1. Collaborative Course Development Educause Southeast Regional Conference 2002 Libby V. Morris, Associate Professor, UGA Wendy Bedwell, Project Coordinator, USG Haixia Xu, Graduate Student, UGA

2. Collaborative Course Development Educause Southeast Regional Conference 2002 Copyright [L. Morris, W. Bedwell, H. Xu] [2002]. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

3. What Is eCore? Electronically-delivered core curriculum, completing the first two years of an undergraduate degree Developed by USG faculty, designers & programmers Taught by USG faculty Offered by USG institutions

4. eCore Target Audience Non-Traditional Students Full/Part-time Employees Parents/Caregivers Delayed or Returning Undergraduates Rural Populations Anytime/Anywhere Curriculum Delivery

5. eCore Standards Consistent “Look & Feel” ADA & Interoperability Standards Pedagogical Standards Interactivity Multiple Learning Styles Helpdesk Support

6. eCore Course Environment WebCT 3.1.3 Web-based, HTML Format Flexible Course Management System Variety of Built-in Instructional Tools Detailed Student Tracking Function Constantly Evolving Delivery System 33 USG Institutions Use WebCT http://webct.com

7. Purpose To better understand collaborative course development and implementation process for electronically delivered courses.

8. The Course Development Team Development Teams Faculty Disciplinary Experts Advanced Learning Technologies (ALT) Project Coordinator Web Instructional Development (WebID)

9. 5 step process Preparation Planning Development Review Implementation Course Development Process

10. Preparation Contacting team members Setting up project website

11. Course Development Process Planning 2-day face-to-face team meeting Write course objectives Set up course structure Develop topic outline Set up lesson structure

12. Course Development Process Development Write content Instructional design Rapid prototyping (programming) Usability testing of content All done online in project website

13. Course Development Process Review Editing content Revising content/structure Partially done in project site, but mostly accomplished in another face-to-face meeting

14. Course Development Process Implementation Uploading the completed course to the system server

15. Research Questions What was the faculty member’s motivation for getting involved in this process? How do faculty perceive their roles and the involvement of instructional designers in the process? How do project coordinators conceptualize and implement their roles?

16. Research Questions How do faculty describe the collaboration among the team? How effective was the organizational process (i.e., face-to-face meetings, online worksite, developing courses) for this collaboration? What are the challenges of the process?

17. Research Questions How would they compare collaborative course development with individual course development? What are the benefits of this experience? What was their overall experience?

18. Research Design Observation of Planning Stage for World Literature I Observation of online course development for World Literature I Face-to-face interview of course developers Faculty members (n=10) Instructional designers (n=5) WebID (n=5) IRB Approval (February 15, 2002)

19. Motivations Values (Intrinsic) Interested in providing access to a broader population Believe in distance learning Skeptical of online instruction Technology (Extrinsic) The opportunity to include multimedia Professional (Extrinsic) Consider it a faculty development opportunity Push from institution

20. Role of Faculty Disciplinary Expert Course Structure Instructional Activities Assessment Activities Congruent

21. Faculty Composition Necessary characteristics of faculty in the process Flexible: willing to adjust and compromise Sufficient time A level of technology sophistication Being skeptical of distance learning is not necessarily a bad thing

22. Role of ALT Staff Instructional designer is central Three roles Group Facilitator/Moderator Resolve Conflicts or Concerns Instructional Design Expert Clarify Content & Suggest Alternate Approaches Recommend Multimedia Strategies Project Coordinator Schedule Meetings/Set Timelines Ensure Project meets assigned deadlines

23. Collaboration Faculty interact with each other, but not as much as expected Workload/Time commitment Eager for peer review Status issues Project Coordinators (ALT) work well with faculty Different conception of model may lead to potential conflict Issue of disciplinary background Status issues

24. Organization 3 facets: face-to-face meetings, online collaboration, and developing course Works well and is essential Influences interaction among faculty 4 is considered a good number Consider mixed composition a plus Alternative: Summer project

25. Challenges Faculty Perception of staging of final product Willingness to make changes throughout process Project Coordinators (ALT) Deadlines Difficult to hold faculty accountable Quality of courses No piloting Impact of teaching faculty on course The more content, the better

26. Collaborative v. Individual Course Development DimensionsCollaborativeIndividual Source of Pressure PeerStudents Content NegotiatedFlexible More InclusiveMore Idiosyncratic WorkloadIntensiveVariable Target Audience Across the System Within Single Campus StructureConsistentLess Consistent

27. Benefits to Faculty Reconsideration of course development Reconsideration of teaching Faculty Development

28. Future Directions: Components Comparison of Collaborative Course Development with Individual Course Development Purpose and Objectives Content Learners Instructional Resources Sequence Instructional Process Evaluation

29. ALT & IHE http://alt.usg.edu Wendy Bedwell: wendy.bedwell@usg.eduwendy.bedwell@usg.edu http://www.uga.edu/ihe Dr. Libby Morris: lvmorris@uga.edulvmorris@uga.edu Haixia Xu: haixia@uga.eduhaixia@uga.edu