1. Teaching and Engaging Students in
Online Programs
Amanda Fairbanks Kansas State University
gpidea.org

2. Session Overview Overview of Great Plains IDEA
11/8/2018
Session Overview
Overview of Great Plains IDEA
Insights into an Instructional Enhancement Initiative
Sharing of challenges and best practices
3 goals for the session today:
Inform you about the alliance
Discuss how we have been addressing course quality across the alliance
Group discussion on challenges and best practices
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3. About Great Plains IDEA
11/8/2018
About Great Plains IDEA
Great Plains IDEA is a national consortium of 19 universities offering programs and courses in agriculture and human science disciplines.
Each degree or certificate includes online courses taught by multiple universities who partner together to offer degrees they could not offer alone.
The Lead Institution serves as the management team for the alliance, offering support and administration of programs and initiatives.
First, a quick overview of the alliance
Mostly master’s degrees and certificates
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4. How Great Plains IDEA Works
11/8/2018
How Great Plains IDEA Works
Students apply and are admitted to one university, which becomes their home university.
Each university uses their own learning management system to deliver online course content, and students use the LMS to complete coursework.
When a student completes their coursework, the degree or certificate is awarded by the home university.
For example, a student would apply and be admitted to OSU, which would be their home universities. Throughout their program they would take classes from TTU, ISU, KSU, etc… Their degree would be awarded from OSU.
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5. Member Universities 11/8/2018
This is a quick glance of where our 19 member universities are located
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6. Big 12 Universities Kansas State University Iowa State University
11/8/2018
Big 12 Universities
Kansas State University
Iowa State University
Oklahoma State University
Texas Tech University
Of our 19 member universities, 4 of them are in the Big 12
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7. 11/8/2018
Quality Assurance
Strong emphasis on quality assurance through implementation of an initiative that focuses on course quality and student engagement.
Human Sciences Board of Directors Instructional Enhancement Initiative
Three-year initiative
Five areas
A challenge we have is working across multiple institutions and having universities with different standards, requirements, professional development opportunities, etc…
To address this, the HS Board of Directors created the Instructional Enhancement Initiative
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8. Instructional Enhancement Initiative
11/8/2018
Instructional Enhancement Initiative
Principles of Effective Online Teaching
Learn Shops
University Resource Inventories
Mini Grants
Instructional Design Services
The initiative focuses on five areas related to instructional enhancement.
I will give you a quick overview of each, starting with the Principles of Effective Online Teaching
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9. Principles of Effective Online Teaching
11/8/2018
Principles of Effective Online Teaching
Principle 1: Student-Faculty Contact
Principle 2: Cooperation Among Students
Principle 3: Active Learning
Principle 4: Prompt and Meaningful Feedback
Principle 5: Deadlines and Consistent Patterns of Course Activities
Principle 6: High Expectations
Principle 7: Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning
Principle 8: Course Quality
Accompanying Documents:
Best Practices
Instructor Checklist
**Handouts
8 Principles and two supporting documents
*Provide a brief description of each and how they were developed
Used two different sources (The Advisory Board and Magna – cited at the bottom), and added some of my own content
*These have been distributed, and also incorporated into other parts of the initiative, such as the learn shops and mini grants
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10. Learn Shops Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
11/8/2018
Learn Shops
Year 1
Video to Enhance Presence, Interaction and Instruction
Leveraging Online Assignments to Maximize Interaction
Using Web 2.0 Interactive and Engaging Tools
Year 2
Strategies to Improve Online Discussions and Student Engagement in the Online Classroom
Year 3
TBD
We have had 2 annual learn shops, which are professional development workshops for faculty. We are in the process of planning a 3rd one for next year.
Topics have been determined through faculty surveys and research
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11. University Resource Inventories
11/8/2018
University Resource Inventories
One inventory for each member university
Quick guides to campus resources for faculty
University quality standards and course review
Instructional design services
Video services
Open Source Resources
These inventories are meant to help faculty easily find resources at their own universities.
We found that many of our faculty were unaware of what resources they have available to them, or where to find help.
gpidea.org

12. 11/8/2018
Mini Grants
Annual grant funding for instructional enhancement of Great Plains IDEA courses and programs
Up to $5000 available to each program
Priority course enhancement or program development
Allowable expenses
Instructional design and technology assistance
Graduate student support
Direct costs of face-to-face meetings
Software
Training/professional development costs
Over the two years we have awarded 11 grants to 7 programs totaling around $48,000. The RFP for the third round just went out.
This grant money has been used for purchasing equipment such as swivl cameras to use for student teaching, for software purchases, graduate student support for research, external review panel for a program, and other things.
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13. Instructional Design Services
11/8/2018
Instructional Design Services
Contracting of Instructional Design Services by the Great Plains IDEA Lead Institution
Not yet needed
This was originally budgeted for, but we found many faculty who didn’t think they had access to instructional design services at their own universities actually did, so we have not pursued this yet.
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14. 11/8/2018
Discussion
What challenges do you face in regards to course quality and student engagement?
What best practices do you follow?
How can you use what you learned today?
I would like to hear from the group now about what challenges you as faculty, or the faculty you work with, face, what professional development is available for your faculty that teach online, what best practices you follow, thoughts you have about how the resources or ideas shared today could be implemented at your own institutions, etc….
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15. Questions? Amanda Fairbanks, Ph.D. ajfairbanks@ksu.edu 785.532.2804
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16. Thank You!
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