Distributed Learning Impact Evaluation
An evaluation of Web and Web-enhanced courses
has been ongoing at UCF since the inception of the Distributed Learning
Initiative in fall 1996. If you would like to find out more about our
research in this area, follow the links below. (A standard presentation
of our findings is also available on video.)
Research on students:
Who takes online courses?
What do students say about Web-based courses?
Student success and withdrawal from Web courses
Learning styles of those who enroll and succeed
in online courses
Strategies for succeeding in online courses
Research on faculty:
Who teaches online courses?
What do faculty say about workload?
What do faculty say about class interaction?
Faculty perceptions of teaching on the Web
Faculty advice for success
Research On Online Students
Who takes online courses?
The majority of students (75-80%) who enroll in fully online courses
on our campus are also enrolled in face-to-face courses,
The distribution
of students by ethnicity is the same for fully online, Web-enhanced,
mixed-mode, and comparable face-to-face courses,
Fully online courses consistently have more females,
On the average, students
who enroll in fully online courses are older than those who enroll in
Web-enhanced or comparable face-to-face courses
Roughly half of students who take fully online courses are working full-time,
Eighty to ninety
percent of students who enroll in Web or Web-enhanced courses have computers
at home.
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What do students say about Web-based
courses?
The majority of students (79%) take fully online courses because of the
convenience of not coming to campus,
The majority of students in fully online courses report that they are
satisfied with their experience (85%) and would be positive about taking
another fully online course (89%).
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Student success and withdrawal
from Web courses
On the average, Web-enhanced
courses have higher success rates (percentage of students obtaining
an A, B, or C) and lower withdrawal rates than their comparable face-to-face
courses
On the average, fully
online courses have slightly lower success rates and higher withdrawal
rates than either their face-to-face or Web-enhanced counterparts
Females typically
have higher success rates and lower withdrawal rates in all modalities
(fully online, Web-enhanced, and face-to-face sections)
The best predictor for determining success when comparing across departments,
modalities, and gender is department
Students withdraw
from Web courses for a variety of reasons with the most reported including
technology issues, an underestimation of the amount of work required
for course completion, and personal conflicts.
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Learning styles of those who enroll and succeed
in online courses
Those who choose fully online courses are not those independent learners,
but the high energy students who succeed in all modalities.
Learning style doesn't
appear to be a predictor of who withdraws from Web courses
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Strategies for succeeding in online courses
Students provide the following advice for those considering online courses:
Keep up and don't procrastinate
Attend the orientation
Be disciplined
Develop your computer skills
Ask for help
Keep in touch with the professor
Check the forum daily
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Research on Online Faculty
Who teaches online courses?
The majority of faculty
teaching fully online or Web-enhanced courses at UCF are male (61%),
and the majority are tenured (54%) or in non-tenured positions (19%).
Twenty-six percent of faculty are tenure-seeking. The average age of
online faculty is 50, ranging from 32 to 67 years. Many faculty are
veterans to UCF with the average time at the university being 13 years,
ranging from 1 to 32 years.
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What do faculty say about workload?
Faculty, including
those who are considered "Web veterans," overwhelmingly indicate that
a course with Web components requires more time in both development
and in weekly administrative duties than a similar course delivered
face-to-face.
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What do faculty say about class interaction?
The majority of faculty
indicate that more interaction occurs in their Web and Web-enhanced
courses than in their comparable face-to-face sections. They also indicate
that they feel this interaction is of higher quality than what they
typically see in face-to-face.
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Faculty perceptions
of teaching on the Web
More than 80% of
our faculty indicate they are satisfied with their experience teaching
Web or Web-enhanced courses. They also indicate that they would be likely
to teach a Web or Web-enhanced course in the future. When examining
components that are related to faculty satisfaction, the amount and
quality of interaction are the only significant correlates. The additional
workload does not appear to affect faculty satisfaction significantly.
Positive aspects
of Web teaching cited by faculty include structure and time convenience,
increased student outreach and contact, personal satisfaction, availability
of expanded research tools, improved course management, and the ability
to learn new technologies.
Challenges of Web
teaching cited by faculty include dealing with technical problems, having
students attuned to their responsibilities, and lack of student engagement.
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Faculty advice for success
Eighty-seven percent of UCF faculty surveyed indicated they have changed
their approach to teaching as a result of their online teaching experience.
The changes reported included responding more to student needs, changing
their course development and delivery, incorporating technology into teaching,
modifying their time management, and utilizing an increased amount of resources
in their courses.
When polled for advice
they would give to faculty considering teaching a Web or Web-enhanced
course, faculty indicated that preparation was crucial to success,
and stressed the importance of faculty attending to their mental health,
getting support, and knowing technology. Finally, faculty should be
prepared to spend more time on their Web course - it is a fact of life!
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