Volume 8, Issue 4 - December 2004

Gender and Online Discourse in the Principles of Economics

Duane B. Graddy, Department of Economics and Finance, Middle Tennessee State University

Collaboration is the heart of online learning. Interaction among course participants brings excitement to the online environment and creates knowledge as a group activity. Impediments to active collaboration reduce group, as well as individual, potentialities. Past studies of online discussions have found differences in the style of female and male...

Comparison of Outcomes on Like Exams Administered to In-Residence and Asynchronous Distance-Based Pharm.D. Students

Ronald E. Ragan, R.Ph., Ph.D., Director, Non-Traditional Pharmacy Education, The University of Kansas, School of Pharmacy
James W. Kleoppel, R.Ph., M.S., Clinical Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice, The University of Kansas School of Pharmacy

The purpose of this retrospective study was to compare the academic outcomes of distance-based students in the asynchronous non-traditional pathway with in-residence students in the traditional pathway on examples of like examinations in the Pharm.D. curriculum at the Kansas University School of Pharmacy. This study evaluated the commitment of assuring...

Exploring the Interaction Equation: Validating a Rubric to Assess and Encourage Interaction in Distance Courses

M. D. Roblyer, University of Maryland University College
W. R. Wiencke, University of West Georgia

The degree of interaction among participants in distance courses is widely acknowledged to be an indicator of successful learning experiences; interaction has been found to contribute to both achievement and student satisfaction. As an increasing number of distance courses move to a completely asynchronous, online format, providing for better interaction...

Scaffolding Complex Tasks by Open Online Submission: Emerging Patterns and Profiles

Miky Ronen, Holon Academic Institute of Technology, Israel
Dorothy Langley, Holon Academic Institute of Technology, Israel

Students in higher-education courses are often confronted with complex tasks that require application and integration of newly gained knowledge. Different students require different types and amounts of instructional scaffolding for coping with such challenging tasks. The incorporation of asynchronous online elements into academic courses offers various ways of implementing traditional...

Experimental Online Case Study for a Breakthrough in Student Engagement: Description and Results

James Theroux, Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts
Clare Kilbane, School of Education, University of Massachusetts

A new type of case study, called the real-time case (RTC), was produced in the fall of 2001 and distributed via the Internet to business classes at four universities in the U.S. and Canada. The real-time case presented the story of one company's growth and development throughout a 14-week semester....

Correlational Analysis of Student Visibility and Performance in Online Learning

Minjuan Wang, San Diego State University

This study examines the relationship between student visibility and learning outcomes in a graduate-level online course. Visibility in this study refers to students’ cognitive, social, and emotive presence [1, 2] in various communication settings, such as posts on the discussion board, contributions in live chats, email messages, online profiles, and...

Models of Large-Scale E-Learning

Early interest in e-learning focused around the possibility of large-scale courses. This led to pronouncements of the demise of the educator, which were based on an infinite lecture hall pedagogy. However, cost-effective models of large-scale e-learning have proven difficult to implement. This paper examines some of the initial reaction to...

Online Learning and Time-on-Task: Impact of Proctored vs. Un-Proctored Testing

Gregory S. Wellman, College of Pharmacy, Ferris State University
Henryk Marcinkiewicz, Associate Vice-President for Academic Affairs, Pennsylvania College of Technology

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of proctored versus un-proctored testing on practice time and learning for a self-study, online course in medical terminology. Participants included 120 college students in a pharmacy curriculum. Subjects were randomized to one of three groups utilizing textbook with proctored assessment,...

Factors that Influence Students' Decision to Dropout of Online Courses

Pedro A. Willging, Department of Human Resource Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Scott D. Johnson, Department of Human Resource Education University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,

Although there are many reasons why students dropout of college courses, those reasons may be unique for students who are enrolled in an online program. Issues of isolation, disconnectedness, and technological problems may be factors that influence a student to leave a course. To understand these factors, an online survey...