Blog #3 Online Education for Practicing Professionals

SUMMARY

Computer mediated communication or CMC, offers a new type of learning called distance learning for students. In On-line Education for Practicing Professionals: A Case Study, Heather Duncan takes a deep look into this type of education. CMC comes with a lot of stigmas to begin with. Duncan wanted to determine if these were true or not from her own research.

Distance learning involves a type of communication called asynchronous communication. This means that the students can participate at their leisure. Of course there are deadlines for various assignments and web based conversations, students can enter their data at 3:30 in the morning on a Tuesday if they wanted to.

This study was made up of 8 students’ participants and 1 teacher participant. It took place using a master’s level education course called “Curriculum for Rural, Northern and Aboriginal Schools”. The study was qualitative and included data from different sources. In addition to computerized instruction, data was also retrieved by means of “face to face” interviews.

This qualitative study focused on the types of interaction among the students and the teacher. In addition, the study included the participant’s perceptions of the overall experience.

Interactions between the participants were broken down into task-related instruction and relational posts. Their class was organized on WebCT and the researcher (the author of this article and originally a co-teacher of the course) acted as technical support.

In the beginning of the course, the students were not spending too much time on the relational portion of the class. They prioritized their assignments and though relational reports were a portion of their grades, they all felt that written assignments take precedence over “socializing”.

Positive factors for the study include but are not limited to course content relevance, personal safety, self reflection time and self expression. Students described the course content as “inviting, engaging and thought provoking” (Duncan, 2005). In Fran’s case (one of the student participants), she felt that she was more expressive in the class because she wasn’t face to face with other students. She says this class promoted “risk-taking” in people during her final interview.

Negative factors include withdrawal of students, access problems, lack of computer knowledge and difficulty meeting for group assignments. Two of the original students had to withdraw from the class because they lived in remote areas where they could not get access to the internet. For those students who had never taken an online class before, learning how to use their computers was a class on its own. Finally, getting together for group assignments online was particularly “cumbersome” because everyone has different schedules. Collaborative learning seems to take awake the asynchronous factor from this class.

Duncan concluded that overall, this was a positive experience for the students. They had more positive than negative comments. They came into the class with low expectations and left somewhat surprised.

REVIEW

Personal safety was mentioned as a positive factor of distance learning. In the physical sense, graduate students (who generally take their classes in the evening) were happier to stay in the safety of their own home. Duncan noted that university attacks usually take place at night and on women. The security of being able to go to school at home is “nice”.

Honestly, I was very unhappy to read this. I go to school at night three times a week and I like to have more faith in public safety. Though I have heard of women being raped in various parking lots, I don’t have the same qualms about it yet because it hasn’t happened to me (hopefully it never will). I always walk with another person.

I mention this because I think it’s wrong that an apparent solution to parking lot rapists is women being confined to their homes.

We can’t even go to school anymore because of these sick people? I feel like we are giving in…

Blog #2 Staying the Course

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Staying the Course: A Study in Online Student Satisfaction and Retention

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Michael Herbert, Ph.D.
Chair, Criminal Justice Department
Bemidji State University
1500 Birchmont Drive NE
Bemidji , MN 56601-2699

SUMMARY

Is it really true that being physically present in a classroom will help a student remember what is being taught more so than on online class? In Staying the Course: A Study in Online Student Satisfaction and Retention studies were conducted to find the answer to this question.

Previous studies have shown that college students have a 20% to 50% chance of not being able to retain the information they have learned throughout their semesters. Professors who teach online classes believe that this failed retention rate increases by 10% to 20% for online classes.

Since accountability has now officially become the responsibility of the institution providing the education, this failing retention rate has to drop. So far, students who take online classes have not reported having the most positive experiences. In this case, the colleges are responsible for fixing this problem.

First, getting students to stay enrolled in an online class seems to be challenging. One idea that explains this problem involves two factors. An older study suggested that organization and students satisfaction will ultimately lead to their commitment or withdrawal from an online class. Alternate influential factors mentioned by other models that affect commitment, withdrawal and general participation in online classes included general feelings toward the learning institute and the need for positive reinforcement.

The purpose of this study was to determine the variables significant for retention in online courses (Herbert, 2005). The study was conducted by using an online course survey. Surveys were sent to students who had enrolled for online classes. Surveys were sent to participants two times throughout the semester.

Three important variables that were being looked at were personal, institutional and circumstantial variables. The specifics of these variables were defined in this article (Herbert, 2005)

1. Personal variables . These include demographics that encompass age, gender, and martial status; as well as variables such as academic skills and abilities, motivation, commitment and locus of control (Rotter 1966, Parker 1999, Kember 1995).

2. Institutional variables . This category includes variables such as academic, bureaucratic and institutional social variables (Willis 1994, Alexander, McKenzie, and Geissinger 1998).

3. Circumstantial variables . These include socio-economic variables, academic interactions, social interactions and life situation.

Approximately 75% of the participants reported they had completed the online courses they had enrolled in. The remaining 25% reported that they had not completed the online courses. Some of the results indicated that responsiveness to the needs of the students, online instruction quality, timely responses, frequency of interaction, financial aid and student interaction were factors that affected those people who did not complete their online classes.

It is worth noting that although 25% of the participants did not complete their online classes, they still reported back to the researcher. This means that they want to be heard.

A t test showed that there was a significant difference between completers and non-completers. It also showed that the student expectations of the classes were significantly lower among the students whom had not completed the online classes.

The following conclusion can be made for this study. First, students with lower expectations will not perform as well in online classes as students with higher expectations. Second, universities need to take responsibility to improve the online classes.

REVIEW

In my opinion, distance learning is much more difficult than non-distance learning. It’s not the actual presence of being in a physical classroom that influences student grades. It’s the participation and the “give” and “take”. Though in theory the same idea is supposed to be accomplished through online learning, somehow it’s just not the same. On one hand, people might be shy about their real opinions on certain matters since they are actually typing their thoughts. Whatever a student says is “set in stone” so to speak. That’s a level of commitment I think most people don’t want to make. On the other hand, people may be more likely to express themselves to a degree that is borderline mean since they never actually have to see their classmates face to face. Its great to have a debate but the presence of visible mediator is a comfort for some students. So far…I am not a fan of distance education.