Description of Student Audience
The student participants are Lincoln University instructors who have not used Moodle much and have not taught a hybrid or fully online course, but is familiar with the basics of Desire2Learn, another learning management system (LMS). There is likely to be a range of ages and familiarity with technology, but it is unlikely that advanced or very basic users will participate. Some faculty have taught online in other institutions, but almost all teach face-to-face classes with basic experience with LMS tools. Some are sophisticated uses of the Internet, particularly younger faculty, and are interested in teaching differently and with more flexibility.
All learners will be able to use computers at a basic level and most will have some experience online, primarily in offering courses that are enhanced by the use of LMS tools rather than taught on an LMS. Faculty have not been asked to develop fully online courses and a couple have taught hybrid classes. They are familiar with putting documents, summaries and PowerPoints online for reference in face-to-face classes, but not particularly familiar or comfortable with actually teaching online.
Description of Institution
Lincoln University is a small state-related liberal arts university in Pennsylvania with 90 full-time faculty and 1,800 students. About 250 courses have an online presence in a controlled Moodle environment hosted by a company called Learning House. Lincoln executives are very interested in moving quickly into online courses as many universities are. Lincoln is a small historically black school and wants to maintain a niche as offering online programs for adult learners as well as residential programs for young, traditional college students.
Lincoln is currently transitioning to Moodlerooms as the hosting service and will have much more control of the online learning environment. Because of this and efforts to increase awareness and interest in online learning, it is expected that more courses will be offered online as hybrids and eventually in fully online programs.
A faculty-run distance learning committee is expanding existing policies and procedures to guide the University’s foray into online teaching and learning. The University will offer a combination of Moodle courses developed by Moodlerooms, and workshops and courses developed for the faculty by me and an instructional design assistant. Lincoln is under-funded and under-staffed and some some difficulties in getting Moodle up and running and faculty trained is expected.
The student participants are Lincoln University instructors who have not used Moodle much and have not taught a hybrid or fully online course, but is familiar with the basics of Desire2Learn, another learning management system (LMS). There is likely to be a range of ages and familiarity with technology, but it is unlikely that advanced or very basic users will participate. Some faculty have taught online in other institutions, but almost all teach face-to-face classes with basic experience with LMS tools. Some are sophisticated uses of the Internet, particularly younger faculty, and are interested in teaching differently and with more flexibility.
All learners will be able to use computers at a basic level and most will have some experience online, primarily in offering courses that are enhanced by the use of LMS tools rather than taught on an LMS. Faculty have not been asked to develop fully online courses and a couple have taught hybrid classes. They are familiar with putting documents, summaries and PowerPoints online for reference in face-to-face classes, but not particularly familiar or comfortable with actually teaching online.
Description of Institution
Lincoln University is a small state-related liberal arts university in Pennsylvania with 90 full-time faculty and 1,800 students. About 250 courses have an online presence in a controlled Moodle environment hosted by a company called Learning House. Lincoln executives are very interested in moving quickly into online courses as many universities are. Lincoln is a small historically black school and wants to maintain a niche as offering online programs for adult learners as well as residential programs for young, traditional college students.
Lincoln is currently transitioning to Moodlerooms as the hosting service and will have much more control of the online learning environment. Because of this and efforts to increase awareness and interest in online learning, it is expected that more courses will be offered online as hybrids and eventually in fully online programs.
A faculty-run distance learning committee is expanding existing policies and procedures to guide the University’s foray into online teaching and learning. The University will offer a combination of Moodle courses developed by Moodlerooms, and workshops and courses developed for the faculty by me and an instructional design assistant. Lincoln is under-funded and under-staffed and some some difficulties in getting Moodle up and running and faculty trained is expected.