South University Online

Eighteen months ago Lamar University College of Education and Human Development entered into a partnership with a service provider, Higher Ed Holdings, to offer Master of Education degrees in Educational Administration and Teacher Leadership through an innovative web-based delivery system. A master’s degree in Educational Technology Leadership has recently been added. The Lamar University Academic Partnership (LUAP) was created for several purposes; to address the need for affordable, accessible masters degrees for teachers throughout the state of Texas, to strengthen Lamar’s programs through careful study and implementation of best practices in the content areas and in instructional design for innovative deliveries, and to increase enrollment in the master’s degree programs at Lamar University. It is evident that we have had success in these areas and that we must use a continuous improvement model to address the many challenges the program presents on a daily basis. Many rewarding aspects of the LUAP are less targeted outcomes of the efforts to meet the three goals cited above. Examples include greater faculty collaboration, outstanding faculty development, increased understanding of communication challenges in web-based instruction, student support, and implementation of strategies to address these challenges. Another added benefit is improved infra-structure throughout the university necessary to support LUAP which also enhances support for students in all programs, campus-based and other.

Lamar University is located in Beaumont, Texas, thirteen miles from the Louisiana state line. North of Lamar there is a well-respected regional institution that serves Northeast Texas. West of Beaumont, approximately one hour, is Houston, Texas with a plethora of excellent educational opportunities, and to the south of Beaumont is the Gulf of Mexico. As a regional state institution, we serve Southeast Texas, but to survive in an era of decreased state funding, to overcome our losses from the impact of several damaging hurricanes, and to improve and increase our faculty and our programs, it was evident Lamar had to reach out beyond our region. The service provider, Higher Ed Holdings, offered an instructional platform for delivering Lamar’s master’s degree courses, course production assistance, and marketing services, three costly aspects of new programming that our university would have difficulty providing. After extensive study and discussion, a cadre of faculty from the Educational Administration and Professional Pedagogy programs agreed to degree plans and to do course development. Educational Administration worked with the existing degree plan. Professional Pedagogy, after studying the current master’s degree programs in elementary and secondary education researched ways to improve and update curriculum to better meet the needs of current teachers. The Teacher Leadership program was developed and sent through the academic review and approval channels. Educational Leadership and Teacher Leadership share a core of five, three hour courses and each program has 21 unique hours. Courses are offered in a continuous cycle with one required entry class offered each session. Sessions are five weeks and due to the intensity, students may only take one course a session. Students who choose to stay continuously enrolled can complete the sequence in 18 months. Many students choose to take every other course or delay some courses and take a longer time frame to complete the program.

Lamar University faculty write course scripts, plan visuals, design activities, write discussion board prompts/questions, and select readings. In most cases, more than one instructor is involved in course development. The five core classes in Educational Administration and Teacher Leadership are developed by at least one Educational Leadership faculty member and one Professional Pedagogy faculty member. The vendor, Higher Ed Holdings, assists with copyrights, editing, and preparing faculty for delivery and filming of courses. Course content is uploaded to the instructional platform template by the vendor with guidance from developing faculty members and production specialists.  The Department Chair reviews the course prior to publishing to the web. Faculty involved in this process have estimated that the development process takes anywhere from 200 – 300 hours. The most challenging part of the process for faculty is thinking through and planning every aspect of the course up front. In a traditional campus- based graduate course, a faculty member usually meets students once a week for 3 hours and plans instruction on a weekly basis. In the distance delivery model Lamar faculty must be very efficient and plan very effective learning activities and discussion to ensure student learning outcomes are addressed. Because numbers are often large, academic coaches take the role of teaching assistants in a manner very similar to the large lecture classes at a major university. Coaches are persons, with at least, a master’s degree in education and many are pursuing or have a doctorate in education. The vendor advertises for coaches, but all coach applications are sent to Lamar Department Chairs for review to determine if the applicant has the appropriate credentials.

Coaches must work through the course and meet with instructors by two-way interactive video or phone conferences to be trained by the faculty teaching the class. The faculty member explains all expectations, provides samples of acceptable assignments, discusses possible problems/questions the students may have, and answers all coach questions. A weekly coach/instructor meeting time is established for the course session. A coach may request a meeting with the faculty at any point for clarification of assignments, questions on grading, etc. Coaches collect and categorize questions from students and send to faculty by email. Throughout the session, faculty members monitor discussion groups and coaches’ comments and grading on assignments. Students always have the right to ask the instructor to re-grade materials and /or provide additional explanations. Once the session ends, the instructor must verify all grades, search for inconsistencies, collect work samples, and provide feedback for course improvement to the department and the Chair. Faculty must work with coaches and the department chair to resolve grade conflicts, following the Lamar University appeals process. Instructors must update courses as needed.

Lamar is successful with this program because education faculty have actively collaborated and engaged in continuous professional development. As indicated above, most courses are developed by two or more faculty and in the case of core courses, at least two faculty members from different departments. Sharing knowledge, ideas for learning activities, and assessment recommendations enhance the experiences for involved instructors. Every faculty member has indicated that their on-campus courses are greatly improved as a result of their collaboration. Putting content into the learning management system has also improved faculty teaching according to the instructors engaged in the process. Information and activities must be carefully targeted to learning outcomes and assignments and assessments must be very clearly explained and designed. Knowledge of the unique demands of web-based instruction has greatly increased instructional planning abilities according to faculty participating in the Academic Partnership. As Lamar faculty become more confident with the delivery system, more simulations, interviews, and other instructional tools are weaved into the courses.  As Dean, I could pay a fortune for faculty to attend workshops or to bring experts to campus and not achieve the growth in faculty knowledge and skills that has developed from the experience of participating in the Academic Partnership.

Advantages to students in the Academic Partnership programs extend far beyond affordability and accessibility. Students can access and listen to lectures as frequently as they choose. Students can also download scripts and read lectures and slides. This repetition benefits many students and also addresses a variety of learning modalities. Students have access to faculty selected readings via the Lamar Library link where electronic files are stored. Readings are carefully selected to support weekly topics and assignments and to reinforce learning. In many classes, student assignments require actual collection of data, analysis of that data, and recommendations for a student’s campus. These projects focus on relevant problem choices and enable students to put into immediate practice the content they are learning. Students engage in discussion boards in each course, supporting one another’s learning and often exchanging new knowledge and ideas across districts throughout the state. Students have personal mentoring from academic coaches and Lamar Academic Partnership support staff as well as opportunities to seek clarifications and explanations from faculty members responsible for the courses. The portfolio capstone experience in Teacher Leadership and the Internship/Portfolio experiences in Educational Administration require students to reflect on new learning, applications of new learning, and to plan future learning activities and career paths. Lifelong learning, critical thinking, and creative problem solving are student outcomes achieved by the Academic Partnership.

There has also been extensive carry over to student support operations on campus. When the Academic Partnership first began, the graduate files were paper that had to be moved from office to office for checking and signatures. The graduate admissions process is now fully automated. The original call center was overwhelmed with questions and students would be sent to a myriad of offices for answers to questions, sometimes getting individuals who had no knowledge of the program. The same thing would happen with emails. A system has been put into place with codes that direct students to the right office for appropriate assistance. The Associate Vice President/Chief Information Officer is teaching a course in the Instructional Technology Leadership Program and providing first-hand information on technology innovations to improve the program. Information Technology is assisting the college with establishing a data base for tracking student program assessments, progress through the program and ultimately career development. This data base will serve as a major source of information to answer research questions constructed by faculty and doctoral students involved in evaluating the program and studying electronic instruction and learning.

While at this point we have anecdotal records of success, we are aware that accountability standards require support data such as student assignment comparisons in courses that are web-based and campus-based. We are collecting those samples. In the Educational Administration program we will soon have the first round of state certification test data for analysis. Online course evaluations are collected for all Lamar University courses, web-based and campus-based. These evaluations will be analyzed carefully and responses collected. We are also collecting student self-report data through a capstone portfolio requirement. The process of evaluation provides ongoing opportunities for faculty research and program improvement.

Where do we go from here? Our major focus is to sustain quality in the courses to ensure student learning outcomes, increase faculty/student interactions, and continue to improve student services. There are some additional programs being studied to determine their suitability for the Academic Partnership delivery system. The Lamar University faculty and staff are most intrigued by the ethical and professional lapses in electronic communication from students that seldom occur with face-to-face students.  This will be an area of future study in our electronic learning research.  Many Lamar University education faculty members are adapting to the unique challenges of the Academic Partnership model and accept this approach as one path for student learning. All faculty members engaged in the Partnership also teach face-to-face classes, are productive department citizens, and engage in college and university service.  The involvement by faculty members in the Academic Partnership shows a willingness to model lifelong learning for students and to address future trends facing higher education: limited funding, a growing and more diverse student population; a demand for more creative approaches to program delivery; and the necessity for currency in understanding and using new technologies for instruction.

“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” Machiavelli, THE PRINCE