OATdb Archive

2010 - 2011

Academic Instructional Technology And Distance Learning

Goal
Faculty/Administrator Training In Technology
Provide training workshops to faculty and administrators to facilitate instructional technology and distance-learning.

Objective
Training In Instructional Technology
Provide training to faculty and administrators in:

1) e-College platform and the tools supporting online classes:

-SHSU Online – Intermediate 
-SHSU Online – Advanced Topics 
-Web 2.0 – Using Wikis, Blogs and Podcasts in your Course 
-Tegrity – Lecture Capture, Student Recordings and Remote Proctoring 
-The Respondus – Moving your Blackboard Tests to SHSU Online 
-Best Practices – SHSU Online 

2) Blackboard platform and the tools supporting on-campus classes:

-Blackboard 101  
-Individual Training   

Indicator
Proficiency And Phone Calls
1) Proficiency assessment in use of e-College to teach online courses; and

2) Reduction in number of help-seeking phone calls regarding e-College and  Blackboard


Criterion
Percentages
1) 100% of faculty and administrators will demonstrate proficiency in using e-College tools for online teaching; and

2) 10% reduction of phone calls from faculty and administrators regarding e-College and Blackboard tools


Finding
Training Results
1) All online faculty are certified in eCollege, and all CJ faculty are being certified this summer.

2) As the use of eCollege grows and we retire Blackboard, calls will actually increase in the short term. See attached table.

Action
Future Training
We are pleased with the training response and that faculty are becoming more comfortable with eCollege. As Blackboard is retired as a platform option, we will be offering additional training to faculty who may not yet be ready to teach online but want to use the eCollege platform in place of Blackboard.

Goal
Distance Learning Enrollment
More online classes are being developed so that enrollment can increase via distance learning.

Objective
Increased Online/Distance Learning Enrollment
Enrollment in distance learning will increase with a baseline of 1200 students.

Indicator
Number Of Unique Students And Number Of Semester Credit Hours
1) Number of enrolled students.  This is a head-count rather hours enrolled.

2) Total number of semester credit hours

Criterion
Increase The Baselines
1) Unique students:  baseline - 2177; criterion - increase - 2200

2) Total number of enrollments: baseline - 8709; criterion -8800

3) Total semester credit hours: baseline - 16632; criterion - 26400

Finding
Online Statistics
1) FY 10-11: We now have 2,197 unique online students.

2) FY 10-11: We had a total of 16,415 enrollments.

3) FY 10-11:  We had a total of 49,245 semester credit hours.

Although we did not quite reach the 1% we had sought for unique online students, it was very close. Even though we had fewer unique students, they must have taken more classes since our enrollments and total semester hours exceeded our hopes by approximately 54%. For 2009-2010, students averaged 4 hours online.  For 2010-2011, the average was 7.4 hours online.

Action
Online Students
We were delighted in the number of semester credit hours attempted this year.  On top of what we are already doing to recruit online students, we need to assist faculty who are reticent to try online classes.  Although some people unfamiliar with the research believe that online teaching is easier than face-to-face, the research clearly shows that online teaching is more time-consuming, at least in the beginning while generating the course and its materials. We need to do a better job of delineating the advantages of online teaching. 


Update to previous cycle's plan for continuous improvement

Plan for continuous improvement We celebrate our successes this year in training and enrollment. It may be difficult to top the total semester credit hours without increasing the number of students; thus, we will work on recruiting students. Likewise, to grow further, our product must remain exceptional which will require outstanding training and recruitment of faculty to generate courses appropriate to student needs. Those will be our goals for FY 2011-2012.