Distance Education Best Practices

1. Distance Education Best Practices New Faculty Orientation

2. The Learning Process *taken from Walden Learning Model  Learners engage in critical activism (an integration of reflection and critique)  Learning is directly applicable to students’ work and personal lives  Learning is contextual and focuses on interrelated concepts rather than on isolated facts  Learning is facilitated by faculty and staff  Learning incorporates prior knowledge in the construction of new knowledge  Learning is active/experiential  Learning is collaborative  Learning calls on students to be self-directed  Learning is developmental  Learning facilitates constructive social activism/positive social change

3. Best Practices Areas  Andragogy Faculty Responsiveness Evaluation and Assessment Ethical Principles  Applied to courses, residency seminars and colloquia, KAMs, and thesis/dissertation work

4. Andragogy  Adult learning model developed by Knowles that guides instructional practice  An alternative to pedagogy, a term that refers to teacher-centered approaches for educating children  Assumptions of andragogy: 1. Adults are self-directed 2. Adults bring a wealth of experience to the learning process 3. Adults come to the learning process ready to learn 4. Adults are oriented toward immediate application of learned knowledge 5. Adults need to know the reason for learning something 6. Adults are driven by intrinsic motivation to learn (Knowles, as cited in Forrest III & Peterson, 2006, p. 116)

5. Andragogy Best Practices Organize a web course development team including a content expert, instructional designer, multimedia producer, systems analyst, and network programmer (Chou & Tsai, 2002) Courses need to be student-centered, activity-based learning environments with problem-solving activities (Brown, 2001; Carr-Chellman & Duchastel, 2000; Chou, & Tsai, 2002; Knowlton, 2000; Pallof & Pratt, 2003) Universal design principles need to be adapted (i.e., courses need to be accessible to students with different learning styles and learning abilities) (Pallof & Pratt, 2003; Dahl, 2005)

6. Andragogy Best Practices  Faculty need to be able to give control of information and processes to the students; more of a mentor and manager role as opposed to one of information deliverer and expert (Palloff & Pratt, 2003; Robson, 2000; Shedletsky & Aitken, 2001) Faculty need to create and sustain teaching presence based on 3 components: a) instructional design and organization, b) facilitating discourse, and c) direct instruction (Shea, Pickett, & Pelz, 2003)

7. Andragogy Best Practices Chickering and Gamson encourage the following conditions and behaviors for successful learning (Keeton, 2004; Shea, Pickett, & Pelz, 2003; Pallof & Pratt, 2003): 1. Frequent contact between students and faculty 2. Reciprocity and cooperation among students 3. Active learning techniques 4. Prompt Feedback 5. Time on task (clear articulation of due dates/time frames for learning activities) 6. Communication of high expectations 7. Respect for diverse talent and ways of learning (Ko & Rossen, 2001; Meyer, 2003)

8. Faculty Responsiveness (Quality) Best Practices Consideration of types of responses (Blignaut & Trollop, p. 349, 2003) 1. Administrative (with no academic content) 2. Affective (with no academic content) 3. Other (with no academic content) 4. Corrective (with academic content) 5. Informative (with academic content) 6. Socratic (with academic content)

9. Faculty Responsiveness (Quality) Best Practices  Administrative (with no academic content) Postings that relate to general administrative topics, such as dates, profiles, formats, functionality of software and many other organizational aspects  Affective (with no academic content) Postings that acknowledge learner participation and provide affective support  Other (with no academic content) Postings that contain non-content related messages as well as the posting of discussion topics

10. Faculty Responsiveness (Quality) Best Practices Corrective (with academic content) Postings that correct the content of a learner’s postings  Informative (with academic content) Postings that comment on a learner’s postings from a content perspective and provide individual feedback  Socratic (with academic content) Postings that as reflective questions about the learner’s postings Blignaut & Trollip, p. 349, 2003

11. Faculty Responsiveness (Quality) Best Practices Indicators of the Act of Facilitating Discourse  Identifying areas of agreement and disagreement  Seeking to reach consensus and understanding  Encouraging, acknowledging, and reinforcing student contributions  Setting the climate for learning  Drawing in participants and prompting discussion  Assessing the efficacy of the process (Pelz, 2004; Shea, Pickett, & Pelz, 2003)

12. Faculty Responsiveness (Quality) Best Practices Indicators of the Act of Direct Instruction  Presenting content and questions  Focusing the discussion on specific issues  Summarizing discussion  Confirming Understanding  Diagnosing misperceptions  Injecting knowledge from diverse sources  Responding to technical concerns (Pelz, 2004; Shea, Pickett, & Pelz, 2003)

13. Faculty Responsiveness (Quality) Best Practices Three Categories of Discussions (Pelz, 2004) 1. Social Presence a) affective- the expression of emotion, feelings, and mood b) interactive- evidence of reading, attending, understanding, thinking about other’s responses c) cohesive- responses that build and sustain a sense of “belongingness,” group commitment, core common goals and objectives 2. Cognitive Presence- the extent to which meaning is constructed and confirmed through sustained discussion 3. Teaching Presence- two ways that faculty and students can add teaching presence: a) by facilitating the discussion b) by direct instruction

14. Faculty Responsiveness (Quantity) Best Practices • Provide prompt and constructive feedback (Keeton, 2004) • One study revealed that faculty reported spending 18.25 (SD=12.70) hours a week on activities focused around teaching and managing their online class. Activities that were ranked highest were ones that focused on the process of learning rather than assessment of learning outcomes (Keeton, 2004).  Another study (Lazarus, 2003) showed that each online course required 3-7 hours per week with participation in and grading discussions taking the greatest amount of time. It was also reported that the instructor needed to be online and available to students daily.

15. Faculty Responsiveness (Quantity) Best Practices Indirectly related to faculty are the results of one study that showed a strong relationship between students’ perceptions of the quality and quantity of their interaction and their perceived performance in the course (Picciano, 2002); Points to the need for faculty to facilitate student participation and to serve as role models by being active participants in the course.

16. Faculty Responsiveness (Quantity) Best Practices Establish a Pattern of Frequent Response (Ko & Rossen, 2001)  During first few weeks, greet all students individually in the classroom as they arrive and engage as many as possible in discussion  Establish a pattern of short but frequent activity (3- 5 short periods of logging on each week rather than 1 or 2 short sessions at the end of the week)  Post various types of responses (Blignaut & Trollip, 2003)

17. Evaluation and Assessment Best Practices  Use of grading rubrics (numerical grading guidelines) recommended (Bauer, 2002; Pallof & Pratt, 2003)  Use of web-based assessments (including tests and assignments) (Chou & Tsai, 2002)  Learning goals, instructional strategies, and assessment methods should be congruent (Chyung & Stepich, 2003)

18. Evaluation and Assessment Best Practices Five Types of Evaluation Methodologies (Oliver, 2000) • Formative-provides information that allows revisions and improvements • Summative-global process (e.g., assessment of a project against learning outcomes) • Illuminative-seeks to discover the factors that are important to the participants with educational context as a focus • Integrative-incorporates multiple methods, including within-group experimental studies of performance, surveys, and interviews  Evaluation for quality assurance-involves identifying and documenting examples of good practice as well as areas that could be improved; focuses on critical reflection

19. Evaluation and Assessment Best Practices Proactive Evaluation is “a framework that identifies critical online learning factors and influences that will better inform the planning, design, and development of learning resources . . . where all planning activities are assessed against the evaluation criteria that would typically be applied during formative assessment [and] evaluation checks are performed proactively to enhance online learning.” (Sims, Dobbs, & Hand, p. 135, 2002)

20. Ethical Principles Nine Ethical Principles in University Teaching *Developed by the Society for Teaching and Learning and Higher Education  Content competence  Andragogical competence  Dealing with sensitive topics  Student development  Dual relationships with students (keeping relationships focused on academics)  Confidentiality  Respect for colleagues  Valid assessment of students  Respect for institution