Browsing by Subject "online instruction"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    A Comparison of Cognitive and Social Presence in Online Graduate Courses: Asynchronous vs. Synchronous Modalities
    (OLC, 2023-06-01) Presley, Regina G.; Cumberland, Denise M.; Rose, Kevin; Technology Leadership & Communication, Purdue School of Engineering and Technology
    Over the last decade, online courses have continued to expand, and students in higher education are being offered increased access to technology and communication tools in online learning programs. This action research study analyzed the impact of two distinct types of online course instruction (100% asynchronous and weekly online synchronous meetings) on learning outcomes, including cognitive and social presence, knowledge gained, and student perceptions. Study participants consisted of graduate students enrolled in online sections of a course on program evaluation. Four sections of the course were available: two included a synchronous meeting using web-conferencing, and two used an asynchronous format. A quasi-experimental design was used and included a pre-post test knowledge assessment, a modified version of the Community of Inquiry questionnaire (CoI), and end-of-course student evaluations. The mean ratings of the CoI in this study ranged from 3.75–4.60 out of 5. There was a significant difference in the cognitive presence scores for synchronous (M=4.26, SD=.529 asynchronous (M=4.47, SD=.454) conditions; t(97)=-2.07, p =.041. Our results suggest when students learn in an asynchronous format, they have a higher cognitive presence. The average scores on the knowledge pre-test were the same for both sections but post-test scores were slightly higher in the asynchronous section. Instructor ratings were high for all courses. These findings may offer valuable implications to higher education programs that have recently transitioned to online teaching modalities.
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    Developing a Best Practices Plan for Tutorials in a Multi-Library System
    (Taylor and Francis, 2014-07-14) Blevins, Amy E.; Deberg, Jennifer; Childs, Chris
    In 2010, the University of Iowa's library system administration created a task force to conduct a reevaluation of tools and spaces used for video tutorial creation across a multi-library system. Following this effort, a working group was charged with improving documentation and staff awareness of resources for developing video tutorials. The group observed that librarians were often independently creating videos that were variable in quality, lacked consistent branding, and were not often shared with others. This article will describe experiences at the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences at the University of Iowa in selecting video tutorial software, and striving to establish a more structured process, including team-developed guidelines, for tutorial creation in a multi-library system. Project limitations and areas for future work will also be presented.
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    Physics students’ reactions to an abrupt shift in instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic
    (2020) Gavrin, A.; Physics, School of Science
    We present a preliminary analysis of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on students in the context of a large enrollment introductory physics course. During the spring of 2020, ours was one of thousands of courses forced to change abruptly from face-to-face instruction to online delivery. We report the effects of this change on students through the lenses initially available to us, including our online homework system, an online forum, and the course evaluations. While preliminary, our results suggest that students were generally unhappy with the transition, but this disappointment did not translate into significantly reduced effort or success. Their primary concerns were not technological but stemmed from behavioral considerations either internal to themselves or external, from the instructor. Although the event probed here was the pandemic, our observations and conclusions may be applicable to other situations in which instruction changes suddenly due to natural or human-caused disasters.