NATIONAL FORUM OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION JOURNAL VOLUME 24, NUMBER 3, 2007 DISTANCE LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION: INNOVATIVE TECHNIQUES FOR ONLINE COURSES Mary Ann Hooten Barry S. Davidson Troy University ABSTRACT This article emphasizes the importance of instructional variety in meeting the needs of distance learners. The authors share creative, ingenious approaches to improving online instruction in post-secondary courses. Specific techniques are suggested that help facilitate student interaction. In addition, methods are presented that can be used to encourage distance learning students to develop a sense of community and inclusion into the traditional campus environment. Finally, results of an analysis and student comments are presented that indicate how these techniques have been perceived by students who have participated in distance learning courses using these methods. Introduction S ince the year 2000, the opportunities in online education have been steadily increasing. Expenditures on distance learning exceeded $9 billion in 2003 and grew approximately 33 percent in 2004. Researchers predict this growth to continue to increase 30 percent a year until at least the year 2008. (Hill 2005). Palloff and Pratt (2003), state that 65 percent of those eighteen or younger have enrolled in an online course. Not only does distance learning appeal to younger students, but it has great appeal for working adults who are able to complete their degrees or pursue graduate education while maintaining full-time employment. 91 92 NATIONAL FORUM OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION JOURNAL There are many reasons for the increasing popularity of distance learning. From an institutional perspective, it is possible to reach a large number of students, often in remote locations, without the additional costs of adding and maintaining structural facilities. From the students’ perspective, one great benefit is that it allows them to juggle their many responsibilities of family, military service, and careers while still enabling them to pursue an education (Warbington 2001). While there are many advantages to distance education, there are a number of challenges as well. Students pursuing online degrees need to be very focused, be able to work independently, and possess a high degree of self-discipline. Another difficulty students may encounter is a feeling of isolation and separation from the campus and its faculty (Banas and Emory 1998). In order to address these inherent difficulties, careful attention should be paid to the course content, accessibility of the faculty member, and course design. There should be plenty of opportunities for students to interact with the instructor, as well as each other. Talley (2005) suggests providing incentives for participation such as basing a portion of the course grade on discussion with other students as well as having a student-only “virtual café” where individuals can converse and bond outside of the areas related to the course. Current Practices There are a number of distance learning delivery platforms that are commonly used to create online courses at universities. Two of the more popular options are Blackboard and WebCT. Both offer similar features that allow the instructor to store documents for download (such as the course syllabus), post questions on a Discussion Board that allow for students to read others comments and respond, live chat room capabilities where the instructor and students can interact with one another in real time. Other features include on-line assessments where the instructor can create timed, randomized examinations that Mary Ann Hooten & Barry S. Davidson 93 students must complete. In addition to these standard features, the faculty member has the opportunity to integrate innovative techniques into a course content to attempt to alleviate some of the inherent difficulties of distance learning. Innovative Techniques These techniques could be used in a wide variety of online courses. The current example will show these ideas as employed in an upper-level undergraduate course in Business and Industrial Psychology. These techniques were specifically designed to minimize the feelings of distance and separation from the campus. The main technique used to decrease the students’ feelings of distance was to create an interactive website that serves as the major focal point of the Blackboard shell. From the main course page in Blackboard (see Figure 1), there is a link to the website. Figure 1. 94 NATIONAL FORUM OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION JOURNAL From there, the website contains an opening page (see Figure 2) that gives the students four options: 1) Course Introduction, 2) Lesson Plans, 3) Faculty Information Page, and 4) Course Syllabus. Figure 2 The Course Introduction page (see Figure 3) contains a picture of the faculty member along with an audio introduction that students can listen to in order to get a sense of the material they will be covering as well as the teaching style of the instructor. According to Naish (2005), in order to maximize the full learning potential of our students, we need to engage all of their senses, in particular, hearing. Another author echoes this same point by stating that we should endeavor to offer the students a “multi-sensory learning experience including audio narrations” (Talley 2005). However, consideration must be given to students with hearing disabilities or at the very least, Mary Ann Hooten & Barry S. Davidson 95 slow and outdated computer systems. With these issues in mind, a link is also provided as a way for students to read a transcript of the audio portion if they choose. Figure 3 The Lesson Plan main page (see Figure 4) was designed to be a visually interesting and functional navigation tool that is used to access each section’s lesson. Students use this page as their portal into the actual course material. 96 NATIONAL FORUM OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION JOURNAL Figure 4 In order to create an atmosphere in which students feel, though their senses, feel more at home at the University and to showcase some of the beautiful buildings and scenery, each lesson plan begins with a picture of an interesting site on the campus along with an audio introduction to the lesson (see Figure 5). There are also Microsoft PowerPoint slides that can be accessed for each lesson as well as information on the assignment, due dates, and date the next lesson will be posted. Mary Ann Hooten & Barry S. Davidson 97 Figure 5 Analysis of Student Feedback In order to assess the effectiveness of these techniques, the lead author provided an anonymous course survey for students to complete at the end of the term. Data were collected during the Summer and Fall terms of 2006. A total of 46 participants completed the survey. First, participants were asked was how many on-line courses they have successfully completed. This was arranged in order to determine their level of prior experience with distance education. This is a senior-level course, so the primary researcher expected to have several seasoned eCampus students. Results from this question indicated that 6.5% of students had taken less than 5 courses on-line, 26.1% had taken between 6 and 10 courses on-line, 19.6% fell between 11 and 15, 23.9% had taken between 16 and 20, and 21.7% had taken more than 20 online courses. 98 NATIONAL FORUM OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION JOURNAL The second question participants were asked was, compared to other online courses, how well did the discussion board component of the course add to their learning experience. A 5-point Likert scale was utilized ranging from 1 (Not at All) to 5 (Tremendously). Responses on this question indicated that 34.8% of students felt that the discussion board component added “tremendously” to their learning experience, and 56.5% said that it added a “good amount” to their learning experience. Only 2.2% of students indicated that this component did not contribute to their learning of the course material. The third question asked was, “Compared to other courses you have taken, how well did the assignments add to your learning experience and prepare you for exams?” For this question, 60.9% responded “5 - Tremendously”, 26.1% responded “4 – A good amount, 4.3% responded “3 – Somewhat”, and 6.5% responded “1 – Not At All”. The fourth question asked was, “How effective do you think the course website as created was in terms of making you feel a part of the Troy Campus?” Responses indicated that 60.9% responded “5 – Tremendously”, 30.4% responded “4 – A Good Amount”, 2.2% responded “3 – Somewhat”, and 2.2% responded “1 – Very Little”. Finally, two questions addressed the students’ overall impression of the course and design. Responses were very positive on the question about overall impression of the course, with 93.5% of students rating it as either “4 – Good” or “5 – Exceptional”. As for the students ratings of their overall impression of course design, 97.8% replied that it was either “4 – Good” or “5 – Exceptional” with the majority of the students (65.2%) responding that they thought it was exceptional. Students were provided with an opportunity to expand on their numerical responses with comments for each question to explain their rating. This provided a very interesting qualitative analysis to support the statistics. Selected student comments are presented below. Mary Ann Hooten & Barry S. Davidson 99 “I really enjoyed the course website. It was fun to see the various sites around the main campus. As a distance learning student, I feel somewhat disconnected from the traditional student experience.” “Overall, the course was great. I enjoyed very much the DB sessions and reading the different points of vies from all of the students. As noted earlier on the website that highlights different parts of the Troy Campus was a very unique and welcomed touch. Thank you for making me feel like I was truly a part of Troy University and not like an outsider looking in.” “It was great to actually see the campus and to hear your voice. It made the class seem more real in a lot of ways.” “…if it were not for this class, I would never know what the campus looked like. Distance learning classes sometimes make you feel like an outsider, but I did not feel so left out with this class.” “Compared to other courses, this class took the cake, per se. The content and structure were perfect. I’m leaving this class with much retained.” “I learned so much from this class. It’s actually one of the distance learning classes that I have learned and benefited from.” “…the way the course was presented, it provided exceptional learning benefits. I only wish there were more classes like this one.” “I believe that you have done an excellent job, both in presenting the material and trying to make us feel involved in both the class and college. Many professors do not care, but I am glad and thankful that you did.” “I really appreciated that (referring to the website). It made me feel like a real student again as opposed to some faceless number…being an on-line student is hard as it is, but the course website made me a little more comfortable, and me feel like you really cared as opposed to just teaching for the check…yeah I know it isn’t much but that is the feeling that a lot of teachers give me.” 100 NATIONAL FORUM OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION JOURNAL Conclusion These techniques were not very difficult to complete and, based on the latest research in the field of distance learning, should help to substantially integrate online students into the campus experience that traditional students enjoy. As indicated above, feedback from students on the course design has been extremely positive and it appears that these techniques do enhance the overall quality of the distance learning course. Mary Ann Hooten & Barry S. Davidson 101 REFERENCES Banas, Edward J. and Emory, W. Frances (1998). History and issues of distance learning. Public Administration Quarterly, Fall, 22 (3) 365-384. Hill, Christopher, ed. (2005) More from sloan entering the mainstream study. Distance Education Report. 9 (2) 2. Larsen, Nadalyn C., Distance learning: Linking the globe through education, World Trade, Dec 1999, n12, 74-79 Naish, Richard (2005) Time to give audio a hearing. E-learning Age. March, 16-18. Palloff, Rena M. and Pratt, Keith (2003). The Virtual Student: A Profile and Guide to Working with Online Learners. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer. Talley, Christy (2005). 10 tips from a distance learning trainer. Online Classroom. April, 3. 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