Students’ Perceptions of the Value of the Elements of an Online Learning Environment: An Investigation of Discipline Differences

1. Students’ Perceptions of the Value of the Elements of an Online Learning Environment: An Investigation of Discipline Differences Dr Stuart Palmer and Dr Dale Holt Institute of Teaching and Learning Deakin University Australia

2. Introduction Online learning environments (OLEs) are perhaps currently the most widely used and most expensive educational technology tool Research into the ways of knowing and ways of teaching suggest fundamental differences between discipline areas, yet much of the research into online learning seems to assume no influence from discipline context or other demographic characteristics of system users

3. Context – OLEs at Deakin University

4. Context – OLEs at Deakin University Eventually settled on WebCT LMS Branded as DSO – ‘Deakin Studies Online’ 2003 – trialled 2004 – all online activity moved to LMS 2004 – all taught units to have a basic online presence 2004 – all programs to contain one wholly online unit

5. Project rationale This investigation focuses on the 2526 responses obtained from students at Deakin University, seeking to identify what elements of the OLE were valued and used most by students The investigation seeks to provide a quantitative analysis of the perceptions of an OLE from a comparatively large sample of students, and to highlight any influence of discipline variables on these perceptions

6. Methodology The DSO evaluation survey sought responses from students relating to: demographic and background information perception of importance and satisfaction with a range of OLE elements a number of overall OLE satisfaction measures open-ended written comments about the OLE

7. Response rate and demographic information

8. Mean Importance and Satisfaction ratings

9. Mean Importance and Satisfaction ratings

10. The Importance-Satisfaction grid

11. A – Arts B – Business and Law E – Education H – Health & Behavioural Sciences S – Science & Technology

12. A – Arts B – Business and Law E – Education H – Health & Behavioural Sciences S – Science & Technology

13. Comparisons of equality of mean ratings between disciplines

14. Comparisons of equality of mean ratings between disciplines

15. Number of high and low ratings by discipline area

16. Number of high and low ratings by discipline area

17. Number of high and low ratings by discipline area

18. 10. Accessing lecture notes/ tutorial notes/lab notes A – Arts B – Business and Law E – Education H – Health & Behavioural Sciences S – Science & Technology

19. 11. Contacting your lecturer via internal unit messaging A – Arts B – Business and Law E – Education H – Health & Behavioural Sciences S – Science & Technology

20. 15. Contributing to discussions 16. Reading contributions to discussions A – Arts B – Business and Law E – Education H – Health & Behavioural Sciences S – Science & Technology

21. 18. Working collaboratively in a group A – Arts B – Business and Law E – Education H – Health & Behavioural Sciences S – Science & Technology

22. 20. Submitting assignments A – Arts B – Business and Law E – Education H – Health & Behavioural Sciences S – Science & Technology

23. Observations A number of significant differences were observed between discipline areas in the mean student ratings of importance and satisfaction with elements of an OLE The most systematic differences were observed in the mean ratings of importance, suggesting that these are the ‘real’, or at least espoused, differences between the discipline areas

24. Thank you for your time