How to build an online/distance learning Program

Had a great talk with Rob the other day about one phase of my internship, working on enlarging the number of online courses offered at SUNY Old Westbury. Rob is my contact at SLN during my internship. If we were in the CIA, which I assure you we are not ;), he would be called my handler.

How do we offer more classes online? 

One way would be to ask professors who already teach online to teach a second or third online course. Another way would be to convince faculty who don’t currently teach online to teach online. And I also thought about recruiting faculty at other school’s, who are experienced online teachers, to come teach a course with us. 
Maybe going above the teacher, in the begining to formulate a strategy with Chairs and Deans might be best?

I think the best path to take is the convince our own faculty who have never taught online to try it out.

But How?

Right now we, and many other schools offer a stipend, cash, to go through the process of building an online course. I think that would be the best way to also convince faculty from other schools to teach a course with us. I mentioned this idea to one professor I work with by asking her, “What would it take for another school to convince you to teach one online course with them, while keeping your full load of teaching her at Old Westbury?” In my mind the convenience of teaching online can also mean that you can teach 5, 10, or 20 sections of the course, all at different institutions. But there has  to be a limit, as to how many courses are too much.

So back to the professor I asked, she told me the money had to be right, that she had taught online at other institutions and she thought the fair thing would be to pay her based on enrollment in her online course. She felt the SUNY adjunct pay is not enticing enough to lure in her level of experience. This is an interesting idea to me and I wonder what the result of asking a group of 20, 50, 100, or 500 faculty would have to say about it.

My next question is, leaving the money aside, how would I convince our existing faculty to begin teaching online? Who would I start with? 

My first thought was to go after the new, young faculty. This group would tend to have more comfort using technology. This group would also be new to teaching and might be more open to try different teaching methods. While more experienced teachers might take the stand “I have always done it this way, why change it now”. I have no proof for this perspective, it is just what my gut tells me. I should ask around though, and find out for sure. A downside for new faculty to teach online was brought up at NERCOMP. New faculty who wish to obtain tenure positions might have a hard time with students taking online courses who do not belong in online courses. This could hurt the teachers tenure track and thus might be convince the teacher to not go out on a limb trying something new until their future is more stable under tenure. One person at NERCOMP mentioned that the a College in Arizon had a category for teachers applying for tenure which gave a stronger weight to teachers who do go out on a limb trying new technology and teaching online. 

Speaking with Rob, he thought it would be best to begin a conversation with experienced faculty. A teacher who has taught the same course many times, who knows the course inside and out, might be looking to try something new, a new way to deliver the same material. While a new teacher ,who s just beginning to feel their way around teaching, might have hard time adding the newness of teaching to the newness of teaching online. I thought this was a great idea.

Carol Williams, the head of distance learning at Abilene Christian University, a school that has had great success growing their online program recommends "starting with faculty who are known innovators on campus."(Bart 2010)

My next plan was to begin a conversation, face to face, with some of the faculty I have a built a strong relationship with. Working at SUNY Old Westbury for 8 years has allowed me to build a strong relationship with numerous members of the faculty. So I made two lists, the faculty I am extremely close with, and the faculty I am reasonably close with.

And I gave myself a new task, to compile a list of experienced faculty that I can talk with. 

What would experienced faculty be? 10 years? 

Another task I gave myself is to see what other schools are doing to lure in faculty. Many do offer money. Talking with Tammie, who is an instructional designer at FIT, FIT seems to have an easy time getting faculty to teach online even with their process. To teach a course online the course first has to be approved by a curriculum committee. Next the faculty member has to attend training sessions and meet with instructional designers to create the course. Lastly the course has to be approved. There are even instances where the faculty is asked to help next semester, peer review another teachers online course before it is an official course. I can see faculty having a hard time agreeing to do all this work, for a little stipend, yet Tammie has many faculty who sign up every semester. 

I am very curious to find out how they created this steady stream of faculty every semester, who wish to teach online. Did they build a foundation of events, public recognition, or just word of mouth or throught advertising in email and posters around campus? Or do they just have a unique culture of teachers.

So this plan is kind of looking like a Professional sports team, where we have two tracks, one where we develop talent from within, the other where we lure in all stars from outside our campus. 

How to find all stars? 

I know Sloan C gives out awards every year to online teaching excellence. Rate my professor might be another place to look.

Rob really liked my idea to begin a conversation with the faculty I have a strong relationship with.

I told him about my conversation with one professor who was concerned that his great in class discussions could not be emulated online, or that his class interaction was so good in his face to face course, why move it online? 

I responded that online discussions have benefits and drawbacks, as per robs presentation at FIT.

The professor I spoke with did show interest and wanted to have more information. Rob pointed out that teaching online does not have to be an all or nothing event. If a teacher is not sure why not create one online discussion, or a discussion online that will continue the discussion in the class. Lets try it out together and see what happens. Trying it on such a small scale is a good test. Lets open the door and begin a dialogue. 

Rob talked to me about how to create a good discussion, and that it is all in the question, where open ended is best. The answer should not be finite. If you ask the class the top 5 reason the textbook lists for WW2 the conversation will end after the first few posts. This is not beneficial.

Rob would ask to see a teachers test questions and will be able to tell what is better for a discussion. It is all in how the questions is asked.

Tell the teacher, l”ets try things out, lets explore together. We might make mistakes but its ok. We are both learning. Lets build a long term relationship, which is better than building one great online course.”

Rob gave me the example of a time he worked with a faculty who took robs advice and tried a debate in an online course. The debate tanked but everyone appreciated and learned from the experience.

One idea for a discussion is to ask the students to find a flaw. The textbook lists 3 major reasons for WW2 why are these flawed. Students love finding flaws.

Rob mentioned that strong online instructors should be enlisted to help win over and train new online faculty, the faculty will trust other faculty before the trust and Instructional Designer.

One task I gave myself is to find strong online instructors.

Teaching online is a way to expand your toolbox, it will not replace the tools you already have and use, take what you know and add too it.

Bart, M. (2010) Steps for Creating and Growing your Online Program. Faculty Focus Blog. Retrieved from http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/growing-successful-online-programs-at-a-small-school-2/