Abstract
This paper describes eight ALN courses developed under various Sloan Foundation-funded degree program initiatives at Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) Extended Learning Institute (ELI). These chemistry, engineering, mathematics, and information technology courses offer useful lessons about what makes ALN courses successful. The courses incorporated ALN into an independent study format to increase interaction among learning participants while maximizing learner convenience and flexibility; some courses also focused on both online and in-person collaboration. A wide variety of other course design and delivery strategies contributed to the courses' success. The results of this study indicate that ALN courses can be viable and successful for community college students and that ALN can succeed in a distance education program delivered in an independent study format to motivated learners. NVCC/ELI's experience also suggests that ALN works within a multiple media approach to course design and delivery; that faculty selection, support, and development are critical factors in assuring quality ALN courses; that a wide variety of best practices can result in successful ALN courses; and that the learning effectiveness of ALN courses will continue to improve as better tools, content, and support are developed.
Highlights
Comparisons have not been done for each individual case-study course, extensive evaluation activities performed on the Engineering degree program as a whole indicated that students who started Engineering degree program courses were roughly as successful as their on-campus counterparts [5]
Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) case study courses indicate that ALN courses, even those in their pioneering or early stages, can be a viable and successful way for community college students to learn
■ ALN can succeed in a distance education program delivered in an independent study format and designed to provide maximum flexibility and convenience to motivated learners
Summary
This paper describes several ALN courses developed under various Sloan Foundation-funded degree program initiatives as described below These particular courses were selected because each possesses unique or noteworthy characteristics (see Table 1) that offer useful lessons about what make ALN courses successful. The instructor felt that the success of this on-line collaboration was largely dependent on the number of enrolled students and their particular characteristics. The instructor noted that the initial enabling technology used (Expressionist + FirstClass) was a definite improvement over paper and pencil. Using customizable pre-packaged course material allowed the instructor to adapt the existing course material to students’ needs Another development noted by the instructor was a tendency toward supporting a more mastery learning-oriented approach to assessment by allowing students to resubmit substandard assignments (not including exams). MTH 152 is the most recently developed of the case study courses and was taught for the first time in summer 1999
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