Table of Contents:

• Section 1 - News and Updates
• Section 2 - The eCorner - Articles, Ideas, and Innovations in ONLINE Teaching and Learning
• Section 3 - Training and Development

NOTE: This Newsletter utilizes some of the latest technology - Best viewed with the Firefox web browser and the newest Flash Player

BGSU e-Learning News and Updates

Online Learning Successes at BGSU: A Letter from the Director

Greetings and welcome to the 14th edition of the Center for Online and Blended Learning eLearning newsletter!

This past year has been exciting and productive for the Center for Online and Blended Learning, and included many successful online learning initiatives. Listed below are just a few Center for Online and Blended Learning “highlights” from 2008-09:

• COBL established BGSU as a founding partner of a state wide consortium of institutions that implemented Quality Matters™ in the state of Ohio. Quality Matters™ is a faculty centered peer review process designed to improve the quality of online courses that is fast becoming known as the national standard for online course design.
• BGSU’s College of Technology, in collaboration with COBL, formed a partnership with the Community College of the Air Force so that CCAF students can transfer their degrees to BGSU and earn an online Bachelor of Science in Technology, Advanced Technological Education degree.
• COBL staff presented at state and national conferences on online education initiatives (see the articles later in the newsletter about several of those conferences).
• COBL instructional designers assisted faculty in developing over 40 BGSU online courses.
• As of April, 2009, COBL has awarded online faculty training certificates to 235 BGSU faculty members.
• COBL developed and implemented blogs.bgsu.edu, a campus wide blogging system now being used by hundreds of BGSU faculty, students, and staff.
• Online course offerings and enrollments continue to grow! At BGSU, the number of online courses offered in 2008-09 increased 22% from the previous year and enrollments in online courses increased by 25%.

As we celebrate and build on these successes, we are also planning for the future. Changing student demographics, demand for services, and enhanced capabilities of technology contribute to the growing demand for online courses and programs. The experienced staff of the Center for Online and Blended Learning are available to assist colleges and departments in all aspects of online education initiatives.

We hope to visit many departments this year to discuss opportunities for growth and look forward to working with many of you in the coming year in the development of online and blended courses and programs.

Questions? Information needed? How to get started?
Contact:
Connie Molnar, Director, Center for Online and Blended Learning
cmolnar@bgsu.edu; 419-372-6792

Summer Online Courses: Staying on Track for Graduation

The summer semester at BGSU, sometimes referred to as the “third semester”, has traditionally been a time for students to take a break from academia. However, more and more frequently, summer has become an opportunity for students to continue course work towards graduation and to this end, summer online courses have become increasingly popular and desired by BGSU students.

For residential students, summer online courses make it possible for them to continue their education and stay on track for graduation while they pursue other activities such as full time jobs, internships, or study abroad. And summer online courses continue to well serve our full time online students and non-traditional students by providing web-based courses year round to enable timely graduation.

The number of summer online courses offered at BGSU continues to grow each year in response to an increasing demand from our students. There are almost 300 online courses scheduled for summer 2009, a nearly 10% increase in courses from summer of 2008, and summer 2009 online student enrollments already exceed those of summer 2008.

A current list of summer online courses can be viewed as follows:

1. Go online to the BGSU “Class Search” at: http://webapps.bgsu.edu/classes/indexps.php.
2. To search for online classes, click on "Go", then click on "Course Attributes" and select the value of “Web Based”.
   

If you are interested in teaching online during the summer and/or academic year, contact the Center for Online and Blended Learning at cobl.bgsu.edu or 2-6792.

COBL Presents at State/National/International Conferences

COBL's Assistant Director, Terence Armentano, presented at the University System of Ohio: 2009 Learning, Libraries, and Technology Conference on "University 2.0." The presentation discussed how COBL leveraged open source technologies to create a web 2.0 learning landscape that unlocks creativity and enables BGSU faculty, staff, and students with the ability to create portfolios, blogs, podcasts, websites, and more. Michael Edwards, Instructional Designer from Rhodes State, wrote a nice summary of the presentation at his Rhodes State blog.

In addition, Terence will also be presenting at the 25th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning in Madison, WI on the topic of "University 2.0." Terence began discussing the idea of University 2.0 on his blog in 2006 / 2007. The idea brings together web 2.0, the read/write web, online communities, and Higher Education. What does it look like when everyone has a voice and can produce and consume content? What does a University look like when people can learn from anywhere in the world via online and blended courses? BGSU is a good example of University 2.0, as online and blended courses continue to grow and everyone at BGSU has the ability to produce and consume content via the blogging, podcast, portfolio, and website system. The conference is recognized internationally for the quality and integrity of its program. Each year the conference provides an exchange of current resources, research, and best practices from around the world that are relevant to the design and delivery of distance education/training.

Terence was also invited to present on a panel at the Moodle Moot 2009/Sloan-C International Symposium with  Bob Rubinyi, from the University of Minnesota, Marc Oehlman, from CSU Monterey Bay, and Andrew Roderick, from San Francisco State University. They will be giving a 3 hour pre-conference workshop titled, "University 2.0: Open source as a cornerstone." As budgets decrease, the use of open source software for enterprise-level applications has increased within higher education. This session will examine current open-source development and integration projects at four different campuses and strategies each campus has implemented related to teaching and learning, technology management, and organizational administration.

University System of Ohio: 2009 Learning, Libraries, and Technology Conference Presentation

COBL’s director Connie Molnar presented “Collaborations in Quality: The Ohio Quality Matters™ Consortium” with other Ohio distance education leaders at the 2009 Ohio Learning, Libraries, and Technology Conference in early March. Presenters included members of the Ohio Quality Matters™ Consortium: Brenda Boyd, Miami University; Paul Bowers, Cleveland State University; Mark Karamol, Owens Community College, and Sheryl Hansen, Ohio Learning Network.

Quality Matters™ is a faculty centered peer review process designed to improve the quality of online courses and is becoming known as the national standard for online course design. Quality Matters™ has generated widespread interest and received national recognition for its peer-based approach to quality assurance and continuous improvement in online education

The Ohio QM Consortium was created to demonstrate a multi-institutional focus on quality in online courses and programs though utilization of the Quality Matters™ tools and processes. For more information on the Ohio Quality Matters™ Consortium, see: http://oln.org/QM/quality_matters.php or Contact Connie Molnar at cmolnar@bgsu.edu.

Findlay Conference Presentations - Engagement Through Social Media

Carolyn Kraut, Instructional Designer for COBL, will be presenting at the SEED 2009 Conference in Findlay, Ohio on Friday, May 8th. This year's topics will focus on growth and change at faculty support centers. Her presentation, entitled "Engagement Through Social Media: Using SlideShare and authorSTREAM to Share Media Rich Presentations," will demonstrate how instructors can harness the power of social media sites to easily distribute course presentations and build a community among their students and peers.

SEED will be partnering with Elluminate to offer online conference participation at a reduced registration rate. See conference web site for details.

Articles, Ideas, and Innovations in online teaching and learning

COBL Interview #6 - Albert Colom - Vice Provost for Enrollment Management
by: Michael Kudela
Instructional Designer - COBL, BGSU

As Vice Provost for Enrollment Managment, Albert Colom oversees all new and continuing student enrollment strategies, including graduate and undergraduate student recruitment, admissions and retention, financial aid, registration and records, scholarships and tuition discounting, advising and academic success, and international and multicultural student enrollment, along with initiatives for the University’s regional campus and adult degree-completion and distance-learning programs.

Click the play button to watch this video.

Bruce's Corner - New Media Beget New Ways to Learn--& Teach
by: Dr Bruce L. Edwards
Associate Vice Provost for Academic Technology


COBL staff spend a lot of time with faculty, offering crucial training in online pedagogy and presenting innovative ways to design and deliver their subject matter expertise. More than that, they also help faculty manifest "presence" in their virtual classrooms, not as some ghostly figure outside student experience, but a real person, alive, interactive, available, "there." These faculty do so by creating assignments and assessments that are commensurate to what they have been doing in the face-to-face environment, but, most importantly, offer rather new and different experiences of learning. These faculty discover that some things are even better expressed and, amazingly enough, learned and tested in an online medium because of its ready versatility and uncommon accessibility.

How could this be so? First of all, consider that the existing "normative" classroom--chairs, desks, rows, circles, set times for meetings, lectures, overhead projectors, small groups--in no way guarantees any kind of learning transaction between students and teacher, nor between students and students. This typical classroom can be dynamic, interactive, discovery-based, and so on--but it is not automatically so. Yet some critics of online education tend to bestow upon this classroom space some magic quality that undergirds student learning in ways that are actually hard to justify. The fact that a teacher and student are in the same "room" does not necessarily translate into a "presence" for either party. And all would agree those 75 or 60 minute periods do not constitute all the learning that takes place, anyway; much, maybe most of it, takes place outside that space and time zone.

Secondly, students are coming to university settings these days with a whole set of internet-based reading/learning/communication expectations and skills that impinge upon or compete with the design, rightly or wrongly, of the more traditional classroom described above. They have come to treat as natural and preferable the ability to access materials, assignments, and instructors when it is convenient to them. They have been exposed to all sort of user-generated content tools and welcome the ability to use their image/video/audio skills in completing and responding to class assignments. And they have become used to the kind of collaborative social-networking represented in the online settings such as Facebook™ and My Space™, and regard such immediate communication platforms as texting and Twitter™ as essential to their sense of connectedness and commitment. To these students, email is already an older, less desirable medium. And I must hurriedly point out, that it is not just the 18-23 student population that conveys these expectations; the fastest growing user populations of these tools for staying connected, shopping, banking, are adult learners, specifically those in their 50s and older.

What are the implications for faculty? Are they supposed to forget everything they have learned (or themselves preferred) about traditional classroom based teaching? Of course, not; but they must be prepared to build upon and extrapolate from those methods and preferences new ways to accomplish the same goals. They must care enough to learn how to meet their students at least half-way in coming to understand their (online) cultural differences and how best to incorporate them into their existing classrooms, and beyond. COBL's mission includes helping faculty see what opportunities there are for extending the classroom, and understanding these new dimensions of conveying and creating knowledge, equipping them with both points of entry and the necessary toolkits to build their confidence to traverse, as well as their empathy for, the new online media of their students.

Online teachers are not born, rather they are nurtured, and intrigued, by the advantages and innovation represented in the new medium. Contact us if you have an adventurous spirit, feel vaguely intimidated by your students' online prowess, or, simply, want to learn something new and useful about teaching. Contact us at 2-6792 or email cobl@bgsu.edu.

My Quality Matters™ Online Course Review Experience
by: Stehpen Jenkins
Instructional Designer- COBL, BGSU


If you read a little about the Quality Matters™ peer review process in this issue of the COBL newsletter, you might be wondering what the process is like and what comes out of the review. I recently had the opportunity to serve as the subject matter expert for a course review and experienced first hand the review process.

For each review there is a Review Leader; this individual organizes the review, procuring logins for the expert and peer reviewers, and arranging conference calls. After each member of the review team has successfully accessed the course and acquainted themselves with the course layout, a review schedule is established. Team members then review the course at their own pace, using the Quality Matters™ rubric to assess the course based on a number of crucial elements, as identified by Quality Matters™. The Quality Matters™ rubric is a spreadsheet that assigns point values and explains in detail what the review team should be looking for when assessing each element. Among the topics covered are: clear course documentation, focused and aligned learning objectives, accurate assessment, supporting materials, and accessibility.

After each team member has submitted their review to an online version of the rubric, a conference call is scheduled. This call serves as the culmination of the process, during which team members explain and expand upon the scores they entered into the rubric. The team then determines if the course meets QM criteria and develops specific recommendations to improve the course. I found the process to be constructive and beneficial; I believe my course development skills were strengthened, and I believe the feedback we provided will result in a stronger course for our reviewee.

Bowling Green State University, and COBL in particular is excited to participate in the Quality Matters™ process as both course reviewers and course developers. If you have additional questions or comments about Quality Matters™, please contact Connie Molnar at cmolnar@bgsu.edu.

Bb Tips for a User-Friendly Online Course
Blackboard Tips and Tricks: Design your Course in a Development Shell

by: Carolyn Kraut
Instructional Designer- COBL, BGSU

Anyone who's ever developed a Blackboard course shell to deliver an online course or supplement a face to face course has struggled with this question: How do I save all this information so I don't have to start from scratch on a new course next semester?

The answer is very simple. Get a development shell.

What is the Difference between a Course Shell and a Development Shell?
Before the start of each semester, a live Blackboard course shell is created for each section being taught. Students and Instructors are given access to the course shells for the sections in which they are registered or teaching, respectively. It is up to the instructor to decide how the course shell is used throughout the semester (delivering content, posting grades, using the discussion board, etc). A few weeks after the semester ends, the course shell is made unavailable to students and instructors, and will eventually be deleted.

Unlike a course shell, the development shell will never be deleted. This is an empty Blackboard shell that can be dedicated to a single course or section for continuous development. This cuts down on technical development time from semester to semester, allowing the instructor to focus on what matters most: improving the course.

Before each Semester: Initial Set-up and Design of the Development Shell
Start developing your course in the development shell just as you would a live course shell. Change your settings, rename and/or rearrange buttons on your navigation menu, organize your course into manageable sections (weekly lessons or modules, appropriate assignments and discussions, tests and quizzes, etc.), and start adding the content. When your live course shell has been created, use the Course Copy feature to copy the contents of your development shell into the new course shell.

During the Semester: Teaching from the Course Shell
You and your students will be communicating and interacting through the live course shell. All changes, corrections, and updates should be made in the course shell through out the semester.

After each Semester: Copy your content back to the Development Shell
Reset your development shell using the Recycle Course Tool and then use the Course Copy feature to copy the contents of your course shell back into your development shell. This ensures that you have the most recent version of your course in your development shell. You can continue to make changes in the development shell until you teach the course again.

Watch this tutorial to lean how to use the Course Copy feature: http://blogs.bgsu.edu/blackboard/tag/course-copy/

How do I get a Development Shell?
Instructors teaching online courses can have a development shell set up by contacting COBL at 372-6792 or email cobl@bgsu.edu. If you teach on campus but would like a development shell for your face to face course, contact ITS at 372-0999.

What BGSU faculty are saying:

• “All of it was valuable.  Perhaps most useful was seeing what could be done, the detailed instructions, and being in a position of being forced to complete assignments........seeing it through the eyes of the student.”
  
  
• “Overall, I found this extremely valuable and will recommend it to colleagues.”

An online course is much more than a repository of information. It is an interactive, collaborative, and informative method of instruction. What better way to learn how to teach effectively online than to experience it from the student's point of view. Join your colleagues in learning how to harness the power of online instruction by participating in two courses offered completely online via Blackboard and facilitated by a distance learning specialist. Just like most distance courses, these courses work around your schedule rather than vice versa. After completing both courses, you will receive a COBL Certificate of Training and join the ranks of other leaders in e-Learning at BGSU as a member of the BGSU e-Learning Colloquium.

Click Here to learn more and enroll in the COBL Online Faculty Training Courses or for more information call 419-372-6792, or e-mail cobl@bgsu.edu

NOTE: These courses are most beneficial for instructors somewhat new to facilitation and course design in the online environment.

The Distance Learning newsletter is published by COBL (the Center for Online and Blended Learning) to provide faculty with current news and initiatives in online learning at BGSU. Each newsletter will contain online pedagogy articles, training and workshop dates, online teaching tips, online teaching resources, and interviews with BGSU faculty or staff who teach online.

"BGSU is accredited from the North Central Association for its distance learning programs at BGSU and has also been granted the "Best Practices in Student Services" designation by the Ohio Learning Network."