1. Online Questionnaire (Google forms/analytics)
1. Based on your experience, what are some reasons for your success in online classes?
2. Please describe one of the best learning experiences you have had in an online class.
3. Please describe your experiences with your online teachers.
4. Please describe your experiences with your fellow online class members.
5. What emotions do you often experience while participating in online classes?
6. What technologies in online classes do you find most important to your learning experience?
7. What information technologies do you use of for learning outside of online classes?
8. Based on your experience in adult online college classes, what improvements can you suggest?
What Honor Students Say About Online College Classes
Author: Harold Brakhage | Mentors: John Vinton, Mary Dereshiwsky, Steven Simpson, and James Stahley
Research Inquiry
What do honor students tell us
about their experiences in
online college classes?
Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework
Survey Questions
Responses
Hypothesis
Honor Student expectations
for online learning
• Online instructors should be actively present in online class
discussions as encouraging fellow participants in the shared learning
process.
• Fellow students should be actively present in online class discussions
and do their fair share in collaborative assignments.
• The technologies and user interfaces in online college classes should be
just as engaging and effective as the social media, online entertainment
and Internet commerce technologies that we use for learning in our
nonacademic day-to-day lives.
Honor Student Recommendations
for online classes
Success in Online Higher Education –
engagement with information through technology
• In a topic-centered classroom, the teacher’s central task is to give the topic
itself an independent voice — a capacity to speak its truth quite apart
from the teacher’s voice in terms that students can hear and understand
(Palmer, 2010).
• “When the great thing speaks for itself, teachers and students are more
likely to come into a genuine learning community, a community that does
not collapse into the egos of students or teacher but knows itself
accountable to the subject at its core” (2010, p. 120).
References
Today’s computer mediated adult online educational environments transcend
the traditional paradigm of “ teachers and students exchanging information.”
They allow the intentional consciousness present within the global
information infrastructure to inform the cognitive development of all of the
participants by engaging both their physical biological and their digital
virtual selves. (Kurzweil, 2014).
Emotional word Count Weighted Percentage (%)
frustration 31 8.56
like 15 4.14
stress 15 4.14
anxiety 13 3.59
emotions 12 3.31
accomplishment 6 1.66
emotion 6 1.66
feeling 6 1.66
good 6 1.66
stressed 6 1.66
busy 5 1.38
difficult 5 1.38
stressful 5 1.38
think 5 1.38
understand 5 1.38
usually 5 1.38
want 5 1.38
able 4 1.10
anxious 4 1.10
content 4 1.10
enjoy 4 1.10
even 4 1.10
excited 4 1.10
expectations 4 1.10
experienced 4 1.10
first 4 1.10
happy 4 1.10
overwhelmed 4 1.10
anger 3 0.83
confusion 3 0.83
great 3 0.83
joy 3 0.83
late 3 0.83
love 3 0.83
positive 3 0.83
relaxed 3 0.83
sure 3 0.83
What emotions do you often experience in online college classes?
Today, in online college classes, information technology is much more than
just a “communication medium” . . .
Critical inquiry in a text-based environment:
Computer conferencing in higher education.
(Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000)
Brakhage, H. (2015). Customer experience in online higher education: A study of adult online college honor students. Available from
Dissertations, Baker College http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/doc/1747438187
Garrison, D., Anderson, T. & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education.
The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2–3), 87–105.
Kurzweil, R. (2014, June). Ray Kurzweil: Get ready for hybrid thinking [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.ted.com/talks/ray_kurzweil_get_ready_for_hybrid_thinking
McCombs, B. (2000). Assessing the role of educational technology in the teaching and learning process: A learner centered perspective.
Retrieved from http://tepserver.ucsd.edu/courses/tep203/fa05/b/articles/mccombs.pdf
Palmer, P. (2010). The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Wiley.
Source: http://howtoonlinedegreeprograms.com
Self-directed, playful, and non-linear
actions may be more effective than
repetitious, rote, and joyless activity in
supporting deep and meaningful online
learning (McCombs, 2000).
• Improve communication between online instructor and student
• Reduce question/answer time from days to minutes (or preferably seconds with text/chat)
• Use more FAQ’s (frequently asked question lists) to provide commonly requested answers
• Always provide feedback on any assignment before a subsequent one must be done
• Online discussion board practices
• Base participation grade on meaningful, authentic criteria (creativity and intellectual value)
• Eliminate arbitrary pseudo-measures such as number of posts per week
• Value original ideas and thoughtful questions from students in online discussions
• Ensure that the discussion questions create a rich context for dialog and learning
• Don’t ask for online discussion when it does not contribute to learning (in Algebra class?)
• Evolving role of technology for learning
• Never tolerate outdated textbooks and course materials
• Help and encourage students to explore the Internet with legitimate tools in order to
contribute up-to-date information from scholarly sources to class
• Incorporate real life experiences, rich media, and the very best labs and simulations possible
NVivo word frequency query against 93 honor student survey responses.
Frequency >=3. (Brakhage, 2015).
Cognitive
Presence
Social
Presence
Teacher
Presence
Technology Presence –
digital brain enhancement
Information
Presence