Susan Fell
Associate Director
Office of Interactive Distance Learning
Florida State University
109 Westcott Building
Tallahassee, FL 32306-2057
sfell@pres.wes.fsu.edu
How can an institution meet the learning needs of the knowledge workers and the upcoming university student cohort with existing buildings, programs and processes? Just as the demand for new solutions is getting critical, a new wave of information technologies are reaching new stages of maturity. These new tools may help us find the way. But designing new paradigms and solutions requires a panoply of people and resources. How does one begin?
This session shares the vision and goals of the interactive distance learning initiative at Florida State University. This session will describe the initial design principles of the new distance learning initiative and initial strategies for design, development, and delivery of interactive distance learning courses.
Some specific examples of actual web-based courses currently being offered by FSU will be demonstrated.
How can an institution meet the learning needs of the knowledge workers and the upcoming university student cohort with existing buildings, programs and processes? Just as the demand for new solutions is getting critical, a new wave of information technologies are reaching new stages of maturity. These new tools may help us find the way. But designing new paradigms and solutions requires a panoply of people and resources. How does one begin?
The education demands of our society have never been greater. It is estimated that the equivalent of 30 credit hours of learning will be required every seven years for a person to remain gainfully employed in the Information Age. (Dolence and Norris, 1995) Clearly, we are now a learning society?
The needs and demands in the State of Florida are a good example of these coming demands. Recent data project that as many as 300,000 students will want or require access to higher education in 2007 compared to 208,000 currently enrolled in the Florida state universities in 1996-97. Hence, if nothing else changes, our institutions of higher education will be able to serve only 69% of qualified students in 2007.
The current structure of higher education is costly, as will be the implementation of a comprehensive interactive distance learning structure for higher education. It will be especially so, as we make the transition and investment in the new technologies for the Information Age. However, over the long term and the short term, interactive distance learning will allow us to reduce outlays for larger or additional campuses. We will be able to serve more students more effectively and efficiently. A learning society must also find ways to meet the learning requirements of its citizens who must continue to invest in their learning for professional and career requirements. So, we must look to expand in multiple directions-revise the undergraduate program, expand the graduate programs, and assist in the continuing professional needs.
Planning for distance learning at Florida State began in 1991 with the formation of a Distance Learning Council. That Council produced a comprehensive report and vision at the end of 1993 with the key recommendation of launching of an office to serve as a focal point for distance learning - the Office of Distance Learning. This distance learning initiative gained momentum in mid '95 with the establishment of that office. The office soon changed its name to the Office of Interactive Distance Learning to encourage design and implementation of distance learning programs that maximize the intellectual interactions between faculty and the students.
This paper summarizes the vision and goals of the interactive distance learning initiative at Florida State University. It also describes the initial design principles and planning assumptions of the new distance learning initiative. (Note: Portions of this paper is from the White Paper on Interactive Distance Learning adopted by the Distance Learning Council of Florida State University on April 18, 1996. The members of that council are listed at the end of the paper.) The vision and goals of the Interactive Distance Learning initiative at FSU are that:
Interactive distance learning can be a powerful tool to meet these objectives. The Council offers the following definition of interactive distance learning.
Interactive distance learning is an educational philosophy for designing interactive, responsive, and valid information and learning opportunities to be delivered to learners at a time, place, and in appropriate forms convenient to the learners.
This philosophy of interactive distance learning assumes a mix and match of technologies based on an analysis of student needs, content requirements, and costs. It assumes a design based on a range of interactions
Designing with these dialogues as principles can help to ensure that the teaching and learning process is an active and collaborative one that maximizes the intellectual interaction of the learning community.
Beginning the move to distance learning requires significant institutional change. One strategy is to establish a task force of highly influential, dedicated individuals with a period of planning to develop a shared vision. The development of a shared vision takes time, work and consensus-building. It must include elements of a top-down communication process as well as the development of a grass roots movement from those who will be the ones primarily responsible for the change in the teaching and learning paradigm-in this case, the faculty. The development of a shared vision in a university also must have its roots firmly planted in educational theory and practice. The Interactive Distance Learning initiative at Florida State has its educational roots in the experience -based and interactive theories of John Dewey. In many respects, John Dewey had the vision in the early 1900's of effective learning; in the 1990's we now have the appropriate communication and computing tools to make this vision a reality
The characteristics of the new teaching and learning paradigm will likely evolve rapidly over the next decade. For now, we can predict that some of its key characteristics will be as follows:
ACCEL learning is assumed to be set within a context of a mentoring relationship among learning communities of faculty and students. The model also assumes access to a rich, information-age library including databases, electronic journal access, and high-quality, interactive instructional resources.
The new information technologies provide a quantum leap over the technologies previously used to deliver distance learning. Previous distance delivery emphasized print materials, audiotapes and videotapes, and CD ROMs which by their very nature are one-way communication and primarily single media. The wave of new technologies offer interactive two-way communications - synchronous and asynchronous - and offer the ability to integrate many forms of media, supporting more complex and dynamic types of communications. These technologies also offer multi-way communications, enabling interactions equivalent to coffee houses, student unions, and conferences with participants distributed across time and space.
The recommended initial major initiatives to promote this venture are the following:
The overarching principle for the change to distance learning is that the change will be institution-wide-creating a new university from a revitalized core. This is not a parallel or dual institutional distance learning university that is the goal, but a new institution for the information-age. The strategy that is being implemented leads with the prototypical projects and institution-wide change.
In order to accomplish these three initiatives, it is imperative that funding, support, and plans be adequate for their successful development and implementation. Development of partnerships and alliances at many levels will be developed to assist with development and defraying costs. Some potential partnerships and alliances will be public-private partnerships, as well as alliances at the local, regional, national, and global level. Implementation plans and action steps for each of these three initiatives are available from the Office of Interactive Distance Learning.
Creating an appropriate learning environment and providing the necessary support services will enable the University to implement a more responsive delivery environment for all students on campus or off campus.
Florida State University, along with many other institutions of higher education, is in the process of putting several courses "on the web." A quick surf and search on the Internet will provide listings of hundreds of courses across the U .S. now being taught on the Internet. But what exactly does this mean? If a faculty member puts his or her course syllabus and list of class reading materials on the web, and links this course content to interesting links in related sites, does this mean that the course is being taught on the Internet? Are there any criteria for determining the threshold at which a course is more than just a static repository of information and hot links, and indeed becomes an interactive distance learning course on the web, providing a truly collaborative learning environment?
As one might guess, there is no simple or easy answer. Whether or not a course is really an Internet course is dependent upon a number of variables- the course objectives, the demographics of the target audience, the nature of the academic discipline or subject matter, the nature of the resources being utilized- books, journals, videotapes, databases, etc.- and whether or not these resources are available in digital format. All of these variables must be addressed within the context of how a web-based environment can be used to enhance or facilitate the various types of interactions and learning experiences desired.
Let's return to the basic types of interactive dialogues that occur within a traditional course experience- the dialogues:
Typically, the major form of interaction for the dialogue between faculty and students is that which occurs with the standard classroom lecture. Hence, for any given three credit-hour course, over a fifteen-week semester or term, there may be 45 contact-hours of lecture-type instruction. Also, depending on the subject matter and the quality of the instruction, there may be varying levels of interaction- i.e., the standard lecture approach can be, but does not have to be, a passive experience for the student. Often, there are students who actively engage, question and debate in the classroom while other students may take notes, quietly listen, and otherwise experience a more passive form of learning. Another form of face-to-face interaction between the faculty member and student occurs in the context of office hours or other electronic forms of communication.
A generally accepted rule-of-thumb in higher education is that for every hour spent in the classroom, the student should spend two hours outside of class doing independent or collaborative projects and/or research. With this formula a student would be expected to spend another 90 hours engaged in other types of learning activities related to Dialogues 2 and 3 for a standard three-credit hour class or 45 contact hours. These additional learning experiences may take the form of late night study sessions with other students, hours in a library with reference books, journals and other resources, working on group reports and/or research projects, field trips, or interactions with guest lecturers or subject matter experts.
Hence, the traditional course is actually a total package consisting of 135 hours (90 hours plus 45) of various types of learning experiences and opportunities, and it is this total package that is redesigned for delivery on the World-Wide-Web. As a faculty member begins to migrate a classroom course to a web-based interactive distance learning course, the faculty needs to redesign the course for the new environment and the new resources. The underlying assumption for the redesign of a course is that, rather than the physical classroom serving as the primary meeting place or gathering place for the interactions and dialogues between faculty, students, and resources, the World-Wide Web becomes the framework for facilitating and enhancing the various interactions and dialogues. Some of the questions that must be asked before moving course components to the web are:
The following graphic illustrates how the web can become the central framework for the dialogues and interactions that are normally provided within the classroom setting.
There are several criteria that the Office of Interactive Distance Learning at FSU promotes as being essential elements of an interactive web-based course. We are in the process of developing a checklist that captures some of these criteria. These questions encourage thinking about the content and the design of a web-based course so that the interaction and collaboration are maximized. Here are a few of the questions:
By focusing on these questions and designing a web-based course that addresses these issues, a course at Florida State University may be designated as an interactive distance learning course.
Transformation of courses by faculty members can be a long-term, time-consuming and costly enterprise. Faculty members will require release time from teaching responsibilities, or possibly be provided summer appointments, in order to engage in the re-thinking and redesign of their courses for delivery on the web.
At Florida State University, a team-approach is being implemented to provide structure, facilitate the process, focus the resources, ensure quality control , and to continually improve the process. The team consists of the following types of individuals:
The team approach allows a sufficiently flexible structure so that the faculty member controls decisions regarding content and subject matter, for which he /she has the expertise to do so, while the project coordinator serves the role of directing the overall project, keeping the project on timetable and on budget, and supervising the activities of the various team members in a coordinative, consultative capacity. The project coordinator also has the responsibility of coordinating resources that are secured across the campus as needed. The co-management model is a model that ensures faculty buy-in and leadership while the Office of Interactive Distance Learning's leadership satisfies the University's expectations of ensured quality, fiscal responsibility, deliverable products, and generated student credit hours.
In addition to providing the project personnel who will work in the various capacities shown above, the Office of Interactive Distance Learning also provides faculty support and training, both formalized and informal, to introduce faculty members and departmental staff to the new concepts of learning, the current and emerging technologies, and methods for improving teaching effectiveness. Some training is provided in-house, while other sessions take advantage of expertise and resources on the campus such as Academic Computing, Administrative Computing, the Program for Instructional Excellence (PIE), and the Multimedia Laboratory.
Another form of assistance available to faculty members through the Office of Interactive Distance Learning is in the form of web-based templates or "shells" in which some instructional design principles have been built into the user interface. By providing such frameworks to faculty members, courses may be designed or built using ready-made and tested tools which facilitate collaborative and interactive learning. Specific examples of these will be demonstrated during the presentation of this paper.
Interactive Distance Learning at Florida State University is in a pioneering phase, a period in which the university is harnessing and leveraging its resources to lead the way in providing distance learning solutions for the people of the Florida, the nation, and the world.