Name: Paula Szulc Dominguez, Ed.D. and Dennis Ridley, Ph.D. Type of session: Presentation Proposed track: Track 1: Alternative course delivery
Abstract: Many universities now offer online courses that fulfill requirements for higher level courses. How well do these online courses prepare students for subsequent study? This presentation will focus on research conducted at Christopher Newport University that compares the achievement of two groups of students: those who took an online course as a prerequisite, and those who satisfied entry requirements through traditional avenues. Description: Each semester, more and more universities and colleges offer online courses to their students. Even as the number of online courses grows and the disciplines offering online courses increase, institutions must ask fundamental questions about the quality of instruction that takes place in online environments. At the very least, institutions of higher education must demonstrate that online students receive instruction that is comparable to traditional forms of instruction. Different institutions have different approaches to establishing the equivalence of online instruction. One topic of interest to administrators and faculty at Christopher Newport University (CNU) centers on the fact that many CNU students now take online courses as a prerequisite for a higher level course. A number of these subsequent courses are traditional campus-based courses. An intriguing question arises: how well do online courses prepare students for subsequent study? Do students who have taken the prerequisite course in an online format perform as well as students who have taken the prerequisite through more traditional approaches (campus-based courses, courses at other institutions, testing out of the requirement)? This presentation will introduce participants to research conducted at Christopher Newport University that addresses the question of how well online courses prepare students for subsequent campus-based courses. To answer the research question, for a subset of traditional campus-based courses at CNU, we compared the final course grades of two groups of students: students who took a prerequisite course online, and students who satisfied prerequisites through traditional means. The data are based on four semesters of student grades in more than 15 courses, covering the period from the fall of 1996 to the fall of 1998. Although the analysis is not complete (it will be by the date of the conference), it appears as if students who take online courses perform just as well as their counterparts who enroll in traditional prerequisite courses. If this is true, then administrators and faculty members can rest assured that online courses prepare students for subsequent courses at least as well as other, commonly accepted forms of preparation. The first 15 minutes of the 45-minute presentation will provide the background of the study, including a review of other research on prerequisites. The second 15-minute segment will focus on the research methods, findings, and implications. The final 15 minutes will be made available for questions and answers. The presenters will invite comments and responses from audience members throughout the session, to encourage a format that is more interactive than formal. The content of the presentation touches upon issues critical to a cross-section of faculty, administrators, and technology support staff. Audience members will benefit from Christopher Newport University's six-year history of delivering online courses. Length: 45 minutes Audience: General Audience level: All levels On-site equipment requirements: LCD Panel Contact Information: Paula Szulc Dominguez, Ed.D. Coordinator, CNU Online Christopher Newport University 1 University Place Newport News, VA 23666 Tel. (757) 594-7607 Fax (757) 594-7481 Email: paulasd@cnu.edu Dennis Ridley, Ph.D. Director of Assessments and Evaluation Christopher Newport University 1 University Place Newport News, VA 23666 Tel. (757) 594-7392 Email: dridley@cnu.edu
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