Enquiry-Based Learning Online: Course Development and Student Experience of a First-Year Enquiry-Based Learning Seminar

Jacqueline Murray,Nathan John Lachowsky,Natalie Green

doi:10.22329/celt.v10i0.4738

Jacqueline Murray, Nathan John Lachowsky + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.22329/celt.v10i0.4738

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Abstract

Online courses are increasing in popularity while universities are using first-year seminars to address the challenges of large impersonal classes, lack of student engagement, and increased skills development. Could the learning experience and benefits of an in-person first-year seminar be achieved through an online distance education (DE) format? How would students’ experience benefit from an online DE first-year seminar? At the University of Guelph, an online interdisciplinary first-year seminar was developed and offered four times. This essay includes reflections from the faculty instructor and educational developer who co-designed the course, results from pre- and post-course surveys completed by students, and interviews conducted with students.

Highlights

Online courses are increasing in popularity while universities are using first-year seminars to address the challenges of large impersonal classes, lack of student engagement, and increased skills development
At the University of Guelph, EBL pedagogy has been used in various courses and topics, in interdisciplinary first-year seminars, and has demonstrated significant results for student learning
Careful collaboration between the instructor and instructional designer resulted in a course informed by pedagogy, using good course design practices, and appropriately selected technologies that reinforced each step of the EBL process

Summary

Introduction

At the University of Guelph, EBL pedagogy has been used in various courses and topics, in interdisciplinary first-year seminars, and has demonstrated significant results for student learning One high-impact pedagogy that is well suited to meet these learning goals and to foster student engagement is closed-loop reiterative enquiry-based learning (EBL). This pedagogy was originally articulated in medical education by Barrows (1986), who analyzed variations of problem-based learning to identify which best addressed students’ learning. Through its various steps and processes, EBL addresses Chickering and Gamson’s (1987) criteria for good practice in undergraduate education, as well as Fink’s (2003) articulation of significant learning

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