Facilitating Employee Development and Growth in Real Time

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Comparative Study of Online Courses at Stevens
and Capella Universities Part of a
multi-dimensional learning effectiveness
assessment The 13th Annual Sloan-C International
Conference on Online Learning November 7-9, 2007
Robert Zotti Director, WebCampus rzotti_at_stevens.ed
u
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Agenda

• Background of Online Learning at Stevens
• Learning about Learners at Stevens
• Background of CLO Academy Program run by Capella
• Comparing Management Courses at Stevens and
  Capella
• Using Preliminary IQAT Benchmarking Findings

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Background of Stevens Institute of Technology

• First Engineering School in the U.S. (1870)
• WebCampus Launched in 2000
• Faculty
• Average of 25 years of industry experience
• Recent Accolades
• USDLA 2006 Bronze Award for Best Online Program
• USDLA 2005 21st Century Best Practices award
• Sloan Consortium Award for Best Online
  University
• Princeton Review Award for Most Connected
  Campus
• Project Management Institute Certification

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About WebCampus at Stevens

• Extensive portfolio of online management and
  engineering courses
• 15 Masters degrees
• 39 Graduate Certificates
• MBA with 5 concentrations
• Instructor-led courses using Synchronous and
  Asynchronous technologies
• WebCT, Interwise, TurnItIn, ACE
• Spring 2007 semester
• 1300 graduate enrollments
• 402 way-off-campus (31)
• Includes 87 enrollments outside US.
• 38 states and 15 countries represented

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WebCampus Revenue
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Spring 2007 Geographic Enrollment Analysis (US)
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Spring 2007 Geographic Enrollment Analysis
(Northeast Corridor)
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Spring 2007 Geographic Enrollment Analysis
(Europe/Asia/Africa/Australia)
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Judging Learning Effectiveness

• Student surveys
• Direct Experience
• Comparisons with other online schools
• Using IQAT metrics/benchmarking

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Fall 2006 Online Class Survey Results
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Beyond Surveys Direct Experience
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Learning About Your LearnersGoing to Gemba

• The place where the truth can be found."
• Japanese Proverb
• The customers place of business or lifestyle
• Glenn Mazur
• Involves visiting the shop floor to gather data
  and understand problems
• - Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia

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WebCampus Staff Going to the Shop Floor as
Students

• Gemba Principles
• observe, occasionally to question, rarely to
  guide or direct
• Direct observation of problems, workarounds
• Assist the Professor in Subtle Ways
• Help with technical admin matters
• Interwise/WebCT support
• Admissions/registration paperwork for classmates
• Suggest ways to help improve the course (but
  dont push it)

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Eating Your Own Dogfood

• Taking Your Lumps (Like Everyone Else)
• Do the assignments
• Sweat the exams
• Demonstrating commitment to the program
• Increasing credibility and confidence of you and
  your staff

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Introducing Yourself to the Class

• Notify instructor ahead of time that you are
  taking their class
• Treat me like any other student.
• Post your background and expectations for the
  course the same way other students do
• Hello everyone. Im the Director of Online
  Learning here at Stevens. In no particular
  order, my objectives for being in this class are
  to get an up-close and personal look at what our
  courses are like from the students perspective
  to use this information as input in efforts to
  improve our online programs, and to fill a
  requirement for my PhD studies.

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Up Close and Personal Learning About Your
Instructor

• Experiencing the different online teaching styles
  of different instructors
• Emphasis on team vs. individual assignments
• Emphasis on research papers vs. final exams
• Emphasis on different technologies used for
  student communications
• Types of content and activities
• Relative importance of PowerPoint slides vs,
  textbooks vs. DVDs vs. simulations
• Amount of personal attention given to each
  student
• Varies with course and instructor cap
  implications
• Example Project Leadership Course

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Up Close and Personal Learning About Your
Learners

• Background Expectations from the Course
• Student bio section/Orientation Week activities
• How do they react to the course?
• Course site usability issues?
• Discussion board feedback
• Number and quality of postings
• Participation in web conferences
• Administrative matters
• Trouble logging on from home or work?
• Trouble obtaining textbooks?
• Incomplete admissions/billing paperwork?

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Relating the Experience

• Talking to Current Prospective Students
• Talking with Faculty
• Talking with Administrators
• Talking with Clients
• Talking with Vendors

Turning skeptics into believers
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Learning about Learners V2.0

• Take an online class at another school and
  compare the experience
• Ease of application/registration process
• Ease of getting into and navigating in the course
• Detail/format of learning modules
• Types of assignments
• Use of online learning tools
• Engagement of instructor and students

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Insights from Direct Comparison

• vs.

• Learning about Learners -- Taking online
  classes at other schools and comparing the
  experience
• Ease of getting into and navigating in the course
• Engagement of instructor and students
• Detail/format of learning modules
• Types of assignments
• Use of online learning tools
• Customer Service

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What is CLO Academy?

• Joint program between CLO Magazine and Capella
  University
• Primarily designed for members of corporate
  learning organizations
• Initial 3-day meeting in Landsdown VA
• Follow-up courses conducted online through
  Capella University

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• Learning Leadership Certificate
• Strategic Planning and the New World of Work
• Leadership in Organizations
• Organizational Design, Change, and Assessment
• Foundations of Training Performance Improvement
  
• Issues in Training Performance Improvement

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What we Found (after two Capella classes)
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Comparison Categories
WebCT V4 WebCT Vista
Yes No
1 Week 3 Days
Syllabus at a minimum
None
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Comparison Categories (part 2)
Very Good Very Good
Very Good Very Good
Very Good Very Good
Too Early to Tell
Good
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Discussion Comparisons (part 3)
OK, but referencing all comments in APA style is
strongly encouraged
Very Good
Extensive amount of instructor notes
Modest amount of instructor notes
Good (usually)
Good (usually)
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Comparison Categories (part 4)
14 Weeks 10 Weeks
825 585
176.79 175.50
Fair Excellent
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Lessons Learned (so far)

• Overall course quality at Capella was very good
  comparable to WebCampus
• For-Profit stigma of U. of Phoenix not
  universal
• Capella instructors aggressively (but politely)
  require students to elaborate their discussion
  postings, almost regardless of the details that
  students post initially
• Emphasis on using APA references in every posting
  may have a chilling effect on overall
  participation
• Covering course content in 10 weeks is hard, but
  doable.

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Lessons Learned (so far)

• Advantages of Capellas WebCT Vista
  implementation
• Better consolidation of weekly materials,
  assignments, and discussions
• Files that students upload in one course are
  available to them in subsequent courses
• Student profiles dont have to be re-entered in
  each course
• Conspicuous absence of web conferencing options
  at Capella
• Possibly due to the relatively high cost per
  student

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Footnotes/Items To Watch For

• Low enrollment situations
• MGT612-equivalent ran with just 4 students
• Team assignments
• Not a factor in the classes surveyed to date
• Exams
• Not utilized in the classes surveyed to date
• Do they have a proctoring strategy?
• IQAT Benchmark Data
• Capella is not an IQAT participant at this time
• Advanced online learning technologies
• Web conferences, podcasts, simulations, etc.

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Footnotes/Items To Watch For Assignment
Instructions Gone Amok

• Example Proctor and Gamble-Gillette Case Study
  from Capellas Corporate Strategy class
• Read the Proctor Gambles Acquisition of
  Gillette case study textbook. Then, follow these
  steps
• Go to the Online Learning Center on the
  publisher's Web site.
• Under the Online Learning Center icon, click
  Student Edition.
• In the left navigation, click Case Tutor.
• Log in with the username and password provided in
  your new textbook.
• Answer questions 13 for the Proctor
  Gamble-Gillette case study.
• Identify a key finding.
• Post your finding in the discussion area.
• Its that simple!

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Benchmarking
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Interactive Quality Assessment Tool

• First benchmarking tool of its kind we have seen
• Over 30 participating schools
• Reports cover online course/program offerings,
  enrollment levels, tuition rates, instructor
  compensation, and more

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Online Learning Benchmark Group

• Northern Arizona University
• Northwest Missouri State University
• Norwich University
• Piedmont Technical College
• Rio Salado College
• Rochester Institute of Technology
• St. Petersburg College
• Stevens Institute of Technology
• Thomas Edison State College
• Trident Technical College
• University of Connecticut
• University of Georgia
• University of Massachusetts-Amherst
• University of South Australia
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
  University
• Washington State University
• West Hills Community College

• Arizona State University
• Charter Oak State College
• Clemson University
• Dallas County Community College District
• DePaul University
• Florida State University
• Fort Hays State University
• Governors State University
• Hutchinson Community College
• Ithaca College
• Kansas City Kansas Community College
• Limestone College
• Memorial University of Newfoundland
• Michigan State University - MSU Global
• North Harris Montgomery Community College
  District
• North Shore Community College

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Masters Courses Delivered (Academic Year
2004-2005)
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Graduate Student Headcount (Academic Year
2004-2005)
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Graduate Enrollments (Academic Year 2004-2005)
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Course Development Compensation (Academic Year
2004-2005)
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Tuition per Credit (Academic Year 2004-2005)
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Number of Full Time Faculty Teaching Online
(Academic Year 2005-2006)
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Questions?

• Robert Zotti
• rzotti_at_stevens.edu