Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Online courses'

Lack of presence in online courses can result in perceived isolation leading to student dissatisfaction with the learning experience. The purpose of this study was to measure nursing students’ perceived extent of teaching, social and cognitive presence and course satisfaction in an online undergraduate nursing course, and whether relationships and associations existed between the three presences, course satisfaction, student demographic, academic, and technology variables, and selected instructional strategies.

The Community of Inquiry theory was the framework used in this descriptive correlational study of RN-BSN students (n= 76). Variables were measured using the Community of Inquiry Survey and the Perceived Student Satisfaction Scale instruments, and a researcher developed survey.

Findings indicated students’ perceived teaching and cognitive presence were present to a greater extent than social presence. Significant positive correlations (p < .01) were found between teaching and cognitive presence (r =.79), cognitive and social presence (r =.64), teaching and social presence (r =.52), satisfaction and the teaching (r =.77), social (r =.63), and cognitive (r =.52) presences. There were no significant findings associated with age, ethnicity, race, number of online courses taken, expected course grade or GPA and perceptions of the three presences and course satisfaction. There was a significant difference (p ≤ .05) with gender and perceived social presence with male students reporting stronger levels. Students experiencing course technology difficulties reported significantly ( p ≤ .05) lower perceptions of teaching presence than those experiencing no difficulty. Significant differences (p ≤ .05) were found between specific course instructional strategies and each presence and course satisfaction. The findings provide faculty with an understanding of online course management and teaching/learning strategies that may increase students’ perceptions of presence in online courses and improve student satisfaction with online learning.

Growing demand for higher education has contributed to the popularity of online education. While online courses can be effective in terms of student learning and success, and there are many potential benefits, there are also still areas that can be improved. There is evidence that students can experience online courses as impersonal and lacking interaction. They can feel isolated, less satisfied, less successful, and are more likely to withdraw. Thus, one of the challenges facing online education is to find ways to increase connection and interaction between students and faculty.

One means for addressing the sense of isolation students might feel in online courses might be instructor immediacy. While instructor immediacy in traditional classes has been shown to motivate students, create a sense of connection, and support their learning and success, it is not known whether or how immediacy can help students in a fully online course.

The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental intervention study was to examine the effectiveness of faculty immediacy on undergraduate student engagement and success in an online course. Students in an upper division psychology course were randomly assigned to either a redesigned high immediacy section or a 'regular' section. The study's hypothesized framework suggested that instructor immediacy would enhance student engagement, and thereby influence student success.

A survey measured immediacy and student engagement; success was measured by total points earned. The sample included 215 students enrolled in the course in the fall 2012 semester. Independent samples t-tests, correlations, multiple regression, and repeated measures ANOVA were the statistical tests used.

The findings revealed no significant differences between the high immediacy (intervention section) and low immediacy (regular nonintervention group) sections of the course. Immediacy and engagement were highly correlated. Engagement was a significant predictor of student success. Age, units completed, and gender were also significant predictors of student success in this study. These results provide insight into the relationship between immediacy and engagement. Implications and recommendations based on the findings of this study are given. Further studies are recommended to further study the relationship between immediacy and engagement.

A student’s ability to achieve his or her goal in an online course depends on the quality of the material presented by the instructor, and the motivational aspect of the student before committing to an online course. However, neither of these can be reached to their maximum if the dominant learning styles of students are not uncovered prior to enrolling in an online course. With the quick expansion of online learning in higher education, proper protocol has not been taken in order to help millennials reach their full potential, by allowing instructors to help identify methods to communicate with the students through an online platform. To maximize the impact of these two aspects, the dominant learning styles of millennials must be uncovered. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the dominant learning styles of millennials enrolled in an online business course, on order to provide instructors with insight of how to present course material to students in an online platform. The population consisted of 37 millennials enrolled in three separate online business courses at a California State University. Data were collected using one research instrument, the Building Excellence (BE) Learning Style Survey, consisting of approximately 120 questions. The survey instrument was used to measure the dominant learning styles of the participants among 28 different elements among six categories (perceptual, psychological, environmental, physiological, emotional, and sociological). The study looked into the perceptual category to reveal a strong necessity of millennials preferring to learn material by having it presented using visual images, and/or visual text. By improving the method of instruction in an online business course to incorporate with these learning styles, instructors can maximize their ability to teach students.

This dissertation presents a qualitative case study of students enrolled in online courses and how they perceived the orientation program they completed before starting these courses. The study was based on the perspectives of students enrolled in a fully online program at a small community college in western Maine. They were interviewed individually to find out: (a) what are the perceptions of participants toward the materials presented in the orientation after completing their first semester; (b) what aspects of the orientation resonate most with participants when it comes to completing a course (nature of online learning, how to use course management system, technical requirements or learning skills and motivation). Besides the interviews, data was collected from the college’s learning management system.

The results of the study show that participants were satisfied with the content of the orientation; however, more information pertaining to specific aspects of the learning management system should be included for additional satisfaction. Participants requested additional information concerning navigating courses, turning in assignments, and posting on discussion boards. The information provided in the interviews was consistent with the theory presented by Rovai’s (2003) persistence model. Participants’ perceptions fell into tow categories, personal and technical. These results were consistent with the current literature pertaining to online courses, orientations, and persistence.

The results and findings of this study add to the body of knowledge concerning what materials in an orientation program are most effective in helping students complete online courses. The participants in this study perceived information about the use of the learning management system to be most important. Academic Deans and Student Services coordinators can learn more about what students’ perceive to be the important elements of an orientation program. The study also contributes to the existing literature on attrition, persistence, and retention.

The need to belong and connect with others is universal among human beings. Technological advances make connecting and belonging possible via technologies, without face to face interaction. This new ubiquitous way of belonging and connecting is seen in all areas of communication, including work, schools and social environments. Online learning programs pose new challenges and questions. The purpose of this study was to learn more about the importance of sense of community within blended online programs and to determine whether there are specific learning activities that either enhance or detract from a sense of community. This information will inform course developers as to how to build community enhancing learning activities into blended online courses.

Forty-three graduate students enrolled in three different blended online programs from one University participated in an online survey process. The Classroom Community Scale (CCS) was used to assess an overall sense of community as well as 2 subscales; connectedness and learning. Overall, 86% of the subjects reported a sense of community within their educational program. Specific learning activities were assessed for use as well as student perceptions regarding whether the activity enhanced or detracted from the sense of community. Learning activities that were both collaborative in nature and synchronous were those rated by students as enhancing the sense of community. The most utilized learning activities were reading, synchronous discussions, collaborative assignments, writing and asynchronous discussions. Enhancing activities included face to face orientation pre-program start, collaborative projects, synchronous virtual sessions and group presentations.

To enhance community in online programs, it is recommended that an initial pre-program face to face session can best serve to build the initial community and support more effective learning. Additionally, course developers should incorporate synchronous and collaborative learning activities as much as possible within the structure of the course. Finally, faculty could use the CCS to measure connectedness and learning as a way to understand the learning and community preferences of the students in order to determine options and alternatives for learning and assignment completion.

The purpose of this exploratory multi-case study was to examine the role of instructional design and instructor training on student learning outcomes and student satisfaction within the online class using group work, a form of collaborative learning. Group work has been strongly recommended for online classes. Data allowing insight into contemporary events in context were collected via an online survey, personal interviews, and document examination. Students were given a link to an online survey with both selected response and open-ended questions. Instructors were interviewed either face-to-face or via voice over Internet protocol (VOIP). Syllabi and class handouts were collected and examined using content analysis. These different sources of data were triangulated during the analyses. The participants in the study were undergraduate students and four instructors at a state supported institution of higher education in the southwestern United States. Data collected revealed that those instructors using group work who had the most training and assistance from the Instructional Technology Support in the design and facilitation of classes using group work had the highest level of student satisfaction as well as the highest student perception of good learning outcomes. The data show that when the instructional design using group work is well done and the class is well conducted, student satisfaction and student learning are good. The data show that the amount of instructor training undertaken had a major impact on how students reacted to the classes. The students' perception of learning outcomes differed from that of the instructors. The instructors perceived the classes as being generally successful; however, the students' perceptions were less positive. The levels of training applied by each of the faculty to the design of their online class shows that the more training, the higher the level of satisfaction. Both student success and learning outcomes suffer if the class is not designed and taught with best practices for online group work. Further research needs to be done on the use of online group work in graduate classes and lower division undergraduate classes as all of the studied classes were upper division.

As traditional educational efforts expand into the online environment, academic research is needed to determine if effective environmental education could be replicated in the virtual classroom in higher education. Although previous research showed that the online course delivery could be an effective means of teaching environmental facts, what had yet to be determined is if there was a significance difference in the development of an environmental literacy, represented by attitudes and behaviors between online and traditional campus students, at a university within the Western United States. To determine if there was a measured statistical difference in environmental literacy following course completion this causal comparative quantitative study built on the theoretical foundations of environmental literacy development and used the Measures of Ecological Attitudes and Knowledge Scale and New Ecological Paradigm. From a sample of 205 undergraduate environmental science students it was determined, through the use of two tailed t tests at the 0.05 significance level, that no statistical difference in environmental knowledge, actual commitment, and global environmental awareness were evident. However, statistical differences existed in verbal commitment and emotional connection to the environment. Both the online and the traditional campus classroom are shown to be effective in the development of environmental literacy. As technology continues to be incorporated in higher education, environmental educators should see technology as an additional tool in environmental literacy development. However, the identified differences in emotional and verbal commitment should be further investigated.

Community colleges have seen large increases in students enrolling in online courses nationally. This trend does not appear to be slowing down, in-fact, the number of students enrolling in online courses is increasing. A number of these first-generation students come from disadvantaged backgrounds. This study attempted to isolate variables that can best predict a community college student's chance of successful completion in the online environment.

Ten variables were studied at one community college in Missouri (MOCC) during academic years 2010-2012. The variables were; College division, age, gender, academic semester, academic level, prior remediation, prior online course, grade point average, financial assistance, credit hours enrolled. The study used archived data with 9,540 individual cases. A chi-square analysis was used on the dichotomous and categorical variables and continuous variables were analyzed using an independent t-test. Once significance had been established the variables were analyzed again using a forced entry logistic regression to determine the statistical probability of the variables. All variables except prior remediation showed significance using the three analysis methods. The predictive abilities of logistic regression showed that students with a GPA of 3.0 or higher, enrolled in a Career and Technology field of study, male, receiving financial aid, enrolled in 10.5 credit hours in the summer and an age of 30 were the most likely to successfully complete online courses at MOCC.