Student's Choice of Learning Methods: Seeking the Best Mix of Face-to-Fact and e-Interactions

Research shows that the Internet has revolutionized the delivery of distance education, and provided opportunities to change the way we teach. Students with access to both traditional lectures and an online learning environment fair better academically than students exposed exclusively to either traditional classroom or Internet instruction respectively. However, the ‘perfect’ mix of face-to-face and e-interaction, if there is one, has yet to be determined. A classroom action research project that extended over three semesters was designed to address and ascertain the ‘best mix model’. After two semesters of preliminary experiments, students in the third semester will have a choice to study course content exclusively on-line, off-line or a mix of on-line and offline instructional methods. After students will have made their choice, the ‘choice’ as dependent variable will be analyzed against the respective answers in responses on the pre-assessment. Learning via the Internet is one of the most discussed delivery methods for distance education today. Universities and other institutions provide not only entire courses but also entire degree programs online. Research shows that the Internet has revolutionized the delivery of distance education, and provided opportunities to change the way we teach on campus. Goldberg (1997): Wheeler and Jarboe (2001) found that a combination of on-line and traditional classroom instruction has become a popular way to use Internet teaching and learning tools. They showed that students with access to both traditional lectures and an online learning environment fair better academically than students exposed exclusively to either traditional classroom or Internet instruction respectively. However, the ‘perfect’ mix of face-to-face and einteraction, if there is one, has yet to be determined. A classroom action research project that extended over three semesters was designed to address and ascertain the ‘best mix’ of on-line instruction and traditional, face-to-face classroom instruction. Each semester of 16 weeks was divided into three time periods: Period I, II, and III (Figure 1). The goals of the first two semesters have been accomplished. Students’ perceptions of classroom environment and learning outcomes have been assessed. The third and last semester will take place in Fall 2002. In the third semester, students will have a choice to study course content exclusively on-line, off-line or a mix of on-line and off-line instructional methods. The classroom action research project addressed the four major components of web-enhancing a course: Administrative, Assessment, Content Delivery, and the Community Component (Schmidt, 2002). Students enrolled in a sophomore computer technology course were subjects used for the study. The first time period was conducted in a face-to-face method, using the Internet only for course admin istration. This time period also encourages students to become familiar with the tools of other components of web-enhancement, to allow for a smooth transition into the second time period, where students were to go fully on-line. During the second time period of each semester, students were randomly divided into cohort A and cohort B. While cohort A studied the subject matter exclusively on-line (for 3 weeks), cohort B was deprived of any online interaction, even of the Administrative on-line Component, and studied the content off-line. After the first three weeks, the roles of the cohorts were reversed, with a new set of content material. All four components Pre-Assessment Classroom and Learning Outcomes Assessment Period I: 6 weeks Period II: 6 weeks First 3 week section Second 3 week Section Period III: 4 weeks Cohort A Off-Line Cohort A On-Line Face-to-Face, some Admin component Cohort B On-Line Cohort B Off-Line Mix, determined by