Research Annotations

Records: 322

Effective Instruction and College Student Persistence: Some new evidence

E. T. Pascarella     T. A. Seifert     E. J. Whitt

APA Citation

Pascarella, E. T., Seifert, T. A., & Whitt, E. J. (2008). Effective instruction and college student persistence: Some new evidence. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, (115), 55-70.

Annotation

Students who are exposed to well organized and clear instructions are positive indicators for first-year college students to enroll in a second year. This is true even holding post-graduation education plans and cumulative GPA after the first year when holding other variables constant including ACT scores and other experiences and involvements.
Because classroom organization and instructional organization is important to retention, faculty-to-student interactions are highly important for . . . students to reenroll in a second year of college. As such, it is seen that positive-faculty interaction and positive experiences in the classroom are salient issues when students are deciding to continue their education at an intuition. For this reason, the researchers suggest increased resources be spent on faculty pedagogical and teaching skills and training.
This study was done as an extension of Braxton, Bray, and Berger (2000), and follows 1,353 first-year students at a large midwestern public university over the course of their first two years. Most students reenroll for a second year (90.8%).

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Effectiveness of Personal Interaction in a Learner-Centered Paradigm Distance Education Class Based on Student Satisfaction

Shu-Hui Chang     Roger Smith

APA Citation

Chang, S. H. H., & Smith, R. A. (2008). Effectiveness of personal interaction in a learner-centered paradigm distance education class based on student satisfaction. Journal of research on technology in education, 40(4), 407-426.

Annotation

This study determined whether there was a relationship between students’ perceptions of how effective course-related interaction was and their level of course satisfaction.
This study served three purposes:
1. To identify the relationships between student-instructor personal interaction and course satisfaction, student-TA personal interaction and course satisfaction, student-content interaction and course satisfaction, and student-student personal interaction and course satisfaction.
2. To . . . identify the relationship between students’ perceptions about the effectiveness of WebCT features for their learning and course satisfaction.
3. To identify the relationships between course satisfaction and specific student demographics such as gender, academic classification, and prior distance education course experiences.
A survey was developed for this particular study called the Students’ Perceived Interaction Survey (SPIS)
The following are suggestions for future research:
1. Investigate if increased interaction will increase student learning outcomes measured by grades or academic achievement.
2. Replicate this study on a national level for undergraduate students who are taking a similar course using various course management systems.
3. Replicate this study in other courses in other subject areas.
4. Conduct a qualitative research study to investigate students’ perceptions of the relationships between interaction and their course satisfaction.
5. Conduct an experimental study with a control group to measure if increasing interaction will increase course satisfaction. One group would require little to no interaction, while another group would be given a sufficient amount of interaction.
6. Conduct the same study on different course management platforms other than WebCT.
7. Determine if the research results concerning gender and preference remained consistent in other subject matter. This course was a computer science course, perhaps a broader subject area would change the results.
8. Determine whether other factors affect interaction, such as students’ learning styles and instructors’ teaching styles, which are not addressed in this study. Further study is needed in these areas.

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Exploring the Role of Distance Education in Fostering Equitable University Access for First Generation Students: A phenomenological survey

Lisa C. Priebe     Tamra L. Ross     Karl W. Low

Annotation

Priebe et al. (2008) define first-gen students as those with parents who have not attended university or completed a post-secondary course or program. They include 7 participants in the sample, 5 of which had access to universities via DE. The authors employ a phenomenological approach after the completion of a 24-item self response survey. In effort to minimize selection bias, the three authors conducted individual thematic analyses and dropped themes that were not supported across multiple . . . responses. In spite of the small sample size, the authors draw few conclusions. More specifically, they find four overarching themes, including: the greater starting age and increased life commitments of their participants, the factors of parental assistance with university procedures and processes, the strong and independent work ethic, and the influence of social roles and expectations. This article lacks explanatory power for why first-gen students enroll in DE, but suggests that it may be due to the self-paced nature that compliments first-gens’ other life commitments.

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New Benchmarks in Higher Education: Student engagement in online learning

Chin Choo Robinson     Hallett Hullinger

APA Citation

Robinson, C. C., & Hullinger, H. (2008). New benchmarks in higher education: Student engagement in online learning. Journal of Education for Business, 84(2), 101-109.

Annotation

Students were required to complete an online self-administered questionnaire relating to their experiences as students in online learning environments. The instrument was a modified version of the well established NSSE survey, the widely accepted research initiative to assess student learning through measuring the level of engagement.
multicourse and multiuniversity strategy
Provides recommendations for how to increase student engagement in online learning including: technological innovations, . . . curriculum design, student participation in online class presentations ,The online curriculum should actively engage students through challenging academic rigor, consistent and timely student-faculty interaction, a collaborative learning environment, and activities that enrich the development of the student.
Provides a framework for graduate student level of engagement can be studied.

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Open Educational Resources: Opportunities and challenges for higher education

Li Yuan     Sheila MacNeill     Willem G. Kraan

APA Citation

Yuan, L., MacNeill, S., & Kraan, W. G. (2008). Open Educational Resources-Opportunities and challenges for higher education.

Annotation

Yuan and colleagues provide background to the current OER movement as well as predicted future trends. This report is consist of three sections.
(1) Concept and Context : The term open educational resources was first used at UNESCO conference in 2000. Since then, it has been promoted in the context of providing free access to education globally.
(2) OER initiative in HE : OECD (2007) reports that there are 3000 open access courses from more than 300 universities worldwide. MIT OpenCourseWare, . . . OpenLearn Initiative (UK universities), USU OCW (Utah State University) are some of the well-known programs, and reviewed in this paper.
(3) OER–calls for research : increasing demand for various forms of education have led policy discussion and institutional development in many countries. Policy discussion (e.g financial support, intellectual property, staff development), socio-cultural pedagogical concerns as well as technical concerns are reviewed.

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Whose Space? Differences Among Users and Non-Users of Social Network Sites

Eszter Hargittai

APA Citation

Hargittai, E. (2007). Whose space? Differences among users and non-users of social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13, 276-297. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.0396.x

Annotation

The author studied the differences between users and non-users of social networking sites, specifically Facebook, MySpace, Xanga and Friendster. Women are more likely to use social networking. A relationship exists between race and parental education and the type of social networking site college students choose to use. Specifically, Hispanic students are more likely than White students to use MySpace, while White students are more likely to use Facebook. A students’ living situation also . . . appears to be related to use, students who live with their parents are less likely to use social networking sites. This article points out the importance of collecting data about types of social networking services, so as not to generalize the behavior on one service to another, or to lose important statistical differences in a diverse sample of users. The author also suggests that this data shows that the life a person leads in an online social network is reflects the life he/she leads in the real world, networks are somewhat segmented based on race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status.

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A Quasi-Experimental Study of Three Online Learning Courses in Computing

Thomas Connolly     Ewan MacArthur     Mark Stansfield     Evelyn McLellan

APA Citation

Connolly, T. M., MacArthur, E., Stansfield, M., & McLellan, E. (2007). A quasi-experimental study of three online learning courses in computing. Computers & Education, 49(2), 345-359.

Annotation

This is a quasi-experimental study based on seven modules from the three online courses. The modules examined were: Business Information Technology Systems (BITS), Fundamentals of Database Systems (FDBS), Information Systems Theory and Practice (ISTP), International Technology Management (ITM), Software Development (SD), Strategic Management of IT (SMIT), and Technologies for Global Commerce (TGC). Six semesters worth of data was gathered from autumn 2000 to summer 2002 for inclusion in the . . . study.
Hypothesis examined were:
1. Is there any observable difference in student performance as measured by end-of-module grades/marks?
2. Is there any observable difference between coursework and exam performance in the technically-oriented modules? Parker and Gemino (2001) found that their online students demonstrated better conceptual
understanding in the final examination while the place-based students were more proficient with respect to technical skills. There was no significant difference in the overall final grades between the online and classroom-based students. There were two modules that we specifically wanted to test this hypothesis on: Fundamentals of Database Systems and Software Development, which consist of both conceptual and technical material (the
latter based on Microsoft Access and Visual Basic, respectively).
3. Is there any observable difference in dropout rates?
It has been reported that dropout rates tend to be higher in distance education programs than in traditional face-to-face programs. Carr (2000) noted that dropout rates are often 10–20% points higher in distance education courses than in traditional courses. One of the key design decisions made early on in the development of the online courses was to develop a sense of community. Tinto (1993) emphasized the importance of community in reducing dropouts when he theorized that students will increase their levels of satisfaction and the likelihood of persisting in a course if they feel involved and develop relationships with other members
of the learning community.
The quantitative analysis of results shows that online students have consistently performed better than the part-time face-to-face students, who in turn have performed better than the full-time students. The latter result is perhaps not surprising, as the full-time students have less work experience
and may be less mature and less motivated.

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Advising Practices of Undergraduate Online Students in Private Higher Education

Adam Morris     Michael Miller

APA Citation

Morris, A. & Miller, M. Advising Practices of Undergraduate Online Students in Private Higher Education. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 10(4),.

Annotation

● As a largely descriptive study based on the conceptual issue of the importance of advising to private colleges as an element that helps create a ‘value-added’ perception and helps to justify higher tuition costs, the study employed the creation of a survey instrument. The research-team developed instrument was divided into two sections, the first of which requested baseline information about online program offering. This baseline information included basic descriptors about how verifying . . . respondents use of online programs, in what disciplines the programs are offered, and who participates in advising.
● The sample was selected from private liberal arts colleges listed in the Higher Education Directory (Burke, 2006). With a sample size of 150
● In two weeks 60 responses were received- a 40% response rate
● Of the respondents, 11 senior academic affairs officers indicated that they did offer undergraduate degree programs online, 41 indicated that they did not offer any online programs, and one offered a program in a hybrid format (see Table 1). These 11 institutions offered a total of 51 exclusively online bachelor’s degree programs (averaging nearly 5 degrees per institution), and a large number of hybrid programs (n=24) that utilized both online and in-person instruction. The majority of these programs were identified as being offered in a business related field or in the liberal arts, and five institutions indicated that they made use of professional advisors for their online programs, and six institutions indicated that they relied on faculty advising.
● Over half of the respondents indicated that three of the activities were undertaken by advisors frequently or always. As shown in Table 2, these included encouraging meaningful interpersonal relationships with staff, faculty, and students (100% of respondents), promoting diversity (67% of respondents), and setting personal and educational goals (58% of respondents). Conversely, these senior academic affairs officers also indicated that three of the practices were rarely or never undertaken by advisors. These included assisting their advisees in becoming effective communicators (66.5% indicated rarely or never), promoting healthy behaviors (75% rarely/never), and assisting in developing a satisfying and productive lifestyle (67% rarely/never)

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Building Online Learning Communities: Effective strategies for the virtual classroom

R. Palloff     K. Pratt

APA Citation

Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2007). Building online learning communities: Effective strategies for the virtual classroom. John Wiley & Sons.

Annotation

Not available

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Face-to-face Versus Online Tutoring Support in Distance Education

L. Price     T. E. Richardson     Anne Jelds

APA Citation

Price, L., Richardson, J. T., & Jelfs, A. (2007). Face-to-face versus online tutoring support in distance education. Studies in Higher Education, 32(1), 1-20.

Annotation

● Study took place at the Open University in the UK
● Participation in tutoring is not compulsory
● Study 1:
1. International development: challenges for a world in transition. Equated to 50% of one year’s full-time study. In 2002, this course was offered with conventional tutorial support, consisting of face-to-face tutorials with telephone and email support
2. Responses were received from 99 students- a response rate of 64%. 66 had received in person tuition and 33 had received online . . . tuition.
3. For each questions ,students who received face-to-face tuition gave more positive responses than those who received online tuition.
● Study 2:
1. Same course was used as in study 1
2. Response rate of 44%
3. 244 respondents 175 in person 34 online
4. 64 student responses had to be dropped because they had not finished the survey
5. This left 120 in person and 25 online students.
● Study 3: Interviewed students who had completed surveys for study 2.
1. Random sample of 140 students were contacted by emails and invited to participate in follow-up interviews. 40 students responded but only 19 completed the full interview schedule. Six women and 2 men who had received face-to face tuition and ten women and one man who had received online tuition.
2. Phenomenographic approach initially was used but was changed to a grounded theory approach.
3. Students were questioned as to whether they understood the difference between tuition and tutoring
4. Students stressed the importance of face to face contact
5. Students who had received online tuition are more likely to report negative experiences of tuition than those who had received face-to-face tutoring

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