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First
I would like to thank you all for this opportunity to address the H805 Cohort of
2002. As Nick mentioned in his introduction I teach at the The
Nick
contacted me after visiting my website Professor
Hossein Arsham and seeing my reference to zero drop rates on my
online courses; a topic, I believe, of great importance for the educator and a
factor in measure of course quality. The
quality of courses should not be assessed purely on the academic achievements of
the ‘survivors’. If this type of measure is applied those with highest
dropout rates will tend to show the highest levels of achievement, as the most
academically able students tend to ‘survive’. Assessments of online courses,
as with any course, should address both academic achievement and retention. Dropout is gradual process. To me it means a person who
has given up serious effort to meet their responsibilities.
Therefore, diagnostic process and preventive action are the instructor
responsibility. Introduction Teaching
on the Web is not really about distance learning. It is a new kind of education
and a new way of learning. The teacher has to be available everyday. Students
expect instant response. For each course you are teaching, you should expect
spending much more (two to three times) amount of time compared with
face-to-face teaching. Is
it learning without a teacher? No.
You need supportive learning environments. I advocate individual mentoring. Unlike
face-to-face setting, where the responsibilities are ranked with emphasis on
teaching then learning, for the online courses the emphasis is on learning then
teaching. From my experience in both settings, I have realized that for online
courses students and teacher are partners in the learning process. Interactivity
and tutorial supports are not a luxury anymore. To some instructors this is just
one more excuse to step back --after all, this stuff is hard. But that's the
wrong move. Change
may not be easy, but it is necessary, inevitable and often beneficial. Whether
your students succeed or fail depends in part upon how well you leverage your
full intellectual capital -- and your Web-based course is taking a starring
role. Keeping interactivity with students, and following the factors I outlined
will help to safeguard both instructor and students in the process. Background In
general, people who use the Internet are reluctant to pay for content, and many
people think that the quality of the content on the Internet is poor. Similar
behavior exists among the administrators within our academic institutions; they
want quality content, but they do not want to pay well for it. This is a circle
that cannot be squared. If
administrators start with question similar to "If I replace my traditional
teaching with Web courses, how much will I save?" As a strong advocate for
web teaching/learning, I find that approach flawed. Educators need significant amounts of time to develop
online courses that provide real opportunities for good student-teacher dialog.
Additionally, students must become more active and self-directed learners, which
can be a major change for those who tend to be passive about their education.
For these students online education creates a false sense of security
which can lead to them neglecting studying because it is “out of sight, out of
mind”. When instituting a web-based curriculum or assessment
delivery system, how important is face-to-face teacher training?
Training for online teaching is a must. It is not surprising that even
many instructors dropout of the online training. In reducing the dropout rate,
almost all instructors point to the importance of training for online learning
prior to teaching any courses. Successful online instructors must be able to
diagnose, clarify, and evaluate progress. Interactive learning environments create a variety of
opportunities to improve student learning by: exploring firsthand a number of
different teaching/learning approaches, testing learning theories and uncovering
new problems for investigation. Frequently, prospective online students wonder about
the academic credibility of their degree. It is a vital question that raises
legitimate concerns about how well their degree will be received by prospective
business and educational employers. Clearly some basic factors such as regional
or national accreditation are perceived as equivalent degrees. Unfortunately, some students fail to take the time to
explore the nature of online education, which results in dropouts. For these
students, their prior traditional educational experiences did not prepare them
for learner-centred educational settings. To prevent this is important that
prospective online students are asked a series of questions that will help them
evaluate whether online courses will meet their learning needs. International online programs are currently facing new
problems related to the increasingly multicultural and multiethnic composition
of the student population and to rising dropout levels.
Meeting this challenge calls for considerable planning effort, a detailed
organizational scheme and a drastic change in behavioural attitudes. To
design a successful online learning program, you must address major learning
factors such as customization and communication in teaching students based on
their individual learning styles. Would
I consider an online course? Possibly. There are two key points to consider -
the design of the course material and the level of support given to the student.
Online courses are not a "cheap" option for universities. It is also
unethical to deliver a course that does not meet the needs of the students. The
impact of class size is of concern to all parties involved on Web-based
learning/teaching. It takes 2 or 3 times as much time to teach an on-line course
as a face-to-face course for both students and the Instructors. In almost all
cases, the instructors teaching Web-based courses are being paid extra. The
extra amount in ($) increases with the size of the class, and whether or not the
instructor is the designer of the course content. This is a fair compensation
that is practiced in almost at all educational institutions. An on-line course
that works for 15 or 20 students may be impossible with 100 students Instructors
on the 15 weeks courses I ran were in charge of about 18 students each and
contracted for 15 hours relative to the expected 10 hours of commitment expected
from each student. Reducing
the Dropout Rate Today, some online educators are concerned with the
high dropout rates in their courses. They
often assert that student satisfaction and performance can be improved by
building learner communities. Unfortunately, there is very little awareness of this
problem within the education field, a sector that has traditionally operated on
an isolated basis in the belief that schooling is an end in itself. Often new course start with a very sophisticated
distance-learning package. In most of these cases, a month into the term, many
students find that it requires even more time to learn the courseware than the
course itself demands. You should
expect this factor alone to leave people confused and lead to drop-out. Some instructors even redesign the course after a
significant number of dropouts hoping that it averts more serious conflict and
dysfunction. Making such a change can risk confusing and alienating students
further. However, in my experience, although team members expected such drastic
manoeuvres to leave heads spinning, and possibly to cause drop-outs, in reality
students adapt smoothly. In
my courses, the dropout rate was zero. However, I had a few cases where a few
students became frustrated with the weekly demands on their time and effort. The
reason was I had to make sure that every student understood the material. I used
e-mail to encourage these students to persist and to express what they did not
understand. One
of the main reasons for dropout is that the student feels no one cares. When the
student receives e-mail from the professor, the student is more likely to
continue. The advantages of continuous assessment include an increase in the
time that students spend studying, a higher level of familiarity with tested
material and of comfort with the testing process, immediate feedback, and the
ability to see the result of effort on achievement. There
are always a few students in every Web-based course that needs their
instructor's constant reinforcement and encouragement throughout the duration of
the course. Once students are engaged in the learning process, it ensures
maximum retention and understanding. The
most effective means of reducing dropout rate is preparation. The creation and
implementation of a required online student-orientation and preparation course
certainly helps significantly. Web-based
courses must be viewed as student-centered activity that rely on a combination
of high-quality, interactive learning, asynchronous and synchronous interaction,
and individualized mentoring on the other end. What
kinds of approaches to online learning will improve the quality of student
learning? Whenever the online education is refereed as a
revolution in education it implies that the revolution is about
"learning" not "teaching".
Greater
quality means greater individualization of learning experiences for students.
The ability to self-craft and customize
the learning environment so that each student can achieve in a variety of ways
increases the likelihood that learning success online will be higher than
learning success in the face-to-face or distance setting, dominated by a
one-size-fits-all approach. Learning may be developed in two ways, through
individual activity or collaborative activity. The former comprises of study,
individual reflection, reworking of ideas and concepts, and the building up of
new knowledge on the basis of what is already known.
On the other hand, collaborative activity may be pursued either in a
formal learning setting, where different teaching models are adopted, or in an
informal manner as an integral part of one’s work (situated learning). Some
students fail to participate and therefore feel more isolated than face-to-face
students and experience lower levels of self-confidence as a result. This can
lead to drop out. In many courses students have to create their own
support system by, for example e-mailing classmates for help, however, when a
few students dropped out of the class the whole support system can collapse. Encouragement,
praise, and assurance that they are on the right learning path are also critical
feedback components, helping students get through rough times and keep on
working. Knowing that someone is there to help when they get stuck and to get
them moving again gives students the confidence that they can succeed. Taking
this approach rather than limiting enrolment in online courses for some students
requires real change, since it requires us both to understand our students as
individuals and to offer a variety of learning options within each course. The
instructor needs to treat students as individuals rather than as homogenous
groups. Rather than maintaining a fixed view of what all students want or what
all students need, we need to be flexible and create environments that enable
greater choice in learning styles for students. From my own experience I know
that students differ, for example, in the amount of interaction that they
require from me. Students
must feel comfortable enough to set aside the defensive shield. In the
face-to-face stetting, some student might get nervous; they will not speak up,
nor ask questions. This should not be the case for online courses. Knowing
how to build relationships with and among your students, how to encourage
participation, how to start and stop discussions, how to deal with the shy, the
dominating, the aggressive and the just-plain-awkward. I do encourage you to
re-interpret your skills in terms of the new medium and to identify where online
teaching can make a unique contribution. The instructor must have some readily
well-thought available implementation plans to deal with issues such as
resistance, commitment, and culture. Administrators and instructors are not always sure how
to devise relevant programs without having a more accurate profile of their
adult students. Ultimately, a failure to address social interaction issues can
lead to an increase in the dropout rate among students.
Students wanted more personalized contact with each other and their
instructor to humanize their courses: students
shouldn’t just be taken as a social-security-number. Communication is a vital aspect of any online learning
program: students shouldn’t feel isolated However,
there must be a commitment to the integrity of transactional distance. The
instructor must use effective strategies to increase dialogue interactively.
However, the instructor must adapt to minimize the engagement on personal
matters. Otherwise, there is a point at which the dialogue about personal
matters takes over, and the original learning objectives are compromised. The
other problem might be that a very few students took over the dialogue, and
turned it into a monologue. Understand
students' feelings and experiences. Communicating by email may make it harder to
convey feelings such as concern. Prompt replies to questions at least show we
are paying attention. "One size fits all" seems to be bad advice.
There are great differences among individual students. Match
the abilities of the students to the task. When you're not in the classroom, you
miss the glimmer of awareness in students' eyes. It is difficult to tell whether
they are getting the subject or not. If you do not give them enough stimulation,
they will get bored; if you apply too much they will feel overwhelmed. As every
student is different, it seems the best approach is to give a variety of
options. Concluding
Remarks Online instructors must develop an instructional
support system that provides effective assistance to students who flounder.
Instructors must realize that their student population has a diversity of
learning styles. Regular direct feedback about progress is essential in the
prevention of drop-out. Some students lack confidence in their academic
abilities and need more individual attention, while others are highly autonomous
and have different kinds of needs. Make
sure course contents and resources are easy to locate and use. Effective
instructional planning requires an accurate profile of student learning needs
and weekly progress reports. Once
more, thank you all for this opportunity to share some of my experiences and
ideas; and good luck in your pursuit of excellence. Reference Arsham, H., (1995-2002) Interactive Education: Impact of the Internet on Learning & Teaching,
University of http://ubmail.ubalt.edu/~harsham/interactive.htm [accessed
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