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The Learning Delivery System: The Learning Delivery System: New Twists for Design, New Twists for Design,

Development, and DeliveryDevelopment, and Delivery

Ms. Darla Runyon

Dr. Roger Von Holzen

Northwest Missouri State University

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Full circleFull circle

• Sometimes change brings us full circle, back to where we started– Online learning has caused this to happen with

new focus upon• delivery of critical content and concepts

• recognition of students as an individuals in how they approach the learning process

• consideration of the educator’s approach to the process of designing, developing, and delivering critical course content and concepts*

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Full circleFull circle

• This new focus has brought about– new delivery techniques – encouraged incorporation of a seamless process

for online learning• Previously incorporating Blackboard for

campus-based courses and eCollege for online courses

• Northwest made the decision to move to one platform*

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Reasons for one platformReasons for one platform

• Faculty requested– One platform to design,develop, and deliver

courses

• Less confusion for students– One location (virtual campus site) to access all

course-related information

• Support offices– One platform to support,

manage, and maintain*

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Conversion processConversion process

• Converting course sites– Done through the faculty support office—CITE

– Designed to mirror the Bb site• Made the moving process more efficient

– no design issues involved*

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– Sites often poorly organized– The need to move “junk”

from one site to another– The following is an example of

the frustration experienced by one of our workers (the image has been distorted to protect his identity)…

Conversion processConversion process

• Conversion process could have been a redesign process– Too time consuming

• Volume of content often overwhelming

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Conversion processConversion process

• Exam pools moved manually—tedious– Non-pooled exams only moved by cut and paste

– Posted deadlines for each trimester’s conversions– Set deadline for server shutdown

• Friday, May 9. 2003, 5:00 PM*

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Faculty trainingFaculty training

• Developed tutorial book for faculty– Converted eCollege resource

material– Divided into sections by areas

of use

• Awareness sessions– Group session to provide an overview of the

system– Tutorial book provided during training*

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Faculty trainingFaculty training

• Conducted individual and just-in-time training– e-mail– telephone

• Utilized online faculty as mentors– Built upon four years of experience with eCourse*

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Course integrationCourse integration

• Developed one template for multiple section courses– Duplicated for each instructor to customize – Provides for consistent curriculum– Quickly diffused the software across campus– Oral Communication*

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Course integrationCourse integration

• Reality check– Faculty often work on course sites up to the last

minute• Leaves little time to duplicate

– Student expectation is to have an course site for every course they’re taking*

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Course integrationCourse integration

– Some course sites are thinly developed – Course sites not ready for the first day of class

• Example: Education major said his instructor said material would be on the course site…eventually

• Bad modeling especially for the College of Education students*

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Learning Delivery Learning Delivery SystemsSystems

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Learning delivery systemsLearning delivery systems

• What are they?– Means by which educators deliver critical

content and concepts to students

• Types:– Campus-based courses– Online courses– Web-enhanced courses– ITV and telecourses

– Off-campus courses*

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Learning delivery systemsLearning delivery systems

• Aspects of learning delivery systems work well – in specific situations– with certain critical content and concepts– with particular types of students*

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Learning delivery systemsLearning delivery systems

• Building on experience– Educators have been designing, developing,

and delivering online courses and programs – Many pedagogies developed that led to

successful online learning– Found that they worked just as well in other

learning delivery systems

• Presented new twists for our learning delivery systems*

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New twists--Supplemental New twists--Supplemental course sitescourse sites

• Supplemental course web sites can be useful for integration with any of the learning delivery systems – develop simple content rich course sites– built around the learning outcomes for the

course*

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Supplemental course siteSupplemental course site

• Supplies the student with foundational course information– instructor information– course syllabus– lecture notes– course

presentations– handouts– assignments*

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Supplemental course siteSupplemental course site

• Course site then becomes the delivery system for critical course content for which the student is responsible

• Leaves the face-to-face time (campus-based, instructional television, or off-campus) available for other activities*

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Supplemental course siteSupplemental course site

• New twists– By incorporating such a site, the scheduling of

courses becomes more flexible– Allows institutions to more efficiently utilize

classrooms and reduce costs• potentially frees up classroom space

by meeting fewer times per week

• additional courses can then be scheduled into the classroom*

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Supplemental course siteSupplemental course site

• Library components within a course site• Library staff team responsible for unit

within course• Examples

– MIS Research Assignment– Computers and Information Technology

Tutorials– English Composition Research Tutorial

• All English 112 and 115 are enrolled in a single web site*

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Hybrid and blended programsHybrid and blended programs

• Another twist is the flexibility to develop an entire program with a combination of learning delivery systems – Labeled as hybrid or blended programs – Foundation is the web site for each course, which houses

the critical content for the courses

– Additional mix of delivery systems may be incorporated into the courses and/or program

– Some courses may be offered online while other courses may require students to meet on campus periodically*

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Hybrid and blended programsHybrid and blended programs

• The mix would be due to the nature of the critical concepts

• Again, the course web sites would be the foundation for critical course content delivery*

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Hybrid and blended exampleHybrid and blended example

• Instructional television may be used to meet the needs of a group of geographically located students– When combined with a course web site, this can

save • student travel time and

money

• institutional resources*

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Learning hubsLearning hubs

• An innovative twist to the standard course web site

• Serves as the basis for a myriad of learners co-enrolled in one course site

• Results in a new student status– co-enrolled students

• on-campus and online students enrolled in the same course site *

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Learning hubsLearning hubs

• This type of course site is centered around one faculty member – Learning hub for

• online• campus-based• graduate• undergraduate students

– Design provides a unique way by which an instructor can easily manage students and courses

• reduces the amount of time spent developing and maintaining individual course sites*

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Learning hubsLearning hubs

• Minimizes course site development

• Supports sharing of resources

• Promotes community of learners*

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Learning hubsLearning hubs

• Addresses the increasing interest and enthusiasm for collaborative learning communities – Content can be delivered to the various students

via the use of a group management feature – Allows all students to learn

together in a collaborative environment

– Students are divided into groups based upon their enrollment status for the course*

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Learning hubsLearning hubs

– Instructors can develop assignments for each learning group

• assignments can be associated with a particular group– Course tools can also be associated with a specific

learning group or opened across various groups • threaded discussion• chat• e-mail• document sharing• drop box*

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Full circleFull circle

• We have come full circle as we have learned from our online course development

• In so doing, it has given us a new perspective:– With respect to the learning delivery system that

we choose for delivery for the critical content– About learners and how we can meet their needs– About how the needs of the instructor can also be

met more effectively• all while providing access to learning with a twist*

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Ms. Darla Runyondrunyon@mail.nwmissouri.edu

Dr. Roger Von Holzenrvh@mail.nwmissouri.edu

Center for Information Technology in EducationNorthwest Missouri State University