Learning So Fast You'll Freak: The Effect of Immersion to Increase Online Learning Success
Abstract
We investigate the impact of a compressed, immersive teaching format on student learning in online courses based on a validated measure of learning outcomes. Our ongoing research has focused on larger enrollment (typically 50+) introductory undergraduate geology courses at Miami University since 2007 that were evaluated with the Geoscience Concept Inventory (GCI). The impact of a course on student performance is estimated by calculating the normalized improvement, comparing end of course GCI scores with start of course GCI scores for each student. Sit and Brudzinski (2017) found increased student performance gains that following each of the primary course revisions: from courses with a traditional lecture-based approach (9%) to courses with an active learning revision (17%), and then to courses with active learning delivered as hybrid or fully online (25%). The improvements were interpreted to be due to purposeful re-design of the courses to focus more on student engagement. The change to the e-learning format involved developing a wide range of new course components including: assignments each class period with automatic grading and immediate feedback to prompt re-evaluation of alternative answers, regular use of software (Google Earth and Microsoft Excel) with video tutorials to scaffold learning, and realistic scientific investigations using authentic internet databases. We are now able to isolate the impact of immersion in these courses, as fully online versions of the course were offered in both a traditional 15-week semester and a 3-week winter term, with essentially no change in course design other than the time frame. The GCI results indicate that student performance in the compressed 3 week course was significantly higher than that in the 15 week course. These results indicate instructors and institutions should consider focusing e-learning efforts outside of the traditional 15-week semesters when compressed, immersive courses can be offered more readily.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMED13D0903B
- Keywords:
-
- 0810 Post-secondary education;
- EDUCATION;
- 0825 Teaching methods;
- EDUCATION;
- 0845 Instructional tools;
- EDUCATION;
- 0850 Geoscience education research;
- EDUCATION