Accomplishing Access & Equity in Education: Using the Web to Design and Deliver Courses Online

Do Chickering and Gamson's Seven Principles Also Apply to Online MBAs?

The circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic have brought about drastic changes in all aspects of human activities, including education. The challenges faced by educators worldwide have been to arrange online classes and provide an effective and motivating learning environment. The research presented in this paper analyzes student motivation for learning English in the setting of online classes, compared to traditional (face-to-face) classes. The main aim of this paper is to identify the factors of both online and traditional classes that positively affect student motivation in order to integrate them into an effective learning environment in the future. The focus is on factors of motivation that have been significantly affected by the pandemic, including the factors of physical conditions, methods of teaching and affective and interpersonal factors. This research was conducted at the Faculty of Technology and Faculty of Agriculture, University of Novi Sad, and included 120 engineering students who attended online English language courses. A questionnaire, used as a research instrument, consisted of statements related to the impact of online vs. traditional classes on student motivation to learn English, graded on a 6-point Likert scale. The obtained results indicated that students find the use of modern technology and applications quite motivating for learning English and that a certain flexibility, referring to the physical factors, could also be integrated into traditional classes. Interpersonal factors, such as face-to-face interaction with the teacher and peers, proved to be very important for student motivation. The research also showed that online classes reduce students’ speaking anxiety, but that the issue of anxiety in both types of classes requires closer attention and should be addressed by raising student awareness of this issue and employing methods that would encourage students to participate in the classes more actively.

Blogs are increasingly used as an educational tool because of their ease of use for web-based publishing, enabling users to share their thoughts that invite intellectual and social discourses. Blogs are becoming a significant component of many web-based learning environments. However, there are 2 major challenges in applying blogs in web-based learning: (i) browsing/searching blog archives are technically not well supported in a learning environment in which several blogs are used by both facilitators and students; (ii) there is lack of a theoretically sound and usable blog analysis scheme to analyse blog content in order to support the evaluation of collaborative learning activities in web-based courses. In this paper, we describe some possible solutions for these challenges based on our research on web-based collaborative learning settings. Our experience of applying blogs in a web-based cross-cultural collaborative learning course is also reported.KeywordsBlogFeeding mechanismContent analysisSocial network analysisInteraction patternsCollaborative learning

Strengthening Online Education Approaches in Institutions of Higher Learning

Electronic bulletin boards (EBBS) have become a mainstay in economic research by pro viding access to archived data, manuscripts, articles, and computational software. Most EBBS are free and open to the public, and many of them are accessible over the Internet. The proliferation of government agencies' involvement, individualized offerings, and interconnected resources have significantly enhanced the benefits and operations of EBBS. These recent developments have inspired numerous economics instructors to introduce EBBS into their electronic classrooms. Although the economics profession does heavily utilize EBBS, it has not taken full advantage of the available technology. Keywords electronic bulletin boards, Internet, economic research, computer-assisted instruction.

Keywords: Education; Wound care; Master's course; Postgraduate study; Continuing education; Web-based education

The use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) as a pedagogic tool for class communication has been encouraged by numerous authors. Smith, Kim, and Bernstein (1993) suggested that classroom communication using CMC provides benefits such as increased communication, fostering efficiency in teamwork situations, facilitating problem-solving, and providing communication means for people who have trouble expressing themselves or being understood in face-to-face situations. Menges (1994) argued that interactive technology would ensure attention, and that well-designed computermediated instruction is more likely to engage individuals than are the words of a professor in front of a room filled with (p. 187). Many of the reports on the use of CMC in journalism and mass communication refer primarily to the use of electronic mail and bulletin boards. Elasmar and Carter (1996) suggested that journalism professors could use email as part of their curricular activities. For example, the authors suggested using electronic mail to distribute homework to students, asking students to submit assignments by e-mail, and creating a dedicated electronic bulletin board for each course. Smith, Kim, and Bernstein (1993) offered anecdotal evidence of the successful integration of e-mail and bulletin boards into journalism classes. As technology has developed, a number of authors have turned their attention to the use of the Internet, specifically the World Wide Web, in journalism and mass communication courses. Gunaratne and Lee (1996) reported on their development of a Web site tailor-made for teaching three journalism courses. Their Resources for Journalism homepage is primarily a collection of links to resources and tools located on the Internet. In course evaluations for the three courses, students indicated that the courses improved their skills in the use of the Internet research tools. Farnall and Geske (1996) investigated the use of the Internet in teaching an advertising strategy class, comparing class sections taught using traditional means with class sections taught using a heavy emphasis on the Internet as a source of information. They found that integration of the Internet into the classroom improved student and instructor performance and evaluation of the class as a whole. Results indicated that 72 percent of the students preferred the Internet over textbooks as a source of information. The Internet browser Netscape Navigator was considered a good learning tool, and 87 percent of the students indicated they wanted to see the Internet used in more courses. The results of the use of CMC in the classroom are not always favorable. In an experiment conducted by Smith (1994), students in traditional sections of a media law course reported higher satisfaction with the course than those students in sections using CMC to supplement traditional instruction methods. Smith (1994) also reported no significant differences in final exam results between traditional and on-line sections. Hudson and Holland (1992) reported that students who received interactive multimedia instruction in a video production class perceived that they learned more. However. the students did not score significantly higher than students who received traditional lecture instruction. In addition, Elasmar and Carter (1996) found that computer anxieties such as rejection and technical-based phobia of computers were negatively related to acceptance and potential use of email. While some studies have reported gender differences in the uses of CMC, Elasmar and Carter (1996) found no significant difference in e-mail use between male and female respondents. The current study This study investigated the effectiveness of one particular CMC technique, a Web-based interactive sample test, as a part of other CMC techniques used to supplement traditional instruction in a large lecture class. The course, mass communication theories, seemed particularly suited for the use of CMC due to its large section size. …

Within academic settings, students experience varied emotions and interest towards learning. Although both emotions and interest can increase students' likelihood to engage in traditional learning, little is known about the influence of emotions and interest in learning activities in a web-based learning environment (WBLE). This study examined how emotions experienced while using a WBLE, students' interest towards the course topic and interest towards web-based learning are associated with collaborative visible and non-collaborative invisible activities and 'lurking' in the WBLE. Participants were 99 Finnish university students from five web-based courses. All the students enrolled in the courses filled out pre- and post-test questionnaires of interest, and repeatedly completed an on-line questionnaire on emotions experienced while using the WBLE during the courses. The fluctuation of emotional reactions was positively associated with both visible collaborative and invisible non-collaborative activities in the WBLE. Further, interest towards the web-based learning was positively associated with invisible activity. The results also demonstrated that students not actively participating in the collaborative activities (i.e. lurkers) had more negative emotional experiences during the courses than other students. The results highlight the distinct impacts that emotions and interest have on different web-based learning activities and that they should be considered when designing web-based courses.

The article presents a retrospective analysis of such digital educational technologies as the electronic bulletin board and the World Wide Web during the 1990s. It was this period that laid down the guidelines for the development of not only digital educational technologies, but also the channels and methods for their implementation in the educational process. An electronic bulletin board was a communications system that included a personal computer, one or more modems, one or more telephone lines, a software package, a system administrator, and users. The first of them was developed in 1978, but they began to penetrate into the field of education in the 1990s, due to the speed of Internet connections, as well as the availability of personal computers and the convenience of graphical interfaces. In university practice, they were used for academic discussions, social interaction, collaboration on various projects and learning. Even back then, bulletin boards offered small self-paced courses, assignment writing tools, and discussion forums, effectively becoming one of the first digital educational technologies. They reached their peak in popularity around 1996, but around the same time technology such as the World Wide Web began to spread, eventually replacing electronic bulletin boards by the early 2000s. The World Wide Web, invented in 1989, has spread quite quickly thanks to its free code that does not require licensing or additional costs. For the education sector, the network provided many advantages: it made it possible to establish contacts between different institutions, helped teachers find vacancies, facilitated access to information for applicants, opened up opportunities to write blogs and publish articles and observations for professors, etc.

Aim To explore and apply a comprehensive evaluation method for web-based prosthodontics course learning. Methods A set of evaluation index system of prosthodontics web-based course learning process was preliminarily constructed through analyzing the influencing factors of web-based course learning effect. Expert consulting method and analytic hierarchy process were applied for the determination of the quality model of web-based course and the weights of each indicator. Delphi technique was used for the evaluation of the rationality of every index weight. A standard evaluation system was finally formed. The evaluation system combined with topsis method was applied in the evaluation of the web-based course learning effect of the five-year system dental students. Results Through multiple screening and weighting, a multistage model of web-based courses’ evaluation was established, including 4 primary indexes, 7 secondary ones and 19 third ones. The general scores and ranks of the students were obtained from the comprehensive evaluation method and combined with topsis method. Conclusion This evaluation method includes the learning process and outcome, integrates the qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis, which assures the evaluation results to be objective and just.

Comparing student and faculty perceptions of online and traditional courses

Introduction We evaluate the use of an electronic bulletin board system in a tabletop disaster exercise. Methods Two tabletop exercises were carried out during a 5 hour course for 26 members of the Singapore Disaster Site Management Command (DSMC). As the events happened, the participants were updated via the electronic bulletin board. Response to the events was through the bulletin board. A written survey was held upon completion. Result Most (96.2%) felt that the exercise had helped identify issues in current operating procedures. The electronic bulletin board was deemed easy to use and learn, and that it helped in their learning (61.5%, 88.5% and 73.1% respectively). Using the electronic platform was an effective (76.9%) and efficient way (65.4%) of conducting the exercises. 53.8% of participants prefer the use of the electronic bulletin board and 61.5% felt that it was more realistic using the electronic platform. However the electronic bulletin board did not improve the participant's understanding of the current operating procedures (43.2%) and their role in DSMC (50%). Conclusion The use of the electronic platform is easy and over half of the involved participants thought it is preferred over the traditional tabletop exercise.

Learning comes in many forms and the need for new instruction and assessment tools is imminent in a world that is highly visual and interactive. The use of videos as instructional media in online, hybrid, and flipped classrooms in higher education is not new. Such videos can improve comprehension and accessibility of the material for many students (e.g. non-majors, alternative media learners, and non-traditional students), and the use of instructor-produced videos is a powerful tool to connect faculty and students. For five years a dual mode instructor (online and traditional) has used self-produced short videos (5–8 minute) to provide content for a freshmen general biology yearlong course sequence. These videos are fully ADA-compliant being captioned, American Sign Language interpreted, and color adjusted. While these videos have been well received by most students in both learning environments, they convey information only in one direction, faculty to student. To “flip communication” in both the online and traditional classes, the students are now producing their own videos on assigned topics to demonstrate and apply their knowledge surrounding course content. These videos range from 10–12 minute productions in an online lecture course three times per term targeting three different audiences (6th grade students, a professional non-science audience, and a policy-maker), to 30-seconds of science in a 250-student traditional course focused on conveying quick information to anyone, to a virtual poster session by an online lab course focused on their independent research project. Further, in the traditional large lecture course for non-biology majors, videos are part of a three-part cumulative project that replaces an historic multiple-choice final exam (project = 2-page white paper overview of topic, 3-minute video focused on science communication, and an 18Prime;x24Prime; infographic focused on popular science communication). In this session, instruction and assessment video examples will be shown, assessment tools will be shared, and measurements of learning outcomes will be presented. Changing the direction of information flow and implementing opportunities for demonstration of understanding beyond exams are improvements to assessment and provide the learners with a non-traditional skill set in a science classroom. Example of an instructional video used in a general biology online course. American Sign Language interpretation by Christine Spencer. Video available through YouTube channel RITgenbio. This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Educating and learning modalities in virtual and customary classes can be best seen as a marker of proficiency and college adequacy. The examination decides the adequacy of online and traditional classes to the College of Business and Accountancy. The respondents were the 208 understudies from the University of Cebu Lapu and Mandaue utilizing the descriptive - comparative research method on a snowball sampling. Frequency and simple percentage, Mean, Chi- Square Test of Independence and Independent Samples T-test were utilized, to sum up, separate, and unwind the information assembled. The findings revealed that there is statistically significant difference on the level of effectiveness between online and traditional class. The understudies perceived online class as moderately effective while perceiving traditional class as highly effective. Moreover, it revealed that there is a statistically significant correlation on the respondents gender, course and year level on the level of perception either by traditional or online classes. The study concludes that Online and Traditional modalities of educating and learning extraordinarily assume an essential function on an understudy's useful term in school. However, refinement of approaches to these modalities is very important to portray student-teacher resiliency at any given situation.

Web-based learning environments with 25 web-based courses were evaluated at Tampere University of Technology (TUT) in Finland. During the evaluation process over 200 students answered a web survey which included questions on computer skills, attitudes towards learning and web-based learning, collaboration, learning experience, experience of the usefulness as well as quality of web-based learning environments. The K-means cluster analysis was used to form groups among students. Five groups of students were set up: 1. Web students, 2. Students needing technical support, 3. Dropout students, 4. Disappointed students and 5. Conscientious students. Quality experiences of web-based learning environments and realization of added value differ between the groups. The results of the research help understand how and why different learners prefer different properties of web-based courses and why students' feedback differs on quality issues. The results help designers to make prioritized decisions for developing the quality of web-based teaching and learning environments.