Online courses have increased in enrollments over the past few decades. As the number of students taking online courses have increased, so has the number of students who have dropped or failed an online course. According to the literature, online courses may have higher drop rates than traditional, face-to-face courses. The number of students who fail an online course is, also, of concern. As online courses may continue to grow over the next few decades, studies on persistence in online courses may benefit students, administrators, instructional designers, educators, and researchers. Although previous research studies have addressed persistence in online courses, very few examine it from the perspectives of students who were unsuccessful in their courses. These students may have unique insights about the online experience that may have related to their lack of success. The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of university students who have failed or dropped an online course through the lenses of transactional distance theory and Kember’s model of dropout in distance education. Transactional distance theory discusses the dialog, structure, and learner autonomy involved in an online course, while, Kember’s model presents categories that may relate to dropping an online course. Together, the theory and model may help in understanding the experiences of students who have dropped or failed an online course. In this study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 participants from a large Southeastern university in the United States. Based on the participants’ responses, the data was sorted and ranked according to the amount of transactional distance in their courses, as well as the categories of Kember’s model. Many of the participants who experienced low or high transactional distance have, also, expressed an issue with the goal commitment category of Kember’s model. Additionally, there were important differences in the student characteristics of those who dropped or failed an online course. Furthermore, suggestions for improving online courses were given by the participants. Some of these suggestions included more student-instructor interactions, the use of more technology tools in their online course, and for orientations to the online environment to be offered.

The purpose of this study was to (a) develop an evaluation instrument capable of rating students' perceptions of the instructional quality of an online course and the instructor’s performance, and (b) validate the proposed instrument with a study conducted at a major public university. The instrument was based upon the Seven Principles of Good Practice for Undergraduate Education (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). The study examined four specific questions. 1. Is the underlying factor structure of the new instrument consistent with Chickering and Gamson's Seven Principles? 2. Is the factor structure of the new instrument invariant for male and female students? 3. Are the scores on the new instrument related students’ expected grades? 4. Are the scores on the new instrument related to the students' perceived course workload? The instrument was designed to measure students’ levels of satisfaction with their instruction, and also gathered information concerning the students’ sex, the expected grade in the course, and the students’ perceptions of the amount of work required by the course. A cluster sample consisting of an array of online courses across the disciplines yielded a total 297 students who responded to the online survey. The students for each course selected were asked to rate their instructors with the newly developed instrument. Question 1 was answered using exploratory factor analysis, and yielded a factor structure similar to the Seven Principles. Question 2 was answered by separately factor-analyzing the responses of male and female students and comparing the factor structures. The resulting factor structures for men and women were different. However, 14 items could be realigned under five factors that paralleled some of the Seven Principles. When the scores of only those 14 items were entered in two principal components factor analyses using only men and only women, respectively and restricting the factor structure to five factors, the factor structures were the same for men and women. A weak positive relationship between students’ expected grades and their scores on the instrument was found (Question 3). There was no relationship between students’ perceived workloads for the course and their scores on the instrument (Question 4).

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(教育学) / 甲第21987号 / 教博第240号 / 新制||教||186(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院教育学研究科教育科学専攻 / (主査)教授 飯吉 透, 教授 楠見 孝, 准教授 酒井 博之 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Education) / Kyoto University / DGAM

In den letzten Jahren hat die Flüchtlingssituation erhebliche Beratungsbedarfe zu Studienangeboten und Bewerbungsverfahren für die Beratungsstellen und vor allem International Offices an Hochschulen generiert. Diese sprengten phasenweise die Kapazitäten der entsprechenden Beratungsstellen. Zudem stellt die Vielfalt der verschiedenen Studienangebote Hochschultypen, Bewerbungsverfahren und Zulassungsbedingungen Personen mit Fluchthintergrund, die Interesse an der Aufnahme oder Fortsetzung eines Studiums in Deutschland, vor massive Herausforderungen. Auch können bei Aufnahme oder Fortsetzung eines Studiums die stark heterogenen Vorkenntnisse, Lernvoraussetzungen und lernkulturellen Vorerfahrungen dieser Zielgruppe mit den vorhandenen Angeboten oft nicht ausreichend aufgefangen werden. Vor diesem Hintergrund hat die Bundesagentur für Arbeit (BA) 2015 die Entwicklung und Umsetzung eines online Kurses in Auftrag gegeben, der genau diesen Anforderungen begegnen soll. [... aus der Einleitung]

In recent years, the use of online courses has emerged as a way to quickly and easily deliver content to large numbers of trainees. In writing these courses, pharmaceutical course developers often use traditional instructional design models and techniques to design course content for online learning. But is this truly enough? Interaction design principles and practices can also be incorporated to increase the quality of learning by improving learner comprehension and retention. Using pharmaceutical content and learners, this research investigated how interaction design impacts online learning by measuring the effect of applying different graphical user interfaces. The results were surprising, as the data showed no significant improvement in retention rates between graphical treatments. However, the incorporation of graphics did slightly improve overall course satisfaction.

Online education is continually growing and becoming more widely accepted as an instructional delivery option. Student success, student retention, and course quality continue to be issues in distance education. In order to adequately address the issues of student retention, student success, and course quality, evaluation standards must exist. This study was designed to review evaluation standards for online-course quality in the community college and to explore the results of the usage of the evaluation standards as they related to student retention and success at a local community college. The purpose of this study was to (a) review evaluation standards capable of rating instructional quality of an online course, (b) validate the evaluation standards to be included in the evaluation instrument, and (c) determine if relationships exist between faculty evaluation scores and student success and retention in online courses. The evaluation instrument used in this study was a researcher-developed instrument that was validated from previous literature and a panel of experts in the field of distance learning. The instrument was used to measure the quality of the online classroom from the fall 2014 online courses at a local community college. A pilot test of 12 courses used the test–retest method to determine the reliability of the instrument. The remaining online courses were then evaluated using the Online Faculty Course Evaluation Instrument. Division Chairs and the Dean of Instruction acted as the supervisors of the faculty teaching online. There are 5 Division Chairs and 1 Dean of Instruction. These supervisors completed the evaluation instrument. Positive weak relationships were found and included: (a) correlation between course student-retention and the Assessment and Feedback Item #1, “course assessments are distributed equally and appropriately throughout the semester, (b) correlation between course student-success rates and the overall Course Information scores, (c) correlation between course student-success rates and Assessment and Feedback Items #1, “course assessments are distributed equally and appropriately throughout the semester, and (d) correlation between course student-success rates and Assessment and Feedback Items #6, “assessments align with the course objectives.”

While technology continues to advance, so do methods of learning. In post-secondary education during the twentieth century, the traditional classroom setting was geared toward auditory instruction and face-to-face peer interaction. Not only was this the most efficient means of instruction for the time period but the only means. Along with the advent of communication technology came the concept of Web courses. Web courses have expanded the means by which students can experience course lectures and have beckoned the use of updated media by which such lectures can take place. Such media include threaded discussions, chat rooms and e-mail. At the University of Central Florida, the gradual change from WebCT to Webcourses offered students more direct contact with updated threaded discussions and more centralized communication on the whole. The quality of such communication measures has been in question, though, and the effectiveness of such online communication methods is the focus of my research.

The purpose of this study was to investigate leaders' experiences with developing a culturally inclusive community and equitable learning environment in six state-level supplemental virtual programs. Two research questions were: (1) How do leaders in state-level supplemental virtual programs describe their experiences with developing a culturally inclusive community: (a) At the program level for faculty and staff? (b) At the program and course levels for students? (2) How can instructional and course design practices address barriers to virtual learning in order to facilitate an equitable learning environment for students of diverse backgrounds? This research contributes to the field of virtual leadership by representing leaders' perspectives and practices regarding how to cultivate a sense of belonging in the online community and how to address challenges with teaching and learning in this setting. This qualitative case analysis involved leaders from six state-level supplemental virtual programs in the United States. Data were gathered using a demographic survey, semistructured one-on-one interviews, and focus groups to gain a comprehensive understanding of leadership in this setting. An online survey collected demographic data from 22 program leaders, of whom 21 from various backgrounds were purposefully selected for interviews: four executive leaders, seven directors of instruction, four curriculum leaders, two instructional designers, and four other program-area leaders. Twelve findings were identified, with six related to a culturally inclusive community and six pertaining to an equitable learning environment. The findings described how leaders built community at the program level for virtual employees and at the course level for teachers and students. Considerations for creating a shared sense of community included collaboration with colleagues, multiple staff roles, relationship building, frequent communication, teacher visibility, and some student anonymity. The findings also identified barriers to equity, including student access to online content, cultural representation, connectivity, device limitations, individual readiness, and support from a supervising adult. Leaders navigated some challenges through standards-aligned course design and instructional practices. Finally, a team-based approach to resolving technology issues and supporting individual learners' needs was found to help students access content and engage in their online courses. / Doctor of Education / The purpose of this study was to investigate leaders' experiences with developing a culturally inclusive community and equitable learning environment in six state-level supplemental virtual programs. This research contributes to the field of virtual leadership by representing leaders' perspectives and practices regarding how to cultivate a sense of belonging in the online community and how to address challenges with teaching and learning in this setting. This qualitative case analysis involved leaders from six state-level supplemental virtual programs in the United States. Data were collected using a demographic survey and semistructured interviews. An online survey was used to collect demographic data from 22 program leaders, of whom 21 from various backgrounds were purposefully selected for interviews: four executive leaders, seven directors of instruction, four curriculum leaders, two instructional designers, and four other program-area leaders. Information related to the purpose and research questions was gathered through one-on-one interviews and group interviews. A comparison of leaders' perspectives offered insight into leadership approaches to building relationships and with problem-solving how to help students access online content in state-run virtual programs. Twelve findings were identified, with six related to a culturally inclusive community and six pertaining to an equitable learning environment. The findings described how leaders built community at the program level for virtual employees and at the course level for teachers and students. Considerations for creating a shared sense of community included collaboration with colleagues, multiple staff roles, relationship building, frequent communication, teacher visibility, and some student anonymity. The findings also identified barriers to equity, including student access to online content, cultural representation, connectivity, device limitations, individual readiness, and support from a supervising adult. Leaders navigated some challenges through standards-aligned course design and instructional practices. Finally, a team-based approach to resolving technology issues and supporting individual learners' needs was found to help students access content and engage in their online courses.

Esta pesquisa analisa fatores que sustentam o uso das metodologias ativas para o aumento do desempenho dos estudantes para a aprendizagem significativa, levando-se em consideração que o ato de aprender é intransferível, só o indivíduo pode fazê-lo e ninguém pode aprender por outro, mas pode-se incentivar o interesse dos estudantes, explorando novas oportunidades de aprendizagem, bem mais centradas na atividade dos estudantes, utilizando a hibridização, que é a mescla de técnicas e ferramentas que auxiliam e dinamizam o aprendizado com a combinação entre ambientes presenciais e virtuais de ensino - usando a ferramenta dos MOOCs pela concepção da sala de aula invertida. Para avaliar a interferência da metodologia ativa de aprendizagem no desempenho, participaram da análise estudantes universitários, de duas instituições particulares, na área de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas, que após um semestre responderam a dois questionários de escalas validadas estatisticamente: Academic Motivation Scale e Escala Estratégica de Aprendizagem para ambientes on-line. Utilizou-se técnicas de análise multivariada, composta pela análise de componentes principais e análise de agrupamento, para avaliar a presença de grupos de motivação. Para a caracterização dos grupos de motivação obtidos foram calculadas as frequências dos grupos formados e médias das componentes principais, bem como as marcações de significância estatística para o teste-t de diferença de médias e técnicas de modelo de regressão para avaliar as médias finais (notas) dos estudantes de acordo com as covariáveis (estudantes que participaram do curso na plataforma MOOC, turma, grupo de motivação e gênero). Os principais resultados demonstram que a escolha de um método ativo de aprendizagem, utilizando a plataforma MOOC interfere em todos os grupos, no aumento da nota final em comparação aos estudantes que não acessaram a plataforma, portanto, não participaram de todo o processo, sendo esse efeito ainda mais expressivo para o grupo de motivação 1 (motivados pela excelência acadêmica), a IES-1 obteve um desempenho superior a IES-2. O êxito da introdução das metodologias ativas está diretamente relacionado a importância do envolvimento de todos os atores desse processo, com destaque as instituições de ensino e professores, para a formação de um indivíduo capaz de transformar a sua vida, o seu meio e a nossa sociedade. / This research analyzes the factors that support the use of active methods to increase the performance of the students towards meaningful learning, taking into account that the act of learning is not transferable, only the individual can do it and no one can learn on the other, but can stimulate the interest of students, exploring new learning opportunities and more focused on the activity of the students, using the hybridization, which is the mixture of techniques and tools to assist and streamline the learning with the combination of classroom and virtual teaching environments - using MOOCs tools for the design of the inverted classroom. In order to evaluate the interference of active learning methodology over performance, students from two private universities in the area of Applied Social Sciences took part in this research and, after one semester answered two statistically validated scales questionnaires: Academic Motivation Scale and Strategic Learning Scale, suitable for online environments. Multivariate analysis techniques, composed by Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis, have been used to assess the presence of motivation groups. In order to characterize obtained motivation groups, frequencies of formed groups and main components averages were calculated as well as markings of statistical significance for the t-test mean difference and regression techniques to assess students final average (grades) according to the covariates (students who took the course in MOOC platform, classroom, motivation group and gender). Main results show that the choice of an active learning method, using MOOC platform interferes in all groups, in the final score increase comparatively to students who had not accessed the platform, thus not participating in the process; this effect was even more significant on motivation of group 1 (motivated by academic excellence), PU-1 achieved a superior performance comparatively to PU-2. The active methods introduction success is directly related to the importance of the involvement of all actors in the process, especially educational institutions and teachers, for the formation of an individual able to transform his life, his environment and our society .

Esta pesquisa analisa fatores que sustentam o uso das metodologias ativas para o aumento do desempenho dos estudantes para a aprendizagem significativa, levando-se em consideração que o ato de aprender é intransferível, só o indivíduo pode fazê-lo e ninguém pode aprender por outro, mas pode-se incentivar o interesse dos estudantes, explorando novas oportunidades de aprendizagem, bem mais centradas na atividade dos estudantes, utilizando a hibridização, que é a mescla de técnicas e ferramentas que auxiliam e dinamizam o aprendizado com a combinação entre ambientes presenciais e virtuais de ensino - usando a ferramenta dos MOOCs pela concepção da sala de aula invertida. Para avaliar a interferência da metodologia ativa de aprendizagem no desempenho, participaram da análise estudantes universitários, de duas instituições particulares, na área de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas, que após um semestre responderam a dois questionários de escalas validadas estatisticamente: Academic Motivation Scale e Escala Estratégica de Aprendizagem para ambientes on-line. Utilizou-se técnicas de análise multivariada, composta pela análise de componentes principais e análise de agrupamento, para avaliar a presença de grupos de motivação. Para a caracterização dos grupos de motivação obtidos foram calculadas as frequências dos grupos formados e médias das componentes principais, bem como as marcações de significância estatística para o teste-t de diferença de médias e técnicas de modelo de regressão para avaliar as médias finais (notas) dos estudantes de acordo com as covariáveis (estudantes que participaram do curso na plataforma MOOC, turma, grupo de motivação e gênero). Os principais resultados demonstram que a escolha de um método ativo de aprendizagem, utilizando a plataforma MOOC interfere em todos os grupos, no aumento da nota final em comparação aos estudantes que não acessaram a plataforma, portanto, não participaram de todo o processo, sendo esse efeito ainda mais expressivo para o grupo de motivação 1 (motivados pela excelência acadêmica), a IES-1 obteve um desempenho superior a IES-2. O êxito da introdução das metodologias ativas está diretamente relacionado a importância do envolvimento de todos os atores desse processo, com destaque as instituições de ensino e professores, para a formação de um indivíduo capaz de transformar a sua vida, o seu meio e a nossa sociedade. / This research analyzes the factors that support the use of active methods to increase the performance of the students towards meaningful learning, taking into account that the act of learning is not transferable, only the individual can do it and no one can learn on the other, but can stimulate the interest of students, exploring new learning opportunities and more focused on the activity of the students, using the hybridization, which is the mixture of techniques and tools to assist and streamline the learning with the combination of classroom and virtual teaching environments - using MOOCs tools for the design of the inverted classroom. In order to evaluate the interference of active learning methodology over performance, students from two private universities in the area of Applied Social Sciences took part in this research and, after one semester answered two statistically validated scales questionnaires: Academic Motivation Scale and Strategic Learning Scale, suitable for online environments. Multivariate analysis techniques, composed by Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis, have been used to assess the presence of motivation groups. In order to characterize obtained motivation groups, frequencies of formed groups and main components averages were calculated as well as markings of statistical significance for the t-test mean difference and regression techniques to assess students final average (grades) according to the covariates (students who took the course in MOOC platform, classroom, motivation group and gender). Main results show that the choice of an active learning method, using MOOC platform interferes in all groups, in the final score increase comparatively to students who had not accessed the platform, thus not participating in the process; this effect was even more significant on motivation of group 1 (motivated by academic excellence), PU-1 achieved a superior performance comparatively to PU-2. The active methods introduction success is directly related to the importance of the involvement of all actors in the process, especially educational institutions and teachers, for the formation of an individual able to transform his life, his environment and our society .