Best practices of using SmarterMeasure and client school panelists from Miami Dade College and Florida State College at Jacksonville describe their usage, research, and correlations.

1. Best Practices & Case Studies
SmarterMeasure Learning
Readiness Indicator
Sofia Villalobos – Miami Dade College
Melanie Clark – Florida State College at Jacksonville
Dr. Mac Adkins – SmarterServices
Julie Owen - SmarterServices

2. YES
NO

3. Does Your School Currently
Use SmarterMeasure?

4. Best Practices
• Popularize – buy in
• Plan – strong implementation model
• Personalize – use custom features
• Petition - Call to Action
• Pursue - Follow Through
• Produce – Conduct Research
• Present – co-present with us at a conference
or webinar

5. POPULARIZE
• Advertise & Promote
• Educate with our Training
• Get Everyone Involved

6. PLAN
• Integrate SmarterMeasure into a required
orientation course
• Give to all students

7. PERSONALIZE
• Utilize custom features
• Modify Readiness Ranges

8. Student Login Page

9. Modify Readiness Ranges

10. PETITION
Add call to action in text of student report
Read Feedback on report
Write reflection paper on results
Work through appropriate resources for support
Discussion or chat about learning style
Discuss results with administrator

11. PURSUE
• After measuring student readiness, what
action will you take based on the scores?
Coaching
Assign mentor
Provide faculty member with results
Ongoing communication
Provide remedial resources

12. PRODUCE
Progression of SmarterMeasure Data Utilization
Predictive
Correlation
Comparison
Descriptive
Student Service

13. PRESENT
• http://www.smarterservices.com/conferences.cfm
• http://www.smarterservices.com/webinars.cfm

14. Sofia Villalobos
Student Services Director of the Virtual College

15. The Virtual College
OVERVIEW
• Develop and maintain ≈ 180 online
college-credit master courses
– Cover same material as face-to-face
courses
– Meet same competencies as face-to-face
courses
• Oversee and support ≈ 300 FT faculty and ≈100 PT instructors
teaching online courses
– Master Course Development and Instructional Design
– Technical Training
– VC Faculty Help Desk
• Deploy and manage online schedules with ≈ 600 sections per
major term
• Offer entire AA degree and several AS degrees and CCCs 15

16. The Virtual College
KEY INITIATIVES
Supporting ≈9,000 students per major term
• Technical Support
– Knowledge Base
– Virtual College Student Help Desk
• Tutoring Support
– Online tutorials including Smarthinking
• Other Student Support
– Virtual College Student Orientation
– Online readiness assessments including
SmarterMeasure self-assessments
16

17. The Virtual College
ONLINE ORIENTATION
YOUR COMPANY NAME 17

18. The Virtual College
ONLINE ORIENTATION
SmarterMeasure Assessments :
• Life Factors
• Personal Attributes
• Technical Competency
• Reading Recall
• Learning Styles

19. The Virtual College
SmarterMeasure Assessments
1166
1200
1000 907
800
645
600
400
349 322
400
200 107
0
Fall 2010-1 Spring 2010-2 Summer 2010-3 Fall 2011-1 Spring 2011-2 Summer 2011-3 Fall 2012-1

20. The Virtual College
LEARNING STYLES
ASSIGNMENT
Now, take a few minutes to
reflect on what you have
learned. Summarize briefly your
learning style and identify what
are some of your
weaknesses and how the
resources and tools provided
will assist you in successfully
completing an online course.

21. The Virtual College
ACADEMIC RESOURCES
• Effective use of SmarterMeasure’s Email Feature
• Message sent to all students who completed SM
assessments to:
- Review report results
- Use resources and web links offered by SM
- Encourage use of on-campus acad. support labs
- Offer free online tutoring with Smarthinking

22. Melanie Clark
Associate Dean of Student Success

23. SmarterMeasure Study at Florida
State College at Jacksonville
The purpose of this study was to
determine the relationship between
identified student
characteristics, readiness factors and
measures of success in selected
online courses as defined by final
course grades.

24. Research Question
 What is the relationship between
demographic, educational factors and learning
readiness factors of personal attributes, learning
style, life factors, technical competency, reading rate
and success in online courses?

25. Methodology and
Descriptive Statistics
• Participants: n = 347 completers
– Undergraduate students enrolled in 18 online
sections of entry level courses ranging from
college preparatory math, English, and reading to
college level math, English, natural science, and
social and behavioral science.
– 71.8% female, 28.2% male

26. Demographic and Educational
Background
Minimum Maximum Mean
Age 17 56 28
Cumulative Credits 0 170 31.4
Credits Scheduled 3 19 9.8
GPA .00 4.0 2.41
Previous Online Credits Earned 3 67 14.4
Withdrawn Courses 1 23 2.78

27. Data Analysis
• Instrument Item Analysis – Cronbach
Coefficient Alpha
• Pearson Correlation
• Multiple Regression

28. Q&A

29. Thank You for Attending
• Complete Survey - $50 charity drawing
• Archived session will be emailed to all
participants
• Contact Info
– Sofia Villalobos – svillalo@mdc.edu
– Melanie Clark – melanie.clark@fscj.edu
– Julie Owen – julie@smarterservices.com