Center for Online Learning, Research, and Service (COLRS) Annual impact report, 2021-2022

Collaborative Partners for World-Class Teaching

Enhancing the Online Teaching & Learning Experience

The 2021-2022 AY is our second full year on the Canvas learning management platform. With COLRS support, nearly all courses have been moved from the previous LMS. COLRS has supported course quality efforts through several channels.

COLRS updated and facilitated the Building Digital Community faculty training course. 17 faculty completed the course in the 2021-2022 AY. COLRS staff presented multiple sessions for the UIS New Faculty Teaching and Learning Academy, a program run by the Provost's office to welcome, orient, and acculturate new full-time faculty joining the university.

Quality course reviews for online and blended learning formats were provided for several departments. COLRS staff built and supported the integration of Canvas learning outcomes for the First Year Seminar and Master of Public Health programs. Both programs will use the data for accreditation purposes.

As part of our ongoing course quality improvement efforts, COLRS staff supported the continued integration of three new learning and reporting tools added during the previous academic year to help faculty create engaging and visually appealing courses.

Harmonize, by 42Lines, is a tool designed to enhance online discussions by modeling its functionality on popular social media platforms. Integrating images, video (with auto-captions), audio, and surveys into discussions, as well as intermediate deadlines with reminders, keeps students engaged. Faculty benefit from an activity panel with student engagement statistics and auto-grading tool that will grade based on meeting deadlines. During 2021-2022 AY, 25 UIS faculty used the platform in 51 courses. After faculty pilot the tool in one course, they tend to adopt it in all their courses.

ReadyGo by Cidilabs, a course readiness reporting tool, allows staff to identify courses that are missing content like syllabi prior to a semester's launch. Staff can also create checklists for course readiness. Course readiness on the day before term launch for UIS online and blended courses increased by more than 30% after adopting this reporting tool.

DesignPlus by Cidilabs offers a variety of tools that allow instructors to stylize the appearance and customize the content of Canvas pages, assignments, syllabi, discussions, and quizzes. COLRS staff have worked on more than 30 courses to integrate Design Plus styling on home pages and other course content during the 2021-2022 AY.

Providing Faculty Development Opportunities

COLRS staff continued supporting faculty with their efforts to convert courses to the Canvas learning management system. In addition to providing the Canvas faculty training course site and tutorial videos, COLRS staff delivered 18 workshops related to teaching online during the 2021-22 AY.

Improving Digital Accessibility

The Digital Accessibility Remediation Team (DART) helped ensure the accessibility of 903 course materials during the 2021-2022 Academic Year, including over 5,000 pages of PDFs and 132 hours of video. Over that time, there was a marked increase in the proportion of captioning requests, partially due to the collaboration with the College of Business and Management. Another key partner for the DART was the library, whose Course Reserves process makes use of our services to provide accessible PDFs for courses across the institution. Accessibility Specialist Alana Gomoll also served on a system-wide working group to begin planning the future of accessibility for the three Universities and the System Office. More information on the work of the DART and Alana is shared in the Digital Accessibility Impact Report.

DELIVERING PERSONAL ATTENTION

Supporting Online, Blended, & HyFlex Educators

56.2% of UIS courses during the 2021-22 AY were taught online. COLRS staff hosted twice-daily Zoom office hours during the fall and spring semesters (and once daily during the summer term) to support the many faculty teaching online. 400 faculty members sought assistance from COLRS during the 2021-22 AY. From August 2021 to July 2022, August, September, and January were the peak months for faculty requesting support.

Number of Faculty Seeking Support

COLRS provided support through the website, COLRS Canvas Support course site, and Teaching Tips e-mails and blog posts. The blog was viewed over 18,628 times during the year.

Saluting Our Online Graduates

For the third year, UIS celebrated online graduates through an Online Graduate Salute. 421 online graduates were honored through the salute in May 2022. COLRS staff, along with the UIS web services team, faculty, online program coordinators, and administrators, collaborated in creating a virtual celebration of our graduates. COLRS staff also provided a self-guided tour map and gift bags for online graduates who attended the commencement ceremonies in person.

Developing a Winter Intersession

During the 2021-2022 winter break, UIS offered its second intersession term. Nineteen online intersession courses were offered between December 14 and mid-January 2022. COLRS advocated for and achieved a consistent start date for all intersession courses. COLRS staff supported faculty in adapting courses to the shortened timeframe. COLRS also coordinated and designed a Canvas Commons module that was added to all intersession courses. The module detailed the support services available to students during holiday closures. COLRS also offered faculty support by phone, email, and Zoom office hours during the break, including days that the campus was closed for holidays, to ensure courses ran smoothly.

EXPERIENCE ENGAGED

In September 2021, Dr. Karen Swan, the James J. Stukel Presidential Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Illinois Springfield, passed suddenly. UIS and the broader online learning community lost a pillar of scholarship, a trailblazer in online learning, a woman of ferocious intelligence, and a kind mentor and colleague. Put simply, she challenged the status quo and drove herself and all of us to be better. UIS hosted a symposium to honor her many contributions to research and education on April 1, 2022. Leading researchers in online learning from the U.S. and Canada attended and discussed Karen's impact on research in the field, as well as personal memories.

Enriching the Scholarship of Teaching

6 UIS faculty participated in the COLRS Faculty Fellows Program. COLRS Faculty Fellows coordinate, facilitate and advocate for research in online and blended learning. They meet twice a semester virtually to discuss and advance their research. 5 UIS faculty were selected for the inaugural OPEL Faculty Fellows class of 2022-2024.

The 2021-23 COLRS Faculty Fellows are Dr. Serkan Karadas (Accounting, Economics & Finance), Dr. Elizabeth Ribarsky (Communication), and Dr. Junfeng Wang (Public Administration). The 2022-2024 OPEL Faculty Fellows are Dr. Livia Woods, Dr. Anne-Marie Hansen, Dr. Yu-Sheng Lee, Dr. Jennifer Martin, and Jose Luis Irizarry.

Partnering with the UIS Community

COLRS continues to work closely with our Information Technology Services (ITS) partners to improve the Canvas platform. The teams worked together to develop a system for students with incomplete grades to have their Canvas course enrollments automatically extended for one year. Another COLRS and ITS collaboration automated the cross-listing of all sections with cross-list codes in the official course schedule. Feedback from UIS faculty has been extremely positive.

COLRS also hosted semesterly meetings with Online Program Coordinators to share ideas for better serving online students.

Providing Online Leadership to UIS

COLRS provides university leadership for compliance with the requirements of the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA), which allows UIS to offer online learning to students residing in other states. COLRS staff coordinate the reporting of data and the resolution of complaints received through the mandated online course complaint form.

The College of Business and Management contract with Academic Partnerships continues. The Digital Accessibility Remediation Team has worked closely with faculty from the college to ensure materials are accessible. COLRS staff have also supported this vendor contract by providing multimedia and video recording and editing support for these new programs.

COLRS also works closely with Institutional Research and academic units at UIS to create reports that inform decisions about enrollments, course offerings, and responding to COVID-19. COLRS coordinated the collection of seating charts for on-campus classes for the Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 terms.

Serving the Profession

COLRS staff served the profession and the university in many capacities throughout the year, often in leadership positions. Externally, COLRS staff were involved in UPCEA, the Illinois Council on Continuing Higher Education (ICCHE), and the Faculty Summer Institute Planning Committee.

At the U of I System level, COLRS staff were also involved with the Digital Accessibility Policy Committee and the Professional Staff Leadership Academy. At UIS, COLRS staff were involved in the Campus Senate, the Academic Professional Advisory Council, Safe Zone, the APAC Professional Development Committee, and the CAPE/CARE Awards Breakfast Planning Committee.

COLRS staff delivered multiple presentations for external audiences:

• Cook, V., Gribbins, M., and McElwrath, K. The Good, the Bad, and the Impossible: Pandemic Pivot at UIS, Illinois Board of Higher Education Faculty Advisory Council, virtual, October 2021.
• Gribbins, Michele. Group Work in Canvas, Kaskaskia College, May 2022
• Gribbins, Michele. UPCEA Reach Conference Respond Session (facilitator), May 2022.
• Boles, Emily. Instructional Design Basics. Support for the Creation of Open Educational Resources (SCOERs) in Illinois grant for the Consortium of Academic Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI). July 7, 2022.
• Boles, Emily. Instructional Design and Open Educational Resources. Support for the Creation of Open Educational Resources (SCOERs) in Illinois grant for the Consortium of Academic Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI). July 27, 2022.

LIBERAL-ARTS SKILLED

Producing Multimedia Content

COLRS staff produced promotional videos for several UIS departments, units, and events, including:

• Department of Music
• Department of Communication
• Illinois Innocence Project
• Study Away
• Office of Engaged Learning - Internships
• Continuing and Professional Education (CAPE)
• Online, Professional, and Engaged Learning (OPEL)
• Online Graduate Salute

COLRS staff edited many longer recorded lectures into shorter, pedagogically sound clips for UIS classes across campus. Faculty also recorded a number of lightboard videos to explicate complex topics.

The UIS Office of Continuing and Professional Education (CAPE) subcontracted with COLRS to produce videos for the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority and the Illinois Department of Human Services.

Supporting UIS Continuing and Professional Education

COLRS staff continued to support Continuing and Professional Education (CAPE) in developing the SLATE CMS for contracts with external agencies. COLRS staff also supported the development of a Moodle LMS instance hosted at UIS, including stylesheets, Moodle-Slate single sign-on, theme customization, and plug-in installations. During the year, COLRS staff completed a large development project in Slate for the two State of Illinois agencies. The project included a SLATE application, Moodle course enrollment setup, and a SLATE course registration templates with communications.

Supporting the Illinois Online Network

COLRS staff continued to support the operations of the Illinois Online Network (ION) by administering the learning management system and providing support for students. ION faculty support for Moodle course development continued, as did development projects in the SLATE CMS. COLRS staff also stepped in to administer the program after the resignation of a staff member.

Canvas Commons Development

Canvas Commons is an internal content sharing tool built into the Canvas LMS. During the 2021-22 AY, COLRS staff developed and updated items for the Canvas Commons including home pages, module pages, and the Academic Integrity Committee quiz for UIS faculty. The various home pages and templates have been downloaded a total of 208 times.

CARLI OER Textbook Grant

In AY 2021-2022, the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI), hosted by the University of Illinois System, won a $1.08 million grant to develop OER textbooks -- half the original proposal amount. The project was one of 9 grants awarded nationally. The grant was made whole in May 2022, nearly doubling the funding, and the call for proposals has re-opened. COLRS staff have consulted on technology, reviewed proposals, and offered workshops for grantees and the wider CARLI membership. The summer workshops -- Basics of Instructional Design and Instructional Design for OER -- were well-attended at nearly 40 participants each.