Online Course Development from the Student Perspective

I must preface all that I am about to write by explaining that I am not much of a techie. I don’t blog, I am barely active on Facebook, and my tweets are rarer than well-behaved NFL players. When offered my position as an Online Course Development Assistant at the College of Nursing, however, I took the chance. Online course offerings and degree programs have expanded significantly over the last decade, but the quality of these programs is sometimes dubious. Too often, students enroll in online courses and fail to complete them successfully. Instructors puzzle over ways to teach course content in more engaging and effective ways in an online format. Everyone concerned – students and faculty – must deal with occasional technological frustrations.

This is where I come in. Part of my job is to research various technologies that may assist in online course delivery, present various options to faculty, and then help to ensure that the chosen technology assists students’ learning rather than getting in the way. This is both exciting and challenging – particularly when using a chosen technology for the first time. The College of Nursing recently purchased a departmental license for VoiceThread, which is a great cloud-based software that enables more interactive class discussions than what is possible with the Carmen discussion board. Students and faculty can create their online discussions using video and other media and add comments directly on one another’s threads. Dr. Kim Arcoleo is using VoiceThread for the first time in her online Responsible Conduct of Research course this autumn, and the feedback so far has been positive.

Graduate students at the College of Nursing experience a significant portion of their curriculum online, and the university recently launched a new master’s program that is entirely online. It has been my pleasure to work with Dr. Kim Arcoleo and Dr. Carolynn Thomas-Jones to revamp two of their courses for the new Master’s in Applied Clinical and Pre-clinical Research program. MACPR is a new interdisciplinary graduate degree program offered entirely online by the colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Veterinary Medicine, and will prepare graduates to become administrators, regulatory specialists, and research team members in clinical and preclinical research studies. The program offers a multidisciplinary curriculum across four specializations: Clinical Research Management, Regulatory Affairs, Safety Pharmacology, and Clinical Pharmacology.

I am currently working with professors Alice Teall and Rita Kaspar on a project to develop an online wellness coaching module that will enable online FNP students to become certified wellness coaches.  These are very valuable skills for any provider to have in practice, and the expectation is that any health professional student at the university will be able to become a certified wellness coach.  The wellness module goes live next week so stayed tuned for updates.

I have come to know so many of the faculty and staff of the College of Nursing through the projects I am involved with. I have enjoyed this experience and the freedom to explore various technologies designed to deliver online educational content. The main challenge has been the amount of time required by both me and the faculty involved in the course redesign process. The MACPR program uses what is called the Backwards Design process to structure its courses. This is a very involved instructional design method that establishes measurable course learning objectives, creates student activities and assignments, and ensures that course technologies work as intended. Throughout the process, one has to keep the end goal of ensuring that students actually learn what they are supposed to learn.

I’d like to wrap up with a list of helpful tips that I have learned through my experience as a course development assistant.

  1. Don’t expect perfection.  Every course technology has its flaws and limitations.  Better to know these and bring them to the attention to the developer.  Sometimes, they are addressed in future releases.
  2. Don’t overload students.  Instructors are subject matter experts who are passionate about what they teach.  It’s understandable that they want students to know what they know.  Remember, though, that this cannot be accomplished in just one lesson or even in a single course.  Design lessons so that students take away five main points that you want them to learn.
  3. Feel free to experiment.  There are so many technologies available that allow instructors to present online course content in engaging and convenient ways.  I had never heard of most of these until I began this job.  Consult the CoN IT department, Joni Tornwall’s blog, and other educational blogs and websites for ideas on how to use these technologies.  Most are not nearly as scary as you might think.

Specific Equipment Usage Guidelines

Wondering what type of equipment the IT department has? Here are some options available to you and some instructions on how to use them.

 Video Cameras:

  • Make sure the camera has an SD card loaded.
  • Ensure that if the camera is being used for an extended period of time for recording, it is plugged in to avoid battery issues
  • Use a tripod as needed
  • Point and shoot, click the record button
  • Pull recorded video(s) off of SD card or request from IT what you would like done with them. Be sure to return the SD card

 

GoPro: (specific video camera designed to be used while in motion)

  • Keep all contents in the case when not in use
  • Make sure a fresh battery is in use (fully charged)
  • Ensure that your SD card is loaded
  • Use the GoPro mobile app as desired
  • Click to record
  • Pull recorded video(s) off of SD card or request from IT what you would like done with them

 

Lavalier Kits: (small microphone clip)

  • Check to see that the microphone pack is turned on
  • Do not change instructed microphone location
  • Do not be concerned about the equipment and worry about the event

Need more information?  Contact us at CON-InformationTechnology@osu.edu.

VoiceThread available to CON classes!

Is it possible to look forward to grading course projects?

It certainly is!  Imagine that your students submit a single, easily accessed file online that contains pictures, video, drawings, and their voice.  Now imagine that you don’t have to tote reams of paper back and forth between work and home.  In fact, you can view your students’ projects from any computer or mobile device connected to the internet, and you can leave comments on any part of their projects by recording your voice or showing them something in a video.

The College of Nursing now has VoiceThread available for you to use whether you are teaching online or completely face to face.  To learn more, contact Joni Tornwall or any member of the IT team.  Get a short overview of VoiceThread or view a 45-minute webinar to get started.

VoiceThread

Outlook, Links, and Carmen

Sometimes when you copy a link that has been emailed to you, Outlook can add elements to that link that make it unusable in your Carmen course.

For example, if you were to copy and paste this Panopto link into Carmen,

Screen Shot 2014-09-04 at 9.02.52 AM

you are actually copying this.

Screen Shot 2014-09-04 at 9.03.25 AM

That link has additional elements that keep it from being usable in Carmen.

To fix this, click on the original link to open it in a new page, then copy the URL from the address bar here.

Screen Shot 2014-09-10 at 11.18.02 AM

Once you have that link, follow the normal process for creating a new link within Carmen.

NP 8480 meets Quality Matters Standards

Carolyn Schubert

Carolyn Schubert

Carolyn Schubert submitted her doctoral-level, fully online Quality Improvement course for an official Quality Matters review in July. Three Quality Matters-trained peer reviewers spent many hours combing through the course, experiencing the content and activities from the student point of view. They provided detailed feedback to Carolyn regarding the features in her course that encourage student success and offered suggestions for continuous improvement.

The three peer reviewers brought years of experience in online teaching as well as expertise in education and health care to the review. They were:

  • David Stein (Associate Professor in the College of Education)
  • Jackie Buell (Assistant Professor in Health and Rehab Sciences, College of Medicine)
  • Tara Spalla (Associate Dean, Distance Education, Mount Carmel College of Nursing)

NP 8480 is the sixth course at Ohio State and the second in the College of Nursing to earn the Quality Matters seal for quality assurance in online courses. If you have designed an online or hybrid course and would like to submit it for a Quality Matters review, please speak with Joni Tornwall to find out how to get started.