Communication Issues Emerge as Points of Greatest Student Concern in Online Classes

In Spring 2010, the JSRCC Center for Distance Learning, with the assistance of the College's Office of Institutional Effectiveness, conducted a student satisfaction survey that targeted all students enrolled in distance learning classes that semester. Over 800 students completed to the survey, and their responses and narrative comments offer interesting perspectives on both the successes and the shortcomings of our DL courses, instructional delivery, and instructional practices.

Not surprisingly, various issues of communication between students and instructors emerged as topics of greatest concern among student respondents.  This focus of student concern echoes findings at the national level. Communication issues encompass factors such as an instructor's responsiveness, the clarity of assignments, the comprehensibility of instructional materials, the interactive nature of the course, and the timeliness and quality of instructors' feedback on individual student effort.

A Meta-Analysis of Online Learning: What the Emerging Data Reveals

A recent conversation with Dirk Burruss, JSRCC Program Head for Network Engineering, led me to a comprehensive report issued in September 2010.  Produced by the US Department of Education, the Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning:  A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies examined more than a 1000 empirical studies of online learning conducted over a 12-year period from 1996 – 2008.

Significant findings that emerged from this meta-analysis point to evidence that online learning is not only comparable to the traditional model of face-to-face learner engagement, but that online learning has a small but still measureable rate of student achievement higher than that of the classroom.

Some Prevailing Characteristics of Millennial Learners

According to Black (2010) in the United States in 1969, the higher education student population was comprised of predominantly able-bodied, middle-class, Caucasian men who were enrolled in college full-time and who attended either community college or a four-year institution (generally not both).  These learners were typically born in the United States, were between the ages of 18 and 22, and the majority of them completed their education in four years. This population of learners mainly lived on campus. If they worked at all, it was only part-time; however, even that was a rarity, but somehow they were able to graduate with very little debt.  In addition, these learners were predominately academically prepared, physically fit, and mentally healthy; and they rejected organized religion as well as societal and parental values.  Their family environment was relatively stable, and friendships were bound by proximity.  They preferred to study independently; however, they were very competitive and idealistic. Generally they were self-responsible and accepted institutional structure but came to the institution with a lack of ethnic and racial diversity.   

By comparison, according to Black (2010), the Millennial college learner prefers to work in a collaborative group environment, whether in person or virtually.  These learners are generally not as academically prepared; they come to college lacking basic skills and do not possess critical thinking and analytical abilities.  They often come from unstable family environments; however, they share their parents' and society’s beliefs and values.  Their friendships are not limited geographically, and they are expected to attend either a community college, four year university, or both.  The Millennial learners are often assertive and demand immediate gratification and results.  They are more prone to obesity than previous generations of college learners and tend to be less healthy in regards to psychological and mental health issues.  This generation is dependent upon technology and will graduate with a significant amount of debt.

By comparing the general characteristics between the Millennials and previous generations a picture of just how different the Millennial learners are begins to emerge.  Although some general characteristics can be easily explained, other characteristics should receive special attention as they have the ability to have a more profound impact on higher education.   

--CJ Bracken

Instructional Designer

Black, A. (2010). Gen Y: Who they are and how they learn. Educational Horizons, 88 (2), 92-101.

Creating and Curating: How the Open Educational Resources Movement is Transforming College Writing and Reading

As college professors, we are increasingly turning to open educational resources to combat the rising cost of textbooks and other proprietary materials.  What began mostly as a reaction to textbook costs is fast becoming a movement that promises to change the dynamics of the instructor-text-student triad.  Once we wean ourselves from the “three-channel universe” of the major educational publishing houses, we discover we have far more choices.  We can create and curate unique sets of course readings drawn from open texts, from the public domain, and from institutional library databases students have already paid for through their tuition and fees.

As students acculturate themselves to higher education, an important developmental milestone is their achievement of critical distance and independence from received wisdom and pre-packaged texts.  According to Ellen Lupton, in her book, D.I.Y:  Design it Yourself, “Around the world, people are making things themselves in order to save money, to customize goods to suit their exact needs and interests, and to feel less dependent on the corporations that manufacture and distribute most of the products and media we consume.”  Asking our students to participating alongside us in the ongoing process of building a body of readings can be a powerful way for us to encourage reflection about the contingency of knowledge production.  We can model critical thinking by challenging our assumptions about textbooks and considering the implications of the tools and lenses we use in our everyday teaching lives.

--Miles McCrimmon

Professor of English