Creating Successful Online Courses with Emerging
Technologies
Dr. Cheryl Lentz, Walden University, United States
Dr. Julie Ducharme, Walden University, United States
Abstract: Will be inserted by CG Publisher.”
Keywords: Emerging Technologies, Virtual Classroom Technology, Student Retention
Paradigm Shift in Higher Education
V
irtual classroom technology is the new paradigm shift in education. Within the
parameters of accreditation rules, however, this path often leaves very little room for
creativity in the virtual environment. Research confirms that students demand current
technology to enhance the classroom environment, where faculty must create a more successful
virtual learning environment to keep students enrolled at their respective academic institutions
(O’Keefe 2013). The American Institute for Research (2010) offered “the attrition rate amongst
first year college students in the United States has been found to be between 30 and 50 percent”
(as cited in O’Keeffe 2013, 1). By engaging adult learners using creative technology, universities
can increase course retention by creating a sustainable virtual classroom that enhances a creative
learning versus a standardized learning result.
The purpose of this article is to share with faculty strategies to enhance the student
experience through course design that integrates emerging technologies as andragogical
techniques. The goals of this article will address the following points to include one of the four
learning preferences, what Taig (2013) referred to as four basic perceptual learning modalities to
include the areas of visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile learning, to also include social
interaction factors (either individual or group learning) (Taig 2013, 1).
Review of Adult Learning Styles
For our purposes, most faculty structure the learning for their students according to the main
three types of adult learners: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Connections to these learning
styles serve as the foundation of this workshop to demonstrate how each emerging technology
offers a technique and strategy that appeals to a specific learning style to contribute and enhance
the reinforcement of cognitive learning.
As teachers instruct this new generation of students within the four learning styles, a gap
appears in the learning when the students enter into online college programs. The personal
interaction is often lost in this online format. The goals of this workshop are to offer options to
decrease this gap and increase student engagement in the classroom.
The Integration of the Blog and Video as Teaching Strategies
Modeling emerging technologies in online classrooms such as the blog and social media
platforms allows a similar social media/interactive strategy to follow in online higher education
classes. When the class is based on this social online community, it offers necessary features that
support effective communication student-to-student, as well as faculty-to-student, appealing to
both students and faculty for effective instruction (Santos 2011, 7). Based on results from the
2009 Pew Internet & American Life Project Report, institutions of higher learning follow the
increasing popularity of Internet, where 74% of American adults (ages 18 and older) use the
Internet, 60% of American adults use broadband connections at home, and 55% of American
adults connect to the Internet wirelessly (Raine 2010, 1). The blog and use of video within the
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online classroom lends itself to the integration of use as part of andragogical teaching for adult
learning. We call this strategy, Technology That Tutors, where we will offer techniques that serve
the efficiency of the role of the faculty to save time using the blog and video as a teaching tool
(Lentz 2012). The popularity of the Internet, as well as the blog and video, has made these
popular tools for use by educators in the classroom seeking to explore new ways to engage with
students, allowing faculty to create an environment for collaboration and knowledge sharing
within these means.
Within a spring 2014 Doctoral Marketing Class, 8130, for Walden University, Dr. Cheryl
created a live secret group within Facebook for use as a live lab to study actual marketing tools
and campaigns. Particularly popular because of the commercials offered by Super Bowl Sunday
2014, students used the ease of connecting within a live Facebook Community, private only to
my 8130 students, in which we shared YouTube videos, online blog posts and posted materials.
Within this private Facebook group, I shared animation, the use of Voki, and other strategies that
increased the engagement of participating students. While this Facebook Secret Group was
optional, more than 75% of my 8130 class joined in the fun (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Private Facebook Group, Walden 8130 Class
(Lentz 2014 Facebook, reprinted with permission)
While the goal remains not to stray too far from the boundaries of the online classroom,
our philosophy as educators is to fish where the fish are. Students spend far more time
within various social media outlets and less time in the classroom, where the goal is to
harness the power of Facebook and other social media platforms to attract students back to
the online classroom through exercises in application. When faculty invite students to
experience the technology within Facebook, and then connect back to the classroom to
Lentz and Ducharme: Creating Successful Online Courses with Emerging Technologies
share their findings, students offer far more insightful personal discoveries and application
of learning lessons from the course outcomes such as 8130 Marketing. What better vehicle
to teach marketing about social media than to see live and dynamic examples within social
media in the quest for skill mastery.
In addition to Facebook, I used mini teaching lectures using blogs
(www.DissertationPublishing.com) and videos from my YouTube Channel,
(www.YouTube.com/DrCherylLentz). From experience in my classroom, students do not
spend much time (if at all) reading the syllabus or supplemental text-based course
materials, but they will watch a video, read a blog, or watch an animation.
In an assessment survey conducted in my classes at Walden University, some unique
findings surfaced concerning the usage of new strategies in my online courses. When
asked what technologies were of the most value, over 80% unquestionably said YouTube
videos, where over 70% in particular noted the use of my introductory video (created by
using the Animoto platform). To establish a relationship with my students, at the
beginning of class, I posted an introductory biography via video, 2:30 seconds of vibrant
music and pictures about my credentials, my many books and publications, my family, and
most importantly my dogs, Siberian Husky rescues, George and Gracie (who always get
the most comments!). A typical comment is often, “Wow—you seem actually human, Dr.
C.” When asked an open-ended question: Please describe your favorite technology. How
did this technology enhance your learning? All but two comments talked about videos in
some way. You Tube videos and webinars are by far the most effective technology
to learn in a virtual program (see Figure 2). (see Table 1.1).
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Figure 2: Which Technologies Were of Most Value?
(Lentz, 2014 Use of Technology Poll 4/20/2014, Survey Monkey. Reprinted with
Permission).
Table 1.1: Did any of these technologies contribute to enhanced mastery of
learning for our class?
Lentz and Ducharme: Creating Successful Online Courses with Emerging Technologies
Source(s): Data Adapted from Lentz, 2014 Use of Technology Poll 4/20/2014, Survey Monkey.
The overarching takeaway from this experience is that more than 80% of the students in
my class indicated they had a visual learning style preference, where 90% of survey
participants were between the ages of 30 and 50. The lesson here is the popularity of video
as part of an andragogy teaching strategy. Because of this importance, the applications of
video to other areas of the course seems a logical adaptation as offered in the next section.
Video Course Descriptions
In a world where society appears to focus on videos because of the popularity of social
networking and anything that is interactive, creating a video course description to give
insight into the course creates a better understanding for the student entering the course or
for future students looking to take a course. The use of video personalizes the beginning of
the overall experience by building a relationship with either a registered student or entices
and engages a student who is considering joining the course. The goal of this emerging
technology is to offer a competitive edge that takes advantage of the existing paradigm
shifting in favor of the popularity of videos. Why simply read a text-only catalog? Instead,
the student can meet their professor in nearly real time to hear about the course in their
own words before class ever begins.
Using this same relationship-building technique, the premise is to encourage using
videos for faculty posted autobiographies, often posted in the chat rooms or within faculty
profiles. The goal is to create videos as a platform for instruction, as well as creating
synergy in the classroom, student-to-student, as well as faculty-to-student.
Video Biographies of Instruction
The use of the video allows faculty to deepen this beginning relationship with their new
students. By creating a personal touch through posting a video of the instructor
introducing themselves and their life, educational credentials, family, pets, and personal
information about the faculty, the student gains valuable insight as class begins. This
video offers the ability of the faculty to appear more real to the student, more than simply
text on the page.
Video Delivery Methods
For the asynchronous or hybrid class, emerging technologies allow the use of the
interactive video lecture that can be synced with PowerPoint Slides for the students to
review questions of a recorded lecture to create an interactive lecture with the students.
The faculty can now be available whenever and wherever the student may need regardless
of time zone. The recorded lecture allows students to be able to review repeatedly for
reinforcement of learning throughout the term, particularly appealing to all learning styles
of the adult learner (Lentz, 2012).
Additional techniques are available for all modalities to interact with the student as
well. The faculty-student relationship is not limited by emails and text messages. Instead,
real time video options include the following: Skype, instant messaging, and live chat.
Embry Riddle uses Eagle Vision; real time classes through remote video access, where
Digital chalk uses a similar learning management system (LMS) as a new option as well.
Digitalchalk is a timesaving, efficient, learning management system (LMS) that lets
faculty design and launch a course personalized to the needs of the university and faculty.
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Digitalchalk created a simple-to-use platform that allows the professor to utilize top of the
line technology to create a creative virtual environment.
Digitalchalk has a platform that allows the instructor to create a class that contains the
three learning styles of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. The learner can now view video
with a Power Point playing side-by-side, which integrates audio, video, and as well stop
and starts on the video to require the student to do some sort of kinesthetic assignment. A
study done at Synergy Learning Institute tested this technology in 2014 with a success rate
of 100% with the first round of students running on classes with all three learning styles
integrated into each course (Rouse, Miller, Peed, & Kircher 2014).
Social Media, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter
Instructors have found new ways to create an interactive learning environment by using
the popular modalities. One example of this is using secret Facebook groups to encourage
students to discuss more since they are already on this platform (Lentz, 2014). Instructors
are also integrating Twitter in the classroom, where they create specific Twitter accounts
putting the students on these accounts and then tweeting announcements, which pop up on
the students’ phones instantly. These two methods tested successfully in our online
classrooms per the approval of our schools. Please see data and figures listed above.
LinkedIn is another modality that can be utilized. This platform can encourage the
students to put on a professional profile, network in their area, and join discussion on
various professional topics. In particular, one can create a private discussion for the
students to join for additional engagement and interaction.
These are just three popular modalities that we use within social media. Additional
modalities exist, however many have not been tested. For example, students could use
Pinterest to create a bulletin board on what they learned where they can post a virtual
collage. We continue to test this modality and many others as we expand our work with
these modalities in the classrooms.
We do caution instructors at the K-12 and college level who use these methods to first
gain the approval of their school before implementing them. To keep this activity focused
on the classroom, the instructor will take screen shots of these discussions and post them
in the online classroom, where the students report to the class regarding their discussion
experience. By asking students to self-report, the instructor shows academic rigor to
answer the question why this social media piece should be integrated into classroom on
ground or online.
Conclusion
In the brick-and-mortar classroom, emerging technology offers a profound shift of what is
possible within the classroom to enhance the overall student experience. While the
traditional classroom is not being replaced, increasing numbers of adult learners embrace
and request the variety of hybrid modalities that are now available to connect learning
with the modality most appropriate to the lifestyle, schedule, and learning style of the
adult learner. The need for the integration of emerging technologies to enhance this
student experience as well as the student-faculty relationship of the focus of current
research studies, which test the effectiveness of using these learning style preferences in
the online classroom. Ideally, in the future, as emerging technologies gain hold in
traditional classrooms as well as online environments, faculty will embrace them to
promote student learning.
Lentz and Ducharme: Creating Successful Online Courses with Emerging Technologies
REFERENCES
Lentz, Cheryl. 2012. “Technology That Tutors: 7 Ways to Save Time Using the Blog as a
Teaching Tool.” Nevada: Pensiero Press.
Lentz, Cheryl. 2014. “Panel: Blogging as an Author.” March 16, 2014 Presentation, WIZIQ.com.
O'Keeffe, Patrick. 2013. "A Sense of Belonging: Improving Student Retention." College Student
Journal 47 (4): 605-613.
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Raine, Lee. 2010. “Internet, Broadband, and Cell Phone Statistics.” Pew Internet & American
Life Project. http://www.pewinternet.org/2010/01/05/internet-broadband-and-cellphone-statistics/
Santos, Arnold Nicholas E. 2011."Blogs as a Learning Space: Creating Text of Talks."
Contemporary Issues in Education Research 4, no. 6 (06, 2011): 15-19.
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Rouse, Ruby A., Miller, Leslie A., Peed, John., & Kircher, Brad. 2014 May 15.
“EnterTRAINment: Schoolhouse Rock Meets APA.” Session presented at the 29th
Annual Convention of the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology,
Honolulu, Hawaii.
Tai, Fang-Mei. 2013. "Adult EFL Students' Preferred Learning Styles and Motivation." The
Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning 9 (2): 161-171.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr. Cheryl Lentz: Dr. Cheryl Lentz, DM, MSIR, is the multi award-winning publisher of the
internationally acclaimed series, The Refractive Thinker®-a collaboration of more than 90
contributing doctoral scholars from around the world. As President of The Lentz Leadership
Institute, she is dedicated to publishing exceptional dissertation research. She is also a 20-time
published and award winning author known globally for her writings as an authority on
leadership, critical and refractive thinking, as well as an educator integrating emerging
technology as part of her teachings in her ground breaking book: Technology That Tutors: 7
Ways to Save Time Using the Blog as a Teaching Tool. As an accomplished university professor
for Walden University, speaker, editor, and consultant, she is a highly sought after expert in
teaching thousands to apply critical thinking skills to problem solve in record time. For
additional information, please visit: http://www.DrCherylLentz.com
http://www.RefractiveThinker.com and http://www.TechnologyThatTutors.com
Dr. Julie Ducharme:
I was recruited to play volleyball for San Diego Christian College in 1995. I attended from 19951999 and during that time won 2 national titles and broke many other records while playing for
the school. While at the school Dr. Ducharme was very involved with the community. In order to
become even more connected with the community of San Diego Julie was an intern in the
Mayor's office for Byron Wear. After graduating, Dr. Ducharme continued her sports career
playing volleyball overseas professionally and finished her advanced degrees. For the last 15
years, Dr. Ducharme has been working with corporations, colleges, and universities in San Diego
and outside of San Diego as well. Dr. Ducharme holds a BA in communication, MBA with a
specialization in marketing, and a DBA with a specialization in Leadership. Dr. Ducharme is a
public speaker and has spoken with and at many universities across the United States and
corporations on leadership, business, and marketing. Dr. Ducharme is also a published author
with a children's book, Amy the Clumsy Angel, a master thesis published, and her most recent
publication, her dissertation on Women in Senior Leadership Positions in Academia. She
currently is the owner/creator/CEO of JD Consulting LLC, and the owner/creator/CEO of Julie's
Party People. Dr. Ducharme currently is an adjunct instructor at several colleges as well as
founder and president of a new technical vocational school, Synergy Learning Institute.
https://vimeo.com/69415551