eToolkit will drive improvements to support services for distance students
eCampusAlberta member institutions now have a valuable new resource to help them develop policies and implement best practices in providing support services to distance learners.
Supporting Students in Distributed Learning – an eToolkit was officially launched at an event held at Mount Royal University on October 20 for an audience of senior academic and senior student services officers from member institutions.
The eToolkit has been in development since last winter as part of a larger eCampusAlberta project, Meeting the Needs of Diverse Students Engaged in eLearning.
Partners in the eToolkit development were Bow Valley College (lead), Lethbridge College, NAIT, NorQuest College, Northern Lakes College, Olds College, Portage College and Red Deer College.
The eToolkit outlines – in bite-size chunks – success strategies in 10 student support areas earlier identified as critical to a positive distance learning experience:
eToolkit users can click on any of those topics to access research findings, a checklist to assess their institution’s current services, related resources and sample materials.
“The eToolkit is groundbreaking in that it has pulled together a lot of research and turned that into a set of really practical tools,” says Russ Wilde, Director, Learning Resource Services at Bow Valley College.
Wilde says there’s no reason for institutions to feel that they must act on all the service areas at once. “It’s entirely voluntary and the eToolkit is designed to let users quickly access information on areas most relevant to them.”
A resource for policy development
Users will also find help in the eToolkit to create policies around support services for distance learners.
“The steering committee for the learner support services project determined that policy change at institutions is the way to bring about meaningful change for learners,” says Dean Wood, the consultant who led the policy design pilot with eight partner colleges.
Resources in this section include sample policies – service delivery for distance learners, universal design, instructor development and support, and a sample comprehensive institutional policy – that members can adopt or adapt to their needs.
Quality in distance education is not only reflected through excellence in course materials and instructional delivery, Wood says. “It’s also about the total learner experience. The research studies compiled by the eToolkit team, together with the related policies project, are going to be powerful catalysts for service improvements across the province and beyond.”
Wilde and Wood both credit the contributions of the eight institutions involved in the pilot.
“What we’ve seen through this project is a very high level of engagement from administration, faculty and staff at all institutions working in a very collaborative spirit,” says Wood. “There is a dedication to ensuring that online students in the Alberta system are receiving a level of services equivalent to that of their on-campus counterparts.”
Karen Bennett, Associate Vice President, Student Services at NAIT, was part of a cross-divisional group that led the development of a comprehensive distributed learning policy at her institution. Bennett shared her experiences with the policy development process at the launch event.
“The new guidelines and procedures for distributed learning were among the first policies to be developed or reviewed as part of a larger policy review at NAIT. What we found was that everyone wants to improve our processes and services and that being part of the pilot was an opportunity for us to address things that weren’t going as well as we would like them to go and to develop a list of things we want to do better in the future,” Bennett says.
eCampusAlberta Executive Director, Tricia Donovan, also spoke at the eToolkit launch.
“This project was an opportunity for collaboration that goes beyond anything that’s been done before. This project has done a lot to surface the barriers and challenges that exist in the way of policy development and changes. We want to continue to work with members to implement policy changes and to keep making progress towards ensuring an equal access to services for all students, whether they are on campus or learning from a distance. This is truly exciting and groundbreaking work,” Donovan says.
With an eye to continuous improvement, an evaluation of the eToolkit is planned for next spring.
The eToolkit will also be featured during sessions at the Community Access Symposium on November 3 and 4 at NorQuest College in Edmonton.
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