United States Distance Learning Association

independently (November, 2001). This
structure is quite different from the students’
experience in a traditional class and
it seemed realistic to have students in the
less-structured program start with shorter,
6- to 8-week online courses. There were a
number of shorter, quality online courses
that met student educational needs, and
we felt they would give students time to
adjust to the different learning style of distance
education. If a student was successful
with this first shorter class, he or she
would then be allowed to try a longer
course.
IMPLEMENT: PREPARING STUDENTS
FOR ONLINE LEARNING
Online learning places the responsibility
for learning on the student, who needs to
be conscientious and motivated. The student
also needs to have a sincere reason for
taking a distance learning class. Much of
the research mentions that students need
to be self-motivated to learn to succeed in
distance education (Brown, 2000; November,
2001). We knew the students who had
not succeeded in distance learning before
had also not been prepared to participate
in a distance course. This time we implemented
a procedure designed to prepare
students for success in online learning.
Students who expressed an interest in
an online course attended an introductory
face-to-face session. During the session,
students were told about the time commitment
they would need to make for the
course and the rigor of the course content.
They heard true stories of students who
had been unsuccessful with online learning.
However, during the introductory session
we emphasized what was in it for the
students. They would walk away with
either college credit or a certificate of completion
for their transcript. Another item
discussed in the introductory session was
teacher support. Both programs would
have an on-site teacher available. This
teacher would help with any problems
associated with the online course. The onsite
teacher would also monitor student
progress and work with students who
might start to fall behind. In addition, all
courses would have a minimum of two
students from our school. If there were
always two students in a course, then there
would always be someone on-site to collaborate
and study with.
EVALUATE: WHAT NEEDS TO BE
CHANGED
The End of Course Survey (see Figure 2)
has proved invaluable to the distance
learning program. Two pilot courses were
run; an in-school college credit course
from January to May 2006, and an afterschool
program from February to April
2006.
The results from the pilot in-school program
validated that the students did feel
challenged by taking a college-level course.
The survey results indicated they were not
“bored” and felt that the course was preparing
them for college the following year.
The afterschool pilot survey and exit
interviews resulted in the decision not to
offer an online course with less than two
students. Many of the students in the pilot
groups mentioned how important it was to
have a “live” classmate to talk to about the
class (see Table 2). Another change that was
made was to the introductory face-to-face
session. Students in the pilot felt it was
important to emphasize to future online
students the rigor of the courses. We now
emphasize that fact twice in the face-toface
session.
CONCLUSION
The in-school program, specifically
designed to meet the objective of providing
a challenging college-level course,
offered its first two courses in a pilot program
in January of 2006. A college-level
biology course was offered to two sections
of students, with 12 students in each sec-
Volume 4, Issue 4 Distance Learning 45