We Can’t Go Back: Student Perceptions and Remote Learning Protocols

Alyson Eggleston; Robert Rabb; Ronald Welch

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Civil Engineering Division - The New Normal: Enduring Technology Improvements in the Classroom
Page Count: 14
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41626
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41626
Download Count: 312

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Paper Authors

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Alyson Eggleston The Citadel

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Dr. Alyson Eggleston is a cognitive linguist specializing in the impact our speech has on the way we think and solve problems. She is the founding Director of Technical Communication at The Citadel, and has developed a project-based technical communication course that serves over 14 STEM majors and several degree programs in the social sciences. She is also acting Residential Fellow for the Center for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching, Learning, and Distance Education, and in this role regularly mentors faculty and facilitates workshops on instructional design, Quality Matters assessments, and novel edtech applications. She is also the acting liaison for the Office of Institutional Assessment and Accreditation, and creates online assessment resources and facilitates webinars and workshops to all levels of administration and faculty to demonstrate how to leverage assessment data in service to continuous programmatic improvement and resource acquisition. Her research interests include STEM communications pedagogy, cognitive empathy, industry-academia interaction, teaching and learning.

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Robert Rabb The Citadel

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Professor, Mechanical Engineering, The Citadel

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Ronald Welch The Citadel

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Ronald W. Welch, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, F.ASEE, F.SAME
Professor of Civil Engineering

Ron Welch received his B.S. degree in Engineering Mechanics from the United States Military Academy in 1982. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in 1990 and 1999, respectively. He was Dean of the School of Engineering at The Citadel from 1 July 2011- 30 June 2021. He is currently Professor of Civil Engineering at The Citadel after completing a sabbatical. Prior to his current position, he was the Department Head of Civil Engineering at The University of Texas at Tyler from Jan 2007 to June 2011 as well as served in the Army Corps of Engineers for over 24 years including eleven years on the faculty at the United States Military Academy where he retired as a Colonel.

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Abstract

COVID-19 accommodation protocols at The Citadel allowed faculty and students affected by the virus to quickly implement video-based instruction. Extending student access to classroom lecture as recordings on the LMS is just another step toward streaming educational content, as YouTube has made possible for years. Video-based lecture technology also lowers the barriers to education, making connection more physically and financially accessible. After nearly three semesters of implemented video-based teaching protocols in place, students are seeing the value in remote learning contexts when in-person learning is not possible. This paper reports student perceptions of selected effective approaches to hybrid/hyflex learning, comparing student and faculty perceptions regarding its value and effectiveness at a largely residential institution.

Faculty who taught remotely during the pandemic underwent continuous professional development at The Citadel in order to ensure successful academic experiences for both faculty and students. Faculty reported feeling significantly burdened with learning about this course delivery mode. Additionally, some faculty struggled with institutional compliance and regionally-approved best practices for instructional design. This paper examines some of the best practices and challenges for building and deploying a set of standards for online instruction, noting that while arduous, high fidelity instructional design creates value for students and faculty, both online and offline, with students appreciating readily accessible course materials and recorded lectures. Best practice recommendations are driven by synthesizing qualitative faculty feedback and Likert-scaled student survey data. Faculty and student survey results show that face-to-face learning is still the ‘gold standard’ for optimal learning opportunities, however, the pandemic has accelerated the build-out of hyflex course deliveries and created sustainable systems and instructional design standards for online learning. Student perceptions show that they identify and value selected unanticipated benefits to hyflex learning, despite faculty misgivings. This report presents this conflict of perceptions as an opportunity to be seized, and is part of a longer series of studies on student perceptions of learning effectiveness. Validation of results is preliminarily supported by similar protocols adopted at other institutions, and record-setting successes at the Dean, Department Head, and Instructional Design-aid level. Going forward, as the pandemic is brought under control, the authors foresee students’ expectations rising: video-recorded lectures and remote connection during live lecture no longer present unsurmountable technological barriers and they aid student learning.

Citation
Format

Eggleston, A., & Rabb, R., & Welch, R. (2022, August), We Can’t Go Back: Student Perceptions and Remote Learning Protocols Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41626

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - COVID-19 accommodation protocols at The Citadel allowed faculty and students affected by the virus to quickly implement video-based instruction. Extending student access to classroom lecture as recordings on the LMS is just another step toward streaming educational content, as YouTube has made possible for years. Video-based lecture technology also lowers the barriers to education, making connection more physically and financially accessible. After nearly three semesters of implemented video-based teaching protocols in place, students are seeing the value in remote learning contexts when in-person learning is not possible. This paper reports student perceptions of selected effective approaches to hybrid/hyflex learning, comparing student and faculty perceptions regarding its value and effectiveness at a largely residential institution.

Faculty who taught remotely during the pandemic underwent continuous professional development at The Citadel in order to ensure successful academic experiences for both faculty and students. Faculty reported feeling significantly burdened with learning about this course delivery mode. Additionally, some faculty struggled with institutional compliance and regionally-approved best practices for instructional design. This paper examines some of the best practices and challenges for building and deploying a set of standards for online instruction, noting that while arduous, high fidelity instructional design creates value for students and faculty, both online and offline, with students appreciating readily accessible course materials and recorded lectures. Best practice recommendations are driven by synthesizing qualitative faculty feedback and Likert-scaled student survey data. Faculty and student survey results show that face-to-face learning is still the ‘gold standard’ for optimal learning opportunities, however, the pandemic has accelerated the build-out of hyflex course deliveries and created sustainable systems and instructional design standards for online learning. Student perceptions show that they identify and value selected unanticipated benefits to hyflex learning, despite faculty misgivings. This report presents this conflict of perceptions as an opportunity to be seized, and is part of a longer series of studies on student perceptions of learning effectiveness. Validation of results is preliminarily supported by similar protocols adopted at other institutions, and record-setting successes at the Dean, Department Head, and Instructional Design-aid level. Going forward, as the pandemic is brought under control, the authors foresee students’ expectations rising: video-recorded lectures and remote connection during live lecture no longer present unsurmountable technological barriers and they aid student learning.


AU  - Alyson Eggleston
AU  - Robert Rabb
AU  - Ronald Welch
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - We Can’t Go Back: Student Perceptions and Remote Learning Protocols
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/41626
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--41626
ER  -