Investigating what students actually do in online learning - any suggestions?

[Diane Hockridge]

Hi all,
this group has been quiet for a while, but I have some questions that
I thought you might be able to help me with.

I have started work on a small research project as part of my Masters
in Higher Education degree. I started by looking at the issue of
quality in online theological education. Much of the literature on
quality approaches the topic from the institutional perspective rather
than the student perspective. I initially wanted to bring in a
student perspective on quality, but as I have been reading I am coming
to the conclusion that quality in education is really about the
quality of the student learning experience or process. Or in other
words, what students actually do. There are a number of measures in
Australia that ask students for their opinions or what they think
about their learning experience. Yet we seem to not have a clear
picture of what our students, particularly those who are not on
campus, are doing with their time, outside of the direct contact that
we have with them. This has led me to think that an investigation of
what our students are doing when they are learning might make a
helpful contribution to our understanding of and provision of quality
in online learning.

The proposed investigation will look at learners studying theology
online, and seek to find out what they actually do in learning. This
might include when, where and how they go about learning, as well as
the “what” (what technologies, interactions with people, experiences,
texts or other learning resources do they use in learning).

I'd be interested to know if anyone has any suggestions or comments on
related or potentially useful materials, people, websites, other
studies etc. Is anyone aware of other studies similar to this? (In
Aust & NZ, there is now the large AUSSE survey of student engagement -
similar to the NSSE in the US - this questions students about their
engagement in learning. But theological institutions in Australia are
not currently participating).

Thanks

Diane

[Mark Nichols]

Hey, Diane!

I'm interested to know more - about your research question, the
student sample you're intending to examine, etc. I'm thinking that the
actual 'online' angle you've started with might be consumed by the
more general demands of establishing 'quality'. Your description above
actually leads to a number of interesting questions - what constitutes
learning? Once you've got this sorted, quality of learning and,
subsequenly, quality of learning process might be established. Your
paragraph "The propsed investigation..." however seems to indicate a
focus on what students are actually doing, whcih seems to miss the
mark of of what constitutes quality.

Sorry, not sure if that's helpful! One thing I would suggest, though -
if you're able to avoid a survey asking students what they think and
instead getting to grips with a more objective dataset - what they
did, what their results are - I think you'll be adding real value to
literature (but it looks like that's where you're headed anyway). We
use AUSSE at Open Polytechnic however many of the questions are 'on-
campus only', and are not of much use to us (in fact, as a distance
provider we are disadvantaged).

I haven't been deliberately searching for similar studies, but I'm
certain there will be a suitable scale out there somewhere. There are
plenty associated with online discussion, but that's only a part of
what you seem to be interested in. How about a definite research
question, so that we might provide further thoughts?

Cheers and trust all is well,

Mark.