Communication Issues in Online Learning

Lloyd R. Burton and Richard Dahlkemper
Weber State University

Introduction

In the last decade online learning has transitioned from a novelty with exciting potential to an essential, ubiquitous tool in the provision of higher education. As early as the year 2000, more than 90% of American colleges and universities were offering distance learning courses or actively planning to do so (Stella, 2004). While availability of the World Wide Web and software specifically designed for online teaching may seem to have been the obvious drivers of this trend, changing demographics among university and college students have been the underlying cause. Recent high school graduates seeking to live on campus and earn an undergraduate degree as full time students in a four year program are no longer the overwhelming majority of higher education students. Older students returning to complete an undergraduate degree, seek continuing education, or retraining for changing or emerging professions have entered universities in substantial numbers. The resulting demand on higher education to serve this more diverse population with effective, efficient, and flexible curricula has accelerated the adoption of online technologies (Hicks, 2001). This study addresses an apparent shift in enrollment from the classroom to online class sections and further compares the frequency of grade distributions in classroom and online classes.

Background

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater found that when the same course was offered concurrently both in the traditional classroom setting and online, enrollment in the online section was two to three times that of the classroom section (Yin, 2002). Experience in the Health Administrative Services (HAS) program at Weber State University (WSU) has been consistent with those findings. Spring, 2006 enrollment in HAS 3000, an overview of the U. S. health care system, was 45 students in the online section and 16 in the classroom. HAS 3020, Health Care Marketing, was also offered in both modalities during that semester with 35 registrants in the online section and 13 in the classroom. Weber State University is a prime example of a higher education institution responding to the diverse needs of both traditional and non traditional students. According to its web site, The University “prides itself in its excellent teaching, extraordinary commitment to meeting the needs of students at every stage of life and ongoing service to the community”. The multi-campus university in Ogden, Utah, and Layton and Davis County Utah, offers 215 certificate and degree programs in arts and humanities, science, applied science and technology, business and economics, education, social and behavioral sciences and the health professions—the largest and most comprehensive undergraduate offering in the state. Master’s degrees are offered in accounting, business administration, criminal justice and education. Online courses, distance learning, independent study and evening classes are offered at times and places to meet the complex needs of students balancing family and work responsibilities. An Early College program permits high school students to enter college early to take WSU classes for credit. WSU's varied programs and an array of options are designed to help students achieve their dreams, whatever their circumstances. Total enrollment at Weber State for the Fall semester of 2005 was 18, 143 students. Of those, 5,634 registered for the 654 sections offered online.

The Health Administrative Services Program (HAS) at Weber State University provides an opportunity for health practitioners, students in the health disciplines, and others to prepare themselves for managerial, technical, and health promotion roles in both traditional and nontraditional health care settings. In addition, many students use the program to prepare themselves for graduate studies in Health Administration and other related disciplines. The Program is uniquely structured to help practicing health professionals build upon their two-year professional degree or credential, while at the same time accommodating the more traditional four-year student. Majors are available in health services administration, long term care administration, health information management, and health promotion. A graduate certificate in health administration is also offered. In total, 41 different courses are offered through the HAS department and more than 250 different students are enrolled in them. Nearly all of the Majors are available in Health Services Administration, Long Term Care Administration, Health Information Management, and Health Promotion as well as a graduate certificate in Health Administration. All courses are available both online and in the classroom. Most students live in Weber and Davis counties, but many take advantage of online offerings while residing in other parts of Utah and in other states.

WSU has been part of the evolution in universities that has taken distance learning from the status of an adjunct modality for a relatively few students whose circumstances necessitated remote learning, to one part of a distributive learning model (Stella, 2004). During the late 1990’s and early 2000’s most emphasis was placed on selection of software, training of both faculty and staff to use it, conversion of courses to the online mode, and coping with technical difficulties (Yin, 2002). Students and, at first, faculty were faced with two learning curves, one for the use of online technology and one for the content of the courses (MacDonald, 2005). Weber State moved through the final phases of this stage with conversion to WebCT software during 2003-2004. Faculty were provided with extensive training in conversion of courses to WebCT and were compensated for participating. Tutorials are available both online and face to face for faculty and students in use of the online technology. Now, faculty and students are expected to be competent in use of the technology and take responsibility for using it effectively in coursework. All courses include embedded links to the WebCT tutorials, instructors are encouraged to employ clear and repeated instructions for course requirements and to use a pre quiz that requires students to know or find answers regarding the use of online technology in meeting requirements for the course.

Enhancing Quality

Emphasis has now shifted from learning about the technology to advancing the quality of distributed learning. Hicks et al. captured the essence of this focus: “Technology then, of itself is not seen to provide quality learning; rather quality depends on the way technology is used to provide access to relevant learning opportunities at the optimum time (2001, p, 144).” Following a period of skepticism regarding the possible lowering of standards for student admission and course requirements, consensus has grown that online education can be very effective and regional accreditation commissions have become comfortable with the application of standards to programs that include online education (Stella, 2004). While slightly different terminology is used in different models, there also seems to be general agreement on the key ingredients to quality online education: university commitment, technical support, course content, student engagement, and outcome assessment (Hicks, 2001; Stella, 2004; and MacDonald, 2005).

WSU has demonstrated commitment to online education from focus on non traditional students and distributed learning in its mission statement, to substantial investment in technology, to ongoing support through its Information Technology division and a cohort of staff in a separate division called WSUonline. Staff in both WSUonline and the library are organized to provide dedicated support to each of the colleges within the university. In addition, all students are required to demonstrate a series of computer competencies including online research and learning. Information Technology and WSUonline provide technical support for both students and faculty

WSU policies regarding course content are not unique. Syllabi must identify learning objectives, required and recommended course materials, course requirements, and grading criteria. In the HAS department, course content is nearly identical whether the course is offered online or in the classroom. In fact, classroom sections are now offered in a “web enhanced” fashion using WebCT so that on campus students have access to all of the same resources that are provided to online enrollees. Links are provided to written lectures, power point slides, classroom lecture notes, video clips, journal articles, and other reference materials. Assessments such as weekly quizzes or study questions on each learning module are nearly identical for online and classroom sections and are administered through WebCT. Assignments such as research papers or group projects are also kept to the same requirements as much as possible. Team projects are facilitated through use of the Group Manager function in WebCT. True distance learning students who do not live near any other students enrolled in the same course are given the option of forming virtual teams or completing projects solo.

The differences, and thus primary challenges, come in replacing the face to face communications that occur in the classroom. These of course occur in several ways: instructions and didactics delivered by the instructor, questions and comments between the instructor and students, and discussions among students. In the online setting, the instructor is denied the use of skills in questioning and listening to students and observing their non verbal behavior to assess comprehension. Experience in the HAS department at Weber State has verified findings at Wisconsin-Whitewater that it is important to provide information very specifically and to repeat it frequently at various places within the course materials (Yin, 2002). This includes the use of assessment tools to enhance communication. The importance of assessment in motivating students to engage in learning has been well established (Hicks, 2001). Weber State HAS instructors have found it valuable to include questions in modular quizzes that assess the students’ engagement in the full range of learning activities including readings, lectures, resource materials such as video clips or charts, online discussions, and even instructions for assignments.

It does not seem possible that online discussions can fully replace the learning opportunities that take place in structured classroom activities and spontaneous interactions. Online postings lack the warmth and richness of face to face communication as well as the opportunity to observe and respond to non verbal cues. Online students can be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of postings on discussion pages and have reported feelings of frustration and even guilt at not being able to read and respond to all of their classmates’ postings (MacDonald, 2005). Nonetheless, HAS faculty have found some techniques to be effective at engaging students more fully in online discussions. Allowing students to express personal opinions while requiring that they support opinions with facts relevant to the course, seems to stimulate both interest and increased attention to course materials. Using reference articles, video clips, or charts as the focus of discussion questions also seems to be effective. It has been difficult to observe the impact of instructor insertions in online discussions except when coupled with the consistent use of discussion question findings in graded assessments. Also awarding points for participation in online discussions seems essential.

Because scheduling flexibility is one of the key benefits sought by online students asynchronous tools such as online discussions are preferred over synchronous methodologies such as chat rooms. In order to make an online discussion a more inclusive experience for students, requiring that each student login more than once to the discussion process becomes critical. WebCt has added a feature that allows the instructor to assign a grade for participation in an online discussion. It also provides a record of when and how many times a student has posted an initial comment to the discussion instructions or has replied to another student’s comment. Merely adding a requirement to post an initial comment and at least one reply to another student significantly increases the frequency of student participation in online discussions.

Measuring Outcomes

There are several important ways to measure the outcomes of online learning and compare them with the classroom modality. This article will compare grades earned by Weber State students in online sections with those earned in classroom sections of the same courses during the same time period. Assessment instruments are substantially identical for online and classroom sections of the same course and grading criteria have been similar but not identical. In HAS 3000, 3020, and 3240 online students were awarded points for participation in weekly discussions. This was done both to stimulate discussion and to provide an opportunity to make up for some points that may have been gained by classroom students on quizzes because of discussions and clarifications in the classroom. Points available from discussion participation ranged from 5% to 7% of total points available in the course. In HAS 3000 and 3020, classroom students are graded on a presentation made in the classroom of their research papers and marketing plans, respectively. In HAS 4400, Health Law and Ethics online discussion comprises 15% of the total grade. There are five online discussions worth 30 points each out a total of 1000 points.This establishes enough points in each assignment to give credit for multiple logins and credit the quality of participation in the discussion.In addition to the online discussions, each student is assigned to a group that collaborates through an online discussion group to develop a position paper on a topic relevant to healthcare ethics.

HAS faculty have observed greater non participation rates for online students than for students taking the same courses in the classroom. This was consistent with findings at Wisconsin-Whitewater where students who fully participated in online sections did as well or better than classroom students but, about one third of those in the online sections “failed to submit a large portion of weekly assignments (Yin, 2002, p. 5).Our hypothesis is that final grades for online sections will therefore show greater variation than final grades for classroom sections of the same courses. Our second hypothesis is that enrollment in online sections of a particular course will exceed that in classroom sections offered during the same term.

Grade distribution

To test this hypothesis variation in final grades for courses taught both online and in the classroom covering six terms were compared.

Grades for 66 courses from the six terms from Fall 2003 through Summer 2005 were collected from ten courses offered in the Health Administrative Services Department at Weber State University

There were a total of 1388 letter grades included in the data collected. The total included 675 classroom grades and 713 online grades. Undergraduate letter grades at Weber State are posted as A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D+, D, D-, E, UW. E and UW grades were grouped together because both grades are computed as a zero value for calculating the student’s GPA.

To determine whether there was a significant difference between online and classroom grade performance a chi-square test was conducted on the distribution of grades collected for the courses included in this study. The online and classroom frequencies for the 12 grade categories mentioned above were tested using the chi-square statistic. The test resulted in a chi-square value of 55.1. For 11 degrees of freedom the apriori alpha level at .05 requires a critical value of 19.68. Therefore, the chi-square test demonstrated that there was a significant difference in grade distribution between online and classroom courses. An examination of the distributions showed that the frequency of lower grades was higher in the online courses. Most notable was the difference in the number of students failing in online courses. Fifty nine of the 713 students in online courses received a failing grade while seventeen of the 675 classroom students failed their course. In grades A through B+ the frequencies of classroom students were higher. Online frequencies were higher for all grades of B or lower. See Figure 1.

Enrollment comparisons

To further test the hypothesis that enrollments in online courses are higher than classroom sections when they are offered concurrently, a comparison of courses offered concurrently starting in the Fall semester 2003 was conducted.

In ten instances the same course was offered in the classroom and online in the same term. The Health Care System (HAS 3000) was offered in seven of the instances. Healthcare Marketing (HAS 3020) was offered in the other three. Figure 2 shows a side by side comparison of the enrollment numbers for classroom and online courses. See Figure 2.

Figure 3 shows the difference between the online and classroom enrollment numbers. In one case, HAS 3000 Summer 2004, 3 fewer students enrolled in the online session. In two cases, HAS 3020 Spring 2004 and HAS 3000 Fall 2004, the enrollment numbers were identical. The comparison of five of the courses offered since Spring 2005 showed significantly larger enrollment numbers in the online sections. See Figure 3.

It appears that a trend towards greater demand for online class sections continues to grow. However, caps on the number of students allowed to enroll in online classes will limit growth in the difference between online numbers and in class numbers. The shift towards increased online was consistent with the experience of other research expressed in the literature (Yin, 2002).

Analysis and recommendations

The study showed that performance as measured by final letter grades was significantly higher in classroom sections than online sections. Analysis of the data and test results raises certain questions. First, is the student performance influenced differently by the milieu and pedagogy of online classes? The online environment offers a number of tools for use in communicating with students. Those tools can be compared on at least two important axes. The axis of one channel to multi-channel compared to the axis of one-way to dialogue communication Figure 4 represents how selected online tools might engage the two axes of communication. One would expect that using tools that engage multi-channel dialogue provides a milieu for improved student performance. Video conferencing with accompanying slides and opportunity for Q & A from students would be considered multi-channel dialogue. Whereas, an email message would be a single channel one-way communication. The availability of resources, pedagogy and time constraints determine the degree to which an online instructor will use teaching tools that engage multiple channels of communication in a richer dialogue with students.

Online assessment tools may offer an opportunity to engage in an asynchronous dialogue with students by insuring that course content in included in online discussions and course activities and then addressed in online tests as well. Thus, if the instructor structures online courses to include more tools that are multi-channel dialogue in nature the communication will be richer. See Figure 4.

Second, is there an optimal class size for the online environment? The experience of the authors is that one-on-one interaction with online students is more time consuming than in the classroom environment. If the course structure includes more writing assignments rather than objective quizzes and exams that use multiple choice or true/false questions the class size needs to be more limited.

Third, is there a difference in the motivation and ability of students choosing to enroll in online courses? This question points to investigating the prior academic performance of students enrolling in online courses in comparison to that of students in classroom settings. It also suggests investigators should analyze sections to see if a lower final grade differential resulted from missed assignments or from generally lower grades across all assignments. It may be that some students believe online courses are easier than classroom courses. This assumption deserves further investigation.

This study did not compare differences in performance of students based on demographic characteristics such as age, gender, occupation, level of employment, or geographic location. There is an increasing proportion of older nontraditional students enrolling in institutions of higher learning (NCES, 2004). Weber State University enrollments are reflective of this trend and it is assumed that this population represents a higher demand for online courses.

Conclusion

This study has raised a number of opportunities for further study. This study did not compare differences in performance of students based on demographic characteristics such as age, gender, occupation, level of employment, or geographic location. A comparative analysis of performance based on demographic factors could determine whether there is a correlation between such factors and performance. A second area not studied would be the level of student participation as an indicator of performance. Anecdotal information indicates that some students fail to complete assignments on time even though they appear to be capable of passing work. A qualitative study could be conducted by interviewing students who have taken online courses. An area of particular interest in interviewing students would be an inquiry into their motivation for enrolling in online courses.

Experience indicates that the demand from students for online course offering is increasing. This increase will challenge instructors to seek ways to improve communication in online courses. Although this study indicates that there is a difference in the general performance of students in online and classroom settings it has raised more questions about the preparation, motivation and ability of students seeking online courses as well as the types of teaching tools used by instructors in designing those courses. With the ever increasing demand for and growing online course offerings there is a plethora of opportunity for more indepth studies.

References

Hicks, M., Reid,I., and George, R. (2001). Enhancing on line teaching: designing responsive learning environments. The International Journal for Academic Development.6(2), 143-151.

MacDonald, C. J. and Thompson, T. L. (2005). Structure, content, delivery, service, and outcomes: quality e-learning in higher education. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning.July, 2005, 1-27.

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). 2004, Digest of Education Statistics.
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d04/figures/fig_14.asp

Stella, A. and Gnanam, A. (2004). Quality assurance in distance education: the challenges to be addressed. Higher Education.47, 143-160.

Yin, L. R., Urven, L. E., Schramm, R. M., and Friedman, S. J. (2002). Assessing the consequences of online learning: issues, problems, and opportunities at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.Assessment Update.14(2), 4-5,13.

Figure 1: Proportional distribution of grades

Figure 2: Course Enrollment Numbers

Figure 3: Comparison of Online to Classroom Enrollment

Figure 4. Communication Tools