Education Commons^™

Well Begun Is Half Done: Using Online Orientation To Foster Online Students' Academic Self-Efficacy, M'Hammed Abdous

Distance Learning Faculty & Staff Publications

Past research suggests that the use of an online learning orientation is an effective proactive strategy to ease online students' transition into online learning. Based on a sample of 3,888 online students from an urban public university, we used ordinal logistic regression to understand the influence of students' satisfaction with an online learning orientation (OLO), their prior level of online learning experience, and their demographics on their academic self-efficacy (ASE). Consistent with prior research, our findings confirmed the influence of students' satisfaction with OLO, their prior online learning experience, and their gender on their ASE. Unsatisfied students were 85% less …

Old Dogs Can Learn To Like New Tricks: One Instructor's Change In Attitude To Online Instruction From 2009-2017, Thomas V. O'Brien, Holly A. Foster

Faculty Publications

This qualitative case study examined a veteran instructor's change in attitude about university online instruction. After a short review of the literature and explanation of the project, researchers conducted a content analysis of an instructor's annual self-reports about his online teaching of a graduate course in the social sciences. The self-reports were written between 2009 and 2017. The researchers also examined students' end-of-semester evaluation scores about the course and instructor. Results suggest that the teacher began online teaching with a mixed attitude. After four years of teachin ghte online course (delivered once each spring) the instructor reported more about content …

An Investigation Of The Relationship Between Grades And Learning Modes In An Introductory Research Methods Course, Donna L. Roberts, John C. Griffith, Emily Faulconer, Beverly L. Wood, Soumyadip Acharyya

Publications

Education researchers have conducted studies on the relationship of learning mode to student performance, but few studies have evaluated pass rate, grade distribution and student withdrawal rate in an introductory research methods course. In this study, researchers examined 2,097 student grades from the 2015-2016 academic year to determine if such a relationship existed. In this study, learning mode was significantly related to failure rate, grade distribution and withdraw rate. Synchronous video home students had a significantly higher failure rate than traditional In-Person or online students. Online student grade distributions were significantly different than In-Person classroom, synchronous video home or synchronous …

Problem-Based Learning And Information Literacy: Revising A Technical Writing Class, Kelly Diamond

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This chapter discusses the collaboration between a librarian and faculty member to revise an online technical writing course using the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy, problem-based learning, and instructional design principles. The chapter outlines three components of course revision: 1) re-design online course to be more engaging to students as well as easier to navigate; 2) create assignments and activities to mirror actual workplace writing tasks; 3) develop research assignments focused on information literacy skills used in the workplace. Using elements from ADDIE (Analyze; Design; Develop; Implement; Evaluate) and Backward Design, the course …

And Finally... Course Quality Or Instructional Quality, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Quality has become a popular word in distance education literature. Quality this, and quality that, all demanding that distance education, online learning, or virtual schooling must “have” something called quality— most often course quality.

And Finally … Open Access, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Open Access—the idea that scholarly literature should be free and easily available to read online to anyone with an interest. We distance educators naturally embrace the idea of having readily available content that can be used in courses in a format that is easy to use and access. According to the web location Opensource.com there are two different versions of open access—libre and gratis.

And Finally … Telepresence—New Or ?, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Telepresence is most simply defined as the virtual presence of a speaker who is at a distance. More sophisticated definitions emphasize the use of technologies that allow a videoconference viewer to feel as if distant participants are present.

Factors Contributing To Student Retention In Online Learning And Recommended Strategies For Improvement: A Systematic Literature Review, Pauline S. Muljana, Tian Luo

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Aim/Purpose

This systematic literature review investigates the underlying factors that influence the gap between the popularity of online learning and its completion rate. The review scope within this paper includes an observation of possible causal aspects within the non-ideal completion rates in online learning environments and an identification of recommended strategies to increase retention rates.

Background

While online learning is increasingly popular, and the number of online students is steadily growing, student retention rates are significantly lower than those in the traditional environment. Despite the multitude of studies, many institutions are still searching for solutions for this matter.

Methodology

A …