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Chuck
Dziuban and Patsy
Moskal
Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness (RITE)
University of Central Florida (UCF)
The
University of Central Florida is committed to its distributed
learning initiative, particularly in Web-enhanced (E), reduced-seat
time mixed-mode (M) and fully Web-based (W) programs and courses.
From its
first Web-based course in summer 1996, with approximately 75
students, the initiative has grown to 15,000 students in courses
that feature some form of Web enhancement.
Such rapid growth is typical for this university: its present
enrollment of 34,000+ is expected to approach
48,000 students by the year 2010.
Web component courses at UCF offer relief from rapid growth
pressures while maintaining academic excellence.
The UCF
Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness (RITE) staff conducts
an ongoing distributed learning impact evaluation on students,
faculty, and the academic environment of the University of Central
Florida. The study
features various components:
-
Contrasting
success and withdrawal rates--by ethnicity and gender-- in
courses with varying degrees of Web presence and face-to-face
classes;
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Developing
models for predicting success in web-based courses;
-
Assessing
the impact of Web-based instruction on students with different
cognitive styles;
-
Determining
the students’ and faculty's appraisal of the online teaching
and learning environment;
-
Assessing
the demographic inertia assessment for students and faculty that
participate in the distributive learning initiative;
-
Studying
and clarifying of success strategies for teaching and learning
in the Web environment;
-
Supporting
individual faculty research projects.
Our
comparison of success and withdrawal rates in courses with varying
Web presence reveals that classes featuring both face-to-face and
Web components achieve higher success rates and comparable or lower
withdrawal rates than those that are fully online or face-to-face.
In addition, Web presence has little differential impact on
students of varying ethnicity.
Women succeed at higher rates than do men in fully online
courses. Department and
course modality emerge as the best predictors when assessing
predictive capability for success in courses using department,
modality, ethnicity, and gender.
Students who
self-select fully online course often feature a dependent cognitive
style and while they report considerable dissonance associated with
altered role expectations in the Web-based environment, their
satisfaction level for Web-based courses is high.
Faculty also
express considerable dissonance associated with altered role
expectations; even "web-veterans" with extensive
Web-environment teaching experience report heavier workloads
associated with all Web-based course formats.
However, they also report increased and higher quality
interaction among students in the Web courses when compared to their
face-to-face sections. Despite
the increased workload, instructors express high satisfaction and a
strong willingness to continue teaching in the Web-based mode.
Interestingly enough, the amount of interaction with students
is the only variable that helps explain faculty satisfaction:
faculty who spend more time interacting with students are also more
satisfied with teaching. In
contrast, neither the level of faculty workload or their years of
experience explain their degree of satisfaction with web-based
teaching.
The
university uses impact evaluation results to redirect its efforts at
developing E, M, and W courses.
This is accomplished by responding to program needs,
demographics, and student appraisal of the online environment.
Plans are underway to develop protocols that inform students
about their cognitive styles, particularly how those preferences
interact with the demands of Web-based learning.
Continuous monitoring of success and withdrawal rates inform
academic units about developing trends in their programs.
Faculty appraisal of Web-based teaching influences issues
such as support and student evaluation of teaching.
The initiative expands UCF’s concentration on effective
teaching.
For further
information on the distributed learning impact evaluation at the
University of Central Florida, check http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~rite
or call Chuck Dziuban at dziuban@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu
or Patsy Moskal at pdmoskal@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu
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