Just as JSRCC launched its QEP, the College was fortunate to receive a Funds for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) grant of over $400,000 to support the implementation and assessment plans for The Ripple Effect. The FIPSE grant helped to fund the first two years of the project, with the third and final year of funding contingent upon satisfactory progress in the College's efforts to implement the various areas of the plan.
Last week, this federal grants office issued its Grant Award Notification, informing JSRCC that its third and final year of FIPSE funding has been approved. This award of $164,553.00 will help the College to continue in its important implementation and assessment of the three critical areas of the QEP: student readiness, student orientation, and faculty development in online teaching and learning. The grant assists JSRCC in many important ways during this upcoming third FIPSE budget year, which extends from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2012.
Highlighting the Efforts of Reynolds Community College to Enhance Online Teaching and Learning Reynolds Community College, Richmond, Virginia
Monday, September 12, 2011
Over 6500 Students Complete SmarterMeasure Assessment
Since its full implementation in Summer 2010, over 6500 JSRCC students have completed SmarterMeasure, the assessment tool that measures learners' readiness for online education. This assessment evaluates a student's skills and personal and external resources in seven critical areas: Life Factors, Personal Attributes, Technical Knowledge, Technical Competency, Learning Styles, Reading Rate and Recall, and Typing Speed and Accuracy.
Results from SmarterMeasure are being evaluated in order to determine the areas of strength and weakness that our students bring with them to the distance classroom. In Spring 2011, Reynolds students demonstrated greatest strength in the SmarterMeasure assessment in Technical Competency and in Reading Rate and Recall. The two areas of greatest weakness were in Life Factors and in Personal Attributes. These two areas of the assessment are generally deemed to be the most critical for student success in learning -- whether that learning occurs online or on-campus. Life Factors measurements focus upon the resources and the support that a student has for his or her academic pursuits. Such resources include not only financial and personal support but also issues of space and time available for academic effort. Similarly, Personal Attributes focus upon issues of a student's ability to manage time, ask for assistance, demonstrate responsibility for academic work, and so forth.
The new CDL001: Orientation to Learning Online focuses upon helping students develop the skills and identify the resources that they need to be successful. Building upon the evidence gleaned from SmarterMeasure results, the orientation module focuses primarily upon these areas of evident weakness in our student population.
--Ghazala Hashmi
QEP Coordinator
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Students React to the New CDL 001: Orientation to Learning Online
Meg Foster, QEP Assistant Coordinator, recently shared details about the new CDL 001: Orientation to Learning Online. In the past few weeks, over twenty students have successfully completed pilot sessions of the Orientation, a two-week module that is delivered through Blackboard.
Developed by a team composed of instructors and administrators from the Center for Distance Learning, the Office of Student Affairs, student development, information resources, and the Quality Enhancement Plan, CDL 001 introduces students to two primary and critical areas: Preparing to Be an Online Learner and Engaging with Resources. Each of these areas is subdivided into smaller learning units which provide information and instruction on topics such as Time Management, Barriers to Learning Online, and Academic Honesty. Participants are also asked to complete a variety of assignments that engage them directly with Blackboard tools and resources. This direct application of learning prepares students prior to their entrance into an online course, with the hope that discipline instructors can then focus on their subject matter rather than on the development of online learning skills.
As a part of the assessment of the new orientation, students in the pilot sessions have been asked to complete a brief satisfaction survey. Their responses and comments have been overwhelmingly positive. Of the twenty respondents, 100% indicate that they will encourage other students to complete CDL001 prior to enrolling in an online course. Additionally, 85% "strongly agreed" or "agreed" with the statement, "Now that I have completed CDL001, I feel confident about taking a distance learning class at JSRCC."
In their narrative comments, students expressed strong and positive feedback on the amount of learning and the introduction to support resources provided by the Orientation:
A few comments pointed to areas of possible improvement for CDL001: two students requested more assignments that involve the use of library resources; one student requested that the Orientation be a credit course; another urged that students be required to complete the orientation prior to the start of any online course so that the two do not run concurrently. These comments will be reviewed further by the QEP Team and the developers of CDL001.
As more students complete the Orientation, their feedback will continue to be assessed. Further, other assessments will be brought to bear on CDL001: instructors' feedback on the learning units; the evaluation of students' success rates in distance classes following their successful completion of the Orientation; and telephone surveys of students who enroll but do not complete the session.
Developed by a team composed of instructors and administrators from the Center for Distance Learning, the Office of Student Affairs, student development, information resources, and the Quality Enhancement Plan, CDL 001 introduces students to two primary and critical areas: Preparing to Be an Online Learner and Engaging with Resources. Each of these areas is subdivided into smaller learning units which provide information and instruction on topics such as Time Management, Barriers to Learning Online, and Academic Honesty. Participants are also asked to complete a variety of assignments that engage them directly with Blackboard tools and resources. This direct application of learning prepares students prior to their entrance into an online course, with the hope that discipline instructors can then focus on their subject matter rather than on the development of online learning skills.
As a part of the assessment of the new orientation, students in the pilot sessions have been asked to complete a brief satisfaction survey. Their responses and comments have been overwhelmingly positive. Of the twenty respondents, 100% indicate that they will encourage other students to complete CDL001 prior to enrolling in an online course. Additionally, 85% "strongly agreed" or "agreed" with the statement, "Now that I have completed CDL001, I feel confident about taking a distance learning class at JSRCC."
In their narrative comments, students expressed strong and positive feedback on the amount of learning and the introduction to support resources provided by the Orientation:
- "I would recommend that all first time starters of distance learning take the CDL001 orintation before starting their first online course."
- "I thouroughly [sic] enjoyed the course and I am excited to begin my journey as an online learner!"
- "The nature of the assignments are not just 'how to' instructions like I originally thought. There are some real life lessons to learn and good habits to build. This class is a hidden gem because I had no idea that it existed before 3 weeks ago."
A few comments pointed to areas of possible improvement for CDL001: two students requested more assignments that involve the use of library resources; one student requested that the Orientation be a credit course; another urged that students be required to complete the orientation prior to the start of any online course so that the two do not run concurrently. These comments will be reviewed further by the QEP Team and the developers of CDL001.
As more students complete the Orientation, their feedback will continue to be assessed. Further, other assessments will be brought to bear on CDL001: instructors' feedback on the learning units; the evaluation of students' success rates in distance classes following their successful completion of the Orientation; and telephone surveys of students who enroll but do not complete the session.
--Ghazala Hashmi
QEP Coordinator
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Welcome Back!
Over the summer months, The Reynolds Ripple took a brief break, but we now look forward to another active and exciting academic year.
This upcoming year marks the second year of the implementation of the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), and in January, we begin our third and final year of the FIPSE grant which supports the QEP. Our primary focus this year will be upon implementation of the new CDL 001: Orientation to Learning Online, described in an earlier post, and on the development of Tier Two faculty training modules.
Over the next few days, we will continue to identify more data findings from our implementation of SmarterMeasure (the readiness assessment tool for distance learning) and provide details about the QEP recommendations for supporting and preparing those faculty who plan to teach online. Further, we will continue to participate in and learn from the conversations taking place on the national and state-wide level about student success and achievement in higher education, in both online and on-campus settings.
Our focus in the QEP remains purposefully in front of us: within our five-year project, we plan to build and provide resources, learning, and tools to help students succeed online, knowing that these same elements will also impact students in on-campus classrooms. Similarly, our goal is to provide our online instructors with the skills, training, and support that they need to be as successful and as capable as they can be in the virtual classroom.
Over the summer months, many of you have had the opportunity to reflect and research areas of discipline and teaching interests. We hope that you will share those reflections by becoming a contributing writer to The Reynolds Ripple. We also encourage you to continue to send in your comments and inquiries to rippleeffect@reynolds.edu.
This upcoming year marks the second year of the implementation of the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), and in January, we begin our third and final year of the FIPSE grant which supports the QEP. Our primary focus this year will be upon implementation of the new CDL 001: Orientation to Learning Online, described in an earlier post, and on the development of Tier Two faculty training modules.
Over the next few days, we will continue to identify more data findings from our implementation of SmarterMeasure (the readiness assessment tool for distance learning) and provide details about the QEP recommendations for supporting and preparing those faculty who plan to teach online. Further, we will continue to participate in and learn from the conversations taking place on the national and state-wide level about student success and achievement in higher education, in both online and on-campus settings.
Our focus in the QEP remains purposefully in front of us: within our five-year project, we plan to build and provide resources, learning, and tools to help students succeed online, knowing that these same elements will also impact students in on-campus classrooms. Similarly, our goal is to provide our online instructors with the skills, training, and support that they need to be as successful and as capable as they can be in the virtual classroom.
Over the summer months, many of you have had the opportunity to reflect and research areas of discipline and teaching interests. We hope that you will share those reflections by becoming a contributing writer to The Reynolds Ripple. We also encourage you to continue to send in your comments and inquiries to rippleeffect@reynolds.edu.
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