An Elluminate
Success Story

University of West Florida Delivers Mathematics Graduate Program Entirely Online with Desire2Learn and Elluminate

While some say that mathematics and sciences courses do not lend themselves to online instruction, nothing could be further from the truth at the University of West Florida (UWF). In fact, the university now offers the only fully online Masters Program in Mathematical Science available in Florida and one of the few in the USA.

"Traditional online teaching does not work well for upper level math courses and is not as good as face-to-face instruction," says Dr. Kuiyuan Li, Chair of the UWF Department of Mathematics and Statistics. "However, we still have to meet the needs of those high school teachers and those with full-time jobs who need to take graduate-level courses and do not live near our campus."

Blended Online/Onsite Learning
UWF solved the problem with a unique blended learning program that uses the Desire2Learn environment combined with the synchronous Elluminate Live! virtual classroom. With Elluminate, online students can fully participate in the same class with students sitting in a traditional brick-and-mortar classroom.

The instructor uses an interactive whiteboard that can be seen by both sets of students to do math formulas or calculations. Both online and face-to-face students can see and listen to the live lecture, ask the instructor questions, and show their work to the entire class.

"When you want to convince traditional math or science professors to take a more technological approach, you can overcome their initial reluctance by providing the right support," explains Dr. Raid Amin, Professor of Statistics at UWF. "A graduate assistant attends each lecture presented with Elluminate to handle technical issues and logistics, including saving and posting recordings. The way to get Elluminate efficiently and effectively used is to have a system that works. With the graduate assistant always present, the instructors can focus on the course material."

Virtual Classroom Provides Multiple Benefits
Classes tend to be smaller at the graduate level," says Dr. Li. "One main reason we offer the online program is to increase graduate enrollment. If there are not enough face-to-face students to sustain a course offering, the students added by using Elluminate can make a big difference whether or not a class is cancelled."

"We also use Elluminate to demonstrate how to use software packages, like MATLAB or SAS/STAT applications," Dr. Amin adds. "And best of all, the instruction is recorded, so students can replay the lectures again and again."

According to Dr. Amin, participation is essential in eLearning. So, one key to the success of the program is to create groups in Desire2Learn that fully integrate remote and face-to-face students. "This helps the distance students to feel at home," he says. "Plus, every group has its own Elluminate room to meet without the instructor. The group work brings the whole class together."

Results Same for Distance, Face-to-Face Students Students were surveyed one month into the blended course and again at the end of the semester. The students overwhelmingly liked the convenience and flexibility of the program. What’s more, the department compared 56 online students who took graduate courses via Elluminate with100 students who attended the same courses in the traditional, face-to-face classroom. "Based on our data, we can clearly state there is no statistical evidence that distance learning students do differently than face-to-face students," Dr. Li concludes.