University of Arizona

Developed an Online Degree Program

OVERVIEW

This project involves the design and implementation of a fully online Bachelor of Arts in Applied Humanities degree program at the University of Arizona that focuses on creating an engaging and accessible learning experience for students. As an Assistant Professor of Practice within the Department of Public & Applied Humanities (PAH), I led the development of six core courses tailored to meet the needs of diverse learners. Through iterative design, stakeholder collaboration, and continuous feedback, the project aimed to reinvent online education for the College of Humanities, enhance student engagement, and foster a supportive learning community. The project's success is measured by enrollment growth, retention rates, and positive student feedback, highlighting its impact on the department's commitment to excellence in education.

KEY CONTRIBUTIONS

| Subject matter expert (SME)

| User research

| Instructional design/course design

| Branding for online courses for Dept of Public & Applied Humanities (PAH)

Role: Assistant Professor of Practice

May 2021 - Present

| Curriculum design & development

| Professor teaching all six courses

| Change management

| Training for faculty in online instruction fundamentals & new curriculum design

The Department of Public and Applied Humanities

The Department of Public & Applied Humanities is dedicated to cultivating individuals with a diverse range of critical and creative skills, committed to advancing humanistic inquiry for the betterment of society. With a mission to foster experimental research projects, transdisciplinary collaboration, and design-based learning, the department offers a Bachelor of Arts in Applied Humanities. This program provides students interested in dynamic fields such as business, health, and design with a transdisciplinary education that combines professional skills with cognitive, creative, and intercultural intelligences taught in the humanities. Through its values of collaborative decision-making, innovative thinking, and a commitment to diversity, the department aims to prepare students for meaningful engagement with pressing societal challenges and opportunities.

Project Challenges

  • Students in the Applied Humanities major come from a diverse number of backgrounds, perhaps more so than other majors. This is exemplified in the fact that the Dept of PAH offers eleven areas of emphasis for main campus majors and five for fully online majors—the latter being business administration, fashion studies, game studies, public health, and rural leadership & renewal. Additionally, three courses are offered as general education electives, bringing in students across campus interested in the applied humanities.

    Challenge: Meet the needs of all of these students while providing a solid disciplinary foundation in the public and applied humanities.

  • The original six core courses were crafted by a diverse team of six professors, all of whom come from different academic backgrounds and bring their own approaches. Further, the courses were initially conceptualized as 16-week in-person courses. Both of these aspects presented a dual challenge:

    Challenges:

    1. Harmonize disparate voices into one curriculum

    2. Condense the content to fit a streamlined 7-week online format

    3. Accomplish challenges 1 and 2 while safeguarding the integrity of the learning objectives and outcomes of the original courses

  • During the COVID lockdown of 2020 the University of Arizona moved all courses to 100% online delivery. This experience aided in professors’ gaining some proficiency in online instruction. However, I anticipated high enrollments and the imperative for equipping professors with requisite teaching methodologies and digital tools essential for effective learning outcomes.

    Challenge: The department faculty needed training in online instruction.

Process

  • Direct research could not be conducted on students entering the new fully online degree program because, prior to the launch, none were enrolled, as the major did not yet exist. Instead, I utilized existing data from University of Arizona studies gathered over the previous two years regarding fully online students enrolled in AZOnline degree programs and students in the College of Humanities, where the Dept of PAH resides. Further, I utilized data available through the department pertaining to its main-campus students. Compiling and evaluating this data enabled me to create personas and better understand the needs of these students as different from those of traditional main-campus students and to build a program that would meet those needs.

  • To better understand the 16-week, in-person versions of the six core courses, I conducted multiple interviews and a round table discussion with the six professors who developed the original versions.

  • Based on demographic information gathered and interviews conducted with the AZOnline team, I constructed a persona for each of the degree’s five areas of emphasis: business administration, fashion studies, game studies, public health, and rural leadership & renewal.

  • I researched the most current online learning trends and tools to inform the development of the courses. Leveraging insights from academic sources and educational tech platforms, I designed interactive and accessible courses that cater to diverse learning styles and preferences. Further, I collaborated with the University’s Disability Resource Center and AZOnline’s instructional design team to ensure the upmost accessibility.

Personas

  • PUBLIC HEALTH EMPHASIS

    Monet is dedicated to her community in Detroit. She volunteers regularly for homeless youth organizations and adult literacy programs. She wants to earn her degree in the applied humanities with a specialization in public health so that she can be a social worker or join a non-profit. She lives with and cares for her elderly aunt. She is a transfer student finding it difficult to balance school, work, and community activism.

  • BUSINESS MANAGEMENT EMPHASIS

    Emmett lives in Tucson and wants to apply for the Eller College of Business MBA program when he earns his BA in Applied Humanities. As a 27-year-old returning student, he has spent the last five years working in the marketing industry and currently has a remote position that enables him to balance his home life with his wife and stepdaughter. The company he works for is paying his tuition and has promised him a management position when he completes his degree.

  • FASION STUDIES EMPHASIS

    Taylor’s father has been in the fashion industry her entire life, and she has always wanted to get her degree so that she can join his firm. She resides in Los Angeles, where she grew up with a tight group of friends, but she wants to gain professional experience beyond LA and applies for internships for major fashion magazines, New York Fashion Week, and Milan Fashion Week. She does not currently have a job but has started her own Etsy shop selling upcycled clothing she designs and makes herself.

  • Self-Paced & Flexible Learning Preferences

    Key Insight: Many students prefer flexible scheduling to accommodate work or personal commitments. When asked which they found most challenging, students said that time management in balancing academics and other commitments is their greatest challenge. Their second greatest challenge is synchronous collaborating with peers for course group work.

    Implication: Asynchronous learning options and adaptable deadlines are essential to cater to the demands of diverse schedules.

  • Clear Communication Channels

    Key Insight: Students express a need for clear and accessible communication channels with instructors and peers.

    Implications: A robust communication system must be implemented that includes regular updates, discussion forums, class and instructor messaging through tools like Microsoft Teams, and virtual office hours.

  • Interactive Learning & Accessibility

    Key Insight: Students highly value interactive learning tools like discussion forums, virtual labs, and multimedia projects, yet they exhibit diverse learning styles, with some favoring visual content and others preferring text-based materials. Accessibility challenges hinder some students' learning experiences.

    Implication: Integrating engaging technologies and offering diverse content formats must be a priority. To ensure inclusivity and enhance the effectiveness of the learning environment, the LMS must be user-friendly, compatible with various devices, and accessible.

  • Real-World Application & Relevance

    Key Insight: The Dept. of PAH emphasizes the importance of transferable skills and career-readiness. Students in the major and those taking the courses for general education credit expect that the skills they acquire will have real-world applications and relevance.

    Implication: Courses outcomes should have direct transferability to business and non-profit sectors. Practical examples, case studies, and industry-related projects must be utilized to enhance the applicability of the curriculum.

Solutions & Design

Clear Communication Channels

  • Given the asynchronous nature of the courses, professors foster engagement through weekly discussion boards. These platforms facilitate dynamic conversations, enabling students to explore module topics, share insights, and respond to their peers, providing an alterative to in-personal class discussion and group work.

  • The course messenger, accessible via platforms like Microsoft Teams, Slack, or Discord, provides a convenient space for real-time communication. Students can pose questions and engage in discussions, fostering a collaborative learning environment and facilitating timely support from both peers and the professor. Messaging is especially helpful as navigation of the LMS on a mobile phone is new and unrefined.

  • Weekly announcements serve as a roadmap for students, outlining the current focus and offering the professor’s valuable insights gleaned from graded assignments. While announcements are available via email, professors can also ensure all students stay informed by broadcasting updates to the entire class, which is particularly important for communicating time-sensitive updates.

  • Feedback serves as a vital avenue for direct communication between instructors and students, fostering rapport and aiding in student growth. My feedback approach (one I encourage all professors teaching for the online program to adopt) is conversational, featuring personalized greetings and encouraging statements to nurture a supportive learning environment.

  • Students are encouraged to reach out with questions or concerns at any time, underscoring the professors’ commitment to supporting students’ academic journeys. Such an advertised open-door policy regarding emailing and virtual meetings helps to alleviate hesitation that some students may feel about asking for assistance. It is easy for students to fall through the cracks when they feel no one cares about their success.

Pilot & Launch

Three of the courses were piloted in the fall of 2021, launching the fully online BA in Applied Humanities program. The additional three courses were launched in spring 2022, with work on their development continuing through the fall 2021 semester.

To test courses like these, students must populate them. While my collaborators and I assessed the courses against a heuristic evaluation, we knew that students would find ways to break the course sights and have questions that we could not have anticipated. Rather than attempt to launch perfect courses, I encouraged students to share their experience as they navigated them.

I employed student surveys each week asking for feedback, identified student representatives from each course to meet with me to discuss their experiences, and monitored student activity using the LMS’s built-in metrics and tracking.

In doing so, I was able to receive real-time feedback, which I then used to improve up-coming modules before the course progressed to that point. Feedback specifically pertaining to past modules was documented and used to improve a primary course shell from which all future iterations would be copied.

Iterative Continuous Improvement

Throughout the 2021-2022 academic year, I piloted all six core courses in the BA in Applied Humanities program, continuously refining their design and delivery. Teaching three courses each semester, I gained valuable insights into the needs and preferences of our inaugural cohort. Leveraging this experience, I launched improved course versions based on student feedback. From an initial enrollment of 18 students in fall 2021 (8.5% of the department’s majors), the program has grown to host 95 fully online students in spring 2024, constituting 27% of the department's majors. PAH now has more than double the number of students in our closest competing department, leading the College of Humanities.

These enhancements facilitated the expansion of the online degree program, including increasing course sections and training faculty for asynchronous online teaching. Recognizing the challenges of the 2020 pandemic, where faculty were new to condensed 7-week terms, I conducted workshops to aid in the transition. This effort resulted in increased course accessibility, accelerating time-to-degree. The first cohort of online students graduated in fall 2023.

Utilizing a modified A/B testing approach, I continuously optimized course design and delivery, comparing different materials, interfaces, and engagement strategies. This iterative process, guided by regular feedback and data-driven decisions, positively impacted student engagement and learning outcomes.

Through these collaborative efforts, I upheld my commitment to delivering a student-centric online educational experience that embodies the department's dedication to continual improvement.

reflection

reflection

Creating this online degree program has been a transformative journey that has enriched my understanding of online learning, user experience design, and instructional development. As an Assistant Professor of Practice within the Department of Public and Applied Humanities, I had the privilege of leading this initiative, which has not only enriched and expanded my department, but also contributed the progressive efforts of the College of Humanities at the University of Arizona to revolutionize the direction of humanities.

One take away is the importance of adaptability and iterative improvement in course design. While I built these courses to the best of my knowledge at the time, no one could have predicted who the students would be who enrolled in our program. Building these courses from scratch was a multifaceted challenge, requiring me to balance various considerations, including maintaining consistency with existing in-person courses, catering to a diverse student demographic, and ensuring alignment with institutional guidelines and student expectations. However, through continuous feedback loops, rigorous research, and collaboration with stakeholders, I was able to navigate these challenges and deliver courses that not only met but exceed student needs and expectations.

Furthermore, this project underscored the significance of empathy and inclusivity in educational design. By conducting thorough UX research, including surveys, interviews, and persona development, I gained invaluable insights into the diverse needs and preferences of our students. This informed the design of courses that prioritized flexibility, accessibility, and real-world relevance, ensuring that every student, regardless of background or circumstance, could thrive in the online learning environment.

The success of this project serves as a testament to the power of collaboration and innovation in shaping the future of online learning and education. By fostering a culture of continual improvement and embracing emerging technologies and pedagogical approaches, the Department of Public and Applied Humanities can continue to deliver transformative learning experiences that empower students to succeed in an ever-evolving world.

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