Introduction
Despite great success with online learning, there are several concerns with online learning. For example, students who are new to online learning easily feel lost, socially isolated, and encounter many technical issues related to taking an online course. In addition, a high dropout rate is observed among new online students. Part of the reason for this may be students do not know the nature of online learning and do not know how to learn in online learning environments.
As a solution to solve the concerns, many educators and practitioners suggest implementing an online student orientation. However, unfortunately, there are very few published online student orientation examples. In addition, the specific design process is rarely shared with other institutions that plan or consider developing an online student orientation. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to develop an online student orientation with a systematic instructional design process and evaluate students' satisfaction.
Contexts:
The orientation was developed for the students who were enrolled in online courses in a Midwest university in the US. As of the spring 2009 when the current study was started, 88 faculty members taught 123 online courses representing 29 departments, and a total of 5592 students took an online course for a total of 15,442 credit hours that represent 12.5% of total campus credit hours. Therefore, it was decided to develop a new asynchronous training that can be used campus-wide.
Design process:
The study was conducted through one preparation and four phases of the design and development process. During the preparation phase, the needs assessment was conducted to identify distance education departments' needs and set the goals for the project as follows;
1. Online students better understand the nature of online learning contexts;
2. Online students use Blackboard for their own learning in an online course;
3. Online students are aware of and solve technical issues they may encounter while using Blackboard and
4. Online students can self-assess if they are ready to take an online course.
In order to accomplish the four goals, it was agreed that four modules would be developed. Four modules were developed through the following four phases of the design and development process. In each stage, distance education departments' opinions were checked and reflected through interviews or informal discussions.
Phase 1:
The purpose of phase one was to develop the first module, "What is the nature of online learning?" to help students understand the nature of online learning environments. Client interviews, syllabus analysis, literature reviews, faculty interviews, student interview, and peer reviews were used to develop the module and to develop the interface for the orientation delivered by using Blackboard.
Phase 2:
The purpose of phase two was to develop the second module named "How to learn in an online course?" to help students understand how to navigate their online course and how to participate in the course. Syllabus analysis, online course observation, analysis of current resources, and peer reviews were used to develop the second module.
Phase 3:
The purpose of phase three was to develop the third module, "What are the technological requirements to take an online course?" to introduce necessary technological requirements to use Blackboard. Interview, syllabus analysis, analysis of current resources, and peer reviews were used to develop the third module.
Phase 4:
The purpose of phase four was to develop the fourth module, "Are you ready to take an online course?" to provide prospective online students with an opportunity to assess if they are ready to take an online course. A new set of items (N=30) items were developed through the literature review.
Development:
Dreamweaver CS 3 was used to develop the HTML pages. The HTML pages were integrated in Blackboard. Iterative design and rapid prototype approach were adopted to determine early design concepts.
Method
Participants: A total of 63 students from one online nursing and one online educational course participated in the evaluation. Among the participants, 48 students were females. Average age, school year, and number of online courses prior to taking the current online courses are 28.14 (SD=9.76), 3.11 (SD=1.49), and 2.81 (SD=5.42) respectively.
Measurement:
The measurement consisted of two parts. The first part was composed of 28 five-point Likert Scale questions. The second part asked students to write their experiences with the orientation. Students' evaluation was measured in six aspects, including navigation, content, accessibility, design and development, understanding, and satisfaction.
Results
The quantitative data analysis results show students are satisfied with the online student orientation (see Table 1). Students value navigation (M=4.24), content, accessibility (M=4.2), as well as design and development (M=4.32).
Compared to other dimensions of evaluation, evaluation on understanding and satisfaction dimensions were relatively lower. In particular, evaluations on understanding are lower than others. Part of the reasons for this may be the items for understanding are about students' confidence about online learning. Confidence is not something developed in a short-time period. Rather, practice, time and effort are needed to develop confidence. In addition, it was found that students highly value the online student orientation (Item 27, M=4.98).
Qualitative data analysis reinforced quantitative findings that student were satisfied with the developed online orientation and believed that this online orientation will be helpful for new online students. In addition, they think the information was very informative and helpful to understand an online course. Some of them suggested that the university should make this online student orientation a prerequisite to take an online course because it took too much time to understand online learning without it. The following were comments made by participants. "Make it mandatory for first time online takers. This orientation would have help a great deal if I had not had prior online course experience".
Conclusion
The study demonstrated a systematic process of design, development, and evaluation for an online student orientation. The detailed description of the design and development process will be helpful for instructional designers, administrators, and online educators.
