2007-08

Phebe Shen, Everett Community College

Team Members:

Ann Harrington, Marcia Huntington, Lolly Smith

Application for Award:

Four English faculty: Ann Harrington, Lolly Smith, Marcia Huntington and Phebe Shen, wanted to create a class with the desire to improve student success as well as increase faculty collaboration. What was at first a “What if we could work together in the one class required by all transfer students. . .” discussion became an online class that has pushed the boundaries in the field of composition and online learning in many ways. During a year of intense planning, we created an online classroom environment which offers a team approach to student learning by drawing on the unique strengths of four instructors, providing online writing assistance by linking to a peer staffed Writing Studio, and establishing best practices in composition through qualitative and quantitative assessment methods.

Eventually, English 101D online became two identical blackboard courses with 40 students and two instructors in each, and all four teachers move seamlessly between the courses, dialoguing with and helping students in both. All 80 students work on identical assignments and see exemplary models from students in both classes.

“I found that having more instructors gave me quicker responses, as well as more detailed responses. Also, having more instructors assisted me by giving me different points of view on topics we discussed, developing my opinions, or opening my mind to other possibilities.” ~a student from Fall, 2006

Core 101 provides students with innovative assignments that incorporate new technology, diversity themes, and a variety of assessment techniques all to enhance student success and retention. Assignments such as blogs and e-portfolios create a bridge between the personal and academic lives of the students. Recognizing that online students often can feel isolated from other classmates and instructors, we created numerous communities within cyberspace for students to connect with each other. Students work with a consistent group of students to discuss the themes of each unit as well as work in innovative conversational groups called “Paper Talk” where they give each other feedback and support for essays.

They enjoy “Intermissions” between units and work with different people in “Movie Talk” groups to discuss current films. Students also interact with all 80 students at the class “hub” where all the blogs are located. Since online students don’t get the support offered to students who are on campus, we created an online writing center support called the Writing Studio. The “studio” is located in a Blackboard site which serves all the students enrolled in this English 101 class. It is staffed by the writing center instructional staff and by peer tutors. We have worked hard to make this class highly interactive and collaborative, encouraging learners to be active, responsible participants in the learning process.

”Overall, this class had a great impact on my way of thinking about the world around me. I know the course focused on outsiders and outcasts, but with the online environment none of us students were outcasts. The free flowing and friendly discussions made me appreciate taking this class online.” ~ a student from Winter, 2007

Because we were interested in quantifying how our innovation and collaboration would impact student success and retention, we’ve used a number of assessment tools to obtain both qualitative and quantitative data. The final e-portfolio asks students to write a reflective essay, looking back at the quarter and assessing in writing their own growth and change. Students choose four pieces of writing that serve to exemplify their learning and introduce each piece with a reflective commentary. In addition, we rely heavily on our beginning, mid, and end of quarter assessment tools to evaluate student success. We will use our assessment data to help clarify our departmental curricular strengths, uncover weak areas in our English 101 program, provide evidence and justifications for making changes, and identify areas where faculty should be recognized for excellence or assisted with curriculum planning.

“The most valuable experience was completing the e-portfolio. It was good to look back and see how much I've accomplished and be able to change one of the writings that I was not happy with. It was something I have never done and made me feel great when I was able to complete it.” ~ a student from Winter, 2007

Although one of Core 101’s goals is to promote student success, ultimately we created the course because we were interested in increased collaboration with our colleagues. Working in a department as big as ours, it is easy to hide away in the office and just grade papers all day. Instead, this course forces us to get together and talk about our students and our pedagogy. Currently, we have two veteran instructors teamed with two newer instructors, one of whom had no experience teaching online before this collaborative project. This course enabled strong mentorship through the complexities of planning, setting up, and running an online course. Beyond that though, the course enabled true collaboration from all members with all their varied interests, strengths, and experiences. As we teach this class each quarter as a team we help each other with things like the daily announcements, assignment revisions, discussion board and paper grading—and it is positive, helpful, encouraging, supportive, and always in the best interest of the students. There is respect, humor, and a constant sharing of ideas, an inquisitive, wanting-to-learn more, how-to-get-better attitude. Not only is the course successful, the collaboration used when creating, teaching, revising and re-thinking it is truly remarkable. As our pilot year comes to an end, we anticipate and hope that our “core idea” grows and faculty, both full and part time, can rotate through the program, creating ongoing internal mentoring and collaboration.