1. EDUCAUSE
2013 Southeast Regional Conference
Connecting Virtual Teaching and Evaluation:
The Progression from Training Online
Faculty to Supervisors
Mrs. Shawndra T. Bowers,
eLearning Coordinator
Dr. Kenley Obas,
Associate Vice President for Academic Computing

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3. Alabama State University
• Comprehensive regional institution with over 50
graduate and undergraduate programs
• Founded in 1867
• Historically Black Institution
• Located in Montgomery, Alabama
• Approximately 5,500 students
• 150 full-time faculty
• Nation's top producer of African-American Educators

4. • Considering online degree programs for the over a
decade
• Established a distance education committee – almost ten
years ago to…
• “come up with some guidelines and some
recommendations on what we needed to do for distance
education”
• review and approve the syllabi of faculty who want to
implement an online course.
The History of Distance Education
at Alabama State University

5. • Establish Academic Computing Director
• Adopt Learning Management System (Blackboard)
• Adopted Spring 2005
• Fully integrated with SIS
• Adopted Elluminate in Fall 2005
• Develop Online Course Approval Process
• Quality Matters Standards
• Seven Principles of Quality Instruction
• Provide Faculty Training
DE Committee
Recommendations
December 2002

6. • Over 100 courses offered each semester –
undergraduate and graduate
• Institutional goal is to have 2 fully online programs in
each academic unit by 2014
• Current online degree programs:
• Marketing (Bachelor)
• Computer Science (Bachelor)
• Library Education Media (Master)
• Applied Technology (Master)
• Physical Therapy (Doctorate)
The History of Distance Education
at Alabama State University

7. Getting Started
The Evolution:
Understanding the decision to create an in-house certification program for faculty
teaching online and hybrid courses and how it has evolved and changed over time

8. • Mandated Usage of BlackBoard from Office of the
Provost
• Faculty Senate Initiative to Provide Online Teaching
Incentive
• Reached Maturity for BlackBoard Adoption
• Student Complaints
• NEW FOCUS =
o Quality Assurance of Courses
o Way to Identify Faculty for Incentives
Rationale for the Certification
Course

9. • Options for initial certification:
• Successful completion of four-week course offered by Academic
Computing
• Transfer of online teaching certification in Blackboard 9 from
other universities completed within the past two years
• Proposed content of the online teaching course:
• Building a course in Blackboard
• Assessing Learners: Assignment, Tests, and Gradebook
• Communicating and Collaborating in Blackboard
• Wimba and Lecture Capture
Online Teaching Certification Proposal

10. • November 5, 2010
• All face-to-face sessions (including Wimba)
• 15 participants (mostly highly technology-savvy faculty)
• First come, first served (early adopters)
• Used in-house created material to facilitate
• Focused on mechanics of BlackBoard tools and features
• 100% completion
The First Cohort

11. The Next Steps
The Evolution:
Identifying the challenges faced during initial implementation, lessons learned from
experience and faculty feedback, and solutions to keeping faculty engaged and
refreshed

12. • Needed to increase capacity (space limitation)
• Faculty wanted more pedagogy
• Needed in include faculty from various technological
backgrounds. i.e. laggards
• Needed more real online experience for faculty
Lessons Learned

13. • Purchased BlackBoard training documentation that
incorporated more pedagogy throughout
• Added one-week session online (HYBRID)
o Eventually moved to mostly online with one-session F2F
• Created a faculty training lab
Solutions Implemented

14. Statistics on Distance Education
Courses and Faculty
Fall 2012 Courses:
• Undergraduate
o Online: 54
o Hybrid: 21
*All but 19 core curriculum courses
• Graduate
o Online: 37
o Hybrid: 9
• Certified Faculty: 98
Spring 2013 Courses:
• Undergraduate
o Online: 47
o Hybrid: 30
• Graduate
o Online: 37
o Hybrid: 8
• Certified Faculty: 133

15. • Appointed faculty as eLearning Coordinator in fall 2013
o Conduct certification training
o Provide additional face-to-face training
o Advise faculty on course development
• Extended from 4-week to 6-week course
o 100% online
o Added "Course Design and Layout to Enhance Learning"
o Added "Online Pedagogy: Best Practices in Online
Instruction"
o Completion of distance education approval forms
Current Iteration

17. Beyond Teaching
The Evolution:
Discussing the rationale for and the development of a certificate program for
academic deans and department chairs responsible for evaluating online instruction

18. • Designed to give those responsible for evaluating
faculty who teach online
o Understanding of the differences between the
traditional face-to-face and online classrooms
o Impacts of course design and pedagogy
• Alignment of online teaching with existing faculty
teaching effectiveness evaluation system
Rationale for the Evaluator’s
Course

19. • Pilot in Spring 2013
• 100% online
• 3-week session
• 10 participants (deans and department chairs)
Structure of the Evaluator’s Course

20. • Trying to reach more adjunct faculty
• Offering multiple sessions simultaneously
• Having a dedicated instructor for online certification
• Need instructional designer to follow-up/assist with
course design and development
• Emphasize need for incentives to administration
Where We Are Now...