V IRTUAL L EARNING C ENTER: A CADEMIC C YBER S UPPORT FOR THE N EW F RONTIER

1. VIRTUALLEARNINGCENTER:ACADEMICCYBERSUPPORTFOR THENEWFRONTIER MERLOT INTERNATIONALCONFERENCE AUGUST 10, 2006 TENNESSEESTATEUNIVERSITY NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

2. Conference Presenters • Dr. Monetha Reaves, Director of Academic Enrichment, Advisement, & Orientation (mreaves@tnstate.edu) • Dr. Johnanna Grimes, Director of AEAO Writing Center and Coordinator of Evening Tutorials (jlgrimes@tnstate.edu) • Dr. Jane Asamani, Coordinator of AEAO Reading Center (jasamani@tnstate.edu) • Mr. Mohsen Shirani, Coordinator of AEAO Mathematics Center (mshirani@tnstate.edu) • Mrs. Barbara Kannard, Coordinator of AEAO ICAN Tutorial Program (bkannard@tnstate.edu)

3. How was the VLC developed? • The VLC was developed in partial fulfillment of the goals of a Title III E-Learning grant. • The VLC was developed by a team of twelve Academic Enrichment faculty and staff members. AEAO E-Learning Team

4. What is the Virtual Learning Center? • The Virtual Learning Center is an online learning center developed using the WebCT platform. • Students can get immediate feedback on the work that they do. • A number of reports on student performance and use of the Center can be generated. • It is the platform presently used for both RODP and TSU online courses, so students do not have to learn another system for online use.

5. What is the Virtual Learning Center? • The Virtual Learning Center is a tool which supports student learning. • It offers additional practice for skill building and mastery of concepts. • It offers additional information and explanations. • It contains links to other websites which provide additional practice and information.

6. What is the Virtual Learning Center? • The Virtual Learning Center is a teaching tool which instructors can use. • to supplement their lessons • to provide additional information and practice in a particular area • as homework assignments • as extra work • as preparation for testing or retesting.

7. What is its purpose? • The purpose of the VLC is to provide academic support for students on a twenty-four/seven basis.

8. How is the VLC structured? • At present, it has four components: • A Writing Center • A Math Center • A Reading Center • And the ICAN, Resource Center

9. How are students enrolled in the center? • Students may be enrolled in the VLC in one of three ways: • referral by faculty or advisors • referral related to the Rising Junior Examination • self-referral http://www.tnstate.edu/interior.asp?mid=1529&ptid=1

10. How effective is the VLC? • During the fall, spring, and summer of 2006, a pilot of the VLC was conducted. • Of the students responding to a question concerning whether or not use of the VLC had improved their grade in some course, 77.67% indicated that it had. Student Demographics

11. What are the plans for the future of the center? • More testing of the effectiveness of its components • Expansion of its offerings • Development of more components

12. What does VirtualICANoffer? • Virtual resource center for all students • Orientation • Welcome • Module features • Learning Objects • Training center for ICAN Peer Tutors • Module features • Future plans for Virtual ICAN

13. Who are the members of the Virtual MathCenter Team? Introduction to the Virtual Math Center Team: • Mohsen Shirani • Mike Akbari • Hanan Kuzat • Jeanetta Jackson Moving the Earth to Learn Math

14. What courses are offered in the Virtual Math Center? Courses: • Basic and Elementary Algebra • Intermediate Algebra • College Algebra • Pre-Calculus • Basic Calculus

15. What are the features of the Virtual Math Center? Homepage: • Courses • Additional Links • Tools & Downloads • My Grades • References

16. What is the average enrollment for the Virtual Math Center? • The enrollment for Fall 2005 was 615. • The enrollment for Spring 2006 was 427. Practiceproblemsin the Virtual MathCenter,Module 3

17. Who are the members of the Virtual ReadingCenter Team? Introduction to the Virtual Reading Center Team: • Dr. Jane Asamani • Ms. Jonelle Hinsey • Ms. Carmen Jones • Mr. Kenneth Cooper

18. What are the Virtual Reading Center’s resources? • Course Content • Homepage • Content and resources • Academic Progress • Progression Study

19. What is the purpose of the Virtual WritingCenter?

20. What topics are presented in the Virtual WritingCenter? The Rationale: • Grammar—Key Trouble Spots (not intended to be exhaustive, but the list is being expanded) • Sentence Structure—The challengers (e.g., fragments, confused constructions, parallelism) • Composition • Paragraph • Essay • Research Paper (Under construction as summer project with representative from the English Department)

21. What topics are presented in the Virtual WritingCenter? The Rationale, continued: • Style: • Redundancy • Idioms (particularly useful for ESL students, an area which we plan to expand as well) • Revision • (Individual modules have strategies; however, there are some students who may need only a general overview/review of revision strategies)

22. What is the structure of the writing modules? • Lesson—explanations with examples, and opportunities for self-assessment • SVA Module • Helpful External Links—(The goal being to select not only those that have been adjudged superior by others—Purdue Owl, Leo (St. Cloud), Guide to Grammar and Writing, but others that we discovered in our research, including the Merlot collection). • Fragment Module

23. What is the structure of the writing modules? • Assessment Tools • Self Tests (Internal—WebCT) • Self Tests (external) • Quizzes (WebCT Quiz tool) • Test Banks of Questions • Banks of Writing Topics • Evaluation of Module • Student Survey Tool

24. Questions and Answers