Some could say Jan. 21, 2022 — Elaine Terrell's last working day at Global Campus — was the end of the beginning. Now, it is up to a team of other instructional designers to take up her mantle to continue growing and enhancing online education at the U of A.

Terrell was the first instructional designer at the U of A to assist faculty in the development of online courses and, later, online degree programs. Over the past 23 years, Terrell and other Global Campus staff have committed their careers to helping the university grow its online offerings and become nationally competitive in online education.

The U of A offered no classes over the internet in 1999, when Terrell was hired by Dean Donnie Dutton of the Global Campus, then called the School of Continuing Education and Academic Outreach. Today, students can choose from 75 online degree, certificate and licensure programs offered by academic colleges through the Global Campus.

As the U of A grew its online offerings, more students came. In the 2020-21 academic year, about 12 percent of all U of A students, or about 3,700 students, studied exclusively online. In that same academic year, 1,218 U of A students earned a degree after studying in online programs.

"I believe technology in and of itself doesn't do anything," Terrell said. "It's not the right solution for everything, but it represents a powerful toolbox used to reach people."

For some students, online study is the only option. The flexibility of online education expands access to the U of A for people who are bound by location or time constraints, either professionally or personally.

Instructional designers use their expertise to help faculty build high-quality courses. They help faculty select the right technology tools and teaching methods to produce the learning outcomes and meet the course objectives established by the faculty. They help faculty build an interactive online environment created to enhance and measure learning.

Global Campus — situated on the northeast corner of the downtown Fayetteville square — was homebase for Terrell and her earliest co-worker Bobby Craig, who retired in 2015. Terrell focused on course design while Craig provided technical and student support.

"At one time, you were taking your life in your hands if you asked Bobby any questions during the week before classes and the two weeks after the semester started," Terrell said jokingly.

Together, they launched the first online course, which was actually a hybrid, meaning partly online and partly face-to-face, Terrell said. Because the course on the history of vocational education was initially scheduled for compressed interactive video delivery, Dutton insisted that all of the enrolled students agree in writing before it could be moved to a web-based course.

"We had about 20 students, and they were happy to try this new approach rather than meet face-to-face," Terrell said. "In the fall of 2001, we rolled out a health science program as well as several adult and vocational education courses, and we just built from there."

Terrell, a native of Hackett in Sebastian County, earned her master's degree in educational technology under Cheryl Murphy, who left her faculty role to become the U of A's vice provost for distance education and head of Global Campus in 2019.

In 1999, Terrell was lured away from a business in Texas to work in higher education. She told Murphy she was job hunting, and Murphy passed the word to Dutton, who soon gave Terrell a call. Dutton convinced Craig to leave the College of Education and Health Professions, where he was working with compressed interactive video.

Terrell and Craig were the first two members of what has become the Global Campus Instructional Design and Learning Technology support teams, which employ about two dozen staff members and support both on-campus and online education.

Faculty Buy-in

In the beginning, few faculty expressed an interest in teaching online. Terrell not only taught faculty to harness educational technology, but she encouraged and inspired faculty to take their courses and programs out of the traditional classrooms and put them online.

"At the time, some people were very cynical," Terrell said.

Global Campus built muscle in two strong arms. There is the online division that delivers programs for degrees and certifications and the Professional and Workforce Development division that provides training to people to advance their careers or start new ones.

The university adopted the Blackboard online learning system in 2000, which worked well with other systems used on campus, Terrell said, but convincing faculty to teach online was challenging. Some faculty members in the College of Education and Health Professions were the only ones willing to try the new technology and methods.

Faculty such as Bobbie Biggs in the vocational education program, later called workforce development education, were open "to whatever we offered," Terrell said. "They tried their best to use it as much as possible even if they didn't understand it completely."

 A few who expressed interest elsewhere on campus had an unrealistic expectation of the time and work that would be involved, she said.

"We supported compressed interactive video courses as much as we could to get faculty to see what we meant, to show them how you can use Blackboard to make assignments easier," Terrell said. "We used the 'Mikey' analogy. 'I'm not gonna try it, you try it. Let's get Mikey!' Everybody else looked over Mikey's shoulder, and we were off to the races. We just sat back and waited for people to notice, and eventually they did."

The idea of making more higher education options accessible to more people inspired Terrell, she said. When asked, Terrell often explained her philosophy about technology and teaching this way:

"I go back to my childhood. There were 28 people in my class in high school, and it was massively frustrating. I had more options in home ec than in other classes. When I saw the internet for the first time, it inspired me to enroll in the educational technology program at the U of A. It went to people who lived in places like where I grew up. They could get a lot more options. That's what kept me going all this time."

The difference between learning online and learning in person depends on the learner, Terrell explained. Her role as an instructional designer is to understand, as best she can, the pool of learners she's addressing and their needs, she said. She also taught courses in the educational technology program over the years.

"I took advantage of the opportunity, and it has given me tremendous insight," she said. "Anybody in higher education instructional design should teach at least one semester. It helps you to see the issues that instructors face."

Supporting Online

In the early days, Global Campus hired graduate assistants from the educational technology program to assist, and several of them came to work for Global Campus after earning their advanced degrees. The collaboration with faculty in the College of Education and Health Professions grew and, over the years, faculty in other colleges began working with Global Campus to move their courses online.

Terrell left the Global Campus for three years, working at the U of A's centralized Information Technology Services from 2009 to 2012. Her role there was to assist the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences as it added online sections to its core courses. A few years later, that project made it possible for the development of online bachelor's degree programs that required core courses from Fulbright College. Only one online bachelor's degree-completion program was offered before 2014, when the general business bachelor's degree launched.

More faculty joined the online learning fold after 2012, when Javier Reyes from the Sam M. Walton College of Business began serving as vice provost for distance education at Global Campus, Terrell said.

Some faculty did not need much help with course design, but designers always stressed the need for faculty members to build structure into a course, to be systematic, but most of all to be present, she said.

"As opposed to talking back and forth in a classroom and making adjustments in person, faculty teaching online need to check in frequently with students to be sure they are understanding concepts," she said. "Ongoing interaction is vital, and it took us awhile to understand some good ways to communicate that to faculty."

Ironically, the staff in the Global Campus were sent home several days before the campus closed because of COVID-19 in March 2020. A water pipe burst and flooded the building, rendering it unfit for occupation for months. The damage required extensive remodeling, sending staff home to work remotely. The rest of campus soon joined them.

The entire campus pivoted to remote instruction in mid-March, and Global Campus staff worked 60 to 70 hours a week and set up a hotline to help faculty members new to teaching online. In a way, COVID helped move the needle for some faculty to see the value of teaching online and the importance of engaging students in an online format, Terrell said.

"COVID sold what we were trying to sell by beating people over the head with it," she said. "There was no choice now. It only increased the demand for what we do."

Terrell enjoyed working from home and when she realized she was in a position to retire, she made the decision with plans to do free-lance work with short-term commitments.

"I was looking for more flexibility, something new to do after 22 years and four months."

Saying Good-bye

A farewell reception was held online, perhaps appropriately, on her last day. More than 50 people shared not just their screens but their memories, appreciation and love for Terrell.

"I never in my life had so much fun working with somebody," Craig said. "What we have experienced and accomplished, it has been a joy. Elaine was always so positive. There was nothing you can ask her that she does not know something about it. If she didn't, it was very, very rare, and she would absolutely find out something about it."

Barbara Gartin, who retired from the faculty of the special education program, said work by Terrell and the other instructional designers made a difference in Arkansas because more teachers could become certified in special education through online programs, ultimately serving more children with special needs in the state.

Scott Wright, an instructional designer at Global Campus, said it's hard to measure Terrell's contributions to her colleagues, Global Campus and the university.

"I learned so much observing you, seeing how to interact with others," Wright said. "What stuck out to me was how you treat each person with utmost respect even when you don't agree with their idea. So much of what we do is based on relationships and the trust we build."