Proposal for CAITL Research Faculty Fellowship
Thomas Valasek
Professor of Film & Communication Studies
January
31, 2001
In the last five years Raritan
Valley Community College has invested considerable energy and resources into
developing Web-based courses. The College has provided faculty development
training and load-reduction incentives for more than a score of faculty to develop
and teach online courses. I have participated in this initiative, having developed
and presented two online courses (Shakespeare on the Page and on the Screen,
and The American Film); and I benefited tremendously, both personally and professionally,
from this experience. Designing these two online courses, and particularly
collaborating with a faculty colleague (Angela Bodino) on the Shakespeare course,
forced me to look at teaching and learning from a new perspective and to explore
innovative ways to present course material and to interact with students. What
I have learned from online teaching has changed the way I teach traditional
classes as well and has reinforced my commitment to student-centered learning.
Therefore, I regard the CAITL Research Faculty Fellowship not only as an opportunity
to pursue continuing professional development but also as an opportunity to
“give something back” to the College and to my colleagues for what I have gained
from my experience with online teaching.
A short descriptive title
for my research project is “In Pursuit of Excellence in Web-based Courses:
Identifying a Profile of Students Who Excel at Online Learning.” There
are three components to this project, which together are meant to reinforce
the College’s commitment to Web-based instruction, to advance innovative
teaching and learning within and beyond the College, and to enhance RVCC’s
reputation for academic excellence. In addition, this research project
addresses specific College-wide goals and priorities identified recently
in “Outcomes of Cabinet Planning Session, January 5, 2001:
- Expand
discussion of learning college to entire faculty and students.
- Create
opportunities for students to form leaning communities.
- Determine
the needs of the learner, i.e., appropriate learning styles.
- Provide
targeted advisements to specific groups.
- Develop
an institutional commitment to student success.
- Expand
tutoring and counseling services to increase student retention and success.
- Strengthen
advising and counseling for the diverse individual needs of students.
- Encourage
a sense of community for the value of learning.
- Develop
department initiatives to promote interaction.
The first part of my proposal
is a follow-up study to my current research for the Princeton Mid-Career Fellowship
Program, which is to identify factors that promote better student persistence
rates in online courses and, ultimately, to create a “profile” of students who
have the best probability of completing online courses successfully. In the
eight online classes I studied (from English, Humanities, and Social Sciences)
33% of the students enrolled on the tenth day had withdrawn (or were administratively
withdrawn by the instructors) from these online classes by the end of the of
semester, as opposed to 13% in all credit courses in English, Humanities, and
Social Sciences offered traditionally. This high drop-out rate for online classes
at RVCC, which unfortunately has been more the rule than the exception, was
the original impetus for my Princeton research.
Moreover, the percentage
of students receiving a final grade of “F” in these eight online courses (15%)
is also higher than the rate for traditional English, Humanities, and Social
Sciences courses (12.6%). Since the WebCt software used for online classes
at RVCC allows instructors to track student progress, it is possible to identify
students who effectively dropped out (i.e., stopped logging in) before the last
day to withdraw from classes had passed, but who did not in fact withdraw (or
were not administratively withdrawn). Of the 26 students who received a grade
of “F” in these online classes, 14 fall into this category. If these 14 students
were counted together with those who officially withdrew, the attrition rate
for these eight online classes would be 41%.
For the Princeton study
I reviewed demographic information of students in these eight online classes
and conducted an online survey of students who were still enrolled at the end
of the semester in order to identify factors that may distinguish them from
students who dropped out, factors such as previous experience with online classes,
confidence using a computer, amount and distribution of time spent working on
online classes, and overall satisfaction with online courses. I feel confident
that when the results of this study are disseminated they will be valuable for
advising and orienting students before they take online classes (particularly
for the first time), for retaining them once they are enrolled, and for forming
“learning communities” that lead to greater success for students in online classes.
What I propose to study
for the CAITL research project are not characteristics of students who merely
persist in online courses but who excel at them, that is, to identify
a profile of students for whom online learning is superior to the traditional
classroom experience. In the eight online classes I used for the Princeton
study there were 26 students (15%) who received a final grade of “A”. The CAITL
research project would focus on this group, in comparison with a comparable
group of “A” students from traditional classes, to identify characteristics
of students who excel at online learning. As a first step I will use this group
to validate the results of the Online Student Survey in the Princeton study
and, hopefully, since there will now be a direct correlation between their survey
responses and their final grade, to learn more about factors that contribute
to success rates in online classes. The next step will be to develop a second,
more extensive survey (that would be administered in an interview with each
student individually) to gather more data about factors measured in the first
study, but also to introduce additional factors, focusing particularly on students’
motivations for taking online classes, their learning styles, communication
skills, and time-management skills. Students in the comparison group from traditional
English, Humanities, and Social Science classes, will also be interviewed to
learn the extent to which these same factors have influenced their academic
success. (Tomas Kovarik, who holds his Ph.D. in Statistics, has agreed to
work with me to design the survey instrument and the overall study to insure
its statistical validity and usefulness.) The primary purpose of this study
will be to determine whether there are significant differences between these
two groups of “A” students and to identify characteristics specific to students
who excel at online learning.
A cursory survey of the
literature suggests that there is not a great deal of research about characteristics
of learners who excel in online classes, although there is some indication that
online classes tend to be “more favorably accepted” by students who exhibit
“a certain level of self-motivation and self-organization” (Palloff and Pratt,
1999). There are also data that suggest that students who express a high level
of satisfaction with online classes are learners who seek “more control over
the pace of instruction” and who find online leaning “conducive for thoughtful
analysis of class questions and commentary” (Gibbs, 1998). Another study concludes
that the most successful distance-education students seem “to place primary
responsibility on themselves to learn” (Miller and Husmann, 1994). By building
on the some of these findings, I feel confident that this proposed study will
identify a profile of students who should be prime candidates for success in
online classes. Given the demographics of our student body and of the surrounding
community, it is likely that there are many potentially outstanding online students
who do not even realize that are ideally suited for this kind of learning.
Other excellent students may lack confidence to give up the familiarity of the
traditional classroom, however inconvenient it may be for them. Helping high-caliber
students discover the advantages of online learning and “make the jump” to online
classes would not only enhance their learning opportunities but would also enhance
the overall quality of online teaching and learning in our Web-based courses.
Eventually, with a larger available pool of students who excel at online learning,
the College might wish to promote Honors courses online.
I would welcome opportunities
to present the results of this proposed research here at RVCC as well as to
disseminate them more widely in a scholarly paper or conference presentation.
The second
component of my proposal is to help mentor RVCC faculty members who are considering
online teaching. I have advocated some kind of faculty mentoring since I first
became involved with teaching online. Having struggled to develop the online
Shakespeare course without really understanding what online teaching is all
about, I can appreciate how daunting and unsettling it can be for faculty who
are new to online teaching to create an online course. In my case a breakthrough
occurred when I was able to see beyond the technological complexities to the
pedagogical opportunities of online teaching. I think my experience, and that
of some of my colleagues who have already developed and taught online classes,
would be invaluable to other faculty who are just getting into it. Consequently,
part of my research fellowship will be to establish an informal a faculty mentoring
program that would complement the Online Course Development training that Holly
Smythe and Lonny Buinis currently offer. I will log in and participate in online
discussions for their course (which I am already doing this semester) and help
new faculty discover how online teaching and learning can work effectively in
their courses.
In addition,
I will match up new online teachers with experienced ones (including myself),
who would serve as mentors, and invite the new faculty to “sit in” on the mentor’s
online class as an observer and/or participant. (I have already spoken with
some faculty members who are willing to serve as mentors.) In preparation for
this mentoring I will meet informally with my colleagues who have taught online
and identify some questions, issues, guidelines, and tips about online teaching
for new faculty. This list could serve as a loose framework for discussions
in the Online Course Development training as well as for informal face-to-face
meetings of interested mentors and mentees to talk about pedagogy, teaching
strategies, course organization and structure, assignments, testing, grading,
an other issues relevant to online teaching. As a group we would decide how
best to report the results of this mentoring to the rest of the faculty and
how to continue this kind of mentoring in future semesters. As the CAITL Research
Fellow I will write a report reflecting on this faculty mentoring, which might
become the basis for a paper or a conference presentation on “best practices”
on preparing faculty for online teaching and learning. The most important value
of this mentoring process is that it would provide a vehicle, ideally an ongoing
one, for faculty experienced with online teaching to pass along what they have
learned to other colleagues and, hopefully, to open more discussion about online
teaching and learning across the College.
The third component of my
proposal is to offer a modified version of my online American Film class to
a group of about 15 high school teachers in our area seeking professional development
opportunities to fulfill state requirements for Continuing Education Units (CEU’s).
American Film is a particularly good course for this purpose because it is applicable
to many academic areas (such as literature, history, and visual arts) as well
as to pedagogical issues about how to use films effectively to enhance course
content, writing and communication skills, and student-teacher interaction in
high school classes. I would modify the online discussion topics in this course
to address such pedagogical issues and to make more connections across disciplines.
I would, in fact, invite the group to “shape” the course to their own interests
and needs, and to produce a “customized” research project that would best enhance
the classes they teach or contribute to better teaching and learning in their
high schools. Offering the online American Film course to high school teachers
would also be an opportunity to introduce the special advantages and opportunities
of online teaching and learning to a new audience. High school teachers who
experience satisfaction with online learning themselves would be more likely
to promote this kind of professional development among their colleagues and
to advocate that high school students eligible for PACE be encouraged to enroll
in online classes at RVCC for college credit.
(I have conferred with Dena
Steidl, Program Manager for Workforce Development, who has offered to promote
the online American Film course as a professional development option for high
school teachers. And I know that Angela Bodino and Carol Mauermeyer, who have
worked on Tech-Prep and PACE articulation with local high schools, both support
recruiting high school teachers for online courses and expanding PACE offerings
to include online classes.)
As CAITL Research Faculty
Fellow I will write a report, along with any interested participants from the
class, describing the proceedings and results of this online American Film class
and offering recommendations about how to expand and improve this kind of professional
development for high school teachers. I will also oversee the publication of
the participants’ final projects (either online or as a spiral-bound print publication).
Both the final report and the published projects would be disseminated at the
participants’ high schools, and perhaps at appropriate academic conferences
as well. I will also collaborate with colleagues at RVCC working on initiatives
like Workforce Management and PACE to offer suggestions and recommendations
about ways to expand or improve outreach to area high schools through online
teaching and learning.
I think that the CAITL Research
Faculty Fellowship is one of the most exciting initiatives for faculty development
that I have seen during my career at RVCC. At the same time it offers tremendous
opportunities for faculty to serve the College by promoting and supporting innovative
teaching and learning practices and by exploring new avenues in the College’s
ongoing pursuit of academic excellence. I would be pleased and proud to be
selected as the first CAITL Research Faculty Fellow.
Research
References
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http://www.raritanval.edu/Innovative/caitl/ValasekProposal-Research.html
Updated 9/16/2002 by AKT
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