A Study on the Effectiveness of College English Blended Learning Under MOOCs Philosophy in China

This study investigated the effectiveness of college English blended education under MOOCs philosophy in China. The findings suggest that many features of MOOCs philosophy are evident in college English blended education and eight factors influence effectiveness. Relationships of the influencing factors demonstrate that interactions and evaluations are highly influencing factors in autonomous learning and motivations exert high influences on autonomous learning. However, students have low motivation in interaction and evaluation, for they are more extrinsically than intrinsically motivated. And also, collaborative learning is the least influencing factor in the study. To motivate the students, great emphasis should be laid on interactions and evaluation in student's autonomous learning. Moreover, students' negative attitude towards autonomous learning hampers their adaptability to college English blended learning, and, as attitude and motivation are highly related, this deserves equal attention.

The Transition of a School Counseling Program

This chapter outlines the evolution of a Master of School Counseling Program from a traditional in-person model to an asynchronous online program with an integrated field experience component. It utilizes a case study approach to how this transition occurred with an overview of the process and strategies used for the program course redesign presented. The primary goal of the redesign efforts was to sustain efficient student instructor engagement in an online setting while training aspiring school counselors for the complex 21st century educational settings. This chapter also includes a brief literature review of best practices, rubrics used for program development, progress monitoring, and program assessment. Additionally, descriptive data that is presented illustrates the perspectives of adjunct faculty and students in regard to teaching effectiveness, student engagement and satisfaction in an asynchronous fast paced online program.

Using Learning Management Systems to Promote Online Instruction

Learning management systems (LMS) reinforce the learning process through online classroom environments. A standard LMS supports an inclusive learning environment for academic progress with interceding structures that promote online collaborative-groupings, professional training, discussions, and communication among other LMS users. Instructors should balance active learning with the use of LMS technological resources and the use of guidelines from the qualified curriculum. As Murcia stated regarding online environments in 2016, instructors can use an LMS to facilitate and model discussions, plan online activities, set learning expectations, provide learners with options, and assist in problem-solving and decision making, supporting learner engagement through their presence in the LMS; facilitators allow students to retain their autonomy, enthusiasm, and motivation. It is vital that stakeholders of the educational community find scientific studies to support their contributions in LMS platforms to assist scholars in learning mathematics and other academic subjects

The Importance of Social Presence and Strategies for Incorporating It Into an Online Course

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.

Trifecta of Student Engagement

This chapter describes a framework adapted from Michael Moore's three essential areas: student-content interaction, student-student interaction, and student-instructor interaction for engaging students in online courses. To be fully engaged in an online course, students need to be engaged with the course curriculum content, with their peers, and with their instructor. When students are engaged in all three areas, it is referred to as the Trifecta of Student Engagement. This chapter incorporates literature on each area of the Trifecta of Student Engagement: student-to-content engagement, student-to-student engagement, and student-to-instructor engagement as well as some suggested synchronous and asynchronous digital tools.

A Holistic Approach to Integrating ePortfolios as Instructional Methods in Online Programs

The purpose of this chapter is to review a holistic approach to the integration of digital portfolios (“ePortfolios”) as an instructional method in online degree programs. The chapter reviews the evidence-based best practices that support four phases to the integration of ePortfolios as an instructional method in online degree programs: scaffolding, tutorials, course integration, and student engagement. Each phase offers a different way to make a lasting impact on students. The innovative instructional method is not the portfolio itself, the supporting tutorials, or any one piece of the ePortfolio project. Rather, the true innovation is the project as a whole, taking a holistic look at how portfolios fit into the program and how to support the development and evaluation of the portfolio for both students and faculty.

Precision Education

Higher education is a pathway to social equality and mobility. Unfortunately, a great number of students who enter Higher Education are not ready to succeed in rigorous college-level courses and fail as a result or drop out. Our nation has entered a transformative period in higher education brought about by the demands of an evidence-based approach that uses rigorous scientific methodologies designed to capture valid and reliable data to drive student success and improve outcomes. Math literacy especially remains a significant challenge for student success in college, in particular for STEM students. Herein, the author describes an innovative solution that leverages technology and data analytics to expand student success, with a special emphasis on engineering an environment for effective learning, mindset, and motivation.

Exploring Online Learning Through Synchronous and Asynchronous Instructional Methods

Teaching and learning in the online environment are challenging. Students and instructors must employ technological tools and strategies to be successful. Merely having a computer and software does not equate to being technologically literate in the 21st century world of work. Learning how to incorporate virtual reality games, webcams, video conferencing, and brainstorming platforms such as Padlet, Bubbl.us, Zoom, Twitter, Instagram, interactive whiteboards, chat rooms, YouTube, and screencasting videos is encouraged. Polleverywhere, Socrative, and Flubaroo are a few assessments to investigate interest by examining the world of synchronous and asynchronous learning environments. The digital natives of today's classrooms are the future employees of tomorrow's real-life world of work; therefore, organizations must take control of the situation and prepare workers to meet future job demands. The question of how to do so effectively will be answered in this chapter.

Process Considerations for the Development and Assessment of Virtual Education Doctorates

This chapter focuses on the use of a customized backward instructional design process used to re-engineer a virtual university's integration of institutional learning outcomes within a practice-based online dissertation process for a doctorate in education (EdD). The EdD will incorporate specialization areas in instructional design, learning analytics, and e-learning and through a lens of best assessment practices for doctoral education. This program will highlight the unique considerations for virtual environments especially those that incorporate asynchronous instructional elements in program and course design. The education doctorate is leadership-based and practitioner-focused to prepare candidates as scholar practitioners who utilize the learning outcomes for research-based decision making and problem solutions within their scope of practice. A new three chapter dissertation allows candidates to solve a practice-based problem as a culminating doctoral learning activity which will be assessed across institutional outcomes and expectations.

Instructional Design and Online Standards

Online education has a foundation so that beneficial practices can leverage online environments effectively. Besides generic instructional design principles, models of good online instructional design are emerging. These practices and models are codified into online instructional design standards that provide research-based criteria that can be used to measure the degree to which such instructional designs meet those standards and can serve as guidelines of factors to consider when designing online instruction. This chapter provides an overview of instructional design as it applies to online teaching and learning. It also discusses how standards can help improve such instructional design in order to optimize student learning and achievement.