Developing a Cohort Blended Curriculum Model (Face-to-Face and Online) for a Master of Arts of Theatre Degree
by
Sherry Randolph Boyd, B.S., M.A.
A Dissertation
In
Fine Arts/Theatre
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Approved
Dr. Andrew Gibb, Chair of the Committee
Dr. William Gelber
Dr. Janice Killian
Dr. Michael Stoune
Dr. Justin Louder
Dr. Mark Sheridan Dean of Graduate School
August 2016
© 2016, Sherry Randolph Boyd
Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Primarily, I thank my husband, Mark. He did not blink an eye when I said, “I want to move to Lubbock and maintain three households, while I complete my residency at Texas Tech University.” In the middle of my residency, we had to move my mother in with us, and I was ready to quit school. Mark took care of my mom so I could complete my residency, and it made me love him more. I also want to thank my daughter Christal, who was and still is my biggest cheerleader, butt kicker and one of my first graduate school editors. She held me up and said, “Keep going ‘Lady,’ you can do it.”
Special thanks go to Dr. Janice Franklin, Dr. Ulanda Forbess, Dr. Teddy
Rodriguez, Leslie Gulden, Sandy Brimer, Jeanne Haggard, Ryan Johnson, and Dr. Marla
Britton-Johnson, whose support and friendship kept me moving forward in this process.
Thank you, Dr. Linda Donahue, for taking the lead on this dissertation journey.
Additionally, I am indebted to the members of my committee, Dr. William Gelber, Dr.
Michael Stoune, Dr. Janice Killian, and Dr. Justin Louder for their help, advice, and time devoted to my dissertation.
Dr. Andrew Gibb, my chair, you are incredible. You gave me your valuable time, genuine guidance, and unbelievable encouragement to complete my dissertation. I truly would not have completed this dissertation without you.
Thanks also to Jeff Day and Dawn Schluetz, my doctoral support group who reinvigorated me, struggled with me, cajoled me, and held me in their hands the last six months of this voyage. I felt blessed by your presence.
ii Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Loreta Felton, you have my undying gratitude and love for taking care of my mom as her Alzheimer’s disease progresses. You have become her sister and my second mom.
Finally, a very special appreciation and love for my mom, Ruby Jean Simpson
Randolph, and dad, Chester Lee Randolph, whose shoulders I stand on so that I can see above the water. I will continue the promise.
iii Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...... ii
ABSTRACT ...... vii
LIST OF FIGURES ...... vii
I. INTRODUCTION ...... 1
A Paradigm Shift ...... 1 Changes in Higher Education ...... 3 Non-traditional Master of Arts in Theatre Programs ...... 5 Methodology for the Master of Arts in Theatre Program Design ...... 9 Common Definitions for Online Learning ...... 10 Chapter One Summary ...... 16 II. EVALUATION OF RELATED LITERATURE ...... 17
Non-traditional Students ...... 17 Adult Learning ...... 20 Cohort, Blended, and Online Learning ...... 23 III. BACKGROUND OF DISTANCE EDUCATION ...... 32
Non Profit Versus For Profit ...... 32 Distance Education 1890-1945 ...... 33 Distance Education 1945-1985 ...... 41 Distance Education 1985 through the Early Twenty-First Century ...... 48 IV. DESIGNING A MASTER OF ARTS DEGREE IN THEATRE ...... 59
Three Models of Learning in Graduate School ...... 59 Lecture or Face-to-Face Model ...... 60 Distance Education ...... 62 Closed Cohort System ...... 67 Interviews with University Theatre Program Directors ...... 69 Design of the Master of Arts in Theatre ...... 82
iv Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Mission Statement……………………………………………………………...83 MA Summer Institute I Face-to-Face Description…………….…83 Teaching Theatre..………………………………………..83 Design For Directors (Lighting and Sound)..…………….84 Design For Directors (Scene and Costume)…….………..84 MA Fall I Online Description………………………………....…84 Research Methods.……………………………………….83 The Theory of Teaching Theatre…………...…………….84 MA Spring I Online Description……………………………...... 85 Theatre History.…………………….…………………….85 Dramaturgy and Script Analysis….………...……………85 MA Summer Institute II Face-to-Face Description…...……….…85 Directing………...………………………………………..86 Graduate Acting…………………………....…………….86 Directing Musical Theatre………………..…….………..86 MA Fall II Online Description………………………………...…86 Theatre Management.………………………………..…...86 Thesis………………………….…………...……………..87 MA Spring II Online Description……………………………...…87 Thesis………………………….…………...……………..87 Master of Fine Arts Classes………………………………………………88 MFA Summer Institute I Face-to-Face Description………...….…88 MFA Fall I Online Class……………………………………….…88 MFA Spring I Online Class…………………………………….…88 MFA Summer Institute II Face-to-Face Description…….….….…88 MFA Fall II Online Class…………………………….…..…….…88 MFA Spring II Online Class……………….………….………..…88 MFA Summer Institute III Face-to-Face Description…….…….…89 MFA Fall III Online Class…………………………….….…….…89 MFA Spring III Online Class……………….………….……….…89 Distance Education Accreditation for Blended and Online Programs…….90
v Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
V. CONCLUSIONS ...... 95
Personal Discoveres…………………………………………………………..;;95 Eight-Week Proof of Concept………………………………………...... 100 Future Application ……………………………………………………...105 WORKS CITED ...... 110
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A Texas Tech University Human Research Protection Program (HRPP)……………..…………………………121
APPENDIX B Texas Universities Offering Distance, Cohort, and Blended Master of Arts Degrees in Theatre……..……123
APPENDIX C Permissions to Use Figures Within the Dissertation…129
APPENDIX D Current Master of Arts Degree in Theatre at Texas Tech University………………………………….133
APPENDIX E Current Graduate Online, Hybrid, and Cohort Degrees Offered at Texas Tech University……………136
APPENDIX F Interview with Dr. Rosalind Flynn Ph.D.— The Catholic University, Washington D. C……………139
Interview with David Montgomery Ph. D.—New York University, Steinhardt, New York City………………..161
Interview with Patrick Byname Ph.D.— Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas……………171
APPENDIX G Theatre Management Course Design…………………..230
vi Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
ABSTRACT
Public higher education is making a paradigm shift in the delivery of class information and teaching strategies. The objective of this research is to present a rationale for a graduate theatre program that combines online education and lecture together as a hybrid model for non-traditional students to complete a Master of Arts degree. Specifically, I developed a curriculum for a Master of Arts in theatre by suggesting a summer-cohort hybrid model that targets mainly non-traditional students.
This program will provide an opportunity for academic requirements, while combining a hybrid and face-to-face model for students’ access and success.
It is possible to establish a blended-accelerated cohort Master of Arts in Theatre arts degree that is valid and retains the quality of a traditional face-to-face degree.
While building this model, it is important to build a pathway for completion, offer a quality program for non-traditional students, mentor the non-traditional students in the program, and allow a shorter interval for completion of a Master of Arts degree in
Theatre.
vii Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
LIST OF FIGURES 3.1 The Community of Inquiry Framework ...... 53
5.1 Geoffrey Moore’s Diffusion of Innovation model…………...... 88
5.2 Cisco Sx80 Codec Speaker Track 60 ...... 92
viii Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. John F. Kennedy Address in the Assembly Hall at the Paulskirche in Frankfurt, June 25, 1963
A Paradigm Shift In 1992, Joel Barker wrote the book Future Edge: Discovering the New
Paradigms of Success, which includes a particular story that continues to resonate and remains one of my guiding inspirations. Barker explained how, for over sixty years,
Switzerland dominated the world in watch manufacturing with more than 65% of the world watch market. In 1969, Seiko, a company in Japan, introduced the quartz watch. The quartz watch had lower production costs and faster fabrication, and it was technologically superior to the Swiss mechanical watch. The Swiss market share dropped from 65% to less than 10%, and fifty thousand watchmakers lost their jobs.
Barker stated, “They made the most accurate gears in the world. It was irrelevant.
They made the best bearings. Who cared? They manufactured the finest mainsprings. Unneeded. All the advantages they had accrued in the old paradigm were worthless in the new” (Barker 144). This story should give pause to the theatre educational community as they look at how distance education is affecting higher education. Barker gave a relevant example that might be applied of how the academic theatrical community can choose change instead of being forced to change.
1 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Academic theatre can wait until technological energies direct the path of change or they can set their own transformation.
The objective of this research is to show that distance education can be included in a theatre graduate program. Specifically, I developed a rationale for a
Master of Arts in theatre by suggesting a summer-cohort hybrid model that targets mainly non-traditional students. Non-traditional students may be 25 or 75 years old, may work full-time or part-time or be between jobs, and may have children or other dependents. They may be striving for their first professional career foothold, retooling after a reduction in force, or perhaps coming off active duty in Afghanistan or Iraq” (Pelletier 3). This program might provide a pathway for non-traditional students’ personal, social, and scholarly needs while combining a hybrid and face-to- face model for students that is viable, academically challenging, and accessible.
Ultimately, I hope that my model will prove useful for theatre departments across the
United States that may consider incorporating a summer-cohort hybrid model for
Master of Arts programs.
It is important to have a common definition of the twenty-first century non- traditional student.
The National Center for Education Statistics defines nontraditional
students as meeting one of seven characteristics: delayed enrollment
into postsecondary education; attends college part-time; works full
time; is financially independent for financial aid purposes; has
dependents other than a spouse; is a single parent; or does not have a
2 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
high school diploma. Those criteria fit a wide swath of today’s college
students. (Pelletier 2)
Changes in Higher Education Graduate education is undergoing a paradigm shift, and decisions about higher education are regularly made at both the state and the federal level. Part of the change is the growing cost of tuition and according to the Center for College
Affordability and Productivity (CCAP) “the cost of college tuition has gone up more than four times the rate of inflation since 1980.” For-profit schools are growing at exponential rates, and many students can no longer afford to attend state-supported graduate school full time. Part of the reason for the current paradigm shift is the increase in attendance of non-traditional students. “Between 1987 and 2007, the number of graduate students 40 years of age and over increased 87%, from about
267,000 to 500,000, and the number of graduate students 30 to 39 years of age increased 28%, from 507,000 to 649,000. These figures compare with a 58% overall increase in graduate enrollment in the same time-period” (Bell 2). Although these statistics are astounding, Bell did not include part-time and summer-only graduate students. “In 2009, students aged 25 and older accounted for roughly 40 percent of all college and graduate students, according to the National Center for Education
Statistics. That figure is expected to rise to 43 percent by 2020 as 9.6 million older students head to campus” (Holland 1). However according to Christi Ford in a
Keynote Address at Brookhaven College, Allen and Seaman’s online report card published in 2016 states that as of fall 2014 75% of undergrads and graduate students
3 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 are 25 or older (Ford). I believe that with increased tuition and more students in colleges and universities over the age of 25, using a combination of face-to-face and distance education may be an excellent method of reaching this changing population of student.
Even if current data sources are unable to provide a full picture of the participation of non-traditional students in graduate education, it is clear that the population is growing in numbers and that this growth will likely persist for at least the next decade. To serve the growing population, U.S. graduate schools will need to continue to offer flexible programs, delivered in a variety of formats, to meet the needs of these older students (Bell 3). Using distance education combined with hybridization may give a graduate school the opportunity to capture a targeted untapped market. Although non-traditional students bring challenges to the university (such as family, children, continuation of jobs, and caring for aging parents), they also bring maturity, a working use of technology, work experience, and commitment to the program.
The development of a summer-cohort hybrid model for non-traditional students for a Master of Arts in theatre may prove to be a progressive and needed program for many theatre departments. Additionally, faculty considering using distance education may acquire additional technological knowledge and innovative applications of teaching strategies for non-traditional students searching for advanced theatre education. A program of this type has the ability to connect high school faculty to graduate programs and provide the opportunity for working students to
4 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 return later to earn a PhD. Moreover, if the graduate student is currently working in a high school or community college, they may become a future recruiter for the university they are attending.
Non-traditional Master of Arts in Theatre Programs One problem for non-traditional students returning to school for a graduate degree in theatre is that they are not typically served by the university community because classes are not offered at accessible times. A summer-only, hybrid, or online type of degree may be the only possible degree for these non-traditional students.
First, let’s examine such programs in my home state. Texas currently has two hybrid models for a Master of Arts degree for theatre, and both are in or around metropolitan areas.
One Master of Arts Theatre degree is at Texas Woman’s University (TWU) in
Denton, Texas, located 40 miles north of Dallas.
The TWU Master of Arts Online/Hybrid program is designed for
Texas residents who, for financial and/or familial reasons, must
continue to work while they earn college credit.
At least 51% of the total institutional degree will be offered online
with some courses presented in weekly evening sessions. Other
courses will be a combination of a few class meetings (4-6) per
semester plus online communication. Some courses will be completely
online and, still others, through independent study with the faculty
member. Classes will be offered in the Redbud Theater Complex at
5 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
the Denton campus and online. Our target demographic is the North
Texas region and - as the degree program is not 100% online - it is not
designed for out-of-region residents. (Texas Woman’s University)
The second is at the University of Houston in Houston, Texas. The
University of Houston employs a summer-cohort, face-to-face model that offers a non-thesis option and comprises three four-week summer sessions in Houston.
According to a phone conversation with the program director at the University of
Houston, the university does not currently offer an online component for the summer program (Jackie Demontmollin). The target market for the University of Houston program is high school theatre faculty.
The program accepts twelve theatre educators each year for the
Master’s of Arts in Theatre. In the third year of the program, the
students attend a one-week residency that alternates with one of the
five locations: SITI Company in New York City, Acting Studio in
Chicago, Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, Lincoln Center
Theatre in New York City, or Steppenwolf Theatre Company in
Chicago. (University of Houston)
Nationally, other select universities also provide for the non-traditional student. First,
Catholic University of America in Washington D.C:
The Master of Arts in Theatre Education—MATE—the degree
program is the newest of five graduate theatre programs offered by the
Department of Drama. The MATE degree program is . . . designed to
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specifically to [sic] accommodate the schedules of working teachers,
[and] classes are offered evenings and during summer semesters or
complete the MATE degree in 3 summers. (Catholic University of
America).
Second, New York University’s program is through the Steinhardt School of Culture,
Education, and Human Development. The summer program offers masters degree in educational theatre in colleges and communities.
It is a three-summer option for the 36-credit hours that attracts
teachers, teaching artists, theatre directors, actors, language and speech
arts specialists, community leaders, college instructors, and other
students and professionals who can devote their summers to immersive
experiences and intensive study. (New York University Steinhardt)
Third, Southern Oregon University offers a summer program through the Ashland
Center for Theatre Studies. The degree is a Master of Arts in theatre studies in production and design. This program is forty-seven credit hours and has two intensive weeks during July, with an additional two weeks of electives.
The summer residency portion of the program includes active
discussion of production elements, from script analysis and design to
stage management, as well as in-depth exploration of design and
technical areas, hands-on development of design and production
concepts and practical application of technical processes. During the
academic school year, work from your home base and use the setting
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of your own school theatre to continue your studies in the areas of
research, curriculum, design, and production. (Southern Oregon
University)
Finally, Central Washington University is a forty-five credit-hour Master of Arts in theatre production. This program, established in 1966, was first named the Drama
Teacher’s Summer Institute. It is now the Summer Institute for Theatre Arts. More than five hundred teachers representing more than twenty states and eight nations have attended the institute, learned new skills to take back to the classrooms, and networked with other theatre artists and educators from across the nation and around the world.
The Institute provides courses designed to benefit theatre professionals
on all levels who are seeking a Masters level degree or professional
development through enrichment courses. Classes are presented in
comprehensive seminars, annually, throughout July.
While there are a few other universities throughout the country that
offer some form of summer theatre programs, most are not involved in
graduate summer programs. (Central Washington University)
The present study is necessary and important for several reasons. Public, private, and for-profit colleges are quickly advancing distance education departments within their institutions at an exponential rate. In the face of the softening in the growth of overall enrollments, the number of students taking at least one online course continues to increase at a robust rate. In the United States, there were 572,000
8 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 more online students in fall 2011 than in fall 2010; in 2012, 6.7 million students were taking at least one online course (Allen and Seaman 17). In a recent report published by Allen and Seaman in February of 2016, there was a total of twenty million undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in American colleges and universities.
At least, twenty-eight percent of credit enrolled students were taking at least one online class. To keep up with this trend, it is essential to develop the internal distance education policies and degree programs in our theatre departments.
Methodology for the Master of Arts in Theatre Program Design In order to design the Master of Arts program in theatre, I used a three-step process. First, I will provide a literature review and a historical review of distance education in the United States. Second, I interviewed program directors from three universities that offer either summer-only or online components for the Master of
Arts in theatre. The directors I interviewed are Dr. Rosalind Flynn from The Catholic
University of America in Washington D.C., Dr. David Montgomery from New York
University Steinhardt's Educational Theatre program in New York City, and Dr.
Patrick Byname from Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas. Furthermore, I will examine the programs of Southern Oregon University and Central Washington
University. Lastly, I will look at common courses offered in Master of Arts theatre programs. From this list, I will assign the classes that can be taught online and the classes that should be taught face-to-face. In addition to designing the program, I will design an online class for the program.
9 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Common Definitions for Online Learning It is essential to have a common terminology within my study; many of the definitions included in this section come from the Online Learning Definitions
Project compiled by the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. The development of this document was a collaboration of university, K-12, and virtual charter school educators (Abbot, Barbour, Brown, Chase, and Darrow). Some new common definitions included in this section were not included in the Online Learning
Definitions Project.
Acceptable use policy–“A policy that outlines the responsibilities of students, teachers, staff, and others as they use the computers, software applications, and
Internet when using school or district computers or Internet connections. Acceptable use policies also outline the consequences for failing to adhere to this policy” (Abbot,
Barbour, Brown, Chase, and Darrow 3).
Asynchronous learning–“Communication exchanges that occur in elapsed time between two or more people. Examples are e-mail, online discussion forums, message boards, blogs, and podcasts” (Abbot, Barbour, Brown, Chase, and Darrow
3).
Blended course— “Course that blends online and face-to-face delivery.
Substantial proportion of the content is delivered online, typically uses online discussions, and typically has a reduced number of face-to-face meetings” (Allen and
Seaman 7).
10 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Blended learning–“Blended learning is any time a student learns at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home and at least in part through online delivery with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace; often used synonymously with Hybrid Learning” (Abbot, Barbour,
Brown, Chase, and Darrow 3).
Blackboard–“A widely used education system from Blackboard Inc., in
Washington, DC. Part of the company’s Blackboard Academic Suite, Blackboard includes course management, content authoring, collaborative discussions, and virtual classrooms, as well as testing and grading” (Blackboard.com).
Cohort–“In higher education, cohorts are typically defined as a group of students who begin a program of study together, share the same sequence of classes, faculty members, and instructional activities toward completion of a specific degree or certification” (Blackboard.com).
Computer-assisted instruction–“The use of educational software to enhance the mastering of educational concepts or standards without the involvement of a teacher” (Abbot, Barbour, Brown, Chase, and Darrow 4).
Discussion board–“Interchangeable with threaded discussion” (see below)
(Abbot, Barbour, Brown, Chase, and Darrow 5).
Distance education–“General term for any type of educational activity in which the participants are at a distance from each other. They may or may not be separated in time (asynchronous vs. synchronous)” (Abbot, Barbour, Brown, Chase, and Darrow 5).
11 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Face-to-face–“When students meet in person for a class” (Abbot, Barbour,
Brown, Chase, and Darrow 5).
Hybrid learning–Interchangeable with blended learning (Abbot, Barbour,
Brown, Chase, and Darrow 6).
Instructional designer–“Someone who uses the principles of learning, pedagogy, and content frameworks to create teaching materials and experiences for online courses” (Abbot, Barbour, Brown, Chase, and Darrow 6).
Instructional media–“The materials that teachers use to teach and students use to learn (for example, printed text, digitized text, software, speech, images)” (Abbot,
Barbour, Brown, Chase, and Darrow 6).
Intranet–“A private network using the Internet within an enterprise for authorized users” (Abbot, Barbour, Brown, Chase, and Darrow 6).
Learning management system (LMS)–“The technology platform through which students access online courses. A learning management system generally includes software for creating and editing course content, communication tools, assessment tools, and other features for managing the course—also known as Course management system—CMS” (qtd. in Abbot, Barbour, Brown, Chase, and Darrow 7).
Online course–“Any course offered over the Internet to distance education students” (Abbot, Barbour, Brown, Chase, and Darrow 7).
Online course provider–“An organization that provides courses offered over the Internet” (Abbot, Barbour, Brown, Chase, and Darrow 7).
12 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Online degree program–A program that offers degrees using courses delivered through the Internet (Abbot, Barbour, Brown, Chase, and Darrow 7).
Online learning–“Education in which instruction and content are delivered primarily over the Internet” (Watson and Kalmon). “The term does not include print- based correspondence education, broadcast television or radio, videocassettes, and stand-alone educational software programs that do not have a significant Internet- based instructional component” (U.S. Department of Education Office of Planning,
Evaluation, and Policy Development Policy and Program Studies Service, 2010).
“Used interchangeably with virtual learning, cyber learning, and e-learning” (Abbot,
Barbour, Brown, Chase, and Darrow 7).
Practice-Orientated Degrees—“These degrees focus on the preparation of actors, directors, designers, playwrights, technicians, managers, pedagogues, or other theatre professionals. Degree titles reflect the level of study and content, normally include Master of Arts, Master of Science, Master of Fine Arts, and Doctor of
Education” (NAST Handbook 114).
Proprietary schools–“Operate as businesses, which has both advantages and disadvantages. Because their goal is to realize a profit, they must charge tuitions that, in combination with government grants and loans to individual students, cover their costs. They are able to do this because they are exclusively teaching institutions and provide no extras” (National Education Association Office of Higher Education 3).
Quality standards–“A set of benchmarks or indicators for courses, teaching, professional development, programs, and so forth, developed by a governing body,
13 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 association, or accrediting organization” (Abbot, Barbour, Brown, Chase, and
Darrow 8).
Research-Oriented Degrees—“These degrees focus on the preparation of scholars and researchers. Degree titles reflect the level of study and content, normally include Master of Arts, Master of Science, and Doctor of Philosophy”
(NAST Handbook 114).
Synchronous learning–“Online learning in which the participants interact at the same time and in the same space” (Abbot, Barbour, Brown, Chase, and Darrow
8).
Threaded discussion–“A forum that includes a running commentary of messages used by a group to facilitate asynchronous online discussions” (Abbot,
Barbour, Brown, Chase, and Darrow 9).
Traditional Course—“Course where no online technology is used — content is delivered in writing or orally” (Allen and Seaman 7).
Universal accessibility–“A requirement by law (American with Disabilities
Act, Section 508) that learning materials, including interfaces, images, sounds, multimedia elements, and all other forms of information, must be made available for use by anyone, regardless of disability” (qtd. in Abbot, Barbour, Brown, Chase, and
Darrow 9).
Universal Design for Learning–“A framework for the design of online learning objects and environments ensuring accessibility for all users” (Abbot,
Barbour, Brown, Chase, and Darrow 9).
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Web Facilitated— “Course that uses web-based technology to facilitate what is essentially a face-to-face course. May use a course management system (CMS) or web pages to post the syllabus and assignments” (Allen and Seaman 7).
These definitions not only help establish a common language, but they also guide readers to the changes within the academic community. As distance education becomes a part of the higher educational landscape, it is important to remember the process of human connection and learning. With the rapid changes in education,
“[s]hared experiences are one of the most valuable aspects of the cohort” (Nimer
1379).
The primary importance of a cohort model for working students is to increase the completion and success rates of the students within the cohort. According to
Nimer in 2009, the major support for each member occurs during the writing of the dissertation, and this is when most candidates use the support of the cohort to complete the degree (1381). “Master’s programs are by definition designed to help people “master” something—usually a profession or a subject” (Goss).
There is no question that online degree programs meet many of the
needs of adult learners. Nevertheless, learners generally participate in
distance education programs not so much because they prefer them to
on-campus face-to-face (FTF) instruction, but because computer-
mediated communication (CMC) and instruction provide a way to
reach their personal goals despite constraining personal circumstances.
(Green 11)
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Chapter One Summary The increase of non-traditional students and the ballooning cost of graduate education in the United States are igniting the shift of the archetypal classroom. It is increasingly difficult for people to relocate in order to complete a graduate education.
About 5.3 million students took at least one online course in fall
2013 – up 3.7 percent from the previous fall, according to "Grade
Level: Tracking Online Education in the United States," an annual
report by the Babson Survey Research Group. While enrollment in
online courses increased at public and private schools, it decreased in
the for-profit sector.” (Haynie 1.)
Distance education through state and nonprofit universities offers the possibility of a graduate degree for individuals seeking opportunities to pursue a graduate education in theatre.
16 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
CHAPTER II
EVALUATION OF RELATED LITERATURE
Non-traditional Students The changing landscape of higher education predicates a reexamination of the dissemination of graduate learning. With the rising cost of attending a university, it is important to find new and innovative ways for non-traditional students to attend college. Combining a cohort model with distance education and a face-to-face component may give theatre programs new and innovative ways to reach atypical students seeking a graduate theatre degree. The following are some sources I consulted to further my understanding of distance education and the changing demographics of graduate students.
Kenneth C. Green, wrote a historic overview in his book, When Wishes Come
True: Colleges and the Convergence of Access, Lifelong Learning, and Technology, of major shifts in higher education. In addition, he commented on three areas of interest: lifelong learning, increased access, and information technology. He stated that the convergence of the three aforementioned areas is causing a significant evolution in higher education. Higher education has always addressed the issues of content, context, and certification (Green 12). However, distance education has made these areas porous and the populations driving this change are adult learners.
In the early 1970s, Malcolm Knowles introduced the concept that adults and children learn differently. Knowles book, The Adult Learner originally called adult learning andragogy to define adult learners. The seventh edition continues his work
17 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 in examining the required differences between andragogy and pedagogy (K-12)
(Knowles, Holton, and Swanson 174). Elwood F. Holton and Richard A. Swanson. advanced Knowles’s work by exploring advancements in adult learning and useful practices in adult learners. Three of the most significant features are use of the learning contract, a learning style inventory, and a theory of effective computer-based instruction for adults. The computer-based instruction model for adults has three distinct parts connected to the instructional strategic design: self-directedness (locus of control, metacognitive skills, motivation to learn), computer self-efficacy, and learning goal level. This study had a direct impact on adult learning within the delivery of higher education.
It is clear that public higher education is making a paradigm shift in the delivery of class information and teaching strategies. Until for-profit schools appeared on the educational stage, public universities did not consider distance education as a viable solution for a graduate degree. Bell states in, Data Sources:
Non-Traditional Students in Graduate Education, that since 2009, there has been a resistance to distance education in higher education; however, lower enrollments in colleges and universities created a shift in the delivery of course information. In addition to this shift, non-traditional students are returning to school for graduate degrees. Bell examined the statistics of the increased attendance of non-traditional students returning to graduate schools, as well as the presence of more part-time students in graduate school than full-time students (Bell 2). Accordingly, colleges
18 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 and universities must look at the shifting demographics and find ways to help non- traditional students earn a graduate degree.
There are many definitions of the non-traditional student, but some common threads define this group. Am I a Nontrad? Fitting a Definition Can Be Difficult, but
One Size Can Fit All if Done Correctly describes the three most common characteristics include working twenty-five or more hours, enrolling in school part- time, and not enrolling immediately after graduating high school (Cricket 5).
Since the 1960s, the traditional college student has been eighteen to twenty- two years old. Stephen G. Pelletier states that sixteen percent of college students who are ages eighteen to twenty-two, and fit the traditional college mold.
The National Center for Education Statistics defines non-traditional
students as meeting one of seven characteristics: delayed enrollment
into postsecondary education; attends college part-time; works full
time; is financially independent for financial aid purposes; has
dependents other than a spouse; is a single parent; or does not have a
high school diploma. Those criteria fit a wide swath of today’s college
students. (5)
Returning adults have competing tensions between life and educational obligations.
In addition, non-traditional students have problems navigating higher education.
President Susan Aldridge of the University of Maryland says adult students “need a very clear pathway, a degree audit, that tells them exactly what courses they need, how long it will take them to finish, and how much it is going to cost them for their
19 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 degree” (Pelletier 6). Aldridge advised colleges and universities to deliver education to all the students and not to treat returning adult students as an add-on program (6).
One other group left out of this non-traditional group is the sandwich generation.
The sandwich generation is a group of adults caring for parents and children.
Pierret quoted the National Longitudinal Surveys, sponsored by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, to establish the characteristics of the sandwich generations using data from
1997 and 1999. The Sandwich Generation: Women Caring for Parents and Children by Pierret states that this generation is defined as women between the ages of forty- five and fifty-six who provide monetary support for their children and their parents
(4). For students in this demographic, online classes can allow them the possibility of attending graduate school without uprooting the family dynamics.
In 2016, it has been established that the average college student is over the age of twenty-five it is time for colleges and universities to make adjustments for the older college students. With those adjustments for those students come part-time status, family, and full-time jobs; as well as understanding that adults have a different learning style than eighteen to twenty-two-year-old students.
Adult Learning In the book, Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide Sharan B
Merriam, Rosemary S. Caffarella, and Lisa M. Baumgartner profiled why adults participate in continuing education. The last decade brought about many changes in the delivery of education, and three major factors affected this change:
1) middle-age adults outnumber eighteen to twenty-two-year-old college students, 2)
20 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 globalization, and 3) technology. With increased availability of technology, working adults have an additional opportunity to acquire formal university training from online learning sources. These learning approaches attempt to direct attention to how race, class, and gender shape learning and the systemic nature of “isms” are found within formal educational systems. The authors also examined various adult learning theories and models such as Knowles’s concept of andragogy, Howard McClusky’s theory of margin, Knud Illeris’s three dimensions of learning model, and Peter
Jarvis’s model of the learning process. The book discussed three types of models— linear, interactive, and instructional—with an emphasis on self-directed learning.
The final area of the book combines two instructional approaches: cognitive apprenticeship and anchored instruction. The authors concluded that easy accessibility of technology opens doors to higher education for non-traditional students that in the past have not been included in the educational realm.
The accessibility of technology has also led to an abundance of books and articles on distance education and online classroom design. Stephen M. Alessi, and
Stanley R. Trollip, in their book Multimedia for Learning: Methods and
Development, examined the methods for using multimedia in face-to-face and distance classes. They approached this methodology from an online instructional design view and addressed technology issues relevant from 1997 to 1999. Although some of the methods are still used, the last update of this text was 2000, and much of the material needs updating to include new and more concise methods of course design and learning management systems. The discussion board material is still
21 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 relevant, but some of the learning management systems mentioned in the book no longer exist.
Jay Caulfield’s relevant information on building hybrid courses using face-to- face and online methods is still applicable to course building. Caulfield studied three types of hybrid courses: technology-enhanced courses, reduced face-time courses, and blended degree programs. In addition, Caulfield provided examples on hybrid course designs as well as student feedback on the hybrid classes.
Dorcas Cox’s book, Project Management Skills for Instructional Designers: A
Practical Guide, offered instructional forms for instructional designers and included case studies that combine project management with the Analyze, Design, Develop,
Implement, and Evaluate (ADDIE) instructional design model into four steps. Step one combines needs, learner, delivery, and content analysis with a project charter and identification of stakeholders. Step two combines total design, learning objectives, test design, sequencing, and learning strategy with cost estimations, planning, human resources, communication planning, and risk analysis. Step three organizes development and implementation with executing the project, monitoring cost, and performance; communication to all stakeholders is necessary to control cost, quality, and consistent team development. Step four develops and maintains evaluation, combined with analyzing evaluation and revising the continuing project. Step five closes the project; however, in education, the project rarely closes but reevaluates and starts a new semester. One drawback to the ADDIE design is the changing
22 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 technology in online learning. An element of continuous improvement is necessary because of the nature of technology.
Cohort, Blended, and Online Learning There are many books and articles on blended, online, and cohort learning, but many of them were outdated because of the shifts in technology. While technology will constantly change, the pedagogy and andragogy of learning has the ability to adjust to changing technology. Francine S. Glazer edited this book,
Blended Learning: Across the Disciplines, Across the Academy, to offer different faculty philosophies on blended learning and to give the reader a variety of choices for blended types of class design. Glazer defined blended learning as a model in which a “significant portion of the activities occur in two areas: in person and online”
(8). Because my proposed model includes many forms of learning for the Master of
Arts in theatre, it seems wise to include a discussion of face-to-face and online learning. In the first chapter, Glazer provided an overview of active learning, course layering, maximizing face-to-face time, increasing communication of quieter students, and student self- directed learning. Throughout the rest of the book, she introduced readers to five different approaches of blended classes with five different professors. The first class was a culinary class taught by Carl Behnke, which is a combination of filmed lectures, written assignments, and active learning in the classroom. The second class was a genetics class taught by Francine S. Glazer using blended learning combined with team-based learning, case studies, and role-playing.
Alan Aycock’s class was an introductory science class using video lectures to
23 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 increase class discussions, online tests, clickers in face-to-face engagement, and rubrics for online assignments and face-to-face assignments. Tracey M. Gau taught a literature class and preferred face-to-face lecture and in-class testing; however, she did allow lectures online for students who wanted to work with the flexibility and self-direction of an online class. Robert Hartwell and Elizabeth F. Barkley taught a music history class and mirrored most of the material in both the face-to face modality and the online modality. In other words, the material they taught in class was also available online. Although the book did not feature theatre classes, some of the ideas are adaptable for classes within the theatre discipline.
Sara Marcus completed a small case study on a hybrid model of an undergraduate theatre class. In her study, Does Online Participation Matter? A Case
Study of a Hybrid Theatre Arts Course, she examined whether students have higher retention rates of material, specifically targeting the midterm and final exams, and when students participate in online quizzes or online alternative student-centered assignments on the material presented in the face-to-face class. The study followed two consecutive semesters of an Introduction to Play Analysis class in the theatre department. Within the study, Marcus analyzed participation using online discussion boards, quizzes, and collaborative asynchronous assignments. She determined that students who participated in the online part of the course scored ten points higher on the midterm and twelve points higher on the final (Marcus 47). As there is not much information on cohort hybrid-model programs for a Master of Arts in theatre, it is necessary to reference other materials that have individual components of the degree
24 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 model I am suggesting. This study is important because the use of online participation encourages students to study more for their class and increase their overall retention of the material.
The purpose of Pamela T. Northrup’s study, Online Learners’ Preferences for
Interaction, was to explore why students take online classes and the types of interaction students think are important for online classes. The study consisted of fifty-two graduate students who registered in an online master’s instructional technology program. Northrup used the Online Learning Interaction Inventory that focused on four areas: content interaction, conversation/collaboration, support, and intrapersonal/ metacognitive skills. The report from the survey was as follows:
1) Students take an online course for the flexibility and the
convenience.
2) Students preferred learning their content from audio-narrated
presentations.
3) Peer discussions and sharing ideas were chosen as the top two
elements for conversation and collaboration.
4) An important form of support for distance students remains the
timeliness of response and correspondence with the instructor.
5) Finally, the most significant area for the students in the
intrapersonal/metacognitive skills is the ability to monitor their
own progress (Northrup 223).
25 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
From my online teaching experience, much of this information is not surprising; however, it was confirming to have it supported by Northrup’s study.
In her dissertation, Influences on Learner-Learner Interaction in Online
Classes, Shannon Diane Fite investigated using students both as discussion board facilitators and participants to help faculty discover how and when students participate in discussion assignments. She examined the students’ posting times and posting frequencies, types of questions, types of statements, use of quotations, and use of citations. In addition, Fite assessed the students as co-facilitators during the asynchronous discussion assignments within the course. She gave a background on each of the four students in her study such as age, gender, degree plan, number of enrolled course hours, full-time, or part-time. Fite interviewed each student in terms of time management, motivation, and communication discussing issues in terms of spontaneity, isolation, freedom, and accountability. Her questions about course design focused on flexibility, organization, responsibility, and technology. Each student enjoyed the flexibility and the organization of the course. One of the students taking an online course for the first time felt isolated until she co-facilitated as one of her assignments. Time management was a concern with two students because they found it difficult to ignore tasks when going to class, but it was easy to ignore the assignments when using the computer: “motivation to put forth effort in online courses had improved since she was an undergraduate in a face-to-face course. She attributed the improvement to ‘maturity and monetary motivation’, [sic] meaning that she had gained life experience since she was an undergraduate and was financially
26 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 responsible for . . . her graduate education” (Fite 95). One student observed a difference between older and younger students.
Older students often feel more confident about asking questions, so
they will go try to get the information they need, whether it be in an
online or face-to-face course environment. Even so, she said that all
the course work should be laid out clearly; older students who are new
to online learning “can be just as confused as the young ones.” (98)
Fite offered an online course model; however, her dissertation was written in 2003, and since online course design has evolved, there are new ways to build and deliver course material. With the rapid evolutionary change in technology, some of the issues raised in her dissertation have been solved, yet as technology progresses, there will always be new problems.
It is helpful to design and offer some courses as a plan of study in a designated cohort when working with an online learning community. Robin Spaid and Evan Duff brought to light the use of a cohort to help adult learners complete a degree in higher education. They cited the issues of family, full-time work, and other activities that distract learners (Spaid and Duff 106). However, they posited that the support of a cohort tends to help working adults complete a graduate degree.
Becky Morehouse in her article, Cohort Models for Graduate Programs—
Alive and Kicking!, gave a clear and concise definition of a graduate cohort.
Morehouse defined a graduate cohort as “a relatively small group of students— usually between 12 and 25—start and finish their degree together” (2). The course
27 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 can be traditional, hybrid, or entirely online. Cohort courses create advantages such as preplanned classes, relationships with people who have similar goals, and networking opportunities. Morehouse also stated that some of the positives of online education are also viewed as negatives: preset list of classes, students in lockstep with each other, and lack of flexibility (2).
The cohort model makes for easy administration and student advising.
Course scheduling is planned in advance and there is no need to spend long hours planning the program. John H Goss noted in his article, Cohorts as Intentional
Learning Communities, that advising time is reduced and advisors can refocus on several areas: “helping students become learners (not mere students) and eventually colleagues—focusing on the transformative practice of graduate education, not simply on academic production” (1). As a part of the cohort, students are asked to make a sacrifice to become a part of this community. They should invest their time, bring something of value to the community, and give up the parts of themselves that may interfere with the life of the cohort (Goss 4). Communion includes developing a commitment to the group that promotes harmony and growth. “Mortification” is
Kanter’s term and refers to “the process meant to ensure that members of the emerging learning community remember what it means to be a member of that learning community” (Goss 3). The final part of the model is transcendence, which is an understanding that the cohort brings great significance and influence for the members of the group to complete their degree. It still allows members to bring their
28 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 personal motivation to the learning community; however, there is mutual agreement to complete the degree as a cohort.
John McCarthy, Mary Ellen Trenga, and Barbara Weiner depicted the positives and negatives of the cohort model in their article, The Cohort Model With
Graduate Student Learners: Faculty-Student Perspectives. Most of these points seem to reflect how students approached the cohort model. The writers cited two themes: the cohort as a group and the cohort as a culture (24). According to McCarthy,
Trenga, and Weiner, the second issue is critical to the educational environment because it can determine the success or failure of the completion of students within the graduate program.
Since 2000, higher education has gone through changes to accommodate the emergence of non-traditional learners as a primary constituency. In Extending the
Boundaries: Graduate Education for Non-traditional Learners, Tom Nesbit cited many research studies that showed the shift in universities in the United States and
British Columbia, Canada. There are several quotes from students commending programs that allow working adults to advance their education. The adult learners were also very complimentary about the cohort model’s integration of learning between professors and fellow students.
The program itself consists of a 2-year (six-semester) series of courses
followed by a comprehensive examination. Students take one course
each semester held in their home locality on alternate weekends. The
middle of each program consists of a six-week summer residential
29 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
session where students from the various cohort groups mix in a variety
of courses held on the Simon Fraser University home campus. (3)
Three themes are pervasive throughout this program. The first is Simon Fraser
University’s ability to engage adult learners and build on their life experiences and interest. The second theme involved the integration of learners in the design of their programs within the cohort. The third theme included students in collaborative learning experiences. Nesbit recognized that providing an opportunity to mature professionals to obtain a higher degree helped to contribute to the students’ social and economic well-being.
Mary Nimer article, The Doctoral Cohort Model: Increasing Opportunities for Success, offered support to Nesbit’s article on the cohort model. Reading Nimer’s article about how each cohort is chosen was reminiscent of watching how a theatre director casts actors for an upcoming production. Nimer explained her choice and experience of matriculating though an Ed.D. instructional leadership cohort model through Western Connecticut State University. Nimer cited Azad Ali and Frederick
Kohun, who reported a 50% dropout rate of doctoral students throughout various stages of their program. She also quoted Ann E. Austin as saying “the cohort model is the answer that addresses all the aspects that are important in preparing students adequately for the 21st Century regardless of their career goals” (Nimer 3).
Nimer stated several reasons the cohort model is important for doctoral students. First, courses are selected and planned from the beginning to the completion of the degree. Second, there are opportunities to attend professional development
30 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 seminars, as well as technology and research conferences. In addition, there was continuous mentoring from faculty and extended family-type relationships with members of the cohort who all understood the struggles and rewards of the program.
Finally, each student received guided dissertation support throughout the five-year, sixty-credit program. This type of program may be adaptable for the Master of Arts in theatre.
My readings indicate that it is possible to establish a hybrid-accelerated cohort
Master of Arts in Theatre Arts degree that is valid and retains the quality of a traditional face-to-face degree. While building this model, it is important to develop a pathway for completion, offer a quality program and sound mentoring, and allow a shorter interval for completion of a Master of Arts degree in theatre. As technology evolves, distance education for non-traditional graduate students is essential for these students to have the opportunity to earn a graduate degree. It is necessary to examine the history of distance learning and how the current educational landscape shifted in the twenty-first century.
31 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
CHAPTER III
BACKGROUND OF DISTANCE EDUCATION
Non-Profit Versus For-Profit Education “Education has always been taught for a profit, from tutors in the ancient world, to clergymen offering training in subjects not covered in early American
Universities” (Gershon and Robertson 1). As slavery replaced indentured servitude, there was a push to fill the gap of training. Apprenticeships were very common in the
United States during the 17th and 18th centuries. In addition to apprentice programs, proprietary (for profit) schools began to grow in order to offer bookkeeping, accounting, penmanship, and banking. Throughout history, these for-profit schools have been labeled as commercial schools, propriety schools, profit-seeking institutions, or career schools.
Private colleges and universities started long before non-profit state institutions. Many private colleges were established as institutions to train ministers, and these schools were not accessible to women. Therefore, the only education open to women was in the commercial schools. These for-profit schools were usually local and offered education to people that was not available at the private college. “In
1897, 123,913 students were in commercial schools in high school and college. 60% of these students were in college, with more than 92% of the collegiate group enrolled in new for-profit commercial colleges” (Gershon and Robertson). Propriety schools have typically offered courses in disciplines that public and private universities do not provide in their curriculum.
32 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
As the United States entered the 19th century, there was a movement for every state to establish a land-grant university. The public movement did not stop the established for-profit schools; however, it did indicate that for-profit and nonprofit institutions of education would continue to be inextricably linked, particularly as distance education began to grow in the 19th century.
Distance Education 1890-1945 With the focus on twenty-first-century technology, it is difficult to believe that distance education started over one hundred years ago. “The Chautauqua
Correspondence College was founded in 1881, and in 1883 was authorized by the
State of New York as the Chautauqua College of Liberal Arts to offer collegiate instruction by correspondence and to award diplomas and degrees” (qtd. in Moore 14 by Bittner and Mallory 1933). Also during this period, land-grant colleges were established in every state in the United States to help improve agriculture and mechanical education; rapid industrialization was creating jobs in major cities.
Because of increased urbanization, policy makers were worried about the migration of young people from farms to the cities. In An Introduction to Distance Education:
Understanding Teaching and Learning in a New Era, Gary E. Miller stated, “One response in the U.S. was to create a new communication line to farms. It was called
Rural Free Delivery, and it was the information highway of the 19th century” (27).
This delivery system also allowed higher education institutions to reach new learners, so “Pennsylvania State College (later named Penn State University), the University of
33 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Chicago, and the University of Wisconsin launched the first tertiary-level correspondence programs in the United States in 1893” (Chaloux and Miller 5).
William Rainey Harper, the first president of the University of Chicago, was instrumental in starting the correspondence movement. Harper, chosen as president in 1891, secured a pledge of $1.6 million from John D. Rockefeller. As stated in
University Teaching by Mail: A Survey of Correspondence Instruction Conducted by
American University by W.S. Bitter and H.F. Mallory (qtd. in Watkins 6) Harper developed the university, he also designed the University Extension Division that included “lecture study, class study, correspondence teaching, library and training department.” Harper hired faculty for the University of Chicago to add traveling lecturers to the correspondence program as well as to grade lessons and administer examinations. The first University of Chicago correspondence students enrolled in
1892, influencing the University of Wisconsin to start a correspondence program.
Unlike the private Chicago university, the University of Wisconsin was a land-grant university, and different forces created the correspondence program. The first step in creating a distance program was establishing the short course, which was funded by the state legislature. At first, the university president and faculty did not support establishing a university extension division; however, when the University of
Wisconsin inaugurated Thomas Chamberlain as president in 1887, he supported the extension program. A prominent faculty member at the University of Wisconsin,
Frederick Jackson Turner, was also a supporter. Turner had vision and for a time functioned as the extension director until management functions were delegated to
34 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 administrators (Watkins 10). During his tenure, he was concerned that the extension courses drained faculty resources and might require a special contingent of faculty.
Under Turner’s leadership, he “laid out a plan for the creation of extension
(education): participants’ fees would cover course cost, and faculty would be compensated for their work, which was not to interfere with campus duties” (Watkins
12). After Turner’s replacement, the extension program did not have a designated administrative structure, and the program collapsed without adequate leadership.
Commercial or for-profit correspondence schools began to proliferate as a result of the development of extension programs at the University of Chicago and the
University of Wisconsin. Ironically, the success of commercial correspondence schools is what sparked an investigation into those commercial schools.
Charles McCarthy, the founder of the Legislative Reference
Library, personally financed a survey to determine the
extent to which extension training would benefit the people
of the state. The survey found that 35,000 citizens were
paying $800,000 annually for private instruction; a market,
McCarthy argued, should link to University Extension.
(History of UW-Extension 1)
It is because of this report that the new president of the University of Wisconsin,
Charles R. Van Hise, requested $2,500 from the regents for an additional extension division separate from the agricultural extension services of the College of
Agriculture, and the new University Extension Division became a reality in 1907
35 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
(Watkins 14). “University of Wisconsin President Charles Van Hise and Governor
Robert LaFollette defined a third mission to be added to the teaching and research functions of the state University—a mission that would extend the resources of the
University to serve the needs of Wisconsin people” (“History of UW-Extension” 3).
In this way they strengthened the extension movement in Wisconsin and throughout the United States. Interestingly, Wisconsin’s success influenced Penn State College to start a correspondence program on its campus.
By 1914, twenty-eight colleges and universities started correspondence extension programs. The continued growth of the correspondence study programs prompted these institutions to create a professional workplace. The colleges and universities wanted to “broaden the focus, create universal guidelines and recognition of the need to train correspondence administrators” (Wright 21). This meeting led to the creation of a professional organization, the National University Extension
Association (NUEA) (Watkins 21). The first meeting occurred in Madison,
Wisconsin, in 1915, and twenty-two colleges and universities attended the meeting and became members: Columbia University, Harvard University, Indiana University,
Iowa State College, Kansas State Agricultural College, Pennsylvania State College,
University of Iowa, University of California, University of Chicago, University of
Colorado, University of Idaho, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota,
University of Missouri, University of North Carolina, University of Oklahoma,
University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, University of South Carolina,
University of South Dakota, University of Virginia, and University of Wisconsin. All
36 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 the colleges questioned “how to achieve and preserve the legitimacy and respectability of their programs” (Watkins 22). There was a distinct fear that the university programs would be confused with proprietary (for-profit) schools. In addition, there were differences of opinion on how to advertise and demonstrate the differences between university programs and proprietary schools. Watkins stated,
“In an effort to enhance their respectability, correspondence practitioners assiduously drew distinctions between their programs and those of proprietary schools, while establishing standards for their emerging professions” (23).
The correspondence schools offered credit and noncredit courses. It was very common for correspondence credit courses to cover the same material as on-campus courses; however, students working on bachelor’s degrees were generally required to take at least 50% of their courses on campus. “The question of how much credit (if any) to grant within an institution for correspondence study and the question of credit by outside institutions or professional societies have been thorny and persistent”
(Gerrity 63). In order to develop a distinction between university programs and proprietary schools, university programs adopted a rule that required students to take
50% of their classes on campus. The adoption of this rule had an unsettling effect on distance learners and pushed more students into proprietary for-profit schools; however, at other universities, changes were occurring.
Martha Van Rensselaer joined the faculty at Cornell University in 1900 to start work on a Home Economics Extension Program targeted toward rural women in the state of New York. By 1903, there were three-credit courses offered by
37 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 correspondence, and two years later, one noncredit correspondence course was available for any woman anywhere in the state of New York. In five years, the credit and the noncredit correspondence programs had enrolled more than 20,000 women throughout the state. Appointed as a full professor in 1911, Van Rensselaer was one of the first women to achieve such a position at Cornell (Moore 6). Correspondence courses were accessible to any woman; this opened doors for women and minorities throughout New York.
The distance education programs that gave opportunities to women and minorities shifted their missions during World War I. The noncredit correspondence schools converted to Disaster Force Food Agent schools. “USDA funds in 1917 provided total support for World War I Emergency Food Agents to encourage accelerated food production through victory gardens, poultry production, and improved milk and crop production to meet wartime demand” (“History of UW-
Extension” 3). Throughout the country, farms and households were called to help support the troops. Emergency food agents organized extension programs and correspondence programs throughout the United States for crop productions, the
Armed Forces, Red Cross medical refresher courses, women working in industry, and for food and fuel conservation. The support and education from the universities gave every American the sense that they were supporting the troops in the field.
It was also during this time that colleges and universities discovered how they could use the radio to reach more students for their correspondence programs. While the Rural Free Delivery (RFD), which later became the U.S. Postal Service, was the
38 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 impetus for correspondence courses and continued to influence the public to acquire college credit through correspondence, a new invention started to change the landscape: the radio. “Immediately after World War I, college- and university-owned stations proliferated. By 1936, the federal government had issued broadcast licenses to 202 colleges, universities, school boards, and proprietary schools” (Pittman 4).
The broadcast licenses added a new dimension to correspondence courses, and universities started offering radio correspondence courses; however, this was short- lived. Commercial radio also received radio licensees, and profitable broadcasting overtook the airways. Within five years, very few students were enrolled in the radio classes. Commercial radio stations had stronger radio frequencies than the colleges and universities, and many times the commercial stations obscured the college and university signals. Amid the discovery of radio, the country also experienced a major economic depression in the 1930s.
With every major transformation in the United States, university and college correspondence programs adjusted to the changes. University extension and correspondence programs offered rehabilitation programs, helped the jobless improve their skills, and offered help to farmers during the Dust Bowl—all while experiencing the deep budget cuts created by the Great Depression. Additionally, high school graduates who could not afford residential college found they could afford correspondence programs and receive college credit (Moore 7).
Correspondence educators had the chance to earn legitimacy and respectability during the hard times of the 1930s. The Works Progress
39 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Administration (WPA) or the Civilian Conservation Corps typically funded local high school programs. When university enrollments, state funding, and revenues declined severely, the infusion of federal money, along with the support of local school districts, enabled correspondence study programs to survive and gain credibility by offering innovative programs. Despite the budget adjustments, university correspondence programs never fully recovered from the Great
Depression, and many universities eventually lost between forty and sixty percent of their federal- and state-subsidized budget when funding for the Works Progress
Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps ultimately ended.
Though the Depression was a difficult time for many universities, the
University of Wisconsin was able to create a relationship with the United States
Army to continue its correspondence programs. Lieutenant Colonel William R.
Young, the supervisor of correspondence instructors at Penn State, created an association between the United States Army and the University of Wisconsin in May
1941. One year later, this program expanded to all the branches of the military, and this initiative was named the United States Armed Forces Institute (Watkins 30). The program did not issue college credit; however, it offered technical and mechanical training programs for the military. In addition, the extension and correspondence programs were instrumental in creating the GI Bill of Rights and expanding the opportunities of higher education in the United States for US service personnel.
Land-grant colleges, World War I, the Great Depression, the invention of the radio, and the onset of World War II offered numerous challenges and
40 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 transformations for correspondence programs. These events laid a path for new programs and technologies to help improve instruction, but the new technologies were only a prelude for what lay ahead for distance education.
Distance Education 1945-1985 Correspondence courses underwent a difficult transition during the late forties and the fifties. While the courses continued to be written by faculty, many of the course duties were relegated to clerical staff. Extension and correspondence courses in proprietary correspondence schools were suffering an image problem because of the lack of oversight. The negative label of overpriced classes and lack of support for students that encompassed proprietary for-profit schools also cast an adverse light on university and college correspondence programs. The other issue that caused concern was the promotion of women in correspondence programs. Von V. Pittman stated, “Most correspondence study faculty at this time were women and all of the women in National University Extension Association (NUEA) were in the correspondence study area” (qtd. in Wright 40). Correspondence programs gave women leadership opportunities that otherwise would not have been available to them, but it led to a lack of support by university and college administrations.
The University of Nebraska hosted the second International Conference on
Correspondence Education in October 1948, and correspondence programs gained a significant spotlight (Wright 41). This conference achieved two major objectives: it revitalized the international correspondence educational movement, and it reestablished United States correspondence education as one of the leaders of this
41 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 movement. Two years later, a subsequent conference at Penn State solidified the
United States as the leader in correspondence education. The fifth conference in
Banff, Canada, led members to “focus on the production of correspondence study materials, encouraging comparative studies of the success of the method, and share information and experience throughout the world” (Wright 42).
While this conference reinvigorated correspondence education, it also influenced the leaders of the NUEA to reexamine their association’s connections to proprietary for-profit schools. The Correspondence Study Committee, an academic subdivision of the NUEA, conducted research on its association with proprietary schools and the National Home Study Council. Not only did proprietary for-profit school members belong to the NUEA membership, but the association was connected with the National Home Study Council. In order to continue the momentum of the
NUEA, the Correspondence Study Committee recommended that the NUEA sever ties with proprietary for-profit schools and the National Home Study Council. The
NUEA rejected the association with the proprietary schools; therefore, in 1954, ties were severed with the National Home Study Council, and proprietary for-profit schools were no longer welcome in the NUEA. In addition, the NUEA changed its name from the National University Extension Association to the National University
Continuing Education Association (Pittman 116).
The Correspondence Study Committee conducted additional research into a new visual technology labeled television. With a $356,000 Ford Foundation grant,
Gayle Childs conducted a study to examine the applications of television instruction
42 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 in tandem with correspondence study. Childs established that television offered an incredible opportunity to transmit information (Almeda 73). In addition, Childs documented no difference in the level of achievement of students in a face-to-face classroom versus a combination of correspondence study and television viewing
(Almeda 73).
The Ford Foundation continued to invest in university correspondence courses and in connection with television, eventually becoming instrumental in the start of the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
When the foundation turned its attention to public broadcasting in the
1960s, it was the development of the federal Educational Television
Facilities Act that supported the construction of educational stations.
In 1965, the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television issued a
report that led to the passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967,
setting up the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). (Moore 6)
Childs continued to search for different approaches to reach non-traditional students with non-traditional methods. In a speech to the Fifth International Correspondence
Conference, Childs stated, “Individual and groups are increasingly approaching our campuses to ask what we can do to meet their educational needs which cannot be met by daytime classroom instruction” (7). Television seemed to be the way to reach those students, and more colleges started using television production to serve this non-traditional population.
43 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
The University of Wisconsin was again one of the leaders in correspondence, and when Charles Wedemeyer became the director of the University of Wisconsin’s
Correspondence Study Program, the university continued to lead in distance education. Wedemeyer obtained a grant from the Carnegie Foundation to fund his
Articulated Instructional Media (AIM) Project. These developments set the groundwork for a major leap in the theory and practice of distance education, and of education itself. Wedemeyer’s hypothesis was that it should be possible to apply the principles of modern manufacturing industry to the teaching of adult learners using distance education (Moore 8).
The AIM concept analyzes and reviews each part of the teaching process.
These concepts positioned the basis for the open university movement and began the modern era of distance education. Wedemeyer looked at correspondence materials, media, library resources, tutoring, and study groups. “AIM invented the idea of the course design” (Moore 8). While this approach to distance education was a revolutionary idea, the University of Wisconsin was not to be the center of the evolution of distance education. The AIM concept essentially failed because of internal politics. Although the AIM concept did not work at the University of
Wisconsin, it did form the framework for the University of the Air, later known as
Open University in the United Kingdom (Moore 10).
In the sixties, Wedemeyer was hired as a consultant by an advisory committee of the Ministerial Committee on Broadcasting which was led by Jennie (Janet) Lee.
He brought what he learned from the Wisconsin AIM concept, although it included a
44 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 fatal flaw: “lack of autonomy over its funds, its faculty, and its academic rewards”
(Moore 8). “Wedemeyer insisted to the British that the AIM project demonstrated the difficulties in trying to meet the needs of a large population of adult part-time students within the structures and bound by the traditions of the conventional university” (Moore 10).
Jennie Lee presented proposals to the cabinet on 6 February 1966, a
White Paper was rapidly published and a commitment was given in
Labour’s election manifesto for the March 1966 election to establish
the University of the Air – an ‘open university.’ . . . In September
1967, the Cabinet finally made the crucial decision to set up a planning
committee chaired by Sir Peter Venables. The committee began
working immediately from offices in Belgrave Square. (“966-68: The
Open University Takes Shape,” par. 1, 8)
In 1969, the University of the Air enrolled its first students. Open University encouraged matriculation from part-time students and had an open-door policy. By
1984, some 69,000 British students had completed work for the bachelor of arts degree (Schlosser and Simonson 9).
While the Open University in Great Britain was changing the parameters of the university campus, there were also modifications occurring in the United States.
During the introduction of the Open University, the Division of Correspondence of the NUEA changed its name to the Division of Independent Study. Members of the organization felt this change was necessary to distinguish the college-based program
45 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 from the proprietary programs. Small universities began offering distance education options. Michael Grahame Moore stated that “among the first of these was Nova
University of Advanced Technology, a nonprofit institution inaugurated in 1964. It offered degree programs both in the classroom and at a distance, through regional centers in the state of Florida” (Moore 11). The first leading open university movement in the United States was Empire State College. In the article, Opening
Education: Policies and Practices from Open and Distance Education, James Hall indicates that “In 1971, the State University of New York established a new statewide institution to demonstrate new ways of serving adult, part-time, off-campus students.
ESC was empowered to offer degrees through the MA, and to offer instruction throughout the state” (Hall 14). T.W. Gerrity book reveals that “Both Goddard
College and Syracuse University experimented with “special degree programs” designed to meet the needs of adult learners” (Gerrity 97).
Also in the early 1970s, the National University Extension Association
(NUEA) assumed that the future of correspondence study would include the use of media in courses and the use of media to deliver the course material. In the mid- seventies, the United States Department of Defense took over the program, and the
United States Armed Forces Institute changed its name to the Defense Activity for
Non-Traditional Education Support (Wright 55). This agency provided credit-by- examination and certification programs for military personnel interested in pursuing bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
46 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
In the late seventies and early eighties, “cable television came into use as a delivery medium for independent study course programming . . . and a number of institutions began using cable television to support their educational programs”
(Wright 59). The Committee on Institutional Cooperation initiated an independent study project in 1977 that included the Big Ten universities and the University of
Chicago. These universities received a $486,000 grant from the Carnegie
Corporation to develop distance classes for upper-division courses (Wright 60).
After the development of these courses, the colleges involved in the development would share these completed courses on their individual campuses. The grant was supposed to make it possible for students to earn a bachelor’s degree from a major university using distance education classes. In addition, the Committee on
Institutional Cooperation (CIC) could then sell the courses to universities outside of the committee. According to a personal communication to Stephen Wright from Dr.
Bachelor, director of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, the CIC met some goals and was unsuccessful with others. Many of the courses jointly developed had limited sharing, and none of the courses were shared with other regions of the country. Nevertheless, there were additional changes occurring, such as moving from the nomenclature of “correspondence study to distance education” and launching the first Madison Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning in 1985.
While this period had its share of progress and innovations, it was not without its obstacles. Several universities closed their doors to correspondence study programs, such as the University of Hawaii, the University of Omaha, and the
47 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
University of Chicago. Chicago was the greatest disappointment because it created the correspondence study movement in the United States, but the program was not sustainable because of a lack of funding from the administration, little support from the faculty, and low student enrollment.
Distance Education 1985 through the Early Twenty-First Century Several substantial events occurred in the late eighties. One was the founding of the American Journal of Distance Education by Michael Moore of Penn State. “In
March 1988, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech University and the University of Texas at Austin jointly sponsored a workshop in Dallas for course editors and instructional developers” (Wright 58). The participants, who represented thirty colleges and universities, attended a four-day workshop on teaching and learning in distance education. Topics of conversation included increased focus on student services support and different methods of reaching distance education students. After the conference, colleges and universities tried some early projects involving computer applications as delivery systems. These attempts failed because the infrastructure of phone transmissions to link students and instructors did not account for high-volume communications.
With the invention of closed learning management systems, cheaper computers for the home, and the development of fiber-optic communication systems, distance education had a major shift in the delivery of course content. In 1995,
Murray Goldberg of the University of British Columbia in Canada, a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science, invented a learning management system
48 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 called World Wide Web Course Tools (WebCT). This system included “a bulletin board, interactive exercises, assignments, quizzes, course notes, chat facility, and searchable glossary” (Goldberg 6).
To test the system, Goldberg organized three classes with the same course information. One group was taught in the traditional lecture only, the second group spent 50% of their time in class and 50% of their time online, and the third group completed all of their assignments using the Web. At the end of the course, Goldberg enlisted a group of social scientists to measure the students’ learning. They determined an expected level of performance for each student and then evaluated whether that student performed as expected, better than expected, or worse than expected. “The lecture-only group and the Web-only group fared equally well academically,” Goldberg said. “That was a little bit of a surprise. I fully expected the Web group not to work as well. How could anybody possibly learn as well without me standing in front of them” (6)?
A far bigger surprise was the performance of the group that used lectures and the Web. “When we looked at the combined students, we found that those students did significantly better than either of the other two groups,” Goldberg said. “It wasn’t a small amount; it was a fairly large amount” (“College Courses Taught…”).
Following this study, WebCT software was fully developed and used by University of British Columbia faculty to design their distance courses. In addition, Goldberg allowed the faculty at the University of British Columbia to use the software at no cost. “In 1997, he joined with Universal Learning Technologies of Peabody, Mass.,
49 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 to market the program commercially. The company says that its product, now called
WebCT, was used by nearly 50,000 teachers at 1,500 colleges and universities, which paid from $4,000 to $29,000 per year to license the product,” before it was merged with Blackboard Learning Management System (“College Courses Taught...”).
Blackboard started at Cornell University in 1997. The software was developed by four undergraduate students who built websites for faculty (”Courses
Taught”), and two of the four students, Michael Chasen and Matthew Pittinsky, eventually founded Blackboard in 1997. Michael Chasen was the chief executive officer until October 2012, and during his tenure Blackboard acquired WebCT and
Angel Learning Management Systems, also added data analytics, an instant messaging collaborative tool, mobile application, and help-desk call center.
Blackboard grew from a $40 million dollar company to a $447.32 million dollar company by 2010. Bill Ballhaus joined the business in January 2016 as Blackboard’s new president (Blackboard online). Although Blackboard has its critics, it supports over fifteen hundred colleges and universities that use its software for distance learning.
As stated previously, research shows that students learn at least as much, if not more, in online classes versus traditional face-to-face classes. Despite a decade of evidence, “a majority of higher education faculty continues to believe that e- learning is inferior to face-to-face learning” (Swan 78). It is important for faculty interested in teaching online to read the two large-scale studies that show evidence of online student learning. The U.S. Department of Education Meta-Analysis and the
50 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) are surveys that examine online learning.
The U.S. Department of Education Meta-Analysis completed two different studies comparing face-to-face, hybrid class (a mixture of face-to-face and online), and fully online classes. They split the study into a two-sample set of years, 1997-
2003 and 2004-2008. The reason for this split was to gauge the change in technology. In addition to the split in years, the studies were divided into three types of learners; kindergarten through twelfth grade, undergraduate students (this was the largest group), graduate students and teacher development. The researchers on this project were Barbara Means, Yukie Toyama, Robert Murphy, Marianne Bakia, and
Karla Jones, who were part of the Center for Technology. (Means, Toyama, Murphy,
Bakia, and Jones 30.
The study initially started to examine the effects of online learning on kindergarten through twelfth-grade students, but the meta-analysis led the researchers to some startling results. While they found that online learning was growing exponentially in middle school through high school, it had exploded in higher education. Yes, the study was initially focused on kindergarten through twelfth-grade students, however; it did provide ample information on undergraduate and graduate students learning in an online environment. This meta-analysis provided evidence that students learn at least as well and perhaps slightly better in online environments than they do in traditional face-to-face classes (Means, Toyama, Murphy, Bakia, and
Jones 51). The surprising part of the study emphasized that the combination of online
51 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 learning and face-to-face learning yielded enhanced learning exceeding the tradition lecture model. There were some inconsistencies in the two sets of studies. The blended model had interactive videos, additional instructional resources, and more interaction between learners. However, the efficacy of this study can compare the differences between distance education and online learning. Colleges and universities have been resistant to correspondence and distance study, Barbara
Means, Yukie Toyama, Robert Murphy, Marianne Bakia, and Karla Jones showed that there has been a shift in learning patterns as well as in university attendance patterns. It is important for theatre programs to look at the trends and make some adjustments for distance learners, as also shown in the National Survey of Student
Engagement (NSSE).
The NSSE is administered to undergraduate students in various majors at four-year colleges and universities. Some graduate students have taken the survey, but not in numbers sufficient for valid measurement. This analysis did not actually survey the non-traditional population that will be the focus of this research paper, yet it has implications on the use of distance education. The NSSE was administered to seventeen thousand randomly chosen students attending forty-five universities. The course management technology used at these forty-five institutions was Blackboard,
Desire2Learn, or Sakai.
Pu-Shih Chen, Kevin R. Guidry, and Amber D. Lambert investigated the nature of student engagement in the online learning environment to discover if using
Internet technology has an effect on student engagement. Specifically, the following
52 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 research questions guided the study:
1. How often do college students in different types of courses use
Internet technologies for course-related tasks?
2. Do individual and institutional characteristics affect the likelihood
of taking online courses?
3. Does the relative amount of technology employed in a course have
a relationship with student engagement, learning approaches, and
student self-reported learning outcomes? (Chen, Guidry, and
Lambert 2)
Chen, Guidry, and Lambert’s findings on the first question showed that students taking online courses had an experience in using technology to facilitate their learning and communication with both faculty and students.
Respondents who were enrolled in online courses more frequently
used both synchronous and asynchronous communication tools for
instructional or learning purposes. Compared with students in
traditional face-to-face setting, online students also more
frequently used electronic media to discuss or complete
assignments, and these differences were consistent for both first-
year and senior students. (Chen, Guidry, and Lambert 3)
The result on the second question was that seniors, part-time students, and minority students were more likely to take online courses. Part of the reason for this phenomenon usually relates to work, family, and finances. Chen, Guidry, and
53 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Lambert stated their research supported using technology with freshman through senior students because a correlation existed between technology, learning, and student engagement and “integrating technology into entry level courses could be beneficial in encouraging engagement in other ways and learning in college” (18).
Karen Swan described a distinct differentiation between distance education and online learning. Distance education is teacher-centered, focused on the course materials, independent study, and behaviorist psychology. Online learning is student- centered, focused on learning, collaborative, and based on constructivist theory (81-
82). According to Kendra Cherry, behaviorists believe anyone can be conditioned given the right circumstances (What is Behaviorism? n.p.) Constructivists believe that “learning environments, should be learner-centered, knowledge centered, assessment centered, and community centered” (Swan 83). The constructivist theory is very important to the Community of Inquiry (COI) framework because online learning is grounded in a collaborative view of working with students asynchronously. In addition to the Community of Inquiry (COI) framework, Quality
Matters (QM) uses constructivist theory to design online courses.
Community of Inquiry (COI) is “based on social constructivist education theory and research, [and] the CoI identifies and measures three principle elements critical to a successful online learning environment—social, cognitive, and teaching presences” (The COI Framework 81). Social presence indicates students need to feel socially and emotionally connected to their online community. “Teaching presence is instructional design and management, building understanding, and direct instruction.
54 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Establishing teaching presence means creating a learning experience for students to progress through with instructor facilitation, support, and guidance” (The COI
Framework 81) Cognitive presence describes the ability of learners to hypothesize, reflect, apply, and synthesize course material. The COI Framework website uses this graphic to show that social, cognitive, and teaching intersect.
Figure 3.1 Elements of an educational experience, The Community of Inquiry Framework 2013
(used with permission Randy Garrison, Ph.D.) COI appears to include contributions from students and instructors, and Quality
Matters is focused on navigation and understanding the instructional design of the course, but still depends on a feedback loop that involves responses from faculty and students.
Quality Matters uses an external peer-review process, based on instructional design principles. The University of Maryland Online received a three-year $509,177
Fund for the improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) grant from United
States Department of Education. The project began in September 2003 and ended in
55 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
August 2006. The grant included ten community colleges, five four-year colleges, universities, and nine external partners.
As a result, the QM project has impacted the quality of teaching and
learning at a state and national level. Upon expiration of the grant in
2006, Quality Matters continued as a self-supporting organization,
through subscriptions and other fee-for-service offerings, and now
offers rubrics and related quality assurance tools for a variety of
education and training-related sectors (Maryland 2014).
QM is a faculty-centered, peer-review process designed to certify the quality design of online and blended courses. It is a leader in quality assurance for online education and has received national recognition for its scalable, peer-based approach and continuous improvement in online education and student learning. The QM higher education rubric is a set of eight general standards and forty-three specific review standards used to evaluate the design of online and blended courses. The rubric includes annotations that explain the application of the standards and the relationship among them. A scoring system and set of online tools facilitate the review by a team of peer reviewers (QM).
The rubric is organized in eight general standards:
• Course Overview and Introduction
• Learning Objectives (Competencies)
• Assessment and Measurement
• Instructional Materials
56 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
• Learner Interaction and Engagement
• Course Technology
• Learner Support
• Accessibility (QM)
It is important in Quality Matters that the components of learning objectives, assessment and measurement, resources and materials, learner engagement, and course technology work in tandem to guide and assist students with the learning process and the outcomes of the course. After an online course has completed the process of the Quality Matters review, for example a face-to-face course, there is always a continuous improvement that occurs throughout the life of the course.
Currently, the QM program has approximately six hundred subscribing institutions in forty-five states, plus a growing international presence.
In conclusion, nonresidential college and university programs have been in existence for almost one hundred twenty-five years. There have been concerns about student learning throughout the history of nonresidential university course work, but with expanded dependence on learning management systems and declining educational budgets, increased scrutiny of evidence is focused on distance learning.
Online education may not transcend the face-to-face classroom experience, but it is an opportunity to reach students who want to attend a graduate theatre program. The consequences of disregarding online learning as a fad appear to be detrimental to the health of higher education. The solution is not to ignore the online onslaught but to construct academic pathways for students to advance themselves in the field of
57 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 theatre.
58 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
CHAPTER IV DESIGNING A MASTER OF ARTS DEGREE IN THEATRE
Three Models of Learning in Graduate School For decades, nonprofit colleges and universities set the agenda for higher education learning in the United States and have been very successful in educating the population in a face-to-face format. Proprietary colleges, however, changed the delivery of education in the United States. Currently, there are conversations in the news, in state and federal legislative houses, in college administration offices, and in classrooms about higher education’s role in student debt, workforce development, and providing open access to college degrees. The inclusion of faculty and students in higher education conversations about changes in colleges and universities is imperative to help stakeholders understand the technological shifts in higher education. One of the ways for this to happen is for faculty to design online programs and curricula to connect students with the occupations they are expecting to enter after their college classes are complete. With the exponential growth in distance education, involved faculty are essential to the planning and implementation of academic programs. According to Allen and Seaman, in the fall of 2002, only
1,602,970 students were taking an online course, but 6.7 million students were taking at least one online course in fall 2011 (4). With the continued increase in online education and the cost of graduate school loans, it is imperative that the curriculum builders of theatre programs create distance education programs for non-traditional students.
59 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Lecture or Face-to-Face Model In the early 1990s, there was no Amazon, online banking, Netflix, or online education. Anything to do with shopping and banking required face-to-face attendance. If you wanted to take a distance class, it was conducted through e-mail or the U.S. Postal Service. The Internet helped change the methods of banking, shopping, and earning a degree. Because of new technology, delivery of a college education has changed over the last twenty years in this country. Colleges and universities have held onto the familiar method of students attending class in the same room as the instructor. Within the last ten years, there has been an increased push to teach classes online. It is important to examine both models and explore the positives and the challenges of each. Both the face-to-face model and the online model can serve as opportunities for non-traditional students to complete a degree.
The traditional model of education from first grade through graduate school has been lecture-based.
Historically, in practice and in public policy, the assumption has been
that faculty and students interact to produce learning. This assumption
underpins how curricula are developed, which campus buildings are
built, how many faculty get hired, and how much subsidy public
colleges and universities receive to educate students. (Soares 78)
The teacher and the students are all in one place that is dedicated to teaching and learning. The lecture or face-to-face model occurs in the confines of a semester and is usually measured by seat time. Most students have grown up with this educational
60 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 model, which generally starts in August and ends in May. Students listen to the instructor, make presentations to the class, and take their exams within this classroom structure. It is a very familiar model to all involved in education. This discourse model has changed from a straight lecture model from the teacher as the deliverer of information to the student as the receiver of information to some lecture combined with class discussion. While the lecture model continues throughout education, researchers found lecture-only was an ineffective way to learn.
In 1990, Eric Mazur, a professor of physics and applied physics, was providing lectures and receiving extraordinary evaluations for his introductory course. He found his students developed an understanding of equations and formulas: “They could recite Newton’s Third Law and apply it to numerical problems” (Lambert 23, but Mazur realized that his students could not use the knowledge in real-life situations.
The epiphany came via an article in the American Journal of Physics
by Arizona State professor David Hestenes. Hestenes had devised a
very simple test, couched in everyday language, to check students’
understanding of one of the most fundamental concepts of physics—
force—and had administered it to thousands of undergraduates in the
southwestern United States. Astonishingly, the test showed that their
introductory courses had taught them “next to nothing,” says Mazur:
“After a semester of physics, they still held the same misconceptions
as they had at the beginning of the term.” (Lambert 23)
61 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Mazur used this test on his students, and this discovery led him to reexamine his method of lecturing; however, he did not completely remove lecturing from the classroom. He added peer-to-peer discussions in his classes, used clicker technology, and provided techniques students could use to employ the physics information to real-life applications. Mazur’s reassessment of lectures also led other academicians to reexamine the lecture. According to Pickford and Clothier, the twenty-first- century model of a lecture is inspirational, informative, and applicable. Their lecture prototype involves four steps and includes diverse modalities of learning:
The principal characteristic of the F4 model is the integration of the
four elements of feedback, fixation, formative assessment and fun
(FeFiFoFun) within the lecture. Ideally, the lecture becomes an event,
a piece of theatre, that engages students on both conscious and
subconscious levels. (2)
Pickford and Clothier selected this lecture model to be technology-independent because they wanted the students to engage fully with the faculty member and with other students.
The F4 model for lecture design and delivery is based on a belief that:
• To teach students effectively it is important to discover what they
know and what they don’t know (Feedback) - Fe.
• The priority is to identify and elucidate key points (Fixation) - Fi.
• Summative assessment can be a valuable resource for engaging
students (Formative-summative assessment) - Fo.
62 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
• Students are more likely to attend a lecture if they want to be there
(Fun). (4)
For the lecture portion of class, the instructor provides students with four different color cards. The talk is structured around analytical multiple-choice questions embedded within the lecture. At particular points during the lecture, the questions are projected on a screen, which requires the students to select an answer option pertinent to the question. The use of the color cards gives the instructor the ability to identify issues in the student’s learning and address the problems instantly before continuing with the lecture. It is during this portion of the lecture that the instructor can ask questions of the students and allow peer-to-peer discussions to clarify understanding of the information within the lecture.
Pickford and Clothier were adamant about making the lecture flexible, fun, and engaging. The flexible part of the lecture is imperative because many instructors continue to include too much information in a lecture presentation; discerning oration is the primary technique through which students will receive critical information. It is important for faculty to make sure the multiple-choice questions are relevant and engaging and to check if students not only heard the material but also understood the material (6). A quote by Albert Camus should remind faculty that lecture is necessary, by it is not the start or the end of learning: “Some people talk in their sleep. Lecturers talk while other people sleep” (Lambert 26). While lecture will remain as a mainstay of instruction, the disruptive innovation of distance education changed the face of higher education and the delivery of lecture material.
63 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Within a college or university setting, lecture has its place in the learning environment. It is a tried-and-true method of delivering information. However, with the increased use of technology, there are other ways to provide a lecture in and out of the classroom. Formative and summative methods should also be used throughout the learning process. Technology has shifted the methodology of teaching and learning; it is incumbent on faculty to continue to learn new techniques to reach students in the twenty-first century.
Distance Education As previously discussed, distance education has long been a part of the college and university system and has progressed from correspondence to radio, radio to television, television to video, and video to computer. All those inventions had an impact on education. One of the new catchphrases in education is disruptive innovation. Disruptive innovation is a term advanced by Clayton Christensen to define a service or product that supplants a traditional organization or an established creation or market. This term was initially applied to innovative businesses that shifted or replaced established businesses. As education costs continued to rise and non-traditional students began to attend college, students started searching for new ways to attain degrees. The aforementioned factors, along with the Internet, led entrepreneurs to find new ways for students to attend college, which had a disruptive effect on higher education. John K. Waters, in his article “Disrupting Higher
Education,” stated that there are six characteristics that identify disruptive innovations:
64 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
• Disruptive innovators target people who are non-consumers
• The innovation is not as good as existing products, as judged by
historical measures of performance.
• Disruptive innovations are simpler to use, more convenient or
affordable.
• There is a technology enabler that can carry the new value proposition
upmarket. (Value proposition is a reason given by a seller for buying
their particular product or service, based on the value it offers
customers--Cambridge Dictionary online)
• The technology is paired with a business model innovation that allows
it to be sustainable.
• Existing providers are motivated to ignore the new innovation and are
not threatened at the outset. (1)
In 1976, the major disruptor for higher education was the for-profit University of
Phoenix. That school targeted working adults who could not leave their place of employment to earn a degree. It provided education to non-traditional students, who were willing to pay a higher price for online learning to obtain a college degree. This out-of-the-box thinking by University of Phoenix founder John Glen Sperling removed barriers for thousands of people who desired a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree. The University of Phoenix has both detractors and supporters
(Hanford), but it has had an impact on the delivery system of higher education, and more for-profit schools followed the University of Phoenix’s example, such as
65 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Walden University, Strayer University, National University, and Capella University.
In addition to for-profit universities offering degrees, state universities such as Penn
State World Campus, Arizona State University Online, University of Maryland, and
Southern New Hampshire University have created virtual universities. Online education has blurred the lines of where university borders begin and where they end, and has challenged the traditional notion of seat-time. The creation of virtual colleges and universities has also redefined the traditional sixteen-week semester.
Online schools have turned the traditional measurement of seat-time on its head. Seat-time is “a metric derived from the Carnegie Unit and based on the number of ‘contact hours’ students spend in class per week in a given semester. This unit is a typical three-credit course, for example, meets for three hours per week over a fifteen-week semester” (Silva, White, and Thomas 8). For-profit institutions varied the lengths of the term into ten-week classes, eight-week classes, and five-week classes. There are also for-profit colleges that allow students to take an unlimited amount of classes, for a set period of time, and pay a set amount of money. There are still student-to-student and faculty-to-student interactions, but in a shorter time frame than a regular sixteen-week semester.
Online learning is an important development in changing the delivery methods of coursework in the college and university setting. Unlike other distance education technology predecessors, online learning is a disruption to the traditional seat-time model and to the dissemination of academic information. While not all theatre classes can be presented online, offering some classes online and some classes
66 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 face-to-face can provide access to a graduate degree that non-traditional students have not been able to access in the past. Another model that can lead to the successful completion of a graduate degree is the cohort model.
Closed Cohort System The article The Cohort Model With Graduate Student Learners: Faculty-
Student Perspectives “defines a cohort model as an approach in which students progress through an academic program together” (McCarthy, Trenga, and Weiner
22). Various graduate schools offer cohort programs with slightly different versions of each platform. Some graduate cohorts are face-to-face; others use a hybrid model of an online format combined with face-to-face instruction; and other graduate cohorts are online only. Cohort-based programs have traditionally been used for professional programs such as medical and law school. The use of cohorts in higher education became more common in the mid-1980s “when a Danforth Foundation
Initiative provided grants to more than 20 universities to support the revision of their educational administration programs” (Maher 196). Cohorts usually involve fifteen to twenty-five students and are customarily closed. A closed cohort means that the students start their studies and complete them together. “While students may drop out, new students generally do not join-in-progress closed cohorts. Thus, students in a closed cohort form an intact group of learners who study and work together for a set period, usually from one to three years” (Browne-Ferrigno and Muth 78). If a student drops out of a cohort, but wants to continue, the student must join a group that starts either the next semester or the next year.
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A significant element of the cohort design is the cohort leader, who is a faculty member who handles the cohort from inception to completion.
A cohort leader’s responsibilities may include: (a) integrating the
curriculum across the life of the cohort, (b) delivering the program and
maintaining program coherence, and (c) ensuring that the students,
instructors, and program developers assume appropriate
responsibilities for shared learning and goal achievement. (Browne-
Ferrigno and Muth 79)
The appointment of the cohort leader is the central factor in the success of cohort programs and a high completion rate of graduate programs (Browne-Ferrigno and
Muth 79). A cohort leader gives the students a consistent contact throughout the program and offers a sense of belonging to the university, especially if the group of students is a distance cohort.
Non-traditional students are the reason there has been a proliferation of cohort programs that connect through technology. “Many institutions began to investigate the academic, social, and collegial advantages of this design” (McCarthy, Trenga, and
Weiner 23). Typical construction of a closed cohort is to have an initial required face-to-face meeting of all the cohort students and faculty members within a range of one week to an entire summer. With the evolution of online learning, the first meeting could be via videoconferencing using WebEx, OoVoo, Google Hangouts, and so forth. The combination of technology, closed cohorts, and faculty offers a disruption to the regular classroom that has not been experienced by higher
68 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 education. Lecture, distance education and the cohort model help lead to a rational for a Master of Arts hybrid degree. Previously mentioned were Waters’ six points of disruption, of which three could be used to influence the design of the theatre degree.
The first disruption targets people who are non-consumers: they are working adults who would like to earn a theatre degree, but it is out of their reach because they cannot quit their jobs to attend school. The second is that school is simpler to use, more convenient or affordable, and students can attend school online with limited time on campus. The third is a technology enabler that can carry the new value proposition upmarket (Waters 2). Colleges and universities can open up a market for people in mid-career who are willing to pay an upcharge for the convenience of maintaining their jobs while they earn a degree.
Changing how students attend theatre graduate school is not about eliminating lecture or faculty-to-student contact or about using a closed cohort model. It is about new ways of reaching out to a population that has not had an entry point to return to graduate school. It is about shifting a paradigm that works for traditional students, but does not work for non-traditional students. It is about lifelong learning and a persistent connection to new ideas and innovative ways of digital scholarship.
Interviews with University Theatre Program Directors Interviews conducted with the professors from three different universities gave some insights into how higher education is attempting to extend classes for non- traditional students. Summer-only programs, online programs, and hybrid programs are developing to reach some of these students. All the interviewees agreed that the
69 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Master of Arts Theatre degree should not be offered as a fully online program. There was a consensus that universities should reach out to non-traditional students who want to earn a Master of Arts Theatre degree.
I examined several Master of Arts Theatre programs throughout the United
States, and I had the opportunity to interview three professors from three different programs: Dr. Rosalind Flynn from The Catholic University, Dr. David Montgomery from New York University Steinhardt, and Dr. Patrick Byname from Texas Woman’s
University. All three universities have some variations of distance learning, cohort learning, and summer learning graduate theatre degree programs. Six program directors received an invitation to participate in the study, but only three answered the request for this research endeavor. New York University has a Master of Arts Degree in Educational Theatre for Colleges and Communities. The degree is a thirty-six- hour degree, and it is offered over the course of three summer semesters. From reading the promotion book and the website, I thought the program was relatively new, but Dr. Montgomery gave a little history of the program.
Well, as far as I know, it’s been around since the start of the program,
and the program started in 1966. Lowell and Nancy Swortzell were the
founders of the program, and they knew that some of their students
would be teachers that need to get their master’s degree. And so
offering coursework in the summer for students who couldn’t come in
the fall or spring was a smart move. And so it’s continued for a long
time with a lot of different study-abroad options as well as on-campus
70 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
courses. (Montgomery)
The other two program directors referred the interviewer to the online description of their respective programs. At The Catholic University,
The Master of Arts in Theatre Education (MATE) degree program is
the newest of five graduate theatre programs offered by the
Department of Drama. The MATE degree program is the only one of
its kind in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Designed to
specifically accommodate the schedules of working teachers, classes
are offered evenings, and during summer semesters, or students can
complete the MATE program in three summers. (The Catholic
University)
The Texas Woman’s University Program description is as follows:
The Master of Arts Online/Hybrid program is designed for Texas
residents who, for financial and/or familial reasons, must continue to
work while they earn college credit. 51% of the total institutional
degree will be offered online with some courses presented in weekly
evening sessions. Our target demographic is the North Texas region
and—as the degree program is not 100% online—it is not designed for
out-of-region residents. The TWU Master of Arts degree plan requires
42 credit hours for successful completion. The typical time frame is
two years, and the course rotation is set up to demonstrate that. Online
students with busy work schedules should anticipate a longer time
71 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
frame for completion. (Texas Woman’s University)
It is clear that there is a demand for a low-residency or a hybrid online theatre program. All three directors indicated that they have limited space for students in their non-traditional programs and that they take advantage of the online portions
(when available) and the summer-only segments of the programs. Prospects such as these seem to offer rejuvenation for non-traditional students, and like-minded students have the opportunity to exchange viewpoints and ideas with each other in a learning environment designed specifically for them.
Professors Flynn and Byname were involved in the design of their programs.
Professor Flynn came up with the idea for the summer-only program because she wanted to serve working graduate students in the Washington, DC area. I was interested in how each university started each program on its campus.
I came up with the idea for the summers-only program largely because
of what you were just saying, which was the idea that, well, we could
serve students in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, but what if
we could reach out to students nationwide or even worldwide by
making this program available as something that you could complete
over three summers? (Flynn)
The Catholic University Master of Arts in Theatre Education (MATE) degree program was designed in 2007 and 2008 and enrolled its first students for the summer of 2009. Dr. Flynn’s experience of earning a PhD in education prompted her to design a program that could reach theatre educators who wanted to earn a degree in
72 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 theatre. This experience led Flynn to develop the design of the summer-only MATE degree.
So far the way we fashion the program was so that all of the required
courses for the degree are offered in the evenings. So if you are local
to us, and you can study with us, you are guaranteed that all of your
courses will start at 5 o’clock in the evening or later. However, in the
summers what we found also is that we need to offer the courses at
night. So, even for the students who are summers-only, the courses
don't start until 5 o’clock at night so that they can work during the day;
or in the case of summer-only students, they have the daytime to
study, and then they join the rest of students for evening classes that
meet like 5 to 9 PM. (Flynn)
It was delightful and distressing to talk to someone who struggled with finding a program in her field to earn a PhD in theatre. This challenge that gave Flynn the impetus to reach out to working teachers and professionals is as important as educating traditional students.
The interview with Dr. Byname was particularly exciting because I earned my
Master of Arts Degree in Theatre from Texas Woman’s University, and I was also eager to see the changes that had occurred at the university since I graduated. Sharon
Benge was the program director in 2005, and the old theatre building was condemned in 2005. Without a theatre building, the matriculation of theatre majors was dismal.
“When I arrived in ’06 we were down to about twelve undergraduate majors and eight
73 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 graduate students” (Byname). Byname was specifically hired to help establish the hybrid Master of Arts Theatre program. Professor Benge and Byname spent the
2006-2007 academic year designing a program. “And at the end of that year, the two of us figured that the best way to do it wasn’t just to offer a few classes but was to try and develop an entire hybrid online program that would essentially piggyback on the existing MA program” (Bynam).
New York University has a Master of Arts Degree in Educational Theatre for
Colleges and Communities. The degree is thirty-six credit hours, and it is offered over the course of three summer semesters. From reading the promotion book and the website, I thought the program was relatively new, but Dr. Montgomery stated it is only recently that the program has been promoted on the school’s website and in national theatre publications.
It’s sort of been promoted the last couple years as new. It’s just sort of
a new marketing. So, for a while, we’ve gone along without
marketing. It [the summer-only program] would just be, I guess, word
of mouth, or it’s just people knowing about it. You know, it’s been
buried or hidden somewhere on our website. So this targeting a
certain demographic on the Internet was something that happened just
basically a year ago; it started anew, but it’s not a new program at all.
(Montgomery)
The fact that this program is located in New York City gives the Master of Arts in
Theatre considerable power because of the location of the school. Students attending
74 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 this program can live and learn from a plethora of theatre options offered in New
York City. The first assumption is that a low-residency summer program or a hybrid program would primarily appeal to teachers, but Montgomery pointed out that people in the nonprofit sector would also be attracted to a program such as this.
It’s not just teachers; it’s also people who basically have off time in
the summer, and they want to get that credential—the master’s degree.
Either they have to for teaching purposes, like in New York you have
to get a master’s degree in teaching at some point, or they work for a
cultural organization and they have their summers free, and that’s the
only time they can really do coursework. (Montgomery)
The three degrees that were examined supported theatre professionals and teachers who educate middle school through high school students. During the interviews, there was a very convincing correlation between the increased rate of non-traditional graduate students entering accredited schools and the need to make adjustments to accommodate working adults.
Two programs did not have an online component, and the program directors were asked if they planned to add any online components to their programs. There were still some challenges for nonlocal students to complete the program in three summers. Dr. Flynn added an online portion for students outside the Washington,
DC area.
Recently, relatively recently, Catholic University finally approved
online classes. Yes, we will offer online classes. And so that has been
75 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
a big thrust of my own personally because I really believe in the value
of this. And, also by offering the classes online I’ve also figured out
how people could finish. It could still be considered summers, a three-
summer program, but you actually only have to come to Washington,
DC two summers. (Flynn)
Universities are slowly realizing that online learning is not going away and as the graduate population ages, there need to be new and innovative ways to reach non- traditional students. New York University does not have an online module for this program; however, there are plans in the works to add an online component.
That’s actually being talked about right now. We have a new Dean at
the school; he’s pushing it across the whole school that he really wants
more online courses. So, yeah, I see that it’s happening. I don't know
how quickly, but it will eventually happen. But it would be probably
more for the research courses or more of the lecture-based courses,
although we don't have all that many. (Montgomery)
According to Byname, the face-to-face program is not separate from the online program, although they are listed separately because of how students search the
Internet. He wanted to make sure students could find the hybrid online program.
In addition to the online classes, the Texas Woman’s University theatre department offers night and Saturday classes. The online components were only half of the formula, because they still required students to attend in person. This decision led to substantial growth.
76 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
So from ’08 to ’10, there was massive growth in the program. And I
was having trouble finding bodies willing to sit in face-to-face classes
because so many people are migrating to the online format. This is just
for the core classes. And because of that decision early on to announce
ourselves as a hybrid online MA program and to sort of advertise them
as parallel program. The Internet traffic picked up and the online hits
picked up. People from San Antonio, Tyler, all over, started asking,
“How can I take classes here?” And it grew much faster than I think
either of us ever expected. (Byname)
With the recent addition of the online component, I asked Dr. Flynn how she felt about the distance portion and the implementation of it in her classes.
Well, I have done a lot of work in collecting a lot of videos of myself
teaching and of students of mine teaching the techniques that the
course addresses. Because one of the things that the way that I
conduct the classes online is—it’s not a glorified independent study . . .
We actually meet online, and you know by using microphones and
webcams. (Flynn)
Flynn uses Blackboard, a learning management system, to disseminate information to her classes, but augments the class with Cisco WebEx, a telepresence system that allows people to work together remotely.
And so it’s [WebEx] something that I pay for myself because I use it
for other organizations as well. Like, for example in winter, I’m
77 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
teaching an online course for the Kennedy Center. And I just trained
some teachers in South Carolina, and I did two online sessions for
them. I think it’s a much stronger platform than some of the others.
(Flynn)
If a student misses a face-to-face class, your recourse as a student is to get the notes from another student. Flynn stated that she allowed students to substitute the synchronous sessions of the course with asynchronous assignments.
I love the fact that I can record the classes, and, oh, here’s another
thing that might be of interest is what I was told in a meeting we had at
the university one time is that most students are interested in an
asynchronous online class. In other words, you know the kind that
they do not have to report to at a particular time. So what I was able to
do was to use the WebEx platform and say, “Well we’re gonna meet,”
for example, “every Monday from 7:00 to 8:30, but every session will
be recorded; so that if you can’t make it then what you can do is watch
the recording and fill out this.” I call this an asynchronous viewing of
the online class. And then you’ll get full credit for attendance. (Flynn)
For some instructors, the asynchronous portion of a course is the uncomfortable part of teaching online. However, two of the professors interviewed about their online components felt they were helping students complete the coursework, particularly since the courses were developed to help working adults complete a master’s degree in theatre.
78 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
The last part of the interview covered intellectual property and course development. Flynn was offered three thousand dollars to develop a course, but after the course was designed the university would own it. “Not a single professor went for it” (Flynn interview). She chose to develop her course and purchase a personal Cisco
WebEx account. “Because I own the WebEx, then I’m the one who controls the demo—I mean [I] store the links to the course. And I only ever send them [the students and the university] the streaming link so that they can’t download it”
(Flynn).
Dr. Montgomery worried a bit about intellectual property but has not thought about it because it has not impacted him or his program. Byname was not concerned about intellectual property or the university using his course information. He created a YouTube channel and posted his lectures on YouTube and embedded the links in his Blackboard class. The link to his class was by invitation only, which means students have to have the link to see the video. Byname uses the Creative Commons licenses because they allow people to copy, distribute, and display the work for noncommercial purposes. Byname adds the no-derivative part of the Creative
Commons licenses because, while he does not mind if other people want to use his lectures, he does not want people to change his lectures. “No Derivatives—If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material” (Creative Commons). He said that Texas Woman’s University supported faculty-owned intellectual property. The Creative Commons licenses give faculty the ability to create, share, and use material for their classes. It is one of the most useful
79 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 tools faculty members can use for their online materials. The Internet is an open shared space, and it allows anyone to share their information in an open-source format as well as limit how and when the information is disseminated.
At the end of the interviews, all the professors were asked about designing a totally online program. I also asked the professors which courses could be taught online and which course should be taught face-to-face. Flynn was concerned about design courses being taught online.
I don't think so because some of our courses are, like, for example, the
design—the production design classes are to help the students who
need to know how to make a flat, build staircases, and, you know,
scene painting. So they’re extremely hands-on because they need to
be. In other words, they need to do it. They need to actually take it—
not just watch somebody paint it, you know. And so those, I don't ever
see those being that way, but I have made a little bit of inroads with
some of the professors in my department. Like this summer, one of
the professors teaches—what’s it called—Western Theatre and
Culture that could totally be taught completely online. (Flynn)
The other interviewees did not really answer the questions as clearly as Flynn.
Byname discussed course integrity of online learning, and he talked about course balance and the need to look at the strategic differences between the face-to-face classroom and the online classroom. “Online courses, it’s very easy to treat them as glorified correspondence courses” (Byname interview). Dr. Montgomery was
80 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 concerned about maintaining the integrity of courses being offered online, but he seemed open to the concept in the future.
A lot of people really like the online. Look, if it’s the right course, I
think it’s totally fine. More than fine. I think there are some benefits
to online technology. I just think that with many of our courses, as
well, they need to have people in a room. It’s drama, it’s theater work,
you know, so they need to be able to work in groups, be in the room,
physicalize things, act things out. And I think those courses would not
benefit as much from online course offerings. So I see a suggestion,
though. As long as we keep it to the right courses, I think it would be
fine and be good. It would be helpful. It would be better for both
students; some of those students who can’t always come the whole
summer to New York or abroad. (Montgomery)
It was impressive that Texas Woman’s University had such an interest from students who want to earn a Master of Arts in theatre. According to Byname, the pools of people interested in the program were teachers throughout the state of Texas. By
2013, the Texas Woman’s theatre department had 28 graduate students, and the department was in a position to add a third full-time faculty member to the team.
The conversation with all the program directors confirmed some of my thoughts on the design of a Master of Arts Theatre degree, and they gave me more information to help me focus the design of the program.
81 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Design of the Master of Arts and Masters of Fine Arts in Theatre It was clear to me in the beginning that not all theatre classes could be available online: however, it was also clear that higher education was missing a part of the population that wanted a graduate degree in theatre. Offering a graduate theatre program to non-traditional working students began the first leg of this design, summer school was the second, and eight-week distance courses was the third.
Summer school, however, is the anchor of the program. “Summer school is as much an American institution as is American education itself” (DeWitt 1). The history of distance programs, the interviews, and the examination of other programs led to this program design.
This is a thirty-three to thirty-six-hour degree. The primary target groups are middle school faculty, high-school faculty, and non-profit theatre professionals.
Some of the course proposed for this design are common courses offered in a Master of Arts Theatre program. Specific courses placed in this design are included because of my experience of working in professional theatre and educational theatre. The theory of teaching theatre and practical teaching in the classroom would have been very helpful for me as an educator. Professionally, directing a musical and arts management would have been very helpful, especially marketing strategy, grant preparation, and house management.
One of the success keys for this program is the closed-cohort model.
Allowing students to have a connection within a graduate program leads to higher completion rates and greater support for the participants in the program. In addition
82 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 to the cohort, specifying the class order of summer classes and online classes gives students a clear and finite vision for the cohort. Based on these factors, I submit the following courses as the Master of Arts Theatre degree.
Mission Statement
Provide mid-career theatre professionals with the prospect of earning a Master of Arts in Theatre through online and face-to-face delivery combined with a closed cohort of diverse learners that cultivates personal learning, provides collaboration and idea exchange, and enables learners to accomplish their professional goals.
Summer Institute I—Face-to-Face Descriptions
Teaching Theatre—3 hours
This course will focus on the different aspects of teaching theatre in
middle school, high school, and community college. It will help
students discover, examine, and identify different strategies, curricula,
and materials for the appropriate student constituency. This course
will also evaluate assessments, classroom management, script
diversity, and accessibility as it pertains to theatre and the classroom.
In addition, it will offer students the opportunity to create and share
materials for teaching theatre in the classroom.
Design for Directors (Lighting and Sound)—3 credit hours
This course is primarily to help directors work with lighting and sound
designers. Directorial students will work with lighting and sound
design software, create light and sound plots, and create concept
83 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
boards. Learning the tools of lighting and sound designers will help
with communication between designers and directors. Students may
be required to design lighting and sound for a production.
Design for Directors (Scene and Costuming)—3 hours
The course is primarily to help directors work with costume and scene
designers. Directorial students will work with design software, create
models, learn costume sketching, and create concept boards. Learning
the tools of costume and scene designers will help with
communication between designers and directors. Students may be
required to design lighting and sound for a production.
Fall I: Online Descriptions
Research Methods—3 hours, 1st Eight Weeks
Using library online databases and resources for theatre research and
performances, this course will help prepare students for their master
thesis proposal as well as open opportunities for students to select their
thesis concentration.
The Theory of Teaching Theatre—3 hours, 2nd Eight Weeks
This class is an introduction to viewpoints, procedures, and
preparations of drama in education. This is a form of learning in which
teachers and students engage in lessons that integrate drama and other
curriculum subjects to achieve objectives in both. Students will learn
practical and effective ways to merge drama with curriculum content
84 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
to increase student learning and engagement in sixth- through twelfth-
grade levels: formulating teaching goals, creating syllabi, developing
lesson plans, creating lectures, in-class presentation materials, flipped
classroom teaching (lecture presented online and hands-on happens in
class, online teaching, and learning to adapt these to a variety of
learning styles.
Spring I: Online Descriptions
Theatre History—3 hours, 1st Eight Weeks
A study of the theatre and its place in the social and cultural evolution
from the Greeks through the present. Selected examples of theatre
literature are studied.
Dramaturgy and Script Analysis—3 hours, 2nd Eight Weeks
This course will help students find different ways to analyze scripts to
prepare for stage productions. It will also help students research
scripts for directors and designers to look at the psychological
foundation of the characters and the physical, social, politics, and
economics of the play.
Summer Institute II—Face-to-Face Descriptions
Directing—3 hours
Basics of directing plays: script analysis, character analysis, various
approaches to working with the actor, movement and blocking, script
conception, and working with designers, including staging two scenes.
85 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Graduate Acting—3 hours
This class gives graduate students the opportunity to develop their
rehearsal process and script analysis as they explore the actor’s actions
and objectives from a range of monologues and scenes. The focus is
on the rehearsal process, which will help directors understand the
prospect of the progression and integration of a character’s
development within a script. Roles are selected from modern scenes
and monologues that will challenge the performer’s depiction of the
characters.
Directing Musical Theatre—3 hours
This class will assist students in directing, identifying, and combining
the performance skills essential for musical theatre: acting, script
analysis, singing, reading music, and dancing/movement. In addition,
this course will study the elements of musical theatre, the structure of
musicals, major musical directors, choreographers, and the history of
musical theatre from the 1950s through present-day musicals.
Fall II—Online Descriptions
Theatre Management—3 hours, 1st Eight Weeks
Project-driven introduction to the basics of theatre management:
crafting a mission statement for your program, season selection,
building a board for the theatre or a booster club, creating and
managing budgets, PR and marketing strategy, grant preparation,
86 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
house management, cultivating funders for your program, hiring and
managing a staff, and acquiring or managing performance spaces as
related to educational and/or professional theaters.
Thesis—3-6 hours, 2nd Eight Weeks
Supervised research for students writing master’s thesis.
Spring II— Online Descriptions
Thesis—3-6 hours, 1st Eight Weeks
Continuation of supervised research for students writing master’s
thesis.
Master of Fine Arts Classes
While looking at the Master of Arts in Theatre, it led me to also look at the
Master of Fine Arts degree (MFA). A Master of Arts in Theatre is a general degree than tends to cover several aspects of theatre and a Master of Fine Arts Theatre degree focuses on a specific area in theatre, such as, acting, directing or design.
Despite the challenges that may arise for faculty and administrators, a cohort-hybrid
Master of Fine Arts degree would offer an unprecedented opportunity for working adults to acquire a terminal degree. I would like to provide a list of classes that would fit a cohort-hybrid Master of Fine Arts. According to the design below, approximately sixty percent of Master of Fine Arts theatre courses can be distributed through an online platform; however, there are areas in the theatre degree where students still need to attend face-to-face classes, and this could occur during the summer. Theatre departments should consider several factors before teaching classes
87 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 online: the type of student they are trying to reach, the specific discipline requirements, and the resources available. The following classes could be possibly offered for a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in theatre education.
MFA Summer Institute I—Face-to-Face Classes
Design for Directors—3 credit hours (lighting, and sound)
Design for Directors—3 hours (scene, and costuming)
Directing —3 hours
MFA Fall I Online Classes
Introduction to Graduate Study—3 hours
Research Methods—3 hours
MFA Spring I Online Classes
The Theory of Teaching Theatre—3 hours
Theatre History—3 hours
MFA Summer Institute II—Face-to-Face Classes
Theatre Collaboration—3 hours
Directing Musical Theatre—3 hours
Seminar in Devise Theatre—3 hours
MFA Fall II Online Classes
Seminar in Playwriting—3 hours
Dramaturgy and Script Analysis—3 hours
MFA Spring II Online Classes
Trends in Theatre for Youth and Teen Theatre—3 hours
88 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Theatre Management—3 hours
MFA Summer Institute III—Face-to-Face Classes
Advance Directing—3 hours
Graduate Acting—3 hours
MFA Fall III Online Classes
Education Class: Curriculum and Development for hybrid and
online learning—3 hours
Education Class: Technology and Theatre—3 hours
MFA Spring III Online Classes
Thesis—3-6 hours
In designing a model for the Masters of Arts and the Master of Fine Arts in theatre, I explored the lecture, cohort, and online models as established online academic programs are currently using them. I investigated the block plan used at Colorado
College.
Adopted in 1970, Colorado College’s “Block Plan” is a uniquely
intensive academic schedule that allows students to plunge into a
different subject every three and a half weeks rather than balancing
several throughout a semester. Students take one course at a time and
professors teach one, with each block covering the same amount of
material as a semester system. (Colorado College)
The program is designed to allow the synchronous meeting of faculty and students, as well as allowing students to maintain their jobs and family. Included in the strategy
89 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 of the program is breaking up each fall and spring semester into two eight-week semesters.
In my experience, the courses reserved for online use tend to be lecture-based courses. Those course can be recorded and class interaction can be asynchronous either on a discussion board or a technology that connects the students face-to-face at a prescribed synchronous time period. In Appendix G, I planned a Theatre
Management Online Course Curriculum, in order to show how the course design would look on paper. The paper design of a Theatre Management course illustrates objectives, timelines, and course material available for the online portion of a class.
The courses that are slated for face-to-face are hands-on courses and require collaboration with the faculty and the students.
The design is predicated on two principles: summer school and employed adults. Educating non-traditional students should not be predicated on seat time.
Students can focus on one class in a compressed time frame. A faculty member can require students to meet synchronously by video within that short semester if students require a face-to-face meeting with the cohort. The program is designed to allow synchronous meetings of faculty and students as well as to allow the students to maintain their current jobs and family.
Distance Education Accreditation for Blended and Online Programs The proliferation of online and distance courses have grown at an exponential rate and because of this growth the National Association of Schools of Theatre
90 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
(NAST), National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA), and Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) established policies and procedures for distance education.
The National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST) has specific rules on starting new programs or adding an addition to an existing program.
Institutions planning to (a) offer new programs or (b) offer a
program for the first time, must receive Plan Approval from
the Commission on Accreditation as applicable, before the
matriculation of students (80).
After the school has received an approval for the program, they must also meet the requirements for a distance program. Since this is dissertation on a rational for a distance program, each college or university must follow NAST’s definition of an online program.
Distance learning involves programs of study delivered
entirely or partially away from regular face-to-face
interactions between teachers and students in studios,
classrooms, tutorials, laboratories, and rehearsals associated
with coursework, degrees, and programs on the campus.
Normally, distance learning uses technologies to deliver
instruction and support systems, and enables substantive
interaction between instructor and student (80)
91 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
NAST does not define the type of learning management system used by colleges and universities, but they do require that “operational and curricular standards for programs of their type and content…meet the functions and competencies required by applicable standards” (80). The National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST) defines distance learning as follows:
Programs in which more than forty (40) percent of their
requirements are fulfilled through distance learning will be
designated as distance learning programs in NAST
publications (81).
The university or college must have a system in place that verifies the student, publish requirements for technical competence, technical equipment, state requirements for assessment, and also have available academic and technical support services (82).
While NAST has national requirements for theatre distance education programs and courses, each state higher education coordinating board has its own set of requirements. Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) is the coordinating board for the state of Texas and they have specific rules for online programs. Coordinating Board rules define distance education as "The formal educational process that occurs when students and instructors are not in the same physical setting for the majority (more than 50 percent) of instruction" (THECB online). The Coordinating Board distinguishes distance education into two distinctive categories: fully distance education courses and hybrid/blended courses.
92 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
There are also approval processes and rules that regulate distance courses and programs off-campus. Chapter Sour, subchapter P and Q require that colleges and universities construct programs that follow their role and mission statements, as well as having prior Coordination Board approval before the institutions start new distance programs. In addition, Chapter Sour, subchapter P and Q require institutions to follow “any specialized accrediting agency or professional certification board” as well the colleges and universities trustee approval (THECB online). If a program is out-of-state and does not have a presence in the state of Texas, then Chapter Seven of the Texas Administrative Code “All eligible institutions may apply to the
Coordinating Board for admission to National Council for State Authorization
Reciprocity Agreement under the signature of the institution's chief academic officer.
Coordinating Board staff will review the application and make a determination to approve or deny the request to participate in State Authorization Reciprocity
Agreement (SARA)” (THECB online).
The National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA) is a voluntary program that allows interchange between states in order to regulate distance education programs from state to state. The benefits for the states are SARA
“lays out a framework for state-level reciprocity, including a governance structure, implementation by the four regional higher education compacts of Midwestern
Higher Education Board, New England Board of Higher Education, Southern
Regional Educational Board, and the Western Interstate Commission for Higher
Education;” and is “open to degree-granting postsecondary institutions from all
93 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 sectors: public colleges and universities; independent institutions, both non-profit and for-profit” (SARA website). The student benefits are as follows:
• Expands access to educational offerings.
• Leads to better resolution of complaints from students in SARA states.
• Reduces a rapidly growing institutional cost.
• Enhances the overall quality of distance education (THECB online).
Currently there are forty states and the District of Columbia enrolled in SARA and it has its own board called the National Council of SARA.
There are certain rules that one must do to start a hybrid program for a Master of Arts in Theatre, but because there are a few programs that already exist there are models colleges and universities can follow. However, with a hybrid program for the
Master of Fine Arts in Theatre in Texas it will take the willingness of a theatre department, the support of the institution distance education department, an application and approval of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. If you school is a member of National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity
Agreement (SARA), then this is one of the ways a college or university can market to out-of-state students. I hope that in the near future that there will be a college or university that will reach out to non-traditional students and offer access to a hybrid graduate theatre program.
94 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS
Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. Barack Obama, Speech in Chicago, IL, February 8, 2008
Personal Discoveries There were several discoveries I made during this research. The first was that distance education has had a place in higher education for over one hundred years and that it assisted in opening the doors of higher education for women and people of color. Historically, higher education was predominately occupied by white middle and upper-class males, and people did not require a college education to make a living. Second, it was surprising to discover that there were only two Master of Arts theatre programs in the state of Texas that were hybrid/online and summer instruction only. The third was the discovery of the diffusion of innovation theory. The diffusion of innovation theory was focused on innovation. According to Everett
Rogers, “Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system” (page 34). This diffusion of innovation theory examines how innovations; ideas spread in society and
Rogers first devised it in 1962. He says there are four elements that must happen to spread a new idea or technology: communication channels, the innovation or idea itself, time, and a social system.
Furthermore, Rogers stated there were five types of people in a social system: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. He also
95 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 assigned a percentage for each segment: innovators 2.5%, early adopters 13.5%, early majority 34%, late majority 34%, and laggards16%. The first people to adopt an idea or technology are the innovators, and they are the risk takers. The second people in a social system are the early adopters. They like an idea that can advance their lives or business. Early adopters usually have the money to advance an idea or purchase the new technology. Also, early adopters become the people who help work out the problems inherent in a new idea or new technology. They give the innovators updates on why the technology is working and also ideas on why some parts of the technology need to change. The third group is pragmatists, and they are the early majority. People in the early majority want standardization of a product or idea, they do not want it to cost too much, they want to see it used by regular people, and they do not want it to be to complex. The fourth set of adopters are considered the late majority. They do not like risk; they are a bit afraid of untested new technology or ideas that they want to fit in with established social norms. The last group of people in the diffusion of innovation theory are the laggards. They are high risk adverse, very fearful of technology and ideas that shift the continuity of something that is currently effective. People in the category of laggards tend to think of reasons why this new technology or idea may not work. However, they should not be discounted, because they may be right about the questions they propose concerning the new technology or the new idea. Here is the caveat to these five areas: not everyone in the society fits neatly into these categories when new ideas or technologies are introduced to their particular social culture. There will be times where a person is an
96 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 early adopter of one idea or technology and a laggard for another. I was an early adopter of online education and I started teaching online as an adjunct in 1999 for
Brookhaven College. At that time, I was able to teach and peruse my performance career. That gave me the freedom to have a steady income while I built my professional performance career. The diffusion of innovation theory helped me to clarify why I would approach combining a cohort model with theatre and distance education.
Geoffrey Moore’s model helped me understand why there has been so much resistance to online education within the public and non-profit universities and colleges. “The Chasm” was explained in Moore’s book Crossing the Chasm, he explains why new ideas and technologies fail. Moore believes there had to be a certain percentage of the early majority group that adopt a new idea or technology in order for either to be successful. Yet, Rogers does not agree with Moore on the idea of “The Chasm.” Moore believes that some early adopters and some early majorities form a bridge that connects the two groups and that connection helps make an idea or product successful.
97 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Figure 5.2 Geoffrey Moore’s Diffusion of Innovation model (used with permission Geoffrey Moore.) Both Moore and Rogers have a suitable argument for “The Chasm”: it may be the reason it took traditional higher education institutions some time to adopt online education. The for-profit institution, University of Phoenix, embraced online learning, and it began building the bridge across “The Chasm” that connected distance education to traditional colleges and universities.
From the beginning of my Ph.D. course work, I expressed an interest combining an online platform and a graduate degree in theatre. Texas Woman’s
University program is limited to non-traditional students in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area only and it is a forty-two-hour Master of Arts theatre program. University of
Houston and New York University’s Steinhardt program are summer only programs; finally, The Catholic University Master of Arts theatre program is evolving from a summer only program to a hybrid program. The cohort portion was an addition I then read and recognized the advantages and successes of a cohort models. This dissertation focuses on the design of a Master of Arts theatre degree using face-to-
98 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 face, online, and closed cohort models. I looked at different types of online, hybrid, and cohort programs at Texas Tech University, the University of Houston, Texas
Woman’s University, The Catholic University, and New York University’s
Steinhardt program. When online learning, cohort, and hybrid are brought together as elements that include a theatre program, it seems a most incongruent change because of the operational nature of theatre but it is being used at The Catholic
University and Texas Woman’s University. While distance education existed for over one hundred years, higher education has never been disrupted to the extent it has in the last ten years of the twenty-first century. The philosophy of higher education has not changed. It has just extended beyond the walls of the institution.
I have always enjoyed using technology. As an adjunct faculty member, I started teaching an online class for the Brookhaven College in 1999; I was an early adopter of online learning. For the first time, technology seemed to give gravitas to the phrase “lifelong learning.” When I arrived at North Lake College, I was one of the first professors to teach online in the fall of 2004. In 2006, in conjunction with the North Lake College Director of Staff and Organizational Development, I recruited and helped train the faculty team that instructed other faculty members on designing, building, and teaching courses online. These faculty members were all subject-matter experts in math, science, English, technology, government, and humanities. In addition, they were all lecture-based professors and did not fully embrace this technology. This exposure to a different way of reaching the working students was both exhilarating and frustrating as we incorporated this new technology
99 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 into our face-to-face classrooms and our new online classrooms.
Faculty are subject-matter experts in their respective fields,
and traditionally courses have been lecture based—professors
impart their knowledge… The digital age brings instant
availability and access to technology, which is shifting
today’s students’ attitudes about how they want to engage and
design their learning processes. (Ford and Schlegelmilch 91)
Instructors should be introduced to the technology that students are bringing into the face-to-face and virtual classroom. Technology opens up the classroom to people who might not otherwise have access to face-to-face learning. With the introduction of Google Classroom, Coursera, Udacity, YouTube, Kahn Academy and MOOCs, it is incumbent upon us in higher education to leverage technology and use it to help students to complete their degree. The Director of Distance Education and my
Executive Dean at North Lake College recognized my interest in piloting different modalities of teaching classes within a semester. I was one of the first professors to conduct a proof of concept fast-track three-weekend classes on our campus. While I am no longer teaching in that modality, there are several professors at North Lake
College that currently teach using this fast track configuration.
Eight-Week Proof of Concept Course Recently the Director of Distance Education of North Lake College read my dissertation and suggested I conduct a proof of concept, project with the company
Cisco. “A proof of concept (POC) is a demonstration, the purpose of which is to
100 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 verify that certain concepts or theories have the potential for real-world application”
(Techopedia). The concept included an eight-week telepresence-enhanced Music
Appreciation class. Students at the NLC North Campus and the NLC Central
Campus attended class simultaneously via Cisco Lecture Capture. This type of class allows students to attend class with other students at remote locations simultaneously, and be connected to the instructor through an interactive distance learning environment. Also I was simultaneously teaching at the Central Campus and at the North Campus, an instructional assistant was in the North Campus classroom to set up the equipment, and all instructional content occurred through the Codec
Speaker Track 60 Touch 10.
Half of the class was conducted online, and half of the class was face-to-face.
When this technology was used thirty years ago, the camera was mounted to a wall and provided a wide-shot of each classroom. That setup was extremely costly and was limited to those two spaces. The camera did not have the ability to zoom into the person talking, and as was the case with a face-to-face class, if you were not there, you missed the class. The two cameras I used were mounted to a platform, and each camera had the ability to zoom into the person talking in the room.
101 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Figure 5.2 Cisco Sx80 Codec Speaker Track 60 Touch 10
Each camera had facial and voice recognition. Also, I had the option to record the class as I was teaching, and if a student missed the class, I could publish the recording of the class within two hours of teaching it. The video was saved in as a
MPEG4, which is a one of the standard video formats. Another addition to the delivery of the class was the ability of a student to WebEx into the live class. WebEx is another Cisco product that gave students the capability to access the class from a mobile device or laptop computer. With WebEx, a student could share their image with the camera and have a presence in the class. The students could also hear any music example I played as well as documents I showed on the screen from the classroom.
Before I started the class, I set three criteria for the assessment of the course’s effectiveness of success for the classes and the students. Class completion, grade success, and persistence are the same criteria I use for my hybrid, face-to-face, and my online classes. Grade success was predicated on the three essential assignments in class: Peer Presentation, a Music Critique of a live orchestra, and a final
102 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 satisfactorily completed Group Project. Those three assignments were evaluated according to posted rubrics, so that I could be consistent with my grading. The student grade success was based on the written assignments within the Peer
Presentation, Music Critique, and the Group project as well as presentation skills through the Peer Presentation.
The classes were limited to fifteen students per semester. The first semester I had fifteen students register, and one student dropped the class during the semester.
Twelve students passed the three assignments with an A, B, or C and two students did not complete all of the assignments and subsequently failed the class. Twelve students registered for classes in the spring semester. This number is significant because a community college campus has a very transient student population.
Statistically community colleges lose thirty to fifty percent of their population from the fall semester to the spring semester as well as spring to fall semester. Eighty percent of my fall semester students were enrolled in at least six credit hours of classes. The second semester I had twelve students and retained all the students during the eight-week class. Eight students passed the three assignments with an A,
B, or C and four students did not complete all of the assignments, and two students failed the class with a letter grade of an F.
Based on the criteria established before the class began, I consider the fall
2015 class a success. A, B, or C is considered grade success and eighty percent of the students passed the class with the aforementioned grades. Students attending and completing a class without regard to the grade success is considered retention.
103 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Ninety-three percent of the students attended class consistently throughout the semester. Finally, persistence is defined as a student enrolling the next semester and according to the registrar, seventy-three percent or eleven students enrolled in the class for the Spring 2016 semester. In the spring, sixty-seven percent of the students achieved grade success; one hundred percent completed the class with consistent attendance, and to date twenty-five percent have registered for the Fall 2016 semester. However, as of this writing registration is not yet complete.
While this was a small pilot, it has great potential for future use in other subject areas. The benefits of this pilot are the ability to teach distant students synchronously and maintain the integrity of the class communication. It also allowed a stable connection for the face-to-face and online combination for both faculty and students. The ability for a student to log on through WebEx when they could not appear at the campus site was a huge benefit. The drawbacks are a loss of power and or Internet connection as well as students deciding that they are going to log on from home using WebEx instead of attending class. I was afraid with the WebEx option available to freshman students I would have no one in class because most of them would opt to come to class from home. In both of those pilots, however, very few students took advantage of the WebEx option. There were only two students who used the WebEx option, and both of them were single mothers.
Although this pilot was conducted with undergraduate students, I think it would be an acceptable model for mid-career graduate students and it might be worth a pilot class to test the validity of my hypothesis. The interaction with the professor
104 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 and other students in synchronous time as well as accessing some of your assignment asynchronously, allows the growing number of working students the ability to complete their graduate degree.
Future Applications While I think there is a demand for a hybrid/cohort theatre MA, I believe there is also a need for a hybrid Master of Fine Arts theatre degree. The same reasons working adult students would like to earn an MA in theatre apply to the
MFA: the paradigm shift of graduate education in which students can no longer afford to attend state-supported graduate school full time, the increase in attendance of non-traditional students, and the transition to online education. While these are all good reasons to have a hybrid- cohort Master of Fine Arts theatre degree program, there are some definite issues that colleges and university would have to solve. Many faculty members are contracted for nine-months starting in mid-August and ending in mid-May. It may be possible to start a contract in mid-January and terminate the contract in mid- August. Another issue is the process of subject matter experts
(SME) learning to design and teach online. There is a monetary investment in SME of developing content and educating students online. With the increase in online learning, colleges and universities have to decide how to invest the time and talent of faculty, instructional designers, and administration. The final issue is an investment in not only the technology, but also the continuous quality of course management, teaching, and learning. As someone who has taught online for seventeen years, there has to be a mechanism for faculty and administration that allows for learning and
105 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 applying the new technology to the teaching continuum.
As a part of the theatre curriculum design, I recommend that a graduate theatre programs work with their online divisions or departments and develop graduate theatre programs that can reach non-traditional students. They should develop the success measures for the program, identify faculty that might be interested in the program, provide training and development for the interested faculty, and offer a limited number of slots for the new curriculum. They should start with a proof of concept cohort class recruited from the ranks of high school, and community college faculty. The sixth step would be a implementing the new design of the
Master of Fine Arts degree using online and face-to-face interaction. The seventh step is to evaluate the program at the end of each year, with students and faculty using the success measures. Finally, a theatre department would change and retool the pilot to help make it a more successful program as online technology provides more availability for students to higher education.
Online classes are possible because of the Internet and portable digital devices. Many people cannot imagine their lives without digital devices: cell phones, tablets, or computers. According to an April 2015 study by the Pew
Research Center, two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone, and 30% of smartphone users take a class or retrieve educational content (Pew Research Center,
IST). With the increase of mid-career students returning to college, students want the ability to manage their learning. Students also want to access their course materials throughout the day, especially if they are taking online courses. The availability of
106 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
TED Talks, Kahn Academy, and YouTube gives a student the ability to curate their learning. Both of those platforms allow open access to any material, and that is the expectation of many students attending college and universities today.
Graduate students are returning to school at a later age. Twenty years ago the average graduate student was under the age of 30. Since 2007, there has been an
87% increase of graduate students over the age of 40 (Bell 2). In the Dallas County
Community College District, Brookhaven College, and Richland College have designed entire programs for learners over 55 years of age. While I understand these are community colleges, the requirements for additional education are also affecting four-year colleges and universities.
I feel fortunate that I was able to attend a university and still maintain my position at North Lake College. I was only able to do this because I was able to teach online classes for my institution while I attended classes in Lubbock. The ability to keep your job and attend graduate school is not shared for many working adults. It is necessary for higher education to begin designing and implementing programs that reach out to the non-traditional student. Technology is one of the crucial enablers for dissemination of information, but it still needs the subject-matter expert to design the curriculum and support the student throughout the learning process.
The faculty of any educational institution has always been concerned about how students learn and no amount of technology can change the people-to-people connection. Adaption is a matter of learning how to leverage the technology to reach the student. That is why we as faculty can no longer depend on knowledge of one
107 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 subject area. There is an assumption that only our 18-29-year-old students need this technology. However, as business, leaders, governmental officials, and the President of the United States encourage more people to attend college, non-profit higher education should try to adjust to the demand. Celena Aponte in her article “A
Student Perspective” states:
It’s critical to understand how students want to learn in today’s ever
more connected world. They need flexibility and adaptability to
access information and resources for self-guided learning; they need
rich, engaging in-class experience…and they see a vibrant learning
community on and offline. Thinking about technology, not in terms of
a single tool but instead as for a curated edutainment system that
activates learning, is powerful and effective (151-152 Aponte)
Higher education is going through a remarkable shift, and the traditional college model that we have known for decades is transforming into an unfamiliar online and hybrid model of education. Not only has technology had an affect on the typical college model, so have non-traditional students.
Change is always a frightening proposition, and sometimes it seems easy to stay still and hope that change disappears. However, that tactic has often not been effective. In January 2012, Kodak filed for bankruptcy. Not because they were surprised by the evolution of the digital camera, but because Kodak thought that film would always lead any photography format. According to Chunka Mui of Forbes,
Kodak had twenty years to adjust to the impending change and continued to focus on
108 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 developing technology for augmenting film. I do not want that to be true of theatre in higher education because historically theatre has been one of the leaders of change, and I want us to remain in that position.
Lifelong learning has been a hallmark of education, and I believe that technology offers the opportunity to reach out to students who would not otherwise have access to graduate school. There is a new challenge in the delivery of higher education, but I think if students, faculty, and administrators work together, the changes can benefit all involved in higher education.
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114 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
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APPENDIX A
University Institutional Review Board (IRB) has changed to the Human Research Protection Program (HRPP)
Survey from http://www.depts.ttu.edu/vpr/irb/forms
Does Your Project Need IRB Review?
Program evaluation - Is the work you are planning: • intended to learn how well a particular program is working • AND is not intended to add to generalizeable knowledge? Yes No
Class projects - Is the work you are planning: • a classroom assignment • AND is not intended to add to generalizeable knowledge? Yes No
Quality Assurance/Quality Improvement - Is the work you are planning: • intended to learn how to make a particular program better • AND is not intended to add to generalizeable knowledge? Yes No
Case Study - Is the work you are planning an intensive study of the records or experiences of one or a very few people in depth? Yes No
Oral History - Is the work you are planning an intensive study of one or a very few people, often through interviews concerning their experiences or recollections? Yes No
Does the work you are planning include secondary analysis of existing data or specimens, deidentified or coded? Yes No
121 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
The work you are planning: • IS Quality assurance/quality improvement intended to learn how to make a particular program better • AND is not intended to add to generalizeable knowledge.
• IS an Oral History
• An intensive study of one or a very few people, often through interviews concerning their experiences, recollections and designs of distance graduate theatre programs.
Your study does not need IRB review based upon your answers.
122 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Appendix B:
Texas Universities Offering Distance, Cohort, and Blended
Master’s of Arts Degrees in Theatre
123 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
*Texas Woman’s University
The new TWU Master’s of Arts program is designed for those Texas residents who for financial and familial reasons must continue to work while they earn college credit.
At least 50% of the total institutional degree is offered by distance learning methods. Some courses are presented in traditional evening sessions. Other courses are a combination of a few class meetings (4-6) per semester plus online communication. Some courses are completely on line, and others are through independent study with a faculty member.
Classes are offered in Redbud Theater on the TWU Denton campus and online. The target market is the North Texas region; the degree is not designed for
Out of state [sic] or out of area [sic] residents.
The TWU Master’s of Arts degree plan requires 42 hours for successful completion. The typical period is two years and the course rotation is set up [sic] to demonstrate that. The courses indicated by * are mandated; all others are electives.
*Information for the Texas Woman’s University website
124 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
*Texas Woman’s University’s Current Theatre Course Rotation
2011-2015
Fall 2011, 2013 Spring 2012, 2014
DRAM 5403 Problems in Production: Characterization DRAM 5473 Dramatic Criticism &
Analysis (2014)
DRAM 5403 Problems in Production: Characterization DRAM 5493 Theatre History II
DRAM 5435 Contemporary Theatre (2013) DRAM 5513 Theatre Management
DRAM 5483 Theatre History I) DRAM 5521 Theatre in Performance
DRAM 5503 Styles of Acting DRAM 5533 Adv. Theatrical Design:
Scenic Painting
DRAM 5521 Theatre in Performance DRAM 5533 Adv. Theatrical Design:
Set Design
DRAM 5533 Adv. Theatrical Design: Make-up DRAM 5901 Sound for the Theatre
DRAM 5543 Speech for the Stage DRAM 5901 Special Topics:
Stage Management
DRAM 5903 Dance/Music/Theatre DRAM 5973 Professional Paper
DRAM 5973 Professional Paper
DRAM 5903 Special Topics: Advanced Playwriting
*Information from the Texas Woman’s University website
125 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Fall 2012, 2014 Spring 2013, 2015 DRAM 5403 Problems in Production: Advanced Directing DRAM 5483 Theater History I (2013)
DRAM 5473 Dramatic Criticism & Analysis DRAM 5493 Contemporary Theater (2015)
DRAM 5533 Adv. Theatrical Design: Lighting DRAM 5521 Theatre in Performance
DRAM 5483 Theater History II DRAM 5903 Special Topics: History of Costume
DRAM 5521 Theatre in Performance DRAM 5903 Special Topics: History of Musical Theatre
DRAM 5533 Adv. Theatrical Design; Costume DRAM 5973 Professional Paper
DRAM 5533 Adv. Theatrical Design: Make-up
DRAM 5903 Special Topics: Intro to Film
DRAM 5093 Special Topics: Improvisation
Summer 2012, 2013, 2014 DRAM 5433 Contemporary Theater (Summer 2012)
DRAM 5493 Theater History II (Summer 2013)
DRAM 5485 Theater History I (Summer 2014)
126 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
*University of Houston, Summer MA Without a Thesis for Theatre Educators
According to the catalogue, University of Houston’s summer Master’s of Arts
Theatre program is an affordable and convenient path for busy theatre educators to accomplish a graduate degree in three short summer sessions. Twelve theatre educators will be accepted each summer to begin their three-year path toward a
Master’s of Arts in Theatre.
These are [sic] examples of the schedule during the summer 2013 classes begin at 8:45 AM July 1 and runs Monday through Thursday, 9:00 AM—9:00 PM through July 31. Students have long weekends to study and to explore the arts community that Houston has to offer. The last five days of class will be spent off campus taking a class designed for theatre educators and seeing productions.
The catalogue states that the coursework in the summer Master’s of Arts is developed keeping in mind that you [sic] want to further develop your [sic] theatre programs and your classes. Our [sic] faculty is eager for the opportunity to teach working professional theatre educators.
Besides the dedicated faculty, you will have at your disposal the many resources and amenities that The University of Houston Central Campus has to offer its Graduate students.
In-state tuition per summer term: approx. $5500 including travel. Out-of-state tuition per summer term: approx. $7500 including travel. (Out of State Tuition
Waivers Available) housing in a campus apartment: $1080
*Information from the University of Houston website
127 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
*University of Houston’s Current Theatre Course Rotation
Summer 2013 Curriculum
SUMMER 1—12 hours 6280 The Teaching of Acting 6281 The Teaching of Voice 6381 Dramaturgy for the HS Director 6380 Scenic Design for Educators 6282 Field Work (Trip) SUMMER 2—12 hours 6387 Acting Styles 6384 Directing I 6383 Lighting and Costume Design 6286 Field Work (Trip) 6180 Portfolio Acting /Voice (Completed in Fall following first summer)
6181 Portfolio Design/Dramaturgy (Completed in Spring following first summer) SUMMER 3—12 hours 6386 Drama in Context 6284 Program Management 6385 Technical Direction 6285 Field Work (Trip) 6182 Portfolio Lighting/Costume Design 6183 Portfolio Directing/Styles Offsite Course Information: 2008- one week residency at SITI Company NYC 2009-one week residency at Acting Studio Chicago 2010-one week residency at London Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts 2011-one week residency at Lincoln Center Theatre NYC 2012-one week residency at Steppenwolf Theatre Chicago 2013- one week residency at London Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts *Information from the University of Houston’s website
128 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Appendix C:
Permission to Use
Community of Inquiry Figure
Geoffrey Moore’s Chasm Figure
Cisco Sx80 Codec Speaker Track 60 Touch 10
129 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
On May 8, 2016, at 7:42 AM, Boyd, Sherry
I would like to use the CoI figure in my dissertation to talk about online learning. Who would I talk to in order to receive written permission to use this figure?
Best regards, Sherry
Sherry R. Boyd
PhD Candidate in Fine Arts
Theatre and Dance
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, Texas
Levina Yuen
Sun 5/8/2016 10:20 AM
To: Boyd, Sherry
Cc: [email protected]
Hi Sherry,
130 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Please obtain permission from Dr. Randy Garrison, cc'd above.
Thank you,
Connie
Connie L. Yuen, MEd, PhD student
PSE Research – technology in education
Educational Psychology University of Alberta c. (780) 966-8681 w. (780) 492-4722
From: D. Randy Garrison
Sent: Monday, May 9, 2016 8:46 AM
To: Boyd, Sherry
Cc: 'Levina Yuen'
Subject: RE: Permission to use the CoI figure in my dissertation
Sherry,
You have my permission to use the CoI figure in your dissertation.
Best wishes,
DRG
D. Randy Garrison
Professor Emeritus
University of Calgary [email protected] https://coi.athabascau.ca/
131 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
From: "Geoffrey Moore (via Twitter)"
Geoffrey Moore replied to your Tweet. Reply TexasWoman1 @TexasWoman1 May 08 @geoffreyamoore I am completing my dissertation would like to use the Diffusion of Innovation figure in my paper, may I have your permission
Geoffrey Moore@geoffreyamoore May 15 @TexasWoman1 Yes, that is fine. Thanks for asking
Twitter, Inc. 1355 Market Street, Suite 900 San Francisco, CA 94103
Waiting to hear from Michael Popovich Cisco Cooporation Collaboration Specialist – State, Local & EDU Texas Voice: 4088941209 [email protected]
132 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Appendix D:
Texas Tech University’s Current
Master’s of Arts Degree in Theatre
133 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
* Completion of the Master of Arts program requires the student to complete 30 semester hours of course work. This includes 9 hours of MA Core Courses, 15 hours of Electives as approved by the Chair of the student's Thesis Committee and/or the
Graduate Advisor, and 6 hours of Thesis (TH A 6000).
M.A. Core Courses 9 hours
Electives 15 hours
Master’s Thesis (TH A 6000) 6 hours (minimum)
Total: 30 hours (changing to a 36 hour degree)
*Added three hours of the community engagement
Core Courses (9 Semester Hours)
TH A 5311 Advanced Directing
*TH A 5306 Survey of Theatre History--
*TH A 5350 Seminar in Theatre Research Methods (must be taken during the first year of studies)
Electives - 15 hours, one course to be selected from each of the following groups:
Acting/Directing
TH A 5325 Period Styles in Acting
TH A 5329 Advanced Scene Study
TH A 5334 Special Problems in Acting
TH A 5343 Seminar in Voice and Movement
TH A 5333 Studies in the Production of Pre-Modern Drama
134 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Arts Administration
TH A 5312 Theatre Management
TH A 5314 Theatre Arts in Contemporary Context
TH A 5316 Marketing the Arts
TH A 5317 Funding of the Arts
TH A 5318 Advocacy for the Arts
Design/Tech
TH A 5303 Theory and Practice of Scenic Design
TH A 5304 Theory and Practice of Lighting
TH A 5305 Theory and Practice of Costume
TH A 5320 Theatre Planning
History, Theory, and Criticism
TH A 5309 Seminar in Theatre History
TH A 5313 Dramatic Criticism
TH A 5331 Studies in Contemporary Theatre
TH A 5341 Seminar in Dramatic Theory
TH A 5372 Dramaturgy
Playwriting
TH A 5300 Dramatic Analysis
TH A 5301 Advanced Playwriting
TH A 5328 Special Problems in Playwriting
*Information from the Texas Tech University’s website as of February 2016
135 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Appendix E:
Current Graduate Online, Hybrid, and Cohort Degrees Offered at
Texas Tech University
136 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
*Master's Degrees
Master of Agriculture - Regional Site (Hill Country)—Online
Master of Art Education - Regional Site (Junction)-Hybrid
Master of Arts in Technical Communication - Online
Master of Education in Educational Leadership & Principal Professional Certification Preparation - Regional Site (Hill Country) Hybrid cohort
Master of Education in Instructional Technology - Online
Master of Education in Special Education - Online
Master of Engineering - Online
Master of Engineering (Healthcare Engineering) - Online
Master of Science in Agricultural Education - Online
Master of Science in Plant and Soil Science - Online
Master of Science in Family and Consumer Sciences Education - Online
Master of Science in Horticulture - Online
Master of Science in Human Development and Family Studies emphasis on Gerontology – Online
Master of Science in Multidisciplinary Science (MSCI) –regional Site (Hill Country)—Online
Master of Science in Software Engineering - Online
Master of Science in Systems and Engineering Management - Online
137 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Doctoral Degrees
Doctor of Education in Agricultural Education – Online
Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership - Regional Site (Hill Country, San Angelo) Hybrid cohort
Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum and Instruction (concentration in Curriculum Studies and Teacher Education) - Hybrid/Blended
Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum and Instruction (specialization in Science Education) Hybrid/Blended
Doctor of Philosophy in Systems and Engineering Management - Online
Doctor of Philosophy in Technical Communication and Rhetoric - Online
Doctor of Education in Higher Education – Hybrid cohort
*Information for the Texas Tech University’s website
138 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Appendix F:
Phone Interviews
With
Dr. Rosalind Flynn Ph.D.—The Catholic University,
Washington D. C.
David Montgomery Ph. D.— New York University, Steinhardt
New York City
Face-to-Face Interview
With
Patrick Byname Ph.D.—Texas Woman’s University,
Denton, Texas
139 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Phone Interview with Rosalind Flynn Ph.D.
The Catholic University, Washington, D.C.
October 21, 2014
Dr. Flynn: Hi.
Sherry: Hi; this is Sherry Boyd
Dr. Flynn: Hi.
Sherry: Is it okay if I record this interview for transcription
Dr. Flynn: That’s okay.
Sherry: I’m so glad that you agreed to do this. I’m very excited.
Dr. Flynn: That’s okay. I’m happy to do it for you and I think your dissertation
sounds interesting.
Sherry: Well, part of the reason why I am doing this dissertation is because
I was one of those returning students who really wanted to find an
MFA to work on.
Dr. Flynn: Yeah.
Sherry: And could not find one and it was very difficult even to
find a PhD…
Dr. Flynn: Oh Yeah.
Sherry: That didn’t require me to uproot my husband and my children
and say, “Hey we’re all going to move to Lubbock” (chuckles).
Dr. Flynn: (laughs) I totally understand that ’cause I had the same issue when I
140 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
was going for my PhD. And I ended up doing it at the University
of Maryland. And it’s, even though you know theatre and drama
is my focus; my PhD is actually in education.
Sherry: And I totally understand that. I’m trying, by writing this, to get
theatre educators to start thinking here’s a group we are missing.
This group that they’re working; they’re already working and they
really want to come back and get advanced degrees, but we can’t do
it in a 18 to 24 year old time frame when we’re in our 30’s, 40’s and
50’s.
Dr. Flynn: Exactly, yes; exactly.
Sherry: And so, I’m hoping that eventually what this will lead to is
people looking at, “Well what can we do with an MFA and what
can we do with a PhD that’s not always all theory driven?”
Because that’s not what we all do.
Dr. Flynn: (Laughs) Yes. It’s a struggle (laughs). I understand.
Sherry: Okay. so I’m going start with my questions.
Dr. Flynn: Okay.
Sherry: And this should only take about 15; max 20 minutes.
Dr. Flynn: Okay.
Sherry: So, I was wondering how long the summer program has been going
on…the Summer-Only Program.
Dr. Flynn: Well, I could say that the Summers-Only Program—the idea for it
141 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
came into being I think around 2008. But we had the first student
in the program, I think, I’m correct that it’s the summer of 2009.
Sherry: What made you decide to do this Summer-Only Program?
Dr. Flynn: Well I decided to—I came up with the idea for the Summers-Only
Program largely because of what you were just saying; which was
the idea that well, we could serve students in the Washington DC
metropolitan area, but what if we could reach out to students
nationwide or even worldwide by making this program available as
something that you could complete over three summers.
Sherry: Are the demographics of your students teaching professionals;
working professionals?
Dr. Flynn: Right now, I would say most of our students are teaching
professionals; occasionally we have somebody who is in a different
profession. In other words, they have a day job that they do
because they need to earn money and support themselves and
support their family; but what they would really like to do is to
teach theater.
But I would say most of our students are currently teaching. Some of
them are already teaching high school theatre.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Flynn: And so they have their bachelors and they want a master's. But
some of our students have been the kind of students who knew
142 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
they eventually had to get a master’s degree and they were holding
out to find a program that would actually address their needs as a
theatre educator.
And several of the students are newly out of college but that is;
we’re getting fewer and fewer of them. I’m getting more people
who are either already doing this and want the master’s degree; or
want to make a shift from doing something like teaching a first
grade class and they do that for they’re a certified teacher but “what
I really want to do is be a theater teacher”.
Sherry: Right. Well; and also the thing that I have been looking at you
know - there’s this real push towards STEM but I’m starting to
see some things that say you can’t have STEM without the A.
and so they’re looking at STEAM (Science, Technology,
Engineering, Arts and Math).
Dr. Flynn: Right.
Sherry: So I’m hoping that they stop leaving us out, like we don't matter.
And I’m like, “We do; we matter”.
Dr. Flynn: (laughs) Great, great.
Sherry: (chuckles) So, how many students have you had enrolled in the
program so far?
Dr. Flynn: Okay I probably should have looked that up before I came
to you.
143 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Sherry: Well I’ll take an estimate.
Dr. Flynn: But I think I’m correct that we’ve graduated 20 students so far, and
this is in the entire program not just the Summers-Only. Should I
be telling you only about the Summers-Only?
Sherry: Yeah. I’m looking at the Summers-Only Program because I really
do want to see us do a cohort group. Well that’s how I’m writing
my paper on. But I’m looking at the Summers-Only Program
because my thrust is looking at that group that we always leave out,
which are people who are already in the profession but want an
advance degree.
Dr. Flynn: Okay. And the situation with our program is that we have - in
order to complete this degree our students have to go to school
in the summer; regardless of whether they’re summers-only or
whether they are local people.
Let me just explain that, then I’ll tell you about the summers-only
people.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Flynn: So far the way we fashion the program was so that all of the
required courses for the degree are offered in the evenings. So, if
you are local to us and you can study with us you are guaranteed
that all of your courses will start at five o’clock in the evening or
later.
144 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
So then what happens is that they have to also go in the summers.in
other words you can’t complete this degree without going in the
summer. So, what I’m thinking is we might be somewhat of a
hybrid for your study.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Flynn: Because we do address that population you’re talking about but of
course in order to do work with us during the academic year you
have to live locally to here. But in order to complete the degree it’s
offered in summers. However, in the summers what we found also
is that we need to offer the courses at night.
So if; even for the students who are Summers-Only the courses don't
start until five o’clock at night so that they can work during the day;
or in the case of summers-only students they have the daytime to
study and then they join the rest of students for evening classes that
meet like five to nine p.m.
Sherry: Oh! Do you do any online type of classes for this program at all?
Dr. Flynn: Yes. Recently; very relatively recently Catholic University finally
approved that. Yes we will offer online classes. And so that has
been a big thrust of my own personally because I really believe in
the value of this. And also by offering the classes online I’ve also
figured out how people could finish.
It could still be considered summers; three summers program but
145 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
you can actually only have to come to Washington DC two
summers. So I’ve done two different classes fully online over the
past two summers and this summer I’m going to offer the methods
class to teaching of theater.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Flynn: Completely online. And I honestly think based on requests I’ve
had from people around the country last year—a lot people
looking for the theater method’s class. So, what we’re also
finding is that there are some people who want to take like just
maybe the nine credits you can take as a non-degree student to
catch up on credits that they need for certification.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Flynn: That makes sense?
Sherry: That makes sense. Part of what my plan is as I’d look at laying this
out - is I’m looking at using online to teach the courses that are
more lecture-based.
And so what I’ve laid out is twelve hours during the long semester. I
did two long semesters together and then summers where they’re
there for twelve hours; and then twelve hours online. And so they
finish it in one summer and four long semesters
Dr. Flynn: Okay; I see.
Sherry: And so that’s what I’m writing but if I had had my choice Dr. Flynn
146 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
I would be writing about an MFA program; because if I’d had my
choice between a PhD and an MFA I would have gone for the MFA
to be honest.
Dr. Flynn: Yeah. You do mean an MFA in Theatre Education?
Sherry: Yes.
Dr. Flynn: I don't even know if there are any programs that offer Theatre
Education.
Sherry: There is one at Boston University
Dr. Flynn: Yeah.
Sherry: But what happens…
Dr. Flynn: I think that you know in part because of the nature of the MFA
being so hands on. You know like you need to like; Theatre
Education is different from Fine Arts - I guess that’s what I’m
thinking. But that’s another story anyway; let me get back to your
question.
Sherry: Okay. I asked you about the online. So have you thought about as
you’ve taught online the integrity of preserving your course as you
made the online conversion? You know…
Dr. Flynn: Yeah. You mean the integrity of the courses as opposed to how
I teach them in person versus online?
Sherry: Yes; yes.
Dr. Flynn: Oh yes; well I have done a lot of work in collecting a lot of videos
147 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
of myself teaching and of students of mine teaching the techniques
that the course addresses.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Flynn: And personally, I feel that that is the main reason why I can teach
drama online. It is distinct. Well you know with the situation
with theater is that there is so much of it that’s experiential that.
For example just taking theatre games you need to; it’s so great
to actually do the games.
Sherry: Yes.
Dr. Flynn: Try out the games in the classroom. But what I have found is that
if I can talk about the games and then show the students a video
either while we’re meeting online or on give it to them as
homework to view and then respond to that make the biggest
difference in appositive way.
Because one of the things that the way that I conduct the classes
online is- it’s not a glorified independent study. We actually meet
online and you know by using microphones and video cameras; not
video cameras; webcams.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Flynn: And I put slides up and I show them the videos as we’re all working
together so that it has the feeling of an in-person class. And so it’s
not just like go to this Blackboard site and then do this and
148 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
participate in this discussion board.
It’s much more immediate and personal. And that to me is what
makes the difference and what makes it possible to have the online
classes be effective.
Sherry: What program; you mentioned Blackboard but what program
are you using to connect with your students? I’m just curious.
Dr. Flynn: I have a subscription to the WebEx classroom
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Flynn: And so, it’s something that I pay for myself, because I use it for
other organizations as well. Like for example, in winter I’m
teaching an online course for the Kennedy Center; and I just
trained some teachers in South Carolina; and I did 2 online
sessions for them.
Then I’ll go down to work with them in person in November. So
it’s worth it to me to pay for this subscription to WebEx, because I
like it so much. I think it’s a much stronger platform than some of
the others.
Sherry: Oh definitely. I use WebEx here. I teach Fine Arts Appreciation
which is introduction to all of the arts. And so I use WebEx with
my students and it is a solid platform.
Dr. Flynn: Yeah, it’s that you actually meet with them and that you can use
webcams and let them do their thing - raise a hand; respond in the
149 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
chat box kind of thing.
Sherry: When they’re doing their group work that’s when I’m meeting with
them on WebEx because that’s when I really lose them. I t’s
because they’re like, “Oh my how do I meet with my group!?”
Dr. Flynn: (laughs) Right.
Sherry: I’m part of a pilot right now. And so the school has been really
great about letting me pilot this with this group of students and 2
classes that can use that for their group work to meet
synchronously, and that’s really helped I think with retention. This
is my second semester using it.
Dr. Flynn: Yeah. I know I really like it. I’m sure they’re other ones that are
good to its just that I’m so familiar with this. And I love the ability
to you know when I stream the videos it happens immediately. And
we were even doing the script the other night I; that was one of my
current classes. I always do like 2 sessions online so that they get a
sense of the potential for this.
Sherry: What? As you change to teach online what do you think the
impact on theater - this is going to have as a discipline as we try
and create some distance classes for learning pathways?
Dr. Flynn: Do you mean the impact on theatre or theatre education?
Sherry: Well on theatre education. Mostly people returning who are trying
to get advanced degrees; and the - what’s at stake for professors as
150 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
we push theatre as a way to teach theatre to people who want to
learn it more and as we’re getting a push in Texas to teach
everything online.
Dr. Flynn: (laughs)
Sherry: Everything (chuckles).
Dr. Flynn: Well, I think the main thing I would say and this would require a
whole lot more of deconstruction obviously is that it all depends on
how good it is. If the online instruction is good and solid and
prepared for, then it has an enormous potential.
But if it’s bad you’ll lose students left and right because that the kind
of student who want to use theatre or drama as a learning method
they want to not just read but they want to see it; and then if they
can’t experience it then at least they want to see a video of it.
I believe that that’s then something that has made the huge
difference like I said before. So I guess that’s my main answer to
your question.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Flynn: If it’s done well and it’s a lot of work to make the change. You
know like I teach last semester; well last year I taught a class, I
taught from 5 and 9. I taught it live and in person.
Sherry: mm-hmm.
Dr. Flynn: And then I taught the exact same class online. And the live and in
151 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
person one certainly helped me but the online one I had to I mean
which videos; how could I do this; what do I make this? What will
the class be about? Because I can’t keep them online for 2½ hours;
it’s too long.
You know the most is maybe 2 hours.
Sherry: Yes.
Dr. Flynn: But you know I spend a lot of time focusing on okay how can I
make this interactive? How can; what pictures will I show them?
How much of this video will I show them and then stop? How will
I control their watching of the videos?
Sherry: uh huh
Dr. Flynn: You know something like - alright this time I’m gonna say watch
for the language of instruction and then when I stop it we’re gonna
talk about that you know. But so it’s; there’s so much preparation
that goes into it that I know mine are successful because of that.
Sherry: Right.
Dr. Flynn: But without that, you know, I think you could probably agree that
it’ll go right down the tank.
Sherry: I agree. Every semester I’m looking at “how do I make this better?”
- when I see something that doesn’t work. Our issues here in Texas
are this unrealistic view of thinking that teaching online is easier
than teaching face-to-face.
152 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Flynn: (laughs).
Sherry: (chuckles).
Dr. Flynn: Oh no. Oh no. You can; you cannot; I’m not telling you anything
that you don't know, but you can roll into class face-to-face;
although my husband says maybe we’re not to go face-to-face
anymore, because we look at each other in the webcam.
Sherry: (chuckles)
Dr. Flynn: Well, anyway, I know what you mean about face-to-face is you
can go into that classroom you can wing it if you were like
flustered and you know flustered caught in traffic. Y ou cannot just
wing it online.
Sherry: No; not at all.
Dr. Flynn: You have to be prepared, but there certainly are the benefits. Like I
love the fact that I can record the classes; and oh, here’s another
thing that might be of interest is what I was told in a meeting we had
at the university one time is that - most students are interested in an
asynchronous online class. In other words, you know the kind that
they do not have to report to at a particular time. So, what I was able
to do was to use the WebEx platform and say “Well we’re gonna
meet”, for example, “every Monday from 7 to 8:30, but every
session will be recorded. So that if you can’t make it, then what you
can do is watch the recording and fill out this”. I call this an
153 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
asynchronous viewing of the online class. And then you’ll get full
credit for attendance.
Sherry: Oh.
Dr. Flynn: So that was a benefit of the online teaching; the idea that if a
student missed a class, they could experience precisely what
happened in the class, not just getting notes from somebody.
But I found that the form that they have to fill out within a
week of watching it; and oh in a week of the presentation of it.
I can look at the form and know whether they watched the
recording.
Sherry: Oh yeah; that’s true. So do you feel like there’s some intellectual
property issues for online teaching?
Dr. Flynn: Not the way that I do it.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Flynn: Because I own the WebEx.
Sherry: Oh that’s right.
Dr. Flynn: Yes it’s my own. And then I’m the one who controls the demo; I
mean store the links to the course. And I only ever send them the
streaming link so that they can’t download it
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Flynn: It’s interesting our university tried something a couple of years
ago. They said, “Oh you know you’ll get like, I don't know like
154 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
$3,000 for developing an online course, but after you had
developed it the university owned it”.
Sherry: Right.
Dr. Flynn: Not a single professor went for it. Nope absolutely not (chuckles)
no one would go for it.
Sherry: We did that Dr. Flynn, and the interesting thing is that what my
college doesn’t understand is--I developed it but even though I
hand it over to you once it’s developed it is not a stagnant thing;
somebody has to go in and keep the course up with whatever
technology is happening at the time. So, the class might be
current for a year or two after I develop it.
Dr. Flynn: Right.
Sherry: Then what’s going to happen with it? You know are you all going
to bring somebody else in to update it to keep up with the material
that might be shifting? And so they did that here about 3 years
ago and now they’re coming back and they’re saying, “So we need
somebody to update this class. Can you do that?” And we’re like,
“No you own that course. It’s yours”.
Dr. Flynn: (laughs)
Sherry: (chuckles)
Dr. Flynn: Yes you wanna pay me?
Sherry: Yeah.
155 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Flynn: I’ll do it for you.
Sherry: Exactly, I will update it for you if you pay me. And I will continue to
do that but you will have to pay me to do that. So they weren’t
thinking ahead of time. Usually they think in these small time
frames;
Dr. Flynn: Right.
Sherry: And administrators do not realize that every semester technology is
changing and course update is necessary. This is not twenty years
ago where you invest in video and then never update the material
Dr. Flynn: Yes, that is true.
Sherry: So, I have one last question for you. Do you have any plans at all
to ever do a total online program?
Dr. Flynn: I don't think so because some of our courses are like for example the
design; the production design classes are to help the students who
need to know how to make a flat; build staircases and you know,
scene painting.
So they’re extremely hands on because they need to be. In other
words, they need to do it. They need to actually take it not just
watch somebody paint it you know. And so those; I don't ever see
those being that way but I have made a little bit of inroads with
some of the professors in my department.
Like this summer, one of the professors teaches what’s it called—
156 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Western Theatre and Culture; that could totally be taught
completely online but he’s younger than I am…
Sherry: (giggles)
Dr. Flynn: Well turns out, he is also teaching a class in Ireland so I convinced
him that I should hold his hand figuratively and have him offer the
class as a hybrid. In other words let’s start it online for the first
four weeks and then I’ll record the sessions with the students doing
their projects while he’s in Ireland. And then he can finish up the
class in the way he always has done it- live and in person.
So that was a huge inroad, because I think I may next time to be
able to convince him, “You know Patrick you could do this whole
thing online”. Especially the way he teaches it, which is to
students do PowerPoint presentations, you can just give them the
control of the screen, right.
Sherry: Right.
Dr. Flynn: So that; I could see that one. You see I’m not telling you anything you
don't know - is that there’s a lot of professors have a resistance to this,
too. You don't wanna do it; “Nope”; “This is not, it’s not good”;
“It’s not strong”; “It’s not robust”; when really it is. And so I made
some inroads with him.
Our directing professor is interested in the same kind of thing like
start the course online where you; but there’s a lot of reading to do
157 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
with discussions to the reading; and preparations and stuff. But
finish it in person because again directing happens like theater. You
need to be in the same room to really make it work.
Sherry: Right.
Dr. Flynn: I think; but that said I could also see somebody if they again if they
had enough video; and if they had enough creativity you might be
able to do that online. But I guess it’s not that you couldn’t but
ultimately for some of those things I do think you need to be in the
same room.
Sherry: Well, I’m looking at the directing, acting and design part to be
offered in the summer.
Dr. Flynn: Right.
Sherry: And many of the lecture classes to be offered online.
Dr. Flynn: Right.
Sherry: And at least 60% of what I have observed and what I have taken
as a student can be taught online. And then in the summer what
we would all dream of is to be involved in acting, directing and
design in this; in a very tight timeframe which is what theatre is
about.
I can really learn how to do that with my summers and then take
that back to my students, because I have experienced it from both
sides. From the side of building it; from the side of directing it, and
158 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
maybe even from the side of acting myself. Because I think that
too is what teaching faculty forget that part, because we don't get to
do it as much.
Dr. Flynn: Yeah; right; I agree. I think you could; the one thing that we have
found is that taking three credit graduate courses in the summer is
really intense. Even if we make the schedule work for them it’s a
lot of work. And because of you know the nature of what we
expect from the students. But that has been challenging you know
for what it’s worth.
Sherry: Okay. Well I do appreciate your time. You have given me lots
of good information.
Dr. Flynn: Oh good (laughs).
Sherry: And when I finish; woo hoo!! When I finish I will send you a copy.
Dr. Flynn: Okay that would be great (chuckles).
Sherry: Thank you very much.
Dr. Flynn: Where are you in your dissertation process?
Sherry: I’m on chapter three - the people I’m interviewing are for chapter
four; and chapter 1 and chapter 2 are already done. And they’ve
been edited and they’re waiting for me to finish this.. (chuckles)
Dr. Flynn: I see. (laughs)
Sherry: And Chapter four is – also a course designed located in
Blackboard that is called Theatre Management. So, I have to do
159 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
a sample course and then the actual design of the program.
Dr. Flynn: Oh great. Good!
Sherry: The interviews are going to augment what I’m doing in Chapter
Four. And then Chapter Five are my observations, recommendations
and conclusion; if I could have my wishes; and where do I see this
going from here. And I really see somebody I think, I could be
wrong, in the next five to ten years is going to do an MFA that’s
gonna be hybrid. And it’s going to be summers-only because there
are still a lot of people who want to get an MFA rather than an MA.
Dr. Flynn: Yeah; right, right. I’ll agree.
Sherry: So I want to be one of those people out there pushing. And after I
finish I’m going to go and try and put a panel together for the
ATHE conference and some of the other theater conferences to see
if we can get people to start a real conversation about distance
education in theatre.
Dr. Flynn: Great; great; okay well good luck Sherry. You have a challenge
ahead of you.
Sherry: (laughs) Well, thank you very much Dr. Flynn
Dr. Flynn: Okay, bye-bye.
Sherry: Bye-bye.
160 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Phone Interview with David Montgomery Ph. D.
New York University Steinhardt
New York City
October 20, 2014
Sherry: Hello Dr. Montgomery, how are you?
Dr. Montgomery: Great; how are you?
Sherry: I’m great; how are you doing?
Dr. Montgomery: I’m good. I’m good
Sherry: Please say that again.
Dr. Montgomery: Hello?
Sherry: Hello?
Dr. Montgomery: Yeah. I’m here.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Montgomery: I’m good.
Sherry: Is it okay for me to record our conversation for my dissertation
Dr. Montgomery: Yes, it is.
Sherry: I really appreciate your time in this and I’ll try not to take
up a lot of your time.
Dr. Montgomery: Okay; great.
Sherry: I’m writing my dissertation to look at summer
programs; summer master’s programs for focusing on
non-traditional students.
161 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Montgomery: Uh-huh.
Sherry: And I’m wondering when you started your summer-only
program.
Dr. Montgomery: Well as far as I know it’s been around since the start of the
program and the program started in 1966. Lowell and Nancy
Swortzell were the founders of the program and they knew
that some of their students would be teachers that need to get
their master’s degree.
And so offering coursework in the summer for students who
couldn’t come in the fall or spring was a smart move. And so
it’s continued for a long time with a lot of different study-
abroad options as well as on campus courses. I meant it’s sort
of being promoted the last couple years as new.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Montgomery: But it’s not new.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Montgomery: It’s just sort of a new marketing. So for a while we’ve gone
along without; it’ would just be I guess word of mouth or its
just people knowing about it. You know its been buried or
hidden somewhere on our website. So this targeting certain
demographic on the Internet was something that happened
just basically a year ago it started anew but it’s not a new
162 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
program at all. We’ve always had the summer; summer-
only option for; it’s the same degree that other students can
get; one of our non-certification teaching certification
degrees.
Sherry: Yes.
Dr. Montgomery: So that’s; it’s the same degree. It is offered throughout the
year so it’s not different in that sense. It’s just that students
can come in the summer and continue to work in their jobs as
teacher throughout the year.
Sherry: Do you have any online components of that program?
Dr. Montgomery: Yeah. It says 3 summer options. It’s a potential course
of study that students can take. Yeah it’s all there.
Sherry: Okay. I didn’t; I looked at the courses but I didn’t know if
some of them were online or all of them were face-to-
face during the summer.
Dr. Montgomery: Oh-oh, you mean online. At the moment, we don't have
online, well that’s gonna change but we don't have courses
that are online. The students come to the campus in the
summer.
Sherry: And they take 12 hours every summer?
Dr. Montgomery: Well they don't have to. I mean the example there is 12 points
you know which is 4 classes more or less every summer.
163 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
That is considered fulltime. A lot of them will do that. But
they don't have to. They can do less; they can do 6 points.
They can do whatever they want; they have 6 years to finish
the degree.
Sherry: Okay. I did have a question. So I notice they can go to three
separate places but can they spend all three summers in
New York and not have to go to Dublin or London; or is
that a requirement?
Dr. Montgomery: They can; you know what they could; theoretically they
could. We very much push that they go to a weeklong study-
abroad course. Mostly because we don’t have that many
summer offerings. So if they want to get it done they really
do because we offer some of the same courses each summer.
And then we shift some courses up each summer and we
change them. But in order to get it done at least in 3
summers we very much push through advisement really that
they try to go and study abroad.
We very strongly encourage that they go to one study-abroad
but it’s not written anywhere that they have to do that but it’s
gonna be tricky for them to find enough courses just on
campus.
Sherry: Okay.
164 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Montgomery: However they can take courses outside of our program.
They’re allowed to take up to 9 credits. So some of them will
go that; might go that route. It’s happened; not very often but
it’s happened that people not take a study-abroad.
Sherry: Okay. So in the summer then your normal
demographic tends to be theater professionals or
teachers?
Dr. Montgomery: That’s right; exactly. I said teachers but it’s not just teachers;
it’s also people who basically have off time in the summer
and they want to get that credential - the master’s degree.
Either they have to for teaching purposes, like in New York
you have to get a master’s degree in teaching at some point.
Or they work for a cultural organization and they have their
summers free and that’s the only time they can really do
coursework.
Sherry: Do you tend to have a lot of out of states students come to
your program?
Dr. Montgomery: A lot of out of state?
Sherry: Yes.
Dr. Montgomery: Yea we do actually but in the summer we tend to have a lot
of out of state people come to our program; that’s right.
Sherry: Are you thinking about at any time taking any of your
165 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
courses to an online format?
Dr. Montgomery: Yes; some courses. That’s actually being talked about right
now. We have a new Dean at the school; he’s pushing it
across the whole school that he really wants more online
course. So yeah I see that it’s happening. I don't know how
quickly but it will eventually happen. But it would be
probably more for the research courses or the; more of the
lecture base courses although we don't have all that many.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Montgomery: We do need people to be interacting in the room together for
a lot of the work that we do but absolutely some of the
coursework eventually will be online courses.
Sherry: Do you worry about the integrity of the course being
preserved if it’s switched to online?
Dr. Montgomery: I do.
Sherry: Okay
Dr. Montgomery: I do a little bit. I think it’s a good question. A lot of people
really like the online. Look if it’s the right course I think
it’s totally fine. More than fine I think there are some
benefits to online technology. I just think that with many
of our courses as well they need to have people in a room.
It’s drama, it’s theater work you know so they need to be
166 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
able to work in groups; be in the room; physicalize things;
act things out and I think those courses would not benefit
as much form online course offerings.
So I see a suggestion though. As long as we keep it to the
right courses I think it would be fine and be good. It would
be helpful; it would be better for both students; some of
those students who can’t always come the whole summer to
New York or abroad.
Sherry: Are you feeling? I ask this; I teach at a community college
and so and I’m in Texas and we’re feeling this pressure a
lot. So are you feeling that pressure to focus online?
Dr. Montgomery: I’m just in the beginning phases of feeling that yeah. I mean
I’m not feeling a hard push. I mean I am feeling a hard push
but I’m not feeling sort of what that entails. So yes; the
answer is yes. I think many of us are feeling that you know
this is the way of the future. We have to embrace it and we
not only have to embrace it but we have to eventually offer
some stuff online. So there’s definitely some pressure there
but I think everyone’s in the same boat but I’m not feeling
like; I’m not at a stage where I feel like upset or worried
about it; but you know I’m old.
Sherry: Oh okay (chuckles)
167 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Montgomery: It might be different if were earlier in my career.
Sherry: I might do that because I plan to take a sabbatical and find out
more about this after I finish this PhD.
Dr. Montgomery: Sure. Yeah.
Sherry: What do you think about the intellectual or have you even
thought about the intellectual property issues related to
going online?
Dr. Montgomery: I mean only in the very general sense I have thought about
that. I know others have too and I’m not the only one. All
the nuts and bolts of it are pretty big so yeah I have not
gotten into the nitty-gritty of what that entails but absolutely
that’s part of the concern I think too with going online.
Sherry: My whole premise around looking at this is because I
teach at a community college and I earned my MA and I
really wanted to get an MFA; but it was really difficult for
me to quit my job and tell my husband and our children ,
“Hey I’m gonna go for 3 years and get this MFA. We
should uproot and go somewhere and make that happen”.
Dr. Montgomery: Right.
Sherry: Have you? Has anyone ever thought about? And this is my
last question - about a cohort hybrid sort of MA for MFA for
working teachers.
168 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Montgomery: I don't know. Not us. An MFA does typically require that sort
of intensive cohort of people. We haven’t offered an MFA.
It’s always been an MA and that allows more flexibility in
terms of what students can take. And certainly for summer-
only that’s been part of it. So no; the answer is no we haven’t
considered that as an option yet.
Sherry: Okay. I do ask because for somebody like me who has an
MA and wants that terminal degree.
Dr. Montgomery: Right.
Sherry: Our options are Ph.D. I mean I feel lucky that Texas Tech
offers a Ph.D. in Fine Arts and allows me to focus on
Theater and Directing and Arts Administration.
Dr. Montgomery: Mm-hmm.
Sherry: There are very few programs like that but if I’d had my
preference I would have done a summer-only MFA in a
heartbeat. If it’d been out there for me I would have chosen
that over a Ph.D.
Dr. Montgomery: Well you know that’s a good idea. It is. I mean at the moment
I don't know how we could do it. But I only say resources and
all that stuff but it; I agree with you that that would be
attractive to all kinds of people. And they can still have that
intensive experience; it would just be over the summer
169 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
instead of yeah. Got you; you know it’s actually; yeah you
typically have to; yeah I understand you have to uproot; you
have to go to classes all in the fall and in the spring. And they
have to be sort of you know integrated with each other and
more prescribed I think too. So I..
Sherry: But I think…
Dr. Montgomery: Yeah…
Sherry: No go ahead.
Dr. Montgomery: Yeah no that’s it. It is a good idea; very good idea I
think. Very good, it targets the mid-career student.
Sherry: Yes
Dr. Montgomery: I hope that you mention that in your dissertation
Sherry: I’m planning on it. That’s when I write my final chapter
after I; you’re the second person that I’ve interviewed. My
final chapter’s really gonna focus on what a cohort hybrid
MFA would look like for someone like me.
Dr. Montgomery: Yeah; yeah; I think that would be really a great idea,
absolutely.
Sherry: Well I really appreciate your time.
Sherry: Thank you very much Dr. Montgomery.
Dr. Montgomery: Okay have a great day.
Sherry: You too. Bye-bye.
170 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Montgomery: Okay, bye.
171 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Face-to Face Interview with Patric Byname Ph. D
Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas
July 30, 2014
Sherry: I apologize Dr. Byname, I did not have my recorder on. I must ask
you if is it okay to record this interview for my dissertation.
Dr. Byname: Yes, it is
Sherry: Thanks
Dr. Byname: The past 2 years at MATC which is Mid-America Theater
Conference - very good conference. They have 3 different areas that
you can select papers. And they’re best known as a theater history
conference. But they do have a division that accepts papers on
pedagogy and pedagogical practice.
And it was 2 years ago I was the pedagogy symposium chair and
our; we put a focus on getting papers and dealt with online and
hybrid learning. And then last year after I had moved that
symposium chair position on to the next round of people they
followed up on it. So for the past 2 years I’m at MATC that
pedagogy area has presented a number of papers and sort of, I
know at least within the Midwest, really raised the interest in how
all of that works. There’s a guy Michael; Michael what’s his last
name? He’s the guy chairing it this year. He’s at a University of
Northern Kentucky.
172 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: And Michael out of the University of Northern Kentucky is; he’s
their online guy. And I know he’s continuing that area of emphasis
for the pedagogy symposium within MATC. So the point being -
there may be some work out there from those
Sherry: Okay
Dr. Byname: You know I know for a fact the papers that I brought in on the
symposium that I chaired; and then the follow up year there were a
number of working groups, plenary sessions, individual papers that
their sole focus was - “here we are in the land of hybrid online
learning how do we all deal with it?”
Sherry: Well I was on a panel for ATHE (Association for Theatre
in Higher Education) last semester for online learning.
Dr. Byname: Mm-hmm.
Sherry: And how do we deal with that and how we need to deal with it
before somebody deals with it for us. And that’s the scary part
to me.
Dr. Byname: Sure. Well I think it’s already happening I mean in some
sense. Just because at least here in Texas, and Texas is
always somewhat the exception
Sherry: Mmm. (chuckles)
Dr. Byname: As I found out from those couple of years of working with MATC.
173 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
You know that most of us who were presenting papers on those
panels there was a real Texas flavor to those MATC panels. Few
outliers but Texas has really embraced online learning in a way that
of the other, especially the north eastern and upper Midwestern
states perhaps have not. And because our legislature is so much
more involved in what happens in the classroom.
Sherry: Yes they are.
Dr. Byname: On all levels. I mean elementary all the way through, college.
Sherry: K through graduate school.
Dr. Byname: Right; you’re right - through graduate school. You know this
legislative move towards assessment; towards having to post all of
your syllabi; towards posting all of your vitae; towards you know a
religious adherence to zip codes within your teaching discipline.
It’s much more involved and I think based on the small sample of
me having been in some of those conferences. I don't hear people
from Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, California, Washington
State, dealing quite with the same level of legislative involvement.
Sherry: Mmm.
Dr. Byname: There’s a sense that they have to do something.
Sherry: Yes.
Dr. Byname: But you know none of those places have a governor saying find a
way to make a $10,000 degree.
174 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Sherry: I know (chuckles). Well I just; I don't see an MFA as a total online
degree.
Dr. Byname: Mm-hmm.
Sherry: I see it as a low-residency degree.
Dr. Byname: Well somebody you may want to talk to and its outside of the field
of theater is but they’re here at TWU is Mary Williford-Shade. She
runs the dance program here. Williford; W-I-L-L-I-F-O-R-D hyphen
Shade; Williford-Shade.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: She holds a Ph.D. in dance. I believe she got a Ph.D. in dance
from TWU. TWU is one of three Ph.D. dance programs in the
nation.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: And they have really pioneered a low-res Dance Ph.D. program and
they’ve had it for years I think they’re going on a decade.
Sherry: Oh Really?
Dr. Byname: Yes.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: Now Mary runs the program now but the previous chair in dance
was a woman named Penny Hanstein.
Sherry: I know Penny.
Dr. Byname: Oh okay; well Penny is retired now; but Penny was the one
175 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
who really created it.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: Penny’s still in the area enjoying her retirement; enjoying
not doing assessment and all of that other stuff.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: Well Penny brought Mary in years ago and then Mary became
chair after Penny retired.
Sherry: Okay that would be a good program to maybe look at too.
Dr. Byname: Right. And the reason they’ve been able to do that low-res program
successfully is because of all of their theoretical courses, all of their
dance history courses are online.
Sherry: Have you thought about? Have you ever thought about a Ph.D.
program here for theater?
Dr. Byname: I haven’t just because I know I’d need to add you know three
or four PhD’s
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: And there’s no way the university’s gonna spring for that.
Sherry: True.
Dr. Byname: No I think there’s potentially a call for an MFA in this area. The
only Ph.D. in the Arts in this area is the Humanities Ph.D. down
at UTD (University of Texas at Dallas)
Sherry: I started there.
176 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Byname: Okay.
Sherry: After a year, I realized it was not the degree I wanted.
Dr. Byname: Yeah
Sherry: And that’s how I ended up at Tech because it just wasn’t the
program I wanted to do.
Dr. Byname: Well I think it was a wise choice on your part too because I look
at that and I look at you. We were talking about the market
earlier.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: And now that I’m sitting on the other side of the desk, the
Program Director’s desk - I look at the market from a buyer’s
point of view rather than a seller’s point of view.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: Not to be too capitalistically crass about it but; and I see all of the
people who apply for jobs.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: When I put out a job notice. And I simply don't need to even
consider a Ph.D. in something as general as the Humanities.
Sherry: No.
Dr. Byname: Because I have so many qualified people with a Ph.D. in Theater.
Sherry: Exactly; and a lot of them are coming out of my program (laughs)
Dr. Byname: And look UT Austin produces a lot of Ph.D.’s they’re just down the
177 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
road. LSU is not too far away they produce a lot of Ph.D.’s; University
of Colorado’s got a Ph.D. program – that’s not that far away.
Sherry: No it’s not.
Dr. Byname: So you know we got four heavy-producing Ph.D. programs within a
days drive of the Dallas Fort Worth area.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: I guess five if you want to consider Lorenz, Kansas as being
that close, might be a bit out of there but still that KU program
is a big time Ph.D. program too.
Sherry: It is.
Dr. Byname: So you know just regionally I can look at KU. I can look at
Colorado. I can look at Tech, I can look at UT Austin; I can look at
LSU; put out my notice even just regionally. And I got five
programs that can be thrown lots and lots of qualified Ph.D.’s at
me. Why do I look at generalists - Ph.D. in Humanities?
Sherry: True I agree.
Dr. Byname: You know it’s just market demand at that point. So they can make
the right choice. And I think as a result in this North Texas region
there probably is a demand for something like that - a Ph.D. in
Theater. I; honestly if that happens it would have to happen at some
school like TCU or SMU; maybe Baylor with like a low-res
program or something like that.
178 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Sherry: But there’s no state school in the DFW area.
Dr. Byname: No.
Sherry: With a Ph.D.? And there’s no state school with a MFA.
Dr. Byname: SMU has an MFA in acting
Sherry: That’s not a state school
Dr. Byname: (laughs). No you’re right; it’s not a state school.
Dr. Byname: The closest I guess you get would be OU (Oklahoma University).
Sherry: Yes
Dr. Byname: Outside of state.
Sherry: That’s right.
Dr. Byname: About three hours north of here. Yeah otherwise you’re up to
Fayetteville, Arkansas which is a good drive.
Sherry: But you know when you are a working adult;
Dr. Byname: Mm-hmm.
Sherry: And you want to stay in the realm of theater and there’s more of
us than not
Dr. Byname: Mm-hmm.
Sherry: It’s hard to go back. It’s hard to get your MFA.
Dr. Byname: Oh yeah; yep. It’s difficult
Sherry: Without giving your life
Dr. Byname: Yeah. It’s hard to get the MA. You know my program’s designed to
get, to be completed in 2 years.
179 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: But if you’re one of my online students and those tend to be the
working students -
Sherry: Yep.
Dr. Byname: I tell them flat out at the beginning, “This is going to take you
closer to three years.
Sherry: Yes.
Dr. Byname: Maybe 3½ full credit. Full course load for grads is 9-10
hours that’s equivalent of 18 hours for an undergraduate.
You’re not gonna come anywhere close to taking that if you’re
working a 40 hour work week. You know take 6 - qualifies you for
federal work study as a full time; or as a federal
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: As a fulltime grad student once you cross that threshold of 6 credit
hours we’ll find some credit hours over the summer for you to take
but you know don't think 2. It’s gonna take 3.
Sherry: Three.
Dr. Byname: Maybe 3½ depending on what your work schedule’s like. Some of
these folks coming out of high schools you know it gets to UIL
(University Interscholastic League) in the spring and life stops.
Sherry: Well school stops, but that life…
Dr. Byname: It takes over and honestly and most of the students who are working
180 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
in high schools and middle schools when it comes to UIL probably
shouldn’t even take courses in the spring. And that if they’re really
competitive UIL campus it just takes over their life.
Sherry: Well, I was looking at a program at Colorado College,
Dr. Byname: Mm-hmm.
Sherry: Where you’re only taking one course at a time every four weeks.
Dr. Byname: Mm-hmm.
Sherry: But you can actually take two courses a semester but they’re two
eight-weeks sessions during a sixteen-week semester
Dr. Byname: Oh, okay.
Sherry: So that way you’re only working on one course.
Dr. Byname: Sure
Sherry: But the school that I was looking at they do everything in four weeks.
Dr. Byname: Oh wow.
Sherry: Every 3½ weeks you take a course.
Dr. Byname: Mm-hmm
Sherry: Three-hour course. This is undergrad.
Dr. Byname: Mm-hmm.
Sherry: And then you finish that. You have 5 days off. Then you take
another four-week course.
Dr. Byname: It’s a sort of old semester sequence but on steroids.
Sherry: And they’re done that pretty much - Colorado College.
181 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Byname: Oh sure Yeah.
Sherry: They have done that for at least 100 years.
Dr. Byname: Wow.
Sherry: And I was looking at their program and talking to people there and
you know you can focus on one course and then do your life.
When you have two courses you’re trying to balance and life.
Dr. Byname: Mm-hmm.
Sherry: So that’s what I’m going to be basing mine course-work design on
Colorado College’s model.
Dr. Byname: That’s interesting.
Sherry: Okay, so…
Dr. Byname: Please yes. Sorry I didn’t mean to get you off.
Sherry: Let me ask you my question. That’s okay. How did you get started
with the theater hybrid program?
Dr. Byname: I’ve only been in the Program Director position for the past two
years. Prior to that when I was brought here to TWU in ‘06, I was
brought in as a replacement hire for a retiring, for the retiring
Ph.D. at the department.
Sherry: Mary Lou.
Dr. Byname: Yes.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: And Mary Lou retired after a long and esteemed career. And they
182 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
had been talking about trying to make this a program or trying to
make at least a few classes available online for the MA’s. And I
don't; I never had a chance to really talk to Mary Lou in depth
about it. But talking to Sharon Benge…
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: My predecessor in the Program Director position. My feeling was
that Mary Lou was a bit resistant to the idea. She wasn’t a fan of
online learning. She liked her MA program the way it was. And you
got to respect that she built up that program there’s no reason why
she shouldn’t like the program that she made.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: Sharon was worried about numbers. At that time the TWU Drama
Program had been removed from their old building. The building
had been condemned.
Sherry: Right.
Dr. Byname: Right. So the enrollment in TWU Drama program plummeted
Sherry: Wow.
Dr. Byname: When I arrived in ‟06 we were down to about 12 undergraduate
majors and 8 graduate students. And there was a lot of rumbling
from the administration about get those numbers up. To which
Sharon replied, “How am I supposed to get those numbers up
when I don't have a theater?” Texas is very competitive in its
183 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
recruitment for good theater students. There’s a lot of very good
theater programs especially on the undergraduate level. And to
go into a recruitment event and come right out and say we don't
have a theater - death to your recruitment effort.
Sherry: Absolutely.
Dr. Byname: So we knew we were getting the building this building that we’re
sitting in right now. We knew that was going to open in ‘07. I was
brought in in the fall of ‘06 and the first thing that Sharon did was
sit me down and say, “You got to work with me to help bring
these numbers up”.
“And I’m making you Graduate Program Director, that’s what you
are here to be as a PhD. I think one of the ways we can do this is to
offer more classes courses online”.
And I had some familiarity with Blackboard with my previous
university position. I wouldn’t ever call myself an expert in it but I
always could navigate around it and build a course shell. And I
said, “Okay let’s start figuring it out”. So we took that year; that
academic year ‘06-‘07 to figure out how it could be done.
And at the end of that year the two of us figured that the best way
to do it wasn’t just to offer a few classes but was to try and develop
an entire hybrid online program. That would essentially piggyback
on the existing MA program.
184 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: So they’re not actually 2 separate programs. They’re all the same;
it’s the same degree; it’s the same MA but we do advertise them
separately because people do their Google searches and look for
online theater degree.
Sherry: Yes they do.
Dr. Byname: Because we made that choice;
Sherry: It pops up.
Dr. Byname: It pops up.
Sherry: I put in online theater degree and this one popped up.
Dr. Byname: Right. So; you know Sharon has a lot of experience as a producer
and that’s where most of her experience is; it’s not in academia.
She used to run Casa Mañana. She used to run the old art on the
Main Festival. She used to help run and help fund Shakespeare in
the park down at Fort Worth. So you know what she’s really
great at; she’s great at a lot of things but the thing she’s really
great at is selling and marketing. And she knew that if I could
build some classes that were academically rigorous and did what
we did in the classroom; if we called it certain things and did it in
a certain way we could sell it. And we knew having looked at
our market over that year where we kind of studied the problem,
that we were the only MA offered in the North Texas region. The
185 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
one lone exception to that is A&M Commerce.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: Which is almost up at the Red River.
Sherry: Yes.
Dr. Byname: And well it is in North Texas. Nobody in the Dallas Fort Worth
Metroplex considers it part of the Metroplex.
Sherry: Nope (chuckles).
Dr. Byname: So, we knew our nearest competition for the MA was up in
Commerce. We knew our next nearest competition for the MA was
down at Houston. I think there’s one other school in the state. I think
there’s; maybe there’s a remnants of an MA down at Texas State or
Sam Houston or something like that.
Sherry: They have an MA at Tech
Dr. Byname: Yeah but as far as I know they don't offer a lot of their stuff online.
Sherry: Right; correct.
Dr. Byname: They’re hanging on to that traditional mode of - “You come here
for two to three years; being residents; teach an Intro to Theater
course; sort of be minor faculty undergraduate” plus whatever that
weird gray area is. And I understand that. That was the sort of MA
I got back in the early ‘90’s.
Sherry: Well me too; I got mine here. That was it.
Dr. Byname: That’s what it was. I mean ‘93 to ‘95 is when I got my MA at then
186 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
it was Southwest Missouri State; now it’s Missouri State. We
were there to be graduate assistants.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: To add a little maturity on stage (chuckles); and to fetch papers
for full professors.
Sherry: (chuckles) mm-hmm; yeah.
Dr. Byname: Was fine but you know it was very clear that model wasn’t going
to work for us
Sherry: Right.
Dr. Byname: So after that year of study we started going through the
paperwork in order to inaugurate the program. Everybody on
the faculty was in full agreement that we did not want to
create a fully online MA.
Sherry: Oh correct, yeah.
Dr. Byname: We couldn’t find a way to do it with the acting, the directing or
electives. We’re still a little I think credit heavy in our MA - 42 credit
hours. Most MA’s are sitting between 32 and 36.
Dr. Byname: We’re coming up for an MA program review this year and I
wouldn’t be; as we do that review I will probably put forward the
suggestion that we lower our credit threshold down to 36; keep our
core at 20 and then the rest are electives, instead of 22 electives that
we have. That number 42 is a whole number from the days of 3
187 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
years when you were; or 2 years sorry; but 2 fulltime years.
Sherry: Yes.
Dr. Byname: We started offering a class here and there.
Sherry: MM-hmm
Dr. Byname: I‟m gonna say it was; my dates maybe off on it but I want to say
maybe it was spring of ‘08 that we started trying out a class online.
It was agreed at first that all of the classes that we try online would
be the core classes.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: We have four classes that make up a core of our MA. Two
Theater History; Dramatic Analysis and Criticism; and
Contemporary Theater. At the time, Contemporary Theater was a
review of what’s happening now. Read some plays and all of that.
When I started teaching it online I turned it into a Contemporary
Theater Theory Course.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: As a follow-up to Dramatic Criticism. So, Dramatic Criticism
takes you through Aristotle just up to Brecht and how we read
plays through those lenses. Contemporary Theatre Theory now
allows us to sort of launch from the birth of Realism o these ideas
of what theater is how it all sort of explodes in the theory
revolution of the 20th Century. And that worked because it was
188 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
something that could be taught online.
Sherry: Correct.
Dr. Byname: There’s a lot of very good books out there; anthologies with lots of;
and I’m sure you’re very familiar with them in your Ph.D. program.
Sherry: Oh boy.
Dr. Byname: Easy enough to find the major essays by Brecht and Arto and
Richard Sheckner and Joe Dolling and all of those folks; and turn
that discussion into Discussion Board posts and discussions.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: Theater History the same way. Bring out your Oscar Brocket; you
break out a couple of source books; you introduce your own essays
about evidence and documentation and historiography. Turn the
discussion over to the Discussion Board. You’ve got a basic shell
to your Blackboard class.
Sherry: Now are you all; are you here at TWU on 9.1 Blackboard?
Dr. Byname: Whatever the most recent update is.
Sherry: Okay. It’s 9.1
Dr. Byname: Yeah they’ve been; over the past 5 years the university’s gotten
much better about update and upgrade. Because when we started
we were still on a very old version. I think we might have even
been on version 4 or something like that. I mean it was an ancient
version. And it was; I mean I knew that because when I logged on
189 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
to it back in ‘06 or ‘07 I recognized it from my previous work with
Blackboard at my previous institution. And yeah they’ve had; that’s
what the university has had to put resources in.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: Is in updating servers and updating software packages.
So we started offering a class here and a class there. And we held
onto the idea; well about how it started - I’m sorry that was the
question. What we were able to do then is push forward the
paperwork through the university to get accredited.
Sherry: Yes. Through TWU?
Dr. Byname: Through TWU.
Sherry: Oh okay, okay.
Dr. Byname: Because it’s not a new degree. It’s simply a new delivery system
for what we already have as a degree.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: I think if we went fully online we would have to. We are
considered hybrid because of the state definition - 51% alternative
delivery method. And at the time when this all started we really
were just thinking, Sharon and I, that this would be core classes
online here and there as additional sections. But we would still
keep face-to-face sections for those who wanted it.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
190 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Byname: And we would do a lot with night classes because a night class
counts as an alternative delivery mode. So, Saturday classes, night
classes, online but you can have four class meetings. All of that
counts towards that. And it quickly grew in popularity; very
quickly grew in popularity; the number of people who migrated
online.
Sherry: Oh wow!
Dr. Byname: So from ‘08 to ‘10 there was massive growth in the program. And I
was having trouble finding bodies willing to sit in face-to-face
classes because so many people are migrating to the online format.
This is just for the core classes.
And because of that decision early on to announce ourselves as a
hybrid online MA program and to sort of advertise them as parallel
programs yeah the Internet traffic picked up. The online hits picked
up. People from San Antonio, Austin, Waco, Tyler, all over started
asking, “How can I take classes here?” And it grew much faster
than I think either of us ever expected.
Sherry: Okay. That’s incredible. So you already answered my question about
theater courses that lend themselves to online format.
Dr. Byname: Mm-hmm.
Sherry: How is the integrity of the course preserved in your online
version? How did you do that?
191 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Byname: It was tough. It was a learning experience. Part of it was modeling.
And it’s still a balance I try to find when I teach online. Part of it
was structural too in the way the class was structured.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: Online courses it’s very easy to treat them as glorified
correspondence courses. Here’s your reading; read it; give me a
summary of what you read. And at the end of the semester write
me a paper. Leave me alone.
Sherry: Thank you. Dr. Byname: (laughs).
Dr. Byname: But you know I started off I think with assuming that the habits that
I could enforce in the face-to-face classroom would automatically
transfer with the students; that the habits were there because they
were already ingrained within the student and I wouldn’t have to do
much to see those habits carried forward.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: And you know in the early going I don't think I put as much
emphasis on the Discussion Board and specific things that had to
happen within the Discussion Board posts. Now I’ve reached a
fairly happy medium I think where you have to put in an original
post by an early time in a week.
And you have to respond to no less than two by a certain time in the
week. And there’s going to be additional days afterwards in which I
192 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
wanted to see conversation occurring. I don't care which thread you
sort of pickup on but you should pick up on a thread.
And I guess I thought well in a face-to-face class somebody says
something; somebody else hears this and disagrees with it and we
have conversation, and I’d sit back a little bit and I moderate.
And I say, “Well think about this”. Or if I see the conversation
veering into attacks or unsubstantiated facts or fallacies or
something like that I can stop it and say, “Well think about this.
Well have you thought about this?” And I can redirect. And I
thought the Discussion Board could be treated in a similar fashion.
You know other than sort of correcting some fallacies or errors or
saying “let’s please remember this”, the conversation would pick
up and move happily along as it does face-to-face but that didn’t
happen at all. The students were only too happy to treat it as a bona
fide correspondence course.
So I had to get on there and you know this was ‘06; ‘07; ‘08; ‘09.
There were virtually no models for doing this. There were a few of
us and we bumped into each other occasionally at conferences and
said, “Hey what do you do?”; “Hey what do you do?” but you
know it really felt like inventing the wheel.
Sherry: Right.
Dr. Byname: So you figure out okay, I’ve got to make sure that the first post based
193 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
upon your reading happens on this day. I tried quizzes early on.
Sherry: Right.
Dr. Byname: To prove that the reading was going on. Timed quizzes that you
know you could take again and again and again until it was proven
that you had done the reading. And I actually found those really
worthless; didn’t improve the comments in the Discussion Board.
This was an earlier version of Blackboard so I’m trying to build
those quizzes was just a nightmare
Sherry: Really
Dr. Byname: A nightmare. And we were not; we were no way shape or form
helped by Blackboard through all of this. It is a better program
today; five years ago it was an awful program.
Sherry: I started with Blackboard in 1999.
Dr. Byname: Just about the very first generation of it.
Sherry: Yep. So where it was then and where it is now
Dr. Byname: Right.
Sherry: Where you don’t have to go to each thread and read every
thread.
Dr. Byname: Mm-hmm
Sherry: Now you can read a group of threads that someone has posted and
then if you want to see what they respond to you can go to that.
Yeah it’s; and then it posts directly in the grade book.
194 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Byname: Mm-hmm.
Sherry: You don't have to close it post in the grade book and come
back.
Dr. Byname: Right
Sherry: You can connect a lot of things to the grade book.
Dr. Byname: Right. And the school was slow to pick up new generations of it
too which didn’t help. So yeah, nearly going I just found the quiz
system horrible. You know these classes all had to be invented on
Blackboard too. So you know I was spending 40-hours a week
building course shells
Sherry: Absolutely you were; and then re-correcting.
Dr. Byname: And then correcting them all. And then realizing, “Oops this
doesn’t work so I’m gonna spend another five hours this week
correcting this one error” that a sanely built program would never
have allowed you to make in the first place.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: So you know that fed into it as well. I probably should go back to
some sort of quiz system but I was so put off by it and nearly going
that I don't know if I ever will. Also because it didn’t help the
quality of the Discussion Board; if anything it just encouraged
people to get really regurgitive in their learning.
“Oscar Brockett on page 341 says; so-so-so-so-so”.
195 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: You know and the quiz; I think is the reading quizzes reinforce that
because you know that’s what those quizzes on Blackboard are
good for - multiple choice. It’s about the only thing they’re really
good for.
So you know in what year was the Licensing Act of you know
government or something like that? - 1738; 1737; 1838; oh licensing
act of 1730. So then you get a post that says, “In 1737 the
administration put forward their licensing act of whichever
administration of government it was”. And so it wasn’t helping.
So, I found that if I ask them to post or to deliver to me their email
or Dropbox; and it used to be the Digital Dropbox that used to be.
Sherry: Yes, it’s disappeared.
Dr. Byname: Yeah it just vanished. Which is a shame because that is one
of the features that was fairly useful in the early period of
Blackboard.
Sherry: Absolutely.
Dr. Byname: I mean now we have regular you know Dropbox or I got my
email inbox but it was actually a pretty handy tool that they
gotten rid of. Go figure. “In the Dropbox please post a one-
paragraph summary of the readings you did this week”.
So I found that if they just did the summary in their own words I got
196 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
better understanding; lead to discussions that actually dealt with the
content and issue rather than, “In this year such and such
happened”. And then, I found that I had to get on the Discussion
Board and model posts, which surprised me.
Just because the students face-to-face never needed that modeling. I
mean I guess there was a subtle modeling you know - “well we
don't attack this way”; “well we do this”; “well think about this”.
Sherry: Because you are; you’re modeling in person and they get to see that.
Dr. Byname: Right. And that was of course completely absent. So you know
somebody would make a statement and you’d say, “This is an
interesting post but what I’m wondering is”; and you know end up
actually taking 3, 4, 5 hours out of your week to write substantive
posts that model the behavior that you want online that prove to the
students that “yeah you can do it and this is the way it’s supposed to
be done”. So that was really important to maintaining the integrity
of it. Another way that I did that was, because it was online it
became a lot easier to do an assignment that I had been playing with
a little bit in my face-to-face classes prior to the development of the
online. And that was to put the students in the position of a blind
peer-review editor.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: So previously when they would do papers everybody would
197 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
have to go round the table and say, “I want to hear in 25 words
your thesis statement”. And somebody would hem and haw and
they’d say, “No I don't want you to hem and haw I want the
concise you’ve thought about it; you’ve edited it down. No
more than 35, 25 words - In this paper I will…”
And they’d go around. And we could say, “Okay have you thought
about; have you thought about”. People shooting ideas back and
forth. That didn’t work online. Obviously they could send that to
me in 25 words; 25 words in a thesis statement and I can respond.
So, I created an assignment in which they had to - nine weeks into
the semester submit to me a first draft of their major research
paper. And like a journal editor I scrub the paper of names.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: Gave it a number that only I knew.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: Got into the guts of the paper and scrubbed off even you know
“from the desk of” kind of notices in the properties section; and
re-routed the paper to somebody else in the class. And I gave them
a peer review form that I use frequent reviewer for the Ecumenica
Journal
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: So I use theirs although there’s a number of those forms out there.
198 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
And I sort of model it as I need it for the class purposes; and of
course at the end of those peer review forms there’s a way to say
you know- publish as is; revise and publish; revise and re-submit;
not accepted. And they have to give one of those 4
Sherry: Oh wow.
Dr. Byname: Grades to be completed peer review rubric. And they have to write
a one- page critique you know. “The author in this paper is”; “I
would ask them to do this”; “this raises these questions”. And then
the student has to receive that. You know, “I don't agree with
anything this paper is saying I don't care”.
This is what happens when we try and publish papers. You have to
accept this feedback. Yes, they may be criticizing you on a use of a
comma, deal with it. The larger issue is that they’re criticizing you
on not having a clear thesis. And you may think you have a clear
thesis but some complete stranger because of the world of online
learning you’ve never seen their face; may never see their face.
You won’t know who they are. Somebody with no dog in his fight
has read your paper and said, “We don’t get it”. And you can whine
and complain and say that’s not my paper. Or you can take it at face
value that a complete stranger just read your paper and does not
understand what you’re trying to say.
So that was really important to maintaining the academic
199 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
legitimacy of the paper; was putting these students in a position to
police the integrity themselves.
Sherry: Which is awesome; I mean I’ve been doing that with my
freshman and sophomores.
Dr. Byname: Oh good; yeah.
Sherry: Because making them peer review in class; but there’s not any
anonymity to that.
Dr. Byname: No.
Sherry: So but they do have to fill out a form and I find that they go back
and do their paper better once they look at somebody else’s paper
and they’re like, “Oh okay this is what the Writing Center really
does with my paper”.
Dr. Byname: Yes.
Sherry: But it’s not magic (chuckles).
Dr. Byname: Right.
Sherry: (chuckles).
Dr. Byname: I agree; I agree. I think the value of it isn’t even in so much
receiving the criticism although some people do improve their
paper because of it; but it is just that you know - reading somebody
else’s paper and saying, “Do I do that?”
“Yeah sometimes you do”
“Oh good. I should get back to it”.
200 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Sherry: Yeah that’s what has been magic for me in graduate school in my
peers.
Dr. Byname: Mm-hmm.
Sherry: Love my peers Dr. Byname: Mm-hmm; that’s good.
Sherry: I love Facebook; ‟cause we’re like, “read this paper” (laughs).
Dr. Byname: (laughs) It is very…; you know having an honest reviewer is the
best thing you can have.
Sherry: And some of them are way to honest. “Really did you write that
because that paper sucks?”
Dr. Byname: (laughs)
Sherry: Thank you (chuckles).
Dr. Byname: There’s always those moments too.
Sherry: Okay that’s awesome; gives me some more ideas. I have some;
when I get back because I can’t remember the programs right
now; but I have some verbal programs that people can respond
verbally to fit into Blackboard.
Dr. Byname: Oh yeah.
Sherry: That you might be interested in.
Dr. Byname: Yeah sure.
Sherry: So I’ll send you; I’ll look you up at TWU and I’ll send you an email.
And I’ll send you the cheap programs that I’ve been using for the
last year.
201 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Byname: That’d be great.
Sherry: Okay so what is the impact of student and professor interaction
with the synchronous versus asynchronous?
Dr. Byname: That’s a problem I have yet to solve. Well it’s frustrating. I
don't beat myself up about it too bad because when I do go to
conferences and speak with other professors about that issue
every one of them is wrestling with it. Nobody has found a
good solution to what I believe.
It’s well one - I think part of the issue is just having to accept there
is no replacing the synchronicity that exists in a face-to-face class.
Online learning is not going to have a way of replacing it; it just; the
relationship is mediated and it will always be mediated by the very
definition of this form.
Sherry: Well supposedly Blackboard is supposed to allow you - which
has not worked; where you can put 12 people on at one time;
hasn’t worked.
Dr. Byname: University tried that program for one year and I got myself trained
in using that feature; got it turned on; and tried making it work
once and;
Sherry: It was a nightmare.
Dr. Byname: Yeah, I probably never been closer to wanting to pick up my and
throw my computer across the room than I was in my
202 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
experimentation with that feature - it was just awful.
The other problem with it - those sort of synchronous linkups -
Skype sessions - whatever you, however you want to call them - is
that it ignores a really important reality of online learning. And
that’s the; I think; I don't have proof to it but there is less financial
equality; economic equality in online learning as there is in face-to-
face learning.
A lot of the students who I have online are all online because they
need to keep that job. They have kids. In many cases, they are the
sole breadwinner. Husband has been out of work because some
industry closed. Wife has been out of work because she’s taking
care of the kids.
Affording daycare at this point is out of the question for them;
whatever the combination might be. And in order to effectively do
those linkups online the student has to have at bare minimum a
good broadband connection.
Sherry: Yes they do.
Dr. Byname: Better they should have a fiber optic connection; better they should
have a T1 connection. Those are all very expensive options and it
means the university has to supply the extra bandwidth too.
Sherry: Yes.
Dr. Byname: So that; I mean it’s one thing for me to try and do an online linkup
203 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
face-to- face; but if I’m doing it at a peak hour and I don’t know it’s
a peak hour I might as well not do it unless the university is going
to open some bandwidth for me.
Sherry: Yeah; that’s what we’re having.
Dr. Byname: And they can’t because I mean our bandwidth is probably already
pushed to about its limit what with the push for everything being
wireless.
Sherry: Yes
Dr. Byname: And would just be…
Sherry: secure?
Dr. Byname: yes secure
Dr. Byname: And just the mad grab that’s going on right now in the
telecommunications industry for bandwidth space.
Sherry: Well its interesting because I had a conversation with our IT
Director and he said what I’m trying to explain to; because ours is
a District; the Dallas County Community College District.
Dr. Byname: Mm-hmm.
Sherry: He says, “What I’m trying to explain to the District IT
department is that the average student and faculty member
walks in with two devices”.
Dr. Byname: Yes.
Sherry: “That sucks up bandwidth”.
204 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Byname: Mm-hmm.
Sherry: And he said, “So you look at you. You have your laptop, you
have your IPad; I have a Surface Pro and I have an IPhone.
Dr. Byname: Yup.
Sherry: The Surface Pro is theirs. And so he said, “You have just those
four”. And he says, “Our students walk in with at least two
devices”
Dr. Byname: Sure.
Sherry: So they‟re going to have an Android or an iPad and they’re gonna
have a phone that sucks up bandwidth”. And he says, “Every time
we talk about bandwidth they’re like oh now; they take the you
know the low bid”. And he says that’s always the problem.
Dr. Byname: Oh sure. So with those issues though you know students who;
many students who are; nobody seems to want to believe this
other than those of us who have been teaching online.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: But many of our students are still dealing with dial-up. Sherry: I know!
Dr. Byname: Right.
Sherry: I try to tell people that. They’re like, “Who has dial-up?” I’m like, “I
still have students with dial up”.
Dr. Byname: Yes. You know I don't want to say that it’s a majority or even close
205 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
to 50% but it’s a significant proportion of my; of online students are
still dealing with dialup; or their best resource to access an online
class is the computer that they reserve at the library for a one hour
stretch.
Sherry: Yes.
Dr. Byname: And again administrators and state legislators and consultants
and the gurus who are all saying online learning is going to be
the utopia of the future, not one of them believes me when I say
that. Or they nod their head and say, “Mmm; that sounds like a
problem”.
And it’s clear that they’re dismissing the comment and going right
on with their happy worldview.
Sherry: Well we had somebody in our district do a survey and they said
97% of our students are connected online. But they fail to ask the
question, “How are they connected online?”
Dr. Byname: Right.
Sherry: 97% of our students that access us at Northlake College
they are connected online.
Dr. Byname: Mm-hmm.
Sherry: But sometimes they’re only connected with their phones.
Dr. Byname: Sure.
Sherry: And sometimes they’re only connected with an Android or a pad.
206 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
That’s how they’re connected.
Dr. Byname: Right.
Sherry: And so we can’t use flash files because not everything is gonna
take a flash file.
Dr. Byname: In fact Apple refuses to play with flash.
Sherry: Yes they do, and well these; their computers play with flash. Dr. Byname: Mm-hmm.
Sherry: But these primary things that the kids buy; the students not just
kids; they don't play with flash.
Dr. Byname: Right.
Sherry: So it’s; that’s the other part.
Dr. Byname: So it’s also yeah; it’s just assuming a level of technological
sophistication that isn’t always there. And it also assumes that the
person who let’s say they do have broadband; has enough
technological sophistication to troubleshoot if anything goes
wrong.
Sherry: Absolutely.
Dr. Byname: My parents have broadband. They have an excellent broadband
connection. I know because we Skype every day or every week to
let my kids talk to grandparents up in Ohio.
I also know that I’m often on my phone with them saying, “well no
you fix it this way”; “no what you want to do is this”; “no turn it off
207 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
over here”; “now go in this file”; “no not this dropdown menu”;
“now hit this button. Good okay, yeah. Okay now reboot and try and
call me again”.
Sherry: Yeah.
Dr. Byname: And that’s just trying to get a Skype session going.
Sherry: Yes.
Dr. Byname: So great they have broadband; they can Skype with everybody until
the program doesn’t work exactly the way it’s supposed to and
who’s going to talk them through the problem. So I have found
myself in the position of offering technical support.
Sherry: That is as an online professor that is exactly what you do. You are
the first line.
Dr. Byname: Right.
Sherry: Technical support even though there’s a help desk.
Dr. Byname: There’s a help desk.
Sherry: They’re gonna call. They’re gonna send you an email first.
Dr. Byname: Right, because inevitably they will have that technological problem
the day that a paper is due; or the day that an assignment is
supposed to happen on line. And you; look our tech desk does good
work but it can take them 24 hours to respond to a problem because
they got a backlog.
Sherry: Right.
208 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Byname: Not their fault; they just have that many people asking questions. Sherry: Absolutely.
Dr. Byname: And this student has waited until 9 a.m. to submit the paper due at
5 p.m. and the Help Desk has said, “thank you for your ticket we
will be back to you as soon as we can”. Guess who’s the Help
Desk? I don't know what program they’re running. I’m not
qualified to do that but there it is.
Sherry: You start getting good at it though.
Dr. Byname: Yeah. You do you figure out.
Sherry: (laughs)
Dr. Byname: I know more about other people’s computers than I ever thought I
would.
Sherry: Do you have a Mac? Do you have a PC? So those are the questions
that you have to ask.
Dr. Byname: Yes, well you’re gonna have to say this is a PDF and send it to
me this way. “How do I do that?” “Go over into this file”.
Sherry: Oh no!
Dr. Byname: So you know it’s just that that asynchronous issue is never going away.
It’s so long as the economic equalities that exist out there exist, and
those aren’t going away. They’ve only been amplified by the digital
divide.
Sherry: Absolutely.
209 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Byname: So pretending that online learning is somehow closing a gap
between economic divide or class is just a fool’s dream at best. At
worst it’s just cynically disingenuous. And it has to; there’s no good
way for it. I’ve tried and; if a student has; the best way that I found
to deal with it is if a student has a really big problem. And they
keep sending me emails, and sending me emails; at some point I will
just say, “Just call me. When can we talk on the phone?”
Sherry: Right.
Dr. Byname: And it’s not face-to-face but at least there’s a voice. So I try and; I
guess I try and pull that trigger quicker than I used to rather than a
lot of lengthy emails. If I read the email and my sense says, “You
know I’m going to bet one 5 minute phone call makes this all go
away”.
Sherry: Well I’ve also found on Skype; sometimes we go on Skype or we
use OooVoo and I could take over their laptop or their computer.
I’ve done that and they’re like, “Oh!” Another thing I’ve used is
Jing which is a very; it’s a very quick program. It’s actually by Tech
Smith Company.
Dr. Byname: Okay.
Sherry: But it’s free.
Dr. Byname: Okay.
Sherry: And it’s you can do a video that’s about 2 minutes long. So you’re
210 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
having a problem with what? So then, I just record my screen and
then I can save it up to Screencast.com, which they give you
Gigabytes for free which is nothing.
Dr. Byname: Mm-hmm.
Sherry: But and I just throw those away. And I was like, “Okay, click, click;
click here. Click on this link; this will take you through”. You
know you have; you start finding what can I do to get you what
you need
Dr. Byname: Yeah.
Sherry: And so I’m gonna send that to you. I’m gonna send you Jing.
Dr. Byname: Okay.
Sherry: Okay so you already talk to me about some of the teaching
strategies you’ve done online. As colleges and universities feel the
pressure to create distance pathway what do you think is at stake
for our discipline in theater?
Dr. Byname: That we make too much compromise and we end up giving away
what we’re really about. You know we; I started the online
program here as something of a compromise to begin with. And
this was a year and a half, 2 years ago I realized I was for a full
academic year not going to teach face-to-face at all.
Everything I taught was online. I saw not one student face-to-face
in the classroom. The MA program had gotten that big.
211 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Sherry: Wow!
Dr. Byname: So that was; let’s see we’re in ‘13/-‘14. I’m wanna say maybe; yeah
I think maybe academic year ‘12 ‘13.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: Yeah. And let’s see it was that spring of ‘13 where I sort of marked
that as a special that I crossed the invisible line at that point. The
graduate online program had exploded. We had up to 25 students
almost 28.
Sherry: Wow!
Dr. Byname: From eight people in ‘06.
Sherry: Wow!
Dr. Byname: So the growth is real; and the demand is real.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: In order to do face-to-face versions of my online class I was having
to do independent studies and just meet them; they come on time
because I only had three or four students who could or would meet
that way. And you know that; because the way we count our
workload here that because it’s the same class it doesn’t count as
another 3 credit hours worked.
It falls into, “Oh well you’re just offering two sections of the same
thing. So you got the same prep time. You got the; it’s all the same
papers you’re grading”. No I’m still meeting 3 lecture hours a
212 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
week; I’m still talking to the students. There’s other stuff going on.
“It doesn’t matter”.
So, I realized to be Program Director and still direct once year and
to teach I had to withdraw all my face-to-face grad classes, grad
sections and move them entirely online. So, I had not taught a
graduate section face-to-face in a year and a half.
Sherry: Wow.
Dr. Byname: And I have no plans on offering another face-to-face graduate
section in the foreseeable future. So, all of my students are online.
I can’t get a face-to- face class to make because I only have three
or four students around here who even live in Denton; who even
live in the Metroplex. So it’s; you know there’s a risk of
compromising too much.
There’s a risk of getting swept away with it; there’s a demand. You
know I found myself at that point because you know every year
these numbers we’re rolling in and I’m able to go back to the grad
school and say we’re at 25.
We get to shut the door, I’m not taking anymore. I can’t handle more
than 25 students with my faculty of grad students. And they say,
“That’s okay; 25 is a good number. You just keep rolling that
along”.
Sherry: Oh yeah.
213 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Byname: So I think that yeah; compromising so much and getting caught up
in the demand so much that you give way. So we’ve tried. I mean
I still have these classes online but we’ve started to try and push
back a little bit so that Sharon teaches Theater Management. And
she taught it for her first time online this past spring.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: But we didn’t do it fully online. We did online but there were four
Saturdays where everybody met.
Sherry: Good.
Dr. Byname: And you know you had those three or four weeks of online
readings and assignments that would have been take away
reading and assignments anyway.
Sherry: Mmm.
Dr. Byname: And then you had a big five hour Saturday section where you
presented all of your findings; you collected papers; you got
papers back; you got feedback. And I think Sharon was very
happy with the way that class went. So I think you know we’ve
reached a point where it may be time to start pushing back a little
bit in that direction.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: I know Steve Young teaches our playwrighting class online and
next time that comes around will probably happen in a similar way
214 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
rather than; you know right now he’s got people recording
readings and sending them into him as podcasts; and as mp3 files
and that kind of stuff.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: And he’s reading a lot and sending back a lot of comments
but we’ll probably start pushing back a little bit. But I think
that’s the biggest problems is either getting so swept up or
giving in so much to the compromise that you kind of lose
that identity.
Sherry: Yes see I didn’t want to lose that identity which is why I was
looking at 6 hours in the fall; 6 hours in the spring and then 5
weeks on campus in the summer.
Dr. Byname: And I know that was one of the inspirations behind Penny
and Mary creating that low-res Dance PhD.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: They still wanted those bodies there.
Sherry: Oh absolutely.
Dr. Byname: Yeah they still needed those people there. And you know we still
offer you know evening classes. And that not as many as we used to
but it’s a tough balance to walk.
Sherry: But we found in the Dallas Community College District that
students would rather take online than to come in the evening.
215 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Byname: Yeah.
Sherry: Except when you get into late 40’s and 50’s.
Dr. Byname: Yeah.
Sherry: They wanna come to class but for the most part they would
rather take online. So we’ve seen our evening classes decline.
Dr. Byname: Ours have a bit. I mean unless we’ve got a real specialty class.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: Next spring we’ll offer a stage combat class that’s going
to be in conjunction with our production of Henry V.
Sherry: Awesome.
Dr. Byname: So you know if we can tie a class into a show; make it part of the
rehearsal process; make it a specialty class that we those night
classes will make just fine.
But yeah if I just turned around and said, “Hey everybody we’re not
doing Theater History online, we’re only doing it face-to-face at
night”.
Sherry: How do you balance that? This is not one of my questions.
Dr. Byname: Uh-huh.
Sherry: How do you balance a night class with rehearsal?
Dr. Byname: It’s tough; you really end up juggling around. You know if it’s the
only class that is not associated with the show that just kills that
night for rehearsal.
216 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: So for the director it makes it difficult because it means you lose
one night a week that would have maybe your only night off.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: That week you know. If you’re like rehearsing 6 days a week
there goes your seventh night
Sherry: Right.
Dr. Byname: Off. Because that night’s gotta be for night classes. It’s tricky with
juggling you know. When it gets to tech week it’s understood that
the students involved in the show are still responsible for the
material but the professors at least within the department aren’t
going to penalize the student for missing that particular night class
for tech.
The other; the director has to understand that the student who’s
involved in a night class like on a Tuesday or Wednesday or
something like that you really can’t schedule them to work. You
know don't schedule your full run through for that day.
Sherry: Yeah. Well that also could; that’s where the online could help that
and say here’s your online assignment that you have.
Dr. Byname: It could yeah. And now for those associated with the show it’s
pretty you know we just; it’s just another rehearsal day.
Sherry: Are you directing Henry V?
217 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Byname: No that’s going to be Steve Young. I‟m doing End Game in February
Sherry: Okay got you.
Dr. Byname: Yeah.
Sherry: Okay so what about intellectual property? Have you talked about
that? Do you think about that at all?
Dr. Byname: Oh sure. You know I’ve created a YouTube channel for myself so
that I can do some online lectures and in that case you know I’ve
clicked creative commons link on it. And I’ve kept it limited so
that the three setting’s completely open to the public;
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: By invitation only; and then there’s the one in the middle
where you basically have to have the link to get into it.
Sherry: Yeah you have to get into it
Dr. Byname: Yeah. So that’s the one that I – third option in the link is only
embedded in the website. Well the video itself is embedded in the
website. So there’s not even a reason for somebody to take a link
or try and cut and paste a link to somebody else. You know they
can watch it right there embedded in the course shell.
With the students I haven’t had to worry about it too much because
if they’ve sent me examples or if I’d ask them to kind of do an
online scavenger hunt it’s stuff that’s already out there.
Sherry: Okay.
218 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Byname: And you know it’s already on YouTube; it’s already on Vimeo; it’s
a link to somebody else’s research website.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: In which case you know the intellectual property right is already
handled by that person.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: Yeah so that the student is simply saying, “Hey look what I found”.
We do have a subscription to the Theater on Video Database.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: Which I think is an Alexander Street Press database. And I’m
pretty sure we have a subscription to the; or we own the complete
BBC - RSC Shakespeare stuff. So I’ll link to that; but again the
licensing deal with Alexandra Street Press takes care of all of our
IP issues.
Sherry: I will have to check that out.
Dr. Byname: Yeah I mean it’s not bad. Its honestly a good Google search for a
Theater Company brings up boring uninteresting examples
sometimes but you get some old documentaries or you get some old
footage of them in their prime or something like that you know.
Sherry: Yeah.
Dr. Byname: Or interview with Olivier in the 60’s. And there is some good stuff. I
mean there’s some really early interviews with Yelsh Petalsky
219 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
from like ‘61. On like 30 First American television interviews.
Sherry: Yeah okay.
Dr. Byname: Of being interviewed by a Richard Schekner.
Sherry: (Chuckles)
Dr. Byname: You know things like that. You see there’s fun stuff like that that you
can plug into. So we do that. I guess you know the only class we
have in which IP issues would have really become an issue would
be the playwriting course. Although I have not fortunately had to
run into any intellectual property or copyright issues.
Sherry: Well I was actually thinking about your intellectual property
that you develop.
Dr. Byname: Right. Well you know I haven’t seen it come back at me yet so
I guess that’s good.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: It is you know; it’s a gray area because I know you know I write
out a big contextual lecture. There’s me speaking it and then
there’s my written version of it. It’s all posted online.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: And by proxy of it being put out online you know published by
me hitting click there is proof that it’s my creation and you know
all of that.
Sherry: Okay.
220 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Byname: I’ve never gone as far as to say you know. This lecture is protected
by creative comments license other than the YouTube stuff. And
that is only because if somebody were to hack the account I at
least want that creative comments license tacked to it I guess.
Sherry: But even as it is extends to the whole course that you’ve built.
Dr. Byname: Mm-hmm.
Sherry: I mean all of the things that you’ve put intellectually into that course.
Dr. Byname: Right.
Sherry: That’s one of the things. And at our district if they pay you to build
the course then that course belongs to the school. But if they don't
and you’re building the course because it has to be built; we’ve
been having those issues on my campus so I’m just wondering.
Dr. Byname: Mmm. We haven’t run into it yet.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: I mean so far the university has pretty much given people a pass
about saying you know if you’re creating the class it’s you. I have
not heard any eminent. I sat one year on the intellectual property
committee here on campus and the only time we’re called into
session is if there is an issue.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: And that one year I served, we were never called into; into meeting.
So the university has been so far pretty good about saying you
221 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
know, “If you have designed it; written it; created it; it’s yours”. I
think part of that is because we are not a big research university.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: You know the big research universities they are making a lot of
money by hanging to copyrights; by hanging on to genetic material;
by hanging on to whatever it might be. And we just don't do that
much. Maybe it’ll be an issue someday you know with somebody
from this first generation of course builders.
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: You know picks up their Blackboard courses and takes them with
them leaving no sign behind. And the university steps in and says,
“Oh but we know what this course is already here. We can just
hand it on to the next professor”. And they look and they don't find
it there. Maybe there’ll be some wailing and gnashing of teeth
but;
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: At this point there hasn’t been anything. I can’t; if anything we’ve
had the opposite problem – we’re not storing a lot.
Sherry: Oh okay.
Dr. Byname: So it’s up to each instructor to save their course shell in an archive
zip file which the program is pretty good about doing and then
saving it on your own X Drive or your own C Drive; or on your
222 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
own jump. So the next time that course is needed you plug in that
archived core shell and it pops back up.
For the first couple years of our heavy use of Blackboard here from
‘05 up to about ‘10 we were keeping’05 course.
Sherry: Wow okay.
Dr. Byname: “I’ll just copy, cut and paste”. And then as of about 2 years ago the
cut off became about 2 years.
Sherry: Yeah.
Dr. Byname: And there were people who were shocked to find that the courses
that they had just been duplicating since ‘06 or ‘08 or something
like that was no longer there to be found and they had to rebuild
their own class (chuckles).
Well you know the question that raises though is why in the world
weren’t they archiving their own material.
Sherry: Right
Dr. Byname: You know if you’re so worried about. Anybody who’s genuinely
worried about intellectual property is going to archive their own
material and hang unto it for themselves. So at this point the
university has kind of set this president that we’re not going to save
for you. It’s up to you.
Which on the one hand is a bit of a hassle; and on the other a hand I
take as a good sign that if it’s my job to save it and archive it then
223 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
it’s also my material
Sherry: Right.
Dr. Byname: to use. If you want to consider this your material you go through the
hassle and pay the cost of archiving and making sure it’s there and
upkeep. If it’s my cost to do that and my time being spent on that
then as far as I’m concerned by proxy you’re telling me that it’s my
material. But we haven’t really run into the problem yet.
Sherry: Okay. So demographically do you know what the age of your
students are?
Dr. Byname: Off the top of my head no. But we do have those sorts of records. I
know in the MA program - I want to say that our average age is got
to be around 30.
Sherry: Okay. Are most of these working people in theater?
Dr. Byname: Most of our MA students are working and I’d say by most I’d say
90% of the MA candidates are working. I’d put 75% of those MA
candidates not just working but working fulltime.
Sherry: By teaching? Dr. Byname: Yeah; yeah.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: Usually in the high school to middle school level. Most of them
have BA’s or BFA’s in Theater. We catch a few who are mid-
career; change of life plans- Dance Major who decides that
Theater is really where it’s at. Business Major who got that
224 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Business Major because mom and dad told him that’s the only way
college was going to get paid for.
Sherry: Yeah.
Dr. Byname: But they’ve always wanted to be theater - few of those; in the
minority. Most though - high school teachers coming back; they
need to recharge their batteries; they need to think Theater again
for a while.
Sherry: This recharges your batteries though.
Dr. Byname: Yeah.
Sherry: I mean honestly it does. Dr.
Byname: Yeah.
Sherry: So over the last 3 years. I’m gonna go over across the street and
ask them for this demographic information.
Dr. Byname: Mm-hmm
Sherry: Because it should be open records.
Dr. Byname: Yeah, yeah. It’s Institutional Research.
Sherry: Okay.
Dr. Byname: Is the department demographics
Sherry: Well I have to ask for it through Open Records Act.
Dr. Byname: Oh yes I guess you do.
Sherry: hmmm
225 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Dr. Byname: I don't know if this applies to you too but I also know you probably
got your dissertation research ethics stuff that you got to produce.
Sherry: So what is the completion rate for your program?
Dr. Byname: It’s been pretty good. Again I have that; I don't know. I should
know this because my MA program is coming up for review this
year and I’m about to get all of that information.
Sherry: Oh okay.
Dr. Byname: I have not accumulated it all yet. Top of the head figure though; I
mean this is a rough approximation. I’d say 75% of my program
completes. And they’re not completing in 2 years.
Sherry: Yeah. That I know. But I mean just the fact that they are like
completing the program
Dr. Byname: Yes
Sherry: Is what I’m asking.
Dr. Byname: Yeah I mean there’s always; you get those who pop in; just too
tough; can’t balance it with work. And then there’s those middle of
the road folks who - you know they; they get started out strong;
something happens; they vanish for a year. Sometimes you get a
phone call saying, “Hey can I finish this?”
“Sure”.
They take a good semester; they do fine; vanish for another
semester. So you know you get those and it gets a little weird
226 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
trying to track some of that. But I’d say our completion rate has got
to be around 75%.
Sherry: Okay. And I already ask you what you; I didn’t really ask you
what you thought about an MFA program geared for non-
traditional students.
Dr. Byname: You know what; it makes sense to start thinking about it. I don't
know how it works. I don't know what form it takes; but it’s
certainly one of the right questions to be asking right now. It’s you
know; I’ve seen a few programs try generalist MFA’s,
Sherry: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Byname: In a face-to-face way. And I’ve always found them a bit curious
just because to my mind to my thinking the MFA really is
supposed to be a conservatory degree. It’s a terminal degree. It
should be producing a specialist in an area. But that doesn’t mean
that that can’t happen online or in a low-res manner.
You know I think my hesitation is with the generalist aspect of the
MFA rather than the specialist aspect of the MFA. But I can
certainly see there being the potential for some sort of acting or
dramaturgy or playwriting or management MFA that has a intense
online presence; and some sort of low-residency components.
So I can see it working but I; I mean it’s the right question to be
asked. I just don't know what form the answer will ever take. It’ll
227 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
take some form
‟cause somebody’s gonna figure it out.
Sherry: Well my heart has always been with this campus. And while
I will be getting my PhD at Texas Tech, TWU will always
be my home.
Dr. Byname: Well that’s lovely to hear. I’m glad. We’re thrilled with kind of
loyalty. I mean it’s; that’s what keeps us going. It’s that sort of
grassroots support and the people coming back saying, “Those
were good years there”.
Sherry: They were good years for me.
Dr. Byname: Good to hear. If you’re not on it already, we’ve; I’ve started an
alumni newsletter so.
Sherry: Oh great! I’m not on it.
Dr. Byname: Oh okay well the alumni organization was only able to supply
like 150 or 200 names. And I know we’ve got more than that.
Sherry: Oh yeah you do.
Dr. Byname: Yeah. So I’ve been relying on enthusiastic alumni to sort of pass it
along and we’ll do it again this year but we’ll keep your name and
put it on that list.
Sherry: Okay. Well I thank you…
Dr. Byname: Sure.
Sherry: Dr. Byname, this has been enlightening and wonderful and has
228 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
given me lots of things to think about again.
Dr. Byname: It has been a pleasure to talk to an alumni of TWU. Good luck with
your dissertation. Oh call me Patric.
Sherry: Thank for your time Patric.
229 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Appendix G:
Theatre Management Online Course Curriculum
Designed by Sherry R. Boyd
July, 2014
230 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
GOALS ANALYSIS
• Research, prepare, and present an organizational audit of a current regional theatre or
the school you are currently employed.
• Create, develop, and name a fictional theatre company that you have worked
for the last three years or the school you are currently employed.
• Understand, prepare, present or revise a mission and purpose statement for the theatre
you are creating or the school you are currently employed.
• Design and describe the organizational charts, job titles and job descriptions for your
theatre, or the school you are currently employed.
• Develop and present a budget and overall programming calendar for your theatre, or
the school you are currently employed.
• Develop and present a marketing and fundraising plan for your theatre, or the school
you are currently employed.
LEARNER ANALYSIS
Primary Audience
• Non-traditional student
• MA Graduate student in theatre
• Working theatre educators in public, private, or theatre schools
Secondary Audience
• Student looking for graduate credit in theatre
231 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
General Learner Characteristics
• Age: 30-55
• Gender: 65% women, 35% men (primary audience)
• Education: Bachelor’s degree through graduate degree
• Work Experience: Two years to fifteen years
• Physical strength: Ability to lift 20-30 pounds
Entry Characteristics
• Most are familiar with theatre
• All have at least 18 undergraduate hours in theatre or some practical theatrical
experience
• Most have experience with theatre production (i.e., stage management,
design, directing, or acting
Prior experience
• Working in a middle school, high school or community college
Common errors made by learners
• Lack of understanding and application of a mission statement and purpose for
the theatre
• Clear job descriptions for employees and volunteers
• Annual budgeting for the theatre program
• Marketing for the theatre program
232 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS
Orientation context
A. Learners goals
1. Pretest for students in the class to determine prior knowledge
2. Discussion with the students to see how they are applying the
knowledge to their present position
B. Perceived utility of the learner’s goals
3. While that is a great example in the book of a learner’s
perceived utility, it is difficult to apply that to academics.
2. It is incumbent on academicians to stay current on trends that
are changing in the theatre industry; so, students are not offer
methods that are no longer being used in theatre industry.
C. Learner’s accountability
1. Course leads to a Master of Arts in theatre
2. Students make presentations online or in class
3. Class requires written assignments to be turned in on a certain
timeline
4. Material can be applied to their current job
Instructional Context
A. Course is offered online and must be completed within a seven-week
cycle
233 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
B. Students must have a computer, access to the Internet, camera, and
headset.
C. Students may also take the class in a sixteen-week face-to-face
orientation
Transfer Context
A. This course will lead to a Master of Arts in theatre
B. The material in this course can be applied to the student’s current
theatre position, such as budget skills, marketing skills and aligning
the theatre’s goals to the mission statement
C. Learners want more knowledge on theatre management and its
applications
TASKS ANALYSIS
Research, prepare, and present an organizational audit of a current regional theatre
A. Google, Bing, or Yahoo a current vision/mission/values statements of
a regional theatre nearest your area.
1. If there are several regional theatres in your area, read and
choose one that is closest of the kind of theatre you would like
to create
2. Examine the statements for a clear a concise
vision/mission/values statements
3 Check to see how often these statements are revised and
updated.
234 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
4. Identify if the board of directors of revises these statements or
if it is a staff function.
5. Look for who serves by the mission/vision/values of the
organization
2. Does the theatre organization follows its vision, fulfill its
mission, and adhere to its values.
3. Provide examples of how the organization is effectively
following its vision, mission and values statement.
B. Examine the organization of the board of directors
1. Based on your research, describe the function of the board
2. Find the board bylaws, and pay attention to see if the board
operates according to the bylaws
3. Check to see if there are published board manuals and board
minutes.
4. Check to see how many times the board meets and if the
minutes are posted within six-weeks of the last board meeting.
C. Check to see if there a profiles of the board members
1. Check to see if the board members are selected or elected
2. Record the number of board members
3. Check to see if there is an executive committee
4. Check to see if there are other committees
5. Check to see if this is a working board or and honorary board
235 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
6. If there is an honorary board, check to see the purpose of the
honorary board
7. Find the organizational structure of the board
8. Map the organizational structure of the board
9. Get the most up-to-date attendance of board members
10. List the number of meetings the board has a year
D. Staff of the regional theatre
1. Look for the number of staff members that report directly to
the board
2. Look for an annual review process of the Managing and
Artistic Directors
3. Which staff members have voting rights on the board?
4. How many staff members are employed by the organization?
5. Does this staff seem sufficient to operate the organization?
6. If there is not sufficient staff, are board members addressing
this issue
7. Check the demographic breakdown of the staff
8. Check the diversity of the staff to see if it matches the
community
9. Check for an organizational chart for the staff
10. Check for staff job descriptions
11. Check for the age of the theatre company
236 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
12. How long has the theatre company occupied the space
13. Does the theatre have a company or most of the performers
auditioned?
E. Finances of the organization
1. Check to see if there are specific state laws that govern a non-
profit board
2. If you have access to IRS 990 reports, list some of the
significant fiscal activity of the organization
3. Look at the last three IRS 990, did the economy have a n
impact on the stability of the organization
4. Check to see the board involvement in the budget approval and
revision process
5. Look for the board policies that relate to financial management
6. Does the financial planning align with the mission and values
statement
7. Define earned and unearned income
8. Is there a balance between earned and unearned income? State
the percentages of each.
9. Look at the last three years and show any changes that have
occurred
10. Is the organization dependent on a few major donors or income
sources, or is there a broad base of support?
237 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
11. Notate any deficits you observe within the last five years
12. Notate any information you observed that addressed any
deficits
F. Programming
1. Look for the various programs the theatre offers throughout the
fiscal year
2. Examine the completion of other theatre programs in the area.
3. Do any of the regional theatres do collaborative projects?
4. Do these theatres seek support from similar donor pools?
5. Does the theatre’s season reflect the community diversity?
6. How diverse is the programming?
7. How do these programs engage the community?
8. How is the board involved with the oversight of the
programmatic activity?
9. What kinds of technology does the organization use to market
its programs?
10. What social networking option does the theatre uses to market
its programs?
Create a name of fictional theatre company where you are Managing Director for the last three years or for the school you are currently employed.
A. Understand, prepare, present or revise a mission and vision statement for your
theatre or for the school you are currently employed
238 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
1. Based on your regional theatre audit, decide what type of
theatre you are managing or for the school you are currently
employed.
2. Using an examples from regional theatres, write a mission statement
for your theatre or for the school you are currently employed.
3. Using an examples from regional theatres, write your visions
statements for your theatre or for the school you are currently
employed.
B. Design and describe the organizational charts, job titles and job descriptions
for your theatre or for the school you are currently employed. (If you are
doing this for your current work place, look at ways you can either gather a
board/booster club or more effectively use the current board/booster club
members.
1. How many people are on your board of directors or booster club?
2. Are they elected or selected?
3. Is there an honorary board
4. How long is the term of the board members
5. Is there an executive board?
6. How many staff members are in the organization?
7. Do you have any interns in the organization?
8. Are they paid interns?
9. Create an organization chart
239 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
10. Create a job description for the managing director and artistic director
C. Develop and present a budget and overall programming calendar for your
theatre board/booster club.
1. Develop a summary budget based on 60% earned income and 40%
unearned income (as a school do you get to keep your income)
2. Develop and detailed income budget and you may start with $150,000
in a contingency budget (as a school? what is your budget?)
3. Develop a production season for the theatre
4. Develop a summary expenditure budget
5. Develop a detailed expenditure budget that includes personnel,
scenery, lighting, costume, props, royalties, script costs, touring,
marketing, building, maintenance cost, operating expenses,
concessions, and gala/major fund raiser.
6. Budget for your gala/major fundraiser.
7. Money expected to produce from your gala/major fundraiser
8. Include other fund raising your organization may plan
D. Develop and present a marketing and fundraising plan for your theatre or for
the school you are currently employed.
1. Organization profile, including mission, vision, and values
statements
a. Look at the programs of activity for the season
240 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
2. What is the environment analysis? Who is involved in your
community? Include the list below in your analysis
a. Demographic
b. Economic
c. Political
d. Cultural
3. Challenges and Opportunities—Strengths, Weakness,
Opportunities, and Threats
a. What factors limit the organization?
b. What factors will permit better fulfillment of mission?
4. Overall Objectives
a. Specific and time sensitive objectives
b. Quantifiable objectives
5. Using the elements below please include them in your
marketing strategies
a. Product
b. Price
c. Place
d. Promotion
e. Target Marketing
f. Positioning
g. Branding
241 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
h. Distribution
i. Service
6. Marketing process
a. Detailed action plans and assignment of personnel
b. Timetables and calendars
c. Budget
7. List of evaluative elements to see if your marketing is effective
a. Data gathering—Market Data System
b. Reporting
c. Adjust strategies and process as needed
d. Providing feedback to inform planning process
Instructional Objectives
• Research and write an overview of the history, theory, principles and practices of
management of a regional theatre arts organization
• Research, write, and prepare a presentation of an organizational audit of a current
regional theatre
• Create a name and logo for a fictional theatre company where you are Managing
Director for in the last three years or for the school you are currently employed.
• Develop and write a mission statement for your fictional theatre company or
for the school you are currently employed.
• Develop and write a vision statement for your fictional theatre company or for
the school you are currently employed.
242 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
• Design and write the organizational charts, job titles and job descriptions for
your theatre or for the school you are currently employed.
• Develop, write, and present a budget and overall programming calendar for
your theatre or for the school you are currently employed.
• Develop and write a marketing and fundraising plan for your theatre
• Throughout this class, students will improve their writing skills, presentation
skills, and understand the basics of managing a theatre.
• This class will culminate with a booklet that represents the students’ fictional
theatre or for the school you are currently employed and a presentation to the
class
243 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
Evaluation and Assessment Oral Presentation Rubric Student Name ______GRADE ______
Subject : ______TIME ______CATEGORY
Time-Limit Presentation is 9-10 Presentation is 8-6 Presentation is 5--3 Presentation is less minutes long. minutes long. minutes long. than 3 minutes OR (MAX 2 MINUTES more than 12 OVER) 4—3 pts 2—1 pts minutes. 5 pts 0 Preparedness Student is Student seems The student is Student does not completely prepared prepared but may somewhat prepared, seem at all prepared and has rehearsed. need a couple more but it is clear that to present. Ready to present on rehearsals. rehearsal was assigned day lacking. 10—9 pts 8—7 pts 6—4 pts 3—1 pts Creativity Student uses 3-4 Student uses 2 props Student uses 1 prop The student uses no Visual visual aids, aural or visual or aural aids or visual or aural props OR the props aids or props (could that shows aids which makes chosen detract from Aural include costume) considerable the presentation the presentation. Kinesthetic/ that show work/creativity and better. Props considerable which make the work/creativity and presentation better which make the 4—3 pts 2—1 pts 0 presentation better. 5 pts Introduction: 4 elements present 3 elements present 2 elements present 1 element present Presentation begins attention device, 10—9 pts 8—7 pts 6—4 pts 3—1 pts previewed main ideas, motivation of presentation and thesis Content (88%-98%) (80%-87%) (70%-79%) (69% or below) Shows a full Shows a good Shows a fair Does not seem to understanding of the understanding of the understanding of understand the topic topic, by using the topic, by using the parts of the topic. very well. vernacular of the vernacular of the subject area and subject area. applying it to the presentation. 12—10 pts 9—6 pts 5—1 pts 15—13 pts Conclusion: 4 elements present 3 elements present 2 elements present 1 element present Prepared audience for ending (Reviewed 10—9 pts 8—7 pts 6—4 pts 3—1 pts main points, thesis reinforced main ideas and provides closing Statement)
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Oral Presentation Rubric: Peer Presentation--continued Transitions used to A variety of transitions Transitions clearly Some transitions No Transitions are show connections are used. They clearly show how ideas work well; but present, and throughout the show how ideas are are connected, but connections presentation seems presentation connected. in some places between other ideas unfocused and there is little are fuzzy. disconnected 5 pts variety. 2—1 0 4—3 Eye Contact/ 5—6 elements present 3—4 elements 2 elements present 1 element present Posture present Presenter consistently 10—9 pts 8—7 pts 6—4 pts 3—1 pts keeps head up, does not read, speaks to the entire audience, stands up straight, faces audience, and doesn’t fidget Delivery Presenter a 4-5 elements present 2-3 elements 1 element present No elements present variety in verbal present inflection, shows 10—9 pts 8—7 pts 6—4 pts 3—1 pts enthusiasm, avoids verbal fillers Uses complete sentences and presenter can be easily heard Evaluation: Bloom’s 4-6*: Uses 2—3 Uses 1 Evaluates work as good based on Bloom’s [Analysis, Evaluation, [Bloom’s 2-3*: Average [Bloom 1*: or bad based on Revised Taxonomy Creating] Applying and Knowledge/Remem personal taste—no oral Critical contribution: Understanding] bering ] citations Asks provocative Exhibits Good Informational: Asks questions that extend Insights into and/or points of discussion beyond Understanding of information, issues research/thesis and/or the research and or of clarification makes insightful, critical thesis. Uses at least related to the (evaluative) comments. 2 oral citations research/thesis—at Contributes new least 1 oral citations information and/or insights and uses at 3 oral citations 12—10 pts 9—6 pts 5—1 pts
15—13 pts Typed-one page One page MLA outline, The paper is in The paper is in No summary summary prepared w/works cited MLA format with MLA format with 6- page and given to 1-5 errors. If or more. If quotes instructor on the day of quotes are present are present the presentation the paper contains paper contains a a work cited page work cited page 5 pts 4—3 pts 2—1 pts 0 March 2014
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Paper Rubric CATEGORY EXCELLENT GOOD FAIR POOR Introduction 5pts 4 pts 3pts 2pts (Organization) The introduction The The introduction There is no clear clearly states the introduction states the main introduction of the main topic and states the main topic, but does main topic or structure previews the topic and not adequately of the paper. Poor or structure of the previews the preview the no thesis statement is paper. Introduction structure of the structure of the provided. contains a concise, paper, but not paper. Little or None are present clear thesis engaging for the unfocused thesis statement. All three reader. Provides statement. 1 is are present thesis present statement, parts of it is unclear. 2 are present Sequencing 5pts 4pts 3pts 2pts (Organization) Details (88%-98%) Details (87%- Some details Many details (69% are placed in a 80%) are placed (79%-70%) are and below) are not in a logical order and the in a logical not in a logical logical or expected way they are order, but the or expected order. There is little presented effectively way in which order, and this sense that the writing keeps the interest of they are distracts the is organized. the reader. presented/introd reader. uced sometimes the writing is unclear. Transitions 5pts 4 pts 3pts 2 pts (Organization) A variety (88%- Transitions Some transitions The transitions (69% 98%) of transitions (87%-80%) (79%-70%) work and below) between are used. They clearly show well; but ideas are unclear or clearly show how how ideas are connections non-existent. Topic ideas are connected. connected, but between other sentences not included Topic sentences shows little ideas and in any paragraphs included in all variety. Topic paragraphs are paragraphs sentences unclear. Topic included in sentences most included in some paragraphs paragraphs Conclusion 5pts 4pts 3pts 3pts (Organization) The conclusion is The conclusion The conclusion There is not clear strong and ties the is recognizable is recognizable, conclusion, the paper paper back to the and ties up but does not tie just ends. Thesis not original thesis. almost all the up the loose restated. Uses both concepts loose ends. ends. Parts of the Uses none of the Restates the thesis provided concepts thesis. in the Uses 1 concept conclusion.
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Sentence 5pts 4pts 3pts 2pts Structure Sentences (88%- Most sentences Sentences (79%- Sentences (69% and (Fluency) 98%) are well (87%-80%) are 70%) are well below) lack structure constructed with well constructed but and appear incomplete varied structure. constructed have a similar or rambling. with varied structure. structure. Grammar & 10pts 8.5pts 7pts 5 pts Spelling Writer makes 7-10 Writer makes Writer makes 15- Writer makes more (Conventions) errors in grammar or 11-14 errors in 19 errors in than 20 errors in spelling that do not grammar or grammar or grammar or spelling distract the reader spelling that do spelling that that distract the reader from the content. not distract the distract the from the content. reader from the reader from the content. content.
Capitalization 5pts 4pts 3pts 2 pts & Punctuation Writer makes 5-7 in Writer makes 8-11 Writer makes Writer makes over 15 (Conventions) capitalization or errors in a12—14 errors in errors in punctuation, so the capitalization or capitalization capitalization and/or paper is exceptionally punctuation, but the and/or punctuation punctuation that catch easy to read. paper is still easy to that catch the the reader's attention read. reader's attention and greatly interrupt and interrupt the the flow. flow. Accuracy of 10pts 8pts 6pts 5 pts Facts All supportive facts Almost sentences Most supportive NO facts (69% and (88%-98%) are (87%-80%) all (79%-70%) facts below) are reported reported accurately. supportive facts are are reported OR most are reported accurately. accurately. inaccurately reported. Content 15pts 13 pts 11pts 9 pts (88%-98%) Balanced (87%-80%) Central purpose or presentation of Information (79%-70%) argument is not clearly relevant and legitimate provides reasonable Information identified. Analysis is information that support for a central supports a vague or not evident. clearly supports a Reader is confused or purpose or argument central purpose central purpose or and displays may be misinformed. or argument at argument and shows a evidence of a basic thoughtful, in-depth analysis of a times. Analysis analysis of a significant topic. is basic or significant topic. Reader gains some general. Reader gains insights. important insights. Reading and 15pts 13pts 11pts 9 pts Experience The paper is written The paper is The paper relates The paper has not tried based on research, and drawing on most of some of his/her to transform the knowledge/ their research, own knowledge or information in a experience. The knowledge or experience, but it personal way. The authors has taken the experience, but adds nothing to the ideas and the way they ideas from the there is some lack of discussion of the are expressed seem to research and made ownership of the topic. (79%-70%) belong to someone them "his/her" own." topic. of the paper is else. (88%-98%) (87%-80%) restating or copying the facts
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Quality and 10pts 8.5pts 7.5pts 5 pts Use of (88%-98%) Most 87%-80%) of Most of the There are virtually no References are the references are references (79%- sources that are References primarily peer- professionally 70%) are from professionally reliable. reviewed professional legitimate, a few are sources that are not The reader seriously journals, books, cited questionable (e.g., peer-reviewed and doubts the value of the online resources or trade books, internet have uncertain material and stops other approved sources sources reliability. The reading. (e.g., government (Wikipedia), reader doubts the (69% and below) documents, agency popular magazines). accuracy of much manuals,). The reader The reader is of the material is confident that the uncertain of the presented. information and ideas reliability of some can be trusted. of the sources. Format 5pts 4pts 3pts 2pts Written in the correct There are 3-4 parts 5-8 parts of the Written in improper MLA format of the critique that critique written format are incorrect, but incorrectly in written in basic MLA Format MLA format. March 2014
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For instructional objectives 3—8 Assemble a booklet with a fictional theatre company or your school theatre company, with a logo, prepare a mission and a vision statement for your theatre 1) List what type of theatre you are managing a) Using an examples from regional theatres, write a mission statement for your theatre b) Using an examples from regional theatres, write your visions statements for your theatre 2) Design your organizational charts, job titles and at least five job descriptions for your theatre a) Design your board of directors b) List the number of staff members are in the organization c) Create an organization chart d) Create a job description for the managing director, artistic director and three other members of your staff 3) Develop a budget and overall programming calendar for your theatre a) A summary budget should be based on 60% earned income and 40% unearned income b) Develop a detailed income budget and you may start with $150,000 in a contingency budget c) Develop a production season for the theatre d) Develop a summary expenditure budget e) Develop a detailed expenditure budget that includes personnel, scenery, lighting, costume, props, royalties, script costs, touring, marketing, building, maintenance cost, operating expenses, concessions, and gala/fund raiser. f) Budget expenditures for your gala/fund raiser
g) Project expected income from your gala/fund raiser.
4) Develop and present a marketing and fundraising plan for your theatre company or
school
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a) Organization profile, including mission, vision, and values statements
b) Look at the programs of activity for the season
5) Include an environment analysis
a) Include the list below in your analysis
i) Demographic
ii) Economic
iii) Political
iv) Cultural
6) Annual Overall Objectives
a) Specific and time sensitive objectives
b) Quantifiable objectives
7) Using the elements, below please include them in your marketing strategies
a) Product
b) Price
c) Place
d) Promotion
e) Target Marketing
f) Positioning
g) Branding
h) Distribution
i) Service
8) Marketing process
250 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016
a) Detailed action plans and assignment of personnel
b) Timetables and calendars
c) Budget
Learning Related Sequence
The use of the learning related sequence is best for this course. This part of the Instructional Design process allows the student to research a working regional theatre, before they start building the materials for their own imaginary theatre or for the school they are currently employed.. The students will work in small groups to research the regional theatres and present a presentation. After the students research a working theatre, they will start to create their own fictional theatre company or for the school they are currently employed; with a mission statement, vision statement, organizational charts, calendar year budget and write a marketing and fundraising plan for the fictional theatre.
SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION OBJECTIVE
1 Throughout this class, students will improve 10 their writing skills, presentation skills, and analyze the basics of managing a theatre.
2 Research and write an overview of the history, 1 theory, principles and practices of management of a regional theatre arts organization.
3 Prepare a presentation of an organizational audit of a 2 current working regional theatre 4 Create a name and logo for a fictional theatre company 3 where you are Managing Director for in the last three years 5 Develop and write a mission statement for your 4 fictional theatre company
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6 Develop and write a vision statement for your 5 fictional theatre company
7 Design and write the organizational charts, job 6 titles and job descriptions for your theatre
8 Develop and write a budget and overall 7 programming calendar for your theatre
9 Develop and write a marketing and fundraising 8 plan for your theatre
10 This class will culminate with a booklet that 9 represents the students’ fictional theatre and a presentation to the class
Instructional Objectives
1. Research and write an overview of the history, theory, principles and practices of
management of a regional theatre arts organization.
Initial Presentation: Present to students an overview of a regional theatre and lecture on the
different aspects of regional theatre
Generative Strategy: Have learners chose the type of theatre they would like to work with
and make a presentation to the class on the regional theatre of their
choice or for the school they are currently employed through a Power
Point presentation within Blackboard.
2. Research, write, and prepare a presentation of an organizational audit of a current
regional theatre
Motivational Strategy: Ask the learners to speculate on what a regional theatre
organization chart should look like.
Initial Presentation: Short lecture on the organization of several regional theatres and show
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the learners examples of organizational charts.
Generative Strategy: Ask learner to post an organizational chart of the regional theatre
they have recently acquired information. In addition, learners will
upload the assignment to Blackboard.
3. Create a name and logo for a fictional theatre company or for the school they are
currently employed where you are Managing or Artistic Director for in the last three
years
Initial Presentation: This is a progressive assignment and this is part one of designing and
imagining your own theatre or for the school they are currently
employed
Generative Strategy: Ask learner to post the logo of their fictional theatre company or for
the school they are currently employed and assign at least two
learners to review the logo. In addition, learners will upload the
assignment to Blackboard.
4. Develop and write a mission statement for your fictional theatre company or
for the school they are currently employed
Initial Presentation: Lecture on mission statements for theatre companies and give the
learners sample mission statements to examine and discuss.
Generative Strategy: Ask learner to post the logo and mission statement of their theatre
company or for the school they are currently employed.
5. Develop and write a vision statements for your fictional theatre company or
for the school they are currently employed
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Initial Presentation: This is a progressive assignment and this is part one of designing and
imagining your own theatre or for the school they are currently
employed.
Generative Strategy: Ask learner to post the vision statements for their fictional theatre
company and assign at least two learners to review the logo.
6. Design and write the organizational charts, job titles and job descriptions for
your theatre or for the school they are currently employed
Initial Presentation: Remind learners they have seen samples organizational charts,
brainstorm with the learners and ask who do they want as full-time
and part-time employees
Generative Strategy: Learners will add the organizational chart for their theatre and have a
peer review session with another member of their class. Learners will
turn in their material and have one week to review their peer’s
information and meet face-2-face or synchronously to discuss their
theatres. In addition, learners will upload the assignment to
Blackboard.
7. Develop, write, and present a budget and overall programming calendar for
your theatre or for the school they are currently employed
Initial Presentation: Recorded lecture on Program (or Project) Evaluation and Review
Technique, commonly abbreviated as PERT. It is a tool used in
project management; it is a useful tool of planning and programming
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budgets, rehearsals, and productions.
Generative Strategy: Learners will work on their budgets and turn them in for a one-to-one
synchronous meeting with the faculty of record. This is an important
step, because students must talk about the revenue, income, and
expenses of their theatre. In addition, learners will upload the
assignment to Blackboard.
8. Develop and write a marketing and fundraising plan for your theatre or for the
school they are currently employed
Motivational Strategy: Ask the learners about marketing and what should be involved in
marketing. In addition, learners need to brainstorm with each other
on fundraising and how they will generate income for their theatre.
This session will be a synchronous session with all of the students
via WebEx Skype, WebEx, Facebook Live, Google Hangouts.
Initial Presentation: This session will be a synchronous session with all of the students via
Skype, WebEx, Google Hangouts.
Generative Strategy: Learners will develop and upload the assignment to Blackboard on
marketing and fundraising for their theatre.
9. This class will culminate with a booklet that represents the students’ fictional
theatre and a presentation to the class
Generative Strategy: For a final presentation ask learner to make a synchronous fifteen-
minute presentation to the class via Skype, WebEx, Google
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Hangouts. to the full class. In addition, learners will upload the
assignment to Blackboard.
UNIT 1: PROTOTYPE
• Objective 1 - Research and write an overview of the history and practices of
management of a current regional theatre arts organization
o Initial Presentation
§ Present an overview of management and the arts with a voice-
over using Videoscribe. Before users begin the Generative
Strategy they will need to read chapters one, two, and three.
o Generative Strategy
§ Students will use WebEx for synchronous meetings. Students
will work in groups of four to research, write, and present an
overview of the history and practices of management on one of
the following regional theatres:
• ACT Theatre Seattle, WA
• Alley Stage Houston, TX
• Arena Stage Washington D.C.
• Court Theatre Chicago, IL
• Hartford Stage Hartford, CT
• Roundabout Theatre New York, NY
• Dallas Theatre Center Dallas, TX
• Guthrie Theatre Minneapolis, MN
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Overview (Preinstructional strategy)
At the end of this unit, participants will
• Describe the functional areas of work for an arts manager • Describe the historical perspective of arts managers • Group research, review, and present a history of a regional theatre
In order for meetings to occur, students should download OoVoo, WebEx, or Google
Hangouts in order to have synchronous meetings. These types software allow up to twelve people to meet and see each other during a meeting. For these meetings, students will need a computer with a camera, a headset, and a microphone.
Initial Sample Presentation Using Video Scribe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAE0nKv79LA
Script of the Presentation
SLIDE ONE
There is more to the arts than meets the eye. Yes the performing and visual arts are supposed to be entertaining, but behind every creative endeavor exists a more profound concept without which a community shrivels up and dies: the arts remind us of our power to innovate. The act of creation is the essence of our purpose and it essential to our progress as humanity.
“The Importance of the Arts in a Community.” Johnson, Craig W.
SLIDE TWO
By a unique combination of historical circumstances and our consumer driven economy, the United States has created a multibillion-dollar arts and entertainment
257 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 industry that is a dynamic mix of professional for-profit, and non-profit arts-related business.
SLIDE THREE, FOUR, FIVE, AND SIX
Non-profit professional dance companies, orchestras, museums and theatres are often supported by cities or states.
SLIDE SEVEN
In any organization, the manager’s basic job is to organize human and material resources to help the organization achieve its stated goals and objectives
Managers function within an organization, which in defined as a collection of people working together in a division of labor to achieve a common purpose.
The process of achieving the organization’s goals and objectives requires that the manager actively engage in the process of dividing work into manageable components.
In any organization, there are different levels of management and different types of managers. Typically, organizations have operational managers, middle management, and strategic levels of management. It is worth noting that because many arts organizations are understaff, the different roles of managers are often combines
Arts organizations are learning to effectively integrate long-term strategic thinking while developing sensitivity to the changing environments that shape the beliefs and values of the entire culture.
SLIDE EIGHT
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Many artists are asking organizations to examine such fundamental questions as “What is our Mission?” “What things are really essential to our Mission?”
“Whom do we serve?” What are our values and what do we deem important?” Some of these questions are answered by looking as internal environments and external environments such as:
Economic Trends—employment levels, disposable income levels, regional factors
Political Trends—Election year, Elected officials supportive of the arts
Technological Trends—Impact of new and emerging technologies on the arts
Cultural and Social Trends—Regional ethnic considerations, educations systems valuing the arts
Demographic Trends—Shifts in age, income, gender balance, race, and education
SLIDE NINE
The first function of management can be the hardest. Deciding exactly what we want to do, setting realistic goals, and determining the objective to be used in meeting the goals.
Organizing is the process of converting plans into a course of action, getting the people, and resources together.
The third function of management requires getting everyone in the organizing to share a vision of what can be accomplished if everyone works together. While planning is the hardest, leading is the most important.
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The fourth function of management is concerned with motoring how the work is proceeding, checking the results against the objectives, and taking corrective action when required.
Four Functions of Management
SLIDE TEN
Throughout this course, we will examine how external environments and internal organizational dynamic make the task of managing in the arts a challenging and demanding job. We must always provide a visible link to the community.
Without a strong connection to the community, the arts organization will find it difficult to attract audiences and donors.
SLIDE ELEVEN
The production process for a performing arts event provides a good example of management in practice. Practices such as teamwork, project managements and performance appraisal are fundamental ingredients in a show. Preparing a production or concert is a group management effort and therefore requires careful attention to the changing complex dynamics of the performers, designers, and production staff. The almost endless variety and changing circumstances in the world around the arts organization keep the manager’s job from ever getting dull or routine. As you choose the regional theatre your group is going to work on, make sure you read chapters one, two, and three. It would be helpful to the group, if you divide up different area of the regional theatre you are going to research and then share that information over
OoVoo. In addition, groups will need to decide the format they are going to use to
260 Texas Tech University, Sherry Randolph Boyd, August 2016 present the material to the class. Adobe Presenter Video Express is an excellent way to present your material and it has the ability to attach to Power Point and can be shared on YouTube. I look forward to your presentations and do not hesitate to contact me if you have any problems.
Generative Strategy
Students should read chapter’s one, two, and three before they start their first meeting. Chapter one provides an overview of types and levels found in arts organizations. Chapter two examines the historical origins of arts organizations as well as profiles the evolution of arts management and chapter three introduces the reader to the evolution of management theory from ancient times to the present
(Byrnes XV).
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