Faculty, staff, students and volunteers continue to refine Brigham Young University Hawaii's on-line learning model and develop early distance learning courses that will better prepare incoming students, facilitate current students to take more classes and cost-effectively extend BYUH's reach well beyond the campus.
Initial plans call for a "package of courses" including Biology 100, a world music class, Book of Mormon 121-122, and a study skills class, as well as an on-line entrepreneurship associate's degree, explained Elder M. David Merrill [pictured at upper left], in several recent discussion sessions on the subject. Elder Merrill, a professor emeritus of instructional technology at Utah State University, along with his wife, is filling a second service mission at BYUH to help spearhead the project.
"In addition to that, one of the goals is to teach English in the context of these courses. We're actually going to build English instruction into every course in a transparent way so that students are given some help in how to perform the assignments, and they have some help with vocabulary," he said. Mark Wolfersberger, English as an International Language Coordinator, is overseeing the English content portion of the project, with participation from various EIL faculty.
For example, Distance Education Coordinator and English Language Teaching Professor Ellen Bunker, noted the EIL program has "34 students in China, Indonesia, Cambodia, Kiribati, Dominican Republic, Dubai and here in Laie; and last semester we had one with students in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan."
In addition to developing these early courses, the content specialists along with instructional designers and technical support are considering an on-line learning model based on problem centered, peer interactive principles.
"By problem centered, we mean that some of the most effective learning takes place when students are trying to solve real-world problems that they apply their knowledge to; and the second thing is we want to encourage students to teach one another," Elder Merrill said. He added that student-to-student interaction "tremendously increases the amount of feedback."
"To avoid a situation of the ‘blind leading the blind,' you've got to use structure," he continued. This could include rubrics. Some research shows peers rating peers is valid. For example, they may spend more time with each other than an instructor."
The peer interaction model would also require students to first submit an individual solution to a problem, then work with three-to-five others to create a collaborative solution, and finally critique the solutions of several other small groups.
"Offering courses online provides opportunities that are not otherwise available," Elder Merrill continued, citing several advantages: "One is it facilitates scheduling opportunities on campus. The data show that if you have asynchronous courses on campus, that is, students can take them any time, they can actually take one more course [a semester] than they usually can, because every time you add a course, scheduling becomes an issue."
Another goal, he said, is "to have as many resources as possible available to the students online. That doesn't mean we don't have lectures, but they might be on video, or there are other ways to communicate with the students." Other aspects might include submitting work via learning management systems, or "interacting with each other or a faculty mentor through a discussion board or chat, as well as live."
"We already have the capability of two-way Internet interaction in almost every stake center and every Institute building," Elder Merrill said. Bunker added, "We're able to get the Internet to work in almost every country. There's might be a little trouble — they can't get the audio to work — but it's better than you might expect. We can connect with these students and do an activity together."
Elder Merrill also pointed out that BYU-Hawaii President Steven C. Wheelwright envisions using in-country facilitators, possibly spouses or senior missionaries, who can "bring a sense of community so that students who are online can be gathered together...and meet with other students who may not be online. They can also help find ‘lost sheep,' who suddenly stop communicating."
Still, there are challenges. For example, Elder Merrill asked, "Can we leverage our ability to be effective teachers, using technology in a way to reach more students, teach more classes, and still not kill ourselves off? How do we give meaningful, problem-centered assignments to students, that require them to think and perform, and still be able to provide the feedback to these students? How do we help students teach one another? How do we help students interact with one another using the technology in a way that provides better learning, better instruction, and yet doesn't kill off the instructors, or require [more] teaching assistants?"
Other issues include teacher training, enrollment, student support, standardizing computer applications and technology support, scheduling tutors to coincide with geographical time differences, and the need for more streaming audio and video bandwidth. "It's a matter of thinking of new ways to do things," he continued, and said the distance learning discussions have been designed to "stimulate thought and get feedback."
He also explained donors have provided money for the up-front development, and Bunker reported, "In our experience, we've had good support. I see this happening all across campus as we try to develop these. The Library has been so responsive, the Reading and Writing Center... It's encouraging," she said.