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Tag: Online Education
Leadership in academia is ever-evolving, and as time goes on, those in leadership are met with increasing demands on their time. New and evolving programs, higher expectations, and rapidly changing technology exert new pressures on academic deans and chairs alike.
Online education is one such responsibility that falls squarely on academic deans and chairs and can be difficult to navigate. While the brick-and-mortar elements of their purview might demand more immediate attention, online education is possibly the aspect of their institution that comes into contact with the most students and prospective students.
Failures in implementation, adoption, and student outcomes within online education can have a catastrophic impact on the overall health of any department. Everything from faculty turnover to student outcomes can fall precipitously when online education courses hit snags.
The unique needs of deans and department chairs in online education have been largely overlooked. While leadership roles share some priorities with students and instructors, they also have distinct expectations from online courses. Instructional Connections is here to help you understand what deans and chairs seek in online education programs—and how institutions can better support them.
Challenge 1: Budget Cuts
Senior administrators often navigate budget cuts when attempting to improve online education courses. Whether coming from the institution itself or due to reduced federal and state funding, changes in budget can upend a department’s priorities and initiatives. These sudden changes in funding mean that resources available to help support faculty through their online education courses might suddenly not be accessible. This can have dramatic impacts on instructor course satisfaction and, by extension, student outcomes and favorability ratings.
Challenge 2: Declining Enrollment & Increasing Course Withdrawals
Declining enrollment within higher education forces senior administrators to closely evaluate their online academic programs. In addition, these declining enrollment figures can further impacts everything from student-to-instructor ratios to course offerings. Student withdrawals can also exacerbate this once courses have begun. As enrollment declines, institutions must do all they can to improve course completion for both the good of the student and institution. Deans and other senior faculty members must be vigilant for potential hazards to student outcomes and correct course accordingly. While this is often easier said than done, senior faculty members must be working with their instructors to produce the best possible student outcomes.
Challenge 3: Competition
At one point, offering an online course or two was a value proposition in itself for an institution of higher education. However, as more higher education institutions increase their online offerings, simply offering a course is not enough. With some 50% or more of college students taking at least one course online, senior faculty members must work to ensure their online offerings are poised to survive against increased competition.
To ensure their departments can survive the rise in competition, senior administrators must ensure that their departments and institutions are offering the most robust catalog of online courses possible. This can often be easier said than done. Not all courses will be popular, and some will face steeper competition than others. Deans, chairs, and other high-level faculty members need to ensure that their online education programs are poised for success and optimized for the best possible student experience to stay relevant in a world where nearly every institution of higher education can offer online learning.
Partner With Instructional Connections
Against this backdrop, it becomes clear that senior administrators must find scalable, effective, an, and qualified methods to improve student outcomes inne education courses. Instructional Connections’ Academic Coaches and Virtual Teaching Assistants are data-proven to help achieve educational excellence in virtual programs.
Our process is simple. By providing your instructors of record with qualified Virtual Teaching Assistants or Academic Coaches, we help your institution improve your faculty bandwidth and online program class management. The addition of our Academic Coaches frees up faculty time to better invest in strategic initiatives like ongoing training, student outcomes, and curriculum management.
Meanwhile, our Academic Coaches and Virtual Teaching Assistants work with your instructors to handle approved day-to-day items. Routine items like grading, email correspondence, proctoring, and other daily tasks can now be completed by an Academic Coach. This allows your faculty members to focus on more complicated tasks, all while improving department outcomes.
Call now to discuss the Academic Coach model and how it can better support your students, faculty members, and institution.
Few industries are as fast-paced as higher education. The industry is constantly changing, whether due to new technologies, student enrollment trends, or funding priority updates. Staying connected with other educators and aware of broader industry trends is critical for faculty member success. Understanding emerging tech and trends helps you identify threats and opportunities and can help your institution adjust pedagogically and methodologically.
That’s why conferences and other events are so critical for educators. These events allow some of the brightest minds in their fields to connect, review, and discuss the significant changes in their field.
The 2024 QM Connect conference will be in Chicago this November 3-6 and is poised to be one such event. This event boasts an all-star cast of speakers, informative lectures, and helpful workshops, all with the expressed intention of preparing the online education community for the future of virtual education. Read on to learn about what you can expect from the 2024 QM Connect conference and why we are so excited to attend.
QM 2024 Schedule
Pre-Conference Workshop Options
The 2024 QM Connect conference will feature several informative workshops for your edification. Key focus areas include evangelizing quality assurance methodologies to the broader campus community, implementing and executing a quality assurance review, tying quality assurance efforts to accreditation, and determining how AI can increase your productivity. More detailed rubrics and agendas for workshops can be found here.
The World of AI
Generative AI looks to be the latest and greatest emerging technology of the 21st century. No industry will go unscathed by the AI Revolution, but digitally-driven verticals such as online education face unique challenges. Generative AI threatens to upend traditional quality assurance and plagiarism-prevention practices. Institutions of higher education cannot merely ignore artificial intelligence. Students and their future employers won’t ignore AI, and institutions of higher education that don’t incorporate AI education and AI quality assurance into their coursework are doing their students a disservice.
The 2024 QM Connect conference will feature several AI lightning talks, including the following:
- Lightning Talks Part 1: 8:45 AM CT
- Lightning Talks Part 2: 9:40 AM CT
- Design Smarter, Not Harder: The AI Advantage
- Employing AI to Create Just-In-Time Feedback that Supports Learner Success
- Rapid, Quality Course Development: AI, Faculty Flexibility, and QM Synergy
- The AI Authoring Advantage: Balancing Speed and Substance in Course Creation
- The AI Empowered Instructional Designer
- Using AI to Generate Engaging Course Content
Frequently Asked Questions
Key frequently asked questions are summarized below for your review. However, we recommend reviewing the complete list of FAQs here.
Who Should Attend?
QM 2024 is open to all who are dedicated to quality assurance in education, whether as faculty, instructional support, administrators, or institutional higher-ups.
How Do I Get Approval?
The main benefits of attending the 2024 QM Connect lie in the tools and strategies you’ll receive from the event. The information you obtain from this conference will be extremely valuable for your organization, and you should return to your organization with proven tools and strategies to implement immediately. You’ll also connect with other educators and professionals in the space, giving your organization a broad list of contacts for future problem-solving and institutional problems.
We have found that specificity and passion are two crucial elements of the approval process, so be sure to incorporate these into your submissions to your institution. Please see a sample email linked.
What Is the Newcomer’s Breakfast?
The Newcomer’s breakfast is a chance for the conference to welcome all newcomers and give them the layout of what they can expect while at the conference. There is no fee for this event, but registration is required for all newcomers.
Where Should I Stay When Attending the Conference?
A block of rooms is reserved for attendees at the Loew’s Chicago O’Hare Hotel in Rosemont, IL. Availability is limited, so please reserve as soon as possible.
Find Instructional Connections at the 2024 QM Connect Conference
Instructional Connections will have several speakers and attendees in Chicago this November 3-6, and we would love to connect with you if you are attending! The Sunday, November 3 reception is a great time to connect with the Instructional Connections team and learn more about how our Academic Coaches augment your institutional quality assurance initiatives. If this conference is not in the cards for you this year, stay tuned! More information about the 2025 QM Connect is expected to be announced in January.
Institutions of higher education are always looking to understand what they can do to better assist their students, particularly those enrolled in large, online graduate programs. The higher education model has changed dramatically with the rise of the internet and the skills needed within the workforce, and institutions of higher education have poured resources into how to assist their programs to develop degrees and courses with their faculty and generate better student outcomes and better preparing their graduates for the workforce with knowledge and skills that employers are needing.
Our Academic Coach/Virtual TA Model is one such resource, and academic research within the Academic Coach space allows institutions to understand our best practices along with perceptions. To help your institution better support your online programs and faculty with opportunities for an improved user experience, Instructional Connections has assembled some of the abstracts of the research directly related to our Academic Coach Model that has been completed or is expected to be completed within the next year. This research has been conducted with and without small grants provided by Instructional Connections, LLC.
This research aims to help you better understand the benefits and processes associated with our Academic Coach Model and better determine if this model could be a solution for the online programs at your institution.
Academic Coach Initiated Technology-Enhanced Feedback in Online Nursing Education
Author: Char Miller
Institution: Ohio University – College of Health Sciences
Year: 2023
New technology can certainly enhance the effectiveness of online learning, but it also can create a hurdle for educators navigating large and distant classes. This research examined how Academic Coaches could be a vector for increased student satisfaction with technology-enhanced feedback in an online RSN course. Previous research has indicated that audio or visual feedback on coursework allows students to understand instructor tone and body language and thus better comprehend the feedback received.
A qualitative review determined that there were three consistent themes for receiving technology-enhanced audio feedback amongst the RSN students examined. Ultimately, more personalized technologically-enhanced feedback led to 1) increased engagement in the course, 2) increased connectedness to instructors, and 3) increased comfort in initiating interactions with instructors.
Assessing Teaching Readiness Online Programs
Author: Aziza Zemrani
Institution: University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Year: 2020
A surge in online enrollments has caught many institutions off guard. A 17% rise in the number of online students is an especially stark number when compared to the overall 1.2% rise in higher education student numbers. Institutions of higher education facing economic and operational pressures are looking to better identify the gaps and shortcomings within their programs, problems that could damage overall student outcomes if unaddressed.
This study assesses the readiness of various online learning programs at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley through the Smarter Measures readiness indicator. This research was then used to suggest remedial and supplementary measures to help the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley improve graduate program quality, especially given the average class size of online programs at this university.
The Effect of Collaboration and Utilization of Academic Coaches in Online Learning Environments
Author: Amanda Hawkins and Dr. Britany Grissette
Institution: Columbus State University
Year: 2023
This research examines how the University System of Georgia uses a Cooperative Academic Agreement to increase prelicensure enrollment across 13 schools. These online courses have been instrumental for all institutions involved in the University System. Still, Academic Coaches have remained integral to helping faculty members successfully instruct and manage their courses.
The lead school in this system had a long history of utilizing Academic Coaches, while other institutions had far less exposure to the model. This research examines how the Cooperative Academic Agreement was enhanced by Academic Coaches and what other higher education institutions can learn from this example for their online education programs.
Partner With Instructional Connections
Is your institution looking to maximize your online instructors’ efficacy and free up bandwidth to better serve the learning objectives and student outcomes within your online program and degree offerings? If so, then consider our Academic Coach model as a viable solution.
Instructional Connections works with your faculty members with the support they need to create the best possible learning environment by providing them with a phenomenal Academic Coach. Instructional Connections’ Academic Coaches are all highly qualified, experienced practitioners in their respective fields of study, carefully vetted by Instructional Connections to deliver only the best to your online courses.
Our Academic Coaches are trusted resources for their faculty members. By assisting with routine grading, correspondence, and class announcements, our Academic Coaches help to create a supportive learning environment for the students in their online classes. This allows faculty to focus on the learning outcomes, and course objectives and personally address any at-risk student and potential student inventions, leading to better outcomes for students, the faculty, and the institution.
Are you interested in learning more about the Instructional Connections Academic Coach model?
If you’ve worked in higher education, you know that change is inevitable. It’s a fact of life in many industries, but higher education has seen meaningful changes in the last few years. A massive rise in online education has placed new strains on higher education institutions. Many education leaders struggle to keep abreast amidst this changing landscape of online education.
The Changing Landscape of Online Education Report, also known as CHLOE, is a report that helps online educators understand the current state of the industry and future trends. To help maximize your time and allow you to better prepare for the continually evolving online education industry, Instructional Connections noted some key findings from CHLOE Report 4. The original research can be linked here but read on for some topline summaries.
Specific & Unprecedented Challenges For Higher Ed
The coronavirus emergency forced higher education institutions to change their online infrastructure in days and saw a massive shift to online education. This lateral brought thousands of students into online education who might not have otherwise considered it.
While many have returned to the classroom, the infrastructure to support massive online education is still up and running. More institutions are offering a more significant number of online education courses. Students, particularly non-traditional students, are increasingly leveraging these courses as they fit into busy lives better than in-person learning.
The Changing Landscape of Online Education Report 4
CHLOE 4 attempts, like previous CHLOE reports, to shed more light on higher education institutions’ priorities, challenges, and successes as they navigate a constantly evolving online education environment.
Previous CHLOE reports have noted that online education has continuously evolved – considerably in the past few years – and there is no single way of mainstreaming online education. New needs and challenges force online education leaders to respond and adapt, and CHLOE attempts to chronicle those adaptions.
The Chief Online Officer Role
The title of Chief Online Officer is a crucial focus of online education studies. This role suggests an organization committed to interweaving online education as part of the fabric of its modus operandi. Research has highlighted that most of these positions were created within the last decade. While some 15% of roles were established before the millennium, most were created post-2010.
The rise of this role is in line with the specific duties and responsibilities that Chief Online Officers face. CHLOE 4 looked at self-reporting work duties of Chief Online Officers and found that some 61% of Chief Online Officers found their tasks and workload increasing. Only 4% found their duties decreasing. This research shows that Chief Online Officers are becoming increasingly important in online education.
CHLOE 4 analyzes third-party Online Partner Managers (OPMs) as a potential resource for higher education institutions. Some 24% of the CHLOE sample used third-party OPMs in the latest sample, up from 15% from CHLOE 1 in 2017.
Upon further investigation, the reasons Chief Online Officers turn to OPMs appear varied. The most common reasons higher education institutions turn to OPMs include additional OPM expertise, rapid scaling of online education programs, and rapid development. Indeed, the function of the OPM partners used by online education providers is even more diverse in the CHLOE 4 sample. Depending on the specific partner, OPM duties varied from marketing online programs to helping faculty build programs to proctoring exams.
Learnings & Next Steps
The critical goals of CHLOE 5 are varied. Student needs for online education, specifically by region, institution, and type, will be analyzed further. CHLOE 5 also aims to investigate where the most significant potential for future online education lies, and CHLOE 5 will study differences in field of study and degree type.
Instructional Connections is proud to sponsor this research and is thankful for the opportunity to support the CHLOE studies.
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4 Common Remote Learning Mistakes
Remote learning is the wave of the future for institutions of higher education, and improvements in technology have only increased the frequency of virtual learning in recent years. Students are also interested in utilizing online learning, especially if they are non-traditional students or working professionals returning to school. An institution that cannot utilize remote education in its curriculum is one that will struggle to drive results for its students.
However, many higher education institutions still struggle to use online education, even as more courses move to digital delivery formats only. The result is that an increasing number of students are enrolled in courses with overworked, unprepared, and unfulfilled faculty members, and there seems to be no sign of this stopping soon. Poorly designed, planned, and executed online courses will only lead to burnout and dissatisfaction among top faculty members.
The team at Instructional Connections has seen all sorts of remote education challenges over the years. Our Academic Coaches have worked within a number of online courses, and that familiarity gives us unique insight into the most common problems within online education. Read on to learn about the common mistakes institutions make with virtual learning and how to rectify these problems.
Too Little Faculty Bandwidth
Saying that leading a course of 100 students is difficult is putting it mildly. Even the most seasoned instructors can struggle to keep up with the demands of teaching this many students. It’s completely understandable that bandwidth can become a precious resource for many instructors when faced with courses of 100 or more students. Faculty work life balance can also suffer when teaching online programs, as many students in these courses work fulltime and will often send emails and reach out for support on weekends or after hours. This tends to lead to severe faculty member burnout.
It’s incredibly easy for instructors to find their bandwidth drained by the urgent but tedious duties of instruction. Administrative duties, answering emails, grading, and a thousand other operational tasks are a part of teaching, but these duties can pull seasoned instructors away from their more important strategic goals. The more bandwidth the instructor has, the more they can focus on staying up-to-date in their field, bettering student outcomes, and more strategic focuses. Plan accordingly if your institution offers online courses.
Another issue to be aware of with online courses, especially with larger enrollments, is that faculty may begin to design the course to maximize their already scarce time. This is a natural response to bandwidth, but the result is usually a drop in the quality of assignments and an increase in busy work that might not help students increase their mastery of the subject. It’s a crucial problem within online learning to be wary of; low faculty bandwidth actively threatens the quality of the course and student learning. The more mundane tasks that can be removed from your instructors, the more efficient and impactful they will be, and student outcomes will be better for it.
Unclear Communication Channels
Small, in-person courses offer students opportunities to contact their instructors frequently. In this format, less-than-optimal communication channels don’t tend to make or break a course. If a student has a question, they can ask in class or after class, after all. This works fine for smaller class sizes.
However, in an online course, an instructor could receive emails from 50-100 students at any given time. When time is scarce, and the student-to-instructor ratio is high, inefficient communication is not an option. Instructors need to figure out how to communicate efficiently and effectively with their students in order to be impactful online educators.
Delayed Feedback & Grading
Students expect to know where they stand when they take a course. Most have become accustomed to knowing all pertinent information about their position in the course, whether good or bad. Delays in feedback and grading put this in jeopardy. Unsurprisingly, problems grading accurately and quickly are a huge source of frustration for most online, non-traditional students. Failure to receive a grade quickly can leave the student discouraged. If too much time passes, a new assignment or test could be assigned, and the student’s errors might be repeated.
Prompt grading and feedback allow students to seek assistance, whether through the university or from the faculty member, and adjust accordingly. Failure to provide prompt feedback can leave students feeling surprised by their marks and lower their satisfaction with the online course. Institutions of higher education need to give faculty members the resources necessary to offer quick grading for students.
Failure to Properly Scale the Course
Not all college courses are the same. This seems intuitive, but far too many instructors and institutions treat all courses similarly regarding structure and mode of delivery. This can often be a holdover from past courses. If an instructor is accustomed to teaching a certain way, it can be easy for them to default to what has worked in the past. There is nothing wrong with this approach, but modern online education often demands different approaches.
A well-designed and planned course can still begin to falter if the existing processes are not adjusted. A large class might need additional support if the course enrollment grows too quickly. That’s a good problem to have! However, it is something that institutions of higher education should be aware of. The existing protocols and procedures for current courses might not scale forever, and institutions need to be flexible in order to deal with growing course enrollments.
Partner with Instructional Connections
Are you an institution of higher education looking to support your faculty members? Contact Instructional Connections to learn more about whether an Academic Coach is right for your course!
Our Academic Coaches offer high-quality support services to colleges and universities teaching online courses! Our Academic Coaches…
- Can Reduce Instructional Delivery Cost by 20-30%
- Serve More than 50,000 students at 50 Universities and 75+ Programs.
- Are Available in a Variety of Disciplines
- Give Instructors Time Back to Focus on Student Outcomes
Learn more about our Online Teaching Assistants and Academic Coaches today!
Distance learning continues to be a dominant trend within higher education. Institutions are increasingly taking stock of student experience with distance learning and evaluating how satisfied students are with the process.
It’s a valid and critical ask – distance learning can be difficult for some students, and even highly motivated students can quickly disengage when poorly conducted. More and more institutions are investigating how to increase student satisfaction with their distance learning, and some critical trends in student satisfaction deserve closer consideration.
Responsiveness
No one likes to wait for an answer, whether in a class, on a helpline, or in a physical store. The same is true of non-traditional students in an online course. Students expect to see answers to simple questions about coursework, content, or industry-specific topics in a timely fashion.
Unfortunately, this can be extremely difficult when instructors have 50-100 students in an online course. Higher education institutions can mitigate student dissatisfaction with distance learning by equipping instructors to respond to student queries promptly.
Timely Grading & Review
One of the main benefits of distance learning is that higher education institutions aren’t bound by the physical confines of a room. The upper size limit of a class is now much higher without the constraints of room size. Some non-traditional distance learning programs can see quite a few students enroll, and digital class sizes over 100 are not uncommon.
However, this can make it extremely difficult for faculty members to grade, review, and post announcements. This is a natural consequence of the rising digital class size but significantly impacts student satisfaction. The ability to understand one’s progress on exams, coursework, and essays is a crucial piece of any distance learning program. Institutions of higher education that struggle to keep up to date with grading and student feedback will see corresponding dips in student satisfaction.
Communication Through Self-Guided Learning
Another significant benefit of distance learning for non-traditional students is that their learning is often self-guided. Busy professionals attempting to balance work and family appreciate the ability to learn remotely. However, a downside of this learning style is that self-guided learning can be isolating.
A solitary distance learning environment will lack the connection, collaboration, and discussion that in-person learning does, which can negatively impact student learning.
How, then, can institutions of higher education confront this problem? Additional support can help faculty members improve student outcomes and give students clear direction and support as they navigate through online learning. Assistance with grading, approved announcements, and day-to-day tasks can help provide students with clear guidance. These clear channels of communication serve a couple of purposes. Primarily, students are given clear communication about course material and the opportunity to communicate with course instructors and other students. However, faculty members also benefit from additional support in these areas. Improved communication about the progression of the course gives students clear directions and feedback on the self-guided process and frees up faculty time to focus on developing the course.
Flexibility
Any seasoned instructor can tell you that flexibility is critical when leading a digital classroom of over 100 students. Exams sometimes must be moved, power outages derail submissions, and emergencies occur. This is just a fact of life, even outside of the classroom. However, few faculty members can simultaneously respond to these challenges when instructing that many students. The ability to provide flexibility to every student can become a challenge.
Faculty Mentorship
Distance learning is not merely coursework. Students will often have questions about their field of study, career prospects, and industry trends and may want to contact faculty members for their insight. While Academic Coaches don’t personally provide mentorship opportunities, higher education institutions offer mentorship, along with other student development services, to all students, including traditional, non-traditional, online, and in-person. Participation in these types of services causes an increase in student satisfaction and better student outcomes for all.
How Academic Coaches Can Assist
Faculty members understand what they must do to improve student outcomes and satisfaction. However, as with many things, the devil is in the details. Delivering a great course is hard enough in and of itself. Offering flexibility, timely grading, and clear communication to over 100 students is a big ask. That’s where an Instructional Connections Academic Coach can assist.
Keep in mind, though, that while Academic Coaches are there to assist, they are only permitted to engage in such activities as directed by the faculty of record. At the direction of the faculty, Academic Coaches can help with everything from posting approved announcements to replying to emails and grading. However, grading is always completed as assigned and through the use of inter-rater reliability activities as prescribed by the faculty.
Our Academic Coaches are highly qualified, experienced professionals in the appropriate academic discipline. Each has earned at least a Master’s or Doctoral degree from an accredited university. On average, IC Academic Coaches have 14 years of industry experience and a minimum of a Master’s degree.
Each Virtual TA possesses the academic credentials and experience to become an immediate asset to the faculty and students. Our Virtual TAs are tremendous resources to students in their related fields. Additionally, we align with your goals completely, listening to your institutional priorities and following your leadership and the direction of faculty.
Interested in exploring if an Academic Coach is right for your institution? Call now!
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Changes in How Students Are Learning
If you’ve been paying attention to the higher education industry, you’ve probably seen many changes over the years. However, few eras of student learning will involve such dynamic change as the past few years. Higher education has radically transformed over the last few years, and it doesn’t look to show any signs of slowing down. Due to the vast changes in the way students are learning, savvy higher education professionals would do well to pay close attention and adjust their modes of teaching.
To help you stay abreast of these changes, the team here at Instructional Connections assembled their thoughts on some of the most critical ways education is changing and how proper utilization of resources is pivotal for success.
Stage or Side Instruction?
Before we dive in, it’s important to take a closer look at two competing paradigms of educational philosophy.
The first is the “sage on a stage” model. In this model, the educator’s primary purpose is to be a subject matter expert, and educators ought to work to use that expertise to impart knowledge to their pupils.
In the “guide on the side model,” self-learning is the name of the game. In this paradigm, educators are mainly guides who help students engage with relevant content through projects, applied training, and classroom discussion.
There is utility to each of these philosophical models, but higher education professionals need to appreciate just how their roles in both paradigms have shifted over the last few years. Educators who have historically relied on their expertise within a given area may now find themselves having to diversify their curriculum. Likewise, guides may find that relevant expertise in defined content areas might help guide students through confusing or contradictory self-learning.
The “guide on the side model” is also a much more common model for distance learning, merely due to the nature of the model. Most distance courses rely on students to be self-directed and capable of engaging with content critically. Most curriculums expect faculty to help students engage with and think critically about content and projects, not distill and spoon-feed all education to their pupils.
However, many faculty members find themselves thrown into the deep end when teaching remotely.
If faculty members do find themselves migrating to virtual instruction and struggling with the transition from a sage on a stage to a guide on the side, it’s imperative that their institutions find ways to support them.
The Rise of Non-Traditional Students
In that same vein, the rise of non-traditional students is another significant change in how students learn. These students are typically older, have some experience in the workforce, and have different schedules. They are thus quite different from the average college student, who is usually full-time and has more time to attend in-person classes. Non-traditional students also are much likelier to attend virtual classes since this type of education meshes well with their busy schedules.
Non-traditional students, since they tend to be older and more experienced, are often much better at regulating their schedules and coursework. However, their dependence on virtual learning does pose challenges. Faculty instructors not used to virtual learning might struggle to adapt to this sort of teaching.
Early Exposure to Professional Communities
At one point, education was perceived as all a student needed to succeed. This was never entirely true, but it is becoming increasingly necessary to realize that a degree in and of itself is not a golden ticket. Students now are encouraged to begin networking early and connect with professionals in their vocation while still in school. Faculty instructors now realize that their role is not just to be a sage on a stage or a guide on the side. They also need to help students explore the ins and outs of their craft and make lasting connections to their vocational community. Work experience and familiarity with a vocation are huge boons now for faculty instructors looking to help their pupils network early.
Academic Coaches & Changes in Learning
Student learning will always continue to evolve. That’s just a fact. It’s imperative now that faculty instructors are prepared to showcase their expertise, guide through distance learning, and support non-traditional students.
An Instructional Connection Academic Coach can be a great way to support faculty members through these challenges and maximize the potential of the faculty member.
Our Academic Coaches all have at least a Master’s Degree and are experts in their field. Their expertise and familiarity with their craft also make them an excellent resource for the students in their courses, who often see their Academic Coach as a peer and trusted mentor. This expertise in the subject matter lets our Academic Coaches free up time for faculty members to focus on what they do best: teaching!
Our process is simple.
- Understanding Your Needs: Every course, every university, every faculty member is different. We begin by sitting down and understanding what you need in an academic coach. It is essential that we understand your unique needs before diving into the next steps in the process.
- Assigning the Right Academic Coach: Next, we assign you an Academic Coach. This Academic Coach will be contracted, paid, and managed by Instructional Connections. This eliminates the need for additional human resource workers or additional lifts on the part of the institution.
- Support Throughout the Semester: We will be in the wings the whole semester to ensure that your Academic Coach is properly supported and meeting your needs.
The classroom is ever-evolving. Help your faculty members stay up-to-date and prepared for these changes with an Academic Coach from Instructional Connections.
Contact Instructional Connections To Learn More!
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How To Support Non-Traditional Students
Non-traditional students may feel like a paradox for universities looking to maximize their working professional students. On one hand, they are students in every sense of the word and have the responsibilities of traditional students. However, their age, work experience and busy lifestyles separate them from the rest of campus and mean non-traditional students might never actually interact with the campus at large. Institutions of higher education who want to support their non-traditional students are thus increasingly recognizing just how distinct the issues and concerns of non-traditional students are.
Their educational background and familiarity with the working world means they’re more prepared for their study. Their time spent in the workforce or in the military have trained them well and they’re ready for their coursework. Any instructor who has taught a non-traditional student course knows that it’s worlds away from an undergraduate course in terms of composition and understanding of subject matter.
Still, while institutions might not need to invest as many resources into non-traditional students, it is imperative that institutions of higher education properly structure their non-traditional programs. Failure to do so dramatically increases the odds of faculty member burnout and less-than-impactful programs for non-traditional students.
To help support non-traditional students, institutions of higher education are turning to Academic Coaches AKA virtual TAs for maximum results. The right Academic Coaching model improves academic outcomes for non-traditional students by equipping faculty members and freeing up instructor time. Read on to learn how the Instructional Connections Academic Coach Model helps support non-traditional students.
Networking Opportunities
Non-traditional students often return to university to pursue a specific work-related course of study. They tend to have more work experience and, thus, are likely to have some familiarity with the subject at hand. However, many non-traditional students understand that networking is a key factor in success in the working world and often are much more interested in networking than traditional students. After all, their time in the working world has shown them just how crucial industry connections are. Non-traditional students are thus likely to be interested in any networking opportunities or knowledge about their industry their faculty instructor can provide outside of coursework.
Flexibility
Few college students have an abundance of time, but non-traditional students, in particular, struggle to balance their responsibilities. Research has determined that non-traditional students particularly benefit from self-guided learning. Video resources and recording of lectures are two great examples of this. Non-traditional students can regulate their pace when engaging with course materials and can watch online lectures anytime, whether at 5 AM or 5 PM. Empowering your faculty to use self-guided online pedagogical tools is a great way to support non-traditional students.
Support Through Hybrid Or Distance Learning
Distance learning has made a huge splash on the education stage, but it has become incredibly popular among nontraditional students, who are much likelier to learn remotely. Many non-traditional students find remote learning more conducive to their busy lives and packed schedules, as most balance school with work, marriage, and other responsibilities.
However, remote education comes with its own challenges, and non-traditional students are not exempt. Many non-traditional students struggle with the isolation of remote learning. Others may not comprehend the material as well as they would in person and may see their performance struggle while attending a distance learning program. The nature of non-traditional learning means that few students will ever be in a physical classroom to ask questions or stay after to clarify a subject. Many programs for non-traditional students see larger enrollments, due to the lack of physical constraints. Between the nature of distance learning, the size of a non-traditional remote program, and the business of professional life outside of class, many non-traditional students can get lost in the shuffle.
While distance learning has many benefits, universities need to intentionally provide resources that help streamline the distance learning or hybrid learning experience for optimal student outcomes.
Support Non-Traditional Students With Instructional Connections
Many institutions of higher education leverage Academic Coaches or Virtual Teaching Assistants to help assist faculty members of record when supporting non-traditional students. These Virtual TAs help empower faculty members by grading assignments, posting approved announcements, and helping with day-to-day management tasks. This frees up faculty member time to focus on student empowerment and improving student outcomes, leading to great results. In many graduate programs, our Academic Coaches assist in seeing retention rates over 80%!
Our Academic Coaches have at least a Master’s Degree and an average of 14 years of experience in their field, which helps them relate with non-traditional students. Many of our IC Academic Coaches are also potential networking opportunities and industry knowledge resources for non-traditional students. Consequently, our Academic Coaches are able to help students learn about their industry, streamline distance learning, and aid faculty members through their instructor-assigned duties.
The Instructional Connections Academic Coach Model is simple. We start by understanding the needs of our university partner fully. The better we understand their goals and unique situation, the better equipped we are for our next step. We recruit, screen, and vet an Academic Coach for the unique situation of our university partner, pending the partner’s approval. From there, we train our Academic Coaches or Virtual TAs on the system, programs, and processes they need to know to be impactful. This reduces the administrative costs on our partner’s side and empowers our Virtual TAs to be the best they possibly can be. Instructional Connections also provides continuous support throughout the semester for our university partners, resulting in better student outcomes, increased employee and faculty satisfaction, and higher retention rates.
Supporting non-traditional students can differ greatly from supporting traditional students, but the right Academic Coach or Virtual TA can aid immensely. Contact Instructional Connections to learn more!
Maximizing faculty is always a difficult task for any university, The research shows, time and time again, that student outcomes are better when their instructors have more time to focus on the subject matter over administrative tasks. As digital learning tools become more common, instructors find themselves needing support to facilitate successful distance learning. To help support their faculty and improve student outcomes for online learning courses, many institutions of higher education turn to Academic Coaches to help their faculty members shine.
However, while the use of Academic Coaches is critical to successful instructional courses, little research has been conducted into how Academic Coaches are used. Successful application of Academic Coaches has huge ramifications for faculty success, but few universities know what practices will help their faculty use Academic Coaches well.
To help with this goal, Instructional Connections funded original research by Tracia M Forman and Jessica M Sanchez into the best practices for Academic Coaches at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. These findings were later presented by the two aforementioned researchers at the Texas Distance Learning Association’s 2022 conference. The goal of this research was to understand the behavior, preferences, and opinions of faculty who utilize Academic Coaches, with the aim of developing best practice guidelines for the future use of Academic Coaches.
About UTRGV
The University of Texas Rio Grande is one of the largest primarily Hispanic universities in the country. The University has campuses across the Rio Grande Valley of southernmost Texas, mostly in McAllen, Harlingen, and Edinburg. The institution is unique as 54% of its students are first-generation students, and over 90% are Hispanic. The University of Texas Rio Grande, like other institutions of higher learning, was trying to maximize its faculty’s impact via distance learning. This became the perfect backdrop for Sanchez and Forman’s research into what makes a great Academic Coach.
What is an Academic Coach?
An Academic Coach, in the context of this research, was a trusted resource for University of Texas Rio-Grande Valley faculty members, an additional layer of support for UTRGV instructors. All Academic Coaches were employed by Instructional Connections, and all were subject matter experts within their field of study. All Academic Coaches have, at minimum, a Master’s Degree, although oftentimes, Academic Coaches may have other postgraduate degrees. The main purpose of an Academic Coach is to assist at the course level and help support students through more administrative tasks, tasks that eat up instructor time.
The sample size that Forman and Sanchez used to glean more insight into best practices around Academic Coaching consisted of 14 female instructors and 2 male instructors. A variety of disciplines were represented, with liberal arts being the most common.
The main vehicle for this research was interviewing faculty about their experiences with Academic Coaches. That interview script can be accessed here.
Forman and Sanchez investigated how Academic Coaches were being utilized at UTRGV to ensure that all Academic Coaches were being utilized in similar ways across the college. Typical responsibilities of Academic Coaches, according to the consulted faculty members, usually included grading, leading discussions, and answering student questions, although this varied from instructor of record to instructor of record. Most faculty members found few student complaints about their Academic Coach, and when student complaints did arise, grading was the main area of concern.
The most common way of aligning with Academic Coaches was to hold a pre-course meeting to review standard operation procedures, expectations, and the types of assignments. Shadow sessions around grading were also scheduled by some faculty with their Academic Coaches to align on how grading ought to be conducted.
Findings
The research concluded that several Academic Coach strategies stood out as more effective. Those included…
- Constant Communication
- Clear Grading Rubrics
- Detailed & Comprehensive Agendas
Forman and Sanchez also recommended several strategies for using Academic Coaches be discontinued. These included….
- Offtopic Virtual Meetings
- Use of Unfamiliar Digital Learning Tools in the Classroom
- Not Aligning on Grading Expectations Early
It is important to note that the UTRGV faculty members were, all in all, quite happy with their Instructional Connections Academic Coaches, aka Virtual TA. Their feedback did, however, note when Academic Coach utilization needed improvement, and the three aforementioned topics were the most common strategies Forman and Sanchez recommended be discontinued.
From this research and discussion with the sample size, Forman and Sanchez were able to create a list of advice for instructors to maximize their use of Academic Coaches.
- Clear Ground Rules & Expectations at Onset
- Regular Cadences for Communication
- Detailed Rubrics for Grading to Prevent Misalignment
- Listen to Coach Ideas and Feedback to Improve Student Experiences
Summary
This research found that clear expectations, communication, and meeting cadences all helped maximize the use of Academic Coaches at UTRGV. The issues that did arise were usually around grading, and the instructors interviewed found that clear rubrics could help alleviate these student complaints.
Forman and Sanchez did find some areas of improvement for future research. Namely, incorporating direct feedback from Academic Coaches and developing a line of questions to further understand grading responsibilities were identified as areas of further research.
Instructional Connections would like to thank Forman and Sanchez for their tireless work and all UTRGV participants for their time and insight. The use of Academic Coaches and virtual TAs at institutions of higher learning is an understudied practice within the higher education community. This research helps all parties understand how to best support course instructors and improve distance learning.
The full research can be found here.
For More Information, Contact Instructional Connections
