Understanding and Improving Teaching and Learning in the Online Environment

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Understanding and Improving Teaching and Learning
in the Online Environment

• Dr. Catherine Finnegan
• University System of Georgia
• Dr. Libby Morris
• University of Georgia

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Research Setting eCore

• Fully online, collaboratively developed, core
  curriculum courses offered jointly by
  institutions in the University System of Georgia.
  Supported by University System.
• Courses include the humanities, languages, social
  sciences, mathematics, and sciences.
• Over 25 courses and 2,000 enrollments in Spring
  semester
• http//www.gactr.uga.edu/ecore/

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Findings from Four Studies

• Predicting Student Retention Withdrawal
• Tracking Student Behavior Achievement Online
• Examining Student Persistence and Satisfaction
• Perspectives and Activities of Faculty Teaching
  Online

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Underlying Problem Student Retention
Overall eCore Course Enrollment Retention Fall
2000-2005
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Study 1 Predicting Student Retention
Withdrawal

• Purpose
• To investigate student withdrawal and retention
  in eCore courses.
• Research Question
• How well can a students group membership
  (completion withdrawal) be predicted?
• Methodology
• A two group Predictive Discriminant Analysis
  (PDA) is used to predict students withdrawals
  and completions in online courses.
• Authors Morris, Wu, Finnegan (2005)

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Variables

• Two grouping variables
• student completers
• student withdrawers
• Nine predictor variables
• gender, age, verbal ability, math ability, high
  school GPA, current credit hours, institutional
  GPA, locus of control and financial aid

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Model A Two-group PDA Predictive Model, Spring
2002
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Model A Findings

• The most important predictors in Model A were
• high school GPA
• mathematic ability (SAT-math)
• Model A predicted with 62.8 accuracy

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Model B Two-group PDA Predictive Model, Fall 2002
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Model B Findings

• Completers were more likely to receive financial
  aid that withdrawers.
• Financial aid showed significant differences
  between the responses of withdrawers and
  completers (x24.84, df1, plt.05).
• Completers were more likely to have internal
  motivation than withdrawers.
• Locus of control has significant differences
  between the responses of withdrawer and
  completer(x2 4.205, df 1, plt.05).
• Model B predicted with 74.5 accuracy.

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Study 1 Summary

• Students withdraw for a variety of reasons.
• Primary instructional reasons for withdrawing
  included too much work in the online course,
  preferred the classroom environment, and disliked
  online instruction.
• High school GPA and SAT-math were related to
  retention in the online courses.
• Students who completed courses were more likely
  to have received financial aid.
• Students who completed courses were more likely
  to have a higher internal locus of control.

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Study 2 Tracking Student Behavior Achievement
Online

• Purpose
• To examine student behavior by tracking what
  students do online and how long they spend on
  each activity.
• Research Questions
• What are the differences and similarities between
  completers and withdrawers in various measures of
  student behavior online?
• How accurately can achievement be predicted from
  student participation measures in online learning
  courses?
• Methodology
• Analyzed student access tracking logs in WebCT.
  Coded frequency and duration of over 300,000
  student activities.
• Authors Morris, Finnegan, Wu (2005)

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Variables

• Frequency and Duration of
• viewing course content
• viewing discussions
• creating new discussion posts
• responding to discussion posts
• Over 400 students from 13 sections of 3 courses
  over 3 semesters

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Frequency of Learning Activities
Discussion Posts Viewed
Content Pages Viewed
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Frequency of Learning Activities
Follow-up Posts Created
Original Posts Created
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Duration of Learning Activities
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Differences between completers and withdrawers

• Completers had more frequent activity and spent
  more time on task on all 4 measures than
  unsuccessful completers and withdrawers.
• Withdrawers spent significantly less time and had
  less frequent activity than completers on all 4
  measures (pgt.001).
• Significant differences in participation also
  existed between successful and unsuccessful
  completers.

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Multiple Regression Model for Impact of
Participation on Achievement
Successful and Non-Successful Completers n 286
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Participation and Achievement

• The participation model explained 31 of the
  variability in achievement.
• 3 of 8 variables were significant at the plt.05
  level and good predictors of successful
  completion (achievement/grades).
• of content pages viewed
• of discussion posts viewed
• Seconds viewing discussions

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Study 2 Summary

• Time-on-task matters!
• withdrawers engaged significantly less in number
  and duration of activities in an online course.
• Successful completers engaged significantly with
  the online course
• Going repeatedly to content pages (frequency)
• Going repeatedly to discussion posts (frequency)
• Spending significant time reading discussion
  posts (duration)

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Study 3 Understanding Student Persistence and
Satisfaction

• Purpose
• To investigate issues that affect course
  completion, withdrawals, and satisfaction within
  online courses.
• Methodology
• Completers and withdrawers were surveyed.
  (n505, response 22)
• In-depth Interviews
• 8 withdrawers
• 8 completers
• Authors Boop, Morris, Finnegan (2005)

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Successful Completers

• Felt membership in the course.
• Understood course layout, expectations,
  assignments.
• Faculty feedback was important.
• Could overcome course-related problems.
• Used words indicating drive and persistence
  to succeed.

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Convenience

• I much prefer an online class to an in-the-room
  class. I like being able to work at my own pace
  and not having somebody stand over me all the
  time. I dont have a lot of time to spend in a
  classroom setting, so this fills that niche for
  me, so that I can be able to take classes and
  eventually earn my degree.

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Communication

• If the teacher offers you feedback, and she seems
  to be receptive to your asking questions, then
  you tend to ask more questions, and you tend to
  perform better. My teacher set up a time we could
  go chat with her. With four or five of us
  talking, we could have a good discussion.

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Withdrawing Students

• Spoke of being lost confused in the course.
• Needed more managerial and navigational help from
  faculty.
• Didnt understand course goals, expectations,
  assignments or design.
• Needed more explicit help with discussions and
  understanding need for their involvement.

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Unclear Expectations

• The only assignment that had a date was the very
  first one. You didnt know what your expectations
  were, what the instructors expectations were. I
  didnt know when discussions were due - actually
  nobody did- and I am not really sure how other
  people managed within that course.

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Too Much Time

• It seemed like he wanted us to be online every
  day doing something, and being on there for at
  least an hour a day. I didnt think that that was
  fair. Im in my other classes an 1 hour and 15
  minutes, two or three times a week. I didnt feel
  like I should spend more time in there.

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Too Much Work

• Grades should have been based more on
  participation and effort then they actually were.
  I think they only gave 10 or 20 based on
  participation and a lot more on the actual work.
  I dont feel that was the best way to do the
  grades because you are not in the classroom
  setting.

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Study 4 Perspectives and Activities of Faculty
Teaching Online

• Purpose
• To explore the activities and perspectives of
  faculty teaching online.
• Methodology
• Interviewed 13 veteran and novice instructors.
  Analyzed discussions in 10 archived courses.
• Authors Morris, Xu, Finnegan (2005)

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Faculty Comments

• Experienced Faculty
• I always see my role as a facilitator of
  learning.
• I have gotten more efficient. I go back and use
  posts I used previously. I use orientation
  lessons from previous semester.
• Novice Faculty
• They (online students) are forced to learn the
  content on their own.
• I dont feel like Im doing a lot of teaching
  here. I feel like I am doing a lot grading.
• I dont allow it to consume me.

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Different Perceptions of Faculty Roles
Novice faculty engaged mainly in manegerial
roles, while experienced faculty used all three
faculty roles.
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Summary Study 4

• Novice instructors are far less engaged with
  students online.
• Experienced faculty posted with a ratio of 16
  --faculty to student posts
• Experienced faculty interchanged pedagogical,
  managerial, and social roles online
• Students in courses with experienced faculty
  engaged more often in discussions
• Faculty visibility is important to student
  participation.
• Novice faculty need extensive assistance to
  understand online instruction.

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Best Practices Students

• Students should be advised that in online courses
• May be activity and time intensive
• Time on task matters for successful achievement
• Will not be easier for academically marginal (or
  any) students
• Students must be pro-active and engaged
• Students should seek help from their instructor
  to understand course structure and course-related
  objects and objectives.

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Best Practices Faculty

• Monitor/track students participation early in
  the course term provide extra attention
• Understand the role of previous academic
  preparation, student expectations attitudes in
  persistence
• Build community through shared discussion and
  collaboration early in the term
• Have course activities that challenge and engage
  students provide regular feedback
• Understand that course layout and instructions
  are not necessarily intuitive to the students

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Using Data to Understand and Improve

• Trust, but verify
• Accountability merges with accreditation
• Technology allows for individualized outcomes
  monitoring
• Systematic, ongoing, low effort

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Thank You!

• Catherine Finnegan
• Catherine.finnegan_at_usg.edu
• Presentations and Citations Available at
  http//alt.usg.edu