Graceland University, a small college in Iowa sees this as an opportunity to serve the community. Dave Devonis, the associate professor of psychology at Graceland University, views the course as a way for the college to "boost its presence in the state and also serve the community." Clauson agrees and believes that "it's a win-win situation for the students because they get both high school and college credits in the class" and may possibly "decide to come to Graceland." According to Clauson, "some schools have so few students who want to take those classes that they found it was worth their while to pay the college $250 per student." But more importantly, she stresses that this course is part of Graceland University's mission to be community-oriented. Even if students do not decide to attend Graceland University after graduating from high school, they are still able to go "to college with transfer credits."

Additionally, recruitment of teachers in rural areas, who will also return to teach there, is also seen as a community benefit. "We're really helping those rural areas who have a hard time finding teachers. So if we can take people who live in the community and train them to be teachers, those programs have almost 100% placement rate," said Clauson. Clauson also noted that Graceland University likes to help address the needs of small schools more immediately but the limited and fixed post secondary enrolment option (PSEO) fee makes it challenging for them to "barely break even."

As for Devonis, he enjoys teaching this course because he sees the value in helping the students through the process of discovery and preparing them for their future learning at college. He also noted that he might otherwise have to risk a 70-mile round trip on a frosty March evening.
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WHAT:

Sometimes, I have a question that I don't know the answer to. And I will throw it out to the class and say, "Well, this is what a psychologist might think about... see how you handle this." I find that that style adapts very nicely to what I do online. (Dave Devonis: Instructor)

Eleventh- and twelfth-grade students from rural high schools enrolled in an introductory psychology course at Graceland University. Some of these students enrolled in this course to get accelerated credit while others hoped to get a head start on their college education through this advanced placement that doubles as college credits.

Students completed a self-paced course using e-mail to engage with the instructor. The course was divided into three parts: a) Basics of Psychology, b) Individual Psychological Research, and c) Reading Final. The students interacted individually with the instructor. There were no face-to-face interactions involved either with the instructor or with other students. The instructor sent a welcoming email and provided a detailed syllabus for the students at the beginning of the course. The syllabus outlined all the requirements and necessary information for both content and organization, for example the tasks, assignments, readings, policies, and evaluation. While the course was designed for a three-month semester, students had an additional month deadline before a grade was assigned. Grading at that point would be made based on all the completed assignments.

The first part, Basics of Psychology, focused on fundamental definitions, phenomena, and principles of psychology, and included sixteen assignments. The second part, Individual Psychological Research paid attention to the process of researching and refining possible topics for psychological research such as human thought, emotion, or behavior. Students were evaluated on the first two parts based on their responses to the tasks. In addition to those assessments, the Reading Final evaluated the students' comprehensive understanding of the content. This final assessment piece was based on twenty-five modules in the modular course textbook. The exam consisted of two multiple-choice questions per module for a total of fifty questions. Students were required to select twelve modules for intensive study based on their interest and then answer any 24 of the 50 exam questions.

The instructor incorporated activities and tasks that mirrored real psychologists' experiences so that his students could think and reflect like psychologists. He utilized pedagogical approaches that he had used successfully in his classroom for many years. He organized his instruction around projects and issues, and provided students with probing questions. He established a pattern of learning that required the students to read, refer, reflect, and respond. He placed emphasis on discovery learning and often supplemented the readings with practical experiments and tasks which could be conducted regardless of the students' location. Students often began their assignments by conducting a small experiment or task which helped to trigger their thinking about a specific topic. They then read and reflected on the assigned readings from the modular textbook, wrote their responses to the task and text, and e-mailed the responses to the instructor. The instructor then provided feedback and facilitated an on-going dialog through e-mail with the students by giving them probing questions and suggested readings. Students in turn continued the dialog by responding to those questions and readings. The cycle continued until the instructor decided that the students had gained satisfactory progress for the respective topic. He then prompted the students to proceed to the next task.

In Assignment 2, the instructor assigned the students to read Module 1 of their textbook and then respond to two questions: a) If you were to become a psychologist, what sort of psychologist would you be? b) Think of the strangest, most unexpected place where you could find a psychologist. What place would that be? Based on their reading, the students were required to reflect and e-mail their responses to their instructor. One student wrote a brief response indicating that he would like to be a developmental psychologist and that he thought the strangest place for a psychologist to work would be at the bus station because people were constantly rushing about. After reading this student's response, the instructor then provided individual feedback with a link to a web site source to further facilitate the student's thinking process. This follow-up task succeeded in helping the student reflect further on his prior response and prompted the student to write a more thoughtful response to the instructor. (See sample exchanges.)

Besides the individual assignments, students also conducted psychological research individually on two topics of their choice. Step-by-step instructions on how to proceed with these tasks were provided in the syllabus-Part 2 including the brainstorming process and how to using the PsycINFO database to research relevant sources. Students were also assessed using a comprehensive multiple-choice test which was administered during Graceland University's finals week (see syllabus-Part 3). The instructor sent paper copies by mail to the proctors at the respective high schools and received the completed test papers back by mail.
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HOW?

"You need to keep the technology simple. It would be fun to add streaming, voice streaming video and all kinds of bells and whistles, but students' computers can't handle that; it's just going to slow them down." (Kathleen Clauson, Chief academic officer)

At first sight the technology that Graceland University has adopted for 'Psychology 101' may appear simple, but this case study demonstrates good practice in the use of email for correspondence that builds a rapport between student and teacher; complemented with a modular textbook and Internet accessible library database plus appropriate materials on the web.

Graceland University has been providing correspondence courses for over 15 years, first with traditional mail that took an average of two weeks to turnaround. Today technology provides the turnaround time to suit the instructor. Instructor Dave Devonis listed further advantages for his course:

• Email keeps a record
• Asynchronous communication encourages better answers
• Text from one message can be cut and pasted into another
• The search and re-ordering facilities of emails support monitoring and the development of discourse across time. Related analysis is also useful for evaluation of teaching.

The ease of access to email is important for both teacher and students and it increases the ability to work from several locations, including the office and home. Mr. Devonis noted, "In the evenings my wife likes me home."

It is important to note that Mr. Devonis' approach to email carefully builds up a rapport in the correspondence between the teacher and the student. He knows his students by their communication style: "I know who is a cynic and I know who is trying to tell me a second story along with what they are trying to do. I know who is really superior... So I feel I get the personalities pretty well. It's correspondence. Writing letters is really a lost art. I get to write and I feel privileged. I write 30 a week sometimes, and I should because I have 30 or 31 signed on right now." Mr. Devonis refrains from addressing the class as a whole. He could send one message to all students, but he avoids that. "I do not send blanket e-mails to everybody, unless it is absolutely necessary. I think I have done two in my career and I've been doing this at Graceland since 1998. I do very little addressing the class as a whole. Once a person is with me, they are with me; keep the dialog going with me. I've been able to successfully keep 80 of these going at once. That's about my limit."

The teacher's emails and course guidance use the medium of text very well. White spaces, clarification of key procedures and capitals for EMPHASIS are carefully blended with a personal welcome that encourages the development of rapport. For example the syllabus doubles as a study guide which welcomes students more than once in different ways. A simple procedure of including the course code, e.g. XYZ, in the email subject line is established at an early stage to facilitate searching and sorting of messages. The notice that emails and assignments are stored for the duration of the course plus one month is good practice: both the notice and the practice itself. This is important for the protection of both the teacher and the students and is likely to increase the building of trust and respect. Mr. Devonis monitors students by checking off completed activities using a roster: "### signals a studious approach and a blank line triggers a message [to the tardy student]."

It is likely that this form of Virtual Schooling fits well with this particular teacher. As a psychologist, he understands his own personality: "I find [this approach] to be something that fits my style very nicely. I like being with people but I'm not necessarily a people person nor do I put socializing at the top. I'm somewhat reserved." School counselors also aim to match the course with the student. This course is less likely to suit extraverted students; it is more likely to suit a student who likes to reflect, observe and to write rather than to speak out.

Mr. Devonis does not lecture. Instead he requires his students to use their modular textbook, web resources and practical activities that are well structured though 16 assignments and two research projects. Detailed instructions are provided in the study guide/syllabus sent out by email when each student registers. Although the course is self paced and undertaken individually, Mr. Devonis emphasizes his need to respond and develop a rapport with each student. "There are some people who are, I won't say rude, but they don't know the etiquette very much. They don't participate in the dialog. They still look at it as a bunch of work to do; one might say "So can I do all 19 of these at once?" I answer: "You can do all 16 at once but I've got to respond to them individually and develop some kind of rapport with you. You really should do them in sequence; they are in sequence for a reason."

Good practice in Virtual Schooling involves a team. The study guide for the course refers students to specific people when they meet a challenge:

8. If you have any problems or questions please direct them to Francis Acland at acland@graceland.edu or (641) 784-5303 or send a note to me and to the ACED coordinator (if you are in the ACED program), Doug Greene, greene@graceland.edu . (from Mr. Devonis course syllabus)

The Accelerated College Education (ACED) coordinator is involved at several stages when dealing with students taking classes under the PSEO. Before courses are offered, the coordinator assists in the judgment of which courses to offer. He then recruits and registers students through the school counselors, and sends out the bills to the schools. It is also the ACED coordinator's task to keep the counselors informed of the students' progress at midterm. In addition, the coordinator drops off the textbook at the school, collects it again at the end of the course, and sends proctored tests out to the respective schools.

In a small high school, there are three roles: counselor guiding students towards suitable courses, study coach to keep them engaged and solve challenges faced by each student, and a proctor to assure quality in tests and examinations. Mr. Devonis notes the importance of a firm coach, who provides the students with a realistic view of the commitment required for Virtual Schooling. The flexibility of this timetable can be very challenging to students institutionalized in the school timetable managed by teachers and emphasized with ringing bells. The communication between the ACED coordinator and the counselor is particularly important for under performing students. This collaboration is an essential part of developing trust in the quality of Virtual Schooling.

"[The coordinator] sends out a message periodically [to the counselor] if I'm not getting the appropriate messages. This is crunch time to him (midway in the semester). I have to send him a note to let him know about 10 people that I just haven't seen yet this semester. Do they really want to be 'here' or do they want to drop? I'm OK if they want to drop." (Dave Devonis: Instructor )

There are also more distant members of the team who manage resources. Clauson noted that "every time something major on the syllabus changes, we give that syllabus a new version number. And [when] the student gives that version number to the bookstore, they'll know which book and learning packets [study guide] they should receive. Because students don't start and finish all at the same time there could be 5 or 10 different versions of a class out there all at once."

The growth of distance education has stimulated Graceland University to set up Graceland Learning Ventures with coherent policies and procedures. However, it is unlikely that delivery will be standardized because it needs to vary with the context. One context for Virtual Schooling is the low funding. High schools afford advanced placement courses through the PSEO fee which remains at $250 per course per students. Graceland University aims to break even on these courses, but this is challenging. This limited fee rules out use of Graceland University's high quality course management system, e-College, because that costs over $100 per student per course.

E-mail is a cost-effective and accessible way to reach students when used in this way.

Thanks to Graceland University, Dave Devonis, Kathleen Clauson, and Ron Ellis for their help.

This case developed by:
Nike Davis, Ph.D. and Lily Compton, M. A.
Center for Technology in Learning and Teaching
Iowa State University

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Case Studies
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Course textbook: http://www.wadsworth.com/cgiwadsworth/course_products_wp.pl?fid=M2b&product_isbn_issn=0534579973&discipline_number=24
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Graceland University: http://www.graceland.edu/
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'Good Practice to Inform Iowa Learning Online' case studies were developed by the Center for Teachnology in Learning and Teaching at
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Last updated: January 2005