CTER OnLine:
Impact on students, faculty, administration, and the community

Sandra Levin & James Levin
Department of Educational Psychology
College of Education
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign


Abstract
CTER OnLine is a master of education program developed in 1998 at the College of Education, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, aimed at precollege teachers and administrators interested in issues concerning curriculum, technology, and education reform.  The courses in this program have been specifically designed to bridge theory and practice through the use of technology.  Practicing teachers and administrators draw upon their current classroom or district experience in their schools and examine how they can improve their own teaching and their students' learning through dialogue, reflections, and project-based assignments.  To insure a quality program, quantitative and qualitative program evaluation research has been an integral component of CTER OnLine.

Objectives, Duration, & Sustainability of Project
The goal of the Curriculum, Technology, and Education Reform (CTER) Masters of Education is to provide practicing teachers and administrators with the opportunity to earn a coherent high quality masters degree at home or at their local schools through computers and Internet connections.  This allows a broader set of teachers to participate without being taken out of their classroom on a regular basis or needing to relocate.  The objective is to prepare teachers, technology coordinators and administrators to integrate technology into their curriculum and further educational reform in their schools and districts.

CTER OnLine began in June 1998 with twenty-six K-12 teachers and technology coordinators in Illinois.  Each year, approximately 25-30 new students enter the program.  While the majority of our students come from Illinois, each year we have admitted students from throughout the United States including Idaho, New Mexico, Texas, Missouri, Louisiana, Florida, Indiana, Vermont, Ohio and Rhode Island http://cter.ed.uiuc.edu/cter-maps/index.html .  Since its inception, CTER has admitted 125 students of which 75 have graduated within the normal two-year period. Only one student has dropped out of the program so far.  Our research points to several factors contributing to this low dropout rate.  These factors are described in the Outcomes sections of this report.

CTER OnLine began as part of an initiative at the University of Illinois known as UI OnLine to encourage faculty members to develop online programs.  UI OnLine provided grant funds to cover the startup costs with the understanding that these new programs would become self-sustaining programs after the initial seed funding.  CTER OnLine has continued in a self-sustaining manner with some networking and staff support from the College of Education and the Department of Educational Psychology.  Faculty members from four departments across the University teach CTER OnLine courses.

Project Components
Students must complete eight units of credit for the Master of Education degree.  There are five required and three elective one-unit courses.  Detailed course information is listed on our website at http://cter.ed.uiuc.edu .  These courses have been designed a) to help students to focus on newly revised curriculum and teaching standards, b) to help students to implement education reform in the students' schools and districts and c) to help students to learn about the latest technologies currently available.  In addition, the teacher certification office at UIUC has worked with the Illinois State Board of Education so that students in Illinois who complete the CTER OnLine program can apply for an Instructional Technology Endorsement on their teaching certificate.

Since our students are working full-time, they normally take one class in each of the fall and spring semesters and two courses during the summer, completing the program in two years.  CTER OnLine follows a cohort model and new students begin their program as a group each June with a required two-day face-to-face orientation meeting immediately followed by two four-week courses.  Some of the online courses in the program require students to attend a one- or two-day face-to-face meeting, but these meetings are limited to one per semester.  This on-campus requirement has limited the acceptance of international students.  Researchers have found that combining a limited number of face-to-face meetings with online instruction has fostered the development of effective communities of learners.  According to student surveys, these communities have kept several students in the program that otherwise would have dropped out.

The program's administrators encourage faculty members to use a variety of technologies so that they can best match the course content to the learning styles of the students.  The technologies currently used include: web pages, email, WebBoard®, BlackBoard®, AOL Instant Messenger®, Real Player®, Tapped In®, audio-narrated PowerPoint® presentations, CTER radio/SHOUTcast®, Polycom® video conferencing over IP, IRC chat, Microsoft Word®, various web page editors, and web-enabled databases.  Each faculty member works with a technical support staff member to choose the subset of technologies to be used for his/her course.  The technical support staff then works with the faculty member to develop the course and assist with any technical difficulties during development and teaching.  The technical support staff also provides technical assistance to the students in the program.

While each course is customized, the types of activities include readings (online and textbook), reflections on readings and practice, asynchronous online discussions, synchronous online chats and guided discussions, online office hours, and individual and group project work. Faculty members encourage students to link their course assignments to their classroom teaching.  When possible, major projects extend across courses to ensure an interdisciplinary context.  Many exemplary projects are available on the CTER website for public viewing at http://cter.ed.uiuc.edu/about_CTER/exemp-CTER/index.html .

Outcomes/Impact of Project

The impact of CTER Online can be measured by looking at its impact on its major stakeholders: the students, the faculty, the administrators, and the larger professional community.

Student impact.
The core concern for educational programs is how do they impact student learning.  One measure of student learning is by looking at student satisfaction.  CTER Online has had an unusually high level of student satisfaction. From May 1998 through August 2002 the CTER OnLine program has had one student drop out of the program. This is considerably lower than most other online programs (and considerably lower than most face-to-face programs as well).  These students are in most cases paying the tuition for each course from their own financial resources, and have been quick to question the utility of what they are asked to do.  In spite of their more critical perspective, almost all of them have continued with the program, and most remain satisfied after graduation.  One CTER student said: "I wanted to let you know that I absolutely love this CTER program. I have never worked so hard and learned so much.  While it is incredibly intense, it is simply fascinating to me, and I recognize the need for reforming current educational practices."

Student satisfaction alone is not sufficient - one could imagine an educational program that achieved high satisfaction but little student learning.  We have strong evidence of student learning in CTER Online, both from faculty and student perspectives.  One student said "I learned more this summer in the CTER program than in my entire four years as an undergraduate."  Most of the CTER faculty members have commented that the quality of student work is as high or higher than that of the on-campus graduate students who take the face-to-face versions of the same courses.  Another student said, "[the work] is not easy, nor is this an easy way to get a masters.  The work was intense, yet students could expect to learn a lot."

What accounts for the high student satisfaction levels and substantial student learning?  There are many complex reasons, but through our systematic program evaluation efforts, we have identified several factors.  The most important are learning activities that are: relevant, project-oriented, highly interactive, and well supported.

Relevant: The CTER Online students are almost all practicing professionals, either pre-college classroom teachers, school district technology coordinators, or other educational professionals.  Because of this, they learn best when learning activities clearly relate to their professional practice.

Project-oriented: One of the best ways to relate learning with doing has been to focus on more project-oriented learning, with students having some flexibility to choose the topic of projects so that they relate to issues that are important in the students' practice.

Highly interactive: Online students generally are learning in physically isolated settings; it has been important to create highly interactive activities to counteract the physical isolation.  New technologies provide new ways for students to interact with their teachers.  In fact, some of our courses have provided too much interaction, with both students and faculty feeling overwhelmed.  One way to provide highly interactive learning activities without overwhelming faculty or students has been through the development of a strong cohort group among CTER students, so that much of the interaction is between students or among groups of students.

Well supported: Especially with online programs, technical difficulties can become major barriers to learning.  Effective technical support has been crucial for the success of CTER Online.  Students have received effective and timely support from the CTER technical support staff, from the college and campus technical support staff, and also from each other.  This is another area where the coherent cohort group has proved important.  One student said, "This has been a great supportive cohort.  And … exceptionally supportive CTER tech staff!"  Another said "I will certainly be calling on several of you when I need help.  The networking through CTER has been Great!!!"

Additional student comments about the CTER Online program can be viewed at: http://cter.ed.uiuc.edu/Graduation/Yearbook2000/index.html and http://cter.ed.uiuc.edu/Graduation/Grad2001/yearbook.html .

Faculty impact.
A program would not survive if there were widespread faculty dissatisfaction.  Another measure of the success of CTER Online has been the high level of faculty satisfaction with teaching in the program.  This can be measured by the fact that faculty have volunteered to continue to teach courses in CTER.  It can also be measured by the fact that new faculty members have expressed interest and begun teaching in the program.  Some of the same factors are critical for faculty involvement as for students.  Support is critical, both in the development of a new course and in the use of new technologies.  Faculty members enjoy exploring new forms of interaction, and participate actively in the program evaluation and the formative use of the evaluation results to reshape the program and its courses.  Faculty members have individually expressed their satisfaction with CTER and their interest in continuing to participate.

Administrative impact.
A program without administrative support will not survive very long.  One measure of the impact of CTER Online has been its strong support from the administrators involved, including the department level, the College of Education level, the UIUC campus level, and the University level.  Department heads, Deans, and the other administrators involved have all expressed their satisfaction with CTER Online, and have demonstrated that satisfaction by providing the resources necessary to initiate, expand, and maintain the program.  Our Dean, for instance, has told us that she uses CTER Online as one of her examples of successful programs when she talks to alumni.


Professional impact.
The faculty and administrators involved with CTER Online also exist in a professional research community.  An additional measure of the success of CTER Online has been the relatively large number of publications and professional conference presentations based on research on CTER Online.  These indicate a level of interest in the program by members of the professional community beyond the specific department, college, campus, and university to a broader community.  The list of publications and presentations are at: http://cter.ed.uiuc.edu/about_CTER/morecter.html .