Rio @ EDUCAUSE - Understanding and Improving Learning in the Online Environment

Presenters:
Dr. Catherine Finnegan - Univ. of Georgia
Dr. Libby Morris - Institute of Higher Education, University of Georgia
Available at http://alt.usg.edu

eCore http://www.georgiacenter.uga.edu/ecore/

Fully online—developed with ID for undergraduate GE courses and jointly offered by the University System of Georgia. It is a “vanilla core” of GE courses that include Spanish, Humanities, English.
They are fully online--capped at 36 students.  16 weeks--75 days.

• Courses are developed by people other than the instructors
• Highly structured
• Pre-prepared instructional activities
• Faculty are self-identified with a mix of experience, tenure status, etc.
• Faculty get training

The underlying problem is Online Student Retention --Fall 2004 around 67% retention--what they have learned about students and faculty online

Predicting Retention
Research question:  How well can a student's group membership be predicted?
Used a two group variable--student completers and student withdrawers--nine predictor variables--gender, age, verbal ability, math ability, HS GPA, current credit hourse, overall GPA, locus of control  (Locus of Control Instrument administered online) and finanacial aid.

Results:  Could predict with a 68% accuracy with the variables--HS GPA and
SAT in Math were the best predictors.  The second model had a 75% accuracy of predictability--students who were more likely to complete had a higher personal locus of control and had financial aid.

Participation and Achievement
Research question: What differences and similarities in student online behavior? 
Looked at frequency and duration of online interaction--viewing content, discussions, posting discussion points and responses.  N=over 300,000

Results:  Completers had more frequent acitivity and spent more time on task on all 4 measures than non-suyccessful completer and withdrawers--by almost two times the rate.Students who went back to the syllabus or other pages--during the class--completed--and also spent almost double the time spent during a term.  There is a significant difference in the amount of time spent on task.  Regression model used for achievement...participation explained 31%.  The number of content pages viewed, the number of discussion points view, and number of resposes to posts were predictors.  Time on task matters!

Student Persistence and Satisfaction
Question--affect of course completion on withdrawals and satisfaction within online courses--survey and qualitative interviews--8 completers--8 quitters. 

Results: The qualitative data showed a high internal locus of control and perseverence.  They stuck it out.  Students felt that faculty involvement and encouragement helped them stick to the class.  Getting to know other students, an instructor that knows how to teach online...Self-reliant students are completers--drive and perisistence to succeed.  The course design was understood and followed by the students.  When students had problems, they went to the faculty to ask for help--students wanted faculty feedback that helped them feel membership in the course. Withdrawers were more likely to be enrolled in their first online course.  Early withdrawers were less clear about what was expected of them. Half of the withdrawers did so in the first two weeks.
Bottom line:  Student behavior, faculty behavior, and course design matter.

Faculty Perspectives and Behaviors
Question:  Looked at 13 faculty in 7 disciplines--qualitative research--semi-structured interviews.
Faculty participation varies by course.  Novice instructors did not engage with the students as much as the experienced instructors did--in terms of feedback.  The roles of the instructor Berge (1995)  Pedagogical, social, managerial and technological roles of faculty.  They didn't look at the technological role. 

Results: The novice instructors didn't understand these roles--engaging mainly in managerial roles, while experienced faculty used all three faculty roles.  Experienced faculty use previous lessons--they teach.  Novice faculty don't feel like they are teaching--"I don't feel like I'm doing a lost of teeaching here.  I feel like I am doing a lot of grading."   Novice instructors didn't understand the importance of their role--focusing on the managerial role.  The experienced faculty were very engaged with students and did the pedagogical role. 

Putting it all together:

Students

• Advisement of what an online course is about is very important for students. 
• it is time intensive
• time on task matters
• it will not be easier fo the academically mariginal  student (or any student)Know the expectations of the course

http://alt.usg.edu/sort

Adjunct Faculty:

• Need to understand the roles
• Need to monitor and track student participation early-on in the course and provide extra attention
• Need to understand the course layout and instructions are not necessarily intuitive to the students
• Need to build community through shared discussion and collaboration early in the course
• Provide timely feedback--being knowledgable and accissible
• Having course activities that challenge and engage the students--paying attention to the quantity and quality of the course

Instituional Effectiveness can:

• Collect good data on student information, assessment information, student activity information
• Analyze the data
• Disseminate the collected data

Rio Application/Brainstorming:

• It would be nice to duplicate or modify this study, but I don't know if we can grab the data in our present system.  We may have to wait until PeopleSoft is available.
• The identity of the faculty role is a critical factor in how the course is deployed.  Are they graders or teachers?