Proposals

Instructional Technology Conference 2009

Title: Providing a Collaborative Learning Environment for Online Student Teams to work with Corporate Partners

Name: Dr. Timothy L. Phillips

Audience: General

Audience Level: All

Length: 1 Hour

Abstract: One essential component in preparation of our graduate students is opportunities to work in teams on instructional technology projects for clients. Clients include: business, manufacturing, healthcare, and governmental agencies

Online students tend to be separated from team members and their client. In order to provide students with the high level of interaction with team members and their client we made significant use of a number of elearning technologies and specific distance learning instructional strategy techniques.

Description: This paper focuses on the use of several techniques and eLearning technologies to provide our online graduate students with experiences in working in teams to provide corporations and organizations with instructional technology solutions.

Advanced Instructional Design is a capstone course in Master of Science in Instructional Technology program at Bloomsburg University. In this course, students work in teams to provide instructional technology solutions to clients in business, healthcare, and government. The student teams work through the entire instructional design process including all the phases of the ADDIE model including: analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. This course was initially planned and taught using a live classroom setting. However, as our program expanded to provide our degree online, new technologies and strategies had to be implemented to provide online students with the same level of access and interactivity with their team partners and their client.

Online students tend to be separated by great distances from team members and their project client. Providing these students with a high level of interaction with team members and their client required the use of a number of elearning technologies and several instructional strategy techniques.

The primary software tools that are used to deliver the instruction are Centra and Blackboard. These tools have provided a reliable highly interactive learning environment. Centra provided students with a real time synchronous learning environment, and has also been used for team meetings and to provide students with and direct access to clients. In addition to these software tools, and number of instructional strategies were developed and implemented to provide the online students with team building experiences and experiences in interacting with a real-world client.

I have used these tools and techniques in the online Advanced Instructional Design course for the past few years with considerable success. Therefore, the purpose of this presentation will be to discuss the technologies and the instructional strategies used to present the course materials and to provide students with a highly interactive environment in which to interact with their team member and their client. Additionally, I will present and demonstrate several projects that have been developed by the student teams for their clients.

Session Type: Lecture/Presentation—presenter shares information about the session topic with participants.

On-Site Equipment Requirements: Computer Projector

Contact Information/Affiliation:
Dr. Timothy L. Phillips
Department of Instructional Technology
Bloomsburg University
Bloomsburg, PA
(570) 389-4875
tphillip@bloomu.edu