Online Pre-Matriculation Workshops at GSE

Kristin Lofblad, Manager of Instructional and Research Technology Valerie Sutton, Director of Career Services

Jennifer Petralia, Assistant Dean for Master’s Studies

Agenda

• Introduction and Technology Details

• Career Planning Online Workshop

• Writing Like an Educator Online Workshop

Introduction andTechnology Details

Similarities

• Both use the course platform and associated tools

• Both use HUID/PIN to log in (tricky due to time of year)

• Both have ability to track usage:– Page views via iCommons tracking – Discussion posts via discussion board tracking– Opening assets via AW stats on our server– Web conference attendance via Elluminate reporting

• Both are similar in session running / duration and site layout

• Both contain digital assets created with LTC / our ePlatform, following our standard development process

• Both are free, and neither are for credit

Unique Characteristics

ITEM CSO WLE

Funding CIO DL grant GSE Dean’s Office

Development 6 months 3 months

Development team 8ish 3ish

Session length 10 hours each 5 hours each

# of participants 30 to start

15 to finish

40 to start

25 to finish *

Delivery Synch, asynch, SASB asynch, SASB

Audience Incoming master’s students <2 years work

Incoming international students

Career PlanningOnline Workshop

Challenge/Solution

• One-year master’s program

• 42% of students entering Harvard Graduate School of Education have less than two years of work experience

• Students are overwhelmed with decisions once they arrive on campus

• Career conversations need to start earlier so students can identify appropriate resources and courses for their professional path

• Leverage the time before students arrive on campus and make decisions regarding coursework and activities to begin career exploration!

• Audience: Pilot group of 15-25 incoming master’s students with less than two years experience

• Delivery:

– Online beginning in August; prior to arrival on campus

– Highly facilitated by Career Services staff

Challenge Solution

The Opportunity

• Online workshop for incoming master’s students to help early identification of career interests/goals

• Project Goals:– Facilitate curricular planning

– Classify and narrow extracurricular activities

– Identify Harvard resources to assist in curricular and career planning

– Smooth the progress of a one-year master’s program to full-time position within three months of graduation

Asset Development Phase

• Internally Developed:– E-Lectures (Articulate)

– Tutorials (Articulate)

– Podcasts (Audacity and course platform)

– Videos (iMovie and Flash video encoder)

– “Caselets”– Documents

• Outsourced:– CareerBeam– Strengthsfinder– Hired Networking tool

Communication Plan

• Targeted communication sent to incoming master’s students with less than two years

• Students completed online registration form to express interest

• First 25 participants selected to participate in the pilot workshop

• Follow-up communications sent to all interested respondents alerting them to the self-paced offering

• Instructions sent to the registrants for the facilitated workshop

Lessons Learned: Facilitated Module

• Introductions– Web conference for real-time relationship-building at the

start

• Timing– Synchronous components with geographically dispersed

students – Planning for potential move/arrival on campus

• Workload

• Drop-out rate

• Content creation– Realistic expectations for quantity of content that can be

developed in timeframe

Next Steps

• Evaluation, focus group, and longitudinal assessment

• Additional content development for version 2– Facilitated summer 2008

– Self-paced fall 2008

• Next up: Virtual Career Days!

Writing Like an EducatorOnline Workshop

Project MotivatorsProject Motivators

•Student Requests for Pre-Matriculation Writing Support•Faculty Concerns Re: Student Writing Preparation•Needs of International Students•Disciplinary Cases

AudienceAudience

•All Incoming International Students

Workshop GoalsWorkshop Goals

•Identify main characteristics of US academic writing •Identify common types of writing assignments at HGSE•Use APA formatting to cite sources/avoid plagiarism

Delivery RationaleDelivery Rationale

•Face-to-face on-campus and synchronous distance (web conferencing) not feasible

•Asynchronous distance (discussion boards / email) •Web sites with which students could interact repeatedly during and after the workshop

Delivery FormatDelivery Format

•iCommons course platform and associated tools•Four one-week sessions (approx. 5 hours/week work for students)•40 students total, broken into three sections•Three facilitators (one per section)•Combination of on- and off-line activities•Asynchronous communication via emails and discussion board

Assessment Assessment

•Anonymous participant satisfaction survey using iCommons poll tool•Debrief with facilitators•Development team debrief•Tracking of academic success / lack of issues re plagiarism with class list

Lessons LearnedLessons Learned

•Build in more development time•Offer workshop earlier in summer•Make each session two weeks•Break up sessions differently for more even workload•Better recruitment / training of facilitators•Incorporate completion requirements to avoid drop-out

Next StepsNext Steps

•Continue to track and survey 2007 participants to gauge effectiveness

•Summer 2008–Secure funding

–Create new content and revise some existing content

–Promotion / outreach

–Recruit facilitators

–Create 2008 instance of course site