Enhancing Online Noncredit Instruction in California Community Colleges

Presented by: Supporting Online Noncredit Instruction in the California Community College System Professor Janet Cagley, M.Ed. NOCE Distance Education Faculty Coordinator Silver Linings: Reflecting. Revisioning. Rising June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 1

Learning Objectives 1.Examine ongoing challenges in online noncredit teaching & learning. 2.Determine underlying challenges and root issues impacting online noncredit instruction. 3.Identify possible next steps locally and at a state-wide level. June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 2

Fall 2019 Spring 2020 BC (Before COVID] NOCE was in the process of developing a DE pilot for five classes. Training was scheduled in March 2020 for the pilot team. Things did not go as planned . This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 3

What We Learned About NOCE Students The NOCE noncredit student experience was very similar to the findings reported in Research Review: Educational Technologies and Their Impact on Student Success for Certain Racial and Ethnic Groups by The National Center for Distance Education and Technological Advancements (DETA), & WCET- the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies in 2021. June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 4

What We Know Students experience within their online courses positively impacted student outcomes Design Organization Learner support Interactions with instructor Interaction with content Assessment approach (grading and feedback) Peer interaction (DETA & WCET, 2021) June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 5

Online Noncredit Faculty Needs Assessment During January-February 2022, ASCCC Common Course Management System (CCMS) Online Noncredit Workgroup sought input from online noncredit faculty in the California Community College System to determine recommendations for future Canvas enhancements and features. Qualtrics survey questions were created in collaboration with the workgroup members and NOCE s Office of Institutional Research and Planning (OIRP) and distributed through the DE listserv. 140 faculty from 14 institutions responded June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 6

Responses: Institutions We heard from Chaffey College College of the Canyons Glendale Community College Los Angeles Southwest College Merced College North Orange Continuing Education Santiago Canyon College/Orange Education Center College of Marin College of the Redwoods Los Angeles Valley College Lake Tahoe Community College Mira Costa College Santa Rosa Junior College Southwestern College June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 7

Responses: Faculty Position Faculty Type Full-time Faculty Adjunct Faculty Total Count 33 107 140 Percent 24% 76% 100% June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 8

Responses: Online Instruction Experience Years 1-2 3-4 5-6 7+ Unknown Total Count 99 20 7 10 3 140 Percent 71% 14% 5% 7% 3% 100% June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 9

Responses: Canvas Proficiency Rating 1 2 3 4 5 Unknown Total Count 2 5 36 52 33 11 140 Percent 1% 4% 26% 37% 24% 100% 100% June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 10

Responses: Educational Technology Rating 2 3 4 5 Unknown Total Count 6 34 60 28 11 140 Percent 4% 24% 43% 20% 9% 100% June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 11

Responses: Modality Options Fully Online Asynchronous Partially Online (Hybrid) Fully Online Synchronous Unknown Total Count 42 14 70 14 140 Percent 30% 10% 50% 10% 100% June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 12

Open-Ended Question 1 Describe how you record attendance for your fully online asynchronous noncredit course Common themes Participation or submission of course activities/materials Manual process Using Canvas Census dates Utilizing a third-party system Having others, such as activity directors, provide counts of participating students June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 13

Open-Ended Question 2 What is your biggest challenge as an online noncredit instructor? Common themes Technology gap that noncredit students experience Student active engagement in online courses Developing appropriate noncredit curriculum/material for online instruction Access to technology Difficulty in communicating with students and lack of personal interaction Recruiting and retaining students June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 14

Faculty Voices: Technology Gap Onboarding students to use the LMS, Canvas Students who do not use a computer or smartphone for Canvas homework and Zoom class. I do instruct them toward video tutorials but seeing as how I teach zero level literacy students, many of them do not understand me. And it very difficult for older students to manage without direct assistance or actually speaking to someone in their first language. Most noncredit students have low technology skills. I have spent more time teaching student s basic computer skills and getting them online to access Canvas so that they can begin their schoolwork than teaching my course content (math) every week. June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 15

Faculty Voices: Student Engagement & Developing Content My biggest challenge as an online noncredit instructor is lack of student participation. By far my biggest challenge is motivating students to do ALL activities. They tend to pick and choose what they wish to complete. This is not as big an issue in my GED courses, but those students have the goal of that diploma. It is, however, a huge issue in my Adult Literacy courses that are not certificate based. Creating assignments that truly engage the remote learner. Keeping Canvas modules simple enough that students will be faithful to complete online assignments, but robust enough that students are completely the online hours needed. June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 16

Faculty Voices: Access to Technology & Communication My students often participate via cell phone instead of laptop, tablet, or desktop computer. It s hard for them to toggle between Zoom and Canvas simultaneously. The biggest challenge is not having direct contact with students. Many of the students I teach do not respond through Canvas or show up on Zoom, so there is no way to know how they are preparing for their GED tests. The biggest challenge missing direct communication with student. I do not understand the problem of my students in depth due to the lack of communication while I m teaching. My biggest challenge is reaching new students. I have a dedicated batch of students that I always reach out to, and I feel that this base feeds the enrollments of my classes. I would like to continue outreach efforts to find new students. I think marketing is the biggest challenge. June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 17

Open-Ended Question 3 Is there a tool or feature that could be added to Canvas to help you as a noncredit online instructor? Common themes Tools to help facilitate online instruction Tools to accurately keep track of student attendance and course engagement The ability to sync multiple applications Transfer work from Canvas course to another, from one term to another A translation tool in Canvas Tools that could improve communicating with students June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 18

Faculty Voices: Online Instruction If faculty were to track every time a student clicks on a link, I have embedded in a Canvas page. This would make it easier for me to track who is watching replays of my live Zoom meeting or the other videos I make available. As a noncredit instructor, a feature that could be added to Canvas is a participation option that shows which students are participating and which are not is there a time on task feature in Canvas? June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 19

Faculty Voices: Communication Tools There are lots of amazing tools. However, I have found that my noncredit students lack the skills to use multiple types of technology and apps. If there are too many new things or additional log-in type of educational tools, the students often disengage. It s really disappointing because there are so many exciting resources to try. Tools that can be integrated are more useful. It would be helpful if a canvas module showed students how to quickly and easily navigation information on canvas that was pre-built. One tool that would be helpful would be the ability to carry work from one semester to another easily in Canvas. There should be a way to not only import grades, but for actual assignments as well. It would be helpful if Canvas would allow an import/export feature for student work to allow students to carry their work to the next semester for open/exit students. A tool that could be added to Canvas to help me as a noncredit online instructor is translator button for students who speak a different language. June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 20

Even More Questions Than Before Are these issues unique to noncredit? How are we delineating roles? Faculty Instructional Design Marketing Curriculum Should all noncredit classes be online? How is that determined? Is open entry/exit the best model for online? Would students have a better experience with microcourses that still allow multiple points of entry per term? Credit and noncredit collaboration June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 21

Next Steps More research Systematic ways to collaborate to develop best practices Collaboration between credit and noncredit consistent at local and state levels How are we collecting and analyzing data? What are wedoing with that information? June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 22

Contact Information (include Name, Email, Phone) Professor Janet Cagley Distance Education Faculty Coordinator North Orange Continuing Education jcagley@noce.edu 714.992.9536 June 29 - July 1, 2022 Slide 23