10 Specific
Suggestions
to Improve Your E-Learning
Programs and Courses
Barry Dahl
Lake Superior College

Lake Superior College
Duluth, Minnesota
3,500 FTE/7,500
headcount
Associate Degree
Programs
Combined Community and
Technical College
Three universities within
ten minute drive.

Growth of LSC Virtual Campus
25,000
22,951
22,881
20,000 21,757
19,722
15,000
12,875
10,000
6,771
5,000
3,897
738 2,176
0
Credits
FY99 FY00 FY01 FY02 FY03 FY04 FY05 FY06 FY07

Minnesota Online
25 Colleges and 7
Universities make up
Minnesota Online.
Website:
minnesotaonline.org
1,000’s of online courses and
over 150 online programs.
Centralized support
functions.

Growth of Minnesota Online
10,000
9,902
8,000
7,797
6,000
5,476
4,000
19,722
2,000 2,298
0
FYE
FY03 FY04 FY05 FY06 FY07

Minnesota Online Recognition
CAEL Award for
Institutional Service for 2006
Tekne Award for existing
technology user category

Ten Specific Suggestions
Not all of these will apply to each
situation.
Pick a few good ones and throw away
the rest.
This is NOT AT ALL an attempt to
compete with Letterman’s Top Ten
List. SORRY!

#10: Online Tutoring
LSC contracts annually with
SMARTHINKING.com to provide online
tutoring services, since 2004.
Starting in 2007, MnOnline joined by
buying a large block of hours and
allocating to campuses.
Campuses needing additional hours
benefit from reduced rates because of
quantity discounts.

SMARTHINKING Usage
LSC Online Tutoring Usage Report
Via SMARTHINKING Affiliate Usage Report
FY04 FY05 FY06
Interaction Type Hours Hours Hours
Sessions Sessions Sessions
360 180 447 261 642 374
Online Writing Lab
84 34 132 51 102 39
Live Sessions
Submitted
18 6 20 6 34 11
Questions
462 220 599 318 778 424
Total

#9: Don’t Ignore ADA
Provide disabilities training for faculty and
staff.
Be prepared for your OCR review because
they will ask about this.
Be 508-compliant before you need it.
The main reason: IT’S THE RIGHT
THING TO DO!!
Free Online Training from GA Tech
http://www.accesselearning.net/

This web resource is free and open to all.

Must
Complete
#1 & 2
For Online Faculty, they then choose one more
of the remaining 8 modules for a total of 3.

#8: Share and Share Alike
Share students between institutions.
Share faculty between institutions.
Share learning objects with the
academic community.
Share your ideas and best practices
with everybody.
Check out Creative Commons for
sharing of intellectual property.

CC License Options
Attribution Non-commercial No
Derivatives (by-nc-nd)
Attribution Non-commercial Share
Alike (by-nc-sa)
Attribution (by)
Plus other similar combinations.

#7: Survey Says
Student demographics surveys.
Student satisfaction surveys (related to
the virtual campus and e-services).
Course evaluation surveys.
Survey your online faculty to determine
their needs and practices.
Nationally benchmarked: Noel-Levitz
PSOL (Priorities Survey Online Learners)
You need data to make data-based
decisions.

High-Speed Access
80.0%
70.0%
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Hi-Speed Internet Dial-up Internet
Based on self-reporting from student demographics surveys

Student Satisfaction
LSC used the Noel-Levitz Priorities Survey
for Online Learners (PSOL) in 2004,
2005, and 2006.
In 2006, this became a MnOnline
initiative with 17 schools participating.
More schools joined in 2007.
Student satisfaction blog reports the
results:
http://blog.lsc.edu/psol/

#6: Employ Distance Learners
Online Student Mentor Program – Began Fall
2003
Mentor is assigned to a particular course.
Help with technical aspects—especially at
beginning of course
Answer general questions
Support the instructor
Student mentors have often become future
teachers
Provides employment for students w/unique
circumstances

Actual Student Email
I just want to tell you how much I loved
your class!!! I was not looking forward to
a lit class, but your class ended up being
my favorite!!! I was just wondering if that
student mentor thing is a work/study
thing and if I could possibly do it next
semester. I qualify for work/study, but I
couldn’t do it this past semester
since I don’t live in Duluth. Danielle

#5: Quality Rubrics
Create or find a rubric for assessing online
course quality (and all courses, if possible)
such as MarylandOnline Quality Matters.
http://www.qualitymatters.org/
Another rubric has been developed at
Metropolitan State University to assess course
readiness before it is offered for the first time.
http://www.metrostate.edu/col/rubric_ver3.pdf

Quality Control: Course Design
LSC adopted a revised version of
Quality Matters in 2004, it is faculty-
driven and optional.
LSC faculty-led workshops have
spread this concept throughout the
MnOnline system.
Peer Review Blog: all documents and
commentary
http://blog.lsc.edu/onlinepeerreview

#4: Enhance Your E-Services
WCET E-Services “Beyond the Core”
Pay attention to the difference between
“e-student services” and “student e-
services.”
90% of your students want to use
effective e-services.

CENTSS
Recognizing this emerging need as
early as 2002, the Minnesota State
Colleges and Universities System
(MnSCU) contracted with WCET to
research best practices in Web-based
services and to co-develop an audit
tool to help measure the sophistication
of the e-student services offered by its
32-member campuses.

#3: Be Creative
Online P.E. classes tied to World-class
Athletic Events
Grandma’s Marathon (running)
American Birkebeiner (skiing)
NorthShore Inline Marathon
(skating)
Train at home, then compete in
event. Webpage

Katie Frerker, Online PE Student
Works for the US
Forest Service in Idaho
Took LSC online course
to prepare for the
American Birkebeiner
Finished first in her
race class in 2006
Birkie
“By taking the online Birkie class, I was
able to beat my personal goal. It really
paid off for a first time racer.”

#2: Be Flexible
Schedule flexibility is a fabulous thing
for students. One size does NOT fit all.
The traditional agrarian school
calendar serves no purpose in online
education.
Create multiple starting points, with
different term lengths, and target
different populations.

Example of Life Interruption
Psychology
PsychologyPsychology
12 Weeks
Invested,
12 Credits
Humanities
Humanities Humanities
Paid For,
No Credits
Earned,
Biology Biology Biology With Little
Incentive
To Return
History History History
4 weeks 8 weeks 12 weeks

Alternate Outcome
12 Weeks
Psychology
Invested,
12 Credits
Paid For,
9 Credits
Humanities
Earned,
With More
Incentive
Biology To Return
History - No
4 weeks 8 weeks 12 weeks

#1: Dealing with Plagiarism
Student plagiarism is a teachable
moment – seize the opportunity.
Barry’s Personal Opinion: Services like
Turnitin.com are an abomination.
“On what planet does it make
sense to violate the intellectual
property rights of the students to
teach them not to violate the
intellectual property rights of
others?” Blog post.

Turnitin Badge

Contact Info:
Barry Dahl
Vice President of Technology
& the Virtual Campus
Lake Superior College
b.dahl@lsc.edu 218.733.7690