Distance Education
Best Practices
New Faculty Orientation
The Learning Process
*taken from Walden Learning Model
 Learners engage in critical activism (an integration of reflection and
critique)
 Learning is directly applicable to students’ work and personal lives
 Learning is contextual and focuses on interrelated concepts rather
than on isolated facts
 Learning is facilitated by faculty and staff
 Learning incorporates prior knowledge in the construction of new
knowledge
 Learning is active/experiential
 Learning is collaborative
 Learning calls on students to be self-directed
 Learning is developmental
 Learning facilitates constructive social activism/positive social
change
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Best Practices Areas
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
Andragogy

Faculty Responsiveness

Evaluation and Assessment

Ethical Principles

Applied to courses, residency seminars and
colloquia, KAMs, and thesis/dissertation work
Andragogy
 Adult learning model developed by Knowles that guides
instructional practice
 An alternative to pedagogy, a term that refers to teacher-centered
approaches for educating children
 Assumptions of andragogy:
1. Adults are self-directed
2. Adults bring a wealth of experience to the learning
process
3. Adults come to the learning process ready to learn
4. Adults are oriented toward immediate application of
learned knowledge
5. Adults need to know the reason for learning something
6. Adults are driven by intrinsic motivation to learn
(Knowles, as cited in Forrest III & Peterson, 2006, p.
116)
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Andragogy Best Practices
 Organize a web course development team including a content expert,
instructional designer, multimedia producer, systems analyst, and
network programmer (Chou & Tsai, 2002)
 Courses need to be student-centered, activity-based learning
environments with problem-solving activities (Brown, 2001; CarrChellman & Duchastel, 2000; Chou, & Tsai, 2002; Knowlton, 2000;
Pallof & Pratt, 2003)
 Universal design principles need to be adapted (i.e., courses need to
be accessible to students with different learning styles and learning
abilities) (Pallof & Pratt, 2003; Dahl, 2005)
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Andragogy Best Practices
 Faculty need to be able to give control of information and
processes to the students; more of a mentor and manager
role as opposed to one of information deliverer and expert
(Palloff & Pratt, 2003; Robson, 2000; Shedletsky & Aitken,
2001)
 Faculty need to create and sustain teaching presence
based on 3 components: a) instructional design and
organization, b) facilitating discourse, and c) direct
instruction (Shea, Pickett, & Pelz, 2003)
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Andragogy Best Practices
Chickering and Gamson encourage the following conditions
and behaviors for successful learning (Keeton, 2004; Shea,
Pickett, & Pelz, 2003; Pallof & Pratt, 2003):
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
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Frequent contact between students and faculty
Reciprocity and cooperation among students
Active learning techniques
Prompt Feedback
Time on task (clear articulation of due dates/time
frames for learning activities)
Communication of high expectations
Respect for diverse talent and ways of learning (Ko
& Rossen, 2001; Meyer, 2003)
Faculty Responsiveness (Quality) Best Practices
Consideration of types of responses
(Blignaut & Trollop, p. 349, 2003)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
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Administrative (with no academic content)
Affective (with no academic content)
Other (with no academic content)
Corrective (with academic content)
Informative (with academic content)
Socratic (with academic content)
Faculty Responsiveness (Quality) Best Practices
 Administrative (with no academic content)
Postings that relate to general administrative topics, such as dates,
profiles, formats, functionality of software and many other organizational
aspects
 Affective (with no academic content)
Postings that acknowledge learner participation and provide affective
support
 Other (with no academic content)
Postings that contain non-content related messages as well as the
posting of discussion topics
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Faculty Responsiveness (Quality) Best Practices
 Corrective (with academic content)
Postings that correct the content of a learner’s postings
 Informative (with academic content)
Postings that comment on a learner’s postings from a
content perspective and provide individual feedback
 Socratic (with academic content)
Postings that as reflective questions about the learner’s
postings
Blignaut & Trollip, p. 349, 2003
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Faculty Responsiveness (Quality) Best Practices
Indicators of the Act of Facilitating Discourse
 Identifying areas of agreement and disagreement
 Seeking to reach consensus and understanding
 Encouraging, acknowledging, and reinforcing student
contributions
 Setting the climate for learning
 Drawing in participants and prompting discussion
 Assessing the efficacy of the process
(Pelz, 2004; Shea, Pickett, & Pelz, 2003)
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Faculty Responsiveness (Quality) Best Practices
Indicators of the Act of Direct Instruction
 Presenting content and questions
 Focusing the discussion on specific issues
 Summarizing discussion
 Confirming Understanding
 Diagnosing misperceptions
 Injecting knowledge from diverse sources
 Responding to technical concerns
(Pelz, 2004; Shea, Pickett, & Pelz, 2003)
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Faculty Responsiveness (Quality) Best Practices
Three Categories of Discussions (Pelz, 2004)
1. Social Presence
a) affective- the expression of emotion, feelings, and mood
b)
interactive- evidence of reading, attending, understanding,
thinking about other’s responses
c) cohesive- responses that build and sustain a sense of
“belongingness,” group commitment, core common goals and
objectives
2. Cognitive Presence- the extent to which meaning is constructed and
confirmed through sustained discussion
3. Teaching Presence- two ways that faculty and students can add
teaching presence:
a) by facilitating the discussion
b) by direct instruction
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Faculty Responsiveness (Quantity) Best Practices
 Provide prompt and constructive feedback (Keeton, 2004)
 One study revealed that faculty reported spending 18.25 (SD=12.70)
hours a week on activities focused around teaching and managing their
online class. Activities that were ranked highest were ones that focused
on the process of learning rather than assessment of learning outcomes
(Keeton, 2004).
 Another study (Lazarus, 2003) showed that each online course required
3-7 hours per week with participation in and grading discussions taking
the greatest amount of time. It was also reported that the instructor
needed to be online and available to students daily.
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Faculty Responsiveness (Quantity) Best Practices
Indirectly related to faculty are the results of one
study that showed a strong relationship between
students’ perceptions of the quality and quantity of
their interaction and their perceived performance in
the course (Picciano, 2002); Points to the need for
faculty to facilitate student participation and to
serve as role models by being active participants in
the course.
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Faculty Responsiveness (Quantity) Best Practices
Establish a Pattern of Frequent Response
(Ko & Rossen, 2001)
 During first few weeks, greet all students individually in the
classroom as they arrive and engage as many as possible
in discussion
 Establish a pattern of short but frequent activity (3- 5 short
periods of logging on each week rather than 1 or 2 short
sessions at the end of the week)
 Post various types of responses (Blignaut & Trollip, 2003)
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Evaluation and Assessment Best Practices
 Use of grading rubrics (numerical grading guidelines)
recommended (Bauer, 2002; Pallof & Pratt, 2003)
 Use of web-based assessments (including tests and
assignments) (Chou & Tsai, 2002)
 Learning goals, instructional strategies, and assessment
methods should be congruent (Chyung & Stepich, 2003)
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Evaluation and Assessment Best Practices
Five Types of Evaluation Methodologies (Oliver, 2000)
 Formative-provides information that allows revisions and
improvements
 Summative-global process (e.g., assessment of a project against
learning outcomes)
 Illuminative-seeks to discover the factors that are important to the
participants with educational context as a focus
 Integrative-incorporates multiple methods, including within-group
experimental studies of performance, surveys, and interviews
 Evaluation for quality assurance-involves identifying and
documenting examples of good practice as well as areas
that could be improved; focuses on critical reflection
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Evaluation and Assessment Best Practices
Proactive Evaluation is “a framework that identifies
critical online learning factors and influences that
will better inform the planning, design, and
development of learning resources . . . where all
planning activities are assessed against the
evaluation criteria that would typically be applied
during formative assessment [and] evaluation
checks are performed proactively to enhance
online learning.” (Sims, Dobbs, & Hand, p. 135,
2002)
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Ethical Principles
Nine Ethical Principles in University Teaching
*Developed by the Society for Teaching and Learning and Higher Education
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Content competence
Andragogical competence
Dealing with sensitive topics
Student development
Dual relationships with students (keeping relationships
focused on academics)
Confidentiality
Respect for colleagues
Valid assessment of students
Respect for institution