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Course management systems

Over the past decade, higher education has invested heavily in course management systems (CMS) which serve as the teaching environment for online distance education ( Morgan&Schlais, 2005 ). Students can log into the course at any time, and the course materials are continuously available to them. In these systems the functionality, as well as the look and feel of the online course environment, is largely predetermined by the software (e.g., Blackboard). A course taught entirely online allows the participation of students who work full-time, live far away from campus, or simply prefer to learn at home. Faculty members are often encouraged to teach online courses or to blend online instruction with face-to-face classroom instruction. From a university administrator’s perspective, a real advantage of online instruction is the ability to enroll more students without having to build more classrooms ( Bonk&Dennen, 2003 ).

Online courses

Research shows that tenured professors who had never taught a distance education course became engaged with the idea when an increased demand for online learning coincided with the university-wide adoption of course management systems, making web-based instruction much easier than before ( Bonk, 2006 ). However, instructors have become aware of the multiple levels of complexity in learning environments as they attempt to translate an existing course into a web based version ( Sawyer, 2000 ). They are learning that trying to create an online course by doing a one-to-one translation of materials from one teaching medium to another is not adequate.

However helpful the CMS is to helping professors manage large classes of online students, teaching online requires different teaching strategies from those of the traditional classroom. Text-based asynchronous communication in online courses has largely replaced lectures, discussions, and printed hand-outs. In a recent survey of factors important to successful online teaching, instructors’ need for an online pedagogy ranked significantly higher than their need for technical expertise ( Bonk&Kim, 2006 ).

Malikowski, Thompson, and Theis (2007) developed a model for research on course management systems based on five categories: (a) transmitting course content; (b) evaluating students; (c) evaluating courses and instructors; (d) creating class discussions; and (e) creating computer-based instruction. The study found that the instructors most frequently used the CMS for transmitting course content such as the syllabus, readings, and assignments. A second most used form of transmitted content was announcements created within the CMS, followed by the built-in grade book. Two of the categories moderately used were evaluating students through online quizzes and creating class interactions through discussion boards. The CMS was rarely used to evaluate course and instructors or for computer based instruction.

In a study that examined faculty adoption and implementation of features from Blackboard, West, Waddoups and Graham (2007) found that instructors rarely adopted all of the features of a course management system; instead they chose a feature at a time and re-evaluated the use of the features. Overtime, they experienced technical or pedagogical challenges. Some grew more comfortable with the tool and tried adapting it to support different pedagogies. Depending on how successful the instructor was in overcoming implementation challenges, the instructor chose one of three paths:

  1. to continue to use the tool or some of its features,
  2. to scale down their use of the tool or reduce the number of features used, or
  3. discard the tool completely in favor of other options.

Ely (1999) found eight conditions that contributed to instructors’ successful implementation of educational technology: dissatisfaction with the status quo, existence of knowledge and skills, availability of resources, availability of time to learn the technology, existence of rewards or incentives to try it, participation in deciding how to implement the technology, commitment to the process, and continuing support from the leadership that showed enthusiasm for the work at hand.

Hybrid and blended instruction

Hybrid and blended courses combine the features of online and face-to-face instruction. For instance, students might attend classes at the university every other week, alternating with participating in an activity, such as watching an educational video and posting their responses to the class discussion board. The following week the students would meet face-to-face, where the teacher begin the class by leading a discussion about ideas expressed online. This method encourages students to watch the video on their own, allowing the instructor to use valuable class time for other activities.

Students are able to stay connected between class meetings through required online communications. Instructors report getting to know students better through the use of online discussion boards, where students are required to contribute their thoughts, than in a face-to-face class where some students do not speak up in discussions ( Morgan, 2003 ). Instruction varies widely within hybrid and blended learning, but both instructors and students have reported positive opinions of blended instruction, to which some faculty attributed increased communications with students ( Gahungu, Dereshiwsky, Moan, 2006 ). The following chapter explains the framework and methodology used to study how the instructors engaged in teaching with the Online Day courseware.

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Source:  OpenStax, Faculty use of courseware to teach counseling theories. OpenStax CNX. Oct 14, 2009 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11130/1.1
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