News
Multi-Session Professional Development Opportunities
The workgroups offered for the fall semester are designed to allow in-depth coverage of a topic along with discussion among the workgroup leader and the participants. These multi-session groups will be scheduled to fit the participants’ calendars but will likely start in October. Deadline for registration is Wednesday, September 23.
If you are interested in participating in any of the groups, or to learn more about improving teaching and conducting scholarly research, contact Michele King, 280-1190 or mking@creighton.edu
Register online at: http://www2.creighton.edu/aea/professionaldevelopmentopportunities/multi-sessionworkgroups/index.php
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Workgroups
Fall, 2009 and Spring, 2010
The SoTL workgroups offered for the fall and spring semesters are designed to allow in-depth coverage of a topic along with discussion among the workgroup leader and the participants. These multi-session groups will be scheduled to fit the participants’ calendars but will likely start in early October.
- Beginning SoTL: This year-long workgroup is for anyone interested in exploring the field of SoTL and how it can be applied in their classes. Participants will gain an introduction and basic grounding in SoTL work, experiment with SoTL techniques in one or more of their courses this academic year, and develop a concrete plan for a publishable SoTL study which they will implement in the near future.
- Advance SoTL Projects: This year-long workgroup encourages those who have prior SoTL experience or participated in a beginning SoTL group to commit to a SoTL project, proposal or publication. Goals of the workgroup are to become involved in the sharing of knowledge and learning about the teaching-learning process; to report investigations of particular teaching-learning contexts; and to implement, describe, and submit projects to the CASTL Institute or to a SoTL journal for publication. Projects may include, but not be limited to, classroom action research, descriptive or qualitative research, or case studies. In addition, participants will be encouraged to provide reflective feedback, support, and encouragement for the projects of other workgroup members. It is anticipated that members of the workgroup will submit proposals to the 2009 CASTL Institute to be hosted by Creighton University in June.
Distance Education:
Developing & Designing a Successful On-Line Learning Experience
This seven-session working group will provide individuals from across the campus an extensive opportunity to design, develop, or further develop a successful on-line learning experience. The sessions will be centered mainly around the needs of each of the participants but will also address general distance education issues such as starting a course, instructional methodology, pedagogy, student interactions and building a community, use of technology, continuous quality improvement, available resources, and best practices in distance education. There will also be opportunities for one-on-one sessions and hands-on experiences.
Online Course Reviews
COOL is now handling all online course review requests. Need an online course reviewed? Please fill out the form and we will coordinate the process to ensure a smooth process.
USDE Online Learning Review
The following is an article from OPEPD (Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development) highlighting the benefits of online education.
Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies (2009). A systematic search of the research literature from 1996 through July 2008 identified more than a thousand empirical studies of online learning. Analysts screened these studies to find those that (a) contrasted an online to a face-to-face condition, (b) measured student learning outcomes, (c) used a rigorous research design, and (d) provided adequate information to calculate an effect size. As a result of this screening, 51 independent effects were identified that could be subjected to meta-analysis. Key findings include:
- Students who took all or part of their class online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through traditional face-to-face instruction. Learning outcomes for students who engaged in online learning exceeded those of students receiving face-to-face instruction, with an average effect size of +0.24 favoring online conditions. The mean difference between online and face-to-face conditions across the 51 contrasts is statistically significant at the p < .01 level.
- Instruction combining online and face-to-face elements had a larger advantage relative to purely face-to-face instruction than did purely online instruction. The mean effect size in studies comparing blended with face-to-face instruction was +0.35, p < .001. This effect size is larger than that for studies comparing purely online and purely face-to-face conditions, which had an average effect size of +0.14, p < .05.
- Few rigorous research studies of the effectiveness of online learning for K–12 students have been published. The systematic search of the research literature found just five experimental or controlled quasi-experimental studies comparing the learning effects of online versus face-to-face instruction for K-12 students. As such, caution is required in generalizing to the K-12 population because the results are for the most part based on studies in other settings (e.g., medical training, higher education).
- Full Report:
PDF (816K) | MS Word (3.6M)