Sandra Mudd, MBA,
Senior Education Development Specialist

David Harrison, PhD, Senior Academic Advisor,
Certified General Accountants Association of Canada

This presentation is based on the recent experiences of a national professional association as it has developed its program of studies from a traditional correspondence program, supported by chalk-and-talk classroom lectures, towards a fully on-line learning delivery. The Certified General Accountants Association (CGA) numbers over 27,000 part-time students across Canada and internationally. They represent a significant sector of the growing post-secondary wage-earning population for whom on-line learning offers career advancement. Each year, 1,500 CGA graduates join the 32,000 CGA members who operate in industry and commerce, public practice, government, and the not-for-profit sector.

Since an early association in the 1950s with the University of British Columbia, CGA has looked to Canadian universities and colleges for course writers and examiners. Currently, CGA uses resource faculty from about 30 Canadian universities and colleges, as well as consultants and experts in other specialized fields such as taxation and information systems.

In 1998, the degree dimension was added to the program. CGA partnered with the University of Calgary Faculty of Management to deliver by distance learning all courses for a Bachelor of Accounting Science. These new degree offerings include "breadth" courses in world history, sociology of Canada, technology and change, and a unique humanities course that traces the origins of commerce through literature and social developments from biblical times to the present.

This CADE presentation will outline the thinking behind this evolution towards the online product and indicate some of the ways we assist content experts to make the transition from the physical to the virtual classroom. The perspective is that of the experienced DE course developer working with the experienced (but primarily traditional-classroom teacher) to create excellent materials for the part-time distance learner receiving courses online, typically at the end of a long business day or week.

In September 1997, CGA implemented the first "Internet CD" versions of its distance education courses. These courses blend the use of (1) program material and software supplied on CD-ROM with (2) Internet access and e-mail marking of assignments. Examinations are still written in person, but examination reviews and results are now provided online. The instructional design enables audio and video to be added where useful. In the 2000-01 academic year, a total of 20 courses will be available in this Internet CD version. In that year, we will also field test the prototype of the first fully Web-based product. (This will be demonstrated at the CADE session.)

CGA students have long had a major advantage over their university and college counterparts in terms of moving to the new technology. As early as 1986, all students in the second and higher years of the program were required to have computer access, either at home or in the office. Courses since then have included a wide range of hands-on learning with business software such as Microsoft Office Professional 97 and Great Plains Dynamics accounting program. Students thus use the technology as an integral part of their studies.

Delivering courses by Internet and CD-ROM was a logical progression of this instructional design: Internet is an essential part of contemporary business, while the CD-ROM has provided a low-cost delivery medium until fully online learning becomes readily available to students everywhere. Meanwhile, both Internet access and CD-ROM are typically present in computer systems used by CGA students.

Students have responded positively to these developments, and the benefits of on-line delivery are showing up in reports from universities. For example, a recent study by York University Faculty of Education, compared overall academic performance of Internet students with its in-class students and found little difference. According to the survey, "Internet students achieved significantly higher grades than in-class students" (adjusted for course dropouts). The survey compared the grades of 1,099 students in Internet courses with grades of students in the same courses offered by lecture or correspondence. Correspondence students, who had the least contact with professors, did least well, while Internet students achieved the highest marks.

The following summarizes the use of the various media in the CGA Internet CD courses:

Printed textbooks are retained, as they are still widely preferred by the majority of professional accounting students; printed material is portable, useable in a variety of settings, and can be marked up, highlighted, and more easily browsed than a computer display.

The CD-ROM carries a set of lesson notes, reference materials, online tutorials and help features, as well as licensed software programs including Microsoft Internet Explorer and technical data needed for the courses. Students also have a copy of MS Office through a corporate purchase program and use Word for assignments.

Internet links are built into the CD-ROM to connect students to CGA education websites, where tutor contact and updates are posted through WebBoard.

E-mail software is provided to students and markers so that assignments can be sent and marked in e-mail attachments. A "virtual post office" provides automatic virus scanning of all mail between students, markers, and tutors.

The typical CGA course is divided into ten lessons, each designed for about 15–20 hours of study per week. Each lesson contains clear, student-centered learning objectives, topic notes, illustrations, review questions and solutions, and assignments to be submitted for marking. A complete practice examination and solution is included. Lesson notes can be viewed on-screen or printed locally. All these resources are readily available from the computer desktop. Updates to the course material are transmitted automatically.

As educators (rather than technologists), we must keep one eye firmly on the content as the other tracks the advances in technology the creation of high-quality, carefully designed content for distance learners is paramount. You can’t just take the lecture and pour into written words and publish them in a book. The same words do not work on the screen. There is much to be learned about the use of this new medium of online learning.

Here are this month’s "top ten" tips to new-to-online-learning course writers making the transition from classroom teaching.

Tips to newly online course writers

1. You can’t "wing the lesson" on the day as you might in class. All the material must be complete, accurate and high quality before the first student even sees it.

Our job as course developers is to ensure in advance the quality of our courses and make sure nothing gets forgotten. We must each wear the student hat and read and respond to the material as might the slowest learner.

2. You have to prepare marking keys in advance, not wait until the assignments come in

The course writer may or may not be an assignment or examination marker in our system. It’s essential to prepare a marking key in advance that can be used possibly by a team of markers and which ensures reliable and fair marking standards.

3. Learning objectives must be student-centred and explicit. No more of "this course will cover…"

Contrary to the cherished beliefs of many "lecturers," objectives are best written in terms of what the student has to be able to do or perform as a result of the learning. We must ensure they work as written, that they fit overall course aims, and relate properly to examination questions and vice versa.

4. Be careful how many articles you expect students to read.

Every article has to be readily available and permission obtained. We can’t count on students going to the library to read the material because there may not be a library where they live. Material on other websites may be useful, but see #5.

5. Yes, the Internet is great but can you count on it?

One of the biggest problems is when web sites go missing. If necessary, we get the rights to copy the web site right onto the CD.

6. Have a good reason for students going to the web sites you’ve chosen because they may not go to any of them.

One useful device is to build an assignment around students compiling a web site bibliography, or around data compiled from web sites.

7. Every assignment and exam question has to be test-driven

Yes that’s where we come in again as developers. We must simulate the examination candidate role just as carefully as the learner role.

8. So you never realized it would take this much work!

The course may take as many as five drafts, and we want you involved all the way. Once it’s published, it can be too late to correct. We want to ensure it’s right first time and "no phone-ins" about errors or ambiguities.

9. Why the fuss about timelines?

We are a publishing house, and our customers are our students. The final date on our timelines is the final date for all of us. If a course writer is late, it means that there’s less time for review, editing, and the quality control that will make your courses successful.

10. It takes a village.

Yes, you are the content expert, but you will work in a team with an editor, an instructional designer, and a web expert.

Critical design elements

Although there are now even on-campus students who prefer to be "distance learners," the majority of our students are still typically mature adults with full-time jobs. Certainly this is the profile of the CGA student.

Consequently, our DE courses must provide students with:

Access to resource materials, preferably at their fingertips. A means to develop their own Internet research skills.

Timely feedback on progress through the course.

A channel to work with an instructor/coach/subject matter expert and solve study problems.

Online access to administration, registration, and all types of "registrar" services

A method to work and communicate with other distance learners and tutors.

Education providers have different targets and timelines for achieving their online plan for course delivery. The CGA goal is to deliver as complete a model online as Internet access becomes faster, easier, more universal, and less expensive for the learner. In the interim, we are continuing to use a blend of Internet access, material on CD, and print textbooks.

Planning for the future

In the world of the microchip, the future is now and the planning is relentlessly short-term. The CGA slope of progress is illuminating. Take a look at our record and compare your own. For the first thirty years of the CGA "correspondence" program up to 1986, there were no changes to the model of printed course materials and students sending assignments by postal service. In 1986, CGA made computer access a requirement and integrated the hands-on use of computers across the program. It then still took another ten years till we could replace snail-mail with e-mail. Students cheered as they started to get their work marked in one week instead of three. The pace of change accelerated. Only one year later, the Internet CD model was launched across the curriculum: students had entered the world of Online Learning. The year 2000 prototype course to be demonstrated at CADE this year was designed, tested, and implemented in the space of about six months!

So much for extended planning horizons. As we return to our offices from Quebec, expect to see on your e-mail a message titled something like "Planning for New Online Delivery Model Due August 1 — First Meeting July 10."