Students using computers in post-secondary classrooms is hardly a new development, but for Vancouver Island University (VIU), some developing technologies are helping the institution redefine itself.
Over the past few years, Powell River campus has been increasing the number of classes that are offered either completely online or as a mix of online and face-to-face learning and by teleconference classrooms. This year students will be able to complete a bachelor degree in social work almost completely online through VIU.
According to Arlette Raaen, Powell River campus principal, the number of university transfer courses offered with teleconferencing technology has doubled, with new classes being offered in criminology, creative writing and liberal studies.
“This is part of our niche specialization as recommended in the new regional strategy,” said Raaen. “Part of the challenge for a small campus is offering a variety of classes and having enough students fill the seats.”
Classes offered online not only have students enrolled from coastal BC but also from the rest of Canada and beyond. Raaen added the university is planning on expanding the number of online university transfer classes offered next year.
The university is investing resources to develop these alternate delivery methods and train instructors, she said, so that it can move away from “a Nanaimo-focus” to meet its mandate of a regional university. It has established a Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning to help instructors learn how to use the technology to improve their classrooms.
Dr. Michael Thoms is one professor who teaches at the Powell River campus and has become comfortable teaching using the teleconference equipment.
Students sit around a long narrow table with a large flat panel screen at the end. When students in Powell River look at the screen they see another table set up the same in VIU’s other teleconference classrooms.
“It’s a configuration where it’s not hard to imagine you’re all sitting around the table,” said Raaen.
The principal sat in on one of Thoms’ classes and saw how teachers can use the technology to bring students together with simple activities like a virtual paper ball fight.
“A lot of it comes down to the teacher being comfortable with the technology,” said Raaen. “Once they do, their teaching becomes very fluid.”
One niche that Powell River is in the process of developing is in the area of human services.
“We’ve got most courses with an online component and an intensive institute format,” said Alison Taplay, VIU’s human services program coordinator.
Students can currently enrol in a one-year School and Community Support Worker certificate program and then once they have completed the program move into the two-year Disability Studies diploma.
“It makes it very flexible for the students,” said Taplay, “and flexibility is key.” Most students in the class are mature students who have family or job responsibilities outside of school.
Students just need to be able to make a commitment to spend a few days a couple times per year in Powell River, she said.
The flexibility of the program has had a positive effect on enrolments for the human services program which have increased since providing it online.
Raaen added that the program has been an area of specialization for the Powell River campus because of the legacy of Powell River Association for Community Living (PRACL).
“PRACL developed this whole industry of welcoming people with disabilities into our community,” said Raaen, adding that VIU has played a large role in helping to train people to fill these kinds of jobs. “It has created a real expertise here for us.”
Students who complete the two-year Disability Studies diploma will be able to ladder into the online bachelor of social work degree program.
Raaen said the school is in the process of developing a Diversity Institute to build on community expertise in the area.
About one third of the more than 35 students enrolled in the one-year School and Community Support Worker certificate program are based in Powell River and the other two thirds are in coastal communities, said Taplay.
Blended delivery of the course made it possible for students from Bella Coola and others from around Vancouver Island to join the course.
It would be impractical to have 30 students in a class in Powell River, she said.
“We need smaller classes, but with the financial pressures on post-secondary they aren’t possible,” she added. “Online learning is the way of the future.”
A strategic partnership VIU has entered into with other Vancouver Island colleges will not only help Early Childhood Education (ECE) students create a program tailored to their needs, but also benefit their communities, explained Raaen.
“We haven’t been able to offer ECE for the last 10 years,” she said. “There were never enough students.”
VIU partnered up with North Island College and Camosun College, and aligned their ECE classes so they were roughly equal. The three institutions then decided to each offer one third of the program online, so students can do the whole program online if they need.
“They can build it any way that works,” said Raaen. “It has shifted us from competing against each other to collaborating.”
She noted that community statistics have shown that not having enough trained ECE teachers has had a negative impact on the community. The universities will launch the program in January 2014.
“It’s not likely there’s going to be more government money coming into post-secondary education,” said Raaen, “so we have to be creative about how we use existing resources or generate new income streams.”
