Research Article

Article review by:  Deirdra Begesha

Serwatka, Judy A., Ph. D.  (2002).  THE Journal ONLINE, April 2002.  Retrieved [February 22, 2004] from  http://www.thejournal.com/

        The topic of my article is “Improving Student Performance in Distance Learning Courses.”  This topic was chosen because of my interest in distance learning courses and how effective they are to the students that take them.  The source of my article is The Journal ONLINE:  Technological Horizons in Education.  The URL for this article is:    “The Journal” is a valid source because it is an official educational journal in print for educators, and this article happens to be from the online version of this journal. 

          This article was written by a professor of Purdue University Calumet, Judy Serwatka,  Ph. D.  Serwatka first piloted two distance learning courses, Introduction to Computer-Based Systems and Computer Operating Systems, in 1996.  The pilot project had mixed results and a high drop-out rate occurred.   By spring 2001 there were more than 35 distance learning courses offered at Purdue University Calumet.

          Student performance in distance learning was a concern, and course evaluations and student grades were used as an incentive for changes in these courses.  Educators needed to be willing to modify their courses from traditional courses to help students learn.  Based on the feedback, modifications were made in the two networking classes taught by Serwatka to improve student performance and retention of material.

Initially, students were bored with the online slides and were doing poorly on the tests.  Therefore, changes were made.  One change was that made was that more activities and more instructor interaction were added.  Another was that online quizzes were developed, and students were allowed to retake them as much as possible.  These quiz questions were in the same format as the test questions, which proved to be invaluable for the students.

          The actual tests were online and consisted of 100 random questions from a 200-question bank.  The tests are also timed and the answers are automatically submitted at the end of the time.  One concern of professors is the issue of someone else taking the test for the student.  This issue is planned to be dealt with in the future with further technology available.  Until then, the motto that students that cheat are only cheating themselves is in place.

          Actual steps taken to improve student performance in distance learning were to have online office hours to offer immediate answers to student questions.  On campus office hours can also be offered to offer face-to-face help.  Furthermore, email was the main method of communication.  The professor’s policy was to answer all email during the week w/in at least 24 hours and all email on the weekend at least once.  This was to help build a comradeship with the student.  In addition, feedback on assignments was given within one week of the due date.  This was to ensure validation to the students about their work.

A final concern for distance learning is the software used.  The professor used Web Course in a Box and students were able to submit assignments, tests, and quizzes to the website instead of e-mailing them.  Later on, the software was changed to Blackboard, which bought Web in a Box. The professor said that this software was very powerful and stressed the importance students being at ease with the software.  Then they are more comfortable with the online course in general. 

In conclusion, constant and quick feedback is a crucial part of online learning.  If the students feel that they have support, they will feel less frustrated in an online course.  This includes online and personal office hours, emails, new information posted to websites regularly, and assignments being graded quickly.  Furthermore, students need to feel comfortable with the software in which the class is being taught.  Once students are able to use the online software easily, they feel more confident with the online learning. 

The points that were important to me in this article were that in the beginning, student performance for online courses was not as good as the professor would have liked.  It was hopeful to see that the professor of these courses tried many things to improve student outlook of the course, which in turn, produced better student performance in the online courses.

Questions that this article made me think of were:

Why doesn’t GSU offer more online courses, especially in graduate course work?

Do online courses cost the same as regular college courses?

Is one of the main reasons that student performance in online courses was not as good as expected because the students do not feel as accountable for their learning as when taking a traditional class?

Do students of online courses tend to put forth less effort than in traditional courses? 

I would apply the information that I learned in this article to my future in education in that I would feel much more prepared if I were to take an online course.  I would know to become familiar with the software right away.  I would also check the website for the class often and ask many questions so that I did not feel as if I were uninformed.  I would take advantage of online and offline office hours, as well as emailing the professor and my classmates. 

Another point that came to mind as I was reading this article was that it would be easier to take an online course where the student was not learning something entirely new, which involved a lot of lecturing from the professor. For example, I feel that it would be easier to take an online course for English, where the student was assigned readings for which she would need to write papers.  It would be more difficult to take an online course in Math where a student would need to be walked through, step by step, to learn the material.  This may be due to my own personal learning style, however, in these situations, I feel that traditional learning would be best.