Factors influencing interaction in an online course

Vrasidas, Charalambos; McIsaac, Marina Stock

doi:10.1080/08923649909527033

Cited by 294 publications

(183 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Perhaps the most salient theme, continuous dialogue, provided a way for teachers to come to a deep knowledge of each student. This theme is congruent with empirical research that has established dialogue as a critical element of the online learning process (Rovai, 2007;Stein, et al, 2005;Vrasidas & McIsaac, 1999). Teacher and student participants preferred technologies that increased teacher-student accessibility by displaying users' online statuses.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

IRRODL Volume 14, Number 5

Authors

2013

IRRODL

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This is my first editorial of IRRODL as one of the two co-editors with Dianne Conrad.As she did previously, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Terry Anderson for all the work he has done in building IRRODL into a world class scholarly journal, a leader in our field. And neither of us could manage this feat without the professional assistance of Brigette McConkey, IRRODL's managing editor.The articles in this issue of IRRODL have been grouped into two sections. The first provides us with research findings of interest to educational administrators and consists of articles on capacity building and leadership as well as more technical research on computer security and modeling. The second section is concerned with teaching and learning and consists of articles on training and teaching methods followed by research studies related to interactivity and social media. lectures, service quality, and innovativeness were all significant factors affecting behavioural intention to use mobile learning. Capacity building/leadership Administration Computer security and modelingOnline learning administrators need to be more aware of issues surrounding computer security and computer modeling. In their paper, Chen and He use blog mining as well as a traditional literature search to determine the awareness of security risks in online environments, noting that security is not considered to be a top priority. On the other hand, Amigud conducted a survey of five distance education programs on their learner authentication strategies, confirming that at least in this one problem area, secure identification is possible at a distance. The Yildiz et al. paper describes a fuzzy model program designed to accurately predict students' performance, concluding that the most accurate results came from the model that was based on experts' opinions. Teaching and Interactivity TeachingUsing a qualitative meta-ethnographic approach, Mbati explored student experiences using social media, finding that online discussion forums are ideal for the stimulation of learning in elearning programs. Shattuck and Anderson explored whether a training course had any impact on teaching practice. They recommend design principles for instructor training. Mavroudi and Hadzilacos adopted a learning needs approach to study the design of courses for elearning. They combined learner, context, and needs analyses into a coherent framework for replication. InteractivityInter-personal interaction has been identified by many researchers as an important learning variable that can be supported online using social media. Castaño-Muñoz et al. The paper explores the interaction effects of level and agreement, finding that in classes with high levels of teaching presence, the higher the agreement about teaching presence, the higher the agreement about cognitive and social presence especially for classes reporting stronger levels of cognitive and social presence. In classes with lower levels of teaching presence, agreement has a different effect.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

IRRODL Volume 14, Number 5

Authors

2013

IRRODL

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“…In general, student isolation and attrition in distance education is associated with a lack of interaction between instructors, learners, and learning material. 7,8 Students perceive interaction as a critical factor in distance education and report enhanced learning and higher satisfaction in more interactive courses. 9,10 Furthermore, engagement in the distance education environment may be positively related to student performance, satisfaction, participation, motivation, and critical thinking.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pharmacy Student Engagement, Performance, and Perception in a Flipped Satellite Classroom

McLaughlin

Griffin

Esserman

et al. 2013

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education

329

212

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Objective. To determine whether "flipping" a traditional basic pharmaceutics course delivered synchronously to 2 satellite campuses would improve student academic performance, engagement, and perception. Design. In 2012, the basic pharmaceutics course was flipped and delivered to 22 satellite students on 2 different campuses. Twenty-five condensed, recorded course lectures were placed on the course Web site for students to watch prior to class. Scheduled class periods were dedicated to participating in active-learning exercises. Students also completed 2 course projects, 3 midterm examinations, 8 graded quizzes, and a cumulative and comprehensive final examination. Assessment. Results of a survey administered at the beginning and end of the flipped course in 2012 revealed an increase in students' support for learning content prior to class and using class time for more applied learning (p50.01) and in the belief that learning key foundational content prior to coming to class greatly enhanced in-class learning (p50.001). Significantly more students preferred the flipped classroom format after completing the course (89.5%) than before completing the course (34.6%). Course evaluation responses and final examination performance did not differ significantly for 2011 when the course was taught using a traditional format and the 2012 flipped-course format. Qualitative findings suggested that the flipped classroom promoted student empowerment, development, and engagement. Conclusion. The flipped pharmacy classroom can enhance the quality of satellite students' experiences in a basic pharmaceutics course through thoughtful course design, enriched dialogue, and promotion of learner autonomy.

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“…Much of the research on online learning has focused on student rates of participation and learner interaction (Macdonald, 2003;Pena-Shaff & Nichols, 2004;Sapp & Simon, 2005;Vrasidas & McIsaac, 1999). According to Hara (2002) and Murphy and Collins (as cited in Uribe, Klein, & Sullivan, 2003), research on synchronous CMC has been limited to surveys of students, investigations of the recreational use of online chat systems, and the use of these systems for instructional purposes has been explored only through case studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tool use in open learning environments: In search of learner-related determinants

Clarebout

Elen

2008

Learning Environ Res

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IntroductionBeliefs about teaching and learning play an important role in transforming classrooms through the use of technology (Ertmer, 1999(Ertmer, , 2005. Additionally, attitudes toward technology can influence teachers' technology uses (Myers & Halpin, 2002;Yildirim, 2000). In order to prepare preservice teachers to use technology effectively, it is necessary to examine their beliefs about learning and teaching and their attitudes toward technology. Teacher educators must act as role models for preservice teachers and prepare them to use technology in their future professional practices. In this paper we report the results of a study that examined teacher educators' beliefs and technology uses in relation to preservice teachers' beliefs and technology attitudes. Ertmer (1999) described two types of barriers to technology integration: first-order barriers and secondorder barriers. First-order barriers are extrinsic to teachers and include lack of access to hardware and software, time, and necessary support. Second-order barriers are intrinsic to teachers and include teachers' belief systems about teaching and learning, as well as their familiar teaching practices, which can affect meaningful technology integration. Since second-order barriers are more ingrained and personal than first-order barriers, they may be harder to overcome. Current literature Niederhauser & Stoddart, 2001; Norm, Grabinger & Duffield, 1999) indicated that teachers who had more constructivist or student-centered beliefs tended to use technology and engage the students in more technology-supported student-centered learning activities, while those who had more traditional or teacher-centered beliefs tended to use less technology and had students use technology to reinforce skills.Some researchers (Cifuentes, 1997;Daniel, 1996; Friel & Carboni, 2000; Hart, 2002) suggested that participation in teacher education programs could influence preservice teachers' beliefs. In teacher education courses, teacher educators create learning environments through specific teaching strategies that allow preservice teachers to experience models of teaching and learning that they might use in their future teaching. Supporting the strategies that teacher educators employ are their underlying beliefs about teaching and learning (Pajares, 1992). Since we may be able to predict teacher educators' teaching practices from their beliefs, and their practices are likely to influence preservice teachers' beliefs, it may be possible to predict preservice teachers' beliefs from teacher educators' beliefs. Thus, one of the research interests in this study was the relationship between teacher educators' beliefs and preservice teachers' beliefs.Besides beliefs, attitudes are thought to serve as predictors of behaviors (Richardson, 2003). Applied to technology use, attitudes toward technology are expected to predict one's uses of technology. According to Aiken (1980), attitudes can be "learned directly by observing the activities of people who are perceived as signific...

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Factors influencing interaction in an online course

Cited by 294 publications

References 12 publications

IRRODL Volume 14, Number 5

IRRODL Volume 14, Number 5

Pharmacy Student Engagement, Performance, and Perception in a Flipped Satellite Classroom

Tool use in open learning environments: In search of learner-related determinants

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