Enhancing Student Performance in Online Learning and Traditional Face-to-Face Class Delivery

Abstract

Within many educational institutions across the world, the delivery of undergraduate and postgraduate courses is facilitated by online learning technologies. The development and transformation of traditional academic courses for online learning delivery provides a number of opportunities for both the academic institution and prospective students. However, there are a number of important issues that need to be addressed if online learning is to contribute to the educational experience. Over the past four years, two online Masters Degree programmes, namely 'Management of eBusiness' and 'IT with Web Technology', have been developed and delivered at the University of Paisley in Scotland. Much of the content of these two programmes have also been delivered using more traditional, face-to-face methods, thus enabling the authors to compare both modes of learning and delivery over a number of years. The authors identified a number of factors related to enhancing student performance among online learners. These factors are both educational and social in nature and include experienced learners studying strategically, selfsufficient learners, flexibility of access to learning materials, learner control over the pace of study and assessments aimed at developing greater learner reflection. This paper explores these factors, highlighting a number of lessons learnt, as well as putting forward some recommendations that will be of interest to readers who are themselves involved in the development and delivery of online learning programmes.

A Review of Distance Learning Influences on Adult Learners: Advantages and Disadvantages

“…Keeping pace with changes in technology and meeting the increasing demands of the knowledge-based economy will require a highly skilled and educated workforce capable of working collaboratively to find solutions to diverse economic, social, and environmental problems. The key to success is, in large part, continuing education, which means that online learning, with its open access and opportunities for active collaboration in an egalitarian environment, will have an important role to play in meeting the challenges of the future (Stansfield, McLellan, & Connolly, 2004).…”

“…Online learning is student centered and structured such that the course materials are presented in a suitable online format, with learning tasks, collaborative activities, and seminar and tutorial conferences being planned by the teacher but not teacher led and directed (Stansfield et al, 2004). It was argued that online teachers could not observe students, could not see and interpret their facial expressions or signs of inattention, and could not react immediately to rectify matters that may have gone amiss.…”

Comparison of Face-To-Face and Hybrid Delivery of a Course that Requires Technology Skills Development

“…Student expectations, increased demands for communication, online course development requirements, and extra attention to detail in an online environment have resulted in increased workloads for faculty of online courses (Papastrergiou, 2006;Rittschof & Griffin, 2003). Instructors have noted the loss of non-verbal forms of communication in online course delivery formats (Stansfield, McLellan, & Connolly, 2004). In some learning environments, the loss of the richness provided by various forms of communication has had "a negative impact on the instructional relationship, by making the achievement of instructional objectives more difficult or even impossible" (Farrell, 2000).…”

Using Interactive Technologies in Teaching an Online Information Systems Course

“…We have discussed the development and evaluation of this course elsewhere (for example, Stansfield et al, 2004;Connolly et al, 2005). In this section, we discuss the initial structure of the online materials for the first few cohorts of this course.…”