Designing an Effective Online Developmental Literacy Course David Caverly, Ph.D., Texas State UniversityNational Association for Developmental Education

Greenville, SC, February 27, 2015

Online or Hybrid DE CoursesHow many of you have taught or are teaching an online or hybrid developmental education class?

How do you differentiate between an online and a hybrid class?

How effective would you say either is?How do you measure “effective?”

Did you design your course following guidelines?

For those of you who have not designed or taught a class, why would you want to teach a DE class online or as a hybrid?

What would be your goals for this class?

Proliferation of Technology - World

Caverly & O'Connor (2015)

Proliferation of Technology - World

Proliferation of Devices - UScell phones

dekstop or laptops

smart phones

e-book readers

game consoles

tablets

mp3 player

Online or Hybrid DE Courses• Nearly 50% of community college students have taken

at least 1 fully online course (Jaggers, 2011)

• 65% of DE Math and 47% of DE Eng withdraw• 20% math or 32% English take gatekeeper class; • Lack of technology and the skills to use it, lack of a

structured learning environment, and lack of social and emotional connection

• few courses required any kind of social presence and consequently a sense of isolation, lack of structure, and a lack of support

• Solution was to adjust using sound online course design through Community of Inquiry (CoI) model

Community of Inquiry model- Social Presence- membership- communicating- developing

relations

Garrison, et al. (2010)

Community of Inquiry model- Cognitive Presence

- triggering event- exploration- integration- resolution

Garrison, et al. (2001)

Community of Inquiry model

- Teaching Presence

- design- facilitation- direction

Garrison, et al. (2010b)

Community of Inquiry model

Garrison, et al (2001)

Community of Inquiry ModelElements Categories Indicators (examples only)

Social Presence

Personal/AffectiveOpen CommunicationGroup Cohesion

• Self projection/expressing emotions• Learning climate/risk-free

expression• Group identity/collaboration

Cognitive Presence

Triggering EventExplorationIntegrationResolution

• Sense of puzzlement• Information exchange• Connecting ideas• Applying new ideas

Teaching Presence

Design & OrganizationFacilitating DiscourseDirect Instruction

•Setting curriculum & methods•Shaping constructive exchange•Focusing and resolving issues

Design of READ 0200

Block scheduling adopted and reduced class meetings to 2x

Fully online section piloted then discontinued – 29% vs. 55% success rate

Hybrid and F2F sections – no significant difference in success.

80% of sections are delivered as hybrid – one day in smart classroom, second in computer classroom

Fall Course re-design following CoIOnline activities are integrated with F2F

Standardized course organization - TP – SP – CPModules by week and match syllabusNews page recaps/reminds in-class and online activities

Grading of assignments – TP – SP – CPUtilize voice recording functionsLonger more encouraging comments align to rubric

Discussions - TP – SP – CPInstructor actively modeling and guiding discussions

What we learned

Formative adjustments after Fall 2014 • Discussions still weaker than expected• Use F2F discussions in class about concepts during Guided

Practice• then, moving to texting discussions in class about the

concepts, and comparing the affordances of each• then, moving to online discussions during computer lab day

of class and comparing the affordances to texting, to F2F

• Twice weekly News updates• Tighter syllabus alignment with D2L

modules

Future Research• Collect data over bother semesters

• Course completion %

• Semester-by-Semester retention %

• Gateway course success

Questions