project only

I have high-speed Internet access at: (check all that apply)

n=129

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

a) home

b) my workplace

c) University of Wyoming Re-gional Center

d) other

e) high-speed In-ternet access is unavailable to me

Web Conferencing- Elluminate -

• A real-time virtual classroom environment designed for distance education and collaboration in academic institutions and corporate training.

Streaming VideoA one-way video transmission over the Internet – widely used to deliver video-on-demand or a video broadcast. Streaming video is played within a few seconds of requesting it, and the data is not stored permanently in the user’s computer.

PodcastingA podcast is a series of digital-media files which are distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and computers.

TIE Program Outcomes

Students and faculty in classes utilizing the instructional technologies of the TIE projects were surveyed to assess the effectiveness of the introduced technology

Podcasting

74%

26%

YesNo

Would you like future online classes to use podcasting?

Future Interest in Streaming Video• The availability of streaming media is the best thing

the university could have done for the outreach students. I would like to see more classes offer this…

• It was very nice to be able to use streaming videos, especially since college expenses add up quick! I recommend that you continue this service so as to not deter potential future students. Thanks!

• More classes on streaming video would be awesome!!

• It's a good and even necessary service. Thanks!

In the future, I will prefer classes where web conferencing is included.

42%

33%

24%

Strongly agree/AgreeNeutralSrongly Disagree/Disagree

Web Conferencing

The use of streaming video in this course enhanced my learning

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

a) Strongly agreeb) Agreec) Undecidedd) Disagreee) Strongly disagree

n=89 Streaming

Video

Web conferencing enhanced learning

Strongly agree

Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

12%

39%

27%

18%

3%0%

75%

25%

0% 0%

StudentsFaculty

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

30%

37%

14%

2%1%

% of Respondents

The podcasts that I listened to provided useful information.

Connecting with Outreach Students

• A challenge in distance learning is to create a connected learning community. How did podcasting and web conferencing enhance the connection between faculty and students?

Podcasts allowed me to feel more connected with the instructor

Strongly agree

Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

36%31%

7% 7%2%

I felt socially connected with my instructor through web conferencing.

Strongly agree

Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

11%

51%

0%

34%

3%

Web Conferencing

What motivated you to participate in this TIE Development Program?

• Monetary stipend• “Tech Toy”• Provision of hardware and software• Instructional training, design, and support from OCP

instructional designer• Interest to expand teaching skills• Desire to use this technology for specific teaching

and learning activities in this class

Faculty Motivations

"Tech toy"

Hardware/Software

Monetary stipend

Instructional support

Specific activities

Expand teaching skills

Least important Most important

Web Conferencing

Please assess the effectiveness of the following development activities as they contributed to your successful adoption of web conferencing

into your teaching.• Trainer-led live orientations at Elluminate, Inc.• Resource materials at Elluminate, Inc.• OCP instructional designer led training• Email tips from OCP instructional designer• Personal consultation with the OCP instructional designer.• Practice sessions with cohort peers• Increasingly using Elluminate.

Faculty Satisfactions

Email tips

Elluminate Inc. training

Elluminate Inc. resources

ID-led training

Experience

ID consultation

Least effective Most effective

Web Conferencing

Conclusions• Technology adoption extends beyond TIE

• e-volution Tech Forum success• Evidence for continuing Elluminate• Greater understanding of faculty motivations• Demonstrated “what we do.” (internal

marketing)• Institutionalizes the exception as the standard

Activity

Thanks for your time!

• Dr. Christi Boggs, [email protected]

• Larry Jansen, [email protected] • Jeff Miller, [email protected]• Dr. Reed Scull, [email protected]

Outreach Credit Programs307-766-4300

http://www.uwyo.edu/TIE