INS 344 Commercial Liability Insurance
Indiana State University
Project Abstract
This proposal is for design, development and implementation of Insurance 344, Commercial Liability Insurance, a required course for the insurance major and an elective for the insurance minor at ISU. This course is one of the courses necessary for the recently approved Insurance concentration for the DegreeLink Insurance major, one of the statewide degree-completion programs offered by Indiana State University. There is also significant demand for this course from a second and major target group: non-degreed employees of the insurance industry in Indiana. This group of nontraditional students has shown great interest in distance degree completion programs, and there is significant support for their educational needs from Indiana insurance executives and human resource managers. This proposed project request a total of $28,924.00. Of this amount, $11,974.00 is requested from the Indiana Partnership for Statewide Education (IPSE) and $16,950.00 to be provided as in-kind matching funds by Indiana State University (ISU).
Introduction
This proposal is a request for $11,974.00 to support the design, development and implementation for distance delivery of Insurance 344 (INS 344), Commercial Liability and Insurance. This course is required for the insurance major and is a prerequisite for Insurance 430, Risk Management which is also required for the insurance major. INS 344 is an examination of the major commercial liability loss exposures of for-profit, non-profit, and governmental organizations. It provides the student with a framework for evaluating and selecting optimal combinations of loss control and risk financing options for protection against liability losses.
Need To Be Addressed and Learners to be Served
Offering Insurance 344 as an Internet course will
benefit at least two target groups who are unable to continue their education
through traditional on-campus courses. The first group would be students participating
in ISU’s DegreeLink Program. In August, the Indiana Commission for Higher
Education approved insurance as an additional degree completion program. Thus,
individuals throughout the state having time and/or distance constraints are
able to transform their associate’s degree into a bachelor’s degree
in insurance without having to relocate. The additional coursework for their
degree can be completed via distance education. Providing INS 344 as an on-line
delivery internet course not only provides the opportunity for students to take
the course at DegreeLink locations throughout the state; it opens the possibility
to take the course at any location (including the student’s home) where
there is a computer having an internet browser and modem. On-line delivery of
INS 344 will also provide another elective option for students in the DegreeLink
Business Administration major.
A second significant target group that can be readily
reached by on-line distance delivery of INS 344 comes directly from the insurance
industry. To quote Megan Lavelle, Manager of Human Resources of the National
Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, "Because the insurance industry
typically hires many more employees without an insurance degree than those graduating
with an insurance major, the industry demand for entry level professional positions
far exceeds the supply of insurance majors nationwide, thus a large number of
insurance company employees are potential students". Because insurance
is a highly information intensive industry, there is need for an educated workforce
to both promote and sustain insurance industry growth as well as to provide
challenging professional career options for individuals. Through an active advisory
council, the Insurance Program at ISU has become aware of the need to offer
collegiate courses to employees of the insurance industry who have not completed
their undergraduate education. These employees have access to computers at their
job and many have computers at home as well. Because of job, family, and other
responsibilities, many are unable to complete their formal educational degree
program and may well miss out on upward career path opportunities. The DegreeLink
Program gives this target group access to the ISU insurance program. These employees
have the potential to become more valuable to their employers after having completed
one or more insurance courses. Employees seeking an insurance degree who have
credits from other accredited institutions which are not a part of the DegreeLink
program can also benefit by transferring credits on a course by course basis.
It is also possible to offer a concentration of insurance courses to individuals
employed by the insurance industry who have a degree in another discipline and
are seeking to expand their knowledge in select insurance areas. Providing INS
344 ready for on-line distance delivery thus offers learning opportunities for
two major target groups.
Instructional Goals and Design.
The instructional goals and objectives for INS 344 are to provide
a problem-based learning course that immerses the students in authentic problems
where they become engaged in learning the concepts through solving ill-structured
problems of commercial liability insurance principles and coverages which have
multiple solutions which are not readily apparent. A textbook and a semester
length case (problem) will be the primary sources of information, as well as
the Internet course site that will be created. Because the problem drives the
learning, the course will provide for complex problems where multiple solutions
are possible. The application that has been learned from the general problem
will then be tested as project teams select a "real-world" problem
to solve, as a semester-based project, and submit their solution via a written
project report.
The major semester-long problem from which the students will
learn to apply problem-solving concepts will develop through additional details
of the general liability situation.
The dimensions of the initial problem will be expanded to include
such issues as: physical, socio-cultural, organizational, and regulatory conditions
so that the problem becomes much more complex, and also offers the possibility
of multiple solutions. Questions will be posted for each group and threaded
conversations will be observed. The asynchronous nature of the distance course
is ideally suited for working adult students and brings their expertise to bear
on the problem in their time frame. Additionally, through list serves and chat
rooms, the conversation can be monitored to see that the topic stays on track
or redirected by the instructor if that becomes necessary. These threaded conversations
can also be analyzed to determine whether everyone is participating and at what
level. In other words, through the unique nature of the computer based course,
with chat rooms, list serves, and e-mail, the entire class will participate
in the broader discussions and critical thinking process of the problem. Multiple
solutions for the complex nature of the problem will be proposed and analyzed
by the entire class. Discussion groups provide shared information to everyone
and mutual exchange enhances the student’s learning because the computer-based
nature of the course allows the instructor to monitor conversations and to provide
coaching and/or direction as needed.
For their individual group project, each team of students will
identify a company that they will have to service for commercial liability exposures.
The students will need to identify background information about their team's
company during the first few weeks of class. Throughout the semester, additional
information and facts concerning specific commercial liability risks about each
company will be gathered by each team each week. The effects of decisions they
make concerning the risk treatment recommended for their company will be reported
to the class throughout the semester through list serves, chat room discussions,
and threaded conversations. As with the development and analysis of the common
problem, computer based asynchronous communications will be used not only to
document individual group member’s quantity and quality of participation;
it can also provide for redirected conversations to reinforce students’
evaluations of liability risk exposures. Sharing information between groups
through directed questions can also offer students multiple perspectives to
approaching similar complex problems.
As part of the group work, students will
be responsible for posting presentations concerning their company's progress
to the course site. Other class members will be given the opportunity to question
and discuss each team's report. The opportunity to share what each team is doing
and to discuss alternatives not identified by particular teams will generate
ownership of the problems facing the companies (which is key to problem-based
learning) and further enhance the learning process. They will also be required
to write and submit a report at the end of the semester that summarizes what
they achieved throughout the semester for their companies. This final report
will require students to demonstrate professional writing and analysis skills.
It will also demonstrate the students' ability to draw the entire semester's
content together.
The group work is important from a learning
perspective. It not only enhances the learning atmosphere, but also engages
individuals to better articulate the problem in the company's situational context,
identify constraints, select and test possible solutions through an expanding
knowledge base, and ultimately support their argument for some optional solution.
Course Evaluation Plan
Students will be given a pre-test to assess
their knowledge of the material at the beginning of the semester. Throughout
the semester, formative evaluations of the course, including on-line surveys
and focus groups, will be conducted to ensure the class is fulfilling the educational
objectives established for the course.
The instructional goals and objectives for INS 344 are to provide
a course that is problem-based and relies on a case study approach. In addition
to the text for information, other resources such as Web-based courseware and
links would be available. Use of problem-based learning through group work not
only enhances the learning atmosphere, but allows each group member to participate
at convenient times because of the asynchronous nature of the learning delivery
system.
Further enrichment to the learning process will come through
the computer capability of providing group discussion sites and chat rooms.
The instructor will interact with the groups through e-mail and monitoring of
their progress. Expanding on the group-instructor interaction, the Internet
technology will also allow interactions between and among groups. Thus, several
groups of experts can provide feedback to a particular group’s problem
solving results.
Students will be tested on course content. They will also participate
in writing the group project report and will be responsible for an abstract
presentation to other groups. Each group’s abstract presentation will be
critiqued by all other groups and feedback will be provided to each group on
the quality of its abstract presentation. Assessment of the quality of participation
of individual on-line discussions will include establishing criteria such as
the one sentence summary or the 50-word paper to evaluate individual student
responses. Use of technology such as hypermail for chat room discussions can
also facilitate this process.
Implementation of the course will involve at least one beta test.
Before the course is delivered to a distance audience on-line, the technology
will be used for a campus-based course where students enrolled in a traditional
course will have Internet involvement and participate in focus group and individual
assessments of all aspects of the course.
Students from the campus-based course as well as distance students
will be asked to provide feedback on the value of the course to them in general
and on what they learned by participating in the group problem solving projects.
Information from this type of debriefing will allow the instructor to evaluate
the success as well as the limitations of the course delivery. This information
will be used to continuously improve the quality of the course.
Peer Review and Interinstitutional Acceptance
Once the course is developed, experiences in design, development, and implementation will be reported on campus to sources such as the Course Transformation Academy, Instructional Resource Center, and the Electronic Newsletter on Teaching. There is also interest from other academics through insurance academic organizations such as the American Risk and Insurance Association, the Western Risk and Insurance Association, the Society of Insurance Research, and Gamma Iota Sigma, the student professional insurance society. Presentations to these organizations at their national meetings and journal articles for their publications will be used to provide guidance for other faculty in developing effective teaching/learning strategies for web-based course delivery.Institution’s Capacity and Commitment.
In addition to significant support that would be provided by ISU’s Continuing Education/Instructional Services (CEIS) which would include marketing media, instructional design, and technical computer support, the School of Business and the Insurance Program are deeply committed to the roll-out of INS 344 and will provide support and financial contributions to ensure not only the design and development of the course, but also ongoing delivery of INS 344. See Appendix for letters from Insurance Program Coordinator and School of Business Dean.
To date, awareness of the DegreeLink insurance major has been primarily through informal presentations and discussions to insurance company executives and human resource directors, all of whom have expressed great interest in learning more about plans for implementation. The ISU DegreeLink Coordinators have also been apprised of the plans for the insurance major roll-out over the next two years and have begun to promote the program across the state. A more formalized marketing program of newsletters, presentations, and other media sources is being developed by the Insurance Program. In addition to human resource managers regularly contacted by the Insurance Program for internships and job placements, information about distance education opportunities for home office insurance personnel will be communicated to the Society of Insurance Trainers and Educators (SITE) and participation is planned for attending SITE’s regional meetings and publishing in their newsletter. Insurance Program faculty have met with student service representatives from Ivy Tech State College and Vincennes University to make them aware of distance learning for the insurance major. The Insurance Advisory Council has established special scholarships for Associate Degree graduates to encourage their enrollment in our degree program. Finally, ISU Insurance Program graduates will be contacted through our alumni newsletter and asked to promote our web-based courses to their colleagues and associates.
Project Schedule
- Summer 2000 Design and Development
- Fall 2000 Beta Test and Refine
- Spring 2001 On-line Full Implementation with at least one section devoted to on-line distance students per semester
Key Course Development
Personnel
Peter Mikolaj, Professor of Insurance and Risk Management, will be the Project
Director for development of INS 344. He has taught this course on campus for
10 years and maintains currency in curriculum matters through course revisions
using updated texts, engagement as a consultant to corporations and non-profit
organizations, and presentations of contemporary liability risk and insurance
issues at professional meetings. Prior to teaching, he was an insurance industry
executive for many years and was responsible for developing and evaluating specialized
liability risk control and risk financing programs.
The project is requesting involvement of Karen Hamilton, an instructional
development expert who has specialized knowledge in the content area of insurance
curriculum. Dr. Hamilton is the Director of Curriculum for the American Institute
for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters (AICPCU). Dr. Hamilton’s background
of a doctorate in risk management and insurance, along with a master's degree
in course design and development, and research interests in the design and development
of computer-based instruction for distance and adult education, make her uniquely
qualified for this project.
Additionally a Course Development Team will be formed. The team
will consist of the primary instructor, an instructional designer and development
personnel from the Faculty Computing Resource Center. Don Kaufman, ISU Instructional
Designer, will serve as Project Manager, coordinating the resources utilized
in the design and development of the course.
Proposed Budget Narrative
The major part of the grant request is for faculty release
time in the equivalent of one
month's salary for Dr. Mikolaj and the
services of an outside consultant, Dr. Karen Hamilton.
Dr. Mikolaj’s salary is derived as the equivalent of one full month's salary
which is computed as his annual salary divided by a nine month academic year.
This figure of $7500.00 would be compensated as 11% of the instructor’s
base salary. Benefits in the amount of $874.00
equals 11.65% of the instructor's salary.
Dr. Hamilton will review the design and content of the course
to ensure that it will be appropriate
for the target group of insurance company home office personnel, while at the
same time being well suited for DegreeLink students. As an outside consultant,Dr.
Hamilton will be compensated in the amount of $3,000 for her services.
An
amount of $600.00 is requested in IPSE funding for the purpose of attending
a regional meeting of risk managers, such as the Ohio Society of Health Care
Risk Managers in Columbus Ohio, or the Chicago Chapter of the Risk and Insurance
Management Society, Inc. (RIMS). Both of these organizations sponsor educational
conferences where risk managers, brokers and insurers present changes and trends
in commercial risk exposures. Support in attending a conference would include
registration, travel, lodging and per diem.
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."
The hours of institutional support for the 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 group work, 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 in-kind 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. $10,000
200 hours Faculty Computing Resource Staff @$30 per hour. 6,000
20 hours Course Editor @ $25 hr. 450
Miscellaneous Office expenses. 500
Total of Institutional Match 16,950
IPSE funding request $11,974
Total project funding $28,924.
