Distance Learning Done Right

Welcome everyone and thank you so much for attending our distance learning done right webinar tonight. We are going to be talking about how being an on line student may be best for you. Why University of Illinois Springfield is an expert in distance learning and.

Ofcourse answer your questions. So UIS is one of three universities in the world class University of Illinois System an. As you can see we are celebrating 50 years of uas being a pathway to opportunity a catalyst to change an A space of possibilities for life long learners across the globe.

My name is Carla Leffel Anne. I'm one of the US admission counselors. Before we start, I do want to recommend that you're using either Chrome or opera for your browser. Those seem to work best with this web and R and with me tonight I do have two of my colleagues that are working the chat, so feel free to interact with us. It is a live chat. Pop your questions in there and we will do our best to answer them. If you do have a question that our guests tonight are maybe more equipped to answer.

We'll leave it toward the end because we will have a Q&A session.

But so I'm happy. So happy to have our two guests tonight. So we have Rebecca Rose Bowl. Who is the on line coordinator for political science and legal studies? Hi Rebecca.

How?

And then we also have.

Awesome and then we also have Michelle Gribbins, The Associate Director of the Center for online learning, research and service. So you're going to be hearing from all three of us tonight.

Oh, and it looks like we have a very important poll in the chat. Let us know what your favorite Halloween Candy is.

But Uas is proud to offer 14 on line undergraduate degree programs and 11 on line graduate degree programs. So feel free to take a moment, browse the list, and then just know that we also do have several certificates, endorsements, and licensors that are also offered on line. Since we couldn't fit all of them on this slide, I will ask my coworkers to please drop the link to our online offerings in the chat.

And that way you can click on it. You can view all the different offerings on line that we have, and you can also read more about them.

It's really never a bad time to start an on line program because there is so much flexibility with them. But right now due to COVID-19, we do realize that a lot of students may be a little more comfortable with on line classes with an on line program. So uas has added many different sections that are on line sections of classes, so we have more online sections than we ever had before were also, we also have a couple of accelerated.

On line classes as well. So really there's never been a better time to enroll in an on line program.

And with that I want to introduce Michelle Gribbins from the Center for online learning, research and service. Welcome Michelle.

Thank you Carla. I appreciate being asked to come here this evening. So is Carla said I am the associate director of the Center for online learning, research and service at Uas. The center is often referred to as colors and colors is the UI S hub for the study and application of on Line Learning Pedagogy, technology and best practices you might be asking, what does that mean to you as a student at UIS? Well, it means that our team of instructional designers and on line learning experts work closely with faculty.

To help them become effective online educators who designed their courses to take advantage of the benefits of online learning. And one thing that sets us apart from many institutions is that our faculty are the same ones on line teaching as the ones that are teaching in our face to face classes on campus, our faculty not only work with us to design the lectures and course activities to best serve the students, but they also learn how to select and use the tools that can help students fulfill their courses. Learning outcomes. As you can see here on this slide.

You have been a leader in providing on line education since the late 1990s and over the past few decades we have received several awards in recognition for excellence in providing on line education. This past year, we were ranked 33 for best online bachelors programs by US news and World Report and specific on line programs have received strong rankings as well. Faculty administrators and the entire University have also received recognitions for their excellence in contributions to online education.

You can see here some of our faculty administrators who have received online awards.

Are online students, as you can see here in this picture, we enjoy celebrating them at graduation. This is a picture from our online graduate branch that we have every year during graduation. Of course, with kovid this past year we had to have it as a virtual celebration, but you might be looking at this picture in wondering if you might fit in as an online student at UIS, and I can tell you that I've taught and the management information systems program at UIS since 2005. In our online students.

Are a valued part of our uas community. In fact, they make up over 37% of our overall student body. Are online students bring a diverse range of life experiences to our classrooms on this fall? They come from 46 different states in nine different countries beyond the United States. They tend to be a little bit older than our on campus students. Having an average age of 32 at the undergraduate level and about 35 at the graduate level, and many of our online students have responsibilities outside of Education.

Including full time jobs and family responsibilities so the flexibility that comes with online learning combined with our reputation and on line education makes UI SA great option for them.

All of our courses at uas, whether online in person or are blended courses, which mixes a bit of online and in person throughout the semester, have a canvas site which is our learning management system through a courses canvas site or online, students can access their learning content, have discussions with their professor and other students in complete quizzes and other types of assignments. Most faculty designed their courses to include several opportunities for students to have interactions with each other.

It was some providing opportunities for students to have interactions with their classmates and their instructor in real time. As schedules allow. At this point, I'd like to introduce you to Becky grass ball. She's one of our fabulous online program coordinators and she will talk a bit more about canvas and other resources that are online learners frequently. See in their courses as well as talk a bit about the important role that online program coordinators have in supporting all of our online students and helping them reach their academic goals. Becky.

Thanks, Michelle. Hi, I'm Becky and I work with on line students and legal studies and political science and in our online degree programs that uas students, of course are able to take all their courses 100% on line and that means they never have to step foot on campus so our online classes are really designed to work with different schedules and different time zones. I've seen a lot of people in Illinois on the chat, but also some different time zones out there, and that's what we have in our program.

My programs we have people in Springfield, IL and then we have people really around the Globe and our classes are designed to work with that no matter where you are and that's really one of the great benefits of online learning. We have students in our program who attend full time and who work full time and attend school part time. And as Michelle mentioned, all of our classes use canvas to host our online courses. So Michelle talked a little bit about how those courses are conducted in really are.

Professors are open to conducting the online courses say best, see fit for the class, and that's because the faculty who teach our online classes are the same faculty members who teach our on campus courses. So some professors do do live lectures where students can participate, live or watch it recorded. A lot of it happens asynchronously, so that means the students able to do that a different times within the course, and there is a lot of interaction in our online courses.

That's something that new students always tell me how surprised they are about how connected they feel in their online classes to both their faculty and their fellow online students. And that's something really unique that uas offers.

So one thing about you IS is learning on line does not mean learning on loan alone. You really and truly are in a community of learners. So uas has been doing online learning for decades. And one thing it was really good at is how to support on line learners an one of the ways kind of unique ways uas supports its online learners is through our online coordinators. So what is an on line coordinator exactly? An I was just telling.

A student about this today and she's like how we talked with you when I was talking bout first entering the program. And now you're working with me an advising an yes. So when you're obtaining your uas degree on line, there's people with you every step of the way. From your first inquiry through graduation, your online coordinator is there to help you and they help you not only navigate the campus system but also your degree program and requirements. And one of the important things why we have online coordinators is that we want you to know that there's a.

Real life human being here, answering your questions and taking its sincere interest in you and your academic and professional goals. So you're online coordinators. Usually the first person you stop for information and they understand that no one likes to endlessly search on line for information. And so especially when it comes to making really important decisions. So we worked really hard to proactively provide our students with the information they really need in a way, that's.

Easy to comprehend and an easy way to access. So your focus in learning here at uas is in the classroom and on the academic side. Not trying to navigate systems, we really try to take that burden off of you.

Your online coordinator in many departments is also your advisor, so you meet with your on line coordinator and they help you navigate program requirements and connect you with advising services you need and working with the right classes to make both your academic and professional goals a reality.

And they also help connect you to your Department and the campus, and feeling connected can really help on line. Students succeed. So that's really important. Here at UIS uas students online students are still another number. They are individuals and are here at usr. Faculty staff really believe in enriching individual lives, and so it's really important that we were going to have this connection with our online students that we really offer them the support.

That they need, and so we offer a lot of support resources so.

As I'm sure everybody has fully realized, technology is essential. An on line learning and uas really is top notch. And so in how would it offers it has our whole I TS office is available for online students, so there's helpdesk support for students via chat. They can call in whenever my students have a problem like even little things like setting up, you know their uas email on their cell phone. I'm like call I TS 217-206-6000, you know. I mean, they're really helpful.

And then we also offer free and discounted software for students and even on line storage through box, which is a great asset for students when they're writing their papers and such. So we also offer other online support services.

And these are different types of online student services. So what the services we offer on campus students were also offering our on line students. So our online students, first of all, have access to all the materials in the Uas Brookens Library, including one on one on line research, assistance with a uas librarian. So you can make an appointment to do an on line chat with a librarian and have one on one consultation with your research. We also offer.

Services through our learning hub and so that they offer free academic support services and they offer peer tutoring. They offer one on one on line appointments. They offer numerous writing, math, accounting, Economics, Science, a ton of services to really help our students succeed and they also offer supplemental instruction and workshops and a lot of different support materials. We also have an internship and career assistance to our online students.

It's so important, uas. We really emphasize the importance of engaging in the learning, and that's one thing our internship office provides and really helps our students. So not only are they getting the academic knowledge they need, but they are also gaining experience through internship San. It's really a great opportunity for students. I know one of my on line students who recently graduated with a bachelors degree in political science. She did her internship at an agency and.

Assam well thank you so much. Rebecca Ann Michelle for all of your great knowledge. Hopefully we've assisted you in determining if on line is right for you and hopefully we have convinced you that uas does distance learning right? So on this page, I'm going to talk a little bit about admission to our online programs and if you are interested in applying the link at the top of the slide, there that where it says apply here, that's where you can find our online applications and so that's what we recommend.

They were incredibly impressed with her and hired her and she got her dream job after that. So the power an internship can have is is really great, and that's something that uas really supports. Our online students in, and I'll stop there because we offer so many services for students. It's really great, but I kind of want to give you some of our tips on quick tips on being a successful online student now.

There's a couple different applications, so if you're not sure which one like MI undergraduate amiah graduate medium non degree seeking, let us know 'cause we'd be happy to tell you which one to fill out. Now some of the admission requirements I have in two columns for undergrad and graduate, so I'm going to start with undergraduates.

So to be eligible for our undergraduate online programs, we do require students to have at least 30 credit hours, and that also qualifies you as a transfer student. So our online undergraduate programs are designed for transfer students. For general admission, we require students and we have a 2.0 GPA requirement. That's not a 4.0 scale. However, for some of the online programs it can vary. They may want to see a little bit of a higher GPA just because you know you are.

Pretty you have to be self motivated, self directed to be in those on line programs.

And then for the graduate for the graduate level, we do require students to have already obtained or earned an undergraduate degree from a regionally accredited institution and the GPA requirement we're looking for for general admission is 2.5 on a 4.0 scale, but again, sometimes it does vary a little bit with the specific program.

Now, so the things that you have to do for admission, you do have to fill out our application. As I said, you can access it at that URL at the top.

And then you have to request your official transcripts. So this is, you know it might be a little bit different for undergraduate versus graduate, but talk to an admissions counselor will tell you which transcripts we're going to need.

There is an application fee or we do have application fee waiver, so if you think you're eligible for one, feel free to ask us and will send it to you and then some of our online programs do have other requirements so you know this like at the undergraduate level. It could be like a personal statement for the graduate level. It could be something like a jirari or a gmat. Although I will say that a lot of our graduate programs actually don't require that test. So if you don't like taking tests, it might be.

They might be a good option for you, but also they might be asking for references. Usually like you know maybe 3 letters of recommendation are writing sample. Something like that. So a really important link for you is going to be on the bottom right. That's where you can go to our catalog and you can see some of those program specific program requirements for whichever one you're interested in.

And then for any international students that are on the webinar tonight, there are a couple other things we're going to be asking for you from you, and so if you do, if you did obtain a degree that was issued outside of the United States, we do require what's called an AC's member evaluation on your transcripts. And then we also may require an English proficiency score, but we also do have waivers for that as well.

So that's why on the bottom left I've also included a link to our international admission page so that you can get a little more information about that.

But Ann, you know we're here. We're in the office of admission and this is our job. So we're here to help you with it if you need. And here is our contact information.

So I'm going to leave this up on the screen because now we're at 7:20, so we are going to have about 10 minutes of Q&A. So perfect timing everyone. So what I'm going to do is I'm first going to look in the chat, see if there are any questions that are for our presenter specifically, and then I have a couple of questions that are kind of the most popular ones that student asks. So even if you haven't asked the question, you may have it, so we'll ask that.

But

so we have one from Bruce Underwood. Thank you so much. He's asking. Could online political open source political analysis be worked out on line in either a political science internship or a political science course tutorial? So I'm not sure if either one of our presenters are going to be able to answer that, because that sounds pretty specific to political science, but Becky may be either one of you.

Yeah, so Bruce. I'm not certain you know if if you have a microphone or if you could talk or if I can see in the chat if you're considering for undergrad or grad, but we do in our undergrad program we do have a requirement. It's a PSD 451 in some pericle political analysis course, and it's a stats and research methods course it's quarter undergrad.

But shoot me an email and we can set up a time to chat and I can get a little bit more information on what you're talking about, and I'd be happy to look into that for you and I'll put my email address in the chat for you and so I can get more specific.

Oh, they already did that so.

Oh yeah, I'm gonna say our chatters have been awesome and it looks like they have answered pretty much all of the questions that have come in so far. So thank you so much and thank you Becky for your response. So one of the some of the questions that I have that I just we get from students all the time. So the first one is going to be who are the on line class classes taught by?

Right as I said earlier in the presentation, it really is the same faculty who teach in our face to face classes and many times they'll teach an in person class on campus at the same time as they're doing an online class. So it's a great opportunity for you to be taught by people who are still engaged in their field are keeping current with the research that's occurring in the field, as well as those that are teaching.

On on campus we also do have some adjuncts in some programs and many times the adjuncts are highly skilled professionals who are actively engaged in the profession that's being taught, and so they bring a different perspective to some of the courses an it's it's a great way for faculty mentor for our students to also connect with practice in a way that our full time faculty members might focus a little bit more on. Some of the theoretical aspects of the program, so.

I will do with bouncer too, but many times it is the same faculty members who are on in person classes.

Awesome, thank you Ann. It looks like Stephanie so winski has a question and this is for you Becky. So about how many students enroll under an on line coordinator Ann, are you busy supporting students all day?

I am busy all day so it depends on each program is a little different and so an I get that question a lot and like how many people are in your program and so our programs can be a little bit bigger depending on the program. In my programs we do cap our classes out at 20 students and So what that really gives is Michelle mentioned, two is our classes are taught by our faculty are on campus faculty members and limited in those classes to 20 students really allows.

Students to develop relationships with their faculty members and with their academic advisors and on line coordinators too. So when it comes time to write those reference letters, they have established those relationships so they really feel comfortable asking in faculty members feel comfortable writing. I know one of our faculty just wrote was writing recommendation letters for online students, and they get accepted into PhD program, and I know as an advisor I've written letters of recommendation for some of our online students for graduate.

Awesome, thank you and Stephanie had kind of a follow up question. Are the professors certified or otherwise of Valuated on their presentation and delivery of the on line courses?

Michelle, I think you might be muted.

Assistantships an graduate internship level program. So we really do get to know our students really well. The specific numbers just differ a little bit from program to program.

Of course I am.

No problem.

All of our faculty members, when they join UIS they attend, what's called a new faculty training Academy so they are getting of training on online delivery. During that, I think it's five days worth of training. Outside of that, we have ongoing faculty development workshops for our faculty, many of them throughout the semester, usually about 3:00 or so, offered each week on a variety of topics so they have an opportunity to come through that. Then we have a self paced course.

That faculty members can take as well to better their online teaching skills. We offer peer reviews of our faculties courses so they if they wanted to have their course designs evaluated by a peer, we help facilitate that as well. So there's a lot of opportunities for our faculty members to become better on line educators.

And I'll just add to that that our students will also fill out a course evaluation, and this is for every single class, so it will ask you, you know, like what did you think of the teaching style? Do you think they are competent in their in their subject? And then you can also leave leave comments and then we also have some professors who will do like a mid mid term evaluation and just be like you know what has worked, what has been working well for you? What do you want to see in the future?

I know one of the professors, I'm he did a mid term evaluation and students really wanted to have a BI Weekly Zoom session, so they're going to do it on Wednesday nights.

Yeah, curly, I think that's so important to those student evaluations for course evaluations. I know our faculty take them really seriously and so do our programs an you know we can implement those students suggestions. And also it's great when students are like how I love this. You know, it's.

Alright, so Rachel Phelps had a question. Are there virtual networking type events for your online students?

That's a great question.

Program levels, I think there are various opportunities. As I mentioned earlier, I teach for the management information systems program and they've had numerous opportunities throughout the 15 years I've been working with them to have the online students interact with each other. There's a Facebook group where the alumni, an incurrent students, can interact with each other as well, so we have those type of engagements. Becky, is there anything in the public affairs and political science that you're aware of that they do for the virtual students?

Yes, Ann. Actually we don't distinguish between online and on campus very much because our students interact so much together and they're in the same similar classes. So we do have those types of opportunities for our students. There's lecture series that they can attend on line with other students. We also have University wide ones with our speaker series that students can attend and go with those as well, and students really get to know one another.

Wonderful, OK. Monica Houston has a question. Are there adjunct professors instructing from home?

Yeah, I'll take that one. So our adjunct instructors are able to to teach from home just like our full-time faculty. In fact, lately almost all of us are doing a lot of our teaching from home these days, but they are doing it from their home. There are offices available for some of the adjuncts on campus, so if they do want to come to campus if that works better for them, they can do that, but they are given the freedom to teach their courses from whatever, wherever it works for them.

As Michelle mentioned at our online graduation brunch, it's so fun because we have students who have gotten to know each other really well and been really supportive of one another and they finally meet for the first time after going through, you know, a program for the last two years, so we do offer those, both in terms of professional development type, hearing from speakers, and then more informal ones.

I was going to say I know of a perfect one of our online professors who actually lives in Atlanta, GA. Ann. She was the director of the boys and Girls Club for Metropolitan Atlanta, and she teaches one of our nonprofit courses on line. So yeah, she's in Georgia, so definitely they can be from home Georgia Wherever.

OK, it looks like the questions that have come in most of them have been admission related. An icy are awesome. Chatters continuing to answer. So I'm going to go back to one of my questions and you know, I know we're kind of getting. We are at 7:30, so this is a really important one that a lot of students want to know. Does my diploma say on line?

I'm sure I'll take that one. It does not. The degree is the degree. If you get a bachelors degree in management information systems in an on line program is not going to be any different than in the on campus program for your diploma.

Alright, very cool.

Yeah, we could discuss a lot. Carly and I just wanted to say, you know.

There's not a difference in the degree programs. The degree requirements for the on campus and online programs are the same, and they are taught by the same faculty members, so there's no distinction.

OK, as I'm good to know.

Alright um.

Alright, well now is your last chance to ask a question in the chat, because we're kind of at 7:30, we don't want to take too much more of your time, and we appreciate the half hour that you've given us already, so you know. Put the question in the chat.

And if for some reason you know you think of something later on, you're like, oh, I wanted to ask that you can definitely reach out to our office of admission. Is it snowing in Springfield? Very important question. I don't think so. I haven't looked out the window. I know it was snowing in other places, but I don't think it's snowing in Springfield right now. I could be wrong.

Alrighty.

Oh my gosh, we got snow in this morning in Naperville. I'm actually from Naperville. That is crazy.

OK, Oh yeah, we're continuing with with the snow and everything awesome. Well, thank you all. So so so much for tuning in tonight. We really appreciate it. And as I said, if you ever want to get in contact with any of us, shoot an email to admissions and we'd be happy to share that information. But thank you to our presenters. Thank you, Michelle Ann. Rebecca so much.

Thank you all for joining us tonight.

Yes, thanks for inviting us.

Yeah anytime so stay safe. Let us know if you have any questions and have a great night.

Bye bye.