1 / 32

Mary Teslow, MLIS, RHIA eLearning Faculty Fellow Jeff Kiska System Administrator

Connecting at the CORE: Community Online Resources for Engagement – Site Creation and Administration. Mary Teslow, MLIS, RHIA eLearning Faculty Fellow Jeff Kiska System Administrator Western Carolina University July 11. 2007. About WCU. Regional Comprehensive University

karen-nichols
Download Presentation

Mary Teslow, MLIS, RHIA eLearning Faculty Fellow Jeff Kiska System Administrator

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Connecting at the CORE: Community Online Resourcesfor Engagement – Site Creation and Administration Mary Teslow, MLIS, RHIA eLearning Faculty Fellow Jeff KiskaSystem Administrator Western Carolina University July 11. 2007

  2. About WCU • Regional Comprehensive University • Part of UNC System • Rural WNC • Enrollment: 8,665 • Faculty: 450

  3. About WNC • Mountains • Blue Ridge, ATGreat Smoky • Appalachian Values • Neighborliness and Hospitality • Personalism – getting along • Sense of Place • Heritage Handout

  4. Appalachia > Online • Gifts of Appalachia • Sense of Place • Pioneering Spirit • Appalachian authors • Jim Wayne Miller • Ron Rash

  5. From one-room to online • Pioneer one-room school houses • Anderson, et. al1 reflect on these pioneer, one-teacher schools: • Many grades • Many subjects • Other duties, like lighting the stove • Creating community of learners • Older students help with younger

  6. From one-room to online • Anderson, et. al continues: • “These various teaching functions are now being replicated in the new “pioneering” context, that of online learning, … • Facing similar challenges: • Teaching presence • Creating warmth and community

  7. What are CORE sites? • An approach to the pioneer challenge • Bb site specific to a program • Community resource center • Variety of approaches • Individual names & designs • Graduate & Undergraduate • Distance Ed & Campus-based

  8. CORE Examples • Nursing • Homeplace • Human Resources • Student Center • Athletic Training • Clinical Ed for students • Clinical Ed for instructors • Health Information Administration • HIA Community

  9. What might be offered? • Communication • With faculty and students • A continuing presence • Across the program • Maintain alumni contact • Group Manager • Discussions by year, etc.

  10. Group Manager -- Discussions by year, juniors, seniors, grads -- Easy to re-label

  11. What might be offered? • Program information and advising • Application status • Handbook, book lists, etc. • Anonymous surveys • Mentoring • Peer-to-peer • Guest Speakers • Alumni

  12. What might be offered? • Student Club • Meetings • Volunteer opportunities • Opportunities • Profiles of clinical sites • Jobs & internships

  13. CORE vs. a Website • Website • Lack of communication tools • More difficult to faculty • Less controlled access • CORE site • Familiar to faculty and students • Site appears in their list • Familiar with tools and functions

  14. Benefits: Students • Adds to a “sense of place” • Provides community of continuity • Place to ask questions of faculty/peers / alumni • Eases anxieties about classesand other program details

  15. Benefits: Students • Easy to Use program “One Stop” • Appears on student course list • Uses same tool as classes

  16. Benefits: Students Students express high enthusiasm right from the start

  17. Benefits: Faculty • Swan3 affirms Anderson’s position: • “Current research … seems to indicate a heightened need for instructor activity and interaction in online environments…” • CORE sites provide an opportunity • to enhance faculty presence. • Using Bb builds on current skills • Uses same tool as teaching • Easy to maintain, Saves time

  18. Benefits: Faculty • Three faculty roles shift online: • Cognitive, Affective, ManagerialCoppola, et. al (2001) • “Teaching Presence” (direct instruction, facilitating discourse, and design and organization)Anderson, et. al (2001) • As content becomes more complex, new tools are needed for the managerial and affective roles.

  19. Benefits: Faculty • WebCat Water Cooler • CORE site for online faculty

  20. Benefits: University • Adds to a “sense of place” • Supports connections and engagement • Supports retention • Supports accreditation (SACS) • Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) • Synthesis: A Pathway toIntentional Learning

  21. The Key? Singing the Same Song Mountain Heritage Day @ WCU Queen Family, Mountain folk musicMary Jane & Henry

  22. We are Catamounts • And just about everythingincludes a “cat” • Our Blackboard Vista 4 Enterprisenicknamed WebCat

  23. Technical: System • Blackboard Vista 4 Enterprise • Hosted by Blackboard • WCU part of a UNC consortium • CORE sites use • Account management • Existing authentication • Consolidation of tools

  24. Technical: CORE Management • Developing guidelines • eLearning Faculty Fellow • Shared Support • WebCat Water Cooler • Creation requests currently informal • E-mail/call us to setup a section • Request form likely in the future

  25. Technical: CORE Requests • Adding students is simplified • Section instructor can enroll and unenroll students, faculty, alumni  • For large groups, where the list can be identified by certain criteria, we can use Banner extracts to populate these easily (with a custom script • (i.e. all students in a particular course or group of courses, all students that are part of a particular program, etc) 

  26. Technical: Context Hierarchy • Currently all CORE sections reside within a single course (called CORE) • Users can easily identify CORE courses in theirWebCat listing • Group together • Future may include multiple courses • For different departments/programs so that we can give select users the ability to create their own

  27. Technical: Guest Accounts • Created on a per-request basis • non-university individuals • Currently using email address • Future automation possible • Like CORE section requests,as time goes on this may be streamlined into an automated process if the need exists.

  28. Summary • CORE sites provide many benefits • For students, faculty, university • Enhancing a “sense of place” • Beyond section-level engagement • Demands on staff can be minimized • Using guidelines • Having lead faculty perform some site management functions • Automation opportunities

  29. What’s Ahead • Currently 9 CORE sites • Plan to promote in 2007-08 • Site management strategies • Plans for SoTL project • Faculty learning community

  30. References • Anderson, T., Rourke, L., Garrison, D. R. & Archer, W. (2001) Assessing teaching presence in a computer conferencing context. Seattle, WA: Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. • Coppola, N. W., Hiltz, S. R. & Rotter, N. (2001) Becoming a virtual professor: pedagogical roles and ALN. HICSS 2001 Proceedings, IEEE Press. • Swan, K. (2002). Building learning Communities in online Courses: The importance of interaction.Education, Communication and Information, 2(1), 23-49.

  31. Discussion & Questions Matthew Lesko, mlesko.com

  32. Connecting at the CORE: Community Online Resourcesfor Engagement –Site Creation and Administration Western Carolina University July 11. 2007

More Related