Education MATTERS
By Ryan G. Van Cleave
72 SARASOTA SCENE | MAY 2019
on the town
E-LEARNING TEAM SUPPORTS
STUDENT SUCCESS AT USFSM
One of the more challenging issues colleges and universities
face today is designing and delivering engaging online
courses that meet the educational needs of diverse students.
This is especially true for schools that serve both traditional
students, who may be fresh out of high school or transferring
from another college, and post-traditional students, who are
returning to school mid-career, after serving in the military
or raising families.
Many students today are older, which means that they face
the challenges of simultaneously managing the demands of
in scheduling courses and completing assignments.
The University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee embraces
the fact that the average age of its student body is 26.2, and
nearly half of its students (49 percent) work 31 hours or more
per week. As a commuter campus, USFSM also recognizes that
certain courses online, yet these courses must be engaging
for students to stay in school and persist to graduation.
In order to deliver robust online courses, USFSM has assembled
who work with faculty to develop and support the dozens
Matters,” an international organization whose mission is to
promote and improve the quality of online education and
student learning. Timi Hager has served as USFSM’s Director
of E-Learning Services since 2015. The team includes another
“techie,” Sarah Gentry, along with two instructional designers,
Amber Lee and Heidi Schroeder.
“We really focus on three areas,” explains Hager. “We work
to ensure quality of the online courses, provide professional
development and training for faculty, and offer student
support.”
The E-Learning team helps students become acclimated to distance
learning early in the college experience by participating in USFSM’s
recruitment and orientation process, as well as hosting information
sessions at Open Houses and Week of Welcome events to familiarize
students with their campus learning management system, Canvas, as
well as other online resources. USFSM’s academic advisors also work
hard to ensure students take advantage of their learning options to stay
on track toward earning their degrees as quickly as possible. Perhaps
most important of all is the thought, creativity, and innovation a faculty
member brings to bear when designing an online course. That’s what it
takes for students to feel a true sense of belonging in a virtual classroom
environment. Anything short of that and the students are more likely to
tune out, falling prey to one or more distractions, digital or otherwise.
The E-Learning team invests a considerable amount of time with a
faculty member to design an online course. Schroeder says, “We partner
with faculty for a full semester. We meet regularly for 16 weeks, really
getting to know them so we can pair them up with the right strategies
and tools for learning. The goal is for the faculty member to be able
home here!” about their Canvas class site, then that’s when Schroeder
and her colleagues know the class is primed for success.
Jane Govoni, the USFSM English for Speakers of Other Languages
(ESOL) coordinator and a Spanish instructor, has found nothing but