Moving a unit online: a quantitative evaluation of student responses

In 2005, a unit was converted to &lsquo;wholly online&rsquo; delivery mode, where all teaching occurred online. Student evaluation survey data for 2005 suggested that students rated many aspects of the wholly online unit delivery significantly lower than previously. For 2006, ten percent of the unit marks were dedicated to an assessed assignment activity based around an online discussion area. Based on student evaluation items common to the preand post-2006 period, overall student satisfaction with the unit returned to the same levels as prior to the introduction of wholly online delivery. These findings suggest that careful thought, but not necessarily major changes, may be required to avoid student disillusionment and maximise student learning outcomes when moving an existing unit to wholly online delivery. During 2005 and 2006, the same unit was included in a large survey to gauge students&rsquo; perceptions of studying wholly online units. The sub-set of respondents relating to this unit was found to have a good demographic match to the total unit enrolment. The survey included the following question item, &lsquo;39: How satisfied have you been with this unit being offered wholly online?&rsquo;, as an overall measure of student satisfaction with studying the unit in wholly online mode. Multivariate linear regression analysis was conducted with survey item 39 as the dependent variable. While the resultant regression model should not be interpreted literally as a formula for student satisfaction, it does suggest some areas for action to improve student satisfaction with studying this unit in wholly online mode.<br /

Staff exercising \u27choice\u27: students exercising \u27choice\u27: wholly online learning at an Australian university

The paper examines the implementation of institutional policy relating to mandating wholly online study at the undergraduate level in an Australian higher education institution. The realities of the &lsquo;choice&rsquo; provided to teaching staff in designing such units, and students in studying in this mode, are considered. Staff members&rsquo; design experiences are reported, and data collected through the surveying of students&rsquo; experiences in learning wholly online are analysed. The value students attributed to various aspects of the wholly online learning experience is outlined. Observations are made more generally about the uniqueness of wholly online teaching and learning environments in mandated contexts, and where policy and practice developments may evolve in the future.<br /

An institutional study of the influence of ‘onlineness’ on student evaluation of teaching in a dual mode Australian university

Student evaluation of teaching (SET) is now commonplace in many universities internationally. The most common criticism of SET practices is that they are influenced by a number of non-teaching-related factors. More recently, there has been dramatic growth in online education internationally, but only limited research on the use of SET to evaluate online teaching. This paper presents a large-scale and detailed investigation, using the institutional SET data from an Australian university with a significant offering of wholly online units, and whose institutional SET instrument contains items relating to student perceptions of online technologies in teaching and learning. The relationship between educational technology and SET is not neutral. The mean ratings for the ‗online&lsquo; aspects of SET are influenced by factors in the wider teaching and learning environment, and the overall perception of teaching quality is influenced by whether a unit is offered in wholly online mode or not

Experiential satisfaction with a wholly online marketing unit

This study examines the relationship between students&rsquo; satisfaction with a core undergraduate marketing unit, preference for online or face-to-face mode of teaching delivery and intent to major in marketing. The core undergraduate marketing unit was offered only in a wholly online mode, although many of the students had experienced traditional face-to-face classes in previous units. The sample was 112 undergraduate students. Findings indicated students&rsquo; preference for face-to-face mode of teaching delivery did not affect satisfaction with the marketing unit, but there was a significant relationship between unit satisfaction and students preference for online mode of teaching delivery. Mode of teaching delivery preferences suggested neither the online or face-to-face mode affected students&rsquo; choice in majoring in the marketing discipline, however, there was a significant relationship between student satisfaction and intent to major in marketing.<br /

Online discussion in engineering education : student responses and learning outcomes

A ubiquitous and widely used feature of online learning environments is the asynchronous discussion board. This chapter presents a case study of the introduction and evaluation of student use of an online discussion in an engineering management study unit. We introduced an assessable assignment task based on student use of an online discussion, in response to falling student unit evaluation results after we initially moved the unit to wholly online delivery mode. Both quantitative and qualitative unit evaluation data suggest that students perceive value in the online discussion activities. A regression analysis based on discussion usage data suggests that students derived significant learning outcome benefit toward their final unit grade from making reflective postings in the online discussion.<br /

Updating RIGs : including the systematic influence of online study on student evaluation of teaching

Based on student evaluation of teaching (SET) ratings from 1,432 units of study over a period of a year, representing 74,490 individual sets of ratings, and including a significant number of units offered in wholly online mode, we confirm the significant influence of class size, year level, and discipline area on at least some SET ratings. We also find online mode of offer to significantly influence at least some SET ratings. We reveal both the statistical significance and effect sizes of these influences, and find that the magnitudes of the effect sizes of all factors are small, but potentially cumulative. We also show that the influence of online mode of offer is of the same magnitude as the other 3 factors. These results support and extend the rating interpretation guides (RIGs) model proposed by Neumann and colleagues, and we present a general method for the development of a RIGs system

Improving online communication for students in higher education contexts

The study reported here sought to identify Higher Education students&rsquo; preferred modes of online communication whilst studying a wholly online research subject at University. The teacher education student participants from an Australian university were required to collaboratively conduct inquiry research projects in groups whilst relying upon computer-mediated communication. How do students communicate as a collaborative research group whilst only meeting online? The data were collected via the use of online pre-test and post-test surveys conducted &lsquo;prior to&rsquo; and &lsquo;post&rsquo; involvement in the unit of study and descriptive statistical analysis was applied. The findings revealed that important influences affecting students&rsquo; choice of communication mode included their own views on the capacity of online communication, their prior experience and the availability and accessibility of the modes. Furthermore, it was found that when given a choice, students preferred the use of asynchronous forms of digital communication to synchronous forms. Recommendations for improving online teaching, learning and research contexts in Universities are provided and the importance of considering blended mode delivery for wholly online units is argued

Digitally supported assessment

This chapter focuses on digital assessment and feedback practices in distance education. Providing evidence of learning through assessment is at the heart of students’ experience of higher education (HE), whatever their mode of study. Open and distance education-focused institutions have justifiably been proud of their technical innovation, tending to move rapidly to harness available technologies (from post to broadcast media and, most recently, online media) in their mission to enable education for remote, distributed groups of learners. In recent years, distance education courses have, in the main, moved from paper and digital media delivered physically to wholly online delivery, except where the circumstances of target learners preclude reliance on a reliable and fast internet connection. In terms of content, discussion and collaboration, where distance education has forged ahead, campus-based, blended programmes have generally followed. However, in terms of assessment and feedback, distance education has remained somewhat conservative. While most assessment in distance education has taken place online along with content and communication, there has been a tendency to replicate fairly traditional assessment formats using digital tools

The global classroom for supply chain management, any time, anywhere!

Academia is facing increasing demands in the design and delivery of their degree programmes due to resource constraints and the demands to embrace. The purpose of this article is to examine the requirement for quality education in the field of supply chain management. The approach adopted here is a reflective one, looking at recent trends in postgraduate Supply Chain Management (SCM) education and focusing in particular on a new mode of delivery, that of e-learning. The paper considers the development of SCM education and presents the range of supply chain management programmes and modules being offered across a selection of UK universities. The article also highlights the dynamic character of SCM education and considers whether the e-learning format is capable of responding to the requirements for quality in this field. Through a focus on one particular programme, the wholly online postgraduate programme in Operations and Supply Chain Management at the University of Liverpool. The conclusions are that new forms of teaching and learning are opening up to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The aim of the research was to discover the real time dynamic of SCM practice and theory, objective and subjective perspectives