As I have shared, my organization is working toward developing a virtual reality type of simulation program/course for oncologists. It's getting closer and I am in the process of preliminary program development as part of the proposal development process.
The grant request is due December 1, so I have loads of time.
We are in the nitty gritty details of the simulation company tech guy talking to my organization's IT people, figuring out who will host and bandwidth concerns, working out a Non-Disclosure Agreement (confidentiality agreement), developing a Master Services Agreement for if/when the project starts, developing the budget, determining clinical focus and content, etc. I am also researching simulation as training method so as to incorporate theoretical/research content in the proposal.
Fun! :)
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
Typical DE Program at Community College
I found an interesting report published in March 2010 by the Instructional Technology Council on DE in the Community College setting (wish I'd had it a few units ago!).
Of note, the report synthesized six years of survey data to say that the typical online program at a Community College:
1. Is the primary source for enrollment growth for its institution.
2. Does not offer enough classes to meet student demand.
3. Increases access to higher education.
4. Is attracting an increasing number of nontraditional (for DE - younger) students.
5. Reports to the academic side of the institution (dean or above).
6. Is under-staffed, working in cramped conditions, and has an inadequate budget.
7. Offers approximately 160 online classes/class sections each semester.
8. Has become a significant change-agent, prompting increased faculty training and professional development, rethinking how we teach, and providing a catalyst for integrating technology into instruction.
9. Often leads the institution in dealing with issues of assessment, design, rigor, course quality and learning.
10. Struggles to obtain understanding, acceptance and support from campus leaders, who often lack direct experience with this method of teaching and learning (sometimes a generational disconnect).
See link here:
http://www.itcnetwork.org/file.php?file=%2F1%2FITCAnnualSurvey2009Results.pdf
I thought the items above were interesting and perhaps may apply to other institutions, not just community colleges. I especially loved #6. :)
Let me know your thoughts on this.
Thanks!
Of note, the report synthesized six years of survey data to say that the typical online program at a Community College:
1. Is the primary source for enrollment growth for its institution.
2. Does not offer enough classes to meet student demand.
3. Increases access to higher education.
4. Is attracting an increasing number of nontraditional (for DE - younger) students.
5. Reports to the academic side of the institution (dean or above).
6. Is under-staffed, working in cramped conditions, and has an inadequate budget.
7. Offers approximately 160 online classes/class sections each semester.
8. Has become a significant change-agent, prompting increased faculty training and professional development, rethinking how we teach, and providing a catalyst for integrating technology into instruction.
9. Often leads the institution in dealing with issues of assessment, design, rigor, course quality and learning.
10. Struggles to obtain understanding, acceptance and support from campus leaders, who often lack direct experience with this method of teaching and learning (sometimes a generational disconnect).
See link here:
http://www.itcnetwork.org/file.php?file=%2F1%2FITCAnnualSurvey2009Results.pdf
I thought the items above were interesting and perhaps may apply to other institutions, not just community colleges. I especially loved #6. :)
Let me know your thoughts on this.
Thanks!
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Learning objectives (Unit 9)
Learning objectives are something I work with in my professional setting all the time. All of my organization's continuing medical education activities must have objectives in order for us to offer credits to physicians and nurses.
And it is a huge pain in the neck for us! Our clinical writers who give the background information on the topic for the activity we're planning usually provide draft objectives. But they are typically not behavioral at all. The almost always start with "Understand...". If we were just concerned about simple accreditation of activities, it would not be a problem. But since every activity we do is funded by outside grants that I am responsible for, and the general CME environment is trying to change performance, not knowledge, these knowledge-based objectives are not appropriate. We always have to rewrite them but of course since we're not clinicians ourselves, we naturally have to get them reviewed again.
This is just one example, but I'd be curious about how many people actually are in a position to write their own program's learning objectives.
Can you do this or is it up to the content experts? Or is it, as in my organization, a combination of the two?
And it is a huge pain in the neck for us! Our clinical writers who give the background information on the topic for the activity we're planning usually provide draft objectives. But they are typically not behavioral at all. The almost always start with "Understand...". If we were just concerned about simple accreditation of activities, it would not be a problem. But since every activity we do is funded by outside grants that I am responsible for, and the general CME environment is trying to change performance, not knowledge, these knowledge-based objectives are not appropriate. We always have to rewrite them but of course since we're not clinicians ourselves, we naturally have to get them reviewed again.
This is just one example, but I'd be curious about how many people actually are in a position to write their own program's learning objectives.
Can you do this or is it up to the content experts? Or is it, as in my organization, a combination of the two?
Sunday, November 7, 2010
My own story of development for DE (Unit 8)
The question of faculty development for DE is a vital one. As we are reading and reporting on the literature in this area this week, I can't help but remember back before I started teaching online and I could not even IMAGINE how it was done!
I was working at a university where I taught grant writing and a friend in the English department told me that they had an opening for an adjunct instructor for an online freshman comp class. This was 7 years ago and there were many fewer people around who had online experience and very few people who were willing to do it. I was at the time willing to take on any extra gig (single mom needed the money!). So I went to talk to one of the profs in the department. He told me some about the course but truly I could not even grasp how it would work. This was obvious to the prof so naturally I was not hired for that job!
Flash forward a couple years. Single mom still looking for extra gigs applies to a for-profit online university. I still could not imagine how it would all work, but then they put me through an excellent six week training program. It was extremely comprehensive and took me through it in (at times excruciating) detail.
Flash forward some more. I've been teaching online for 3.5 years and of course have been a purely online learner at PSU for two of those years. I have gained experience, perspective, and have received excellent feedback from the faculty development team at the university. As I posted in the discussion forum, my courses are monitored (without my knowledge) at least once a year, after which I receive a detailed report.
So for me, faculty development has been an ongoing experience--not just one workshop or even a 6 week course.
What about others and your experience? What has your development been like?
I was working at a university where I taught grant writing and a friend in the English department told me that they had an opening for an adjunct instructor for an online freshman comp class. This was 7 years ago and there were many fewer people around who had online experience and very few people who were willing to do it. I was at the time willing to take on any extra gig (single mom needed the money!). So I went to talk to one of the profs in the department. He told me some about the course but truly I could not even grasp how it would work. This was obvious to the prof so naturally I was not hired for that job!
Flash forward a couple years. Single mom still looking for extra gigs applies to a for-profit online university. I still could not imagine how it would all work, but then they put me through an excellent six week training program. It was extremely comprehensive and took me through it in (at times excruciating) detail.
Flash forward some more. I've been teaching online for 3.5 years and of course have been a purely online learner at PSU for two of those years. I have gained experience, perspective, and have received excellent feedback from the faculty development team at the university. As I posted in the discussion forum, my courses are monitored (without my knowledge) at least once a year, after which I receive a detailed report.
So for me, faculty development has been an ongoing experience--not just one workshop or even a 6 week course.
What about others and your experience? What has your development been like?
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Great article on determining DE cost (Unit 6 and 7)
As I was reading for the Team B Google Doc/annotated bibliography we are building together, I found a great article about different cost models for distance education. The link is below--I highly recommend reading this since I think it addresses many of the questions people brought up related to the Unit 6 assignment.
As if there were any doubt, my enjoyment of this article confirms my budget/program geekhood. :)
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring131/crawford131.html
As if there were any doubt, my enjoyment of this article confirms my budget/program geekhood. :)
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring131/crawford131.html
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Feeling awesome about Transformation Theory
As I have mentioned before I believe, I am doing an independent study on Mezirow's transformational learning theory this semester. I know this blog is meant for our DE course but I am feeling so good I want to shout it from the rooftops (or blogspots--can you hear my barbaric yawp?!).
I am about done my annotated bibliography (paper is next) and I am feeling great! I have read so much and thought about this day in and day out for two months and I really feel like I KNOW this author and this theory--and this is the first time in this entire ADTED program that I have felt like I have truly mastered something.
It's been so interesting to see that the very same thoughts I had back in September when I first read Mezirow's core texts are the ones brought up again and again in the literature. And to see how M's own writing and concepts of his theory have changed is extremely interesting.
Anyway...it's not every day that our minds truly expand, so I am celebrating that tonight! :)
I am about done my annotated bibliography (paper is next) and I am feeling great! I have read so much and thought about this day in and day out for two months and I really feel like I KNOW this author and this theory--and this is the first time in this entire ADTED program that I have felt like I have truly mastered something.
It's been so interesting to see that the very same thoughts I had back in September when I first read Mezirow's core texts are the ones brought up again and again in the literature. And to see how M's own writing and concepts of his theory have changed is extremely interesting.
Anyway...it's not every day that our minds truly expand, so I am celebrating that tonight! :)
Monday, November 1, 2010
But it's my course! Or is it? (Unit 7)
Chapter 11 in our text "Delivering Digitally" gives what seems to me to be a fairly dispassionate description of the process of transitioning to distance/online education. And most of it seems pretty obvious--anyone who's gone through any organizational change could write the sentence that the process includes three phases: initial planning, startup, and changeover. Yes, of course.
More interesting to me was the question asked in our course information about what "teachers and administrators assume as part of their organizational culture", including who 'owns' the information that the teacher presents to learners.
This resonated with me because of an experience I've had with one of the universities where I teach as an adjunct asking me to develop my course into an online version. See, I think of it as "my" course. And in a way it is--it contains way more than simple content from a textbook or from other sources. It is based very much on my own experiences and the mini-internship component is built solely on my personal relationships with local non-profits who are willing to "host" grad students to write proposals for them.
But in a way it is not mine--yes, I developed the syllabus but it was approved by the faculty and is regulated by my department head every year. Yes, the course is based on my experience but is offered as an elective in a university degree program. And yes, I am paid to teach it every year.
If I, a yearly adjunct, feel the tug of "my" course, I can only imagine what others much more enmeshed in the academic life must feel when their institutions go in the direction of online DE. A major question is whether the development of a course means that the faculty will teach it, or whether a university might hire non-professors (like TAs or grad students etc.) to facilitate the course online.
From my position I can see a benefit to that, but I imagine that to a career-long resident of the academy, it might be tough to take.
What do you think?
More interesting to me was the question asked in our course information about what "teachers and administrators assume as part of their organizational culture", including who 'owns' the information that the teacher presents to learners.
This resonated with me because of an experience I've had with one of the universities where I teach as an adjunct asking me to develop my course into an online version. See, I think of it as "my" course. And in a way it is--it contains way more than simple content from a textbook or from other sources. It is based very much on my own experiences and the mini-internship component is built solely on my personal relationships with local non-profits who are willing to "host" grad students to write proposals for them.
But in a way it is not mine--yes, I developed the syllabus but it was approved by the faculty and is regulated by my department head every year. Yes, the course is based on my experience but is offered as an elective in a university degree program. And yes, I am paid to teach it every year.
If I, a yearly adjunct, feel the tug of "my" course, I can only imagine what others much more enmeshed in the academic life must feel when their institutions go in the direction of online DE. A major question is whether the development of a course means that the faculty will teach it, or whether a university might hire non-professors (like TAs or grad students etc.) to facilitate the course online.
From my position I can see a benefit to that, but I imagine that to a career-long resident of the academy, it might be tough to take.
What do you think?
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