What students really want: A study of learner opinions of interactions in online community college courses.

摘要

Community college students are a growing, nontraditional population who has been underrepresented in the research literature. The design of online courses for these students must consider the unique needs of this population. This study investigates interactivity in online community college courses by asking community college students what interactive activities and technologies they feel are most beneficial to their learning. In addition, the students were asked to explain why they made these choices and were given a learning style inventory to determine correlations between their preferences in interactivity and their preferred learning style. It was found that most community college students have not used the interactive activities and technologies described in the literature for traditional four-year colleges and universities, but of those who have, most found the activities and technologies beneficial for their learning. In addition, strong correlations existed between learning style and preferences in interactivity. Suggestions for further study are discussed as well as implications for instructional designers designing online community college courses.