Hear what is working from the 2013 Sloan-C Effective Practices Winners!

1. Sloan-C Effective Practices
Webinar
December 3, 2013
2pm ET

2. Who is the Sloan Consortium?
The Sloan Consortium is an institutional and
professional leadership organization dedicated
to integrating online education into the
mainstream of higher education, helping
institutions and individual educators improve
the quality, scale, and breadth of education.

3. Effective Practices
• Peer Reviewed
• Innovative Practices
• Tied to Sloan-C Pillars
• http://sloanconsortium.org/effective

4. Peer Review Committee
• Effective Practice Awards Selection Committee
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Dr. Angela M. Gibson
Dr. Laurie G. Hillstock
Phil Ice, Ed.D.
Dr. Kaye Shelton
Witt Salley
Shari Smith

5. Assessing the Effectiveness of
Online Educator Preparation

6. Author(s)
• Dr. Bob Blomeyer, President
and CEO of Online Teaching
Associates
OESES Construct Validity Study
by:
• Dr. Dazhi Yang, Boise State
University
• Dr. Jui-Long Hung , Boise
State University
Presenter: Dr. Bob
Blomeyer

7. OESES : Early Development
In the beginning… (2001)

8. Measuring Impact from Online
Professional Development
The Online Educator Self-Efficacy Survey: A valid and
reliable assessment/program evaluation instrument.
• Validity - the degree to which the evidence
generated by an instrument supports the
interpretations of the evidence .
• Reliability - the consistency of the assessment
outcomes generated at different times.
• Three common types: content, construct and
Criterion (concurrent).

9. Construct Validity: OESES
1. The OESES instrument obtained high values on
traditional (Cronbach’s Alpha) and Rasch person / item
reliability tests – indicate high internal consistency.
2. Correlation of individuals’ total scores on the GSE and
OESES - indicate a strong positive correlation between
the two instruments.
3. Hung & Yang’s analysis suggests OESES effectively
assesses educator’s ability to support student success in
online educational environments.
Yang, Hung & Blomeyer – AERA 2013
http://tinyurl.com/orbp2ut

10. Application: Evaluating Professional
Development for Online Instructors
Comparison of Pre-Post Survey
Administrations:
Pre-test/post-test comparison
determined OTA-121 produced a
significant difference in the
participants’ attitudes measured by
pre-post administrations of OESES.
An unpaired t-test performed on
the pre-post survey scores for 344
cases found the following:
t= -35.3 / sdev= 0.557
degrees of freedom =671
The probability of this
result, assuming the null
hypothesis, is less than .0001.

11. Blended Education

12. Len Bogner, Ed.D.
Bucky Dodd, Ph.D.
University of Central Oklahoma

13. Blended Education
• Strategic integration of multiple delivery
methods in a unified learning environment
• Classroom, Online, Self-Paced
Online, Interactive Video
• Enhance flexibility and “humanness”
• Enhance choice and adult learning strategies

15. Evidence of Effectiveness
• Blended Education methods can help bridge
gaps between students and educational
opportunity
• Emphasis needs to be placed on the design of
connections between delivery modes and various
elements in the learning environment
• Additional focus should be given to learning
about enhancing connectedness among students

16. Application To Others
• Explore existing organizational opportunities for
using blended education strategies (multiple
delivery modes-unified learning experiences)
• Use what you have in creative ways
• Systems thinking beyond the “classroom”
• Find ways to make learning human – It doesn’t have
to be perfect, it has to relate and be authentic

17. Conditional Release Technologies
(CRT) for Management Education

18. Author(s)
• Dr. Owen P. Hall, Jr.
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Professor Decision Sciences
Julian Virtue Professor
Rothschild Applied Research Fellow
Howard White Teaching Fellow
• Graziadio School of Business
Pepperdine University

19. Conditional Release Technologies
(CRT) for Management Education
• Self-paced supplemental learning
• Offered at a time and place
convenient to the student
• Progressive learning development
• Specialized course requirements
• Delivery of “bit-size” knowledge
units
• Intelligent tutor applications

20. Conditional Release Course

21. Evidence of Effectiveness
• Students enjoy interactive and
progressive learning (Web 2.0)
• Exposing students to technology that
they will likely encounter in the business
community
• Monitoring student learning patterns
and achievements on a weekly basis
• Students found themselves generally
more engaged in the tutorials that gave
them the highest level of bandwidth and
engagement

22. Application To Others
• CRT fully compatible with LMS (e.g., Sakai)
• CRT supports the changing face of
management education (Web 2.0)
• CRT provides content and knowledge at a
time and place convenient to the student
• Entering and continuing students need
familiarization with selected business
principles
• Intelligent tutors help enhance CRT learning
outcomes

23. Enhancing Faculty Development
Through Integrating the Teaching
Online Pedagogical Repository

24. Author(s)
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Kelvin Thompson, Ed.D.
Associate Director
Center for Distributed Learning
University of Central Florida
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Baiyun Chen, Ph.D.
Instructional designer
Center for Distributed Learning
University of Central Florida

25. Enhancing Faculty Development
Through Integrating the Teaching
Online Pedagogical Repository
• Reusable online teaching practices
• Faculty development strategies
• URL: http://topr.online.ucf.edu
• Creative Commons license

26. Evidence of Effectiveness
• UCF faculty development materials
• UCF shared in BlendKit and conferences
• Used by other institutions
• Tens of thousands of page views

27. Application To Others
• Public resource for online faculty and
instructional designers
• Resource for professional development
programs
• Creative Commons License
• Call for submissions: http://goo.gl/qTFbr5

28. Multiuser Blogging as an
Educational Innovation

29. Author
Michael Wilder
Instructional Design Coordinator
Destiny has led Michael on a dual career path of both education and
technology. The result is a hybrid individual with skills and perspectives
from both fields. He has worked as an educator and trainer in a variety of
environments, serving as an instructional designer, learning technologies
specialist, Blackboard administrator, journalist, magazine editor, and faculty
member. Michael is currently completing his Ph.D. in Educational
Psychology from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
E-mail: m1ch43lw1ld3r@gmail.com
Phone: 702-879-8454
Blog: http://www.vegas-times.com/litf/
Twitter: @michaelwilder
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelwilder

30. Multiuser Blogging as an Educational Innovation
• Community of learning based upon Wordpress blogging
software and the BuddyPress plugin
• Enables student ownership of the learning environment
including look and feel, easy inclusion of multimedia, and
social media integration
• Provides opportunities for collaboration, peer
evaluation, and student-generated content
• A wealth of additional plugins that extend basic features to
include podcasting, mobile
access, gamification, badges, and location-based
learning

31. Evidence of Effectiveness
• Student evaluations
Student evaluations of the course indicate a high degree of
satisfaction with the course and the learning environment.
• Student testimonials
Students are asked to reflect on their experience participating in
the course. Over the last four years of teaching using this
technique, these reflections are overwhelmingly positive.
• Student-produced content
In addition to developing their own student portfolio, students
produce at least nine full-length articles that are peer reviewed
and evaluated.

32. Application To Others
• Institution-wide environment for
collaboration, communication, and group
management (such as an online academic
commons)
• Academic publication development (via
wikis, blogs, and additional plugins)
• Flexible for any course involving writing and
multimedia
Full presentation
http://tinyurl.com/mublogging

33. International Collaboration with
Virtual Internships

34. Author(s)
• Allison Selby
• Information Technology
faculty specializing in
creating high-impact
experiential learning
opportunities through virtual
partnerships.
• Kaplan University
• Julie Frieswyk
• Experienced marketing
professional with extensive
startup activity in both the
private and non-profit
sectors.
• U.S. Peace Corps

35. International Collaboration with
Virtual Internships
• Technical needs at a distance, a solution from
abroad
• “Mutually beneficial agenda”- students
practicing newly acquired skills while building
experience, win-win for both beneficiaries and
students.
• Skills transfer and global understanding, social
responsibility
• Technology aides in making the world a smaller
place: necessary equipment

36. Evidence of Effectiveness
• Small sampling of student participation, evidence is largely anecdotal and
based upon student and NGO team feedback:
▫ Students felt was a unique international opportunity , working together with
international clients to experience real-world project management.
▫ The NGO gained exposure to more skills and up-to-date technology while building
their own capacity.
▫ Students enjoyed the experience overall and loved the new addition to their
resume and credentials.
• The virtual internships creates problem-solving activities with the potential
to result in real-world skills such as collaboration for problemsolving, technology proficiency, presentation skills, and a greater
appreciation for intercultural diversity (Humphreys, 2009).
• This opportunity provides students with an international experience who
may otherwise be limited by finances, work responsibilities, family
obligations or physical limitations. In addition, there is a considerable costsavings when compared to studying abroad for the same amount of time. A
virtual internship program incurs regular tuition fees, no additional costs
are required by the student.

37. Application To Others
• Virtual internship partnerships offer experiential learning in a
wide variety of study areas from social entrepreneurship,
micro-finance, marketing, business administration and design to
organizational development, project writing and fundraising
activities.
• This type of project benefits tremendously by considerable
advanced preparatory stages.
▫ Using project charters to outline weekly outcomes and deliverables is
very important.
▫ Defining the exact scope of the deliverables, what assets may be needed
and the key stakeholders were all important topics to clarify.
▫ Synchronous weekly team meetings using Skype with the clients gave the
students a vested interest and motivation to succeed.
▫ Having the students train the clients for site maintenance gave them
ownership of the process and pride in their proof of success.

38. Measuring Online Students' Contact
Hours: The Online Learning Contact
Hour Calculator

39. Dr. Karan Powell is Executive
Vice President and Provost of
American Public University
System. Dr. Powell leads the
academics department to
ensure academic quality and
online teaching
effectiveness, focusing on
student success, advocating
for the faculty, and
collaborating in the
advancement of online
instructional strategies and
technology.
Dr. Jennifer Stephens Helm is
Dean and Vice-President of
Institutional Research and
Assessment of American Public
University System. Dr. Helm
leads the Institutional
Research and Assessment
department with a focus on
enhancing institutional
effectiveness by providing data
and information that supports
and strengthens institutionwide decision
making, operations
management, and strategic
planning processes.

40. Measuring Online Students' Contact Hours: The Online
Learning Contact Hour Calculator
•
In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education adopted new regulations
regarding an institutions eligibility to award academic credit. The
regulations set forth: a) a federal definition of the credit hour
applicable to eligible institutions, and b) requirements for
accrediting agencies to review an institution’s policies and
procedures for determining credit hours.
•
In response to federal regulation, we initiated an institution-wide
course review process aimed at systematically identifying the
strengths and areas of improvement for each course offered at
APUS.
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While conducting the course reviews, a need was identified for a
contact hour calculator that considers specific online learning
components and platform. A model was developed to ensure
adherence to the contact-hour regulations as well as course quality
and rigor.
•
A course review process was launched as part of our process to
ensure academic excellence and curriculum quality.

41. The Contact Hours Calculator is a:
Tool
A tool created for faculty
and program directors to
effectively and
systematically assess total
course contact hours. It
considers many factors
related to in-class and
outside-class projects, as
well as course reading
requirements, in order to
calculate contact-hour
totals.
Continuously evolving
work in progress
The calculator model will
be revised and updated as
more research in contacthour equivalents are
conducted and specific
course requirements
added.
Subset of data within a
larger context to evaluate
course quality and rigor
The contact hour totals are used
as part of an overall process for
course review. In conjunction
with other data, the contact
hour total data serve to initiate
conversation about academic
rigor and appropriate contact
time optimal for student
success and student learning.

42. The Contact Hours Calculator is Not:
• A measure of student learning
• To be used without appropriate parameters and context specific to
the discipline
• Punitive or punishing
• The sole source of truth in the evaluation of course quality and
rigor
• A one size fits all solution (e.g., learning strategies and
expectations for a math or science course may different from those
for an English course)

43. Review Findings
• The process helped to establish a baseline for expectations of engagement in student
learning.
• Contact hours are defined and each class is assessed to ensure that each class has 45
contact hours of learning and an additional 80 – 100 hours of homework associated with
the class for a total of 120+ hours for undergrad classes and 150+ hours for grad classes.
• Standardization is needed across all APUS courses to support the student experience and
student retention.
• Courses meet and in many cases exceed the minimum required number of contact hours
for both in class contact and homework time. Some courses were discovered to be
significantly in excess of the range of 120 to 150 hours. These courses are being reviewed.
• In the occasional finding that a course was discovered to be deficient in hours, immediate
correction was made to the class to strengthen compliance with contact hour requirements.
• Continual monitoring of these spreadsheets against APUS average class sizes is required.
• Each discipline has unique credit hour requirements.

44. Sample Class Time Factors and Average Quantitative
Measurements

45. Sample Class Time Factors and Average Quantitative
Measurements

46. Sample Contact Hours Calculator

47. For more information:
• Please contact kpowell@apus.edu or jhelm@apus.edu if you would
like a copy of the contact hours calculator.
• http://sloanconsortium.org/effective_practices/apus-onlinelearning-contact-hour-calculator-adaptive-model-calculatingcontact• http://www.swosu.edu/academics/aij/2012/v2v2/powell-helmlayne-ice.pdf
• http://stylus.styluspub.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=30
8401

48. A Media-Rich Platform to Enhance
Student Engagement and Learning
in an Online Environment

49. A Media-Rich Platform to Enhance
Student Engagement and Learning in
an Online Environment

50. • Scott Bledsoe, Psy.D
• Assistant Professor in the Department of
Graduate Psychology, where he teaches
online research methodology and other
courses to students of Marriage and
Family Therapy.
Bruce Simmerok, Ph.D
Director of Instructional Technology for the
Center for Innovative Teaching and
Technology.

57. Evidence of Effectiveness
• Comparison of surveys from previous years
showed improvement of student ratings.
• Few students had trouble learning to navigate in
the environment.

58. 2012

59. 2013

60. Application To Others
• Increasing the variety of media gives different
learning styles more opportunity
• Creating a virtual environment is feasible on a
low budget
• Multimedia created by the professor and
students increases the engagement of the learner

61. Congratulations
Effective Practice
Award Winners
Thank you for sharing your practices with us
today!

62. Submit Your Effective Practice
Share What Works
Deadline – December 30, 2013
http://sloanconsortium.org/effective

63. Questions