Using Online Learning to Enhance Interdisciplinary Education

Journal of Allied Health, Spring 2004 by Carroll-Barefield, Amanda, Murdoch, Carolyn

Phase Two of the Conversion

The second phase of the conversion resulted in an online course with no face-to-face class meetings taking place. Several changes were made to the assignments to incorporate them into a fully online course. Students also needed assistance with orientation to WebCT because the face-toface component was eliminated. To replace the original face-to-face WebCT orientation, a "Read This First" help page is included in the course information and a "Welcome Page" that includes the instructor's picture and brief biographical sketch. Adding these web pages provided the students with an opportunity to "meet" the instructor and become familiar with the WebCT format.

"Bulletin boards" were chosen for the completion of the group assignments. The instructor assigned students to private bulletin board groups in WebCT. Initial instructions were posted to the public bulletin board for all groups to view. Each week, the groups were responsible for posting their assignments to the private group bulletin board sec tion that was unique to each assigned group. The instructor interacted with each private group to encourage critical thinking. Group leaders were assigned within each group on a weekly rotating basis. The group leader's responsibility was to lead the discussion and post a final group consensus on the topic. Assigning a group leader for each structured discussion topic was an effective way of engaging the students in the teaching/learning process.6 To assist the group leader and members in understanding their responsibilities, a grading rubric was attached to the assignments to explain the instructor's expectations further.

Another change in phase two included automatic grading and quiz feedback. In the first phase, the instructor was unfamiliar with the quiz function and chose to grade the tests and report the grades directly to the students. In phase two, the instructor tested online and set the WebCT course to provide students with immediate feedback. This provided test security because WebCT allows for selective student release and exact timing of all testing.

Student and Instructor Perceptions

At the end of each course, students were required to complete an anonymous electronic evaluation. On average, the student evaluations of the AHS 3660 course were positive. At the end of the first semester course (part online/part inclass), 10% of the students strongly agreed and 56% agreed the course was an overall success. At the conclusion of the second semester course (online), 18% of the students strongly agreed and 47% agreed the course was an overall success. Feedback from the course evaluations was mixed and included the following unedited student comments:

"This was my first WebCT course. It was not as horrifying as I thought it would be. I got to spend more time on the computer, which was very helpful to me."

"I enjoyed the freedom and flexibility."

"I enjoyed the course. However, I thought it was too much work for a one credit course.

"I liked not having to sit in class for 3 hours. I was able to use my own time on reviewing notes and taking quizzes."