Summary:
Swan's paper reported the results of a 37 course study in New York about student satisfaction with and perceived learning in asynchronous courses. She couched her study within the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model (see depiction below).
Her results indicated that the more students engaged and interacted with the instructor, material, and other students, the better they rated their classroom experience. These findings indicate how seriously those designing courses should work to entice interaction from their students.
Citation-worthy:
"Janick and Liegle (2001) have synthesised the work of a range of instructional design experts in these areas (Anderson & Reiser 1985; Gagne, Briggs & Wager 1988; Hannafin & Peck 1988; Tennyson 1989; Jonassen et al. 1995; Ward & Lee 1995) to develop a list of ten concepts they believe support effective design of Web-based instruction. These are:
• Instructors acting as facilitators
• Use of a variety of presentation styles
• Multiple exercises
• Hands-on problems
• Learner control of pacing
• Frequent testing
• Clear feedback
• Consistent layout
• Clear navigation
• Available help screens
"While it is reasonably well accepted that these design principles support computer-based learning, it remains to be seen whether or not they can be applied to online courses" (Swan, 2001, p. 308).
"Fuller et al. (2000) used Myers-Briggs and Transaction Ability inventories to relate teaching tendencies and styles to instructor effectiveness and satisfaction in online environments. They identify four challenges for virtual instructors:
• overcoming the faceless classroom
• adapting to student centered teaching
• managing time and techniques, and
• establishing the learning " (Swan, 2001, pp. 309-310).
"Research thus far indicates that online courses that are well structured and easy to use, that take advantage of increased access to instructors, and that feature more equitable and democratic discussion are the most successful" (Swan, 2001, p. 311).
"Students who reported higher levels of activity in courses also reported higher levels of satisfaction and higher levels of learning from them (Swan, 2001, p. 315).
"Students who had high perceived levels of interaction with the instructor also had high levels of satisfaction with the course and reported higher levels of learning than students who thought they had less interaction with the instructor" (Swan, 2001, p. 316).
"Students who reported high levels of interaction with their classmates also reported higher levels of satisfaction and higher levels of learning from courses (Swan, 2001, p. 317).
"The greater the consistency among course modules, the more satisfied students were, the more they thought they learned, and the more interaction they thought they had with their instructors. The lower the number of modules in a course, the more students believed they learned from it (Swan, 2001, p. 323).
"The greater the percentage of the course grade that was based on discussion, the more satisfied the students were, the more they thought they learned from the course, and the more interaction they thought they had with the instructor and with their peers (Swan, 2001, p. 325).
The greater the percentage of the course grade that was based on cooperative or group work, the less students thought they learned from the course (Swan, 2001, p. 326).
Students' perceptions of interaction with their peers were related to actual interactions in courses, the percentage of the course grade that was based on discussion, required participation in discussions, and the average length of discussion responses (Swan, 2001, p. 326).
