Evaluating distributed learning in Metropolitan Universities

Abstract

The authors describe the University of Central Florida s distributed learning evaluation design with respect to student demographics, perceptions, success strategies, learning styles, and success/withdrawal rates. Faculty research focuses on demograph-ics, perceptions, and teaching strategies. Success and withdrawal rates for courses with varying web presence degrees connote that classes featuring reduced seat time face-to-face presence, combined with web-based instruction, produce superior results than fully online or completely face-to-face course outcomes. In a few short years, the metropolitan university has experienced rapid technological changes, disparate learning environments, and students with expanding learning needs. These developments have had a significant, cumulative effect on the higher educational process. Distributed learning, specifically delivering courses via the Internet, has evolved into a multi-faceted situation. The metropolitan university responds to a much more diverse learning population in distance education's anytime, anywhere environment. Students' reaction to web-based learning is consistently very positive They assume a more active posture in the online learning environment, and report increased interaction with both their peers and the instructor. They find web-based learning much more convenient and congruent with their busy lifestyles, and once engaged in a web-enhanced course, a student will most probably take another. Professors find that their teaching expectations expand and that they are able to envision new methods to incorporate technology and to integrate successful instructional resources into their teaching protocols. Their technology-enhanced teaching environments allow more flexibility than face-to-face classes, and the online classroom leads to continual teaching improvement. The University of Central Florida's (UCF's) interaction with distance learning produces a program design that takes into consideration system dynamics for student success and university benefits. Several sources (Sorg, et al. 1999; Moskal and Dziuban 2000; Hartman, Dziuban, and Moskal 1999) document our program design, which utilizes a centralized approach to course and program development. In this paper we identify important research issues that contribute to successful program development by considering two components and their interaction: metropolitan universities and distributed learning programs. We introduce a model that deals effectively with the demands of online instruction and addresses the diverse learning characteristics of its student population. We detail the course of our university's conceptual evolution to its present state through varying degrees of web presence. 41