Oncourse: Multi-section, Multi-instructor classes

• Who: Prof. Karen Banks
• Department: Kelley School of Business, Department of Operations and Decision Technology
• Class: The Computer in Business (K201) and Technology Course revision(X201)
• Delivery Format: Oncourse course site
• Instructional Goals:
  • To create consistency among all sections of the course
  • To allow flexibility for section instructors

Large classes of multiple sections with multiple instructors are challenging. The university must foster student learning outcomes consistent with well developed curricular goals. At the same time faculty must feel free to teach according to their strengths and to meet student needs. Such courses are plentiful at IU, especially at the freshman and sophomore levels.

In the Kelley School of Business, the faculty in the Department of Operations and Decision Technology (ODT) teaches two of these courses, The Computer in Business (K201) and Technology (X201). The faculty sought ways to manage these courses in ways that were consistent, yet flexible. They found their solution in Oncourse CL. Their innovation took ODT Senior Lecturer Karen Banks to the 2008 Sakai Conference in Paris.

Seven hundred students take X201 each semester. They explore use of technology and spreadsheet modeling in business organizations. They learn about methodologies and technologies that lead to strategic problem solving and decision making in data analysis. Seven instructors teach the same content and follow a similar class structure. Ms. Banks tells me, “These instructors have the experience and skills to follow their own teaching styles and add or change specific class exercises to fit the needs of a particular class of students. So, they need flexibility within the course structure to best benefit the students.”

To create consistency in the course, all students must take the same two proctored practical exams, complete the same five group projects, receive the same course announcements, and complete the same number of assignments.

To allow flexibility instructors add 12 individual assignments, disseminate additional readings and resources, and make individual announcements.

Oncourse CL provides a way to manage and maintain these two qualities. Oncourse CL is rich with tools and possibilities. These make it intriguing, but also complex. To centralize and facilitate planning and use, ODT appointed Ms. Banks as “Oncourse CL Manager” for X201. In this role, she and the X201 faculty created the blueprint for X201 in Oncourse CL.

Exactly how does this system create flexibility?

The blueprint for consistency has space for flexibility. The tools that build consistency involve only html pages, web content links, website information options, and some limited use of the Oncourse Tests and Surveys and Assignments tools. The remaining Oncourse CL tools are free to the individual instructors to adapt to teaching styles and student needs.

Oncourse CL offers a growing list of tools (over twenty as of August 2008). As that list grows, so does the power of the system to create both consistency and flexibility. As Ms. Banks says, “This system gives us the flexibility that we need but also the structure that we desire.”

Oncourse CL strategies

• Request a project site or practice course site dedicated to hosting course materials. In multi-section, multi-instructor courses, this practice facilitates centralized and consistent structure across course sites. For individual instructors, such a site facilitates simplifies course set up each semester.
• Create and add html pages in resources hosted in the course-dedicated project site. The urls of these resources make them easy to link to course sites.
• Manage Oncourse CL strategically given your course goals. For multi-section, multi-instructor courses, consider having a faculty member or faculty committee manage Oncourse CL for the course. Your campus teaching centers can help you develop your strategy.
• Use the tools that best allow you to adapt your course based on content, teaching style, and student needs. However, in site setup, turn off the tools you don’t use.

Interview and story by:
Michael Morrone, J. D.
Senior Lecturer, Business Communication, Kelley School of Business, IUB
FACET member since 2007
Faculty Fellow, UITS Communications Office