Development, delivery, and outcomes of a distance course for new college students

Library Trends, Summer, 2001 by Nancy O'Hanlon

Most students did not hesitate to get in touch with the instructor whenever they had problems. Despite the fact that these students were on campus and able to visit or call during the instructor's office hours, most preferred using e-mail for questions and problems. Table 10 provides an overview of student contacts during the Winter quarter.

Despite the fact that 66 percent of these students were able to complete the course without any additional help from the instructor, e-mail is often not the most efficient way to resolve problems for those who do need assistance in an online course. For example, one student sent multiple e-mails of increasing urgency as he became more frustrated at not being able to login to view course assignments. Each message was answered promptly by the instructor, who offered very specific instructions and also encouraged the student to come in to discuss this problem. The instructor was unable to help until she met with him in person and he walked through the steps he was taking to connect to assignments. It quickly became apparent that he was viewing a page on the course Web site that contained an illustration of the entry form on the login page and was repeatedly attempting to click on that image.

STUDENT SELF-REGULATION

Quality on the Line, a recent report on benchmarks for success in distance education from the Institute for Higher Education Policy (2000), includes this comment from an administrator: "Self-directed study, which is prevalent at the graduate level, is being pushed down to the undergraduate level because of online learning" (p. 17). The report seeks to determine the relative importance of the benchmarks presented in a previous study to faculty, administrators, and students at six institutions with strong distance learning programs. Respondents did not strongly support the need for specific time requirements in distance courses, citing capacity of students to pace themselves. "Hard and fast rules on how much work should be accomplished in a specific time period" were viewed as inappropriate. Students highly value the flexibility that online courses afford. One student respondent in the study noted that "I enrolled in an [online] course so I would have the freedom to study at my pace and when I wanted to study. I did everything at my own pace for the first course and I got an `A.' Therefore, stressing a strict pace is `not important'" (p. 18). Comments from students in course evaluations for UVC 120 echo this sentiment.

UVC 120 is structured in a manner that permits students great flexibility with regard to assignment completion. A new group of five to six assignments opens each week, so students cannot complete all assignments during the first week of the course. But they are allowed the full four weeks to finish assignments. Although students are encouraged to keep up a weekly pace, and those who lag behind are contacted individually by the instructors to determine whether they are having problems, none of the assignments are actually due until the final day. Table 11 provides a snapshot of student progress on assignments at the end of week two, the mid-point of the course. During both Winter and Spring quarters, roughly half the students kept pace with the recommended schedule. Approximately one-fourth of students had not begun any assignments, and the remaining one-fourth were somewhat behind.