The online environment continues to grow resulting in institutions and instructors searching for ways to determine and ensure quality in these courses. Not only are online courses as effective as onsite courses (see Allen, Bourhis, Burrell, & Mabry, 2002; Allen, Mabry, Mattrey, Bourhis, Titsworth, & Burrell, 2004), the demand in these course offerings continues to grow as students require more flexibility in where and when they learn due to work, family, and other obligations. Allen and Seaman (2015) reported that “enrollments continue to grow at a healthy rate, showing a 7% increase overall between fall 2012 and fall 2014” (p. 13). With increasing demand for online courses and the evidence that online and face-to-face courses are comparative in quality, research efforts re-focus on understanding how to best prepare students for online learning, design online courses, and deliver instruction online to positively influence student outcomes, in particular student learning. A series of cross-institutional studies were conducted at the National Research Center for Distance Education and Technological Advancements (DETA) to examine learner and instructional characteristics and their relationship to student outcomes in online courses. The keynote session will highlight the top indicators that emerged from the mixed methods studies to help inform the practice of learner support, course design, and instruction.
14. • Download DETA Research Toolkit
• Become an institutional partner and data collection site
• Access the quality indicators handout
• Read more about effective practices in the DETA Research Briefs
• Visit slideshare.com for these slides
Resources
Indicators Affecting Student Success in Online Learning.
Abstract: The online environment continues to grow resulting in institutions and instructors searching for ways to determine and ensure quality in these courses. Not only are online courses as effective as onsite courses (see Allen, Bourhis, Burrell, & Mabry, 2002; Allen, Mabry, Mattrey, Bourhis, Titsworth, & Burrell, 2004), the demand in these course offerings continues to grow as students require more flexibility in where and when they learn due to work, family, and other obligations. Allen and Seaman (2015) reported that “enrollments continue to grow at a healthy rate, showing a 7% increase overall between fall 2012 and fall 2014” (p. 13). With increasing demand for online courses and the evidence that online and face-to-face courses are comparative in quality, research efforts re-focus on understanding how to best prepare students for online learning, design online courses, and deliver instruction online to positively influence student outcomes, in particular student learning. A series of cross-institutional studies were conducted at the National Research Center for Distance Education and Technological Advancements (DETA) to examine learner and instructional characteristics and their relationship to student outcomes in online courses. The keynote session will highlight the top indicators that emerged from the mixed methods studies to help inform the practice of learner support, course design, and instruction.
Note: Please mention that the research was supported through the DETA Research Center thanks to a FIPSE grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
FIPSE funded
Now additional funding from Spencer foundation, etc.
Almost 5 years
There were 3 primarily activities at the DETA Research Center over the last 5 years.
The first was to develop a toolkit to build a coherent language as which we can all do research. We are from different fields and don’t always speak the same language when it comes to what is research and how to do research.
Next slide (link to toolkit)
Describe why and how it was developed.
-National Summit at ELI 2015
Describe contents
-Framework, Guides, Survey Instrumentation, Codebook, Other resources (IRB, Data sharing)
Describe how many people have downloaded
-1000+ downloads in every state of the US and in 25 countries
Next slide has toolkit link
Caution – do not talk about collecting data until you have given them the toolkit link
With the toolkit, our second activity was to collect data from institutions across the country. We have collected data from 2/4years, publics and privates. This data collection resulted in the findings of ONE study that I will discuss today.
Next slide (list of some of our partners)
We are working with institutions across the country to collect data and conduct various research studies. I will just touch on a couple studies today, but research briefs are available on our website covering other studies that we have supported.
Research briefs are available at uwm.edu/deta
Interested in being a research partner? There is a form on the site or feel free to contact me?
The final activity of our grant was to share effective practices, which I will do here today. These are evidence-based practices and recommendation or what I like to call quality indicators based on our cross-institutional qual and quant research.
Next slides discusses the 6 general indicators.
FIPSE funded
Now additional funding from Spencer foundation, etc.
Almost 5 years
Quality Matters
CSU Chico ROI
QOLT
OSQCR
OLC quality scorecards
How many of you teach online? Support designing or teaching onlines?