b Description of the distance education or executive degree Programs, including an explanation of the model or methods used, the

Program’s rationale for offering these Programs, the manner in which it provides necessary administrative and student support services, the manner in which it monitors the academic rigor of the Programs and their equivalence (or comparability) to other degree Programs offered by the Program, and the manner in which it evaluates the educational outcomes, as well as the format and methods.

Model / Methods Used

The DMU MPH Program can be completed entirely online, or through a

combination of online and traditional classroom courses. All course requirements, and outcome expectancies are the same for students who enroll in a classroom or online section of the course. Generally, online and classroom courses are taught by the same instructors who ensure that content, learning activities, assessments, grading rubrics, and student feedback are the same for both modalities. The exception is that lectures and learning activities that might take place in a traditional learning format occur in a virtual environment. Courses with multiple sections are assigned a Course Coordinator. Live webcasting abilities are facilitated by the use of Adobe Connect sessions that allow students to have synchronous lectures, or test-review sessions. Traditional classroom discussions are replaced by discussion forums in the online environment. Lecture material that might be presented in a classroom are recorded and posted for students’ viewing. Overall, we strive to ensure that the instructional activities and

assessment methods are as similar as possible for students, regardless of which modality they choose to enroll in.

The DMU MPH Program was initially designed to meet the public health

knowledge and skills needs of the mid-career working professionals, as well as a dual degree option for clinical students. This focus on adult learners who are mid- career focus has remained, although the Program has broadened its focus to also include early-career public health professionals as well. This involves engaging students who may be interested in pursuing graduate public health education immediately following their undergraduate training or those as early professionals. While some students choose to pursue their MPH degree full time, many students, regardless of career standing, choose to be employed full or part time and take MPH courses on a part-time basis. The rationale for the flexibility is to support public health training for public health professionals who may not otherwise be able to pursue graduate education, due to geographic location or financial constraints. Additionally, this ensures that any student enrolled in a clinical Program on campus can enroll in the MPH Program without it conflicting with the didactic or clinical portion of their clinical degree.

Administrative and student support services

All of the instructors in the DMU MPH Program are well-equipped to teach courses in the online and classroom environments by virtue of their content and subject matter expertise, as well as DMU support in use of the D2L LMS, Lynda account teaching modules, and self-paced online courses provided by Dr. Ozdemir to all faculty. The Program supports all course faculty by providing textbooks, supplemental materials, and equipment (e.g., microphones / headsets) to ensure quality delivery of course materials.

The University employs a full time Instructional Design Coordinator, Dr. Devrim Ozdemir, who supports the MPH Program and two other Programs on campus. Dr. Ozdemir supports all faculty in Learning Management system (LMS) training, development and refinement of course learning objectives, assessment

procedures, rubric design, and curriculum mapping. Currently his efforts are dedicated to continuous quality improvement of courses, course reviews, and rubric development, etc. Dr. Ozdemir’s collaboration with Program faculty have resulted in continuous quality improvement of all courses, and have led to increased alignment between course content and Program competencies for both the online and face-to-face course offerings.

Des Moines University’s Student Services department is fully equipped to address the needs of the non-traditional and online students. Student services provide options for student counseling, child-care resources, it includes the Diversity and Multicultural affairs office, financial counseling, the office of student life, student health insurance, etc. Students who take courses online as well as on campus all have full accessibility to these services, with two exceptions. For students who do not live in Iowa, they may not utilize the student counseling services due to licensure restrictions. To address this limitation, Des Moines University provides the Aetna Student Assistance Program. This Program

provides every student from every Program at Des Moines University the

opportunity to receive three annual face to face visits with an off-campus licensed counselor in the Aetna provider network. This service is offered to all students, regardless of whether they are enrolled in the student insurance Program. Students may access counseling related to academic stress, life coaching, personal relationships, or any other personal matter. The second exception to this accessibility would be access to a reduced cost and convenient child-care. Historically, individual Programs assumed responsibility for orientation of their online students, and this information was provided to MPH students in the online MPH 620: Introduction to Graduate School and the MPH Program course. Since 2014, however, the Associate VP for Enrollment Management and the Director of the CTL have organized a taskforce to ensure that online students receive the same formal orientation models as the on-campus students. The taskforce meets regularly to assist the Student Services office with developing and presenting appropriate online orientation models. Dr. Reimer from the MPH Program, and Dr. Stumbo, associate dean in the College of Health Sciences, currently serve on this taskforce. Overall, students that are geographically removed form the

University have comparable access to student service as on-campus students. Academic Rigor / equivalence

Because the learning content, activities, and assessments are the same for students regardless of the online or face-to-face modality, we are confident that the academic rigor is equivalent regardless of modality. Assessment grades are all tracked within the Desire 2 Learn Learning Management system, so that achievement of competencies can be tracked for all students in all courses. Because courses are generally taught by the same faculty member in the classroom and online, this ensures consistency in the delivery of content, and assessment criteria. Additionally, course coordinators ensure that there is consistent and equivalent delivery of curriculum content and assessment of student performance. Sections for online courses are capped at 30 students, and faculty are allowed to utilize the services of TAs if enrollment exceeds 25. This ensures that students receive individualized attention, feedback, and guidance regardless of course modality. The expectation for all assignments in the MPH Program is that each student receives individualized feedback within one week of submission (two weeks for major written projects).

Educational Outcome evaluation format and methods

Student assessments for online courses are the same as in face-to-face courses. For example, students who take the basic statistics course in the classroom complete the formative and summative course assessments in the Learning Management System, which allows the instructor to track performance and map

same Program surveys, support for enrollment in capstone and internships, opportunities to engage with student club activities and leadership, and career preparation.

2.12.c. Description of the processes that the Program uses to verify that the