SBIR Phase I: Educators' Coach for Learner Interventions and Performance Strategies

This SBIR Phase I project proposes to develop a novel electronic performance support system (EPSS), the Educators' Coach for Learner Interventions and Performance Strategies (E-CLIPS), to aid faculty in the design of online learning content. The face of higher education is dramatically changing in the United States. Shrinking state budgets have taken a heavy toll at public institutions, reducing the number of seats available for students to take courses needed to graduate. A significant number of courses are moving to online or blended formats, but without the corresponding focus on instructional design tools and methods to help faculty deliver a successful online learning experience. The goal of this SBIR project is to design, develop, and commercialize a virtual instructional design toolkit that that significantly enhances instructor capabilities and thus the online learning experience of students. This SBIR project seeks to conduct research on the instructional design coaching model and then develop an innovative EPSS to aid faculty in the selection and design of learning activities, thereby providing students with an engaging online experience. The broader/commercial impact of the project is in the potential to transform the way any educator or corporate trainer delivers online content and learning interventions. There are limited tools on the market that addresses the critical issue of transforming the way faculty use instructional design tools. Faculty desire a tool that allows them to be more strategic about course design and more tactical with respect to student performance. Student analytic data is limited, requires extensive IT support, and is rarely provided immediately. The project provides a scaffolding tool to college instructors that makes it easier to rapidly and quickly adapt lessons rather than wait for IT experts to help them. This is the equivalent of other tools, which have revolutionized blogging for all those people who do not want to learn computer programming to express their viewpoints online. The project is a step in the right direction to transform the way faculty deliver online learning with corresponding transformational effects on student success rates. Extensions of the project to government and K-12 (i.e., virtual high schools) are well within reach and provide additional markets to grow revenue.