Identify a specific graduate degree program in instructional technology, distance education, or both, that is offered entirely or primarily via distance education. Identify just one program at one university. Answer the following questions:

Part I: The institution and its programs (1 point each, unless otherwise indicated)1. List the name, mailing address, and website URL of the institution. [.5 point]

Indiana State UniversityIUconnectEDIndiana University School of EducationW. W. Wright Education BuildingSuite 2100Bloomington, IN 47405University Website: http://www.iu.edu/ Online Study: http://iuconnected.iu.edu/

2. What degrees and majors are offered in the identified program? For instance, NSU offers an EdD in instructional technology and distance education. Florida State University offers an M.S. in instructional systems design. [.5 point]

Ed.D. in Instructional Systems Technology (online)

3. For how long has the institution been offering the identified program at a distance?

The information on this degree is unspecified but the university has been offering fully online degrees since 2003.

4. What course delivery technologies are used? (Be specific: general terms such as “Web-based” are insufficient.)

The University Indiana offers two course delivery technologies.1.) Onestart is a program developed by the university and acts as a web portal to

the university Learning Management System. As stated by the university, Onestart is a “front door to online services for IU students, faculty, and staff. OneStart provides easy access to services such as searching the web, personal calendaring, registering for classes, reading email, browsing the library catalog, checking the IU Auditorium schedule, reading campus news, browsing the classifieds, and more” (University Information Technology Services, Para. 1).

2.) Oncourse Collaboration and Learning is a collaborative class environment powered by Blackboard Inc.

5. Is there a face-to-face component of instruction? If so, where is it conducted, and for what duration?

The degree is completely online with only one face-to-face component of instructor in which the course participant must, “attend in person at least one IST Conference. The conference is held annually in the spring and hosted on the Bloomington campus” (IUconnectED, Sec. Additional requirements, Para. 3)

6. How long does it take to earn a degree in the identified program? (Indicate either the briefest amount of time required or, preferably, the amount of time most students require.)

The university states that the degree will take approximately 3 years to complete. This may be reduced by transferring up to 9 credits, but may also take longer depending on course load, dissertation progress and background in Instructional Technology (IT). If the participant does not have an IT background a pre-requisite 6 credits are required which will take an additional four-month semester to complete.

7. Is the institution accredited? If so, by what organization? [.5 point]

The institution is accredited by two organizations: 1.) National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)2.) North Central Commission on Institutions of Higher Education (NCCIHE)

8. Is the institution public or private? If private, is it for-profit or not-for-profit? [.5 point]

University Indiana is a public not-for-profit institution.

9. What is the total enrollment of the institution? How many students are enrolled in the identified distance-delivered program?

University Indiana has a current enrollment of 110,393 students across the 8 campuses and undergraduate and graduate degree programs. In the identified program the enrollment is not published, however the current enrollment at the online doctoral practice level is 3,779.

10. What is the tuition (per course or per year)?

The tuition for the program is $352.32 / credit hour for residents and $1,026.09 / credit hour for non-residents. The degree requires 90 credit hours and so costs $31,709 or $92,348 respectively.

Be sure to cite your source for each answer.

Part II: The institution’s website (1 point each)Critique the institution’s (or program’s) website, answering the following questions:

A. How would you rate the visual appeal of the site? What elements are visually appealing, and which aspects are less so? Include screen shot(s) to illustrate.

I would rate the visual appeal of the Indiana University Main Site highly. The color coordination of the text and background allow text to be read clearly whilst maintaining visual appeal. The content is centered in in the site making it dynamic for viewing on various devices. The site incorporates a variety of media including a simple automatic image slide show, video, linked advertisements, social media and links to content. The site uses an array of icons to help guide the user to pertinent information as seen in the top right of Figure 1. Importantly the landing page is contained in one page as viewed in default resolution on devices and computers. This allows all the information to be consumed at one time. In order to reduce clutter, the site correspondingly links out through dynamic drop down menus to pertinent content, making the landing page visually appealing and functionally useful.

Figure 1: Indiana University Main Site

B. Is the site easily navigable and well organized? Provide examples.

The information is provided in manageable and coherent elements with linked sub-pages available through simple horizontal and side bar navigation menus along the top and left hand side of the site and subsequent sub pages. The information flows well with the user being able to navigate to the information without having to leave the main-site or the sub pages as seen in Figure. 2 below. This helps the viewer to understand the context of the information and how it relates sequentially. Furthermore, the information is grouped so that navigation of immediately related information occurs within the site page as seen below in Figure. 2. While the navigation of the site is easy to follow, the lack of the incorporation of HTML5 into the sidebar navigation causes page refreshes to diminish the appeal of navigation as pages reload and disrupt the user experience.

Figure. 2: Linked Sub Pages in Horizontal Navigation Bar

C. Does the site contain sufficient information to answer questions 1-10? If not, providedetails.

The site contains almost all the information to answer the first 10 questions. However the information is somewhat dispersed and must be searched using the search function. Critically, the search function is well configured to meta-tags in relation to many comparable sites on the Internet and as such information is easily found. The one element that is not sufficiently present is specific enrollment numbers of degrees with only broader information available on enrollment for online, undergraduate and graduate degrees in aggregate.

D. What is the most positive aspect of the website?

The most positive aspect of the website is its functionality. It is easy to navigate and intuitively organized so that the user can navigate forward and backward sequentially without becoming contextually confused. The sites functionality however can also be attributed to a range of factors that work in concert including its visual appeal, navigation and media-rich content. The site takes advantage of the possibilities of new media whilst not allowing it to interrupt the flow of the content or the likely navigation paths of the user.

E. What aspect of the site is most in need of improvement?

It is hard to find elements of the site that need improvement, as it is clearly well designed and planned out from a user experience perspective. The only critique I could find would be the further incorporation of HTML5 coding to reduce page reloading. For a site that covers a large number of campus’ and caters to a large and diverse population, it is very well-designed.

References

IUconnectED, Certificate & Degree Programs, Instructional Systems Technology Distance Ed.D. Degree, University Indiana, Retrieved from http://iuconnected.iu.edu/CertificateDegreebrnbspnbspPrograms/InstructionalSystemsTechnologyEdD/AbouttheProgram.aspx

University Information Technology Services, Indiana University Knowledge Base, University Indiana, Retrieved from https://kb.iu.edu/data/ajpt.html

Figures

Figure 1: Indiana University Main Site, Indiana University, Retrieved from http://education.indiana.edu/graduate/programs/instructional-systems/index.html

Figure 2: Linked Sub Pages in Horizontal Navigation Bar, Degrees & Programs: Instructional Systems Technology, Graduate, School of Education, Indiana University, Retrieved from http://education.indiana.edu/graduate/programs/instructional-systems/index.html