Internet Learning Volume 1, Number 1, Fall 2012 | Page 21

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Internet Learning

Previous studies have focused on diffuse aspects of virtual learners’ engagement in their
education (Marks & al., 2005). Research examining CoI’s social presence dimension of students’
involvement in the learning process usually has been survey-based (see, for example, Williams et
al., 2006). It has established meaningful interaction as a prerequisite for other dimensions fully
functioning and assigned that responsibility to instructors (Swan & Shea, 2005). Recognizing the
essential nature of social presence, this research nonetheless deemphasizes that dimension of the
CoI framework by focusing on the instructor’s role in directly conveying the knowledge that
students need to absorb. Even the higher-order integration of concepts, an emphasis of CoI’s
cognitive presence dimension, is less central to this research because of the quite straightforward
nature of the knowledge conveyed. Although greater integration of CoI dimensions is sought
(Garrison & Arbaugh, 2007) and is admittedly crucial, this research represents a limited rather
than a broad inquiry into the resilience of teaching presence through the web-mediated broadcast.
The particular focus on teaching presence separates this inquiry from previous studies
based on a synchronous format, which examined students’ performance in multiple dimensions
(Clouse & Evans, 2003) or looked broadly at issues of satisfaction, accomplishment (selfreported), and accessibility (Skopek & Schuhmann, 2007). Such broad-gauge research
encompasses many elements of learning-based models and involves cross-cutting influences. In
contrast, the structure of this course, described in detail below, served to segment the information
that was conveyed primarily through lectures, which was the basis for the assessment of student
performance. In this way learning that relied on direct instruction could be separately evaluated,
apart from the more integrated (and more crucial, from a pedagogical standpoint) learning that
occurred in the applied portion of the course, which constituted its core.
Methodology
The public budgeting course I taught scarcely could be called a hybrid offering, since students
could choose, as a sizeable minority did, to attend the class entirely in person. (But the recording
of broadcast lectures did make possible the hybridization of an online public budgeting section
taught in parallel, as addressed in the penultimate section.) Another unconventional aspect of this
design was the lack of a requirement to select a mode of attendance. Students could attend
virtually in one class and in person the next, which meant that the virtual and in-person groups
were constituted differently from week to week. This mingling of the categories dampened some
of the differences that have characterized virtual students in previous research. Departing from
the traditional classroom experience minimally—only in providing the option of a web-based
medium—served to narrow the factors under consideration. Limiting the outcome of interest to
students’ achievement on lecture-based quizzes further restricted the inquiry.
Students physically located at home, at work, in libraries, or at other access points, rather
than collocated with other students—as is the case for satellite sites linked by dedicated
networks, confront different challenges in absorbing traditionally delivered lecture material. For
example, virtual students may be subject to distractions far beyond those posed by the classroom.
Mechanisms bundled with the software, such as polling, provide the capacity to assess the
presence and engagement of virtual attendees, but these would require a greater investment in
mastering the technology than this trial required. Indeed, impact on the instructor was kept to a
minimum, consistent with the modest level of investments in infrastructure and software. Rather
than suggesting this course as a model for distance education, the introduction of web-based
broadcasting here tested the feasibility of an affordable, portable configuration for a modestly