Starting and Sustaining Online Teaching and Learning at a Small Liberal Arts College The document discusses considerations for small liberal arts colleges looking to start or expand online teaching and learning programs. It addresses what online learning means, how it can support or threaten traditional liberal arts models, and provides guidance on building effective online programs through faculty development, course design, and student support. The key is balancing online opportunities with maintaining the personal attention and community feel that small liberal arts colleges are known for.

1. CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITIES:
Starting and Sustaining Online Teaching
and Learning at a Small Liberal Arts
College
Dr. Kevin Gannon
Director, Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning, Professor of History
Grand View University
December 14-15, 2015
Sweet Briar College
FlickruserTextureX

2. What is online learning?
What does it mean to learn online?

3. “You can go to college in your pajamas!”

4. We
already
do!

5. enchNationalLibrary

6. Closer Than We Think, 1958

7. The Jetsons, 1963

8. Photo by Flickr user Arbyreed
“This mechanizes education
and leaves the local teacher
only the tasks of
preparing…and keeping order
in the classroom.”
Lloyd Allen Cook,
On the radio-broadcast lecture
Community Backgrounds of Education: A Textbook in
Educational Sociology. (McGraw-Hill, 1938), p. 249

9. Flickr user trevor.patt
Like any pedagogy, online teaching and learning is better
imagined as a spectrum rather than a technique.
Web-enhanced Blended Learning Online

10. What does online learning mean for the Liberal Arts?
Does it render the liberal arts model obsolete? Is there no longer
any room for the SLAC? Are we being “disrupted” out of existence?
Flickr user Zlemu@cracow

11. “A highly qualified
faculty committed to
the highest standards
of teaching engages
individuals on a
human scale. In small
classes, students
receive the attention
that encourages self-
confidence and the
improvement of skills
for life and
livelihood.”
Statement of Purpose in
Support of the Mission,
Sweet Briar College
sbc.edu/about/our-mission

12. “A highly qualified
faculty committed to
the highest standards
of teaching engages
individuals on a
human scale. In small
classes, students
receive the attention
that encourages self-
confidence and the
improvement of skills
for life and
livelihood.”
Statement of Purpose in
Support of the Mission,
Sweet Briar College
sbc.edu/about/our-mission

13. Online Learning means what we make it mean, in it most essential sense.
Without an intentional commitment to take what makes our institutions
matter and embody it online, online education will be nothing more than
a reproduction of the worst parts of face-to-face education in a newer,
shinier—and more expensive—place.
Flickr user Pailo Lottini

14. I’m often asked, “doesn’t online education threaten face-to-face learning?”
I don’t think that’s the right question to be asking. I like to turn the question
around: Why do we assume that everything about face-to-face learning is
inherently worth saving?

16. Flickr user Jams
We do better when we stop asking if online
teaching and learning is “better” or “worse,”
and understand that it’s just different.

17. At its best, online learning
means:
• Active and Engaged
Education
• Peer-Driven Learning
• Flexibility and
Accountability
• Emancipatory Potential
• Student Success
Flickr user Tech Cocktail

18. The SLAC is the anti-MOOC.
And our voices need to be at the online education table.
Because if we don’t tell our story, somebody else will.
Flickr user Alan Levine

19. So how do we build it?

20. Flickr user Adam Meek
Cultivate campus Allies and Advocates
• Administrators
• IT staff (Instructional Designers)
• Faculty Developers/Teaching and Learning Experts

21. Have a clear answer when someone asks “Why Are We Doing
This?” (and “Who is doing this?” )
Flickr user Chris Havard

22. Most Importantly: Support your Faculty and Students!
Flickr user Theen Moy

23. Flickr user Thomas Gulgnard
There are a number of models for online teaching and learning. The key is to find the
ideal nexus of institution and model. Which students will be learning online? Which
faculty will be teaching online? Is curriculum and course design outsourced (this is
different than accepting transfer courses)? What share of institutional resources do
you wish to devote to online learning?

24. For small liberal arts
colleges, the
outsourcing model
may contain more
problems than
solutions.
Our strengths lie in
authenticity and
community.
Flickr user Richard Lambert

25. What story are you telling your
students?
What story are you telling both
current and potential instructors?
What story are you telling your
community?
Are the same student success
resources you’ve cultivated on
campus available to online
learners?
FlickruserZeltfaenger

26. Who are these online learners? 2.64 million students
took online classes as
their total enrollment
(12.5% of total
enrollments)
Another 2.81 million
students took at least
online class as part of
their enrollment
(13.3% of total
enrollments)
Almost 26% of all
college students are
learning online.
(Fall 2012 Title IV
institutions)

27. Who are Sweet Briar’s
online learners now?
Who will they be later?

28. As we create an online class or program, we should ask ourselves what
kind of pedagogical space we’re building. Is it a space that invites
students, faculty, and staff into a venture with learning at its center?

29. Support faculty by recognizing the time commitment (and, for
some, the “leap of faith”) involved. Recruiting faculty to teach
online is best done by supporting those who already do.
Flickr user Thomas Hawk

30. Faculty
Development
should be
consistently
available:
Stay Plugged In!
-Teaching Circles
-Faculty Reading
Groups
-Faculty Learning
Communities
-Critique Sessions
-SoTL
Flickr user Morgan Terry

31. Flickr user Dano2
Develop a Course Review Process that is collaborative, formative, and reflective.
Ideally, review of online courses is an ongoing dialogue between instructors,
technologists, and appropriate administrators. The intent here should be to provide a
place for faculty to be critically reflective practitioners.

32. Like faculty, students need to be recruited, supported, and participate in
development. We—institutions, programs, and individual faculty—all
have a part to play in supporting our online learners.
Flickr user Betsy Weber

33. Effective online teaching and learning is made up of connections: students, faculty,
institutions, technology, disciplinary scholarship, the vast repository of the web—all
are connected to one another in varying degrees and frequencies.

34. Your turn:
What is in place? What should be in
place?
What can be built?
How will we build them?

35. Flickr user Enkhtuvshin
Are you ready to teach online?
Psst….you’re already kind of doing it.

38. What are your “Big Rocks?”

39. Flickr user Alejandro Polanco
For effective course design, begin with the end in mind. What are the non-
negotiables, the sine qua non for your students in this course? Once we define these,
the rest of the process—goals, objectives, assessments, activities—falls into place.
Flickr user Alan Alfaro

40. Flickr user Chris
There are three types of presence that are vital to maintain in a blended or online
course: Instructor Presence, Cognitive Presence, and Social Presence.

41. We define teaching presence as the design, facilitation, and
direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of
realizing personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile
learning outcomes. Teaching presence begins before the
course commences as the teacher, acting as instructional
designer, plans and prepares the course of studies, and it
continues during the course, as the instructor facilitates the
discourse and provides direct instruction when required
-Anderson, et al.(2001)
To what degree is the instructor real and present in the course and its community?
Flickr user Zlemu@Cracow

42. By being cognitively present, students construct knowledge and meaning
through collaboration and interaction. The course design, its content, and
a community of discourse are essential for creating a cognitive presence.
Flickr user Bob M.

43. Flickr user Michael Heiss
Social presence is the ability of learners to project their
personal characteristics into the community of inquiry,
thereby presenting themselves as ‘real people.’
-Rourke, et al. (2001).

44. Flickr user Nullfy
Creating effective presence—teaching, cognitive, and
social—involves matters of both Time and Space.

45. What is my course telling students about what I think is
important?
We should ask this question not just about content and
assessments, but design as well.
Flickr user Daniel Go

46. Helping students find their way—
before and during the course—is
a crucial element of instructor
presence, and it builds students’
cognitive and social presences as
well.
Flickr user Four Bricks High

47. Flickr user Mike Licht
Welcoming Students:
• Before-class email
• Tutorial/Walk-
Through
• Virtual Office
Hours
• Discussion Board
Introductions and
“Parking Lot”
• Campus Resources

48. Flickr user Kenmalnr
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an intentional
effort to address the diversity of learners we have in our
courses, and to create opportunities for our students to
learn (and for us to assess) in a variety of ways

49. Text is different when it’s just text. This is one of the most significant
elements of the learning curve for both instructor and student.
Flickr user Juan Pablo Lauriente

50. Flickr user Calen Wagoner
As we’ve all learned in our own online experiences, asynchronous
communication can have its pitfalls. An understanding and basic
expectation of “netiquette” is crucial. From the instructor side, we
need to be mindful of the need for Varied Representation.

51. The Need for Varied Representation
If balloons pop, the sound wouldn't be able to carry since
everything would be too far away from the correct floor. A closed
window would also prevent the sound from carrying, since most
buildings tend to be well insulated. Since the whole operation
depends on a steady flow of electricity, a break in the middle of
the wire would also cause problems. Of course, the fellow could
shout, but the human voice is not loud enough to carry that far.
An additional problem is that a string could break on the
instrument. Then there could be no accompaniment to the
message. It is clear that the best situation would involve less
distance. Then there would be fewer potential problems. With
face to face contact, the least number of things could go wrong.
(Bransford and Johnson, p. 719)

52. Now, try again:
If the balloons popped, the sound wouldn't be able to
carry since everything would be too far away from the
correct floor. A closed window would also prevent the
sound from carrying, since most buildings tend to be
well insulated. Since the whole operation depends on a
steady flow of electricity, a break in the middle of the
wire would also cause problems. Of course, the fellow
could shout, but the human voice is not loud enough to
carry that far. An additional problem is that a string
could break on the instrument. Then there could be no
accompaniment to the message. It is clear that the best
situation would involve less distance. Then there would
be fewer potential problems. With face to face contact,
the least number of things could go wrong.
(Bransford and Johnson, 1972, p. 719)

53. Flickr user Trey Ratcliff
In addition to Varied
Representation, Blended
and Online Learning should
provide students with
opportunities to create
Varied Expressions of their
engagement with the
material and one another.

54. Final Project Description
For your final project in this course, you must demonstrate both your knowledge of gender studies
and your critical reading, thinking, and creating skills. The medium through which you complete
this project is up to you (some suggestions are below), but you must do the following:
1) Communicate a political, social, or cultural argument to a specific audience
2) Demonstrate your knowledge of gender studies
3) Integrate reflections on your own ability to create social change
Potential Project Mediums:
Write: a novella, essay, song, short screenplay, or set of poems
Create: short video, digital narrative (audio essay with pictures), comic strip
Design: an “app” for smart phones, a game for children or adults
Perform: a short play, interpretive dance, or monologue
What does Varied Expression Look Like?
Source: Kathryn Linder, Oregon State University

55. Flickr user Peter Corbett
PODCASTING
Google Docs
Second Life
“CLASSROOM”
Skype
ZOOM
Learning
Management System Geocaching
Museums Libraries and Archives
WIKIS OERs
YouTube
Social Bookmarking
Blogging
Discussion Forums

56. “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”
-Abraham Maslow
Flickr user Alan L