Team Wins Global Campus Innovation Award

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Images from left: Kati Williams, Charini Urteaga, Colleen Whitman, Kersten Diehl and Selin Nelson

The Global Campus presented its Lightbulb Award to a team responsible for designing the non-credit chemistry preparation class. The team received the award from Cheryl Murphy, vice provost for distance education at the University of Arkansas, at the July virtual staff meeting.

"By creating this prep class, our staff responded to a need," Murphy said. "They created a new resource that will enable students studying in online degree programs to be successful. That is our ultimate goal, and these staff members exemplify the attitude that we are here to serve. I'm continually amazed by the dedication and expertise of our staff."

Members of the Instructional Design and Coaching teams at Global Campus implemented a summer non-credit chemistry preparation course for students taking online chemistry in fall 2022. The team was led by Kati Williams, coordinator for online coaching, and overseen by Colleen Whitman, online student support manager. Instructional designer Charini Urteaga provided technical and design support, while Selin Nelson and Kersten Diehl, both online student coaches, are facilitating the course.

"There is no other prep course like this offered online here at the U of A that I am aware of," Williams said. "This prep course is used as an intervention tool for the upcoming credit course and as an assistance to the coaching team in providing support. Everyone who is enrolled in fall online chemistry was sent an email asking if they would like to be included in the summer chemistry preparation course. If they responded saying they wanted to be in the course, we added them to Blackboard and sent them their unique link to the Online Student Union (WISR)."

Because of the timeline for contracting and staffing, the majority of the work was done in a single week. This included extensive communication plans, incentive systems, data monitoring and goal setting.

"In addition to the timeline being incredibly short, I had just returned from maternity leave and Kersten was a new hire who on-boarded the week we started the groundwork for the chem prep course," Williams said.

The project began during the second week in May. The course, which launched the first week in June, lasts for 11 weeks and will wrap up just before fall begins.

"This project was a great demonstration of the ways that IDSS and the Coaching Team can work together to improve the student experience and support success while also piloting one potential pathway for future non-credit-to-credit collaborations," said a colleague who nominated the team for this award.

The idea came about when Global Campus sought a strategy to help online students who were struggling or failing in chemistry, which is offered as a potential university core science course for undergraduate degrees.

"While keeping student success a priority, we knew we needed to give the students a tool to help them prepare for the difficult chemistry course," Williams said. "We thought that piloting a chemistry preparation course would be the best way to help the students understand the platform in which online chemistry is offered here at the U of A. We also worked with the chemistry professors to give the students a group of topics to study and become familiar with. Those topics are what the students review and learn in ALEKS during the 11-week course."

ALEKS is the technology platform that the students will use for the online chemistry class in the fall. A second platform, called WISR, was recently launched to help the students become involved and give them a community.

"WISR has never partnered with a school that uses the platform strictly for online students," Williams said. "We are breaking barriers everyday within WISR to make it a fun place for our students to join and be a part of a community, giving them more of a sense of belonging. We named our WISR platform the Online Student Union."

Whitman applauded the team's hard work and added, "Creating this course was the type of challenge we eagerly anticipated. We want to help the U of A community by providing resources that remove student roadblocks."

Global Campus instituted the Lightbulb Award to honor two or more staff members for outstanding innovation above and beyond their routine job responsibilities. This award is open to appointed and hourly staff who work for Global Campus.

Global Campus supports U of A colleges and schools in the development and delivery of online, distance and workforce education programs and courses. It provides instructional design services, technology services and assistance with marketing, recruiting and strategic academic development.

Global Campus also supports the W.E. Manning Memorial Scholarship, which is open to undergraduate and graduate students studying in online degree programs.