Student Support

Providing students with orientation to the technology and strategies for participating in a blended format may have a bigger influence on their experience in a course than their reasons for taking that course (i.e. wanting to take the course vs. being required to take it).

In Brief

Students are required to attend a technology orientation before their first blended course. Familiarizing students with the platform minimizes technical issues during the online sessions, helps facilitate smoother class discussions, and lowers the cognitive demand on students (they are able to focus on the content, not the technology).

Courses include expectation-setting information regarding the benefits and challenges of the online/blended format.

Detail

While students took the blended format courses for a variety of reasons, there is no apparent correlation between the motivation for selecting a blended course and overall satisfaction in that course (Figure 7). Students were asked about their primary motivations for enrolling in the blended course and responses were grouped based on whether or not the response indicated they elected into the course. Based on this classification, the data does not support any clear trend in satisfaction based on reasons for electing to take a course. For example, students who said they chose the instructor and not the modality had some of the highest ratings of satisfaction overall, lending credence to the idea that ultimately, the instructor has more impact than the format.

Every student was also required to complete an online technology orientation before beginning a blended course. This orientation was 15-30 minutes long and conducted within the same web conferencing platform as the synchronous class sessions (Adobe Connect). Students reported a high level of comfort with the technology used and support provided. In survey responses, students were asked to provide examples of additional support or resources they would have appreciated. After coding these qualitative responses, only 3 out of 61 responses across all four courses completed so far indicated any additional support or resources could have been provided and only one of those related to technology. Several responses indicated a positive experience with the technology support and resources provided.

...this course was run to its absolute highest potential. The tech team and instructor did an amazing job coming up with creative solutions to meet the courses learning goals to the best of their ability"

The technological guidance and in-class meetings provided me with everything I needed to be successful."