on campus campusreview. com. au a virtual environment, and the way you can bring rich media and additional information into the learning experience in a seamless way, online education done well can take the learning experience to a new level.
I think most Australian universities and others around the world are grappling with how to ensure that the learning experience is as high quality as we can make it.
There is much evidence from many studies examining the effectiveness of online education. What does the current research tell us, particularly when it comes to satisfaction, retention and achievement? Coming back to the first comment I made, when it’ s done well, the responses from students are strong and positive.
Based on my experience in the Australian higher education system, at a university heavily engaged in online learning, the level of student satisfaction can be very, very high.
But often we are dealing with students who engage online because of their circumstances. In many instances, people are engaged part-time because they are working and online education provides an opportunity to fit study into their available time to commit to education.
So, there are many factors that affect things like retention, attrition and satisfaction. You often see higher levels of attrition in online courses than you might in face-to-face programs in universities, and that’ s perhaps not surprising. [ When those programs are better delivered ], the levels of retention and satisfaction are higher.
Particularly with people who are in a part-time role and returning to study, who might also be working, if we provide more scaffolding for their learning and ensure adequate support – academic literacy and numeracy support, for example – you see better retention and satisfaction levels.
People talk frequently about the fact that MOOCs [ massive open online courses ], which are one way to deliver online programs broadly, have high attrition rates.
I think that’ s because of the style of learning, the level of engagement, and for the most part the lack of accreditation that is involved in MOOC delivery.
Online programs delivered through Australian universities tend to have higher levels of attrition. At the moment, there is a lot of effort going into understanding why that is the case and how we can support teaching and learning programs to address that. I think [ the rates ] will change over time.
Some critics suggest there’ s a risk of the academic role being forgotten, and that online learners will miss out on some of the benefits gained from being physically present in a classroom. What do you believe are the main concerns or challenges, if any, and how can they be overcome over time? I think one of the major barriers we often see is the need to provide academic staff with the professional development – in particular, the training and assistance – they need to be confident in engaging with the online technologies available and to recognise the richness of the experience when they do that.
I think for a large number of academics there is concern that there isn’ t adequate provision of support for them to properly engage with new technologies. That needs to be addressed by universities, because we’ re moving to blended learning, and from blended learning into online learning.
There are some staff in universities who are committed to more traditional styles – the classroom-based lecture, theatre-based style of learning. To move away from that, and perhaps from PowerPoint presentations, to a richer online experience takes considerable effort and we need to work with colleagues to convince them of the benefits.
As technologies improve, I think we overcome some of the challenges. But there’ s also no doubt students are keen to have face-to-face interactions, as well as [ studying ] online. Again, the technologies are enabling this, so you can provide virtual [ spaces ] that simulate what might be more traditional classroom environments. I think the way in which technology is developing [ is making those experiences ] richer.
We can overcome some of the challenges and concerns around online learning, and I don’ t think the role of the academic is threatened here.
There’ s no turning back the online movement in higher education, so what are some of the lessons we need to take into account for teaching and learning in the future within this environment? I do think we need to appreciate that it’ s not simply about online learning replacing any other form. I think it’ s very much about the role technology can play to enhance teaching and learning. It’ s very much about flexibility in the way students can engage. It’ s not simply about wanting to study online or wanting to study in a face-to-face classroom environment. It’ s about the way we blend those environments together, the way we flip the classroom, the way in which students can engage in a style and modality that’ s best suited to them.
I think we’ re in a continuum here and one of the great things about technology and the way universities are embracing it in teaching and learning is it does give that flexibility students want.
We’ re not going to see a return to perhaps the more traditional styles of university teaching of 20 years ago. Those days are gone. We are looking at a different future. I think one of the important [ questions ] emerging now is how to use the data we can collect from the interaction with students in a technology-rich environment to help the learning process. We generate a lot of data from student engagement, learning management systems and so on. Producing that data, collecting that data and using it to enhance the teaching and learning experience is a very, very important phase of what is developing in Australian universities at the moment.
There are many experiences that still [ require ] the face-to-face environment. Although there are simulated laboratories emerging online that will no doubt improve, for the foreseeable future we’ ll still be involved in a range of activities that engage laboratory settings or a clinical setting. They will involve the interplay between the student and the discipline and content experts – our lecturing staff and so on.
It’ s an exciting time because the technologies emerging provide us with great opportunities. To do it well, as I said right at the beginning, we need to ensure that we invest in the resources necessary to produce high-quality blended learning experiences. Contrary to what a lot of people think, that’ s quite expensive. In that context, I think we need to be conscious that high-quality blended learning and online learning aren’ t cheaper. In fact, in many cases, they are a more expensive and high-investment option. n
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