United States Distance Learning Association

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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
Distance Education Program: End of Course Survey Select the answer that best describes how you feel. The “comments” section is optional. 1. Will you take another distance education course • I’m signed up for course • Definitely • Possibly • Probably not • Never Comments: 2. Did you prepare a personal schedule, other than reporting twice a week to the designated classroom, to complete your coursework • Yes • No Comments: 3. Compared to traditional courses you have taken how would you rate the degree of work it took to learn the content of this course • Very Easy • Easy • About the Same • Difficult • Very difficult Comments: 4. Compared to traditional courses you have taken, how would you rate the degree of independence, responsibility, and self discipline required to succeed in this course • Much greater • Greater • About the same • Less • Much less Comments: 5. How would you rate your effort in this course • Best effort • Good effort • Average effort • Poor effort • Worst effortcomments: Comments: Please answer the following questions. 1. Is this course what you expected Why or Why not 2. What advice would you give to students who have never taken an online course 3. In order to take the time to participate in this class did you have to give something else up Were you able to meet all of your scholastic requirements while you took this course 4. Are there any comments you wish to make to help us improve the Distance Education Program Figure 2. End-of-course student survey. 46 Distance Learning Volume 4, Issue 4
Page 2 and 3: DISTANCE LEARNING FEATURED ARTICLES
Page 4 and 5: DISTANCE LEARNING MAGAZINE SPONSORE
Page 6 and 7: SPOTLIGHT ARTICLE Barriers and the
Page 8 and 9: THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW ECONOMY A de
Page 10 and 11: Table 4. Rank Order of the 10 Facto
Page 12 and 13: ORGANIZATIONAL PERSPECTIVE STRATEGI
Page 14 and 15: Table 5. Solutions to Barriers to D
Page 16 and 17: Table 5. Continued Social Interacti
Page 18 and 19: management. In L. Lau (Ed.) Distanc
Page 20 and 21: compensation, incentives and releas
Page 22 and 23: Pedagogy --Course Development --Cou
Page 24 and 25: Quality in Distance Education A Tri
Page 26 and 27: ability to understand and apply tec
Page 28 and 29: CONSTITUENCIES IN DISTANCE EDUCATIO
Page 30 and 31: control and responsibility for the
Page 32 and 33: Kirtley, K. E. (2002). A study of s
Page 34 and 35: Distance Education in the Public Hi
Page 36 and 37: distance education courses and Inte
Page 38 and 39: need, in a distance education class
Page 40 and 41: Using IT-Based Distance Education f
Page 42 and 43: to participate and share and exchan
Page 44 and 45: to a teacher and get to get filled
Page 46 and 47: Online High School Courses Preventi
Page 48 and 49: students. Fourth, a program that in
Page 52 and 53: tion. Both classes had a 100% compl
Page 54 and 55: that allow instructors and students
Page 56 and 57: own graduate experience as being fa
Page 58 and 59: tional delivery. The knowledge that
Page 60 and 61: APPENDIX B: WIMBA LIVE CLASSROOM IN
Page 62 and 63: Access to College for Nontraditiona
Page 64 and 65: coast through by quietly sitting in
Page 66 and 67: institutions. According to Shanika,
Page 68 and 69: Distance Education at the Universit
Page 70 and 71: Figure 1. UF/IFAS IT’s relationsh
Page 72 and 73: Figure 2. IFAS 2005-06 operating bu
Page 74 and 75: ida Division of Continuing Educatio
Page 76 and 77: Institute of Food and Agricultural
Page 78 and 79: Learning Objects What Are They, and
Page 80 and 81: Table 1. Goals of Learning Object D
Page 82 and 83: easoning as to how they are built,
Page 84 and 85: INTERVIEW The Perils and Promise of
Page 86 and 87: 4. Limiting the enrollment in dista
Page 88 and 89: esponsibility to make sure that thi
Page 90 and 91: ence since it did not figure in the
Page 92 and 93: INTERVIEW Here Come the Marines! An
Page 94 and 95: demonstrate, within a set of proced
Page 96 and 97: and this is significant, the Corps
Page 98 and 99: Ends and Means Developing a Digital
Page 100 and 101:
artifacts one wants to include in t
Page 102 and 103:
New Media, New Learning School for
Page 104 and 105:
And Finally … continued from page
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