Online Education Committee

Voting members present: Cheridy Aduviri, Nancy Allen, Marita Barth, Raven Chakerian, Amanda Kirk, Wes Prebeck
Voting members absent: Vipin Arora, Stephen Redfield
Guests present: Karen Watte

Membership:

• Still waiting for an Ex-officio member from the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) to be officially added to the committee.  It was voted on and approved last year.  (Sent email to Vickie 1/15)
• New undergraduate student member:  Wes Prebeck II (Fisheries and Wildlife)-Wes’s membership is pending approval from ASOSU (Vickie sent an email reminder to them to process the application)

Survey updates:

• From Amanda Kirk:  Feedback from her Ecampus professor: “hybrid via Ecampus” option on survey made sense (a few issues to be brought to our attention that she will also include on her survey response:  assumption that instructors live near Corvallis and can come to campus when necessary; tech support for creating videos for hybrid courses is available; there is a lack of professional development opportunities not requiring presence on campus)
• Karen took note of the feedback
• Survey
• Survey sent out 1/22 am via HR list
• HR said the list went to all faculty that teach
• Some faculty that teach in Fisheries & Wildlife did not receive survey, including Nancy
• Some Ecampus faculty that teach did not receive survey, including Karen
• Discussed need to  consider other distribution outlets
  • All committee members agreed to email dean’s in college where they teach
  • Raven will submit to OSU Today
  • Might also consider Inform list
• Discussed need for support to analyze the survey results
• To be discussed at our next meeting

Online/Hybrid Awards/Recognition Sub-Committee Report: Nancy (chair), Karen, Raven

• Sub-committee met January 10^th
• Each sub-committee member reported on their findings after having researched the existing awards and scholarships for students and faculty in the individual university colleges
  • Not all school directors responded to the request for information
  • Some awards and scholarships across campus are not available to Ecampus faculty/students because of criteria that exclude them (eg. must be graduate from Oregon high school; show history of service to greater Corvallis community; etc.
  • While some awards are technically available to Ecampus faculty/students, there are many obstacles (eg. faculty/students on Ecampus are “invisible” and less likely to be nominated; Ecampus faculty/students don’t hear about awards/scholarships as easily; less opportunities for service/co-corricular opportunities
  • Discussed need to acknowledge that some selection committees have “unlisted” criteria that needs to be evaluated
  • Sub-committee will finish collecting information and prepare a report that they hope to use to look into establishing awards/scholarships specifically for Ecampus faculty/students
  • Will meet again in February

Online Peer Review Sub-Committee Report:  Cheridy (chair), Cub, Stefanie, Stephen, Vipin, Raven

• Sub-Committee met January 10^th
• Goals, timeline and task-list established
  • create tool kit/guidelines for faculty that are conducting online and hybrid peer reviews
  • finish tool kit this academic year
  • draw from OLC Scorecard and QM Rubric
• Established that the guidelines/toolkit would be primarily be designed with annual peer reviews P&T in mind
  • Tool could also be used for mentoring or self-reflective teaching evaluation
• Discussed how toolkit will be shared
  • Possibly through University P&T Guidelines
  • Through OEC Website
  • Through departmental P&T Committees
  • Will meet again in February

P&T Sub-Committee Report: Marita (chair), Raven, Stefanie

• Sub-committee met January 17^th
• Established goal of creating guidelines for online faculty going up for P&T
• Drafted a list of areas to focus on
  • Student letters: Marita will contact Joan Oakes about possibility of contacting former students that are not currently OSU students (students often take only one class; lots of non-degree, short-term students)
  • ESETS:  will look into the literature to see if there is anything showing they are typically lower for online courses; guiding instructors to write their own questions and highlight the answers in personal statement (only first two questions usually considered)
  • External reviews: how to find experts in your academic field that are also online experts
  • Will also pull from/link to the work done on the other two sub-committees (peer reviews; awards and recognition)
• Discussed distribution format and outlet
  • Possibly link from university P&T guidelines
  • Ecampus has agreed to work with us on creating a how to video

Improving Online Advising:  

• Nancy documented cases where equal opportunities were not available for both on-campus and e-campus students, making advising a challenge (Eg. some tutoring programs; STARS, CAPS, etc.)
• Nancy will upload the document as a shared Google document that we can all contribute too
• In a previous meeting Jon Dorbolo suggested we present the list to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee when it is complete
• Wes shared his experience with some organizations/institutions that do not recognize/validate online coursework

Ongoing/Pending/Follow-up Items:

• Next Meeting: Watch for a doodle poll for March’s meeting
• Subcommittees: meet in February, report in March
• Survey: assure distribution reaches all that teach, continue to monitor results, seek support for analysis of results