Is This Your Best Work?

Author(s):  
Cynthia J. Benton

This chapter summarizes both psychological and achievement considerations for student participation in online learning environments. Using journaling, student responses, and interviews, this study yielded consistent conclusions regarding the need for supported and interactive opportunities for students to interact with both peers and the instructor of the online course. Online classroom practices are described, and a number of issues contributing to student success and satisfaction are summarized. Future concerns for practices in online instruction and student learning are described.

Author(s):  
Cynthia J. Benton

This chapter summarizes both psychological and achievement considerations for student participation in online learning environments. Using journaling, student responses, and interviews, this study yielded consistent conclusions regarding the need for supported and interactive opportunities for students to interact with both peers and the instructor of the online course. Online classroom practices are described, and a number of issues contributing to student success and satisfaction are summarized. Future concerns for practices in online instruction and student learning are described.


Author(s):  
Geraldine Torrisi-Steele

Online learning experiences are becoming the norm for an increasing number of higher education students. Although there are clear advantages to online learning in terms of flexibility and access, many students struggle to succeed, especially in purely online learning environments. To a large extent student success in online learning environments is dependent on students' ability to self-regulate and ‘learn for themselves'- both abilities related to academic metacognition. Unfortunately, even at university, many students do not have well developed metacognition. It is therefore important to consider carefully metacognitive scaffolding in the design of online learning experiences. However, the models of instructional design commonly used in online learning tend not to place great emphasis on the importance of metacognitive scaffolding. The aim of the present chapter is therefore to increase awareness of metacognition, as one of the important considerations in the design of online learning environments that can help to maximize chances of student success. Towards this end, a framework of instructional design that is more sensitive to metacognition is developed.


Author(s):  
Kathryn Woods

Advances in technology have increased opportunities for students to participate in online courses. While some instructors are beginning their careers teaching only online courses, others are discovering a need to teach sections of courses online after they have enjoyed a long career teaching in a traditional classroom. In either situation, it is important for instructors to recognize that students in online learning environments require the use of different strategies for encouraging engagement and participation in class. In this chapter, the author describes the challenges that students and instructors face specifically in the online learning environment as well as strategies for success, including how to maximize the impact of students' experiences and prior knowledge, using multiple platforms to deliver information, discouraging procrastination, setting clear expectations, encouraging individuality, capitalizing on diversity, and providing and utilizing helpful resources.


Author(s):  
Geraldine Torrisi-Steele

Online learning experiences are becoming the norm for an increasing number of higher education students. Although there are clear advantages to online learning in terms of flexibility and access, many students struggle to succeed, especially in purely online learning environments. To a large extent student success in online learning environments is dependent on students' ability to self-regulate and ‘learn for themselves'- both abilities related to academic metacognition. Unfortunately, even at university, many students do not have well developed metacognition. It is therefore important to consider carefully metacognitive scaffolding in the design of online learning experiences. However, the models of instructional design commonly used in online learning tend not to place great emphasis on the importance of metacognitive scaffolding. The aim of the present chapter is therefore to increase awareness of metacognition, as one of the important considerations in the design of online learning environments that can help to maximize chances of student success. Towards this end, a framework of instructional design that is more sensitive to metacognition is developed.


Author(s):  
Joshua Elliott

As with any mode of course delivery, there are both positives and negatives to online learning. There are the commonly cited positive features of online learning like the removal of geographic restrictions and scheduling barriers. Limitations may include unfamiliarity for those new to online learning and misunderstandings resulting from the transition from primarily face-to-face interactions to only online interactions. One of the nice things about online learning environments is that many of the possible drawbacks can be countered turning them into strength. Building a strong social presence in an online course can help with this. This chapter discusses three categories of strategies for building a social presence; ice breakers, netiquette activities, and discussion activities.


Author(s):  
Lena Paulo Kushnir ◽  
Kenneth Berry

Students often complain of overload in online learning environments. Discussions here consider online design and organization factors that might contribute to students’ reports of overload. This study explored predictions that 1) students’ past online experience, 2) the organization of online environments and relevance of online material with which students work, and 3) the level of task difficulty impact (a) student learning outcomes, (b) students’ reports of overload, and (c) students’ perceptions of having enough time to complete assigned course work. A total of 346 participants were tested in two experiments that manipulated the organization of the online environment and the material that students had to learn. Experiment 1 tested how the organization of the online environment impacted learning outcomes. Findings suggested that online environments that are overly busy and that contain irrelevant information (i.e., stimulus-rich or “stimulus-noisy” online environments) had a negative impact on experienced, savvy online learners, but no impact on students less experienced with online learning environments. Surprisingly, results here suggest that overload affected only experienced students. Experiment 2 tested how the organization of the online material (that students had to learn) impacted learning outcomes. Findings suggested that online learning environments that used hypertext to organize material had a negative impact on student learning outcomes, misconceptions of information, and perceived overload. This chapter examines literature that considers design and organization factors that can impact online learning, and considers design strategies for online teaching environments and strategies for avoiding factors that can leave students feeling overloaded.


Author(s):  
Steven R. Terrell

Dringus and Terrell (1999) defined evaluation in an OLE as: …an iterative process for assessing the efficacy and validity of online learning environments (OLEs). Evaluation should take place from the conceptual stage of OLE development through the measurement of learning outcomes of an online course. Accurate and ongoing assessments of learners, teachers, the instructional process, the course content, and the OLE as an entity will include a combination of formative and summative evaluations for each of these components and their effectiveness as a unit. (p. 61) Other authors (e.g., Bunderson, 2003; Govindasamy, 2001; Hirumi, 2000; Khan, 2000; Williams, 1999) have addressed similar issues on a conceptual and theoretical level, but there is a need for further examination at the application level.


2016 ◽  
pp. 1335-1357
Author(s):  
Kathryn Woods

Advances in technology have increased opportunities for students to participate in online courses. While some instructors are beginning their careers teaching only online courses, others are discovering a need to teach sections of courses online after they have enjoyed a long career teaching in a traditional classroom. In either situation, it is important for instructors to recognize that students in online learning environments require the use of different strategies for encouraging engagement and participation in class. In this chapter, the author describes the challenges that students and instructors face specifically in the online learning environment as well as strategies for success, including how to maximize the impact of students' experiences and prior knowledge, using multiple platforms to deliver information, discouraging procrastination, setting clear expectations, encouraging individuality, capitalizing on diversity, and providing and utilizing helpful resources.


2008 ◽  
pp. 196-214
Author(s):  
Kevin F. Downing ◽  
Jennifer K. Holtz

Assessment of student learning is integral to design of curricular experiences, a reality which is often purported to be more complex in online learning environments (Wijekumar, Ferguson & Wagoner, 2006) and characteristic of constructivist praxis (Comeaux, 2005-2006; Segall, et al., 2005). However, the framework within which evaluation occurs—with assessment as one form of evaluation, unique to the learning environment—is constant (Williams, 2004). Moreover, learning assessment was a meaningful topic pre-constructivism and assessment literature in online learning is nearly identical to that of assessment in general, especially as computerized assessment methods become more popular for all learners (Holtz & Radner, 2005; Robles & Braathen, 2002). There are differences and specific challenges; however, in practice those challenges need not be onerous. This chapter describes current practices in online learning assessment, notes similarities in on-site and online methods and explores the differences and how those differences are or can be addressed for online science learning.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie Demmans Epp ◽  
Krystle Phirangee ◽  
Jim Hewitt

Identifying which online behaviours and interactions are associated with students’ perception of being supported will enable a deeper understanding of how those activities contribute to student learning experiences. Features of student language, especially verbally immediate behaviours, are one of the aspects of student interactions in need of greater exploration within discourse-based online learning environments. As a result, the verbally immediate behaviour of pronoun usage is explored within online courses where the primary learning mechanism is student discourse. Student posting behaviours and features of their language, specifically their use of different classes of pronouns, are explored from the perspective of how supported students felt in their courses as well as how their behaviours and pronoun usage changed over time. Findings suggest that students who were taking instructor-facilitated courses felt more supported which was associated with higher levels of interaction and increased consistency in student behaviours from week to week within the term. Those enrolled in peer-facilitated courses, who felt less supported, used pronouns differently than those who experienced greater levels of support, suggesting the potential for pronoun-based analytics.


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