NIU eLearning Services Online Education Development Presented by: Aline Click Assistant Director NIU eLearning Services aclick@niu.edu

Synchronous eLearning http://www.learn.niu.edu/flashcom/applications/slide_share/audience.html

Presentation Objectives Background on eLearning @ NIU Instructional technology in industry Traditional training v. eLearning Multimedia and eLearning Advantages/disadvantages

History of eLearning Services (ELS) 1998 – Division of Continuing Education partners with eCollege to start developing online noncredit courses, 2.5 FTE. 1999 – Partnership dissolved, in house LMS development begins, online team is growing and specializing, 7 FTE 2000 – University to purchase Blackboard. “With Blackboard it isn’t necessary to fund an eLearning team to help faculty develop online courses” 10 FTE 2001 – ELS is awarded a $1.5 million US Department of Education FIPSE--LAAP grant to develop an online Workforce Development course, 12 FTE 2002 – Continuing Education goes through a reorganization now called Outreach Services, 10 FTE 2003 – University is starting to understand the complexity of developing quality online courses, looking for funding in grants, 10 FTE 2004 – Thanks in part to HECA grants, in the past 2 years ELS helped 20 faculty develop an online course. 400 students have taken courses ELS helped to develop. Lots of new projects coming in the next year, 7 FTE

Meet the ELS Team

eLearning Team Computer Programmers Instructional Designers Project Lead Designer of learning experience Multimedia Designers Animation programming Video Audio Graphic Designers Illustration Interface design of animation Designer of all visual materials Computer Programmers Custom programming requirements Quality Assurance Graduate Assistants Check for errors Masters of Science in Education, Instructional Technology Bachelors of Fine Arts

Roles Faculty eLearning Faculty are the “subject matter experts” (SME), they know the content to be taught online, so they provide content to eLearning Team. eLearning The Instructional Designer doesn’t typically know the content and so his/her role is one of reviewing content and recommending new ways of delivering the content in an online format. Faculty need to be interested in developing online materials because it requires a lot of time to restructure their content. We don’t believe putting a PPT(without audio) online is good online education.

Demonstration of Work Lecture Simulations Geography History English GRE Test -Prep Business Simulations History Options Trading Power Editing Case Studies Nursing More demos available at: www.learn.niu.edu

Instructional Technology in …Everywhere Facts It takes 60 to 200 hours to develop one hour of online content (100 x $50 = $5000 per hour) Content is king, garbage in, garbage out Quality online education requires more than posting PPT files online Learners bring different levels of knowledge to the learning environment Books become outdated soon after they are printed, online materials can be updated as soon as new information becomes available Myt notes said to talk about IT in industry, but it really isn’t very different, except corporate tents to have more money to fund online education

Needs Analysis What types of courses should be considered when investing in custom online ed? High demand courses, courses with multiple sections, large lecture courses Stability of content for reusability Shareable across multiple courses Courses that are part of a certificate program Based on the limited funding for Online development in this project it is my recommendation that we focus on where we can get the most mileage for the buck. Some of the criteria I recommend is ….

Learning Objects eLearning doesn’t typically construct entire courses but smaller reusable and/or shareable learning objects Online education consists of many strategies including, discussion, lecture, demonstration, simulation, interactive activities, and assessment

Question Why is new technology influencing training? Consistency in what is being taught Just in time learning Availability of content for different Learning Styles Time Availability 24/7/365 Facilitator/manager can review training accomplishments electronically Location is not a problem Provides immediate feedback

Question What are some differences between F2F and EL? Motivation to complete course Differences in communication style Management buy in for initial investment Equipment and connection speed to access the materials successfully

Limitations are Diminishing Facilitator controls the motivation ROI has been documented as long as needs analysis is done properly Connection and computer speed has improved and is affordable Students are growing up with computers, driving the industry to use the Internet as a major tool in every aspect of their lives, learning and work environment. There is no such thing as it can’t be done. Time, location, tools are all there for telecommunication, training, and virtual development of projects. You know it angers me with an IT support staff says “I won’t allow that on my servers, it might weaken the security of the system. Well if someone had said that to me when I turned a Macintosh into a web server in no more than 10minutes after researching and finding the application online I would newver have been able to deveop the first learning object online at NIU. R&D is important to the development of new technology. We need early adopters. I hope when you go out there you will embrace new technology just as you did when you were a kid instead of always being afraid of what it might do to the world you are comfortable in.

Questions? Aline Click aclick@niu.edu