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Criteria Used to Develop Effective Online Courses

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Abstract

Introduction

Market Growth
Faculty Training
Substantial Savings
Job Performance

The business of education represents 10 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product, and the Internet is the fastest growing mass-market media in history.  It should be no surprise, then,  that distance education is dramatically changing the educational environment by combining the best of both of these markets. 

With the phenomenal growth worldwide of teaching and learning on the Internet, attention is now being paid to the nature and quality of online higher education.  The biggest challenge confronting higher education is helping faculty successfully integrate technology into instruction.  What criteria should instructors use in designing an effective distance education course?  That is the purpose of this study-to provide a valuable resource and guideline for teachers and instructors who now find themselves with the task of preparing high quality distance education courses.

Just as 100 years ago the nation struggled with the transition from an agrarian to an industrial economy, today we confront the transition from an industrial to a global, technological economy (Technological Literacy, 1997).  Knowledge has become our key resource.  It is not tied to any country.  It is portable.  Increasingly, an educated person will be someone who has learned how to learn and who continues formal learning throughout his or her lifetime (Drucker, 1994, pp. 4,10).

In the last two decades of the 20th century, the environmental landscape of education and industry changed climactically.  As a result of two enormous culture-changing technologies—the Computer and the Internet—the door has opened for learning to be acquired much more quickly, ambitiously, democratically, engagingly, asynchronously, and ubiquitously.

Market Growth.  According to a survey by ZD Market Intelligence, approximately 52 million homes—half of all U.S. households—now have at least one personal computer (Distance Learning in Higher Education, 1999, p. 1).  Households with annual incomes of less than $30,000 make up a quarter of PC-equipped households.  This reveals that the technological disparity between income levels may be starting to evaporate.

According to new research from International Data Corporation (IDC), distance education will become a "viable option to traditional teaching methods," and is "poised for major growth over the next several years" (ComputerUser.com, 1999).  IDC says the number of college students enrolled in distance education courses will go up from 710,000 in 1998 to 2.2 million in 2002.

Not only that, but the number of higher education institutions offering distance education programs will rise along with the number of students.  By 2002, says IDC, 85-percent of two-year colleges will be offering distance education courses, up from 58-percent in 1998.  In addition, the number of four-year colleges that will be offering distance education courses will go up from 62-percent in 1998 to 84-percent in 2002 (ComputerUser.com).

The size of the U.S. market for distance education is already $2 billion and is projected to be $6 billion in 2002 and $9 billion by 2003 (Fathom, April 3, 2000).  When combined with professional training and K-12, the National Institute of Standards and Technology expects the total online learning marketplace to reach $46 billion by the year 2005 (Powered by Blackboard).  Enrollment in online programs is expected to increase at an annual rate of 30-35 percent (Fathom).

To guarantee that the quality of higher education does not suffer from the upsurge of distance learning courses, it is imperative that educators have clearly defined criteria to follow when designing their web-based distance education courses. 

Faculty Training.  As a result of the rapid growth of distance education, what are the greatest information technology challenges confronting colleges and universities?  According to the Campus Computing Project study, the top priority for teachers in higher education is— helping faculty integrate technology into instruction (Distance Learning in Higher Education, 1999).

In an earlier study by Parisot, the ease of use was the primary factor in the adoption of technological innovation by faculty (Chang, 1998).

"But, I've always taught it this way," said Clyde when I offered help to develop his first graduate course for interactive television.  "I've been teaching for the past 18 years, and I think l know how to teach.  It can't be that different," Clyde continued.

On his first day of tele-teaching, several colleagues and graduate students accompanied him to the tele-classroom.  As the 75 minute class started, Clyde lectured enthusiastically for 10 minutes.  He stopped abruptly and turned to me in despair.  I announced a 10-minute break.  Sweating profusely, Clyde said he had just taught everything he normally would.  But there were 55 minutes of class time left!

To salvage the situation, we placed a table in front of Clyde.  I asked his colleagues and students to sit at the table and ask questions.  Slowly they did so, and Clyde responded, shifting from one leg to the other.  Before long, questions began to come in from the field site, so the class progressed to its conclusion.

After this painful experience, Clyde agreed that teaching on interactive television requires more and different planning and preparation than a traditional class.  The next morning he told me he was now ready to work on modifying his course to fit the new learning environment (Reflections on Teaching in the Techno-Classroom, January, 2000).

Substantial Savings.  Distance education offers students the most time savings and least costly method for obtaining a higher education.  This is precisely why one of the authors of this paper choose George Washington University's (GWU) Educational Technology Leadership (ETL) distance education program.  Previously he attended a local state university about 40 miles from his home.  He calculated that he was spending about 10 hours a week driving and walking to and from classes, as well as spending about $1,800 a year in fuel and maintenance to his vehicle.  Furthermore, he had to remain on campus for classes which were scheduled at different times of the day, creating a lot of down time for him.  To make matters worse, he felt the lecture-based classes he was required to attend were quite uninteresting.

After enrolling in GWU's ETL distance education program which is accessed entirely online, he is now using those extra 10-plus traveling hours a week toward his work or study time.  His automobile doesn't get any miles put on it for educational purposes.  He is able to totally control his learning environment, including going to class online in his pajamas.  As he puts it, "This, truly, is the way to learn!"

Job Performance.  It is widely believed that workers in the next century will require not just a larger set of facts or a larger repertoire of specific skills, but the capacity to readily acquire new knowledge, to solve new problems, and to employ creativity and critical thinking in the design of new approaches to existing problems (Report to the President, 1997, p. 5).

For example, a little more than a year ago three US West colleagues saw a need to update the training for their 13,000 employees scattered across the nation (Webb, March 13, 2000).  At that time new employees were having to find their way through reams of self-paced reading which was supplemented by 20 percent of online training.

In order to centralize all company training and increase employee performance, these three colleagues re-designed their existing training program using a distance learning approach.  Today, as a result of their work, all employees for US West receive 100 percent of their training on the Internet.  How effective has this new training program been?  Here are the results thus far:

For more details of US West's new training application, go to http://www.msbarnett.com/ed239/casestudy.htm.

For the purposes of this research, here are the primary questions we intend to answer:

It is the hypotheses of this research report that the criteria used in effective distance education courses will be as follows: