IPSE grants program

Abstract

Survey of Labor Economics and Labor Institutions (ECON 351), a three credit hour Department of Economics course, is required for the Industrial Supervision degree that has been approved for statewide delivery as part of the DegreeLink Program. DegreeLink is a partnership between Indiana State University and Vincennes University and Ivy Tech State College that provides access to baccalaureate degree-completion programs via distance technologies. In addition, ECON 351 serves as an elective for the Business Administration degree, which is also offered as part of DegreeLink. The course will also help Indiana social studies teachers meet the 12 credit hours of undergraduate economics for a certification in economics. Transforming this course for asynchronous Internet delivery will allow all three target audiences to easily access the course at times and places of their convenience. The proposed project requests a total of $28,937.46. Of this amount, $11,987.46 is requested from the Indiana Partnership for Statewide Education (IPSE), and $16,950.00 will be provided as matching funds by Indiana State University (ISU).

Project Narrative

Need To Be Addressed and Learners To Be Served

This course, ECON 351, will address the need to provide asynchronous general education courses for the DegreeLink Program. DegreeLink is a partnership between Indiana State University (ISU), and Vincennes University and Ivy Tech State College that provides statewide baccalaureate degree-completion programs to Indiana residents who wish to complete their college degrees at a distance.

Two DegreeLink statewide-approved degrees, Industrial Supervision and Business Administration, need this course to be offered at a distance in order for students to complete their degrees. ECON 351 is a required general education course for Industrial Supervision and a frequently chosen elective for the Insurance emphasis in the Business Administration degree. The Insurance Program is also currently working towards offering a statewide degree in Insurance. Currently, ECON 351 is not available in any distance format.

A secondary need this course addresses is to assist Indiana social studies teachers with obtaining a certification in economics for their teaching licenses. This certification requires 12 undergraduate credit hours in economics. The ISU Economics Department is planning to offer all of these 12 credit hours asynchronously within the next three years. At this time, Public Finance (ECON 331) is offered as an asynchronous Internet course.

Rationale for Choice of Course

As DegreeLink enters its second year of program delivery, more General Education courses need to be developed for distance delivery to ensure that DegreeLink students can meet the requirements for their degrees. As part of the articulation agreements among ISU, Vincennes University, and Ivy Tech State College, ISU will offer only upper division undergraduate courses for DegreeLink students. ECON 351 therefore meets the following important requirements:

It is an upper division General Education course.
It is a requirement for the Industrial Supervision Degree approved for statewide delivery.
It is a frequently chosen elective for the Business Administration degree, especially for the Insurance emphasis.

ECON 351 would also be the second asynchronous economics course on-line as part of the Economics Department' s three year plan to offer 12 credit hours in undergraduate economics courses to Indiana social studies teachers seeking an endorsement in economics for their teaching license.

Choice of Technologies

Because it is necessary for these time- and place-bound audiences to have optimal access to ECON 351, we believe creating an asynchronous on-line course will reach the largest number of students in our target audiences. We also believe that using the Internet as the main technology choice will increase the opportunities for interactivity and communication between students and the instructor.

Another reason for using the Internet as the primary technology choice for this course is to provide access to a wide range of Web sites for research and data gathering to distance students whose access to on-site resources and libraries may be limited. Also, a wide variety of simulations are available via the Internet, which will provide students with an ability to Arole-play@ in a manner not available with any other instructional method.

Institutional Capacity

ECON 351 has been offered on the ISU campus for thirty years. Students majoring in several fields of technology are required to take the course. The course is also popular with social science education, business, history, sociology, and political science majors as well as economics majors. The instructor of the course, Dr. John Conant, is the chair of the Economics Department and serves as the Director of ISU=s Center for Economic Education. The course is an important part of the department=s mission and will continue to be offered both on-campus and via the Web for the foreseeable future.

Institutional Commitment

ISU has committed extensive resources to helping faculty develop courses for the DegreeLink program. This includes design, development, training, and evaluation assistance from instructional designers in Continuing Education/Instructional Services (CEIS) and staff in Media Technologies and Resources (MTR). Marketing support from CEIS Planning and Program Development and implementation support from the CEIS staff has also been assured.

Instructional Design Plan

Course Description

Because ECON 351 is a survey course, students are exposed to a variety of fundamental economic principles as well as historical and current issues related to labor legislation, labor organizations, wage policies, and labor markets.

Students will become knowledgeable about the current public debate surrounding such issues as minimum wage laws, affirmative action policies, occupational health and safety regulations, public sector bargaining, the government=s role in educating and training the labor force, problems in the workplace, plant closing legislation, industrial competitiveness, and unemployment policies.

Design Considerations

Phase 1: Envisioning ECON 351 for the Web. Dr. Conant will plan to take a fresh look at how best to involve students in guided, active practice in analyzing and applying both information found in their textbooks, but especially the rich resources of information found on the Internet.

Phase 2: Designing slide show tutorials that explain step-by-step how graphs used in economics are created and also the significance and nature of those graphs. The slide shows will follow a model developed by Dr. Guell for his ECON 331 (http://isu.indstate.edu/guell/ecn331/syl.htm ), where he recreated the step-by-step process of constructing economics graphs that he usually explains in class using a white board. (See Appendix C).

Phase 3: This phase will involve developing the course Web site using a Web-based courseware from CourseInfo called Interactive Learning Network (ILN). Information on lessons and assignments will be created and placed on the course site and an important aspect of this phase is connecting the slide show tutorials to the appropriate lessons to ensure a coherent context.

Because the main learning objectives focus on students being able to apply fundamental economic principles to both historical and current issues, students will be expected to demonstrate mastery of this information through writing a series of brief essays that will be sent to the instructor through the upload file function of the course site. These essays will be based on current events relating to labor economics and institutions that they have researched using Internet and library resources. Students will also have the opportunity to demonstrate their integration of an historical perspective into their analysis of current labor market problems and policies through weekly asynchronous online discussions using the discussion tool of the course site.

Project Schedule

Summer 1999: Development Time

Dr. Conant: To regenerate notes for electronic use. 400 hours.

Dr. Guell: To turn Dr. Conant=s raw course work into a well functioning Web course. 400 hours.

Fall 1999: Revision of Course Materials

Dr. Conant: One course release time to redraft the substance of the material.

Dr. Guell: One course release time to implement the redraft on the Web.

Spring 2000: Beta Testing Course

Use the Web site as an on-campus supplement to the course taught by Dr. Conant.

Summer 2000: Implementation

Course is fully implemented as asynchronous on-line course

Course Evaluation Plan

Formative Evaluation

On-campus students will beta test the course and provide feedback through periodic on-line surveys. Information gathered from these surveys will be used to revise course content and procedures as well as the surveys to be used for the implementation phase. During the implementation phase, students will provide feedback through periodic, anonymous on-line surveys, individual e-mail communications with the instructor and synchronous focus group discussions.

Summative Evaluation

During the beta-testing phase, on campus students will take a summative course and instructor evaluation instrument on-line to provide information and feedback for revision of the course and evaluation instruments. The results of these instruments will be used to modify course content and procedures for the implementation phase. During the implementation phase, students will take a revised course/instructor evaluation instrument at the end of the course. Results from this evaluation will be used to further revise course content and procedures for future course delivery.

Dissemination of Evaluation Information

Information from evaluations of course content and procedures, along with revision decisions, will be presented through various CEIS publications. The information will provide guidance for other faculty in effective teaching/learning strategies for on-line course delivery.

Peer Review

Dr. Devon Yoho, a respected economics educator, will be used as a peer reviewer for the project. Dr. Yoho is the Director of the Center for Economic Education at Ball State University and has authored a variety of technologically-based economic education materials. His work includes AEconomics at Work,@, a laser-disk-based, interactive economics curriculum for high school economics classes and a Web-based basic economics course for elementary school teachers. Because of his technical and subject matter expertise, we believe he will provide a strong critical evaluation of the on-line course.

Strategies To Strengthen Quality and Interinstitutional Acceptance

Information concerning the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of the course will be disseminated in various campus-wide publications such as Interaction, an e-mail based faculty newsletter. This information will also be shared in the Course Transformation Academy (CTA), a series of workshops offered to faculty who are planning to transform on-campus courses to a distance environment.

Key Course Development Personnel

Dr. John Conant, Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics, and Director of the Center for Economic Education will be the project director of the course and will serve as the course instructor.

Dr. Robert Guell, Associate Professor of Economics will serve as co-developer of the course. Dr. Guell is the Economic Department's computer consultant and has experience in Web-based instruction, developing Economics 331 as a Web-based distance course.

Paula Holder, an Instructional Designer with CEIS, will be working closely with the faculty developers on all phases of the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of the course.

Proposed Budget and Narrative

The bulk of the award request from IPSE for the proposed project focuses on providing funding for the equivalent of two summer courses in order to provide release time for Dr. Conant to design and develop the course. Also requested is funding for Dr. Guell to assist Dr. Conant in creating the slide show economic graph tutorials. Faculty summer salaries are derived as 7.5% of the instructor's base salary with fringe benefits derived as 11.65% of the summer salary. It is expected that ISU's contribution to the project will be instructional design and Faculty Computing Resource Center staff assistance.

Following is the rationale for the basis for the budget figures related to the Project Director's salary and specific elements of the institutional contribution.

It takes an average of 12 hours of overall design and development work to transform one hour of student learning in a traditional course to an online environment. Some would say this is a very conservative estimate. "The figure of an average of 18 hours for Web development seems to be just about right with this supporting data. Perhaps we could be even more accurate by providing a range of 5-23 hours." (Judith V. Boettcher, How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Distance Learning Course? Syllabus May 1998). Because a Web-based Courseware called Interactive Learning Network (ILN) will be used for the course site, synchronous and asynchronous class communication, testing, and exchanging of files, the estimate is about half of the upper limit of 23 hours quoted. Because this is a new courseware and because most faculty are inexperienced with the technology of creating materials for the Web, our average is higher than the lowest estimate of 5 hours.

As there are 45 student learning hours (3 credits x 15 weeks) 45 x12= 540 hours average to take an existing course and design and develop it for online Internet delivery. CEIS feels this is a reasonable estimate given that Boettchner reports "an investment of 810 hours to move a course to the Web" and "If we assume some time for startup with learning technology and instruction in teaching and learning in this new environment (and also arranging for any copyright and other issues), we can rapidly approach the 1,000-hour mark for moving a course to the Web"

To teach two summer courses requires 90 hours of in-class time (3 credit hours per week X 15 weeks X 2 courses=90 hours), as well as time for grading tests, reading and evaluating written assignments, and office hours for student conferences. A conservative average for this out of class time would be 1 hour a week for every 3 hours of in class teaching, which would add another 30 hours for a 2 summer course load. This gives us a total of 120 hours release time for two summer courses.

Because Faculty Release Time will only account for 120 hours of the 540 hours estimated, Support Staff must take up the remaining 420 design and development hours for the average course.

These hours of design and development are accounted for in the following tasks. The design work for the instructor and the instructional designer is in identifying and then recreating verbal teaching and learning experiences that take place in the classroom for an asynchronous learning experience. This includes lectures, classroom discussions, in class explanations, in class groupwork, and individual student-teacher conferences. This interactivity must be "reproduced" with highly interactive Internet-based learning materials, activities, and assignments.

Another design activity that takes up considerable time is designing and developing formative and summative evaluations for the online course in order to gain feedback from students to improve the quality of the course for learning and retention purposes.

Much of the development time that the Faculty Computing Resource Center (FCRC) staff will be involved with is in transforming print materials such as handouts, on reserve readings, and study guides into online information or for mailing purposes. Also time consuming for the FCRC staff is transforming tests, quizzes, and surveys into an online environment. A final part of this development time is taken up with editing, proofreading, and revision recommendations performed by the Course Editor.

The breakdown for the inkind institutional services cost for the average course transformation (420 hours) follows. Except for the office expenses, these services are listed under Other Direct Costs in the budget form:

200 hours Instructional Designers@$50 per hour. Total $10,000

200 hours Faculty Computing Resource Staff (mixture of full-time staff, graduate assistants)@$30 per hour. Total $6000

20 hours Course Editor @ $25 hr. Total $450

Miscellaneous Office expenses. Total $500

Total of Institutional Match= $16,950

Appendix A: Summary of Lead Faculty Members' Experience

Dr. John Conant, the project director, earned a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Tennessee in 1984, specializing in labor economics, industrial organization, and the economic analysis of law. He is professor and chair of the Economics Department and the Director of the Center for Economic Education (CEE). He teaches in the areas of labor economics, managerial economics, microeconomics, and the history of economic thought. As Director of the CEE he teaches workshops and credit courses on economics for in-service K-12 teachers. His publications include articles on public sector labor relations and labor union administration. He published a computerized simulation and study guide for use in managerial economics in 1986. He has also done consulting work for groups such as the Associated Building Contractors of Terre Haute, Inc.

Dr. Robert Guell, associate professor of economics earned a Ph.D. degree from Syracuse University in 1991. He teaches all levels of economics, from Basic Economics to a graduate course in Econometrics. Dr. Guell also serves as the Department=s computer consultant. His teaching has earned him a College of Arts and Sciences Educational Excellence Award and a University Caleb Mills Distinguished Teaching Award. He has published scholarly articles in pharmaceutical economics, the economics of baseball, and financial economics. He has authored a Web-based independent study course in Public Finance and uses Web-based instructional aids in many courses.