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2000 Evaluations

Executive Summary

The annual Faculty Summer Institute on Learning Technologies (FSI) is the capstone event of the ION program year. Held on the Urbana campus of the University of Illinois from May 22-24, 2000, this year’s institute brought together over two-hundred faculty, administrators, and support staff for two and a half days of activities, all revolving around online teaching and learning. Participants who were able to attend the entire conference were eligible to earn 1.5 Continuing Education Units. Ninety-seven attendees requested and received a letter verifying the CEUs earned.

This year the FSI schedule was adjusted to 2.5 days instead of the 3.5 days it had been the previous year. The 1999 post-FSI evaluations suggested that faculty wanted the same amount of information compacted into a shorter time. More efficient use was made of evening hours to provide an intense learning experience.

A focus of FSI 2000 was on faculty members new to online learning. One of the major challenges of this year’s institute, then, was developing a program that would be of interest to novices and experienced users alike. With extensive input from the Steering Committee, the Illinois Online Network staff put together a program designed to address the needs and interests of this diverse group. The program included:

• Three plenary sessions on topics of general interest (the Illinois Virtual Campus, Illinois Century Network, etc.) presented by distinguished speakers.
• An electronic poster session showcasing exceptional online course materials and programs developed by faculty and staff at ION partner institutions. The session had eight exhibits.
• Five sets of concurrent breakout sessions, each consisting of 8-12 small-group discussions and hands-on workshops. A total of 45 breakout sessions were held covering forty-two different topics, including sessions focusing on online teaching strategies and best practices for specific disciplinary areas, and a special session to discuss issues of importance to administrators on the ION Steering Committee.

Evaluation Summary for the Faculty Summer Institute
A printed survey instrument was included in the conference packet and collected at the conclusion of the 2.5 day conference. Of the 235 community college personnel who attended the institute, 135 or 57% of them turned in their evaluation forms.

Questions concerning the quality of the event and individual sessions yielded predominantly positive results. One hundred percent of the respondents indicated that they would recommend the FSI to a colleague and eighty percent or greater of the respondents rated the following items as either good or excellent.

• hands-on breakout sessions (88% rated as good or excellent)
• lecture-demonstration breakout sessions (84% rated as good or excellent)
• meals (98% rated as good or excellent)
• logistics (87% rated as good or excellent)
• overall experience at the FSI (95% rated as good or excellent)

Although many different sessions were cited as being of greatest interest or value to attendees, the following sessions were of greatest value to five or more participants:

• FrontPage 2000: Advanced Techniques (7)
• Introduction to Streaming Media (7)
• Preparing Students for Online Studies (7)
• It’s About Time! Time Management Issues for Online Instructors and Students (6)
• Introduction to PowerPoint 2000 (6)

Survey results indicate that the institute increased knowledge of faculty and staff about a variety of issues associated with online learning. Ninety percent or greater of respondents felt their knowledge of each of the categories below was increased:

• use of technologies in instruction (96%)
• student benefits of educational technologies (90%)
• faculty benefits of educational technologies (92%)
• technologies available for teaching (95%)
• effective online pedagogy (92%)
• instructional design (93%)

Participants provided many constructive comments in response to the question about how the FSI could be improved and elsewhere in the survey. Several issues of widespread concern emerged, all of which we plan to address in our plans for FSI 2001:

• Many respondents suggested that we change the format of the plenary sessions from topics of general interest to more specific topics including having faculty describe how they created their online course.
• Some faculty members requested more hands-on sessions and fewer lectures.
• There was a general desire to see all presenters pass out hand-outs.

Although most questions were multiple choice, they also included space for comments and respondents were generous with their praise. All comments are transcribed in Appendix E, but here is a sampling:

• Discipline-based breakouts were great.
• Couldn’t ask for more food!
• Can I register for next year now?
• Conversation with colleagues from other colleges was valuable.
• Excellent sessions- well planned excellent network & resources.