Transforming Higher Education Curriculum Through Online Course Design

By Michael Lindeman, University of Illinois Global Campus

Current Challenges for Higher Education
Higher education needs to change in the United States. It is necessary for colleges and universities to quickly respond to the varying learning needs of students and, in turn, produce graduates that can help address the dramatic economic and demographic conditions occurring in American society. The global market requires graduates to be able to work collaboratively with a wide range of people, concepts and technologies. Business and industry are demanding that institutions of higher education better prepare students to work collaboratively, whether they are face-to-face, or virtually connected. These students are more often labeled as “non-traditional” students–working adults who return to school to learn relevant, new skills that will help them, as well as their businesses, remain competitive in a global economy.
Unfortunately, as the need to educate adult-learners increases, the rising cost of college is making it difficult for most Americans to obtain a degree. According to a biennial report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, if the cost of college keeps rising at the current pace, higher education will become unaffordable for most Americans , even when accounting for financial aid. This has the potential of negatively impacting not only the students themselves, but also the whole country.

Online Learning Meets the Challenges
To meet these challenges, higher education must provide learning opportunities for students that meet their specific needs and are more affordable than those found at traditional universities. Online learning is an appealing option for many non-traditional students; those with full time employment and/or those who do not have physical proximity or easy access to an institution. In their book Disrupting Class, Clayton Christensen, Michael Horn and Curtis Johnson write that online learning “offers students the ability to learn in ways that match their intelligence types in the places and at the pace they prefer. But with the shift to student-centric learning, assessment--the art and science of testing [students], to determine what they have learned--can and should change, as well. "   As educational institutions expand and enhance their online learning environments, quality course design and evaluation are essential building blocks for the recruitment and retention of students. More importantly, quality course design and evaluation provide a way to better educate students that are non-traditional learners, and are looking to develop new and practical skill sets and faculties.

The University of Illinois Global Campus Provides Online Learning Opportunities
In 2007, the University of Illinois established The Global Campus to further its land-grant mission to expand educational opportunities for the Illinois community and beyond. The University of Illinois Global Campus serves society and transforms lives by educating qualified students with excellence, via the Internet, through baccalaureate and masters degree programs, certificates, as well as professional development courses. The University of Illinois Global Campus is committed to being student-centered in offering high-quality, high-demand programs at an affordable price. To read more about the Global Campus mission and goals, please visit the web site at global.uillinois.edu.

Global Campus Courses are Interactive
The Global Campus offers courses in an accelerated format lasting 8 weeks, with multiple cohorts per year. Research indicates that students in shorter term online courses have a greater success rate and a reduced drop rate compared to traditional 16-week semester-long courses. By focusing their academic efforts in a shorter time length, students tend to stay on task and better manage impending deadlines. Class size is kept small (less than 25 students per class, with an average class size of 20 or less) to promote student-student and student-instructor interactions. Each Global Campus course is instructor-led and rich in resources. Every course is designed according to Global Campus standards of pedagogy, accessibility, and usability that specify consistent layouts and common components. All have syllabi, which contain course information including a course overview, learning goals, technology requirements, grading rubrics, and expectations. Each course is organized around a set of modules which are comprised of learning objectives, presentations, discussions, activities, assignments and assessments. The curriculum is designed to encourage high levels of communication, interaction, and collaboration amongst the instructor, students, and content. Global Campus courses also use a variety of interactive materials and activities, individualized study plans, built-in continuous assessment, and varied human interaction to improve the quality of online courses.

Global Campus Courses Are Designed and Developed by a Team
Global Campus uses a team-based approach in designing and developing each online course. The team consists of University of Illinois faculty, subject matter experts, instructional designers, multimedia developers, editors, evaluators, and students. The faculty work closely and collaboratively with the other members of the team to determine learning goals and objectives, to design lessons and activities, and to write test items and exercises. The instructional designer’s task is to design and develop courses that are instructionally sound, that effectively use available technology, and that consistently adhere to Global Campus’s design and editorial standards.

Global Campus Courses are Student-Centric
Before beginning a Global Campus program, students participate in orientation activities and receive individual support and training to be able to successfully complete their courses. Because most Global Campus students are working professionals, time management strategies are highlighted during the orientation. Because many students have never taken an online course before, they are presented strategies used to succeed in accelerated courses. In certain cases, tutoring and mentoring services are available to students to help them successfully complete the curriculum.

Global Campus strives to present content in a way that makes sense for an online learner. For example, course content is available to students ahead of time and is published in various portable formats (such as .mp3, .pdf, MS Word documents, etc.) The use of media-rich content instead of text-only content addresses the various learning styles of Global Campus students. All courses are designed with a standard template to help promote familiarity. Due dates for assignments are predictable and consistent so that students can effectively plan their time for studying.

Global Campus Courses Promote Academic Integrity
Research commonly concludes that academic dishonesty in online classes is no more pervasive than in traditional education. For example, researchers concluded that “as online education expands, there is no reason to suspect that academic dishonesty will become more common. The results show that social and academic indicators that correlate with cheating in a traditional class setting also correlate with cheating in an online setting.”  However, there is a common perception that academic dishonesty is easier and more prevalent in online courses. Therefore, Global Campus takes proactive measures to reduce the temptation or need of students to engage in cheating in online courses.

In addition to creating a culture of academic honesty, Global Campus courses are specifically designed to promote academic integrity. For example, learning is most often assessed by immersing students in real-world, problem-based challenges in which knowledge is demonstrated through meaningful individual and team presentations and projects. If it is necessary to use exams to assess student learning, preference is for frequent, short, time-intensive exams and essay-type exams. Such strategies provide a more accurate assessment of a student's unique grasp of pedagogic material and makes responses more difficult to replicate. If it is necessary to use multiple choice "standard" sort of exams, security measures are employed, such as locking other Internet browsers, giving just enough time to answer the question, administering different set of questions to individuals, jumbling the order of answer options, tracking the IP addresses, and taking close look at the average time spent and comparing one suspected student to the average.

Global Campus Programs
Currently, the Global Campus offers 15 different degrees, certificates, and non-credit programs. All degree and certificate programs are created in collaboration with the colleges and academic departments at the University's residential campuses at Urbana-Champaign, Chicago, and Springfield. Each campus provides faculty, subject matter experts, a curriculum, student admission requirements, instructor qualifications and some instructors. The Global Campus provides course designers and developers, student support services, library coordination, technology, help desk, additional instructors, instructor training and mentors.
Bachelor of Science in Environmental Sustainability degree completion program
This undergraduate degree addresses the growing demand for an academic field that concentrates on key issues associated with sustainability and the environment:  the interconnectedness of environmental, economic, and social systems of the world; the implications of our actions on the environment; factors that determine the sustainability of human institutions, organizations, cultures, and technologies; and finding solutions through innovation. Following the classical definition of sustainability, the aim is to develop citizens, businesses, and societies that meet the needs of today’s global economy, without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same.

Courses in this program are designed so that students are engaged in collaborative learning and active participation through simulations, experiments, team assignments, and reflection as part of their course requirements.

Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree completion program
The College of Nursing at the University of Illinois at Chicago is a top-ranked nursing school – third in the country in NIH funding. This online BSN was created by faculty who are leaders in the field of nursing, and the college itself is committed to creating tomorrow’s nursing leaders. There are no residency, or clinical, requirements.

The curriculum of the online BSN has been transformed from a traditional classroom RN-BSN course with lectures, quizzes, and tests to an online problem-based learning experience which addresses critical thinking and problem solving. According to Global Campus instructional designer Gina Anderson and UIC nursing faculty Kate Tredway, Problem-Based Learning (PBL) has been identified as one of the most promising approaches for teaching nurses.

By using principles of PBL, BSN students must apply their new knowledge to the identification and solution of a complex problem. This requires that they evaluate information gained through assigned readings and course content and that they communicate within their small groups to listen to other ideas, consider assumptions and evidence, and analyze material.
Master of Education in Human Resource Education with a concentration in E-Learning
Developed by the Department of Human Resource Education in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, this degree covers much more than the design of online programs. The Ed.M.’s overall goal is to teach students how to develop, deliver and manage complex online education and training programs. The curriculum covers a wide range of online pedagogies and methods, and it prepares students to maintain and assess e-learning programs in both academic and corporate learning environments.

Courses in this program are built around constructivist learning principles, which embed learning in real world problems, emphasizing continuous assessment and encouraging ownership in learning by actively engaging in the process of knowledge construction. Students are knowledge creators and are expected to cognitively and actively engage in activities that require collective knowledge building, personal reflection, and knowledge transformation.

Global Campus Prepares Students for the 21st Century
The University of Illinois Global Campus is transforming the culture of higher education through its efforts to design high-quality, interactive, engaging online courses relevant to the non-traditional student. The Global Campus is designing courses that are learner-centered, that stress academic integrity, and provide excellent support in order to ensure student success. By providing high-quality, highly affordable programs, the Global Campus strives to meet the need of producing innovative, prepared graduates ready to tackle the most critical socio-economic challenges of the 21st century.

Michael Lindeman is Director of Program and Course Development at the University of Illinois Global Campus. Previously, he was the Program Director for Illinois Online Network.