Narrative

Currently, we have no idea as to the extent of use of online courses at George Mason University or the impact of these types of courses on student learning. While quality rubrics are available in the literature for faculty to use to evaluate their courses, there is no University-wide system that is available for students to evaluate their learning experiences in online courses. The online course quality elements reported in the literature can be used to develop a questionnaire which describes how the quality element is integrated into the course. From the literature we know that best practices and quality elements have been identified in the design of online courses, in the way the instructor or expert interacts with the students, in the delivery method, in the instructional strategies, and in the use technologies tools.

In order to better articulate the theoretical framework behind the choice of quality elements drawn from the literature, Jonassen's (1995) qualities of meaningful learning work well to describe the characteristics of pedagogical constructs and to articulate the instructional strategies and learning technologies needed for meaningful learning experiences:

Active- Learners are engaged, information is mindfully processed, responsible for learning
Constructive- Learners incorporate new meanings into prior knowledge to construct new knowledge
Collaborative- Learners work in learning and knowledge building communities
Intentional- Learners are actively and purposefully working towards cognitive objectives
Conversational- Learners are engaged in social and dialogic processes as members of a knowledge building community.
Contextualized- Learners are engaged in tasks that are meaningful and situated in real world contexts in order to apply newly constructed knowledge.
Reflective- Learners articulate, reflect, and evaluate what they have learned.

When using students' perceptions about their online learning experience, there are also student characteristics which may impact their identification of quality elements and their beliefs about how the presence or absence of the element impacted their learning. Data about students' previous online experiences, their beliefs about online learning, their comfort with online learning technologies, etc. must be collected and considered along with the questionnaire responses.

The study that I would like to do consists of two phases. In phase 1, a University-wide survey of faculty will be distributed in order to identify the types and number of online courses offered at the University. Other resources such as the University course catalog will be used. With this information a survey will be distributed to all students enrolled in online courses with the permission of the instructor on record or the faculty supervisor. After courses and student participants are identified, a researcher-created survey will be administered in order to assess students' perception of the use of quality features in the online course and the impact on their learning.

Matrix

Initial References

Dissertation Planning