How the Preferences of Students Change on Online Learning From Transition Term to During the Covid Pandemic Period

The developments in the communication and Internet technologies have had a major impact on education. The traditional face-to-face education has changed substantially with the advancement of technology. With the start and ongoing Covid pandemic, face-to-face education has been replaced with online education. In this paper, an empirical study was undertaken to examine the change of students’ preferences for online education versus traditional education and the supporting learning technologies such as Learning Management System (LMS) between the two periods: transition term (TT) and ongoing Covid pandemic (DC). Results showed that there is a difference in the students’ preferences when compared with gender and number of online courses taken but there are not statistically significant. Research findings support the fact that students were not ready for a fully online education even though they had experience with online learning. The grade distribution of students decreased from TT to DC due to self study and online assesments with proctoring. Students agreed that traditional courses increased their learning and the learning technologies, such as LCM, online platforms and VTC help them learn the materials online in both TT and DC. For online learning, they prefer synchronous courses to asynchronous courses.

Imagining and Creating Timeless Virtual Synchronous and Asynchronous Courses

Imagining and creating new courses, or updating old courses, can be a fun project if the instructor possesses several crucial tools: a Franklin Planner-type calendar for time management control, a skeletal framework for the course, and a learning management system that facilitates several different modes of electronic storage. With careful planning, the course designer can create a fun and instructive course that benefits both student and instructor in a myriad of ways both during the semester and long after the term has ended.

Infusing Multiculturalism, Identity, and Social Justice in Asynchronous Courses

Introduction: Creating a multiculturally aware and inclusive class is critical with students. The lack of face-to-face contact with asynchronous courses limits instructors’ ability to form relationships with students. A myriad of teaching research provides strategies for incorporating multiculturalism, social justice, and identity into synchronous courses; however, considerably less research exists with asynchronous courses. Statement of the Problem: The purpose of the current article is to provide strategies for incorporating multiculturalism and issues of identity into asynchronous courses with a social justice lens. Literature Review: I review several published topical and review articles and offer suggestions and strategies that I have used in my own courses and/or in courses I have been involved with. Teaching Implications: I discuss the importance of incorporating multiculturalism and identity while maintaining justice in asynchronous courses. Moreover, I offer suggestions and strategies for doing so, from prior to class starting to navigating instances of microaggressions. Conclusion: This article builds off and infuses components of counseling psychology into the teaching of psychology to advance instructors’ cultural awareness, skills, and competence with asynchronous online courses.

Making Instant Adjustments in Online Journalism Education: Responding to Continuous Needs Assessments in Asynchronous Courses

The creation of an ideal learning environment is always a challenge, but when the environment is online and the learners are a diverse group of adults in a specialized content area, the challenges become even more complex. This best practices study used the intersection of the importance of the learner, Knowles’ andragogy concepts, and the Dick and Carey instructional design model to make continuous needs assessment the cornerstone of three, graduate-level online courses during a single summer session. By active engagement in recursive learner analysis, the instructor was able to provide a personal and practical level of engagement in the asynchronous courses that ultimately benefited the students.

Virtual Office Hours

The notion of synchronous office hours in an asynchronous course seems counterintuitive. After all, one of the tenets of asynchronous education is to not require students to be online and participating at any time during the course. Having taught higher education online asynchronous courses for 20 years, the researcher experimented with online synchronous office hours as a means of making a connection with her online doctoral students. This chapter outlines the challenges, benefits, and best practices of incorporating a synchronous element into an otherwise purely asynchronous environment. Additionally, it offers strategies to enhance communication between students and the professor, as well as developing a community of learners in the asynchronous classroom.

ROLES OF FACULTY IN TEACHING ASYNCHRONOUS UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

Although the availability of web-based education and the number of totally asynchronous courses have grown exponentially in the last decade, the literature on online instruction offers limited empirical guidance to faculty teaching in this environment. Much of the literature is anecdotal and prescriptive, and much more research needs to be done to situate research in practice settings. This study examines faculty roles in the online environment through the perceptions of faculty teaching online and through the archival analysis of their courses. Data were collected through document analysis of ten online courses and from interviews with thirteen instructors in the humanities and social sciences. Using Berge’s typology of online facilitator roles, this study examined the relationship between roles as perceived and enacted by faculty, identified wide variations in faculty roles and participation between experienced and novice instructors, and explored the relationship between faculty workload and perception of facilitation in the online environment. Directions for future research are suggested.

Synchronous Office Hours in an Asynchronous Course

The notion of synchronous office hours in an asynchronous course seems counterintuitive. After all, one of the tenets of asynchronous education is to not require students to be online and participating at any time during the course. Having taught higher education online asynchronous courses for twenty years, the researcher experimented with online synchronous office hours as a means of making a connection with her online doctoral students. This paper outlines the challenges, benefits and best practices of incorporating a synchronous element into an otherwise purely asynchronous environment. Additionally, it offers strategies to enhance communication between students and the professor, as well as developing a community of learners in the asynchronous classroom.

The Predictive Relationship Among the Community of Inquiry Framework, Perceived Learning and Online, and Graduate Students’ Course Grades in Online Synchronous and Asynchronous Courses

<p>The Community of Inquiry framework has been widely supported by research to provide a model of online learning that informs the design and implementation of distance learning courses. However, the relationship between elements of the CoI framework and perceived learning warrants further examination as a predictive model for online graduate student success. A predictive correlational design and hierarchical multiple regression was used to investigate relationships between community of inquiry factors and perceived learning to determine the predictive validity of these variables for students’ course points (<em>N</em> = 131), while controlling for demographic and course variables. The results of this study clearly supported the foundational constructs of Community of Inquiry (CoI) theory (Garrison et al., 2000) and the role of perceived learning to predict final course points. The entire predictive model explained 55.6% of the variance in course points. Implications, limitations, and recommendations are discussed.</p>