Student satisfaction and perceived learning with on-line courses: Principles and examples from the SUNY learning network

Abstract

The State University of New York (SUNY) Learning Network (SLN) is the on-line instructional program created for the 64 colleges and nearly 400,000 students of the SUNY. The foundation of the program is freedom from schedule and location constraints for our faculty and students. The primary goals are to bring SUNY's diverse and high-quality instructional programs within the reach of learners everywhere and to be the best provider of asynchronous instruction for learners in New York State and beyond. We believe that these goals cannot be achieved unless learning effectiveness is given top priority. This paper will examine factors that have contributed to the high levels of learning and learner satisfaction that students have reported in the SLN. The analysis will be done on several levels. The first section will look at the SLN at a program-wide level and will provide information regarding the systemic implementation of our asynchronous learning environment. The second section examines issues that contribute to learning effectiveness from a faculty-development and course-design perspective. This section will present the evolution of the four-stage faculty development process and a seven-step course design process that was developed by SLN and comment on lessons learned. The third section presents results from the SLN Student Satisfaction Survey conducted in spring 1999. This section examines factors from a quantitative analysis that significantly contributes to perceived learning and student satisfaction in on-line asynchronous courses and offers recommendations for course and program design based on these factors. The fourth section examines learning effectiveness at the level of individual institutions through examples from specific courses. This section will introduce the reader to local implementation of SLN courses at two colleges programs in the SUNY system, the Curriculum Design and Instructional Technology program at the University at Albany (UA) and the Internet Academy (IA) of Herkimer County Community College (HCCC). These case studies present and examine important evidence relevant to learning effectiveness from a single-institution and individual-faculty perspective. With generous support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, combined with enthusiasm and resources from SUNY System Administration and participating campuses, the SLN has successfully met the challenges of the initial developmental phases that focused on proof of concept and expansion/scalability. The annual growth in courses, from eight in 1995-96 to 1000 in 1999-2000, and annual growth in enrollment, from 119 in 1995-1996 to over 10,000 in 1999-2000, illustrates that the project has far exceeded the original projections. The SLN started as a regional project in the Mid-Hudson Valley involving eight SUNY campuses. At that time, the development and delivery of asynchronous courses was a new activity for SUNY campuses and faculty. The first courses were offered in the 1995-1996 academic year. Successful experiences led to an expanded vision and goals for the SLN and the scope and objectives of the project have grown substantially. Where we originally developed courses at the third- and fourth-year level.offered by two of our institutions.we are now offering courses at all undergraduate levels as well as the graduate level and 42 of our institutions are involved. Our initial developmental phase focused on proof of concept within the SUNY system. This was followed by a phase that focused on proof of scalability that achieved significant growth in course offerings and student enrollments. SUNY's efforts continue to evolve the SLN from a project status to a fully integrated, virtual learning component responsive to the needs of learners in the new millennium. Ultimately, the SLN will represent the entire SUNY through the creation of one virtual campus that will be open seven days a week, 24 hours a day to students across the globe. The SLN primary mission is to bring SUNY's high quality instructional programs within reach of learners anywhere. Another objective has been to take an efficient approach in supporting the SUNY campuses. Rather than each campus reinventing the wheel, SLN has developed and implemented the appropriate operational services and support yielding both cost savings as well as the sharing of experience from one campus to another. SLN has traditionally assisted campuses to conduct individual course evaluations. Additionally, the SLN office conducted two program-level student surveys and one faculty survey during the 1998-99 academic year. The goal of the student surveys was to gauge the level of student satisfaction with SLN, perceived learning with SLN, and what factors contributed to those results. The results of this survey are presented in this paper.