Guide to Effective Skills for Online Student Success: Tips and Recommendations for the Concerned, Worried, and Challenged Online Student

Chapter 1:

What You Need to Know

About Online Courses

Overview

Online courses have been around for 20 years, yet many online courses need work. The effectiveness of online courses remains controversial. Numerous studies conducted by the US Department of Education concluded that well designed online courses are just as effective as many Face-to-Face courses. In spite of their success, the controversy continues. Universities, colleges, and other organizations may be unclear about the effectiveness of online classes. The standard for making this determination does not include comprehensive university evaluation and monitoring of these courses. Many academics are uncertain if instructor certification is necessary. The lack of universal standards for online courses reveals inconsistent structure, criteria, and instructors issues create a less-than-productive experience for students—especially for students who may need more assistance than is offered in most online courses.

The purpose of this book is to define online courses, criteria for their effectiveness, evaluation, and monitoring—beginning with the clarification that distance learning is not the same as online education. This book discusses the different types of courses taught on the Internet at universities, colleges, and other technical schools. This book will provide you with insights into online classes and learn about current online courses so you can navigate them successfully. The ability to navigate online courses reflects the information you received in orientation, and overtime, you will improve your skills information. These skills and information will enable you to meet the new and different online learning challenges.

Professors develop the online courses they teach, and some are assisted by course developers’ ensuring quality and consistency. In some schools, the course developer and the professor develop the course, but another person is teaching the course with assistance from the course designer. Instructors teaching courses they did not develop should not make a difference to the instruction in the course. Preparation is the solution to differences in the course design and the implementer. When instructors prepare for classes, they plan to teach, and they review the structure of an online course. Reviewing the course organization is part of the preparation. Suppose the instructor did not check for mistakes in the course operation, and this problem is not discovered before the course is opened to students. Remember, it is not too late to ask and correct the problems you discover in the course now. Ask the instructor to change the features that are not working. The instructors in the course should make changes if they make a difference in the instruction-level you receive. It does make a difference who designs and develops an online course. I will refer to the designer and developer of online courses as the professor. I recognize that you will be taught online by a variety of instructors, which may impact the course’s effectiveness. The most significant impact on your learning will depend upon the design of the course and you.

Online Course Examples

There are generally three types of online Internet courses: asynchronous, synchronous, and hybrid, or blended. They are all taught through a Learning Management System (LMS).

An asynchronous course is totally online. There are no in-person meetings in this course. Participants can complete the entire course at their own pace, subject to the deadlines and activities designed by the professor. There are no scheduled meeting times. Asynchronous courses are designed for independent learners who can develop their pace for the completion of the course. Reminder notifications may be a part of the course, and it is up to the course participants to complete the assignments with minimal direction. You are not alone in the asynchronous course. Resources for the instructions, orientation, assignments, readings, films, professor lectures, exams, and discussion boards are all posted with due dates, and other requirements are included in the course. In some cases, the professor uploads the entire course, allowing you to see all of the course material at one time or segments of the course every week.

The Synchronous, Asynchronous, Hybrid Online Courses,

and Emergency Remote Training

In synchronous courses, materials for the course are visible to participants as directed by the professor. The instructions, orientation, assignments, readings, films, professor lectures, exams, and discussion boards are all posted with due dates and other requirements. This course meets virtually at scheduled times. Course participants are aware of each other in that they can see and hear each other in the virtual meeting room. Participants sign in to the virtual meeting room at scheduled times. Participants are able to listen to lectures by the professor and guest lecturers during the scheduled class time. These lectures are usually recorded for later review and maintained for the semester. Sometimes, professors record the lectures earlier and give you an assignment to complete for the scheduled meeting time based on the lectures and readings. The first session may involve the application of the material to an assignment. The expectation is that you are familiar with the readings and other supplemental material posted earlier by the professor. Some professors use the flipped model as a method for online teaching.

During class time, participants may meet with each other in small meeting rooms. The professor may assign participants automatically or manually to the various meeting rooms. The professor will determine the number of participants in each small group within each virtual room. The professor can come into small group meetings and listen to the conversations. Some professors open these virtual rooms and permit students to meet in these rooms when they want to study together. Please note that the conversations in these rooms may be recorded, and the professor will inform you if and when recording occurs.

Many colleges and universities offer a third form of online courses labeled as a blended or hybrid course. Hybrid courses are a merger of online and Face-to-Face courses. The hybrid is the name for this type of online course, the name of the course changes from university to university and college to college. In a hybrid course, most of the class time is spent online rather than in a seat. Some believe the definition of hybrid or blended involves those classes that meet online 80 percent of the course time. The lines are blurred based on the percentage of online time. Some universities classify a class as a hybrid if it meets Face-to-Face three times per semester. Students will need to check with the school they are enrolled in to determine how that school classifies this type, of course. The registrar is usually able to tell you if the course is identified as an online course.

Check with your adviser or someone from the department you plan to enroll in and find out about the online course you plan on taking. Some institutions require the syllabus to be posted two weeks before class starts. However, check so you can determine the type of online you will be taking to avoid surprises. During a crisis, courses may be online, but they are Emergency Remote Online training. Emergency Remote Online Training consists of lectures on a video conferencing tool such as Zoom. Emergency Crisis training is not a traditional online course because Emergency Remote Online Training does not meet your attending institution’s criteria for online education. They are not certified nor evidence based. They are remote because of the crisis, and some instructors unfamiliar with the rigors of online education. Many of these courses use Zoom as the platform and lecture. Some will provide students with time to discuss material, often time with little structure.

Beware of these type of crisis remote courses, and focus on established online courses taught by certified online instructors. Certified online instructors have been trained by course developers who know course standards and train instructors and professors to recognize these standards. Additionally, professors learn how to develop courses that meet online standards guidelines following activities