Education Commons^™

Student Perceptions Of The Effectiveness Of Adaptive Courseware For Learning, Patricia O'Sullivan, Christina Forgette, Stephen Monroe, M. Tyler England

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Despite the increasing research on the effectiveness of adaptive learning courseware by vendors and academic institutions, there are few published, peer-reviewed studies on adaptive courseware that address the student experience and student perception of this teaching and learning tool. Over the course of two academic years, 2017/2018 and 2018/2019, researchers at the University of Mississippi conducted 16 course-based student focus groups and gathered data from 4 end-of-semester surveys to understand how students are experiencing adaptive courseware and whether or not they find it adds value to their education. Our study found that, although students generally find courseware to be helpful …

A Transformative Approach To Incorporating Adaptive Courseware: Strategic Implementation, Backward Design And Research-Based Teaching Practices, Tonya A. Buchan, Stanley Kruse, Jennifer Todd, Lee Tyson

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

In July 2016, Colorado State University (CSU) joined seven other land-grant institutions in the Accelerating Adoption of Adaptive Courseware grant sponsored by the Personalized Learning Consortium (PLC) of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). A primary objective of the grant was to scale the adoption of adaptive courseware in general education courses at each of the grant institutions. CSU targeted high-enrollment, general education courses and took a three-pronged, transformative approach to the integration of adaptive courseware. Specifically, CSU divided the courseware integration into three components: 1) strategic implementation of courseware, 2) backward course design, and 3) incorporation of …

Designing And Teaching Adaptive+Active Learning Effectively, Peter Van Leusen, James Cunningham, Dale P. Johnson

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

To fulfill the promise of providing all learners with access to education, institutions of higher education are exploring personalized learning for individuals with different skills, abilities, and interests. These universities have turned to an instructional model that combines adaptive courseware and learner-centered instruction. This is often referred to as active learning. Despite growth in adaptive courseware and generous support through national organizations, successful implementation of adaptive systems is mixed (SRI Education, 2016). This article highlights the need for a systems approach and illustrates this approach through design and pedagogy decisions that have contributed to the success of adaptive learning at …

Adaptive Courseware Implementation: Investigating Alignment, Course Redesign, And The Student Experience, Patricia O'Sullivan, Janelle Voegele, Tonya Buchan, Raiza Dottin, Kari Goin Kono, Misty Hamideh, Wendy S. Howard, Jennifer Todd, Lee Tyson, Stanley Kruse, Johannes De Gruyter, Kevin Berg

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

In this paper, four institutions share student and faculty feedback on the implementation of adaptive courseware through a common case study: biology for undergraduate non-majors. Additionally, each institution has provided a second case study of their choice. Together, researchers at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO, Portland State University in Portland, OR, University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL, and the University of Mississippi in Oxford, MS consider student perception of the benefits to the implementation of adaptive courseware, and how the deliberate alignment between adaptive courseware and course organization and structure impacts student experience. This paper highlights the …

Foreword: Implementing Adaptive Learning At Scale, Karen Vignare

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

What follows is the second of now two Specials Issues of the CIEE journal to have been produced and guest edited by the Personalized Learning Consortium (PLC) of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). Both special issues feature important research resulting from university initiatives to launch, implement and scale up the use of adaptive courseware and the strategies of adaptive learning. The Personalized Learning Consortium has been working with institutions for more than five years to improve student success in high enrollment undergraduate courses. Using a combination of active learning and adaptive courseware, many universities are reporting higher …

Current Issues In Emerging Elearning, Volume 7, Issue 1: Aplu Special Issue On Implementing Adaptive Learning At Scale

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

The second of two Specials Issues of the CIEE journal to have been produced and guest edited by the Personalized Learning Consortium (PLC) of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), featuring important research resulting from university initiatives to launch, implement and scale up the use of adaptive courseware and the strategies of adaptive learning.

Digital Tools In The Classroom: Measuring The Effectiveness, Jeff Carpenter

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

The purpose of the study is to determine if, compared to traditional practice, digital practice increases student measuring accuracy on an authentic task. Therefore the study explores the relative efficacy of digital versus traditional practice for increasing student measurement skills in applied situations. Research tells us that students’ poor performance with measuring skills is directly related to lack of practice. To increase the ability to accurately use a ruler, Junior High, Intermediate and Middle Schools students require more time on task than they typically spend practicing this skill. Since more time is hard to come by in the classroom, educators …

Comparative Reflection On Best Known Instructional Design Models: Notes From The Field, Bengi Birgili

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

This paper is intended to stimulate discussion on historical and evolving instructional design models in an educational era. After enriching the vision of what constitutes an instructional design, the paper explores the historical development and improvement of instructional design processes and models. The instructional design models of Dick and Carey, Morrison, Ross and Kemp, Posner and Rudnitsky, and Smith and Ragan are identified herein as being among the best known, most popular, and most widely applied instructional design models in the field of educational sciences. The philosophical underpinnings and the rationales for the arrangement of components in each instructional design …

Learning Together In Public And In Private: Exploring Learner Interactions And Engagement In A Blended-Platform Mooc Environment, Arianna Montero-Colbert, Natalie Delia Deckard, Bonnie Stewart, Sundi Richard, Alexa Nanan

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

With the growing popularity of connectivist MOOCs, the aim of facilitators has increasingly shifted from helping students meet completion-oriented goals to encouraging meaningful engagement among participants. In this paper, we study the relationship between platform of engagement and learner participation, controlling for relevant demographic factors of participants including gender, age, and level of education attained. Our study employs four distinct measures of participatory engagement: autonomous learning, knowledge reproduction, information networking, and scholarly engagement. We find that on the public platform of Twitter, participants were more likely to exhibit meaningful engagement patterns across all measures studied than they were on the …

Adaptable Selectivity: A Case Study In Evaluating And Selecting Adaptive Learning Courseware At Georgia State University, Megan M. Tesene

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

In the summer of 2016, the Association of Public Land-Grant Universities (APLU) awarded Georgia State University with a $515,000 grant to adopt, implement, and scale adaptive learning courseware in undergraduate general education courses. Georgia State’s approach to the three-year grant is both data-driven and collaborative, focusing on the exploration and piloting of adaptive courseware prior to scaling out the technology across five high-impact courses. This article highlights the work conducted at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) during Year 1 of the grant. CETL’s Adaptive Learning Program Manager and Director of Learning Technology review the systematic and …

Aplu Adaptive Courseware Grant, A Case Study: Implementation At The University Of Mississippi, Patti O’Sullivan

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Learning Management Systems (LMS) have been the main vehicle for delivering and managing e-learning courses in educational, business, governmental and vocational learning settings. Since the mid-nineties there is a plethora of LMS in the market with a vast array of features. The increasing complexity of these platforms makes LMS evaluation a hard and demanding process that requires a lot of knowledge, time, and effort. Nearly 50% of respondents in recent surveys have indicated they seek to change their existing LMS primarily due to user experience issues. Yet the vast majority of the extant literature focuses only on LMS capabilities in …

Adaptive Learning Courseware As A Tool To Build Foundational Content Mastery: Evidence From Principles Of Microeconomics, Karen Gebhardt

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Adaptive courseware has the potential to increase content mastery through assessment and personalized remediation. In this study, content mastery is determined by assessment items developed in alignment to learning outcomes using Bloom’s Taxonomy. This study tracks freshmen and sophomore students enrolled in the foundations course, Principles of Microeconomics at Colorado State University. The researcher finds that students who complete adaptive assignments show higher mastery on formative assessments.

A Preliminary Examination Of Adaptive Case Studies In Nursing Pathophysiology, Julie F. Hinkle, Patsy Moskal

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Case studies are a valuable instructional tool frequently used in nursing to allow students to analyze clinical problems based on real-world scenarios. This study examines the use of the Realizeit adaptive platform to create case study scenarios for pathophysiology, a course required in the undergraduate nursing curriculum. The data gathered as students progressed through the adaptive content--time on task, number of times cases accessed, and scores on each case--provided valuable information on student behavior and engagement with the three case studies. Results of this preliminary study indicate that adaptive case studies are promising for pathophysiology and system analytics confirmed that …

Foreword: Leveraging Adaptive Courseware And Adaptive Learning, Noreen Barajas-Murphy

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

This special edition ofCurrent Issues in Emerging eLearningcomprises new empirical research focused on strategies for implementing and scaling personalized and adaptive courseware solutions. A special call for studies related to adaptive courseware implementation was announced broadly.

The Personalized Learning Consortium (PLC) at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) was solicited for research originating from institutions who participated in a postsecondary success initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. As evidenced in the research in this edition, high-enrollment foundation or gateway courses are of particular interest for pioneering initiatives regarding adaptive courses, given these courses have been …

Achieving A Scaled Implementation Of Adaptive Learning Through Faculty Engagement: A Case Study, Constance Johnson, Emma Zone

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

This paper presents a case study describing the implementation of adaptive learning at Colorado Technical University (CTU) with a focus on faculty adoption. A number of barriers to the adoption of technology will be discussed and more importantly, how CTU overcame these barriers. A description of the key elements of faculty support including training will be outlined as well as the information about the adoption of faculty using data to inform teaching strategies. The authors argue that if given the choice, faculty at CTU would prefer adaptive learning technology in their courses and welcome the use of technology and data …

Passing The Baton: Digital Literacy And Sustained Implementation Of Elearning Technologies, Lauren Herckis

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Evidence-based eLearning tools have proliferated in recent decades, but adoption at scale remains elusive. Educator buy-in is important for successful implementation of eLearning tools, and is often engaged through peer discussion, learning communities, and other educator network engagement. These non-expert sources of motivation and support for adoption, however, rarely embed specific implementation-related knowledge which eases initial phases of adoption and pedagogical integration. Such information is rarely missed but often missing from casual, technological, and pedagogical support. This represents a special kind of digital literacy which is integral to successful dissemination of educational innovations. The presence of implementation models or detailed …

Current Issues In Emerging Elearning, Volume 5, Issue 1: Special Issue On Leveraging Adaptive Courseware

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

This special edition of Current Issues in Emerging eLearning comprises new empirical research focused on strategies for implementing and scaling personalized and adaptive courseware solutions. A special call for studies related to adaptive courseware implementation was announced broadly.

The Personalized Learning Consortium (PLC) at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) was solicited for research originating from institutions who participated in a postsecondary success initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. As evidenced in the research in this edition, high-enrollment foundation or gateway courses are of particular interest for pioneering initiatives regarding adaptive courses, given these courses …

Analysis Of Instructional Design Job Announcements (2016), Marina Raynis

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

This study reports on the results of a job announcement analysis of ninety-three (93) instructional design jobs. Job announcements were collected five (5) times: three times in September 2016, and twice in October 2016. The job analysis focused on identifying key responsibilities and qualifications for instructional designers across the following industries: Corporate, Government / Military, Health, Higher Education, and Non-Profit. The results are discussed, as well as supported and contrasted with a literature review that includes reports on surveyed instructional design professionals.

Adaptive Learning: A Tale Of Two Contexts, Charles Dziuban, Patsy Moskal, Constance Johnson, Duncan Evans

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

This paper presents the results of student reactions to adaptive learning at two universities with considerably different contexts: a large public institution and a for-profit, professional university. A student response protocol developed by and administered at the University of Central Florida (UCF) was also distributed to students at Colorado Technical University (CTU). Demographic comparisons of the two responding sample groups indicated considerable differences in student characteristics, especially with respect to age and work status. However, a factor invariance comparison revealed that students at both universities evaluated the adaptive climate similarly though the lens of learning environment, guidance path and progression. …

Educational Apps In The Blended Learning Classroom: Bringing Inquiry-Based Learning Into The Mix, Todd S. Cherner, Alex Fegely

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

With schools investing heavily in mobile technologies and emphasizing blended learning lessons, teachers are being required to create learning experiences that utilize these technologies to further prepare secondary students for college and the workforce. In this article, the authors first present a brief vignette intended to be representative of the emotions and pressures facing teachers as they prepare to teach with these new technologies. Next, the authors provide a framework teachers can use to create app-based lessons, which are lessons that use multiple apps to engage students in an inquiry-based learning experience. To provide further support, the authors include two …

Quality Management Of Learning Management Systems: A User Experience Perspective, Panagiotis Zaharias, Christopher Pappas

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Learning Management Systems (LMS) have been the main vehicle for delivering and managing e-learning courses in educational, business, governmental and vocational learning settings. Since the mid-nineties there is a plethora of LMS in the market with a vast array of features. The increasing complexity of these platforms makes LMS evaluation a hard and demanding process that requires a lot of knowledge, time, and effort. Nearly 50% of respondents in recent surveys have indicated they seek to change their existing LMS primarily due to user experience issues. Yet the vast majority of the extant literature focuses only on LMS capabilities in …

From Instructivism To Connectivism: Theoretical Underpinnings Of Moocs, Matt Crosslin

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

While the first MOOCs were connectivist in their approach to learning, later versions have expanded to include instructivist structures and structures that blend both theories. From an instructional design standpoint the differences are important. This paper will examine how to analyze the goals of any proposed MOOC to determine what the epistemological focus should be. This will lead to a discussion of types of communication needed—based on analysis of power dynamics—to design accurately within the determined epistemology. The paper also explores later stages of design related to proper communication of the intended power structure or theoretical design as these relate …

Participant Experience Of The First Massive Open Online Course (Mooc) From Pakistan, Syed Hani Abidi, Aamna Pasha, Syed Ali

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Background: In recent years, massive open online courses (MOOCs) have steadily gained popularity. It appears, however, that MOOC learners are concentrated mostly in the affluent English-speaking countries. MOOCs’ free-of-cost, easy accessibility should make them obviously attractive to participants from low-and-middle-income countries (LMIC). The reason why LMIC enrollments in MOOCs are so low is therefore unclear. In the year 2014, the first MOOC was launched from Pakistan. We administered a survey to the enrollees of this MOOC to explore concerns, fears, and limitations that might be deterring the LMIC audience from participating in MOOCs.

Methods: The MOOC was a three-week course …

Who Is A Student: Completion In Coursera Courses At Duke University, Molly Goldwasser, Chris Mankoff, Kim Manturuk, Lorrie Schmid, Keith E. Whitfield

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Much of the interest in MOOCs centers on questions about who completes them. Duke’s Coursera-based Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) confirm many demographic trends previously delineated by researchers at peer institutions. As found in previous research, this study found individuals who speak English as a first language and who already earned at least a bachelor’s degree are the most likely to complete a Coursera course. MOOC researchers to date have not, however, developed clear operational definitions about who constitutes a learner at the outset of the course. This paper proposes some possible definitions to standardize future research. Further, this study …

Foreword: Mooc Studies Well Past The Year Of The Mooc, Alan Girelli, Leslie Limon

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

As we move nearly a half-decade beyond The New York Times’ declaring 2012 the "Year of the MOOC," the range of discussants involved in discourse on MOOCs has narrowed, yet the sophistication of scholarship produced continues to deepen. This second in a two-part series of special issues of Current Issues in Emerging eLearning celebrates this rich, new scholarship on MOOC theory and practice. Volume 3, Issue 1: MOOC Design and Delivery: Opportunities and Challenges presents an underlying argument: that the MOOC frontier can inform our decisions regarding all manner of educational approaches, from clickers in the classroom to evolving …

How The Community Became More Than The Curriculum: Participant Experiences In #Rhizo14, Sarah Honeychurch, Bonnie Stewart, Maha Bali, Rebecca J. Hogue, Dave Cormier

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

The paper outlines participant experiences in a rhizomatic MOOC, #rhizo14. We begin with a brief outline of the structure of the course before presenting our five participant narratives to illustrate our beliefs that, for us, the #rhizo14 community became more than the curriculum. We then discuss some of the common themes in our narratives: the role that the Facebook group held in fostering our feelings of community, how the diversity of voices in the course promoted learning and engagement of group members, the formation of sub-communities with diverse interests, and the flexibility of participation that the course encouraged. While acknowledging …

Moving Beyond Mooc Mania: Lessons From A Faculty-Designed Mooc, Julia Parra

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have attracted fame, perhaps even notoriety, in recent years. However, we have yet to articulate clearly the purpose and potential for MOOCs. Moreover, we lack established best practices in the process of designing MOOCs. We lack models for practical use by faculty and early career instructional designers, whose group members function with limited resources but would like to engage in the intriguing process of MOOC design. The first goal for this case study is to demonstrate how a MOOC titled Adventures in Learning Design, Technology, and Innovation (#LDTIMOLO) was developed following the ADDIE framework and …

What Is It Like To Learn And Participate In Rhizomatic Moocs? A Collaborative Autoethnography Of #Rhizo14, Maha Bali, Sarah Honeychurch, Keith Hamon, Rebecca J. Hogue, Apostolos Koutropoulos, Scott Johnson, Ronald Leunissen, Lenandlar Singh

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

In January 2014, we participated in a connectivist-style massive open online course (cMOOC) called "Rhizomatic Learning – The community is the curriculum" (#rhizo14). In rhizomatic learning, teacher and student roles are radically restructured. Course content and value come mostly from students; the teacher, at most, is a curator who provides a starting point and guidance and sometimes participates as a learner. Early on, we felt that we were in a unique learning experience that we wanted to capture in writing. Explaining #rhizo14 to others without the benefit of traditional processes, practices, roles, or structures, however, presented a challenge. We invited …

Closing The Loop: Building Synergy For Learning Through A Professional Development Mooc About Flipped Teaching, Donna Harp Ziegenfuss

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

This case study describes how a MOOC, funded through an NSF grant, was used to create and assess faculty professional development. The MOOC, designed and developed using a backward design process, guided participants through an online project-based learning experience that integrated learning about the flipped classroom and about how to flip a classroom as the participants designed flipped teaching materials. The course structure involved an introduction to flipped teaching and learning content, experimented with flipped ideas and concepts, and emphasized reflection and sharing of experiences with peers.

Although mentoring faculty in flipped pedagogical design was the primary MOOC goal, the …

Learning Through Design: Mooc Development As A Method For Exploring Teaching Methods, Robin Bartoletti

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Exploring new pedagogical approaches and technologies in learning experiences such as MOOCs offers educators a clear opportunity to reflect on and expand their teaching methods and document effective practices. However, while research has affirmed the value of self-reflection as an important means to improve one’s pedagogical practices, very limited data about self-reflection during course design exists for online instructors in higher education. A team of MOOC course designers thus seized the opportunity to investigate whether they could improve their teaching practices by engaging in a connectivist and reflective process to create an innovative MOOC. The MOOC design team for Educational …