Dealing with Difficult Students in the Online Classroom

workshop Presented by the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learnin

Enhancing the Quality of Online Teaching via Collaborative Course Development

Collaborative course development offers a host of opportunities for academic departments to ensure consistency, maximize resource allocation, and increase scalability of online course offerings. By utilizing a collective design model, a team of content experts (i.e., department faculty), curriculum specialists, instructional designers, and instructional technologists can collaborate to develop dynamic online courses that can be taught by multiple instructors over successive terms. The key to a successful collaborative course design lies in an increased up-front investment of time and resources to ensure a well-designed course that aligns learning objectives, instructional content, activities, and assessments in a manner that is uniquely suited to the pedagogical opportunities inherent in the online environment. But despite the benefits of collaborative course design, it must be integrated in a manner that aligns with the unique context, needs, and resources of each individual department and institution to be effective. Presentation will 1) explore various models for collaborative online course development, 2) discuss return-on-investment for collaborative course design, and 3) examine the role of collaborative course development to promote academic quality and instructional effectiveness in large or growing programs

You Can\u27t Have It All: Faculty and Student Priorities in the Online Classroom

While potential teaching activities in the online classroom are unlimited, an instructor’s teaching time is not. As such, it is essential that online instructors prioritize limited time to instructional strategies that have the greatest impact on student learning. A survey of 413 faculty and 2386 students examined faculty and student perceptions about instructional components or strategies that have greatest impact on student learning in the online classroom. Findings revealed significant differences in faculty and student perceptions with faculty giving the highest value ratings to non-instructor generated content and students prioritizing text-based instructional content (regardless of source). Overall, faculty tended to place more value on instructional components compared to students. Students rated faculty interaction and feedback as the most valuable component of their online learning experience. Findings explore how institutions can utilize teaching supplements to support faculty’s desire to provide content so that instructional time can focus on interaction and feedback

The Value of Instructor Interactivity in the Online Classroom

As the number of faculty teaching online continues to grow, so has the interest in and understanding of the role of instructor interaction in the online classroom. Online education provides a unique platform in which course design and teaching are independent factors. Understanding faculty and student perceptions about the shifting role of instructor interaction in the online classroom can provide insight on policies and procedures that can support student learning through student-instructor interaction. Participants included faculty and students responding to an anonymous online survey who indicated “online” as their primary mode of teaching. Three key “value” themes emerged as significantly valuable: instructor interactivity, instructor feedback on participation, and asynchronous interaction in discussion forums. These findings illuminate opportunities and areas of consideration for three stakeholders in the student-teacher interaction equation: faculty, faculty developers, and administrators that can be used to inform quality online teaching through instructor interactivity

Beyond Content: The Value of Instructor-Student Connections in the Online Classroom

Research clearly establishes the value of online education to foster students’ cognitive understanding of course material. However, engagement in the learning experience requires more than mere acquisition of new knowledge; to be fully engaged in the learning process, students must also connect with their peers and instructor in a meaningful way. The purpose of this study is to examine the value of instructor-personalized audio lectures as means of fostering students’ engagement with course content and the online learning experience. Qualitative data on the student experience found that instructor-personalized audio lectures enhanced students’ perceptions of value and engagement; quantitative data using a standardized engagement measure revealed no significant differences. Students’ qualitative feedback about their online learning experience indicated that instructor-personalized audio lectures fostered greater student-instructor connections and significantly impacted the likelihood of students’ engaging with course material. Recognizing the value of student engagement for ongoing satisfaction and retention in online learning programs, findings suggest that the creation of personalized audio lectures provides an efficient and effective means for faculty to positively impact students’ online learning experience. 

Adjunct versus Full-time Faculty: Comparison of Student Outcomes in the Online Classroom

Abstract Interrelated to the growth of online learning programs is the increasing reliance on adjunct faculty to teach these courses. This surge in the number of courses taught by adjunct faculty members has sparked debate concerning the relative effectiveness of adjunct versus full-time faculty. The current study examines student performance as a function being taught by either adjunct or full-time online faculty. Findings reveal a performance and satisfaction advantage for students in the course sections taught by full-time online faculty. Implications include the need for universities to examine faculty development, support, incentives, and community for online adjunct faculty in order to ensure excellence across all modes of instruction

University student engagement inventory (USEI): psychometric properties

Academic engagement describes students’ investment in academic learning and achievement and is an important indicator of students’ adjustment to university life, particularly in the first year. A tridimensional conceptualization of academic engagement has been accepted (behavioral, emotional and cognitive dimensions). This paper tests the dimensionality, internal consistency reliability and invariance of the University Student Engagement Inventory (USEI) taking into consideration both gender and the scientific area of graduation. A sample of 908 Portuguese first-year university students was considered. Good evidence of reliability has been obtained with ordinal alpha and omega values. Confirmatory factor analysis substantiates the theoretical dimensionality proposed (second-order latent factor), internal consistency reliability evidence indicates good values and the results suggest measurement invariance across gender and the area of graduation. The present study enhances the role of the USEI regarding the lack of consensus on the dimensionality and constructs delimitation of academic engagement.Jorge Sinval received funding from the William James Center for Research, Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT UID/PSI/04810/2013). Leandro S. Almeida and Joana R. Casanova received funding from CIEd – Research Centre on Education, projects UID/CED/1661/2013 and UID/CED/1661/2016, Institute of Education, University of Minho, through national funds of FCT/MCTES-PT. Joana R. Casanova received funding from the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT) as a Doctoral Grant, under grant agreement number SFRH/BD/117902/2016.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Enhancing the Quality of Online Teaching via Collaborative Course Development

Collaborative course development offers a host of opportunities for academic departments to ensure consistency, maximize resource allocation, and increase scalability of online course offerings. By utilizing a collective design model, a team of content experts (i.e., department faculty), curriculum specialists, instructional designers, and instructional technologists can collaborate to develop dynamic online courses that can be taught by multiple instructors over successive terms. The key to a successful collaborative course design lies in an increased up-front investment of time and resources to ensure a well-designed course that aligns learning objectives, instructional content, activities, and assessments in a manner that is uniquely suited to the pedagogical opportunities inherent in the online environment. But despite the benefits of collaborative course design, it must be integrated in a manner that aligns with the unique context, needs, and resources of each individual department and institution to be effective. Presentation will 1) explore various models for collaborative online course development, 2) discuss return-on-investment for collaborative course design, and 3) examine the role of collaborative course development to promote academic quality and instructional effectiveness in large or growing programs

Effect of Instructor-Personalized Multimedia in the Online Classroom

There is considerable evidence that well-designed multimedia resources can enhance learning outcomes, yet there is little information on the role of multimedia in influencing essential motivational variables, such as student engagement. The current study examines the impact of instructor-personalized multimedia supplements on student engagement in an introductory, college-level online course. A comparison of student engagement between courses that feature increasing numbers of instructor-personalized multimedia components reveals conflicting evidence. While qualitative student feedback indicates enhanced engagement as a function of instructor-generated multimedia supplements, quantitative data reports no significant differences in engagement or learning between the various levels of multimedia inclusion. Findings highlight the complexity surrounding the appropriate use of multimedia within an online course. University policy-makers and instructors are cautioned to examine carefully the cost-benefit ratio of multimedia inclusion for online learning environments