Internet Learning Volume 1, Number 1, Fall 2012 | Page 44

Online Courses: Student Preferences Survey

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they may yet prove helpful in counterbalancing some of the limitations in terms of student-tostudent interactions.
Views on collaborative learning reflected stronger interaction between students to
instructor than student to student. This finding hinted at a common concern expressed in the
literature that interaction is limited in learning environments where students never or seldom
meet face to face (Bollinger and Wasilik 2009).
Limitations in this study included a limited response rate of 20%. The student body is
mostly female, 79%, and females were overrepresented in the respondents, 92%. This survey
could be replicated with a larger sample or augmented with techniques to encourage a higher
response rate or it could be reintroduced every few years as a barometer of changing views
towards online learning. It is worth noting that benchmarking perceptions of ability and
engagement do not necessarily provide a blueprint for improving those measures.
Dewey (1938) argued that education occurs within a social and environmental context,
and that interaction is a defining part of all learning. Interaction enables the learner to transform
information into knowledge when learners interact actively with content and with co-learners i.e.
fellow students, instructors, and experts (Wu, Chen, Zhang, & Amoroso, 2005).
The quality and quantity of learner-instructor interaction depends on the instructional
design and selection of learning activities. Instructors need to plan learning activities that
maximize the impact of interactions with students and provide alternative forms of interaction
when time constraints become excessive (Anderson, 2003). Thus, instructors are challenged to
build in more learner interaction with peers for online and blended courses.
Blended and online learning require that faculty must reassess their roles as well as those
of students. Students need to accept more responsibility for managing their learning while
instructors become more facilitative in teaching (Dzuiban, Hartmann, & Moskal, 2004). As
student-teacher interaction is highly valued by students, instructors need to consider ways to
integrate online learning activities that promote interactions and enhance learning.
About the Authors
Margaret Gillingham is a lecturer at the University of Baltimore.
Carol Molinari is an associate professor at the University of Baltimore.
References
Anderson, T. (2003). Modes of interaction in distance education: Recent developments and
research questions. In M. Moore & W. Anderson (Eds.), Handbook of distance education
(pp. 129-144). Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates.
Artino, J.R. 2007. “Online Military Training: Using a Social Cognitive View of Motivation and
Self-Regulation to Understand Students’ Satisfaction, Perceived Learning, and Choice.”
Quarterly Review of Distance Education 8 (3): 191-202. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Bolliger, D.U., and O. Wasilik 2009. “Factors Influencing Faculty Satisfaction with Online
Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.” Distance Education 30 (1), 103-116.
doi:10.1080/01587910902845949.
Dede, C. (Ed.). (2006). Online professional development for teachers: Emerging models and
methods. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press.
Dewey, J. (1938). Logic: The theory of inquiry. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.