Academic staff perceptions of the value of elements in an online learning environment were investigated through a survey of staff at Deakin University, Australia. Staff rated the importance and their satisfaction with various online learning environment elements. The most used and valued elements by staff were core functions like accessing unit information, notes, and reading discussions. Elements related to online assessment like submitting and managing assignments and receiving feedback were identified as most needing improvement. Staff felt the online learning environment enhanced their teaching when students could easily access materials and staff were confident in using the online tools after professional development.

1. Academic Staff Perceptions of the Value of the Elements of an Online Learning EnvironmentDr Stuart Palmer and Dr Dale HoltInstitute of Teaching and LearningDeakin UniversityAustralia

2. IntroductionAcademic staff play a fundamental role in the use of online learning by studentsYet, compared to the number of studies reporting investigations of student perspectives on online learning, studies investigating the perspectives of academic staff are much more limited in number, and those that exist are often limited in sample size, and quantitative investigations are the least common of all

3. Context – OLEs at Deakin UniversityEventually settled on WebCT LMSBranded as DSO – ‘Deakin Studies Online’2003 – trialled2004 – all online activity moved to LMS2004 – all taught units to have a basic online presence2004 – all programs to contain one wholly online unit

4. MethodologyThe DSO evaluation survey sought responses from staff relating to:demographic and background informationperception of importance and satisfaction with a range of OLE elementsa number of overall OLE satisfaction measuresopen-ended written comments about the OLE.

5. Response rate and demographic information

6. Mean importance and satisfaction ratings from session 1 and session 2

9. Using chat and/or whiteboardUsing calendar

10. Accessing lecture/tutorial/lab notesReading online discussionsAccessing unit information

11. Managing assessment itemsSubmitting assignmentsReceiving feedback on assignments

12. Mean responses for the satisfaction measures from the two academic teaching sessions

13. DSO evaluation surveyItem 31 – DSO enhances learning by my studentsItem 30 – DSO enhances my teachingρ30,31 = 0.902 – session 1ρ30,31 = 0.804 – session 2

16. Observations – academic staff perceptionsThe most used and valued OLE elements were core functions, including accessing unit information, accessing lecture/tutorial/lab notes, and reading online discussionsThe OLE elements identified as most needing attention related to online assessment: submitting assignments, managing assessment items, and receiving feedback on assignments

17. Observations – academic staff perceptionsStaff felt that using the OLE enhanced their teaching (and improved student learning) when:they were satisfied that their students were able to access and use their learning materials, andthey were satisfied with the professional development they received and were confident with their ability to teach with the OLE

18. Thank you for your time