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** Problem Summary: ** Ottawa University is on a path to becoming a key player in the field of online higher education. Students who enter the online program are asked, not required, to complete a 2 hour live training session that introduces them to the learning platform and the expectations of being an online learning student. However, since this is not required, the online trainings have had limited turnout which in turn leaves the student unprepared for their classes. Additionally, employees have been tasked with facilitating these trainings above and beyond their normal work schedule, which has resulted in expenditures and low employee moral. Therefore, the performance problem is twofold; the students are entering their first class unprepared and subsequently either failing or requiring intervention; and the university is spending an unneeded amount of time and money planning, creating and hosting trainings that get low participation. What skills are the students lacking that are they are not prepared with upon entering their first class? Keith 1/15/11 ** Background of Organization: ** Ottawa University ([|www.ottawa.edu]) was founded in 1865, with a residential campus in Ottawa KS. Ottawa is a pioneer in adult education since 1974, with adult sites located in Arizona, Indiana, Kansas and Wisconsin. There are 15 degree programs offered online. Ottawa University is currently a degree completion program aimed at adults who are returning to school or pursuing their Bachelor or Masters degree. Ottawa University has partnerships with various community colleges that assist the student in obtaining lower division credits if they do not have them. Since the majority of Ottawa Online’s students are adult learners returning to school, there has been some concern expressed by faculty and student advisors that the students are entering the online program ill equipped for what they are expected to accomplish. There is an orientation to online learning that is suggested, however not required. Additionally, some students are not fully online, and may just take a random class online. These students receive no introduction to the Learning Management system, the assignment structures or University expectations. Furthermore, the optional trainings that are provided are offered synchronously, which requires after hours participation from the employee conducting the training. It has been voiced from instructors, advisors and trainers that students are not participating in the orientations to online learning and therefore have difficulty when taking one or more classes. Ottawa Online holds students accountable for key skills when taking online classes. These skills range from technology based application skills, collaboration skills, time management, and research and writing skills. These expectations are clearly laid out in the orientation to online learning, but since the training is not mandatory some students are not being informed of the university’s expectations. ** Stakeholders and Decision Makers ** There are several departments that are directly affected by these trainings, but the main departments in charge of facilitating these trainings are the Academic Affairs and Academic Support Team. If a change were to take place, the course developers would need to develop an asynchrounous, self paced orientation. Additionally, this proposal would need to go under review from the Board of Directors, as the decision would need to be made regarding the mandatory registration process and the cost to the student if any. The key decision makers that would approve the change would be The Dean of Online Education, The Vice President of APOS/Online as well as the University Board of Directors. For this proposal, Julie McAdoo, lead student advisor and Amanda Bird, Academic Support Staff will be interviewed. **Performance Gap** **Actual Current Performance** In the Fall semester, there were 247 new students enrolled in online courses. Only 46 students completed the new student orientation. In the Spring, 144 were registered, only 104 participated. According to Brian Messer, Vice President of Ottawa Online, there is a system that keeps tracks of student success/ failure data; however not all enrollment advisors and CAPS advisors have been required to use it. Therefore, the data that currently exists is not a good measure of the success or failure of an online student in correlation with the orientation. Mr. Messer notes that a new model of tracking students, the Student Success Team, will help to better keep track of this data. For the purpose of this proposal, a survey of the instructors will be conducted. The survey will consist of the following questions: · If a student completes a 1 credit hour course that introduces them to online learning, what would you expect them to know upon entering your class? · What problem areas have you noticed when encountering a new online student? Data for student success in the first course forthcoming – if I cannot get data on the student performance can I conduct a brief instructor survey about what they have experienced in their classes? Or can I propose that a study be conducted to determine what skills the students will need to be successful in their online courses? Interesting approach - why survey faculty rather than students and/or advisors? Who do students turn to for support when they encounter trouble in their online courses? Is there any data collected from students who withdraw? - Jodie 1/11/11 Both the student and faculty must be surveyed. What issues students have with online courses and What faculty expect their students to know about online course. - Nichellem1/12/11 The facilitator for this course is a fulltime employee who at first, was allowed overtime to conduct these trainings. Could these trainings be recorded, put in captivate, and collected into a pdf? - Jodie 1/11/11 As of recently, the trainings were made a part of her workload, requiring a flexible schedule that takes away from the duties asked of her from 8-5 and requires nights and weekends. Not knowing exactly how many students will show up (though registered) puts a burden on this employee- nights and weekends not regularly part of her schedule takes away not only from daily work performance but personal time as well. During the fall semester, the training schedule was as follows:
 * Ottawa University **

**Desired Performance** Berge (2001) outlines the different skills demanded of online learning as opposed to a face-to-face classroom, such as extensive written communication to time management skills. Berge also stresses the need for students to be adequately oriented to the new online environment in order to facilitate their success. If the incoming Ottawa University students were required to complete an introductory course in online education, the ratio of students who are successful in their classes beyond the orientation could increase. The students who took this course would be introduced to  · Expectations of an online student · Guidance in online etiquette · Information on support resources such as Ottawa Online resource room, writing resources and the online library Additionally, an assessment of the readiness of the student for online learning could be conducted in this first course. This section is based on the assumption that the introductory course will support future course success. Is this an issue for this project? - Jodie 1/11/11 **Cause Analysis** There is a perception amongst some employees that Ottawa University is still a small liberal arts school with a propensity for individualized assistance. Has this changed? What's the difference between the perception and reality? - Jodie 1/11/11 Being a non for profit school, the University has had several staff cutbacks that has forced an automation of certain processes. Is it a nonprofit, private school or a public school? Does automation always support the loss caused by the cutbacks? - Jodie 1/11/11 Training new students has yet to be streamlined, yet the department that develops the training has been hit the hardest with cutbacks. If the program doesn't bring in money, how can a cash-strapped organization justify the cost. - Jodie 1/11/11 Instructors and online students new to the program have voiced that incoming learners are not prepared for the amount of work required, they are overwhelmed by the assignments and felt ill at ease with the format of an online course. How can the format be more user friendly to help eliminate the fear factor of an online course? Keith 1/15/11 **Organizational History and Background** **Goals** Ottawa University is on a mission. The goal has been set that by 2020, Ottawa University will be a distinctive and highly effective institution educating as many as 25,000 students per year for lifetimes of enlightened faith, exemplary service, inspired leadership and personal significance. **History.** Isn’t this repetitive of the background I have written above? Can I make this section data regarding how much Ottawa Online has grown in 3 years? I had the same question - Jodie 1/11/11 **Mission and Vision.** The mission of Ottawa University is to provide the highest quality liberal arts and professional education in a caring, Christ-centered community of grace, which integrates faith, learning and life. The University serves students of traditional age, adult learners and organizations through undergraduate and graduate programs. **Three Intervention Strategies** To streamline the process of student training, support for the orientation must come from a university standpoint and must be made a priority. Currently, the students are being trained in a synchronous manner, and are not required to attend the training. The following are intervention strategies that could alleviate the specific problems of novice students who enter the online classroom unprepared: **Low-end intervention:** Require mandatory attendance from students for the online training. Students who did not attend would not be able to take their first class. This strategy works from a student standpoint, but does not alleviate the employee problem- an employee would still have to facilitate the training, which would require extensive offsite, overtime or flexible hours. I would include instructional material, video tutorials, and non-facilitated trainings. Jodie 1/11/11 Is this training face to face or online. Why offer face-to-face training in an online enviornment **Middle end intervention.** The online orientation becomes required and self paced. Students would be required to complete a self-paced module that walks them through the expectation of the university and introduces them to the online learning platform. While the training would not be facilitated, there would have to be opportunity for the students to ask questions of a university staffer as well as a system put in place to track the students who completed the online orientation and received a passing grade. Possibly add peer mentors, who could be compensated with free course credit. Jodie 1/11/11 **High-end intervention.** The students would be required to complete a 1 credit, facilitated course introducing them to online learning. This course would act much as a regular course and be staffed by adjunct faculty. Since a 1 credit course would not be a full semester, the course would need to be run every 2-4 weeks to ensure the students had ample time to complete it before beginning their first class. This would require a staff of adjunct faculty as well as the back end manpower to build, monitor and revise the course much like a regular online class. Why only adjunct professors? It could create tension between part time and full time faculty. Keith 1/15/11 **Justification for Intervention Strategy** Ottawa University, at present time, is in the process of change. While I believe the high-end intervention would be the most effective for students, I do not believe Ottawa is in a monetary position to afford implementation of such a program. Therefore, the middle end intervention would suffice for the present time, however I do believe a goal to reach the high-end intervention would need to be set. According to Bozarth et al. (2004), online learning has become highly interactive with an expectation that the learner actively participate via electronic communication. Therefore, a facilitated class may best suit the students’ needs, as the instructor or peers can address questions and concerns immediately in a collaborative manner. Mandatory attendance in a low-end intervention would solve the students participation issue, but does not address the competencies as a whole. In the current training setting, students participate in a webinar. There is limited opportunity for application of the material they are learning- they are merely watching a trainer navigate a website. Often there are technical issues and scheduling numerous trainings to encompass various time zones can be cumbersome. Ideally, participation should be mandatory with an opportunity for the student to practice what they are learning for an extended time. Therefore, the low-end intervention would not be the most favorable approach.

New Post 1-31-11 The Manager’s Many Roles If the middle ground intervention were to be implemented, the project manager would serve as the course developer and the liaison to the University management who would implement the idea. Additionally, surveys of key skills that are lacking would need to be conducted on both the students and the instructors in order to determine the best content for the course. A team of stakeholders would need to be established to spearhead the implementation fo a introduction to online education course. These stakeholder would consist of : · The registrar · Lead Advisors · The Dean of Ottawa Online · The Vice President of Ottawa Online · Academic and Technical Support · Course Scheduling · Course Development Resources The first steps of project management are to develop an overview of the project and a timeline for intervention and the key milestones that would need to be met. What do you use for project management and production scheduling? Jodie 2/13 Once these have been established, the course developer would work with technical support to initiate two surveys (using an online survey builder) that would be sent out to instructors and students. Once data has been collected, the team would come together to establish the goals of the course. What questions will you ask? I suggest you work with faculty and a focus group of students and student advisors to craft the survey. Jodie 2/13 The course developer would then work closely with the Dean of Ottawa Online to set objectives and specific skills the students would need to leave the course with and a text book if necessary. The registrar, technical support and the VP of Ottawa Online would work closely to establish the fees associated with the course and the tracking of new students; more specifically how to ensure students have taken the course before continuing onto traditional classes. Once the course has been developed, it would then be reviewed by the committee for any possible revisions. I recommend an end-of-course survey for participants, students and faculty, then bring together change agents to discuss the results and possible tweaks. Jodie 2/13 If approved, it could then launch in the next upcoming term. Expectations for students would need to be announced to enrollment and student advisors, as well as a general announcement from the President of Ottawa University and information for students on the website. New Post 2-2-11

The Manager as Change Agent Since Ottawa University already employs three full time course developers, the development of the course would be a one time occurrence worked into the course developer’s production schedule. Most of the materials, such as screen shots and tutorials, are already created. It is anticipated that the development of this course would take approximately 3-5 days, and would not impact the curriculum developers schedule enough to incur overtime or extraneous costs. The software needed to develop this course, as well as the Learning Management System (Blackboard) are already used in the delivery of Ottawa’s online courses. Most of the costs for development of the course incur in time spent discussing, planning, and proposing the idea. Meetings amongst employees and ultimate approval by the University Approval Committee would have to occur before the physical development of the course could start. Since there are two plausible recommendations, the following chart delineates the cost for both the middle and high-end intervention. Since the course would be mandatory for the students, tuition charges (if desired by the university) would be at the student’s expense. The online adjunct instructor would be supplied by the university at the rate of $750.00 for a three-week course. (Self paced course) |||| High End Intervention (Facilitated course) || Do you have student advisors and/or top students that could serve as mentors by monitoring a discussion board as volunteers or part of their job duties? Jodie 2/13 Project Assessment Since the course will run two times per quarter, the opportunity for assessment and refinement of the course can be implemented in various intervals and at any time. There are several methods Ottawa University could use to assess the effectiveness of the course: 1. Post course surveys of both the instructors and the students. 2. Task analysis of student skills 3. Grade comparison of students as they move through the program- have the grades improved from the students who have begun the program with the introductory course as opposed to those who entered the program without the introductory course? I believe retention would be an appropriate measure of success. Jodie 2/13 The formative assessment for the course will occur on a per term basis if/when the facilitator fills out a course development ticket requesting changes to the course. Additionally, the facilitator is in contact with the faculty scheduler and provides informal feedback for consideration. The summative assessment will consist of data from the student and facilitator surveys that are completed post course. Feedback from the surveys will be analyzed to determine if there are additional tasks that should be added to the course. If additional content were identified, the course would be revised for the next ru **n.**
 * Middle End Intervention
 * Cost to develop: || N/A || Cost to develop: || N/A ||
 * Cost for facilitator || N/A || Cost for facilitator || $750.00 (every 4 weeks) ||
 * Cost to student || $ 350.00 || Cost to student || $350.00 ||
 * Mentor to ask questions of: || $15+/hr on call for length of course. ||  ||   ||

References Berge, Z. (ed.) (2001). Sustaining Distance Training. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Bozarth, J., Chapman, D. D., & LaMonica, L. (2004). Preparing for Distance Learning: Designing An Online Student Orientation Course. //Educational Technology & Society//, 7 (1), 87-106.