For decades, Ball State University has been a recognized leader in undergraduate and graduate education in Technology Education (TE) and its predecessor, Industrial Arts. Now, the faculty in the Department of Industry and Technology propose putting their well-established masters degrees in Technology Education and in Industrial Vocational / Technical Education (IVTE) online, taking advantage of the power of the Web to reach place-bound professional teachers across the nation, and creating a distinctive and profitable niche. 

These two masters programs have historically appealed to licensed technology teachers and vocational teachers who wish to "professionalize" their Indiana teaching license, and to  teachers in other states where a master's is either required or represents a significant pay increment. 

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The Current Masters Programs:

Program 1:

MA in Technology Education

• The current masters in Technology Education regularly attracts graduate students from across the country, typically including one to three international students per year. Graduate students have entered the program from China, Taiwan, Brazil, India, Australia, Nigeria, and England, and from 25 states. Historically, many students have come from Indiana. Many graduates of the program are leaders in local, state, and international efforts.

• The current program includes a single online class. This is ITEDU 510, which was first implemented in the Fall of 2000. It combined an on-campus section with a continuing education section and had 26 students enrolled.

• This has typically been a 1-year, resident program requiring 30 hours (usually ten courses) of graduate coursework on campus. 

• Currently, five of the department's faculty teach six required courses; three additional faculty teach elective courses; other courses are taught by faculty in Educational Psychology, Secondary Education, and other fields.

Program 2:

MA in Industrial Vocational / Technical Education

• The current Master of Arts in Industrial Vocational / Technical Education has typically appealed to students employed throughout Indiana and in surrounding states who teach vocational courses, sometimes referred to as career and technical education. Courses for new career and technical teachers have been offered at remote sites, with a Ball State University faculty member making regular trips to sites in Northern Indiana. These teachers usually have not possessed a degree in education. 

• Enrollment at the northern Indiana site has been traditionally between 15 and 20 annually, with three additional sites taught by other instructors bringing the total of new teachers to between 50 and 70 annually.

• Students in Industrial Vocational / Technical Education have traditionally come from both educational and industrial environments. In industry, students are often trainers or individuals seeking a teaching license for future employment.

• Many of the courses in the MA in IVTE are "taught with" undergraduate courses, allowing those without undergraduate degrees the opportunity to complete essential coursework.

• Most of the coursework is taught by just one professor in the Department of Industry and Technology, Dr. Sam Cotton. Dr. Cotton is currently integrating the use of Blackboard and online delivery of learning modules in his face-to-face classes.

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Enrollment trends over the last decade are shown in Figure 1, below. Recent enrollment has been decreasing in the on-campus masters, largely due to the removal of a masters degree as an eventual requirement for Indiana teachers. These trends represent an opportunity to reach individuals who are increasingly place-bound and less-willing to travel to Muncie for a degree.

One of the strengths of the current programs is its talented and well-respected faculty.

• Ball State University's Department of Industry and Technology faculty includes well-recognized leaders in technology education, and the Technology Education program has gained a national reputation. The undergraduate technology education program was the first of its kind to receive accreditation by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, and has been selected as an Outstanding Program by the Council on Technology Teacher Education.

• The Technology Education and Vocational/Technical Education program faculty are active in local, state, regional, and international association work, so many of the staff are well known in the profession. This faculty currently includes three individuals honored as Distinguished Technology Educators by the International Technology Education Association, one recipient of the Outstanding Technology Educator award from the Council on Technology Teacher Education, led by a dean who has received ITEA's Lockette/Monroe Humanitarian Award. The past work of Dr. R. Thomas Wright in establishing the Center for Implementing Technology Education at Ball State helped strengthen the image of the department in the field.  

• The faculty are technologically literate and have used computers extensively. A number are contributors to professional list-serves, many use Blackboard for departmental courses, most have Webpage development experience, and all rely on Email and the World Wide Web for professional activities.

• The tenured and tenure-track, full-time faculty are unanimously and enthusiastically committed to moving the masters programs online. This was evident by 100% participation in a voluntary, unpaid, week-long workshop on "Web-Integrated Instruction"  in May, 2001.

• The department has already developed and implemented a successful online course, ITEDU 510, in the Fall of 2000. The enrollment cap of 20 was increased due to unexpected demand. Twenty-six of the twenty-seven students who had initially enrolled in that course completed it, representing a greater course retention rate than expected with online education.

• Department faculty have already collaborated with staff from the Ball State University Center for Teaching Technology, and will continue to draw upon the expertise and support of CTT staff, and to seek assistance from University Computing Services and the University Library as needed.

The Opportunity 

Niche Market | Needs Assessment

A Strong Niche Market with Good Potential

There is an increasing need for online masters in Technology Education and in Industrial Vocational / Technical Education. Someone is eventually going to attempt to meet this need. Ball State University has a unique opportunity to seize significant initial market share of the audience for this program.

As the Internet becomes a more widely accepted means for delivering instruction, Ball State University has the opportunity to be one of the first to capture the market for these online masters students. This is a niche that has the potential to more than double the size of the existing master's program, due to the following factors:

• Professional teachers are often geographically bound, and cannot attend, or do not wish to attend a university for a master's if it would mean leaving a job and family. A masters degree offered by distance education is attractive to these potential graduate students who are unable to move to Muncie.

• A review of the Industrial Teacher Education Directory (Bell, 2000-2001) shows that most states either have no master's programs in Technology Education and Industrial Vocational / Technical Education, or have a nearly defunct program (with fewer than five graduates per year.) This creates an even greater demand for a distance education program that spans large geographic obstacles.

• There are technology teachers and vocational technical teachers everywhere, in every state, distributed among the population. Many of them do not possess a master's degree.

• The masters degree is still required for teachers in a number of other states. Even where it is not required, there is usually a continuing education requirement, and those who obtain a master's typically benefit from a pay increase.

• In Indiana, a master's degree is still required to obtain a "professional" teaching license.

• There are currently no online masters degree programs in Technology Education. The only masters in Vocational Education found (from John Bear's 2001 Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Education) were from the University of Central Florida and Utah State University.

• A degree at the masters level does not require the training on technical equipment included in a bachelor's degrees in Technology Education and Industrial Vocational / Technical Education, and is therefore better-suited to Internet delivery.

• New standards were recently adopted by the International Technology Education Association, creating an increased demand for education on standards-based curriculum and methods.

• Many teachers are expected to want to upgrade their skills in specialty areas, such as technology education for the elementary grades.

• Practicing teachers with occupational experience are often seeking to add a career and technical education area or cooperative education endorsement to their license.

• Although most of the courses in the online masters will be taught by resident Ball State University faculty, the potential exists to employ visiting professors located at other universities who are experts in specific areas to teach online classes.

1. Technology Education

In order to assess the perceived need for online technology education, a survey was sent to all 3202 members of the International Technology Education Association (ITEA) in May, 2000. This was conducted by Dr. Jim Flowers and supported through the Technology Fellow Program.

The results of the above needs assessment revealed that the perceived need for and interest in an online masters degree program in Technology Education was greater than anticipated, especially noting that there are large numbers of technology teachers who are not members of the ITEA and were not included in the survey sample.

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2. Industrial Vocational / Technical Education

In his dissertation on "The Training Needs of Vocational Teachers for Working with Learners with Special Needs," department faculty member, Dr. Sam Cotton (2000) found that:

"Instructional delivery methods should be explored and integrated into practice using new and emerging technologies. Professional development activities pose a serious problem because few alternatives appear acceptable to vocational teachers. ... A variety of distance learning or alternative instructional strategies should be examined with vocational teachers to identify more acceptable formats and schedules. Web-based learning, televised instruction, and self-paced computer instruction should be among the strategies explored. ... Some emerging technologies may allow for instruction that is not time sensitive, enabling teachers to access instruction at a variety of convenient times."

In the similar pilot study (Cotton, 1994), teachers were asked if they would be interested in participating in additional training. The response was: Yes: 287; No: 52; with 181 of 527 respondents undecided. Thus, about 90% of the teachers were open to additional training. In both studies, all of the traditional training times were identified by respondents as very undesirable.

Program of Study for Online MA in Technology Education

Introduction | Courses | Calendar

Introduction

The current, program of study for the Masters of Arts in Technology Education described in the graduate catalog would not be altered. Instead, a subset online track through selected courses in that program will permit students to complete the degree requirements by taking ten online courses from Ball State University.

During the phase-in, this program of study can be fully implemented in two years, so that any student taking ten online courses from Ball State University beginning in the Fall of 2002 could complete their degree by the Summer of 2004. Beginning in the Fall of 2003, it would be possible for a student to complete the degree requirements online in a single year, although some would be expected to take a slower route to degree completion.

The faculty plan to continually evaluate this program and its courses with special attention to factors related to the effectiveness of online education. Future evaluation may lead to modifications intended to improve the program.

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Courses: 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)
 

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

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

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Professional Education (3 hrs required)

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

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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)

The proposed calendar for courses in this program during the phase out of an on-campus degree and the phase-in of an Internet-based degree is illustrated in Table 1. In column 3, strikethrough indicates that a traditionally on-campus course is no longer face-to-face, but has been replaced by an Internet course.

Table 1. Proposed Calendar of Courses for Online MA in Technology Education
 

Future years are expected to resemble the Fall 2003 to Summer 2004 sequence, with adjustments made for demand and program improvement, as needed. Note that individual courses with enrollment requests exceeding a single section may result in multiple sections.

Introduction | Courses | Calendar

Introduction

The current, program of study for the MA in Industrial Vocational / Technical Education described in the graduate catalog would not be altered. Instead, a subset online track through selected courses in that program will permit students to complete the degree requirements in two years by taking ten online courses from Ball State University. Note that there are a number of courses in common between the MA in Technology Education and the MA in Industrial Vocational / Technical Education. The demand for these courses may lead to multiple sections.

The faculty plan to continually evaluate this program and its courses with special attention to factors related to the effectiveness of online education. Future evaluation may lead to modifications intended to improve the program.

Courses: Total Hours Required: 30

Professional Core (9 - 15 hrs required)

• ITEDU 550 Vocational Student Organizations (3)
• ITEDU 551 Trade and Occupational Analysis (3)
• ITEDU 552 Vocational-Related Class Content (3)
• ITEDU 568 Principles and Philosophy of Vocational Education (3)
• ITEDU 569 Organization and Coordination of Vocational Education (3)
• ITEDU 691 Strategies & Materials for Teaching Technology Education (3)
• ITEDU 696 Techniques in Coordinating Cooperative Education (3)
• ITMFG 560 Industrial Safety and Health (3)

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

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

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Departmental Electives (0 hrs required, 0 - 6 hrs possible)

• Any courses from the Professional Core not yet taken
• Any courses from the online MA in Technology Education

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Professional Education (3 hrs required)

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

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Electives (0 to 9 hrs, to achieve 30 total program hrs)

• EDPSY 640 Methodology of Educational & Psychological Research (3)
• Any courses from the Professional Core not yet taken
• Any courses from the online MA in Technology Education
• Other electives or transfer credits approved by the program advisor

The proposed calendar for courses in this program during the phase out of an on-campus degree and the phase-in of an Internet-based degree is illustrated in Table 2. In column 3, strikethrough indicates that a traditionally on-campus course is no longer face-to-face, but has been replaced by an Internet course.

Table 2. Proposed Calendar of Courses for Online MA in Industrial Vocational / Technical Education
 

Future years are expected to resemble the Fall 2002 to Summer 2004 sequence, with adjustments made for demand and program improvement, as needed. Note that individual courses with enrollment requests exceeding a single section may result in multiple sections.

Requirements

Enrollment Projection | Faculty Assistance | Administration | Marketing | Assessment

Enrollment  Projection

Based on the needs assessment survey, which reached only a small fraction of the nation's technology teachers, significant enrollment could be predicted. However, a more conservative estimate was developed in light of the anticipated appearance of other competing programs that may emerge, increasing tuition rates for out of state students, a stipulated class cap of 20 graduate students per section, and the typically high attrition rate of online education.

Individual course enrollment is expected to be between 15 and 20 students per section, and initially only one section of a course would be taught. However, the program will respond to increased enrollment demand by implementing additional sections. Courses taught in both proposed masters programs (i.e., ITEDU 691 and ITEDU 699) may be the first to require multiple sections.

Projected enrollment in online classes is shown below in Table 3. This includes the number of online courses to be offered through both programs (both from the Department of Industry and Technology, and from other departments), for the first four years of the proposed online masters programs. Column 3 indicates the minimum number of course sections. This figure was determined assuming one section per course, per program.

The projected enrollment estimate was based on the prediction of 15 students in each section.

Table 3. Projected Enrollment

Faculty Assistance for Development and Implementation of an Online Course

Online courses will be developed by program faculty, with assistance from the Department's Director of Online Education, the Center for Teaching Technology, University Computing Services, University Library, and other offices at Ball State. Instructors (or course developers) who have never taught an online class will be asked to attend a series of professional development seminars at the Center for Teaching Technology. They will be encouraged to enroll as online students, themselves. Every effort will be made to ensure that online instructional materials and techniques are of high quality.

Following established Ball State University protocol, the following assistance is requested for course development. For each of the fourteen courses to be put online, the following is requested:

• $3000 is requested from Teleplex before teaching a new online class for course development.
   
• $750 is requested from Teleplex for each first revision of a new online course.

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Assistance:

• Assistance from an instructional technologist is requested from Teleplex, as needed, to supplement the assistance designers receive from the Department's Director of Online Education and the Center for Teaching Technology.

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For first-time implementation of an Internet course:

• $1500 is requested from the School of Continuing Education and Public Service as a faculty incentive for the first implementation of each of these fourteen online courses.

• $50 for each student beyond the sixth is requested as bonus payment for faculty instructors in distance education online graduate course sections.

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Note on property rights:

• Property rights for instructional materials developed for this program will follow established Ball State University protocol described in "Creation and Ownership Agreement for Web-Based Courses."

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The schedule for course development, implementation, and revision is shown in Table 4.

Table 4. Schedule of Course Development, Implementation and Revision

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The assistance requested from Teleplex for course development and revision shown in Table 4 is summarized in Table 5, below.

Table 5. Summary of Assistance Requested from Teleplex and from the School of Continuing Education and Public Service

Semester	Course Development @ $1500 per period, 2 periods per course Course Revision @ $750 (Teleplex)			Initial Implementation Bonus @ $1500 (Continuing Ed.)
	Course Development	Courses Revised	Funds	Courses	Funds
Fall, 2001	0	0	$0	0	$0
Spring, 2002	4	0	6000	0	0
Summer, 2002	6	0	9000	1	1500
Fall, 2002	3	1	5250	2	3000
Spring, 2003	5	2	9000	2	3000
Summer, 2003	5	2	9000	2	3000
Fall, 2003	3	2	6000	3	4500
Spring, 2004	1	3	3750	3	4500
Summer, 2004	1	3	3750	1	1500
Fall, 2004	0	1	750	0	0
Total	28	14	$52,500	14	$21,000

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Program Administration & Organization

The proposed programs will be reviewed and revised by the existing program faculty. Special administration required for the online delivery of these programs will be provided by the creation of a new position: a departmental Director of Online Education.

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Administrative Duties

This program will be administered by a department faculty member serving as the department's Director of Online Education, and aided by a graduate assistant. The equivalent of one three-credit course of load is required for this Director, for each of the Fall and Spring semesters, and for each of the Summer I and Summer II sessions, beginning in the Fall of 2001. The duties of these positions will include the following:

• Advertising

• Recruitment

• Program planning

• Faculty support services

• Student support services

• Program orientation for students

• Program and course assessment

For a working job description of the Director of Online Education, please visit:

http://jcflowers1.iweb.bsu.edu /projects/onlinemasters/DirofOnlineEd2.htm

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Initial Director of Online Education

The initial proposed Departmental Director of Online Education is Dr. Jim Flowers, who was appointed to this position as of October 1, 2001. Dr. Flowers has had successful experience in program coordination, in addition to significant experience with online instruction. He has:

• with support from Teleplex, developed and successfully implemented a new online class: ITEDU 510: Technology - Use and Assessment (which had 26 of 27 online students complete the course.)

• executed the research of doctoral candidate Mary Annette Rose, who used data from this ITEDU 510 class to examine the effect of cooperative and collaborative group structure on cognitive dialog in online learning conferences.

• pioneered at Ball State an approach to the development of face-to-face instruction based on reusable learning objects and reusable informational objects, as illustrated in the course Website of ITDPT 160, Technical Analysis.

• developed an introduction to online learning and using Blackboard at Ball State.

• created numerous Web sites and pages to supplement and provide instruction, in addition to sites and pages not connected with teaching and learning:
  • Women's Creative Connection
  • Industrial Technology Program
  • High-Tech Workshop
  • Laser Machining and 3D Laser Scanning
  • The Technology Web
     
• served on the Distance Education Strategic Planning Committee.

• as a 2000 Technology Fellow, conducted an international needs assessment for online learning in technology education (manuscript in-press).

• as a 2001 Technology Fellow, conducted a workshop for department faculty on the integration of the Web in teaching and learning.

• taken online courses in the online teacher program offered from UCLA extension.

• helped bring together BSU instructors interested in teaching online, with the help of CTT staff.

• presented to professionals at conferences on:
  • the use of reusable learning objects and reusable informational objects
  • the creation of an online course
  • online learning needs

• participated in numerous conferences and teleconferences related to online learning.

Marketing

In order for this program to be successful, an aggressive marketing campaign will be needed. This is expected to run about ten percent of the program budget. Marketing initiatives will be planned with staff from the College of Continuing Education and Public Service.

Marketing initiatives will target the following niche populations:

• Current technology teachers who are members of the International Technology Education Association.

• Current technology teachers who are not members of ITEA, but can be reached through their in-state affiliations and employment.

• Community college faculty from Ivy Tech and elsewhere who may be under new requirements to obtain an appropriate master's degree.
   
• Current teachers in appropriate specialty areas within Indiana.

• Indiana's career and technical teachers, who may be contacted through mailing lists published by the Indiana Department of Education and through the Indiana Professional Standards Board, the Indiana Association for Career and Technical Education, and through the state's 49 career and technical directors.

• Where possible, joint marketing efforts will attempt to use limited resources wisely. For example, the College of Applied Sciences and Technology may coordinate marketing of its online masters programs in Technology Education, Industrial Vocational / Technical Education, Nursing, and Physical Education: Coaching.

Program Assessment

Program and course assessment are critical to the continued viability of this online degree program.

• Near the end of each of two course development periods, each new online course will undergo a formative peer review.
   
• Each course in the program and its developer's plan for online implementation will be reviewed by the Department's Director of Online Education and the department program committee prior to implementation. Additional review by the staff from the Center for Teaching Technology may be performed.

• At the end of each course, students will assess the value of their experiences using an instrument based largely on the benchmarks for online education established by the Institute for Higher Education Policy, in conjunction with Blackboard and the National Education Association.

• During each summer, the faculty and Director of Online Education will conduct a program assessment, making the report available to the Dean of the College of Applied Sciences and Technology and to the Dean of Continuing Education. This will include information on enrollment, marketing, quality issues, and proposed improvements. At the same time, faculty and the Director of Online Education will review problems encountered during implementation, and work collaboratively to correct those problems, seeking the assistance of on-campus professionals as needed.
   
• Additional program and course review may be performed in accordance with established procedures for evaluating distance education offerings at Ball State University.

• Assessment instruments and analysis will be based on numerous sources, with special attention to the following:
  • Distance Education Graduate Program Review Guidelines, passed by the Ball State University Senate.
  • Innovations in Distance Education. (1998). An emerging set of guiding principles and practices for the design and development of distance education. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.
  • The Institute for Higher Education Policy. (2000). Quality on the line: Benchmarks for success in Internet-based distance education. Washington, DC: Author.
  • International Technology Education Association. (2000). Standards for technological literacy: Content for the study of technology. Reston, VA: Author.
  • The five accreditation criteria of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

Author: Jim Flowers: jcflowers1@bsu.edu