Sloan ALN Summer Workshops: Learning Effectiveness and Faculty Satisfaction

Instructions to Presenters

Any questions about this document should be directed to Jeff Stuit.

Background

Attendees for this workshop have been selected from among the most experienced practitioners within Sloan-funded ALN programs. The workshops will consist of a series of case study presentations in which presenters will relate their direct experience with ALN courses or programs at their institutions. Special emphasis should be placed on identifying practices that were most effective, or that might have caused the most difficulty. A critical discussion session will follow each presentation, in which the attendees will compare and contrast the methods demonstrated in each presentation. At the end of each workshop, the moderator and attendees will identify a series of "best-practices" that are in common to each of the presentations.

The papers produced from the workshop will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks. The papers and a recording of the presentation will be used in an online seminar on the aln.org web site.

Before beginning to prepare their case studies, presenters should review the summary of workshop topics.

Case Study Presentations

The workshops will consist of a series of case study presentations in which presenters will relate their direct experience with ALN courses or programs at their institutions. Although the specific questions addressed in each workshop will differ, the general format of the case studies should be the same.

The case studies should focus on direct experience in creating and presenting a single ALN course or a group of courses that comprise a program. We are particularly interested in hearing about the methods used to plan, develop, deliver, and sustain the course over time. Which methods worked best, and which did not work? What are the most important lessons learned from past experience?

Please note our focus on your experience with ALN at your institution. We discourage papers that concentrate on future plans or on analysis of data from courses or programs that you have not been directly involved in creating.

A good resource on writing case studies can be found at:

http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/WritingCenter/references/research/casestudy/page2.htm

Each case study will receive a critical review from a discussant selected from among the participants. Following the workshops, the discussants will give a copy of their written comments to the presenters to assist in the revision process. Revised papers, along with discussant comments, will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks.

Paper Format

Papers for the workshop should follow the organization specified below. The similar format of the papers and presentations is meant to facilitate comparison among the various approaches to ALN courses.

Introduction

Explain the history of the course or program and the circumstances that led to its being offered via ALN. Include the initial goals as proposed to the Sloan Foundation. Among the questions to address are:

• What is the name of the course or program? When was it created?
• Is it part of an established curriculum, or was it created especially for ALN delivery? Is it available in a face-to-face format?
• When was it first made available?
• If the case study is of a program, please describe the structure of the program. How many courses are required for completion? Is it offered in a cohort-model, or is enrollment always open?
• Who is the intended audience?

Rationale

Explain why creation of the ALN course or program was undertaken and who initiated it. Among the questions to address are:

• What were the primary motivating factors in creating the course or program? For example, where they to serve an untapped market, to cut the cost of offering the course, to experiment to the new medium, etc.
• For learning effectiveness presentations, what evaluation methods were planned to assess the delivery of the course? Where there specific goals that needed to be met?
• For faculty satisfaction presentations, what specific actions were planned to motivate faculty to participate? Was there a goal to recruit a specific number of new ALN teaching faculty? Where the faculty recruited from within the institution, or through new hires or adjuncts?

Background Information for the Course or Program

Provide demographic information on the course or program. Among the questions to address are:

• What was the state of ALN at the institution before the course or program was launched? Were there other active courses or programs, or what this the first attempt at ALN?
• For learning effectiveness case studies, please answer the following:
• Who are the students? Are they college-age or adult learners? What is their age and class standing? What is the completion rate for the course? Did they have any experience with ALNs before taking this course? What is their level of general computing experience?
• For faculty satisfaction case studies, please answer the following:
• Who are the faculty? What is their rank, and how many years of teaching experience do they have? Have they received awards or special recognition for their teaching in the face-to-face medium? Did they have any experience with using information technology in their courses before teaching an ALN course?
• What kind of direct support is given to faculty? Does it come from graduate students they hire, or professional staff provided by the department or institution?
• For both types of case studies, please answer the following:
• What was the planned enrollment? What was the actual enrollment? What level of growth is planned for the future? How do the learners in the ALN courses compare to the learners on campus?

Method

Describe how you implemented the course or program. If possible, please create a diagram can help the audience understand how the course was delivered to students. Among the questions to answer are:

Technology and Infrastructure

• What hardware and software were used to deliver the course? Was a commercial course management system (e.g. WebCT, FirstClass, Lotus Learningspace, etc.) or a locally developed system used?
• What was the delivery mode? Was through a text-based system or with streaming media or other multi-media enhancements?
• Was the technical infrastructure (servers, networks, etc.) managed in-house or through a relationship with a technical support department within the institution? Were any services purchased from a third party?

Content Delivery

• How was the course delivered to students? Was the flow of the course dictated by interaction among a cohort of students, or could students proceed at their own pace?
• Did the course utilize collaborative or discussion-based methods or a broadcast method of delivery? If a number of methods were used, what kind of content was delivered with each method?
• How was student performance assessed? If tests and quizzes were used, how were they conducted?
• Were any custom applications used, such as simulations, animations, or CD-ROM based content?
• Were any face-to-face meetings required? If yes, when and why were they employed?

Organization and Evolution

• Who was responsible for course development? (The faculty member, faculty and grad students, professional development staff, a third party, etc.)
• How was technical support provided? Who provided it? When was it available? How much was it utilized?
• What was the budget for course development? What were the source of funds?
• How many times has the course been taught? How has the delivery of the course changed over time?

Results

What were the results of the course or program? Please create a table that lists the critical factors that lead to successful or unsuccessful performance of the course. Among the questions to answer are:

• Was a formal class evaluation conducted? If so, what were the results?
• For learning effectiveness case studies:
• How did the students perform in the ALN course, compared to a face-to-face course? Were completion rates different for the two modes? How has the student performance changed over time?
• For faculty satisfaction case studies:
• Were the faculty satisfied with the performance of the course? Did they continue to be enthusiastic about ALN courses after their experience? Do they serve as advocates for ALN teaching at your institution? What changes in the course development and delivery do they suggest?

Workshop Presentation Format

At the workshop, each case study will be allocated one hour for presentation and discussion. As the workshop progresses, the moderator will create a matrix of the critical success factors identified in each presentation. At the end of the workshop, we hope to be able to identify common factors among the case studies.

To facilitate comparison among the base studies, please prepare PowerPoint slides that summarize information contained within each section of the case study:

• Introduction
• Rationale
• Background Information
• Method
• Results

An audio-tape recording of each presentation session will be made by the ALN Center at Vanderbilt University, for use in the online seminar edition of the workshops on ALN Web (discussed below).

Submission Procedure

The deadline for pre-workshop submission of papers is July 30. Papers will be made available on the ALN Summer Workshop Web site by August 9.

Please send a copy of your paper as an email attachment to Jeff Stuit (jstuit@uillinois.edu). We would prefer to receive the paper in Microsoft Word format, however we can also accept papers in PDF, HTML, or other formats. If you are unsure about how to send your paper, please contact Jeff for help.

Honoraria

Individuals or groups preparing a presentation for the workshop will be given a $350 honorarium for preparing a paper, delivering the presentation, and submitting the final paper for publication in the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks. Discussants will be awarded $150 for submitting their formal review of the paper.

Special Issue of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks And
Online Seminar Edition of the Workshops
Organized by John Bourne, The ALN Center, Vanderbilt University

Final Paper Format

The format of the paper should be consistent with the instructions given on the ALN Web (www.aln.org) for the JALN. Please review these instructions and the formatting of articles that have been previously published. We will publish either one or two issues, depending on the length of the papers that are submitted. Our target for each issue is between 80 and 100 printed (pdf) pages.

Submission for Review

After the meeting, the paper should be revised using the comments of the discussant and submitted to john.bourne@vanderbilt.edu for the final review process. We will formally review the papers according to Journal standards.

Final Submission

We will need the final paper by end of October 1999, earlier if possible.

Publication

As each paper is reviewed, we will return the paper for a final rewrite. Copy editing follows and then publication. In order to make a special issue on each topic, we will need to have you be diligent on revising the papers in a timely way. We will expedite the review process as much as possible.

Monograph Format

We plan to print papers in a monograph format as well as online, if there is sufficient demand. Authors will receive a royalty on net (probably 10-15% on net). We will advertise the monograph on the ALN Web and in other media.

Online Seminar Edition

Concept

The information created in this workshop is important to disseminate to the world in both "print" and more active formats. For the latter format, we propose to re-offer the workshop online in seminar format for all people interested in ALN. This offering will require a little additional time and effort on your part, as outlined below. Due to the extra work for facilitation of the online seminar edition, we will offer an honorarium if there is sufficient interest in the seminar to generate enough funds to give an honorarium. We anticipate that an online seminar would last about one week and would require about one hour of question answering time from each presenter.

Method

We plan to use your PowerPoint Slides and a taping of your presentation to create a streaming presentation that mirrors what you do at the workshop. We plan to make the online seminar interactive by segmenting your presentation into short segments (e.g., 2 to 5 minutes). Each segment of your presentation should generate a controversial issue that the participants can "vote" on (a straw poll; see examples below) and post asynchronous messages on the conference forum. We also may add some ephemeral synchronous discussion breakout, as needed, using Yahoo pager.

Your tasks

Here is what we need you to do for the presentation:

Paper presentation

• Modify your PowerPoint slides to include feedback received at the workshop. We will provide a template master for your use that will work well with the online format.
• Think carefully about providing a cohesive set of remarks that takes only 2 to 5 minutes for each presentation segment before questions can be asked. This break time is important for the online seminar; less so for the in-person workshop.
• Pose questions yourself that illuminate what you have said.
• Provide the ALN Center with the PowerPoint slides at the workshop in Urbana as well as questions.

Presentation Schema

The amount of time available for each presentation will be set as soon as the number of participants to present is determined. One hour with questions and discussion appears reasonable.

Home | Background | Topics | Workshop Format | Schedule | Travel | Participants | Contact