Designing Online Courses for Flexibility

Editor's Notes

• #2: Hello everyone. Thanks for joining me today for this webinar on designing online courses for flexibility. My name is Barry Dahl. I have the pleasure of serving as the teaching and learning Advocate at D2L. I have a long association with the ITC, having served on the board for several years while I was working at a college in Minnesota, and continuing to promote the partnership between D2L and ITC for their eLearning conference. So let's get started.
• #3: Here's what I hope to cover during this webinar. The PSOL, which we will get to in just a moment, and the top three factors for why students enroll into online courses. We'll talk a little bit about the concept of anyone, anytime, anywhere learning. We’ll examine the idea of Windows of opportunity as well as several other factors that impact students’ time flexibility and We’ll check out a rubric or maybe more of a checklist as we get to the end.
• #4: Many of you are probably familiar with the PSOL, which is the priorities survey of online Learners from Noel Levitz. I took this quote from their website and you can see that they're looking at satisfaction levels for online Learners in the PSOL and that it was the first survey that was designed specifically for online students. Back in my college vice-president days, we used the survey 5 times between the years of 2003 and 2009 to gather data about student satisfaction as well as some other factors related to their online learning experiences at the college.
• #5: The most important part of the PSOL is the information about student satisfaction with various services and instruction and that sort of thing. That's not what we're going to talk about today. One of the other things that they measure is the importance that students place on factors to enroll in online courses at your college. So there are nine factors that are listed and students indicate how important those factors were to their decision to enroll. Take a look at these 9 factors on the screen, and tell me which you think are the most important factors. In fact, take a guess at what the three most important factors would be overall for students taking online courses.
• #6: Almost all of the data that I have seen, both organization specific as well as Nationwide data, point to these three items being by far the most important factors that drive student enrollment in online courses. This is especially true at the undergraduate level. Looking at these three factors: work schedule, flexible pacing for completing a program, and convenience, we see a Common Thread
• #7: That common thread led me to the strong belief that the number one reason that students take online courses is time flexibility. Being able to fit education into their otherwise busy lives. It has little to do with distance, it’s usually not cost driven and it has very little to do with preferred learning modality and other factors. When students have a choice, such as outside of pandemic times, it is all about having the flexibility to complete the educational requirements.
• #8: This funny little graphic of a very flexible juggler is one that I've used for many years now. To highlight the importance of flexibility I think this quote from the late Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois is apropos. He said, “I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times.” And I’ll argue that you can provide flexible learning opportunities for your students without sacrificing your principles or reducing course quality, while putting the student in the center.
• #9: I've heard the saying enough times that I think it falls into the category of conventional wisdom: online education enables anyone, anytime, anywhere learning. It’s not unusual for conventional wisdom to be wrong.
• #10: I'm guessing that some of you have heard the saying about online learning that it is for anyone anytime anywhere. So let's examine this little catchy phrase for a second
• #11: Let's start off with the idea that online learning is for anyone. Interestingly enough, I have argued for over 20 years that online learning is not for everyone. So I think I would also say it's not for just anyone, which sounds a lot like everyone. But that's not actually what I'm getting at here. If we say that online learning is for anyone it implies that no matter what your circumstances, anyone can learn online.
• #12: Here are a couple of examples of how the “anyone” idea starts to fall apart. The little green dude says that his anyone does not include his group mates that are on different schedules, and the little blue dudette says that she can’t be included in the anyone bucket if only some of her classes are online. You can come up with lots of other examples of why just anyone might not be able to make this work.
• #13: So without belaboring the point I think we're going to see lots of examples of how online learning is not just for anyone. Okay, so what about anytime?
• #14: Anytime is pretty problematic as well. There's 24 hours in a day and 7 days a week unless you're the Beatles who had Eight Days A Week, whatever. Anytime implies that you can be engaged in your learning 24/7 or any portion of that. Clearly that's not true. The red dude here says that My anytime does not include Monday and Wednesday nights or weekends because red dude has various other commitments in life. Yellow dude says that my anytime is not during the 40 hours per week when I'm at work, and keep in mind that the vast majority of online students work and a large number work full time or more.
• #15: I think it's safe to say that the anytime is a bit of a stretch of the imagination as well. Okay, so that leaves us with anywhere.
• #16: The idea that you can engage in online learning anywhere is a huge stretch. Green dude says that My Anywhere does not include the 2 hours in my car when I'm commuting to and from work. Yellow dude says that My Anywhere does not include places without free Wi-Fi. and you can easily come up with a long list of places, in other words “anywheres,” where online learning is not  possible
• #17: So we can pretty much put this cute little saying to bed. It's just not true.
• #18: The first three of these little guys holding up signs are just repeats from the previous slides, but the blue one on the right kind of makes the point I’m driving at when he says that My anyone, anytime, anywhere is different from theirs. The cute little saying makes it sound like everybody has the same opportunities, but the reality is much different. Another way I like to push back on this is as follows: “Online learning is for Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere!! As long as you are the right person, in the right place, at the right time!”
• #19: Still another way that I like to look at this is shown on this slide. If you have 25 students in your class, you have 25 different “Anyones who have 25 different “Anywheres” and who have 25 different “Anytimes.” You don't have 25 homogeneous students, but you have 25 heterogeneous students who all have different circumstances, different opportunities, and cannot all fit into the same round holes or square holes or holes of any shape.
• #20: The unconventional wisdom is NOT that online learning can do this, but that YOU can do this. You are the one that can enable different people at different times in different places to engage in their learning opportunities. You have the power to do that, but it doesn't happen all by itself.
• #21: All right, let's make a little pivot here and talk about windows of opportunities. The window of opportunity is the amount of time that a student is given to complete various tasks. You see some examples on the page but basically any action that the student is expected to take, the window of opportunity is the amount of time that the student has to complete that action or series of actions.
• #22: Simple example of a writing assignment that opens inside the LMS on Friday morning and it closes or is due on Sunday night. 3 days or as it says here, 2 sleeps. For some people it’s no problem to get it done, but for other people it’s just not nearly enough time based on the circumstances of their life on that weekend.
• #23: So you might think that the ultimate time flexibility would just be to have one big window. In other words, everything is available on day one of the course and everything is due on the final day of the course. One big deadline, one big window of opportunity. Let me advise you to put this out of your mind right away. I speak from experience. This is a horrible approach for most of your students. Maybe this can work in a very short course, but in the 10 to 16 week course, this is a recipe for disaster.
• #24: Timeliness of instructor feedback on student performance Days and times of the week when due dates are scheduled Required synchronous activities Required group work Online office hours; both the timing of availability and the modes of contact Appropriate amount of course content Extra credit or make-up opportunities for required coursework that is missed
• #25: Timely and useful feedback from instructors is important for keeping students on track in online courses. Plan to set aside sufficient grading time soon after the assessment is due. Some faculty find that they save time by providing audio or video feedback rather than text, which can also increase your instructor presence with online students.
• #26: Here's a simple example from my own days as a student. I still remember this from a masters level course in accounting. We had to turn in some essay questions, and then we had to take a test on the same content, and then after the test we got our feedback on our essay answers. So if you got it wrong the first time, you got it wrong a second time too.  This is not a student friendly feedback loop.
• #27: What about Due Dates? Opinions about appropriate due dates are a dime a dozen. Is Sunday a fair day for a deadline when that day wouldn’t be used for an on-campus course?    Maybe, maybe not – what do you think? Should a weekend be a weekend? Even for an online student? What about holidays?    Are these fair game for online courses? Is Spring Break still a break for online students? Why or why not? I have a partially obscured tweet on the screen. This tweet is from my friends at CCC Online. I love these people, I really do. However, I still need to question why online students don’t get a fall break but others apparently do. Maybe there’s a rationale for this, but I fail to see it. Again, I love the people at the Colorado Community Colleges, but I do question why online students don’t get a fall break.
• #28: What about time of day for deadlines? Is 11:59 PM really beneficial? To whom? Unless you are going to grade the work at 12:01 AM, what value is there in having a deadline at that time? Wouldn’t 8 AM the next day be just as good? Wouldn’t 8 AM provide an opportunity for a student to do some work at 6 AM after having rested instead of 11 PM at the end of a long and hectic day, and wouldn’t the end result for you be just the same? One last caveat: I realize that no one is forcing students to wait until the deadline to submit an assignment or complete a task - and least not usually. Still, I think that when you set your deadlines is part of how you set the tone for your overall class - and 11:59 on Sunday is not a tone that I feel comfortable with.
• #29: A course in a traditional classroom is a set of scheduled, synchronous learning opportunities. An online course can be either synchronous, asynchronous, or a combination of both. BTW, the combination of both synchronous and asynchronous activities now has a name that is gaining in frequency of usage: that name is bichronous. I would argue that online courses have never been purely synchronous, so bichronous is a term that more accurately reflects those classes. Whatever! 
• #30: Here are some of the advantages of synchronous learning: Allows for immediate feedback Including the need for further explanation Removes the barrier of distance More closely mirrors “on-campus” courses Yet frees up campus space for other classes Enables live lecture or student presentations Sessions can be recorded for absentees
• #31: But there are also some disadvantages to synchronous requirements: Reduces time flexibility for students Instructor determines the pace, not the student Demands greater bandwidth Time zone issues for students at great distances Distractions are easy and plentiful More difficult for students to work ahead And more deadly if they fall behind Audio time often dominated by a few
• #32: 1) Educators tend to agree that well-designed synchronous activities can breathe life into online courses. 2) However, that’s only true if the students can attend at the appointed time and in the manner intended. 3) If possible, make scheduling of synchronous activities as flexible as possible, with an effort to accommodate groups of students at times that are convenient for them. 4) We’ll talk about scheduling options in a moment.
• #33: When students are required to work in groups, they often run into the same time issues as with synchronous activities; even though group work isn’t always done synchronously.  When there is a requirement for group members to meet all at once, a good strategy is to form groups based on availability rather than other grouping possibilities. 
• #34: Use an online scheduler to have students indicate when they can be available, and then form the groups based on their availability to work with similarly scheduled teammates. Examples: Doodle, Calendly, NeedToMeet, Rallly, Appointy, Google Forms, OneDrive Forms Groups are usually formed by some other factor, regardless of student availability.
• #35: Many faculty who teach online courses hold some sort of electronic or online office hours (OOH).  When done well, OOH can help provide time flexibility for the enrolled students. However, just the fact that they occur online doesn't necessarily lead to such flexibility
• #36: Are your OOH scheduled for your convenience? … or for the convenience of your students? Find out when your students can meet with you, then be as accommodating as possible (within reason)
• #37: How about the Quantity (not quality, but the quantity) of Course Content – an often overlooked factor in course flexibility. In on-campus courses, the amount of course content is naturally constrained by the amount of seat time. But online, some faculty throw all kinds of extra content into courses, with the assumption that more content is better.
• #38: Have you ever seen an online course that was used as a Content Dump? I have. This often results in redundancies and ends up wasting students’ time by exploring resources that are not going to be assessed. In other words, too much content takes time away from what’s most important. However, I’ve also evaluated online courses that had too little content, forcing students to search for other info sources, which can also be a drain on their time spent on task. 
• #39: Do you provide make-up opportunities for required coursework that is missed? How about extra credit? Do you go down that road or just say no? Obviously, these items can increase the time flexibility of online courses, but they are a bit of a mixed bag. Discuss… Let me share my experience with Extra Credit over the years…Billy Bob comes to me during the last week of class. Billy Bob isn’t doing well in my class. He’s done some solid D-level work all semester long. Now he begs for a chance at some extra credit. Let’s say I give in and give him an assignment. 9 times out of 10 Billy Bob will do D-level work on that extra assignment. How does more D work bring his grade up to a C? Doesn’t it just solidify the fact that he has earned a D in the course?
• #40: So now it’s time to circle back to The Windows of Opportunity How do you know if they’re too long, too short, or just right?  Once again, looking at a Goldilocks Principle here We could make up an answer….
• #41: Here are some rough guidelines for determining your windows of opportunity. Some of this is common sense – but it doesn’t hurt anyone to perform a little common-sense check. If you have full-time fully-focused students (those students where going to school is the main thing they’re dealing with in their lives which is unlikely at a community college) could handle shorter windows of opportunities than a group of non-traditional students who have many non-school commitments. Assignments of any type that require a short time frame to complete can likely be assigned a shorter window without serious consequence. A 15-page paper needs a much longer window than a 15-minute quiz, but you already knew that.
• #42: #3 is mostly common sense #4 is something we haven’t talked about yet. Consistency in the length of windows of opportunity as well as consistency of start end days of the week are very helpful to students. Let’s explore just a little bit more.
• #43: Establishing a course cadence for your students is very important. For example, have your required discussion forums open and close on similar days of the week. Have other assignments and quizzes similarly timed throughout the term. A consistent cadence is very student-friendly.
• #44: A short pause for a quick question. Do you agree that the stuff we’ve been looking at is important to online students? If so, why aren’t they normally included in a course design rubric? Which of the things we’ve just examined are looked for when doing a Quality Matters review of course design? QM includes almost none of this stuff. Standard 3.5 mentions timely feedback. OSCQR is a newer review rubric. In addition to the timely feedback piece, it also includes this one phrase: “predictable/scheduled interactions and feedback, are present, appropriate for the course length and structure” Chico State QLT also includes an item for timely feedback from the instructor – but that’s about it. In other words…you could ignore almost all of this stuff and still pass your rubric review with flying colors. That just doesn’t sit well with me.
• #45: I originally set out to create a rubric for measuring online course flexibility. A good rubric has some defined boundaries of what is poor, acceptable, good, and great – or similar Some of this is hard to quantify – enter CHECKLIST
• #46: Let's take a look at the checklist for course flexibility Do the lengths of your windows of opportunity match the difficulty or time required to complete the tasks at hand?   Are your windows of opportunity long enough to allow students to fit your course requirements into their otherwise busy lives?  Does your grading policy provide assurances that students will receive assessment feedback from you in a timely manner? 
• #47: Part 2 of the Checklist: If synchronous activities are required, have you provided opportunities for students who cannot be in a certain place at a certain time?  If group work is required, have you provided opportunities for students to form groups based on availability?  Are your due dates scheduled in a way, in combination with the length of the windows of opportunity, that provide students with the option of not working on weekends or holidays?  
• #48: And we’ll finish up with three other factors: Are you confident that you haven’t overloaded or underloaded the amount of course content needed by students?  Have you scheduled your online office hours in a way that will be convenient to most if not all enrolled students? Are your windows (both length and ending date/time) consistent throughout the term for similar activities?
• #49: And there you have it. Let’s see what we have for questions and suggestions or the like.