Research on online learning effectiveness, student satisfaction, faculty satisfaction and access dates back more than a decade and a half at this point. Professor Karen Swan leads the discussions this week as we delve into what we know, how we know it, and what we hope to yetstill need to learn about online learning. Professor Swan is the James J. Stukel Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Illinois Springfield. She is known for her research in learning effectiveness, and most recently, the Community of Inquiry (CoI).
Karen will be joined on the panel by two other CoI (among many other things) researchers, Phil Ice, VP of Research at American Public University System, and Ben Arbaugh, Professor of Business at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. All three were instrumental in the development of the CoI survey, a theory-based instrument which measures student perceptions of learning processes in online courses (http://communitiesofinquiry.com/methodology). Please visit their Academia.edu sites (see below) to read some of their work on these issues.
Discussions
In preparation for the Thursday panel, we invite you to tell us what you think are the most important findings in online research, the most promising methodologies, and what we still need to know about online learning. And of course feel free to add topics in online learning research you think are important. Join the discussions:
in the What the Research Tells Us Study Group (wiki) at:
http://edumooc.wikispaces.com/message/list/What+the+Research+Tells+Us
in Google Groups at:
http://groups.google.com/group/edumooc/browse_frm/thread/b97357c5e2a363cb
or in Moodle at:
http://www.integrating-technology.org/course/view.php?id=337
We will try to incorporate your ideas in the panel discussion and summarize the discussions at the end of our week.
Live presentation
View the recording of the live session.
On Thursday, July 7, at 2:00 pm Eastern, 1:00 pm Central, noon Mountain; 11:00 am Pacific time in the U.S. - 7:00 pm London time, we will host a live Web conference on the weekly topic. We plan to provide hundreds of streams of the "live" Thursday sessions in both flash format and non-flash (mobile) format so that participants can view the panels. A Twitter back channel will also be encouraged for ongoing discussion of the panel. The hour-long conversation will be recorded and the URL for the recording will be made available the following day, July 8th.
Panelists will be addressing three general questions:
Joining us for the live session will be:
Karen Swan, Moderator, Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership, University of Illinois Springfield
Karen Swan is the Stukel Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership and a Faculty Associate in the Center for Online Learning, Research and Service at the University of Illinois Springfield. Karen has been doing research in the learning sciences for 25 years and has published over 100 articles and book chapters and presented extensively in the area of educational technology and media. She has been involved with online teaching and learning for over a decade, both as an instructor and as a researcher, and is well known for her research on learning effectiveness and interactivity in online environments. Dr. Swan was the 2006 recipient of the Sloan-C award for Outstanding Achievement in Online Learning by an Individual, and in 2010 was inducted into the inaugural class of Sloan-C Fellows.
Find out more about Dr. Swan and access some of her papers at: http://ui-springfield.academia.edu/KarenSwan
Phil Ice, Vice President, American Public University System
Phil Ice is the VP of Research and Development at American Public University System (APUS) and Vice President of Research & Development for Sage Road Analytics, LLC. His research is focused on the impact of new and emerging technologies on cognition in online learning environments. Work in this area has brought him international recognition in the form of three Sloan-C Effective Practice of the Year Awards (2007, 2009 and 2010), the AliveTek/DLA Innovation on Online Distance Learning Administration Award, and the Adobe Higher Education Leaders Impact Award. The importance of Phil's vision for the future of technology in higher education is also demonstrated by his inclusion on the advisory council for the 2011 NMC / ELI Horizon Report and his role as Principal Investigator on a $1.05 million WICHE/WCET grant to explore online retention patterns across six institutions.
Find out more about Dr. Ice and access some of his papers at: http://apus.academia.edu/PhilIce
Ben Arbaugh, John McNaughton Rosebush Professor of Management, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh
Ben Arbaugh is a Professor of Strategy and Project Management at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. Dr. Arbaugh currently is Editor of Academy of Management Learning & Education and a past chair of the Management Education and Development Division of the Academy of Management. He was the 2009 GMAC Management Education Research Institute Faculty Research Fellow, and was recently named as a University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Rosebush Professor. Dr. Arbaugh’s online teaching and learning research has won best article awards from the Journal of Management Education and the Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education along with numerous conference best paper awards. In 2008 he won the UW Oshkosh College of Business Outstanding Graduate Faculty Award. He has provided his expertise in online teaching and learning for a number of activities within and outside the UW System, including teaching in the UW MBA Consortium, developing Shareable Content Objects as part of a UW System FIPSE grant, advising for the Kent State University Partners Investing in Nursing’s Future Program and evaluating the Accelerated Online BSN program for UW Oshkosh’s College of Nursing.
Find out more about Dr. Arbaugh and access some of his papers at: http://uwosh.academia.edu/BenArbaugh
Live Sessions
Live panel discussion sessions will be held each Thursday at 2:00 pm eastern daylight, 1:00 pm central daylight, noon mountain daylight, 11:00 am pacific daylight and 7:00 pm London time. They may be viewed live online at:
http://www.uis.edu/technology/live/edumooc.html
Slides used for the session: http://goo.gl/WhVIx
Your screen will look like this:
The audio of the panel and slides will appear on the left of the screen.
For this session we will be using the Twitter hashtag #edumooc2. The Twitter back channel feed will appear center screen.
A Twitter compose gadget will appear on the right for those with Twitter accounts to upload tweets.
The session will be recorded and be made available online for those who wish to view later.
Resources
You are encouraged to visit these resources as we examine the topic of the week. Our weekly lists are not comprehensive, but rather they are a sampling of the range of resources available for each weekly topic. All of the sites we list are open; that is, they do not require paid subscriptions. Please take advantage of your Google Groups eduMOOC membership to discuss these sites and recommend addtiions. Please also visit the Academia.edu sites for our three panelists to read some of their work and take this opportunity to discuss it with the authors:
Ben Arbaugh: http://uwosh.academia.edu/BenArbaugh
Phil Ice: http://apus.academia.edu/PhilIce
Karen Swan: http://ui-springfield.academia.edu/KarenSwan
Blogs
Sites and Organizations
Ezines, Journals and Articles
Videos
This work by Center for Online Learning, Research and Service - University of Illinois Springfield is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.