Section 7 Post#4

This will be a very brief post at the conclusion of this section's postings. One of the topics of thought for this week was ethics in distance learning. In my mind, I think of student situations that would not be considered ethical or moral, such as having someone else do the work for the student, using somebody else's work, plagerism, etc. But my final thoughts or more a parting question on this particular topic is one that I found in an article ICDE Dusseldorf 2001 Special Presidential Session on Ethics in Distance Education and Open Learning at http://www.learndev.org/ICDE2001-Ethics.html This is from panelist Fredric M. Litto (submitted April 3, 2001, who questions about liability with such concerns as what if the student complains about the distance learning course's poor quality - who is responsible.? One of the concerns we have in our nursing department is the fact that several nursing students that have failed our courses have attempted to sue, based on what they claim is inadequate content and preparation from the courses. That is the main reason our syllabi are so frequently scrutinized by us and our objectives are always aligned with the NCLEX licensing exam. Our courses are reviewed, updated and changed prior to every offering. Our syllabi and assignments never change once a course begins because we feel it is our contract with the student. The only thing that is subject to change (which is clearly written throughout the syllabus) is the calendar because of weather etc.

Section 7 post #3

I'm surrounded by distance learning today, well maybe that's an exaggeration. I've just finished 3 crueling hours (with Elliot-misery loves company) doing BLS CPR Renewal online. Actually it was fun - and most convenient to do in your own home, very conducive to learning especially with the new changes that are now in effect. Now on Monday, we will need to do hands-on practice of the skills. If anybody is interested in renewing their CPR this way the site is www.onlineaha.org there are also videos as well as text and testing. Really cool!

Section 7 - post#2

Continuing with my interest in online teaching/learning and community colleges I found an article entitled Online Education in Community Colleges: Conversations With the Field by Robert Threlkeld, Monterey Institute for Technology and Education, 2006 at http://www.league.org/publication/whitepapers/1006.pdf My community college has an enrollment of over 5000 students with approximately 200 full-time faculty and of course a tremendous amount of adjunct faculty as well. Currently we offer about 5% of our offered courses as either online or hybrid courses. My department, the nursing department, has but one, and it is a hybrid module in pharmacology. From an earlier section that peaked my interest, I'm reviewing the statistics to see which students are performing better in drug calculations and pharmacology - those that took a hybrid class or those who were in a f2f class. I will have more info on this by the end of this semester.

Anyway the article discusses trends in community college towards online courses. What is interesting are the factors that influence online education in these colleges. Of course, finances and resources are an important factor, but the article mentions other obstacles such as the institutional leadeership, policies and procedures, faculty culture and support of course creation.
At my institution, it starts with faculty having an interest and an idea. Once that instructor has created the objectives and course content, it must be presented and accepted by the curriculum committee. There is minimal instuctional design support and even more minimal technological support. However our leadership is supportive of faculty creativity. There is also contractual guidelines for renumeration for creating course, workload, and the number of students per course. I'm getting excited to put units of my fundamentals of nursing curriculum online. After we are finished with this program - I'm hoping to know how to do it.

Section 7 Innovations in Distance Learning

I found this article Web-Mediated Faculty Professional Development: Improving Learning, Building Community and Assessing Outcomes by Robert W. Fulton, Paula E. Noonan and James M. Dorris at http://www.league.org/publication/whitepapers/1004.html This was of particular interest to me both at the Community College and for the Hospital Community. Time and distance are such obstacles for anybody to attend Professional Development Offerings even though they are contractual requirements. Surveys were given to 28 faculty members who took an on-line offering. In brief the comments elicited from one of the questions on the survey were: "better learning experience", "more flexible", "more interactive", "more focused, scholastic and professional' "less traveling", less leaving normal duties". The comment that there was "access regardless of status, workload of employment level" and "leveled playing field" really impacted upon me - there have been classes that I have been to where there are the dominators and I felt restricted to get into the discussions. We at the hospital, in particular, are looking at several web-based courses (Health Streams) to reach more employees, tap into the various learning styles and of course what the hospital is primarily interested in is cutting the cost of orientation and staff development.