A retrospective look at replacing face‐to‐face embryology instruction with online lectures in a human anatomy course

Embryology is integrated into the Clinically Oriented Anatomy course at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine. Before 2008, the same instructor presented embryology in 13 face‐to‐face lectures distributed by organ systems throughout the course. For the 2008 and 2009 offerings of the course, a hybrid embryology instruction model with four face‐to‐face classes that supplemented online recorded lectures was used. One instructor delivered the lectures face‐to‐face in 2007 and by online videos in 2008–2009, while a second instructor provided the supplemental face‐to‐face classes in 2008–2009. The same embryology learning objectives and selected examination questions were used for each of the three years. This allowed direct comparison of learning outcomes, as measured by examination performance, for students receiving only face‐to‐face embryology instruction versus the hybrid approach. Comparison of the face‐to‐face lectures to the hybrid approach showed no difference in overall class performance on embryology questions that were used all three years. Moreover, there was no differential effect of the delivery method on the examination scores for bottom quartile students. Students completed an end‐of‐course survey to assess their opinions. They rated the two forms of delivery similarly on a six‐point Likert scale and reported that face‐to‐face lectures have the advantage of allowing them to interact with the instructor, whereas online lectures could be paused, replayed, and viewed at any time. These experiences suggest the need for well‐designed prospective studies to determine whether online lectures can be used to enhance the efficacy of embryology instruction. Anat Sci Educ 7: 234–241. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

Instructor–Learner Interaction in Online Courses: The relative perceived importance of particular instructor actions on performance and satisfaction

This article examines the relative perceived importance of 19 instructor actions in online courses according to both instructors and students. The instructor actions were culled from guidelines in the online learning literature base and then reviewed and rated by 14 experts. Thirty‐two online instructors and 170 students from their classes at a large public university and a private online university were asked to review and rate these guidelines. Findings show that the instructors believe that learner performance is more likely tied to instructor actions that are focused on course content and provide both proactive (models, expectations) and reactive (feedback) information to learners about their ability to demonstrate knowledge of course material, but learner satisfaction is more likely tied to learners’ feeling that their interpersonal communication needs are met. Learners rated items focused on communication needs and being treated as individuals as most important, aligning their stated preferences with the instructors’ perceptions of what actions are most satisfying to online learners.     

Mastering course content and learner satisfaction in early childhood education: A comparison of regular classroom instruction with three variations of internet delivery*

Abstract

In the spring semester 2000, a Penn State course, ECE 479 (The Young Child's Play as Educative Process), was taught by the same instructor in four delivery formats. One group consisted of a regular classroom, held on campus. A second group, also on campus, was taught in a computer lab via the Internet; and there were opportunities for interaction with peers and the instructor. A third group took the course on the Internet as part of a local distance education group; hence, there were some limited opportunities for face‐to‐face interaction with peers and the instructor. The fourth group took the course on the Internet, as part of a statewide distance education group, where there were no opportunities for face‐to‐face interaction. Twenty students who enrolled in the course (5 per group) completed questionnaires and phone interviews. Information was gathered on professional backgrounds, computer experience, and initial level of content knowledge on the topic of the ECE Internet course. Sixteen students who completed the course were interviewed again to evaluate satisfaction with the course and to estimate learning outcomes. Across the four conditions general satisfaction was expressed with the content, activities, and course requirements and with the teacher. However, students in the three computer groups expressed dissatisfaction over technical problems (all four who did not complete the course came from these computer groups). Significant gains in content knowledge occurred for the classroom group, while the learning in the three Internet‐based instruction groups did not show the same gains. Concern was expressed related to the lack of face‐to‐face interaction, making the learning environment less desirable. Although Internet technology provides a great deal of promise, these results suggest that improvements are needed to make this delivery modality more effective for in‐service distance learning. © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

     

Students’ experience of synchronous learning in distributed environments

This article reports on a two-year ethnographic study of learners participating in multi-site, graduate-level education classes. Classes sometimes met face-to-face in the same physical location; at other times part of the class met physically elsewhere. Yet all were linked through the virtual space. Ethnographic analysis of four data types explored how the instructor and students were able to interact through videoconferencing technologies. Most of the interaction occurred between the local and distance learners by way of cultural guides, local students assigned to host a distance learner through Google Video chat. The distance learners were able to receive real-time attention from the instructor and were able to share differing perspectives that contributed to increased satisfaction in the course. These interactions allowed for a dynamic collaborative effort among a diverse set of actors in the field of education.     

Evaluation of e‐learning outcomes: experience from an online psychotherapy education programme

SEPTIMUS is a one‐year Europe‐wide postgraduate theoretical course for psychotherapists and counsellors provided entirely via the Internet. It may be used as part of a training course, with face‐to‐face elements provided locally, or for continuing professional development. The course was developed at the University of Sheffield in collaboration with psychotherapy training institute partners in seven other European countries. Two studies involving 167 SEPTIMUS students and 60 comparable face‐to‐face students were undertaken. ? Study 1. Drop‐out rates for the SEPTIMUS programme were found to be low, and comparison between those dropping out and those completing did not highlight any significant factors linked to distance learning. However, students cited finance, distance from training centre, lack of practical experience, family commitments and the intensity of their working weeks as having been barriers to taking face‐to‐face learning courses in the past.

? Study 2. SEPTIMUS students (e‐learners) were compared with students taking comparable attending (face‐to‐face) theoretical courses also being provided by partners in the project to psychotherapy trainees. Significant differences were found in distance from training institute and ability to visit training institute. SEPTIMUS students had higher levels of computer ownership, frequency of Internet use and IT skills than attenders; these factors when examined in Study 1 did not have an impact on the drop‐out rate of e‐learners.

e‐Learning can overcome barriers to traditional learning in psychotherapy, particularly distance from a training centre, without loss of student satisfaction or student performance. Factors sometimes thought to be obstacles to e‐learning, such as information technology skills, were not found to be significant barriers – although they may have affected recruitment. Certain aspects of e‐learning, such as the tendency to facilitate self‐disclosure, were found to be very beneficial, particularly in the context of psychotherapy programmes.     

Making the written word “speak”: Reflections on the teaching of correspondence courses

Abstract

Learning outcomes for an interactive television‐based distance learning course in introductory high school Japanese were evaluated in three successive years by comparing student achievement in the distance learning course to that in traditional classes. Year‐end achievement tests of listening and written language competency were administered to students in both the distance and face‐to‐face courses. Results in the first two years showed that test scores of students in the distance learning course were higher than those of students in the face‐to‐face classes; however, possible group differences in motivation, general ability, and experience as language learners could not be ruled out as explanations for the difference. Therefore, achievement measures were supplemented in the third year with data on students’ perceived efficacy as Japanese language users, their grades, and their previous foreign language learning experience. The achievement data again showed differences favoring the distance learning group; trends were consistent for students with differing levels of school success and amount of prior language learning experience. Factors that could account for these results are hypothesized and suggestions for future research are proposed.     

Utilizing a Simulation Exercise to Illustrate Critical Inventory Management Concepts

Most undergraduate business students simply do not appreciate the elegant mathematical beauty of inventory models. So how does an instructor capture students’ interest and keep them engaged in the learning process when teaching inventory management concepts? This paper describes a competitive and energizing in‐class simulation game that introduces students to basic inventory management concepts. This hands‐on, active‐learning exercise presents students with a simulated single‐product inventory environment that requires them to make ordering decisions in an attempt to minimize the total relevant inventory costs in the face of variable demand.     

Ghanaian mature students’ motivation to pursue degree programmes through distance education

Mature distance education students in Ghana, like part-time students all over the world, need to be motivated in order to enjoy their studies and succeed in what they do. In order to come up with incentives for such learners to join and complete a course, universities have to be aware of the characteristics and the socio-economic background of this group of learners and use an approach that best suits their needs at any given time. Based on Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci’s self-determination theory, the authors of this article investigate the factors that motivate mature students to engage in distance education and how their motivation is sustained throughout their studies. Using a survey questionnaire, the authors collected data from 210 mature distance education students (106 males and 104 females; aged 30+) of the University of Ghana. Interestingly, some of the authors’ findings depart from the norm in terms of adult learners’ motivations and what extant literature holds as typified in the work of Ryan and Deci. Adult learners more generally are described in the literature as being mainly intrinsically motivated (e.g. by the desire to learn for its own sake, for the enjoyment it provides, or the feelings of accomplishment it evokes). Interestingly, this survey reveals that mature distance education students who were enrolled in a higher education programme offered by the University of Ghana were mainly extrinsically motivated, giving career development as their top reason for course selection.     

Developing a university course for online delivery based on learning objects: from ideals to compromises

A course instructor and his assistant at Athabasca University investigated whether the process of transferring interoperable learning objects from online repositories facilitated course production, both pedagogically and economically. They examined the efficiency of the objects‐assembly method from several perspectives while developing an online university course based on learning objects for this, one of Canada's leading online and distance education institutions. The two researchers examined issues that confronted them as they gathered, assessed, repaired, assembled and created learning objects. When their search for suitable objects appeared fruitless, they questioned assumptions made by theoreticians and visionaries about pedagogical and economic efficiencies associated with the objects‐assembly metaphor and production. They highlighted this metaphor's failure to guide their course design based on learning objects in a climate of uncertainty and explained the nature of the compromise that eventually compelled them to acquire a proprietary online delivery system.     

The Impact of Coordination Methods on the Enhancement of Business Writing

Universities with limited resources are being pressured to cover more material within their degree programs. Because of this, schools are looking to integrate material from different classes. This paper sets out to determine if students can learn business writing within the context of another class, specifically, an information systems class. The goal is to eliminate the need for a separate business‐writing course. However, the students will have to learn the material with limited support in order not to place an additional load on the instructor. This study investigates whether individuals can develop their business‐writing skills during the course of repeated group work and whether there are differences in the level of their learning, based on collaborative media. The results show that individuals can learn business‐writing skills with a minimum of support through direct instruction. In addition, there is no difference between individuals working in face‐to‐face (F2F) groups and those working in groups using electronic collaborative work (ECW) systems.     

Course Factors that Motivate Students to Submit End-of-Course Evaluations

We surveyed students (N = 152) in several sections of an undergraduate educational psychology course to determine what course factors would most motivate them to submit course evaluations. The survey directed students to choose among several pairs of course characteristics as to their relative impact on their decision to submit a course evaluation. After tabulating their choices, we ranked the course characteristics for the total sample and then for various demographic and performance subgroups. In general, students indicated that positive aspects of a course would motivate them to submit course evaluations more than would negative aspects.     

Sense of community in a higher education television-based distance education program

The purpose of this study was to measure sense of classroom community in a television-based higher education distance education course and in the same course taught by the same instructor in a traditional face-to-face learning environment, in order to determine if differences existed and if so to identify the nature of these differences. Participants for this study consisted of 120 adult learners who were enrolled in either of two sections of a semester-long undergraduate educational technology course offered by an urban state university. One section was taught tradiationally and the other section was taught to a small studio audience and at a distance to 24 remote classroom sites using synchronous one-way television and two-way audio technologies. Study results revealed a significantly lower sense of classroom community among learners in the distance education course, to include the studio audience.     

Technology‐enhanced learning in higher education: How to enhance student engagement through blended learning

Blended learning has risen in popularity in the last two decades as it has been shown to be an effective approach for accommodating an increasingly diverse student population in higher education and enriching the learning environment by incorporating online teaching resources. Blending significant elements of the learning environment such as face‐to‐face, online and self‐paced learning leads to better student experiences and outcomes and more efficient teaching and course management practices if combined appropriately. Hence, an appropriate systematic and dynamic approach of blended learning design is crucial for a positive outcome, starting with planning for integrating blended elements into a course and creating blended activities and implementing them. Evaluating their effectiveness and knowing in which environments they work better and improving the blended activities designed from both the student’s and instructor’s perspective are critical for the next delivery of the course. This article aims to increase awareness of higher education educators about how traditional face‐to‐face learning can be transformed into blended courses so as to develop student engagement with both in‐class and online approaches, whilst being time effective for the instructor.     

Effectiveness of using learner‐centered principles on student retention in distance education courses in rural schools

This article examines the effectiveness of training facilitators in secondary schools to follow APA learner‐centered principles to support learners in distance education. The study was a cluster‐randomized control trial with 36 match pairs of schools and 246 students in the rural USA. The schools were selected at random and assigned at random to treatment condition. Instructors were blind to the treatment condition as were the local facilitators and schools. Data on length of time spent in the course and whether students completed the semester were analyzed. The results indicated that students in the intervention condition completed the first semester at a statistically higher rate than control students where facilitators did not have this training. The number of weeks students remained in the course was likewise statistically different with students in the intervention condition staying in the course more weeks holding instructor constant.     

Face‐to‐face versus distance learning: psychological consequences and practical implications

Distance learners were found to differ from face‐to‐face learners in that they were more ‘isolated’ and experienced lower levels of self‐confidence. They also displayed a higher desire for structure in their learning materials, and this was interpreted as a tactic for dealing with their more difficult learning situation. If distance educators react simply by providing the desired structure, they necessarily neglect certain desirable educational goals such as fostering willingness to organize one's own learning or to evaluate one's own work. For these reasons, it is preferable to try to develop teaching and learning approaches which help students master their difficulties, rather than accepting the difficulties as a limiting factor in distance learning settings.     

Hybrid E‐Learning Acceptance Model: Learner Perceptions

E‐learning tools and technologies have been used to supplement conventional courses in higher education institutions creating a “hybrid” e‐learning module that aims to enhance the learning experiences of students. Few studies have addressed the acceptance of hybrid e‐learning by learners and the factors affecting the learners’ satisfaction with these tools. This study assesses hybrid e‐learning acceptance by learners using three critical success factors: instructor characteristics, information technology infrastructure, and organizational and technical support. Structural equation modeling was applied to examine and validate the hypothesized relationships among the three factors and their effects on learners’ acceptance of hybrid e‐learning. A total of 538 usable responses from university students were used to validate the proposed research model. The influence of the three factors on learners’ decision to accept hybrid e‐learning was empirically examined. The results show that all three factors significantly and directly impacted the learners’ acceptance of hybrid e‐learning courses. Information technology infrastructure and organizational support were proven to be key determinants of the instructor characteristics as a critical success factor of hybrid e‐learning acceptance by learners. Implications of this work for higher education institutions, researchers, and instructors are described.     

为什么辍学——对远程开放教育学习者的访谈调查

本文以网络访谈的形式,探寻远程开放教育学习者辍学的影响因素。通过对辍学生、好学生两个组别的对比访谈,研究发现,辍学者相比在学者可能面临更不利的处境。影响学习者放弃学业的原因主要有工学矛盾、经济压力、自主学习能力低,以及学习困难,而且这几个要素之间并不相互独立,它们之间有着密切的联系与影响。研究针对发现的关键要素,提出了远程教育机构的政策取向与作为方向。     

The Effects of Videoconferencing,Class Size,and Learner Characteristics on Training Outcomes

ABSTRACT We examined direct and interaction effects of learners' characteristics (cognitive ability, prior knowledge, prior experience, and motivation to learn) and classroom characteristics (videoconferencing and class size) on learning from a 16-week course. A 2times2 quasi-experimental design varied the class size between large (∼60 students) and small (∼30 students) and between traditional classes with the instructor always present and classes taught using a videoconferencing system with the instructor present at each site every other week. Theory regarding instructor immediacy was used to predict that larger and videoconferenced classes would have negative effects on learner reactions and learning, but that highly motivated learners would overcome the negative effects on learning. Interactions between videoconferencing and motivation to learn, and class size and motivation to learn, were found in support of the theory. Research and practice implications are discussed.     

Comparing student,instructor, classroom and institutional data to evaluate a seven-year department-wide science education initiative

We compared seven unrelated data-sets to evaluate a major education improvement initiative. Perceptions of students in 54 course sections were surveyed regarding the helpfulness of 39 specific teaching or learning strategies, and relative workloads and enthusiasm were compared to their other courses. Classes were observed using an established protocol, instructors completed a teaching practices inventory, and their experience with evidence-based pedagogies was established. A graduation exit survey provided longitudinal indications of changes prior to the study, and institutional student ratings of instruction were obtained. This study sought to determine whether improvements were consistently revealed by these data, how perceptions depended upon class size, course improvement model and instructor experience, and whether student ratings captured consistent perceptions about effectiveness. Overall, results compared favourably. Student perceptions and observed effectiveness depended mainly upon class size and improvement strategy. Students found experiences more effective in courses taught by experienced instructors and in classes observed to be more active. Relative workloads were not correlated with any measure of effectiveness while relative enthusiasm was higher in courses perceived to be more effective. Student ratings were consistent with other data-sets, although they did not provide information specific enough for informing further improvements.     

Learning Studios for Introductory Accounting

Although originally designed for science courses, learning studios have been introduced at over 100 college campuses in a variety of disciplines. Our study focuses on the differences between classrooms designed as lecture spaces versus classrooms designed as learning studios. The impetus is the growing number of learning studios and proponents’ claim of better collaboration and learning within them. Given the substantial cost of a learning studio and greater demand at the authors’ university than supply, we questioned whether the university administration should be encouraged to build more. Learning studios are classrooms in which the seating arrangement places the students in a face‐to‐face orientation with one another. Our study measures the differences between learning studios and traditional classrooms both quantitatively and qualitatively. The learning studio did not result in higher retention rates (the percentage of students completing the course during the semester) or significant differences in total points earned by students in a learning studio compared to a traditional classroom. When examined by gender, however, a significant difference in total points is apparent. For all students in the study, the ability to interact with other students as well as the instructor was greater in the learning studio.