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CITG continues to take on exciting new projects in collaboration with undergraduate, graduate, and executive education faculty. Here are some recent highlights:
Blended Learning Faculty Fellows Program
Where We've Been
In the fall of 2006, a pilot group of faculty members was chosen to participate in the Innovation in Blended Learning Faculty Fellows Program. The program, developed as part of a collaborative effort between Mike Fetters and CITG, is a multi-stage faculty development course. Eight faculty members in the pilot course graduated from the program that September of 2006 and became certified Babson blended professors. These eight trailblazers have gone on to translate their face-to-face teaching success into blended learning and teaching success.
Where We Are
To date, we have completed two additional cycles of the program beyond the pilot, with over 40 faculty now certified as Blended Fellows. Though the Fellows Program was initially designed for faculty teaching in the MBA Fast Track Program, we have tailored it to all faculty teaching blended courses at Babson. There are generally 8-10 faculty participants enrolled in each course, which runs for approximately 8 weeks. The format of the course is itself blended, so participants are able to experience being a “student” in a blended course.
There are four stages to the program:
Stage 1: Participating in case-based learning exercises online and face-to-face
Stage 2: Designing a blended learning mini course in collaboration with CITG
Stage 3: Delivering the blended learning mini course designed in Stage 2
Stage 4: Applying the learning directly to teaching in a blended program at Babson.
Want to be Involved?
One of the key benefits of completing the Fellows Program is that participants emerge with a usable design they can implement when teaching their next blended course. Moreover, there is consensus among the Dean of Faculty, Division Chairs, and faculty that the completion of this development program is not only important, it will be considered when reviewing development goals for those teaching in blended learning modules.
Our 4th Fellows Program will begin in September of 2008. For more information about joining the course contact CITG@babson.edu.
CITG to Present in BbWorld '07
On July 10, 2007 CITG will be presenting at Blackboard’s annual conference, Bb World ’07, at Boston’s Hynes Convention Center. The presentation, entitled Meeting Pedagogical Goals with Blackboard Software, will highlight how Babson College leverages the features and flexibility in Blackboard software to achieve pedagogical goals and remain focused on curriculum innovation. Participants will see how Babson successfully brings together various tools in the Blackboard Learning System to meet learning objectives and deliver high-quality curriculum in an innovative way.
Faculty Pilot a New Development Program in
Blended Learning
CITG is partnering with professor Mike Fetters to deliver the Innovation in Blended Learning: Faculty Fellows
Program. A pilot group of faculty was chosen to participate in the program, which launched in late October.
The program is a multi-staged faculty development course initially designed for faculty teaching in the MBA Fast Track Program.
The program can be easily tailored to all faculty teaching blended learning modules in any Babson
program.
The program aims to assist faculty development in blended learning and ensure continuous improvement in the use of blended learning techniques. In addition, the program will increase the number of faculty who are both capable of and enthusiastic
about teaching in blended programs.
The Innovation in Blended Learning: Faculty Fellows Program is a four-staged program in which faculty participate
in case-based learning exercises, design and deliver a blended learning module, and finally, apply what
they have learned to teaching in a blended program. Upon completion of the four stages, faculty members
become "Certifi ed Babson Blended Professors." The Dean of Faculty, Division Chairs, and faculty agree that
the completion of this development program is important for faculty and will be considered in development
goals for faculty teaching in blended learning modules.
Fast Track 2006 Redesign
 CITG is working closely with Bill Lawler, Fast Track faculty, and the Office of Program Management to redesign the Fast Track Blended MBA program. The program, slated to rollout in September 2006, is a modular curriculum that allows for certificate and MS opportunities in addition to the MBA degree. The world-class program leverages Babson's ongoing commitment to integrated teaching and learning and is administratively easy to deliver and scale. Because the program will have fewer face-to-face meetings and a longer duration between meetings, CITG will be instrumental to ensuring the success of the online learning elements. Program prerequisites, including Basic Statistics, Basic Accounting, and Basic IT Fluency, will be fully online self-paced tutorials developed by CITG. In addition, we will design and develop interactive learning objects to be used throughout the updated curriculum.
Alden Trust Toolkits with Macromedia Breeze
To support the undergraduate IME curriculum, CITG has been working with Babson faculty to create online learning toolkits. In building these toolkits, we needed a development tool that would allow professors to compile their class material in an environment that was familiar to them.
Macromedia Breeze is a perfect solution because faculty can develop their material in PowerPoint and hand the slides over to CITG to develop and implement. Babson faculty find the PowerPoint Breeze plug-in easy to use to record their audio content as well as to synchronize their text and animations in PowerPoint.
Using a tool that both CITG staff and faculty know expedites production time and allows for easy content revisions. Furthermore, faculty and CITG staff can easily collaborate on a toolkit project in PowerPoint.
For the students, the interactivity, audio, graphics, and text help them better review and learn. The linear structure of the Breeze presentations with the table of contents enables students to move to specific sections that they want to view and replay slides again when needed. Being able to capture a classroom concept into reusable eLearning has been very beneficial for both the students and faculty!
Here's what one faculty member has to say about working with
CITG on the Alden Toolkits:
I could talk for days about my wonderful experience with CITG and the Alden Toolkits! The folks at CITG made the process incredibly easy. First I met with them and explained what I wanted to accomplish with the toolkits. The CITG folks explained all the capabilities that Breeze has to offer, and helped me make the most of the technology. I wrote the text and the self-test questions, and CITG designed perfect graphics to go along with the presentation. With the "rough draft" in hand, I was able to fine-tune the script.
Recording the script was easy in that the software allows you to start and stop as needed. There's no fear of having to get everything perfect in the first take. While CITG can have someone else record your text for you, I recommend recording it yourself. Some of my students said that it was "comforting" to hear my voice on the presentation, instead of an unknown person. In this way, the technology actually seems to enhance, rather than detract from, relationships with students.
My students felt that the toolkits were helpful in explaining some complex and, in some cases counterintuitive, concepts. They especially liked being able to move at their own pace, and the self-test sections were instrumental in showing them that they had mastered the concept. My students asked for more interactive toolkits, and I look forward to building more with CITG in the near future.
--Kathy Harris
For more information or to discuss your own idea for curriculum innovation through the use of technology, contact CITG.
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