Karen Banks, Kelley School of Business
Freedom and course consistency: Using Oncourse in multi-section, multi-instructor classes
K201 The Computer in Business, X201 Technology
Course revision
Support provided by Teaching & Learning Technology Centers
Instructional Goals
- To create consistency among all sections of the course
- To allow flexibility for section instructors
Large classes of multiple sections with multiple instructors are challenging. The university must foster student learning outcomes consistent with well developed curricular goals. At the same time faculty must feel free to teach according to their strengths and to meet student needs. Such courses are plentiful at IU, especially at the freshman and sophomore levels.
In the Kelley School of Business, the faculty in the Department of Operations and Decision Technology (ODT) teaches two of these courses, The Computer in Business (K201) and Technology (X201). The faculty sought ways to manage these courses in ways that were consistent, yet flexible. They found their solution in Oncourse CL. Their innovation took ODT Senior Lecturer Karen Banks to the 2008 Sakai Conference in Paris.
Seven hundred students take X201 each semester. They explore use of technology and spreadsheet modeling in business organizations. They learn about methodologies and technologies that lead to strategic problem solving and decision making in data analysis. Seven instructors teach the same content and follow a similar class structure. Ms. Banks tells me, “These instructors have the experience and skills to follow their own teaching styles and add or change specific class exercises to fit the needs of a particular class of students. So, they need flexibility within the course structure to best benefit the students.”
To create consistency in the course, all students must take the same two proctored practical exams, complete the same five group projects, receive the same course announcements, and complete the same number of assignments.
To allow flexibility instructors add 12 individual assignments, disseminate additional readings and resources, and make individual announcements.
Oncourse CL provides a way to manage and maintain these two qualities. Oncourse CL is rich with tools and possibilities. These make it intriguing, but also complex. To centralize and facilitate planning and use, ODT appointed Ms. Banks as “Oncourse CL Manager” for X201. In this role, she and the X201 faculty created the blueprint for X201 in Oncourse CL.
Exactly how does the X201 design create consistency?
To enable consistency, shared course content is hosted in a project site dedicated to X201. All X201 faculty are members of the site. The project site includes tools for collaboration and file sharing. The X201 faculty primarily uses the project site for creating resources that can be easily shared and easily linked to. The shared course content is saved in the resources as html pages that are linked to each
X201 course section. For instance, all X201 shared assignments are called “X201 Files” and are linked to each course using the web content tool.
Linking pages this way gives Ms. Banks easy control over the course content, which it is important to note, the faculty agrees on. For instance, course-wide announcements are added as links on each course site home page using the “Worksite information” options. The overall course schedule is created as an html page, titled “X201 Things to Do,” and is linked to each course site using the web content tool. Because Ms. Banks can easily push schedules, announcements, course resources, and assignments course wide the X201 faculty can offer a consistent experience for X201 students.
Hosting the course material in a project site assures consistency in other ways. First, it streamlines course-wide updates and alterations. Any change in a project site html page resource automatically updates the corresponding course sites. Second, it creates a valuable automatic archive for each semester. Third, this method also makes it easy to create backup files.
All X201 Oncourse CL course sites share a core design and core information. This shared blueprint emphasizes the consistency of course content and schedules. And this consistent material and timeline helps ensure consistency in students’ experiences and learning outcomes in X201.
Exactly how does this system create flexibility?
The blueprint for consistency has space for flexibility. The tools that build consistency involve only html pages, web content links, website information options, and some limited use of the Oncourse Tests and
Surveys and Assignments tools. The remaining Oncourse CL tools are free to the individual instructors to adapt to teaching styles and student needs.
Oncourse CL offers a growing list of tools (over twenty as of August 2008). As that list grows, so does the power of the system to create both consistency and flexibility. As Ms. Banks says, “This system gives us the flexibility that we need but also the structure that we desire.”
Oncourse CL strategies
- Request a project site or practice course site dedicated to hosting course materials. In multi-section, multi-instructor courses, this practice facilitates centralized and consistent structure across course sites. For individual instructors, such a site facilitates simplifies course set up each semester.
- Create and add html pages in resources hosted in the course-dedicated project site. The urls of these resources make them easy to link to course sites.
- Manage Oncourse CL strategically given your course goals. For multi-section, multi-instructor courses, consider having a faculty member or faculty committee manage Oncourse CL for the course. Your campus teaching centers can help you develop your strategy.
- Use the tools that best allow you to adapt your course based on content, teaching style, and student needs. However, in site setup, turn off the tools you don’t use.
Interview and story by:
Michael Morrone, J. D.
Senior Lecturer, Business Communication, Kelley School of Business, IUB
FACET member since 2007
Faculty Fellow, UITS Communications Office
