Citation
Swartz, L. B., Cole, M. T., and Shelley, D. J. (2010). Instructor satisfaction with teaching business law: Online vs. onground. International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education, 6 (1), 1-16. doi: 10.4018/jicte.2010091101
Main Points
– Presented results of a 22-question satisfaction survey of business law instructors who have taught, or are teaching, online and/or onground.
— Instructor’s evaluation of institutional facilitation of the experience and of the instructor’s evaluation of the students’ learning experience.
— Used four role categories: pedagogical, social, technical, and managerial.
– Study results.
— Found that for 73% of the categories’ aspects, instructors were generally satisfied with online instruction. With regard to the classroom experience, instructors were generally satisfied across the board with regard to all aspects. In comparing the level of satisfaction with online and onground instruction, they found statistically significant differences between the two methods of instruction. In all four areas measured, instructors were more satisfied with classroom instruction than they were with online instruction of business law courses.
Analysis
This article does a very good job in laying out their reasoning for conducting the survey, the historic biases with online vs. onground instruction, the fundamental differences between the two, the requirements and new ways of thinking required to accomplish successful online teaching, the methodology for the survey, the research design, the participating sample, and the results. It also includes the survey in the final seven pages. The results appear to show that there is support for the continued role of online instruction as a valid educational tool, but it is not yet the instructors’ preferred tool. It is undeniable that the demand for online instruction will continue to grow. What will need to happen is for instructors to grow emotionally and intellectually as well to meet the demand. As the authors note, “The challenge will be to make online instruction and onground instruction work together to provide high quality instruction in both formats.”
JohnW – Weekly journal entry
February 21st, 2010 · 2 Comments · John
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I was intrigued in this posting by the phrase in your discussion, John, of the results, “…What will need to happen is for instructors to grow emotionally and intellectually as well to meet the demand.” What kind of growth did the authors of the article think was needed, and did they offer any suggestions of how it might be acquired? What would make the instructors surveyed willingly make the jump to online teaching?
The emotional (& psychological) aspect of shifting from teaching f2f to teaching at a distance is very challenging to teachers as so much of a teacher’s amour propre tends to be invested in his or her expertise as a professional in the classroom. In a sense, one has to change one’s self and one’s most deeply held priorities to shift from f2f to distance.
Does the article discuss the importance of faculty training for online course teaching? I have seen many faculty who think that they can use the same delivery methods online as used in a live classroom. They don’t understand the importance of active engagement techniques in online learning.