Fundamentals of Online Course Design: A Model for Faculty Development Valerie West Rich Hernandez Mary Mauldin The Medical University of South Carolina
Jan 11, 2016
Fundamentals of OnlineCourse Design: A Model for Faculty
Development
Valerie West Rich Hernandez
Mary Mauldin
The Medical University of South Carolina
Overview of Presentation
• Background - Valerie West
• The Course - Rich Hernandez
• Outcomes - Mary Mauldin
• Discussion - Everyone
Characteristics of MUSC
• Free standing academic health center• Decentralized culture/faculty support
structure• Excellent core of “early adopters” - beta site
for WebCT• Some outstanding human resources
The Issue
• Growing distance education involvement• Distributed education innovations• Administrative push• No central source of “free” help for faculty• No one’s job to organize faculty support• No new resources
Selling the Idea
• Identify the issue with data– University wide survey– Issues identified
• Engage stakeholders– Provost– Retreat with Deans and key faculty and
administrators
Proposing the Program
• Semester long, 5:00- 8:00 weekly– Commitment to a course or project– Agree to train others– Hire our own faculty to teach– Reverse roles - pay students as teachers– Grassroots group development
Approval of Funding
– Initial Budget- $21,000 ($808 per faculty)• Faculty and Teaching Assistants• Supplies
– Source of funding– Surprise addition - Laptops ($60,000-
$3,116 per faculty
Marketing to Faculty
• Directly through multiple means• Through Colleges/Deans
Planning
• Faculty Planning Group• Assessing participant needs• Addition of Laptops/Software• Physical location considerations• Acceptances
Lessons Learned• Get data• Engage key stakeholders• Listen and adapt• Make it doable• Get people excited• STAY FLEXIBLE
What We Taught
• Pedagogy of online teaching (Webagogy )• Instructional design• Working with graphics• Transferable web skills• WebCT tools• Other course building tools
How We Taught It
• Lecture• Demonstration• Open labs• TAs• Guest speakers
• Impromptu activities• Online discussions• Online resources• “Student” show & tell
Additional Innovations
• Laptop surprise & aftermath• Wired classroom• Participant Faculty TA network• “Frank’s minute”
Course Quick Tour
Pre-Course Survey
• What do you want to accomplish?– Get a course online– Engage students in discussions/activities
• What skills are you hoping to develop through this course?– Independence– Graphics– Quizzes– Online Discussion
Pre-Course Survey
• After completing this course, I would be very happy if I could– Complete a course online– Put things up independently– Train/help others
Pre-Course Survey
Post-Course Survey
• 94% met their goals• 100% more comfortable designing and using
web-based instruction• 100% said time devoted was worth it• 94% said they could help others• 83% developed a usable unit
Post-Course Survey
• Highest Rated Items– Recommend course
be taught again (100%)
– Recommend to others (94%)
– Faculty had expertise to teach the course (94%)
• Lowest Rated Items– Theoretical Issues– Open Source
Systems viable option
– Introduction to other systems
Post-Course Survey
• If you were teaching course, what would you add, remove, or change?– Hands on practice– More Dreamweaver– Problems from the field– Divide class into groups
Summary
• Course Structure: divide class into groups• Content : less testing, less Blackboard, more
Dreamweaver• Methods: More hands-on
Lessons Learned
• Relevance• Don’t waste their time• Be flexible• Participants are bringing experiences with
them (lessons from the field) and they want to share
• Takes a lot of energy - plan for ways to encourage and motivate