Promoting Involvement in Online Courses EDD-7007 Principles of Distance Education by Edward M. Kennedy

Purpose: To introduce instructors and course designers to a few techniques that may help to improve learner interaction. The module will take about 15 minutes including a short quiz at the end What’s this all about?

After completing this lesson, participants will be able to: ● Identify benefits of increased online course learner interaction. ● Identify key techniques that may increase learner interaction. ● State which learner interaction techniques they would likely utilize in their courses. Objectives

Interaction is been deemed one of the most important components in distance education due to the isolation of instructors and learners (Moore & Kearsley, 2012) Quantity and quality of online interaction directly correlated with student satisfaction and learning (Jackson, Jones, & Rodriguez, 2010) Why is this important?

Student interaction is the cornerstone of constructivist learning theory: Learner engagement and challenges from other viewpoints help learners reach new understanding (Peters & Hewitt, 2010) Lower retention rates for online courses have been attributed to reasons such as lack of personal interaction (Klaus & Changchit, 2014) Why is this important?

Boling, E. C., Hough, M., Krinsky, H., Saleem, H., & Stevens, M. (2012). Cutting the distance in distance education: Perspectives on what promotes positive, online learning experiences. The Internet and Higher Education, 15(2), doi: /j.iheduc Huss, J. A., Sela, O., & Eastep, S. (2015). A case study of online instructors and their quest for greater interactivity in their courses: Overcoming the distance in distance education. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 40(4), doi: /ajte.2015v40n4.5 The Readings

Distance education: ● Saves money, allows flexibility, effective ● Requires different course design, communication, and interaction ● Role of instructor shifts to mentor, facilitator ● Student responsible for learning ● Communication and interaction can be difficult Findings: ● Courses with little interaction viewed as less helpful o Lower satisfaction o Little higher-level thinking o Students reported feeling disconnected and isolated ● “The Program” Demonstrated successful practices with: feedback, real-world application, & a sense of community Cutting the distance in distance education

Reported feelings of isolation in distance education. This study sought to explore: ● Faculty efforts to build interaction into their web-based classes ● Use technologies and formats to promote active engagement and create satisfying educational experiences Actions: ● Promote dialogue (Purposeful, constructive, & valued interaction) ● Be approachable - engage learners - be personable ● Make interaction meaningful - not just for its own sake ● Build a ‘community of learners’ - enhance learning by assisting each other o Social interaction helps students build relationships Online instructors quest for greater interactivity

3 Types: ● Learner to instructor ● Learner to learner ● Learner to content (Moore & Kearsley, 2012) On another dimension: ● Academic interaction ● Social interaction ● Interaction with the technology Student Interaction

Learner to instructor ● Be approachable - Let students know who you are  Your experience with the subject matter  Possibly something personal o Contact information  Invite contact (might practice “Send me an on …”  Preferred methods  Office hours (also inform when you are not available) ● Be responsive o Timely feedback is essential. Promotes connectedness, shows students value, alleviates isolation feelings (Lee, 2010) ● Demonstrate caring Promoting student interaction

Learner to learner - tips and techniques: ● Start with class introductions. o Exercise cultural sensitivity - may need to be creative ● Small workgroups. o Meaningful but accomplishable collaborative tasks o Can increase difficulty and the group matures o Interactions between groups ● Require learner to learner feedback – early and often o Comments on submissions and peer review Promoting student interaction

Learner to learner tips - continued: ● Pose questions, problems or scenarios that require collaborative efforts. ● Promote social interaction o Safe environment for interaction o Valuable for team building ● Facilitate development of an online social presence. o Social presence is a tangible identity. o Relating with the person ‘as a person’ Promoting student interaction

Learner to content: ● Fundamentally different than face-to-face courses o No spoon feeding, learner responsible for learning ● Multi-Media! o Not just text; not just recorded lectures ● Text – text books, research articles. o Finding literature builds knowledge and research skills ● Short videos: Podcast (5-10 min) or Ted Talks (18 min) ● Interactive sessions: o Teleconferencing, chat, online discussions Promoting student interaction

Moore (1991) distance education teaching is rarely an individual act; joint product of content experts, instructional designers, and technology specialists. You are not in this alone

Importance & benefits ● Interaction is one of the most important components in distance education due to separation of instructors and learners ● Quantity/quality of interaction correlates with student satisfaction o Decreases feeling so disconnectedness and isolation ● Interaction is a key to learning ● Quality interaction improves student retention in online courses Review

Tips & techniques Learner to instructor: ● Be approachable. Share something about yourself o Invite contact, state preferred methods and times ● Be responsive o Timely and beneficial feedback ● Demonstrate caring Learner to learner: ● Class introductions ● Workgroups ● Require learner to learner feedback (early and often) Review

Tips & techniques Learner to learner (continued): ● Facilitate collaborative efforts through projects and scenarios ● Promote social interaction ● Facilitate social presence development Learner to content: ● Learner-centric ● Use various media ● Use interactive sessions o Synchronous - teleconferences, chat o Asynchronous - online discussions Review

Please go to the following sites to take the quiz and complete the course evaluation. The site is confidential so your quiz score and feedback on this module will not be identifiable. Quiz and evaluation

This presentation was created using Google Docs and recorded using Knowledge Vision’s Knovio online presentation site. Software and technology

Abdous, M. A., & Yen, C. J. (2010). A predictive study of learner satisfaction and outcomes in face-to-face, satellite broadcast, and live video-streaming learning environments. The Internet and Higher Education, 13(4), doi: /j.iheduc Altintas, T., & Gunes, A. (2012). Evaluation of distance education components: a case study of associate degree programs. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 16(3), Boling, E. C., Hough, M., Krinsky, H., Saleem, H., & Stevens, M. (2012). Cutting the distance in distance education: Perspectives on what promotes positive, online learning experiences. The Internet and Higher Education, 15(2), doi: /j.iheduc Huss, J. A., Sela, O., & Eastep, S. (2015). A case study of online instructors and their quest for greater interactivity in their courses: Overcoming the distance in distance education. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 40(4), doi: /ajte.2015v40n4.5 Jackson, L. C., Jones, S. J., & Rodriguez, R. C. (2010). Faculty actions that result in student satisfaction in online courses. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 14(4), Keengwe, J., & Schnellert, G. (2012). Fostering interaction to enhance learning in online learning environments. International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education (IJICTE), 8(3), doi: /jicte Kim, J. W., Kim, S. T., Nam, K., & Yang, K. H. (2010). Finding determinants affecting distance education effectiveness in terms of learner satisfaction and application achievement. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies, 5(2), doi: /jwltt References and further reading

Klaus, T., & Changchit, C. (2014). Environmental factors of distance learning: an exploratory study. International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education, 10(1), doi: /ijicte Kuo, Y. C., Walker, A. E., Belland, B. R., & Schroder, K. E. (2013). A predictive study of student satisfaction in online education programs. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 14(1), Lee, J. W. (2010). Online support service quality, online learning acceptance, and student satisfaction. The Internet and Higher Education, 13(4), Moore, M. G., & Kearsley, G. (2012). Distance education: A systems view of online learning. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Peters, V. L., & Hewitt, J. (2010). An investigation of student practices in asynchronous computer conferencing courses. Computers & Education, 54(4), doi: /j.compedu Simonson, M., Schlosser, C., & Orellana, A. (2011). Distance education research: A review of the literature. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 23(2-3), Traxler, J. (2010). Distance education and mobile learning: Catching up, taking stock. Distance Education, 31(2), doi: / References and further reading