Office of Institutional Effectiveness
Home > Institutional Effectiveness > Review of Distance Learning Programs
Dallas Baptist University
Online Education Program
Best Practices for Electronically Offered Degree and Certificate Programs
July 2007
1. Institutional Context and Commitment
Electronically offered programs both support and extend the roles of educational institutions. Increasingly they are integral to academic organization, with growing implications for institutional infrastructure.
| 1a. |
In its content, purposes, organization, and enrollment history if applicable, the program is consistent with the institution’s role and mission. |
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Dallas Baptist University offers online distance education as an alternative delivery method for education which provides flexibility and convenience for its students. To the adult learner, flexibility is not an option — it is a requirement for a busy adult dealing with family, work, church, community, and other obligations. With facilitating twenty-three degree programs offered fully online (see degree plan outlines in Appendix 6a-p), and an average student completion rate of 92-93% that rivals most programs in the United States, DBU strives diligently toward strong instructor-to-student, student-to-student, and student-to-content engagement in the online learning delivery method. Many peer programs are unable to achieve this high of a completion rate as students are known to get lost very quickly in cyberspace. However, with DBU's excellent faculty, necessary fundamental training for online course development and support for teaching online (see samples of training materials in Appendix 3a, 3b) that includes strategy for building learning community and mentoring the students with the use of the Internet, the program is very successful and earns high marks in student completion and student satisfaction (see student satisfaction survey in Appendix 15).
The mission of Dallas Baptist University is to provide Christ-centered, quality higher education in the arts, sciences, and professional studies at both the undergraduate and graduate levels to traditional age and adult students in order to produce servant leaders who have the ability to integrate faith and learning through their respective callings.
The purpose of the Online Education Department at Dallas Baptist University is to facilitate the delivery of Christ-centered, quality higher education to traditional age and adult students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in the United States and abroad using Internet-based instructional techniques and methods of communication in order to integrate faith and learning and produce servant leaders while meeting the educational needs of the expanding global virtual community.
Distance learning only further supports the overall mission of Dallas Baptist University by extending its boundaries to offer quality higher education to produce servant leaders for either students living at a distance or needing a flexible solution for attending class while living in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
| 1b. |
It is recognized that a healthy institution’s purposes change over time. The institution is aware of accreditation requirements and complies with them. Each accrediting commission has established definitions of what activities constitute a substantive change that will trigger prior review and approval processes. The appropriate accreditation commission should be notified and consulted whether an electronically offered program represents a major change. The offering of distributed programs can affect the institution’s educational goals, intended student population, curriculum, modes or venue of instruction, and can thus have an impact on both the institution and its accreditation status. |
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In its 1998 reaffirmation review of the DBU campus, the Commission on Colleges Visiting Committee affirmed the University’s Distance Education Program, including Online Education. The DBU Online Education program does not represent a change to the institution's stated mission and objectives. In fact, online education takes the university beyond the DFW Metroplex boundaries by offering many of the same courses and programs delivered traditionally on campus. The curriculum and faculty are identical to the traditional on-campus curriculum and instructors, as are the standards for course approval and development (see general policies, course planning forms, and course proposal form in Appendix 7, 8a, 8b, 10). Distance education students receive the same superior student services as traditional students including access to library materials (see library and writing center resources for online students in Appendix 33, 34, 35).
| 1c. |
The institution’s budgets and policy statements reflect its commitment to the students for whom its electronically offered programs are designed. |
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The Online Education Department of Dallas Baptist University supports and facilitates the delivery of Christ-centered, quality higher education to students that are local, in the United States or abroad using Internet-based instructional techniques and methods of communication. The program began in 1998 at the initiative of the university president Dr. Gary Cook who continues to maintain its priority with strong budget support (see annual budget in Appendix 52) and the provision of qualified staff (see organizational chart and job descriptions in Appendix 40, 42). The online education program has maintained its own budget since the 1998-1999 budget year that includes funds allocated for staff salaries, technology needs, course development resources, professional development for online education staff, the courseware management system support (Blackboard), and a 24X7 helpdesk solution.
Other funds are allocated to the various departments that partner with the online education program such as the Computer and Technology department for the provision of Internet bandwidth and server upgrades; funds for faculty course development are allocated to the respective college. Each year, the program has expanded under Dr. Cook's leadership (see projected plan for online degree delivery in Appendix 57) and has been firmly established as a strategic means to serve DBU's student enrollment who require the flexibility of online education.
Cavanaugh (2002) asserts that "to provide a vigorous quality distance education program, an institution begins with policy that values distance education and an endeavor that integrates seamlessly with the institution's mission and goals" (p. 175). Early on, DBU knew that policies would guide the program and demonstrate support for faculty and students (see general policies and procedures in Appendix 7). Before the very first online course was offered, polices were developed in 1998 that included an intellectual property policy and online course ownership, copyright guidance for course development, a distance education course proposal process, and the process for faculty support for both developing an online course and teaching online.
Since the online program's inception, DBU has continued to support the program with modified policies that support the program being offered to students at a distance such as the implementation of online registration and online library database access.
| 1d. |
The institution assures adequacy of technical and physical plant facilities including appropriate staffing and technical assistance, to support its electronically offered programs. |
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The Online Education Department is housed on the campus of Dallas Baptist University in the Collins Learning Center, Office 250, centrally located near the College of Humanities for easy faculty access as many classes are taught in this building. Faculty may drop in at any time to receive support for developing online course content and/or teaching online. The department provides the following educational technology tools for faculty support:
- Laptops – 14 varying models available for faculty teaching online courses to check out and use as needed when they travel so they may stay online with their students.
- Digital Projector - Hitachi CP235 – Used for faculty training, presentations, and is also used with the digital whiteboard for creating written or drawn images for online course materials.
- Scanner - HP scanjet 7650 – Used to convert documents to digital format (such as creating pdfs and scanning photos).
- Digital Camera - Canon PowerShot A520 – available to take faculty photos for online classes and campus photos for course graphics.
- Color Printer - HP deskjet 5650 – Used to print final drafts of developing courses, materials for training, etc.
- Digital Whiteboard – Smart Technologies - Transfers information written on a whiteboard to digital format. For example, instructors illustrating advanced equations, detailed lecture notes, etc are able to draw on the board and covert it to a digital image immediately.
Since Summer 2002, the online courseware management system (Blackboard) has resided at DBU’s managed Internet provider, the Planet which is an off-site server farm. The Planet provides 24X7 Internet access and power and is only 15-20 minutes away for easy technical access. DBU chose to locate Blackboard offsite to ensure that power and Internet connectivity would be provided at all times to online and hybrid students. The current technology solution includes two HP/Compaq Proliant Servers with Windows 2003 and SQL 2003 software and the enterprise version of Blackboard courseware management software installed. A Real Media server and a backup server for the online technology program also support the Online Education Department.
The administrative maintenance and support of the servers continues to be performed by the Computer and Technology department which has a full time computer network employee dedicated to the support of Blackboard and Questionmark which is a testing and assessment engine used to deliver online quizzes and exams with a secure Internet browser (see Questionmark overview in Appendix 18) if faculty choose to do so.
Faculty receive superior support while using technology in the classroom at DBU. The online education department serves all faculty that use Blackboard to support traditional classroom teaching as well as provides digital learning objects that can be used in the classroom and at home as content review. If an instructor teaches an online or hybrid class, they have a support team of ten online course developers/instructional designers (the DBU Profhelp team) that will readily assist with designing and modifying online course content. As the institution adds additional online and hybrid courses, the DBU Administration has quickly allocated additional course developer positions to continue important faculty support.
| 1e. |
The internal organizational structure which enables the development, coordination, support, and oversight of electronically offered programs will vary from institution to institution. Ordinarily, however, this will include capability to:
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Facilitate the associated instructional and technical support relationships. |
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Provide (or draw upon) the required information technologies and related support services. |
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Develop and implement a marketing plan that takes into account the target student population, the technologies available, and the factors required to meet institutional goals. |
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Provide training and support to participating instructors and students. |
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Assure compliance with copyright law. |
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Contract for products and outsourced services. |
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Assess and assign priorities to potential future projects. |
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Assure that electronically offered programs and courses meet institution-wide standards, both to provide consistent quality and to provide a coherent framework for students who may enroll in both electronically offered and traditional on-campus courses. |
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Maintain appropriate academic oversight. |
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Maintain consistency with the institution’s academic planning and oversight functions, to assure congruence with the institution’s mission and allocation of required resources. |
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Assure the integrity of student work and faculty instruction. |
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Recognizing that online education is more about teaching and learning than it is about technology, DBU placed the online education department within the academic organizational structure, directly under the Provost who is the Chief Academic Officer, which demonstrates the commitment to faculty support. Online education programs are not any different from traditional programs from the standpoint of faculty credentials and curriculum alignment. When a degree program is to be duplicated online due to perceived need by the respective department, the course and program have already been approved by both the appropriate curriculum committee as well as the faculty council. When individual courses are proposed for online course development, the faculty member will fill out a course proposal form (see form in Appendix 10) that includes the course learning outcomes and agrees to attend training for both technical and pedagogical techniques (see online pedagogy training materials in Appendix 3c ) for teaching online. The approval form includes places for other full time faculty members in the discipline to sign as well as the college dean following online course review. The form then goes to the Distance Education Steering Committee for approval. Once approved, the instructor is then contacted by the Online Education department to schedule the first training.
The initial training for faculty includes instructional design strategy, information on copyright for online materials (the TEACH Act), as well as an orientation to how the process works for course development (see orientation materials in Appendix 3a). Next, the instructor receives technical training to effectively use Blackboard. The instructor will work with the Profhelp team and provide the course content digitally. The Profhelp team then instructionally designs it and places it within the appropriate course shell within Blackboard. All course materials are proofed by another instructor(s) in the discipline, the college dean, a research analyst, and the Provost (see proofing form in Appendix 54). This provides a quality assurance process for the course materials as these courses become master content courses for others instructors to use if teaching online.
DBU compensates faculty course developers either one course overload or one course release for course development and additionally, are paid to teach the class. All online classes are limited to 22 enrollments as the research suggests a range of 12-25 students is the most any one online instructor can effectively engage. The final training for the instructor is with the dean of online education who explains any differences between teaching in the classroom and online and also provides techniques for successfully creating an online learning community and engaging students. The dean of online education, the college deans, and the provost work very closely in attesting that the courses offered online have quality content and strategy for student engagement.
All online courses are evaluated with nearly identical instruments for assessment. The survey is delivered online through Blackboard, where students may anonymously complete the survey one time per course (see course evaluation form in Appendix 53c). The data is then aggregated by the office of Institutional Effectiveness, and results are distributed to dean of online education, each college dean and the instructor of each course. This data is closely analyzed for suggestions of improvement and feedback on individual instructors and course materials. As for course revisions, the college deans work with the dean of online education in identifying courses that need to be revised such as programming classes that change quickly. |
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| 1f. |
In its articulation and transfer policies the institution judges courses and programs on their learning outcomes, and the resources brought to bear for their achievement, not on modes of delivery. |
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From the DBU SACS Comprehensive Standard 3.4.4 - The institution has a defined and published policy for evaluating, awarding, and accepting credit for transfer, experiential learning, advanced placement, and professional certificates that is consistent with its mission and ensures that course work and learning outcomes are at the collegiate level and comparable to the institution’s own degree programs. The institution assumes responsibility for the academic quality of any course work or credit recorded on the institution’s transcript.
All online and hybrid courses are developed with sixteen sessions of content that provides an overview, some form of lecture material (audio, video, powerpoint slides, most are written narrative lectures), usually a required class discussion component, and assessments such as journals, case studies, essays, quizzes, etc, and often, digital learning objects. All courses have sixteen sessions, just as traditional semesters have 16 sessions (equaling contact hours) and suggest that the student spend 10-15 hours a week per course.
| 1g. |
The institution strives to assure a consistent and coherent technical framework for students and faculty. When a change in technologies is necessary, it is introduced in a way that minimizes the impact on students and faculty. |
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The overall navigational structure for online courses within Blackboard (the only courseware management system used) is consistent throughout all courses as students need to know where to find their course materials quickly and easily (see sample course in Appendix 3b). All online courses contain a course schedule that becomes a map which guides the student through each class session. Students need not learn any new technologies for online courses.
System uptime is critical for online program success, so downtime is limited to only important system upgrades. Students and faculty are notified well in advance of scheduled downtime which does not occur during the normal semesters; scheduled upgrades take place in between semesters. When the courseware management system is modified by the company for improvements for teaching and learning online, great care is taken to provide notice to both faculty and students. Faculty are trained for use of the changed features and students will find updates on product changes within the online orientation course (see student orientation course in Appendix 4), and they have access to announcements within the university portal that surrounds Blackboard. Additionally, faculty are provided resources such as online tutorials and training handouts in a place within Blackboard that only faculty can access (see Blackboard Faculty Resources in Appendix 28).
1h. |
The institution provides students with reasonable technical support for each educational technology hardware, software, and delivery system required in a program. |
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The DBU Online program has provided a 24X7 Technology Help Desk since the inception of the program, where the phone is answered 24 hours a day to assist students with technical difficulties while taking online courses. DBU recognized early on that students would be logging on outside normal business hours and would need technical support along the way. DBU employs an outsourced solution provided by Sungard Collegis which supports Blackboard and all technologies involved including audio and video streaming. Students receive quality support via toll free telephone access (1-866-264-1560) where a ticket is created and logged and reported to DBU on a monthly basis. The dean of online education has access to all tickets and reports at any given time (see Helpdesk logs in Appendix 32). When a technical issue is to be referred back to the DBU Campus, both the dean of online education and the Associate Vice President of Computer and Technology are paged and called by Sungard Collegis to be made immediately aware of any given issue that needs our attention.
For further support, a Frequently Asked Questions page is located on the DBU Online website (http://www.dbu.edu/online/studentResourceFAQ.asp) to support students as well as a linked document on the front page of Blackboard. As of Fall 2007, within every course menu, a link that is titled Student Resources (http://online.dbu.edu/dbu/bb-admin/studentresources.htm) addresses various technical issues and provides possible solutions for online students. Students may also call the DBU Online Student Coordinator at 1-800-460-8188 for any other issues or concerns.
| 1i. |
The selection of technologies is based on appropriateness for the students and the curriculum. It is recognized that availability, cost, and other issues are often involved, but program documentation should include specific consideration of the match between technology and program. |
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From the very first online course, DBU thoroughly examined all possible online delivery systems available. After delivering the first online course, DBU contracted with eCollege.com, a premier delivery system that included redundant technology, faculty support for course development, a 24X7 Helpdesk, and assistance with marketing the program. After 2.5 years with eCollege and a cost of $120-160 per student/per course, and 72 fully developed online courses, the university president recognized that the same technology for online delivery could be duplicated on-campus. He asked that the director of online education and DBU's webmaster review products on the market such as Blackboard and WebCT. Their report (see Report and Proposal for Online Course Delivery System in Appendix 11) proved that moving the online delivery system on campus was the best choice for the campus, in spite of a more than $150,000 initial investment needed in software, computer and audio/video servers, and a helpdesk solution. After a period of five years, their report projected a savings of more than one million dollars by locating the servers and faculty support on campus.
At that time, Blackboard was by far the superior technology for online course delivery and the most intuitive for student and faculty use. DBU Online courses cost $40 more per hour than standard tuition as these funds are needed to sustain the support and long-term growth of the program.
As described in 1d, as of Summer 2002, the online courseware management system (Blackboard) resides at DBU’s managed Internet provider, the Planet which is an offsite server farm. The Planet provides 24X7 Internet access and power and is only 15-20 minutes away for easy access. DBU chose to locate Blackboard offsite to ensure that power and Internet connectivity would be provided at all times to online and hybrid students. The current technology solution includes two HP/Compaq Proliant Servers with Windows 2003 and SQL 2003 software and the enterprise version of Blackboard courseware management software installed. A Real Media server and a backup server for the online technology program also support the Online Education Department. The Blackboard server is incrementally backed up throughout the week and is fully backed up offline for two hours each Wednesday morning in the hours of 4am-6am (this was the lowest usage time according to logs).
The dean and assistant director of online education continuously examine new technologies that may better support teaching and learning and work with the Associate VP of Computer and Technology to provide these technologies. Each year, Blackboard (see Blackboard overview information in Appendix 26) provides a large users group meeting in which the latest technologies and Blackboard improvements are demonstrated. In addition, plug-ins (3rd party solutions that enhance Blackboard functionality) are reviewed and added as appropriate, such as the Learning Objects plug-in that provides online journal, blogs, wikis, and a light student portfolio solution.
| 1j. |
The institution seeks to understand the legal and regulatory requirements of the jurisdictions in which it operates, e.g., requirements for service to those with disabilities, copyright law, state and national requirements for institutions offering educational programs, international restrictions such as export of sensitive information or technologies, etc. |
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All legal and regulatory requirements are adhered to that pertain to the online education program and its students, including ADA requirements, FERPA which protects student information, and copyright law.
References
Cavanaugh, C. (2002). Distance education quality: Success factors for resources, practices and results. In R. Discenza, C. Howard & K. Schenk (Eds.), The design and management of effective distance learning programs (pp. 171-189). Hershey, PA: Idea Group.
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