Categories: Communication Design, Technology
Subject and Citations:
Sometimes the abstract nails the paper perfectly:
"This paper describes survey research of fourteen online courses where instructors and students were asked their perceptions about the challenges and essential elements of community in online classes. Results show that both instructors and students believe
building community is very important. The majority of both students and instructors
perceived it to be harder to build community online than in traditional classes. Additionally, while the majority of students and instructors both identified the same
elements for building online community, there were significant ranking differences. Most
striking among the differences was that students ranked instructor modeling as the most
important element in building online community, while instructors ranked it fourth.
Implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations provided for how
instructors can model community behaviors in their online classes" (Vessely, Bloom, & Sherlock, 2007, p. 234).
The authors defined sense of community as having the following:
"1) A sense of shared purpose
"2) Establishment of boundaries defining who is a member and who is not
"3) Establishment and enforcement of rules/policies regarding community behavior
"4) Interaction among members, and
"5) A level of trust, respect and support among community members" (Vessely, Bloom, & Sherlock, 2007, p. 235).
The study supported/added these ideas from the students and instructors:
"[1.] a sense of shared purpose, purposeful [2.] communication involving encouragement and support, [3.] collaborating to learn course material, [4.] working for an extended period of time on a common goal, and [5.] a comfortable exchange of ideas in an organized fashion"(Vessely, Bloom, & Sherlock, 2007, p. 239).
Like many other studies, instructor presence was found to be a massive indicator of positive student experiences online. They also found value in student immediacy. "LaRose & Whitten, (2000) recommend that instructors incorporate “immediacy features” (p. 32) into the design of online classes to build community. They identify three possible sources of immediacy in the virtual classrooms that may generate a sense of belonging and closeness among class participants: the interactions between teacher and students (teacher immediacy); interactions between students (student immediacy) and interactions with the commuter system that delivers the course (computer immediacy). Collectively, these sources constitute instructional immediacy. Incorporating these features into the online classroom serve as incentives for class members to both feel and act as members of a community. Fostering student immediacy is important in building online community because peer groups are valued associations. Student immediacy describes behaviors that create a feeling of closeness between learners (LaRose & Whitten, 2000). Caverly & MacDonald (2002) found that students need to make connections by finding similarities in background, motivation and commitment to have a sense of community. Course design should support community building through faculty presence and student immediacy. Examples include well-designed icebreaker activities, group assignments, and ongoing topical discussions that involve both faculty and the students" (Vessely, Bloom, & Sherlock, 2007, pp. 243-244).
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Stewart, C., Bachman, C., & Johnson, R. (2010). Predictors of faculty acceptance of online education. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 6(3), 597-616.
Categories: Communication Design, Technology
Subject and Citations:
The authors expanded the technology acceptance model to predict intention to teach online. "The TAM has been used in IT research to explain user acceptance and a wide range of technology based behaviors (Lee, Cheung, & Chen, 2005). Despite the TAM’s proven capability of explaining technology acceptance, the model has not been broadly applied outside IT and business. The few studies that have extended the TAM beyond IT have found that the inclusion of additional variables is necessary to add explanatory power (Davis, Bagozzi, & Warshaw, 1992; Hsu & Lu, 2004; Kim, 2008). Several variables have been related to the TAM such as intrinsic motivation (Roca & Gagne, 2008; Venkatesh & Davis, 1996), facilitating conditions (Cheung, Chang, & Lai, 2000), and competence (Roca & Gagne, 2008; Venkatesh & Davis, 2000).
They sought to determine what factors led to faculty accepting or rejecting the opportunity to teach online. Their research prior to the student led them to conclude:
"Faculty also report a number of other factors related to their resistance to online education. Yang and Cornelius (2005) note that faculty were concerned that their traditional courses were not compatible with online education. Several studies suggest that the amount of time required to transition traditional courses to the online format may be a critical obstacle (Arbaugh, 2000; Hartman, Dzuiban, & Moskai, 2000; Shea, 2007b). Others have reported that faculty were concerned about compensation issues (Hartman et al., 2000; Shea, 2007b), inadequate training (Arbaugh, 2000; Pankowski, 2004), and lack of administrative support (Bower, 2001; Yang & Cornelius, 2005)" (Steward, Bachman, & Johnson, 2010, p. 598).
Their results using the test were generally inconclusive, but they did find that those who were intrinsically motivated to teach traditionally were resistant to online teaching opportunities.
Subject and Citations:
The authors expanded the technology acceptance model to predict intention to teach online. "The TAM has been used in IT research to explain user acceptance and a wide range of technology based behaviors (Lee, Cheung, & Chen, 2005). Despite the TAM’s proven capability of explaining technology acceptance, the model has not been broadly applied outside IT and business. The few studies that have extended the TAM beyond IT have found that the inclusion of additional variables is necessary to add explanatory power (Davis, Bagozzi, & Warshaw, 1992; Hsu & Lu, 2004; Kim, 2008). Several variables have been related to the TAM such as intrinsic motivation (Roca & Gagne, 2008; Venkatesh & Davis, 1996), facilitating conditions (Cheung, Chang, & Lai, 2000), and competence (Roca & Gagne, 2008; Venkatesh & Davis, 2000).
They sought to determine what factors led to faculty accepting or rejecting the opportunity to teach online. Their research prior to the student led them to conclude:
"Faculty also report a number of other factors related to their resistance to online education. Yang and Cornelius (2005) note that faculty were concerned that their traditional courses were not compatible with online education. Several studies suggest that the amount of time required to transition traditional courses to the online format may be a critical obstacle (Arbaugh, 2000; Hartman, Dzuiban, & Moskai, 2000; Shea, 2007b). Others have reported that faculty were concerned about compensation issues (Hartman et al., 2000; Shea, 2007b), inadequate training (Arbaugh, 2000; Pankowski, 2004), and lack of administrative support (Bower, 2001; Yang & Cornelius, 2005)" (Steward, Bachman, & Johnson, 2010, p. 598).
Their results using the test were generally inconclusive, but they did find that those who were intrinsically motivated to teach traditionally were resistant to online teaching opportunities.
Dayley, C., & Hoffman, D. D. (2014, October). The work of education in the age of the digital classroom: Resurrecting Frankfurt school philosophies to examine online education. In Professional Communication Conference (IPCC), 2014 IEEE International (pp. 1-11). IEEE.
Categories: Theory & Rhetoric, Technology
Subject and Citations:
What happens when two conservative scholars channel the Frankfurt school scholars to analyze online education? A fun romp through intellectual fields with a few surprising insights. After reviewing the beliefs of the Frankfurt school, its history, and the history of online education, the authors put on the lens of those philosophers and ask what they would say if they were around for the advent of online education.
Dayley and Hoffman concluded that fully-online education students do not experience traditional college life, the campus, the library, the culture, the social aspects of the institution; such students get the learning, the knowledge, and the degree without experiencing the aura of college with the social rites of passage, intangible benefits of growth, personal connections/relationships, and tactile/tangible experience the university provides. The beauty and grandure of the campus is replaced with the posters of the bedroom or the television in the living room.
They questioned the value of some MOOCs and other free (ie iTunes U, EDx, MIT) online courses that provide the learning but do not provide the accredited degrees or certifications of completion. They questioned the scrutiny of the tools used in distance education that could track, control, and manuplate students, and they explored the fiscal motivations for the massive shift to digital education.
Though not groundbreaking, this article raised serious questions about what is lost as online education continues to gain acceptance and momentum.
Subject and Citations:
What happens when two conservative scholars channel the Frankfurt school scholars to analyze online education? A fun romp through intellectual fields with a few surprising insights. After reviewing the beliefs of the Frankfurt school, its history, and the history of online education, the authors put on the lens of those philosophers and ask what they would say if they were around for the advent of online education.
Dayley and Hoffman concluded that fully-online education students do not experience traditional college life, the campus, the library, the culture, the social aspects of the institution; such students get the learning, the knowledge, and the degree without experiencing the aura of college with the social rites of passage, intangible benefits of growth, personal connections/relationships, and tactile/tangible experience the university provides. The beauty and grandure of the campus is replaced with the posters of the bedroom or the television in the living room.
They questioned the value of some MOOCs and other free (ie iTunes U, EDx, MIT) online courses that provide the learning but do not provide the accredited degrees or certifications of completion. They questioned the scrutiny of the tools used in distance education that could track, control, and manuplate students, and they explored the fiscal motivations for the massive shift to digital education.
Though not groundbreaking, this article raised serious questions about what is lost as online education continues to gain acceptance and momentum.
Friday, February 27, 2015
St. Clair, D. J. (2009). My experience with teaching online: Confessions and observations of a survivor. Journal of Online Learning & Teaching, 5(1), 166-175.
Categories: Communication Design, Technology
Summary and Citations:
St. Clair shared his experience as a first-time online teacher. His learnings:
"1. Add periods and Open University registration policies are often incompatible with online classes. For example, it often takes two weeks for students to successfully add a class. With ten-week quarters, this is a problem. Traditional class can compensate by allowing waiting students to “sit-in” in the interim, but this is not possible in online classes (e.g., Blackboard access requires enrollment in the class). As a consequence, newly-admitted student entering at the end of the add period will have effectively missed twenty percent of the course. ...
"2. Class scheduling needs to consider an online instructors mix of traditional and online classes. ... my managerial economics course was taught while simultaneously teaching other traditional classes. I found the mixed format very difficult. The schedule and rhythm of online classes are very different from traditional classes. ... [administration] needs to take this into account for instructors who would rather not mix the two.
3. University scheduling is also a problem when it comes to time slots for online classes. ...
4. The university’s technical support for online classes is often inadequate. Blackboard experiences numerous problems, shut-downs, slow-downs, and quirks that frustrate online students. They frustrate instructors as well. Worse, there seems to be no real back-up to Blackboard. The development of an alternative or back-up to Blackboard would be most welcome. Barring this development, better help with technical problems is needed. I was usually left to handle most real-time Blackboard problems on my own because Blackboard support was generally only available during traditional university hours. Worse, some help channels were virtually useless. ...
5. University and college policies that require posted weekly office hours for online classes should be changed. ...
6.My final recommendation seeks a fundamental clarification or refinement in the university’s attitude toward online classes. I think that, like me, university policies worry too much about online classes becoming havens for shirking students. And if truth be told, the university also worries too much about shirking online instructors. ...There should be no “onus” placed on online classes to conform to policies that have little relevance to online instruction" (St. Clair, 2009, pp. 174-175).
Summary and Citations:
St. Clair shared his experience as a first-time online teacher. His learnings:
- The first time teaching a course online takes a lot of preparation and ground work.
- Grades were higher than his traditional classes.
- He supports an idea of selective technology use.
- Online students are different than traditional students.
"1. Add periods and Open University registration policies are often incompatible with online classes. For example, it often takes two weeks for students to successfully add a class. With ten-week quarters, this is a problem. Traditional class can compensate by allowing waiting students to “sit-in” in the interim, but this is not possible in online classes (e.g., Blackboard access requires enrollment in the class). As a consequence, newly-admitted student entering at the end of the add period will have effectively missed twenty percent of the course. ...
"2. Class scheduling needs to consider an online instructors mix of traditional and online classes. ... my managerial economics course was taught while simultaneously teaching other traditional classes. I found the mixed format very difficult. The schedule and rhythm of online classes are very different from traditional classes. ... [administration] needs to take this into account for instructors who would rather not mix the two.
3. University scheduling is also a problem when it comes to time slots for online classes. ...
4. The university’s technical support for online classes is often inadequate. Blackboard experiences numerous problems, shut-downs, slow-downs, and quirks that frustrate online students. They frustrate instructors as well. Worse, there seems to be no real back-up to Blackboard. The development of an alternative or back-up to Blackboard would be most welcome. Barring this development, better help with technical problems is needed. I was usually left to handle most real-time Blackboard problems on my own because Blackboard support was generally only available during traditional university hours. Worse, some help channels were virtually useless. ...
5. University and college policies that require posted weekly office hours for online classes should be changed. ...
6.My final recommendation seeks a fundamental clarification or refinement in the university’s attitude toward online classes. I think that, like me, university policies worry too much about online classes becoming havens for shirking students. And if truth be told, the university also worries too much about shirking online instructors. ...There should be no “onus” placed on online classes to conform to policies that have little relevance to online instruction" (St. Clair, 2009, pp. 174-175).
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Stanford-Bowers, D. E. (2008). Persistence in online classes: A study of perceptions among community college stakeholders. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 4(1), 37-50.
Categories: Communication Design, Technology
Summary and Citations:
Bowers sought to determine the causes of persistence in online classes by asking those teachers and administrators deeply involved in the process about why they believe online courses suffer from high attrition rates.
Stanford-Bowers felt that one cause of the drop-rate came from "shifting the paradigm from the traditional teacher centered approaches which have dominated instructional practices of the past. Although the instructor is still the content expert in a virtual environment, students in an online community must assume responsibility for managing their own learning experiences (Bathe, 2001; Conrad & Donaldson, 2004). Many faculty, however, are reluctant to give up their control in the courses they teach, and many learners are reluctant to take a more independent role in their learning (2008, p. 39).
Additionally, she felt that "all these ... factors can be categorized into one of four major barriers to student persistence:
1. Situational barriers are those which occur as the result of changes in the social, economic, or personal life of the student. They include such issues as transportation, age, time constraints, family support, or family responsibilities over which the institution has no control (Cross, 1981; Lorenzetti, 2004).
2. Conversely, institutional barriers result from difficulties with college programs, policies, and procedures; these include issues with admissions, registration, class schedules, financial aid, and other support services over which the institution does have some control (Cross, 1981; Lorenzetti, 2004). Institutional barriers emphasize the need for an institutional support system that can be accessed online (Dahl, 2004).
3. Dispositional barriers result from an individual’s personal background, and which include issues such as attitude, motivation, learning styles, and selfconfidence (Cross, 1981; Lorenzetti, 2004).
4. Epistemological barriers result from problems with academic or institutional matters such as course content, prerequisite knowledge, and expectations (Lorenzetti, 2004; Moore, et al, 2002).
She administered a survey to 39 educators, students, and administrators over a period of eight weeks. This resulted in many ideas, themes, and factors administrators believed played a key roll in student persistence. Then they rated the importance of the factors. The lists were narrowed down and prioritized.
She found the opinions of the groups generally matched. Here were her findings from the surveys:
Summary and Citations:
Bowers sought to determine the causes of persistence in online classes by asking those teachers and administrators deeply involved in the process about why they believe online courses suffer from high attrition rates.
Stanford-Bowers felt that one cause of the drop-rate came from "shifting the paradigm from the traditional teacher centered approaches which have dominated instructional practices of the past. Although the instructor is still the content expert in a virtual environment, students in an online community must assume responsibility for managing their own learning experiences (Bathe, 2001; Conrad & Donaldson, 2004). Many faculty, however, are reluctant to give up their control in the courses they teach, and many learners are reluctant to take a more independent role in their learning (2008, p. 39).
Additionally, she felt that "all these ... factors can be categorized into one of four major barriers to student persistence:
1. Situational barriers are those which occur as the result of changes in the social, economic, or personal life of the student. They include such issues as transportation, age, time constraints, family support, or family responsibilities over which the institution has no control (Cross, 1981; Lorenzetti, 2004).
2. Conversely, institutional barriers result from difficulties with college programs, policies, and procedures; these include issues with admissions, registration, class schedules, financial aid, and other support services over which the institution does have some control (Cross, 1981; Lorenzetti, 2004). Institutional barriers emphasize the need for an institutional support system that can be accessed online (Dahl, 2004).
3. Dispositional barriers result from an individual’s personal background, and which include issues such as attitude, motivation, learning styles, and selfconfidence (Cross, 1981; Lorenzetti, 2004).
4. Epistemological barriers result from problems with academic or institutional matters such as course content, prerequisite knowledge, and expectations (Lorenzetti, 2004; Moore, et al, 2002).
She administered a survey to 39 educators, students, and administrators over a period of eight weeks. This resulted in many ideas, themes, and factors administrators believed played a key roll in student persistence. Then they rated the importance of the factors. The lists were narrowed down and prioritized.
She found the opinions of the groups generally matched. Here were her findings from the surveys:
- Computer access/Accessibility
- Clearly stated requirements
- Time management
- Self discipline
- Responsiveness of Instructor/ Prompt feedback/Student teacher interaction
- Self motivation
- Basic computer skills
- Convenience/Flexibility
- User friendly format
- Reading ability
- Instructors
- Outside assistance
- Reliable server
- Independent learning/Responsibility
- Technical support
- Course design
- Personal contact
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Ross, J., Sinclair, C., Knox, J., Bayne, S., & Macleod, H. (2014). Teacher experiences and academic identity: The missing components of MOOC pedagogy. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 10(1), 56-68.
Categories: Technology, Communication Design
Subject and Citations:
The authors wrote about the challenges of teaching a MOOC. Two approaches exist: the perception of a "rock star" lecturer with the lack of interaction and communication with students, or the well-prepared courses with self-led preparation of topics. Using blog(s) and Twitter, the authors collected information about teacher experiences and perceptions. They found that the current conversations about MOOCs do not address the complex feelings and ideas of the instructors. They are not used to the new style of teaching and learning. The paper spent more time exploring the idea of teaching than presenting solutions.
Subject and Citations:
The authors wrote about the challenges of teaching a MOOC. Two approaches exist: the perception of a "rock star" lecturer with the lack of interaction and communication with students, or the well-prepared courses with self-led preparation of topics. Using blog(s) and Twitter, the authors collected information about teacher experiences and perceptions. They found that the current conversations about MOOCs do not address the complex feelings and ideas of the instructors. They are not used to the new style of teaching and learning. The paper spent more time exploring the idea of teaching than presenting solutions.
Ray, J. (2009). Faculty perspective: training and course development for the online classroom. J Online Learn Teach, 5(2), 263-276.
Category: Communication Design, Technology
Summary and Citations:
Ray's "study investigates the perceptions of faculty currently facilitating instruction in the online environment. Although studies exist focusing on instructors’ satisfaction with instructing in the online format (Awalt, 2003; Conrad, 2004; Dolloph, 2004; Luck & McQuiggan, 2006; Wang, MacArthur, Crosby, 2003; Wilkes, Simon, Brooks, 2006), additional research focusing on faculty perspectives represents an important aspect of gaining a thorough understanding of the online format from a research standpoint. For example, current research fails to adequately scrutinize the difficulty associated with taking a face-to-face course and moving it to the online format, the perceived effects of technical and pedagogical training on the quality of instruction, the formats in which faculty prefer to be trained, and whether or not current online instructors believe training should be required prior to instructing online. Through this study the researcher attempts to address these issues by quantitatively assessing the beliefs of current online instructors" (Ray, 2009, p. 263).
The research questions she sought to answer all centered on the perceived training necessary during the transition to online teaching from traditional face-to-face courses, and included:
"How difficult is it for faculty to convert a course from face-to-face to totally online? ...
"Would faculty like additional training opportunities (technical and/or pedagogical) pertaining to online instruction and in what format(s)? ...
Who is providing formal training to faculty currently instructing online? ...
Do current online instructors believe that technical and/or pedagogical training should be
required prior to instructing online? " (Ray, 2009, p. 263).
In her literature review, Hite noted, "Unlike teaching face-to-face where instructors may lack technical knowledge and still effectively teach students, in the arena of distance education, educators must possess a thorough understanding of technology as well as the subject matter expertise required in the traditional classroom (Darabi, Sikorski, & Harvey, 2006). Aside from the obvious technical challenges associated with developing a course in the online medium, researchers indicate a need for additional faculty training specifically focusing on the different methods of instruction and pedagogy necessary to facilitate and instruct a successful online course (Diaz & Bontenbal, 2000; Arabasz, Pirani, & Fawcett, 2003; Okojie, Olinzock, & Okojie-Boulder, 2006). Her literature review addressed many other issues surrounding online teaching perceptions and circumstances.
111 instructors of 300 responded to the survey. Their opinions supported other studies of instructor perceptions about the difficulty of transferring courses from traditional to online formats, a desire for technological and pedagogical training, a significant lack of training, and even a desire to require such training before the instructors engage in the endeavor.
Summary and Citations:
Ray's "study investigates the perceptions of faculty currently facilitating instruction in the online environment. Although studies exist focusing on instructors’ satisfaction with instructing in the online format (Awalt, 2003; Conrad, 2004; Dolloph, 2004; Luck & McQuiggan, 2006; Wang, MacArthur, Crosby, 2003; Wilkes, Simon, Brooks, 2006), additional research focusing on faculty perspectives represents an important aspect of gaining a thorough understanding of the online format from a research standpoint. For example, current research fails to adequately scrutinize the difficulty associated with taking a face-to-face course and moving it to the online format, the perceived effects of technical and pedagogical training on the quality of instruction, the formats in which faculty prefer to be trained, and whether or not current online instructors believe training should be required prior to instructing online. Through this study the researcher attempts to address these issues by quantitatively assessing the beliefs of current online instructors" (Ray, 2009, p. 263).
The research questions she sought to answer all centered on the perceived training necessary during the transition to online teaching from traditional face-to-face courses, and included:
"How difficult is it for faculty to convert a course from face-to-face to totally online? ...
"Would faculty like additional training opportunities (technical and/or pedagogical) pertaining to online instruction and in what format(s)? ...
Who is providing formal training to faculty currently instructing online? ...
Do current online instructors believe that technical and/or pedagogical training should be
required prior to instructing online? " (Ray, 2009, p. 263).
In her literature review, Hite noted, "Unlike teaching face-to-face where instructors may lack technical knowledge and still effectively teach students, in the arena of distance education, educators must possess a thorough understanding of technology as well as the subject matter expertise required in the traditional classroom (Darabi, Sikorski, & Harvey, 2006). Aside from the obvious technical challenges associated with developing a course in the online medium, researchers indicate a need for additional faculty training specifically focusing on the different methods of instruction and pedagogy necessary to facilitate and instruct a successful online course (Diaz & Bontenbal, 2000; Arabasz, Pirani, & Fawcett, 2003; Okojie, Olinzock, & Okojie-Boulder, 2006). Her literature review addressed many other issues surrounding online teaching perceptions and circumstances.
111 instructors of 300 responded to the survey. Their opinions supported other studies of instructor perceptions about the difficulty of transferring courses from traditional to online formats, a desire for technological and pedagogical training, a significant lack of training, and even a desire to require such training before the instructors engage in the endeavor.
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