Personalizing Online Education Through the WE CARE Approach!

Brief Abstract

Often online courses can seem to lack interactive connection between Students and Faculty. Based on Student feedback we have developed a WE CARE Program that helps personalize online courses to enhance the learning experiences of both Students and Faculty. This presentation will focus on five methods to personalize online courses.

Extended Abstract

The WE CARE approach was aimed at demonstrating to our Students that we, as Faculty, are focused on assisting them to move forward with their careers through online learning. A main problem with online education is the often lack of personal contact between Students and Faculty. This often results in missed opportunities to exchange backgrounds and experiences between both parties.

To help reverse this element we have implemented a WE CARE Program. It is a Program that starts off asking Students what they want from their online educational pursuits. A key response from Students has been to try to personalize their online courses in some way. With these results we, as both Faculty and Administrators, have begun to implement ways of accomplishing this Student-driven request.

Initially, we began this process to enhance Student Success, with a tile change to WE CARE. Our early meetings were with Administrators that were responsible for aspects of Student Success. For the most part Student Success was measured in a few categories, such persistence rates, graduation rates, and retention rates. These were numbers, while helpful, they did not give us the Students’ view of Student Success. And after all, Students are our educational customers.

Our next step in the WE CARE Program was to gather some key data from Students on their versions of Student Success and some other information. We were determined to survey a group of seniors in the final phases of their undergraduate careers. The thought here was seniors would have more to say about Student Success.

A brief survey was submitted to seniors. This survey had four questions:

1. What is your definition of Student Success?
2. What aspects of your time at the University have been helpful to you?
3. What could we have done to improve your experiences at the University?
4. How would you rate your experiences so far at the University? Please use a 1-5 scale, with 5 being Excellent.

The results from Question 1 were wide ranging, but the common response related to: Using the knowledge from their courses to enhance their careers. Not surprising, but it helped us develop strategic plans moving forward. Interestingly, some of the responses to Questions 2 and 3 were often the same, such as Faculty and  courses. However, a good number of  the replies to Question 3 were:

• More Faculty to Student interactions, timely feedback, meaningful feedback, networking opportunities, more of a personal touch, sharing of knowledge and experiences, improved response time to inquiries, and more interactive courses.

Based on this Student-driven feedback and research on Student Success factors we targeted five engagement areas to work on to help the WE CARE Program to personalize our online courses. These five focal points included:

• Improving the Student-Faculty Connection.
• Increasing networking opportunities for Students, initially, in the same course.
• Providing consistent timely feedback.
• Enhancing the learning process by expanding the ways Faculty can bring their background and experiences into online courses.
• Bringing current and relevant topics into online courses that allow Students to use course material in the real world.

So, now we had a much better understanding of what personal touches our Students were seeking from their online courses. The challenges and opportunities here were developing ways to respond to these requests.

To address the Student-Faculty Connection issue several methods were discussed and implemented. Faculty were asked to conduct 1:1 or Group Zoom or Teams sessions at the beginning of each semester with their Students. The intention here was three-fold- to introduce each other, to explain the way the course will be taught, and to discuss any skill a Student would like to work on during the semester. In addition, another personal conduct method proposed was providing Faculty-generated short videos on the main subject matter for each module. Faculty were also given the opportunity to offer optional group Zoom Sessions with Students to discuss topics rather than have Students write them. This allowed for learning through the better exchange of ideas among Students and Faculty.

At the start of each semester Students were asked to complete a video assignment in which they gave a short profile on themselves. This method was meant to allow for optional networking possibilities among the Students. These videos were very successful among the many service Students that we have in our University.

The next step we took was to encourage our Faculty to provide timely feedback to their Students. From the earlier Student survey this was a major concern of Students. While the University policy is seven days after the assignment submission deadline, that is perceived by Students as being too long. They would like to have the feedback on their assignments back before they begin the assignments for the next week. The suggested feedback time was on or before the third day.

Too often some Students think that robots might be teaching them as all they may receive back from a few instructors is “Good job, 92%” or even a posted smiley face. That is not acceptable. Meaningful feedback is a great way to bring the background and experiences of our Faculty to their Students. To that Faculty are asked to give their views on each assignment’s content. It would be like the responses they might give their Students if they were in a classroom course. I use similar responses every time I teach the same course.

The last item on the Students’ wish list was for more interactive assignments. To address this issue, we are working on revising some assignments to allow Students to select topics of interest to them. These topics are often timely or relevant to the focus of the course. We are also bringing into course such techniques as drag and drop assignments and OER learning activities in place of textbooks.

A number of these “personal” learning engagement methods are already in place. Students have rated these methods in their end of course evaluations in the 90%-98% range of being either very effective or effective.

In conclusion, the above engagement methods can greatly enhance the personalization of online courses. There is a caveat. Not all Students, nor Faculty, are comfortable with closing the Student-Faculty connection gap. However, through the WE CARE Program we are seeing more and more Students and Faculty embracing these engagement concepts. They help to make learning more interesting and fun.