Course content or the instructor: which is more important in on‐line teaching?

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact and relative importance of course content and the role of the instructor on measures of effectiveness for on-line courses. Items from a standard student evaluation questionnaire are used to form measures of the quality of course content, the instructor's role in facilitating the course, and a number of 'global' effectiveness measures. Results from a number of stepwise regression analyses suggest that the impact and importance of these two dimensions of teaching effectiveness vary depending on the specific global effectiveness measure being assessed. Generally, both can be seen as strong predictors of global effectiveness of on-line courses, explaining from 0.569 to 0.743 of the variance in different global effectiveness measures. Further, the study identifies those standard questions used to form the course content and instructor's role indices that are of greatest importance in predicting global teaching effectiveness of on-line courses.Recent years have seen a tremendous increase in university courses taught over the Internet. Clark (1999) reported that over two-thirds of the 3,200 accredited colleges and graduate schools in the U.S. offer such courses. In 1999, Fornnaciari & Forte reported that 40 accredited U.S. business schools offered complete MBA programmes through distance education. More recently, U.S. News and World Report surveyed 2,000 institutions and noted their top 25 on-line programmes in the U.S. Although on-line education is here to stay, a key question is whether this new form of teaching can offer a quality learning experience. In describing the development of on-line courses and programmes, Marchese (2000) stated that "the action today, and most of the press coverage, goes to much larger-scale endeavours-institutional and corporate based-often for profit, aimed at capturing market share and creating new revenue streams. There is lots of striving and 'reach' out there, but little attention to 'richness' and learning itself"(p.4).This study seeks to determine the importance of two dimensions in the delivery of high quality on-line MBA courses: the content of the course and the role of the instructor. The research question addressed, as suggested by the title of this article is, "which is most important in achieving effectiveness in on-line courses, the instructor or the content of the course being offered?" Answering this question is important for a number of reasons. First, many

Revize Edilmiş İşlemsel Uzaklık Ölçeğinin Uyarlama Çalışması

“…The online learning which is identified by Brahmawong (2004) as used in additional environments such as face-to-face interaction and printed materials, audio cassette, CD and internet which is used as core environment in evaluation, planning, preparation, production and presentation of knowledge and experience, has various advantages and restrictions. The online learning has advantages such as providing life-long education to individuals, monitoring the success and the development as corporate and individual and providing opportunity to the students to learn in needed amount and in their own learning speed from anywhere and anytime however the online learning has some restrictions such as the necessity of being self-disciplined and self-controlled and motivated and feeling themselves alone in the learning environment (Bach, Haynes, & Smith, 2007;de Bruyn, 2004;Drago, Peltier, & Sorensen, 2002;Uşun, 2006). In this respect, when the literature is searched, it is seen that the interaction has a critical importance for successful online learning implementations (Garrison, 1991;Garrison, 2000;Holmberg, 1991;Moore & Kearsley, 1996).…”

“…Çevrimiçi öğrenmenin; bireylere yaşam boyu öğrenme olanağı sağlaması, bireysel ve kurumsal olarak gelişim, başarı ve performansın izlenebilmesi, öğrencilerin kendi öğrenme ihtiyaç ve hızlarına bağlı olarak istenilen yer ve zamanda öğrenmeye olanak sağlaması gibi avantajları bulunmaktadır. Çevrimiçi öğrenmenin bu avantajlarının yanında; öğrencilerin öz disiplinli ve öz denetimli olmalarının gerekmesi, güdülenmişliklerinin yüksek olmasını gerektirmesi ve çalıştıkları öğrenme ortamlarında kendilerini yalnız hissetmeleri gibi sınırlılıkları da bulunmaktadır (Bach, Haynes, & Smith, 2007;de Bruyn, 2004;Drago, Peltier, & Sorensen, 2002;Uşun, 2006). Bu bağlamda, alanyazın tarandığında, başarılı çevrimiçi öğrenme uygulamaları için etkileşime kritik bir önem yüklendiği görülmektedir (Garrison, 1991;Garrison, 2000;Holmberg, 1991;Moore & Kearsley, 1996).…”

Exploring the Interaction Factors Effecting the Student Retention in Online Courses

“…[31]. The content of high quality curriculum was often inspected from many aspects, including the evaluation of the test, homework, project and the teacher's behavior, the difficulty of the course and so on [32]. Curriculum design, quality and related assessment had been studied [33].…”

Dispelling the Myths of Online Education: Learning via the Information Superhighway

“…The same study forecasts that the future growth of online modules over the next decade to average around 40% per year (Dolezalek, 2003). In many institutions, online module delivery is now becoming a standard medium for supplementing or replacing traditional classroom teaching (Drago, Peltier and Sorensen, 2002). From a monetary standpoint, the global market for online learning is expected to be approximately $34 billion by 2005(McLester, 2002.…”

“…Has it already achieved this standard? There is a growing body of evidence that suggests there is little or no difference between the quality and effectiveness of online and traditional modules (Caudron, 2001;Drago et al, 2002). Yet there continues to be a perception that online programmes are inferior and that students trade off quality for convenience when making the choice to pursue an online degree (Dash, 2000;Dolezalek, 2003).…”