Online Learning

Biases What do you think?

Definitions Distance education – planned learning that occurs in a different place from teaching Online learning – using computer technology in distance education Blended learning – combined face-to- face traditional learning and online learning

Sloan Consortium “A consortium of accredited colleges and universities and organizations dedicated to improving the quality, scale and breadth of their online programs according to their own distinctive missions, so that education will become a part of everyday life, accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any time, in a wide variety of disciplines.”

Who Is Involved? 96% of large institutions (15,000+ students) offer some online courses Overall online enrollment increased from 2.4 million in 2004 to 3.2 million in 2005 –Slone Consortium (2006)

Faculty George P. Schell, Ph.D. UNC, Wilmington US sample of 481 respondents - delivery not disclosed) All participants have developed and used online course materials public versus private institutions had similar distributions The most frequent response was a school size less than 5,000 students Ten percent of respondents reported more than 30,000 students

Findings

The Student Learning outcomes of students using technology is similar to learning outcomes of students who participate in conventional classroom instruction Attitudes and satisfaction of distance learners are generally positive –Dabbagh & Bannan-Ritland 2005

Don’t do it! cannot alter curriculum It cancels out the original goals of offering a quality level of higher education that meets the specific needs of each citizen. rote learning vs interacting with another person face-to-face.

Yes, do it! COST – –Traditional: faculty time + building space x time used + overhead –Online: faculty time + network resource used + overhead TIME: commute, inflexible Online - fastest growing college enrollments Projections for enrollment – not enough seats! Low-enrollment courses – we do independent studies 1:1 – what if there were a community of learners (you’d have the whole world to find people)

Research – Open Learning Initiative Carnegie Mellon University – can students using an online education program in conjunction with traditional classroom instruction can complete a college course in far less time than it would normally take. OLI –incorporates extensive research into how people successfully learn –provide real-time feedback, pinpoint students' individual weaknesses and provide them with individualized tutoring so they are able to work at their own pace. – , Statistics Professor Oded Myer demonstrated that learning statistics solely through the OLI course, performed just as well on exams as students who took the university's traditional introductory statistics course. The next step will be to determine whether students using the OLI materials to augment conventional classroom instruction can complete a 15-week statistics course in half that time. "Educational technology has not had the impact we had all hoped for because these efforts have largely ignored the major scientific advances in understanding how humans learn that have been developed in the learning sciences over the last 25 years," The OLI instructional programs can be accessed at For more on the Hewlettwww.cmu.edu/oli

What helps? Self-regulation research suggests practical and theoretical implications: –(1) Web-Based Pedagogical Tools (WBPT) –(2) adaptive scaffolding –(3) different types of WBPTs support different self- regulatory processes (Azevedo et al., 2004; Dabbagh & Kitsantas, 2005; Kauffman, 2004; Kramarski & Gutman, 2006; Niemi, Nevgi, & Virtanen, 2003

Adult learning principles Enhanced when it is immediately applicable Same Enhanced when adults have controlEasier – time and place controlled by learner Depends upon experiencesEasier – posting of experience related to topics Depends upon active involvementMore difficult to monitor but can be easier to offer more ways to learn Depends upon a climate of respect and comfort Can go either way Enhanced through self-directionEasier – can disseminate diverse information concurrently Enhanced with connectionsMore difficult but possible Account for individual learning stylesEasier to an extent – provide multi- media presentation Learning is:online learning vs traditional

Tour through an on-line course often initiated by the dean or a department chair take a traditionally taught course and make it on-line work with a web developer who adds graphics does the type setting and organization Blackboard is a typical mode of delivery

Example –Course description – detailed –Professor bio –Syllabus –Calendar – due dates –Course divided into units Text is the actual lecture Links to external websites Graphics Video – must have transcript per ADA –Readings Password protected to permit postings of copyrighted material

–Assignments Discussion questions Traditional assignment posted –Assessments Can do multiple choice, essay, fill-in Can give immediate feedback for correct and incorrect answers Text books often have electronic test banks - if using text only Honor code –randomize order of test –have timer –force completion – once you start you have to finish –randomly select from test bank. –Other cool features Manage groups –assign students in groups and they have their own forum Course stats - summary of usage –how many discussion posts –how long spent looking at other posts –i.e. graduate course had about 400 posts in 5 days

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