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At Sampson Community College (SCC), student success is at the heart of everything they do. SCC initially chose Advantage Design Group (ADG) to develop its virtual orientation due to the platform's advanced accessibility, interactive, and integrative capabilities. The project's success led to a second instance of the platform, which facilitates the delivery of a unique online learning course for new students, a program SCC calls the Viking CREW Course.

“We had a relationship with ADG when we entered the process of creating our CREW course to prepare our students for online learning,” said Britt Honeycutt, QEP Director at SCC. “We knew what they could do, what they had to offer, and what we needed this course to do. ADG was the right choice.”

Viking Orientation 2022	Viking Crew Course 2023

SCC implemented this innovative solution to enhance online learning success through its Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). The "Viking CREW" (Connected and Ready for Education on the Web) course prepares students with the essential skills they need before beginning online classes.

Origins and Purpose

The Viking CREW course represents one component of the college’s two-pronged approach to improving online education. According to Honeycutt, the initiative addresses both student preparation and instructor readiness through complementary programs: Viking CREW for students and Viking Navigator for faculty.

"Our QEP's goal was to improve online learning at Sampson Community College," explains Honeycutt, who also serves as the English and Communications department chair. The development team created the program after consulting with stakeholders about the skills new students lacked when enrolling in online courses.

Course Structure and Learning Objectives

The Viking CREW course consists of three main modules that address specific student learning outcomes:

1. The Viking Mindset: Focuses on soft skills necessary for online success, including responsibility, resilience, and effective communication.
2. Ready the Ship: Covers essential computer literacy skills, including file management, hardware requirements, and basic technical knowledge.
3. Study the Map: Teaches students to navigate the Moodle learning management system, complete online assignments, and access course content.

Each module includes interactive elements, videos, quizzes, and assessments. Students must achieve a minimum score of 85% on each module to progress and ultimately complete the course.

Implementation and Integration

The college implemented Viking CREW gradually, beginning with summer 2023 enrollees and progressing to all new students by late fall. The design team included test-out options for each module to ensure the course didn't become an excessive burden. Students who demonstrate proficiency can skip the content, potentially completing the course in as little as 10 minutes.

"If students already have the content knowledge, they should be able to take the test first and skip the module content," Honeycutt notes.

The course integrates seamlessly into enrollment through a registration hold system similar to the college's existing orientation requirements. Students cannot register for classes until they've completed the Viking CREW course with 85% or higher scores on all three modules.

Technical Development

Advantage Design Group, a company specializing in higher education onboarding experiences, played a crucial role in developing the Viking CREW platform. The company, which had previously created Sampson's "Be A Viking" orientation, cloned that structure to form the foundation for the new course.

"Strictly from the integration standpoint, if we didn’t have this integration, we wouldn’t be able to implement this project as well as we have. We wanted students to complete it before registration. The combination of ADG and Ethos integration was the only way to do that."

Michael Blankenship
Director of Information Technology, CIO
Sampson Community College

The design team added several unique features specifically for Viking CREW:

• Module-progression blocking that requires students to meet benchmarks before advancing
• Audio features that read text aloud for accessibility
• Interactive elements and assessments to engage learners

A multidisciplinary team of faculty and staff created the course content, with Advantage Design Group providing technical training and support throughout the development process.

"We knew from SCC's experience with our first instance of ADG's software that it could deliver the integration we needed for our project," Honeycutt said. "Without the ability to seamlessly connect the content of the Crew Course with Colleague^® to apply and lift holds, our project's goals could not be achieved. Our team was supportive and accommodating, encouraging us to use the product's features to their fullest potential. Two semesters in, we are happy with the course's ease of use and adaptability.

Early Results and Ongoing Improvements

After a full year of implementation, the data shows promising results. The college has seen a two-percentage-point increase in online student success rates overall, with English courses improving by three points above baseline.

Most significantly, a recent analysis revealed that students who completed the Viking CREW course demonstrated "significantly larger success rates" in online classes than those who didn't.

The team continues to refine the program based on student feedback and performance data. Initial streamlining efforts included reducing the number of test questions and trimming unnecessary content to improve the student experience.

"The comments have largely been positive, especially since our streamlining efforts at the end of fall 2023," Honeycutt shares. While the program has shown early success, challenges remain. Mathematics courses continue to perform below baseline, and the team is developing strategies to address this gap. Additionally, they've created workarounds for special populations like Career and College Promise (CCP) students, who follow different registration processes.

The Viking CREW represents an innovative approach to preparing students for the demands of online learning—one that shows promise for improving student outcomes across Sampson Community College's virtual classrooms.

Related Content:

Onboard for Online Learning: The Viking CREW Initiative for Student Readiness

as presented at 2024 North Carolina Community College System Conference