Graduate students' perceptions of online teaching and relationship to preferred learning styles

MedSurg Nursing, Dec, 2005 by Arleen Fearing, Marguerite Riley

Limitations

Limitations of this study include the use of a small convenience sample from one program at one Midwestern institution. Participants were enrolled in required courses available only online in the WebCT format. This sample was fairly homogeneous in gender, age, education level, and economic status. Adult students were experienced nurses, employed, and self-motivated, and may have behaved differently because of their participation in the study. The program was new, and the two faculty members teaching the courses were new to WebCT teaching and learning. These factors influence the generalizability of the findings to other graduate programs and geographic locations.

Implications of Study

This study has raised several areas of concern, including the need for further research utilizing assessment of students' learning styles and their effect on student learning in online courses. A replication of this study could be done with the VARK Learning Styles Survey developed by Fleming (2001), which includes preferences for reading and writing in addition to the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (VAK) learning preferences; larger samples in other geographic areas should be used to enhance generalizability. Such research may identify additional barriers to effective, successful online teaching and learning. Another design would be to assess the students' preferred learning styles prior to the beginning of the online nurse educator program. Based on this analysis, faculty would utilize specific teaching strategies to develop multimodal learning styles. A post-VARK assessment would evaluate any learning channel changes. This study was completed utilizing the VAK learning styles survey and did not attempt to evaluate outcomes of learning or learning style changes that may have occurred over the sequence of courses taken in the nurse educator program.

Results of this study may be beneficial to nurse educators responsible for the design and implementation of online graduate courses. Perceived course factors of importance included the active learning strategies; ongoing communication; timely, constructive feedback; organized course content; and flexibility of the asynchronous format, all of which are implemented by the educator. Another implication of this study is that new online courses utilizing high-level teaching strategies, 24-hour response time for questions, and structured, organized course content may require additional training and time of faculty. Faculty also should be cognizant of the time allowed for online assignment completion related to the overall course workload for the students when developing online courses.

Overall, results were consistent with current literature indicating positive general student perceptions of online courses (Ali et al., 2004; Wilhelm et al., 2003; Wills & Stommel, 2002). The identified barriers to online learning were also in agreement with the literature; they included technology difficulties, problems with personal computers, novice-level computer skills, and heavy course assignments in relation to time allowed to complete them (DeBourgh, 2003; Seller & Billings, 2004).