1 in 5 Students Nationwide Taking Online Courses

The 9.7 percent growth rate for online enrollments far exceeds the 1.5 percent growth of the overall higher education student population. Nearly one in five college students takes at least one class online, according to a fifth annual report, with Fall 2006 totals reaching 3.5 million. The survey also shows:

• Highest growth rate has been seen in the undergraduate area, for the last five years.
• Institutions cite increasing the rate of degree completion as a very important objective.
• Virtually all (83 percent) institutions with online offerings expect their online enrollments to increase over the coming year.
• Faculty acceptance of online instruction remains a key issue only for the less-engaged institutions who do not incorporate online learning into the school’s strategic plan.
  

For the complete SLOAN report, go to http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/index.asp For a more personal look, see this follow-up story in NPR News: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16638700

Spooktacular Lunch-n-Learn Highlights How to Use WebCT Vista to Get Published

Nearly 30 faculty joined us for a special Halloween Apollo Lunch, where Dr. Sunil Hazari (Management) demonstrated how discussion forums can be used to compare, contrast and synthesize information, and as a result generate papers suitable for publication. As Dr. Hazari explained, discussion forums in course management tools such as WebCT Vista are one of the most underutilized tools. Online discussions among students can be used to promote collaborative and cooperative learning, case study discussions, and research presentations. Assessment and feedback on discussion assignments can help students reinforce their grasp of course content and strengthen their own skills at self-assessment. Furthermore, student motivation is increased when they realize that faculty are interested in their success as learners. For a copy of the presentation or examples of resulting published works, contact Dr. Hazari at shazari@westga.edu.

Happy Day for eCore Retention

Although both non-ecore distance courses and f2f courses have retention around 88-91%, eCore retention hovers around 65-71%. This condition is consistent across the state. In the summer of 2006, Ms. Stacey Rowland (e-core coordinator) and Dr. Melanie Clay (Extended Degrees Assoc. Director) began working on a plan to increase eCore retention. The plan included data analysis and surveys, followed by an expanded and gated advisement program, a comprehensive orientation, and the addition of an eCore Mentor and an eCore Community Leader.

Analysis of the Summer 2007 results have just been compiled, and for the first time, eCore retention broke the 80% mark (81%). Previous eCore summer retention has ranged from 68% to a previous high of 75%. Also, of the 15 eCore courses offered summer term, 11 showed improvement in retention over Summer 2006. For example, in English Comp I and II retention increased from 87% to 95% (English Comp I), and from 71% to 91% (English Comp II). Retention in College Algebra increased from 68% to 82%. Retention in American Government increased from 75% to 90%, and from 79% to 89% in Psychology.

One More Reason to Celebrate!

The number of course sections using WebCT Vista, as well as the number of distance courses (more than 50% online), has *doubled* in the three years since FY2004 ended.

To celebrate, the first three people to read this and email jgubbins@westga.edu will win a watermelon!

Act now - have a seed spitting contest tomorrow :-)

(article edit just over an hour later: Congratulations to Michael Hazelkorn, Mary Jane Rootes, and Abbot Packard, for winning our 3 watermelons! Happy 4th to all!)

Amazing Online Teachers Receive Apollo Award: All Honored At DL Day Luncheon

Distance Learning Day was celebrated on May 3 with an Italian lunch and celebration. Sponsored by the DDEC, the purpose of the lunch was to honor faculty who have taught distance courses over the past year. Several distance faculty from the three colleges had never met before the luncheon, and were able to share ideas about distance teaching.

The highlight of the day was the presentation of the Apollo Awards. The Apollo Award, given by the DDEC, recognizes excellence in distance teaching, training, and mentorship. The award is named after the mythical god Apollo, who is most powerful when at a distance.

The five faculty met who met the requirements, got to walk the red carpet, and received the award: Dr. Barbara McKenzie, Chair and Professor of Media and Instructional Technology; Dr. Brad Prince, Professor of Management; Dr. Allison Nazzal, Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction; and Dr. Janet Goodman, Assistant Professor of Special Education and Speech Pathology.

“Distance faculty do so much to serve remote students and to fulfill the mission of the university. We hope that this award is some small way to promote growth in distance teaching, training and mentorship, and also to recognize faculty who serve as leaders in our distance endeavors, “ said Melanie Clay, DDEC Administrator.

Over 30 distance faculty attended the new annual celebration in their honor. In addition to the awards ceremony, all attendees were eligible to win one of the many door prizes.

Deadline for Leadership Institute - Mar 7

The registration deadline for the Apple Digital Campus Leadership Institute is WEDNESDAY March 7, 2007. Although supported by Apple, this institute actually centers on participant interactionsto develop ways to motivate the campus, engage students beyond the classroom and determine new ways to look at the assessment component. Starting with a keynote by Lee Rainie of the Pew Internet and Family Life project, the "speakers" will all follow a participatory format. If you are a leader in innovation from academics, student affairs or faculty development please sign up: http://adcli.gcsu.edu/

Mardi Gras Madness - Live Virtual Meetings

It was Mardi Gras madness at this month’s Apollo luncheon, where Dr. Bridgette Gunnels demonstrated how she uses our live synchronous tool called Horizon Wimba’s Live Classroom, to teach a completely online Spanish class. The Latin American Novel course lends itself well to this format, giving students ample time to read the novels and then collaborate online in real-time virtual meetings. When using the Live Classroom tool, Gunnels explained that she acts as a facilitator, reviewing the objectives for each live session and then sending the students out into their own group break-out rooms to discuss the novel. Dr. Gunnels visits each room to see how the discussion is progressing and to make sure everyone is on task. She also archives (records) the sessions for group members and record keeping. Though there are some challenges, including audio echo from time to time and the disparity between some student’s equipment, overall the spontaneous and instant discussion of the novels has been a great benefit in addition to the asynchronous Discussion board tool. (PPT available here)

Results of USG Student Information Technology (SIT) Study

During Spring and Fall Semesters 2006, more than 7,400 students from all 22 USG four-year institutions, participated in this online survey - including 729 students from UWG alone.

Key Findings from the Executive Summary (4-Year Institutions) :

• More than 83 percent of the students reported having experienced classes that used course management systems (CMS). (Q12)
  
• Of the students who have used a course management system (CMS), more than 71 percent report a positive or very positive experience with it. (Q14)
  
• Regarding CMS features, students most valued keeping track of grades on assignments and tests, syllabus, and getting assignments back from instructors with comments and grades for learning purposes. (Q16)


• Students rated their technological expertise highly. More than 88 percent rated themselves at the intermediate or advanced levels for using technology in educational work. (Q4)


• More than 74 percent report having high-speed internet access at home. (Q6)


• Among academic online resources, students chose course schedule, course syllabi, printing, assignments, electronic full-text databases (GALILEO) or library catalog (GIL), grading criteria, and gradebook as the most critical. (Q7)


• More than 66 percent encouraged instructors to have a WebCT (Vista) component for all courses. (Q8)

Aggregated reports for the entire University System of Georgia as well as the sector reports are available here: http://alt.usg.edu/research/studies/sit.phtml

UWG Ranks in Top 5 Vista Users for Fall '06

UWG ranked 5th in the number of active user WebCT Vista accounts and the number of active course sections, across all 33 USG schools during Fall 2006. Keep in mind that most of our Arts & Sciences courses were not migrated until Spring 2007. UWG also ranked 4th in overall percentage of faculty and students with active WebCT Vista accounts. The University of Georgia and Georgia Tech are the only two remaining USG schools not yet using WebCT Vista.

* “Active Users” and “Active Course Sections” is defined by those with more than 100 actions occurring to-date; Enrollment figures from Fall 2006 Semester Enrollment Report, Nov 10, 2006; Faculty figures are from the “Corps of Instruction Report” most recently available in the USG Information Digest 2005-2006 (http://www.usg.edu/usg_stats/info_digest/2005/faculty0506.pdf)

Instructor Demos Free Tool for Easy Large File Transfer

More than 40 faculty gathered to chase away the January blues, at our monthly Apollo Luncheon, and learn a little about a cool tool called Pando. Dr. Elizabeth Bennett, of the MIT department, discovered the free tool while looking for a solution for her online video production class; she and the students were frustrated with the time it took to send their large video files through WebCT Vista or e-mail. Dr. Bennett explained ow Pando makes the sharing of files as large as 1BG more than ten times faster. She also demonstrated the ease of the tool, but did warn that the students will need to install Pando on their own computers for the transfer to work. Afterward the informative session, participants won door prizes and told jokes to wrap of up the event. Click here to download the presentation.

Happy New Year!

The DDEC Staff (Chris, Stacey, Janet, Melanie, Christy and WebCat) wishes you health, happiness, and peace in 2007.