Cross Institutional Class Collaborations Online

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Cross Institutional Class Collaborations Online
Shari McCurdy and Ray Schroeder
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Higher Education Collaboration

• Inter-Institutional Collaboration via web
• Common modes
• Guest speakers any time / anywhere
• Time/geographic boundaries no longer matter
• Faculty exchanges without leaving campus
• Student exchanges without leaving dorms
• Joint degree programs seamless
• Joint faculty appointments
• Shared laboratories, libraries (OCLC), and
  learning objects , and collaborative writing

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Collaboration Modes
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University of Illinois at Springfield

• Established in 1970 became a campus of the
  University of Illinois in 1995
• 4,300 students
• First online class in fall 1998
• Rapid online growth of 30/year
• Eight online degree programs
• 1,450 students taking at least one online class
  accounting for 2,350 enrollments
• Extensive system of faculty support - OTEL
• Stipends, formal classes, one-on-one pedagogical
  support, technical support, array of synchronous
  and asynchronous online tools
• 12 minority enrollment

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Chicago State University

• Founded in 1867
• Rich history and heritage in Cook County
• 7,200 students
• Began distance learning in 1999 - CSU Online
• Initially with eCollege
• Converted to Blackboard in 2001
• Collaborated with UIS in faculty and staff
  development in online learning in 2001
• 94 minority enrollment

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CSU/UIS HECA

• State of Illinois Board of Higher Education
  Higher Ed Cooperation Act Grant in 2001 began a
  continuing partnership (SBC Match Gift)
• Technical training for staff
• Pedagogical training for faculty
• Exchange visits to two campuses
• Blackboard
• 2004 partnership matured into a true
  collaborations in online classes
• Goal engage urban/minority and rural/white
  perspectives in classes

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Administrative Arrangements

• Students enroll at home institution
• Blackboard approved sharing since same-level
  licenses between campuses
• Elluminate license not restrictive
• Faculty members receive stipend from grant for
  extra efforts in collaborations
• Faculty members grade own students
• Negotiate a shared syllabus
• Exceptions noted as needed for campus-specific
  requirements

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CSU/UIS Fall 04

• K-12 pre-service and in-server educators
• UIS EDL 547 / CSU TED 394/G
• Shari McCurdy / Patrice Boyles
• 20 UIS students / 8 CSU students
• 6 week long project
• Synchronous Elluminate
• Bi-weekly to weekly interactions among students
  and faculty members in planning and implementing
  technology survey project

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CSU/UIS Spring 2005

• Internet and American Life class
• UIS PAC 442 / CSU OC-Ed 391.51
• Ray Schroeder / Charles Savitt
• 29 UIS students / 6 CSU students
• Full semester team taught merged discussions
• Asynchronous Blackboard
• Synchronous Elluminate
• Daily to weekly interactions among students and
  faculty members on the impact of the Internet in
  urban and rural lives

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CSU/UIS Spring 2005

• Collaborations expand
• Stipends offered (1,500 / 575)
• Website created to pair faculty members
• Partnerships expanded
• African American Studies / English
• Public Affairs / Education
• Biology / Philosophy (ethics)
• Biology / Public Health (AIDS)
• Full semester length collaborations launched for
  merged online classes

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Blackboard Discussions
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Best Practices Asynchronous

• Begin faculty joint planning at least one full
  semester before offering
• Confer on teaching styles and important areas of
  instruction for each individual
• Establish licensing constraints with vendors
• Work out details of responding to students in
  advance
• Which faculty member responds at what time to
  which students (anytime? All?)
• Pre-plan how to handle disagreements between
  students disagreements between faculty
• Establish parallel schedules for responses,
  posting of grades, etc.
• Plan for plenty of sidebar discussions via
  email/phone between faculty members

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Elluminate
Login
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Best Practices Synchronous

• Establish netiquette for the classroom ahead of
  time
• Be sure class is well prepared to use the tools
• Allow participants extra time prior to session
  start to perform audio/video tests
• Make sure user privileges are as equal as
  possible
• Establish recording procedures (at least for
  Elluminate which doesnt automatically record.)
• Plan for plenty of sidebar discussions via
  email/phone between faculty members
• Understand that there may be students who could
  be overwhelmed by the need to speak into a
  microphone and hear their own voice.
• Open classroom to avoid scheduling problems
• Consider using asynchronous tools to assist in
  organizing

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Expanding Collaborations

• UIS / CSU / Columbia NYC March 2005
• Synchronous session joining students and faculty
  from Internet and American Life at UIS/CSU with
  class in Computer Mediated Communication at
  Columbia
• Students in NY, IL, CA, FL, Taiwan
• UIS / Lesley / CSU / SDSU
• UIS / Warsaw School of Economics
• Merged class planned for fall semester 2005

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Future of Collaborations

• Digital online collaborations in higher education
• Breaking down geographic, cultural, and
  institutional barriers
• Promoting diversity - broader understanding
• Sharing resources laboratories, libraries,
  hardware, software, and more
• Sharing faculty and staff expertise
• Offering under-enrolled classes
• Stretching the curriculum

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Resources

• Webliographyhttp//online.uis.edu/collaboration/
  
• Collaboration Sign-uphttp//online.uis.edu/partne
  rs/uis
• Inter-Institutional Online Collaboration Handbook
  to be published by the Sloan-Consortium fall
  2005

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Contact Information

• Ray Schroeder, Director
• Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning
• University of Illinois at Springfield
• schroeder.ray _at_uis.edu
• --
• Shari McCurdy, Associate Director
• Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning
• University of Illinois at Springfieldmccurdy.shar
  i_at_uis.eduThis Presentationhttp//online.uis.edu
  /collaboration/jacksonville.ppt