Expanding the Possibilities with WebFlex Courses

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• Expanding the Possibilitieswith Web-Flex Courses
• Ann MillerInternet Instructional Administrator
• Edison Community College
• Piqua, Ohio

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A few facts about Edison
Faculty Information Full-Time 40
Part-Time162

• Student Information Spring Semester
• 2,883 students
• 1,612 FTE
• 24,184 credit hours
• Student Ages
• 25 years 1,423
• Under 25 1,460
• Student Status
• 35 Full-time
• 65 Part-time

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Putting the pieces together
Blackboard introduced on the Edison campus July
2001 for online courses.
Edison received grant from the Ohio Board of
Regents in the amount of 308,750 January 2002.
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• Smart Classrooms
• Each classroom is now equipped with
  state-of-the-art technology
• Hewlett Packard E-PC42s
• 1.8 ghz Pentium 4 processors
• DVD ROMs
• 256 MB of RAM
• 40 gig hard drives
• Windows XP Professional
• 15 LCD displays
• Toshiba data projector
• JVC Super VHS Video Cassette Player

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• Edison Internet Café

24 Stations, with 4 designated for those students
with disabilities Monitored for student
assistance Pleasing, student-friendly atmosphere
Additional campus computers
(15) The Learning Center (15) The Edison Library
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• Faculty Selection
• 19 courses slated to be created for the fall
  semester 2002.
• Faculty submitted their names to the Academic
  Vice President for consideration.
• A wide variety of courses were to be developed
  for programs such as Business, Nursing,
  Sociology, Early Childhood Development and
  Biology.
• Faculty were granted release time to prepare
  their courses for the fall semester.

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• Before participating in the project full-time and
  adjunct faculty were each required to sign a
  contract that contained the following
  guidelines
• Blackboard must be the medium used to deliver the
  online content.
• The syllabus for the course will demonstrate how
  the blended flex activities are integrated into
  the course learning objectives.
• Appropriate links in Blackboard to support
  blended flex activities will be established.
• The developed blended flex course will be
  available to serve as the common syllabus for all
  sections of that course.
• Streaming video developed as a component of
  developed blended flex courses will be available
  for use in other sections of courses.
• Participants in this grant will agree to share
  experiences with others during the development of
  course materials or activities.
• Developers of blended flex activities and faculty
  that teach the courses will participate in course
  assessment (surveys, etc.) and will present this
  project to both internal and external groups.

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• Faculty Training
• Spring 2002 Blackboard training sessions
• A mixture of new and experienced faculty.
• Blackboard YOU
• One-to-one workshop sessions held for instructors
  to work on their courses with help from the ITS
  staff.

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• Challenges
• Summer Training
• Weekly Newsletters
• Course Review
• Academic Dean Review
• New Format Surprised Students
• Non-Traditional Student Issues

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• Outcomes
• How would you rate your
• satisfaction with the web-flex
• instruction format?
• Mid Term
• 37 Very satisfied with the web-flex format
• 40 Satisfied with the web-flex format
• 19 Somewhat satisfied with the web-flex format
• 3 Not satisfied with the web-flex format
• 1 No response
• End of Semester
• 46 Very satisfied with the web-flex format
• 40 Satisfied with the web-flex format
• 14 Not satisfied with the web-flex format

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• Web-Flex Course Growth

Fall semester 200217 web-flex courses 241
students Spring semester 200329 web-flex
courses 363 students Fall semester 200339
web-flex courses in the new schedule
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• Lessons Learned
• Not all classes lend themselves to the web-flex
  format.
• Some classes require a longer ramp up for
  successful implementation.
• Faculty training.

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• New Initiatives for 2003-2004
• Online Blackboard Training
• Content Grant Web Site
• Best Practices Training
• Development with Full-time faculty of Blackboard
  course shells
• Expansion of MSN Messenger project

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• Summary
• Web-Flex courses well received by most faculty
  and students
• Web-Flex is win-win, the best of both worlds
• Web-Flex initiatives also benefits online and
  face-to-face students.

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• "The value of an idea is in the using of it."
• ----Thomas Alva Edison