Strategies for Efficient, Meaningful, and Inclusive Online Learning Environments

Students and faculty rely on clear and unambiguous time targets to exchange information and pace their intersecting lives. Most students juggle work, family, and commuting demands, and increasing numbers also struggle with language needs and disabilities, requiring additional and flexible time to grasp the scope of assignments, read and gather information, process concepts into written products, and finally make sense of the experience. It all takes time. In this chapter, practical strategies for structuring time expectations are introduced in the context of a commitment to empower self-regulation and lifelong learning with particular attention to accessibility. The time dimension of each component of the syllabus, assignments, and gradebook are described with examples from a successful online course, with reference to theory and research on student engagement and satisfaction.

Relationships in Online Learning Experiences

A relationship is documented as a personal investment in another's life. Relationships add to learning environments as substantial to the growth of students. In an online learning environment, a relationship is defined by the mutual agreement between an educator and a learner in which expectations of increased knowledge gained through the education experience provided by the educator. It is evident that in an online environment it is vital to consistently evaluate in order to have the enrichment of relationships between student to professors and student to student. Research has shown that the creation of such environments results in a feeling of community and social presence for the students. Student satisfaction extends to the relationship students feel toward their professors. The strength of the student to professor relationship results in a key component in student retention. The method in which the relationships are established and built in an online environment are vital for student satisfaction and retention of students within a program of study.

The Effect of Membership in an Online Cohort Major on Baccalaureate Degree Completion

Attaining an undergraduate college degree contributes to increased employment opportunities and greater compensation, yet many students who enroll fail to graduate within six years, including a growing number of online students. One promising model for increasing retention is cohort education, in which students take multiple courses together as a group. This chapter uses a quantitative data analysis to examine the relationship between membership in an online cohort major and degree completion of baccalaureate students. The study population includes students at a Midwestern university that offers online programs in cohort and non-cohort formats. Study results show a significant positive relationship between membership in an online cohort major and baccalaureate degree completion. The results suggest that higher education leaders seeking to improve baccalaureate degree completion rates may benefit from offering online courses in a cohort format.

The Transition From Teaching F2F to Online

As online education continues to grow, more and more faculty find themselves transitioning from teaching face-to-face to online environments. Unsurprisingly, this can be challenging for many faculty as they go through this process. This book chapters examines the experience of a faculty member who transitioned from teaching exclusively face-to-face to online and lessons learned are shared. Additionally, four students share their experience learning online and provide recommendations to faculty members.

A Framework for Student Engagement

When teaching online, many instructors are provided with a master course that contains the learning materials, discussion forums, assignments, and assessments. With more higher education institutions opting to offer master course shells, it can be difficult for instructors to know how to incorporate their personality, experiences, and insights into a pre-designed course. Faculty who teach online may be searching for ideas on how to personalize their master course and increase student engagement. Many faculty express concerns about students who are disconnected. Personalization of master courses increases student engagement while allowing students and instructors to feel more connected during the course. The authors will explore best practices to increase student engagement and provide a framework to implement these strategies that assist online instructors in demonstrating their personalities and expertise in master courses.

Comprehensive Faculty Development

There is a significant need for faculty development and support as it relates to online teaching. Researchers assert that the success of online education may be a direct result of the training and support of the institution's faculty. Higher education institutions implement a variety of online faculty development practices; however, little is known about which practices are seen as the most effective and efficient. In this chapter, the authors propose a strategic approach to building a comprehensive faculty development program that supports and engages online faculty from initial hire and beyond. The purpose of this chapter is to provide new insights to support faculty. The authors identify evidence-based strategies to incorporate adjunct and full-time online faculty into the university community. In addition, the authors share their experiences developing a comprehensive faculty development plan.

The Effectiveness of Gamification on Student Engagement, Learning Outcomes, and Learning Experiences

Gamification has been widely used in the higher education to enhance users' learning experiences through the integration of game-like elements into the course materials. This study explores whether and how different levels of gamification in the instructional methods will influence student engagement with the course, overall learning experiences with the course, and learning outcomes with the course materials. The findings suggest that, among four indices to measure the success of gamification, three out of four show the positive gamification effects with a highly gamified class leads to higher level of student engagement than no or lowly gamified classes. The same positive gamification effects can be found in students' overall learning experience. Highly gamified classes result in better student learning outcomes as measured by their grades at different data collection points. Limitations of this study include small class sizes and no statistically significant results and only two gamified elements used. Implications and discussions were presented.

Flexible Higher Education Through Swayam

Challenges in MOOC education for both practical and theoretical courses are identified by the researchers, both experimentally and through a case study. The insights brought by empirical studies helped researchers to propose a framework to make higher education in engineering and management truly online and tuition free. The objective of this chapter is to propose a flexible online degree framework through SWAYAM or any other online platform being approved by education regulator. The process involving course enrollment, learning, evaluation, and outcome is contained in the proposed flexible system that leads to tuition free online degrees. The proposed system not only gives students a freedom to choose their courses in accordance with their flexibility but also use earned credit towards online degrees of any university of their choice.

Closing the Distance in Distance Learning

This chapter will outline various best practices to assist instructors in closing the distance for online students. Topics include the theory of transactional distance as well as creating an engaging learning environment and overall student satisfaction. Best practices include live conferencing, instant communication tools, effective feedback, group discussions, announcements and reminders, the ease of using an online learning platform, and establishing personal connections. This chapter also provides examples and practical applications for technology in the online learning environment.

Expectations, Experiences, and Preferences of Students in a Dual Mode Program

While online-only programs are increasingly common, many universities today offer dual mode programs with both online and on campus cohorts undertaking the same program at the same time. This results in students having a range of experiences along a continuum from fully online study to a mix of online and face-to-face study. This research aimed to develop an understanding of preferences, expectations, and experiences of students enrolled in a dual mode postgraduate coursework program in Australia. Outcomes are presented in themes along with rich description and explanation that capture different facets of recurring singular ideas delineating the experiences of students in relation to their learning in a flexible dual mode. The research findings provide insight into the student experience of online study as well as the broader experience of study in a dual mode cohort.