The Impact of Previous Online Course Experience on Students' Perceptions of Quality

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether experienced online students (who have completed seven or more online courses) perceive the quality of their courses differently than novice online students (who have completed three or fewer online courses) or students with an intermediate level of online course experience (those who have completed four to six online courses). Overall, 3,160 online students completed a survey which asked them to indicate the extent to which statements derived from the Quality Matters rubric contributed to student success. The results indicate that students rated some items differently based on their previous online course experience. Novice online learners felt that having netiquette guidelines clearly stated was more important than experienced online learners. Experienced learners rated several items as being more important than novice and/or intermediate online learners, including items related to self-introductions, appropriateness of assessments, relevance and quality of instructional materials, clarity of requirements for interaction, ease of navigation, and availability of required technologies. The implications of these findings for course designers and instructors are discussed.

Award-winning faculty online teaching practices: Elements of award-winning courses

“…Prior research on expert and novice online faculty has mainly focused on studying expert, exemplary, or experienced instructors and their teaching practices (Hixon, Barczyk, Ralston-Berg, & Buckenmeyer, 2016). Lewis and Abdul-Hamid (2006) studied exemplary online faculty's teaching to find that they were organized, fostered interaction, provided timely feedback, facilitated learning, and maintained student enthusiasm.…”

The Validity and Instructional Value of a Rubric for Evaluating Online Course Quality: An Empirical Study

“…Our literature review suggests that rubrics for measuring course quality have been validated mostly in terms of the opinions and perceptions of faculty and students, rather than in terms of construct validity or relationships to learning outcomes (Hixon, Barczyk, Ralston-Berg, & Buckenmeyer, 2016). Empirical studies (Jaggars & Xu, 2016;Lee, 2014;Liu et al, 2010;Sun et al, 2008;Swan et al, 2012) have found that a course with high quality scores measured by rubrics resulted in higher student learning outcomes in terms of course performance or satisfaction than one receiving low quality scores.…”

An Evaluation of Students Studying English Language and Literature about Transitioning to Online Classes during COVID-19 Pandemic

“…One major issue in early research of online learning is concerned with perceptions of students in higher education (Armstrong, 2011;Artino, 2010;Astani et al, 2010). Some studies specifically compared the perceptions of experienced and novice online students (Hixon et al, 2016) while others examine the difference between faculty and students" perception of online classes (Bagasra & Mackinem, 2019). Some attempts have been made to evaluate the quality of digital tools to be used in online courses (Rogers, 2011).…”