Regis Faculty Online

The Regis University College for Professional Studies (CPS) Department of Learning Design has been recognized with a national award for its innovative “Passport to Course Development” online performance support system.

Passport to Course Development earned the 2011 WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET) Outstanding Work (WOW) Award, a competition that recognizes innovative uses of educational technologies in higher education.

Instructional Designers Jane Johnson and Ling Thompson, and Multimedia Specialist Sally Cordrey created the award-winning project from Regis University.  The trio from CPS were one of three winners named out of the 23 works nominated by colleges and universities across the country this year.  The other two winning recipients were GPS LifePlan by Century College and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities and University Life Café by Kansas State University.

The winning projects will be honored at the WCET Annual Conference on Oct. 26-29 in Denver, and featured in a free webcast, “Achieving Innovation in Higher Education,” 1 p.m. MDT on Oct. 17.

“I’m delighted to congratulate Jane Johnson, Ling Thompson, Sally Cordrey and their colleagues in the Department of Learning Design for their outstanding efforts in winning the WCET WOW award,” said Roxanne Gonzales, academic dean of the College for Professional Studies.   “Their learning resource, titled Passport to Course Development, is innovative, interesting and educational and will certainly prove beneficial to our current and new faculty as well as serve as a model for the online community.”

According to Johnson, Passport to Course Development increases the efficiency of course development process and serves as a resource for those faculty who are new to course development and to those needing a refresher.

“The Passport Course was originally conceived by the Department of Learning Design,” Johnson explained.  “The team of instructional designers, multimedia and Web developers designed the course to serve as an exemplary online course with robust interactive components.  It is designed as a fun resource, providing information ‘just in time and just enough’ rather than merely another training course.”

Johnson, Thompson and Cordrey all note that based on the passport theme, the Passport Course is an adventure in course development.

Using an Avatar called Addie – an acronym for Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate – the system guides users through the course development journey, replete with a colorful interactive world map that represents various destinations visiting each continent and even includes a passport that gets stamped at every stop along the way.

“The Avatar talks to them,” Thompson said, “as she helps them analyze their audience, ‘chunk’ topics, write course objectives and outlines, design discussion questions that use critical thinking, enhance learning through multimedia and find additional resources such as library tutorial and accessibility information.”

But the course is not just the interaction with an Avatar.

“We present a wealth of technology in the Passport Course,” Cordrey noted.  “We have a ‘think aloud’ created by using Jing, blogs, audio flash, videos, sprys and more including our final interactive Flash-based passport.  Its pages turn like a book when clicked on, providing a summary on each page of what should have been visited in the course.   The course also includes a multimedia matrix that links to several excellent multimedia pieces from various existing courses.”

In addition, one element of the journey -- a virtual field trip to Dinosaur Ridge, a local geology treasure trove – is now being used by the Dinosaur Ridge Organization.

The course itinerary includes nine learning topics ranging from who are my learners and organizing content to how do you know if the learners have learned what you want them to and finding more resources.  In addition to collaborating with instructional designers, multimedia and Web developers during a six month development process, Johnson, Thompson  and Cordrey interviewed faculty representatives from each CPS school and conducted needs assessments at the start of the project.

“Faculty input guided us throughout the development of this course,” Johnson noted.

Johnson, Thompson and Cordrey all enthusiastically add that feedback from demonstrations of the course have been positive. 
The trio will present Passport to Course Development to attendees at the WCET annual conference.

Since 2004 the WCET WOW award has been presented to higher education institutions and organizations for exceptionally creative, technology-based solutions to a significant problem or need. Twenty-three works were nominated by colleges and universities across the country this year, and three were named winners. Each of them addresses a critical goal related to student retention and completion, demonstrating an innovative solution to one specific aspect of overall student success.

“Each of these three initiatives addresses a specific area of need that cuts across higher education institutions of all sizes and from all sectors – student ownership of their educational pathway and options, the critical need to pay more attention to the mental health stressors many college students face, and the need to provide faculty with as many tools as possible to offer engaging online courses that incorporate many of the learning tools that our students use inside and outside of the virtual classroom,” said Peg O’Brien, WOW Award Committee chair and director of extended programs for Dakota State University in South Dakota. “The WCET WOW award represents a great tribute to the work of the winning organizations and also serves as a meaningful way to disseminate exemplary practices to the higher education community. I encourage other institutions use these models and adapt them for their own students and faculty.”