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College Professors Move to Online Learning with Higher Ed Holdings

Faculty Converts High Quality Courses To Internet

By Greg Russell

In an effort to stay competitive with large, online proprietary institutions, several state universities across the country are implementing distance learning degree programs.  Through Higher Ed Holdings, the programs are designed to deliver high-quality instruction to greater numbers of students in less time. Professors accustomed to traditional semester-long, campus-based courses have found it surprisingly comfortable to convert to instruction through the online delivery platform.

The shift has also been beneficial in other ways, prompting many instructors to reevaluate what they teach and how they teach it. Instead of planning their material for a four-month semester geared toward a group of students seated in front of them, instructors are redesigning to effectively teach the same course material in different time frames for an online class that can number in the hundreds. Those that embrace the challenge are discovering the benefits that distance learning brings not just for students, but for educators seeking professional growth.

“I think it makes me a better instructor to go through the process of building a course online and getting the same level of assignments, the same level of research, the same level of discussion,” says Jeanean Boyd, assistant clinical professor at the University of Texas at Arlington School of Nursing.

The school teamed with service provider Higher Ed Holdings to launch an online R.N. to B.S.N. program last fall, offering registered nurses the chance to earn a bachelor’s degree through a Web-based program that includes 27 nursing and general courses. University faculty are solely responsible for developing the course curriculum, while Higher Ed Holdings provides a robust and media-rich online delivery platform that fosters a high level of student engagement.

“When I had to [teach] in a different delivery method, it made me think differently about how to do it face-to-face,” notes Boyd, who also coordinates the distance learning program.

In addition to watching instructional segments on video, much of the learning occurs through students’ participation in online discussion forums for each class. Students are required to initiate topics and add a certain number of postings to the discussion with thoughtful commentary about assigned topics each week, which ensures robust discussion and creates a sense of community. The format allows students who need only the nursing courses to complete the program in as little as 13 months, but also carry out course requirements on their own schedule without leaving home.

“From an instructor’s viewpoint, and from an academically sound viewpoint, I feel as though the students are understanding the concepts more quickly and synthesizing the information much more completely in the online course,” says Boyd.

Clinical instructor Janet McLean is in her second year teaching “Holistic Care of Older Adults,” a three-hour nursing course at UT-Arlington that spans a broad view of topics involving senior care, from patient interaction to assisting with financial options. Hers was among the first courses to be included in the new distance format – a transition that occurred just as she was leaving clinical practice to start her career as a university faculty member.

“I was fully expecting to teach a classroom scenario – stand-up lecture, typical of what you expect. And then this opportunity came along,” she says. “But, it was an excellent experience and I have learned so much that I’m really glad I was able to do this. It has resulted in new ideas for me that I would never have thought about when teaching in a traditional setting.”

McLean also teaches the course in a classroom setting, but admits the online format is more effective in some ways. She adds that the guidance she received from Higher Ed Holdings in adapting her course to the Internet delivery platform was instrumental in providing her a level of comfort.

“I was not afraid of [teaching online], it was just ignorance on my part—I didn’t know how to do it. But I have to say, Higher Ed Holdings held our hands as we went through the development of these courses,” says McLean.

The shortened timeframe presented perhaps the most significant challenge, McLean notes, because she had to take a course usually taught over a 15-week semester and teach it in 5 weeks while still maintaining the quality and rigor of the traditional format.

“You really do have to take a hard look at everything you are teaching,” she says. “The content is all driven by the objectives of the course, so that everything you say, every slide you present, every reading you ask them to do, has to be tied to the specific objectives rather than just things you might like them to know.”