Asynchronous Online Courses Research Articles

P157 Video, Written, or Combination? A Pilot Study Discovering Which Type of Engagement Students Preferred for Online Discussions

<h3>Objective</h3> To determine the level of collaboration, social presence, and satisfaction with online discussion assignments. <h3>Use of Theory or Research</h3> With advances in technology, student driven-learning demands, coupled with the Covid-19 pandemic, more higher-education institutions are offering asynchronous online courses. While highly effective, engagement is challenging. Graded student discussions are often incorporated to facilitate student engagement. <h3>Target Audience</h3> Students (n = 74; 84% Health Science majors) enrolled in a 16-week asynchronous online undergraduate life cycle nutrition course (Spring 2021). <h3>Course/Curriculum Description</h3> During the first 3-weeks, all students completed 1 video-only and 1 written-only discussion assignment before being equally randomized into a video-only (VO), written-only (WO), or written-video only (WVO) discussion group. Each group completed 6 discussions over 9-weeks on nutrition-related topics requiring an initial and response post. WVO students completed 3 written and 3 verbal discussion assignments in alternating format. <h3>Evaluation Methods</h3> Consenting students (n = 25 pre-; 26-post study) voluntarily completed the Collaborative Learning (CL), Social Presence (SP), and Satisfaction (SATIS) questionnaires during week 4 (n = 8 WO, 8 VO, 9 WVO) and weeks 13-15 (n = 6 WO, 7 VO, 13 WVO). Comparison of means, descriptive statistics, and Pearson χ2 analysis were conducted (IRB # 2012010996). <h3>Results</h3> No significant differences were observed between or within groups for CL, SP, and SATIS scores. However, the CL score increased the most in the WO compared to the VO group (12.8%-vs-3.3%) while SATIS scores increased 2.5% in the WVO and 9.7% in the WO groups but decreased 12.4% in the VO group. SP declined in all groups with the WVO group decreasing the most at 28.6%. <h3>Conclusions</h3> Video assignments are a viable option for student engagement, even though this pilot study was unable to match student's pre- and post-scores. This data suggests a decreased trend in satisfaction with video-only compared to written-only or a combination of the written-video in discussion forums, but larger studies are needed to further address this question. <h3>Funding</h3> None

Implementation of an Online Poster Symposium for a Large-Enrollment, Natural Science, General Education, Asynchronous Course

Asynchronous online courses are popular because they offer benefits to both students and instructors. Students benefit from the convenience, flexibility, affordability, freedom of geography, and access to information. Instructors and institutions benefit by having a broad geographical reach, scalability, and cost-savings of no physical classroom. A challenge with asynchronous online courses is providing students with engaging, collaborative and interactive experiences. Here, we describe how an online poster symposium can be used as a unique educational experience and assessment tool in a large-enrollment (e.g., 500 students), asynchronous, natural science, general education (GE) course. The course, Introduction to Environmental Science (ENR2100), was delivered using distance education (DE) technology over a 15-week semester. In ENR2100 students learn a variety of topics including freshwater resources, surface water, aquifers, groundwater hydrology, ecohydrology, coastal and ocean circulation, drinking water, water purification, wastewater treatment, irrigation, urban and agricultural runoff, sediment and contaminant transport, water cycle, water policy, water pollution, and water quality. Here we present a is a long-term study that takes place from 2017 to 2022 (before and after COVID-19) and involved 5,625 students over 8 semesters. Scaffolding was used to break up the poster project into smaller, more manageable assignments, which students completed throughout the semester. Instructions, examples, how-to videos, book chapters and rubrics were used to accommodate Students’ different levels of knowledge. Poster assignments were designed to teach students how to find and critically evaluate sources of information, recognize the changing nature of scientific knowledge, methods, models and tools, understand the application of scientific data and technological developments, and evaluate the social and ethical implications of natural science discoveries. At the end of the semester students participated in an asynchronous online poster symposium. Each student delivered a 5-min poster presentation using an online learning management system and completed peer reviews of their classmates’ posters using a rubric. This poster project met the learning objectives of our natural science, general education course and taught students important written, visual and verbal communication skills. Students were surveyed to determine, which parts of the course were most effective for instruction and learning. Students ranked poster assignments first, followed closely by lectures videos. Approximately 87% of students were confident that they could produce a scientific poster in the future and 80% of students recommended virtual poster symposiums for online courses.

Integration of cooperative learning strategies in online settings

Although online learning has increased as a delivery method of instruction in higher education, learners may still feel isolated from the instructor and peers due to a lack of physical presence. Thus, intentional and purposeful online course design is necessary. To remediate feelings of isolation, cooperative learning strategies have been implemented in online courses, resulting in positive outcomes. A long-term cooperative learning project based on social interdependence theory (SIT) has been implemented into two asynchronous online courses at two different higher education institutions. A mixed-method, design-based research study was conducted to examine students’ attitudes towards cooperative learning. Participants of this study included undergraduate and graduate students who completed pre-and post-surveys. Classroom artifacts were also collected to analyze the group work and dynamics. Even though the quantitative results showed a decrease in students’ attitudes towards cooperative learning, qualitative data indicated that students benefited from this experience. Qualitative data also provided further insights on the group dynamics. Students’ high expectations of group work, faculty support, and shared sense of responsibility among group members could have affected their perceptions of cooperative learning. This study was the first cycle of a multi-cycle effort to develop a robust cooperative learning activity that will benefit learners in future courses.

Coming to Class Will Improve Your Grade: An Examination of Lecture Attendance and Lecture Exam Scores in an Undergraduate Human Anatomy Class

At the onset of the COVID‐19 pandemic, many traditional in‐person courses were converted to synchronous, asynchronous, or hybrid online formats. Instructors of a large undergraduate Basic Human Anatomy course at Indiana University ‐ Bloomington leveraged these changes to convert the lecture portion of the course to a flipped‐classroom model with two components: asynchronous online course content delivery, and live in‐person interactive learning sessions. The in‐person interactive learning sessions introduced students to active learning strategies and techniques (drawing, memory matrices, flow charts, diagrams, etc.), and the students actively participated in these sessions through the use of an online interactive learning platform ‐ TopHat. Here we sought to assess the efficacy and outcomes of the active learning sessions on student performance in the course.Basic Human Anatomy (ANAT‐A215) is a 5 credit hour undergraduate (baccalaureate) course that has an enrollment of 480 students with 1 large lecture section and 12 smaller lab sections. In Fall 2021, the instructors modified the lecture component of the course into a flipped classroom format. Lecture content was delivered via asynchronous online lectures, and the F2F class time was listed as optional (but strongly encouraged) for attendance. To facilitate greater student‐instructor interaction, one half of the class attended on Mondays and the other half attended on Fridays, and participated in similar interactive sessions. Wednesday F2F interactive lecture sessions were open to the entire class. To encourage attendance and participation in the optional F2F interactive lecture sessions, extra credit points could be earned through participation in TopHat anatomy questions. Points were earned for participation only (.5 points per question). TopHat questions were created by the instructors and consisted of both lower order and higher order questions that tested lecture and lab anatomical content. At the end of each lecture exam block of material, the instructors selected multiple TopHat questions at random for extra credit, with a range of 2‐4 extra credit points that could be earned per exam block.We found a statistically significant positive correlation between the number of points accumulated for participating in the F2F active learning lecture session questions and lecture exam scores. Using the number of points accumulated via the TopHat questions as a proxy for lecture attendance, we found that more TopHat points accumulated by students resulted in higher mean lecture exam scores – the greatest benefits occurring if students participated in multiple (&gt;3) F2F lecture sessions per block. Students who regularly attended F2F interactive sessions saw the greatest gains in their lecture exam scores. These findings indicate that active learning strategies could be efficacious in supplementing an asynchronous lecture content delivery format. We shared our findings with the class to encourage them to attend the active learning sessions, but encouraging some student populations to attend these sessions remains a challenge. Future research should be conducted on methods to encourage student involvement and participation in the course.

Assessing the experience of dental students with an asynchronous online course about racism, cultural competence.

University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice (SP2) designed an asynchronous online course about racism and cultural competence to address student concerns about harmful interactions with peers across race/ethnicity. The Penn Experience Course establishes common language and concepts to facilitate difficult conversations about racism in the classroom and clinical spaces. The course included six modules addressing the history of racism in the Philadelphia area and at the University of Pennsylvania: implicit bias and microaggressions; racism and other forms of oppression; gender identity and sexuality; construction of whiteness and white supremacy ideology; cultural humility, disparities, and equity; and access in healthcare. Students completed pre- and post-course surveys about their likelihood of engaging with the neighborhood surrounding Penn, confidence discussing the topics covered, and general experience with the course. Four hundred forty-nine students completed post-course surveys, 220 of which could be linked to precourse survey responses. Overwhelmingly, students reported a positive experience with the course, an increase in their likelihood to engage with the Penn neighborhood, and increased confidence in discussing course topics with peers. Many students suggested incorporating synchronous discussion, while a smaller group expressed resentment about the focus on whiteness, white fragility, and anti-Black racism. Several students of color expressed concern that the course centered the learning needs of white students. Asynchronous online content offers an effective and efficient way of teaching dental students about the basics of cultural competence. Educators should anticipate resistance from some white students and the distinct learning needs of students of color.

Participation and Performance by Gender in Synchronous Online Lectures: Three Unique Case Studies during Emergency Remote Teaching.

ABSTRACTStudies have documented that men’s voices are generally heard more than women’s voices in face-to-face undergraduate biology classes, and some performance gaps have also been documented. Some of the few studies on gender equity in traditional online biology education suggest that women participate more and perform better in asynchronous online courses compared to men. While much is known about emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbating existing inequities generally, studies are needed about the impact of specific emergency remote teaching practices on specific groups such as women. In this study, we performed an in-depth investigation of three life sciences classrooms that utilized synchronous online lectures during the pandemic. We observed each class throughout the semester, quantified participation behaviors, and investigated the role of student gender. We also compared final course grades by gender. On average, we found that men participated more than women both verbally and by chat. These differences were not significant for each class individually, but the differences align with the face-to-face patterns seen in this population previously. Our results also hint that men’s chat comments may be more likely to be acknowledged than women’s chats by peers. We found evidence of greater performance disparities favoring men than seen previously before the pandemic, but not in all classes. We discuss implications for instructors conducting emergency remote teaching as well as the need for larger studies to test the replicability of our results.

Perceived and Actual Cognitive Presence: A Case Study of an Intentionally-Designed Asynchronous Online Course

Online instructional design and how to engage students cognitively in online asynchronous courses have been an ongoing question. This case study presents an intentional design of an asynchronous online graduate course to foster cognitive presence. The research questions investigate students’ cognitive presence (CP) captured by two measures: Community of Inquiry (CoI) survey (for self-report) and Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software (for actual behaviors) in this online course. Additionally, it also addresses how cognitive presence is related to other presences and how the online course design elements were perceived by students. Results showed that students perceived high levels of cognitive presence and they showed high cognitive presence in their discussion board acts. There was a relationship between three presences; and findings showed that teacher and social presence were strong predictors of perceived cognitive presence. Although students in the study rated themselves high on the CoI instrument and scored high on the LIWC for cognitive presence, self-presentation bias still emerged. Strategies that helped students to stay cognitively present in this asynchronous online course included: instructor responsiveness in discussion posts and creating dialogue, creating course assignments as online hands-on project, interviewing guest speakers on specific course topics, weekly recap and orientation videos, feedback, case-based discussions, and other elements.

Catering to Inclusion and Diversity With Universal Design for Learning in Asynchronous Online Education: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective.

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines were extensively studied to understand inclusive learning and teaching in higher education. However, to date, there have been few studies that approached UDL-based asynchronous university courses from the needs satisfaction perspective in self-determination theory (SDT). To address this gap, researchers designed and implemented two 15-week asynchronous online courses based on UDL. They then tested their effectiveness with college freshmen (N = 225) by adopting a sequential explanatory mixed method. The study aimed to examine (i) whether asynchronous instruction based on UDL catered to inclusion and diversity across gender and academic background and (ii) whether the instructional design supported learner engagement and needs satisfaction. The findings showed that both male and female students as well as Arts and Sciences students equally engaged in the courses and perceived the needs support from the course design. However, the study also found that although universal design supported autonomy and competence, it nonetheless failed to fully satisfy learners’ relatedness needs. The researchers concluded by discussing empirical and theoretical implications.

Analysing interactions in online discussions through social network analysis

AbstractBackgroundOnline discussion is one of the commonly used tools to enhance students' interactions and engagements in online courses, but it is not clear how social presence in online discussions impacts students' learning and what kinds of interactions we should encourage. Social network analysis provides a new methodology to investigate how social interactions in online discussions influence learning.ObjectivesThe study aims to identify students' online discussion interaction patterns and investigate how they are related to students' learning performance in an asynchronous course.MethodsStudents who enrolled in an asynchronous undergraduate course were invited to participate in this study. Participants' online discussion participation data were collected from six online discussions from an asynchronous online course. Data were analysed using social network analysis methods as well as correlation and regression analysis.Results and ConclusionsWe found that statistically significant positive correlations existed between learning performance and out‐degree and closeness, respectively, which provided evidence to support that social interactions in online discussions have positive correlations with learning. We also found that out‐closeness contributes to students' learning performance. The results of the study imply that knowledge construction occurs mainly in the centre of the outgoing network. By interpreting this study's results with the social construction of knowledge model, we conclude that knowledge construction mainly happens in reading and commenting on others' posts by internalizing and integrating external useful information from others.ImplicationsWhile numerous studies have emphasized the importance of interactions in online discussions or collaborative learning, there are limited studies on what kind of interactions we should encourage and what role students play in knowledge construction. The results of this study provide evidence that knowledge construction happens when students are reading and commenting on others' posts, which includes a hidden process of integrating external useful information into their own understanding. Practical strategies are provided to encourage students to be expansive and actively reach out to other students.

Ensuring equity in access to online courses: Perspectives from the WHO health emergency learning response

AbstractThe World Health Organization's (WHO) open‐source learning platform, OpenWHO, allows diverse audiences worldwide to access self‐paced, asynchronous online courses based on WHO technical expertise and guidance. In addition, the platform emphasizes equitable access to learning by aiming to remove barriers. All OpenWHO courses are therefore provided free of charge and in low‐bandwidth friendly, downloadable, and offline formats. This paper explores differences in access to online learning across learner demographics, namely gender, country income status, and preferred language. The evidence presented is derived from surveys and statistical data extracted from the OpenWHO platform. It advocates for the importance of offering courses in non‐time‐bound formats that address the relevant diseases, outbreaks, and challenges of affected communities. Doing so is vital to ensure the broadest possible and most equitable access to learning, according to learners' availability and preferred media, languages, and health topics.

Individual differences matter in the effect of teaching presence on perceived learning: From the social cognitive perspective of self-regulated learning

With the popularity of various video-centric asynchronous online courses, there is a trend of self-regulated online learning. Teaching presence is very important in such courses, and has a positive effect on learners' perceived learning. However, the association between teaching presence and perceived learning could be moderated by other factors, and little is known about how individual factors moderate the association. From the social cognitive perspective of self-regulated learning, the study examined the moderating effects of self-efficacy to complete an online course and online vigilance, which reflects individuals' permanent cognitive orientation to online-related stimuli and the disposition to be preoccupied with them constantly, on the relationship, and whether these moderating effects were moderated by inhibitory control. A cross-sectional design was adopted. Results found self-efficacy to complete an online course could significantly promote the positive association between teaching presence and perceived learning, and the moderating effect would be stronger with higher inhibitory control; online vigilance generally could not influence the relationship between teaching presence and perceived learning, except when inhibitory control was very high, in which case online vigilance could prominently intensify the relationship. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the association between teaching presence and perceived learning. Practical implications for educators to train students to be better self-regulated learners in asynchronous online courses, as well as teachers to improve course quality are also discussed.

Expanding Online Professional Learning in the Post-COVID Era: The Potential of the Universal Design for Learning Framework

Teaching and learning in higher education have dramatically changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The global health crisis has forced faculty to experiment with virtual teaching in a short amount of time, and students were compelled to learn online. While online instruction during COVID-19 is considered contingent-based virtual instruction, it would be most likely that online courses would be part of the instruction modalities in the post-COVID era. In this article, we document the process of creating an asynchronous online course swiftly, guided by the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework. It sheds light on the value of the UDL to expedite the scale-up of online professional learning while sustaining student interaction and engagement.

An Online Course in Contemplative Neuroscience Increases Dispositional Mindfulness and Reduces Meditation Barriers.

Teaching contemplative neuroscience is emerging as a way to increase the reach and relevance of our field to a wider undergraduate population while also encouraging the beneficial practice of contemplation. In-person classes on the topic have been shown to improve both academic learning and attitudes towards science and meditation. Here we show that a short-term, asynchronous online course in contemplative neuroscience had comparable benefits. Students completed the Determinants of Meditation Practice Inventory (DMPI; Williams et al., 2011) and the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS; Brown and Ryan, 2003) at the start and end of the course. Their scores showed reduced barriers to meditation and improved mindfulness after the course, changes predictive of a range of positive behavioral and well-being outcomes. Students also rated the course as highly effective in advancing neuroscience understanding and competency. A comparison group (from an online general psychology class) showed no increase in mindfulness and a significantly weaker reduction in meditation barriers. This success of an online class in both academic and social-emotional learning is promising given the rapid growth of online instruction and the improved access it can provide to non-traditional students. The class format together with its health-relevant topic could thus be a valuable tool for reaching a more diverse student body while at the same time promoting practices linked to both personal and societal benefits.

Information Literacy Instruction in Asynchronous Online Courses: Which Approaches Work Best?

Which modes of information literacy instruction (ILI) work best in asynchronous online courses? Recent national trends and COVID-19 have made it critical to answer this question, but there is little research comparing different modes of ILI specifically in asynchronous contexts. This multiyear study employed five different modes of ILI in different sections of an asynchronous online anthropology course and compared the modes’ effects on students’ coursework. Ethnographic analysis of students’ bibliographies revealed nuanced changes to students’ approaches to searching and source selection. These findings can inform librarians’ development of ILI curricula and pedagogy for the unique circumstances asynchronous instruction presents.

Learning Needs of Dementia Family Caregivers during the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has dominated and transformed all caregiving contexts and situations. In a time of COVID-19, caregivers now have to learn how to take all of the complicated precautions to keep themselves and their persons from being exposed to the virus given their population’s mortality rate from COVID-19 infections exceed 40%. As part of a larger initiative to develop an asynchronous online education program for family caregivers of persons living with dementia illnesses (PLWD) to prepare them to master the new demands of their caregiving role in this extraordinary circumstance of the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted three focus groups with 13 dementia family caregivers to inform the structure, content, and “feel” of the course. Focus groups were conducted with a lead interviewer, via Zoom, audio and video recorded and transcribed for analysis. Participants were asked two groups of questions: their lived experience over the past year and course content for caregiving during crisis. Caregivers identified 4 themes regarding their lived experience of caregiving during the pandemic: (a) mixed feeling about the stay-at-home orders; (b) positive adaptation to telemedicine, (c) vaccine risks and benefits; and (d) impact of social isolation on the PLWD. The groups also recommended specific course content based on their experiences. Participants recommended specific course content based on their experiences, such as health system navigation and the logistics of what to do following the death of a PLWD. Results from these groups have been incorporated into an asynchronous online course to be pilot tested in coming months.

Initiating and maintaining student-instructor rapport in online classes

We investigated the behaviors and contextual factors college instructors rely upon to cultivate rapport with students in asynchronous online courses. Nineteen phenomenological interviews revealed that online instructors view rapport-building as a two-pronged process of initiating and subsequently maintaining rapport with students. Findings also indicated that online instructors rely upon different rapport-related strategies and contextual factors to initiate and maintain rapport. During the first weeks of the semester, these instructors rely upon connecting, information sharing, and common grounding behaviors to initiate a sense of rapport from their students. Going forward throughout the semester, these instructors rely upon attentive and courteous behaviors while providing learners with personalized instruction to maintain rapport. Findings from the present study provide insights into how college instructors approach the rapport-building process with students in online learning environments and can be used as a framework for helping college instructors make rapport-related decisions in their online classes.

Designing for Framing in Online Teacher Education: Supporting Teachers’ Attending to Student Thinking in Video Discussions of Classroom Engineering

Participating in discussions of classroom video can support teachers to attend to student thinking. Central to the success of these discussions is how teachers interpret the activity they are engaged in—how teachers frame what they are doing. In asynchronous online environments, negotiating framing poses challenges, given that interactions are not in real time and often require written text. We present findings from an online course designed to support teachers to frame video discussions as making sense of student thinking. In an engineering pedagogy course designed to emphasize responsiveness to students’ thinking, we documented shifts in teachers’ framing, with teachers more frequently making sense of, rather than evaluating, student thinking later in the course. These findings show that it is possible to design an asynchronous online course to productively engage teachers in video discussions and inform theory development in online teacher education.

Investigating Students' Perceptions of Screencasting Style of Video Feedback in Online Courses.

Feedback is an essential part of the learning process. Asynchronous online courses are marked by an abundance of text-based feedback. Yet, video feedback in asynchronous online courses is a nascent field of inquiry. This study investigated student perceptions of screencasting style of video feedback in online courses. During this course, students received video feedback from their instructor, and provided and received video feedback to their peers. A total of 84 graduate students completed an end-of-course survey between 2018 and 2020 that focused in part on student satisfaction and perceived learning with video feedback and overall perceptions of social presence. Results indicate students were satisfied with receiving video feedback, that video feedback contributed to their perceived learning, and that perceptions of social presence were comparable to previous research. Limitations and implications for practice are discussed.

Work and Learning in Digital Environments: An Exploratory Qualitative Study of Continuing Professional Education in the Modern Engineering Workplace

This study describes the experiences of four engineers participating in a 7-week long, asynchronous online continuing professional education (CPE) course addressing computational engineering techniques. The online learning environment combined with the virtual nature of computational engineering methods presents a novel environment for these learners. Engineers’ beliefs about the role of CPE in engineering practice are explored by investigating how learners navigate a technically challenging asynchronous online course delivered to their workplace. The study uses a naturalistic inquiry design analyzing discussion post writings. Findings indicate that the learners recognized the need for professional development for practicing engineers in the area of computational engineering. The learners appreciated the flexibility of the online learning environment and the authentic learning experience provided with the project. They struggled to define the boundaries required to make time to meet the course requirements while maintaining work obligations. Program planners must remain sensitive to the fact that learners will often prioritize work commitments above learning despite the ability to integrate work and learning through novel course design. The blurring of the work-learning boundary presents challenges for learners and program providers, particularly with technically challenging material which requires significant effort from the learners to learn and apply to their work.

WORKSHOP: What are Essential Quality Indicators for My Online Course? (40 mins)

Stearns Center Digital Learning has developed the Online Quality Checklist and Guidelines to help Mason faculty identify ways to guide online course design or re-design, and to enhance/improve existing online courses. The quality indicators in the Checklist apply to both asynchronous and synchronous online courses & teaching. In this session, we provide an opportunity for faculty to learn about essentials for online course quality, to work with the checklist, to reflect on their own practices, and to share best practices and ideas for improvements with other faculty.