Wendy Urban, CIS Faculty

Mike Valenza, Fox Legal Studies Faculty

Faculty and Student Expectations in Online

Learning

To determine if faculty effectively communicate their expectations to students in online classes

To determine if student expectations are appropriate

To attempt to correlate the two with satisfaction in the online experience

Study Goals/Objectives

Anonymous survey of faculty teaching online for the first time in Spring, 2012

Anonymous survey of students in those same classes

Surveys administered in Week 1 and Week 9 of the semester

10 questions on each survey

Study Format

Faculty: 9 initial, 7 follow-up

Students: 37 initial, 10 follow-up

Response Rates

Mid-Semester

MoreSameLess

29%

57%14%

Results: Frequency of communication with students

Both faculty and students have had more in-person contact that either of them expected initially

Results: In-person contact

In Person Meetings

no meetings6-8 times a semestereach week

30%

40%

30%

Student and faculty expectations were consistent (70%) within 24 hours

Actual results are that most professors respond within 24 hours, although some respond a bit slower

Students expressed frustration when the responses were slower than one day

Results: Professor response time to students

Results: How Faculty communicate with students

22%•WebEx

40%•Wimba

60%•In Person•Discussion Boards

100%•Blackboard•Email

Wimba•Students: 0%•Faculty: 50%

Discussion Boards•Students: 11%•Faculty: 33%

WebEx•Students: 33%•Faculty: 22%

In Person•Students: 33%•Faculty: 17%

Blackboard•Students: 44%•Faculty: 50%

Email•Students: 100%•Faculty: 83%

Results: How Students communicate with each other

This set of questions had the largest discrepancy betweenFaculty and Students

Student Perspective

Results: Student Workload

56% same 19%

less25% more

80% same 0 less 20%

more

Faculty Perspective

56% same

44% more

86% same

14% more

Results: Course Difficulty

•More intense and involved , not difficult•Online course is slightly more difficulty because there are challenges related to direct interactions with other students and the teacher•Online courses are more involved, not difficult. I love the flexibility and personalized pace.

Before

SameHarderEasier

12%38%

50%

After

SameHarderEasier

33%

67%

Before

Results: Faculty Workload

100% said more work

After

86% said more work

80% of students said they are learning as much in an online class

20% said they are learning moreSelected comments:

“Love the convenience!”“Web-Ex lets me rewatch lectures and get more

from them”“I am learning new technical skills, so it is a

double benefit!”

Results: Value of Learning

While we had hoped to focus on expectation setting and results compared to expectations, unfortunately our sample size was a bit small for that

However, our results did show consistency across most topics from a faculty and student perspective

Overall showed a high level of satisfaction with both the teaching and the learning experiences

Summary