Creating Positive E-Learning Experiences for Online Students

2011 ◽  
pp. 517-524
Author(s):  
Ryan Watkins
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Study Habits ◽  
First Year Experience ◽  
First Year ◽  
Online Students ◽  
Online Learners ◽  
Learning Skills ◽  
Learning Programs ◽  
E Learning

Online students can not always depend on the study habits and learning skills that made them successful in the traditional classroom to translate into success in online courses. E-learning programs can, however, offer students opportunities to build useful skills for achieving success in the interactive and challenging classrooms of today’s online courses by building on the achievements of first-year experience (i.e., student success or college survival) initiatives. Having demonstrated remarkable success in traditional on-campus programs, these courses, tutorials, lectures, and activities that focus on developing student study habits and learning skills can also be used by online learners to improve the odds of their academic success and retention. This chapter explores many of the opportunities and challenges of integrating e-learning study skills lessons into the curriculum of online courses and degree programs.

The Online First-Year Experience: Defining and Illustrating a New Reality

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 95-108
Author(s):  
Ryan Korstange ◽  
Jeff Hall ◽  
Jamie Holcomb ◽  
Jasmeial Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Adult Students ◽  
First Year Experience ◽  
First Year ◽  
Orientation Programs ◽  
Online Students ◽  
Online Learners ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Online Orientation ◽  
Incoming Students

All incoming students have a first experience with their institution. This article reviews literature on adult education, online learning, and first-year student success to articulate the scope of experiences and programs that ought to be included in institutional efforts aimed at helping adult students be successful in their first year of online education. In addition, three approaches to support these online students in their first year of college are illustrated. Key areas surveyed are online orientation programs, online first-year experience courses, and the co-curricular engagement of online learners. Examination of these cases demonstrates that supporting online first-year students is quite important, particularly given the proliferation of online students and their lag in standard measures of success.

scholarly journals A snapshot of online learners: e-Readiness, e-Satisfaction and expectations

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hale Ilgaz ◽  
Yasemin Gülbahar
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Online Learners ◽  
Satisfaction Scale ◽  
Online Programs ◽  
Program Administrators ◽  
Learning Programs ◽  
E Learning

The popularity of online programs that educational institutions offer is continuously increasing at varying degrees, with the major demand coming from adult learners who have no opportunity to access traditional education. These adult learners have to be sufficiently ready and competent for online learning, and have their own varied expectations from the online learning process. Hence, this mixed method study is conducted to explore the participants’ readiness and expectations at the beginning and their satisfaction levels at the end of an online learning experience. An e-readiness scale and an e-satisfaction scale was administered as quantitative measures, with open-ended questions gathering qualitative data. Participants of the research were registered to different e-learning programs at Ankara University Distance Education Center, Turkey, during the 2013-2014 academic year. Analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data revealed facts about online learners, which should prove useful to both e-instructors and e-program administrators.

Flying SOLO for Student Success

2015 ◽  
pp. 244-265
Author(s):  
Regina L. Garza Mitchell ◽  
Gina L. Cano-Monreal
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Student Success ◽  
Technical College ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
First Year Experience ◽  
First Year ◽  
Student Preparedness ◽  
Low Socioeconomic ◽  
Global Workforce

This chapter describes how one innovative practice evolved to become an integral part of the college's efforts to increase student preparedness and success in courses so that they will be employable and competitive in the global workforce. Texas State Technical College Harlingen aimed to enhance student success in online education through implementing a mandatory class, Student Online Learning Orientation, for new online students. The course was developed as the result of faculty research and recommendations regarding online learning at the college. The majority of students at the college are underprepared and from low socioeconomic backgrounds, putting them at a disadvantage in taking these courses. Rather than a barrier to taking online classes, the goal of this class is to provide students with the necessary tools and skills to be successful. Results of the program show an increase in persistence and completion of online courses, and the course has become an integral part of the college's training and first-year experience for all students.

Understanding the Online Learner

2009 ◽  
pp. 482-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven W. Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Drop Out ◽  
Traditional Classrooms ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Online Learners ◽  
The People ◽  
Learning Programs

The expansion of distance education programs has allowed institutions of higher education to be successful in their collective mission to make educational programs more accessible to adults who normally would not have that access. Indeed, online learning has brought education to the people. Access to school is now as simple as logging on to the Internet in the privacy of one’s own home. Who are these students taking courses online? Why are they in online courses versus traditional classrooms? What is different about them, about their situations, and their expectations? Why are some online learners successful and others not? Why do some online learners continue to work through programs while others drop out? For online learning programs to be successful in the long term, it is important to have a thorough understanding of the online learner. This chapter examines the adult online learner in higher education.

Learners’ preferences for online resources, activities, and communication tools: A comparative study of Turkey and Kyrgyzstan

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gülgün Afacan Adanır ◽  
Gulshat Muhametjanova ◽  
Mehmet Ali Çelikbağ ◽  
Asan Omuraliev ◽  
Rita İsmailova
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Online Resources ◽  
First Year ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Communication Tools ◽  
Online Resource ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Social Media Tools ◽  
Study Participants

The progresses in technology lead to advances in e-learning as well as lead to increase in number of learners participating in e-learning courses. Richness of online resources, activities, and communication tools presented in online courses can be one of the factors that influence learners’ attendance to e-learning. In this regard, the initial purpose of this study was to identify online resource, activity and communication tool preferences of learners studying in two public universities: one located in Turkey and one located in Kyrgyzstan. At the second stage, comparison of Turkish and Kyrgyz learners’ preferences was carried out to explore differences in two countries. The participants are first-year undergraduate learners enrolled in first-year courses in the online environment. The total number of participants is 370, which involves 185 Turkish learners and 185 Kyrgyz learners. In the context of this study, participants’ submissions to the questionnaire were collected as quantitative data; while participants’ opinions toward online resources, activities, and communication tools were obtained as qualitative data. Thus, the study was designed as a mixed methods research that quantitative and qualitative methods were applied for the data analysis. The results demonstrated that Turkish learners perceive communication tools, online exams, and text-based course notes to be the most useful for e-learning, whereas perceive online group activities and wiki pages as not useful enough. On the other hand, Kyrgyz learners perceive interactive materials, online exams, and social media tools to be the most useful for e-learning, whereas perceive online chats and pages as not useful enough. The participants’ opinions cover important points for the improvement of current online materials. In addition, learners from Turkey and Kyrgyzstan showed both similarities and differences in terms of their preferences toward online resources, activities, and communication tools, which are explained through this paper.

The Revelation from MOOCs on our Country’s Remote Education

2014 ◽  
Vol 989-994 ◽  
pp. 5152-5156
Author(s):  
Jun Feng Wang
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Distance Education ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Massive Open Online Courses ◽  
Internationalization Of Higher Education ◽  
First Year ◽  
Massive Open Online ◽  
Online Learners ◽  
Education Development ◽  
Healthy Development

Since 2012, known as the first year of "massive open online Courses (MOOCs)", its development speed beyond our imagination, only Courses one company registered online learners reached more than 4.1million people (up to July 21, 2013). MOOCs will be bring what challenge for distance education development in China, how to deal with these challenges, is our reality problem need to concerned. We hope through the above question discussion to accelerate the change of distance education in our country, to adapt to the trend of the internationalization of higher education, promoting its healthy development..

scholarly journals Mental Health and Academic Success of First-Year College Students

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tammy Jordan Wyatt ◽  
Sara B Oswalt ◽  
Yesenia Ochoa
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
College Students ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Health Assessment ◽  
First Year Experience ◽  
First Year ◽  
College Health ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Mental Health Issues

The prevalence and severity of mental health issues are increasing among college students, and such issues pose a threat to health and academic performance. Responses from 66,159 undergraduate students about mental health and academics from the American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment II were examined using regression analyses. Differences in mental health diagnoses were found by classification with first-year students reporting higher rates of self-injury and seriously considering suicide. Upperclassmen reported higher rates of academic impact from mental health factors. Findings indicate one’s first-year of college as the prime time to promote awareness of and strategies to prevent mental health issues or negative academic effects; implications for first-year experience programs are discussed. 

scholarly journals A Reflection on Teachers' Experience as E-Learners

2009 ◽  
pp. 56-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Cunningham ◽  
Claire McDonnell ◽  
Barry McIntyre ◽  
Theresa McKenna
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Time Management ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Online Collaboration ◽  
Student Perspective ◽  
Online Learners ◽  
Effective Learning ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Scaffolding Learning

This chapter explores the insights gained by a group of teachers from their lived experience as e-learners participating in a blended module on designing e-learning. An understanding of the student perspective on online learning was obtained, but we were also able to reflect on our participation in the module on the basis of our other roles: as teachers and potential e-tutors, and as course designers. As a result, important considerations were identified for the design and facilitation of online courses. These include the support provided to online learners, particularly over the first few weeks; appropriate assessment methods; the facilitation of online collaboration; access to the Internet; time management; and contextualising and scaffolding learning activities. Some issues relating to the implementation of effective e-learning in higher education institutions were also considered. Our lived experience as e-learners was invaluable to our development as e-tutors and module designers, and this approach is strongly recommended to achieve effective learning on how to be an effective online tutor and facilitator and how to design and develop online programmes and activities that make full use of the strengths of online learning.

scholarly journals Classroom Management Strategies to Improve Learning Experiences for Online Courses

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janani Hariharan ◽  
Susan Merkel
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
Classroom Management ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Online Students ◽  
Online Learners ◽  
Classroom Experience ◽  
Barriers To Participation ◽  
Classroom Management Strategies

Hybrid classrooms (taught simultaneously to both in-person and online students) have become increasingly common in the course of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and they have offered multiple benefits and challenges. We offer several recommendations to improve student engagement and classroom experience in such classrooms, especially for online learners who may face greater barriers to participation.

A Case Study Exploring Quality Standards for Quality E-Learning

2011 ◽  
pp. 232-240
Author(s):  
Colla J. MacDonald ◽  
Terrie Lynn Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Quality Standards ◽  
Critical Issue ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Online Programs ◽  
Learning Programs ◽  
E Learning

In order to satisfy the needs of growing numbers of adult learners, the availability of well-designed, effectively implemented, and efficiently delivered online courses is essential (MacDonald, Stodel & Casimiro, 2006; Palloff & Pratt, 2001). Despite the demand and prevalence of e-learning, there are still concerns regarding the quality and effectiveness of education offered online (Carstens & Worsfold, 2000; Noble, 2002). Too often, in an “effort to simply get something up and running” (Dick, 1996, p. 59), educators have been forced to compromise quality and design. Intensive competition among educational institutions has resulted in quality assurance becoming a critical issue for promoting learning and learning programs. Within this economically motivated environment, online learning has not escaped the scrutiny of quality standards. Quality in online programs is generally defined in terms of the design of the learning experience, the contextualized experience of learners, and evidence of learning outcomes (Jung, 2000; Salmon, 2000). However, the plethora of online learning courses and programs with few standards to ensure the quality of content, delivery, and/or service creates a challenge. The resulting variance in quality makes it difficult for an organization or learner to choose a program that meets their needs and is also of high quality.

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