Research Annotations

Records: 322

Toward ‘Hybridized’ Faculty Development for the Twenty-First Century: Blending online communities of practice and face-to-face meetings in instructional and professional support programmes

Catherine Brooks

APA Citation

Brooks, C. F. (2010). Toward ‘hybridized’ faculty development for the twenty-first century: Blending online communities of practice and face-to-face meetings in instructional and professional support programmes. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 47, 261-270.

Annotation

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Training for Faculty who Teach Online

David Batts     Leslie Pagliari     William Mallett     Cheryl McFadden

APA Citation

Batts, D., Pagliari, L., Mallett, W., McFadden, C. (2010). Training for faculty who teach online. Community College Enterprise, 16, 21-31.

Annotation

Numbers of students enrolled in online courses are highest at community colleges where “over 50% of students take online courses” (p. 21). This study sought to find out what, if any, online instructional design training community college online teachers engaged in. 404 instructors from 8 different community colleges in North Carolina took the survey. Results indicate more training for online teachers is necessary at community colleges. As only 10% of survey takers were involved in on-campus . . . online education mentorship programs, the authors suggest mentorship programs could “provide critical support and the valuable sharing of knowledge among faculty who teach online” (p. 29).

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Using Clinical Teaching Assistants to Foster Student Engagement in Online Courses

Kerry Gatlin     Paulette Alexander

APA Citation

Gatlin, K., & Alexander, P. (2010). Using clinical teaching assistants to foster student engagement in online courses. Journal of Instructional Pedagogies, 41, 1-14.

Annotation

This article details the use of clinical teaching assistants (TAs with at least master’s degrees and professional work experience) in large enrollment courses (over 40 students) in the University of North Alabama MBA program. Clinical teaching assistants were responsible for providing feedback, assist in grading and cultivating student engagement – primarily through discussion boards. Over 300 students were polled from six different core MBA courses. 70% of students felt clinical teaching . . . assistants led to an increase in personal participation. Over half (56%) of the polled students felt more engaged in the larger online sections than in smaller F2F sections.

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Using Smartphones and Facebook in a Major Assessment: The student experience

Elisa Backer

APA Citation

Backer, E. (2010). Using smartphones and Facebook in a major assessment: The student experience. E-Journal of Business Education & Scholarship of Teaching, 4, 19-31.

Annotation

This qualitative study looked at the effect of smartphones and Facebook on student motivation, responsibility and learning. 12 students were interviewed and 11 of the 12 respondents felt smartphones and Facebook increased levels of motivation. One other finding of note was that not all students were tech savvy as only 3 initially had Facebook pages and many experienced tech issues throughout the semester. Despite this, 9 of the 12 still felt that the use of technology “enhanced their learning . . . experience” throughout the semester (p. 28).

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What’s going on with young people today? The long and twisting path to adulthood

R. A. Setterson     B. Ray

APA Citation

Setterson, R.A., & Ray, B. (2010). What’s going on with young people today? The long and twisting path to adulthood. Future of Children, 20, 19-41.

Annotation

The transition between childhood and adulthood has changed over the past several decades. The authors of this paper trace this change and the reasons for it. Of note, the authors find economic stability to be a central reason for the increased time to adulthood in recent cohorts compared to cohorts from the 1950s. With more ability to gain economic prosperity and a reliable and sustainable income and employment, people are more likely to move out of their parents’ house at a younger age. . . . However, when financial instability is present – whether on macro or micro scales – young people are more likely to leave their parents’ house at older ages. This lengthening of the time to independent adulthood leads to increased financial burden on their parents, who are supporting their offspring for longer periods of time than was planned.
The authors also take time to explore the difficulties of institutions that have historically played a role in helping young adults move into independent lives. These intuitions include residential colleges, community colleges, the military, and national service programs. As such, the authors suggest examining the current institutions and creating new ones that “reflect more accurately the realities of a longer and more complex passage into adult life” (p 19).

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A Meta-Analysis of Three Types of Interaction Treatments in Distance Education

Robert Berneard     Philip Abrami     Eugene Borokhovski     Anne Wade     Rana Tamin     Michael Surkes     Edward Bethel

APA Citation

Bernard, R. M., Abrami, P. C., Borokhovski, E., Wade, C. A., Tamim, R. M., Surkes, M. A., & Bethel, E. C. (2009). A meta-analysis of three types of interaction treatments in distance education. Review of Educational research, 79(3), 1243-1289.

Annotation

Meta-analysis gain popularity in the realm of distance education (DE) research as it synthesize comparative studies of classroom interaction (CI) and interactions in DE settings. This study shed light on the significance of DE to DE comparison and shows design and implementation of within DE can make a difference in student learning and satisfaction. Three types of interaction are identified: Student-student (SS), student-teacher(ST), and student-content(SC) interactions. The result of . . . meta-analysis indicates that ST interaction are less effective compared to other two interactions. The authors assume this is because of complicated implementation of ST interaction. They also found that overall interaction treatment improved students’ achievement. Especially combination of SS interaction and SC interaction as well as ST interaction and SC interaction were significant, but SS interaction and ST interaction was not. Asynchronous, synchronous and mixed distance types of distance education made no difference on student achievement but mixed distance education falls behind when it comes to student attitude. Also, meta-analysis indicates that strength of student-content interactions in asynchronous setting affects more than other settings.

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Assessing the Online Learning: Resources and strategies for faculty

Rena Palloff     Keith Pratt

APA Citation

Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2009). Assessing the online learner: Resources and strategies for faculty (Vol. 7). John Wiley & Sons.

Annotation

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Crossing the Finish Line: Completing college at America’s public universities

William G. Bowen     Matthew M. Chingos     Michael S. McPherson

APA Citation

Bowen, W. G., Chingos, M. M., & McPherson, M. S. (2009). Crossing the finish line: Completing college at America’s public universities (Vol. 52). Princeton University Press.

Annotation

This book analyzes patterns of educational attainment as it is shaping both individuals’ life trajectory and economic prospect of this country. The first chapter focuses on disparities of educational attainment across race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or gender among full-time undergraduate students in public universities. Whether the disparities are narrowed over the past 25 years is discussed in the chapter 2. In chapter 3, the authors direct readers attention to details of new dataset . . . about graduation rates across student sub-groups. They employ hazard rate model to recognize when the withdrawals happen. Chapter 4 examines sub-group difference in other academic variables, such as choice of academic majors, grades, and time to degree completion. The authors found moderate difference across student sub groups. Chapter 5 sheds light on the issue of “undermatching,” mismatch between the level of college preparation in high school and the level of university the students actually get in. Chapter 6 investigates the measures of student ability, SAT/ACT tests, grades and subject specific achievement tests. Chapter 7 engages in comparison between transfer students and students who entered as a freshman. Chapter 8 gives a overview on financial aid programs and chapter 9 address whether need-based grant aid affect graduation rate. Chapter 10 focuses on institutional characteristic on graduation rates. Chapter 11 looks at underrepresented students (especially black men and hispanic students, student from low-SES background ), and discuss institutional interventions that could help persistence. Chapter 12 suggests possibility to transform national programs that grant financial aids.

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Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies

Barbara Means     Yukie Toyama     Robert Murphy     Marianne Bakia     Karla Jones

APA Citation

Means, B., Toyama, Y., Murphy, R., Bakia, M., & Jones, K. (2009). Evaluation of evidence-based practices in online learning: A meta-analysis and review of online learning studies.

Annotation

Addresses four research questions:
1. How does the effectiveness of online learning compare with that of face-to face instruction?
2. Does supplementing face-to-face instruction with online instruction enhance learning?
3. What practices are associated with more effective online learning?
4. What conditions influence the effectiveness of online learning?
The main finding from the literature review was that
• Few rigorous research studies of the effectiveness of online learning for K–12 . . . students have been published. A systematic search of the research literature from 1994 through 2006 found no experimental or controlled quasi-experimental studies comparing the learning effects of online versus face-to-face instruction for K–12 students that provide sufficient data to compute an effect size. A subsequent search that expanded the time frame through July 2008 identified just five published studies meeting meta-analysis
criteria. The meta-analysis of 51 study effects, 44 of which were drawn from research with older learners,
found that:
• Students who took all or part of their class online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through traditional face-to-face instruction. Learning outcomes for students who engaged in online learning exceeded those of students receiving face-to-face instruction, with an average effect size of +0.24 favoring online conditions.
Instruction combining online and face-to-face elements had a larger advantage relative to purely face-to-face instruction than did purely online instruction.
Studies in which learners in the online condition spent more time on task than students in the face-to-face condition found a greater benefit for online learning.
The effectiveness of online learning approaches appears quite broad across different content and learner types.
Effect sizes were larger for studies in which the online and face-to-face conditions varied in terms of curriculum materials and aspects of instructional approach in addition to the medium of instruction.
Blended and purely online learning conditions implemented within a single study
generally result in similar student learning outcomes.
Elements such as video or online quizzes do not appear to influence the amount that students learn in online classes.
Online learning can be enhanced by giving learners control of their interactions with media and prompting learner reflection.
Providing guidance for learning for groups of students appears less successful than does using such mechanisms with individual learners.
These studies DO NOT show that online learning is superior as a medium
In addition, although the types of research designs used by the studies in the meta-analysis were strong (i.e., experimental or controlled quasi-experimental), many of the studies suffered from weaknesses such as small sample sizes, failure to report retention rates for students in the
conditions being contrasted, and, in many cases, potential bias stemming from the authors’ dual roles as experimenters and instructors.

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Evaluation of Evidence-based Practices in Online Learning: A meta-analysis and review of online learning studies.

B. Means     Y. Toyama     R. Murphy     M. Bakia     K. Jones

APA Citation

Means, B., Toyama, Y., Murphy, R., Bakia, M., & Jones, K. (2009). Evaluation of evidence-based practices in online learning: A meta-analysis and review of online learning studies., U.S Department of Education.

Annotation

This report by the Department of Education performs meta-analyses on online-based classes within the existing literature as of 2009. The report also contains implications for K-12 education.

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