Identifying Critical Needs for Student Success in Online Learning

As a first step in developing a resource system for students enrolled in graduate education courses at George Fox University, School of Education personnel surveyed students regarding their competence and perceived importance of a number of skills determined to be important for success in online learning. A review of the literature revealed a number of needed skills and characteristics. A web-based questionnaire was employed for data collection. Critical needs were determined by comparing the areas of low initial competence with those skills perceived by the students to be of high importance. Areas of critical need included skills in accessing internet sites and browser usage, research activities and competence, and communication skills for online learning. Faculty members intend to use the findings to prioritize the selection of elements to be included in a student resource system. Educators consistently look for ways to maximize student achievement. Learning strategies utilized in traditional school settings are well defined and clearly understood. Students are guided to develop a personalized repertoire of skills that bring academic success. But do these same strategies transfer successfully to the new environment of online learning? Do students utilize the most effective strategies? What perceptions do they have regarding the advantages and disadvantages of online learning? Is there a model for the most effective resources for an online program? The nature of online learning calls for students to be highly motivated, independent, and self-regulated. To be academically successful, they must be active learners with good organizational and time management skills, capable of adapting to a new learning environment. Understanding these characteristics, the educator’s task is to determine which strategies will enhance student learning. Zariski and Styles (2000) interviewed undergraduate students in a Legal Studies and Law unit at Murdoch University. They studied learning strategies of rehearsal, elaboration, organization, completing activities, time management and volitional strategies, environment for study, adaptive strategies – help seeking and use of resources, and metacognitive strategies – planning, monitoring, evaluating. Technical demands overshadowed a focus on cognitive strategies for many students, especially new to the online environment. There was a request for tutorials to be available throughout the unit. Students recognized the need for effective time management and selfregulating strategies. Shih, Ingebritsen, Pleasants, Flickinger, and Brown (1998) examined the relationship of learning styles, learning strategies, and patterns of learning in an online environment. They drew a distinction between learning styles that may be difficult for a student to change and learning strategies over which the student has a great deal of control. They fo und that a student’s overall achievement was directly related to the use of a wide range of learning strategies which supported the earlier findings of Pintrich and Johnson (1990), and Weinstein and Underwood (1985). In an examination of the online graduate program at Drexel University, Hislop (1999) included in the observations on teaching and learning a look at student participation in the online environment. Hislop noted that student participation is a key learning strategy. In order to maximize learning, it is important for teachers to provide students with the necessary resources in a timely and effective manner. But what are the priorities for those resources? No one knows better than the students themselves. Personnel in the School of Education at George Fox University seek to address the needs of students in online courses through the development of an internet-based resource center that would allow students and prospective students the opportunity to explore and learn in the online environment. Student exploration and learning through this center would occur prior to or while enrolled in graduate courses in the School of Education. A first step in identifying the needs of online students at George Fox University was to survey the students using a web-based questionnaire. Through an analysis of the findings and a review of other institutions’ efforts, we seek to improve our students’ success in internet-based learning. George Fox University is an independent university located in Newberg, Oregon, USA. Students in graduate programs in education have been participating in online courses for about five years. The web-based teaching and learning environment was developed and is maintained by faculty members in the School of Education. This system makes use of asynchronous and real-time interaction through discussion forums, email, and chat rooms. Proceedings of the International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE’02) 0-7695-1509-6/02 $17.00 © 2002 IEEE Individual and group learning activities are conducted through a web-based interactive environment. The goal of this study was to discover the crit ical preparation needs of students in online courses. Twentyseven students enrolled in courses in the School’s M.Ed. and Doctor of Education programs in the spring Semester, 2002, completed a questionnaire that was constructed using Test Pilot, a test authoring application. Items on the questionnaire were devised which allowed students to describe their initial competence in a number of skills required for successful online learning. Students were also asked to state the perceived importance of each of the skills. Critical need was determined by discovering those skills that were both areas of low initial competence and high-perceived importance. Preliminary findings indicate that areas of critical need are of three general types; a) skills related to using web browsers generally and in accessing the university web site, b) skills related to carrying out research related to course activities, and c) communication skills. Figure 1 presents the types of need and specific skills in each of the three areas. ______________________________________________ Type of Need Specific Skills and Activities Access 1. Using web browsers 2. Accessing and navigating the university website Research 1. Using search engines 2. Evaluating credibility of information on WWW 3. Using library databases 4. Requesting library resources Communication 1. Composing and posting in course discussion areas 2. Developing an online communicative presence Figure 1. Critical Needs We intend to use the information fro m this study to target our development efforts at building tutorials and resource helps for online students. Students come to our courses at all stages of familiarity and skill in working in an internet-based environment. The goal is to build a resource system that will address the critical needs of students. Potentially, this could include an online resource center, linked to the GFU website. It would be composed of an orientation to online learning, assessment instrument to identify student strengths and weaknesses in the online environment, tutorials addressing the specific skills and activities noted in figure 1, and a comprehensive FAQ sheet. Additionally, the survey findings would give direction in preparation of an Online Orientation Handbook sent to students enrolling for the first time in an online class. Available in hard copy form, this would serve as a transition tool from the traditional class to the online learning format. Further plans include using the survey with students in the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program in fall Semester, 2002. These students represent two groups in the MAT program: the first cohort started in January 2002 and will have partially completed the program with a mix of online and face-to-face classes, and the second, has a start date of January 2003. The goal is to gather information that will be of substantial assistance at the beginning of the program, as well as meeting ongoing needs of all online students. This project is enabling us to make decisions on investing our limited resources into areas of greatest need. Faculty and staff time can then be used to begin constructing the key elements of the student resource system. References: (1) Hislop, Gregory (1999). Working Professionals as Parttime On-line Learners. [Online]. Available http://www.aln.org/alnweb/journal/Vol4_issue2/le/hislop/LEhislop.htm. (2) Pintrich, P. R. & Johnson, G. R. (1990). Assessing and improving students’ learning strategies. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 42, 83-92. (3) Shih, Ching-Chun; Ingebritsen, Tom; Pleasants, John; Flickinger, Kathleen; & Brown, George. (1998). Learning Strategies and Other Factors Influencing Achievement via Web Courses. Distance Learning ’98, Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Distance teaching & Learning (14, Madison, WI, August 5-7, 1998). (4) Weinstein, C. E. & Underwood, V. (1985). Learning Strategies: The how of learning. In Judith W. Segal, Susan F. Chipman and Robert Glaser (Eds.) Thinking and Learning Skills. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. (5) Zariski A. and Styles, I. (2000). Enhancing student strategies for online learning. In A. Herrmann and M.M. Kulski (Eds.), Flexible Futures in Tertiary Teaching. Proceedings of the 9 Annual Teaching Learning Forum, 2-4 February 2000. Perth: Curtin University of Technology. http://cleo.murdoch.edu.au/confs/tlf/tlf2000/zariski.html Proceedings of the International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE’02) 0-7695-1509-6/02 $17.00 © 2002 IEEE