Proposal for Development ofOpen Learning Courses in the College of Arts and Sciences at the

University of North Dakota

W. R. Caraher, Department of History, University of North Dakota

The past 5 years have seen a significant increase in the number of universities making course
material available in an open context, free of charge to the general public. MIT’s
OpenCourseWare and Stanford’s and Berkeley’s robust offerings on iTuneU and YouTube
represent the best-known examples of this practice. While it is commendable that these
universities make their course material publicly available, the medium – podcasts, YouTube
videos, readings, and syllabi – remain limited in that they do not allow for interaction with their
world class faculty or offer opportunities to interact with out students in the course.

Proposal and Goals

Innovative Pedagogy. I propose that UND make a limited slate of online courses available to
non-paying, non-credit, students with opportunities to interact with faculty. These same open
courses would also be available to for-credit, paying students, who would have the ability
(although it would not be a requirement) to interact with non-credit students in a monitored and
academic environment. Recent experiments with similar type courses have shown that such
open offerings have potential not only to attract large number of non-credit students to the open
environment, but to also break down the barriers between the classroom and the world beyond
the university

Marketing Platform. This limited slate of open-learning type classes would allow the college and
university to showcase its world-class faculty, the engagement of its for-credit student body, and
the high-quality of its online classroom environment. Such “content-based marketing” would
both tap into an audience of traditional university stake holders (including alumni and other local
supporters of the University) and develop a global audience for the University’s online offerings.

Local Relevance, National Significance. A designed program of open-learning courses would be

unprecedented among our peer institutions and almost certain to garner national significance.
Our new emphasis on e-marketing would complement a greater faculty presence on the web and
produce synergies between campus information services and engaged faculty and students.
Finally, and, perhaps most importantly, open-learning courses would reinforce our commitment
to serve the state and local community in innovative ways.

Mechanics of Course Delivery

The courses would be delivered through the existing Blackboard infrastructure in two parallel
processes. Enrolled students would register in the regular manner, but would be informed that
the course was in a unique Open Enrollment offering. Non-credit “open learners” would enter the
course through a simplified version of the existing distance/continuing education enrollment
process supported by Distance and Continuing Education.

Both open-learners and for-credit students would have access to course materials and spaces for
discussion with faculty. To ensure the privacy of for-credit students, designated “safe” areas
would be limited to students enrolled in the course for credit. These might include graded
discussion posts or student project areas. The ability to turn in longer written assignments,
papers and essays, for example, would likewise be limited to for-credit students to ensure time for
quality responses. At the same time, limited access to evaluated assessments would be provided
to non-credit students allowing them to chart their progress through the course and their grasp
of key concepts. “Adaptive-release” technology, where access to areas of the course would be
dependent on the successful completion of an automatically graded assignment, would create
spaces where particularly committed non-credit students could gain access to more robust
materials and contact with faculty and all of their for-credit and non-credit peers.
Ultimately, supervised interaction between for-credit and non-credit students offers the potential
for the kind of “real world” learning environment so frequently praised by educational theorists.
Seeing how a diverse group of interested learners engage course materials, lectures, and
discussions will create an environment where diverse groups of students can interact and share
diverse perspectives and goals. At the same time, a carefully structured course would keep the
quality of instruction and the sanctity of the online learning environment intact ensuring that
paying, for-credit students have the added benefits of real world engagement without any loss of
quality.

For affordable and accessible course material, these classes could easily leverage both the
growing quantity of good quality open material available on the web and cultivate potential for
community building using social media applications.

Time Frame

It is my hope that open learning offerings could grow to as many as 6 courses per year. The first
step will be to develop a set of best-practices and techniques necessary for these courses to be
conducted successfully.

Phase 1 Alpha. To do this, we would like to offer an “Alpha” test course in the Spring 2011
semester. This course would be a one-credit course offering History 399 (?)“The Fall of the
Roman Empire” based on a more rigorous version of a well-received OLLI course. Limited
publicity and, if necessary, a cap on enrolment will keep the number of for-credit and non-credit
students manageable.

Phase 1 Beta. A further “Beta Test” of the open learning environment will occur in the Fall of
2011 with an online section of History 101: Western Civilization offered as an open enrollment
class. This course will receive increased publicity and seek to draw a significant number of non-
credit open-learners from the community.

Phase 2. With the experience of the Phase 1 classes and a follow-up course in the Spring of 2011,
we will produce a set of best practices, a marketing plan, and strategy for expanding the open
learning offering in the future.

Phase 3. The ultimate goal of this program is to create an Institute for Open Learning that
consistently offers 4-6 courses a year on a variety of topics ranging from traditional liberal arts
courses to more vocational offerings of interest to specific groups in the community.

Campus Partners

This program already has the support of key campus partners.

CIO, Dean of Continuing and Distance Education. The CIO and Dean of Continuing and Distance
Education has agreed to provide funding for the Phase 1 program and offer logistical support to
enroll non-credit users. We also see a natural partnership between the growing e-marketing
capabilities of the CIO’s office and the online character of our open learning offerings.

CILT. We have assurances that the existing Blackboard infrastructure could support the
requirements for both an open learning environment and the structure necessary to ensure that
for-credit students have the benefit of positive learning outcomes.

OID. The Office of Instructional Development has offered support for course development that
models best practices in both the pilot stage and with full implementation (Phase 3). OID will also
help to indentify the kind of engaged faculty who would thrive in the unique environment created
by open learners.