THE ILLINOIS ONLINE NETWORK IS MAKING THE VIRTUAL CLASSROOM A REALITY: STUDY OF AN EXEMPLARY FACULTY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Authors

  • Virgil E. Varvel
  • Michael Lindeman
  • Iris K. Stovall

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v7i2.1857

Keywords:

Illinois Online Network, Faculty Satisfaction, Virtual Classroom, Faculty Development, Learning Effectiveness, Course Design

Abstract

The Illinois Online Network (ION) is a faculty development partnership between all forty-eight community colleges in the state of Illinois and the University of Illinois. The goals of the ION program are to help faculty to develop and deliver courses in a completely online format, and also to produce online courses that incorporate best practices for engaging students in discussion and critical thinking. ION accomplishes its goals with a variety of programs, such as the Making the Virtual Classroom a Reality series of online faculty development courses. Evaluation surveys indicate that ION activities have had an impact on the satisfaction and confidence of faculty teaching online courses. This paper examines the programs and resources that ION provides, the effectiveness of the program as a whole, and the lessons ION has learned about providing a large-scale faculty development program.

References

National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). The Condition of Education 2003, Report, 2003. http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2003067

NCES. A Profile of Participation in Distance Education: 1999-2000, Report, 2001. http://nces.ed.gov/das/epubs/2003154/index.asp

Illinois Virtual Campus. Reports and Resources, 2002. http://www.ivc.illinois.edu/AboutIVC/reports.htm

Illinois Online Network (ION). 2003. http://www.ion.illinois.edu/

ION. Making the Virtual Classroom a Reality, 2003. http://www.mvcr.org

ION. MVCR. Springfield, 2003. http://online.uis.edu/mvcr/

ION. MVCR. Master Online Teacher Certificate, 2003. http://www.mvcr.org/courses/MOT.asp?textonly=false

ION. Presentations Archive, 2003. http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/present/presentations/completelist.asp?sort=1

ION. Faculty Summer Institutes, 2003. http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/present/fsi/default.asp

ION. Online Education Resources, 2003. http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/resources/default.asp

ION. Pointers and Clickers – Technology Tip of the Month, 2003. http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/pointers/default.asp

ION Research, 2003. http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/research/default.asp

Kirkpatrick, Donald L. Evaluating Training Programs, 2nd ed., Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.: San Francisco, CA, USA, 1998.

Phipps, R., and Merisotis, J. Quality on the Line – Benchmarks for Success in Internet-Based Distance Education, Study released at the Blackboard Summit, Prepared by the Institute for Higher Education Policy, April 2000. http://www.ihep.org/Pubs/PDF/Quality.pdf

Lorenzo, George and Moore, Janet. The Sloan Consortium Report to the Nation – Five Pillars of Quality Online Education, Report sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, November 2002. http://www.sloan-c.org/effective/pillarreport1.pdf

Phillips, Jack; Phillips, Patricia Pulliam; and Zuniga, Lizette. Evaluating the Effectiveness and the Return on Investment of E-Learning, Online Report for the American Society for Training and Development, 2000. http://www.astd.org/virtual_community/research/What_Works/e-learning/elearning_main.html

Broadbent, Brooke and Cotter, Craig. Evaluating e-Learning, 2002. http://www.elearninghub.com/articles/evaluating_e-learning.html

Treacy, Barbara; Kleiman, Glenn; and Peterson, Kirsten. Successful Online Professional Development. Learning and Leading with Technology 30(1): 42-47 (September 2002). http://www.edtechleaders.org/Resources/articles/SuccessfulOPD.pdf

Horton, William. Evaluating E-Learning, American Society for Training and Development: Alexandra, VA, USA, 2001.

Donovan, Sherri and Adams, Mark. Empowering Teachers to Soar in Online Classes, Paper presented at MACUL 2003 Technology Tools for Living and Learning Conference, Detroit MI, USA, 2003.

Graham, Charles; Cagiltay, Kursat; Lim, Byung-Ro; Craner, Joni; and Duffy, Thomas M., Seven Principles of Effective Teaching: A Practical Lens for Evaluating Online Courses. Technology Source, (March/April 2001). http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=839

Sonwalkar, Nishikant. A New Methodology for Evaluation: The Pedagogical Rating of Online Courses. Syllabus 15(6): 18-21 (January 2002)

ION. MVCR Evaluations, 2002. http://www.mvcr.org/about/Evaluations/2001/default.asp

ION. MVCR Experience 2002 Survey, 2002. http://www.mvcr.org/about/Evaluations/2002/default.asp

Pallof, Rena M. and Pratt, Keith. Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom, Josey-Bass Publishers: San Francisco, CA, USA, 2001.

ION. FSI Evaluations, 2003. http://www.ion.illinois.edu/research/fsi/fsiimpact.asp

Likert, Rensis. A technique for the measurement of attributes. Archives of Psychology: New York, NY, USA. 140 (June 1932).

WebCT, Inc. WebCT Exemplary Course Project, 2003. http://www.webct.com/exemplary

Michigan Virtual University. Past Spotlight Site Articles, The Technology Source, 2001. http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=section&id=7

ION. FSI and MVCR impact on online teaching, 2001. http://www.ion.illinois.edu/research/impact/results.asp

Downloads

Published

2019-03-19

Issue

Section

Empirical Studies