A Case Study of Online Degree Course Design and Performance of Online Learners.

摘要

The increasing demand of learners in online higher education courses currently presents a challenge to online course designs in increasing the performance of learners. The online course design process involves many challenges, including a new delivery system, understanding online drivers for success, and an emerging profession of online instructional designers. Within the online higher education delivery system, a new market of learners is generated while simultaneously challenging faculty members to produce a successful online course design. The qualitative holistic multiple-case study addressed the problem that online learners fail or do not complete online degree courses at a higher rate than who complete in-person degree courses. The unit of analysis was U.S.-based online institutions. Various barriers exist concerning online course design processes, including the experience of online instructional designers, advancing technological delivery systems, and the relationship between online instructional designers and faculty members. The purpose of the study was to understand how online course designs contribute to the academic performance of online learners. The study included three sources of evidence: participants, participant observation, and documentation. The 20 participants in the case study were online instructional designers, faculty members, administrators, and learners. The study involved identifying the perceptions and experiences of online instructional designers, faculty members, administrators, and learners. In the highly competitive online higher education environment, the use of online course design indicates the importance of further research in creating higher performance among online learners. The findings showed a need for a more structured and consistent online course design. A need exists to improve online course designs to reflect increases in learner performance and decreases in withdrawals and failure rates. Further research through statistical tracking of learner success rates by faculty members might identify effective online course designs for online higher educational institutions. Online course designs and the performance of online learners might require further research in enhancing the online education process. With the newly formed online course designs and the performance of learners in the balance, the challenge is to transform successful traditional on-ground course designs into effective online course designs.