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By Vivie Sinou, October 31, 2003
It has taken four years for the program to reach this maturity level, according to Vivie Sinou, Executive Director of Etudes and the founder and designer of the Cyber Teachers’ Institute (CTI). Like most early adopters, Vivie figured out what it takes to establish a successful online learning environment through experimentation, creative imagination, and motivation to venture into uncharted territory with students who were willing to sign up for her courses. By spring of 1999, Vivie had taught online for several terms, yet she was still the only one who was teaching online on her campus. She felt isolated from colleagues on other campuses who were exploring teaching with web-based technologies. She had no one to share student success stories, her excitement for the gains she was making, and nowhere to go to find how other faculty dealt with the challenges she was grappling with. In May of 1999, Vivie attended a seminar in online learning that had promised to provide an opportunity for meaningful exchange with online teaching professionals. The format and content of the seminar proved of no value to her, as the participants were new to online teaching. About the same time, Vivie attended a workshop on the Great Teachers' Seminar, a program designed to bring great teachers together to learn from each other's teaching successes and challenges. Vivie met David Gottshall, founder of the National Great Teachers Seminar, and was inspired by his and Cindra Smith's exemplary work, "The Great Teachers' Format: Why Does It Work?" Cindra Smith is Director of CTIation Services for the Community College League of California. While reflecting on the principles of the Great Teachers’ Seminar, Vivie found herself wishing she could get great online teachers together to share successes and failures and learn from one another. She wondered whether a "cyber" Great Teachers' Seminar would work. If online instruction allows for personal interaction, as she and many advocates of e-learning argued, then bringing teachers together in a focused virtual classroom should be effective, she convinced herself. And, that is how Cyber Teachers’ Institute (CTI) was born. The Classic Cyber Teachers' Institute (CTI 101) was first offered in the summer of 2001 at Foothill College in an attempt to bring online teachers together in cyberspace to simply learn from each other’s successes and failures. In response to requests, three years later, CTI has evolved to include two more courses: CTI 100, a course for “wannabe’s” to the field of e-learning and CTI 102, an advanced course for faculty who want more.
The CTI series is now offered online every summer through Foothill College. The program enables participants to share success stories, celebrate teaching excellence in the online or traditional classroom, and address key online teaching and learning challenges. Participants are expected to construct reasonable solutions to the challenges by reflecting, analyzing, and learning from what they, as great teachers, know works. Here is an example of a specific “challenge” theme on handling diverse learners: Share with your colleagues the challenges that you have faced in figuring ways to accommodate different learners (style and skill-set) in your online classroom, and describe how you have addressed them, successfully or unsuccessfully. The learning that comes from sharing is evident in responses: “[To assist] learners with varied backgrounds, I have learned to allow for differences in pacing. I have found that students manage to complete projects on time if 1) I have allowed them sufficient time to prepare their projects; 2) I've reminded them along the way (benchmarks) that the date is coming up and…; 3) I've … singled out certain students to work with because they may be having trouble....” -Irma “I offer no self-paced paths. I have weekly benchmarks. I include a collaborative troubleshooting forum so students with more knowledge and experience can assist others. It is easier for me to do my weekly grading. The energy of the course drives itself [when there are] scheduled lessons and assignments.” --Marcia As reflected in the feedback from the participants and the completion rate (95%), the program is a valuable and rewarding learning experience: “I was told that if one enjoys Kindergarten, they would enjoy and take a positive approach for the remainder of their CTIational career. I guess that is why I am receiving such a positive experience with this trilogy of courses.” –Peter “I am going on my third year of teaching online and F2F so I am considered new to academia. However, I have learned more in these short weeks than my 3 years." Mark “I have taught 6 online courses. This is the first time that I was the online student. Wow, online can be great. I was able to go on holiday for a week and not miss class.” Anonymous “… Certain elements need to be in place for a truly good online learning experience. This course demonstrated how the little "communicative touches" could make such a big difference: welcome email, halfway message, nearing completion. I'll be using them in my up-coming class.” –Marion CTI has confirmed the belief that “all knowledge is created socially” (National Learning Infrastructure Initiative), whether online or face-to-face. It is open to online and traditional faculty, recognizing that passion for teaching others what we know is the best way to learn. “It's amazing what you learn by asking questions of your peers, including the ones who haven't yet been-there-done-that! … I'm really looking forward to developing my online courses this fall, and now, thanks to all of you, I can do so with both confidence and massive enthusiasm!” -Trish “Dynamic interaction and feedback is such a motivating force. Knowing my course and syllabus would be up for scrutiny gave me incentive to prioritize tasks such as unifying the appearance of assignments. Having the courage to put materials up for scrutiny has given me a plan for revision.” -Suzanne. Close to 80 instructors from several California Community Colleges complete the program every summer; it serves as a “meeting” place for faculty to “learn, unlearn, and relearn” how to be effective teachers in an evolving digital era. “I have learned that group work can be conducted through threaded discussions. I usually have students do group work at least once a week in my real-time courses. This course has shown me that it can be accomplished on-line as well.” –anonymous “The assignments were challenging and made me not only take in a lot of information but to question my old habits more intensely than I have done in the past. I believe that I have experienced an exponential growth in those things I need to teach (and learn) in the future.” –Russ “As a result of this program I will move with more emphasis and care toward the task of creating a student friendly learning environment. The course has also emphasized in my mind the importance of students written communication skills…” -anonymous The program is facilitated, rather than instructed, by Don Megill, Vivie Sinou, and Dave Megill (or the “DVD Trio” as a participant coined the team) who guide, support, reinforce, and challenge participants to rethink the teaching of their disciplines. Vivie met Don Megill and Dave Megill in 2001 when she invited them to Foothill College to present their award winning music online course at a Best Practices event. She was energized with their passion for teaching and enthusiasm for e-learning and invited them to tri-facilitate the program. The DVD Trio is constantly present but strives to leave the center-stage for the learners. They believe that they are not “prophets,” but rather, it is the participants (novices and veteran online teachers) who bring into the learning process expertise, passion for teaching, and genuine desire to grow. It is not clear whether it’s the mix of their personalities or similar teaching philosophies, but their tri-facilitating requires zero coordination. Vivie takes the lead with the posting of announcements targeted at keeping the classes on task, such as the "State of The Class Address" and "Mid-Point Check," but beyond that, the workload is shared loosely amongst the DVD Trio. It is not uncommon for Vivie [or Don, or Dave] to be in meetings one day and log onto the site in the evening to find that Don [or Vivie, or Dave] has graded all the assignments and monitored the forum discussions. What links the DVD Trio is their desire to keep the participants at the center of the courses and establish different levels of freedom for them based on their unique circumstances and experience with online learning. They attempt to coordinate the participants’ goals with the goals for the program, always ready to change the “game plan” to make things work. It is their hope that this facilitation can serve as a model for team teaching for the participants. “It was wonderful to learn and to see a great online course in action. What great fortune to have this be my first course to take online as a student as well as to build an online course!” –Ginny “The classes ran so smoothly that one tends to forget the planning and effort that DVD had to put in to make it that way. I liked the depth of material available… I have attended a number of similar programs and this was by far the best to date.” Peter “As a novice to online instruction (never taken nor taught an online course), I feel like a whole new dimension has been opened up for me.” Anonymous A successful part of CTI is the warm-up vignettes, designed to highlight online teaching challenges and to allow faculty to see how differently each participant would handle them. Here is a sample warm-up vignette: Mardi signed up for Sociology 1 online to get another elective out of the way without having to come to campus. One week before mid-term exams, Mardi found out that she could no longer log into the course site; the instructor had dropped her. After she failed to get anywhere with the instructor, she complained to the Dean, arguing that she had been logging on to the class regularly, had taken all quizzes, and turned in the first term paper. The instructor explained that Mardi had not contributed a single post in the weekly discussions (three required posts a week)--and, as per her syllabus, she reserved the right to drop Mardi from the course. Mardi does not feel like she should be forced to participate in discussions that are not of interest to her. Furthermore, she felt that her term paper grade and quiz results demonstrated her learning. How would you handle the situation? What requirements will/do you set for discussion participation? Here are a few responses from the participants: “I personally would not drop Mardi. Several hosts can document when students have logged on. If indeed she has been participating in other aspects of the class, and simply doesn't want to participate in the discussions, then that is her choice. If she can earn enough points in the class to pass without participation then let her complete the class.” -anonymous “I am afraid I would not be that sympathetic. A student cannot pick and choose what requirements of the course they want to fulfill. Of course they have the option of not doing something but it will affect their grade. I would also like to point out, however, that the instructor should have notified her that she was in danger of being dropped. Letting her turn in quizzes and a final and still dropping her is a little much!” –Laurie “I [heard] a story about the school for the forest animals. In order to graduate all animals must learn to fly, swim, climb and run. The birds did well at flying but not running. The bears couldn't fly, etc (You get the picture). Hence no one graduated. Do we, as teachers, require all our students to excel at exactly the same criteria?” -Peter “I would have handled this situation just like the instructor did. I have a similar problem in my face-to-face classes. I have an attendance policy, and if a student has too many absences they can be dropped from the course. If a student is getting an A, but never shows up to class, he or she feels they deserve to be in the class. A syllabus is like a contract. The students need to follow ALL aspects of the contract, not just a few. I will require discussions as well, but I will probably make it part of their grade.” –Loraine CTI Participants are encouraged to explore new ways of teaching and to not be afraid to abandon traditional practices that may no longer meet the changing learners’ needs. The program invites faculty to place the learner at the center of the learning process and to embrace opportunities for growth. True growth comes when we consciously throw away old beliefs and ways of knowing and embrace new ones to evolve. From a discussion on the importance of deadlines in online classes…
Participants find the pace of CTI very intense and have suggested that we warn faculty about the time commitment required. “My advice to future students is to budget time for the program, keep an open mind, and envision the possibilities.” -anonymous The courses require two to three hours of work per day and are offered back-to-back for six weeks every summer. Each course earns participants 2-quarter units and can be taken for credit or pass/no pass option. Participants have requested that we explore offering graduate credit for CTI so that the units can be counted toward advanced degree programs in online teaching and learning. They have also asked that we offer the program throughout the year instead of just the summer. CTI is delivered in Etudes, a learning management system, managed by Etudes, Inc. The Etudes environment handles the structure, pace, organization, and management of the courses. The participants’ comments speak to the program’s strengths and value to teaching and learning. They grow immensely and graduate longing for a continued learning community. “I'd keep the program going forever (well, perhaps that's hyperbole, but I wish it were longer, because I really, really enjoy it). I'm new to the online environment, so everything was useful to me as instructor, as student, and as a learner….” -Kathy This learning community is what Vivie longed for her in the mid 90’s. Her dream has been finally realized: bring teachers together to learn from each other and not be isolated. At the request of the
graduating class of summer 2003, a CTI Alumni Forum was set up to continue the
learning communities that evolve during the institute.
Many
teachers come back to CTI (repeatable) and have new learning experiences.
The courses evolve, but the premise stays the same; each year participants bring
new insights and experiences to the program forming the basis for the exchanges
that illustrate the transformations in teaching and learning. It is an exciting,
evolutionary era for web-based teaching and learning and CTI provides
instructors with an avenue to share new experiences and grow professionally from
one year to the next. Updated: August 30, 2008 |
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