Challenges
“We wanted to expand reach beyond the audience that we currently had. We used to do everything in person so we were limited geographically… we were limited by staffing, costs of traveling to learners, and the resources we needed to expand more. Outside of reach, we knew we needed to rejuvenate our courses as we came to realize that our program was never actually structured toward the proper training of our learners. The biggest thing really is that we often just throw content and knowledge up on slides in order to check the box. We received feedback from learners and realized that retention and use of principles were not very effective- we hadn't provided them an effective way to obtain that” (Katie MrDutt - Executive Director, Food Armor)
02Partnering with Construct
Lené Whitley-Putz, Dean of Online Learning at Foothill College, first discovered Construct when she signed up to create a course video with Construct at InstructureCon. Lené “was impressed with [her] side conversations and how enjoyable it was to work with Construct staff.”
When Foothill College received a grant to support its faculty in reviewing and enhancing their courses, they connected with Construct to help. The support from Construct “provided faculty with customized support to import into their courses so that teachers could have more time to focus on teaching and developing their teaching practices to advance the quality of each course” (Lené Whitley-Putz).
With Construct’s visual uplift and support with laying out each course, Foothill College faculty were able to “better recognize their goals” and “understand the value of the relationship between learning activities and content” (Foothill College Staff).
At the end of the project, Foothill College was able to walk away with not only several uplifted courses but also a revised plan for professional development, continued encouragement of assessment analysis, and a new knowledge built around learning from material and course blueprinting.
Project goals
- Collaborating successfully with diverse faculty with an array of different skill sets.
- Aligning courses to the CVC course quality rubric.
- Addressing the needs of individual professors and implementing into each unique course.
- Increasing the accessibility of courses
- Uplifting courses visually and creating navigational graphics
“
I really do wish California community colleges would recognize
the value in crowdsourcing the material.
Lené Whitley-Putz
DEAN OF ONLINE LEARNING
FOOTHILL COLLEGE
Process
1
Design & Discovery
At the start of every course, a Construct Learning Strategist or Learning Designer would meet with a Foothill College instructor. Each course would then be peer-reviewed to align with OEI standards while the team decided on project goals and targets. Construct would then create a Learning Blueprint for the instructor, which would serve as a mini-project plan. As the instructor worked on revisions, Construct would work on other elements of the project!
2
Learning Delivery
The Construct Learning team would then create an inventory of the course, review the blueprints, and provide recommendations on adding to the content, particularly relating to visual uplifts. The outcomes were then reviewed and signed-off by instructors.
3
Visual Design & Discovery
ourse outcomes varied depending on the instructor and course needs, but this phase’s goal was to implement changes desired by instructors to help the course meet the OEI goals. The majority of instructors required more visually appealing and engaging graphics to be made to enhance the course.
4
Final Review
Once Construct implemented the desired changes and delivered any required research/recommendations, the instructors at Foothill College would review the work to ensure their goals and visions had been understood and then signed off!
Results
Construct uplifted and delivered 27 courses within six weeks, per course.
Construct produced 280+ custom graphics for Foothill College.
Construct helped Foothill College meet their deadlines for the CVC-OEI and the Improving Online CTE Pathways Grant.
Foothill College was named the #1 online community college in California and #3 online community college in the nation.
Foothill College serves ~10,000 users, both online and on-campus.
Foothill College will employ the blueprinting method going forward when assessing the quality of their courses.
“
Construct offers what is normally a very small group of people the opportunity to thought-partner with a bigger organization who have a bigger bench than we have. We were able to use that bench to help us strengthen our small department.
Lené Whitley-Putz
DEAN OF ONLINE LEARNING
FOOTHILL COLLEGE