Learning from Reflections - Issues in Building Quality Online Courses

Abstract

Authorship, implementation, and consumer perspectives should be considered when judging the quality of an online This article supports that position with reflections of an adjunct professor, who implemented a doctoral level course, Instruction Delivery Systems, during 2001 at Nova Southeastern University that had been authored by another professor in the School of Computer and Information Sciences. contains student reflections on their experiences developing and implementing online mini-courses, which was the primary focus of the Discussion is enhanced with references to literature on online learning, and should assist educators who wish to develop and teach quality online courses, or smaller modules within hybrid courses. Courseware development recommendations and guidance for first-time online instructors are provided. Recommendations for the future of online learning are noted. The major conclusion is that there is no single checklist by which to design or evaluate quality. Introduction As universities and colleges form partnerships to share faculty resources to develop and implement online courses (Oblinger, Barone, Hawkins, 2001; Southern Regional Education Board, 2001), there is a rising need to share facilitator implementation experiences to shed light on issues of course quality. The development of any complete quality assurance model for web-based learning needs to incorporate perceptions from academic staff and students (Yeung, 2002), however, which this article includes. In this endeavor, reflection plays a key role as the methodology, which according to Burge, Laroque, and Boak (2000) should be encouraged because distance literature contains little interpersonal reflective writing specifically on experience with web-based practice. In 2001, this author was a direct instructor of an online course, Instruction Delivery Systems, for students pursuing the doctorate in Computing Technology in Education at Nova Southeastern University (NSU). At that time she had over 25 years experience as an educator and had experienced online learning for three years while completing the doctorate. G. Abramson, Professor in the School of Computer and Information Sciences, authored the course and mentored this author's first experience with online teaching. The course extended over a five-month period and included two long weekend on-campus meetings. Students experienced the remainder asynchronously using the course web site, NSU's Electronic Student/Electronic Teacher system for submitting assignments, student forums for discussion threads, and e-mail. They read and reported on literature about online teaching and learning, experimented with online course management systems, designed and implemented online mini-courses suitable for post-secondary education, participated as students in mini-courses of their peers, participated in threaded discussions, and reflected upon the experience of online teaching and learning. By way of course closure, the instructor analyzed students' reflections papers, and shared results with them. Their observations, which served as catalyst for this article, proved to be particularly enlightening regarding issues to ensure quality of online courses. Since that first online teaching experience, this author has reviewed and participated in the development of online courses for other higher providers and has been asked, What is it like to teach a course authored by another? This article addresses that question and other quality issues related to online teaching and course development. promotes the position that authorship, implementation, and consumer perspectives should be considered when judging the quality of an online Courseware development and implementation tips, resources, and guidance are provided, which should assist other educators who wish to teach online and to develop quality online courses, or smaller modules within hybrid courses. A commentary on the future of online learning is included. Becoming an Teacher It takes both technical competence and effective pedagogy to teach in an e-learning (Southern Regional Education Board, 2001, p. 2). In addition, an instructor's attitude, motivation, and true commitment toward instruction delivery via distance programs affects much of the quality of instruction. An instructor's approach to instruction will depend upon whether he/she views the e-learning environment as one in which technology is used to replicate traditional pedagogical methods or to improve instruction (Valentine, 2002). Reading the literature (e.g., Collison, Elbaum, Haavind, & Tinker, 2000; Palloff & Pratt, 2001; Salmon, 2000) about the online learning environment is a first step in becoming an online teacher. For example, University of Illinois faculty concluded that online teaching and learning can be done with high quality if faculty use new approaches that compensate for the limitations of technology and make the effort to create and maintain attentiveness to their students. Teaching is time and labor intensive. Students must feel they are members of a learning community. Courses should feature strong professor-student and student-student interactions, in-depth engagement with course materials, and faculty/student technical support. Evidence of academic maturity, such as critical thinking and synthesis of knowledge areas, is present (University of Illinois, 1999). NSU students expressed similar perspectives: • online teaching encourages student-faculty contact, cooperation among students, active learning, provides prompt feedback, communicates high expectations, and respects diverse talents and learning styles. • Online students must take responsibility for their own learning ...Success can be measured by their commitment, ability to write well, and to manage their time. They need to recognize that an online course is not easier than a face-to-face course. Second, instructors need to be trained to use distance learning technology (Southern Regional Education Board, 2001; Valentine, 2002). Potential online teachers might benefit from experiencing online learning, online course design and implementation, reflection/revision, and experimenting with course management systems. For example, Moloney and Tello (2003) described a four-phase program at UMass-Lowell, similar to the NSU experience. Faculty development for the online program includes participation in a 4-week workshop where they learn to teach online by being online students themselves and experimenting with course management systems. This is followed by a second 4-week seminar in which faculty develop and migrate their course materials to the course management system. The third and fourth phases of the program involve teaching and redesigning their first course to incorporate such teaching strategies as case studies and team projects. Traditional faculty often mentor their colleagues. According to Care and Scanlan (2001), mentoring new faculty is essential to the production of courses for distance delivery. Quality Issues Measures of learning--and of quality--are elusive and often controversial in higher education (Oblinger, Barone, Hawkins, 2001, p. 19). Developers of faculty and student programs, as described above, recognize that learning is both social and private, and experiential and that higher order learning requires reflection and knowledge construction, which are key elements for quality assurance in online learning (Alley & Jankar, 2001). The success of an online course is affected by its pedagogical richness, which is the degree to which a course addresses learning styles, use of media, and interactivity with content, testing and feedback, and collaboration. Other success factors include content quality, delivery support functions for instructors, administrators, and students, including those with vision and hearing impairments; pedagogically driven instructional design with well-defined objectives, web site usability factors, and technological factors (Sonwalkar, 2002). Of great interest to this author is that NSU students' reflections papers revealed those same key factors, as well as internal course design elements such as student motivation and involvement and the art of instruction, which Alley and Jansak (2001) say also affect course quality. These issues will be elaborated in the following sections. Content Quality Good content forms a basis for a successful course and is a matter of authorship. The 23 mini-courses that the NSU students developed and implemented for three-weeks each fell into four categories: technical skill mastery (7), improving life skills (9), sharpening professional skills (2), and teaching (5). Representative titles included