Hello, I’m Kathryn Allman, an American Sign Language faculty member here at DSC.  I had the opportunity to serve as your Faculty Fellow in Innovation during the Fall of 2021 – a joint effort between the Division of Online Studies, Instructional Resources, and my department designed to make online courses more engaging and easier to navigate for the students.

During my fellowship, I chose to revise ASL2140 (American Sign Language I), an online course. My goals for this program were as follows:

  1. Organize and update online content in the Course Curriculum modules.
  2. Design activities and content to be more logical and intuitive for students.
  3. Edit and re-record video content with collaboration from Instructional Resources.
  4. Make changes/corrections to create accessible content for all learners.

I accomplished these goals through a combination of rearranging and streamlining the existing content making it more intuitive to navigate; and creating new interactive content and assignments with tools available in Falcon Online, such as Bongo Video Assignment and H5P.

You can view some of the example activities we created for students in the following video clip, taken from my presentation during the Spring 2022 Adjunct Support Day:

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Students’ Response to these Changes

I employed these changes in a full term ASL I section in the Spring ‘22. A total of 23 H5P interactive assignments were created for online coursework. There were 18 students enrolled in this section, and participation levels on these assignments ranged from 83% to 100% (M=95.41%, STD=4.82%) with nine assignments having full participation.  To encourage skill practice and persistence, the assignments were graded for completion and created to scaffold comprehension and language skills before high-stakes tests.  The feedback provided from these H5P and video assignments allowed students to evaluate their progress more regularly, and consequently, correct errors and target weaknesses.

My Assessment of this Experience

These course revisions look very promising for retention and persistence due to the increased focus on interactivity. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to form a relationship with the FIC and Instructional Design team members.  Their expertise and encouragement were very impactful to this course.  If you are teaching an online course and want to explore improvements, I encourage you to meet with your department and the Division of Online Studies to discuss whether future participation in this Fellowship is right for you. 

katie allman employee photo
 

Kathryn Allman, MS NIC
Assistant Professor
American Sign Language
Kathryn.Allman@daytonastate.edu
386-506-3541