Pop Secrets! What It Takes to Launch and Scale a Pop-up Course

Concurrent Session 4
Leadership

Session Materials

Brief Abstract

A new type of free, online, 1-credit, interdisciplinary course “popped up” at our university when the pandemic first hit. Learn how we continue to collaborate with multiple university departments and faculty to design, develop, and launch pop-up courses to address contemporary topics, enrolling ~1,400 students per class.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Eileen Stuyniski, University of Connecticut

Leads a team of instructional designers to support faculty in the design, development and implementation of high quality online courses and program.

Co-presenter: Kelsey Keefe, University of Connecticut

With nine years of experience in higher education, I am an education professional and Board Certified Coach that promotes quality teaching and learning. Currently, I facilitate the development of online courses, utilizing adult learning and e-learning best practices. Specializing in training and virtual learning, I support faculty and instructional designers in implementing educational technology solutions that align with their pedagogy and students' achievement of learning objectives. My past experience has focused on the student-facing side of learning by promoting students' development into independent, life-long learners through advising and career coaching. When I'm not on the job, I enjoy spending time with family—my partner and two young kids—as well as DIY projects, board games, and hiking.

Co-presenter: David Morrow, University of Connecticut

David is the Assistant Director of eLearning for UConn eCampus in the Center for Excellence and Learning (CETL). He has worked in online education design and development for over 20 years. Within CETL's eCampus, he works to apply educational technology solutions with a pedagogical focus in online, hybrid, and in-person courses.

Extended Abstract

In response to the pandemic in early 2020, our university leadership sought to find innovative ways to connect and educate our students about the unfolding pandemic. From this emerged the Pop-up course.  A Pop-up course is a free, fully online, 1-credit course rapidly designed to educate our students about a contemporary and important topic.  A course titled “The COVID-19 Pandemic: Impacts on Health, Business, and Society” was our premier Pop-up course.  Leaders brought together a cross-institutional team including 15 faculty experts from various schools and colleges to quickly design, develop, and launch this course in April 2020. 

The success of this initial “COVID-19” Pop-up course led University leaders to create a sustainable model for rapidly assembling cross-institutional teams to design, develop, and launch other relevant Pop-up courses aligned with our institution’s values and expertise. Pop Up course topics to date include anti-black racism, climate change, antisemitism, and anti-asian racism. Enrollments in Pop-up courses have averaged over 1,400 students per course offering, making them the highest enrolled credit courses at our University since their inception in April 2020. In the six-semester span beginning in April 2020 and ending in April 2022, total enrollment in all of the pop-up courses has exceeded 14,000 students and the student pass rate is 96%.

 

A core feature of these courses is that they are interdisciplinary and take an integrated approach. Each Pop-up course is designed and developed with a group of faculty from across the University, looking at a contemporary topic from multiple perspectives. Courses have included faculty contributors from health, business, engineering, education, law, life sciences, social/behavioral sciences, cultures, fine arts, and humanities to mention a few. This multidisciplinary approach helps build synergies among our faculty. Seldom do our students have an opportunity to learn about a topic from many different talented faculty members from various departments at the same time. Students learn through a variety of instructional materials (e.g., articles, book chapters, videos, podcasts). Short instructor-created video lectures are a key element of the design, bringing a human element to each section. Beyond addressing the core contemporary subject matter, like racism or climate change, Pop-ups intentionally include artistic elements, like art, photography, music, and poetry. Furthermore, the courses provide students with pathways to additional university courses and resources related to the Pop-up course topics.

Of course, it takes more than faculty to design, develop, and launch such an ambitious university-wide initiative. The success of Pop-up courses couldn’t have been achieved without cross-institutional support from numerous offices at the University. This session will cover the methods, practices, and strategies we used to create and sustain Pop-up courses. We will discuss how Pop-up courses are envisioned, launched, and scaled at our university along with best practices for engaging key stakeholders throughout the university to ensure success.

Session Goals:

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:  

  • Describe a vision and model for rapidly designing, developing, and teaching pop-up courses;

  • Discuss pop-up course benefits and challenges; and 

  • Evaluate the opportunities for launching pop-up courses at their institution.

Level of Participation:

Presenters will cover the vision, model, benefits and challenges for creating and launching pop-up courses in a traditional presentation format with polling software. Throughout the presentation (approximately one-third of the session time), participants will have several opportunities for small and large group discussion guided with reflection worksheets (paper and Google Docs). Participants will walk away with the tools and resources needed to evaluate pop-up course opportunities at their home institutions.