Mobilizing Education Technology to Support Combat
Deployment
Council of College and Military Educators
20 February 2008
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Project Background
• Headquarters (HQs) Army Continuing Education System
(ACES) received an appropriated congressional mark that
provided operation and maintenance funding to Mobilize
Education Technology to Support Combat Deployment
• A Statement of Work was developed and a source
selection committee convened
• Florida Community College at Jacksonville (FCCJ) was
selected and managed the project through its Military
Education Institute (MIT)
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Project Background Continued
• HQ ACES required the adaptation of course content for six
online classes to a mobile learning (untethered) environment
where Soldiers had little or no internet connectivity
• Academic rigor was required through the use of WICHE Best
Practices that sought to preserve pedagogical elements in an
untethered environment
• The adapted courses were designed to foster college-level
critical thinking, decision making, adaptability/flexibility and
effective management skills for ambiguous situations
• FCCJ assembled a team of military experts, online faculty and
instructional designers/media experts to meet the requirements
of the contract
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Project Requirements
• Adapt Courses for No Connectivity
• Course Selection
• Hardware and Software Selection
• Selection of Mobile Delivery Device
• Faculty Software
• Faculty Training
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Project Design
• The project design involved three phases:
– Project analysis phase
– Course development
– Quality assurance phases and adaptation of the six selected
courses for submission to Army
• Army performed post-design course and evaluative reviews
with feedback for subsequent improvement
• Class reviews were performed by the Army on the college’s
selected mobile learning devices
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Course Selection
• FCCJ selected six online classes for adaptation to the mobile
learning environment:
– ENC 1101 – English Composition I (3SHs)
– CCJ 1020 – Introduction to Criminal Justice (3 SHs)
– SPN 1120 – Beginning Spanish I (4 SHs)
– CGS 1100 – Microcomputer Applications for Business and
Economics (3 SHs)
– MAC 1105 – College Algebra (3 SHs)
– GLY 1001 & 1001L – Earth and Space Science with Lab (4 SHs)
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Challenging Development Cycle
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Mobile Learning Framework
• The instructional design approach:
– considered minimal correspondence with the instructor of record
while seeking to develop a sense of community and connection for
the learner
– built upon constructivist and adult learning principles while
attempting to exploit the situational aspects of the authentic mobile
learning environment
– focused on creating self-directed learning experiences built on prior
knowledge and real-life events in order to most effectively engage
and enhance learner motivation
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Learning Approach
• Process flows interspersed with motivational learning objects,
allowed faculty to provide feedback loops, creating an organized
and interconnected sense of community for the learner
• Academic success, help, and technology support provided an
end-to-end learning solution
• Media-rich content was used as a stand alone solution providing
scaffolded Learner-content interactions
• Constructivism & Situational Learning
• Mobile Learner Theoretical Framework
• Use of Media
• Textbook Materials
• Interface & Navigation
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(Kissinger, 2007)
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Mobile Technologies
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Pepper Pad & Course Interface
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Tablet Kiosk UMPC
Navigation played an important role in project design.
Lack of interface with the instructor and delayed access
to direct helpdesk support required navigation that
clearly stepped the student through the learning process
in a scaffolded progression
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Device Evaluation
• Linux-based devices are more robust
• Stylus-based interface is less useful or desired
• Must be aligned with population and instruction
• Costs have significantly decreased since project
inception
• Diversity of devices has increased exponentially
as have functionality
• Chose universal media and authoring tools
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Faculty Certification
• In addition to SACS faculty certification requirements,
FCCJ created DL training & certification for faculty
– Based on learning and motivation research
– Coauthored by Palloff and Pratt
– Program funded via FIPSE grant
• Distance Learning Quality Assurance Division
conducts Faculty and Course content reviews on a
scheduled basis
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Faculty Training Plan
Training Method Learning Outcomes
ID for self-directed Workshop, By the end of this training, participants will be able to:
and paced content & Elluminate, and
instruction Moodle •Apply research-based motivational techniques in course
development, learning activities, and assessment
•Apply motivation research & best practices to media
development
•Acquire best practices based on learning and motivation
research to promote effective instructional practices in a
distributed and untethered distance course delivery
model.
iMovie Workshop, • Become proficient at creating instructional media using
Elluminate, and iMovie
Moodle
Garage Band Pod- Workshop, • Become proficient at creating instructional media using
casting Elluminate, and Garage band
Moodle
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Faculty Training Plan
Training Method Learning Outcomes
Applying Online Asynchronous By the end of this training, participants will be able to:
Motivational through Blackboard
Research to Create •Identify the factors that make up what we call motivation
Optimum Learning Define motivation and its related components Explore
Environments motivation theory through a real-life case example
Identify the research trends regarding motivation
research Identify the major theoretical approaches to the
study of motivation
Apply the research in various fields such as education,
business, and marketing Design self-regulatory strategies
that will aid learners in developing self-motivation
LMS Demonstrated Online Asynchronous •By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
Competency or prior through Blackboard use common Blackboard features to: post an online
training syllabus and assignments; interact via discussion board;
[BlackBoard] develop quizzes; and manage grade books; use the tools
to enhance interactivity such as teams and collaboration
understand the experience of a course management
system from both the student and instructor perspective;
convert existing content for display in Blackboard use the
communication and course management tools
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Key Findings: Faculty
• Faculty as active designers in
development process
• Characteristics of successful faculty
designers
• Faculty ability to author media
• Training was transformational
(pedagogy, new design skills)
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Working with Publishers
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Key Findings: Publishers
• FCCJ developed unprecedented partnerships with two major
publishing companies who worked to modify academic materials
to function in a stand alone environment
• Collaboration of expertise and resources allowed FCCJ to deliver
a high-level of academic rigor and quality
• New flexible portable publisher materials were developed
– - eBooks were embedded on the device to ease course
delivery
– Online materials were ported offline through collaborative
efforts
• Publishers were eager to develop for this population
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Project Insights
and Lessons Learned
• No “out-of-the-box” commercial solution
existed
• No proven or data-supported mobile
learning model currently exists
• FCCJ focused on improved academic
content presented in a media-rich format
that deviated from the traditional text-
based courses typical of most online
environments
• Didactic linear media presentations were
discarded in favor of interactive and
engaging rich media and scaffolded
learning modules
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Project Insights
and Lessons Learned Continued
• Quality review procedures that are tied closely to the
production cycle are required to ensure successful
development
• Poor instruction transfers across learning environments
• Opportunity for more authentic, contextualized learning
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Project Outcomes
• Mobile Learner Framework
• Mobile Technologies evaluated
• Faculty Training Plan
• New Publisher Formats
• Untethered Template
• Increased Learner Choices &
Access
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Next Steps
• The course design model applied to this project can easily be
adapted to similar student populations in community colleges
and training environments where internet connectivity for
distance learning is a challenge
• The Mobilizing Educational Technology project is an example
of an innovative and collaborative course design model that is
more inclusive and increases access to quality educational
opportunities while maintaining academic rigor and pedagogy
• FCCJ plans to begin offering these classes as an alternative
to online instruction in the Summer of 2008
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Imagining The Near Future…
• Mobile technologies that continue to increase in
functionality and decrease in cost
• Increased educational access for challenged
populations through untethered delivery
– Increased flexibility for learners – they select
when and where learning takes place
– Possibilities for more authentic and
contextualized learning experiences
– More media enrichment – eliminating
bandwidth restrictions experienced via on-line
delivery
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Please contact us
for ideas and questions
Thank You!
Amy Moorash Jeff Kissinger
eArmyU Program Manager Director Emergent Design
HQs Army Continuing Education Distance Learning
Florida Community College
amy.moorash@us.army.mil jkissing@fccj.edu
CIV: 703-325-2191 office 904-632-5052
DSN: 221-2191 mobile 904-485-0653
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