DLA2009 Call for Proposals

I am thrilled to announce that we have just opened up the Call for Proposals for our 10th Annual DLA Conference, to be held June 21-24, 2009 at the King & Prince Resort at St. Simons Island, Georgia. There are so many people who attend this conference year after year who tell me that it is their very favorite DL conference - so much discussion, learning, yummy food and fun. Though this conference is specifically for those administering DL programs (directors, deans, support staff, etc.), we usually have a fair number of online faculty who present related research. Our proceedings are bound and printed, rather than just being on a CD. Among the conference strands are: managing growth in DL; training and support; budget; marketing; ethics and copyright; quality assurance; and organizational issues. I would love to see some proposals this year about the potential impact of the Higher Education Act on DL, as well as issues related to the economy. The proposal process is simple and will take you just a few minutes.

Job Challenge Plus Fluid Environment Equals Incredible Support Staff

Basically, this is my simple take on continuous process improvement. As a organizational unit, we really never arrive. We must always, constantly, every day look for ways to do what we are doing better. Our rules and our roles are fluid. We will not maintain excellence if we rest on the laurels of yesterday and today. Every day I must make decisions, but rarely are these set in stone. Circumstances, opportunities, threats, and our own perceptions may change. Staff should not expect that what they are doing today is what they will be doing this time next year (or maybe even two months from now). Every year, I like to work with my own staff to re-evaluate their primary job responsibilities and shift these around a bit. In doing so, we consider how our organizational needs have changed, what areas need new blood or ideas, and what are the interests of each staff member. On a day-to-day basis, we are in constant learning mode, and never in a climate that sits by quietly focusing on the pre-determined tasks, but rather constantly challenging ourselves and one another, and listening very, very carefully to those faculty and students with whom we come in contact - for they are not necessarily saying the same things that they did last year. Sounds tiring? Well, not really. What is tiring is boredom and complacency.

Yep, Students are Customers

I'm really not sure why there continues to be any question about whether or not our students are customers. Hello - stocks are falling, banks are failing, budgets are being cut on a regular basis, and face it, we are in competition with one another for the tuition dollars of students. While our main purpose in offering DL programs is for the good of society (most of us want smart people around us) and to create some equity in educational opportunities, sometimes DL programs are actually developed in response to market demands (gasp!). And, I see marketing and promotion as becoming a more significant line in a DL budget. Of course it all begins with recruitment. For our DL programs we not only want to get the message out that they are available, but that our school is the best available brand for a particular group of target students. Beyond that, our job as DL Admins is to try to keep these students in our virtual doors once they enroll. This is where we get back to the tried-and-true customer service principles. Treat every customer (student) the way you expect to be treated. Quickly and effectively resolve the student's problem. Go the extra mile.... Some critics of the student-as-customer concept argue that all of this somehow diminishes the quality of education. I disagree. Part of the customer orientation is the delivery of a good product - in education this certainly includes challenge.

Nicenet Still Free and Easy

When we were first looking into purchasing WebCT or some other CMS 10 years ago, we discovered a simple, free tool called Nicenet Internet Classroom Assistant - brand new at that time. Clean and simple, Nicenet allows you to set up a quick online class in about 10 minutes. Features include a forum, a calendar, link sharing, document sharing and a list of class members. We used it for our very first online course, and with its lack of integration with dozens of other tools and cumbersome administrative side, I'm glad to see it's still available, still used, still free, and very much like it was 10 years ago. With a name like Nicenet, how can it not be friendly?

DLA Word (phrase) of the Week: Mouse Potato

This one is almost self-explanatory, and I think anybody involved in any way in online learning, teaching, or administration is in grave danger of becoming a mouse potato. If almost all of your waking life is spent with a mouse within a close proximity of your hand, then you are a mouse potato. A true mouse potato tends to work, play, shop, and communicate on the computer, often in blocks of five or more hours. Is this better than being a couch potato? I think so...I hope so.

Quiet but Big Worries about the Higher Education Act

A colleague from another state called me today to ask my opinion of the Higher Education Act (2008) reauthorized in August. Buried in this mongo, 1200-page bill (full text) is a line that says that accreditors must require institutions to ensure that any student enrolled in a distance course is truly the one doing the work. Specifically it states: "the agency or association requires an institution that offers distance education or correspondence education to have processes through which the institution establishes that the student who registers in a distance education or correspondence education course or program is the same student who participates in and completes the program and receives the academic credit" So far, there are some questions and speculation but not a lot of answers. What exactly does this mean? Some, particularly companies who sell identification software (such as biometric or cameras) are interpreting it to mean that we must prove the identity of a student taking an online exam. But does this also apply to homework, discussion boards, papers, etc.? How can we prove that an online student who writes a term paper is truly that student unless they are actually proctored while writing the paper? This would be an impossible standard that could mean the demise of all online learning? Traditional courses are not held to such a standard, nor should they be. If it is only referring to proctored examinations, I can only imagine how instructors and institutions may respond. Yes, some will invest (or have their students invest) in online proctoring devices or face-to-face proctors. But I think that others would reduce or eliminate testing all together, relying only on discussion boards, papers, projects, etc. I am worried about this, and am anxious to hear how other institutions are responding, and what accreditors are interpreting this to mean.

Don't Cross the Ivory Line

As DL adminers, we are privy to the best and worst of online courses. If not careful, we can get lost in our best practices mindset, and start to believe that we are the utmost authority on online course design, online teaching, and everything in between. We start to think that we could save all students from those occasional yucky online courses if every instructor would just develop their course just exactly like we would. The problem? Well, there's just oodles of them. First of all, it's just not our place to cross that ivory line and get into the business of telling faculty how to teach. Train them, lead them, inspire them - yes; but remember that they are the true artists who must be allowed to sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly create their own masterpieces. I'm also one who, in spite of the scalability it may provide, who is not in favor of a cookie-cutter approach to online classes. I treasured the geniune and spontaneous character of f2f courses I took long ago, and think we move into dangerous territory when we attempt to rob online courses of the same. Finally, we begin to lose respect when our egos get in the way and we forget that we are administrators in a support role.