Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the trends in the growth of online learning since 2002 and the change in the opinions and strategies of chief academic officers.

Annual surveys of chief academic officers from 2002‐2006 are summarized.

The paper finds that online courses and programs continue to grow at a rate of 20 percent or more per year and the quality of these courses continues to improve. Online education is part of the long‐term strategy of a majority of chief academic officers. Faculty lag in their acceptance of online courses.

This survey provides the first estimates of the number of online learners, online courses, and online programs. This is the first survey on the attitudes of chief academic officers towards online learning.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between hybrid classes (where a per cent of the class meetings are online) and transportation-related CO₂ emissions at a commuter campus similar to San José State University (SJSU).

A computer model was developed to calculate the number of trips to campus for a student body similar to SJSU. Different scenarios considered the theoretical effectiveness of implementing a hybrid course system to reduce CO₂ emissions.

Increases in hybrid courses resulted in decreased student trips to campus and associated CO₂ emissions. The utility of such a relationship is demonstrated through a case study where the required increase in online class meetings needed to eliminate the need for an overflow parking lot is studied. Finally, preferential scheduling of online meetings can further reduce trips to campus.

A limitation of the model is that student schedules are random. Future research could use actual student schedules to better model how online course delivery will affect trips to campus.

As today’s universities struggle with financial pressure, online course delivery is being offered as a way to cope. This analysis provides an additional metric to evaluate online courses and includes other potential financial savings.

Transportation contributes to local air pollution and emissions of heat-trapping gases. As universities move toward more sustainable behaviors, reducing automobile trips to campus can be seen as a priority.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to model the relationship between hybrid courses and CO₂ emissions at an urban university. This information will be valuable to the SJSU community, as well as many other institutions.

It has become evident that students have diverse preferred learning styles and effective instructors must design and deliver courses to meet the needs of those students. This study investigates the four physiological learning styles of visual, aural, read‐write and kinesthetic as they apply to online education. Findings suggest that online students are more likely to have stronger visual and read‐write learning styles. Further, read‐write learners and students that were strong across all four learning styles were likely to evaluate course effectiveness lower than other students while aural/readwrite learners and students that were not strong on any learning style were more likely to evaluate course effectiveness higher than other students.

This research aimed to define the factors that may impact the effectiveness of online architectural education during COVID-19 and to examine the degree of students' and instructors' satisfaction with these factors among Jordanian governmental universities. Further, the research examines the relationships/interrelationships between the degree of their satisfaction with these factors and the students' and instructors' age, gender, education level, home size, and family size.

Different research methods were used to achieve the research purposes, including semi-structured interviews, online questionnaires and reviewing recent literature. This research used descriptive statistics and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (Pearson r) to analyze the data.

This research found that online architectural education during COVID-19 was stressful. It was ineffective in teaching practical architectural courses like design and negatively affected the architectural learning process and outcomes. In contrast, the online teaching of architectural theoretical courses was reliable and convenient if the students and instructors had intentional, sufficient technological and appropriate resources. Online architectural education negatively affected the students' design ability and skills, peer review, intended learning outcomes (ILOs) achievements, the quality of feedback, workload, interaction mode, participation, collaboration, productivity and increased cheating on online exams. The home environment was unsuitable for online architectural education. Family interventions, privacy, home size and family size significantly influence online architectural education's effectiveness.

Students' and instructors' satisfaction determines the continuity of using online teaching mode, which depends on information quality, system quality, service quality, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, achieved intended learning outcomes, cognitive absorption, skills, motivation, engagement, implementing resources and strategies and positive emotions as hope and enjoyment. Students' and instructors' satisfaction reflects how they view their learning experience, which is crucial in assessing the effectiveness of online education quality that focuses on the context, input, process and product, which is still not clearly understood, particularly for developing countries.

This paper presents recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy. It provides an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering various library types, study populations and research contexts. The selected bibliography is useful to efficiently keep up with trends in library instruction for busy practitioners, library science students and those wishing to learn about information literacy in other contexts.

This article annotates 424 English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations, theses and reports on library instruction and information literacy published in 2021. The sources were selected from the EBSCO platform for Library, Information Science, and Technology Abstracts (LISTA), Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), Scopus, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, and WorldCat, published in 2021 that included the terms “information literacy,” “library instruction,” or “information fluency” in the title, abstract or keywords. The sources were organized in Zotero. Annotations summarize the source, focusing on the findings or implications. Each source was categorized into one of seven pre-determined categories: K-12 Education, Children and Adolescents; Academic and Professional Programs; Everyday Life, Community, and the Workplace; Libraries and Health Information Literacy; Multiple Library Types; and Other Information Literacy Research and Theory.

The paper provides a brief description of 424 sources and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians, researchers and anyone interested as a quick and comprehensive reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy within 2021.

This study aims to investigate students’ satisfaction, self-efficacy and perceived competencies in a ‘technical writing and communication skills’ course after the switch of teaching the course from face to face to fully online during and after COVID-19. The study also measured the Achievement of Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology course learning outcomes (CLOs).

A descriptive cross-sectional survey design approach was adopted in this study. Students were asked to respond to an online survey after completion of the course to measure the target parameters. The data of 250 respondents, analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics 28, show high scores on all constructs.

Statistically significant differences among gender, field of study, grade point average (GPA) level, type of school attended and attainment of English proficiency certificate were detected for students in terms of their baseline perceived competencies, achievement of CLOs and self-efficacy scores. In addition, gender, field of study, GPA and holding an international English proficiency certificate had statistically significant effect, whereas the academic level and type of school were insignificant.

First, the data had been collected through survey only. A limitation of this method is that there could be survey fraud. Second, as some respondents found the survey long, their responses might have been less reliable. Moreover, as the survey was entirely conducted online, this may have caused limited sampling, because some respondents are less likely to have internet access/disconnection and respond to online surveys. Furthermore, this research had focused on studying the impact of an online course on university students’ achievement in a Jordanian university, this limits the generalizability of the result to students of other levels and classes, or ones studying in other universities or living in different countries.

Because of its impact on effective teaching and achievement, educators need to pay much attention to self-efficacy when designing new curricula for different environmental contexts. Furthermore, it is apparent that some courses, such as “technical writing” can be taught fully online without affecting students’ performance and achievement. Because educators always look for ways that make teaching effective, they may need to consider online platforms for teaching specific courses, hence save time, effort and resources.

A course on technical writing and communication skills offered to undergraduate engineering and information technology students at Princess Sumaya University for Technology was switched from face to face to fully online modality during the COVID-19 pandemic in the period 2020–2021. The effect of such massive and sudden transformation on students’ achievement and satisfaction called for immediate scrutiny of the prospect and expectancy of online learning.

The purpose of this paper is to examine students’ perceptions of online vs traditional (face-to-face) course offerings at the business school of a liberal arts university in southwest USA. The research compares perceptions of students who have been subjected to online education along with those who have not been exposed to online education and examines likelihood to take online courses.

Paper and pencil surveys were distributed in different classes in business classes at a university in southwest USA. The target group was undergraduate students.

The results indicate that overall, students have neutral perceptions about online courses, while favorable perceptions are strongly associated with likelihood to take online courses. Moreover, prior exposure with online courses is not a significant factor in forming favorable perceptions about online courses.

The present research is limited in generalizability and the institution surveyed in the southwest region is new to online courses offering in their curriculum and not all the participants had prior experience with online courses.

Although this paper compares online education with traditional, another option for methods of education include hybrid models incorporating both. A possible third option not discussed through this research is a hybrid or blended learning course, a combination of both online and traditional courses. This opens the options for the student, as hybrid courses can be built with many different options. One includes using technology for “screencasts” or lectures online.

Examines student performance indicators in online distance learning courses offered on the Internet at a mid‐sized private college in the USA. A sample of 74 undergraduate and 147 graduate business students in ten courses were selected for statistical analysis of their grade performance and the relationship with various indicators. The research results include findings that gender and age are related differently for undergraduate and graduate students to performance in distance learning courses, and that undergraduate grades, age, work experience, and discussion board grades are significantly related to overall course performance. However, standardized test scores (SATs, GMATs) and organization position level are not related to the performance in distance learning courses. Makes recommendations for further qualitative and empirical research on distance learning student performance in online computer‐mediated courses and programs.

Increasing use of information and communication technology (ICT) in education has, along with other consequences, shifted the context from teacher-centric to student-centric. These changes pose fresh challenges to the prevalent education systems all over the world, which already have fallen short of the expectations. The purpose of this study is to show that e-learning is not only about ICT following a holistic approach to learning which embeds systemic approach and learning loops but also about students and teacher’s actions in ICT-enabled learning environment. This study investigates the importance of engagement of students and teachers in blended learning with a focus on factors which affect this engagement.

Based on systems theory and socio-technological approach to e-learning, the paper documents an experiment which was carried out in a higher education institution. Postgraduate students of one course were divided into two groups. Instructor of the first group was not required to engage with the online content and had to deliver his course in a traditional face-to-face format. Instructor of the second group continuously spent time on the learning management system (LMS), developing more content, participating in online discussions and responding to students. LMS tracked the online activity of both the instructors, and semi-structured interviews of students were conducted.

Based on behaviour of 152 students of a postgraduate programme, students’ time spent online is directly proportional to the instructor’s online time, promptness of instructor’s response to online activities queries of students increased student engagement, the students’ engagement increases if the online content is related to the syllabus but engagement is not the same as the face-to-face lectures in the class.

The research was conducted in India and is based on the behaviour of instructors and students in India. It was focussed on engagement issues of blended learning, while other issues of blended learning have not been in the focus of the research.

The research is important for the practice of higher education, and the result of the study can be taken into consideration while developing online courses for students enrolled in higher education.

If higher education institutions take a strategic decision to use ICT in e-learning, engagements of participants and factors affecting engagement are crucial for the better quality of education. In such a way, blended learning fulfils requirements of a holistic approach to learning.

Despite the fact that e-learning as a way to deliver academic content has been extensively researched, there are not many studies focussed on engagement issues in blended learning, and even fewer studies have been conducted in an experimental way which allow in-depth research.

The aim of this paper is to describe the rapid development and effectiveness of online education in an urban college, emphasizing the use of distance education by local students, their academic performance and perspectives for future growth.

The paper provides a description of the phases of distance education development. It analyzes of survey data on student response to online learning and analysis of grades indicating academic performance online in relation to overall undergraduate performance.

The paper finds that early unplanned development has brought increased administrative support: plans are being made for programs, major concentrations, and advanced degrees on the undergraduate and graduate level. Student academic success reflects the special demands of online education and indicates the need for special screening processes and support services.

The academic success of students reflects the special demands of distance learning and qualifies the popularity of distance education as seen in rapid increases in online enrollment.

The promise of distance education for a local student population (to speed progress to degree completion by increasing the number of courses per semester) should be tested in terms of student academic success.

This account of how distance learning can develop in an urban, commuter college and the possibilities for improving service to existing students while increasing enrollment, suggests strategies for effective integration of online courses into the existing undergraduate and graduate curriculum.