From: The Executive Committee of the Sloan/ Virtual University Project:
Starr Roxanne Hiltz, Project Director; Nancy Coppola, Naomi Rotter, Gale Tenen Spak, and Murray Turoff, Co-PI’s; David Ullman, Golgen Bengu, Bill Reynolds, Tony Jackson, Al Leurck, James Whitescarver, Committee Members/Collaborators

This document presents a clarification and restatement of what we believe NJIT’s goals should be in technology-enhanced teaching and learning. To support these goals, we offer both strategic and tactical recommendations, with supporting rationales.

I.  Goals

The following goals should guide our use of online/distance or web-enhanced courses:

1. QUALITY  Use technology to enhance the quality of the learning process.

2. ACCESS/CONVENIENCE  Take advantage of the anytime/anyplace nature of asynchronous learning to increase the convenience of access to learning opportunities at NJIT.  Especially for adults with job or family responsibilities, this can greatly increase their opportunities to enroll in and complete courses.

3. DEGREE COMPLETION  Use this technology to substantially increase the rate of progress towards degrees, and the ultimate completion rate for students who enroll in our programs.

4. FACULTY SATISFACTION  Assure faculty motivation and satisfaction through adequate training, support, compensation, etc.

5. STUDENT SATISFACTION  Improve student satisfaction with their NJIT learning experience, and thus improve the willingness of the graduates to become contributing members of the alumni community and our ratings in student surveys.

6.  INCREASED GLOBAL RECOGNITION OF NJIT AS A WIRED UNIVERSITY     Expand NJIT enrollments of qualified students by extending recruitment to distance students as well as by supporting course delivery choices of students within commuting distance. Create a positive cash flow in the long run.
 

II.  Recommended Strategies and Tactics to Achieve These Goals

1. All faculty should be strongly encouraged to complete training on how to support classroom based courses and teach distance learning courses using appropriate computer tools.  Any faculty member scheduled to teach a distance learning course shall be required to have completed appropriate training prior to the start of the course.
 
2. All NJIT faculty (including adjuncts, TA’s and Ph.D. students) instructing distance learning sections of courses shall be required to use a University- provided collaborative learning (computer conferencing) tool to support that instruction.  Instructors for campus-based courses are strongly encouraged to enhance their courses by adding an asynchronous discussion component.
 
Rationale: We know from our research results, confirmed by results from many other institutions now using Asynchronous Learning Networks, that the following is necessary to achieve quality online learning experiences:

a. Well trained faculty; course redesign to fit the media, course materials and activities planned and prepared ahead of time.

b. The use of class discussions and some group/collaborative learning activities in addition to individual learning activities.
Creating an online learning community or “virtual classroom” improves student motivation, amount and regularity of effort, and learning outcomes.  This requires, in turn, the use of a group oriented computer conferencing facility, such as our Virtual ClassroomÒ system or a successor with similar core functionality; daily online presence of the instructor; and small enough class sizes or  discussion sections to be able to use these forms of active participation well (25 is ideal; should not go above 30 per discussion forum).  (See Hiltz and Wellman, 1997; Benbunan-Fich and Hiltz, 1999; and Hiltz et. al., 1999, for some of the extensive evidence that supports these generalizations.)

The lack of any group/collaborative component to a distance learning course (e.g. use only of telephone calls, e-mail, and faxes between instructor and student) reduces the learning experience to little more than an independent study or a "correspondence course".  We do not believe this should be the standard for on-line teaching and learning at NJIT.

Tactical recommendations:  (Specific that steps should be taken to support  the recommended strategies)

To achieve the goals of strengthening and enhancing faculty skills in the area of Technology Supported Learning, Faculty Development needs to become systemic and wide reaching. In support of this effort, the following steps need to be taken university-wide by the appropriate organizations:

a. Training will be provided on the currently NJIT supported collaborative learning, threaded discussion platform for all faculty in support of face to face as well as Distance Learning courses (VC or its replacement, WebBoard, Virtual U., or whatever). )

b. Training will be provided to insure that faculty possess minimum technological competencies i.e. operating systems (Windows 98, NT), Productivity Suite software (Office 98, 2000), Internet browsing for information search & research (Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer) and e-mail management, including attachments (Outlook).

c. Training will be provided to insure that faculty creating and supporting Distance Learning courses have the minimum competencies in the area of web page development and publishing, including creation software (Netscape Composer, FrontPage), graphics file formats (.gif, .jpg) and file formats for distribution of course support materials (.pdf, .ppt, . rtf, .rm) and file  transfer protocols, (FTP explorer).

d. Training will be provided in compliance of University policies and procedures in issues of Intellectual Property and copyright guidelines, including accepted Fair Use Guidelines.

e. An on-line orientation module will be created for all students and faculty to demonstrate, and familiarize them with the selected threaded, collaborative learning platform for the University (WebBoard, Virtual University etc.)

f. An on-line training course will be created to instruct faculty on the best methods to teach "on-line". This course will be four weeks in length and will be offered several times  each year, including approximately  6 weeks before the beginning of each semester.

g. Resources (hardware and software and human) will be made available to all faculty to assist them in the design of their instructional materials, and in the conversion of their courses for delivery as an on-line or Distance Learning course.

h. The Instructional Resource Center in the office of Instructional
Technologies and Media Services will expand and refocus its mission to
better support faculty efforts to integrate technology into their
teaching and learning.  An Instructional Designer should be hired to support faculty in their efforts to adapt technologies to teaching and learning.
 

3. Protocols and authority:  We need a university wide protocol on distance learning (everyone plays by the same rules).
 
Rationale: This includes university-wide guidelines for usual compensation for the faculty redesigning a course and preparing it to be ready to be offered in an online/distance mode and giving it the first time. Dates by which there must be a qualified instructor who has agreed to teach a distance section, or it will be cancelled.  Guidelines about appropriate class sizes for online courses. Policies should be the same for all colleges in the university, and authority needs to be delegated to  someone who does a quality check of scheduled courses before they are actually allowed to “run.”  If a course cannot be offered in a quality manner, the section should be cancelled.   These procedures are not now in place.

Tactical recommendations: Below are guidelines that we recommend for all distance learning sections.

a. When a department schedules a DL class, it should have in mind a content-qualified instructor, and if that person is not yet DL-qualified, a plan for ensuring that he/she becomes so by the time the course is actually to be led.  This name should be supplied at the time the course is listed for a distance learning section.  If there is no appropriate faculty member named by the department, the course should not be scheduled in distance mode.

b. The course syllabus, “welcome letter” and initial web-based materials should be delivered to distance learning by the instructor at least four weeks before a semester begins, and should up online at least two weeks before the course start date.  The course needs to actually begin by “day one” of the semester, not some time later.
 

c. The faculty member who initially designs and prepares an online course needs to be given adequate compensation.  For instance, this might be the equivalent of a course reduction for one semester (or one month support in the summer).  This faculty member should then supervise the subsequent offerings of the course by other instructors, should that occur because demand for the course exceeds their availability or desire to teach online sections.  The faculty member in charge should receive some form of royalty or compensation for the use of their intellectual property by others, and for their supervision and mentoring of other instructors offering sections of the course. The nature of such compensation needs to be worked out in good faith with the faculty union.

d. In order to attract and retain a qualified and dedicated cadre of instructors who can expand the number of online sections offered beyond that which can be supported through the use of full time tenure track faculty, we should improve the recruitment of distance instructors (who could come from anywhere), their training, their pay, and some recognition and reward for excellence.

e. Experienced faculty agree that the ideal class size for online discussion groups is 20 to 30 students. The pedagogical rationale for class limits is to allow for active discussion without creating information overload. When an online course is conducted properly, the daily student-faculty communication is intense. Therefore, a course enrollment cap of 20 is ideal, 25 is normal, 30 is for emergencies only, and beyond 30 requires the instructor's permission.

Policies should be put into place to deal with overload situations.  In the past we have recommended that with the instructor’s permission, a section could go to the 31-40 range with the addition of a Teaching Assistant who would help with grading, answering some of the routine questions of the students, or perhaps moderating some smaller-group discussions.  (Departments would have to have budget lines and procedures to supply such teaching assistants, who might even be an undergraduate who had received an “A” in the online section of the course in the past.) Above 40, an online course should be considered “two sections” and actually split in two for teaching purposes.  The instructor should be given the option of agreeing to this, and of choosing to be compensated either by overload pay or by a one course teaching load reduction the following semester.

f.  The Director of Distance Learning should notify the department chairperson whenever there is an problem with a scheduled course that does not meet the guidelines (e.g., no materials received for the course four weeks before its start), with copies to the appropriate Dean and Provost.

4. We need to establish a University Committee on Distance Learning.

Rationale: Clear faculty authority and oversight over technology-enhanced learning needs to be established. This Committee would be charged with recommending policies and procedures to achieve the strategic goals that are set by the President and the Provost.  It would be chaired and staffed by faculty who serve on a rotating basis  and would include as resource expert representatives from CPE and  CSD.  It would report directly to the
Associate Provost for Computing Services and the Vice President for Continuing Professional Education, and indirectly to the Provost. Its work needs to be coordinated with the Committee on Academic Computing, perhaps though some joint meetings.

The Committee would be staffed in the same way as is the Graduate Council, for which the members of the Graduate Council are the various academic department Graduate Advisors. Similarly, we would recommend that each department offering distance learning programs name a faculty member as Distance Learning Advisor who then sits on this new University Committee and from whose ranks a rotating chair is named.  The DL Advisor for each department would counsel faculty and students about distance learning courses for the department, as well as serving as the departmental liaison to the university committee.  If departments offering distance learning courses do not now have a faculty member who is the lead person for DL, the department faculty should elect one, or the chairperson appoint one, in keeping with departmental bylaws.

The first task of the Committee should be to review this set of recommendations in order to assess which recommendations are still in need of action or modification, at the time that the Committee starts functioning.

This Committee would also consider departmental proposals to put new degree and certificate programs online.

Doing online courses “right” is an expensive investment.  As other universities such as U. of Illinois, SUNY and Penn State are doing, there needs to be an overall process of planning and allocating resources.  The Committee would recommend where to invest our resources in supporting the development of new online courses and programs.  Any new online course requiring faculty release time, support from Media Services, etc., should be part of an approved plan to put an entire degree program or certificate program online.  There needs to be a long term commitment by the department or school to provide the courses in the program in a regular sequence so that students who enroll in it can finish their course of studies in a reasonable number of semesters.

The “Provost’s Challenge” committee was a start in the right direction of allocating resources to the use of technology in teaching on a competitive basis, through proposals submitted by departments.  However, the “Provost’s Challenge” committee was looking at individual courses for the most part.  Departments and colleges at NJIT need to set priorities for programs that they wish to offer online, in accord with their greatest strengths, and individual course development needs to be part of such an overall plan.  The desire by a department to offer an online program needs to be accompanied by an assessment of the competitive situation in already existing online programs, and with a “business plan” making realistic projections for future student enrollments and income streams.

5.  NJIT’s Institutional Research Department should support an online course survey system, which includes questions on teacher evaluation, materials evaluation, satisfaction with course delivery logistics, course effectiveness, etc.

The committee above should be consulted on appropriate content, which should be based on the university wide teaching evaluation instrument, modified as needed. The student questionnaire should be able to be answered online, only by a student who is enrolled or was recently enrolled in a specific course, and only once per course, in order to assure the validity of the data.  The data need to be passed to a statistical analysis routine.  Somebody needs to be put in charge of getting copies of the results to the instructor, Distance Learning,  members of the news Distance Learning Committee, and department chairs, so that they can be used in evaluating the quality of teaching and support of distance learners, and to improve in the future.

We also recommend that instructors be asked for their permission to post the results of the survey for their section, on the NJIT Distance Learning Website, at the discretion of the Director of Distance Learning.

6. We encourage Improving Income Stream and Distance Learning Enrollments

Expand NJIT enrollments of qualified students by developing partnerships with corporations to provide to-the-desktop learning/education for their employees, and by expanding one-by-one enrollments of truly remote students worldwide, as well as enrollments by traditional NJIT students who choose DL as their preferred mode of course delivery.

Tactical Recommendations to support this strategic goal:

a.  Develop new educational programs in “hot, market-driven tracks” and continually improve the DL delivery platform to reflect latest advances.

b.  Strengthen Instructional Technology and Media Services’ Instructional Resource Center by adding instructional designers and by establishing non-cost recovery component of operation.

c.  Develop partnerships with highly-regarded corporations as a helpful step towards globalization of NJIT DL programs, through which volume enrollments from qualified distance learners can emerge without the excessive marketing costs associated with student-by-student recruitment.

d.  Establish policies and new outlets for NJIT DL courses in markets beyond traditional users while being respectful of intellectual property and fair use. For example, now that NTU has merged with the PBS Business Channel, participate in NTU’s ATMP (Advance Technical and Management Program) in order to permit employees of subscribing corporations to enroll in satellite-based non-credit courses taught from NJIT.

e.   Pursue opportunities to collaborate, cooperate, and/or partner with external organizations seeking access to NJIT DL programs including domestic and foreign colleges, corporations and professional association by developing a protocol of evaluation including guidelines for business plan preparation.
 
 
 

7. We Must Take Further Steps to Improve Student Satisfaction

The strategies recommended above to assure the quality of distance learning courses and to monitor student reactions to these courses will go a long way toward raising the levels of student satisfaction.  However, there are also a few additional tactical steps that might be taken.

a. As the number of true “distance” students increases, we need to have better methods than at present to train and support the students in how to use our systems and campus resources, and how to best learn in online courses.  The “Getting Started” CD-ROM is a good beginning.  However, we should also have an online one-week “new student orientation” just before the beginning of each semester.  Distance Learning or Instructional Media needs to train and assign somebody to this function.

b. NJIT has done an excellent job in providing the infrastructure to assure access to online learning opportunities.  We now have PC’s available to faculty, nice fast servers so that the ALN systems do not choke, adequate pipelines in and out, etc.  This technological infrastructure will need to be constantly upgraded as more and more multi-media bandwidth is demanded by the latest systems.

c. Digital Library resources available to distance as well as on campus students should continue to be strengthened.

d. Develop a new system to determine and accept, as transfer credit, adult prior learning, non-collegiate educational experiences, and distance courses taken at other institutions, the latter to address the growing phenomenon of “on-line learning a la carte” created by the growing number of universities offering distance learning programs.

e. Take further steps to develop a sense of “campus” and “community” among students enrolled at a distance.  For example:

1) Year 2000 online events, such as a New Year’s Cyber Party or “meet the author” week-long encounters, perhaps with recent inductees to the Literary Hall of Fame.  Online equivalents of “mini-versity” (freshman orientation).
2) Online counseling for both academic and personal needs must be provided.
3) Ongoing “social” gathering places (the “pub” or “café,”  Women’s Center Online, etc. ) should be encouraged and supported.
 
 

References
 

Starr Roxanne Hiltz, Nancy Coppola, Naomi Rotter,  Murray Turoff,  and Raquel Benbunan-Fich, Measuring the Importance of Collaborative Learning for the Effectiveness of ALN: A Multi-Measure, Multi-Method Approach.  Paper presented at the Sloan Workshop on Effectiveness of ALN’s, U. of Illinois, August 1999; revised version submitted by invitation to the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks.  (copy attached for provost).

Raquel Benbunan Fich and Starr Roxanne Hiltz,
Educational Applications of CMCS: Solving Case Studies through Asynchronous Learning Networks. JCMC 4 (3) March 1999 (an online journal; http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol4/issue3/benbunan-fich.html)

Hiltz, S.R. and Wellman, B. Asynchronous Learning Networks as a Virtual Classroom.  Communications of the ACM, Sept. 1997, 44-49.