1. NIU eLearning Services
Online Education Development
Presented by: Aline Click
Assistant Director
NIU eLearning Services

2. Synchronous eLearning

3. Presentation Objectives
Background on NIU
Instructional technology in industry
Traditional training v. eLearning
Multimedia and eLearning
Advantages/disadvantages

4. History of eLearning Services (ELS)
1998 – Division of Continuing Education partners with eCollege to start developing online noncredit courses, 2.5 FTE.
1999 – Partnership dissolved, in house LMS development begins, online team is growing and specializing, 7 FTE
2000 – University to purchase Blackboard. “With Blackboard it isn’t necessary to fund an eLearning team to help faculty develop online courses” 10 FTE
2001 – ELS is awarded a $1.5 million US Department of Education FIPSE--LAAP grant to develop an online Workforce Development course, 12 FTE
2002 – Continuing Education goes through a reorganization now called Outreach Services, 10 FTE
2003 – University is starting to understand the complexity of developing quality online courses, looking for funding in grants, 10 FTE
2004 – Thanks in part to HECA grants, in the past 2 years ELS helped 20 faculty develop an online course. 400 students have taken courses ELS helped to develop. Lots of new projects coming in the next year, 7 FTE

5. Meet the ELS Team

6. eLearning Team Computer Programmers Instructional Designers
Project Lead
Designer of learning experience
Multimedia Designers
Animation programming
Video
Audio
Graphic Designers
Illustration
Interface design of animation
Designer of all visual materials
Computer Programmers
Custom programming requirements
Quality Assurance
Graduate Assistants
Check for errors
Masters of Science in Education, Instructional Technology
Bachelors of Fine Arts

7. Roles Faculty eLearning
Faculty are the “subject matter experts” (SME), they know the content to be taught online, so they provide content to eLearning Team.
eLearning
The Instructional Designer doesn’t typically know the content and so his/her role is one of reviewing content and recommending new ways of delivering the content in an online format.
Faculty need to be interested in developing online materials because it requires a lot of time to restructure their content. We don’t believe putting a PPT(without audio) online is good online education.

8. Demonstration of Work Lecture Simulations Geography History English
GRE Test -Prep
Business
Simulations
History
Options Trading
Power Editing
Case Studies
Nursing
More demos available at:

9. Instructional Technology in …Everywhere
Facts
It takes 60 to 200 hours to develop one hour of online content (100 x $50 = $5000 per hour)
Content is king, garbage in, garbage out
Quality online education requires more than posting PPT files online
Learners bring different levels of knowledge to the learning environment
Books become outdated soon after they are printed, online materials can be updated as soon as new information becomes available
Myt notes said to talk about IT in industry, but it really isn’t very different, except corporate tents to have more money to fund online education

10. Needs Analysis
What types of courses should be considered when investing in custom online ed?
High demand courses, courses with multiple sections, large lecture courses
Stability of content for reusability
Shareable across multiple courses
Courses that are part of a certificate program
Based on the limited funding for Online development in this project it is my recommendation that we focus on where we can get the most mileage for the buck. Some of the criteria I recommend is ….

11. Learning Objects
eLearning doesn’t typically construct entire courses but smaller reusable and/or shareable learning objects
Online education consists of many strategies including, discussion, lecture, demonstration, simulation, interactive activities, and assessment

12. Question Why is new technology influencing training?
Consistency in what is being taught
Just in time learning
Availability of content for different Learning Styles
Time Availability 24/7/365
Facilitator/manager can review training accomplishments electronically
Location is not a problem
Provides immediate feedback

13. Question What are some differences between F2F and EL?
Motivation to complete course
Differences in communication style
Management buy in for initial investment
Equipment and connection speed to access the materials successfully

14. Limitations are Diminishing
Facilitator controls the motivation
ROI has been documented as long as needs analysis is done properly
Connection and computer speed has improved and is affordable
Students are growing up with computers, driving the industry to use the Internet as a major tool in every aspect of their lives, learning and work environment.
There is no such thing as it can’t be done. Time, location, tools are all there for telecommunication, training, and virtual development of projects.
You know it angers me with an IT support staff says “I won’t allow that on my servers, it might weaken the security of the system. Well if someone had said that to me when I turned a Macintosh into a web server in no more than 10minutes after researching and finding the application online I would newver have been able to deveop the first learning object online at NIU. R&D is important to the development of new technology. We need early adopters. I hope when you go out there you will embrace new technology just as you did when you were a kid instead of always being afraid of what it might do to the world you are comfortable in.

15. Questions?
Aline Click