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Volume 21, Issue 1 - March 2017

Table of Contents

This issue of OLJ explores several important themes related to online teaching and learning including faculty, student, and institutional concerns. We invite you to read, share, and cite the high-quality papers in this issue and help us to continue to enhance the research and practice of online learning.

Introduction

Peter J. Shea
 

Faculty, Professional Development, and Online Teaching

Nancy Pope Wingo, Nataliya V. Ivankova, Jacqueline A. Moss
Audrey Smith Pereira, Monika Maya Wahi
Pamela Beach, Dale Willows
Ken-Zen Chen, Patrick R. Lowenthal, Christine Bauer, Allan Heaps, Crystal Nielsen
Integrating Accessibility into Online Higher Education
Chad E. Smith, Samantha Crocker, Tamby Allman

Online Academic Integrity

Anita Lee-Post, Holly Hapke
Helaine Mary Alessio, Nancy J. Malay, Karsten Maurer, A. John Bailer, Beth Rubin
Students, Community, and Online Learning
Baiyun Chen, Aimee deNoyelles, Janet Zydney, Kerry Patton
Jesus Trespalacios
Kevin Hannon
Sedef Uzuner Smith, Suzanne Hayes, Peter Shea
Jayme N. Linton
Amy M Roberts, Jennifer LoCasale-Crouch, Bridget K Hamre, Jordan M Buckrop

...

Articles

Introduction to the Special Issue: Best Papers Presented at the AERA 2016 Online Teaching and Learning SIG

Jennifer C. Richardson, Purdue University

Karen Swan, University of Illinois Springfield

Marquetta Strait, Purdue University

The American Educational Research Association (AERA), founded in 1916, is the premier association of educational research professionals. AERA has more than 25,000 members and is international in scope, with members representing over 85 countries world-wide. It is concerned with improving the educational process by encouraging scholarly inquiry related to education and evaluation and by promoting the dissemination and practical application of research results. To that end, AERA’s annual meeting includes thousands of juried presentations of substantive research findings across a range of disciplines.
AERA supports 12 divisions and 150 Special Interest Groups (SIGs). One of the latter is the Special Interest Group on Online Teaching and Learning (SIG-OTL). SIG-OTL is a multi- disciplinary community of scholars focused on the creation, use, and evaluation of online learning environments. (For more information see the SIG-OTL website at: http://www.aera.net/SIG035/Online-Teaching-and-Learning-SIG-35.)
At the 2016 Annual Meeting, SIG-OTL sponsored 58 presentations of research in a variety of formats, from a set of over 120 proposals. The papers in this special issue were selected from those accepted papers.

Students’ Perceptions of Learner-Learner Interactions that Weaken a Sense of Community in an Online

Krystle Phirangee, University of Toronto

Despite the growth of its popularity in recent years, online learning has demonstrated high dropout rates compared to dropout rates in traditional face-to-face courses. Prior research attributes attrition to the physical isolation of students from one another and the lack of interaction between and among them—factors which foster feelings of...

Exploring the Effect of Scripted Roles on Cognitive Presence in Asynchronous Online Discussions

Larisa Olesova and Margaret Slavin, George Mason University

Jieun Lim, Purdue University

The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of scripted roles on students’ level of cognitive presence in asynchronous online threaded discussions. A quantitative content analysis was used to investigate: (1) what level of cognitive presence is achieved by students’ assigned roles in asynchronous online discussions; (2) differences...

Culturally Responsive Teaching Knowledge and Practices of Online Faculty

Miranda Jennings, Northcentral University

Cultural differences between faculty and their students can create important challenges that affect the quality and efficacy of online teaching and learning. The objectives of this study were to: (a) create and pilot test an assessment for online faculty to measure culturally responsive teaching knowledge (CRT) and culturally responsive educational...

Analysis of Discussion Board Interaction in an Online Peer-Mentoring Site

Regina Ruane and Vera Lee, Drexel University

This study uses Critical Discourse Analysis and Social Network Analysis to examine an online peer mentoring site created to unite first-year and third-year preservice teachers enrolled in an undergraduate teacher education program.  The peer mentoring site was developed to provide both first-year preservice teachers and more experienced peers the opportunity...

Gender Differences in Online High School Courses

Susan Lowes, Peiyi Lin, Brian R. ​C. Kinghorn, Teachers College, Columbia University

Prior research has suggested that there may be differences in the ways that male and female students approach their online courses. Using data for 802 high school students enrolled in 14 online courses, this study explored gender differences in the interrelationships among online behaviors and course performance. The findings show...

Online TeacherWork to Support Self-Regulation of Learning in Students with Disabilities at a Fully Online State Virtual School

Mary Frances Rice and Richard Allen Carter, Jr., University of Kansas

Students with disabilities represent a growing number of learners receiving education in K-12 fully online learning programs. They are, unfortunately, also a large segment of the online learning population who are not experiencing success in these environments. In response, scholars have recommended increasing instruction in self-regulation skills for these students,...

“More Confident Going into College”: Lessons Learned from Multiple Stakeholders in a New Blended Learning Initiative

Aimee L. Whiteside, University of Tampa

Amy Garrett Dikkers & Somer Lewis, University of North Carolina at Wilmington

This article examined a blended learning initiative in a large suburban high school in the Midwestern region of the United States. It employed a single-case exploratory design approach to learn about the experience of administrators, teachers, students, and parents. Using Zimmerman’s Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) Theory as a guiding framework, this...

Introduction to Section II

Peter Shea, University at Albany, State University of New York; Editor-in-Chief, Online Learning

In addition to the special issue section reflecting papers presented in the OTL SIG at the 2016 conference of the American Educational Research Association this issue also features papers from our standard submission process. These papers investigate issues related to the academic performance of minority students in online settings, experiential...

Relationships Between Minority Students Online Learning Experiences and Academic Performance

Alex Kumi Yeboah, University at Albany- SUNY

Patriann Smith,  Texas Tech University, Lubbock Texas

The study investigated the relationship between minority students’ use of technology, social media, the number of online courses, program of study, satisfaction, and academic performance. Participants in the study were a diverse student body regarding age, gender, and educational level, and functioned at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Analysis of...

Using Importance-Performance Analysis to Guide Instructional Design of Experiential Learning Activities

Sheri Anderson, University of North Carolina Wilmington

Yu-Chang Hsu, Boise State University

Judy Kinney, University of North Carolina Greensboro

Designing experiential learning activities requires an instructor to think about what they want the students to learn. Using importance-performance analysis can assist with the instructional design of the activities. This exploratory study used importance-performance analysis in an online introduction to criminology course. There is limited research on experiential learning in...

Evaluation of Online Graduate Epidemiology Instruction and Student Outcomes

Jacqueline Knapke, Erin Haynes, Julie Breen, University of Cincinnati

Pierce Kuhnell, Laura Smith, Jareen Meinzen-Derr, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

In the last two decades, online learning has transformed the field of higher education. Also during this time, institutions of higher education have seen increases in their adult learner populations. The flexibility and accessibility of an online education model is often particularly appealing to adult learners, who bring unique needs,...

Ethos and Practice of a Connected Learning Movement: Interpreting Virtually Connecting Through Alignment with Theory and Survey Results

Maha Bali, American University of Cairo

Autumm Lee Ann Caines, Capital University

Helen DeWaard, Lakehead University

Rebecca Hogue, University of Ottawa

Virtually Connecting (VC) is a connected learning volunteer movement that enlivens virtual conference experiences by partnering those that are at the conference with virtual participants that cannot attend. In looking to articulate the ethos and intentions of VC, a manifesto was developed by a group of core members and presented...

Articles

Introduction to the Special Issue: Best Papers Presented at the OLC 21st International Conference on Online Learning and Innovate 2016

Paige L. McDonald, The George Washington University

Patsy Moskal, University of Central Florida

Anthony G. Picciano,  City University of New York, Hunter College

The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) traces its roots to the Alfred P. Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) that emerged in the 1990s when a cadre of early adapters of online learning began to coalesce into a professional community. Funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, this community embarked on a number of activities designed to promote quality in the design and implementation of online and blended learning applications.  In 1995, a one-day meeting of grantees of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Anytime, Anyplace Learning Program met in Philadelphia to discuss their work and share their experiences.  Ninety individuals attended this first event. This meeting grew into an annual event for the next five years.  In 2001, it was decided that the event be expanded into a full conference with paper submissions and reviews, workshops, and exhibit areas.  The University of Central Florida agreed to host the conference in Orlando in November.  That was a fateful decision as the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11 followed by the anthrax scare in Florida in October of that year severely limited the number of people willing to fly to Orlando to attend the conference. Still, three hundred and sixty participants attended to share and discuss research, effective practices, student services, and administrative support for online learning.  Since 2001, the conference has grown and has evolved into the premiere event for presenting current ideas, research, and best practices in online learning. 

In 2015, the Online Learning Consortium celebrated the 21st anniversary of the International Conference on Online Learning.  The theme of the conference, Shaping the Future of Online Learning, focused on the latest developments in online and blended learning. Almost 3,000 individuals attended this conference either in person or virtually.  Six hundred and sixty-eight proposals were submitted for presentation.  

In April, 2016, the Online Learning Consortium initiated a new conference, OLC Innovate: Innovations in Blended and Online Learning.  Almost 2,000 individuals attended this conference and 506 individuals submitted presentation proposals.   Of the 1,172 proposals submitted for both conferences, the nine articles selected for this special edition represent the best presentations as determined by the conference track chairs and editorial staff of the Online Learning Journal.

A National Study of Differences between Distance and Non-distance Community College Students in Time to First Associate Degree Attainment, Transfer, and Dropout

Peter Shea,  University at Albany, State University of New York

Temi Bidjerano, Furman University

Abstract: Previous research indicates that online learning at the community college level results in higher rates of withdrawal, failure, and dropout compared to classroom-based education (Xu & Smith Jaggars, 2011; Smith-Jaggars & Xu, 2010). The primary goal of the current study was to examine national data (US Dept. of Ed....

Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Turnover Intention of Online Teachers in the K-12 Setting

Ingle Larkin, Laurie Brantley-Dias, Anissa Lokey-Vega, Kennesaw State University

Abstract:  The purpose of this study was to measure and explore factors influencing K-12 online teachers’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions. Using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1954), Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory of Satisfaction (1959, 1968), Meyer and Allen’s measure of Organizational Commitment (1997), and Fishbein and Ajzen’s Theory of...

A Study of Faculty Governance Leaders’ Perceptions of Online and Blended Learning

Elizabeth Ciabocchi, St. John’s University

Amy Ginsberg, Long Island University

Anthony Picciano, City University of New York

 

Abstract: This article reports the findings of a study on the perceptions of faculty governance leaders to online and blended learning. For the purposes of this study, faculty governance was defined as formally established bodies in colleges and universities such as senates, councils, and collective bargaining organizations that are affiliated...

Adaptive Learning in Psychology: Wayfinding in the Digital Age

Charles D. Dziuban, Patsy D. Moskal, Jeffrey Cassisi, and Alexis Fawcett

University of Central Florida

Abstract This paper presents the results of a pilot study investigating the use of the Realizeit adaptive learning platform to deliver a fully online General Psychology course across two semesters. Through mutual cooperation, UCF and vendor (CCKF) researchers examined students’ affective, behavioral, and cognitive reactions to the system. Student survey...

Assessing Readiness for Online Education – Research Models for Identifying Students at Risk

Claire Wladis, Katherine M. Conway, and Alyse C. Hachey

Borough of Manhattan Community College at the City University of New York

Abstract: This study explored the interaction between student characteristics and the online environment in predicting course performance and subsequent college persistence among students in a large urban U.S. university system. Multilevel modeling, propensity score matching, and the KHB decomposition method were used.  The most consistent pattern observed was that native-born students...

Examining Interactive and Metacognitive Processes in Student Learning: Findings from a Hybrid Instructional Environment

Shelly Meyers, Linda Feeney, Stockton University

Abstract This study examines the interaction behaviors and metacognitive behaviors of graduate students in the online portion of a flipped classroom.  For their time outside the face to face classroom, students were given the choice of two online methods for their interactions — synchronous verbal discussions and asynchronous written discussions. ...

Accountability for Students in K-12 Online Learning: Perspectives from Michigan Stakeholders and Beyond

Leanna Archambault, Arizona State University

Kathryn Kennedy, Joe Freidhoff, Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute

Abstract: Policy surrounding K-12 online learning continues to evolve as the field grows exponentially. In Michigan, Section 21f of the State School Aid Act enacted in 2013 strengthened parents’ and students’ ability to request online courses: “A student enrolled in a district in any of grades 6 to 12 is...

“Comfort” as a Critical Success Factor in Blended Learning Courses

Linda S Futch, Aimee deNoyelles, Kelvin Thompson, and Wendy Howard, University of Central Florida

Abstract: There are substantial quantitative research and anecdotal reports on blended learning and blended learning courses.  However, few research studies focus on what happens at the classroom level.  This research study aims to consider the highly contextual environment of effective blended learning courses by identifying the strategies instructors use to...

Developing a Quality Improvement Process to Optimize Faculty Success

Linda Merillat and Monica Scheibmeir, Washburn University

Abstract: As part of a major shift to embed quality improvement processes within a School of Nursing at a medium-sized Midwestern university, a faculty enrichment program using a Plan-Do-Act-Study design was implemented.  A central focus for the program was the development and maintenance of an online faculty resource center identified...

Introduction to Section II

Peter Shea, University at Albany, State University of New York

This issue of Online Learning contains six articles outside the Special Conference Section. This section of OLJ includes papers investigating faculty development, academic dishonesty, the community of inquiry model, online labs, sense of connectivity, and academic performance in an online program....

Development of an Evidence-based Professional Learning Program Informed by Online Teachers' Self-efficacy and Threshold Concepts

Kevin P Gosselin,  Texas A&M University Health Science Center

Maria Northcote, Daniel Reynaud, Peter Kilgour, Malcolm Anderson, and Chris Boddey, Avondale College of Higher Education

Abstract: As online education continues to expand across varied educational sectors, so does the demand for professional development programs to guide academic teaching staff through the processes of developing their capacities to design and teach online courses. To meet these challenges at one higher education institution, a mixed methods research...

An Integrated Approach to Preempt Cheating on Asynchronous, Objective, Online Assessments in Graduate Business Classes

Daniel P Sullivan, University of Delaware

Abstract: Cheating, left untended, erodes the validity of evaluation and, ultimately, corrupts the legitimacy of a course. We profile an approach to manage, with an eye toward preempting, cheating on asynchronous, objective, online quizzes. This approach taps various technological and social solutions to academic dishonesty, integrating them into a technology-centered,...

A Comparative Structural Equation Modeling Investigation of the Relationships among Teaching, Cognitive and Social Presence

Kadir Kozan, Purdue Unviersity         

Abstract: The present study investigated the relationships among teaching, cognitive, and social presence through several structural equation models to see which model would better fit the data. To this end, the present study employed and compared several different structural equation models  because different models could fit the data equally well....

Comparing Physical, Virtual, and Hybrid Flipped Labs for General Education Biology

Ji Y Son, California State University, Los Angeles

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact on learning, attitudes, and costs in a redesigned general education undergraduate biology course that implemented web-based virtual labs (VLs) to replace traditional physical labs (PLs). Over an academic year, two new modes of VL instruction were compared to the...

Desired and Experienced Levels of Connectivity to an Asynchronous, Online, Distance Degree Program

Shawnda Schroeder, Mary Baker, Katherine Terras, Patti Mahar, and Kari Chiasson, University of North Dakota

Abstract: This study examined graduate students’ desired and experienced levels of connectivity in an online, asynchronous distance degree program. Connectivity was conceptualized as the students’ feelings of community and involvement, not their level of access to the Internet. Graduate students enrolled in a distance degree program were surveyed on both...

Articles

Introduction

Karen Vignare, PhD, KV Consulting

Patsy Moskal, PhD, University of Central Florida

We are pleased to present this Online Learning Journal special issue devoted to learning analytics for online teaching and learning. The nine papers contained here provide a range of information including reviewing the literature, examining frameworks in development, presenting a large scale analysis on the effectiveness of learning modalities from the PAR Framework, examining an international study of learning, and providing real-world learning analytics case studies on transfer, facilitation, and medical education. Each of these papers provides new and informative research that we hope can help readers make decisions about applying analytics within the context of their own online teaching and learning environments.

While research studies on analytics are beginning to populate journals and conferences, many of those articles are aimed at a more limited audience of researchers. This collection of articles presents readers with information about designing environments within online learning while also highlighting studies that expand upon what exists in currently published research. The authors here represent a significant contribution to practical decision making for administrators, insights for faculty teaching online courses, and works for other researchers to build upon.

Learning Analytics Methods, Benefits, and Challenges in Higher Education: A Systematic Literature Review

John T. Avella, Mansureh Kebritchi, Sandra G. Nunn, Therese Kanai, University of Phoenix

Higher education for the 21st century continues to promote discoveries in the field through learning analytics (LA).  The problem is that the rapid embrace of of LA diverts educators’ attention from clearly identifying requirements and implications of using LA in higher education.  LA is a promising emerging field, yet higher...

Let’s Talk Learning Analytics: A Framework for Implementation in Relation to Student Retention

Deborah West & David Heath, Charles Darwin University

Henk Huijser, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University & Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education

  

    

This paper presents a dialogical tool for the advancement of learning analytics implementation for student retention in Higher Education institutions. The framework was developed as an outcome of a project commissioned and funded by the Australian Government’s Office for Learning and Teaching. The project took a mixed-method approach including a...

Assessing the Reliability of Merging Chickering & Gamson’s Seven Principles for Good Practice with Merrill’s Different Levels of Instructional Strategy (DLISt7)

Dr. Syaril Izwann Jabar, University Selangor, Malaysia

Prof. Peter R. Albion, University of Southern Queensland, Australia

Based on Chickering and Gamson’s (1987) Seven Principles for Good Practice, this research project attempted to revitalize the principles by merging them with Merrill’s (2006) Different Levels of Instructional Strategy. The aim was to develop, validate, and standardize a measurement instrument (DLISt7) using a pretest-posttest Internet quasi-experiment. It was proposed...

Retention, Progression and the Taking of Online Courses

Scott James,  Predictive Analytics Reporting Framework

Karen Swan, University of Illinois Springfield

Cassandra Daston, Predictive Analytics Reporting Framework

Online learning continues to grow at post-secondary institutions across the United States, but many question its efficacy, especially for students most at-risk for failure. This paper engages that issue. It examines recent research on the success of community college students who take online classes and explores similar comparisons using 656,258...

Assessment of Learning in Digital Interactive Social Networks: A Learning Analytics Approach

Mark Wilson, University of California, Berkeley                                                                

Kathleen Scalise, University of Oregon

Perman Gochyyev, University of California, Berkeley

This paper summarizes initial field-test results from data analytics used in the work of the Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills (ATC21S) project, on the “ICT Literacy — Learning in digital networks” learning progression.  This project, sponsored by Cisco, Intel and Microsoft, aims to help educators around the world...

Using Community College Prior Academic Performance to Predict Re-Enrollment at a Four-Year Online University

Denise Nadasen, University of Maryland University College

Alexandra List, Ball State University

Students’ re-enrollment in the subsequent semester after their first semester at a four-year institution is a strong predictor of retention and graduation.  This is especially true for students who transfer from a community college to a four-year institution because of the many external or non-academic factors influencing a student’s decision...

Exploring the Relationships Between Facilitation Methods, Students’ Sense of Community, and Their Online Behaviors

Krystle Phirangee, Carrie Demmans Epp, and Jim Hewitt, University of Toronto

The popularity of online learning has boomed over the last few years, pushing instructors to consider the best ways to design their courses to support student learning needs and participation. Prior research suggests the need for instructor facilitation to provide this guidance and support, whereas other studies have suggested peer...

Developing Learning Analytics Design Knowledge in the “Middle Space”: The Student Tuning Model and Align Design Framework for Learning Analytics Use

Alyssa Friend Wise, Jovita Maria Vytasek, Simone Hausknecht and Yuting Zhao, Simon Fraser University

This paper addresses a relatively unexplored area in the field of learning analytics: how analytics are taken up and used as part of teaching and learning processes. Initial steps are taken towards developing design knowledge for this “middle space,” with a focus on students as analytics users. First, a core...

Using Learning Analytics to Identify Medical Student Misconceptions in an Online Virtual Patient Environment

Eric G. Poitras, University of Utah

Laura M. Naismith, University Health Network

Tenzin Doleck, Susanne P. Lajoie, McGill University

This study aimed to identify misconceptions in medical student knowledge by mining user interactions in the MedU online learning environment. Data from 13000 attempts at a single virtual patient case were extracted from the MedU MySQL database. A subgroup discovery method was applied to identify patterns in learner-generated annotations and...

Introduction to Section Two, MOOCs, Psychological Constructs, Communication Behaviors

Peter Shea, University at Albany, SUNY

This issue of Online Learning also contains four articles outside the theme of learning analytics. This section contains papers investigating MOOCs, a comparison of anxiety levels and the “imposter phenomenon” between online and classroom students, and a qualitative analysis of information behaviors among online students....

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Participant Activity, Demographics, and Satisfaction

Sara Shrader,  Maryalice Wu, Dawn Owens, Kathleen Santa Ana,  University of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign

This paper examines activity patterns, participant demographics, and levels of satisfaction in multiple MOOC offerings at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from August 2012–December 2013.  Using the following guiding questions: “Who are MOOC participants, how do they participate, and were they able to get what they wanted out of...

Global Times Call for Global Measures: Investigating Automated Essay Scoring in Linguistically-Diverse MOOCs

Erin D. Reilly, Kyle M. Williams, Rose E. Stafford, Stephanie B. Corliss, Janet C. Walkow, Donna K. Kidwell, University of Texas at Austin

This paper utilizes a case-study design to discuss global aspects of massive open online course (MOOC) assessment. Drawing from the literature on open-course models and linguistic gatekeeping in education, we position freeform assessment in MOOCs as both challenging and valuable, with an emphasis on current practices and student resources. We...

The Role of Social Influence in Anxiety and the Imposter Phenomenon

Christy B. Fraenza, Walden University

High anxiety levels have been associated with high levels of the imposter phenomenon (IP), a negative experience of feeling like a fraud. This study was designed to explore IP among graduate students and to determine whether a difference exists between online graduate students and traditional graduate students. The theoretical foundation...

Information Sharing, Community Development, and Deindividuation in the eLearning Domain

Nicole A. Cooke, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign   

In a study of the information behaviors of graduate students enrolled in an online Masters of Library and Information Science (MLIS) program, it was determined that learners engage in threaded discussions not only for cognitive purposes but for affective reasons as well.  The information sharing among students was particularly prolific...

Articles

Introduction

Peter Shea, University at Albany, State University of New York

With the announcement of our latest issue of Online Learning we report the achievement of a significant milestone.  The current issue marks our 20th year of continuous publication! While there have been some significant transitions in these two decades, including a name change from the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks...

Creating a Sticky MOOC

Barbara Oakley, Oakland University

Debra Poole, Central Michigan University

MaryAnne Nestor, Kent State University

Learning How to Learn, a MOOC from UC San Diego, is one of Coursera’s most successful offerings; in its first year, nearly one million learners enrolled in the course. As a result of its high student satisfaction levels (4.55 on a 5-point Likert scale) and the persistence of strong student interest in the course, it is worth examining the course’s dynamics more closely in an effort to tease out its sources of satisfaction and popularity.  For this paper, we used students’ responses to an open-ended question to develop a list of potentially important “stickiness” features.  A subset of students enrolled in the third session of Learning How to Learn then rated their overall satisfaction with the course and the extent to which each feature contributed to their persistence in the course.  Three primary factors suggested by a factor analysis of stickiness items correlated most highly with course satisfaction: Instructor Quality, Conceptual Clarity/Importance, and Format.  A description of the course creation process explains how these factors were achieved through the use of metaphor and analogy, instructor interactions with the graphics, the use of motion to maintain students’ attention, tight scripting, a relaxed presentation demeanor, volunteer TA support, and relevant yet occasionally humorous quizzes.

The Impact of Previous Online Course Experience on Students’ Perceptions of Quality

Emily Hixon, Purdue University Calumet

Penny Ralston-Berg, Penn State World Campus

Janet Buckenmeyer, Armstrong State University

Casimir Barczyk, Purdue University Calumet

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether experienced online students (who have completed seven or more online courses) perceive the quality of their courses differently than novice online students (who have completed three or fewer online courses) or students with an intermediate level of online course experience (those...

Emotional Presence in a Relationship of Inquiry: The Case of One-to-One Online Math Coaching

Stefan Stenbom, and  Stefan Hrastinski, KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Martha Cleveland-Innes, Athabasca University and KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Emotions have been confirmed to be a critical component of the process of learning. In the online Community of Inquiry theoretical framework, and the recently suggested online Relationship of Inquiry framework, emotions are considered a subsection of social presence. In this study, the concept of emotional presence is examined. This...

Chair Perceptions of Trust between Mentor and Mentee in Online Doctoral Dissertation Mentoring

Linnea L. Rademaker, Jennifer O’Connor Duffy, Elizabeth Wetzler, and Helen Zaikina-Montgomery

Northcentral University

We explored online dissertation chairs’ perceptions of trust in the mentor–mentee relationship, as trust was identified as a crucial factor in the success of doctoral students. Through the implementation of a multiple-case study, and a qualitative, online questionnaire, and through qualitative data analysis, we discovered 16 chairs’ perceptions of trust...

Student Success Factors in Graduate Psychology Professional Programs

Noelle K. Newhouse and Jessica Cerniak  – The Chicago School of Professional Psychology

Research examining factors contributing to online students’ success typically focuses on a single point in time or completion of a single course, as well as individual difference variables, such as learning style or motivation, that may predispose a student to succeed. However, research concerning longer term online student outcomes, such...

Toward an Understanding of Development of Learning to Solve Ill-Defined Problems in an Online Context: A Multi-Year qualitative Exploratory Study

Naren Peddibhotla  State University of New York Polytechnic Institute  Utica, NY

The case study is a classic tool used in several educational programs that emphasizes solving of ill-defined problems. Though it has been used in classroom-based teaching and educators have developed a rich repertoire of methods, its use in online courses presents different challenges. To explore factors that develop skills in...

Creating Dynamic Learning Communities in Synchronous Online Courses: One Approach From the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL)

Melissa McDaniels, Michigan State University

Christine Pfund and Katherine Barnicle, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The ability to convert face-to-face curricula into rigorous and equally rich online experiences is a topic of much investigation. In this paper, we report on the conversion of a face-to-face research mentor training curriculum into a synchronous, online course. Graduate students and postdoc participants from the Center for the Integration...

Utilizing a Simulation within an Online School Technology Leadership Course

Jesse Strycker,  East Carolina University

Online courses and programs have grown to become and continue to be a popular option for students. As part of an online Master’s of Education in Instructional Technology program, students must complete a school technology leadership course. Leadership decision making, policy making, and how to have innovations take hold in...

Articles

Introduction

Anissa Lokey-Vega and Michael K. Barbour – Guest Editors

Within the past four years all 50 states and the District of Columbia have developed significant online learning opportunities for K-12 students (Watson, Murin, Vashaw, Gemin, & Rapp, 2013). K-12 online student enrollments in the US have grown from approximately 40,000 to more than four million in a period of...

Interview with Joe Freidhoff: A Bird's Eye View of K-12 Online Learning 

Leslie Pourreau
Kennesaw State University

We recently sat down with Dr. Joe Freidhoff, executive director of the Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute, and asked him to provide us with his perspective on this ever-changing field

“When We Talk About Compliance, It’s Because We Lived It” - Online Educators’ Roles in Supporting Students with Disabilities

Mary Frances
Rice University of Kansas

Richard Allen Carter, Jr.
University of Kansas

As participation in online learning grows, so do concerns around the ways in which students with disabilities are served in virtual school programs, both full and part-time. At the crux of this struggle is the way in which federal and state laws (many of which were incepted before online learning...

An Examination of an Online Tutoring Program’s Impact on Low-Achieving Middle School Students’ Mathematics Achievement

Shanan Chappell, Pamela Arnold, John Nunnery, and Melva Grant
Old Dominion University

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to determine the impact of synchronous online tutoring services on struggling middle school students’ mathematics achievement. The online tutoring was provided as a response to intervention (RTI) Tier 3 support (intensive, individualized intervention) in schools implementing a school-wide mathematics program that addresses...

Real-Time Virtual Teaching: Lessons Learned From a Case Study in a Rural School 

Michael K. Barbour
Sacred Heart University

Due to the challenges facing rural schools, many jurisdictions have resorted to the use of virtual school programs to provide curricular opportunities to their students. While the number of virtual schools that rely on synchronous instruction as a primary or significant method of delivery is quite small, there are some...

The Nature of Parental Engagement at an Online Charter High School

Jered Borup and Mark A. Stevens
George Mason University
Lisa Hasler Waters
Flint Hill School, VA

As enrollments in cyber charter schools grow, it becomes increasingly important to understand how parents engage in their students’ learning. Researchers have hypothesized that parental engagement is even more critical when online students learn from home, but few researchers have examined parents’ engagement behavior—especially parents of adolescent learners. In this...

Book Review - Handbook of Research on K-12 Online and Blended Learning 

Diane Mayse,PhD
Blended Learning Data Manager (Nexus Academies) Connections Education

Editors Tom Clark and Michael Barbour assemble an array of research and case studies from some of today’s leading scholars in digital learning in this user-friendly compilation. With over 30 years of experience in online learning research between them, Clark and Barbour’s wisdom is evident in their choices of contributors...

Book Review: Online, Blended, and Distance Education: Building Successful Programs in Schools

Anne Roycroft,
EdD Fuel Education

Editors Tom Clark and Michael Barbour assemble an array of research and case studies from some of today’s leading scholars in digital learning in this user-friendly compilation. With over 30 years of experience in online learning research between them, Clark and Barbour’s wisdom is evident in their choices of contributors...

UDL in Online College Coursework: Insights of Infusion and Educator Preparedness

LaRon Scott, Peter Temple, David Marshall
Virginia Commonwealth University

Teacher education programs are increasing the use of online courses to train and prepare teachers. The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework is one strategy used to effectively train and prepare special education teachers in the online learning environment. The purpose of this study was to examine participants’ perception of...

An Exploratory Factor Analysis and Reliability Analysis of the Student Online Learning  Readiness (SOLR) Instrument

Taeho Yu
University of Virginia
Jennifer C. Richardson
Purdue Universityy

The purpose of this study was to develop an effective instrument to measure student readiness in online learning with reliable predictors of online learning success factors such as learning outcomes and learner satisfaction. The validity and reliability of the Student Online Learning Readiness (SOLR) instrument were tested using exploratory factor...

Planning for Online Education: A Systems Model

Anthony G. Picciano
Graduate Center—City University of New York

The purpose of this article is to revisit the basic principles of technology planning as applied to online education initiatives. While not meant to be an exhaustive treatment of the topic, the article is timely because many colleges and universities are considering the development and expansion of online education as...

Are There Metrics for MOOCS From Social Media?

Alan Ruby, Laura Perna, Robert Boruch, and Nicole Wang
University of Pennsylvania

Since “the year of the MOOC” in 2012, the effectiveness of massive open online courses (MOOCs) has been widely debated. Some argue that MOOCs are not an effective mode of instructional delivery because of low completion rates. In the interest of developing alternative indicators of performance this study draws from...

Articles

Introduction to the Special Issue: Best Papers Presented at the OLC 20th International Conference on Online Learning

Anthony G. Picciano
Graduate Center and Hunter College, City University of New York Guest Editor/ Associate Editor, OLJ

The International Conference on Online Learning traces its origin to a 1995 one-day meeting of grantees of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Anytime, Anyplace Learning Program held in Philadelphia. Ninety individuals attended this first meeting where several invited speakers presented on the possibilities of online learning....

Using Word Clouds in Online Discussions to Support Critical Thinking and Engagement

Aimee deNoyelles
University of Central Florida
Beatriz Reyes-Foster
University of Central Florida

Being actively engaged in a task is often associated with critical thinking. Cultivating critical thinking skills, such as purposefully reflecting and analyzing one’s own thinking, is a major goal of higher education. However, there is a challenge in providing college students opportunities to clearly demonstrate these skills in online courses. This research explores the effectiveness of incorporating word clouds—visual representations of word frequency in a given passage of text—into online discussions. We sought to establish whether implementing word clouds in online discussions would result in a higher incidence of critical thinking and engagement. Survey results from undergraduate participants (n=132) revealed that students analyzing text in word clouds reported moderately higher scores on critical thinking and engagement than students analyzing the text in a linear fashion. A positive relationship was found between critical thinking and engagement, as well as peer interaction. This strategy can be applied to a wide range of educational environments to stimulate critical thinking and engagement.

Student Perceptions of Twitters’ Effectiveness for Assessment in a Large Enrollment Online Course

Linda Rohr
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Jane Costello
Memorial University of Newfoundland

During the Winter and Spring 2014 semesters students registered in the online offering of Human Kinetics and Recreation 1000 (N=589) were asked to participate in two Twitter events encompassing two of the course’s assessment activities. In each Twitter event, students were required to post, at minimum, one original tweet and...

An Analysis of Faculty Promotion of Critical Thinking and Peer Interaction within Threaded Discussions

Alan R. Belcher, Barbara M. Hall, Kathleen Kelley and Keith L. Pressey
Ashford University

The purposes of the research were to (1) examine the relationships between faculty behaviors that promote critical thinking and the resulting critical thinking within peer interaction and (2) identify specific faculty behaviors that result in the highest levels of critical thinking within peer interactions. Using a concurrent embedded mixed methods...

Online Master’s Students’ Perceptions of Institutional Supports and Resources: Initial Survey Results

Natalie B. Milman, Laurie Posey, Christine Pintz, Kayla Wright and Pearl Zhou

The George Washington University

This article presents the quantitative findings of an exploratory mixed methods study that investigatedfirst- and second-year online graduate master’s students’: 1) perceptions of the importance of, andsatisfaction with, administrative, academic, technical, and online community supports; 2) personal factorsand grit level; and 3) differences, if any, that existed among students, in...

An Evaluation of Low Versus High Collaboration in Online Learning

David Wicks, Baine B. Craft, Donghun (Don) Lee, Andrew Lumpe, Robin Henrikson, Nalline Baliram, Xu Bian, Stacy Mehlberg and Katy Wicks
Seattle Pacific University

Researchers in a recent study found that online students’ ability to self-regulate led to more focused attention and time on task, and in turn, these skills could lead to better learning. Given the need for more theoretical work in this area, as well as the potential practical benefits from the...

Does Gender Matter? University Library Access and Career Preparedness

Daniella Smith University of North Texas

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine how the gender of distance learning students related to variables such as the perception of the availability of library resources, technology available at home and work, technology provided by a university for distance learning, and career preparedness. A total of 166...

Enrollment, Engagement, and Satisfaction in the BlendKit Faculty Development Open, Online Course

Patsy Moskal, Kelvin Thompson, Linda Futch
Center for Distributed Learning, University of Central Florida

BlendKit is a 5-week course designed by the University of Central Florida in an open, online format specifically for the professional development of higher education faculty and designers preparing to design and teach blended learning courses. The evaluation of this course provides us with interesting and valuable information on the...

Innovative Orientation Leads to Improved Success in Online Courses

Jean M. Taylor and Margie Dunn
Excelsior College
Sandra K. Winn
Empire State College

A team of instructional designers, educators, and the School of Liberal Arts (SLA) academic program coordinator from a nonprofit online college, collaborated on producing short voice-over videos with interactive elements that address the most common technology frustrations of beginning students. These videos were inserted into the “Start Here” page of...

Design and Implementation of Therapist Online Counseling

Aaron O. Thomas, Geoff Lee and Brian Ess
University of Florida

The following paper describes the rationale for creating an online therapy program of cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, for students at the University of Florida who are struggling with stress and anxiety. In addition, the paper discusses the unique challenges of the instructional design process of creating psychoeducational materials through...

Introduction to Section II: Faculty Attitudes and Student Engagement

Peter Shea, PhD, Editor-in-Chief,
Online Learning University at Albany, State University of New York

This issue contains two additional articles that were not specifically selected from sessions conducted at the Online Learning Consortium’s Annual Conference. These two articles provide insight into faculty attitudes about and student engagement in online learning....

Understanding Faculty Attitudes About Distance Education: The Importance of Excitement and Fear

Jennifer Bunk, Rui Li, Esther Smidt, Christopher Bidetti and Brett Malize
West Chester University of Pennsylvania

The purpose of the present study is to further understand faculty attitudes about distance education by exploring the psychological processes through which these attitudes are influenced. We explored the following research question: Do feelings of excitement versus fear mediate and/or moderate the relationship between online teaching experience and various faculty...

Measuring Student Engagement in the Online Course: The Online Student Engagement Scale (OSE)

Marcia D. Dixson
Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne

Student engagement is critical to student learning, especially in the online environment, where students can often feel isolated and disconnected. Therefore, teachers and researchers need to be able to measure student engagement. This study provides validation of the Online Student Engagement scale (OSE) by correlating student self-reports of engagement (via...

Articles

Introduction: A JOLT of New Energy for the Scholarship of Online Teaching and Learning

Peter Shea, PhD
Editor-in-Chief, Online Learning
University at Albany, State University of New York

I warmly welcome our readers to a fresh issue of the newly expanded journal, Online Learning (which we are now abbreviating as OLJ). As many of you know we recently merged OLJ with the Journal of Online Teaching and Learning (JOLT), published by the MERLOT organization with which the Online...

Expanding Learning Presence to Account for the Direction of Regulative Intent: Self-, Co- and Shared Regulation in Online Learning

Suzanne Hayes
Empire State College, State University of New York

Sedef Uzuner Smith
Lamar University

Peter Shea
University at Albany, State University of New York

As the pivotal role of self-regulation has been widely accepted in online learning literature, much interest is focused on identifying pedagogical strategies to help foster regulatory behaviors in online learners. The authors of this article argue that the learning presence (LP) construct, a recently proposed addition to the Community of...

Mechanizing People and Pedagogy: Establishing Social Presence in the Online Classroom

Jennifer M. Cunningham
Kent State University at Stark

This research addresses the affordances of using Voki avatars to create a sense of social presence in an asynchronous online writing classroom setting. Digital media afford online educators the opportunity to harness different technologies and new ways of being in a digital classroom that can enhance student engagement in ways...

Comparing Asynchronous and Synchronous Video vs. Text Based Discussions in an Online Teacher Education Course

Cynthia Clark and Neal Strudler and Karen Grove
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether asynchronous video posts and synchronous videoconferencing would create higher levels of teaching and social presence within an online course when compared with the university’s current text-based discussion platform. Undergraduate students in an online teacher education course were randomly assigned to either...

Using Instructor-Generated Video Lectures in Online Mathematics Courses Improves Student Learning

Jennifer S. Hegeman
Missouri Western State University

Low retention rates in online freshman-level mathematics courses are a concern, especially at postsecondary institutions that serve academically unprepared students. The purpose of this study was to determine if student performance in an online College Algebra course that relies heavily on text-based multimedia tools can be improved by replacing publisher-generated...

The Impact of Online or F2F Lecture Choice on Student Achievement and Engagement in a Large Lecture-Based Science Course: Closing the Gap

Cheryl Murphy
University of Arkansas

John Stewart
University of West Virginia

Blended learning options vary and universities are exploring an assortment of instructional combinations, some involving video lectures as a replacement for face-to-face (f2f) lectures. This methodological study investigates the impact of the provision of lecture choice (online or f2f) on overall student achievement and course engagement. This research uses a...

Blended Learning at the Boundary: Designing a New Internship

Robert Heckman, Carsten S. Østerlund, Jeffrey Saltz
School of Information Studies, Syracuse University

This paper explores how blended learning can enhance learning at the boundary between academia and industry, and make possible the design of a new kind of internship. Boundary theory proposes that socio-cultural discontinuities between different environments create opportunities for learning. Blended learning pedagogy makes it possible to make the boundary...

Design of an Online Curriculum Promoting Transformative Learning in Post Professional Doctoral Students

Ingrid Mary Provident, Joyce Salls, Cathy Dolhi, Jodi Schreiber, Amy Mattila, Emily Eckel
Chatham University in Pittsburgh PA

Written reflections of 113 occupational therapy clinical doctoral students who graduated from an online program between 2007 and 2013 were analyzed for themes which reflected transformative learning and characteristics of curricular design which promoted transformative learning. Qualitative analyses of written reflections were performed. Several themes emerged which are presented using...

Supporting Online Faculty through a Sense of Community and Collegiality

Aimee LaPointe Terosky
Saint Joseph’s University

Chris Heasley
Drexel University

In this qualitative study, we examine the experiences of seven tenure-track and non-tenure track current/future online faculty through the conceptual lenses of sense of community (McMillan & Chavis, 1986) and collegiality (Gappa, Austin, & Trice, 2007). We found: (1) participants reported that their sense of community and collegiality around online...

Implicit Bias and First Name Stereotypes: What are the Implications for Online Instruction?

Wendy Conaway, Ph.D. and Sonja Bethune, Psy.D.
Ashford University

The online classroom is perceived as being a non-threatening, unbiased, safe environment due to the lack of visual cues that normally trigger hidden attitudes and biases. However, it is possible that stereotypical student names often trigger implicit bias in instructors leading to group expectations that can often manifest in a...

A Systematic Review of Empirical Studies on Participants’ Interactions on Internet-Mediated Discussion Board as Course Component in Formal Higher Education Settings

Hong Zhou
University of Texas at San Antonio

This systematic review and synthesis of existing empirical studies examines peer-reviewed research articles published between January 2000 and May 2014 on the use of Internet-mediated discussion board in higher education settings with a specific interest in the participants’ interactions. Forty-two primary studies were examined after a systematic search and full...

Articles

Introduction

Dr. Peter Shea

On behalf of the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) and our Editorial Board, I am once again pleased to invite you to enjoy a new issue of Online Learning, the official journal of OLC. In this edition readers will find original research from across the US and around the world. Issue 19-2 provides insights into Massive Open Online Courses in hybrid setting, large scale research investigating online learner outcomes, smaller scale case studies, and conceptual advances of some familiar constructs. Consistent with our mission, these investigations inquire into learning processes, pedagogical practice, and technology supports to better understand and promote quality in online environments.

Adopting MOOCs on Campus: A Collaborative Effort to Test MOOCs on Campuses of the University System of Maryland

Rebecca Griffiths, Christine Mulhern and Richard Spie
Ithaka S+R

Matthew Chingos
Brookings Institution

To address the paucity of data on the use of MOOCs in “traditional” postsecondary institutions, Ithaka S+R and the University System of Maryland studied the feasibility of repurposing MOOCs for use in hybrid, credit-bearing courses. In this paper we will describe the design of a large-scale study undertaken to examine...

A Large Sample Comparison of Grade Based Student Learning Outcomes in Online vs. Face-to-Face Courses

Joseph K. Cavanaugh and Stephen J. Jacquemin
Wright State University – Lake Campus

Comparisons of grade based learning outcomes between online and face-to-face course formats have become essential because the number of online courses, online programs, and institutional student enrollments have seen rapid growth in recent years. Overall, online education is largely viewed by education professionals as being equivalent to instruction conducted face-to-face....

Comparing Student Assessments and Perceptions of Online and Face-to-Face Versions of an Introductory Linguistics Course

David Johnson, Chris C. Palmer
Kennesaw State University

This article examines the issue of whether linguistics is better suited for a face-to-face (F2F) environment than an online teaching environment. Specifically, it examines assessment scores and student perceptions of the effectiveness of an introductory linguistics course at an undergraduate state university that has been taught multiple times in both...

Introducing the Social Presence Model to Explore Online and Blended Learning Experiences

Aimee L. Whiteside
University of Tampa

This study explores the extent to which learners feel connected through a concept called social presence. This study explored social presence the first two years of a graduate-level certificate program, specifically the first two cohorts of a 13-month program designed to help educational administrators integrate technology into their schools. Vygotsky’s...

Is It Worth the Effort? The Impact of Incorporating Synchronous Lectures into an Online Course

Joann S. Olson
University of Houston- Victoria

Fawn E. McCracken
Crown College

This study explores student achievement, sense of social community, and sense of learning community (Rovai, 2002) in two sections of an online course taught concurrently by the same instructor. One section was delivered in a fully asynchronous format; the other incorporated weekly synchronous lectures using an Adobe Connect environment. Students...

Web 2.0 Technologies and Building Online Learning Communities: Students’ Perspectives

Mariam Mousa Matta Abdelmalak
New Valley College of Education, Assiut University, Egypt

The purpose of this action research was to explore students’ perspectives regarding using Web 2.0 technologies to develop a community of learners. The course described in this study was a fully online course in an Educational Learning Technologies master’s program at a medium-sized university in the U.S. Southwest. A variety...

Exploring Adult Learners Usage of Information Communication Technology during a Virtual Peer Coaching Experience

Richard Ladyshewsky
Ronald G. Pettapiece
Curtin University

The purpose of this study was to explore how post-graduate students in a fully online business course used information communication technology during a virtual peer coaching experience. In this exploration of technology use it was found students required additional guidance in the use of technologies such as email, telephone calling,...

Student Satisfaction with Online Learning: Is it a Psychological Contract?

Charles Dziuban, Patsy Moskal, Jessica Thompson, Lauren Kramer, Genevieve DeCantis and Andrea Hermsdorfer
Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness, University of Central Florida

The authors explore the possible relationship between student satisfaction with online learning and the theory of psychological contracts. The study incorporates latent trait models using the image analysis procedure and computation of Anderson and Rubin factors scores with contrasts for students who are satisfied, ambivalent, or dissatisfied with their online...

Articles

Introduction

Karen Vignare
University of Maryland University College

Kristen Betts
Drexel University

Kathryn Snead
American Association of State Colleges and Universities

Thomas Bailey
University of Maryland University College

Melissa Layne and Elizabeth Wallace
American Public University System

This special edition of Online Learning focuses on research and best practices for serving military personnel. Military students can be found at almost every higher education institution (Ford & Vignare, 2015; Cate & Albright, 2015) in the US. The authors and editors share with the readers a range of articles which commence with a review of literature, and include articles on using technology effectively for online military learners, building a more comprehensive understanding of military students, helping military personnel successfully transfer to the role of students, and building academic programs designed for such students. These articles build a research base for current- generation military learners engaged in military service after September 2001. The military personnel increase since 2001 and the current downsizing leading to large veteran population has created a unique opportunity to build the research base and understanding of online military learners, online institutions and military learners in general.

The Evolving Military Learner Population: A Review of the Literature

Kate Ford and Karen Vignare
University of Maryland University College

This literature review examines the evolving online military learner population with emphasis on current generation military learners, who were most frequently Post-9/11 veterans. The review synthesizes recent scholarly and grey literature on military learner demographics and attributes, college experiences, and academic outcomes against a backdrop of conceptual frameworks addressing adult...

An Analysis of Supports for Persistence in the Military Student Population

Bruce D Mentzer, Ellen Lowrie Black, and R. Terry Spohn
Liberty University

This study sought to describe the correlation of academic, financial, and social supports to the persistence of a military student population: veterans, active duty, and their families. The study also contrasted these relationships with non-military students and looked at the results of the overall group to persistence. Results confirmed the...

Supporting Student Veterans: Utilizing Game-Based Role-Plays with Virtual Humans to Build Military Cultural Competency and Helping Behaviors in Faculty and Staff

Chris Andrew Cate
Student Veterans of America

Glenn Albright
Baruch College, City University of New York

Veterans and military service members enter the classroom with valuable life and leadership experience; however, transitioning to student life represents unique challenges. Like the larger veteran population, student veterans may bring to campus the negative aftereffects of their combat experiences in the form of post-traumatic stress, substance abuse, depression, and...

Planning for Veterans' Success: The Degree Map as an Advising Solution

Tracey M Richardson
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Due of the expected influx of veterans attending college, it is critical that higher education not only be cognizant of the projected growth, but take a proactive stand and properly plan for these students’ success. Academic planning begins with the advising professionals developing open communications and be able to guide...

Bridging the Gap: Technology and Veteran Academic Success

David Cass
University of Colorado, Boulder

Shane Hammond
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

This paper presents two unique yet confluent perspectives regarding the use of technology to support student veterans in college, and is meant to ignite discussion of the blending of high impact practices with technology to promote their academic success. The authors highlight the historical trends of student veterans in the...

Rules of Engagement: Considering Good Policy and Practice with Online Military Learners

David Starr-Glass
University of New York in Prague

In online distance learning environments military learners are not particularly obvious or distinctive; however, they do possess a degree of difference that needs to be recognized. The military can be considered to possess a Janusian culture; two distinctive cultural patterns that emerge in different situations. The culture they display in...

Building an Accelerated Online Graduate Program for Military Officers

Royce Ann Collins, Haijun Kang, Susan Yelich Biniecki, and Judy Favor
Kansas State University

Because of the intense and unique nature of their military life, military officers face challenges that other students do not need to be concerned about when taking courses online. An institution’s ability to understand these military officer students, design online programs to meet their unique learning needs, and deliver valuable...

A Core Course on Veterans' Health in an Online RN to BSN Program

Elaine Keavney
American Public University System

The Joining Forces Initiative challenges nursing programs throughout the country to develop curriculum that address the unique healthcare issues facing veterans. This article describes how the RN to BSN program at American Public University System responded to the Joining Forces Initiative by developing the core curriculum course, Caring for Today’s...

Online Training for Working with Student Veterans: A Social Work Elective Course

Katherine Selber, Mary Jo Garcia Biggs, Nancy Feyl Chavkin, and Micah C. Wright
Texas State University

This article describes one school of social work’s innovative online elective course to prepare Masters of Social Work (MSW) students for practice with the military, veterans, and their families. Developed as part of a university-wide Veterans Initiative, this online course keeps the focus on the student veteran and uses best...

Articles

Introduction to the Special Issue on Blended Learning in the Health Sciences

Paige L. McDonald, The George Washington University

Anthony G. Picciano, City University of New York, Hunter College

In January 2014, The Chronicle of Higher Education conducted an opinion survey of college and university presidents (N=349), on their views regarding change in higher education. The Innovative University: What College Presidents Think about Change in American Higher Education, provided insights into what campus leaders think about higher education’s response to the wave of online technology that has inundated all aspects of human endeavor since the debut of the Internet and World Wide Web in the 1990s. In terms of instructional modalities, an overwhelming majority (81%) of presidents responded that hybrid courses that blend both face-to-face and online components are the future and will have a positive impact on higher education. In addition, when it comes to initiating change, most college presidents believe that government officials, politicians, and private industry have too much influence. Almost 80% believe that technological change should come from the faculty (Selingo, 2014).

This special edition focuses on the experiences at one university that exemplify faculty-led change. It is premised on the idea that faculty know their subject matter, curricula, and most importantly, their students better than outside drivers, and are in a pivotal position to affect change that provides meaningful improvement to their academic programs. The articles also provide evidence that online technology can be effective in instruction but is also in need of on-going adjustment and improvement.

Information and Communication Technology to Facilitate Learning for Students in the Health Professions: Current Uses, Gaps, and Future Directions

Ellen Costello, Mary Corcoran, Jacqueline S. Barnett, Marisa Birkmeier, Rhea Cohn, Ozgur Ekmekci, Nancy L. Falk, Thomas Harrod, Debra Herrmann, Sean Robinson, Bryan Walker

The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences School of Nursing

Changes in the U.S. Healthcare System along with the need for institutions of higher education to prepare a work force ready to address the challenges of today and tomorrow have highlighted the need to incorporate technology in its broadest sense as part of the student learning experience. In health professional...

Educational Mixology: A Pedagogical Approach to Promoting Adoption of Technology to Support New Learning Models in Health Science Disciplines

Paige L. McDonald, Laurie B. Lyons, Howard O. Straker, Jacqueline S. Barnett, Karen S. Schlumpf, Linda Cotton, and Mary A. Corcoran

The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences

For disciplines heavily reliant upon traditional classroom teaching, such as medicine and health sciences, incorporating new learning models may pose challenges for students and faculty. In an effort to innovate curricula, better align courses to required student learning outcomes, and address the call to redesign health professions education, Health Sciences...

Using Technology to Promote Active and Social Learning Experiences in Health Professions Education

Elizabeth Ruckert, Paige L. McDonald, Marissa Birkmeier, Bryan Walker, Linda Cotton, Laurie B. Lyons, Howard O. Straker, Margaret M. Plack

The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences

Time and space constraints, large class sizes, competition for clinical internships, and geographic separation between classroom and clinical rotations for student interaction with peers and faculty pose challenges for health professions educational programs. This article presents a model for effectively incorporating technology to overcome these challenges and enhance student engagement...

Learning Partnership: Students and Faculty Learning Together to Facilitate Reflection and Higher Order Thinking in a Blended Course

Paige L. McDonald, Howard O. Straker, Karen S. Schlumpf, and Margaret M. Plack

The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences

This article discusses a learning partnership among faculty and students to influence reflective practice in a blended course. Faculty redesigned a traditional face-to-face (FTF) introductory physician assistant course into a blended course to promote increased reflection and higher order thinking. Early student reflective writing suggested a need for learner familiarization...

Articles

Introduction

Peter Shea, PhD
Editor: Online Learning
Associate Provost for Online Education & Associate Professor, Educational Theory and Practice and CCI University at Albany, State University of New York

On behalf of the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) and our Editorial Board I am pleased to invite you to enjoy the inaugural issue of Online Learning, the official journal of OLC. This issue marks the transition from our previous title, the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, and highlights our intentions to build on the nearly two decades of insight and wisdom collected in JALN. With the launch of our new name we retain our goal of bringing the most important developments in online education to our readers. We believe that this first issue demonstrates our commitment toward continuous improvement with eight new articles investigating crucial and timely topics in the field.

Why do Institutions Offer MOOCs?

Fiona M. Hollands, Teachers College, Columbia University
Devayani Tirthali, Brown University

By reviewing the literature and interviewing 83 individuals knowledgeable about massive open online courses (MOOCs), we investigate the goals of institutions of higher education that are currently developing and delivering such courses. We identify six major goals for MOOC initiatives: extending reach and access, building and maintaining brand, improving economics...

The Role of Enrollment Choice in Online Education: Course Selection

Claire Wladis, Borough of Manhattan Community College at the City University of New York
Katherine Wladis, Borough of Manhattan Community College at the City University of New York
Alyse C. Hachey, Borough of Manhattan Community College at the City University of New York

There is well-documented evidence that online retention rates are lower than face-to-face retention rates. However, most past research on online retention focuses on student characteristics, with little knowledge existing on the impact of course type. This study uses a matched sample of 2,330 students at a large urban community college...

Exploring the use of Discussion Strategies and Labels in Asynchronous Online Discussion

Fei Gao, Bowling Green State University

Drawing on research in constrained online discussion environments and strategy instruction, this approach combines explicit instruction on discussion strategies with the use of post type labels. In a trial of this approach in an online course, students actively used the discussion strategies and post type labels in their discussions. Analysis...

Transformation of Online Teaching Practices Through Implementation of Appreciative Inquiry

Bruce A. Johnson, American Public University System

The purpose of this case study was to explore the application and outcome of appreciative inquiry as an online instructional strategy for the development of three specific factors: adult learner motivation, engagement, and performance. Appreciative andragogy was an original phrase developed for this study and is an adaptation of appreciative...

Teaching Presence in Online Education: From the Instructor’s Point-of-View

Kristi A. Preisman, Peru State College

Most often the topic of creating presence in online education is viewed from the student perspective (Oztok & Brett, 2011). The purpose of this mixed methods research was to look at the creation of teaching presence from the vantage point of a lone ranger instructor (Anderson, 2004). Based on data collected from...

Digging Beneath the Surface: Analyzing the Complexity of Instructors' Participation in Asynchronous Discussion

Lane Whitney Clarke, University of New England
Audrey Bartholomew, University of New England

The purpose of this study was to investigate instructor participation in asynchronous discussions through an in-depth content analysis of instructors’ postings and comments through the Community of Inquiry (COI) framework (Garrison et. al, 2001). We developed an analytical tool based on this framework in order to better understand what instructors...

Collaboration in E-Learning: A Study Using the Flexible E-Learning Framework

C. Vandenhouten, University of Wisconsin- Green Bay
S. Gallagher-Lepak, University of Wisconsin- Green Bay
J. Reilly, University of Wisconsin- Green Bay
P. Ralston-Berg, Penn State World Campus

E-Learning remains a new frontier for many faculty. When compared to the traditional classroom, E- Learning requires the talents of many team members from a variety of departments as well as the use of different teaching and learning strategies. Pedagogy as well as team configurations must change when moving to...

A National Survey of Faculty Development Evaluation Outcome Measures and Procedures

Katrina A. Meyer, The University of Memphis
Vicki S. Murrell, The University of Memphis

This article presents the results of a national study of 39 higher education institutions that collected information about their evaluation procedures and outcome measures for faculty development for online teaching conducted during 2011-2012. The survey results found that over 90% of institutions used measures of the faculty person’s assessment of...

Articles

Introduction

Peter Shea, PhD
Editor: Online Learning
Associate Provost for Online Education & Associate Professor, Educational Theory and Practice and CCI University at Albany, State University of New York

On behalf of the Online Learning Consortium and our Editorial Board I invite you to read and enjoy the final issue of the journal under the name Journal of Asynchronous Networks (JALN). As you have probably noticed, Sloan-C , our sponsoring organization, very recently underwent a name change to become the Online Learning Consortium (OLC). With this organizational transition we also decided to take the opportunity to re-envision the identity of the flagship publication of OLC. Much has changed since the founding of Sloan-C and JALN but our focus on advancing the scholarship, theory, and practice of online learning remains. For those reasons and with the support of our Editorial Board and the board of OLC we are pleased to announce our new name: “Online Learning.” Stay tuned for additional updates and news with the release of our next issue.

Peer Grading in a MOOC: Reliability, Validity, and Perceived Effects

Heng Luo, John A. Dutton E-Education Institute, Pennsylvania State University
Anthony C. Robinson, Pennsylvania State University
Jae-Young Park, Pennsylvania State University

Peer grading offers a scalable and sustainable way of providing assessment and feedback to a massive student population. However, currently there is little empirical evidence to support the credentials of peer grading as a learning assessment method in the MOOC context. To address this research need, this study examined 1,825...

Good Quality Discussion is Necessary But Not Sufficient in Asynchronous Tuition: a Brief Narrative Review of the Literature

William James Fear, Department of Organizational Psychology, Birkbeck College University of London
Andrew Erikson-Brown, Department of Organizational Psychology, Birkbeck College University of London

The growth of online learning within education has corresponded to an increase in use of asynchronous discussion. Asynchronous discussion is a form of interaction that is mediated rather than directed, and is characterized by a time lag in the interactions between discussants. In this paper we conducted a brief narrative...

The Effect of Structured Divergent Prompts on Knowledge Construction

Ginger S. Howell, Harding University
Usenime Akapnudo, Harding University
Mengyi Chen, Harding University
Autumn L. Sutherlin, Abilene Christian University
Laura E. James, Abilene Christian University

Discussion forums are a widely used activity in online courses. However, knowledge construction within online discussion rarely stimulates high levels of thinking. Therefore, it is important to understand which aspects of online discussion encourage learning and increase knowledge construction. This paper investigates the effect three Structured Divergent prompts (playground prompts,...

An Exploration of Metacognition in Asynchronous Student-Led Discussions: A Qualitative Inquiry

Martha M. Snyder, Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences, Nova Southeastern University
Laurie P. Dringus, Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences, Nova Southeastern University

Research is limited on how metacognition is facilitated and manifested in socially situated online learning environments such as online discussion forums. We approached metacognition as the phenomenon of interest with a methodological objective to evaluate the relevance of a metacognition construct. We also had a content objective to study student-led...

Differences in Classroom Versus Online Exam Performance Due to Asynchronous Discussion

Robert L. Jorczak, University of Minnesota
Danielle N. Dupuis, University of Minnesota

This study compares student exam performance of undergraduate students in classroom and online course sections with nearly identical instructional designs. The sections differed only in lecturing and peer discussion activities, which are typical differences of classroom and online instruction. Classroom discussion activities included synchronous speech, while online discussions used asynchronous...

The SAMR Model as a Framework for Evaluating mLearning

Danae Romrell, Idaho State University
Lisa C. Kidder, Idaho State University
Emma Wood, Idaho State University

As mobile devices become more prominent in the lives of students, the use of mobile devices has the potential to transform learning. Mobile learning, or mLearning, is defined as learning that is personalized, situated, and connected through the use of a mobile device. As mLearning activities are developed, there is...

Teaching Presence: Co-Creating a Multi-National Online Learning Community in an Asynchronous Classroom

Leanne M. Dzubinski, Ph.D, Cook School of Intercultural Studies, Biola University

The pace of globalization coupled with the growing institutional pursuit of online education means online classes are increasingly composed of a multi-national, multi-ethnic, and multi-cultural student body. Teaching presence, which is the ability to structure the class, create the social environment, give instruction, and assess student work, is the basis...

Articles

A National Study of Training Content and Activities for Faculty Development for Online Teaching

Katrina A. Meyer, University of Memphis
Vicki S. Murrell, University of Memphis

This article presents the results of a national study of 39 higher education institutions that collected information about their practices for faculty development for online teaching and particularly the content and training activities used during 2011-2012. This study found that the most frequently offered training content (97% of the institutions)...

A Study of Personal Information Management Strategies for Online Faculty

Lorna R. Kearns, University of Pittsburgh
Barbara A. Frey, University of Pittsburgh
Christinger Tomer, University of Pittsburgh
Susan Alman, San Jose State University

The literature suggests that personal information management is a serious challenge for many computer users. Online faculty are especially challenged because of the large number of electronic files necessitated by teaching online. Those who have experience in this environment may offer valuable insights regarding information management challenges and practices. Faculty...

An Analysis of the Cost and Cost-Effectiveness of Faculty Development for Online Teaching

Katrina A. Meyer, University of Memphis

This article presents the results of a national study of 39 higher education institutions that collected information about the cost measures used to evaluate faculty development for online teaching as well as anticipated future decisions regarding faculty development activities and content in a budget-cutting situation. Generally, institutions are more likely...

A Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Teaching Presence within Online Professional Development

Melinda G. Miller, United States Air Force Academy
Debbie L. Hahs-Vaughn, University of Central Florida
Vicky Zygouris-Coe, University of Central Florida

The Community of Inquiry model provides a framework for recognizing and evaluating interpersonal behaviors in online educational settings. One of its three components, teaching presence, describes behaviors that are under the auspices of the online instructor. By examining behaviors through the theoretical lens provided by teaching presence, and by measuring...

Thematic Analysis of the “Games” Students Play in Asynchronous Learning Environments

Thalia MacMillan, Empire State College
Michele Forte, SUNY Empire State College
Cynthia Grant, Concordia University Chicago

The dynamics of the student-student relationship within the asynchronous online classroom, as evidenced by conversations in an online discussion board, is a balancing act potentially more complex than those occurring in real-time. In order for learning to truly be considered effective, a collaborative, safe environment needs to exist among students...

Investigating Asynchronous Online Communication: A Connected Stance Revealed

Susan J Wegmann, Baptist College of Florida
Joyce K. McCauley, Sam Houston State University

This research project explores the effects of altering the structure of discussion board formats to increase student engagement and participation. This paper will present the findings of a two-university, two-class research project in which asynchronous discussion board entries were analyzed for substance. By using oral discourse analysis techniques, the postings...

Applying a Model of Communicative Influence in Education in Closed Online and Offline Courses

Caleb T. Carr, Illinois State University

This research explores communicative influences on cognitive learning and educational affect in online and offline courses. A survey was conducted of students (N = 147) enrolled in online and offline courses within a single department during Summer 2013. Respondents were asked about their perceptions of classroom communication. Responses were subjected...

How Much "Group" is there in Online Group Work?

Susan Lowes, Ph.D., Institute for Learning Technologies

The ability to work in groups across time and space has become a frequent requirement for the workplace and is becoming increasingly more common in higher education, but there is a surprising lack of research on how online groups work. This study applies analytical approaches used in studies of face-to-face...

Comparing Student Performance in Online and Face-to-face Delivery Modalities

Jeffrey L. Helms, Kennesaw State University

The purpose of the research was to compare student performance in an online or face-to-face (F2F) required Psychology course on three distinct sets of variables (i.e., pre-course, course, and post-course variables). Analyses revealed mixed significant and nonsignificant results. Students did not differ in terms of such variables as hours transferred...

Round One? Judge Issues Rulings in Long-awaited Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Against Georgia State University*

Linda K. Enghagen, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Long-awaited rulings from the copyright infringement lawsuit provide the most specific guidance available to date regarding fair use of certain types of materials in e-reserves systems and online course management systems. Unless successfully appealed or otherwise overturned, this case represents a significant victory for Georgia State University specifically and higher...

Articles

Introduction to The Special Issue on Online Learning: A Universe of Possibilities!

Anthony G. Picciano, Associate Editor: JALN

In November 2013, the Sloan Consortium held its 19th Annual Conference on Online Learning, which attracted almost 3,000 attendees from all over the world. The theme of the conference, Online Learning: A Universe of Opportunities, focused on the growing popularity of online and blended learning as the instructional modalities of choice among students, faculty, and administrators. Historically, the major attraction of this conference has been the depth and breadth of its program. For 2013, over five hundred scholars, researchers, and practitioners presented papers, gave presentations, conducted workshops and poster sessions on the myriad of issues associated with online and blended learning. Three of the eight articles in this special edition reflect the best papers delivered at this conference as selected by the program committee. The other five articles were solicited because they exemplify the extent of issues and possibilities that online and blended learning are having on instruction.

Three Institutions, Three Approaches, One Goal: Addressing Quality Assurance in Online Learning

Marwin Britto, University of Saskatchewan—University Library
Cristi Ford, University of the District of Columbia—Research Academy for Integrated Learning
Jean-Marc Wise, Florida State University—Office of Distance Learning

The rapid growth of online academic programs in higher education has prompted institutions to develop processes and implement strategies to ensure the quality of their online offerings. Although there is no one-size-fits-all approach, there are quality standards that institutions can effectively implement regardless of context. This paper examines the approaches...

Building a Foundation for Success Through Student Services for Online Learners

Dr. Ruth Newberry, Duquesne University
Catherine DeLuca, Duquesne University

Retaining students in distance education programs requires institutions to field a strategically aligned, cross-unit team able to provide streamlined and effective services to online learners throughout the student’s academic life (from applicant to alumni). If any team member drops the ball during interaction with the online student, the student becomes...

Are We Who We Think We Are? ePortfolios as a Tool for Curriculum Redesign

Gail Matthews-DeNatale, Northeastern University

This paper focuses on the use of ePortfolios to inform the redesign and development of academic degree programs. The practice aligns with the Connect to Learning (C2L) design principles of inquiry, reflection, and integration (IRI), which are nested within C2L’s “Catalyst for Learning” model for successful ePortfolio implementation [1]. In...

A Multimedia-Rich Platform to Enhance Student Engagement and Learning in an Online Environment

T. Scott Bledsoe, Azusa Pacific University
Bruce D. Simmerok, Azusa Pacific University

Utilizing multimedia tools, such as videos and audio clips, can be an effective way to promote student learning and engagement in online settings. This study explores the implementation of a photo-rich comprehensive counseling center environment through which students of a semester-long online graduate psychology class learned about important research methodology...

Khan Academy: The Illusion of Understanding

Marc Schwartz, University of Texas at Arlington

This paper examines the ongoing challenge of defining what learning means from the perspective of the cognitive and learning sciences, especially as it unfolds in online environments. To better define learning as well as offer guiding principles, this paper uses Khan Academy as an example of what some highprofile individuals,...

Conceptual Framework of Blended Professional Development for Mathematics Teachers

Hea-Jin Lee, Ohio State University-Lima

The study presents a conceptual framework of a blended professional development program for teacher success in learning a subject matter and enhancing instructional practice. Twenty-nine middle school teachers (22 first-year and 7 continuing teachers) participated in a year-long, blended professional development (PD) program. Effects of the blended PD program were...

An Analysis of the Research on Faculty Development for Online Teaching and Identification of New Directions

Katrina A. Meyer, University of Memphis

This article presents the results of an extensive review of the published literature on faculty development for online teaching. This review included 68 articles and five books, which were reviewed to identify elements of the training and the findings (e.g., theoretical bases, training aims and organization, content of training, nature...

A Conceptual Framework for Integrating Industry/Client-Sponsored Projects into Online Capstone Courses

Rana Khan, University of Maryland University College
Julie Hill, University of Maryland University College

To address the growing need for incorporating experiential learning into online degree programs, this paper proposes a design framework that would integrate industry-sponsored projects into online capstone courses. The design could be applicable to any program at any institution. The research and data used to develop the framework was gathered...

Articles

Introduction to The Special Section on Integrating Accessibility Into Online Learning

Kristen Betts, Ed.D., Forbes Education
Mark Riccobono, M.S.Ed., Jernigan Institute, National Federation of the Blind
Bill Welsh, M.A., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

This special section of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Integrating Accessibility into Online Learning, is a compilation of articles, interviews, and webinars that provide an overview of the broad spectrum of issues related to accessibility, online learning, and student success. The proliferation of technology and online learning have transformed higher education in terms of national enrollments and instructional delivery. Data reveals that between fall 2002 and fall 2012, the number of higher education students taking at least one online course increased from 1.6 million to 6.7 million, representing a growth rate of 21% [1]. While online learning provides extensive new opportunities for students to enroll in degree and certificate programs, these opportunities are closely linked to accessibility. An institutional commitment to accessibility is needed to support success for all students. Universities must provide students with disabilities equal access to all programs, including activities and services that allow an equal opportunity for them to actively participate and to achieve the same results as other students. This special section showcases research, trends, and recommended best practices to increase accessibility and success in online learning for students with disabilities.

Understanding Disabilities & Online Student Success

Kristen Betts, Ed.D. Forbes Education
Bill Welsh, M.A. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Cheryl Pruitt, M.S. Accessible Technology Initiative (ATI), California State University
Kelly Hermann, M.A. State University of New York (SUNY), Empire State College
Gaeir Dietrich High Tech Center Training Unit (HTCTU), California Community Colleges
Jorge G. Trevino, DBA, SHC (SW) USN, Ret. Pennsylvania State University, World Campus
Terry L. Watson, M.S. Pennsylvania State University, World Campus
Michael L. Brooks Pennsylvania State University, World Campus
Alex H. Cohen, M.S. Drexel University
Norman Coombs, Ph.D. Equal Access to Software and Information (EASI)

Online learning has been growing at an exponential rate over the past decade, providing new opportunities for students seeking quality courses and programs offered through flexible formats. However, as higher education continues to expand online offerings, services must be expanded simultaneously to support all students. This article focuses on online...

Strategies to Increase Online Student Success for Students with Disabilities

Kristen Betts, EdD Forbes Education
Alex H. Cohen, MS Drexel University
Daniel P. Veit, MS Texas School for the Deaf
Henry C. Alphin Jr., MS Drexel University and Warwick Business School
Chanel Broadus, MS Camden County College
Dan Allen Drexel University

Online learning provides extensive opportunities for individuals with disabilities to enroll in degree and certificate programs. However, accessibility must be central to online course development since this can have a profound effect on student engagement, academic performance, and completion rates. This article provides a unique perspective on accessibility in online...

K-12 Online Learning and Students with Disabilities: Perspectives from State Special Education Directors

Paula J. Burdette, National Association of State Directors of Special Education
Diana L. Greer, University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning
Kari L. Woods, University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning

K–12 special education policies and practices that ensure students with disabilities receive a free, appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment are coming under pressure from the rapid expansion of online learning. Forty-six state and non-state jurisdiction special education directors responded to a brief survey about K–12 online learning....

Designing Online Courses for Screen Reader Users

Lorna R. Kearns, University of Pittsburgh
Barbara A. Frey, University of Pittsburgh
Gabriel McMorland, University of Pittsburgh

A review of multiple online courses at one institution was conducted by a skilled screen reader user for the purpose of assessing the extent to which the courses were navigable and understandable to online students using assistive technologies. This paper identifies features of online courses that may present problems for...

Programmatic, Systematic, Automatic: An Online Course Accessibility Support Model

Kathleen Bastedo, Center for Distributed Learning, University of Central Florida
Amy Sugar, Rollins College
Nancy Swenson, Center for Distributed Learning, University of Central Florida
Jessica Vargas, Rollins College

Over the past few years, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of requests for online course material accommodations at the University of Central Florida (UCF). In response to these requests, UCF’s Center for Distributed Learning (CDL) formed new teams, reevaluated its processes, and initiated a partnership with...

Legal Perspective: Q&A with Daniel F. Goldstein

Kristen Betts, Ed.D. Forbes Education

For students with disabilities to have the same opportunities to succeed as their nondisabled peers, access to educational technology and digital content is critical. It is essential that higher education boards, administrators, faculty, and administrative staff understand why accessibility must be on the forefront of our educational programs, co-curricular initiatives,...

National Perspective: Q&A with National Federation of The Blind & Association of Higher Education and Disability

Kristen Betts, Ed.D. Forbes Education

Success for online students with disabilities requires an institutional commitment to accessibility. This success also requires an understanding of the benefits and opportunities as well challenges and barriers related to online learning. This question and answer session provides a national perspective from the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and...

Measuring the Community in Online Classes

Beth Rubin DePaul University
Ronald Fernandes DePaul University

This paper proposes both theoretical and empirical approaches to differentiating the community of inquiry (CoI) in online classes at individual and group levels. Following the example of research on organizational climate, it assesses the strength of shared perceptions of teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence. The paper develops a...

Do Students Experience Flow Conditions Online?

Katrina A. Meyer, University of Memphis
Stephanie J. Jones, Texas Tech University

This pilot study asked graduate students enrolled in higher education programs at two institutions to ascertain whether and to what extent they experienced nine flow-related conditions in two settings: (1) online courses or (2) surfing or gaming online. In both settings, flow was experienced “sometimes,” although no significant difference in...

Leveraging Disinhibition to Increase Student Authority in Asynchronous Online Discussion

Dr. Kenneth H. Martin, College of Education and Human Development, University of Maine

Disinhibition is recognized as an effect that prompts online users to communicate with less constraint than in face-to-face discussion. This article describes how disinhibition may affect more than individual instances. In a blended learning environment, disinhibition may alter the entire context of discussion by disrupting established patterns of interaction among...

Articles

Introduction to the Special Issue on OER and Online for International, Rural, and Hard-to-Reach Populations

Karen Vignare, University of Maryland University College
Christine Geith, Michigan State University

This special issue of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks on Online Learning and Open Educational Resources (OER) for International, Rural & Hard-to-Reach Populations is a compilation of projects spurred by global changes and needs in education. Extending knowledge and education to masses through internet technologies has flourished for the last 15 years. The reach of online education is just beginning to penetrate international and rural populations. OER plus online learning are a powerful set of tools that extend reach and lower costs [1]. This special issue showcases projects and trends which, when combined, are changing the scope and reach of education.

AgShare Open Knowledge: Improving Rural Communities through University Student Action Research

Christine Geith, MSUglobal Knowledge and Learning Innovations, Michigan State University
Karen Vignare, University of Maryland University College

The aim of AgShare is to create a scalable and sustainable collaboration of existing organizations for African publishing, localizing, and sharing of science-based teaching and learning materials that fill critical resource gaps in African MSc agriculture curriculum. Shared innovative practices are emerging through the AgShare projects, not only for creating...

Using OER as a Tool for Agribusiness Management Training for Hard-to-reach Rural Farmer Populations

Maina Muniafu, School of Science and Technology, USIU
Francis Wambalaba, Chandaria School of Business, USIU
Walter Wanyama, School of Science and Technology, USIU
Gidraph Nduati, School of Science and Technology, USIU
Dalton Ndirangu, School of Science and Technology, USIU

Agriculture is the mainstay of Kenya’s economy and contributes significantly to the gross domestic product. A great majority of this contribution comes from smallholder farmers who paradoxically face numerous obstacles ranging from a lack of support structures to poor policies and inadequate resources. A major challenge is assisting these farmers...

Creating Open Educational Resources for Teaching and Community Development Through Action Research: An Overview of the Makerere AgShare Project

John B. Kaneene, Michigan State University
Paul Ssajjakambwe, Makerere University
Stevens Kisaka, Makerere University
RoseAnn Miller, Michigan State University
John D. Kabasa, Makerere University

The AgShare Phase I Program, conducted at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, was formed to create open education resources for teaching and community development through action research. The study was conducted by an interdisciplinary team of investigators from fields of veterinary medicine and agri-business. Two master of science students conducted dairy...

Creating Open Education Resources for Teaching and Community Development through Action Research: The Milk Production and Hygiene Module

Paul Ssajjakambwe, Makerere University
Christopher Setumba, Makerere University
Stevens Kisaka, Makerere University
Gloria Bahizi, Makerere University
Patrick Vudriko, Makerere University
John D. Kabasa, Makerere University
John B. Kaneene, Michigan State University

One of the cornerstones of the AgShare program is the application of an information loop of action research in the training of graduate students to generate new and practical educational materials and interventions for creating open education research (OER) modules for teaching at universities, and for designing interventions and training...

The Potential of a Multimedia Open Educational Resource Module in Enhancing Effective Teaching and Learning in a Postgraduate Agricultural Program: Experience From AgShare Project Model

Jemal Yousuf Hassen, Haramaya University

Graduate programs in agriculture in developing countries such as in Ethiopia are often designed in cognizance of the need for skilled manpower for agricultural development. In Ethiopia, the contribution of graduates of agricultural graduate programs to the attempt to transform smallholder agriculture has become a matter of urgency in the...

Building Academic Staff Capacity to Support Online Learning in Developing Countries

Brenda Mallinson, South African Institute for Distance Education, Rhodes University
Greig Krull, South African Institute for Distance Education

Higher education institutions (HEIs) in Africa face the challenge of responding to the expanding demand for tertiary education while maintaining or enhancing the quality of their course offerings. This demand has led to some HEIs introducing the use of interactive web technologies to support their distance teaching and learning practices....

Addressing the Local in Localization: A Case Study of Open Textbook Adoption By Three South African Teachers

Cynthia Jimes, Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education
Shenandoah Weiss, Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education
Renae Keep, Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education

This article presents a case study of the adoption and use of open textbooks by three high school teachers in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The textbooks, collaboratively authored and distributed through the South African initiative, Siyavula, are available online and are openly licensed, allowing teachers to freely use,...

Turning the digital divide into digital dividends through free content and open networks: WikiEducator Learning4Content (L4C) Initiative

Patricia Elisabeth Schlicht, Commonwealth of Learning; OER Foundation (Volunteer), Canada

In today’s world, where tuition fees continue to rise rapidly and the demand for higher education increases in both the developing and developed world, it is important to find additional and alternative learning passage ways, learners can afford.Traditional education as we have known it has begun to change, allowing for...

Using Multilingual Analytics to Explore the Usage of a Learning Portal in Developing Countries

Vassilis Protonotarios, Agro-Know Technologies, Attica ,Greece, University of Alcala, Madrid, Spain
Giannis Stoitsis, Agro-Know Technologies, Attica ,Greece, University of Alcala, Madrid, Spain
Kostas Kastrantas, Agro-Know Technologies, Attica ,Greece
Salvador Sanchez-Alonso, University of Alcala, Madrid, Spain

Learning analytics is a domain that has been constantly evolving throughout recent years due to the acknowledgement of its importance by those using intelligent data, learner-produced data, and analysis models to discover information and social connections for predicting and advising people's learning [1]. Learning analytics may be applied in a...

An Open and Scalable Learning Infrastructure for Food Safety

Nikos Manouselis, Agro-Know Technologies, Greece
Charalampos Thanopoulos, Agro-Know Technologies, Greece
Karen Vignare, University of Maryland University College
Christine Geith, MSUglobal Knowledge and Learning Innovations, Michigan State University

In the last years, a variety of approaches and tools have been developed for giving access to Open Educational Resources (OER) related to food safety, security and food standards, as well to a various targeted audience (e.g. farmers, agronomists). The aim of this paper is to present a technology infrastructure,...

cMOOCs and Global Learning: An Authentic Alternative

Carol Yeager, SUNY Empire State College
Betty Hurley-Dasgupta, SUNY Empire State College
Catherine A. Bliss, University of Vermont

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) continue to attract press coverage as they change almost daily in their format, number of registrations, and potential for credentialing. An enticing aspect of the MOOC is its global reach. In this paper, we will focus on a type of MOOC called a cMOOC because...

Articles

Providing  Service  Innovations  to  Students  Inside  and  Outside  of  the  Online  Classroom: Focusing  on  Student  Success

Anita Crawley, University of California Los Angeles Extension, Illinois Online Network
Marie  Fetzner, Monroe  Community  College

While   institutions   recognize   the   need   to   provide   online   student   support   services,   the   most   effective   approaches   for   developing  and   delivering   these   services   are   not   always   clear.   The   need   to   support   students  inside  and  outside  the  online  classroom  calls for  collaborative  efforts  from  many  constituencies.     The   articles   in   this   volume   illustrate   good   practices   in   providing   student-­centered   service   innovations   designed  to  improve  academic  success  and  retention.  

What  Do  Unsuccessful  Online  Students  Want  Us  to  Know?

Marie  Fetzner, Monroe  Community  College

Over the past twelve years, Monroe Community College (MCC), in Rochester, NY, has administered three surveys to non-successful online students to ask about their perceptions of online learning and to learn about student perceived barriers in the online environment. For these surveys, non-successful students were defined as those students who...

Developing  and  Implementing  Comprehensive  Student  Support  Services  for  Online  Students

Marwin  Britto, Lone Star College System  
Susan Rush, Lone Star College System

Student  retention  in  higher  education  has  become  a  critical  focus  in  recent  years.  This  paper  describes   the   efforts   of   Lone   Star   College-­Online   and   its   Online   Student   Support   Services   unit   to   build   and   implement...

Developing  and  Implementing  a  Mandatory  Online  Student  Orientation

Kona Renee Jones, Richland Community College

A   rural   Community   College   evaluated   its   procedures   for   preparing   students   for   online   courses   and   determined   it   was   not   meeting   the   needs   of   the   students.      Through   the   use   of   the...

Online  Advising  Pilot  at  the  Community  College  of  Vermont  

Kimberly  Nolan, Community  College  of  Vermont

As more colleges add online courses and fully online programs, the need to offer online supports to students becomes more apparent. The connection to an adviser is critical for all students, but for online students it can serve as their primary connection to the institution. In Fall 2011 a pilot...

Social and Student Engagement and Support: The Sloan-C Quality Scorecard for the Administration of Online Programs

Janet C. Moore, The Sloan Consortium
Kaye Shelton, Lamar University

As combinations of place-based, blended and fully online education proliferate, so do options for support and services. Aligning with regional accreditation criteria, the Sloan-C Quality Scorecard for the Administration of Online Programs is a useful way for institutions to measure and compare the quality of social and student engagement and...

Defining the Role Adjustment Profile of Learners and Instructors Online

Martha Burkle, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada / Informatics Circle of Research Excellence
Martha Cleveland-Innes, Athabasca University

Recent research in online learning [1] identifies five areas of adjustment for students experience becoming a competent online learner: virtual interaction, self-identity, instructor role, course design and technology. This paper is about the first, second and third of these areas and about the importance of analyzing the role that students...

Online Mentoring for Biotechnology Graduate Students: An Industry-Academia Partnership

Rana Khan, University of Maryland University College
Arhonda Gogos, Independent Consultant and External Evaluator

The Professional Science Master’s Biotechnology program at the University of Maryland University College developed and implemented a novel online mentoring program to increase synergy with the biotechnology industry. In this program, Master’s students are paired with mentors from the biotechnology industry. A mentor assistant, who is a graduate of the...

Accommodating Mobile Learning in College Programs

Jay Alden, National Defense University

Mobile devices and applications are expected to have a significant impact on teaching and learning in the near future. Yet colleges and universities are currently facing severe budget constraints and discretionary funding is restricted for new initiatives. The question addressed in this paper is: “What strategy should an institution of higher...

Implementing  Electronic  Portfolios  Through  Social  Media  Platforms:  Steps  and  Student  Perceptions

David  W.  Denton, Seattle  Pacific  University            
David Wicks, Seattle Pacific University

Over   the   last   two   decades,   students   and   teachers,   across   educational   levels   and   disciplines,   have   been   subject  to  a  variety  of school  reform  efforts.  Nevertheless,  some  instructional  practices,  such  as  portfolio   assessment,   persist  ...

Educational Leadership in an Online World: Connecting Students to Technology, Responsibly, Safely and Ethically

The current gap in technology knowledge and lack of leadership preparation related to digital literacy for school environments can cause serious problems, as school leaders, parents, and broader social communities are currently realizing. The authors describe strategies for educational leaders to prepare their stakeholder groups for a digital future, as...

U-Pace Instruction: Improving Student Success by Integrating Content Mastery and Amplified Assistance

Diane M. Reddy, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Raymond Fleming, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Laura E. Pedrick, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Danielle L. Jirovec, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Heidi M. Pfeiffer, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Katie A. Ports, Virginia Commonwealth University
Jessica L. Barnack-Tavlaris, The College of New Jersey
Alicia M. Helion, Lakeland College
Rodney A. Swain, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

U-Pace, an instructional intervention, has potential for widespread implementation because student behavior recorded in any learning management system is used by U-Pace instructors to tailor coaching of student learning based on students’ strengths and motivations. U-Pace utilizes an online learning environment to integrate content mastery with Amplified Assistance (instructor-initiated, individually...

The Social & Mobile Learning Experiences of Students Using Mobile E-books

Jeffrey S. Kissinger, Florida State College

This research was designed to explore the learning experiences of state college students using mobile electronic textbook (e-book) readers. The purpose of the study was to build a rich description of how students used e-books delivered on mobile computing devices for college-level, introductory sociology courses at a public state college...

Articles

Meeting  Accreditation  Requirements:  Are  You  Serving  Distance  Learners?

Kimberly  Hardy, Florida  State  College  at  Jacksonville
Katie  Meyer-­Griffith, The  University  of  Tampa

Recent   changes   in   the   higher   education   landscape   have   called   for   greater   access   and   accountability   in   a   number  of  areas, most  particularly  distance  learning.  While  there  is  a  very  significant  instructional  aspect   to   this   equation,   providing   effective   support  and   services   to   students   enrolled   in   online   education   is   becoming  comparatively  important,  especially  with  accrediting bodies.  However,  in  meeting  the  needs  of   this  unique  population,  institutions  are  discovering  that  the  services  they  provide  to  distance learners  can   be   offered   to   all   students,   regardless   of   where   they   live   or   how   they   choose   to   take   their   classes.   This   article  provides   an   overview   of   the   Welcome   Center,   created   in   2009   at   Florida   State   College   at   Jacksonville,  as  a  model  for delivering  quality  and  effective  online  student  services  to  students,  to  include   strategic   planning,   assessment   and   evaluation,   environmental   work   design,   functions,   staffing,   training,   and  technological  systems.

Large  Scale  Quality  Engineering  in  Distance  Learning  Programs

Rita I. Herron, Embry-­Riddle Aeronautical University - Worldwide
Cinda  Holsombach-­Ebner, Embry-­Riddle Aeronautical University - Worldwide
Alice  K.  Shomate, Embry-­Riddle Aeronautical University - Worldwide
Kimberly  J.  Szathmary, Embry-­Riddle Aeronautical University - Worldwide

Embry-­Riddle  Aeronautical  University - Worldwide  serves  more  than  36,000  online  students  across  the   globe,  many  of  whom  are military  and  other  non-­traditional  students,  offering  34  undergraduate,  graduate,   and   professional   education/workforce   certificate   programs,   presented   both   online   and   via   blended...

Student-­Student  Online  Coaching  as  a  Relationship  of  Inquiry: An  Exploratory  Study  from  the  Coach  Perspective

Stefan  Stenbom, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Stefan  Hrastinski, KTH  Royal  Institute  of  Technology,  Sweden
Martha  Cleveland-­Innes   KTH  Royal  Institute  of  Technology,  Sweden and  Athabasca  University,  Canada

There   are   comparatively   few   studies   on   one-­to-­one   tutoring   in   online   settings,   even   though   it   has   been   found   to   be   an   effective   model.   This   paper   explores  ...

Architecture  and  Impact  of  an  Open,  Online,  Remixable,  and  Multimedia-­Rich  Algebra  1  Course

Ahrash  N.  Bissell, Monterey  Institute  for  Technology  and  Education

Less   than   half   of   the   students   in   the   United   States   graduate   from   high   school   and   are   ready   to   take   college-­level   math   courses.   Many   years   and  ...

Bringing  Life  to  Learning:  Immersive  Experiential  Learning  Simulations  for  Online  and  Blended  Courses

John  M.  Beckem  II, SUNY  Empire  State  College
Michael  Watkins, Toolwire  Inc.

Higher  education  institutions  are  under significant  pressure  to  provide  affordable, sustainable  approaches   that  will  prepare  their students with  the  skills  they  will  need  after graduation  to  achieve  success  in  the  21st   Century   workplace.   Digital   Media   Simulations   are   among   the   new...

From Research to Practice: Towards the Development of an Integrated and Comprehensive Faculty Development Program

Lawrence C. Ragan, The Pennsylvania State University
Paula Mae Bigatel, The Pennsylvania State University
Shannon S. Kennan, The Pennsylvania State University
Janet May Dillon, The Pennsylvania State University

This article describes the design and development of a professional development program based upon research on the competencies necessary for online teaching success [1] conducted at Penn State University in 2009-2010. The article highlights how the results of this research are being aligned with various professional development courses comprising the...

Faculty Development Programs: The Frequency and Variety of Professional Development Programs Available to Online Instructors

Jennifer Heather Herman, Niagara University

Online education is no longer a peripheral phenomenon in higher education: over one-third of faculty members have taught or developed an online course. As institutions of higher education expand their online education offerings, administrators need to recognize that supporting faculty members through the use of incentives and through effective faculty...

Articles

Blended Course Design: A Synthesis of Best Practices

Patricia McGee, The University of Texas at San Antonio
Abby Reis, The University of Texas at San Antonio

Blended or hybrid course offerings in higher education are commonplace and much has been written about how to design a blended course effectively. This study examines publically available guides, documents, and books that espouse best or effective practices in blended course design to determine commonalities among such practices. A qualitative meta-analysis reveals common principles regarding the design process, pedagogical strategies, classroom and online technology utilization, assessment strategies, and course implementation and student readiness. Findings reveal areas of disconnect and conflict, as well as implications for the likelihood of successful utilization when best/effective practices are followed.

Multidimensional Assessment of Blended Learning: Maximizing Program Effectiveness Based on Student and Faculty Feedback

Orly Calderon, Long Island University, CW Post Campus
Amy Patraka Ginsberg, Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus
Liz Ciabocchi, Long Island University, University Center

Faculty and student feedback on blended courses is instrumental to improving blended courses and programs. The purpose of this article is to describe the process and results of blended learning outcome assessment at a large, multi-campus, private university. The outcome measures used in this assessment were developed in the context...

Using a Generalized Checklist to Improve Student Assignment Submission Times in an Online Course

Terence Cavanaugh, University of North Florida
Marcia L. Lamkin, University of North Florida
Haihong (Helen) Hu, University of Central Arkansas

Online instruction, like all traditional instructional environments, requires learner self-control and proactive learning to construct knowledge and acquire skills. However, online students often fail to complete some components of their online work each week, damaging their overall academic progress in the course. To assist students in completion of all assigned...

No Significant Difference in Service Learning Online

Sue Y. McGorry, DeSales University

Institutions of higher education are realizing the importance of service learning initiatives in developing awareness of students' civic responsibilities, leadership and management skills, and social responsibility. These skills and responsibilities are the foundation of program outcomes in accredited higher education business programs at undergraduate and graduate levels. In an attempt...

A Comparison of Non-Mandatory Online Dialogic Behavior in Two Higher Education Blended Environments

Paul Gorsky, Open University of Israel
Avner Caspi, Open University of Israel
Ina Blau, Open University of Israel

This study compares dialogic behavior in asynchronous course forums from blended learning environments with non-mandatory student participation at a campus-based college and at a distance education, Open University.  The goal is to document similarities and differences in students' and instructors' dialogic behavior that occur in two similar instructional resources used...

Interaction in an Asynchronous Online Course: a Synthesis of Quantitative Predictors

Daniel Zingaro, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) University of Toronto
Murat Oztok, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) University of Toronto

The effectiveness and potential of asynchronous online courses hinge on sustained, purposeful interaction. And while many factors affecting interaction have been uncovered by prior literature, there are few accounts of the relative importance of these factors when studied in the same online course. In this paper, we develop a literature-informed...

Interpersonal Interaction in Online Learning: Experienced Online Instructors' Perceptions of Influencing Factors

Cindy S. York, Northern Illinois University
Jennifer C. Richardson, Purdue University

A multitude of factors influence interpersonal interaction between students and instructors in an online course. This study examines perceptions of six experienced online instructors to determine factors they believe increase interaction among their students and between the students and instructor of online courses. The end result is an inventory of...

Do Students Experience "Social Intelligence", Laughter, and Other Emotions Online?

Katrina A. Meyer, University of Memphis
Stephanie J. Jones, Texas Tech University

Are online activities devoid of emotion and social intelligence? Graduate students in online and blended programs at Texas Tech University and the University of Memphis were surveyed about how often they laughed, felt other emotions, and expressed social intelligence. Laughter, chuckling, and smiling occurred "sometimes" as did other emotions (e.g.,...

Articles

Introduction to the Special Issue on Learning Analytics

Karen Swan, University of Illinois Springfield

We have passed from an industrial to an information age. One consequence of this move is the information overload envisioned by Vannevar Bush over a half century ago. The growth of data often seems to threaten the ability of organizations to make sense of it. However, the gargantuan amount of available data also has enabled the development of new techniques that have changed the very ways businesses are managed, doctors make diagnoses, and baseball managers recruit and coach players. Advances in knowledge modeling and representation, data mining, and analytics are creating a foundation for new models of knowledge development and analysis. Perhaps nowhere are these new models more needed than in education.

The Evolution of Big Data and Learning Analytics in American Higher Education

Anthony G. Picciano, City University of New York (CUNY)

Data-driven decision making, popularized in the 1980s and 1990s, is evolving into a vastly more sophisticated concept known as big data that relies on software approaches generally referred to as analytics. Big data and analytics for instructional applications are in their infancy and will take a few years to mature,...

Analytics that Inform the University: Using Data You Already Have

Charles Dziuban, University of Central Florida
Patsy Moskal, University of Central Florida
Thomas Cavanagh, University of Central Florida
Andre Watts, University of Central Florida

The authors describe the top-down / bottom-up action analytics approach to using data to inform decision-making at the University of Central Florida. The top-down approach utilizes information about programs, modalities, and college implementation of Web initiatives. The bottom-up approach continuously monitors outcomes attributable to distributed learning, including student ratings and...

Learning Analytics: A Case Study of the Process of Design of Visualizations

Martin Olmos, University of Wollongong
Linda Corrin, University of Wollongong

Producing a visualization from a given dataset which brings light to specific questions involves a difficult process of design. As the field of learning analytics is still in its relative infancy, a greater understanding of the challenges and opportunities afforded by the creation of visualizations of complex datasets is needed...

Predictive Modeling to Forecast Student Outcomes and Drive Effective Interventions in Online Community College Courses

Vernon C. Smith, Ph.D., MyCollege Foundation
Adam Lange, Ellucian
Daniel R. Huston, M.A., Rio Salado College

Community colleges continue to experience growth in online courses. This growth reflects the need to increase the numbers of students who complete certificates or degrees. Retaining online students, not to mention assuring their success, is a challenge that must be addressed through practical institutional responses. By leveraging existing student information,...

The PAR Framework Proof of Concept: Initial Findings from a Multi-Institutional Analysis of Federated Postsecondary Data

Phil Ice, American Public University System
Sebastián Díaz, West Virginia University
Karen Swan, University of Illinois Springfield
Melissa Burgess, American Public University System
Mike Sharkey, The Apollo Group (University of Phoenix)
Jonathan Sherrill, Colorado Community College System
Dan Huston, Rio Salado Community College
Hae Okimoto, University of Hawaii System

Despite high enrollment numbers, postsecondary completion rates have generally remained unchanged for the past 30 years and half of these students do not attain a degree within six years of initial enrollment. Although online learning has provided students with a convenient alternative to face-to-face instruction, there remain significant questions regarding...

Learning Analytics Considered Harmful

Laurie P. Dringus, Nova Southeastern University

This essay is written to present a prospective stance on how learning analytics, as a core evaluative approach, must help instructors uncover the important trends and evidence of quality learner data in the online course. A critique is presented of strategic and tactical issues of learning analytics. The approach to...

Articles

Introduction to the Special Issue: Faculty Development for Online Teaching

Stephanie J. Jones, Texas Tech University
Katrina A. Meyer, University of Memphis

As co-editors of this special issue on faculty development for online teaching, we would like to make a few points before readers engage in the articles included in the issue. First, we intended the special issue to include research on faculty development programs, especially research that was based on an appropriate theory. These studies seem especially important given their exploration of the usefulness of theory for creating faculty development activities and evaluating theireffectiveness

Writing Professor as Adult Learner: An Autoethnography of Online Professional Development

Teresa Beth Henning, Southwest Minnesota State University

This paper is a study of the author’s experiences taking a six-week, asynchronous, online, faculty development class for educators at the secondary and postsecondary levels. Using autoethnography methods, the author details her learning and the ways her experiences support adult learning theories. Implications of this research suggest that adult learning...

Faculty Development for Online Teaching as a Catalyst for Change

Carol A. McQuiggan, The Pennsylvania State University - Harrisburg

This action research study explored the change in face-to-face teaching practices as a result of faculty professional development for online teaching. Faculty’s initial teaching model is typically born from that of their own teachers, and they teach as they were taught. However, few have any online experience as a student...

Technology Adoption in Higher Education: Overcoming Anxiety Through Faculty Bootcamp

Terri Johnson, Carroll University
Mary Ann Wisniewski, Carroll University
Greg Kuhlemeyer, Carroll University
Gerald Isaacs,Carroll University
Jamie Krzykowski, Carroll University

The reluctance to design and teach online courses in higher education is often attributed to technology anxiety in faculty. This article documents a faculty development model that has successfully helped faculty overcome this obstacle. “Bootcamps,” faculty development programs held at Carroll University in Waukesha, WI, were specifically and intentionally designed...

Advancing Pedagogy: Evidence for the Role of Online Instructor Training in Improved Pedagogical Practices

Kristin Koepke, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
Alexander O’Brien, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

An Online Instructor Training (OIT) program at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse provides a three-week asynchronous training, focused on design, delivery, and facilitation of online courses. OIT trainees from 2010 and 2011 participated in a three-phase evaluation of the OIT. In Phase I, common conceptions (myths) about online education were assessed both...

Influence of Reduced Seat Time on Satisfaction and Perception of Course Development Goals: A Case Study in Faculty Development

Aimee deNoyelles, University of Central Florida
Clara Cobb, University of Central Florida
Denise Lowe, University of Central Florida

This paper describes the redesign of a faculty development program at a large public university that transitioned from weekly face-to-face meetings to a version that reduced seat time by half. Focus is on course development activities in which individual faculty began designing and developing their online courses. Survey data was...

Faculty Development for E-Learning: A Multi-Campus Community of Practice (COP) Approach

Janet Reilly, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay
Christine Vandenhouten, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay
Susan Gallagher-Lepak, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay
Penny Ralston-Berg, The Pennsylvania State University

Faculty development is a critical process, enabling instructors to remain abreast of new discipline specific content and innovations in the scholarship of teaching and learning. The explosion of online higher education and advances in technology provide examples and rationale for why faculty development for e-learning is needed.  Literature on faculty...

Orientation, Mentoring and Ongoing Support: A Three-Tiered Approach to Online Faculty Development

Amber L. Vaill, Bay Path College
Peter A. Testori, Bay Path College

In order for faculty to make a successful transition to teaching in the online classroom, they must receive professional development specifically geared toward this challenge. Bay Path College offers a faculty development program that incorporates three distinct components all geared toward aiding faculty to adjust to teaching online and providing assistance...

Toward an Understanding of What Works in Professional Development for Online Instructors: The Case of PBS Teacherline

Barbara C. Storandt, ALTA Solutions Group, LLC
Lia C. Dossin, PBS Teacherline
Anna Piacentini Lacher, ALTA Solutions Group, LLC

Research conducted in various settings suggests that preparation and support for online instructors should be considered separately from comparable efforts for instructors in face-to-face environments. However, few studies provide empirical data that outline the ways in which preparation to teach online should differ, and only a handful link these practices to...

Promoting Continuous Quality Improvement in Online Education: The META Model

Eileen Dittmar, Capella University
Holly McCracken, Capella University

Experienced e-learning faculty members share strategies for implementing a comprehensive postsecondary faculty development program essential to continuous improvement of instructional skills. The high-impact META Model (centered around Mentoring, Engagement, Technology, and Assessment) promotes information sharing and content creation, and fosters collaboration among a fifty-member faculty team that is geographically dispersed...

Zero to Sixty Plus in 108 Days: Launching a Central Elearning Unit and Its First Faculty Development Program

Monica Orozco, Center for eLearning, Florida Atlantic University
James Fowlkes, Center for eLearning, Florida Atlantic University
Page Jerzak, Center for eLearning, Florida Atlantic University
Ann Musgrove, Center for eLearning, Florida Atlantic University

The Center for eLearning was established at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) as a result of a university-wide task force. A brief overview of the center’s start-up activity is followed by a thorough report of the first faculty development program created and implemented. The structure of the program is described, and data are...

Articles

Graduate Students Rate Institutional Websites: The Must Have, Nice to Have, and Delighted to Have Services

Katrina A. Meyer, University of Memphis
Stephanie J. Jones, Texas Tech University

The graduate students admitted to the online and blended programs in higher education at Texas Tech University and the University of Memphis were surveyed about their respective university websites, or the institution’s “virtual face.” A total of 42 students rated 30 web-based services as “must have,” “nice to have,” “delighted to have (but not necessary),” or “I’m indifferent to this service” based on the Kano model of marketing research into customer satisfaction. The majority (11 of 17) of services in the “must have” category are essential for functioning as a student (e.g., course registration, program costs, helpdesk) while the social media services (podcasts and i-Phone applications) were in the “nice to have” category. Items of importance to the institution (history of the university, strategic plan, contributions to community) were in the “nice to have” or “delighted to have” categories. The continuing interest in viewing photos (of the campus, students, athletics) as a “nice to have” is intriguing for students in online and blended programs. Based on this research, several recommendations are offered to institutions.

Thought-Leaders in Asynchronous Online Learning Environments

Jim Waters, Cabrini College

The growth of online learning has exposed fundamental gaps in our knowledge, both theoretical and pragmatic. This research investigated some questions of the role of emergent leaders in online leaning and the influence of different behaviors. Firstly are there any common factors that identify thought-leaders? Secondly does the presence of...

Early Participation in Asynchronous Writing Environments and Course Success

Scott Warnock, Drexel University
Kenneth Bingham, Drexel University
Dan Driscoll, Drexel University
Jennifer Fromal, Drexel University
Nicholas Rouse, Drexel University

Many researchers have documented connections between student motivation/proactive student behavior and academic success. This study investigates if early participation on course message boards is connected with success in online and hybrid courses. Investigating 12 first-year writing classes, eight hybrid and four fully online, the authors found that first posters on...

Reading Between the Lines of Online Course Evaluations: Identifiable Actions that Improve Student Perceptions of Teaching Effectiveness and Course Value

Stephanie J. Jones, Texas Tech University

Students continue to demand and enroll in online courses, but are not always satisfied with their experiences. The purpose of this study was to determine if students’ responses to evaluations for online courses could be used to identify faculty actions that could lead to improved evaluation scores in teaching effectiveness...

The Identification of Competencies for Online Teaching Success

Paula Mae Bigatel, The Pennsylvania State University
Lawrence C. Ragan, The Pennsylvania State University
Shannon Kennan, The Pennsylvania State University
Janet May, The Pennsylvania State University
Brian F. Redmond, The Pennsylvania State University

This exploratory study examined teaching behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs (referred to as tasks) that reflect potential competencies for online teaching success. In this study, teaching tasks are those tasks performed during course delivery. A 7-point Likert scale survey instrument was constructed and distributed to experienced online faculty and staff asking...

Enrollment in Distance Education Classes is Associated with Fewer Enrollment Gaps Among Nontraditional Undergraduate Students in the US

Manuel C. F. Pontes, Rowan University
Nancy M. H. Pontes, Rowan University

The purpose of this research is to determine whether nontraditional undergraduate students in the US who enroll in distance education classes are less likely to have an enrollment gap (enrollment gap=part year enrollment). Previous research has shown that preference for distance education classes is significantly greater among nontraditional than among...

A Synthesis of Sloan-C Effective Practices, December 2011

Janet C. Moore, The Sloan Consortium

Encouraging continuous improvement in the quality, scale and breadth of online education, the Sloan Consortium invites practitioners to share effective practices. This report synthesizes effective practices submitted by Sloan-C members to the online collection at http://www.sloanconsortium.org/effective as of December 2011. The synthesis includes links to detailed postings about practices, including the...

Articles

Learning technology and organizations: transformational impact?

Martin Hall, University of Salford
Mike Keppell, Charles Sturt University
John Bourne, The Sloan Consortium

 This collection of papers contributes to a wide and ongoing strand of interest in alternative learning technologies: how are digitally-enabled ways of working transforming organizations? In ‘transformation’ we look for radical change, rather than just doing the same at a different scale. And in organizations we centre on educational institutions – across the full range of schooling, training, further and higher education – while recognizing that conventional boundaries are increasingly broken as different kinds of organizations invest in digitally-enabled learning.

Transforming distance education curricula through distributive leadership

Mike Keppell, Charles Sturt University
Carolyn O’Dwyer, Charles Sturt University
Betsy Lyon, Charles Sturt University
Merilyn Childs, Charles Sturt University

 This paper examines a core leadership strategy for transforming learning and teaching in distance education through flexible and blended learning. It focuses on a project centered on distributive leadership that involves collaboration, shared purpose, responsibility and recognition of leadership irrespective of role or position within an organization. Distributive leadership was...

Change, technology and higher education: Are universities capable of organizational change?

Stephen Marshall, University Teaching Development Centre, Victoria University of Wellington

Technology and change are so closely related that the use of the word innovation seems synonymous with technology in many contexts, including that of higher education. This paper contends that university culture and existing capability constrain such innovation and to a large extent determine the nature and extent of organizational...

Enhancing online distance education in small rural US schools a hybrid, learner-centred model

Claire de la Varre, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Julie Keane, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Matthew J. Irvin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

 Online distance education (ODE) has become pervasive and can potentially transform pedagogical practices across primary, secondary, and university-based educational systems. ODE is considered a flexible option for non-traditional students such as adult learners and home-schoolers, and a convenient way to deliver remedial courses. ODE is also a feasible and attractive...

The role of information and communication technologies in improving teaching and learning processes in primary and secondary schools

Albert Sangrà, Universitat Oberta de Cataluny
Mercedes González-Sanmamed, Universidad de A Coruñ

The purpose of this study is to analyze what is happening at schools regarding the integration and use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and to examine teachers‘ perceptions about what teaching and learning processes can be improved through the use of ICT. A multiple-case-study research methodology was applied. From...

Beyond the Yellow Brick Road: Mobile Web 2.0 informing a new institutional e-learning strategy

Thomas D. Cochrane, Te Puna Ako, Unitec

 Mobile learning (m-learning) has moved beyond the realms of fantasy to become a viable platform for contextual learning that bridges formal and informal learning environments. This paper overviews how mobile Web 2.0 has been instrumental in facilitating pedagogical change and informing an institution‟s new e-learning strategy that focuses upon social...

Using Voice Boards: pedagogical design, technological implementation, evaluation and reflections

Elisabeth Yaneske, Teesside University
Briony Oates, Teesside University

 We present a case study to evaluate the use of a Wimba Voice Board to support asynchronous audio discussion. We discuss the learning strategy and pedagogic rationale when a Voice Board was implemented within an MA module for language learners, enabling students to create learning objects and facilitating peer-to-peer learning....

Web-based lecture technologies and learning and teaching: a study of change in four Australian universities

Maree Gosper, Macquarie University
Margot McNeill, Macquarie University
Karen Woo, Macquarie University
Rob Phillips, Murdoch University
Greg Preston, University of Newcastle
David Green, Flinders University

 The uptake of web-based lecture technologies for recording and delivering live lectures has increased markedly in recent years. Students have responded positively, and for many their use has transformed learning – freeing them up from rigid timetables by providing choice in lecture attendance and supporting learning by extending the lecture...

Articles

Assessment of Individual Student Performance in Online Team Projects

Jay Alden, National Defense University

The use of team projects has been shown to be beneficial in higher education. There is also general agreement that team efforts should be assessed and that the grading ought to represent both (1) the quality of the product developed jointly by the team, as well as (2) the degree of participation and quality of contribution by each individual student involved in the group process.  The latter grading requirement has posed a challenge to faculty, so the question addressed in this paper is, “How should individual team members in online courses be assessed for the extent and quality of their contributions to the group project?”  To answer this question, four common team member evaluation practices were reviewed and compared to seven criteria representing positive attributes of an assessment practice in an online learning environment. Whereas the Peer Assessment practice received the greatest support in the literature in face-to-face courses, this study considered the perceptions of graduate faculty and students and recommended the Faculty Review practice as the default assessment practice in online courses because of its overall cost-effectiveness in this learning environment.

Leader Challenge: What Would You Do?

Chris Miller, The Praevius Group
Nate Self, The Praevius Group
Sena Garven, U.S. Army Research Institute
Nate Allen, The Pentagon

Given the complex environment in which the U.S. military operates, leaders at all levels must be prepared for a force that is more responsive to regional combatant commanders needs, better employs joint capabilities, facilitates force packaging and rapid deployment, and fights self contained units in non-linear, non-contiguous battle space. This...

How Online Faculty Improve Student Learning Productivity

Katrina A. Meyer, University of Memphis
Larry McNeal, University of Memphis

Ten experienced online faculty were interviewed to elicit examples of how they improved student learning productivity in their online courses. The ten faculty represented nine different states, 13 different fields or disciplines, and all were tenured or tenure-track at master’s or doctoral level higher education institutions. Based on a thematic...

Improving Instructor Response to Student Emails Using Template and Reminder Interventions

Matthew Elbeck, Troy University, Dothan
Minjung Song, University of Nebraska

Student e-mails without the student’s name, message, file attachment, and other identifying information may impede a timely and thorough instructor response. To help resolve this issue, we apply template and reminder interventions to improve student e-mail format defined as the degree of agreement between a student’s e-mail format and an...

Cross-Cultural Differences in Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions of Online Barriers

Larisa Olesova, Purdue University
Dazhi Yang, Boise State University
Jennifer C. Richardson, Purdue University

The intent of this study was to learn about students’ perceived barriers and the impact of those barriers on the quality of online discussions between two distinct cultural groups in Eastern and Northern Siberia (Russia). A mixed-methods approach utilizing surveys and interviews was used to investigate (1) the types of...

Teacher Professional Development in the Amazon Region: Strategies to Create Successful Learning Communities

Lucio Teles, University of Brasilia
Laura Maria Coutinho, University of Brasilia

The Faculty of Education, University of Brasilia, implemented an online undergraduate degree program for classroom teachers (student-teacher) who have not yet completed their studies. There are 1800 classroom teachers in the Brazilian state of Acre, bordering Peru and Bolivia, who have completed only high school. However, a new directive from...

Articles

Advances in Online Education at For-Profit Colleges and Universities

Jorge Klor de Alva, Nexus Research and Policy Center

Online education has been associated closely with for-profit higher education since 1989, when the University of Phoenix began to offer degrees fully online. Since that time, this modality of education has expanded widely and is now in place or on the drawing boards of most of the nation’s private and public institutions. However, the very fact of its close association with the fast growing for-profit sector has long led a number of academics to question online education’s capacity to deliver quality instruction where effective learning can take place.
 
The four articles in this issue should mark a turning point in this skepticism, not by showing that online education is “as good as or better” than face-to-face—a fact now too widely accepted to merit defense here—but by illuminating the path by which online education will ultimately make such skepticism more quaint than considered.
From Scarcity to Abundance: IT’s Role in Achieving Quality-Assured Mass Higher Education

Peter S. Smith, Kaplan University

To adapt to the knowledge economy The United States needs millions more educated citizens. New approaches to delivering academic quality and quality assurance in teaching and learning make effective, affordable postsecondary education accessible to more learners than ever before possible....

Online Teacher Education: Exploring the Impact of a Reading and Literacy Program on Student Learning

Barbara Weschke, Walden University
Raymond D. Barclay, Arroyo Research Services
Kirk Vandersall, Arroyo Research Services

This study presents findings from an investigation of the impact of teachers who graduated from a fully online master’s degree program with training in pedagogy and a content-specialization in elementary reading and literacy (oERL) on reading achievement in a large urban public school system in the northwestern United States. The...

An Exploration of Differences Between Community of Indicators in Low and High Disenrollment Online Courses

Phil Ice, American Public University System
Angela M. Gibson, American Public University System
Wally Boston, American Public University System
Dave Becher, American Public University System

Though online enrollments continue to accelerate at a rapid pace, there is significant concern over student retention. With drop rates significantly higher than in face-to-face classes it is imperative that online providers develop an understanding of factors that lead students to disenroll. This study utilizes a data mining approach to...

Using Text Mining to Characterize Online Discussion Facilitation

Norma Ming, Nexus Research and Policy Center
Eric Baumer, Cornell University

Facilitating class discussions effectively is a critical yet challenging component of instruction, particularly in online environments where student and faculty interaction is limited. Our goals in this research were to identify facilitation strategies that encourage productive discussion, and to explore text mining techniques that can help discover meaningful patterns in...

Articles

Introduction to the Special Issue on Transitioning to Blended Learning

Anthony G. Picciano, Hunter College, CUNY

In 2004, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funded an invitation-only workshop on blended learning. It was one of the first such events to focus entirely on the concept of combining online and face-to-face instruction into a new instructional modality and since has evolved into the Annual Sloan Consortium Blended Learning Conference and Workshop. Over the past seven years, this Conference and Workshop has added significantly to the research base and best practices that apply to blended learning. Its scholarly production includes a plethora of important studies and resources that have contributed significantly to what is known about blended learning.   For example, the work of this Conference and Workshop has produced:
·         a comprehensive look at a definition of the term “blended learning”;
·         the first book dedicated entirely to the research on blended learning [1]; and
·         an extensive review of blended learning instructional models. [2]
In April 2010, the 7th Annual Sloan Consortium Blended Learning Conference and Workshop attracted almost three hundred educational leaders, faculty members, instructional designers and researchers who discussed, shared and considered effective practices in the design and delivery of blended learning environments. The purpose of this special edition of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks is to preserve some of the knowledge and insights shared at this event.   The articles selected also represent well the theme of this special edition – transitioning to blended learning
Blended Environments: Learning Effectiveness and Student Satisfaction at a Small College in Transition

Gouri Banerjee, Emmanuel College

As higher education moves increasingly to blended and fully online environments, smaller institutions often ask whether this is a desirable trend. They face many challenges in transforming their largely face- to-face didactic teaching traditions to the technology mediated learning environments. Learning effectiveness and student satisfaction are seen to be decisive...

Transitioning to Blended Learning: Understanding Student and Faculty Perceptions

Nannette P. Napier, Georgia Gwinnet College
Sonal Dekhane, Georgia Gwinnet College
Stella Smith, Georgia Gwinnet College

This paper describes the conversion of an introductory computing course to the blended learning model at a small, public liberal arts college. Blended learning significantly reduces face-to-face instruction by incorporating rich, online learning experiences. To assess the impact of blended learning on students, survey data was collected at the midpoint...

Content vs. Learning: An Old Dichotomy in Science Courses

Gerald Bergtrom, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

The principles of course redesign that were applied to a gateway Cell Biology course at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee are applicable to courses large and small, and to institutions of any size. The challenge was to design a content-rich science course that kept pace with present and future content and...

Adopting a Blended Learning Approach: Challenges Encountered and Lessons Learned in an Action Research Study

Jane Kenney, West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Ellen Newcombe, West Chester University of Pennsylvania

Adopting a new teaching approach is often a daunting task especially if one is an early adopter in a limited-resource environment. This article describes the challenges encountered and the strategies used in pilot testing a blended instructional method in a large size class within the college of education at a...

Blending at Small Colleges: Challenges and Solutions

Ying-Hsiu Liu, University of Missouri-Columbia
Mark Tourtellott, Mount Saint Mary College

Implementing blended accelerated learning programs or courses requires a systematic approach, not just the addition of new technologies. Small colleges face challenges when they move toward blended learning because of already-constrained resources. In this article, we will survey issues faced by small colleges in moving to blended learning, document a...

Designed Learner Interactions in Blended Course Delivery

Reba-Anna Lee, Marist College
Brian Dashew, Marist College

In transitioning to a hybrid delivery model, faculty are presented with an opportunity to engage in a systematic instructional design process which can bring coursework in line with pedagogical best practices that may not exist in traditional face-to-face classes. This paper presents a model whereby Marist College Academic Technology &...

Faculty Development: A Stage Model Matched to Blended Learning Maturation

Michael L. Fetters, Babson College
Tova Garcia Duby, Babson College

Faculty development programs are critical to the implementation and support of curriculum innovation. In this case study, the authors present lessons learned from ten years of experience in faculty development programs created to support innovation in technology enhanced learning. Stages of curriculum innovation are matched to stages of faculty development,...

Blending in the Bronx: The Dimensions of Hybrid Course Development at Bronx Community College

Howard Wach, Bronx Community College
Laura Broughton, Bronx Community College
Stephen Powers, Bronx Community College

To support the growth of its blended courses, Bronx Community College (BCC), a unit of the City University of New York (CUNY), participated in a CUNY-sponsored initiative to increase blended learning options for students. The initiative allowed BCC to expand its existing faculty development program. This paper describes major aspects...

Cloud-Based Technologies: Faculty Development, Support, and Implementation

Veronica Diaz, EDUCAUSE

The number of instructional offerings in higher education that are online, blended, or web-enhanced, including courses and programs, continues to grow exponentially. Alongside the growth of e-learning, higher education has witnessed the explosion of cloud-based or Web 2.0 technologies, a term that refers to the vast array of socially oriented,...

Articles

Why Online Education Will Attain Full Scale

John Sener, Sener Knowledge LLC and The Sloan Consortium

Online higher education has attained scale and is poised to take the next step in its growth. Although significant obstacles to a full scale adoption of online education remain, we will see full scale adoption of online higher education within the next five to ten years. Practically all higher education students will experience online education in some form during their collegiate career, and college students will be able to take online or blended degree programs and certificates in almost any subject. Full scale online education will occur as the result of compounded growth, increased familiarity and acceptance, various models of scalability, and possible wildcards which may accelerate growth. Online education will also attain full scale by becoming fully integrated into mainstream education. This transformation is necessary for online learning to reach its potential to improve the quality of education.
Educational Transformation through Online Learning: To Be or Not to Be

Anthony G. Picciano, Graduate Center and Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
Jeff Seaman, Babson Survey Research Group
I. Elaine Allen, Babson Survey Research Group

The purpose of this article is to examine online learning at the macro level in terms of its impact on American K-12 and higher education.   The authors draw on six years of data that they have collected through national studies of online learning in American education as well as related...

A Quality Scorecard for the Administration of Online Education Programs: A Delphi Study

Kaye Shelton, Dallas Baptist University

As the demands for public accountability increase for the higher education, institutions are seeking methods for continuous improvement in order to demonstrate quality within programs and processes, including those provided through online education. A six round Delphi study was undertaken with 43 seasoned administrators of online education programs who agreed...

Mentoring for Innovation: Key Factors Affecting Participant Satisfaction in the Process of Collaborative Knowledge Construction in Teacher Training

Helga Dorner, Central European University
Andrea Kárpáti, Eötvös Loránd University

This paper presents data about the successful use of the Mentored Innovation Model for professional development for a group of Hungarian teachers (n=23, n=20 in two iterations), which was employed in the CALIBRATE project in order to enhance their ICT skills and pedagogical competences needed for participation in a multicultural,...

Faculty Actions that Result in Student Satisfaction in Online Courses

Lana C. Jackson, Amarillo College
Stephanie J. Jones, Texas Tech University, College of Education
Roy C. Rodriguez, Texas Tech University, College of Education

This study identified faculty actions which positively influenced student satisfaction in the online classroom at the community college level. The escalating demand for Internet-based, distance education courses has been met by an increased inventory of them. However, while online education has been in existence for over a decade, standardized practices in...

Automating Expertise in Collaborative Learning Environments

Noelle LaVoie, Pearson Knowledge Technologies
Lynn Streeter, Pearson Knowledge Technologies
Karen Lochbaum, Pearson Knowledge Technologies
David Wroblewski, Pearson Knowledge Technologies
Lisa Boyce, U.S. Air Force Academy
Charles Krupnick, U.S. Army War College
Joseph Psotka, U.S. Army Research Institute

We have developed a set of tools for improving online collaborative learning including an automated expert that monitors and moderates discussions, and additional tools to evaluate contributions, semantically search all posted comments, access a library of hundreds of digital books and provide reports to instructors. The technology behind these tools is...

Articles

Designing Corporate Training in Developing Economies Using Open Educational Resources

Chris Geith, Michigan State University
Karen Vignare, Michigan State University
Leslie D. Bourquin, Michigan State University
Deepa Thiagarajan, Michigan State University

The Food Safety Knowledge Network (FSKN) is a collaboration between Michigan State University, the Global Food Safety Initiative of the Consumer Goods Forum, and other food industry and public sector partners. FSKN’s goal is to help strengthen the food industry’s response to the complex food safety knowledge and training challenges that affect emerging markets by providing free access to high-quality, standardized learning resources. The resources were designed to be available on demand and as a structured learning experience which can support face-to-face training and fully online training. The pilots thus far have shown that participants in FSKN training demonstrate a significant increase in knowledge. The paper will share the processes used to set up an efficient open educational resources initiative including understanding licensing, using open software, establishing competencies and working with corporate and other international partners.

Promoting Hybrid Learning Through a Sharable eLearning Approach

Xin Bai, York College of The City University of New York
Michael B. Smith, York College of The City University of New York

Educational technology is developing rapidly, making education more accessible, affordable, adaptable, and equitable. Students now have the option to choose a campus that can provide an excellent blended learning curriculum with minimal geographical restraints. We explored ways to maximize the power of educational technologies to improve teaching efficiency and cut costs...

A Synthesis of Sloan-C Effective Practices, November 2010

Janet C. Moore, The Sloan Consortium

Encouraging continuous improvement in the quality, scale and breadth of online education, the Sloan Consortium invites practitioners to share effective practices. This report synthesizes effective practices submitted by Sloan-C members to the online collection at http://www.sloanconsortium.org/effective as of November 2010. The synthesis includes links to the provider institutions and to detailed...

Introduction  to  the  Section  on  Workforce  Development

David  Sachs, Pace University

 Asynchronous  and  blended  education  provide  solutions  for  meeting   large  scale  demand, thus  this  issue  features  four  cases  about  innovative  workforce  development  programs.     Each  one  of  them  advances  the  possibilities  and  provides  replicable  practices  for expanding  access.  ...

Learner Support Requirements for Online Workplace Training in the South African Furniture Industry

Iain  S.  Macdonald, University of British Columbia
Mark  Bullen, University of British Columbia
Robert  A.  Kozak, University of British Columbia

A qualitative research project was conducted to evaluate the suitability of e-learning as a means of deliv- ering training to workplace learners in the South African furniture manufacturing sector. Twenty learners participated in a three-month pilot e-learning course and were monitored throughout. While the study was designed primarily to investigate...

Skepticism to Success: Meeting Critical Workforce Needs Through Innovation and Collaboration

Margaret  Anderson, Whatcom Community College
Linda  Maier, Whatcom Community College
Michael  Shepard, Whatcom Community College

To meet workforce demand and the needs of working or place-bound students, Whatcom Community College developed an online version of its existing face-to-face Physical Therapist Assistant program which became a model for other lab-based health science degrees. This article describes research studies that support the program’s practices and includes the...

Incorporating the e-HIM® Virtual Lab into the Health Information Administration Professional Practice Experience

Amanda C. Barefield, Medical College of Georgia
Jim Condon, Medical College of Georgia
Charlotte McCuen, Macon State College
Nanette B. Sayles, Macon State College

This  article  highlights the  experiences  of  two  baccalaureate  Health  Information  Administration  (HIA)   programs  in  the  adoption  of  the  American  Health  Information  Management  Association’s  (AHIMA)  e-­HIM   Virtual  Laboratory  (Virtual  Lab)  into  the  Professional  Practice  Experience  (PPE).  Information  is  provided   describing  the  implementation  of  the  Virtual  Lab,  issues  that  were  encountered,...

The CUNY Young Adult Program  -­  Utilizing Social Networking to Foster Interdisciplinary and Cross-­Cohort Student Communication during Workforce Training

Alissa  Levine, CUNY Kingsborough Community College
Christoph  Winkler, The City University of New York
Saul  Petersen, Connecticut Campus Compact

The  Center  for  Economic  and  Workforce  Development  (CEWD)  at  Kingsborough  Community  College  is   currently  working  on  a  workforce  development  project  that  contains  innovative  teaching  tools  that  proved  successful  in  overcoming  issues  of  academic  isolation...

Articles

The Road Not Taken: The Divergence of Corporate and Academic Web Instruction

Robert N. Ubell, NYU Polytechnic Institute

Although corporate e-learning and academic online education have evolved along different paths, each reaches approximately 25% of its respective market. Because they have different philosophies and methods, the two fields may never completely merge, yet each may learn from the other.
Multiple Modes in Corporate Learning: Propelling Business IQ with Formal, Informal and Social Learning

John Ambrose, SkillSoft
Julie Ogilvie, SkillSoft

Recognizing that the shifting corporate environment is placing ever greater stresses on learning organizations, this paper reports how companies are increasingly offering employees a wide choice of learning options beyond conventional classroom training, including online, social learning, and other modalities in “blended” programs. Identifying a number of trends—a multi-generational workforce,...

What Corporate Training Professionals Think About e-Learning: Practitioners’ Views on the Potential of e-Learning in the Workplace

Allison Rossett, San Diego State University
James Marshall, San Diego State University

An exploratory study of 954 mostly veteran workplace learning professionals sought to determine why respondents adopt e-learning. The results indicated that they see e-learning was most valuable for delivering instruction governing familiar company tasks, such as providing information about products, fulfilling compliance requirements, and securing standardization. While the results were...

Measuring Success and ROI in Corporate Training

Kent Barnett, KnowledgeAdvisors
John R. Mattox, II, KnowledgeAdvisors

When measuring outcomes in corporate training, the authors recommend that it is essential to introduce a comprehensive plan, especially when resources are limited and the company needs are vast. The authors hone in on five critical components for shaping a measurement plan to determine the success and ROI of training....

The Sloan-C Pillars: Towards a Balanced Approach to Measuring Organizational Learning

Kee Meng Yeo, Amway
A. Frank Mayadas, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and e Sloan Consortium

The Sloan Pillars have set the standard for university-wide online learning program assessment for more than a dozen years. In this paper, the authors propose the extension of the Pillars to corporate e-learning, offering an alternative to traditional enterprise learning assessments. Claiming that conventional methods stress individual courses or programs,...

Articles

An Exploration of the Relationship Between Indicators of the Community of Inquiry Framework and Retention in Online Programs

Wally Boston, American Public University System
Sebastián R. Díaz, West Virginia University
Angela M. Gibson, American Public University System
Phil Ice, American Public University System
Jennifer Richardson, Purdue University
Karen Swan, University of Illinois Springfield

[Reprinted from 12:1, February 2008]

As the growth of online programs continues to rapidly accelerate, concern over retention is increasing. Models for understanding student persistence in the face-to-face environment are well established, however, the many of the variables in these constructs are not present in the online environment or they manifest in significantly different ways. With attrition rates significantly higher than in face-to-face programs, the development of models to explain online retention is considered imperative. This study moves in that direction by exploring the relationship between indicators of the Community of Inquiry Framework and student persistence. Analysis of over 28,000 student records and survey data demonstrates a significant amount of variance in re-enrollment can be accounted for by indicators of Social Presence.

If Higher Education is a Right, and Distance Education is the Answer, Then Who Will Pay?

Katrina A. Meyer, The University of Memphis

[Reprinted from 12:1, February 2008] If higher education is a right, and distance education is the avenue for making higher education universally available, then who shall pay? This article asks (1) can state governments in the United States afford to fund this initiative and (2) can public higher education...

Using Focus Groups to Study ALN Faculty Motivation

Starr Roxanne Hiltz, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Peter Shea, University at Albany
Eunhee Kim, Northern State University

What are the most significant factors that motivate and inhibit faculty with regard to teaching in online environments? And what are the specific kinds of experiences that underlie and explain the importance of these factors? One goal of this study was to add to understanding of these issues, but the...

Model-Driven Design: Systematically Building Integrated Blended Learning Experiences

Stephen Laster, Babson College

[Reprinted from Elements of Quality Online Education: Into the Mainstream, Volume 5 in the Sloan-C series (2003)] Developing and delivering curricula that are integrated and that use blended learning techniques requires a highly orchestrated design. While institutions have demonstrated the ability to design complex curricula on an ad-hoc basis,...

Scaling Online Education: Increasing Access to Higher Education

Jacqueline F. Moloney, UMass Lowell and UMass Online
Burks Oakley II, University of Illinois and University of Illinois Online

[Reprinted from 10:3, July 2006] This paper reviews online enrollment trends in higher education, describes the characteristics of online programs that have scaled successfully to meet increasing demand, identifies challenges impacting the continued growth of online enrollments in this sector, and outlines the opportunities for increasing access ...

Characteristics of Successful Local Blended Programs in the Context of the Sloan-C Pillars

Jacqueline F. Moloney, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Charmaine P. Hickey, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Amy L. Bergin, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Judith Boccia, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Kathleen Polley, University of Massachusetts Boston
Jeannette E. Riley, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

[Reprinted from 11:1, April 2007] Drawing on the University of Massachusetts experience in developing successful blended local programs, this paper suggests guiding principles that include mission-driven responsiveness to local contexts and partnerships; using low-cost marketing strategies available through local relationships and brand; attending to students’ preferences for blending face-to-face and...

An Administrator’s Guide to the Whys and Hows of Blended Learning

Mary Niemiec, University of Illinois at Chicago
George Otte, The City University of New York

[Reprinted from 13:1, April 2009] Given the importance of administrative attention to blended learning, this article adumbrates the institutional benefits but also the institutional challenges of this integration of online and on-campus instruction. The reasons for engaging in blended learning determine how it will play out, so the why is...

Articles

Re-examining & Repositioning Higher Education: 20 Economic and Demographic Factors Driving Online & Blended Program Enrollments

Kristen Betts, Drexel University
Kenneth Hartman, Drexel University Online
Carl Oxholm III, Drexel University

Economic and demographic shifts in the United State are transforming higher education. With substantial reductions in state funding, increasing campus energy and operational costs, endowments generating reduced returns, and a national economic readjustment of unprecedented proportions, higher education must re-examine and reposition itself to meet new and emerging challenges. This...

Application and Evaluation of the Ecological Psychology Approach to Instructional Design (EPAID)

Judith Effken, Marylyn McEwen, Deborah Vincent, Kimberly Shea, Dianna Garcia-Smith, Youngmi Kang, College of Nursing, the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Michael Young Department of Educational Psychology, The University of Connecticut

Teaching online can be particularly challenging when there is a need to immerse students located anywhere in the world in specific environmental contexts. We used the Ecological Psychology Approach to Instructional Design (EPAID) to design four courses in two concentration areas (Border Health, and Workforce and Healthcare Delivery Environments). In...

Is the Whole Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts? A Comparison of Small Group and Whole Class Discussion Board Activity In Online

Catherine A. Bliss, Center for Distance Learning Empire State College
Betty Lawrence, Center for Distance Learning Empire State College

Methods for characterizing asynchronous text-based discussions have received significant attention in the literature. In this study, we examine student and instructor posts made in seventeen undergraduate mathematics courses over the duration of a fifteen-week semester (n=6964 posts). We apply our previously developed multifactor discussion board metric to compare differences in...

The Emotional in e-Learning

Raafat George Saadé, Concordia University
Dennis Kira, Concordia University

This study investigates perceived ease of use and overall computer/internet experience as emotional factors that affect e-learning. Results suggest that online learning systems design should address typical software interfaces so that students feel more comfortable using them.  ...

A Synthesis of Sloan-C Effective Practices: December 2009

Janet C. Moore, The Sloan Consortium

Encouraging continuous improvement in the quality, scale and breadth of online education, the Sloan Consortium invites practitioners to share effective practices. This report synthesizes effective practices submitted by Sloan-C members to the online collection at http://www.sloanconsortium.org/effective as of December 2009. The synthesis includes links to the provider institutions and...

Articles

The Road to Retention: A Closer Look at Institutions that Achieve High Course Completion Rates

Janet C. Moore, The Sloan Consortium
Marie J. Fetzner, Monroe Community College

From 2003 to 2007, enrollment in online courses nearly doubled, from 1.98 million to 3.94 million. By 2007, the 12.9% growth rate of online enrollments far exceeded the 1.2% growth of the overall higher education student population. Online education will continue to grow as a significant percentage of the 19...

Peirce College and Student Success

Jon Lenrow, Peirce College

This case study describes the philosophy underlying the delivery of online programs and courses at Peirce College through Peirce Online®. The strategies used to implement the Peirce College model and the measures used to validate its success are outlined. These factors are reviewed in the context of the Sloan-C Five...

SetonWorldWide: A Case Study Of Student Success

Philip DiSalvio, Seton Hall University

This case study offers a strategic model of methods and services resulting in relatively high student success rates as defined by course completion of introductory first and second semester online courses. This strategic model is presented in the context of Sloan-C's Five Pillars of Quality Online Education....

Rochester Institute of Technology: Analyzing Student Success

Richard Fasse, RIT Online Learning
Joeann Humbert, RIT Online Learning
Raychel Rappold, RIT Online Learning

RIT Online Learning courses have an overall course completion rate of 94%. For lower-division courses the rate is 92%, undergraduate 93%, and graduate 96%. In this case study we will share additional measurements we have used to monitor student success and describe strategies we have used to promote online discussion...

University of Cincinnati: Case Study of Online Student Success

Melody Clark, Univeristy of Cincinnati
Lisa Holstrom, University of Cincinnati
Ann M. Millacci, University of Cincinnati

The University of Cincinnati (UC) is a premier, public, urban research university dedicated to undergraduate, graduate, and professional education, experience-based learning, and research. The University also maintains a deep commitment to accessible education. Distance learning is an integral part of the University’s 21st century approach to meeting diverse educational needs...

The UIS Model For Online Success

Bill Bloemer, University of Illinois at Springfield

Dallas Baptist University (DBU) is a private, Christian, liberal arts institution located in the DFW Metroplex. Just over 5,200 students, DBU provides both traditional undergraduate, adult and graduate degrees with the enrollment almost equally divided between the three student groups. Today, DBU offers 34 degree programs fully online maintains a...

Does Strong Faculty Support Equal Consistent Course Completion?: It has for Dallas Baptist University

Kaye Shelton, Dallas Baptist University

Dallas Baptist University (DBU) is a private, Christian, liberal arts institution located in the DFW Metroplex. Just over 5,200 students, DBU provides both traditional undergraduate, adult and graduate degrees with the enrollment almost equally divided between the three student groups. Today, DBU offers 34 degree programs fully online maintains a...

Getting Better: ALN and Student Success (Previously published in JALN 10:3)

Janet C. Moore, The Sloan Consortium
Marie J. Fetzner, Monroe Community College (at time of original publicaion, Montgomery College)

In the U.S., only 38 of every 100 ninth graders enroll in college; of these 38, only 18 complete bachelors’ degrees within six years. Asynchronous learning networks (ALN)—asynchronous, highly interactive, instructor-led, resource-rich, cohort-based learning—can yield high success rates. Growing demand for online education and the expectation among higher education leaders...

Factors that Influence Students’ Decision to Dropout of Online Courses (Previously published in JALN 8:4)

Pedro A. Willging, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Scott D. Johnson, 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...

Why They Stayed: Near-Perfect Retention in an Online Certification Program in Library Media (Previously published in JALN 10:4)

Katrina A. Meyer, The University of Memphis
Janis Bruwelheide, Montana State Unversity
Russell Poulin, Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications

This paper focuses on an assessment of an online certification program in K–12 library media which has a near-perfect record of retaining students. Students and graduates of the program were asked to identify reasons for enrolling (and staying enrolled) in the program as well as functions that faculty performed well....

Using Asynchronous Learning in Redesign: Reaching and Retaining the At-Risk Student (Previously published in JALN 8:1)

Carol A. Twigg, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Many students who begin postsecondary education drop out before completing a degree. According to the Lumina Foundation, an estimated 60 percent of students at public institutions fail to complete degrees within five years, and half of these students leave during the freshman year. As shown by research by the Policy...

Articles

Crossing Cultures and Borders in International Online Distance Higher Education

Gulnara Sadykova, University at Albany
Jennie Dautermann, SUNY Center for Professional Development in Syracuse

The growing demand for higher education worldwide, along with global expansion of telecommunication technologies, give online distance education a potential world-wide reach for institutions in many countries. Given the persistent international digital divide and the potential for the host institutions and languages to be those of wealthy, industrialized countries, international...

The Influence of Online Teaching on Face-to-face Teaching Practices

Norma I. Scagnoli, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Lydia P. Buki, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Scott D. Johnson, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

The integration of online technologies in educational practice is rendering new opportunities for teaching and learning. It is known that instructors who have taught fully online courses have acquired new skills and have had the opportunity to implement novel pedagogical practices in the online environment. However, it is unclear whether...

Implementing an Enterprise Information System to Reengineer and Streamline Administrative Processes in a Distance Learning Unit

M'hammed Abdous, Center for Learning Technologies, Old Dominion University
Wu He, Center for Learning Technologies, Old Dominion University

During the past three years, we have developed and implemented an enterprise information system (EIS) to reengineer and facilitate the administrative process for preparing and teaching distance learning courses in a midsized-to-large university (with 23,000 students). The outcome of the implementation has been a streamlined and efficient process which...

Development and Application of a Multi-Factor Discussion Board Metric

Catherine A. Bliss, Center for Distance Learning, Empire State College
Betty Lawrence, Center for Distance Learning, Empire State College

Asynchronous text based discussion boards are included in many online courses, however strategies to compare their use within and between courses, from a disciplinary standpoint, have not been well documented in the literature. The goal of this project was to develop a multi-factor metric which could be used to characterize...

International Co-teaching of Medical Informatics for Training-the-trainers in Content and Distance Education

Kadriye O. Lewis, Ed.D, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Murat Sincan, MD, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine Department of Medical Education and Informatics Hacettepe Universitesi Sihhiye, Ankara, Turkey

In this technologically advanced age, much emphasis is put on collaboration in education at many levels. As a result, faculty co-teaching (collaborative teaching) has grown dramatically. This paper introduces how two instructors from different countries (USA and Turkey), one experienced in online teaching and the other in medical informatics, collaborated...

Online Education Today

A. Frank Mayadas, Sloan Foundation
John Bourne, Sloan Consortium
Paul Bacsich, Matic Media Ltd

This article is reprinted from [A. Mayadas et al., Online Education Today. Science 323: 85–89, 2 January 2009]. Reprinted with permission from AAAS. Online education is established, growing, and here to stay. It is creating new opportunities for students and also for faculty, regulators of education, and the educational institutions themselves....

A Causal Model of Factors Influencing Faculty Use of Technology

Katrina A. Meyer, Higher and Adult Education, The University of Memphis
Yonghong Jade Xu, Counseling, Educational Psychology and Research, University of Memphis

Based on earlier studies using the 1999 and 2004 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF) data [1, 2], a causal model explaining faculty technology use was constructed. Path analysis was used to test the causal effects of age, gender, highest degree, discipline (health science or not), recent research productivity, and...

Face-to-face and Online Professional Development for Mathematics Teachers: A Comparative Study

Michael Russell, Boston College
Rebecca Carey, Boston College
Glenn Kleiman, Boston College
Joanne Douglas Venable, Boston College

The study compared the effects of a professional development course delivered in an online and a face-to-face format.  The effects examined included changes in teachers’ pedagogical beliefs, instructional practices, and understanding of teaching number-sense and related mathematical concepts.  The study randomly assigned participants to either the online or the face-to-face...

Articles

Introduction to the Special Issue on Blended Learning

Anthony G. Picciano, Associate Editor, JALN

In April 2008, the University of Illinois-Chicago hosted the Fifth Sloan-C Workshop on Blended Learning and Higher Education. This workshop attracted 180 educational leaders, faculty members, instructional designers and researchers who discussed, shared and considered effective practices in the design and delivery of blended learning environments. Presentations on best...

Blending With Purpose: The Multimodal Model

Anthony Picciano, Graduate Center and Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)

The purpose of this article is to propose a blending with purpose multimodal conceptual model for designing and developing blended learning courses and programs. A blended learning model is presented that suggests teachers design instruction to meet the needs of a variety of learners. Specifically, Blending with Purpose: The Multimodal...

Comparing Student Performance: Online Versus Blended Versus Face-to-Face

David K. Larson, University of Illinois at Springfield
Chung-Hsien Sung, University of Illinois at Springfield

The purpose of this research was to perform a three way comparison of delivery modes for an introductory Management Information Systems course to determine if there existed a difference in student success among the delivery modes.  The research compares student exam and final grade results in this class that was...

A Case Study from Golden Gate University: Using Course Objectives to Facilitate Blended Learning in Shortened Courses

Robert Fulkerth, Golden Gate University

This paper discusses utilizing course objectives to drive the change of existing 10–15 week undergraduate courses into 8-week courses that feature blended learning tools. To begin the redesign process, instructors and a faculty mentor revisit course objectives for currency, and with an eye toward blended course restructuring. The restructuring is...

MSU Medical Colleges Blended Learning for First Year Science Courses: Uniting Pedagogy to Maximize Experience and Real World Limitations

Kathryn Lovell, Michigan State University
Karen Vignare, Michigan State University

At Michigan State University the two medical schools, College of Human Medicine (CHM; M.D. degree) and College of Osteopathic Medicine (COM; D.O. degree),  have offered the same science courses to first year students for many years. Science departments report to both colleges, and the same faculty can effectively teach the...

The Sloan-C Pillars and Boundary Objects As a Framework for Evaluating Blended Learning

Mark Laumakis, San Diego State University
Charles Graham, Brigham Young University
Chuck Dziuban, University of Central Florida

The authors contend that blended learning represents a boundary object; a construct that brings together constituencies from a variety of backgrounds with each of these cohorts defining the object somewhat differently.  The Sloan-C Pillars (learning effectiveness, access, cost effectiveness, student satisfaction, and faculty satisfaction) provide a foundation for the evaluation...

Dancing with a Bear: One University’s Experience with Evaluating Blended Learning

Patsy Moskal, University of Central Florida

The 2008 Sloan Blended Workshop evaluation track provided participants with ideas, methods, and resources with which to design and evaluate their courses, programs, and blended initiatives. The many questions that arose from participants at the Workshop provided the motivation to document our University’s evaluation experiences at course, program and institutional...

Articles

Information Technology Services Support for Emergencies

Donald Z. Spicer, University System of Maryland

For at least the last quarter century, enterprises—including higher education institutions—have increasingly relied on Information Technology Services (ITS) for business functions. As a result, IT organizations have had to develop the discipline of production operations as well as recovery procedures to respond when those operations are disrupted. More recently, both...

Overcoming the Financial Aid Barrier for E-learners

Bruce Chaloux, Electronic Campus, Southern Regional Education Board

Financial aid systems help make higher education available to all who can benefit. To “adjust” the existing financial aid system to make it more student friendly and open doors currently closed to many part-time learners and students with the greatest financial challenges, state policy changes and greater private sector initiatives...

Tuition/Pricing for Online Learning

Karen Paulson, National Center for Higher Education Management Systems

To make online learning an integral part of higher education, institutions must determine the real costs of instruction and what tuition to charge based on these costs. Then the question is: Is this tuition bearable by the target population of potential students?...

Introduction to the Special Issue on Policy

Bruce Chaloux, The Sloan Consortium

The seeds for this JALN edition focusing on policy were planted more than four years ago. It evolved soon after Sloan-C began its annual survey and reflected concerns that policy—at the institutional, state, and federal levels—was lagging behind the growth curve in online learning. In short, the policy constructs at all levels, with some exceptions, targeted traditional on campus and classroom instruction and, to many in the ALN community, seemed at odds with the changing landscape of higher education.

The Sloan Semester

George Lorenzo, The Sloan Consortium

The Sloan Semester was a vibrant and vitally important undertaking that required the immediate attention of a group of dedicated educators. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, though its sponsorship of the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C), financed this worthwhile initiative that helped Hurricane Katrina- and Rita-affected higher education students continue with their...

Critical Event Preparedness and Response: Keynote address to the 2006 Sloan Research Workshop by Jon Links

Janet C. Moore, The Sloan Consortium

At the intersection of online education and preparedness, Johns Hopkins University’s (JHU) Center for Public Health Preparedness provides all-hazards preparedness and response training for public health and public safety professionals. This report comes from Jonathan Links’ keynote address to the Sloan Summer Research Workshop in Baltimore, Maryland in August 2006....

Student Learning and Student Services: Policy Issues

Claudine SchWeber, Chair, Doctor of Management Program, University of Maryland

An increasing number of students in the United States are involved in online education, according to research by the Sloan Foundation. By fall 2004, approximately 2.6 million students were estimated to be enrolled in at least one online course, an average growth rate of 24.8% from 2003–04; this figure represents...

ALN: Policy Implications for Minority Serving Institutions and for Leaders Addressing Needs of Minority Learners

Janet K. Poley, American Distance Education Consortium

For minority serving institutions, policies that support learners call for decisions about equity, quality, cost, impact on national economic performance, and international global relationships....

The Challenges of Transnational Online Learning

Richard A Skinner, Senior Vice President for Programs and Research, Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges

Globalization is enabling transnational provision of post-secondary education. The leadership of higher education needs to attend to issues of quality and accreditation....

Positioning Online Learning as a Strategic Asset in the Thinking of University Presidents and Chancellors

Samuel H. "Pete" Smith, University of Texas, Arlington
Samuel H. Smith, Washington State University
Robert Samors, National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges
A. Frank Mayadas, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Within our nation’s public universities, online courses and programs have been increasing in number. This increase has led to the establishment of a National Commission on Online Learning through a collaborative effort between the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges. This...

Articles

Introduction to the Special Issue on the Right to Education

John R. Bourne, The Sloan Consortium
Janet C. Moore, The Sloan Consortium
Claudine SchWeber, University of Maryland University College

On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the 60 years since the Declaration, changes have swept higher education. The emergence of online education promises that growth in its quality, scale and breadth could insure that education becomes a right. Sloan-C...

BRICs and Clicks

Mary Bold, Ph.D., CFLE, Associate Professor, Texas Woman’s University (Family Studies at)
Lillian Chenoweth, Ph. D., Professor, Texas Woman’s University (Family Studies at)
Nirisha K.Garimella, M. Sc., M. S., Texas Woman’s University (Family Studies at)

Projections for the global economy frequently center on the BRIC countries: Brazil, Russia, India, and China. As futurists and economists alike define and re-define both formal and informal coalitions (for example, by broadening the R in BRIC to include all Eastern European economies or instead re-directing the discussion to G-8...

Microfranchising Microlearning Centers: A Sustainable Model for Expanding the Right to Education in Developing Countries?

Tiffany Zenith Ivins, Director of International Programs, Center for Open Sustainable Learning

While availability of information and access to it enables education in developing countries, information alone does not secure transmission of knowledge—especially to remote learners in low-tech, infrastructure-poor communities. For this reason, 21st century distance education tools require innovative mechanisms for accessing the hardest-to-reach learners. This paper explores an ethnographic case...

Determined to Learn: Accessing Education Despite Life-Threatening Disasters

Claudine SchWeber, Ph.D, Professor, Graduate School of Management & Technology, University of Maryland University

The ‘right to education’ proclaimed by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights requires access to learning as well as the support systems. Since access can be interrupted by various circumstances, the possibility of providing continuity despite external dangers by using online distance education, offers an intriguing and valuable option....

Bringing the Real World of Science to Children: A Partnership of the American Museum of Natural History and the City University

Anthony G. Picciano, Professor, Hunter College and Graduate Center
Robert V. Steiner, Project Director, Seminars on Science, National Center for Science Literacy, Education and Technology

Every child has a right to an education. In the United States, the issue is not necessarily about access to a school but access to a quality education. With strict compulsory education laws, more than 50 million students enrolled in primary and secondary schools, and billions of dollars spent annually...

Open Educational Resources for Blended Learning in High Schools: Overcoming Impediments in Developing Countries

Richard C. Larson, LINC, Learning International Networks Consortium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M. Elizabeth Murray, LINC, Learning International Networks Consortium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

With today’s computer and telecommunications technologies, every young person can have a quality education regardless of his or her place of birth. This is the dream that Open Educational Resources (OERs), when viewed as a right rather than a privilege, are directed to realize. For developing countries, we propose a...

Access to Education with Online Learning and Open Educational Resources: Can They Close the Gap?

Dr. Christine Geith, Assistant Provost and Executive Director , MSUglobal
Karen Vignare, Director

One of the key concepts in the right to education is access: access to the means to fully develop as human beings as well as access to the means to gain skills, knowledge and credentials. This is an important perspective through which to examine the solutions to access enabled by...

An Online Learning Model to Facilitate Learners’ Rights to Education

Lin Lin, Assistant Professor of Learning Technologies

This paper connects an online learning model to the rights to education that the online educational environments can provide. The model emerges from a study of ninety-two online learners and is composed of three kinds of inquiries, namely, independent inquiry, collaborative inquiry, and formative inquiry towards expert knowledge. Online learners...

Articles

Course Assessment Practices and Student Learning Strategies in Online Courses

Bridget D. Arend, Ph.D., University of Denver

Perhaps the most promising and understudied aspect of online education is course assessment. Course assessment is important because it has a strong impact on learning and is an indicator of the quality of learning occurring in a class. In the online environment, methods of assessment can be very different. However,...

Using Rubrics and Content Analysis for Evaluating Online Discussion: A Case Study from an Environmental Course

Maha Bali, Center for Learning and Teaching, American University in Cairo, Egypt
Adham R. Ramadan, Department of Chemistry, American University in Cairo, Egypt

This paper presents a case study of using course-specific rubrics combined with content analysis, together with instructor and student feedback, to assess learning via online discussion. Student feedback was gathered via Small Group Instructional Diagnosis, and instructor feedback was collected through formal interviews. Content analysis used emergent coding with different...

Community of Inquiry and Learning in Immersive Environments

Ross McKerlich, Athabasca University
Terry Anderson, Athabasca University

This paper describes an exploratory, observational study using a purposive sample selection to determine if the presence indicators of the well regarded Community of Inquiry model can be a useful tool to observe and assess learning events which use a Multi User Virtual Environment (MUVE) as the mode of delivery...

Student Perceptions of Face-to-Face and Online Discussions: The Advantage Goes To . . .

Dr. Katrina A. Meyer, Associate Professor of Higher and Adult Education, The University of Memphis

Thirteen students in a graduate-level course on Historical and Policy Perspectives in Higher Education held face-to-face and online discussions on five controversial topics: Diversity, Academic Freedom, Political Tolerance, Affirmative Action, and Gender. Students read materials on each topic and generated questions for discussion that were categorized by Bloom’s taxonomy so...

What it Takes to Innovate: The Experience of Producing an Online, Real-Time Case Study

James Theroux, Flavin Professor of Entrepreneurship, Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts

The case method can be classified as a type of experiential learning because students treat the problem in the case as if it were real and immediate. Until the Internet there was no practical way for cases to actually be real and immediate. The Internet makes possible instantaneous distribution of...

Articles

Introduction to the Special Issue on Online Learning in K–12 Schools and Teacher Education

Anthony G. Picciano, Hunter College and Graduate Center of the City University of New York

In 2006–2007, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation awarded a grant to the Sloan Consortium and Hunter College to conduct a survey of online learning in K–12 schools. For more than a decade, the Foundation had been most generous in awarding grants for online learning that focused on higher education, however,...

Interview with Chris Dede

Anthony G. Picciano, Hunter College and Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Chris Dede is the Timothy E. Wirth Professor of Learning Technologies at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. His fields of scholarship include emerging technologies, policy, and leadership. His funded research includes a grant from the National Science Foundation to aid middle school students learning science via shared virtual environments and...

The Louisiana Algebra I Online Initiative as a Model for Teacher Professional Development: Examining Teacher Experiences

Laura M. O’Dwyer, Boston College, Lynch School of Education
Rebecca Carey, Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC)
Glenn Kleiman, Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC)

Over the past decade online learning initiatives have shown tremendous potential for broadening educational opportunities and for addressing local and regional shortages of highly qualified K–12 teachers. The Louisiana Algebra I Online initiative represents one type of online model than can address both the need for improving course offerings and...

Learning Science Online: A Descriptive Study of Online Science Courses for Teachers

Jodi Asbell-Clarke, TERC
Elizabeth Rowe, TERC

Online education is a rapidly growing phenomenon for science teachers. Using a sample of 40 online science courses for teachers offered during the 2004–2005 academic year, the Learning Science Online (LSO) study examines the nature and variety of instructional methods and activities as well as communication, and students’ perceptions of...

An Interpretive Model of Key Heuristics that Promote Collaborative Dialogue Among Online Learners

Sarah Haavind, Lesley University

One of the more challenging aspects of teaching online is promoting content-focused, collaborative dialogue among students. How do we move discussants beyond initial brainstorming toward more focused, deepened dialogue that clearly supports a course’s instructional goals? Garrison and Anderson’s framework for communities of inquiry illuminates the critical interplay among social...

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Ether: A Corpus Analysis of Student Self-Tellings in Online Graduate Courses

Carla Meskill, University at Albany, State University of New York
Gulnara Sadykova, University at Albany, State University of New York

This study examines the patterns and substance of student self introductions in nine fully online graduate courses in education. A composite of social identity frameworks with an emphasis on language as the tool for self-presentation is first developed to guide the analysis and interpretation of these data. In particular Sfard...

K–12 Online Learning: A Survey of U.S. School District Administrators

Anthony G. Picciano, Hunter College and Graduate Center of the City University of New York
Jeff Seaman, The Sloan Consortium, Olin and Babson Colleges

The research literature on online learning has grown significantly in the past decade. Many studies have been published that examine the extent, nature, policies, learning outcomes, and other issues associated with online instruction. While much of this literature focuses specifically on postsecondary education with approximately three million students presently enrolled...

Articles

Using Asynchronous Audio Feedback to Enhance Teaching Presence and Students’ Sense of Community

Philip Ice, Department of Middle, Secondary and K–12 Education, College of Education
Reagan Curtis, Department of Technology, Learning, and Culture, College of Human Resources and Education
Perry Phillips, Department of Curriculum & Instruction / Literacy Studies, Department of Curriculum & Instruction / Literacy Studies
John Wells, Department of Teaching and Learning, School of Education

This paper reports the findings of a case study in which audio feedback replaced text-based feedback in asynchronous courses. Previous research has demonstrated that participants in online courses can build effective learning communities through text based communication alone. Similarly, it has been demonstrated that instructors for online courses can adequately...

Blended Learning in High Tech Manufacturing: A Case Study of Cost Benefits and Production Efficiency

Veena Mahesh, Ph.D., Intel Corporation
Craig Woll, Ph. D., Intel Corporation

The complexity of equipment and cost of training are increasing annually for high tech semiconductor manufacturing. The article describes the process and methodology adopted by a team at Intel Corporation to convert a 12-day class on equipment training into a blended solution consisting of a 5-day Classroom experience, a 3-hour...

Why Do Higher-Education Institutions Pursue Online Education?

Stephen Schiffman, Babson College and Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
Karen Vignare, Michigan State University
Christine Geith, Michigan State University

Using a unique item included for the first time in the Sloan Consortium’s 2006 national survey of online learning, the authors analyze the reasons why higher-education institutions engage in online learning. Nine reasons are explored from contributing to extension efforts to returning a surplus. Eight of the nine reasons are...

Bridges and Barriers to Teaching Online College Courses: A Study of Experienced Online Faculty in Thirty-Six Colleges

Peter Shea, University at Albany, State University of New York

This paper reports on initial findings from a research study of factors that enable and constrain faculty participation in online teaching and learning environments. It is noted that demand for higher education continues to grow in the United States. It is argued that the nature of the higher education student...

Understanding and Fostering Interaction in Threaded Discussion

Robert S. Williams, English Language Institute, The American University in Cairo
Rachel Humphrey, The University of Essex

This study (N=2,826 postings from 92 participants) examines the phenomenon of interactivity in asynchronous computer-mediated communication (ACMC), also known as threaded discussion, in the context of master’s level Teaching English as a Second Language (MATESL) and Teaching English as a Foreign Language (MATEFL) courses. The study, which is grounded in...

Online vs. Blended Learning: Differences in Instructional Outcomes and Learner Satisfaction

Doo Hun Lim, University of Tennessee, Human Resource Development
Michael L. Morris, University of Tennessee, Human Resource Development
Virginia W. Kupritz, University of Tennessee, Communication Studies

This study investigates differences in instructional and learner factors between two groups of learners exposed to online only and blended delivery formats, respectively, in an effort to compare learning outcomes and other instructional variables between online and blended delivery methods. Findings indicated that no significant differences existed in learning outcomes;...

Articles

Blended Learning and Localness: The Means and the End

A. Frank Mayadas, Program Officer, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Anthony G. Picciano, Professor, School of Education, Hunter College

Blended learning can be seen as the means to achieving a greater sense of "localness" on the part of colleges and universities. Blended learning has been evolving for several years and while definitions vary from one institution to another, it is defined in this paper essentially as a combination of...

Online Instruction as Local Education: CUNY's Online Baccalaureate

George Otte, The City University of New York

The City University of New York is taking a new, local approach to online instruction: offering an online baccalaureate for degree completers, designed for NYC students who have "stopped out" in good academic standing and need the "any time" flexibility of asynchronous learning to finish the degree. What is especially...

Pace University, Blended Learning and Localness: A Model that Works

David Sachs, Pace University

Several forms of blended learning at Pace University offer flexible options for learners, and its growth reflects its appeal to traditional and corporate learners....

Extending Online and Blended Learning to Corporations in the New York Metropolitan Region

Robert Ubell, Dean, School of Professional Education Stevens Institute of Technology

WebCampus.Stevens, the online graduate education and corporate training unit of Stevens Institute of Technology, delivers one of the largest and most effective ALN and blended programs of any college or university in the New York metropolitan region. Under a newly awarded Sloan Foundation grant, the school is extending its engineering...

Expanding Demand for Online Higher Education: Surveying Prospective Students

Richard Garrett, Senior Analyst, Eduventures, LLC

The Eduventures survey examined next-generation demand for online postsecondary education, assessing online experience, delivery mode and marketing channels preferences, and perceptions of price, quality and location, identifying key takeaways in each area....

Online Community of Inquiry Review: Social, Cognitive, and Teaching Presence Issues

D. R. Garrison, University of Calgary

This paper explores four issues that have emerged from the research on social, cognitive, and teaching presence in an online community of inquiry. The early research in the area of online communities of inquiry has raised several issues with regard to the creation and maintenance of social, cognitive and teaching...

An Empirical Verification of the Community of Inquiry Framework

J. B. Arbaugh, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

Despite the explosion of empirical research on online learning effectiveness over the last decade, development and acceptance of theoretical frameworks unique to the online learning environment are still relatively lacking. While there are several emerging models, one that has attracted some of the most attention is the Community of Inquiry...

Student Satisfaction with Asynchronous Learning

Charles Dziuban, Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness, University of Central Florida
Patsy Moskal, Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness, University of Central Florida
Jay Brophy, Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness, University of Central Florida
Peter Shea, University at Albany

The authors discuss elements that potentially impact student satisfaction with asynchronous learning: the media culture, digital, personal and mobile technologies, student learning preferences, pedagogy, complexities of measurement, and the digital generation. They describe a pilot study to identify the underlying dimensions of student satisfaction with online learning and present examples...

Are We Re-Marginalizing Distance Education Students and Teachers?

Melody M. Thompson, The Pennsylvania State University

Changes in the language we use to talk about our activities in service of this mission and a concomitant increased emphasis on blended learning are two trends that emphasize the importance retaining important meaning and knowledge associated with earlier practice and do not limit our thinking by unnecessarily circumscribed discourse....

Research on Online Learning

Karen Swan, Research Center for Educational Technology, Kent State University

Over the past decade, the Internet has had a profound impact on higher education by enabling the phenomenal growth of online learning. Moreover, just as we were getting used to fully online courses,blended courses, courses which integrate online and face-to-face instruction, seem to be growing in similar, perhaps even more...

Articles

The Development of a Remote Laboratory for Internet-Based Engineering Education

Ahmed Chiheb Ammari, Institut National des Sciences Appliquées et de Technologie (INSAT), Unité de Recherche en Matériaux Mesures et Applications (MMA)
Jaleleddine Ben Hadj Slama, Institut National des Sciences Appliquées et de Technologie (INSAT), Laboratoire des Systèmes Électriques (LSE), École Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Tunis (ENIT)

The development of feasible and cost-effective remote engineering and science laboratories is one of the most important problems facing the progress of online technical education. In this paper, we describe the development of a complete remote laboratory for the instruction of control engineering. Equipped with common industrial sensors and actuators,...

Creating Effective Online Discussions: Optimal Instructor and Student Roles

Marcia Dixson, Ph.D., Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne
Michelle Kuhlhorst, M.A., Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne
Amber Reiff, M.A., Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne

Teaching online courses is unexplored territory for many instructors. Understanding how to use the powerful learning techniques involved in cooperative group learning in an online context is imperative. This paper is a first attempt to explore the dynamics of learning groups in the context of online discussion forums. Given the...

Building Understanding in Asynchronous Discussions: Examining Types of Online Discourse

Seungyeon Han, Ph.D., Hanyang Cyber University, Seoul, Korea
Janette R. Hill, Ph.D., Instructional Technology, Instructional Technology, University of Georgia

This article describes a study exploring how students' learning is reflected in asynchronous online discussion. The study examined how online discourse contributes to the learning process. In examining online group discussions using discourse analysis, five different types of discourse were identified: goal setting, reflection, connection, original reformulation, and re-direction. With...

Cultivating Voluntary Online Learning Communities in Blended Environments

Robert Heckman, Syracuse University
Hala Annabi, University of Washington

In this paper we argue for the possibility of using asynchronous technology to create a continuous, voluntary learning community in face-to-face courses. We discuss the theoretical concepts and values that are the foundation of such a community, describe some of the activities that take place there, and present principles of...

The Method (and Madness) of Evaluating Online Discussions

Katrina A. Meyer, Ph.D., The University of Memphis

In addressing how to evaluate online discussions, this paper will describe several concepts, tools, or frameworks that have been used in evaluations and discuss differences in approach based on instructor purpose, be it research, assessment, or learning. Then several common problems are described, including use of content analysis, identification of...

Why They Stayed: Near-Perfect Retention in an Online Certification Program in Library Media

Dr. Katrina A. Meyer, The University of Memphis
Dr. Janis Bruwelheide, Montana State University
Russell Poulin, Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications

This paper focuses on an assessment of an online certification program in K-12 library media which has a near-perfect record of retaining students. Students and graduates of the program were asked to identify reasons for enrolling (and staying enrolled) in the program as well as functions that faculty performed well....

An Online Discussion for Supporting Students in Preparation for a Test

Y. Steimberg, Tel-Aviv University
J. Ram, Tel-Aviv University
R. Nachmia, Tel-Aviv University
A. Eshel, Tel-Aviv University

This research examines classroom-based student participation in online discussion groups while preparing for a test, as well as the relation between the type of participation and student achievement. The online discussion groups were set up towards particular tests in a large-scale course, Introduction to Ecology, during the academic years of...

The Changing Role of Faculty and Online Education

Murray Turoff, Information Systems Department, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Environmental forces influencing the future of higher education in the U.S. threaten to undermine the desirable role of faculty as arbiters of academic quality. For online learning to live up to its potential, institutional policies can return academic authority to faculty over degree programs in all modes and support the...

How Blended Learning Can Support a Faculty Development Community of Inquiry

Norman Vaughan, University of Calgary
D. Randy Garrison, University of Calgary

This study focuses on understanding the social and teaching presence required to create a blended faculty development community of inquiry. Garrison, Anderson and Archer's community of inquiry framework was used to analyze transcripts from the face-to-face and online sessions of a faculty learning community focused on blended learning course redesign....

Distance Education Communications: The Social presence and Media Richness of Instant Messaging

Stephen J. Kuyath, The William States Lee College of Engineering, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Susan J. Winter, The Belk College of Business Administration, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Instant messaging (IM) is changing the way we communicate with each other and may prove to be a more effective communication tool for distance learning environments than the more commonly used discussion groups and email. Media richness and social presence theories are described and young adults' perception of IM's richness...

Articles

Increasing Access in Online Higher Education

John Bourne, The Sloan Consortium
Janet C. Moore, The Sloan Consortium
John Sener, The Sloan Consortium
Frank Mayadas, The Sloan Foundation
Linda F. Ettinger, The University of Oregon

This paper investigates how access to higher education in the United States can be increased through further integration of online education. The search for opportunities to increase access to online education examined multiple prospective higher education contexts. A series of papers produced by participants in the 2005 Sloan-C summer workshop...

Online K–12 Education: Opportunities for Collaboration with Higher Education

Melody M. Thompson, Penn State University

It is common practice for researchers and developers of innovative programs, as well as for the foundations and agencies that provide support for such research and programming, to target their efforts on specific segments of the educational system: K–12 or higher education, for example. However, the growing acceptance of the...

Reaching Asynchronous Learners Within the Silver Tsunami

Linda F. Ettinger, Applied Information Management Master’s Degree Program, University of Oregon

This paper provides a profile of the population niche known as baby boomers, seniors and retired, collectively called the silver tsunami, relative to the potential for growth of the number of asynchronous online learners. General contextual information concerning population statistics, computer use and access trends, prefaces a listing...

Insuring the Nation's Destiny: Reducing the Digital Divide

William Booth, Hampton University

"Closing the digital divide is a national challenge among historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs)," writes White examining the state of information technology readiness of five four-year HBCUs in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The inequalities created by the digital divide have the potential of undermining the effort of HBCUs in...

Getting Better: ALN and Student Success

Janet C. Moore, The Sloan Consortium
John Sener, The Sloan Consortium
Marie Fetzner, Montgomery College

In the U.S., only 38 of every 100 ninth graders enroll in college; of these 38, only 18 complete bachelors' degrees within six years. Asynchronous learning networks (ALN)—asynchronous, highly interactive, instructor-led, resource-rich, cohort-based learning—can yield high success rates. Growing demand for online education and the expectation among higher education leaders...

Community Colleges and Distance Learning

Kathleen Susan Ives, The Sloan Consortium

The goal of community colleges is to serve local needs. Community colleges' low tuition helps keep higher education affordable for a diverse population. Distance learning holds the promise of providing yet another mechanism by which community colleges can bring education to a non-traditional student body. This paper explores the role...

Blended Learning: Implications for Growth and Access

Anthony G. Picciano School of Education, Hunter College, Doctoral Programs in Urban Education, and Interactive Pedagogy and Technology, City University of New York Graduate Center

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on issues of growth and access in blended learning environments. Increasingly decision makers throughout higher education are considering blended learning as an important component of their academic programs. It is hoped that this paper will help to provide insight for these decision...

Articles

Institutional Transformation: Introduction to the Special Issue

Janet C. Moore, The Sloan Consortium

Is there sufficient motivation for the institution to scale up online education? This may involve financial and other considerations, and [we refer] to it as "cost-effectiveness" . This special issue of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks focuses on institutional transformation, including insights into business models. This introduction points to additional...

ALN Business Models and the Transformation of Higher Education

Gary E. Miller, The Pennsylvania State University
Stephen Schiffman, Babson College and Franklin.W. Olin College of Engineering

The ways institutions have structured their initial innovation with online learning vary greatly. Initial business model decisions present different challenges in terms of how institutions will integrate online learning. This paper looks at several common business models and the opportunities and challenges that each presents to institutions that want to...

Online Learning: New Models for Leadership and Organization in Higher Education

George Otte, City University of New York
Meg Benke, Empire State College

Online learning is now reaching the core, helping to transform higher education and moving beyond isolated efforts to pervasive influence and change. The dichotomy of distance learning vs. campus-based education has broken down, and forward-looking senior administrators have embraced new approaches to education that contain the elements of successful online...

The Times They Are A-Changing

Carol Scarafiotti, Rio Salado College
Dr. Martha Cleveland-Innes, Athabasca University

Higher education is engulfed in change. At the same time that institutions of higher education are endeavoring to transform themselves by integrating information and communication technologies into curriculum delivery, student profiles are changing. Low income-ethnic populations are among the fastest growing segment of 18–24 year old students; male enrollments are...

Cases of Institutional Transformation

The Pennsylvania State University
University of Texas TeleCampus
Rio Salado College
The City University of New York
Athabasca University
Empire State College

Six institutions provide snapshots of some of the major transformative effects of online education....

Business Models for Online Learning: An Exploratory Survey

Karen Vignare, MSU Global Ventures
Christine Geith, MSU Global
Stephen Schiffman, Babson College and Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Despite the rapid growth in the adoption of online learning, there is a dearth of detailed information on effective business models, business strategies and effective practices on which to build sustainable online education programs. A survey instrument was developed as an initial attempt to define business models and business strategies...

Business Models for Online Education

George Lorenzo, Educational Pathways

Nine institutions—Colorado State University, Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD), Duquesne University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Central Florida, The University of Illinois at Springfield, University of Massachusetts Lowell, University of Michigan, University of Georgia—share information about their business models....

Articles

Online Collaboration: Introduction to the Special Issue

Karen Swan, Research Center for Educational Technology, Kent State University

A wide range of theoretical and empirical analyses emphasize the importance of active participation and collaboration among students in promoting the effectiveness of online learning. Collaboration models activity in the workplace, helps students to actively construct knowledge, enhances students' understanding and appreciation of diversity, and may give students a sense...

Facilitating Collaboration in Online Learning

Caroline Haythornthwaite, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Collaboration entails working together toward a common goal, but what is the common goal we want students to work toward in classes? What kinds of interactions and outcomes do we value as collaboration, and how do we facilitate them? This paper addresses these questions, beginning with an examination of research...

Online Collaboration Principles

D. R. Garrison, University of Calgary

This paper uses the community of inquiry model to describe the principles of collaboration. The principles describe social and cognitive presence issues associated with the three functions of teaching presence—design, facilitation, and direction. Guidelines are discussed for each of the principles....

Assessment and Collaboration in Online Learning

Karen Swan, Research Center for Educational Technology, Kent State University
Jia Shen, School of Management, New York Institute of Technology
Starr Roxanne Hiltz, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Assessment can be seen as the engine that drives student course activity, online or off. It is particularly important in encouraging and shaping collaborative activity online. This paper discusses three sorts of online collaborative activity—collaborative discussion, small group collaboration, and collaborative exams. In each of these areas, it provides both...

Achieving Diversity Through Online Inter-Institutional Collaborations

Shari McCurdy, University of Illinois at Springfield
Ray Schroeder, University of Illinois at Springfield

This paper examines best practices for technology use in online, collaborations between the University of Illinois at Springfield and Chicago State University in class sessions shared across institutional boundaries. We explore the collaborations between these two ethnically and culturally diverse institutions. The University of Illinois at Springfield received two grants...

Quality Matters: Inter-Institutional Quality Improvement for Online Courses

John Sener, Sener Learning Services

The Quality Matters (QM) project funded by FIPSE and administered by MarylandOnline (MOL) is creating a replicable inter-institutional continuous improvement model to assess, assure, and improve the quality of online courses. Designed to address statewide and national needs for credible quality assurance in online learning, the inter-institutional collaboration is...

Collaboration Online: Sloan-C Resources

Janet C. Moore, The Sloan Consortium

Over the years, insights about ALN collaboration from Sloan-C's annual publications in the quality series, in Effective Practices, and in The Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN), have been useful for refining theoretical and practical knowledge about online education. This summary points to additional resources related to collaboration....

A Study of Students’ Sense of Learning Community in Online Environments

Peter Shea, University at Albany - State University of New York

This paper looks first at some of the often unspoken epistemological, philosophical, and theoretical assumptions that are foundational to student-centered, interactive online pedagogical models. It is argued that these foundational assumptions point to the importance of learning community in the effectiveness of online learning environments. Next, a recent study of...

Articles

Reciprocity Analysis of Online Learning Networks

Reuven Aviv, Ph.D, Learning International Network Consortium (LINC), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA, and Department of Computer Science, Open University of Israel
Zippy Erlich, Department of Computer Science, Open University of Israel
Gilad Ravid, Center for Information Technology in Distance Education, Open University of Israel

Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALNs) make the process of collaboration more transparent, because a transcript of conference messages can be used to assess individual roles and contributions and the collaborative process itself. This study considers three aspects of ALNs: the design; the quality of the resulting knowledge construction process; and cohesion,...

Pedagogy and Quality in Developing Online Learning for Teachers and Trainers

Terry Cowham, The Open University in the North West
Julia Duggleby, The Sheffield College, UK

The last six years have seen an increasing interest in the use of online technologies for delivering training in the UK, as employers recognize that these technologies can offer a more economic and flexible training package that can be tailored to the priorities of a company and its employees. This...

Exploring Four Dimensions of Online Instructor Roles: A Program Level Case Study

Xiaojing Liu, Kelley Direct Online Programs, Indiana University
Curt J. Bonk, Department of Instructional Systems Technology, Indiana University
Richard J. Magjuka, Chair of Kelley Direct Online Programs, Indiana University
Seung-hee Lee, Kelley Direct Online Programs, Indiana University
Bude Su, Department of Instructional Systems Technology, Indiana University

The purpose of this study was to understand the practice of online facilitation in a Midwestern university which has a highly successful traditional MBA program. This study explored the instructors' perceptions regarding four dimensions of instructor roles using Berge's [1] classifications: pedagogical, managerial, social, and technical. This study also examined...

Improving Training Outcomes through Blended Learning

Michelle Reece, Certified Medical Representatives Institute
Barbara Lockee, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Blended learning is a prominent trend in corporate training that has implications for distributed learning across a range of venues and constituents. Typically defined as an instructional program offered through a combination of two or more delivery modes, blended learning utilizes a variety of approaches, including print-based materials, instructor-led training,...

Developing Learning Community in Online Asynchronous College Courses: The Role of Teaching Presence

Peter Shea, Department of Educational Theory and Practice and College of Computing and Information, University at Albany, State University of New York
Chun Sau Li, School of Education University at Albany, State University of New York
Karen Swan, Research Center for Educational Technology, Kent State University
Alexandra Pickett, SUNY Learning Network, State University of New York

This paper builds on the model we have developed for creating quality online learning environments for higher education. In that model we argue that college-level online learning needs to reflect what we know about learning in general, what we understand about learning in higher-education contexts, and our emerging knowledge of...

Successful Online Bioterrorism Courses Meet Needs of Learners

Karen Vignare, Director, MSU Global Ventures
John Sener, President, Sener Learning Services

The Monroe County (NY) Health Alert Network (MCHAN) and the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) recently completed their second year of a Centers for Disease Control grant-funded project that offers a series of instructor-led asynchronous online learning courses. The courses are designed to enhance the workforce competencies of local and...

Articles

Are Online Courses Cannibalizing Students From Existing Courses?

Joseph K. Cavanaugh, Department of Business Wright State University, Lake Campus

One of the reasons most often cited for the increasing number and popularity of online courses is the format's ability to provide access to students who cannot attend conventionally delivered face-to-face courses. Are these underserved students in fact the ones enrolling in online courses? Or are online course enrollees the...

A Review of Recent Papers on Online Discussion in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

Michael Hammond, Centre for New Technologies Research in Education, Institute of Education, University of Warwick

This paper presents a review of a sample of recent case studies on the use of asynchronous online discussion in higher education. These studies are analyzed in terms of curriculum design, assumptions about teaching and learning, and claims and reported conditions for using online discussion. The claims made for asynchronous...

Electronic Spaces as an Alternative to Traditional Classroom Discussion and Writing in Secondary English Classrooms

Sangmin Lee, Woosong University, Korea

In most secondary school classrooms, teachers are still authoritative, central-figures. They talk and teach while students listen and passively receive what the teacher says. Regarding writing, the situation is similar. Students write only to the teacher, the person who grades their papers. In this environment, classroom dynamics are monologic and...

Estimating Faculty and Student Workload for Interaction in Online Graduate Music Courses

Barbara Payne McLain, University of Hawaii – Manoa

Research suggests that faculty perceive greater workload for online teaching. These perceptions have little quantitative support. This study utilized seven online graduate courses, over a three year period to estimate faculty and student workload for interaction via online discussions and electronic mail using average reading and typing speeds. Weekly faculty...

A Synthesis of Sloan-C Effective Practices, August 2005

Janet C. Moore. Chief Learning Officer, The Sloan Consortium

To support continuous improvement in the quality, scale and breadth of online education, the Sloan Consortium invites practitioners to share effective practices. This report synthesizes effective practices submitted by Sloan-C members that have been reviewed and are currently listed in Sloan-C Effective Practices online collection at http://www.sloan-c.org/effective. The synthesis includes...

An Examination of Sense of Classroom Community and Learning Among African American and Caucasian Graduate Students

Alfred P. Rovai, School of Education, Regent University
Michael K. Ponton, School of Education, Regent University

Higher education administrators and faculty members seek ways in which to advance student learning in online courses, and student affairs professionals seek ways to promote a sense of belonging and connectedness of students to their schools. The present study examined how a set of three classroom community variables were related...

Participatory Examinations in Asynchronous Learning Networks: Longitudinal Evaluation Results

Jia Shen, School of Management, New York Institute of Technology
Michael Bieber, Collaborative Hypermedia Research Lab, Information Systems Department, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Starr Roxanne Hiltz, Collaborative Hypermedia Research Lab, Information Systems Department, New Jersey Institute of Technology

This paper presents longitudinal evaluation results for an online participatory examination process in an information systems course over three semesters. The exam process includes students making up questions, answering other students' questions, grading answers to questions they author, and appealing the grades. The surveys following each exam elicited students' feedback,...

On the Nature and Development of Social Presence in Online Course Discussions

Karen Swan, Research Center for Educational Technology, Kent State University
Li Fang Shih, School of Business and Technology, Excelsior College

"Social presence," the degree to which participants in computer-mediated communication feel affectively connected one to another, has been shown to be an important factor in student satisfaction and success in online courses. This mixed methods study built on previous research to explore in greater depth the nature of social presence...

Assessing Student Learning with Automated Text Processing Techniques

Yi-fang Brook Wu, Department of Information Systems, College of Computing Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Xin Chen, Department of Information Systems, College of Computing Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Research on distance learning and computer-aided grading has been developed in parallel. Little work has been done in the past to join the two areas to solve the problem of automated learning assessment in virtual classrooms. This paper presents a model for learning assessment using an automated text processing technique...

Articles

University of Nebraska Summer Institute for Online Teaching

University of Nebraska

Recipient of the 2004 Sloan-C Award for Excellence in Online Teaching & Learning Faculty Development, the University of Nebraska Summer Institute for Online Teaching emphasizes pedagogy—planning, instructional design, strategies for building online community, activities/assignments that promote critical thinking, assessment, and course management....

Creating Authentic Learning Activities in Pharmaceutical Instrumental Analysis: Using the Integrated Laboratory Network for Remote Access to Scientific Instrumentation

Devon A. Cancilla, Scientific Technical Services, Western Washington University
Simon P. Albon, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of British Columbia

The Western Washington University Integrated Laboratory Network (ILN) is an initiative to provide anytime/anyplace access to scientific instrumentation for use in the classroom, laboratory, and research environments. The ILN provides students with greater opportunities to design and conduct real experiments remotely using advanced analytical instrumentation. This paper describes the use...

Creating and Sustaining Effective ALNs

Starr Roxanne Hiltz, Distinguished Professor, Information Systems Department, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Pedagogy, software, and student motivation form an interactive system that either supports the emergence and growth of a vibrant online learning community, or does not. This article briefly reviews some of the research that has been carried out at NJIT and elsewhere over the last 25 years that supports this...

Rogue Community College: Discipline-Specific Online Writing Lab with 24/7 Access and Asynchronous Peer Tutoring

Rogue Community College

Rogue OWL is a unique, multi-discipline, online writing assistance resource, designed to equalize access for all students, across all digital boundaries. Its design and content is flexible and transferable, and it provides a cost-effective vehicle for addressing a variety of needs at multiple institutions. The Rogue OWL is a 24/7 online...

Effective Feedback to the Instructor from Online Homework

Gerd Kortemeyer, Michigan State University
Matthew Hall, Michigan State University
Joyce Parker, Michigan State University
Behrouz Minaei-Bidgoli, Michigan State University
Guy Albertelli II, Michigan State University
Wolfgang Bauer, Michigan State University
Edwin Kashy, Michigan State University

The paper describes different feedback mechanisms available to instructors during the deployment of online formative assessment exercises....

The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Master of Engineering in Professional Practice (MEPP) Program: The Road to Quality Online

Wayne P. Pferdehirt, Dept. of Engineering Professional Development, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Thomas W. Smith, Dept. of Engineering Professional Development, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Karen R. Al-Ashkar, Dept. of Engineering Professional Development, University of Wisconsin-Madison

This case study explores several key design strategies behind the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Master of Engineering in Professional Practice (MEPP) program. Since its full-scale launch in 1999, this demanding graduate engineering degree program has achieved a graduation rate of more than 99% and has received major awards for instructional quality...

Do Online Students Dream of Electric Teachers?

Jason A. Scorza, Fairleigh Dickinson University

This paper represents a rough and ready attempt to describe an approach to online teaching that favors empathy over efficiency in the hope of achieving both....

eArmyU: Expanding Education Access and Excellence to Highly Mobile Online Learners

L. Dian Stoskopf, Director, Army Continuing Education System
Amy Moorash, Education Services Specialist, Army Continuing Education System

eArmyU.com, 2004 winner of two Sloan-C awards—Excellence in Online Teaching and Programming and Effective Practice for Providing Anytime, Anywhere Online Access to Higher Education for a Highly Mobile Learner Population—is the Army’s state-of-the art online education portal. Through eArmyU, Soldiers can earn a postsecondary certificate or an associates, bachelor or...

Supporting Online Adjunct Faculty: A Virtual Mentoring Program

Maria Puzziferro-Schnitzer, Associate Dean, Virtual College, Florida Community College at Jacksonville
Jeff Kissinger, Instructional Program Manager, Virtual College, Florida Community College at Jacksonville

Because of growing demand for online courses, staffing and faculty support issues can become major obstacles to growth and instructional quality. In 2004, Florida Community College at Jacksonville (FCCJ) was awarded an Effective Practices Award at the Sloan-C conference in Orlando, Florida for its Virtual Adjunct Mentoring program. This paper...

Articles

Gender, Voice and Learning in Online Course Environments

David M. Anderson, Department of Educational Leadership and Counseling, Eastern Michigan University
Carol J. Haddad, Department of Interdisciplinary Technology, Eastern Michigan University

A self-selected sample of 109 online students at a midwestern regional university was surveyed and asked to compare expression of voice, control over learning, and perceived deep learning outcomes in face-to-face versus online course environments. We found that females experience greater perceived deep learning in online than in face-to-face courses,...

Online Engineering Education: Learning Anywhere, Anytime

John Bourne, The Sloan Consortium, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Babson College
Dale Harris, The Sloan Consortium, Purdue University
Frank Mayadas, The Sloan Consortium,The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

The emergence of worldwide communications networks and powerful computer technologies has redefined the concept of distance learning and the delivery of engineering education content. This article discusses the Sloan Consortium’s quest for quality, scale, and breadth in online learning, the impact on both continuing education of graduate engineers as well...

Digital Text, Distance Education and Academic Dishonesty: Faculty and Administrator Perceptions and Responses

Kimberly B. Kelley, Ph.D., The Center for Intellectual Property, University of Maryland University College
Kimberly Bonner, J.D.,The Center for Intellectual Property, University of Maryland University College

This study examined administrator and faculty perceptions of the frequency and pervasiveness of student academic dishonesty, including their perceptions of the personal and contextual factors that affect whether a student is likely to engage in any form of academic dishonesty. One important contextual factor examined in this study was the...

The Ebb and Flow of Online Discussions: What Bloom Can Tell Us About Our Students’ Conversations

Katrina A. Meyer, Associate Professor of Higher and Adult Education, The University of Memphis

This study looks at online discussions within the context of a group endeavor and attempts to evaluate three assertions: 1) students in an online discussion proceed through higher levels of thinking; 2) Online conversations follow an “ebb and flow” pattern; 3) The level of the first posting to the discussion...

Roles of Faculty in Teaching Asynchronous Undergraduate Courses

Libby V. Morris, PhD, Associate Professor, Institute of Higher Education, University of Georgia
Haixia Xu, Institute of Higher Education, University of Georgia
Catherine L. Finnegan, EdD, Associate Director, Assessment and Public Information, Advanced Learning Technologies, Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia

Although the availability of web-based education and the number of totally asynchronous courses have grown exponentially in the last decade, the literature on online instruction offers limited empirical guidance to faculty teaching in this environment. Much of the literature is anecdotal and prescriptive, and much more research needs to be...

Questioning the Hybrid Model: Student Outcomes in Different Course Formats

Saxon G. Reasons, EdD, Programming Manager, Instructional Technology Services, University of Southern Indiana
Kevin Valadares, PhD, Assistant Professor of Health Services/Administration, University of Southern Indiana
Michael Slavkin, PhD, Assistant Professor of Education, University of Southern Indiana

Current literature suggests that a hybrid model of distance education supports student learning more effectively than any other format. It also seems likely that the hybrid format can be used in most courses. The purpose of our study was to examine the strength of these assertions. This study examined the...

A Learning Object Success Story

Robin Mason,Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University, UK
Chris Pegler, Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University, UK
Martin Weller, Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University, UK

This paper outlines an approach to designing a course entirely in learning objects. It provides a theoretical basis for the design and then presents evaluation data from a master’s level course using this design. It also describes several re-uses of the learning objects on other courses and in different contexts....

Articles

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...

Articles

Stevens Institute of Technology: WebCampus

Robert N. Ubell Dean, School of Continuing Professional Education, Stevens Institute of Technology

WebCampus.Stevens, recent winner of the Sloan-C Award for Excellence in Institute-Wide Online Teaching and Learning Programming, delivers some 160 courses in six online graduate degrees and 23 graduate certificates. Taught by more than 60 mostly full-time faculty, courses have now enrolled more than 4,000 students in 37 US states and...

Cost-Effective Distributed Learning With Electronic Labs

J. Olin Campbell, Ph.D., Brigham Young University
John R. Bourne, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Professor of Technology Entrepreneurship, Babson College
Pieter J. Mosterman, The MathWorks, Inc.
Mahmood Nahvi, Electrical Engineering Department, Cal Poly State University
Rassa Rassai, Engineering/Electronics, Northern Virginia Community College
Arthur J. Brodersen, Electrical Engineering, Vanderbilt University
Martine Dawant, Director of Technical Operations, The Sloan Consortium

Online learners can study at convenient times and collaborate with others online, but usually can not come to physical labs. We investigated the use of simulated electronics laboratories to increase access and decrease trips to a physical lab. Students were assigned to either physical labs or to a combination of...

Technology is too Important to Leave to Technologists

Jeremy Dunning, Indiana University and Arjuna Multimedia
Richard Rogers and Richard Magjuka, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University
David Waite, Butler University
Keith Kropp and Thomas Gantz, Kendall-Hunt Publishers
Abtar Kaur, Open University Malaysia
Ari Vidali, Envisage
Tom Hunt and Larry Vandermolen, Indiana University

The TALON/nPower learning object suite, developed by Arjuna Multimedia, is a set of 39 repurposeable learning object templates based on styles of teaching and learning that are designed to allow instructors and designers to create substantive learning objects without changing any of the source code. The instructor or designer can...

The Value of Online Learning: Perspectives From the University of Illinois at Springfield

Burks Oakley II, Director, University of Illinois Online

The value of online learning is analyzed from the perspective of the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS). The first type of value (merit, worth) of online learning is discussed, with the conclusion that online learning is of significant value to various constituencies, including students, faculty, the institution, and society....

(My) Three Principles of Effective Online Pedagogy

Bill Pelz, CAS, Professor of Psychology, Herkimer County Community College

As the recipient of the 2003 Sloan-C award for Excellence in Online Teaching, I have been invited to share some of my thoughts regarding effective online pedagogy. I am nothing if not a teacher, and as such, I am honored—both by the recognition that accompanies this wonderful award, and by...

Solving the Laboratory Dilemma in Distance Learning General Chemistry

Dr. Jimmy Reeves, University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Dr. Doris Kimbrough, University of Colorado at Denver

Making a laboratory science course accessible to distance learners requires eliminating certain barriers. This paper describes one semester introductory chemistry courses for science and non-science majors that feature laboratory experiments that students can do at home, using materials readily available from local grocery and hardware stores. Courses using this approach...

The Master of Distance Education Program: A Collaboration Between the University of Maryland University College and Oldenburg University

Eugene Rubin, Associate Vice President, Office of Instructional Development, University of Maryland University College
Ulrich Bernath, Director, Center for Distance Education, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg
Mark Parker, Executive Assistant to the Provost, University of Maryland University College

On November 15, 2003, The Master of Distance Education (MDE) program at the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) received the 2003 Sloan-C award for Most Outstanding Online Teaching and Learning Program. This award was given to the MDE “for an asynchronous, student-centered online graduate program that responds to the...

Experimental Online Case Study for a Breakthrough in Student Engagement: Focus Group Results

James Theroux, Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts
Cari Carpenter, 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 US and Canada. The real-time case presented the story of one company's growth and development throughout a 14-week semester....

Faculty Self-Study Research Project: Examining the Online Workload

Melody M. Thompson, The Pennsylvania State University

Concerns about faculty workload in the online environment are a reported deterrent to participation in online teaching. To date, such concerns have been based primarily on anecdotal evidence rather than empirical research. This paper describes a project in which six faculty members teaching courses through the Penn State World Campus...

UCF’s Exemplary Faculty Support: An Institutionalized Ecosystem

Barbara E. Truman, Director, Course Development & Web Services, University of Central Florida

The University of Central Florida was honored to receive the 2003 Sloan-C Excellence in Online Teaching and Learning Award for Faculty Development. The environment at UCF has doubled in the last ten years with the number of students, faculty, and developing campus locations. Rapid growth in brick and mortar on...

Articles

A Constructivist Method for the Analysis of Networked Cognitive Communication and the Assessment of Collaborative Learning

Milton Campos, Psy.D, Assistant Professor, Département de communication, University of Montreal

This article presents a discourse analysis method designed to study networked cognitive communication processes in knowledge communities, such as conceptual change, higher order learning and knowledge building. The method is grounded on genetic epistemology and integrates constructivist and socio-constructivist theoretical concepts. The sentence (understood as judgment) is chosen as the...

University Instructors' Reflections on their First Online Teaching Experiences

Dianne Conrad, University of New Brunswick

Moving from traditional face-to-face teaching to teaching online can be a precarious process for instructors. In this qualitative study, I interviewed instructors who were engaged in online teaching, for the first time, in a graduate program at a Canadian university. All instructors had some postsecondary face-to-face teaching experience. In-depth interviews...

The Impact of Increasing Enrollment on Faculty Workload and Student Satisfaction Over Time

David DiBiase, John A. Dutton e-Education Institute, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University

Detailed daily records of instructor effort in an established asynchronous online course over a three and one-half year period are analyzed. Student satisfaction data acquired from course evaluation surveys over the same period are also examined. In response to a three-fold increase in enrollment over the period, instructors realized a...

Student Role Adjustment in Online Communities of Inquiry: Model and Instrument Validation

D. Randy Garrison, University of Calgary
Martha Cleveland-Innes, Athabasca University
Dr. Tak Fung, University of Calgary

The purpose of this study is to validate an instrument to study role adjustment of students new to an online community of inquiry. The community of inquiry conceptual model for online learning was used...

Best Online Instructional Practices: Report of Phase I of an Ongoing Study

Morris T. Keeton, Senior Scholar, University of Maryland University College

This study examines how best practices in online instruction are the same as, or different from, best practices in face-to-face (F2F) instruction. The book Effectiveness and Efficiency in Higher Education for Adults ...

Evaluating Online Discussions: Four Different Frames of Analysis

Dr. Katrina A. Meyer, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, University of North Dakota

This study uses four different “frames” to analyze 17 online discussions that occurred in two doctoral-level classes in educational leadership. Two of the frames were developmental models: King and Kitchener’s ...

Taking E-Moderating Skills to the Next Level: Reflecting on the Design of Conferencing Environments

Shelagh M. Ross, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA
Agnes Kukulska-Hulme, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA
Helen Chappel, University of Glasgow, 53 Hillhead Street, Glasgow G12 8QQ
Brian Joyce, Näsilinnankatu 22 A 34, 33210 Tampere, Finland

This paper reports an analysis of computer conference structures set up for a distance education course in which major components of the teaching and learning involve group discussions and collaboration via asynchronous ...

Predicting Learning from Asynchronous Online Discussions

Dezhi Wu, Department of Information Systems, College of Computing Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Starr Roxanne Hiltz, Department of Information Systems, College of Computing Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Online discussions play an important role in student learning. Currently, asynchronous learning courses and some primarily face-to-face courses at New Jersey Institute of Technology require asynchronous online discussions. Does this requirement improve the students’ perceived learning? An exploratory study designed to investigate this issue was conducted in Spring 2002. The...

Articles

Anytime, Anyplace and the Community College: Ten Emerging Insights

Mark David Milliron, Ph.D., President and CEO of League for Innovation in the Community College
Mary Prentice, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Educational Management and Development Department, New Mexico State University

Community colleges are a vital part of the larger higher education community in the United States and increasingly around the world. The more than 1,100 U.S. community colleges—not to mention the hundreds of like institutions internationally—have evolved into dynamic, comprehensive institutions that are often known for their resourcefulness in using...

Using Asynchronous Learning in Redesign: Reaching and Retaining the At-Risk Student

Carol A. Twigg, Executive Director, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Many students who begin postsecondary education drop out before completing a degree. According to the Lumina Foundation, an estimated ...

Mainstreaming Distance Learning Into the Community College

Dr. Linda M. Thor, President, Rio Salado College
Carol Scarafiotti, Dean of Instruction, Rio Salado College

Rio Salado, one of the Maricopa Community Colleges in the Phoenix metropolitan area, has not only carved a market niche as a leading distance learning provider for working adults, but has experienced double-digit growth...

Academic Redesign: Accomplishing More With Less

William H. Graves, Ph.D., Chairman and Founder, Eduprise

Community colleges are under persistent pressure to spend more on technology. In lieu of bolting technology onto essential academic and administrative process at additional net cost, savvy community college leaders are planning ...

If it Ain't Broke, Improve it: Thoughts on Engaging Education for Us All

Steven W. Gilbert, President, The TLT Group

One of the continuing challenges of education is enabling those who strive to improve teaching, learning, and research to take advantage of the too-rapidly-changing new environment created by telecommunications ...

The Orion Project: Connecting a Community

Richard M. Rhodes, Ph.D., President El Paso Community College,
Barbara Walker, Major Account Manager, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Certainly, the computer and the internet have opened up opportunities and stimulated unprecedented growth. However, even after the turn of a new century, the Digital Divide has not yet closed and sectors of people are still excluded from enjoying the opportunities and growth that now exist. El Paso Community College,...

Putting a Little TLC into Learning

Stella A. Perez, Project SAIL Director/Senior Consultant Online Initiatives, League for Innovation in the Community College

The acronym TLC has typically stood for tender loving care. With the influx of technology into the lives of millions, it might appear that TLC is in short supply; however, the League for Innovation...

The Weariness of the Flesh: Reflections on the Life of the Mind in an Era of Abundance

Paul B. Gandel, Vice Provost for Info Svcs & Dean, University Libraries, University of Rhode Island
Richard N. Katz, Vice President, EDUCAUSE

The invention of the printing press reduced higher education’s learning-resource scarcity. Access to learning increased, and this democratization of education indirectly contributed to the idea of political democracy ...

The Road to DotCalm in Education

Mark David Milliron, President and CEO, League for Innovation in the Community College

The DotCom era has educators running faster and faster to keep up with technology that feels more and more elusive. This paper recognizes this chase for what it is—educationally hazardous—and suggests ...

Articles

Network Analysis of Knowledge Construction in Asynchronous Learning Networks

Reuven Aviv, Ph.D., Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Open University of Israel
Zippy Erlich, Ph.D., Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Open University of Israel
Gilad Ravid, M.A., Center for Information Technology in Distance Education, Open University of Israel
Aviva Geva, Ph.D., Department of Economics and Management, Open University of Israel

Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALNs) make the process of collaboration more transparent, because a transcript of conference messages can be used to assess individual roles and contributions and the collaborative process itself. This study considers three aspects of ALNs: the design, the quality of the resulting knowledge construction process; and cohesion,...

Asynchronous Discussion Groups in Teacher Training Classes: Perceptions of Native and Non-Native Students

Sigrun Biesenbach-Lucas, Department of Language and Foreign Studies, American University

This paper discusses students’ perceptions of an asynchronous electronic discussion assignment implemented shortly after the technology had been introduced to the university. In addition to the weekly face-to-face ...

Teaching Courses Online: How Much Time Does it Take?

Belinda Davis Lazarus, University of Michigan-Dearborn

Studies show that temporal factors like workload and lack of release time inhibit faculty participation in developing and teaching online courses; however, few studies exist to gauge the time commitment....

Face-To-Face Versus Threaded Discussions: The Role of Time and Higher-Order Thinking

Dr. Katrina A. Meyer, University of North Dakota

This study compares the experiences of students in face-to-face (in class) discussions with threaded discussions and also evaluates the threaded discussions for evidence of higher-order thinking. Students were enrolled ...

Formal Course Design and the Student Learning Experience

Gary Brown, Director for the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology, Washington State University
Carrie B. Myers, Affiliate Faculty, Department of Education, Montana State University
Sharon Roy, Assistant Director for the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology, Washington State University

What impact does collaboration between faculty and professional course designers have on the student learning experience? As the use of technologies increases, educational institutions have to find ways of identifying...

Emotion and E-Learning

Kerry O’Regan, Learning and Teaching Development Unit, The University of Adelaide

Traditionally, emotion and cognition have been viewed as polar opposites and this view has been incorporated into theories of learning. One reason for this may be a lack of clarity in defining emotion. In fact there are other perspectives on how emotion and cognition, emotion and learning, are related....

Effects of Social Network on Students' Performance: A Web-Based Forum Study in Taiwan

Heng-Li Yang, Professor, Department of Management Information Systems, National Cheng-Chi University
Jih-Hsin Tang, Phd Candidate, Department of Management Information Systems National Cheng-Chi University, Faculty of Management Information Systems, Tak Ming College

This research investigates the effects of social networks on students’ performance in online education which uses networking as an adjunct mode for enhancing traditional face-to-face education or distance education. Using data ...

Articles

Creation of UniSCOPE: A Model for Rewarding All Forms of Scholarship

Elise A. Gurgevich. Outreach and Cooperative Extension, The Pennsylvania State University
Drew Hyman, College of Agricultural Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University
Theodore R. Alter, Outreach and Cooperative Extension, The Pennsylvania State University

On March 24, 1998, a small group of faculty and administrators at the Pennsylvania State University (PSU) formed a learning community to engage in a deliberative dialogue about recognizing and documenting outreach scholarship in the university. We chose UniSCOPE, University Scholarship and Criteria for Outreach and Performance Evaluation, as the...

A Cost-Effective Model for Teaching Elementary Statistics With Improved Student Performance

William L. Harkness, Professor, Department of Statistics, Penn State University
Jill L. Lane, Research Associate/Program Manager, Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, Penn State University
John T. Harwood, Senior Director, Teaching and Learning with Technology, Penn State University

Dissatisfaction with teaching a high enrollment introductory statistics course led to efforts to restructure the course to remedy the perceived problems, including lack of student participation, an excessive drain on departmental resources, failure to take into account wide differences in student learning styles, an inability of students to apply statistics...

Differences in Learning Outcomes for the Online and F2F Versions of "An Introduction to Shakespeare"

Mary Ann Koory, Ph.D., University of California Berkeley Extension Online

The same course in both an online and on-campus environment makes for an extended experimental comparison of learning outcomes, while controlling for two important variables: the instructor and the content of the course Students learn course content through four kinds of encounters—alone, one-to-one, one-to many, and many-to many. The online version...

Pace University's Focus on Student Satisfaction with Student Services in Online Education

Dr. David Sachs, School of Computer Science & Information Systems, Pace University
Professor Nancy Hale, School of Computer Science & Information Systems, Pace University

In 1999, Pace University was awarded a $1,000,000, three-year FIPSE Learning Anytime Anywhere Program (LAAP) Grant. The grant focuses on three areas: online testing, enhanced student support services, and mentoring....

The Wizards Program at Mercy College

Boria Sax, Ph.D., Director of Online Academic Services, Mercy College

Mercy College has encouraged students to take a more active role in their education through the use of online teaching assistants or “course wizards.” The duties of wizards include tutoring...

A Three-Prong Strategic Approach to Successful Distance Learning Delivery

Carol Scarafiotti, Dean of Instruction, Rio Salado College

Rio Salado College, headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, is nationally recognized as a role model for innovation and excellence in online education and as the “college of choice” for adults who...

Blogging Online Learning News and Research

Ray Schroeder, Professor Emeritus and Director of Technology-Enhanced Learning, University of Illinois at Springfield

Those in the field of ALN are confronted with the challenge of keeping up with the rapidly evolving processes, technologies, environments and current findings of the field. As director of...

A Follow-Up Investigation of "Teaching Presence" in the SUNY Learning Network

Peter J. Shea, State University of New York, SUNY Learning Network
Alexandra M. Pickett, State University of New York, SUNY Learning Network
William E. Pelz, State University of New York, SUNY Learning Network

This paper is a follow-up study to a preliminary investigation of teaching presence in the State University of New York Learning Network (SLN) [1]. In the present study we review...

The Illinois Online Network is Making the Virtual Classroom a Reality: Study of an Exemplary Faculty Development Program

Michael Lindeman, Computer Assisted Instruction Specialist, Illinois Online Network, University of Illinois
Iris K. Stovall, Director, Illinois Online Network, University of Illinois

The Illinois Online Network (ION) is a faculty development partnership between all forty-eight community colleges in the state of Illinois and the University of Illinois. The goals of the ION program are to help faculty to develop and deliver courses in a completely online format, and also to produce online...

A Web-Based Core Curriculum to Meet Certification and Training Needs for Medical Residents

Joseph W. York, PhD, Department of Medical Education, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine
Gerald Stapleton, MS, Department of Medical Education, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine
Leslie J. Sandlow, MD, Department of Medical Education, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine

To meet institutional requirements for resident education in a core curriculum, the UIC College of Medicine implemented an online educational program called the UIC Online Core Curriculum. The UIC residency is composed of 1,000 physicians in training in 60 programs at 18 training sites. Its size and distribution create substantial...

Articles

Considerations For Developing Evaluations of Online Courses

Sue D. Achtemeier, Assistant Director for Institutional Research, University of Georgia
Libby V. Morris, Associate Professor, Institute Of Higher Education, University of Georgia
Catherine L. Finnegan, Associate Director, Assessment and Public Information, Advanced Learning Technologies, Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia

Exploration of how to assure effective teaching and learning online is extremely important and timely as many institutions seek to maximize the educational benefits from this constantly developing technology. This study categorizes principles gathered from an extensive review of the literature focusing on current best practices for effective teaching and...

Dominant or Different? Gender Issues in Computer Supported Learning

Cathy Gunn, School of Education, University of Auckland
Mae McSporran, Unitec Institute of Technology, New Zealand
Hamish Macleod, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Sheila French, Manchester Metropolitan University, England

A significant increase in the use of computer supported learning (CSL) within schools and universities across the world gives rise to concern about gender-related differences in performance and interaction style ...

Influence of Non-Moderated and Moderated Discussion Sites on Student Success

Deborah A. Kashy, Department of Psychology, Michigan State University
Guy Albertelli II, College of Natural Science, Michigan State University
W. Bauer, E. Kashy, M. Thoennessen, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University

One of the most successful applications of networked technology in education has been the development of individualized homework assignments. Such assignments provide immediate feedback to students and discourage copying. However, networked technology also allows students to develop sophisticated schemes designed to beat the system. This paper, supported in part by...

Does One Size Fit All? Exploring Asynchronous Learning in a Multicultural Environment

Ken Morse, PhD, Waikato Management School, New Zealand

Computer-mediated classrooms coupled with heightened emphasis on removing geographic limitations have led to growing dependence on asynchronous learning networks as a delivery medium. An increasingly robust body of ...

Asynchronous Discussion in Support of Medical Education

Martin Oliver, Department of Education and Professional Development, University College London, England
Graham P. Shaw Barry, University School of Natural and Health Sciences and School of Graduate Medical Sciences

Although the potential of asynchronous discussion to support learning is widely recognized, student engagement remains problematic. Often, for example, students simply refuse to participate. Consequently the rich ...

Examining Social Presence in Online Courses in Relation to Students' Percieved Learning and Satisfaction

Jennifer C. Richardson, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Educational Technology, Purdue University
Karen Swan, Ph.D., Research Center for Educational Technology, Kent State University

Research has demonstrated that social presence not only affects outcomes but also student, and possibly instructor, satisfaction with a course. Teacher immediacy behaviors and the presence of others are especially important issues for those involved in delivering online education. This study explored the role of social presence in online learning...

Articles

Access to Opportunity: The Duke-East Carolina Partnerships for Training Program

Mary T. Champagne RN, Ph.D., Duke University School of Nursing
Donna Hewitt, RN, MN, Duke University Medical Center
Nancy Short, RN, MBA, Duke University Medical Center
Susan Pietrangelo-Brown, RN, MSN, FNP, Duke University Medical Center
Susan Epstein, MPA, Duke University Medical Center
Margaret Bowers, RN, MSN, FNP, Duke University Medical Center

Duke University and East Carolina University through their Schools of Nursing and Physician Assistant Programs are in the third year of the Partnerships for Training Program (PFT). The goal of PFT is to prepare primary care providers to increase access to care in medically underserved and health professional shortage areas....

Is "As Good as Face-to-Face" As Good As It Gets?

Jeannette McDonald, DVM, PhD, Director of WisTREC, University of Wisconsin-Madison

We are constantly being asked to compare distance education to traditional education. But by striving to make distance education “as good as” face-to-face education what are we overlooking or sacrificing? In this paper we explore these issues by first reviewing background...

Cost, Access, and Quality in Online Nursing and Allied Health Professions

Tracy Wright, Department of Practical Nursing Northwest Technical College,
Linda Thompson, Department of Distance Education, Northwest Technical College

Northwest Technical College researched, planned for, and has successfully implemented a unique delivery of its Practical Nursing Program through the use of Internet technology. This Distance Practical Nursing exploratory paper presents a historical overview of the program, assesses job market ...

Healthcare Education: Preliminary Findings

Joseph W. York, MS, MBA, Assistant to the Head, Department of Medical Education, University of Illinois at Chicago

The Master of Health Professions Education degree offered by the University of Illinois’ College of Medicine recently added an online track to its traditional in class format. The objective is to make the course available to healthcare professionals who might not...

Articles

How do Online Students Differ from Lecture Students?

John Dutton, College of Management, North Carolina State University
Marilyn Dutton, School of Business, North Carolina Central University
Jo Perry, TogetherSoft Corporation,

This study has two primary objectives. First, we want to know how students who enroll in online classes differ from their peers in traditional lecture classes. Our second objective involves both exploring what factors influence performance among online students, as well as whether those factors differ for online and lecture...

Beyond Student Perceptions: Issues of Interaction, Presence, and Performance in an Online Course

Anthony G. Picciano, Professor, School of Education, Hunter College of the City University of New York

The research literature on Web-based learning supports the assumption that interaction is important for a successful course, yet questions exist regarding the nature and extent of the interaction and its effects on student performance. Much of the research is based on student perceptions of the quality and quantity of their...

A Preliminary Look at the Structural Differences of Higher Education Classroom Communities in Traditional and ALN Courses

A. Alfred P. Rovai, Ph.D., School of Education, Regent University

This preliminary study again provides evidence that it is the method and not the media that matters the most in learning effectiveness. The present work examines classroom community in order to determine how sense of community differs between students enrolled in...

Dimensions and Strategies for Online Success: Voices from Experienced Educators

Lynne Schrum, Ph.D. , University of Georgia
Sunjoo Hong, Graduate Student, Department of Instructional Technology, University of Georgia

Online learning has become a popular method of education. Faculty members may know little about how to assist students in succeeding in a new learning environment, and students may be ill-prepared to tackle the new demands put upon them. Therefore, this...

The Impact on Learning of an Asynchronous Active Learning Course Format

J. David Spiceland, Professor of Accounting, The University of Memphis
Charlene P. Hawkins, Tax Analyst, International Paper Corporation

Among the many differences between asynchronous interactions and traditional classroom communication, the most critical differences involve those that may affect a student’s ability to learn. The efficacy of courses in facilitating instruction and learning is a key concern of all educators...

The Anatomy of a Distance Education Course: A Case Study Analysis

Kay E. Vandergrift, Information and Library Studies, Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey

This case study of a distance education course in children’s literature focuses on the creation of an interpretive community and the importance of that community in online learning. It also refines Michael G. Moore’s work on transactional distance to include the...

Articles

Assessing Teacher Presence in a Computer Conferencing Context

Terry Anderson, Professor and Canadian Research Chair in Distance Education, Athabasca University
Liam Rourke, University of Alberta
D. Randy Garrison, University of Alberta
Walter Archer, University of Alberta

This paper presents a tool developed for the purpose of assessing teaching presence in online courses that make use of computer conferencing, and preliminary results from the use of this tool. The method of analysis is based on Garrison, Anderson, and Archer's [1] model of critical thinking and practical inquiry...

The Process of Community-Building in Distance Learning Classes

Dr. Ruth E. Brown, University of Nebraska at Kearney

The purpose of this study was to develop a theory about the process through which community formed in adult computer-mediated asynchronous distance learning classes. A grounded theory design incorporated ...

The Post-Secondary Networked Classroom: Renewal of Teaching Practices and Social Interaction

Milton Campos, Assistant Professor Département de communication, Faculté des arts et des sciences, Université de Montréal
Thérèse Laferrière, Professor Département d’études sur l’enseignement et l’apprentissage, Faculté des sciences de l'éducation Université Laval, Ste-Foy,
Linda Harasim, Professor School of communications, Simon Fraser University

The application and use of telelearning technologies in post-secondary education is evolving from peripheral activities to central approaches. Educators are re-discovering collaborative education as they understand how electronic conferencing can support and empower teaching and learning. As students...

Connecting Graduate Students to Virtual Guests Through Asynchronous Discussions- Analysis of an Experience

D. Siva Kumari, Ed. D., Assistant Dean and Director of Programs, School of Continuing Studies, MS 550, Rice University

Information technologies provide unique opportunities for higher education faculty to rethink the resources that are available to re-envision their pedagogical techniques. One such promise is the ability of the faculty member to invite virtual guest speakers or experts into the graduate...

Inside Online Learning: Comparing Conceptual and Technique Learning Performance in Place-Based and ALN Formats

Drew Parker, Faculty of Business Administration, Simon Fraser University
Andrew Gemino, Assistant Professor of Information Technology, Simon Fraser University

Online learning is coming of age. 'Traditional' universities are embracing online components to courses, online courses, and even complete online programs. With the advantage of distance and time insensitivity for the ...

The Costs and Costing of Networked Learning

Greville Rumble, Professor of Distance Education Management, The Open University, UK

The development of networked learning and the increasing development of online courses by both traditional and distance education institutions has raised many questions concerning the costs of online learning relative to both face-to-face teaching and other approaches to distance education. ...

Standardized Frameworks for Distributed Learning

Shimon Schocken, The Interdisciplinary Center

Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN) are often described as "any place, any time" environments for learning [1]. In order for such environments to become feasible and popular on a large scale, they must be based on a public market architecture that is...

Identifying Student Attitudes and Learning Styles in Distance Education

Annette Valenta, Associate Professor and Assistant Director for Academic Programs for the School of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago
David Therriault Doctoral candidate in the Psychology Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago
Michael Dieter, Faculty member of UIC's School of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences, School of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago
Robert Mrtek, Professor of Medical Education at the UIC College of Medicine in Chicago, Department of Medical Education, University of Illinois at Chicago

As universities and businesses move toward the use of online education and training, there is need to discover how to make this alternative both more attractive and viable for different populations. Our research efforts examined the cluster of opinions held by...

A Design Framework for Electronic Cognitive Apprenticeship

Feng-Kwei Wang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor School of Information Science and Learning Technologies, University of Missouri - Columbia
Curtis J. Bonk, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology, School of Education, Indiana University - Bloomington,

This paper proposes a design framework for constructing a groupware-based learning environment (GBLE) that enables electronic cognitive apprenticeship. The central theme of this framework is that any design of a GBLE must have learning theories as foundations to substantiate the learning...

Articles

Stretching the Boundaries: Using ALN to Reach On-Campus Students During an Off-Campus Summer Session

X. Christine Wang,National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
Alaina Kanfer,National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
D. Michelle Hinn, Technology Research Group, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
Lanny Arvan, College of Commerce & Business Administration, UIUC

In this article we study an innovative use of asynchronous learning networks (ALN) to stretch the boundaries of the traditional university campus. An ALN was used to allow traditional on-campus students to take a required course, ECON 300: Intermediate Microeconomic Theory, during summer session while they were off campus, working summer...

Exploring Collaborative Online Learning

David D. Curtis, Flinders University of South Australia
Michael J. Lawson, Flinders University of South Australia

An investigation was carried out to determine the extent to which evidence of collaborative learning could be identified in students' textual interactions in an online learning environment. The literature on collaborative learning has identified a range of behaviors that characterize successful collaborative learning in face-to-face situations. Evidence of these behaviors...

A Constructivist Approach to Online Training for Online Teachers

Dr. Sanford Gold

This article examines the pedagogical role of the teacher in online education. Specifically, the transition from in-class room instruction to online instruction is a complex one involving specialized training in the technical aspects of delivering quality educational materials (or environments) to the students, and specialized training in how to foster...

Development and Evaluation of a Framework for Creating Web-Based Learning Modules: A Pedagogical and Systems Perspective

Thomas Janicki, University of North Carolina - Wilmington
Jens O. Liegle, Georgia State University

Educational content on the Internet is rapidly increasing. Educational institutions and businesses are placing more course material online to supplement classroom and business training situations. Prior ...

Lectures on Demand in ALN: Enhancing the Online Learning Experience

H.A. Latchman, Electrical and Engineering Department, University of Florida
Sheryl M. Latchman, Qualitech Computer Services

It is now well known that asynchronous learning networks (ALNs) provide effective mechanisms for facilitating interaction within learning communities in which the learners are separated by distance or ...

Virtual Writing Forum with Don Murray and the National Writing Project in an Asynchronous Environment

Joan Taylor, University of Nevada - Reno

This study evaluated the level of participation and perceptions of effectiveness and value among participants in a virtual forum interacting with one another and with Donald Murray, a noted mentor in writing instruction. National Writing Project teacher consultants were invited to participate in a two-week interactive session using Caucus®, a...

Testimony to the Kerrey Commission on Web-Based Education

Frank Mayadas, Program Director, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

My name is Frank Mayadas; I am a Program Director with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Since late 1992, before there even was a commercial internet, the Foundation has had a program in what is now called online learning, through which we have provided over $35 million in grant support...

Sheffield Lecture- Yale University, January 11, 2000, Internet Learning: Is it Real and What Does it Mean for Universities?

Ralph E. Gomory, President, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

My interest in learning over networks dates back to 1989. In 1989 there was no commercial Internet. It was hard to get people interested in learning over networks or to even to understand what learning over networks meant or could mean. Fortunately, in 1992 I was joined at the Sloan...

Articles

Faculty Satisfaction in ALNs: A Dependent or Independent Variable

Joel Hartman, University of Central Florida
Charles Dziuban, University of Central Florida
Patsy Moskal, University of Central Florida

The authors describe relationships among infrastructure, student outcomes, and faculty satisfaction at the University of Central Florida (UCF). The model focuses on a developmental process that progresses from courses with some Web presence to those that are driven by ALN. Faculty receive support for on-line teaching in the form of...

Instructor Satisfaction in University of California Extension's On-line Writing Curriculum

Mary Beth Almeda, University of California Extension
Kathleen Rose, University of California Extension

This article describes instructor satisfaction in 14 on-line courses in freshman-level composition and literature, business writing, and English as a Second Language offered in the University of California...

Instructor Attitudes within the SCALE Efficiency Projects

Lanny Arvan, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Diane Musumeci, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

This paper presents the results of interviews with the principal investigators of the current Sloan Center for Asynchronous Learning Environments (SCALE) Efficiency Projects. There are six such projects: Spanish, Microbiology, Economics, Math, Chemistry, and Physics. The paper reviews each project individually, summarizes the results, and then discusses some common lessons...

ALN Teaching as Routine Faculty Workload

Gregory Hislop, Drexel University
Michael Atwood, Drexel University

If the current growth in on-line education continues, teaching on-line will become part of routine faculty workload at many traditional, research-oriented universities. This is...

Implementing a Large On-Campus ALN: Faculty Perspective

Edwin Kashy, Michigan State University
Michael Thoennessen, Michigan State University
Guy Albertelli II, Michigan State University
Yihjia Tsai, Michigan State University

This case study describes the implementation and continued operation of a large on-campus ALN for a 500-student course in introductory physics. The ALN was used to modify and complement the original course and thus represents an evolution rather than a revolution. A highly positive impact on student success rates was...

Factors Influencing Faculty Satisfaction with Asynchronous Teaching and Learning in the SUNY Learning Network

Eric Fredericksen, State University of New York
Alexandra Pickett, State University of New York
Peter Shea, State University of New York
William Pelz, Herkimer County Community College
Karen Swan, University of Albany

"...100% of faculty reported that they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the SUNY Learning Network." ...

Introducing the Penn State World Campus through Certificate Programs in Turfgrass Management and Geographic Information Systems

Alfred Turgeon, The Pennsylvania State University
David Di Biase, The Pennsylvania State University
Gary Miller, The Pennsylvania State University

This paper describes two of the distance educational programs-Turfgrass Management and Geographic Information Systems-offered through the Penn State World Campus during its first year of operation in 1998....

Articles

Student Satisfaction and Perceived Learning with On-line Courses: Principles and Examples from the SUNY Learning Network

Eric Fredericksen, State University of New York
Alexandra Pickett, State University of New York
Peter Shea, State University of New York
William Pelz, Herkimer County Community College
Karen Swan, University of Albany

The State University of New York (SUNY) Learning Network (SLN) is the on-line instructional program created for the 64 colleges and nearly 400,000 students of the SUNY. The foundation of the program is freedom from schedule and location constraints for our faculty and students. The primary goals are to bring...

On-line Education to Develop Complex Reasoning Skills in Organic Chemistry

Patricia Shapley, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Chemistry 331 is an upper level organic chemistry course for students interested in health related careers with an enrollment of approximately 150 students per semester. It assumes that...

Educational Performance of ALN via Content Analysis

Reuven Aviv, Open University of Israel

Learning in an ALN mode is modeled by a set of educational processes. The group is modeled by an abstract entity that provides services to the learners via...

Working Professionals as Part-time On-line Learners

Gregory Hislop, Drexel University

This paper discusses a completely on-line graduate professional degree program at Drexel University. The paper provides an overview of the on-line initiative, including background, program development, and a description of the on-line environment. Following this, the paper contains a discussion of results of the degree program and proposes some characterizations...

The University of Wisconsin-Stout Asynchronous Learning Network Case Study Options: Using Technology to Remove Learning Barriers

Joseph Holland, University of Wisconsin-Stout

The University of Wisconsin-Stout Asynchronous Learning Network (ALN) project, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, represents an effort to expand the boundaries of the traditional campus. The...

Measuring the Importance of Collaborative Learning for the Effectiveness of ALN: A Multi-Measure, Multi-Method Approach

Starr Roxanne Hiltz, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Nancy Coppola, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Naomi Rotter, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Murray Turoff, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Raquel Benbunan-Fich, Seton Hall University

Are there any differences in outcomes between traditional classroom-based university courses and courses delivered via ALN, which feature extensive on-line interaction among students? Under what conditions are...

Integrating ALN into an Independent Study Distance Education Program: NVCC Case Studies

John Sener, Northern Virginia Community College
Mary Liana Stover, University of Maryland University College

This paper describes eight ALN courses developed under various Sloan Foundation-funded degree program initiatives at Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) Extended Learning Institute (ELI). These chemistry, engineering, mathematics, ...

Articles

Enabling Curriculum Re-design Through Asynchronous Learning Networks

Alan Staley, Head of Research, University of Central England
Niall MacKenzie, Research Fellow, University of Central England

This paper considers existing processes in Higher Education and the opportunity for using Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALNs) to re-design the curriculum. A curriculum model based upon experiential learning, that explicitly links theory and practice, is promoted as the basis for considering the application of technology. The Computer Supported Experiential Learning...

Faculty Participation in Asynchronous Learning Networks: A Case Study of Motivating and Inhibiting Factors

Catherine C. Schifter, College of Education, Temple University

This case presents and compares the top five motivating and inhibiting factors for faculty participation in Asynchronous Learning Networks (ANL) or distance education (DE) as reported by faculty participators and non-participators, and administrators. While faculty and administrators agreed strongly on what inhibits faculty from participating in ALN/DE programs, there were...

Learning Styles and Asynchronous Learning: Comparing the LASSI Model to Class Performance

Kenneth D. Loomis, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire

This study investigated the relationship between students' individual study and learning styles with their performances in an online Research Methods class. At the beginning of the semester the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) measured each student's study and learning styles on ten scales. The students' LASSI scores were later...

Measuring Learning Effectiveness: A New Look at No-Significant-Difference Findings

Ernest H. Joy II, Ph.D., Florida Institute of Technology
Federico E. Garcia, Ph.D., Center for Naval Analyses

Researchers, instructional designers and consumers of ALNs must be cautious when interpreting results of media comparison studies. Much of the literature purports to have found no significant difference in learning effectiveness between technology-based and conventional delivery media. This research, though, is largely flawed. In this paper, we first outline the...

The Use of Asynchronous Learning Networks in Nutrition Education: Student Attitude, Experiences and Performance

Graham Paul Shaw, The Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Californian College of Podiatric Medicine
Willy Pieter, Department of Physical Education, University of Asia and the Pacific

In this study a change in teaching strategy to involve a greater emphasis on asynchronous learning networks (ALNs) was implemented and the views of students (n=51) to this change were evaluated through responses to an online questionnaire. In response to Likert-type questions the majority of students demonstrated a positive view...

Online professional education: A case study of an MBA program through its transition to an online model

Lynne Schrum, Associate Professor, The University of Georgia
Angela Benson, Graduate Research Assistant, The University of Georgia

Recently a large corporation joined with a large southeastern university's College of Business MBA program to create a distance MBA program uniquely suited to the corporation's high level workers' needs to obtain the degree while they continue working. This corporation invested significantly in the design and development of this...

Early Patterns of Faculty Compensation for Developing and Teaching Distance Learning Courses

Gary A. Berg, Claremont Graduate University

This paper is an investigation into compensation practices for faculty developing and teaching distance learning courses. The research divides itself into two basic lines of inquiry: direct and indirect compensation (including royalties, training, and professional recognition). Also, economic models for distance learning are examined with a view...

Articles

Intelligent Agents for Online Learning

Choonhapong Thaiupathump,Ph.D., Instructor, Computer Science Department, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University
John Bourne, Ph.D., Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University
J. Olin Campbell, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Brigham Young University
The ALN Center, Vanderbilt University

This research investigated the effects of applying intelligent agent techniques to an online learning environment. The knowbots (or Knowledge Robots) created for the research were intelligent software agents that automated the repetitive tasks of human facilitators in a series of online workshops. The study specifically captured experimental results of using...

Copyright Dot Com: The Digital Millennium in Copyright

Dr. Robert N. Diotalevi, Esq., LL.M., Director of Legal Studies, The College of West Virginia

With advanced technology come new legal issues. The age of information has given rise to greater concerns about copyright legalities. As new interpretations emerge from Congress as well as the courts, these thorny matters will be at the forefront. Copyright law ultimately affects anyone interested in higher education. Today the Internet,...

Keeping Online Asynchronous Discussion on Topic

Bart P. Beaudin, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Adult Education, Colorado State University

The purpose of this research was to identify various techniques recommended and used by online instructors for keeping online learners on topic during asynchronous discussion and to identify what factors affected selection. A thirty-seven item online questionnaire was developed and completed by 135 online instructors subscribing to an international...

Using ALNs to Support a Complete Educational Experience

Melody M. Thompson, D.Ed., Assistant Director, Penn State World Campus
Jean W. McGrath, M.Ed., Director of Student Services, Penn State World Campus

The most obvious factor influencing students’ satisfaction with distance learning is convenience of access. While ALNs clearly can provide convenient access to educational content, how do they measure up in terms of access to the broader range of elements that make up a "complete" educational experience? Within traditional education, a complete...

Design of Net-learning System Based on Experiential Learning

Juan R. Pimentel, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Kettering University

The theory of experiential learning is briefly reviewed and a model of the learning process is presented. The paper then discusses and characterizes a virtual learning environment and its relationship to experiential learning and learning styles. An approach for designing virtual learning environments is presented taking into account the technology...

Successful Online Teaching Using An Asynchronous Learner Discussion Forum

Mark H. Rossman, Ed.D., Capella University

At Capella University online courses are offered using an asynchronous learner discussion forum. At the conclusion of each course, learners are requested to complete and electronically submit a course evaluation form. A document analysis of more than 3000 course evaluations from 154 courses conducted during the past 11 quarters was conducted....

The Effects of Internet-Based Instruction on Student Learning

Dr. Scott B. Wegner, Associate Professor, Southwest Missouri State University
Dr. Ken C. Holloway, Assistant Professor, Southwest Missouri State University
Edwin M. Garton, Graduate Student, Southwest Missouri State University

The practice of using technology to deliver coursework in higher education has seen a veritable explosion. The use of technology has not only created new opportunities within the traditional classroom but has also served to expand learning experiences beyond the popular notion of "classroom." Indeed, "distance learning," especially utilization of...

Articles

Institutional Policy for ALN

Dale A. Harris, Stanford University
Andy DiPaolo, Stanford University

For the past five years, Stanford has been involved in developing the capability to offer courses to remote learners over the Internet. This has evolved into a robust operation, which over the past year has offered 180 courses to approximately 4000 distance learners. More recently, the Department of Electrical Engineering...

Understanding the 'Electronic' Student: Analysis of Functional Requirements for Distributed Education

Linda Carswell, The Open University, UK
Pete Thomas, The Open University, UK
Marian Petre, The Open University, UK
Blaine Price, The Open University, UK
Mike Richards, The Open University, UK

This paper describes how the Open University, as a large distance education institution, has used the Internet to transform the learning environment for distance students. We review the process involved in understanding the requirements of distance education students and how they can be supported via the Internet. We describe the...

Beyond Models: Developing a University Strategy for Online Instruction

Ian C. Reid, Coordinator: Online Services, Flexible Learning Centre

Universities are being pressured from a range of forces to move into delivery of courses via online methods. While the literature is replete with promises for the use of information technology (IT) in the teaching and learning environment of higher education institutions, it is difficult for those institutions to take...

Implementing Computer Mediated Communication in an Undergraduate Course - A Practical Experience

Mary Graham,Lecturer, School of Economics, Deakin University
Helen Scarborough, Lecturer, School of Economics, Deakin University
Christine Goodwin, Computer Mediated Communication Coordinator, Deakin University

Computer mediated communication (CMC) is used to foster a collaborative learning environment in a number of courses within the Faculty of Business and Law at Deakin University. This paper examines how this technology has been implemented at the undergraduate level in the School of Economics and some key issues arising...

Asynchronous Learning Networks for Knowledge Workforce Learning

Richard H. Lytle, Director, Oregon Master of Software Engineering, Oregon College of Engineering & Computer Science, Oregon University

Improved workforce learning is imperative for individual knowledge workers, for companies that depend on knowledge workers, and for the U.S. economy. Meeting this need requires innovative, restructured education, and training organizations; integrated knowledge drawn from currently isolated sources; and widespread replacement...

Articles

Developing an Asynchronous Course Model at a Large, Urban University

Anthony G. Picciano, Professor, Division of Programs in Education, Department of Curriculum and Teaching, Hunter College of the City University of New York

In Spring 1997, Hunter College offered the first asynchronous learning course in the City University of New York (CUNY), the largest urban university system in the United States enrolling 200,000 students in undergraduate and graduate programs. This graduate course, entitled Administration and Supervision of the Public Schools - The Principalship,...

Two Cheers and a Pint of Worry: An On-Line Course in Political and Social Philosophy

Eugene F. Heath, Department of Philosophy, State Univiversity of New York (SUNY)

Reprinted in the JALN with permission of the Teaching Philosophy; the original article appears in the Teaching Philosophy, Volume 20, 1997: Two Cheers and a Pint of Worry: On-Line Course in Political and Social Philosophy, Eugene Heath, at New Paltz During the past decade there have been numerous efforts to reinvigorate...

The Social Dimension of Asynchronous Learning Networks

Rupert Wegerif, Centre for Language and Communication, School of Education, The Open University

This paper argues that the social dimension is important to effectiveness of Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALNs) and needs to be taken into account in the design of courses. Evidence from an ethnographic study of the Teaching and Learning Online (TLO) course offered by the Institute of Education Technology at the...

Libraries Address The Challenges Of Asynchronous Learning

Joanne Eustis, Director, Planning and Program Review, Information Systems, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Gail McMillan, Director, Scholarly Communications Project, University Libraries, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

As asynchronous learning becomes the norm throughout academia, changes are taking place in campus information systems. Academic libraries, as the entity responsible for serving the information needs of the university, have little choice but to change dramatically. In fact, academic libraries...

Higher Education in an Era of Digital Competition: Emerging Organizational Models

Donald E. Hanna, Ph.D., Professor of Educational Communications, University of Wisconsin-Extension

Growing demand among learners for improved accessibility and convenience, lower costs, and direct application of content to work settings is radically changing the environment for higher education in the United States and globally. In this rapidly changing environment, which is increasingly based within the context of a global, knowledge-based economy,...

Articles

Requirements-Driven ALN Course Design, Development, Delivery & Evaluation

Stephen J. Andriole, CIGNA

The best path to effective asynchronous learning network (ALN)-based course design, delivery and evaluation is through a requirements-driven methodology that recognizes the uniqueness of ALN-based learning. The methodology calls for the identification of purposeful and functional requirements, the identification of pre-course, early-course, mid-course and end-course activities, course "packaging" and prototyping,...

Paradigms for On-Line Learning: A Case Study in the Design and Implementation of an Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN) Course

John R. Bourne, Vanderbilt University
Eric McMaster, Vanderbilt University
Jennifer Rieger, Vanderbilt University
J. Olin Campbell, Vanderbilt University

This paper examines paradigms used in on-line learning, with a specific emphasis on how to effectively employ asynchronous learning networks for delivery of on-line courses. Recent progress in ALNs is presented, methodologies for getting started in creating an ALN course given,...

The Future of the University in an Age of Knowledge

James J. Duderstadt, President Emeritus and University Professor of Science and Engineering, The University of Michigan

We have entered an age of knowledge in which educated people and their ideas, facilitated and augmented by rapidly evolving information technology, have become not only key to our social well-being but a driving force for great change in all social...

Impacts of college-level courses via Asynchronous Learning Networks: Some Preliminary Results

Starr Roxanne Hiltz, Department of Computer and Information Science (CIS), New Jersey Institute of Technology

New Jersey Institute of Technology has been delivering college courses via an Asynchronous Learning Network (ALN) system called the Virtual ClassroomTM for a decade, using various media mixes. Currently, two complete undergraduate degree programs are available via a mix of video plus Virtual Classroom, the B.A. in Information Systems and...

The Efficiency of Telelearning

Jef Moonen, Faculty of Educational Science and Technology, University of Twente

Telelearning relates to "making connections among people and resources, via communication technologies, for learning-related purposes". Telelearning as a general term includes asynchronous learning activities; in all cases efficiency is an important construct. Efficiency is defined as the relation between costs and effects/quality. An educational system is said to be "efficient"...

CyberProfTM- An Intelligent Human-Computer Interface for Interactive Instruction on the World Wide Web

Deanna M. Raineri, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Bradley G. Mehrtens, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Alfred W. Hubler, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Advances in computer technology and the human-computer interface have created a wealth of new opportunities for the development of computer-based instruction and intelligent tutoring systems. Unfortunately, much of the material currently available amounts to little more than "electronic books" in which learning is still accomplished by reading...

Articles

The Economics of ALN: Some Issues

Lanny Arvan, Associate Professor of Economics, Associate Director, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

This paper examines the social cost of ALN. This social cost is considered from several vantage points. First, student time is identified as the primary input in instruction. This time investment is not forthcoming automatically - several incentive problems must be resolved to elicit it. The resolution of these incentive...

A Model for On-Line Learning Networks in Engineering Education

J. R. Bourne Ph.D, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Professor of Management of Technology, Vanderbilt University
J. Brodersen, Ph.D , Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Vanderbilt University
J. O. Campbell, Ph.D , Research Associate Professor of Engineering Education, Vanderbilt University
M. M. Dawant, M.S., Research Instructor of Electrical Engineering, Vanderbilt University
R. G. Shiavi, Ph.D, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University

Reprinted in the JALN with permission of the American Society of Engineering Education; the original article appears in the Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 85, No 3: A Model for On-Line Learning...

"Free Trade" in Higher Education: The Meta University

William H. Graves, Chief Information Officer (interim), Information Technology Services, University of North Carolina

The Internet can be a tool for increasing access to education while also maintaining or improving the quality of students'learning. But if information technology is "onto" existing programs,instructional costs increase. Instead, higher...

Writing Across the Curriculum Encounters Asynchronous Learning Networks or WAC Meets Up With ALN

Gail E. Hawisher, Department of English, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Michael A. Pemberton, Department of English, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

This paper illustrates some of the problems and successes that the authors encountered while integrating ALN into a writing across the curriculum program and an online writing lab at a large research university. Using transcripts from ALN class discussions, the authors examine students’ networked interactions and analyze the classes’ responses...

Asynchronous Learning Networks: A Sloan Foundation Perspective

Frank Mayadas, Program Officer, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

This paper is based on a chapter in THE LEARNING REVOLUTION, the challenge of Information Technology in Academia (Diana G.Oblinger and Sean C. Rush, eds.), to be published this year by Anker Publishing Co., Boston, Mass. Over the years small numbers of motivated individuals have studied by themselves, away from university...

Gender Similarity in the Use of and Attitudes About ALN in a University Setting

John C. Ory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Cheryl Bullock, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Kristine Burnaska, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

This paper presents the results of an investigation of male and female student use of and attitudes about ALN after one year of implementation in a university setting. Results of the study revealed no significant gender differences....

Costs for the Development of a Virtual University

Murray Turoff, Distinguished Professor of Computer and Information Science, New Jersey Institute of Technology

This paper is an update of one that the author published in 1982. It deals with the costs and effort required to set up a first class academic program for 2000 students that is made up of students and faculty scattered around the world. The establishment of such a University...