As we enter the new year it is a good time to explore topics that are new or continue to be important to distance education and adult learners. Many are topics that have been discussed for a number of years, but remain as relevant and important today as in the past. The following is a short list of topics that could be explored this year:

Class size and learning

For many years the appropriate size for an online class has been debated and questioned. In a recent exchange on the WCET list it appeared that people were looking at class size between 15 – 25. However, why is this? In an article a number of years ago by a mathematician he showed how any class over 30 would be unmanageable simply due to how the number of posts in a discussion forum increases exponentially. Of course this likely assumes an active class in the discussion and that all members of a class are in the same discussion space.

Also, there is the aspect of faculty workload. How many students can a faculty member adequately handle if they are actively engaged in the discussions and providing timely and meaningful feedback to students. Another component that needs to be considered ties into the next topic of class length. If students are taking more than one course at a time, what is the appropriate workload that they can take on and be actively engaged, without simply approaching the course and activities as checking the box? This is a difficult question as many faculty approach their course as if it is the only course a student is taking that semester. Thus, this brings up another topic of breadth vs. depth in our curriculums for online learning.

Class length and learning

Many institutions are now focused on an eight week format for adult learners as they have found that it is easier for working adults to focus on a single subject at a time, and the two eight week sessions still fit into the 16 week/semester requirements for financial aid. However, moving to an eight week format requires us to rethink our courses, pedagogical approaches, and the curriculum. Simply moving a 15 or 16 week course to 8 weeks will not work and will create an unmanageable workload for the students and the faculty. Thus, we need to reconsider the core competencies of the topic and possibly eliminate information that may have been included simply to fill the longer time span.

Retention

While we tend to see good retention at the course level, we still witness roughly a 45% decline in retention from the first year to the second year. While there are many factors for adult learners that impact program retention, many out of the control of institutions, some studies have shown that for 70% of adult learners a key factor is academic advising. This is not simply advising the way we think about it at the undergraduate level, but a combination of advising and academic coaching/mentoring by faculty.

Aesthetics and Motivation

For several years we have discussed and tried to explore how we can alter our designs to better motivate our learners to move to a deeper level of learning. Many studies have shown a strong correlation between motivation (both intrinsic and external) and learning, but as motivation is a very personal attribute it is not easy to determine how to best approach a rethinking of our designs. In the past we have looked at the works of Pharris in how a novel or theatre approach may instill a sense of motivation and desire to dig further into a problem, but what are other approaches for Adult Learners studying at a distance who work full time and are looking for immediate application of their learning (a mixture of intrinsic and extrensic motivation) that week . Our current LMS systems will not get us to where we want to be in terms of our designs.

Deep Learning

The idea of deep learning from a cognitive perspective is one that we have explored over the years. However, it is important to understand that not all of our students will want to get to a level of deep learning in all of our courses. Although as faculty we hope all students are deeply interested in our topics, this is likely not the case especially at the undergraduate level. Thus, we need to find the balance between surface learning and deep learning while we continue to explore pedagogical approaches that can assist those who do want to dig into particular topics. This may be easier at the graduate level where the programs of study are more focused, and possibly at the upper division undergraduate level. Further, we must realize that deep learning may occur outside of the course or after the course through personal exploration in non-formal or informal learning approaches. Thus, this continues to be a very important area to examine.

What is the role of GE for Adult learners?

While this is a topic likely beyond the scope of our research group, it is an important topic and one that has come up in the Noel-Levit surveys within the open comments. Some students have asked why, as adult learners with life and work experience and careers, do they need to take second language courses or some of the psychology courses, or others. While for our traditional aged students it is easy to justify the need, as we want to expose them to a broad range of sciences, social sciences, and humanity courses to help them evolve into a well rounded citizen and educated member of society. However, for our adult learners who have learned on the job, through experience and life, what is our value proposition for these students? Is it the same or should it be different?

Autonomy and Self-directedness/self-regulation

As an adult learner a key characteristic and goal is to become an autonomous and self-directed learner. However, what do we been by autonomy even within the theoretical construct of transactional distance. This is an important question as it will help guide our course designs that need to be very different than they are today. Although, this is a very contextual notion based on course level and topic, our current designs tend to be between a behaviorist/cognitive approach and a social/constructivist approach to pedagogy. Would a course that is geared to an autonomous learner look more like a blend of social/constructivist and connectivism. Also, how many of our adult learners are truly autonomous, and driven by learning instead of grades?

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity, especially in online learning, is an area that continues to draw attention and also eludes institutions in terms of countering the newer forms of contract cheating. Thus, it brings up the on-going discussion around alternative forms of assessment. However, even in our alternative forms of assessment how can we be assured that the person doing the work or submitting the work is who they should be. While tools like Examity, ProctorU, Proctorio, etc. can assist in some areas they do not necessarily counter or deter contract cheating. Many recent articles still place the estimates of cheating in higher education at 65 – 70 %, and Callahan and others would argue that it is an overall society problem driven by the ever increasing pressure to succeed in a word that tends to move faster and faster. So what are the changes to our designs that need to me made and to our assessment strategies?

A current study that is just being formulated will take a look at the issue of academic integrity, how tools like Examity assist, and how the faculty and students view Examity.

Privacy and Policy

As AI, Machine Learning, and big data continue to grow, and with the on-slaught of news about privacy hacking and companies like Facebook breaking their own policy statements by making user data openly available or available at a price, what should our position be within higher education and especially online learning? How easily should be integrate non-sanctioned tools into our courses, and should it truly be up to the students to determine what data is collected on them. In a recent discussion with Dr Boggess in World Campus Faculty Development we were debating how many students truly know what data our LMS systems collect on them. Do they know we have access to look at last time on-line, length of sessions, etc. and do they know or do we know what we should do with the data, and who all at the university should have access to the data.

These are difficult questions as we do not want to stifle innovation, but at the same time we need to respect student privacy. Further, what are the legal ramifications of the collection of the data?

Connectivism and Course Design

If we examine our courses through the lens of the three generations of DE pedagogy (Anderson and Dron) then it is likely that our courses are still somewhere between the cognitive/behavior and social/constructivist models. Also, one could argue that whenever we formulate learning objectives and match them closely to our assessment strategies that we move closer to the cognitive/behavioral approach. So what would a course for credit look like if designed for a primarily connectivist pedagogical approach. What would our assessment strategies look like, do the ideas of competencies still exist, and how fluid is the learning community in the course?

To explore this further we hope to design a study using a design-based research approach to develop a course in a connectivist model. Our work will draw heavily on the original work of Downs and Siemens and the notion of c-MOOCs, but not x-MOOCs.

 

Within the above topics there is overlap as they all tie into how we may approach our designs for our courses. However, we likely need to focus on them individually before we combine the findings to determine a new approaches to our designs for adult learners studying at a distance.