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Deb Bushway: 2022 Flex Faculty Symposium Keynote Speaker

By Jessica O'Neel
April 22, 2022

Posted in: Competency-based Education (CBE) / Faculty / News

Deb Bushway
Deb Bushway

Deb Bushway currently serves as the president and CEO at Northwestern Health Sciences University in Minnesota. In the past, she has worked in public, for-profit, and not-for-profit organizations such as the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN), the Office of the Undersecretary at the US Department of Education, the Lumina Foundation, the University of Wisconsin–Extension, Capella University, and Metropolitan State University in Minnesota. Throughout her career, her focus has been on access, innovation, and quality in higher education.

In a 2012 Huffington Post article, she spoke of the changing dynamics of the average higher education learner, stating that “At my institution, Capella University, the average student is a 39-year-old woman seeking a post-graduate degree.” She went on to outline five focus areas to address the needs of these learners and meet economic needs in a changing knowledge economy:

  1. Reduce barriers to entry into higher education for working adults by focusing on resources to assist with degree completion and balancing education, work, and family demands
  2. Integration between private sector employers and educational institutions to focus on needed skills
  3. Public policy encouraging innovation in higher education along with private sector risk-taking to increase efficiency and drive down costs of obtaining a degree
  4. Support from regulators and accreditors as institutions pursue innovations that switch focus from inputs like seat time to outputs like career outcomes
  5. Focus on outcomes assessment and measurements to hold schools accountable for whether or not students learn skills that can be translated into the workforce

Bushway has advocated for competency-based education (CBE) as a key pathway to meet the needs of today’s learners. She played a key role in the development and implementation of the competency-based FlexPath at Capella University. Five years after this program was implemented, there have been positive outcomes as seen in this graphic from the report:

FlexPath Statistics
From: Moving competency-based education forward by Capella University and Whiteboard Advisors.

 

Her drive to meet learners where they are was demonstrated when Northwestern Health Sciences University (NWHSU) welcomed students and faculty after the sudden closure of Argosy University. About 200 students found themselves in a position where they were unable to transfer their credits to other programs and were facing the possibility of starting over completely. Bushway remarked in an article from KSTP-TV: “We were able to tell students, ‘hey, we have a home for you,’ you can pick up where you left off, you’ll get the degree you signed up for, there’s no re-doing.” In partnership with the Higher Learning Commission, five new degree programs taught by former Argosy instructors were added to NWHSU’s curriculum to make this transition work for students.

Moving forward, Bushway has her sights set on reforming financial aid and federal funding processes to be more inclusive of CBE programs. She noted in testimony before the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, “In the past, federal aid went to some unscrupulous players, and students ended up being harmed. We don’t want to repeat those mistakes. We’re talking about responsible innovation.” She has called for a federal demonstration project on CBE and direct assessment. The results of the demonstration could be used in revising federal aid requirements. It could also remove doubts among college officials about CBE and direct assessment.

Hopefully, you will join us at the Flex Faculty Symposium to learn more about Dr. Bushway and her leadership in higher education. You can also read more about creating and scaling CBE programs in A Leaders Guide to Competency-Based Education: From Inception to Implementation, co-authored by Dr. Bushway.

References

Bushway, D. (2012, January 8). A national imperative: 5 ways America can succeed in the new knowledge economy. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/a-national-imperative-5-w_b_1074843

Fain, P. (2019, August 28). Positive returns for direct assessment. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/08/28/students-move-faster-and-spend-less-direct-assessment-programs

Long, C., Klein, J., & DeSchryver, D. (n.d.). Moving competency-based education forward. Capella University and Whiteboard Advisors. https://www.capella.edu/content/dam/capella/PDF/moving-competency-based-education-forward.pdf.

Northwestern Health Sciences University. (2019, April 30). Dr. Bushway advocates for students & responsible innovation in higher education. https://www.nwhealth.edu/news/dr-bushway-advocates-for-students-responsible-innovation-in-higher-education/

Northwestern Health Sciences University. (2019, June 28). NWHSU to accept students from the closed school. https://www.nwhealth.edu/news/nwhsu-to-accept-students-from-closed-school/

Collaborative Faculty Symposium Session Previews

By Abbie Amadio
April 19, 2022

Posted in: Faculty / Instructional Design / News / Teaching Online / Tips

Session: Community-Building Activities

⭐ Presenter: Eileen Horn

Why did you choose this topic?

I chose this topic because creating an equitable and engaging online learning environment is important but is also challenging. In this session, we will explore what your peers have done and have fun trying out some community-building activities that can be used in your courses. You will leave with a robust resource for finding and implementing inclusive community-building activities, and you will be inspired with new ways to make your course community engaging.

Session: Myths About Learning

⭐ Presenter: Nate Ewings

Why did you choose this topic?

Generally speaking, I love learning about commonly held beliefs that aren’t entirely true. It feels like I’m part of a secret club. So, naturally, I was drawn to a book that aims to dispel common learning myths.

How will this information benefit faculty?

Teaching and learning are both challenging. Faculty and students have limited time and resources to dedicate to the process, so research that can help shed light on what does and doesn’t work is invaluable, in my opinion.

Session: From 2D to 3D: A Framework for Increasing Student Engagement and Critical Thinking in Online Discussions

⭐ Presenters: Laurie Berry and Kristin Kowal

Why did you choose this topic?

  • Discussions are commonly used in online courses, but many of them lack depth.

Discussions are one of the most widely used techniques in online courses to support learning and encourage engagement, and yet they rarely go beyond information sharing to reach knowledge construction. In this session, we’ll share our new framework to help participants create livelier, deeper discussions.

  • Both students and faculty can benefit from new approaches to online discussions.

When discussions are overused or designed solely to mimic the face-to-face environment, students begin to tire of the read-write-post pattern, and their level of engagement begins to dwindle. Faculty can have a similar experience with discussion burnout. Our framework is another tool in the toolbox to help with this problem.

What will faculty walk away with?

  • Framework for Critical Thinking and Student Engagement in Online Discussions

We’ll be your tour guides through the framework, and along the way, you’ll see examples of the framework in action—transforming discussions from 2D to 3D before your very eyes! You will receive a copy of the framework to take with you.

  • Research highlights in the world of online discussions

The presenters are both instructional designers and researchers, so they will provide you with research highlights and their practical implications.

  • Ideas that can be quickly applied to your own course discussions

We’ve built in time to use the framework to come up with ideas to take your discussions from good to great, and time to discuss your experience with other attendees.

Session: Engaging the Disengaged Student: Motivating Change Within

⭐ Presenters: Liz Seitz and Jessica O’Neel

Why should faculty attend our session?

You will walk away with strategies you can use in the classroom immediately. The pandemic has made it so easy to become disengaged in an online course. To help meet the continued challenges facing remote learners and faculty, we will take an interactive approach to re-engaging students, including group discussions and scenarios. In addition to some helpful strategies that we will provide you, we will create resources based on your experiences, too, via a shared Google document that participants can access long after the session is over.

Why did you want to talk about this topic?

The psychology of what motivates people is so interesting. Finding the motivation to change behavior is difficult since change can be hard and scary. Our session will help give faculty clues to recognize where students are at in changing their engagement level in a course and help them understand how to support them as they re-engage in coursework.

Session: Scaffolding: Build Confidence, Build Competence

⭐ Presenters: Kyle Sky and Eric Peloza

Join us to learn energizing and practical tips for implementing scaffolding in your online courses. We will lead you through a series of activities designed to illustrate the ease and importance of this concept. Explore options for breaking down assessments, supporting students, providing quality feedback, and modifying your course to serve your scaffolded assessments.

Session: Level Up: Take Your Online Course to the Next Level!

⭐ Presenters: Amy Lane and Ryan Anderson

Join the over 200+ faculty who have decided to level up their online design and teaching practices by participating in our faculty development courses. Using your feedback, we’ve made major additions related to high-impact practices (HIPs) and equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). We’ve also included a more extended array of examples. Together, we’ll actively engage in activities and assess your future needs.

In our interactive session, you’ll:

  • Identify three important additions to three new faculty development courses.
  • Articulate at least one change you want to make in an existing or new course.
  • Collaborate with peers to plan a course addition or revision related to HIPS or EDI.
  • Prioritize future topics of interest and needs related to your online teaching.

Meet the Instructional Design Team at UW Extended Campus
See the full schedule for the UW Extended Campus 2022 Faculty Symposium

Meet Flower Darby: 2022 Collaborative Faculty Symposium Keynote Speaker

By Abbie Amadio

Posted in: Faculty / Instructional Design / News / Teaching Online / Tips

Flower Darby speaks, writes, and presents on topics in online education across the world. She has over two decades of experience in higher education and is a seasoned educator in both online and in-person classrooms. A regular columnist for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Darby writes about a variety of topics in online education, including how to be a better online teacher, using small teaching strategies online, and making the virtual classroom more inclusive. (You can learn more about her thoughts on all of these topics below.) Her keynote presentation at this year’s collaborative faculty symposium, “Rejuvenate, Revitalize, Reenergize: Rediscovering Our Fizz in Online Teaching,” is meant to motivate, inspire, and remind instructors that teaching online is a rewarding and transformative experience for both educators and students.

What makes a good online teacher?

In her advice guide ”How to Be a Better Online Teacher” for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Darby says the qualities that make great teachers in person make great ones online as well. It may seem like common sense, but Darby says that showing up to class, being yourself, and empathizing with your students go a long way in making better online teachers. In her guide, Darby also suggests practical ways to increase student engagement in the online classroom—from using scaffolding throughout a course to creating assignments with real-world application. According to Darby, these are just a few of the practices that engage students (and instructors) and make for a productive and pleasant classroom online.

From sticking to a schedule to authentically communicating with students, Darby provides key strategies for teaching online in her recorded seminar “How to Be a Better Online Teacher”

Access the The Chronicle of Higher Education via your subscription or home campus library to read Darby’s article “How to Be a Better Online Teacher”

What is small teaching?

In her book Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes with James M. Lang (who coined the term “small teaching”), Darby modified Lang’s small teaching strategies for the online classroom. Small teaching describes how research-based incremental changes to instruction can increase student understanding. For example, tasks like “retrieving,” “interleaving,” and “self-explaining” (to name a few) can be built into short (or “small”) activities that can improve student learning. According to Darby, these “small” strategies put less demand on instructors and are significantly beneficial for students. They can also be easily built into the online classroom. As she says, an instructor can make “one small change to [their] in-class activities, for example, an exercise that takes five minutes at the beginning or end of class and that requires no grading” and “this insignificant change can have an outsized impact on student learning when we base it on evidence-based principles such as retrieval practice or interleaving, both of which help students retain new information over time.”

Listen to Darby talk about small teaching online on the Trending in Education podcast

How can the virtual classroom be more inclusive?

Institutions around the world are figuring out ways to make their classrooms more inclusive—and that includes the online classroom as well. In “It’s Our Duty to Teach More Inclusively” in the Times Higher Education, Darby details the many ways online classrooms can be more inclusive—from ensuring that the viewpoints of historically underrepresented scholars are included in course materials to offering more choice to students in general (from completing assignments to participating in discussions). Another way Darby suggests instructors make their online classrooms more inclusive is by incorporating Universal Design for Learning. In her article, “6 Quick Ways to Be More Inclusive in a Virtual Classroom” for The Chronicle, she puts it this way: “With UDL, you can plan your course from the outset in ways that, while they lower barriers to learning for students with certain needs, benefit all students.”

Watch a recent seminar presented by Darby on principles and strategies that promote equity and inclusion in the online classroom

Access the The Chronicle of Higher Education via your subscription or home campus library to read Darby’s article “6 Quick Ways to Be More Inclusive in a Virtual Classroom”

Learn more about Flower Darby at flowerdarby.com/.

Flower Darby, “Rejuvenate, Revitalize, Reenergize: Rediscovering Our Fizz in Online Teaching”
Tuesday, May 24, 12:30 p.m.-1:30 p.m.
Event details: https://ce.uwex.edu/faculty-symposium/
Free; register at https://ce.uwex.edu/faculty-symposium#registration/

Faculty Spotlight: Tony Varghese and John Boyland

By Jessica O'Neel

Posted in: Best Practices / Faculty / Teaching Online / Tips

The unofficial theme of this year’s faculty symposium seems to be “connection.” Not only will we have the chance to connect with one another, but several of the presentations revolve around fostering and growing connections within the online classroom. (If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the session previews!) As we prepare for the symposium, let’s see how some of our UWEX faculty are already embracing this community-minded approach in their online classes.

I interviewed Tony Varghese and John Boyland, two UWEX faculty members, and Instructional Designer Kristin Kowal about a unique discussion board strategy used in the Applied Computing (APC) program. Students contribute lines of code to solve a problem, then review and provide feedback on the work of their peers using the discussion board in Canvas. Though the strategy looks a little different in their respective classes, the goals are similar: metacognition, peer-to-peer connection, and replicating workplace skills.

Tony Varghese and John Boyland
Left to right: Tony Varghese (UWRF) and John Boyland (UWM)

Interview

Can you give a brief description of how this strategy works in your course?

[Tony] Students in APC 390 were given some starter code and asked to work in a group to come up with a program that would solve a slightly different problem. Each student has to make two posts each with at most one line of code and 100 words of explanation. Students got all the points if they made two posts. I gave them feedback if their posts did not have any lines of code or if their explanations were not substantial.

[John] I break up the class into groups of 6 to 10 students who all work with their own partially implemented class. I provide the initial code and test cases. The students have two tasks: to fix one error and to comment on someone else’s fix of an error. I grade using a rubric presented ahead of time. In particular, I don’t want them to make lots of changes (and so perhaps do too much–making it harder for the other students to do their part). I want them to explain what they did in their comment. Then, I want polite but content-rich comments on what the other student did.

Can you talk a little more about developing and including this strategy in your course? For example: What appealed to you about the idea? What were you hesitant about? 

[Tony] In software development today, you have to be able to work with others and communicate what your code is doing. You can make all kinds of changes to make your code more resilient, and you have to be able to explain how you did that in your code

[John] This assignment addresses multiple goals for me: I would like students to be more engaged with fellow students, I want them to learn to verbalize what they are doing while coding, I want them to learn how to work with multiple people on the same piece of code. I usually am reluctant to assign group work because the more diligent students will feel the need to do the work of those who don’t do their share. I think the exercise avoids the standard group work problem because each person is judged on their own contribution. The group as a whole rarely ever fixes all the problems, and that’s fine. The interaction is less artificial than some of my other exercises because it’s based on people working with code.

What learning benefits do you think this strategy provides to students?

[Tony] Ideally, students would see approaches to writing software that is very different from their own. And these approaches would be coming from peers and not an instructor. They can “see” how their peers think when developing software.

[John] I think this exercise really does give a flavor of working with others because students need to be very careful that they “pull” changes from others and quickly “push” their own changes, rather than sitting on them a long time, which means there is more work to “merge” them in. I also think it helps students learn to discuss their code with others in a slightly realistic situation. Incidentally, they also learn about the data structure we are using (a cyclic array) as the background of their discussions.

[Kristin] For programming courses, group problem-solving on the discussion board is a great strategy because students get to practice the skills needed to complete their individual work while getting feedback from each other. These discussions have a high impact because they are aligned with a project/skill students are already invested in, so we avoid the dangers of discussions becoming busywork.

“In most workplaces now, developers are expected to interact with their coworkers and customers. They have to be able to critique each other, be comfortable getting constructive criticism, and also know how to respond to constructive criticism.”

How is this strategy similar to what students might do someday in a future career?

[Tony] Yes, developing code is not the solitary process we had 30 or 40 years ago. In most workplaces now, developers are expected to interact with their coworkers and customers. They have to be able to critique each other, be comfortable getting constructive criticism, and also know how to respond to constructive criticism.

[John] This exercise is much closer to software development in a company because you’re always in a group, and you always need to explain your code to others and ask people about their code. It also uses “git,” which is the most common way open-source projects distribute code.

How do you feel this strategy helps build connection and community in your course? How does it help you connect with your students? How does it impact their connections to each other?

[Tony] Many students are stuck in their own ways of thinking. When students see how their peers think, it gets them thinking about more possibilities than they originally envisioned.

[John] This exercise requires that students read (code and comments) and analyze what other students are doing so that they can provide quality comments themselves. This, along with peer reviews (which happen three times during the course), gets the students engaged with each other.  They get to know each other’s coding and explanation styles. To increase engagement, I put students from the same home campus into the same group to share a codebase (and code reviews). I’m mainly out of the picture for these. I have other ways for students to be engaged with me (notably a very active Piazza discussion board).

[Kristin] This strategy approach reduces inequity; students with less computing background can get more help when they need it so they don’t have to wait on one instructor’s availability. It’s important to build multiple opportunities for practice and immediate feedback that doesn’t give an advantage to students with an ideal schedule.

What advice would you have for other faculty who may want to try a similar activity in their courses?

[Tony] Getting students to explain their thinking is always good. The main problem I ran into was trying to get students to explain why their code was better than something someone else posted. Instead of explanations, many students felt compelled to go against the “one line of code” rule and posted entire programs without any explanations. Students think that their code explains their thinking and it almost never does. If we can come up with a single “Text Line” for the one line of code and a “Text Area” for the explanation, we could enforce the “one line of code” rule.

Try it and see! You might have a better way to get students to interact positively.

[John] My advice: Make sure the group as a whole doesn’t need to complete a task. Instead, make sure that there’s enough work so that everyone can do a bit, and also make sure there’s an aspect where students need to analyze what others are doing and explain their own work. The exercise has limitations. Most students after they have their two required items stop paying attention. I’ve had students tell me they would have appreciated a longer engagement.

Conclusion

Generating community and connection in your online course helps enhance other course design best practices, such as authentic assessments. If you’re interested in trying a strategy like this in your course, reach out to your program’s instructional designer. See you at the symposium to learn more great strategies like this group problem-solving discussion!

Evaluating Resources for Your Course

By Jessica O'Neel
November 8, 2021

Posted in: Teaching Online / Tips

Introduction

Quality resources can enhance the content of your course and foster deeper learning. However, selecting resources for a course can be overwhelming. In addition to textbooks, there are so many options for open educational resources (OERs) and resources from the UW library collection that it can be hard to choose. A targeted evaluation of the resources you are considering can make this process easier for you.

Set Goals for Your Search

Resource evaluation can begin before you start searching. Here are some tips and questions to get you started:
• Know what you are looking for in advance.
• Avoid duplicating existing content in your course when selecting additional resources.
• Take a moment to think about your goal for the new resource. Are you hoping to provide more depth to a topic? Clear up confusion about a concept?

Narrow Down Your Choices

After you have selected some possible resources, the seven evaluation criteria below can help you narrow down your options.

  • Alignment: Resources should help learners meet course and assessment goals. When evaluating a resource, ensure its format and content will align with your goals. A short video tutorial could present a complex concept more effectively than a journal article. An article or case study might allow for the deeper application of knowledge in an assessment.
  • Accurate and Current Information: Students may doubt the credibility of a resource if it contains errors or seems out of date. Use the publication date to prioritize recent content.
  • Proper Scope: “Resources should primarily focus on the chosen topic with limited coverage of additional topics.”. For example, selecting a ten-page article that mentions the information you want in one paragraph doesn’t have the appropriate scope.
  • Ease of Use: The learner should be able to access and navigate the resource with minimal direction or additional technology needs. A website with distracting advertisements or requiring specific applications or software may discourage students from accessing the resource. If navigation is a challenge, but the content is worth it, include clear directions to help students get to the information they need. For example, if students
    need to log in or use credentials, let them know ahead of time to prepare.
  • High-Quality Media: Video, audio, and images should be clear and high quality If the quality is low, it may be difficult for students to understand the concepts presented in the media piece. Low quality could also mean that students won’t access the resource.
  • Accessibility and Copyright: Any resource needs to be accessible and available to use without copyright restrictions. Look for PDFs that are screen readable or videos that have closed captioning. Librarians can be excellent resources for determining copyright questions. Your ID or media team representative can help identify accessibility issues.
  • Credibility: Resources should come from a credible source. A video about climate from a well-known organization such as NOAA is more credible than a video from a random YouTube channel. Also, consider whether the resource cites or references its sources.

Prioritize Your Resources

After considering the pros and cons of a resource based on the above criteria, prioritize your list. Resources can still be used even if they don’t meet all the criteria. If there are drawbacks or issues with a resource, call them out for students when you write directions or describe the resource in your course. Your carefully selected resources will enhance the content of your course, add variety and interest for your students, and foster deeper learning and retention.