Course Overview:
Online course enrollments are climbing. Frequently retention and success rates in online courses are not as good as those in traditionally delivered courses. Student affairs professionals have a role in reversing that trend. Providing online learners the support services they deserve is a challenge, but most would agree that online students deserve services equal to those available for traditional learners and they should be delivered using the same technology used to deliver their online courses - most commonly electronic delivered via the web. Providing these services at a distance is a challenge, but one that is mandated by the eight regional accrediting commissions. In this course you will learn the scope of online services, about what other institutions are doing to serve this population, and develop a resource to use at your institution. This course is designed for those in direct service Student Affairs positions.
Course Outline:
In this course students will explore resources from the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET), discuss resources their institutions currently deliver at a distance and identify priorities for additional services that might be made available to online students. We will brainstorm what students need to know before deciding to enroll, upon starting their first online course, and during enrollment in online coursework? After identifying gaps in services, participants will create one project that will help close the gap between what is currently available to online students at their institutions and what would help enhance the success of online students. The baseline for many institutions is information delivered from the college website. As a group, we will build from this beginning.
Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this course, active participants will:
Understand the role of Student Affairs professionals in supporting online learners
Understand the Best Practices mandates of the eight accrediting commissions for Student Support
Identify the scope of support services that might be delivered at a distance
Identify support services appropriate for students prior to registering, prior to beginning, and during their online course enrollments.
Create a resource that enhances the opportunity for online learner success.
Instructor Bio: Anita Crawley has over twenty years experience first working as a
community college counselor/faculty and most recently as a director in distance
learning. With an early interest in using technology to enhance the
work of student services professionals, she developed seminars, online
courses, and web-based tools for use with students. She has been an online teacher
since 1999 (Career Development and First Year Experience courses at two
community colleges and professional development online courses for various
other organizations). Anita has co-authored the Supporting Online Students
chapter in the new edition of The Handbook of Student Affairs
Administration (February 2009).
Anita has earned an Online Teaching Certificate from the UCLA
Extension, M.A. in Educational Technology Leadership, M.A. in Counseling and Human
Development, and is currently working on a PhD in Instructional
Design for Online Learning.
