Orientation for Online Learners at Madison College

Editor's Notes

• #2 Please see full information on our presentation here: http://sloanconsortium.org/conference/2012/aln/orientation-online-learners-madison-college
• #3 While the increase in the number of programs offered fully online has not increased significantly since 2000, we are seeing some increases. One of the most significant areas of growth is in our fully online associate degree in the arts, which is offered through the School of Arts and Science. Many of the students enrolled in the AA degree are looking to transfer to a 4-year university.
• #4 In 2000, we had 33 classes offered in the online format. Today (as of Fall 2012) we have 375 classes offered in the online format. Our online offerings are growing!
• #5 This plot shows that enrollments in our online classes has increased in the last 5 years. This data comes from our Information Research and Effectiveness department and shows the unduplicated enrollments of students taking one or more online classes per year.
• #6 In addition to addressing growth of the online format at Madison College, there were also inconsistencies in the college, including: Some faculty were requiring proctored exams, but students did not know until after course started. Students didn’t know when they would be able to see their class in BB. Some students didn’t even know about BB. Some faculty members weren’t using BB. The School of Online and Accelerated Learning decided to begin a long-range plan to address the inconsistencies and provide better information and resources for our online students. This long-range plan included creating standardized notes for all online classes while allowing individual faculty to provide an additional “unique” note for their online classes and the creation of a required orientation for students planning to enroll in an online class or program.
• #7 During planning meetings for the online (and alternative) class format orientation, three objectives came up: 1) Deciding at which point students should be required to complete the orientation, 2) Figuring out ways to limit the number of barriers that might develop in the creation of the orientation, and 3) Determining which platforms were the best for offering this orientation. It was decided that the orientation should be required before students were allowed to enroll in online classes and/or programs. As this might create a barrier to enrollment, we had to determine ways to make the process as streamlined and painless as possible. In doing so, we decided to utilize platforms in existence at our college, including Blackboard as the location to store the orientation, SmarterMeasure as an assessment/advising tool and PeopleSoft, our student management program.
• #8 The orientation has three main parts, an informational video, a comprehension quiz and a personalized assessment tool for the online format. Each will be explained in detail in the following slides.
• #9 We surveyed our online faculty and staff to find out which important skills/traits and reminders they would find most helpful to include in our online orientation and video. We found our students identified the same traits/skills/suggestions in the survey that our instructors did. Not too surprising, but nice to see that our students found they would benefit from this information prior to taking online classes. View the Online Video here: http://youtu.be/5yjwouHrlws
• #10 The comprehension quiz was selected to make sure students were watching the videos. We elected to use the test tool in Blackboard to create an auto-feedback quiz that would show the students completion or non-completion of the quiz in the Gradebook. Our goal was not to select by score, but to make sure students had completed the quiz in full. There are 6 multiple-choice questions in the quiz that cover the traits and skills that are associated with successful completion of online classes, including self-motivation and time management. We also include a question to remind students to purchase books prior to the first day of school and where to go to get help with Blackboard, email and general technology on our campus.
• #11 The SmarterMeasure (READI) assessment is currently offered as an optional tool for online students. Many online instructors use the tool as part of their course introductory activities in a variety of ways, with the ultimate goal of helping students recognize factors that might prevent them from success in online classes (like inability to set aside enough time for coursework) as well as noting factors that are key to success in online classes and programs, like individual motivation and organization. Many faculty try the assessment out themselves in our online teaching training course, Preparing to Teach Online, and then use it in their own courses. Using this as a platform for the online orientation was a logical place to start.
• #12 Original goal was to limit the number of questions and categories in the SmarterMeasure assessment. As it was only possible to change the categories used and not the questions, we narrowed it down to three important categories: Life Factors, Individual Attributes, and Technical Competency. We felt Life Factors was a good starting point for the assessment. Personal Attributes was deemed important to assess student perception of the program/class they are looking to add. In the Technical Competency section, we felt it included basic information that can determine if there are major red flags for a student enrolling in a fully online or accelerated course. While other sections could be useful for students, including the learning styles section, they did not seem necessary in providing students with information about the online (and alternative) learning formats. Our goal was to focus on the attributes that are associated with success.
• #13 View a “fly through” tour of the Online Orientation here: http://youtu.be/lanfHGCsbbo
• #14 Security authentication wasn’t happening. Madison College’s PeopleSoft therefore wouldn’t accept the information coming from SmarterMeasure. The callback message when an assessment was completed wasn’t coming through.
• #15 While a trial run of the orientation with students has not been possible, the orientation has been shared with faculty in the Preparing to Teach Online Summer 2012 course and at Madison College’s August 2012 convocation. The information and videos shares received highly positive feedback from our faculty, with most faculty wanting the videos to be accessible outside the orientation.
• #16 The creation of the Online Orientation would not be possible without the contributions of the following people: MADISON COLLEGE: Shawna Carter, School of Online And Accelerated Learning Trey Mireles, Accelerated Methods Teaching Fellow Mary Jo Black, Arden Rice and Peri Mills, Tech Services Mark Shymanski, Institutional Research & Effectiveness SMARTER MEASURE: Jason Fill Tara Boozer