Toward Understanding Impacts of E-Campus Course Synchronicity on STEM Learners

Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: June 26, 2024
Conference Session: Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM) Technical Session 9
Tagged Division: Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 10
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--48164
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/48164
Download Count: 52

Paper Authors

Abstract

Paper Type: We are proposing our developing work on STEM undergraduate experiences and outcomes in online learning as a Work in Progress paper at the 2024 ASEE Annual Conference.

Motivation and Background: While the asynchronous nature of online education is typically considered a key advantage due to the inherent flexibility it provides to students, recent work has begun to challenge this assumption. For example, there is evidence that synchronous interaction in online courses not only encourages students to more fully engage with course activities, but also seems to foster a greater sense of community across learners (and especially so for underrepresented students). Our research aims to extend this previous work and study student expectations for and experiences with content synchronicity levels in our large public university’s Ecampus courses. Further, we consider whether and how current Ecampus instruction allows for the three types of interaction typically touted as central to engaged university learning (i.e., interaction with course materials, interaction with the instructor, and interaction with peers).

Methods: In this study, we aimed to understand (1) student expectations for synchronicity of Ecampus coursework across a variety of academic content domains, (2) perceived barriers to synchronous coursework implementation, and (3) any experiences with past implementations of synchronous online coursework. We broadly surveyed students enrolled in Ecampus STEM courses at our large public university, using an IRB-approved online survey-based study to measure their expectations of (and barriers to) online synchronous instruction. The associated questions ranged from querying about very straightforward aspects of online learning infrastructure (e.g., access to a computer, availability of high-speed internet) to technologies more directly relevant to synchronous interaction (e.g., experience using Discord or gather.town as educational tools). We also collected final grades for respondents’ Ecampus coursework as feasible, as a complementary objective view of course performance.

Results: 58 undergraduate Ecampus students completed our survey. We were able to collect relevant final grades for almost all of these respondents. Based on our analysis so far, descriptive statistics indicate that students do not have trouble accessing the tools typical of our university’s Ecampus programs or engaging with the material. For example, respondents appear to have good internet connections and computer access, despite our university’s high cross-section of students from rural communities. Additionally, responses indicated that students are having success interacting with the provided course materials, but that little or no time is being spent interacting with classmates or the instructor in Ecampus work. Further, most students seemed to be consistent in their performance across various classes, suggesting that they are able to effectively learn within this e-learning framework. Some students did not experience success, and future analyses will attempt to better identify whether this disparity in performance is related to their ability to access or engage with the course.

Significance: Questions of how to move additional types of engineering curricula online, how to support underrepresented students in STEM, and how to provide an engaging learning experience in Ecampus curricula are popular but in-progress areas of engineering education research. The outcomes from our project can help to lay the groundwork for more broad and theoretical investigation into these important but complex pedagogical question. So far, our most salient results seem to relate to types of interaction that are happening or not happening in Ecampus classes; more interaction, perhaps including synchronous interaction, with classmates and course instructors may offer improvement to the current state of the art.

Keywords: Online Education, Student Experience, Mixed Methods Research

Citation
Format

(2024, June), Toward Understanding Impacts of E-Campus Course Synchronicity on STEM Learners Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--48164

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Paper Type: We are proposing our developing work on STEM undergraduate experiences and outcomes in online learning as a Work in Progress paper at the 2024 ASEE Annual Conference.

Motivation and Background: While the asynchronous nature of online education is typically considered a key advantage due to the inherent flexibility it provides to students, recent work has begun to challenge this assumption. For example, there is evidence that synchronous interaction in online courses not only encourages students to more fully engage with course activities, but also seems to foster a greater sense of community across learners (and especially so for underrepresented students). Our research aims to extend this previous work and study student expectations for and experiences with content synchronicity levels in our large public university’s Ecampus courses. Further, we consider whether and how current Ecampus instruction allows for the three types of interaction typically touted as central to engaged university learning (i.e., interaction with course materials, interaction with the instructor, and interaction with peers).

Methods: In this study, we aimed to understand (1) student expectations for synchronicity of Ecampus coursework across a variety of academic content domains, (2) perceived barriers to synchronous coursework implementation, and (3) any experiences with past implementations of synchronous online coursework. We broadly surveyed students enrolled in Ecampus STEM courses at our large public university, using an IRB-approved online survey-based study to measure their expectations of (and barriers to) online synchronous instruction. The associated questions ranged from querying about very straightforward aspects of online learning infrastructure (e.g., access to a computer, availability of high-speed internet) to technologies more directly relevant to synchronous interaction (e.g., experience using Discord or gather.town as educational tools). We also collected final grades for respondents’ Ecampus coursework as feasible, as a complementary objective view of course performance.

Results: 58 undergraduate Ecampus students completed our survey. We were able to collect relevant final grades for almost all of these respondents. Based on our analysis so far, descriptive statistics indicate that students do not have trouble accessing the tools typical of our university’s Ecampus programs or engaging with the material. For example, respondents appear to have good internet connections and computer access, despite our university’s high cross-section of students from rural communities. Additionally, responses indicated that students are having success interacting with the provided course materials, but that little or no time is being spent interacting with classmates or the instructor in Ecampus work. Further, most students seemed to be consistent in their performance across various classes, suggesting that they are able to effectively learn within this e-learning framework.  Some students did not experience success, and future analyses will attempt to better identify whether this disparity in performance is related to their ability to access or engage with the course.

Significance: Questions of how to move additional types of engineering curricula online, how to support underrepresented students in STEM, and how to provide an engaging learning experience in Ecampus curricula are popular but in-progress areas of engineering education research. The outcomes from our project can help to lay the groundwork for more broad and theoretical investigation into these important but complex pedagogical question. So far, our most salient results seem to relate to types of interaction that are happening or not happening in Ecampus classes; more interaction, perhaps including synchronous interaction, with classmates and course instructors may offer improvement to the current state of the art.

Keywords: Online Education, Student Experience, Mixed Methods Research
CY  - Portland, Oregon
DA  - 2024/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Toward Understanding Impacts of E-Campus Course Synchronicity on STEM Learners
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/48164
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--48164
ER  -

Toward Understanding Impacts of E-Campus Course Synchronicity on STEM Learners

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