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