2004 - 2005 Online Education Report
www.bsu.edu/iandt/official/report2004-2005.htm

Jim Flowers, Director of Online Education, jcflowers1@bsu.edu, 765-285-2879, AT 130A
Department of Industry & Technology, College of Applied Sciences & Technology
Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA 47306

May, 2005

Current Status | Initiatives
Appendices: MA in TE | MA in CTE |Survey of Majors

Preface

This is the fourth annual report of the online education initiatives from the Department of Industry and Technology at Ball State University. Previous reports may be seen at: www.bsu.edu/iandt/official/report2003-2004.htm, www.bsu.edu/iandt/official/report2002-2003.htm and at www.bsu.edu/iandt/official/report2001-2002.htm. Recommendations contained within this report are those the Director. For more information, visit the online programs' Website at www.bsu.edu/iandt.

The Department of Industry and Technology (I&T) of Ball State University offers two graduate degrees over the Internet: the Master of Arts in Technology Education, and the Master of Arts in Career and Technical Education. Except for a pilot course going online in the Fall of 2000, these programs officially became available online in the Summer and Fall of 2002, respectively. The purpose of this report is to provide a description and an internal review after the third year of online implementation.

The Master of Arts in Technology Education (TE) is intended to meet the needs of technology teachers and others interested in general education in technology. Technology Education is the field that evolved from Industrial Arts, and this master's caters to the needs of teachers in this field who typically teach grades six through twelve. However, community college faculty, elementary teachers, and others can find this program fitting.

The Department also offers a Master of Arts in Career and Technical Education (CTE) (having changed its name from Master of Arts in Industrial Vocational / Technical Education on August 25th, 2003, in keeping with national trends.) This degree is intended to meet the needs of vocational, or career and technical educators, who typically work at high school level vocational programs with specializations in industry and technology. However, community college faculty, industrial trainers, and others wishing an advanced degree can find this master's very appropriate to their needs.

Oversight of these programs is by the Department's Graduate Program Committee, chaired by Dr. Richard Seymour and composed of Graduate Faculty within the Department. That committee decided to offer these degrees online due to declining on-campus enrollments, and based on a national online learning needs assessment, and approval was granted by the Ball State Graduate Education Committee, the School of Extended Education, and the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.

Neither of these degree programs carries initial teacher licensure, since they were primarily designed to service the educational needs of practicing and licensed teachers. However, some students may choose to use selected courses from either program to pursue additional licensing credentials in accordance with their state's requirements for teacher licensure.

As of June, 2004, all fifteen graduate courses offered from the Department had been delivered online, replacing face-to-face (F2F) sections. The 2004 / 2005 year saw no new courses, but due to personnel changes, two faculty redeveloped and delivered online graduate courses that had been taught by others.

Unlike similar programs at some other institutions, the admission requirements do not specify the undergraduate degree areas for applicants, nor do they list a teaching license as an admissions requirement. Thus, these programs are better suited in attracting students who may have had completed a baccalaureate degree in a different field.

As with other masters from Ball State, applicants must have an earned baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution with an undergraduate grade point average of 2.75 (on a 4.0 scale), or with an undergraduate GPA of 3.0 in the latter half of their undergraduate work. Those who do not meet these GPA requirements may be able to enter as probationary students and must achieve a 3.0 minimum average in 9 semester hours of graduate work approved by the Department Chair and the Dean of the Graduate School, and must score in the top two-thirds on each section of the general Graduate Record Examination. There are no additional departmental or program admission requirements.

Each degree program can be completed 100% online without a single trip to the campus or a satellite site. Each master's program requires 30 graduate hours, 9 of which may be transferred in from another institution subject to advisor approval, and only if these were graduate hours from an accredited institution wherein the student earned at least a B. Transfer hours are also subject to the Ball State requirement that all masters coursework be completed within a six-year timeframe. A thesis is optional in each program. Each program has a separate core of courses, a required research course, a required course in education outside the Department of Industry and Technology, and electives. Please see the Appendices listing the Program of Study for the MA in Technology Education and the Program of Study for the MA in Career and Technical Education.

Course Enrollment

Placing the master's degrees online has resulted in a dramatic increase in course and program enrollment. To date, 33 online graduate course sections have been offered since Fall 2000, and the average enrollment was 17.9; considering the maximum set by the Program Committee at 20 for a graduate class, this is impressive. (It should be noted that both the minimum and maximum were broken in some instances, and that on-campus online enrollments were combined for sections "taught with" off-campus online sections; furthermore, this is the course enrollment, not a section enrollment.) In comparison, during this time there were 16 face-to-face classes offered on-campus and being phased out, with an average enrollment of 5.8 students, a low number in light of the minimum set at 6 for a graduate class.

Figure 1. Enrollment for each graduate course offered in Industry and Technology from Fall 2000 through Spring 2005. (Source: ADMAC, except for Fall 2000 BSU@work data)

As seen in Figure 1, F2F enrollment had dwindled, with the new online offerings typically attracting much larger numbers. The data in Figure 1 and Table 1 confirm the wisdom of phasing out face-to-face graduate classes. The last face-to-face graduate class was taught in the Spring of 2003; only online graduate classes that are planned for future semesters, with the exception of mixed-mode classes not part of this degree program that were developed for alternative teacher licensing.

Because this online offering was new, faculty often agreed to teach either over-enrolled (more than 20) classes, or multiple class sections, as seen by the classes above the 20 line in Figure 1. However, this was found to be too taxing in some instances, and the Department's Graduate Program Committee submitted a proposal during the 2004/2005 year to lower the maximum enrollment in graduate classes from 20 to 15, possibly leading to multiple sections where there was previously a section overloaded to 25 students; this proposal was not approved. The maximum course size (20) seems to be asymptotic to the most recent enrollment trend shown at the right of Figure 1, which indicates that the programs might be at their carrying capacity given the current number of faculty.

Program Headcount

Program headcounts show an increase at the Fall 2002 period, when the programs began to be delivered online, as shown in the combined program headcounts in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Combined Program Headcounts for the MA in Technology Education and the MA in Career & Technical Education combined, from historical BSU@Work data for Fall and Spring semesters.

The larger program is the one in Technology Education, illustrated below in Figure 3. The trend shown in Figure 2 is mostly due to the trend shown in Figure 3. The upward trend in the Technology Education Program Headcount deviated in the Fall of 2004 due to two factors. First, there was a decision to cancel ITEDU 510 made one month prior to the first day of class due to low enrollment (4) at that time. Second, ITEDU 691, typically taught by Dr. Ray Shackelford, was postponed until the Spring of 2005 due to Dr. Shackelford's sabbatical leave in the Fall of 2004. This resulted in only two online offerings in Technology Education in the Fall, rather than four. These courses achieved maximum enrollment and there were students requesting online courses who were not able to enroll.

Figure 3. Program Headcounts for the MA in Technology Education, extracted from BSU@work historical data for Fall and Spring semesters.

Recommendation: As a result, a recommendation is hereby made that online courses not be cancelled due to low enrollment prior to the first day of class. Second, sabbatical leaves might be accommodated by assignment of an alternate instructor, thereby not disrupting students' plans.

The healthy growth of the MA in Technology Education (Figure 3) has been a great success for the Department, the College of Applied Sciences and Technology, and the School of Extended Education. This growth is expected to peak at very near the current level (50 to 55) and level off due to the ability of current faculty to cover online courses.

A similar curve is seen in the program headcounts for the MA in Career and Technical Education from the point of online implementation (Figure 4). In this case, the increase is more dramatic because face-to-face enrollment had all but disappeared prior to online implementation.

Figure 4  Program Headcounts for the MA in Career and Technical Education (previously called the MA in Industrial Vocational / Technical Education), extracted from BSU@work historical data for Fall and Spring semesters.

The slope of the curve for headcount in the MA in CTE in Figure 4 seems to indicate a greater potential for increase than the curve for headcount in the MA in TE. Trend extrapolation was used to show predictions for the different growth expected in each program (Figure 5). However, these are based on numerous assumptions, most notably the ability to increase the number of faculty and frequency of offerings in the CTE program; without such increases, the program may have already reached its maximum.

Figure 5. Extrapolating Trends in Program Headcounts.

Recommendation: Additional Graduate Faculty are needed in the Master of Arts in Career and Technical Education Program if the current growth trend is expected to continue.

Faculty

Due to the retirement of Dr. James Kirkwood, the resignation of Dr. Scott Warner, and the graduate faculty status term ending for Mr. Richard Ertle, the Department has lost three graduate faculty who had covered four of the fifteen online graduate classes. New hires in the Department for the 2004/2005 year were not allocated for either the Master of Arts in Career and Technical Education or the Master of Arts in Technology Education, in spite of growing enrollments. Furthermore, in previous years Dr. Jack Wescott had taught graduate courses, but since the transition to online offerings, he has not taught online. The result is that four faculty who used to teach graduate courses are not available to staff two growing programs. Currently, Dr. Cotton teaches all six of the core courses in the CTE degree program and one of those in the TE program.

Recommendation: Additional faculty are needed for these graduate programs, especially the Master of Arts in Career and Technical Education, where the low number of program faculty (i.e., 1) raises serious questions about the quality of the program, in spite of Dr. Cotton's proven abilities and growing numbers in this program.

Dr. Ray Shackelford was on sabbatical leave for Fall 2004 and a decision was made to postpone the offering of ITEDU 691 from the Fall of 2004 to the Spring of 2005. Online teaching assignments were changed as shown in Table 2. (There were also changes in graduate advising, as discussed later.)

Recommendation: Faculty who engage in significant redevelopment of an online course should apply for the support offered through the School of Extended Education and University Teleplex.

Staff

Mr. Sang-Hyun Park served as a Graduate Assistant during the 2004/2005 academic year. A description of the requirements for Graduate Assistants assigned as Online Education Assistants can be seen at: www.bsu.edu/web/iandt/official/staffdescription.htm. Dr. Jim Flowers served as the department's Director of Online Education during the Fall and Spring semesters. The Director's current job description can be seen at the following location: www.bsu.edu/web/iandt/official/directordescription.htm. Both the Director and the Online Education Assistant are 9-month employees. However, there is a need for program support that extends through the summer months, especially in light of the fact that both online programs are designed to provide education to teachers who may be freer to take courses and make inquiries during summer months.

Recommendation: The positions of Director of Online Education and Online Education Assistant should be extended throughout the summer months. However, this is not to say that Dr. Flowers would be the one who would serve in this capacity during those months.

On September 8, 2004, the Department's Graduate Program Committee unanimously approved a motion to lower the section maximum enrollment from 20 to 15 students as a step to ensure the high level of contact between students and instructors that is so critical for quality education. This proposal did not meet with necessary administrative approval.

Recommendation: Because the issue of program quality hinges on class size, it is hoped that the Program Committee's recommendation will be reconsidered, possibly when a future budgetary outlook is more optimistic.

Course Development & Review

This year saw the completion of work on the agreement with the School of Extended Education and University Teleplex to place online, and revise, the fourteen remaining graduate courses offered by the department (after the pilot online offering in the Fall of 2000), with the final "revision following initial implementation" for the last course in the Fall of 2004. Now begins the standard three-year revision cycle suggested by the School of Extended Education. A proposal will be submitted to the Distance Education Review Committee (DERC) outlining the Department's request for support for this revision in December of 2005.

Course Review Instruments and Procedures

The review of online courses continued in the 2004/2005 year with the review of ITEDU 696, the final of these fifteen courses, implemented by Dr. Samuel Cotton in Summer I of 2004, and reviewed and revised in the Fall semester that followed.  The instruments used followed previously established guidelines in the Department. The program faculty collaborated to develop an instrument and set of procedures to aid in the formal review of courses during the semester following their initial online implementation. In addition, the Director has developed and used a somewhat more detailed form. These are available at the following locations.

The Peer Evaluation Instrument and Procedure for implemented online course review were developed through program faculty collaboration, and can be seen as Word and Acrobat documents at:

www.bsu.edu/iandt/official/courseevaluation.doc
www.bsu.edu/iandt/official/courseevaluation.pdf 

The course assessment instrument used by the Director can be seen here:

www.bsu.edu/iandt/official/directorsassessment.xls

To date, formal course evaluations occurred for the following

• ITEDU 550, Career & Technical Student Organizations, Developed by S. Cotton
• ITEDU 552, Career & Technical-Related Class Content, Developed by S. Cotton
• ITEDU 558, Principles & Philosophy of Career & Technical Education, Developed by S. Cotton
• ITEDU 569, Organization and Coordination of Career and Technical Education, Developed by S. Cotton
• ITEDU 635, Implementing Technology Education, Developed by R. Seymour
• ITEDU 690, History & Philosophy of Technology Education, Developed by J. Kirkwood, reviewed, then Redeveloped by S. Cotton for Fall 2004
• ITEDU 691, Strategies & Materials for Teaching Technology Education, Developed by R. Shackelford
• ITEDU 696, Techniques in Coordinating Cooperative Education, Developed by S. Cotton
• ITEDU 698, Seminar in Technology Education, Developed by J. Flowers
• ITEDU 699, Research in Industrial Education, Developed by M. A. Rose
• ITMFG 560, Industrial Safety & Health, Developed by S. Cotton

To date, formal course evaluations have not occurred for the following

• ITEDU 510, Technology Use & Assessment, Developed by J. Flowers prior to the review system, Pilot Course
• ITEDU 551, Trade and Occupational Analysis, Developed by R. Ertle
• ITEDU 564, Practicum in Technology Education for the Elementary Grades, Developed by J. Kirkwood prior to the review system.
• ITEDU 694, Curriculum Development in Technology Education, Developed by S. Warner, and Redeveloped by J. Flowers for Spring 2005

End-of-Course Course Improvement Surveys

In order to furnish feedback needed for course improvement, the Director developed a course improvement survey instrument with feedback from those online instructors who opted to participate. With the exception of two courses, all online faculty have chosen to participate in this system that is intended to furnish them with additional information from students to aid in course redesign. An example of the basic instrument can be seen at the following location, although some faculty have opted to customize the instrument for a particular class: http://www.bsu.edu/inqsit/inqsit.cgi/flowers2/online?510f03imp; this survey of students is voluntary and anonymous on the part of the student. The Director furnishes results to faculty who wish to participate after final grades have been submitted. There is no evaluation of course or faculty based on this data, except that performed by the individual faculty member, him- or herself.

"P&T" Surveys of Students

As outlined in the Department's Promotion and Tenure guidelines, an evaluation of course and instructor by students occurs for all Fall and Spring courses during the 12th week. In the Fall and Spring semesters of 2004 / 2005, the standard 12th-week "student evaluation of course and instructor" was successfully implemented using Gradebook, and under the administration of Dr. James A. Jones.

During this year, it was brought to the attention of the Department's Promotion and Tenure Committee that some faculty felt a need for an instrument and a system that better addressed online and graduate education. It was suggested that a new set of instruments be developed based on the research literature, and validated. During the Spring of 2005, a revised instrument was forwarded by that committee for consideration by all tenured and tenure track faculty in the Department. A decision was made to return that instrument to the committee for further work as indicated during that faculty meeting.

Survey of Majors

As done in the previous year, near the end of the Spring 2005 semester, all graduate students majoring in the Department's programs were sent a request to take an anonymous online survey to provide feedback on the online program. The results from the survey of majors are contained in an appendix in this document.

Changes to Graduate Catalog

In the Fall of 2004, two non-majors enrolled in both ITEDU 568, Principles & Philosophy of Career and Technical Education, and ITEDU 690, History of Technology Education. Each is a core course in either their respective programs. The degree of overlapping content led to the following note added to each course description (Approved by Program Committee Sept 8, 2004, and by Dean Kingsbury on September 15, 2004.) The note, as approved by the Committee and Dean Kingsbury read "Note: Credit cannot be received for both ITEDU 568 and ITEDU 690." However, discussions with Ron Murphy led to the need to use standardized terminology throughout the Graduate Catalog, thus the phrase that will appear is "Note: Not open to students with credit in ____ ." As Ron Murphy pointed out, neither wording would prevent students from concurrent enrollment, and either would let them know that credit could not be earned for both.

Advising

During the Fall of 2004, Jim Flowers took over the role of Graduate Advisor from Jack Wescott on a one-semester trial basis. The number of graduate advisees grew to the point where Dr. Flowers had more advisees (n=65, according to the BSU@work "Student List and Headcount by Advisor" for Spring 2005) than any other department advisor, except one (who had n=75). Unlike with those other advisors, however, these advisees were online and were graduate students, complicating the task of advising. Furthermore, there was no assigned time for graduate advising, unlike for undergraduate advisors. Dr. Flowers had had a "banked" assigned time during the Fall of 2004, due to one of the overload classes he taught in previous Spring, and the new graduate advising duties he assumed dissipated that banked time. Efforts to secure an assigned time for the important role of graduate advisor for these growing programs were not successful. Thus, without any accommodation for graduate advising in the Spring of 2005, the program faculty decided to divide the graduate advising responsibility equally among the six faculty. A new graduate advising protocol has been established, and can be seen at www.bsu.edu/web/iandt/official/advising.htm. It includes the following advising assignments.

Recommendation: It is recommended that Ball State University support these online programs by allocating an assigned time for two faculty designated as graduate advisors. It is recommended that there be one such advisor for each of the two master's programs.

Streaming Media: Colloquium Series

Through the help of Mr. Mike Dalton, the projection computer in Room 214 of the Applied Technology Building was fitted with a video and audio input card and other software to accommodate video streaming. Additional audio/video equipment has been purchased by the department for this. Initially, the department's Colloquium Series was being streamed live. This typically occurred one Wednesday a month at 3 pm during the Spring and Fall of 2004, and those at a distance could see and hear the broadcast over any broadband Internet connection. Questions and discussion with distance participants were facilitated with a chat room established in the Blackboard site for graduate advisees, and with the Email address: onlinetech@bsu.edu. There were just a few distance participants in the Spring of 2004.

None of the 25 graduate majors responding to the 2005 survey indicated that they participated in these live events. However, beginning in the Fall of 2004, selected live events were recorded, and the stream was made available through an archive page at www.bsu.edu/web/iandt/webcasts.htm.The Department's video streams, both live and archived, are still rather crude, and the funding that supported 2004 colloquium sessions (administered by Drs. Annette Rose and Scott Warner [resigned]) has expired.

Recommendation: It is recommended that future colloquia be pursued with improved technology and better publicity. It is also recommended that graduate faculty in the department consider having their online graduate students participate in selected video streamed events as part of their class requirements, as appropriate to the course objectives and as fits those students' schedules.

Scholarships and Awards

The Department of Industry and Technology annually recognizes outstanding students in different degree programs with awards and scholarships at a Spring banquet. A Department Scholarship Committee coordinates the selection of awardees with Department faculty, and an Awards Reception Committee facilitates the ceremonies. No recognitions, awards, or scholarships were given to graduate students in either the Master of Arts programs in Technology Education or Career and Technical Education in 2005. However, a newly endowed scholarship to support graduate students was granted, the Dr. William H. Middleton Scholarship, named in honor of a long-time and respected faculty member: http://www.bsu.edu/web/iandt/news/MiddltnSchrsh05form2.doc. It should be noted that this scholarship is only open to an applicant who is in-coming or returning "full-time resident graduate student." As the department's masters degrees have evolved into 100% online degree programs, the requirements of full-time status and residency limit the pool of possible awardees to very few.

The 2005 Dr. William H. Middleton Scholarship was granted to Ms. Amy Hanrahan who is a senior in the Graphic Arts Management bachelor's program, and the entire Department congratulates her on this scholarship. 

Recommendation: It is recommended that the Scholarship Committee, the Awards Reception Committee, and the Graduate Program Committee work together to provide recognition and support of online graduate students.

Extending Protocols to Include Distance Students

Many procedures occur without special efforts taken to include students-at-a-distance. However, the Department is striving to overcome this. For example, an effort was made to include online students in the Department community was in the solicitation of outstanding teaching awards. In the Spring of 2005, the announcement that had traditionally online been circulated on campus was sent to the 102 online graduate students who took courses from the Department in Summer I 2004, Fall 2004, or Spring 2005. (After review of nominations from across the Department, the Department's Outstanding Teaching Award Committee chose to offer no awards in 2005.)

International Student Admissions

In the Fall of 2004, Ball State's Center for International Programs created a new admissions form for those seeking admissions into extended education programs without relocating to the United States. This new form and procedure (www.bsu.edu/internationaladmit/disteduapp/) do not require assurances that the applicant will be able to pay on-campus tuition, room, and board, nor inquire about their Visa status. The Center for International Programs should be commended on responding to this need, and now new international markets should be more viable. However, there are some requirements that are not clearly identified for foreign applicants. For example, TOEFL scores are not required for those in select countries, and a Canadian Driver's License photocopy can be substituted for a photocopy of the picture page of a passport.

Recommendation: It is recommended that the Center continue to improve its foreign student application support, making the process as student-friendly as possible within the requirements of our admissions process.

Website Testing & Revision

One of the most critical marketing tools is the program Website at www.bsu.edu/iandt which is different from the departmental Website at www.bsu.edu/cast/itech/ . Numerous graduate assistants have worked with the Director of Online Education to develop the many pages that make up the "iandt" site.

In April, 2003, Nancy Prater conducted a formal usability assessment test of the www.bsu.edu/iandt Website. Her report can be seen at: www.bsu.edu//iandt/official/IandT_Summary.doc. Changes are continually being made to improve the iandt site. It includes program information, an extensive question/answer page, information about faculty, news, links to admissions, registration, the graduate catalog, and much more. One of the most helpful features is the use of a form to gain information from those interested in the program. To date, over 700 requests for information have been received with this form since the program went online in 2002, with approximately 170 received from May 2004 through April 2005; this does not count the additional requests for information received through typical Email and phone contacts.

Ball State University is transitioning to the Vignette Content Suite software for official Webpage development. This represents an enormous shift and will require the individual unitization and input of many "articles" and illustrations. A draft of the iandt Website was created on the Vignette system by Kalyan Narra in the Fall of 2003. However, there are plans to redevelop the main site for the Department of Industry and Technology using the Vignette Content Suite; the previous iandt site used to support the online programs would be redesigned as a subset of that larger, Department site.

iweb

BSU's University Computing Services has noted that accounts on the "web" server should be transitioned to the newer and expandable iweb server. Online faculty, and the iandt site mentioned above, make primary use of that older "web" server. However, online faculty have applied for and received iweb accounts, and have been briefed on the transition to the iweb server. The expected increase of disk quota to 1 Gb per account will facilitate this transition. However, there is an issue with the current implementation of the iweb server. It does not support the sending of Email from a web page using active server pages (ASP.) ASP has been used to receive Email from prospective students and to respond to their inquiries, both on the iandt site and in the pages of online faculty.

Recommendation: The iweb disk quotas for online faculty accounts should be increased to 1 Gb as soon as possible, hopefully allowing for Website migration during the Summer of 2005. Secondly, the issue that prevents active server page use from iweb should be resolved as soon as possible.

Promotional Items

Again this year, laser-cut acrylic gears, manufactured by the Director and containing program contact information, were distributed to interested parties through the mail, at conferences, and elsewhere. In the past, these have been found to be of interest to those involved with technical subject matter. The gear pictured to the right is used to market both online masters degrees.

Email Marketing

The Email marketing that occurred in previous years was halted for 2003/2004 and 2004/2005 due to the global proliferation of spam and viruses.

Brochures

New brochures have been designed for the MA in TE and the MA in CTE. During use in the 2004 / 2005 year, it was suggested by some program faculty and potential students that the brochures be redesigned to include more program information, especially a listing of courses, along with the mailing address of the department. These had been present in older program brochures.

Download the TE Brochure

Download the CTE Brochure

Recommendation: Upon the next redesign of these two brochures, program requirements (including lists of courses) and a mailing address should be included.

Website Listings & Banner Advertisement

A banner advertisement was again placed at the Website of the International Technology Education Association, on their "Where to Get a Degree" page: www.iteawww.org/J4.html. This links users directly to the Main Technology Education Page: www.bsu.edu/web/iandt/te.htm. The banner is an animated graphic consisting of two frames:

In addition, links to Ball State's online information about these two programs are found on a number of other sites, such as that of the Association of Career and Technical Education http://www.acteonline.org/resource_center/cte_links/schools.cfm, often in response to a request by the Director of Online Education.

• http://masstec.nstemp.com/new.html (listed by the Massachusetts Technology Education Engineering Collaborative)
• http://www.firn.edu/doe/programs/pdf/flash_147.pdf & http://www.ftea.com/Flash_156.pdf (listed by the Florida Technology Education Association)
• http://www.nde.state.ne.us/cte/Newsletters/April03.htm (listed by the Nebraska Department of Education, Career & Technical Education)
• http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/dlsis/let/doc/te022503.doc (listed by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Technology Education Program)
• http://www.atte.org/FYI2.html (listed by the Association of Texas Technology Education)

In addition, a letter from Jim Flowers asking for assistance to get the word out about the Ball State's Online Masters has been published online at:

• http://www.indianaacte.org/bBoard.shtml (The Indiana Association of Career and Technical Education)
• http://www.k12.wa.us/CareerTechEd/BulletinBoard/Mar03.aspx (Washington State, Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Career and Technical Education)
• http://www.msstate.edu/listarchives/tech-discovery/200302/msg00009.html (Mississippi State University, listserv archive)

Scholarly Publications

In this academic year, three scholarly publications related to online education and authored or coauthored by Department faculty appeared.  Articles and other publications have served to position Ball State University and program faculty as innovative practitioners of distance education and increased name recognition, and more are planned.

• Ali, N. S., Hodson-Carlton, K., Ryan, M., Flowers, J., Rose, M. A., and Wayda, V. (2005). Online education: Needs assessment for faculty development. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 36(1), 32-38. Retrieved Jan. 28, 2005 from http://proquest.umi.com/pqdlink?index=9&did=782490161&SrchMode=3&sid=1&Fmt=6&VInst=PROD&V
  Type=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1106919105&clientId=3278
• Flowers, J. (2005). Lessons to consider: Distance and distributed learning environments from student and faculty perspectives. In W. L. Havice & P. A. Havice, (Eds.), Distance and distributed learning environments: Perspectives and strategies: 54th yearbook of the Council on Technology Teacher Education. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill.
• Rose, M.A. (2004). Comparing productive online dialogue in two group styles: Cooperative and collaborative. The American Journal of Distance Education, 18(2), 73-88. Available online from Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Online at http://www.leaonline.com/

Presentations

Presentations at conferences and elsewhere have marketed the online programs. Among the presentations by Department faculty related to online education were the following.

• Cotton, S., Zirkle, C. & Hall, H. (2004). Alternative strategies for delivering teacher preparation. National Webcast from The Ohio State University. October 5, 2004.
• Flowers, J. (2005). Improving engagement through a learning objects approach. Invited Presenter, Indiana Higher Education Telecommunication System All-Partners Conference, Indianapolis, IN. April 15, 2005.
• Flowers, J. (2005). Helping students conduct formal technology assessments. Presenter, International Technology Education Association Conference, Kansas City, MO. April 4, 2005. (This presentation described the online course in Technology Use and Assessment.)
• McFadden, J. & Cotton, S. (2004). Resources: Help along the path to success: Online graduate courses. Indiana Association for Career and Technical Education summer conference, Muncie, IN (2 Sessions). July 27, 2004

Grants and Research Related to Online Education

• Faculty ROLE. The final report was submitted for the Faculty ROLE project in December of 2004. Six faculty in the College of Applied Science and Technology, partnering with other units at Ball State, received a $10,000 grant from the George and Frances Ball Fund for Academic Excellence to conduct a workshop during May and June, 2003. The workshop was called "Faculty Researching OnLine Education" or "Faculty ROLE," and it was an initiative aimed at encouraging online faculty in CAST to conduct needed research in online education, or to apply research results to their online instruction. The investigators on this project were Nagia Ali, Jim Flowers, Kay Hodson-Carlton, Annette Rose, Marilyn Ryan, and Valerie Wayda, and partnerships were obtained from the Office of Teaching and Learning Advancement, the School of Extended Education, University Libraries, University Teleplex, and the Office of Academic Research and Sponsored Programs. Department faculty scheduled to participate include Sam Cotton, James Kirkwood, Dick Ertle, and Tom Tyberg. The final report final report can be seen at: jcflowers1.iweb.bsu.edu /projects/21Cent2003/facultyROLEreport.htm
   
• Sam Cotton and Jim Flowers received approval from the BSU Institutional Review Board to conduct research on "The effect of self-categorization of cognitive dialogue on online student discussions." Data was gathered from their Summer I 2004 classes and analyzed during the academic year.

• Prior to the Fall of 2004, the Department offered dual sections of nearly each online graduate course. This was done so that distance students could enroll through the School of Extended Education, which provide lower tuition rates and special services for distance students, and on-campus students working as graduate assistants could register for an on-campus section that would be covered by their tuition waiver. It was learned, however, that these tuition waivers can be used for courses through SEE. Thus, as of the Fall of 2004 all students, whether on- or off-campus, enrolled through the School of Extended Education. This has been a marked improvement, reducing the problems of students enrolling in inappropriate sections, incorrect billing, and student overloads to a course.
• The Department's Graduate Program Committee approved a new Mission Statement for the Master of Arts in Technology Education during the 2004 / 2005 year:

"The mission of the Master of Arts in Technology Education program is to prepare graduates who possess theoretical and practical understanding of technological content, pedagogy, and research to effectively implement and improve Technology Education."

• A new technology education teaching licensing program was made available this year to currently licensed Indiana teachers. It entails an 18 graduate hour plan of study that includes some of the online courses in the Master of Arts in Technology Education and two blended courses which provide hands-on instruction with technological materials and tools: http://www.bsu.edu/web/iandt/docs/AlternateTELicense.pdf.
• In the Fall of 2003, Dr. Frank Sabatine, Dean of the BSU School of Extended Education, requested that Jim Flowers assemble a group of six faculty, campus wide, to give him faculty input regarded faculty support for the development of online courses. This SEE Faculty Input Group has reported on this topic to Dr. Sabatine. It was then charged with developing distance education course development guidelines to recommend for adoption by the School of Extended Education. In the Fall of 2004, its final report was presented to the School of Extended Education and can be seen as two documents:
  • Recommended Guidelines for Distance Education Course Development:
    http://jcflowers1.iweb.bsu.edu /projects/fig/qs.htm
  • Suggested Distance Course Development Process:
    http://jcflowers1.iweb.bsu.edu /projects/fig/rfp.htm
     
• Dr. Samuel Cotton served as a reviewer of manuscripts related to online education for both Tech Directions Journal and the Journal of Computing in Higher Education during this academic year.
• During the Fall of 2004, Jim Flowers served as a member of the "Learning Objects Task Force" led by Dr. Lynn Ward to assist developing funding opportunities for the higher education institutions in the state of Indiana related to learning objects development.

Appendix A. Program of Study for the Online MA in Technology Education Program

The following subset of the courses listed in the Graduate Catalog has been placed online:

Total Hours Required: 30 Professional Core (15 hrs required)

• ITEDU 635 Implementing Technology Education (3)
• ITEDU 690 History and Philosophy of Technology Education (3)
• ITEDU 691 Strategies & Materials for Teaching Technology Education (3)
• ITEDU 694 Curriculum Development in Technology Education (3)
• ITEDU 698 Seminar in Technology Education (3)

Research Requirements (3 hrs required, 3 - 9 hrs possible)

• ITEDU 699 Research in Industrial Education (3)
• THES 698 Thesis (1-6) (optional)

Professional Education (3 hrs required)

• EDTEC 550 Curriculum Integration of Learning Technology (3)
• (other "professional education" courses that may come online)

Electives (3 to 9 hrs, to achieve 30 total program hrs)

• ITEDU 510 Technology: Use and Assessment (3)
• ITEDU 564 Practicum in Technology Education for Elementary Grades (3)
• EDPSY 640 Methodology of Educational & Psychological Research (3)
• ITEDU 550 Career and Technical Student Organizations (renamed) (3)
• (other electives or transfer credits approved by the program advisor)

Appendix B. Program of Study for the Online MA in Career & Technical Education Program

The following subset of the courses listed in the Graduate Catalog has been placed online:

Total Hours Required: 30