Winner of the 2008 Sloan-C Award for Excellence in
Faculty Development for Online Teaching

Distance Learning

Distance learners represent approximately 20% of the higher education student population and are meeting the needs of learners requiring access to flexible, convenient education. This translates into about 3.2 million students taking online courses at U.S. degree granting institutions. Online programs at UWF are very popular with our students. In the past three years, we have increased our enrollments through offering new fully online programs like the MSA and Oceanography, while providing exemplary flexibility to students in other programs such as General Studies, PreMBA Foundations, Certificate in Professional Accountancy, Masters of Public Health, Teacher Education and more. Check out the Online Campus website for a full listing of UWF's online programs and certificates.

Studio e Training Series

Studio e is a series of courses designed for the faculty member or adjunct who has assigned responsibility for teaching online courses. Studio e addresses very basic concepts in course design pedagogy, but also provides some far reaching strategies for engaging students fully while online. The Studio e process assists faculty members in planning for, designing, implementing and maintaining online courses. Professional development offered through ATC's "Studio e" process includes:

• Backstage: Developing the Online Course. This face to face course is intended to provide the pedagogical foundations of online learning, student engagement, and assessment. Students review existing online courses while learning how to plan and develop a fully online course taking into account instructional alignment, learning theory, the role of the instructor (instructor presence) and the role of the student while actively engaging in a course. The person taking this course is designing and developing a fully online course for implementation within the next academic year. (This course is what previously was referred to as "Studio e").
• Onstage: Teaching Online. This fully online course is targeted toward faculty and adjuncts who are teaching online and need to develop a more full understanding of student services, how to manage their time in an online class, tips for interacting with students each week, and a variety of resources including library resources, the ITS Help Desk, etc. The person taking this course will have a course completely ready to deliver.
• Take 2: Updating the Online Course. The focus of this course will be to further analyze and develop opportunities for student engagement and online academic integrity in an existing online course .The person participating in this course will have an online course that has been previously developed and implemented. Based on data gathered in an existing online course through student evaluations, peer evaluations and self-evaluations, course participants will make thoughtful decisions about online course modifications to take advantage of newer technologies for student engagement (such as using Elluminate Live!, incorporating games into instruction, etc.) as well as strengthening the academic integrity of the course (using protocols for proctored examinations, using tool-based solutions such as Turnit in, Respondus lock down browser, or using other strategies for alternative forms of assessment).

For more information about Studio-e, contact Sharon Cobb (scobb@uwf.edu) at 473-2056 in the Academic Technology Center.