Westminster College

Small college transitions to ANGEL with different

approach to training faculty

Westminster College

• Liberal Arts College in Salt Lake City Utah

• FTE of about 2200 students

• No official online courses or programs

• 140 Full-time faculty

• 100 Part-time faculty

• Website: http://westminstercollege.edu

Faculty Technology Center

• Computer Lab• 2 Staff positions • Manage Course Management System• Part of Information Technology Department• Assist faculty with technology projects• Encourage effective teaching and learning

practices• Host workshops about technology and pedagogy

Faculty Technology Center Motto(s)

“We’ll teach you what to do, not do it for you.”

“A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.”

Who Are We?

• Ben Neiswender – Faculty Technology Center Staff– ben@angeldude.com– http://angeldude.com

• Roksana Rezaei– rrezaei@westminstercollege.edu

• Dr. Peter Ingle– Faculty Liaison for FTC

WebCT History

• Training History:– Required Training to use WebCT– Week long summer session

• Full time faculty received stipend of $500• Adjunct faculty were not eligible to receive stipend

Why ANGEL

• Easy to use for our faculty

• Enterprise features that WebCT would charge us more than we could afford– ePortfolio– Learning Object Repository– Reporting features

• Still less expensive for us over 3 years- – we estimated approximately $90,000 cheaper

The Decision Making Process

• Demonstrated ANGEL to Faculty• Faculty Pilot group set up• Pilot group trained• Pilot group use for 1 semester• Pilot group recommendation given to Faculty

Technology Committee• More Faculty Demonstrations• Technology Committee review and

recommendation to faculty senate• Faculty senate approval and Provost approval

ANGEL Pilot Group

• Started out as 5 faculty and grew to 10 quickly

• Some “CAVE-dwellers”– Colleagues Against Virtually Everything

• Some faculty who are tech savvy and buy-in to almost everything

• Mostly WebCT users

• Training Pilot group Tip: Be Prepared!

Success and Struggles of Pilot Group

• Success:– 2 hour training session worked for most faculty– Most of them instantly fell in love with ANGEL– All of them started talking about ANGEL with

other faculty• Struggles:

– Concepts that were difficult for me where twice as difficult for them

• File structure• LOR• Drag and Drop• Assoc file manager

Transition Semester

• Goal: Have between 20-30 faculty trained– Offered 12 workshops over Winter Break– Offered to meet one-on-one to meet with faculty

to help them set up their class

• What happened:– Each workshop was near capacity– Helped approximately 2-3 faculty each day get

set up in a one-on-one coaching environment– Had to offer 6 more workshops once the

semester started

Results

• OVER 75 Faculty were trained in approximately 3 weeks by 1 person.

• Grand total of ANGEL users: 85– Spring 2006 Total WebCT users: 90

• Faculty Were not given a stipend at this time and were not promised one

Training Plan

• Faculty learn most of their skills by building something on their own

• Online Training

• 2 hour introductory session

• Stipends to be rewarded based on Levels of competency

• Goal: Receive as few support requests as possible.

Goals

• Level 1- Web Enhanced Instructor– 80 Level 1 faculty by January 2008

• Level 2- Hybrid Instructor– 20 Level 2 faculty by January 2008

• Level 3- Online Instructor– 10 Level 3 faculty by January 2008

Level 1Goal

Instructors will be able to:• navigate around the ANGEL LMS as a student and as an

instructor• upload and organize files into ANGEL• setup and use basic online communication tools such as

the calendar, email, and discussion boards• describe the characteristics of a web-enhanced course,

hybrid course, and an online course.• successfully teach a web enhanced course

Level 1 Requirements

To demonstrate competence faculty must:– ANGEL SCORM simulation

• Created using Captivate• Located in Course

– Multiple choice/True False policy and procedure

Level 2 Goal

Each Instructor will be able to:• determine how and if they will use the learning object

repository• use the HTML editor in ANGEL• collaborate online by using discussions and teams• assess student learning by using online quiz, survey, and

polls• create an online gradebook• successfully teach a pedagogically sound hybrid course

Level 2 Requirements

Pass Level 1DiscussionANGEL EmailSyllabusSurvey/Quiz/Poll

Drop BoxGradebookWorkshop 1Workshop 2Student

Satisfaction SurveySummary/Interview

Level 3 Faculty Certification

Each Instructor will be able to:• generate reports to monitor student activity and

engagement• create automated agents which maximize instructor

impact on students• find, develop and share learning objects • determine which advanced course techniques could be

most effectively used for their specific course• successfully implement a pedagogically sound online

course

Level 3 Requirements• Complete Level 1 and 2 • Semester long course using

– 3 or more of the level 3 concepts• Automate • Learning objects• Chats• Videos

• Attend 2 or more pedagogy workshops• Participate in semester long discussion group

– 5 postings and 3 sessions

• Submit a Summary report

What we have learned:

• Start with Faculty buy-in

• If you are going to use a stipend make it based on competency- not just attending a training session.

• Training sessions need to be short

• Break training sessions into relevant areas

• Provide lots and lots of sessions about the basics.

Reflection on process

• Good:– Low amount of support calls– Many faculty transitioned early– Faculty love ANGEL

• Bad:– Lots of work and management– Too much success: server has struggled– Stipend plan should have been presented to

faculty earlier

Summary

• The few hiccups don’t compare to the great overall success ANGEL has been

• Westminster Loves ANGEL!!!

Questions and Contact Info?

Contact Information:Ben Neiswender:

ben@angeldude.com

http://angeldude.com

http://westminstercollege.edu