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Transcript of Tutoring Online: Developing Program Based Online
Learning Support Services
Slide: WCET presents a Webcast Series: Providing
Student Services to Distance Learners
PAT: During today's session,
we invite you to make comments related to the presentation in the
chat box and some of you have already welcomed other folks that
are here, so you've used it. But if you would use it during Mike's
presentation to exchange information on tutoring and your experiences
and knowledge of that topic from your institutions, and that would
be an extra bonus for those people attending.
If you experience connectivity problems during this presentation,
please click on the help button to send an e-mail message to tech
support.
SUE: If you would like to
have a private conversation with someone whose name you see in the
box next to the WCET logo, you can click on the "tell"
button and select that person's name and your message will go just
straight to that person.
And I'd also like to mention a quirk of Internet technology. This
isn't a television broadcast where you get sound and pictures all
at the same time. They come by various packets. So this is an asynchronous
transmission of our voices and the slides. So if what you see and
hear are not matched up exactly, please be patient and know that
it will get better aligned eventually.
PAT: Okay, and so we can get
a better sense of your interest today, please respond to the question
that's about to appear on your screen.
Question: Does your institution provide tutoring?
"Does your institution
provide tutoring?" and please click the radio button on your
screen, the most appropriate answer, and you should see "in
person only,""online only," you do both “in person
and online tutoring,” or you don't provide any tutoring.
And while you're responding to that question — we'll have
the results tabulated here in a few minutes — I want to tell
you that tutoring online, developing program-based online learning
support services, is the eighth in our webcast series on providing
student services to distance learners.
This series is part of WCET's work on its Learning Anytime, Anywhere
Partnership project, which is funded by the US Department of Education.
The project involves three partner institutions and a corporate
partner in creating web-based student services for online learners.
The partners in that LAAP project include Kansas State University,
Regis University and Kapi'olani Community College. And Kapi'olani
has been focused on tutoring in this project and have really, I
think, stretched the definition of tutoring and that's why we're
really looking forward to hearing what Mike has to say.
Sue, do we have some results?
Results: Does your institution provide tutoring?
SUE: We do. This is so cool.
It looks like we have about fifty-four respondents, and we can see
from the bar graph that looks like most of the tutoring is going
on in person only. But there are some schools that, half of that
many again, tutoring is going on both in person and online.
PAT: Okay. So we're starting
to see some changes there, and Mike's model actually involves both
some in person tutoring and online tutoring. While we're still waiting
here for Mike, let me tell you a little bit about WCET for those
of you that are not familiar with it.
Slide: WCET: The Cooperative advancing the
effective use of technology in higher education
WCET is a cooperative of higher education institutions, agencies,
non-profit organizations and corporations involved in distance learning.
Our focus is on advancing the effective use of technology in the
higher education. You can see some of the information about us on
the screen. And I hope you will visit our website to learn more.
We have an institute, an MDE institute, that's coming up in July
in Park City, Utah. I think they're just a few more openings there,
so if you missed going to Park City for the Olympics, here's an
opportunity to spend some time in an absolutely beautiful location
and really come up to speed on some of the pressing issues and challenges
with distance learning and also some of the great opportunities
in new technologies.
SUE: Do you want to talk about
our new website?
PAT: Yes. Let's do that. We
have a new website as of today that Sue's been working on for several
weeks now. Months might be more accurate. Where we've gathered a
lot of resources on student services in a variety of different topic
areas. And we've had experts write some overviews in each of those
sections.
SUE:
I hope you will visit that site. If you go to our www.wcet.info,
and then go to "Projects" and then click on "Beyond
the Administrative Core," you will find lots of resources that
I think you'll find helpful.
PAT: I hope that you will
send us some additional resources to look at that we might want
to also add to the site. We're looking for some good models of delivering
student services online and we're particularly interested in certain
areas. And those areas include academic advising, tutoring, orientation,
financial aid, library services, career counseling, career planning,
and personal counseling.
So if you know of schools doing a good job in any of those areas,
we'd be very interested in taking a look at their models. So if
you will send us a note there's a place on our site where you can
submit recommendations for additional materials to add to the site.
SUE: We have introductions
by national leaders in the field of each of these student services.
And we have information about the history of the student service,
of the responsibilities that are involved, the challenges and issues.
Then we have hundreds of links that go to various associations
and organizations, publications and articles, we have campus sites
that are doing a good job, and we have also have corporate sites
that offer a variety of different kinds of services for all the
different student services.
So there's a lot of information there. And we're looking forward
to hearing from people more examples so we can just keep adding
to it.
PAT: One possibility, while
we're waiting for Mike, is to launch the site, Sue, and take a little
tour. Would you like to do that?
SUE: Sure. Let me see if I
can figure out which button to use. That's not it. Wonderful. Okay.
I’ll do that right now.
PAT: Okay. I'll just tell
you about the other two — while Sue's doing that — partners
in our project. Kansas State University is working on academic advising.
They're hoping to create a way to provide a more simplified degree
audit that could be displayed in a split screen environment, so
that distance students could carry on a chat with their academic
advisor at the same that both the academic advisor and the student
are looking at some of their data.
Slide: Website: WICHE – Beyond the Administrative
Core
Regis is working with Datatel, their student information system,
to create some automatic messaging so that students are notified
about the process of their admissions application and what parts
are missing. It will also give them access to RegisNET, which gives
them access to the library. It will also keep their academic advisor
aware of the progress that the student has made, and then when the
student is ready — when all the materials are in for the admissions
process — and they're ready for their first appointment. All
of this messaging happens automatically with event triggers.
So it really is going to ease some of the burden off the academic
advisors for the distance students, because a lot of this type of
work was what occupied the first ten minutes of the first academic
advising appointment for the academic advisors at this campus. And
now all of this will happen automatically. So that's pretty exciting.
MIKE: Sorry, we were having
some technical difficulties at our end, with equipment changes.
PAT: Well, you're joining
us just at the perfect time. Sue has just put up our new website
for people to take a look at it. We've been telling them all about
it. And I was just getting ready to introduce you, so I'll give
you another minute's breather while I do that and Sue can find the
place where we need to be for slides.
And so let me tell you a little bit about Mike. I've been working
with him for three years on this LAAP project that I explained a
little bit about earlier. And I think he's one of our most innovative
thinkers in student services and I'm very pleased that he could
be with us here today.
He is from Kapi'olani Community College in Hawaii, and they've
made a lot of progress in creating online learning support system
there, despite a series of system-wide difficulties — which
we won't go into — but believe me, it's been a difficult couple
of years.
Slide: Tutoring Online: Developing Program
Based Online Learning Support Services
Before advancing through several positions at Kapi'olani, Mike
earned a Masters Degree in Geography and a Bachelors in Horticulture.
He also worked as a pineapple harvester and aircraft turbine engine
mechanic in the US Army and served in the Peace Corps in Colombia.
But he is now the Dean of Health and Legal Education, Library and
Learning Resources, and Technology Services at Kapi'olani Community
College. So, Mike, welcome.
Mike, we're right at the point where it would be helpful perhaps
for you to know who is out there. We had an opportunity to get acquainted
with people a little bit earlier, but I know you wanted to ask people
what their primary responsibility is, whether they are an instructional
designer, a director of instruction, academic advisor, a faculty
member, a director of distance education.
If people could just enter in the chat box what their major areas
of responsibility are that would be helpful for Mike to get to know
people.
SUE: Yes, see where it says
Send a Message next to the text field, just type in your job title
and hit enter. That's how content gets into the chat box.
MIKE: Denny says reception
is good in Washington.
PAT: Distance learning program
manager. Oh, great. These are the right people to talk to.
MIKE: Quite a variety of people
from different backgrounds including faculty, student services,
and online tutoring. Good. We have a nice mix of people in the audience.
SUE: And I also like to mention
where I've noticed people said they're from. We have people today
from Hawaii, Colorado, Arizona, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah,
Connecticut, Washington and California.
PAT: So from all over. That's
great.
MIKE: Okay, let me get oriented.
We are on slide number 2.
MIKE: Well, thank you for
joining us. Today we'll be taking a look at some characteristics
of tutoring services and explore the potential for transforming
these into a more complex program-based learning support system
for distance learners and students in general.
Our approach will be to explore a series of scenarios and by asking
for your feedback as we go along.
Now, here's our first scenario. In this instance, try to determine
who provided Sarah with tutoring. Sarah Student is a freshman who
met with Conrad Counselor. Together they developed an academic plan
to prepare Sarah for the nursing program. Based on Conrad's suggestions,
she enrolled in math in her first semester.
Sarah had difficulty with the math course, and asked her best friend
for help. Her friend helped her with a few homework assignments
and then loaned Sarah her copy of Algebra for Dummies.
Sarah also met with her instructor, Tanya Teacher, for further
assistance during office hours. However, since Tanya's time was
limited, Tanya recommended that Sarah use a math lab tutor for assistance.
Ultimately, Sarah passed the course.
Question: Who provided tutoring?
Based upon the scenario, there's the following question. Who provided
Sarah with tutoring? Please make your selection now.
PAT: And so the choices we
have, the math tutor, Tanya Teacher, Sarah's friend, the Algebra
for Dummies book, Conrad Counselor, or all of the above. And I see
people are sending in their responses.
While members of the audience are voting, Mike, could you describe
some of your initial challenges in the development of your online
tutoring solution there at Kapi'olani?
MIKE: Sure, Pat. I believe
our first challenge was trying to understand the function of tutoring
from the perspective of the student rather than from the perspective
of the college.
While we do have tutoring centers, it became apparent that lending
assistance occurred in a variety of different ways. It was provided
from a variety of sources and was both academic and non-academic
in nature.
Slide: Results: Who provided tutoring?
SUE: Okay. Fifty people have
voted. Here are the results.
PAT: And now, Mike, do you
agree with it?
MIKE: Okay. Well, I think
all of the answers are correct, and I wouldn’t disagree with any.
I think the audience has sort of approached tutoring from the perspective
of perhaps their backgrounds. I would like to suggest that in reality
all of these sources of information or people, whether it be a person
or a textbook, a teacher or a counselor, provided some sort of instruction
to Sarah, the student.
And I think, as we began to take a look at tutoring at our institution,
and began to define it more broadly along these functional lines,
I think we began to feel that all of these players were involved
in some sort of supplemental instruction.
PAT: Okay. So taking a different
perspective.
MIKE: That's correct.
From a functional perspective, I think we've come to the conclusion
that tutoring comes from a variety of sources. We can view tutoring
as having a content management component.
Slide: Tutoring Overview: Common Management
Strategies
MIKE: No points deducted.
Okay. Functionally, we can view tutoring as having a content management
component. Sarah received tutoring in academic planning, as well
as in math. We also have a delivery and learning component. Sarah
received tutoring from various people and a textbook. And the final
component involved an assessment piece. Sarah passed the course.
Sarah actually experienced three content management strategies
for tutoring. Tanya Teacher provided Sarah with an instructor-based
strategy where content was managed at the course level by an instructor.
The math tutor, on the other hand, represented a discipline-based
approach that provided content integration among different instructors.
Finally, although we don't usually think of advising as tutoring,
it represents supplemental instruction designed to help Sarah achieve
a program-level goal: admission into the nursing program.
Slide: Tutoring Overview: Common Delivery
Strategies
Next, tutoring was delivered to Sarah in a variety of ways. The
counselor, teacher and tutor represent one-to-one individualized
tutoring.
The textbook also represents a source of learning content and was
used by both Sarah and her friend. An example of one-to-many tutoring.
If Sarah had asked for help from several of her friends, we would
have an example of many-to-one tutoring.
Although there are many ways to model tutoring, a functional approach
at Kapi'olani Community College was taken because it loaned itself
to our challenge of moving tutoring into an online environment.
We needed to determine what we wanted to provide tutoring in and
who was to provide it, what technologies to employ in its delivery,
and ultimately, how to evaluate the effectiveness of the tutoring
provided.
Slide: Tutoring Overview: Instructor Based
Assessment
Now let's explore assessment. To understand the issues here, let's
explore a second scenario.
Nancy Nurse, the program director for nursing, just had a meeting
with her Dean who expressed concern over student retention rates
in the program. This was triggered by a student complaint where
George Griever, a student with a 3.5 GPA, failed a practical nursing
course because he could not perform dosage calculations with 100%
accuracy, a program requirement.
Nancy subsequently met with Calvin Calculus, George's math teacher.
Calvin expressed dismay at George's problem with dosages since George
had passed math with a B. However, in checking his grade book, Calvin
discovered that George had actually been weak in ratios and proportions,
but that overall George had been an excellent student when it came
to doing proofs, the emphasis in Calvin's math course.
Nancy then met with Loretta Lab, the director for the math lab.
Loretta checked her files and explained to Nancy that George only
had a minor problem with ratio problems. His real difficulty involved
solving word problems. In addition, George demonstrated poor time
management skills, which was compounded by the fact that George
had a full-time job.
Nancy felt that she now had a handle on the problem, but sighed
because the Dean had also cut her budget and could not afford to
hire additional tutors.
Question: Which strategy would you recommend
that Nancy take to help nursing students?
Question: Based on Nancy's investigation,
which of the following strategies might prove useful in assisting
her nursing students? Choice 1, change the math program to include
more word problems; 2, expand lab hours; 3, track knowledge about
George from many sources; 4, nothing, because the Dean is unreasonable.
PAT: Now do you identify with
that, Mike?
MIKE: Oh, I've heard that
a number of times.
PAT: Okay. So we want people
to respond to that question. Some creative names you have here for
people.
While folks in the audience are voting, Mike, have you explained
why you are using a program-based approach to delivering tutoring
services online at Kapi'olani?
MIKE: Sure, Pat. One of my
areas of responsibility is the health programs — and health
programs are usually held to very high levels of accountability.
The programs are directly responsible to demands from the healthcare
industry, standards established by the profession, and increasingly,
reporting requirements to government agencies that provide vocational
funding.
More importantly, I hope this scenario suggests that the primary
issue is not just the delivery of tutoring services to students,
but the need to integrate the many sources of learning that a student
experiences that affects the likelihood of student success within
a program.
PAT: Okay, let's see if Sue
has any results yet.
SUE: Well, I've been encouraged
to be slow and ask if anybody else wants to vote before I publish,
because, by my count, looking at the yes/no numbers below everybody's
names on that very bottom gray bar, forty-one people have voted.
PAT: Okay.
Results: Which strategy would you recommend
that Nancy take to help nursing students?
SUE: I see only forty-two
votes, but I'm going to publish the results for now. Track knowledge
about George from many sources is the big winner. I hope we got
everybody's vote right this time.
PAT: Okay. So, clearly that
seems like the best strategy. I've suspect that that's going to
be a little bit difficult.
MIKE: Well, as a Dean who
finds himself in very similar situations, let me say that I am glad
that most of you don't think that the Dean was being completely
unreasonable.
Slide: Tutoring Overview: Discipline Based
Assessment
In her research, Nancy Nurse discovered that George was in need
of some math remediation. But the scope of his problems included
problems not related to mathematics.
Nancy has now begun to look at George's learning support needs
from a program perspective.
This experience suggested to her that there were learning support
issues that were not only student based, but issues related to how
the institution managed learning support.
SUE: Mike, we have some people
in the audience who would appreciate just a quick review of what
you mean by instructor-based, discipline-based and program-based
tutoring strategies.
MIKE: Okay. Well, in instructor-based
and I think one of the slides that are coming up will demonstrate
this, I'm referring to tutoring pretty much designed around a course
or an instructor. Tutoring in a good example of instructor-based.
In this case it would be, let's say, office hours provided by an
instructor, where the instructor meets with students in a one-to-one
situation.
Slide: Tutoring Overview: Program Based Assessment
When speaking about discipline-based tutoring, I'm referring to
the kind of operation that's often associated with a tutoring center.
In the case of our scenario, it would be the math lab. And in this
instance, the tutoring support provided crosses all of the different
math courses taught by individual instructors. I think that the
basis for the tutoring provided is a little bit different from the
tutoring that's provided from the perspective of the individual
instructor within his course.
In the math lab setting, I think the math tutors are providing
a more across-the-board approach to the delivery of tutoring around
mathematics.
From the perspective of program-based tutoring, what I'm referring
to is tutoring within the context of the entire program. I think
what we discovered in our scenario was that when you began to take
a look at the issue of a student performing an applied math problem
in a nursing course, the problem that the student faced was a little
bit more complex than just the ability to solve a math problem.
As the nursing director investigated the problem more completely,
I think what she discovered was that the ability of a student to
perform an applied math problem in a nursing course was not solely
the function of a student having taken a math course successfully
or not in the past.
So in subsequent courses, like a nursing course, which uses applied
math, I think the issues are a little bit more complex than whether
or not a student had performed math successfully in a previous course
and I think Nancy Nurse has begun to discover this.
So from a programmatic context, what we're trying to do is take
a look at the learning needs of a student in performing the applied
math problems, not only from the basis of courses taken or math
scores attained in the past, but from a much broader range of skill
sets that are all directly tied to that student's ability to perform
that particular applied math problem in that particular nursing
course.
PAT: I think that should make
it clear.
Slide: Characteristics: Management Strategies
MIKE: Most institutions employ
a variety of content management strategies, each with unique strengths
and weaknesses. This is not to say that one method is preferred
over another.
As we began to take a look at tutoring from the perspective of
student success in a program, it became clear that we needed to
more effectively integrate a variety of learning support services.
Interestingly enough, as online learning support materials were
being developed, it proved easier to integrate online materials
than it was to integrate the myriad of face-to-face services provided
by various organizational units at the college.
Slide: Characteristics: Delivery Strategies
MIKE: Similarly, there exists
strengths and weaknesses associated with the different methods of
delivering learning support.
The challenge that lay before us was to decide on which communication
vehicles to employ in the online environment, who was to have control
over them, and who was to have access to them.
This also had to be done in a manner to expand the scope of service
to being available around the clock since most of our students are
like George, who works and goes to school.
Slide: Characteristics: Assessment Strategies
PAT: Okay, so we're going
to revisit Nancy scenario for a minute.
MIKE: Let's revisit Nancy
scenario for a minute and explore what Nancy discovered about learning
assessment at her institution.
Calvin Calculus was a good math teacher, but his course was designed
around his interpretation of the math curriculum and not requirements
set by the nursing program.
The math lab had correctly diagnosed the student's problem, but
the ability to track George's learning needs was limited to the
lab.
The nursing program had been so focused on student performance
of dosage skills that it had overlooked other complementary skills
required to perform that applied math task.
Finally, even though the problem was now understood, the cost of
expanding and coordinating these traditional sources of learning
support was quite high.
PAT: Mike, you've talked a
little bit about one of the problems that you've found there with
students was that sometimes there were implicit skills that students
needed for programs, but there was no explicit instruction in those.
And I assume that that's what you're referring to here a little
bit when you're talking about the nursing problem was so focused
on the dosage skills and that it missed maybe some of these other
softer skills that you've talked about a little bit? Maybe observation
and listening skills? Is that right?
MIKE: That's correct, Pat.
Again, as we began to take a look at student performance, or use
of math skills, as well as reading skills and writing skills and
so forth and trying to determine what was affecting a student performance
in the nursing program, for example, we began to explore and assess
students along a large number of foundation skills, or soft skills.
This included things like listening skills, reading for information
skills, writing skills, observation skills and so forth.
Slide: Online Learning Support: Broadening
Management Strategies
And what we discovered, I think, very interestingly, that two major
areas where students demonstrated weaknesses were in areas of listening
and observation skills.
So one of our concerns that became apparent to us was that our
curriculum was well-designed — our nurses were graduating
from our program and passing the n nursing board exams at very high
rates — however we were getting feedback from industry that
students often times were deficient in various soft skills, or foundation
skills.
And when we began to take a look at students who were failing the
clinical portions, like in the case of our scenario, George Griever,
it's not unusual for us to find students with very high grade point
averages who have difficulty in clinical situations.
And one hypothesis is that some of these difficulties may be caused
by the student lacking these kinds of soft or implicit skills in
the clinical setting — listening and observation skills that
are very important — but these are not defined or addressed
anywhere in our entire curriculum, and I think we need to re-examine
that.
I would suspect that student success and student success is also
affected by these kinds of foundation skills which I think, whether
it's in the nursing program or in the liberal arts, general education
courses that lead into the nursing program, probably are not addressing
a host of these kinds of foundation skills that are probably prerequisites
for success in an academic program.
PAT: And so you're using some
assessment and tutoring modules to address those soft skill issues?
MIKE: Currently, we're using
ACT’s WorkKeys to perform assessment of our incoming health students.
And there is WorkKeys. ACT has a partnership with a company that
produces a product called KeyTrain and we've been using KeyTrain,
which is a computerized software to provide remediation in these
various areas.
A very interesting piece of software because the assessment tool
in the software are geared towards occupational standards for various
professions. So for example, for a nurse, there is a standard set
for nurses in the areas of observation skills, listening skills,
teamwork skills and so forth.
And where we have identified skill gaps among our students, we've
been trying to bring to bear some remediation to improve student
performance in these areas.
This is our first year that we're testing out the product and I'll
have a better sense of its effectiveness by next academic year.
PAT: Okay. Well, I guess we're
now on slide twelve, Mike, and you can tell us, in addition to using
the KeyTrain?
MIKE: And WorkKeys.
PAT: And WorkKeys. Okay, in
addition to using those tutoring programs, what else are you doing
in online learning support at Kapi'olani?
MIKE: Well, when we look at
the potential for online tutoring, I believe that it goes beyond
the simple transformation of existing services into comparable online
services. Although this is a reasonable first step, I believe that
most of us who are developing online tutoring might want to explore
the underlying technologies involved, because I believe a lot more
could be done.
For example, a program-based system of learning support services
could be designed around student learning needs in its broadest
sense by incorporating foundational learning skills, as well as
academic advising.
More importantly, the technology suggests they need to integrate
services across organizational units, and a need to integrate student
information into a more unified student history.
Further, I cannot stress enough the need to address student skills
not explicitly addressed by the curriculum. As I mentioned, in a
recent study of our incoming health students, we discovered that
a majority of our students did not possess the required level of
listening and observation skills required for healthcare professionals.
These are critical skills in healthcare practice, but not explicitly
defined within our curriculum.
So how might all of this work?
Let's explore another scenario.
Suzy Student, Sarah's cousin, is enrolled in a distance learning
nursing program. She also has a problem with dosage calculations.
She enters a student web portal and is instantly presented with
an array of learning support materials required for successful completion
of the nursing program.
Slide: Online Learning Support: Broadened
Management Strategies Online
In essence, an online learning support system could serve as a
one-stop shop that integrates a variety of learning resources important
for student success in a program.
If this is the case, the true value of distance learning at an
institution may not be so much in its ability to expand markets
and create revenue streams, rather it may be the beginnings of the
transformation of the learning support environment at an institution,
an environment not designed around organizational structures, but
around individual learner needs. And this includes both distance
and traditional students.
PAT: It's a very interesting
concept.
Slide: Online Learning Support: Broadening
Delivery Strategies
MIKE: I hope so.
In the previous two slides, we explored how content management
could be transformed in an online environment.
Similarly, when we begin to take a closer look at the communication
systems available in the online environment, some very interesting
potentials emerge around the delivery of that content.
First, the communication systems available are very diverse, suggesting
a variety of ways to deliver learning support.
Second, these communication systems are relatively easy to integrate
in an online environment.
And third, because so many people are converging on a website,
it suggests an opportunity to engage all participants in learning
support activities.
Slide: Online Learning Support: Broadened
Delivery Strategies
If one looks at colleges offering distance learning programs, it's
possible to find many examples of how traditional tutoring has been
carried over into the online environment and the communication vehicles
employed.
This includes everything from creative use of e-mail, bulletin
boards, chat rooms, to the use of more complex course management
systems to deliver lessons.
It's not difficult, for example, to use chat as a means for delivering
one-to-one tutoring services. A bulletin board and online tutorials
can be used to deliver one-to-many types of tutoring.
Perhaps the best example of the many-to-one type of tutoring is
occurring in online courses where students support one another in
a highly focused bulletin board environment.
Interestingly enough, the program director for our medical assisting
program, which we offer online, describes this kind of support system
that has emerged as the student underground. And I think what it
represents is an informal student learning community that has evolved
whereby students are providing a variety of support services to
one another through the bulletin boards and e-mail.
PAT: That makes sense.
Slide: Online Learning Support: Broadened/Integrated
Delivery Strategies
MIKE: Let's return to our
previous scenario. Suzy Student, the distance learning student,
gets home from work, makes dinner for her son, and then accesses
the nursing portal. She checks her e-mail from her peer mentor,
a second-year nursing student who has been advising Suzy Student
about what to expect on dosage exams in the first year of the program.
She accesses the online tutorial on dosage calculations, and then
finally she checks the nursing bulletin board and goes through sample
problems that other students have posted for practice.
Question: Who/what are the primary sources
of learning support for Suzy?
Question: in this scenario, who or what are
the primary sources of learning support for Suzy? 1, the math teacher;
2, the math tutor; 3, fellow students and computer; 4, all of the
above. Please make your selection now.
PAT: And while people are
responding to that question, Mike, a couple of slides back you mentioned
a differentiation of labor. Can you maybe explain a little bit about
what you meant by that?
MIKE: In the traditional learning
environment an institution’s first response to a learning support
need is likely to be a teacher or a tutor. This is not the best
strategy for distance students because of profs’ lack of accessibility.
And I am referring to the ability of an institution to scale up
these services to accommodate a broader student population in the
distance learning environment.
In an online learning support environment, the communication vehicles
and underlying technology makes it possible to utilize both students
and technology as the first responders to a learning need.
The teacher or tutor could conceivably then be positioned as a
second level responder to learning needs.
In essence, then, I think what we have here is the potential to
provide different levels of service to students in relation to the
cost of that particular service.
PAT: Very interesting. Okay,
Sue, do we have some results?
Results: Who/what are the primary sources
of learning support for Suzy?
SUE: Well, I'm not sure if
fifty is the magic number, but that's about all I ever get for these
survey questions. I have fifty people, and if anybody else would
like to vote, please go ahead. Okay. Here we go. The big winner:
all of the above.
MIKE: Okay. I admit, that
was a kind of a leading question.
Slide: Online Learning Support: Broadening
Assessment Strategies
MIKE: Okay. In this scenario
proposed we see how technology can be used to structure the delivery
of learning support. And in doing so, enables us to utilize low-cost
student expertise as our first line of response.
It is common to hear faculty complaining about how much time responding
to e-mail takes in a distance learning course. This may not really
be an attribute of distance learning, as much as an attribute of
an unplanned and unstructured communications plan for providing
learning support.
PAT: Yes, we just need more
experience figuring out how to do it right.
MIKE: I think we all are in
this mode of learning how best to adapt the technology to providing
learning support.
PAT: Right.
MIKE:
Thus far, we've talked about how online tutoring can broaden learning
content and present a rich communications environment to provide
a tiered approach to learning support.
The final component of the tutoring model assessment also suggests
some interesting possibilities. Let's look at a final scenario.
Slide: Online Learning Support: Broadened
Assessment Strategies
Conrad Counselor enters the portal and peruses the nursing bulletin
board. There's a lot of student discussion surrounding the dosage
exam. Conrad therefore posts the news item for nursing students
reminding them that there is a tutorial about managing test anxiety.
Nancy Nurse, the instructor for the course, reviews the bulletin
board and sees that students are struggling with one particular
type of problem that requires metric conversions. She searches the
student database and sees that 80% of her class are working part-time.
She therefore routes an e-mail to all nursing students announcing
an online campus review session that weekend and expanded office
hours during the week before the exam.
Now, assuming that all of this could be done, how has technology
modified the support role of the counselor and the instructor?
Question: How has technology modified the
support role of the counselor and the instructor?
PAT: Yes. We're going to pose
a question now. And the question is: how is the learning support
role of the counselor and instructor transformed online? And the
answers are: They are first responders to all help requests or they're
active in learning management and support. And ask for your response
to that question.
And, Mike, while people are doing that, this type of approach in
providing learning support services, it sounds fairly complex. And
I think someone indicated some numbers that they would be dealing
with on their campus if they were to try this. Can you just kind
of respond to that question about complexity a little bit?
MIKE: Actually, the answer
is yes, it is fairly complex. And most institutions would find it
difficult to do overnight. It not only involves technology, but
changing organizational behavior.
We've been at this for about three years, and are now only pulling
our model together. Planning the technology was actually the easiest
task, even though we don't have all the technology in place yet.
The most complex and difficult task has been changing organizational
mindset. This involved getting the health programs to recognize
that we needed a plan to assess and address non-academic problems,
getting counselors to be comfortable with the fact that some elements
of advising could be automated, and getting faculty and counselors
to be comfortable with the concept that students can actually play
a significant role in providing learning support.
PAT: Okay. I notice that when
you identified all these problems, most of these problems were associated
with staff. What about problems with students, or is it too early
to really know how students will experience this learning support
system?
MIKE: I think we actually
will be testing this out in our next academic year. I think the
critical piece for us is to provide an appropriate context in which
the student is presented with the technology. I think just making
the technology available is not likely to produce the kinds of results
that I'm talking about.
One of the things that we're trying to do is establish a cohort
of students who will be going through a series of pre-health courses
and creating a learning community with that population, and introducing
that group to these technologies, and trying to establish some kind
of framework for these students to become comfortable with the technologies
involved.
So I do think it has to be managed in some fashion, at least until
this becomes more commonplace, but I don't think we're at that point
yet.
SUE: All right. Well, I have
fifty-two votes in. Would anybody else like to vote before I publish?
Now's the chance.
Results: How has technology modified the
support role of the counselor and the instructor?
SUE: I'm going to go forward.
We've got a big winner: active participation in learning management
and support.
MIKE: Well, I think the audience
is perhaps beginning to get a grasp of what I mean by the differentiation
of labor. One cost-effective way to scale up services is to employ
both students and technology to play a role in providing learning
support and by repositioning more costly experts to become learning
managers, as well as deliverers of learning support.
Slide: Challenges
There exist many challenges to implementing a system like this.
The critical technology pieces are a good portal that can be structured
around academic programs, a student information system that can
be integrated into the portal and a course management system that
can provide online courses and tutorials.
At Kapi'olani Community College, we are currently transitioning
into a new student information system and portal, and piloting these
services with interim solutions.
As I mentioned before, the greater challenge is to begin to initiate
changes to alter organizational mindsets and behavior. We have taken
both an evolutionary and revolutionary path.
The concept of learning support services that we are moving forward
is radically different from current practices and, in that sense,
is revolutionary.
However, our approach to implementation has been evolutionary.
The model has been slowly assembled over three years around our
health programs. But the ideas are now gradually diffusing outward.
Counselors from other programs are expressing an interest in what
the health programs are doing and our counselors who led efforts
to implement a foundational and workforce skills assessment program
are now playing a much more significant role than learning management.
Other vocational programs from throughout our community college
system are also expressing an interest in the system of non-academic
and workforce skills assessment that we have implemented.
If we had taken a more revolutionary approach or had tried to bring
about change throughout the campus all at once, I doubt that much
progress would have taken place. There's too many players involved,
the technology is not currently all in place, and we're part of
a very large university system, so that adds to a lot of complexity
in getting all of the players in our academic institutions moving
together at the same time.
So although we've tried to start with a visionary plan for learning
support services, we've moved forward slowly, developing our concepts,
putting them online and testing them one at a time.
PAT: Demonstrating success
always helps others get involved.
MIKE: That's correct.
MIKE: So, it's a slow but
gradual process, but I think we're moving in the right direction.
Slide: Resources
To wrap things up, here are a few links that will enable you to
explore institutions that have implemented first generation online
tutoring services. And by first generation, I mean simply taking
traditional methods of providing tutoring and then placing them
in an online kind of environment.
The second set of links will take you to a listing of companies
that provide learning management systems. This includes course management
systems, as well as a handful, or at least one, tutoring management
system.
The third set of links will take you to a listing of companies
that provide tutoring online. Some of these companies operate independently,
but there are a few of them that are willing to enter into a contract
with educational institutions to provide services for a fee.
PAT: Mike, I'd like to mention
that all of these URLs, as well as your PowerPoint slides and your
comments are all available on the WCET website. People can download
them there.
Question: What schools have good online tutoring
programs?
MIKE: Okay. Well, since I'm
a learner in this entire process, I too am always looking for good
models of learning support. I'd like to tap into some of the expertise
of our audience. For those of you who are in our audience, can you
tell me about any institution that might have good online programs?
If you have the URL or the name of the institution, could you enter
it into the chat box, please.
PAT: Okay, so we're looking
for tutoring programs at other institutions.
SUE: I have put on the screen
a text box if people would like to enter any schools or tutoring
programs that they know about as well.
PAT: Okay. And, Mike, would
you like to comment any more about any of those ones that you've
put in your set of resources, you've listed in your resources? What
are the ones that you think have gone beyond first generation tutoring?
MIKE: There may be a few but
I'm not really familiar with any of them. I think, for the most
part, educational institutions are just beginning to move in this
direction.
However, I am aware that some corporations have invested in fairly
complex learning management systems for employee training. These
systems employ such services as integrated student tracking, course
development delivery, and delivery assessment and so forth.
Results: What schools have good online tutoring
programs?
PAT: Okay. Looks like we've
got a few examples there, Sue. Would you like to publish those so
we can take a look at the ones that people think would be good to
look at? The Connecticut Consortium is using SMARTHINKING. University
of Hawaii. Citrus College. Utah Valley State College. Glendale Community
College, in the Maricopa system. And another one here, a visual
calculus tutoring program that would be interesting to look at.
Someone also put that Kentucky Virtual U has a interesting tutoring
program.
Slide: This is series is brought to you as
part of WCET’s work on its Learning Anytime Anywhere Project
Well, Mike, thank you very much for joining us today. I'm sorry
you had the technology problems that you had, but we're glad that
they got fixed. I think you did most of this presentation without
being able to see your slides, so I applaud you on being able to
do that.
MIKE: Well, we sort of have
to learn to adapt whenever you're dealing with technology.
But I'd like to thank you, Pat, and everyone associated with this
particular project. I think this technology has great potential
in a variety of areas in higher education and I'm pleased that you
asked me to be part of this LAAP Project.
I'd like to take the time for a minute here to thank Pat and WCET
for their leadership and incredible efforts in managing this LAAP
grant. For those of you not familiar with this project, there are
three institutions of higher education partnered up in this project,
along with SCT and I think WebCT might be involved in some fashion
as well.
I know that trying to coordinate all of us has been pretty much
like herding a bunch of cats. Nevertheless, thanks to their efforts,
this project has grown from a very simple vision of generation one
online tutoring to a much more complex vision of a learning support
system.
Little did I know that, when we began as a relatively small project,
that this would grow into one that would have campus and perhaps
system-wide implications for the university.
Pat and WCET have also provided us with excellent resources that
we have used to transform our face-to-face student services.
So, on behalf of Kapi'olani Community College, I would like to
extend my appreciation to Pat and her colleagues at WCET.
I hope that the participants in today's webcast have benefited
from my presentation and discussion. Again, it's not intended to
be a perfect model, but it's a model that's in development and in
work and I think, over time, we'll fine tune it and I think there's
some interesting challenges ahead for our campus as well, I think,
all institutions and higher education that are trying to provide
learning support services to their distance students, and to their
traditional students as well — one employing technologies.
PAT: Well, thanks, Mike, for
the nice remarks. I wanted to call your attention to the fact that
Gary Kleemann is in the audience. I don't know if you realize that.
MIKE: No. Hi, Gary.
PAT: Gary was very influential
in the beginning with Kapi'olani's project, helped to run a workshop
for a couple of days, a retreat, to try to get people to be aware
of what online services could be like at Kapi'olani. So, it was
a lot of fun to be involved with Gary in that, and I'm just really
pleased with the work that Kapi'olani has been able to do despite
so many difficulties.
MIKE: We've had a few challenges,
Pat.
Slide: Providing Student Services to Distance
Learners Webcast Series
PAT: That's true. So, Sue,
I think you wanted to point out, again, maybe about the resources
where people could find an archive of this site?
SUE: Yes. People can see on
the screen one of our URLs, wcet.info, that will get you to our
LAAP project and more information about our webcasts.
As I mentioned earlier, we've got just about everything from this
webcast already there, including the slides, the URLs, and Mike's
comments. You can check them out when it's convenient for you.
This webcast was recorded and will be made into an archive and
posted probably within a day or two. It will be available from our
site for approximately one year.
PAT: And we have gone over
time, so normally we ask Mike to stay on board to answer questions,
but since we got started a little late, we'll have to postpone that.
But we want to put up a slide with his contact information so that
you can contact him if you would like.
Slide: Contact Information
And the other thing we want to do is ask for your feedback. We'll
put up an evaluation form and if you'd just take a few minutes to
give us some feedback about this session it would help us in providing
you with additional sessions in the series. So we'd like to know
what you thought about this particular presentation.
Slide: WCET Evaluation
And we'll give a couple of minutes here for people to respond.
The next webcast, will be on June 5, which will be Dan Volchok
from WebCT. We'll be doing one on orientation. We did this a little
earlier. I think we did it the end of April, wasn't that right?
SUE: Yes.
PAT: And I had some technical
difficulties. It was a very hot day on the east coast here and we
had some problems with our audio, so we're repeating that one. And
then we're doing one on June 24, at two o'clock Eastern Time with
Marianne Phelps and Norm Finlinson on financial aid. So we hope
that everyone can join us for that presentation.
Mike, do you have any final remarks that you would like to make?
MIKE: Well, I'd be willing
to respond to any questions and then follow up further. You may
feel free to e-mail me or give me a call at the number that has
been posted, and I'll try to clarify any questions that you might
have, or provide any additional information that I might be able
to share with you.
But I'd be more than happy to hear from any of you out there and
swap ideas and thoughts.
SUE: Well, two issues have
emerged in the chat box. I thought they were pretty good. One is,
Mike, could you address the issue of confidentiality of student
records when trying to come up with effective tutoring plans or
learning support for students?
MIKE: Well, I think that'll
be something that we will have to manage in some fashion. I don't
have an exact solution for that. Most of the information that we're
talking about now that, at least, that we'll be dealing with requires
some sort of authentication on the part of students accessing the
information. And students are pretty much limited to seeing their
own test results.
Now, when it comes to instructors, the system isn't really fully
integrated into our student information system, in our current incarnation,
program directors for each of the health programs have access to
their student population within their particular programs in terms
of various kinds of skill assessments that we have performed.
So we've not reached a point where we've had to address the more
complex privacy kinds of issues and have designed some sort of a
management system to ensure that student records are confidential
and the proper people having access to them. But I think that'll
be one of the challenges that we'll face down the road.
But at the present time, I think the limitations of our interim
solutions have not made that a particularly messy problem.
SUE: Okay. Well, thank you,
Mike. I'd like to tell everyone I'm going to close up the evaluation
window and we will finish up in just a few minutes. We are run out
of time.
Slide: Thank you for joining us.
PAT: Okay. Thank you very
much, again, Mike. Thank you, Sue. And we'll see everyone on June
5th for the presentation with Dan Volchok.
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