Approaches to Delivering Online Programs in Kinesiology

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 200-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charity Bryan

The proliferation of online courses and programs has impacted kinesiology programs across the country. The process of providing online instruction, while popular with students, is often daunting to the kinesiology programs that must navigate this process. Recommendations for transitioning courses and programs from face-to-face to online are offered from both the faculty and administrative perspective. Maintaining academic rigor in online kinesiology courses and program is also essential to the dialogue and for ensuring success. Many kinesiology courses and programs are well suited for online delivery and demand for these programs is high. Kinesiology faculty and administrators should understand both the facilitators and barriers to online implementation.

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 177-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew T. Mahar ◽  
Tyler R. Hall ◽  
Michael D. Delp ◽  
James R. Morrow

Administrators of kinesiology departments (N = 101) completed a survey that requested information about online education, funding for online courses, and administrator perceptions of the rigor and future of online courses. More master's (n = 18) than undergraduate degree (n = 9) programs were totally online. Forty-nine percent of institutions provide funding to faculty and 37% provide funding to departments for online offerings. Respondents indicated concern about the rigor of online courses. Sixty-one percent indicated that academic rigor is a concern of faculty, 42% did not feel that totally online courses were as rigorous as face-to-face classes, and 65% indicated tests for online courses are not proctored. Despite concerns, 76% indicated they expect to have some or many online courses in the next 5-10 years. Few respondents indicated they expected to have no online courses or almost totally online delivery of courses. Online delivery of instruction is impacting kinesiology, and expansion of online education is likely.


Author(s):  
Sophia Palahicky ◽  
Adrianna Andrews-Brown

Student orientation programs can enhance new student self-esteem, which is in turn a significant positive predictor of personal, social, and academic achievement (Hickman, Bartholomae, & McKenry, 2000). Furthermore, these programs can help students develop the basic technical skills they will need to be active learners. According to Dixson (2010), research into effective online instruction supports the argument that “online instruction can be as effective as traditional instruction, [and] to do so, online courses need cooperative/collaborative (active) learning, and strong instructor presence.” Likewise, online orientation programs for new students must provide opportunities for active engagement and strong facilitator presence to be effective. This chapter presents a case study that describes the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of the online orientation modules for new students at a Canadian postsecondary institution that offers primarily blended and online programs.


2010 ◽  
pp. 1268-1279
Author(s):  
Chuleeporn Changchit ◽  
Tim Klaus

Advances in technology have enabled instructors to design online courses that better meet the needs of students. Online courses generally are adaptations of traditional courses; some courses are more suitable for such online instruction. As the trend of online course offerings continues, universities must understand factors that lead to students’ preferences since online courses can be costly to develop and implement and inappropriate online coursescan lead to lower student retention rates. This study focuses on students’ perceptions of online courses. The results identify issues that affect students’ perceptions and this study concludes by suggesting ways for universities to design online programs that better suit the desires of students.


Author(s):  
Gaye Lansdell

Critical questions and issues face legal educators as a result of the challenges and opportunities provided by the advent of information technology. This chapter focuses on the introduction of online learning environments in the legal education context primarily at the point of pre-admission practical legal training. It queries whether parallels can be drawn between changes in technology and changes in the learning and training of lawyers. In turn, it considers whether such changes are for the benefit of the students, their intended profession and the society it is supposed to serve. Can the important communication skills, the cornerstone of legal work, be obtained through flexible delivery modes? What are the perceived limitations, disadvantages of such programs and do they outweigh the advantages? Can the professional ethos of lawyering be conveyed and developed adequately by an online training program? In this context, the literature pertaining to online delivery in the area of legal education is considered. The writer also reflects on observations of teaching instructors in both the on-campus and online courses of the Postgraduate Diploma of Legal Practice, Skills and Ethics (PDLP) at Monash University. The chapter considers course evaluations administered to cohorts of PDLP students. Finally, the chapter proposes the preferred way forward for virtual communicators in producing online programs in this area.


Author(s):  
Seta Boghikian-Whitby ◽  
Yehia Mortagy

This chapter is based on a longitudinal descriptive study that identifies the types of students enrolled in a Management Information Systems class offered in face-to-face and online delivery modalities over 15 semesters. The study used a total sample of 622 students where 296 students were enrolled in the faceto- face control section and 326 students were enrolled in the online experimental sections. The study profiles the demographics of students including: student type (traditional undergraduate or adult), age, gender, ethnicity, Myers Briggs personality profile, religion, citizenship, marital status, academic family generation, academic major, academic standing (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior), and grade point average (GPA). The study findings include: (1) adult students dominated the online delivery modality. (2) African American and Hispanic female adult students prefer taking online courses compared to face-to-face. (3) Forty percent of the students enrolled in online delivery modality were of extravert type. (4) The majority of the first generation students were enrolled in face-to-face delivery modality. Recommendations include short modules, use of different exercises in order to accommodate various learning styles. The chapter and the study results will assist administrators and faculty members to make better decisions by understanding the student population type.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Judson C. Faurer

Are prospective employers getting “quality” educated degreed applicants and are academic institutions that offer online degree programs ensuring the quality control of the courses/programs offered? The issue specifically addressed in this paper is not with all institutions offering degrees through online programs or even with all online courses. The concern is with those online courses where the means to ensure the validity of course grades is not guaranteed by measures of technology or academic rigor employed. More specifically, the practical measures to reduce or eliminate doubts about a student’s acquired knowledge in quantitative online courses need evaluation and thought to arrive at a more circumspect solution. Is the grade earned truly indicative of a student’s competency and level of acquired knowledge and understanding in an online quantitative course or merely an indication that the student somehow just satisfied proscribed evaluative criteria set by the faculty member without adequate measures of assessment?


Author(s):  
Darlinda Pacheco Moreira

<p class="1">This paper presents a study focused on a trajectory for developing an online operating mode on a campus-based university in the area of Massachusetts, USA. It addresses the innovation process and the changes and challenges faced by faculty and administrators. Methodologically-speaking, a mainly ethnographic approach was used for a systematic process of collecting data in context, in order to understand organizational strategies put in place to launch and improve online course provision. Leaders of the process and teachers of online courses were also interviewed. What emerged was: a) the online operating mode was prepared much in advance and linked to scenarios of internationalization and inclusion in higher education; b) there was an underlying discourse of inter-connectedness among different places and groups of people; and c) the partnership and collaboration between administration and faculty was essential. One of the main conclusions demonstrates that, despite careful formulation of the online component, it still does not enjoy the same status as the face-to-face element of courses, and, as a result, is largely ignored in terms of promotion in the teaching profession.</p>


Author(s):  
Petek Askar ◽  
Oktay Dönmez ◽  
Gonca Kizilkaya ◽  
Volkan Çevik ◽  
Kerem Gültekin

This research studies on the evaluation of online courses are usually conducted for investigating the differences between face-to-face and Web-based environments with respect to achievement. Most of the findings indicated “no significant difference” (Russell, 1999). However, only looking at achievement as a quality measure is reducing the complex phenomena into a single variable. Therefore, an analysis of the system with its components is needed. A study on students’ frustrations with a Web-based distance education course (Hara & Kling, 1999) showed that there were two foci of frustration among students in the course. The first focus was technological problems; students without access to technical support were especially frustrated. The second focus involved the course content and the instructor’s practices in managing communications with students. Students were frustrated because of a lack of immediate feedback from the instructor and ambiguous instructions on the Web and via e-mail.


Author(s):  
Cindy S. York ◽  
Dazhi Yang ◽  
Melissa Dark

This article briefly reviews two important goals in online education: interaction and presence. These are important goals in online education because they are linked to learning and motiva-tion to learn. The article provides guidelines and an extended example of how to design an online course in information security in a manner that will enhance interaction and presence. This article’s contribution is to provide guidelines with a corresponding extended and concrete example for those who are tasked with designing and delivering online courses. Although the guidelines and example were targeted to the field of information security, they can be readily adopted by other disciplines.


Author(s):  
Deborah A. Allen

Moving faculty in a direction toward having online programs/courses at their college can be a daunting task, but another college's example may assist in preparing for online programs with quality online courses that include a Quality Matters Implementation Plan that will help define how the college will expand faculty knowledge of online education instructional design. In a college's transition to online education, it is particularly important to “sell” this idea to faculty members. Faculty members at many institutions may be fearful that they will not meet QM standards when going through a course review. Further, faculty members may be fearful of losing the “boundaries” that they currently have teaching in a face-to face setting. Other concerns revolve around budget constraints, preparing the college for online education, keeping consistency in faculty work duties, training faculty, faculty staying current with technology, keeping the same rigor in the online course as a face-to-face course, including an appropriate level of contact with students, and accreditation needs in order to have online education offered at the college. Management and organizational needs include having an administration team that supports faculty in making the change from a face-to-face class to an online class.


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