Case: Mid-point Course Review

Overview

The Responsive Facilitation team facilitators will lead this activity.

Situation

• you are part of a small group that has been asked to assist an instructor (new to online teaching) who has received a negative mid-point course evaluation from students
• your group includes experienced online instructors from different subject specializations
  
• the Course Instructor has asked for your group's assistance and provided you with the student evaluation data and her reflections
  
• the Course Instructor has in-depth knowledge of the subject area but was asked to teach this online course (prepared by someone else) at the last minute
• the Course Instructor had no prior experience teaching online, although she had used some of the tools available in the learning management system course shell to support other face-to-face classes

Your Task:

• Review all the case data provided
• Consider the "things to think about"
• Your weekly activity facilitator(s) will provide you with further guidance, but no matter what they have in store, you should be ready to consult and reference readings (and/or other resources), as appropriate, to inform the recommendations your group will make.

Your recommendations should:

• be as specific as possible with the information you've been given
• include rationale (i.e., not just what should be done, but also why)

Case Data

This case includes the following *data for your review:

• Course Evaluation Data - from learners, compiled, including:
• Quantitative data - about the course design, materials, and instructor
• Qualitative data - open-ended feedback and comments from the learners
• Instructor Comments (responses to mid-point review data)
  

*Note: the data are (of course) made up, but the survey questions are drawn from "real life" course evaluation surveys distributed at RRU.

Course Evaluation (Quantitative)

These are the quantitative mid-point course evaluation data, compiled and summarized as percentages for your convenience...

Part 1 - Questions about the Course

Part 2: Questions about the Instructor

Course Evaluation (Qualitative)

These are the open-ended comments provided by learners on the mid-point course evaluation survey...

• Liked being able to select a topic for the first paper.
• Simple and predictable: weekly readings, discussion, quizzes.
• The textbook is easy to read.

What topics or other elements (if any) would you like to see added to this course? Why?

• More current developments in the field – online/news stories, real cases.
• Some videos or podcasts might be useful.
  
• An instructor who showed up would have been nice - just sayin'...

Please provide any other general comments you have regarding the course or the instructor.

• Way...too...much...reading!!!
• So far, I still feel lost about what I should focus on. So much reading that I can't find time to get it all done. The instructor never participates in the discussion forums so I find that we go in circles and never really learn anything from each other.
• I liked this course so far – thank you!
• Maybe it’s not fair to compare, but the instructors from last term were way more with-it, or with us. Our instructor barely shows up!
  
• I feel overwhelmed by all the reading and the constant quizzes.
  

Instructor Comments

The instructor was asked to provide a brief reflection on her experience so far...

I was hesitant about teaching this (my first online) course. But, my colleagues reassured me that my experience with the material and in the classroom would translate to a large extent. The dean told me the course had been designed by another instructor who was very familiar with the LMS and had experience teaching online. He suggested I review the course before I started but I had just returned from a sabbatical and just couldn't find the time before the course started.

I was overwhelmed by trying to navigate and find the relevant course activities for the first couple of weeks. I didn't find the topic discussion forum until the end of Week 1. I did manage to post an introduction and send out a reminder notice to encourage the students to complete the Week 1 quiz but I was relying on their prior experience of online courses at this university (all of them have taken online courses here before).

Since I knew that the students are all seasoned online learners (more so than I!), not to mention adult learners, I expected they would just "get on with it." Obviously some of them needed more help but they never contacted me.

The introductory posts were brief, full of personal anecdotes, in-jokes about residency, that kind of thing. As for the team work, I understand they use a variety of methods to connect (Skype, phone, etc), so I could never be sure where they were until they submitted their assignments.

Because I have no point of comparison, it's hard for me to judge the online activity. My sense is the forums are there for them if they want to use them, but their main job is to keep up with the schedule, study, and prepare for assignments and quizzes.

At this point, I have to say I'm not enjoying this experience very much. I find it way more work than teaching my face-to-face classes and I don't feel I have any sense of where my students are at. I've spent more time teaching this course than any of my others and I don't think I want to do it again (although I probably will be assigned to another course in the next semester.)

I am interested in receiving advice from colleagues who have been successful teaching online.

Things to think about...

• Do you think the instructor has some general misconceptions about the online instructor role(s)? If so, describe and relate to the readings and/or any theories of learning you’ve encountered.
• What do you think of this instructor's "presence" in the course so far? What might you suggest she change about her participation for the remainder of the course?
• Do you agree with the Course Instructor's assumptions about the ability of experienced online students to "just get on with it"? How might she guide or assist without being too "present"?
  
• Can you find at least one blog post (or other online resource) that has useful strategies or insights to apply to this situation? Explain the strategies you used to find these resources. Feel free to share the resources and critique them as required.
• Do you have any personal experiences you’d like to share that are similar to this case? If so, how/was the situation resolved?