An Evaluation of a Distance Education Course Design for General Soils

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a distance education course design with respect to both educational effectiveness and learner satisfaction. The findings support the large body of literature indicating that distance delivery, regardless of media or technology used is not by itself a contributing variable in student achievement (Russell, 1998). The course design developed for the delivery of this course over distance accomplished the primary objective of creating a location-neutral learning experience for the students. Students performed equally well regardless of location or method. Learners completing the course were satisfied with their experience overall. There was no significant difference in learner satisfaction found between the students collocated with the instructor and the distance learners. The literature supports a conclusion that student-student and student-instructor interaction is positively correlated with learner satisfaction (Fulford & Zhang, 1993; Garrison, 1990; Ritchie & Newby, 1989). This study clouds rather than clarifies that conclusion. Introduction and Theoretical Framework Instructional design is not a new concept. It is, however, relatively new to higher education. Dick and Carey (1996) asserted that the field of instructional design continues to grow as an area of study and as a profession. The growing popularity of instructional design has been influenced in part by the growing popularity of distance education. According to Willis (1995), “This process [instructional design] is essential in distance education, where the instructor and students may share limited common background and typically have minimal face-to-face contact” (p.3). In colleges of agriculture, assistance with instructional design remains a rarity. Murphy and Terry (1998) found that agricultural instructors at Texas A&M University were not confident in their methodological ability to deliver courses over distance, and that they did not perceive that resources to assist them were readily available. Robert Gagne is well known in the field of instructional design for his nine events of instruction (Gag&, Briggs, & Wager, 1992). In order to serve learners located at multiple locations, the course design evaluated here called for the chronological disassociation of some of these events of instruction. This separation in time has, as expected, increased the flexibility of scheduling for students. Of interest to the researcher was (a) any affect it may have had on the instructional effectiveness of the course as measured by learning outcomes and (b) the learners’ perceptions of the quality of the instruction. Individual differences among learners contribute to differences in achievement (Threlkeld & Brozoska, 1993; Moore & Kearsley, 1996). Dille and Mezack (199 1) concluded that students found in distance education settings tended to outperform traditional students, and that their greater age and experience were contributing factors. Bernt and Bugbee (1993) found that students entering a course with lower levels of education are “at risk primarily because they lack [the] metacognitive or executive skills for approaching coursework and examination-taking” needed to be successful. The literature warns us against Journal of Agricultural Education 1 0 3 Vol. 41 Issue 3, 2000 developing a model of the distant learner, indicating that the diversity of persons served makes this dangerous. At the same time, there is widespread agreement that “research that concentrates on individual differences and their impact on the learning process may prove more fruitful" (Threlkeld & Brozoska, 1993, p. 49). Russell (1998) provided a metaanalysis of over 240 studies indicating that in properly designed learning environments, the methods employed to overcome geographical or chronological distance produce no significant differences in learner achievement. While achievement may be unaffected by these methods, learner satisfaction has been found to be related to interaction. Learners prefer a setting that includes interaction between and among other learners and instructors (Fulford & Zhang, 1993; Garrison, 1990; Ritchie & Newby, 1989). One way to organize thinking about interaction is through the theory of transactional distance. strategies were most effective, he concluded that the graduates had learned to view tapes in segments, pause the tape to think or take notes, and to view the tape more than once to reinforce learning. Threlkeld and Brozoska (1993) suggested that individual learner differences might be important in determining learner success. They went on to describe successful adult distant learners as mature, highly motivated, flexible and self-disciplined. Moore and Kearsley (1996) posit that describing successful distance learners within the context of a specific distance delivery medium, such as videotape, may be more valuable. Michael Moore (1980) introduced the concept of transactional distance. He and Kearsley suggested that transactional distance be included as a variable in the analysis of distance education courses and programs (1996). Transactional distance is a measure of distance as a “pedagogical phenomenon” (p.200). It involves the interplay among the instructors, the learners, the content, and the learning environment. There is always some transactional distance involved, even when the students are collocated with the instructor. By this measure, some “on-campus” courses designs have greater transactional distance, are in fact more distant, than some courses designed to use technology to overcome geographical and chronological distances. Few studies have been conducted along these lines. In a study of graduate students in a compressed video setting, Jurasek (1993) found that students had a positive attitude toward both compressed video as an instructional method and the opportunities for interaction provided by the system. She found that students at the distant site had a significantly more positive attitude than did students at the origination site. There was no significant difference in the average grades earned by students at the different locations. Ultimately, both learner achievement and learner satisfaction will be important to the longterm success of educational programs. The Boyer Commission (1998) reported, “the best teachers and researchers should be thinking about how to design courses in which technology enriches teaching rather than substitutes for it” (p.2). As the demand on faculty to make their courses available off-campus increases, the need to analyze the quality of these courses from the standpoint of both learner outcomes and learner satisfaction grows more urgent. Purpose Miller (1995) identified several learning strategies that the graduates of an off-campus The primary purpose of this study was to agricultural degree program found useful in evaluate a distance education course design with learning from videotape. While conceding that respect to both educational effectiveness and more research was needed to determine which learner satisfaction. Specific objectives of the Journal of Agricultural Education 104 Vol. 41 Issue 3, 2000