Your Education, Your Schedule, Your Community: Fostering Student-to-Student Interactions in a Flex-Paced Online Program

Concurrent Session 5

Session Materials

Brief Abstract

Design a flexible-paced online education program without sacrificing the strong sense of community found in our traditional classes… and have it ready for launch in less than a year?! This session shares the unconventional thinking, innovative course design, and creative use of technology we used to accomplish this herculean task.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Scott Wylie, Chaminade University of Honolulu

I work remotely as an instructional designer and assistant professor of education at Chaminade University of Honolulu. My primary responsibility in both roles is to help others become more effective educators. I bring a blend of both classroom and IT experience to this work. Having taught at the secondary, undergraduate, and graduate levels, I understand how to design engaging curriculum for learners at diverse age and skill levels. My early years in coding and information systems have given me an added level of insight and expertise when teaching in an online environment. I’m based out of Austin, Texas, and live with my wife Jill and our two mischievous pugs. You can usually find me playing board games, combing over the finer details of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or planning my next road trip on Route 66.

Co-presenter: James Heller Sutton, Chaminade University of Honolulu

Jim is the Director of Chaminade’s Center for Teaching and Learning. Jim has worked in faculty professional development since 2008 and has a varied background in education with experience in curriculum design and development, instruction, educational technology, and assessment. Jim earned his Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University and sees the CTL as a space for faculty to collaborate and share ideas that enhance teaching and promote student learning and growth. Outside of Chaminade, Jim’s occupied with two young sons that keep him on his toes!

Additional Authors

Extended Abstract

Competing responsibilities of family and career can make it difficult for some students to schedule and complete academic coursework.  Online courses help ease that burden, but unexpected obstacles can derail even the most dedicated students.  Self-paced educational programs offer flexibility, but may have low completion rates due to the lack of student engagement.  We set out to design a program that has the flexibility students want, with the engagement they need in order to be successful.

In this interactive session, participants will learn about the challenges we faced, roadblocks we encountered, and obstacles we overcame as we redesigned our existing online program to meet our students’ needs.  Our session will begin by presenting the problem: design a flexible-paced online education program without sacrificing the strong sense of community found in traditional, face-to-face classes.  We will guide participants through a brainstorming exercise using a case scenario to present the logistical and pedagogical challenges in this approach.  We will then transition into a discussion of how we chose to address those challenges through traditional LMS course design/management and the implementation of communities of practice through social media.

Participants will learn how to use existing platforms in new and innovative ways, along with how to leverage social media to build community among faculty, students, and alumni.  Our strength as a small, liberal arts institution lies in the sense of community developed in our courses.  Our class sizes are small and our curriculum is student-centered, with much of the content delivered through discussion built on peer-to-peer interaction.  The design of our new, flexible-paced program builds upon those strengths while giving students the space they need to complete coursework on their own schedule.  We will close by giving participants the opportunity to ask questions and reflect on how a similar program might work in their own institutions.