Nine Months InSuccesses, Shortcomings & Future Plans

Gail Matthews-DeNatale, Ph.D.Associate Director, Academic Technology

2008 Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning

About Simmons

• 100+ years old

• Private college located in Boston

• 5,000 students (1/2 grad, 1/2 undergrad)

• Women’s undergrad college and five co-educational grad schools

• Small university

A Bit of History: 2006-2007

SATV: Shared Academic Technology Vision

May - Aug- Planning- Briefing

Document Development

Jan - April - SATV Set as

Priority

Sept - Dec- 1st College Meeting- School Meetings- 2nd College Meeting- 3rd College Meeting

Implementation Strategy: • Macro/Micro: College-wide Working Groups in Conjunction with School-

based Decision-Making Processes

• Informed Decision-Making: Lots of Examples and Briefing Documents

• Creative Voting Exercises (3 stickers, $10 to spend, clickers, etc.)

Potential Priorities

Discipline- specific technologies

Emerging technologies

Blended learning

LearningenvironmentsLMS

enhancement

• Faculty Interest Group: Peter Sands Presentation

• UW-M Facilitated Simmons Faculty Institute

• Developed Sloan Localness Proposal (12/07 award notice)

A Bit of History: 2007-2008

See Executive Summary

Highlights

• Mandated faculty professional development

• 1:17-20 Teacher/Student ratio

• Blended “counts” in P&T and for sabbatical leave

• Start-Up incentives

Blended Learning Successes:Institution-Wide Policies

See Handout

• Highlights

• Guiding Questions Document

• Curriculum Committee and Faculty Retreats

Blended Learning SuccessesCurriculum Committees

Include• Video Interview

• Course Tour

• Sample Course Materials(Modules, Assignments)

• Recommended Exercises for Blended Course Redesign

• Glossary of Terms

Designed to also be used as learning modules

Blended Learning SuccessesEthnographic Case Studies

Ethnographic Case Studies

Use Scenarios• Face-to-face institutes or

blended institutes

• Fully online professional development (especially for adjuncts)

• Scheduled asynchronous (faculty available online as discussants)

• Self-paced independent

Ten faculty cases planned for 08-09, eight are “in the can”

Blended Learning SuccessesInstitutes and Assessments

Twice Annual Faculty Institute

• 37 Simmons faculty and staff have participated

• 20 courses have been blended

• “High Touch” assessment instruments created (one pre/post attitudes, another based on CLASSE)http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/survey-intro.zgi?p=WEB228FE6N5KUJ

SEE ALSO CLASSE EXAMPLE

Blended Learning SuccessesExpansion

Other Schools Coming on Board

• CAS Education (blended faculty model)

• SSW Partnership with Lyndon College in VT

• SOM Project to Provide Business Management Education to Women in Underserved Communities

We Live in Interesting Times

• The Economy!!!

• Change in College Leadership

• Pushback on 50%

• Uneven Quality of Courses(Concerned that Blended Will Take the Fall)

• Anxiety About Where This Is Heading(We Know Who Our Students Are Now …)

Blended Learning Challenges